Star Trek Online: Tales from the Fleet

by Wilson.Liam2

A collection of short stories from the combined alliance fleet (Star Trek Online's playable factions) detailing the lives, events, and adventures of various officers from their humble beginnings to their greatest achievements and beyond. (38 stories total with planned uploads/releases of new chapters/short stories as they are finished)

9. FUBAR

FUBAR

One

A Reman lay on the ground whimpering. His face contorted and wet. His body missing from mid-belly down. His innards were bloated and starting to roll out of his chest cavity. She reached for him, lifted his head in her trembling hands. He winced as the pain got worse.

Shenera Volo Kruger looked into the man's eyes as life left them. The man's face relaxed and what was left of his body went limp. The sounds of battle around her died as well. The concrete structures faded and darkness swallowed the roads. The sky was the last to go.

A pleasant chime slipped though the void. After a moment the chime sounded again. The black began to take shape, to take substance, and to be seen as more then the void it had been a moment before. The chime sounded once more. The void began to fill with thoughts and sensations.

A surface, padded and warm. A pillowy form nestled on top. The thoughts identified the feeling, the items in contact with it. It was a bed. The rest of the void quickly took substance as the mind remembered and identified every component in the area.

The chime was louder, followed by a knock. Shenera Volo Kruger shot up in her bed, sopping wet and sticky from sweat. She realized that someone was at the door to her quarters. She tossed the blanket aside and jumped out of bed. She was as naked as the day she was born but nowhere near as vulnerable. As a Reman she could see in the dark far better than most other species. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and ran a hand over her bald head to sooth a sudden itch.

Modesty formed in her mind two seconds before she left her bedroom. Her arm grabbed a long coat hanging on a chair by her door. Kruger threw the coat around her body and buttoned the first two buttons she felt as she approached the main door. As important as the disturbance was, Kruger fought the urge to return to her bed. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks.

The truth was that she hadn't had a truly good night of sleep in years, but she was accustomed to the night sweats and nightmares. In recent weeks she hadn't even gotten enough sleep to experience either one most of the time. It would have been preferable except for the mental fog and constant groggy feeling. Her nightmares seemed to be adapting to the lack of sleep. In her current state they sometimes hit her during waking hours.

Kruger pressed a control on the door to unlock it. The door unlocked but whined and stuttered in its poor attempts to open. A sharp grinding noise filled the room as the door's mechanical parts died a torturous death. The doors had parted enough that four hands reached into her quarters to part the doors. One pair of hands were quite familiar, they belonged to her XO.

Kruger looked down to make sure she was adequately covered before assisting the others with opening her door. Once the door was open enough to allow for her visitors to enter, Kruger stepped back to let them in. The two individuals paused at the doorway a bit surprised. Kruger looked down first to see if any part of her body was exposed to her compatriots, she was still covered. She then remembered the lighting in her quarters. She had yet to lighten the room, not that she needed light.

Kruger stepped over to the door control and accessed the lighting controls. Out of consideration for her guests, she raised the light level in her quarters to an almost intolerable degree for her own eyes. The light was a little below what one of her guests would consider normal but normal lighting between Romulans and Remans was vastly different. The visiting pair stepped into her quarters, politely, professionally. The doors didn't close behind them instead moaning with a small puff of smoke rising from within the walls.

Kruger guided her guests to a couch and moved to sit down across from them on another. "What can I help you with Commander Jarok?" Kruger asked with a yawn. Her lack of sleep had to do with Caecilius. The ship had kept her busy with its damaged systems. The Kara class advanced dreadnought warbird had been racking up damage over the last couple of months. She hadn't been in tip top shape since the initial push into the Solanae Dyson's Sphere.

"I'm here on behalf of my superiors. The top brass would like to hire you for a new job, one separate from your current contracted duties," Commander Jarok said with her usual authoritative tone. Shenera Volo Kruger was a Reman and citizen of the New Romulan Republic, but she was also a businesswoman that made her living through war and conflict as a mercenary. For the last couple of years, she had performed her duties under contract as the commander of a starship and as a ground combatant for that ship. "What is this new job?" Kruger asked out of curiosity.

