Immediate Aftermath

[C.T. Caine 0]

Lieutenant C.T. Caine hit the ground running in every sense of the word.

 

She had been in her office when the word came from the bridge that an explosion had taken place planetside -- Colonel Harper and Commander JoNs, as well as two officers from the Jackrabbit and a mining representative, had been caught in the blast. Only the sketchiest reports were immediately available on exactly what had happened, who was responsible, whether anyone had been injured, and the state of a recovery operation.

 

And so she was already moving even as the transporter beam released her in the hardpacked, rubble-strewn dirt of the area of the Corianis capital which had been selected for the conference meeting.

 

She had two teams of 'Court security officers with her who had been on their off-shift while the on-shift teams continued their investigations and flyovers planetside, and all of them had jumped to readiness in an impressively short time, more or less meeting her as she herself arrived at the transporter room. Some bore the slightly disheveled look always engendered by a "hop-to" sort of operation, but they were all very much in their proper place, fired up and energized by the level of controlled urgency they had heard in their chief's voice.

 

She had seen a team in medical blue shimmering off the pad as she arrived -- a Caitian she didn't recognize as well as several medics including one of the marine team she had encountered on Avaros. However, they didn't immediately present themselves to the eye when the security team rematerialized planetside a moment later; Caine took this to mean that they had been deposited inside the damaged building behind her wherein the conference was meant to have been taking place.

 

Good -- any issues in there would have a first wave response by the marine medic, leaving her time to focus on the external situation.

 

And there was a lot to focus on. "Mass chaos" would be a good descriptor, when and if she formulated a report on the whole business. The air was filled with shouts, screams, the noises of fright from a group of peaceful protesters whom Caine had been informed about, most of whom were doing their best to scatter. At the sight of the arriving Fleet officers, the air of panic seemed to increase and for a moment Caine had a hard time getting a handle on exactly who was where.

 

However, she could immediately identify a second group mixing along the edge of the chaotic movement of the protestors, also in civilian clothing but moving with much more purpose. Focusing in on them, she noticed something else of concern -- they were carrying weapons; nothing particularly sophisticated, but a good solid handmade bomb could do just as much damage as a Fleet grenade, as the wreckage to Caine's rear clearly showed. The air of direction in their movement suggested that these were the people she should be focusing on; it was not immediately clear if these hostiles mixed in the crowd were retreating with the rest of the fleeing civilians or moving in for another attack, but she quickly moved to cover both eventualities.

 

"Mattingly, Farragut!" she barked at the two team leaders with her. "Armed hostiles at three o'clock! Coyote, cover and try to get a bead on them; Jackal, circle around and see if you can cut them off if they bolt. Move!"

 

They moved with satisfying alacrity, half of them dropping into cover positions while the others fanned out and began to circle around the panicking civvies. Caine dropped back behind a pile of debris with the leader of Coyote squad, Lieutenant Mattingly, who scooted sideways to make room for her half-Vulcan chief and looked at her sidelong as they both pulled their own sidearms.

 

"The angle's bad for potshots but we can give it a try -- take them down, Lieutenant?" the young half-Bajoran officer asked, but Caine shook her head, peering around the edge of the debris pile, her grey eyes locking on the hostiles past the milling bodies fleeing the scene.

 

"Stand by, L-T...the second we start shooting, the whole place will go crazy -- well, crazier than it already is. When they scatter, I want our boys in behind them. Stand by--frack!"

 

Her stream of words was cut off as she poked her head over the cover pile again and realized that the hostile group had already begun to mix with the fleeing crowds. Perhaps they had spotted the arrival of the fleet security teams, perhaps the air of chaos and panic had gotten to them, perhaps they had simply finished the only job they had come here for -- whatever it was, they were on their way out of the area. Jackal would not have time to get into a good position to block their escape, and the unknown terrorists had placed into operation the best possible defense they had at their disposal -- innocents.

 

"Caine to Farragut -- targets are in the crowd and breaking ranks, moving south-southwest--"

 

"I see them, Lieutenant, we're moving to cut them off but we've got a lot of the other protesters milling around out here. I can't get a clean shot."

 

Caine glanced at Mattingly but the other woman poked her head up over the top of their cover and then shook her head mutely. Caine grimaced. "Same issue here, James; continue your move and see if you can track any of them, if not, get Jackal into a sentry layout while we handle cleanup here."

 

"Understood, sir. Farragut out."

 

The noise around them had died as the panicked crowds had dissipated from the scene of the explosion. Caine turned and slumped with her back to the debris pile, running a hand down her face, then glanced at Mattingly, who, with the immediate crisis past, was suddenly looking distinctly like she wanted to go back to bed. Caine's lips twitched slightly in a sympathetic smile but otherwise her expression remained focused on the situation at hand. "Secure the area -- get a couple people inside the conference room to back up the medical teams if necessary and have the others keep an eye out for civilian stragglers. I'm going to get in touch with our patrols out in the city right now and get them on the lookout for that group, wherever they're heading."

 

Mattingly nodded. "Aye, sir." She turned and angled herself to use the debris pile to lever herself into a standing position, her free hand keeping her phaser cocked upwards as she looked around. "It never likes to go simple, does it, chief?" she asked, looking down at Caine with a somewhat wry expression.

 

"Lieutenant," Caine said, popping to her feet next to her subordinate and raising one eyebrow at her. "If it did, we'd all be bored silly. Let's get to work."