D And D Chapter Nine

See above

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Malcolm Reed didn't believe in fate; rather he thought (and it was his experience) that given 'certain circumstances', it was a given that some people were rigid enough to act in particular ways. (Did not include himself in this group . . .) Like right now. He knew – as well as he remembered the carefully unspoken fury between his own father and that of his Grandfather Martin, the old Royal Marine – that Major Hayes would insist that his troops take the lead in rescuing Captain Archer and Trip.

(As a very young child Malcolm would wonder why his father, when obviously 'on leave', would never visit Grandmother Martin (convinced that Malcolm would be a physician) and Grandfather Martin, a cold man who never once hugged him, and yet always hugged Maggie and called her 'his roughneck'. It was years later, as a teenager, that Malcolm learned of a post-nuptial meeting of the two men, regarding Mary Reed, nee Martin – the result being a physical brawl. Seeing as both men were 'of a size', Malcolm didn't know and didn't care 'who won.' He hated 'the whole battle – the mindless, snarling, claiming of territory – 'this is mine!')

And so, when Hayes, and he discussed the mission – the 'small unit tactics', the insertion of troops, the armaments, the layout of the target, the possible problems – both men were of a single mind, and strictly professional, until Hayes began assuming that his MACOs would be conducting the mission. "No," said Reed, "This involves Starfleet officers, and Starfleet Security will handle the rescue." (The latter was spoken with a bit more emotion than he intended – Malcolm could feel the heat in his head.)

With some difficulty, Lieutenant Reed managed to direct the briefing back to other concerns – then Commander T'Pol entered the Armory, and inquired about the rescue of the captain and Trip. An unemotional query of a Vulcan only wanting to know how the humans would be retrieved . . . answered by an unusually emotional Malcolm Reed, and a stolid Major Hayes. (Why hadn't he insisted that Archer and Trip take security!)

The major's insistence that the MACOs handle the rescue was reasonable, and T'Pol backed the idea of the non-Starfleet troops handling the rescue – After some objection, Reed gave him the parameters, and demanded that he, himself, would take charge . . . after Hayes left to select his troops, T'Pol stood by the still upset Reed, as he pulled a phase pistol from the small arms locker, and loaded the weapon. She had never seen him so distressed, and it confused the commander.

'It was impossible,' thought Malcolm, 'explaining the situation to someone non-military, not to mention non-human.' His usual calm acceptance of different viewpoints was ignored in the urgency of the mission; he was born of the military 'in service to give his heart, mind, body, and soul' – and these 'civilians' knew so bloody little . . .

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Hayes entered the area of the ship where his MACOs were billeted, and his presence was immediately noticed – he announced the mission and selected six to accompany him – Kemper, Hawkins, Romero, Chen, MacFarlane, and Henderson. They collected their weapons, and he informed them of the plans to invade the mine and rescue Archer and Tucker. He wasn't quite sure who would accompany Reed on his particular part of the plan – either Kemper or Hawkins – both were very experienced and capable in the 'niceties' of guarding superior officers – and although Reed believed that he could handle anything – Hayes had not seen him in action.

"Hawkins," he decided, "You'll go with Lieutenant Reed – topside – landing area." And he pointed to a section of a map on a PADD for the corporal to view – then switched the device to a multi-level view. "The rest of us will be entering – here, here, and here", Hayes explained the plan that he and Reed had devised – the main sticking point was that the objective was multi-level and it was possible that the hostages were being held deep in the mine. But with a bit of luck, the supposedly experienced Starfleet officers might meet them . . . one had to believe, at any rate . . .

The major then led the selected men (and woman) to the shuttle bay where he met up with Reed and Ensign Mayweather, specialist in piloting the small craft. As he had not much to do with the day-to-day running of the ship, Hayes only knew of Travis Mayweather in a general way that he was the ship's best navigator and pilot, but he did notice that the young officer appeared to be extremely fit. 'Hopefully,' the thought crossed the MACO's mind, 'he can defend himself if need be.'

The group entered the shuttle – nine people with equipment made for a very full shuttle – but if they had to, Archer and Tucker could be 'stuffed' in with them. The plan, however was to retrieve the other shuttle along with the Enterprise's captain and chief engineer – Hayes was of the opinion that neither Archer nor Tucker should have been anywhere near the mine, and that if contact had been made, a lower ranking officer and a couple of security officers would have been enough . . . But this was Starfleet's mission, Starfleet's 'baby', and if everything went to hell – Starfleet's responsibility. Hayes would make sure that his MACOs did their duty – anything less was unthinkable.

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Malcolm Reed sat to the right of Ensign Mayweather; normally he might have joked with the young man as he guided the shuttle to the designated area on the planet. The comments were a coping mechanism. Notoriously exacting when it came to operations where other people were piloting shuttlecraft, the lieutenant tried not to show it, but Travis knew the man was prone to motion sickness; however Reed was so directed in regard to this mission that he doubted that anything would be distracting.