Third of Five, Kruger's XO was sitting patiently next to Commander Jarok. His face was void of any reaction to the news. The Reman man had been rescued from the Borg and liberated from their influence. Despite his liberation, the Romulan surgeons were unable to remove many of his implants. The man was a shadow of his former self. Not that Kruger had ever met his former self.

"We were approached by an intelligence source from the Hierarchy. They have information about a Vaadwaur officer that is having difficulties with his immediate subordinates. He has two officers under his command that are butting heads." Jarok paused, she noticed the Reman seated next to her was still motionless, staring at nothing. "Is he alright?"

"I am functioning within optimal parameters, Commander Jarok. Please, continue," Third of Five said while still staring straight forward. Commander Jarok turned to Kruger with a raised eyebrow. "He's worse than Gaius," Jarok muttered. "He's been a valuable employee and a great XO, I can't complain," Kruger said with a half-smile.

"Nor would I," Jarok said returning the half smile with a full one of her own. "The Hierarchy have asked that we make a move on this Vaadwaur Overseer." Jarok pulled an Isolinear data chip from one of the pouches on her belt. "I've placed all the information you'll need for the mission on this chip." Kruger took the chip with a look of surprise on her face.

"You want this officer assassinated?" Kruger asked in surprise. Even Third of Five shifted in some sort of expression, or his butt went numb, Kruger wasn't sure. Jarok stood suddenly. "I don't want him assassinated, the Hierarchy does. I'm simply passing you the job for a friend. Besides, according to the Hierarchy officers I met, killing this guy will help us destabilize a response to our upcoming offensive."

"Commander," Kruger stood up to address her boss, superior, whatever she would be called. "Is Caecilius participating in the offensive?" Kruger asked with concern. Caecilius was a Romulan Republic Warbird, most of her crew were Romulan Republic military. Despite this fact the ship was commanded by a mercenary and her company and just as she had experienced from previous employers, the Romulan Republic Navy had her ship on low priority for repairs and overhauls.

"I'm aware your ship is in bad shape, Commander. Its why I have removed the ship from the coming offensive. Caecilius will remain in orbit of Kobali Prime during your absence for ground support and orbital security." Commander Jarok took a few steps toward the door before turning around. "I appreciate what you have done for the crew, your crew, but until I can convince command that this ship and the crew on board her are worth the effort, you will not see higher priority on maintenance."

Caecilius was a test bed for a desperate fledgling galactic power. When Kruger had been hired to take command, she was briefed on the whole plan. The Romulan Republic officers assigned to Caecilius were almost entirely officers with poor performance reports, convicted felons, and elder recruits deemed too old to be useful. The experiment was a numbers game. Staff the ship and see if it worked, because it needed to work. The ship didn't hold the numbers for experienced command staff, so Kruger's Hounds were hired to fill the gap.

"Even if we are at a low priority, if Caecilius takes on any more damage we might be forced to abandon ship," Kruger said while sitting back down. "If you feel it absolutely necessary to abandon ship than do so but keep in mind that once you do, command will likely cancel your contract," Commander Jarok said sounding disappointed. Kruger realized in that moment the fact that Tiaru Jarok may actually be aware of the unfair treatment her crew had endured. Jarok turned back to the door and walked out. Third of Five nodded to Kruger, stood and followed the Commander out.

Kruger watched the pair leave. Third of Five would escort the Commander to the transporter and likely return to the bridge until called. He didn't voice any intentions but that only left the idea that the former Borg was angry, or had something on his mind. It was hard to read the man most of the time. Kruger didn't try to close the door to her quarters.

She moved to the bedroom and shut that door before stripping off her long coat. She grabbed a PADD and slipped the data chip into it. As the data loaded onto the screen, Kruger lay back on her bed. She quickly skimmed through the data before switching the PADD off. Kruger had two hours to sleep before the morning briefing. She set the PADD done beside her and closed her eyes.

