Author's Note
I got stuck for this story so I figured that I'd try to get myself back into it by writing more about what happened to Augment Gothic during the Bajoran Occupation. Hopefully this will get the old creative juices flowing once again.
Augment Gothic
Part 31
Resistance Hideout. Bajor.
The Shaakar cell, which I had been allowed to join despite not being Bajoran, was all seated around a holo-projector. The stolen Cardassian device had clearly seen better days, but it still worked well enough and it did its job, which was to show the layout of a nearby town. Even a cheap and tiny holo-portrait device commonly found throughout the Federation had a higher resolution and color depth, but the Bajoran resistance was far from being flush with money and equipment.
We were currently hiding out in the Hills of the Dahkur Province, and this was far from the first time the cell had hid here. A few years back Kira Nerys and the rest of Shakaar resistance cell had spent the entire winter in the Hills after a few operations. With no power cells for their phasers, so that their power signature wouldn't be detected, and very little food, they hid from the Cardassian sensor sweeps in the caves. From the stories I'd heard, it had been cold and miserable and not everyone that had come into those caves had come out. Exposure and starvation were oftentimes more lethal to the resistance forces than the Cardassians.
While we had power cells and food this time, we were still hiding out from Cardassian senor sweeps in these caves, only this time we wouldn't be remaining in the caves for long. We'd already hit several high value targets, including one operation that had ended with me very nearly killing Gul Dukat himself, the Prefect of all of Bajor. That had earned me quite a bit of fame and some bragging rights. Thankfully, Kira had agreed to keep it to herself how I had purposefully spared the man, but only after I had convinced her that it was the best move for the long-term survival of Bajor. I'm relatively sure she still didn't fully agree with me, but her trust and loyalty in me and my decisions won the day.
The response from the local Cardassian commander to that operation, a man amusingly named Gul Dan Curry, was to round up the families of those suspected to be responsible and have them publicly executed in the town square of a nearby settlement.
As you might expect, Shakaar had taken great exception to this idea and wanted to kill Gul Dan Curry as part of our ongoing efforts to harass and hopefully destabilize the operations and command structure of the Cardassian military on Bajor. As I'd explained to the cell a while ago, and as Shakaar had always understood, Bajor just didn't have the resources to drive the Cardassians off the planet in a fair fight, thus we had to be clever and underhanded about the whole thing.
Basically the idea was to make the Occupation too expensive and ultimately unprofitable for the Cardassians in terms of both resources and people. The Cardassians spent a lot of time, effort, and money training someone, over the course of a long career in the military, before someone rose to the ranks of Gul. While everyone we killed could be replaced from elsewhere, few officers would want the job if they thought it was going to lead to them getting assassinated in short order. In the short-term, a long succession of replacement leaders would further destabilize and hamstring operations on Bajor while they got up to speed.
The public event would take place today with a mass rape of the women and young girls in front of their families and then the execution of everyone remaining, followed by a feast in honor of Cardassia. Which I assumed was to help the morale of the Occupation Forces, dinner and a show, or a show then dinner in this case.
Gul Dan Curry needed to die, and publicly too. There needed to be witnesses. He needed to die when surrounded by his troops so that every spoon-head officer on this planet would know that they were never safe, that every cruelty and atrocity they doled out to the Bajoran people would be paid back tenfold. Shakaar understood my thinking and agreed; he was pragmatic like that. He also wasn't as xenophobic as many Bajorans were these days (though they had good reasons to be considering) so he didn't dismiss my ideas just because I didn't have a wrinkly nose.
The plan was simple enough, and that was good because the more complex a plan, the greater the chances were that something would go horribly wrong. And unlike Starfleet, we didn't have technobabble to save us when things did go wrong.
Gul Dan Curry would be making a standard arrogant and pretentious evil villain speech beforehand, as was protocol, at which point I would shoot him from the cover of the nearby hill with a sniper rifle. I would have Kira with me for cover, as she was supremely deadly when it came to long range shooting.