Hayes was sitting on the other side of the front console, impassive, but watching the view out the front window; his knowledge of piloting operations of shuttlecraft was limited but he could see that the young officer was an expert in handling the craft and keeping the 'cargo' – in this instance – six MACOs level and un-jostled as they entered the thin atmosphere of the rocky planet. Mayweather had stated that locating the two missing men would have to be made within 'a hundred meters' of the surface. The shuttle was equipped with electronic counter-measures – a modification that had been developed by Commander Tucker; Reed was utilizing the device, so that the entry of the pod would be undetected.

(Tucker was a complete cipher to Hayes; the Southerner seemed to be in his own mental 'bubble'. True, he seemed to live in the Engineering Area most hours of the day, so that the major and the commander barely even saw each other. But even the rare occasion of them being in the Mess Hall at the same time was uninformative – several PADDs seemed to be 'glued' to the man's hands, and he was obsessed with the information displayed on the screens. Hayes had heard that Tucker's sister was killed in the attack on Earth, so that anger could be expected from the man, but he got an 'odd vibe' that was disquieting. Unlike Reed, or any of the other senior officers, the major didn't have much of a reason to interact with Tucker; he wasn't going to unless he needed to.)

The plan was relatively simple. Hayes and five of the MACOs were to enter the mine via the air ducts that led from the surface to the interior of the mine, utilizing rigging to lower the group past the top level of the mine which was fortified to prevent easy access. They would find the missing officers and head for the entrance of the mine complex, which would be secured due to the activities of Reed and Hawkins.

It was unknown whether any mine security was guarding the trapped shuttle, but Reed and Hawkins would quietly eliminate any opposition; Mayweather would be in a low hovering flight, waiting for a signal from Reed to approach and land. But first, the Starfleet officer and the MACO would, using explosives, breach the locked entrance to the mine, so that the MACOs with the rescued officers could escape.

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The group was offloaded from the shuttle and Mayweather took off with the shuttle; as he was an expert in shuttle operations, hovering even in the tricky wind conditions was no problem. Major Hayes and his troops headed for the location of the air vents, leaving Reed and Hawkins topside quietly approaching the location of the trapped shuttle. They slipped along the sides of the machinery; the miserable environmental conditions aided their unseen activities. Somewhat surprisingly, no security was present to guard the shuttle, and Reed made a note of the situation. These people were so confident of being able to control the circumstances that any thought of escape or breach was not an issue.

'Hubris is deadly,' observed the tactical officer, thinking that the soon-to- arrive vessels - most certainly warships – must be well armed. He clamped down any thought toward the condition of the Enterprise; they would be successful in retrieving the captain and Trip . . . and would avoid a direct confrontation. T'Pol was an experienced officer, as well as a security operative, so this was not a concern in his mind.

Hawkins observed Lieutenant Reed as they approached the area where the shuttle was parked. The lightly-clad man, smoothly assessed the layout of the target, then pulled armed charges from a satchel – they were standard, self-attaching devices – shaped charges that would direct the power of the explosives toward the interior of the mine. The shuttle on the ground would be in little danger. The Brit then motioned for them to retreat to a safe distance while he pulled out a small communication module and pushed a button.

A rumple flowed toward the entrance of the mine and pieces of the outer wall fell to the ground. Hawkins observed Reed's face light up in satisfaction – he apparently appreciated 'a good explosion' – the MACO had 'heard through the grapevine' that this Starfleet officer was one of the top explosives experts in any military service on Earth . . . the two men approached the shattered entrance and deftly entered the opened access. Malcolm noticed that the previously 'giant steps' were reduced to constituent blocks, and they scrambled through the opening meeting no opposition.

However they heard the last of a phase pistol firefight and carefully proceeded down the staircase, where thankfully they met with both the captain and Trip with the retrieval team led by Hayes. Malcolm noted that there were at least two injured members of the team, so he stood by while Hayes started to go up the stairs with his team; the forward progress was held up by the appearance of an alien with whom both Archer and Trip had some kind of dispute; the being was apparently not armed – and claimed that he would give the coordinates to his home world. Malcolm almost said something about keeping focused – the captain then apparently allowed the alien to accompany the group, and Malcolm was the second to the last up the staircase, just before the woman MACO.

The group had exited the upper level of the mine and were going toward the grounded shuttle; Reed communicated with Mayweather telling him to approach the landing pad so that some of the group could be picked up by the landing shuttle. (The ensign would take half the group back, including the injured MACOs so that they would be expedited getting to Dr. Phlox and the sickbay.) Reed had just finished speaking with Mayweather when disruptor fire rained down on the group from a hidden position – Hayes motioned for one of his MACOs to exit the grounded shuttle. The man, armed with a sniper weapon, aimed it toward the 'hostile' and was able to eliminate the threat. However, during the exchange, the alien who had said that he would give Archer the coordinates to his home world, was shot by the disruptor, and was also loaded into the shuttle that carried the wounded MACOs.

The two shuttles immediately left the planet surface, and headed in emergency retrieval mode back to the Enterprise; word was received from the bridge that they should simultaneously enter the shuttle bay so that the ship could expeditiously go to warp to avoid the warships that were still bearing down on the planet. This potentially risky maneuver was performed with no mishaps, and the injured were transported to Sickbay under the careful aegis of Dr. Phlox and his medical team; all that could be done was done for the injured – Archer and Tucker were evaluated and eventually released to clean up and rest.

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