---

The briefing room had at one time been one of the most beautiful rooms on Caecilius. Green lighting on black and gold surfaces had the room looking stunning until battle after battle had taken its toll. The overhead lighting was no longer functioning and the green trim lights along the walls were constantly flickering, a huge section of the bulkhead on the starboard side was exposed to the vacuum of space, or would have been without the force field that was currently covering it. The exposed area was one of many throughout the ship that needed attention, like everything else. Kruger sat at the head of the briefing table nursing a cup of raktajino.

The senior officers of Caecilius were just starting to pour in, climbing through the warped door and brushing debris from the floor as they positioned themselves around the table. Most of Kruger's senior officers were actually her employees. Like her, they wore black uniforms that set them apart from the Republic officers on board. A few of Caecilius's senior officers were Romulan Republic Officers. Kruger waited to speak until all of her officers were standing in their positions around the briefing table. Her chief engineer was the last to enter.

"Please be seated everyone," Kruger said in a haggard voice. She set her cup down with a slight crunch from some sort of dust or debris. She watched as her senior officers pulled out their chairs and sat down. For most of them it was the first time they had sat down since the previous day's morning briefing. None of the officers were wearing clean uniforms and most looked like they hadn't slept in days.

"First order of business, what is the status on our repairs?" Kruger asked, she knew she wasn't going to like the answer. Her Chief Engineer, Chedgu, was one of her employees. The tiny Hera-Su woman was actually Kruger's combat engineer, but she easily held expertise in shipboard engineering. The tiny woman was looking far more exhausted than the rest of her crew and had showed up to the briefing in just her uniform pants and tank top. The fabric of the tank top looked stained in lubricants and sweat and fit loose enough to look like the shirt belonged to a larger crew member.

Chedgu stepped up onto the chair to be seen, she then jumped up on the table to address the senior officers. While standing on the table she could meet nearly everyone eye to eye. "We still have massive structural damage throughout the ship. I finally got a look at the support struts that connect the ventral half of the top hull with the dorsal half of the bottom hull." Caecilius had a feature found on very few warbirds, it could separate into two ships for combat. "The physical connectors and supports are almost all fused, as is some of the wiring. We can't separate the two halves in combat without ripping both halves apart."

Chedgu paced the table as she continued her report. "My team had to shut down the primary singularity core in the dorsal half of the ship due to containment issues, we are running strictly off the power from core 2 in the ventral half of the ship now." Chedgu continued her report with more and more bleak news as the energy in the room continued to fester. Caecilius had suffered heavy damage while defending some Talaxian freighters from the Vaadwaur. The bulk of the structural damage to Caecilius was caused from ramming a cruiser at one quarter impulse power.

"Some good news, refreshers are working on all decks and in all quarters so no more designated waste extraction areas. We also have replicators working in the mess hall and running water throughout the ship. The water isn't running at the level for bathing, but you can now drink it and the mess hall can now cook, no more ration packs," Chedgu said with a smile. The structural damage to the ship had caused damage all over. Turbolifts, sewage systems, and fire suppression systems were the most effected but damaged wiring throughout the ship continued to wreak havoc on all the ship's systems.

The senior offices looked brighter over the good news. A few were even smiling. Jillia was the next to jump on the table. Like Chedgu she was also a Hera-Su and an employee of Kruger's Hounds. Jillia was Caecilius's chief medical officer.

"All the bio beds in sickbay are up and running thanks to the collaborative work between my staff and Chedgu's engineers and I discharged the last of our injured crew last night, so sickbay is now operating normally," Jillia said with a bright smile, one that didn't match her haggard face. She hopped off the table and sat down in her chair. Kruger grabbed her raktajino off the table and took another sip. The rest of the officers sat in silence waiting to be called on. It was a clear sign the reports were not going to be better.