At the same time the rest of the Shakaars, some of whom would be mixed into the nearby crowd, would attack the Cardassian soldiers, not because we wanted them dead, which I was sure most of them did, but because they would likely decide to execute the civilians anyways, even without Gul Dan Curry around to give them any orders to. Hopefully in the chaos we'd provide them all of the condemned could escape and hide elsewhere.
Kira protested mightily at not being in the main fight, but Shakaar had handed her a rifle and told her that it was because he trusted her, that she was assigned the duty of killing me if I turned traitor and taking the shot if I couldn't or wouldn't. In other words, generally being out of the main firefight so that she could watch me and provide fight support from a distance.
I wondered if Kira could kill me. After all, we were sleeping together regularly, which normally resulted in some sort of basic emotional attachment. Then again, she was extremely loyal to her cell, and she greatly admired Shaakar, so she might be able to do it. Sure, she had started sleeping with me for the benefit of her cell and to secure the arms deal, but she didn't need to continue doing that after I had given them the weapons and joined the cell. That had to mean something. I knew she cared about me.
Not that she would need to kill me, though, as I had no trouble killing the spoon head soldiers as I'd proven time and time again. I didn't think that their entire race was intrinsically evil; it was just that they had an evil government as well as fucked up ideals which led to them doing very bad things, like the German people had during World War 2 on Earth. And no matter how I felt about them, you didn't see me going around and gunning down Cardassian civilians without provocation.
"I think I've already proven I'll do whatever it takes to liberate Bajor, but don't worry, I'll take the shot, happily," I assured everyone. It was strange that they were even letting me take the Gul out if they had any doubts about my loyalty, but maybe this was my big test. If I passed I would finally be one of them and fully accepted.
Shakaar nodded and then looked over the assembled cell.
"Any questions?" he asked.
I raised my hand somewhat.
"Are we expecting the Cardassians to have any heavy fire support of their own?" I asked.
Shakaar looked over the holographic display once more.
"The town will be heavily guarded like any other public event like this, but no intelligence we've collected has suggested that Gul Curry has any heavy vehicles or weapons waiting just in case. He's new to Bajor and Dahkur Province, a transfer straight from some duty station on Cardassia Prime, so he doesn't have a clue how dangerous we can be. Standard Cardassian arrogance and sense of superiority will be our friends once again, my friends."
Wasn't that the truth. So many of the Resistance's victories were the result of Cardassian arrogance and over confidence.
Even if he had been told how effective and dangerous the Resistance could be, I don't think Gul Curry would have taken the warning seriously anyways. The spoon heads were far too arrogant for their own good. Which I found quite silly as they were a third rate power in the Alpha Quadrant, nothing compared to the Federation, or the Romulan or Klingon Empires.
"Is there a contingency plan in place?" I asked.
Shakaar's smile was indulgent more than anything else, which annoyed me because it might mean that he wasn't taking the possibility that everything could go tits up all that seriously. Which he really should as it had been proved time and time again in multiple universes, 'No plan survives first contact with the enemy.'
That was a piece of military wisdom derived from a formulation by the nineteenth-century Prussian military commander Helmuth van Moltke. He wrote in 1880, "No plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main force," but that was a bit of a mouthful.
"Run like the Pah-wraiths themselves were chasing after you and disappear into the hills," Shaakar answered.
The Pah-wraiths were pretty much the Bajoran versions of demons, so yeah, it would make sense to run from them.
"We don't have the firepower to stand up to a direct attack from the Cardassian garrison, which means we need to be in and out fast killing as many as we can to allow the Bajoran prisoners the chance to escape and hide," the rebel leader was now saying. "As long as everyone plays their part we should be fine. If it doesn't, we scatter to the winds and meet back here in three days time."
Well, at least it was a simple plan and wouldn't be hard to remember.
(Line Break)
Resistance Hideout. Bajor.
"Gothic," Kira begged in that breathy voice of hers when she was really horny and almost out of control.
She was now curling her fingers delicately around my cock and working it to hardness. Which I wouldn't normally mind only I had just gotten into the sleeping bag and I hadn't even been given a chance to get comfortable.
