Author's Note

Again, lots of thanks to Joe Lawyer who has been going over my drafts in order to help me improve my chapters.

Augment Gothic 7

Unnamed L-Class Planet.

After only ten seconds of walking on the surface of this planet I decided that I really didn't like the place. It was dry, dusty, windy and the view was ruined by these giant reddish-brown rock formations that towered over me. There were also some small, round, cactus-like plants which provided a little colour, but nowhere near enough to break up the look of utter desolation.

T'Maz had already commented on just how much this place reminded her of her home world, and that made me reconsider ever visiting her planet. It had to be oh so very dull, and dry. If many of the women there were as hot as T'Maz, though, I could probably summon up the desire. Priorities, right?

A single path led up an incline to the science outpost, and we soon set off down the trail. After only a few minutes of walking, we saw a door, and that was the most thrilling thing I'd seen so far on this almost lifeless world.

"Kinda quiet around here. Is that normal, T'Maz?" I asked, still scanning my surroundings for possible dangers. This whole thing reeked of quiet before the storm type shit.

I didn't think a Vulcan run outpost would be the kind of place that would throw a welcome party for new visitors, but I had expected them to notice our arrival and to greet us by now. At the least if there was a problem here someone should have come outside and already requested our help.

"Negative," she replied. "I am picking up signs of life, though, and the outpost still has power. They should have already detected us. I can only conclude that they are unable to meet us for some reason. We must continue to investigate".

We then broke into a sudden run, heading toward the building's main entrance on the right. When we got to the door I noticed a large green puddle of liquid on the ground. Different color then I was used to, admittedly, but it looked like blood.

"Is that...Vulcan blood?" I questioned grimly, looking around now even more intently.

T'Maz took out her phaser, so I figured that it was, in fact, blood. She then turned her attention back to the entrance. The circular door ahead of us was illuminated red along its entire border. Which I figured meant that we were locked out. T'Maz checked her tricorder, and almost immediately she knew why the door hadn't just opened at our approach, like was normal.

"For some reason the highest security protocols have been enabled on this door, likely the entire facility," she informed me.

My thinking was that they had come under attack. That would explain the blood and why this place was sealed up like a tomb.

"Can you unlock it?" I asked T'Maz.

Unlike the last time a Section 31 agent and I had faced this kind of problem, I wasn't simply going to be able to force this door open by breaking its lock. It was a pretty solid looking door with no visible locking mechanism.

"This lock can be opened," the sexy Vulcan lady told me. "Please wait a moment".

She somehow made the door open a minute later. When we got inside it was rather obvious a serious battle had happened. I could still smell smoke in the air, even if I couldn't see any, and there was broken glass all over the floor. Sparks rained down from an overhead circular light fixture and onto a curved console. I checked out the computer and found that someone had locked it. However, for all I knew that could have happened automatically when the outpost's security protocols were brought to their highest levels.

"I can provide assistance," T'Maz offered.

She quickly got the machine working, only that didn't help me much in figuring out what had happened here as nothing it displayed made any sense.

"Can you operate any of the systems from here?" I wondered. "Or at least give us some more light?"

After working the controls T'Maz opened up a nearby lab, which lit up as instruments started to beep. The lights showed that there were several dead Vulcans in the lab area, and I didn't think any of them had died particularly easy. There had been a big fight here.

"They are dead," T'Maz confirmed dispassionately after scanning the bodies. "We must find the survivors I detected earlier".

As soon as we moved on from that area we found a single Vulcan lying in a large pool of blood. Another was dead, slumped over in the seat of something that looked like a high tech forklift truck. There were even more bodies scattered all over the room, which seemed to be a cargo bay of some kind. If the situation wasn't so precarious I would have been tempted to look in the cargo containers to see if there was anything worth taking surreptitiously.

T'Maz scanned one of the many dead Vulcans who was lying draped over a fallen container.

"I think he has been poisoned," she told me. "Scans show numerous toxins in this man's bloodstream, many of which that cannot be identified with Federation science".

