Assault on the Maquis

Posted on Tue Apr 18th, 2023 @ 1:30pm by Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens Jr. & Lieutenant Commander Cynfor Rees & Lieutenant Jackson Smith

3,456 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Prelude to Rebirth
Location: Maquis Base
Timeline: Within the 6 month refit time

Jackson pressed himself against the side of the rock, he shifted his shoulders as the sharp edges dug into him. This rock was all that hid them from the sight of the Maquis base. Jackson reached into his bag and pulled out a small rectangular device, a very small unobtrusive drone popped off and flew just above the top of the rock. Jackson flicked on a screen and observed what the drone was seeing.

The front of the Maquis base was a simple and unassuming metal door set into the rocky cliff face. There were no markings or signs indicating what lay beyond it, and it blended seamlessly with the surrounding terrain. The door was heavily reinforced with metal plating and bolts, making it clear that it was designed to withstand a significant amount of force. A small keypad was mounted on the wall next to the door, presumably used to enter the correct access code to gain entry. The area immediately in front of the door was devoid of any foliage or vegetation, making it difficult to sneak up on. Overall, the entrance to the Maquis base appeared to be intentionally designed to be inconspicuous and easily overlooked by any passing observer.

As Jackson thought, he spotted a lone sentry. Just before he recalled the drone, he caught a small glint of metal above the door. With a couple of quick buttons he zoomed the image in. Jackson sighed, as he saw the tell tale signs of Weapon's fire detectors.

Jackson touched his throat and ear piece to make sure they were still sitting in the right place. Then without moving his mouth and barely even his throat. Without even the hint of a sound, he spoke to his companions.

"Nod if you can hear me? These communication devices will pick up the most subtle of vibrations in your throat. It can take some getting used to, but you can get to the point of making it look like we are communicating telepathically." Jackson saw each of his companions nod.

Charles nodded "I had heard about these, but had not tried them yet." He said as he tested not actually talking. While the synthetic voice was a bit to get used it. It seemed very functional.

Cynfor nodded. "I read you loud and clear Jackson." There was a small amount of nervousness within Rees. He had not been back here since he turned over the plans and got the cure. So many years ago, who knew if the Maquis still even used this installation.

Once the testing was done, Jackson sighed deeply. "Ok, as I suspected the Maquis have one lone sentry outside. This is probably a new recruit. They do this for a few of reasons. First it doesn't make it obvious this is a well guarded base. Secondly, their new recruits are more expendable. Once we are past that door, expect their to be much more security. Now, to add to our difficulty, this recruit is even more bait than normal. They have a couple of weapon's fire detectors. So, keep your phasers holstered as long as possible." Jackson looked back over his shoulder, despite not seeing anything other than the rock face, he seemed to be visualizing the landscape. He continued, "I will incapacitate the guard and everyone be ready to move in quickly. " He turned to face Rees, "Rees, that door is your sole objective. We need it open as quickly as you can. Any questions?"

Cyn had no questions the plan made sense and was a good one. He prepared himself to run as soon as Jackson had the guard neutralized. Ideas of what the encryption would be already ran through his head.

Jackson quietly slipped away from his two companions. There wasn't a lot of cover for him, but he used what he could and moved slowly. He watched the sentries movements closely, timing his sprints across the open ground.

He peeked around the last bit of rock he had for cover, the sentry was not far. This was the first time he got a good look at her. She was small in size, and very young. Her uniform was baggy, like it was a hand me down or maybe she expected to grown into it. He cursed the Maquis for putting their new recruits out on patrol like this. If he could get close enough before she saw him, he could disable her before she saw anything. Her back was to him, now was the time.

Jackson stepped from around the edge of the rock, but as his hand pushed off the rock was more brittle than he thought. A piece broke off and fell to the ground. The sound pierced through the night, to Jackson it sounded like a trumpet hailing his arrival. While it wasn't near that lound, it was loud enough. The sentry turned and her eyes lit up in fright as she saw Jackson in mid step towards her. She turned towards the wall, the alarm just a few feet in front of her. Jackson's arm moved faster than one could see, seemingly on instinct alone. There was just the briefest glint of steel flying through the air before the knife penetrated the back of the woman's neck. Like the cutting of strings to a marionette, the woman dropped to the ground.

Jackson pushed the darkness that threatened to overwhelm him aside. He would deal with his action later. Now, he sprinted towards the body and in a fluid motion he pulled the knife out of her and kept moving towards the door, looking towards his companions.

When Jackson had finished his bloody work Cyn rushed forward to the door and the control panel. Within seconds he had the panel open and began to examine the way the circuits were laid out. "This is an easy system, however, it is going to take a little bit to avoid detection." During the next two minutes Rees had the spaghetti looking wires pulled and redirected. He had the IDN chips repatterned and the door slid open enough for someone to get their hands in. "We are going to have to pry them the rest of the way. It was the only way to not be detected."