"Kinana?" Kruger asked for her tactical officer's report with just her name. The Romulan woman was one of Kruger's ground troops, but she had also obtained enough experience at tactical to gain the promotion to replace the previous tactical officer. The Romulan Republic officer had died in the last battle they participated in. To think he had survived battles with the Undine, the Borg, and the Elachi, only to be killed while protecting some Talaxian freighters from the Vaadwaur. Kinana stood and moved over to the wall display opposite from Kruger's position.

"We have been without torpedoes for three days. I've tried requisitioning more several times, even tried to bribe the Lleiset's tactical officer into beaming over a few but she declined my offers," Kinana said with a smirk. Kruger stared daggers at her tactical officer. Bribing an officer of the Romulan Republic wouldn't have put them up on charges but it wouldn't have gained them any favors either. It was bad enough that they sat so low on the supply and requisition priority list, they didn't need to be removed from it.

"All disruptors are working within optimal parameters and the torpedo tubes are still operational but all we got for ammo is a handful of probes." Kinana looked at Kruger with a quizzical look. "You clearly have more to say, what is it?" Kruger asked with only mild interest. Her tactical officer pulled up a schematic on the wall display. The image was dim and flickered occasionally.

"I want to modify the probes using the guts of our tricobalt mines. With the explosives and other parts I hope to turn the twelve probes we have into torpedoes. They won't be as fast as our usual torpedoes but it's better than nothing." Kinana stared at Kruger with a half-smile. It was good to see some of her officers trying not to let their situation lower their morale.

"How many mines do we have?" Kruger asked. Her face was obscured by her cup. "We have eighteen," Kinana said with uncertainty. Kruger finished off her raktajino and set the empty cup on the table. "Go ahead and do it." Kinana turned off the wall display with excitement and scurried over to her seat.

"Who's next, Operations?" Kruger asked as she looked around the table. The Romulan Republic officer in charge of Operations stood up. He quickly recited a few points from his notes he kept on a PADD. The officer had been fighting sleep since he sat down. He even nodded off briefly during the tactical report. Ops had been overworked with coordinating repair schedules and priority listing along with communication with the Kobali and coordination with ground forces on fire support missions.

After the OPS officer gave his report, Kruger moved onto the next department and the next. Once all reports were given the officers hashed out the agenda for the day. Kruger got the final say, not that she disagreed with most of the decisions her people made. The briefing was completed in a little over an hour with most of what needed to be done put on hold due to lack of repair parts and resources. "Before I end this briefing, I need my hounds to stay put. The rest of you are dismissed."

Kruger waited while her senior officers filed out of the conference room. Jillia, Chedgu, and Kinana remained seated as the others left to attend to their duties. Kruger pressed a button on a control panel embedded in the table. "Subcommander Third of Five, report to the conference room." Third Of Five hadn't been present for the briefing due to his morning duty on the bridge but Kruger needed him for the new mission brief she received.

She waited with her employees until Third Of Five walked into the room. "Reporting as requested boss," Third Of Five said formally. He took a seat next to her on her right side. The title of boss had been a point of contention between the two. It had stemmed from an argument she had with him about her title changing based on their jobs. He had ultimately decided in his Borg assimilated brain that Boss was the best and only usable title for her.

Kruger stared at the Liberated Reman man for a second. He stared back but said nothing, his face was unreadable. "So, to start..." Kruger took the isolinear chip she was given and pushed it into the chip reader embedded in the table. The chip reader loaded the mission data onto the wall display on the opposite wall from where Kruger was seated. "… Commander Jarok has given me a new assignment."

Kruger used the controls embedded into the conference table to select one of the files displayed on the screen. "The information given to me was gathered by intelligence agents of the Hierarchy." The file on screen opened up to show three images. The images were of three high ranking Vaadwaur officials. "The three people you see on screen are the Overseer of a supply depot for the region and his two subordinates."