Her voice was calm, but her face showed that she was rather troubled by all this, even beyond her ability to suppress. I could certainly understand why, aside from the dead bodies that were all over the damn place there were other signs of horror here, blood spatter everywhere and deep gouge marks on the walls. They were far too large to be Vulcan made and too deep as well. Plus these were solid metals walls, so not easily done. There were also holes caused by weapons' discharge set on an extremely high level, which showed that the people here had tried to defend themselves, to the point where they had set their weapons on kill. Surprisingly, though, I found no bodies of any of their attackers.

When I turned to check on T'Maz I found that she couldn't take her eyes off two Vulcans, both of whom were both leaning against the wall, dead. Arterial blood spray liberally coated the wall behind them in a truly gruesome fashion. These two had not been killed by energy weapons or by projectile weapons, like in my time, these guys had been slaughtered by something incredibly strong that had claws. It was not a pleasant sight to behold.

A creaking noise then caused me to nearly jump out of my skin. With my phaser in hand and up I scanned the room for what exactly had caused that noise, only there were no further sounds. It was so quiet that I could hear my own breathing and the beating of my heart as it pounded in my chest.

There soon came a loud tapping noise, then a distant metallic creak. It was as if someone was playing a game, trying to scare us. Of course with all the battle damage this room had taken it wasn't crazy to think it was just something that had been structurally compromised now shifting.

"What is that?" I asked T'Maz.

She was checking her tricorder.

"My tricorder-" she began to say.

That was when I saw the shadow of a man rush by. Since my fellow agent had stopped mid-speech I knew that she had seen it too.

"Did you see that?" she whispered.

My heart now thrummed loudly in my chest.

"I did," I replied quietly. "Could be someone who thinks that we're with whoever attacked this outpost".

We both raised our handheld weapons and turned a corner, walking past another dead scientist, this one a Bolian if I wasn't mistaken. This was a Vulcan outpost, but not a place purely manned by that species, so I knew we'd find other species working here. Hopefully they wouldn't all be dead.

The next person we saw was actually alive. They were about twenty feet ahead of us, obviously Vulcan. He stood hunched over with his back turned to us, but was obviously breathing. I stepped forward, intending to aid the poor sod, but I stopped myself when I saw that the man held a rod in his hand. This situation was eerily familiar to that Enterprise episode with the ship filled with those crazy and murderous Vulcans who had been exposed to Trellium D.

As we approached we circled around the man, keeping some distance between us, my hand keeping T'Maz further back lest she rush up to him to provide medical attention. When we got closer we saw something in his eyes; they flickered with an anger and rage greater than anything I'd seen in a human, or even a Klingon.

"Wait, we're here to help you!" T'Maz called out, obviously recognizing this situation was going to turn to violence in short order.

When I saw his muscles coiling to spring at us with that heavy rod, I raised my phaser pistol with speed and reflexes far beyond a normal human and blasted the man square in the chest with a heavy stun shot. The deranged Vulcan collapsed immediately, falling into an unconscious state.

"That guy wasn't right in the head," I explained. "What could have made a Vulcan act like that? You guys are not the kind of people who just go crazy and attack people, no matter how stressful the situation".

T'Maz leaned down and scanned the unconscious alien.

"I am detecting a severe chemical imbalance, not unlike what can be found in a Vulcan during the Ponn Farr," she informed me. "Only it is different, artificial, with signs of physical duress. I believe that this man was tortured to such an extreme that he lost all control of his suppression systems".

Vulcans had amazing mental strength and thus resistance to physical torture, but they were still mortal and could be broken in spirit. It would just take something pretty extreme to do or some advanced technology designed specifically for that purpose. Unless they were specifically trained to resist, a human would break far more quickly and easily.

We then heard a groan and found yet another Vulcan stood with his back to us, hunched over in pain.

"Another possibly disturbed individual," T'Maz stated.

I was taking no chances with this shit so I fired a stun shot at the man, only this time the alien was not stunned when hit by the energy. He attacked us, but he was so clumsy about it, probably from the phaser blast, that I got him into a choke hold pretty easily. He struggled mightily for a moment before gasping and collapsing unconscious. Vulcans were several times stronger than normal humans on average, but they were no match for my enhanced strength.