"I need you inside me! Please, Gothic," she begged quietly but insistently.
She was never this eager. But she obviously wanted it bad, and I wasn't going to waste time wondering why. Though if I had to guess, it had been the order to kill me if I turned traitor, which suggested she really had come to care for me and was conflicted about it. I think she'd still do it if necessary, but it would tear her apart inside. She must have needed the reassurance of intimacy.
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be," I told her sincerely.
After moving her hand away once it had successfully brought me to hardness and moving my own body into position between her open and welcoming thighs, I slipped my large cock fully inside her, and Kira's reaction was very positive.
"Prophets!" she called out while closing her eyes and arching her back, her hands threading in my hair and pulling me down into a desperate kiss, filled with quite a bit of emotion.
I found myself trying to get into some sort of rhythm, but that proved to be tricky as while I was on top of the beautiful Bajoran woman, she was also moving her hips and her arms vigorously. I was doing something right because it felt like one hand was trying to scar my back, while the other had grabbed a fistful of my hair.
"Gothic...ah..." she gasped.
Bajoran women seemed to naturally have an intense sex drive when compared to human women, which might help to explain why they were breeding like rabbits even during the horrors of the Occupation.
"Harder! Faster! Fuck this pussy like you own it! Ruin it for anyone but you!" she demanded between loud moans.
Either my hearing was a lot better than that of the locals or everyone in the cave's other sections had some sort of noise cancelling headphones on, because there was no way they couldn't be hearing Kira moaning in ecstasy right now, despite how far we were from the main group. Of course it wasn't at all unusual for that kind of thing to be heard in the hours before an operation, in all kinds of different pairings, casual and otherwise, between cell members. When this could be your last few hours alive, no one begrudged anyone a little physical comfort.
"Harder it is," I answered, loving the dirty talk.
Calling upon only a fraction of my enhanced stamina and strength more, lest I break her pelvis, I gave the Bajoran woman exactly what she wanted and tried to ruin that hot, tight, wet pussy for anyone but me. Hopefully, no one would notice if she was walking bowlegged tomorrow.
(Line Break)
Sniper's Nest. Dahkur Province
The 'event' didn't start for another half an hour, so apart from making communication checks and noting priority targets and ranges, there was little to do except stare quietly through the scope and wait for the action to start. There was always a chance that Gul Curry would turn up early, so I couldn't exactly relax even now. I had to be prepared to fire at any moment.
The sniper nest was protected from even close range detection by virtue of it being only a small hole in the side of a rocky hill facing the settlement, which was only accessible via a cave which was lower in the valley and quite a distance away. While the nest was hidden, small, and quite tight, it provided an excellent view of the whole town, which Kira told me was by design. It had long ago been carved out with hand tools and was used as an observation post by the Resistance. This was sure to be its last use, unfortunately, as it was sure to be discovered and collapsed by the Cardassians after today. Killing the Gul and saving so many people was seen as a worthwhile trade, though.
While the spoon heads were an arrogant bunch of SOBs, they weren't stupid. Once the battle was over they'd be able to calculate exactly where my shot came from and then they'd quickly find this nest, and most likely collapse the entire cave and any others they found. At least that was what I would do.
The square below was decorated in Cardassian style bunting, like rape and murder was the perfect accompaniment to a party, and a table was set with a few miserable-looking Bajoran servants setting out places while twelve guards patrolled the perimeter. It was quiet enough that even at this distance I could hear people coughing, although that might have more to do with my augmented hearing.
"Target has arrived," one of the Bajoran resistance fighters scattered throughout the area reported over our low tech communications channel.
The spoon-head officer was coming into town while inside an armored personnel transport. Which meant that taking a shot at him right now would be completely pointless, as it'd take multiple full power shots to do enough damage to realistically harm the occupants. That was assuming they didn't immediately leave the area after the first shot. I would have to wait until he exited the craft and got up onto the stage for his speech before I could take the shot. It'd even be better to kill the Gul when he was more visible for morale purposes.