Kruger backed out of the file and selected the next one on the list. The screen listed an assembled file on the Overseer by the Hierarchy. "The Vaadwaur you see on the screen is Overseer Kernow. He is in charge of supplying the Vaadwaur ground forces on Kobali Prime as well as supporting fleet operations in the region." Kruger scrolled down the page to the next file.

"This first subordinate is the captain of one of the Manasa assault vessels they keep in system. He also serves as Commodore or senior Captain of the guard force vessels. His name is Cymru. The second subordinate of note is the Overseer's second in command…" Kruger scrolled down again showing the last page in the file. "… Vannin, she is a shrewd administrator according to what I skimmed on the file." Kruger felt disinterested as she continued the brief.

Kruger selected the file containing the layout of the supply depot. The wall display flickered and then grew brighter, clearly showing the floor plan and displaying a translation of text on the depot's defenses. "The Hierarchy believes that if we assassinate the Overseer privately then the commanders in the region will assume the deed was carried out by one of his subordinates. They also believe that given the animosity between Kernow's subordinates that Cymru and Vannin won't wait for orders before they tear each other to pieces." Kruger stopped and looked around the room at her employees.

"How do they figure that?" Kinana asked as she continued to study the floor plan on the screen. Kruger backed out of the floor plan file and selected the file on Vannin again. Once the file popped up, she scrolled down the page to a block of text. She highlighted the block and zoomed in on the text.

"According to the file, Vannin has filed several complaints against Cymru. Three of those complaints are related to sexual harassment. The others are related to incidents of violence, intimidation, and undermining depot operations." Kruger backed out of the file and quickly selected Cymru's file. She highlighted a similar block of text in his report.

"Cymru has filed multiple reports against Vannin, accusing her of filing false reports, tampering with his personnel file and attempting to reassign personnel under his direct command without authorization." Kruger backed out of the file and quickly brought up Overseer Kernow's file. She highlighted another block of text in the Overseer's file. "Many of the reports go over Kernow's head to his superiors but it looks like he was left with having to deal with the matter himself. Apparently, Cymru isn't allowed on the Depot and Vannin has to get approval on everything she does from Kernow."

"So, it's safe to say they hate each other but why does the Hierarchy believe the two subordinates would try to kill each other if the Overseer is killed?" Kinana asked. She folded her arms up to her chest in disbelief. Her judgment was based primarily on how a Romulan officer might react not how a Vaadwaur might. Most Romulan officers wouldn't resort to violence off hand in a similar situation.

"I've looked at the file, the reason Cymru is barred from the depot is because he has already attempted to kill Vannin once before. The files on this chip also disclose a bunch of psychological analyses on the subject and the calculations done by the Hierarchy on probable actions. Ultimately they found the intel actionable." Kruger stared at Kinana for a moment before her soldier nodded in understanding. "Are there any further questions?"

Chedgu chimed in with a small, raised hand. "Why don't the fleet get sent in? From what I just saw, it doesn't sound like the depot is heavily defended." Chedgu spoke with a voice that got quieter as she finished speaking. She stopped and stared in a daze as if she thought she might have said something stupid in her tired state.

Kruger smiled as she brought up the maps and sensor data of the system surrounding the depot. "They have ships that patrol multiple nearby systems. If alliance command sent a fleet, it would trigger a large-scale battle. One command doesn't want this close to the upcoming main offensive." Kruger cleared her throat and sipped a bit more coffee. "They found this depot a bit late in the game and now don't want to devote any resources to shutting it down."

Chedgu nodded then looked around the room at the exhausted faces that nodded back at her. "Any more questions?" Kruger asked once again. Kruger's Hounds sat in silence for a moment. Kinana hadn't stopped looking at the information on the screen. "Wait, we aren't taking Caecilius with us?" Chedgu asked, breaking the silence. The smell of burning wires started to fill the room.

"Computer, cut power to the briefing room immediately!" Chedgu said in a rush. She was using a wrist mounted communicator instead of diving up on the table to hit the controls embedded in the surface. The lights and wall display powered off engulfing the room in darkness. "As you were commander," Chedgu said with a nervous laugh.