"A mind meld may be our only method to find out what has happened here," my fellow agent stated.

T'Maz knelt down beside the Vulcan and raised her hands so that she could touch the man that I had just rendered unconscious with my bare hands.

"Are you sure you want to meld with that guy?" I asked. "Isn't there a risk of you going mad too?"

If she lost it then I was well and truly fucked. I'd only been living in this galaxy and time for a couple of months. While I'd caught up pretty fast, I still didn't understand many things that people who grew up in this time took for granted. I was also not a veteran agent or trained investigator, so I simply didn't know what to do here. Information pertinent to this mission had also been obviously kept from me as well, need-to-know and all that, so who knows what else I was supposed to be doing.

"A mind meld is our only option," T'Maz stated as her dark eyes met mine. "Should anything happen to me as a result then contact Starfleet immediately. Warn them of what is happening here and then return to Earth. Agent Sloan will contact you there".

Discussion obviously over, she then placed her hands on the Vulcan's face. Her eyes then shut and appeared to go into a deep thought state. She looked peaceful, but not for long. Mere seconds after starting the meld, she broke it, shaking slightly.

"I saw images of insect-like beings and explosions," she told me. "It is all fractured, however, his mind has been corrupted. If this was done telepathically then we are dealing with a very dangerous race".

If they could do this to a Vulcan then I was at great risk, unless of course my mental defenses that prevented Betazoids from reading my mind also protected me in other ways. I was not eager to test out how robust those defenses were.

"Come, we must find out more," T'Maz insisted.

The next hallway we entered was thinly filled with smoke, but it was not enough to hide the damage done here. There were signs of intense phaser fire, burns and potholes, but this time there were no claw marks. Instead it looked as if someone had run a continuous heavy laser beam across the wall, scorching it. I'd never seen damage like that before. Whatever it was, there was definitely a desperate survival vibe to it.

Actually, I was getting a 'Doom' vibe from this whole damn place. I half expected to find some pink tinged demons waiting around the next corner.

"I am detecting several living Vulcans behind this door, but their readings are erratic," T'Maz told me, continuing to read the output of her tricorder. "They may also try to harm us," she added unnecessarily.

She raised her tricorder near the door's locking mechanism and prepared to open it. I raised my phaser and counted down using my fingers, signaling when we'd breach on my count. Thankfully, T'Maz understood my gesture and didn't open the door until my countdown was done.

As the doors slid horizontally apart I saw a Vulcan run towards us while waving a metal bar in the air and roaring like an animal. He glared at us with pure hate in his alien eyes.

A red beam of whining energy quickly shot from my weapon attempting to stun the man. The crazed Vulcan doubled over, dazed by the stun, but like the one before this didn't prove totally effective, so I punched the man into unconsciousness.

Another Vulcan then jumped through an already broken window and charged at us as well. I had enough time to change my weapon's stun setting to its maximum level, something normally only used on Klingons since it was possible to kill less hardy species with that level, and that allowed me to drop him without ending his life.

The next door slid open to reveal two Vulcan guards, not Starfleet personnel, though, standing at the ready, but for some reason neither of them seemed to want to beat me to death with heavy metal rods. That was a rather nice change.

"T'Maz," said a science guy who looked old enough to be in charge. "It is agreeable to see you".

While looking around I noticed that there were only Vulcans here. No humans or other races seemed to have found safety like they had.

"I am relieved to see that at least some of you are unharmed," T'Maz told her fellow Vulcans. "This is Gothic, the owner of a private vessel. He agreed to transport me here when I learned of trouble here at this outpost. Captain Gothic, this is Saturk, my father".

The father of the woman I was currently fucking, well, this made things a bit awkward for me, but I forced myself to focus on the more important things that were happening.

That wasn't easy as I had just realized that if the Flighty Temptress counted as a proper ship, rather than just a glorified Runabout, then I could go around calling myself 'Captain'. That was fun.