"Gothic, you need to positively identify him before you take the shot," Shaakar reminded me unnecessarily.
"Understood," I whispered into my com device.
Cardassian officers weren't above using body doubles and letting them face the danger of getting killed. Because of this I'd spent time studying detailed images of Gul Dan Curry so that no simple look-alike would fool me. Thankfully, the advanced electronic optics in the 24th century would allow me to zoom in to a ridiculous degree and spot the differences in a Cardassian that only semi-looked like the Gul. If the Gul had a surgically altered double, however, then I could still be fooled, but we had no reason to believe that Curry had gone to such lengths. It took a lot of time, pain, effort and skill to make a perfect body double through surgery and while this guy was a Gul, he just wasn't that high up in the chain of command to justify the great expense.
Like so many of his kind, the Gul thought he could do whatever he wished while on Bajor with no repercussions, committing all manners of evils on the helpless people here. He would soon learn otherwise. He wouldn't have long to appreciate the lesson, though, because I was going to blast a hole in him with a high powered phaser rifle and end his miserable existence.
"He is en route, on foot with accompanying staff and bodyguards. Prepare to take the shot," Shaakar reported. "Prophets be with us all."
Kira sighed in relief. I could almost hear her anxiety leaving her body like a physical manifestation. It was always the waiting that she hated the most, not the action. She'd been far too tense for a while now, so it was a good thing that Curry seemed to be getting on with things sooner than expected.
Curry was a little overweight and his armor was ridiculously over-decorated with numerous medals and insignia, suggesting a strong political acumen and a career focused on advancement through brown nosing and ass kissing, rather than martial skill and achievement. Interestingly, his face did not look like what you'd expect of a raping, mass murderer, in fact he looked silly to me. This guy was supposed to be a high ranking enemy officer, but he just didn't seem all that dangerous, at least from a personal perspective.
My throat was dry all of a sudden. Even augments get nervous and sometimes doubt themselves, and I was suddenly having second thoughts about all this. Did I really want to murder this man? This wasn't my war. This wasn't my world. What was I even doing here?
This was when I reminded myself of all the horrible things the spoon heads were doing to this planet and its people. The strip mining, the poisoning of the soil, the forced labor camps, the mass executions, the Bajoran women and young girls raped and taken as sex slaves, and a bunch of other horrors I couldn't even imagine.
I put my eye back to the advanced scope and lined up the shot so that I could hit the Gul's head. While a shot to the torso was a larger target and thus an easier shot, a phaser bolt was unaffected by wind and distance and the advanced rifle scopes of the 24th century made long range shots infinitely easier. No, a head shot would be even more assuredly lethal and this sick Gul's head exploding into a pink mist would send a much more powerful message.
"Target sighted," I reported. "I have positive identification. He's the Cardassian in the middle of the stage, now stepping up to the podium."
Shaakar acknowledged and ordered me to fire when ready.
"Go ahead, Gothic," Kira encouraged quietly at my side, already lying prone and ready to kill her own targets. "Don't give this bastard a chance to hurt anyone else."
I focused on him and breathed in and out slowly. He was speaking now to the assembled villagers, no doubt spewing some lies meant to inspire the men under his command and cow the Bajorans prior to the rape and execution of their neighbors. He was even now waving an arm around vigorously, in the style of Hitler and Mussolini. As he began speaking more loudly I could actually hear him. Not well enough to make out his words, but either he was a great actor or the man had a real passion for whatever bullshit he was talking about, maybe even believed it himself, a true zealot and believer in the superiority of Cardassia.
He stopped speaking forever seconds after I smoothly pulled the trigger, a burst of deadly crimson energy screaming from my weapon, before eventually striking the Cardassian with a burst of light and noise.
The shot was perfect and his head practically blew apart into a pink mist, his headless torso remaining standing for what felt like minutes before it fell heavily to the stage. I could have vaporized the guy altogether, or killed him just as easily with a shot to the torso, but I'd chosen to be as messy as possible.