Kruger eyeballed the open void visible from the gaping hole in the conference room. She saw only a slight fluctuation in the shield that kept the room pressurized. "Don't worry Commander, the force field shielding the conference room from space is tied into the life support system. We should be fine," Chedgu said with a nervous grin.

Kruger straightened up and composed herself to continue. "Given the nature of the mission we will not be going in heavy handed. This means no Caecilius for support. Just me and a small team for back up." Kruger could still see all of her subordinates in the near pitch-black darkness, Third of Five's ocular implant was the only source of light. Her people looked worried. Under normal circumstances the ship would have been kept in cloak for support but with the heavy damage to the ship, maintaining a full cloak was impossible.

"Third of Five, I need you to stay and command Caecilius in her current duties while I carry out this mission." Kruger placed a hand on her XO's forearm. He turned and looked at her, expressionless. "I advise you to reconsider having a ship for support," Third of Five said without a hint of emotion. Her other employees nodded in silent agreement.

"I plan to take our Kestrel class shuttle." Kruger said more to her XO than the others. "Trimalchio is a heap of junk!" Jillia said in shock. "Yeah, but she's our heap of junk," Kruger said with a smile. Kruger had purchased the Kestrel class ship a few years back to give her company their own transportation. The shuttle was old but reliable.

"I recommend you bring both Kinana and L'Tana with you if you are not going to use this ship," Third of Five said with a stern face. L'Tana was one of Kruger's best soldiers, she cared nothing for the ship or shipboard operations. Kruger shook her XO's forearm. "Recall L'Tana from the surface and tell her to meet me aboard Trimalchio in four hours." Kruger stood up from her chair.

"That goes for the rest of you. We'll discuss the details of the mission enroute. The data chip has more details on the floor plan and security measures," Kruger said, looking to each of her employees. Her crew took her words as the sign that the briefing was over. They stood as she had but waited for a moment, unsure how to navigate the dark abyss of the conference room.

Kruger's Hounds finally left the conference room fumbling into each other and the walls to get to the door in darkness. Much to their surprise, the door actually let them out without a problem. Kruger pulled the data chip from the table controls and walked out behind her crew. She made her way to the nearest, safest turbolift, to grab some equipment from her quarters before heading to Trimalchio.

Two

The shuttle bay aboard Caecilius was in better shape than most of the ship. The same couldn't be said about the squadron of fighters that sat in the bay. Many were in disrepair, parts strung out across the bay as the scorpion class attack fliers sat in various stages of repair. Some fighters had been completely gutted to service the others. Trimalchio sat at the end of the line of fighters fully intact.

Trimalchio was an old and worn shuttle. The hull was covered in deep pits and warped armor panels. If not for the heat-resistant coating covering the hull, the shuttle's corrosion would be enough to make anyone afraid to fly in it. Kruger's people knew the state the shuttle was in. Still, it belonged to them, and they did what they could to keep it flying.

Kruger sat in one of the forward seats examining the data for the mission. Her equipment was already packed and stowed in the crew compartment. The mission looked pretty straight forward. Only three ships patrolled the system, three frigates. The depot was built primarily for material support of their operations on Kobali Prime, but it could still support ships in the area.

The depot was designed to dock two freighters and one warship at any given time. Aside from the fully staffed ships on patrol, the depot was only staffed to half capacity with mostly laborers. Kruger continued to study the information on the depot. She sat forward and focused on the screen as hard as she could to keep from falling asleep. A sudden pounding noise just outside the shuttle hatch made Kruger jump with a start.

"Permission to come aboard commander?" Chedgu said with a smile. Despite her upbeat attitude she was clearly more exhausted than her superior. "Permission granted," Kruger said with a scratchy voice. She cleared her throat after.