"Would you please explain what is going on here?" I asked, once I had my attention firmly back on the here and now. "Who attacked you?"

Things were still very confusing for me.

"Indeed, we have been attacked," Saturk stated, with little inflection. "Creatures of an unknown origin. They emerged from the rift not long after it appeared."

That much I had already figured out and was pretty standard for shit in this universe.

"What kind of creatures?" T'Maz wished to know.

Not friendly ones, that was for sure.

"We have only been able to determine that they are somehow related to the ancient Hur'q race," Saturk informed us, "and that they came here for the device, which was the true purpose of building an outpost here".

I now had the distinct feeling that Section 31 was far more involved with this place than I had first thought. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd set the whole outpost up. It would also explain why this wasn't a Starfleet operation. T'Maz didn't like Starfleet and if her opinion was typical of Section 31, which was pretty likely, then they'd want to keep them out of something like this.

"With the device in their possession they could use it to create rifts anywhere in the galaxy," Saturk was now saying. "They would be able to attack the Federation without any warning. We'd be defenseless".

This device sounded suspiciously like an Iconian gateway, which was a technology developed by the ancient Iconians, who had tech well beyond Federation science. The gateways allowed for instantaneous travel over enormous distances. Physically the gateway appeared as a door or a portal. An individual could simply step through the gateway (as they would through an ordinary door) and emerge on the other side, having traveled incredible distances. The gateway network allowed the Iconians to instantly travel throughout the entirety of the galaxy without the use of starships. There was even a DS9 episode where the Jem'Hadar had discovered a nearly functioning gateway in the Gamma quadrant. I could easily get there years before they did, but the risks were immense. The TNG episode featuring another functioning gateway might also not have happened yet.

As for the device now being talked about, it seemed much like a gateway only worse, because the rifts created were big enough to move entire ships through. We could end up with entire fleets of Hur'q vessels suddenly appearing in the Sol System without any warning and Starfleet wouldn't be able to stop them as their ships were spread out all over the Federation.

"Where is the machine now?" I demanded to know.

I quickly got an answer.

"Underground, in the Outpost's deepest labs," Saturk informed me. "I have secured all entries into the lab to prevent the device from falling into hostile hands".

He then turned to his daughter.

"T'Maz, are you able to provide additional assistance?" he asked. "I can open the doors that lead deeper into the labs, but it must be you who stops these insects".

She nodded at her father.

"We must prevent this device from falling into the hands of these beings," she said. "The entire Federation is at risk".

I didn't much care for the United Federation of Planets, but since I lived in it then it made sense to not let it be destroyed. Plus, I did still care for Earth, even if hippies and nerds were running it. The alternatives were much scarier. It was a dangerous galaxy after all.

"Daughter, I advise caution," Saturk warned. "There are likely to be more infected Vulcans in the lower levels. These Hur'q-like beings somehow drove them mad after slaughtering most of us and taking others. I do not know why they were broken, but they are lost to us and very dangerous. The invaders themselves will be after the device".

The Vulcan then turned to me.

"Captain, if you must dispatch my fellow Vulcans, please be merciful," he requested. "They may be lost now, but it is still yet possible that they can be returned to the path of logic".

I might be a merc by nature, however killing crazy people wasn't what I was being paid for so I'd stick to stun for now.

"Understood," I replied. If it was a question between killing them or dying myself, they'd be dying though.

(Line Break)

Vulcan Science Outpost. Unnamed Planet.

T'Maz and I stood outside a room; inside I could hear a Vulcan who was complaining about the many loud voices in his head. Typical crazy person behavior. A quick glance into the room allowed me to see two more dead Vulcans, possibly killed by this voice hearing dude.

I crept in when the crazy man was fully turned away, doing my best to avoid making a sound. When I got close enough I put a choke hold on the guard from behind. The crazy scientist thrashed and fought hard before gradually going limp. There was nothing of importance in this room, we'd only entered it in order to take down the man; we didn't need any madmen attacking us from behind when we met the Hur'q-like beings.