When he dropped to the ground, the crowd of Bajorans, who'd been forced to watch the Gul's speech, actually cheered, while the soldiers tried to get organized. They were looking for the shooter, looking for me, but without the right equipment they couldn't detect where the shot had come from, especially since I'd only fired once.
"Target is down. Repeat, target is down. Commence attack. Fire at will!" Shaakar shouted over the comms.
The second Kira got the go ahead she started firing on every soldier in sight, killing three in seconds.
"We need to protect the crowd while they run," she said calmly, continuing to kill the soldiers in the square who were being fired upon from all sides.
Rather than reply I looked down my scope and spotted a spoon head who was for some reason attempting to protect the Gul's headless body. I blasted him first with a high powered kill shot, hoping this intense show of loyalty to a corpse indicated he was a high level officer or adjutant to the Gul. As soon as he dropped I began looking for a new target.
(Line Break)
Resistance Hideout. Bajor.
I grimaced slightly as Shakaar sat down facing me at what passed for a conference table in this hideout. As for why I was grimacing that was because I could see the expression on his face, and it was not a good one.
"You have my thanks, Gothic," Shaakar started. "The whole of Dahkur Province is in your debt."
Given the way things were going I figured the whole of Bajor would soon owe me big time, and I wondered how they'd express that gratitude once the Occupation was over.
"Gul Curry was a monster," Shaakar went on to say. "Sadly, there are too many Cardassians like him on Bajor to realistically think his death will change anything."
That was true. Unfortunately, by itself, Curry's demise wouldn't make much of a difference at all, but it was just one step on the long road to Bajoran liberation that I knew for a fact would happen in the next few years.
"You've proven yourself several times already, but we both know how ruthless and devious our enemy can be, so it still must be said. Genetically engineered or not, should you ever betray me or my people to the Cardassians, I swear by the Prophets that I will do everything in my power to see you dead," Shaakar threatened, though his frown now changed to a small smile. "That said, I'm glad Nerys vouched for you. Welcome to the Resistance."
After that rather mixed message he got up and left. Once he was gone I looked over at a bashful looking Kira, something I never thought I'd see.
"Thank you for vouching for me," I told her.
I hadn't forgotten that I was here on a mission, on behalf of Section 31. Helping the Resistance win, to end the Occupation of Bajor, would put pressure on the Cardassians to sign the peace treaty with the Federation, and eventually lead to this world being brought into the Federation itself. That was part of their plans even without knowing about the wormhole's existence. I also wished to see the Bajoran people freed and not just because I was being paid to do it or it served Federation interests; I actually felt for these people now and wanted to help them. Seeing it on TV just couldn't do the evils of this Occupation justice.
"You're a skilled and powerful warrior who hates the Cardassians. Of course I offered to vouch for you," Kira responded.
She shuffled a bit in her seat and I knew right then and there that my ability to slaughter spoon heads wasn't the only reason she wanted me to stick around.
"When we drive the Cardassians off Bajor, and I do mean when, not if, what will you do?" she asked me.
I assume that she was already thinking about not just her future once the Cardassians were gone, but also mine, and how she would fit into it.
"I'm not sure," I admitted.
I really didn't know for sure, not really, as I didn't know what my personal future would look like after this mission was over, or even if I'd survive this Occupation. Perhaps if I ever got to have an orb experience that would change, but for now my plans were flexible.
"You did well today. You saved a lot of children from seeing their mothers and sisters raped and their fathers killed. With Curry dead we can concentrate on other things until his replacement arrives.
Soon enough there would be a new officer sent to oversee this province, one who would be sent here to make the Bajoran people suffer as much as possible, another needlessly cruel and evil Cardassian in a long succession of them. Perhaps I'd kill him too.
"Glad to help," I said with a smile.
Kira smiled at me warmly and then went back to eating.
I knew it was going to be a long hard road to ending the Occupation, but Prophets' willing, I was going to see it through. In the process, maybe even making this place that I had bled and killed for my home too.