Prying things open, now was Charles time to contribute. He pulled a small stick from his leg pocket and pushed a button on the side and it expanded to a good 4 foot baton. He wedged it in the door and started applying pressure to get the doors to slide. He figured he only had to get it open enough for them to slide through. "Give me a second, we should be good."

Jackson silently moved up behind them, as soon as the door was open just enough, he slid in and looked down the empty metallic corridor. As soon as he determined it was safe, he motioned the others to follow. The three quickly moved down the hallway, until it ended in another steel door with an access panel. Jackson stepped aside to allow Rees access to the panel.

"There will be people on the other side. Once we engage them, our time will be strictly limited. Move pass this room, take the corridor to the right. Follow it pass 3 doorways and take the 4th on the right. That room should give us access to the main computers and hopefully retrieve the information we came from. After this moment, things are going to get hectic. Everyone ready?" He silently communicated.

Cyn had been working dilligently on the door controls. All the while Jackson laid out the plan. His one hope at the moment was that they would not run into Dr Baptiste. That would be most unfortunate for everyone involved. he thought. His hand found the emergency release handle, but Rees did not pull it until everyone was ready. "I am when you are. Just give the order and in we go."

Charles listened as he scanned the hall behind them for any unwanted visitors. When Cyn asked for the go order Charles looked at Jackson and gave a thumbs up. Letting him know he was ready. In his mind he kept replaying the instructions that Jackson had explained. As he did this he made a mental check of all his supplies he had on his persons as to prepare for the chaos that was about to happen. Now he waited for the hiss of the door behind him and time to go to work.

"Now" Jackson stated and the moments after were a flurry of movement and seemingly chaos. The door hissed open and Jackson followed by Charles. There were four Maquis guards in this room. As Jackson thought, the real guards were deeper in. His phaser already in his hand he fired straight at one, downing him in one shot. The other guard on his side was alert and quick, firing a shot in his direction. Jackson was already diving to the ground as the shot flew just over him. He rolled up right next to the guard and fired directly into his chest. The guard dropped lifeless.

Charles had worked on instinct and as he sliced the pie on entry he took the first guard before he could react. Then he felt a sharp stink in his left rear delt that threw him off balance. On his way to the ground fighting the intense pain of the blast he was able to get a shot off on the other guard on his half of the room.

Once he hit the ground Charles rolled on his back to see who had shot him and found that Jackson had dodged the shot that got him and already had neutralized the guard. He let out a painful groan. "Clear, Left"

Jackson reached out his hand to help pull Charles up. After a quick look to see Charles was ok, "I guess I owe you a drink for that one." With a quick nod, he separated and moved to the next entryway. He looked down the hall, "Clear, let's move." He stepped through taking the front and moving quickly.

Charles pulled a pain-blocker hypo out of his vest and stuck to the shot shoulder and pressed it. The instant pain relief while not total was enough to help him get back in the game following behind Jackson clearing a path for Cynfor.

Once the all clear was given Cyn stepped into the room. He recognized it through the haze that was his memory. It was the place that he and Dr Baptiste had met all those years ago. He made his way to a computer panel and within seconds knew that he had the wrong computer. "This is entirely too easy to access. Clearly a decoy system set up to throw anyone off from finding the real thing. The real computer could not be far from here. Have a look around and see if you can find a concealed door or panel." Rees began to follow his own advice as he moved with determination, he was indeed a man on a mission.

At the mention of a hidden door he watched as his compatriots started to mill around the room looking at walls and everything else. Charles took a different approach. He stood in the center of the room and slowly scanned the room looking for any detail that seemed strange or out of place.

Jackson started to move about the place quickly. Their time was short and things were going to get ugly quick if they didn't find what they needed. After a few short minutes he knew he had to get them more time. "Keep looking, I am going to give us more time." With that Jackson stepped into the hallway shutting the door behind him. It wasn't long before the sounds of phaser fire came echoing into the room.

There was no time to think about Jackson's safety. Rees kept searching the room for a secret door, console or anything. He began to get frustrated at the lack of finding anything. "Chief I am at a loss. Where do you think someone would hide something in this room? I am at a loss."

After taking everything in and watching Cyn search it out. He took one last look and then turned to the one corner. "Only thing I can see is that bookcase." He said as he made his way to the corner of the room. "This thing makes no sense. If you were designing a layout of the room especially in a place like this a hug bookcase is the last thing you would put on this wall and after seeing a couple other rooms this is definitely an odd decision." He finished as he finally looked down as he got right up to it. There on the ground was what he he was looking for. Scrape marks on the floor like the heavy metal bookcase had been drug across it multiple times. Charles looked up and back and Cyn. "This is it give me a hand."