We then hurried to the next room, which was down the hall, and I watched as T'Maz unlocked the door.

"Stay down, don't let them see you," she whispered.

We entered a much larger room and hid behind the various boxes and containers of all sizes. Some were stacked high, all the way to the ceiling. Inside some of the boxes were spare and parts, which could be useful, but what had my attention was a Vulcan female, obviously another crazy bitch, crying like a little girl.

I raised my phaser and stunned her. Unfortunately, even though it was set on maximum stun, she didn't drop to the ground, so I was forced to hit her too. It wasn't a nice feeling having to punch a woman, but I wasn't going to let silly ideas like that put T'maz and I in danger.

Around the corner another Vulcan was seemingly patrolling the room. The man paced, slowly and surely, as if automated. T'Maz came from behind the corner and stunned the guard, before performing the neck pinch her species was famous for. I hoped that later we'd find the time for her to teach me how to do that as it could come in handy. I should be more than strong enough to perform it. Some fans had once postulated that there could be a telepathic component to that move, but Data successfully performed it in an episode of TNG so that had muddied the waters on that theory.

In yet another room, this one obviously someone's living quarters, a Vulcan stood yelling at the wall at the top of his lungs. The rod he held had green blood on it. Below him a female Vulcan lay in a pool of blood, but she wasn't dead yet as I could see her chest rising and falling as she breathed.

"You think one of us can get behind that guy and take him out before he notices us?" I wondered.

T'Maz gave me a blank look.

"Of course you can," she said.

She was right, I choked him into unconscious and then dumped the whack-job in an empty closet. Then I shut the door and locked it so that he couldn't get out. He could yell at the walls of the closet all he liked when he woke up.

"You should take this," T'Maz stated once I rejoined her. "I found it in one of the living quarters".

She handed me a grey colored and very deadly looking rifle. It was bulkier than a phaser and heavier too, seemingly all business with little to no frills and thus so very un-Federation in design. A normal human would have trouble lugging it around.

"What is it?" I asked, but already liking it a lot. This weapon was hardcore.

She answered right away.

"It is a semi-automatic repeating pulse rifle, containing three clips of sixty rounds each," I was told.

I did the math and realized that this weapon could fire 180 shots with the clips I had, although when it needed to be reloaded all three clips would need to be replaced or somehow recharged. Still, that was a hell of a lot of firepower. How many shots did a standard power cell allow a Starfleet phaser to fire? I bet you it was nowhere near 60 shots.

"So…an assault weapon?" I wondered.

That seemed an odd weapon choice for a race that disliked violence.

"That description, though crude, is adequate," she informed me. "However, this does not fire metal projectiles, like in your time, it uses energy. It belonged to the Section 31 agent we came here to find. He is confirmed dead".

Now the weapon made a lot more sense. Section 31 had very different ideas when it came to defending the Federation. This weapon didn't even have a stun setting.

Soon we came across a human for a change; he was bonkers as well so I stunned him like the others and T'Maz calmly walked over and administered the Vulcan neck pinch where the man's shoulder met his neck. As this was the first human we'd encountered so far, she took detailed scans for several minutes. While waiting for her to finish I found myself wondering if the placement of the neck pinch differed between species. You'd have to assume that to be the case, right?

"The amount of infected and disturbed individuals we have encountered is alarming," my fellow agent remarked. "Whatever method these insects used is now confirmed to work on both Vulcans and humans, which means it may have been created to work on many alpha quadrant races. That kind of cross-species effectiveness could not be anything other than deliberate".

Which hinted at this all being planned well in advance, despite the fact that the Hur'q hadn't been the ones to open the rift. The Vulcan in charge hadn't admitted to opening a rift, of course, but it was pretty clear that they had. The Klingon Bird of Prey must have close enough to this region of space to detect the rift and had come to check out what was going on in this system.

"Let's keep moving," T'Maz then said.

We got into another lift and went down enough levels to indicate that we were indeed heading deeper underground. And didn't this just continue to feel like a mission in a video game, complete with the game console loading the next scenes while we waited in a long elevator ride.

