The senior officers sat in the observation lounge discussing their plan. The ship was not far from the planet in question.

"Our mission is to destroy the Beta Antares ship yards facility. We'll send down a team of four consisting of Commander Zofchak, Commander Merriell, Lieutenant Fulks and Ensign Stull. Long range sensors say that the planet has transport inhibitors in place. And we can't use shuttles because they will be shot down." Allensworth said.

Hoshi looked at Dustin with concern the second she heard his name on the away team.

"Don't tell me." Fulks said.

"We're going to orbitial skydive?" Merriell asked.

"Why couldn't we just fire a few quantum torpedoes to the place?" Sato asked.

"Sensors say that the place is heavily shielded and there are manned guns on the surface that fire quantum torpedoes."

"We'll beam in the team and from there you'll dive to surface and destroy the base from the inside along with the transporter inhibitors. Once successful, you will be beamed back to the ship." Sparhawk said.

"Don't make it sound too easy." Zofchak said leaning back in his chair.

"I want you four ready in one hour. Are there any other questions?" Allensworth asked.

Nobody said anything.

"Dismissed."

The officers got up and left the room. Some went back to their stations on the bridge while others left the deck entirely to go prepare for the mission ahead.

An hour went by rather quickly and the four members of the away team stood by on the transporter pad in their orbital diving suits.

"Zofchak is the key player here in setting the charges and blowing the place. The rest of you make sure that his part of the mission is finished. Merriell, if something happens to Dustin, you take over."

"Aye, sir."

Hoshi walked up to the pad and kissed Dustin on the cheek.

"Come back to me." She said.

"I intend to."

Alex and Michelle looked at each other as if they knew something and then looked forward. Allensworth and Sparhawk stood at the controls.

"Good luck." Sparhawk said.

"Energizing." Allensworth said as he activated the controls.

Within moments, the team dissolved from the transporter room.

Transporting into practically zero g had been brutally disorienting to Commander Zofchak. He saw the other three members of his team around him. On his left and right respectively, were Stull and Merriell. Fulks had materialized in front of him, and was already angling himself toward the planet for his descent. As soon as he regained tactile sensation, he activated his orbital skydiving suit's lower power deflector field. Zofchak gestured to Merriell and Stull, who signaled back that they were ready to make the dive. With a forward slash with his forearm, he keyed his suit's thrusters and rocketed toward the nightside of the planet.

The planet was aglow with to kinds of light. The major population centers resembled webs of steady, artificial looking illumination that radiated out from several points in the highlands and traced wide paths along the coastlines.

"Stand by to open and drop on my marks." Zofchak said into his helmet mic.

He monitored his squad's relative positions. The timing of this jump would leave little room for error, and he couldn't guarantee their safety unless they all maintained precisely the same altitude and rate of descent. This was going to be what the old timers used to call a HALO jump, high altitude, low opening. They would wait until they had dropped low enough to evade the defense scanners, open their chutes only long enough to slow their fall to just less than the maximum impact that their suits' structural integrity fields could absorb, then release their breakaway harnesses and drop to the ground.

He noticed that Stull was lagging nearly a full second behind the rest of the team. "Stull, tighten up."

"If I get any tighter, I'll implode." Stull said.

"If you don't catch up, you'll be dead."

"Aye, sir." She replied.

Seeing that Stull was getting into position, he checked the holographic heads up display on his helmet faceplate. "Get ready." He said. "Roll in five…four…three…two…one…roll!" Pulling his body into an almost fetal curl, he tucked his knees toward his chest. He quickly confirmed that the rest of his team had finished the maneuver. "Open chutes in four…three…two…one…GO!"

His team's parachutes raced upward in unison, amorphous silver blurs reaching toward the sky. As they unfurled, his own canopy expanded. A jolt of deceleration trauma shot through his back and shoulders. As his rate of descent slowed, he activated his suit's improvised structural integrity field.

"Fields on, stand by to drop." He said. The altimeter dropped to eighty meters, then seventy. He started her countdown. "In three…two…one…drop!" He and her team unclasped their breakaway harnesses and plummeted to the ground.

The impact jammed his knees and pelvic joints upward with a dull, grinding pain. Spasms shot up either side of his spine. He choked back a grunt of agony and reminded himself that if not for this planet's lighter than Earth gravity, he'd probably be dead right now.

Ensign Michelle Stull made a pinpoint perfect landing. The nimble young Trill looked around the area and it was not what she had expected. It was a dry and dead, bereft of foliage, little more than a wasteland. Barren tree trunks, acid bleached to the color of bone, jutted from the charcoal colored ground. The sunset blazed blood-red behind inky streaks of smoke and was almost indistinguishable from the sinister glow of fire that lined the horizon beneath it.

Merriell checked his tricorder, then turned and pointed with an extended arm. "That way. Sixteen point for kilometers."

Zofchak slung his phaser rifle over his shoulder and began walking in that direction. "Let's go."

Suddenly the four of them saw four blue lights being launched into the air. Some of the torpedoes arched and headed towards the away team. Others kept going into the air and headed for the Alexandria.

"They're firing Quantum torpedoes. Scatter." Zofchak ordered