Rees jogged over to the bookcase and at once he saw the scrape marks. Internally he chastized himself for not seeing them sooner. But that would be for a later time. At the moment he put his hands on the side of the bookcase and began to push. With the assistance of Charles they managed to get it to move. Once it was out of the way a small room was revealed. There was a desk with a small console on it. "Chief I am going to need you to cover me. This looks like the place."

Rees stepped in and took the seat. His first thought was how he could gain access. "I hope they didn't change their access codes." He whispered as he typed in an access code he was given all those years ago. To his luck he gained access to the system right away. Cyn's fingers danced on the keys of the console as he toggled through screens and searched for the information he needed. Minutes passed that seemed like hours but in about ten minutes he found the information and deleted all the information that pertained to the weapons designs that he gave them.

Being the computer expert that he was Rees knew enough to back out of the system instead of just turning it off. It was during this process that something caught his eye. "Chief get in here I am going to need you to take a look at this."

Things where quiet until Cyn had called for him. He backed into the room not taking his eyes off the doorway. As he got to the desk he glanced at the screen and what Cyn was talking about.

There was a file on the screen the name of the file read Diplomacy Undone and it was encrypted. "This file was put in the system just days ago. It is encrypted, and if I attempt to break the encryption and fail they will know without a doubt that we are here. What do you think?" There was something about this file that Cyn wanted to see however, he would not risk all that his friends had done for him.

"Any chance to copy the file and work on breaking into it later?" Charles only knew enough about this stuff to get himself in trouble. That is why he was on the guns and Cyn was doing the smart stuff.

"Yes, I can copy a raw format of it and decrypt on the shuttle. However, I am going to need some time to bypass some security measures. Make sure Jackson is ok I should only need a few minutes." Rees placed a data recorder on the computer console and began to toggle his way through the files. His goal was to find the backdoor into the system, every computer had one. If he could find it he would be able to get the file without being caught.

Charles advanced back through the secret door and the original room and found Jackson in the hallway setup waiting for anything as he always was. "Jax, We found the mainframe, Cyn needs a few more moments to get around security protocols and get all that we need. He sent me to help you. What we got?"

Jackson had made a makeshift barricade in the center of the corridor. There was an overturned desk, table, and some crates to give them cover. Jackson looked over at Charles, his left cheek darkened from a blaster fire that got a little too close. There was a bright red stain in his left abdomen. He definitely looked a little worse for wear. He nodded in the hallway behind him, "I setup a bit of an explosion for anyone coming behind us so we are safe there." He then nodded in the direction in front of him. "I was on the stair well before retreating back, we got at least a half dozen that should be here shor... " Blaster fire erupted from down the hallway to emphasize his point.

Cynfor's fingers danced on the console, his eyes steeled on the computer screen and his back was rigid straight. At this moment Cynfor was in his own world. He made his way through countless trivial files that would have no security, waste extraction and the like. Finally he got through the initial security and in a place where he could copy the file without detection. A few button taps on the data storage device and the upload began. This was the moment that Cyn knew anything could happen. He just hoped that they could deal with it. A few tense minutes later and the light on the data device blinked green. He grabbed it and jogged from the room. "Chief, Lieutenant I think we should take our leave. I got what we came for." Cyn was careful to not use names in the event there was someone listening.

Just as Jackson started firing down the corridor an explosion erupted from behind them. Jackson and Chief looked at each other as they knew this meant they were about to be surrounded. A feeling of dread started to form in the pit of stomach, which was nearly immediately squashed by the words of Cynfor. Jackson quickly ducked back into the room, "Not a moment too soon. We've got company coming!"

"If we Blitz fire on a dead run there is an access door on the right before the stairwell. If we can move fast and furious we can keep their heads pinned back while we make our exit stage right." Charles hoped. "We got we need and need to get back to the Bird or this was all for nothing."

"Let's do this, don't stop for anything." Jackson jumped out into the hallway his phaser firing fast and furious down the corridor, laying down cover fire for the other two.

Rees tucked the data storage device into the waistband of his uniform and followed Jackson at a run. He had his phaser drawn and timed quick bursts to coincide with Jackson leaning to the left or right. Other than making sure that he did not hit Jackson, Rees did not take any aim to speak of. The name of the game now was to get out and see what is on the data device.

SInce the name of the game was protect Rees and the data Charles let Jackson lead and he took up post on the rear. Keeping Rees and the info in the pocket. They all made the way to the access hatch and everyone rushed through. Charles had one last surprise for these fools. He pulled out two concussion charges and taped the activation button and chucked one to the right and one to the left. Before he slipped his way through the access point.

Cyn hopped into one of the runabout seats. He held the data device tightly as this would clear his conscience. Add to that the data he downloaded could have been anything. As the adreanalinie roiled within him he smiled to his friends. "Well lads I think it is time to make our great escape."



Lieutenant Commander Cynfor Rees
Executive Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Jackson Smith
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens Jr.
Chief of the Boat / Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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