Once the lift came to a stop we entered another hallway and I heard a distant growl that caused me to look up. Then I heard another noise that could have been metal doors being pried open.

My suspicion turned out to be correct; the doors at the end of corridor opened slowly and I saw a large humanoid creature that was somewhat bug-like. I figured it was about eight feet tall and it was covered in an exoskeleton, it also had four glowing eyes. It strongly reminded me of a Collector from the Mass Effect video game.

The 'Collector' didn't attack right away, instead it vocalized something that was painful for our ears to hear, a shrill high pitched note of some kind, very monster movieish in tone. Then it reached down to pick something up. It didn't look much like a rifle as we'd know it, but it was pointed at us so I assumed it was.

I quickly aimed and fired the Section 31 assault rifle. This action quickly dropped the creature to the ground only for it to get up again a moment later. T'Maz fired her Starfleet phaser at it and got off two good hits. The 'Collector' didn't even seem to notice! Instead, it charged at us at speed and I quickly emptied the clip of the pulse rifle into it, not taking any chances with it given the resistance it'd already shown. This time when it dropped, it didn't get up again.

Now my weapon was completely out of ammo, or rather energy. I reloaded quickly, just in time for the next creature to show up and attack us. Several darker crimson bolts hit the oncoming attacker as my fellow agent opened fire, and this time her shots were more effective, so I figured she'd already switched to a more lethal setting. Still, it took a lot of shooting to stop the 'Collector' from moving. That was not a good thing for the Federation if there were a lot more of these guys.

"We need to keep moving," T'Maz stated, sounding a bit rattled, but not so shaken that she didn't take a few intense scans of the Collector corpse with her tricorder.

We tried to do just that only for the both of us to end up needing to dive out of the way of an oncoming 'Collector' who had obviously been hiding. The two us aimed and fired at the creature with our respective weapons. It only shook its head and screamed loudly in response. It was obviously really annoyed at being shot multiple times. It soon became even more annoyed and rather dead when I took out my sword and stabbed it right in the face. Try shrugging that off mother fucker.

T'Maz then took out her tricorder and scanned the creature who I had just slain with my sword. This 'Collector' was larger than the other two we'd seen and had nasty looking claws, instead of an energy weapon. It also had displayed a worrying resistance to our weapons, even more than the other Collector had.

"This being is somewhat like a Kam'Jahtae," she stated, speaking about the alien's biology.

That name meant nothing to me. I'm relatively sure it has never even been mentioned in any of the shows.

"A what?" I asked.

She had a reply ready.

"The Kam'Jahtae are an extremely hostile species that Section 31 believes to be the progenitors of the Hur'q race," she told me. "Thirty years ago an agent that was embedded onboard a salvage ship discovered several hundred Kam'Jahtae in some form of long-term stasis. The crew of the salvage ship must have inadvertently woken them up and the agent most likely detonated the ship's warp core in order to kill them all, lest they escape. At the time we were unsure why such an extreme measure was needed, now we know that the Kam'Jahtae are conquerors and that if those few hundred had been allowed to escape they would have sought to wake the others of their kind we suspect are still hidden and scattered across the quadrant. Section 31 has for years been working to destroy any Kam'Jahtae that they can find".

She had more to say.

"This being appears to have been manufactured or at least heavily modified, likely from before birth," I was now being informed. "It is only eighty percent biological. Twenty percent of this creature is metal, most likely some kind of advanced cybernetic implants. The visible exoskeleton is not a natural aspect of their form as well. It is actually some form of bioengineered armor, only it has been fused with the being. This could not have occurred naturally".

It also explained why there were so damn hard to put down. This could be the Hur'q's version of a Jem'Hadar soldier, only much, much scarier.

"This weapon may prove to be more effective against their kind," T'Maz reasoned as she examined the alien rifle. "Give me the pulse rifle".

I exchanged the pulse rifle for the alien rifle, then tried to find a comfortable method of holding it and using it. That was the problem with using weapons designed for a species so very different from our own. If I wasn't as strong as I was, I doubt it'd be much use to most anyone else given how large, awkward, and heavy it was. I test fired the weapon by shooting one of the corpses at our feet. It burned through the bio-armor in short order. I definitely liked that!