Chedgu walked up the shuttle's ramp and walked all the way to the back crew compartment. After stowing her gear, she approached the front of the shuttle. "I'm here early to help with preflight and to see if the ship will actually make the journey without falling apart." Kruger snorted at the implication from her combat engineer. "She'll make it," Kruger said with a laugh as she pat the front console affectionately.

After a second Kruger turned to Chedgu, "go ahead and run your checks." Kruger checked Trimalchio's chronometer. Chedgu had arrived two hours before the scheduled launch time. Even with preflight checks, it wouldn't take two hours to get the shuttle ready. "It's not going to take you two hours to get the ship ready, is it?" Kruger asked.

"My assistant chief is a worry wort. If I stayed in engineering than I'd be stuck working our Caecilius problems and if I go back to my quarters, then my assistant will just wake me every five minutes over some trivial issue or another. If I come here early, then my assistant will stay away, and I can get about an hour or so of sleep before I need to run my checks." Chedgu was fighting sleep even as she explained herself. "Go rack out, I'll wake you later," Kruger said with a smile.

Chedgu nodded, then scurried to the crew compartment. Kruger returned to the mission files. She looked over the data on the patrol routes and security measures the depot had in place. She combed over every detail for a little over an hour before Jillia and Kinana reported to the shuttle. Like Chedgu they stowed their equipment in the crew compartment. Kinana quickly went to work on checking over Trimalchio's weapon systems. Jillia remained in the crew compartment converting one of the beds to a makeshift bio bed.

Kruger got up from her seat and walked back to the crew compartment to wake Chedgu. None of the rest of her team was going to do it. Her Chief Engineer had been working nearly non-stop for almost two weeks. Kruger walked up to the nearest rack and pulled back the curtain on the middle bed. Chedgu was curled in a ball against the furthest corner. Still, it didn't take much effort to reach her.

"Wake up Ched," Kruger said loudly as she poked the engineer. She got no reaction from the tiny Hera-Su. Kruger grabbed the lady's shoulder and shook her. "Wake up!" Chedgu didn't move except for her eyes. They shot back and forth rapidly as she lay stone still.

"Maybe you should let her sleep," Jillia said as she continued to work on her bio bed. "She wanted me to wake her up about thirty minutes ago, but I let her sleep," Kruger said with a bit of irritation in her voice. Kruger decided a different approach. She knocked on the tiny engineer's head, flicked her antennae, and bent one of her pointed ears. Chedgu suddenly shot up nearly banging her head on the ceiling of the bed space. "I'm up, I'm up," Chedgu said panicked.

She hopped out of the rack and scurried out of the crew compartment. "I'll do the checks, shouldn't take long," Chedgu said as she headed for one of the front consoles. Kruger joined her engineer in the front compartment taking a seat at the helm. Kinana walked in and moved to the tactical station and continued her work. Ten minutes before Trimalchio was scheduled to launch, L'Tana arrived. She was still wearing her ground operations gear and looked as though she hadn't bathed in months.

"Got a new mission Boss?" L'Tana asked by way of greeting. She didn't wait for a response before taking her field bag and a large weapon case to the crew compartment. "I'll fill you in later," Kruger shouted as the Romulan woman returned to the front compartment. She noticed the dried green blood running down the left side of L'Tana's head.

L'Tana looked around at her teammates. There were only three consoles and chairs in the front compartment. "I think I'll go sit in the back with Jillia," L'Tana said with a smirk. Kruger half turned toward her, "get that wound looked at while you're at it!" L'Tana turned and walked back to the crew compartment with a wave of her hand.

Kruger always found L'Tana to be a reliable soldier, always ready for a fight but sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if the Romulan woman cared about her own well-being. She had taken many injures throughout her career with Kruger's Hounds and it seemed that someone was always having to tell her to get medical treatment. Kruger pushed the button to call flight ops on her console. "Trimalchio is ready and waiting for departure," Kruger said in an emotionless tone.