"Let us move on," T'Maz said.

(Line Break)

Vulcan Science Outpost. Unnamed Planet.

I could see two things upon entering the secure lab, a strange looking cubic device that was floating in a beam of blueish white energy and a large 'Collector' that seemed to be intensely studying the machine from the other side of the room.

We both watched as the glowing beam of energy continued to thrum and pulsate, suspending the device in midair. Suddenly, the beam disengaged and the creature jumped through the air to catch the falling device safely in its 'hands'. It landed hard on the floor and jumped onto a console before hurrying away from the lab.

"We must recover the device!" T'Maz exclaimed.

That was when I spotted several more 'Collectors' entering the room across from them. They were the smaller and more agile type that carried and used energy rifles, rather than their own claws, like the larger kinds did.

Strange beams of energy shot out from the alien weapons shattering glass and damaging nearby consoles. I ducked behind a deactivated console and fired back with my borrowed weapon, quickly dropping one of the creatures with the badass alien rifle I'd started using only moments ago. I quickly re-aimed at another and squeezed the trigger equivalent. Another 'Collector' dropped even as beams of energy flashed past my head, this forcing me to duck back again. Thankfully my speed and reflexes appeared superior to theirs. They also didn't really try to get behind cover for some reason.

As soon as the firing stopped, I popped up and fired again. My aim was as precise as ever and another of the creatures was soon out of the fight forever.

Then a return shot whizzed over my head. It hit the wall and left a pretty big melted hole in it. I knew then and there that if I was hit that neither my current armor or my augmented DNA would mean a damn thing. I'd be dead.

"Close your eyes and cover your ears!" I yelled at T'Maz, as I armed a flash-bang grenade.

I waited two seconds in order to burn a bit of time on the timer before I threw the device, then I did my best to defend my sensory organs from the effects of the flash-bang.

"You all right?" I asked when the bang was over.

My voice had been much louder than expected due to the slight ringing in my ears.

"I am uninjured!" T'Maz reported in an overly loud voice.

Peering over a console, I fired at the last standing 'Collector' and for the first time since learning how to shoot, I missed. Which confirmed that the flash-bangs worked really well, maybe too well, as even when prepared for the effects I was still dizzy afterwards. Maybe I should look into another upgrade for my future armor and include some noise cancelling technology so that I wouldn't be effected by the blast as well? That'd be better than this situation. The bug alien was definitely effected though, actually looking almost drunk when it fired and only managing to hit the ceiling. My next shot, however, was made with perfect accuracy. The creature groaned and fell over dead from the melted and cauterized hole in its chest.

My next action was to check out the corpses and hopefully recover that cube device that somehow made rifts in the fabric of space. Unfortunately, I failed to find it. Because that would be too freaking easy! It looked like my flash bang hadn't been powerful enough to disable all the aliens, or maybe its area of effect was just a touch too small. I'd have to improve on them, or maybe build something more deadly. A true stun grenade using phaser technology would be useful. I could just execute the unconscious aliens at that point, or even turn them over to Section 31 for interrogation and dissection. I bet that would net a huge payday! A true anti-personnel grenade would be a good idea as well, maybe based on plasma energy? Using plasma rather than a conventional explosive would make it safer for me to use in confined spaces.

"We failed," T'Maz stated plainly. "They have taken the device".

She then took out a communication device and tried to contact her father.

"T'Maz to Saturk," she said.

There was no reply.

"We gotta get that device back," I reasoned. "T'Maz, can you determine where they went?"

She consulted her tricorder for a few moments.

"Difficult to tell, but it appears that they are taking it towards the surface," she reported. "They are moving very quickly".

This was not good.

"We'll never catch up to them then," I moaned.

T'Maz didn't agree.

"If I restore power to the outpost's main turbolift, we may be able to catch up to them and intercept before they reach the surface," she theorized. "There are not that many of the creatures left in the base; we can still defeat them and recover the device".

That sounded like a plan to me.

(Line Break)

Future Colony. Unnamed L-Class Planet.

When we finally got to the surface I saw a large construction crane standing motionless amongst the skeletons of unfinished buildings. The air was hot and smelled of many things, though mostly of blood and smoke. Several forklifts and utility vehicles sat vacant and I could see several bodies of dead civilians that were haphazardly scattered here and there.

"This is far more than a mere outpost," I commented. "The people here were building a proper city".

T'Maz supplied me with some information.

"Section 31 knew that the outpost wouldn't be sufficient cover for what was really going on here," she explained. "So it was decided to arrange for an entire Vulcan colony to be built on this world. This planet is too dry and lifeless for any other race".

Hearing that amazed me.

"You guys arranged for an entire colony to be set up just to help keep what was going on at the outpost hidden," I said. "Just how much influence do you have over the Federation?!"

She didn't answer me due to the arrival of a strange craft that somewhat resembled a large winged insect, with several circular propulsion engines jutting slightly out of the back. It flew right over us, casting a large shadow across the incomplete colony. Then it landed not too far from us.

"This must be a craft the creatures sent to recover those who took the device," T'Maz theorized.

The two us broke into a sprint and made our way towards the alien craft. We used containers of supplies and various bits of mechanical equipment as cover.

When we got closer I saw that some 'Collectors' had been waiting for the vessel, which was larger than the Flighty Temptress. These bug aliens were human sized, making them smaller than the others and each of them was carrying some bit of technology that they must have taken from the Outpost. A few were even dragging either dead or knocked out people on to the craft. I dreaded to think what the filthy insects would do to those poor bastards.

I also saw more of the rifle carriers and they were grouped around a 'Collector' who was the largest of them all, the leader I assumed. It was a type we hadn't yet encountered so hopefully T'Maz was getting some scans. The smaller ones, I guessed, were a worker caste, drones, while the ones with the rifles and nasty claws had to be of the warrior caste.

"Kill the leader," T'Maz ordered tersely, "it might cause the rest to become unorganized".

I rested the alien rifle I'd been using for a while now on a nearby box in order to steady it for this longer range shot. After a moment, I discharged the weapon. It took several bursts to fell the leader before the gun simply stopped working for some reason. Thankfully the leader was already dead.

Before the bugs figured out where we were T'Maz had quickly passed me the pulse rifle from earlier, and I opened fire on the aliens. Blue energy projectiles virtually screamed out of the rifle's barrel. It was a semi-automatic weapon in function, but I was able to aim and pull the trigger much faster than a normal human would have been able. Thankfully the weapon could keep up with my fire rate and didn't overheat. I'd have to either take this one for my personal collection or procure one of my own to add to my ship's armory. It was a useful weapon!

The surviving 'Collectors' shot back as a group, several beams went flying past me even as I dove for cover, and one of the bugs got lucky. I was hit, a grazing shot, but despite the pain I still kept shooting.

Then I spotted the same bug who had taken the strange device.

"There he goes, let's get him!" I shouted.

Rather than reload the pulse rifle I dropped it and ran while firing my phaser pistol at the escaping creature. Though I hit him each time I fired, even while running, the bug barely seemed to notice me shooting it. I didn't check, but I knew that my phaser was still set to stun and that it wouldn't be strong enough to bring the insect alien down. I would have to do this the old fashioned way, with my fists and my sword.

With long, powerful strides, I ascended up a nearby crate, then I leaped up onto the alien ship just as the Collector made it onboard. The impact of my body hitting the ship made me lose control of my phaser. It slid across the hull and out of reach.

The ship began to immediately take off and I lost my footing, my fingers scrambling to grasp some kind of handhold, anything that could keep me from falling to the ground. Sadly, I failed and I soon found myself hitting the ground, hard. Thankfully my body was strong enough to take the impact, else I'd be dead. On my back, looking up at the strange colored sky, all I could do was watch the alien ship fly higher and higher into the sky before it vanished completely from sight.

"Fuck!" I yelled into the silence.