Kruger powered on Trimalchio's engines. The thrusters and impulse drives were the first to reach operational power. Kruger watched her console's readouts as plasma was generated and pushed through the warp Nacelles. The Micro Singularity Core at the heart of the shuttle worked diligently to generate increasing amounts of power as the shuttle became more lively. "Hanger doors are opening, you are clear for launch in two minutes," the crewman in flight ops said.

Kruger triggered a burst from the ventral thrusters as the Grav plating was switched off. Trimalchio shot up toward the overhead in the hanger. Kruger stopped the vertical climb with a quick burst from the dorsal thrusters. Kruger centered Trimalchio in the hanger bay and waited for the hanger doors to fully open. "Trimalchio you may launch when ready," said the flight ops officer.

Kruger fired the aft thrusters at full power. Trimalchio shot out of the hanger bay clearing the force field that kept the bay pressurized. Kruger watched from the forward-facing windows as Kobali Prime grew bigger and bigger. Using the maneuvering thrusters, Kruger flipped Trimalchio and reoriented the shuttle to an outbound vector. Her fingers danced over the console as she switched the shuttle from thrusters to the impulse engines.

Trimalchio shuttered as the impulse engines increased the velocity. Kruger programmed the coordinates for the depot and activated the shuttle's cloak. "Looks like Caecilius just got a fire support mission," Chedgu said from the OPS console. She punched up a command to overlay the image from Trimalchio's aft sensors. "Figured you might want one last look before we go," Chedgu said with a haggard smile.

Kruger watched the viewscreen as Caecilius repositioned itself on maneuvering thrusters. Even through the distant image on sensors, Caecilius was clearly damaged. The main structure of the ship was bent and warped in several places. The massive vessel turned its bow to the planet and powered its disruptors. Kruger activated Trimalchio's warp engines, in the moment she was afraid the vessel would fail to fire, and she didn't want to feel compelled to return to aide in the repairs.

Three

Third of Five stared at the viewscreen from the command chair of Caecilius's bridge. He watched as Kobali Prime filled the main viewer. Once the ship was properly positioned, the viewer zoomed in toward the surface. Once it hit a layer of clouds the sensors changed from normal visual to a mix of different sensor views combined to give the clearest possible picture. The combined effort of the different sensors created an image that was a bit hard to read.

"Are they aware of the cloud cover?" Third of Five asked the Lieutenant at ops. The junior ops officer turned in his chair to look at his XO. "Not sure sir. They requested the artillery strike, called it in as danger close," the Lieutenant said nervously.

Third of Five watched on the viewer as fire rained in on a small squad taking cover in a trench system 30 Kilometers from the nearest Kobali base camp. It was difficult to discern which blobs of energy were which individuals. The weapons fire also appeared as blobs, simply smaller and faster. The only clear figure on the screen was an individual lying between four other blobs. Caecilius's computer was able to create an enhanced image of the motionless figure and give it arms, legs, and a head.

The squad was clearly in danger of being overrun. The large number of blobs just outside the trench were closing slowly but evenly. Third of Five turned to the Tactical officer seated to his right. "Centurion Cass, target the surface for orbital bombardment. Minimal power…" Third of Five punched in a few coordinates into his chair arm mounted display, "Here, here, and here." The main viewer mimicked the tactical display on the centurion's console. The designated strike areas were highlighted in blue. Each blue circle was placed closest to the biggest concentrations of soldiers on the ground.

"Aye, Aye commander," Centurion Cass said as he prepared for the order to fire. "Ops, contact the squad and let them know to take cover," Third of Five said without emotion. The Lieutenant at ops called up the squad on the surface. He used the words more common to shipboard personnel. Third of Five didn't correct the man or wait for a reply from the ground. "Centurion Cass, Fire!"

Three of Caecilius's four main Disruptor cannons fired. The bolts of disruptive energy flew straight and true toward the surface. The bolts of green energy flashed on the viewer in seconds, blinding the sensors to the carnage below. The Vaadwaur would never know what hit them. Their families, if they had any, would never see them again.

The image on screen cleared in seconds. The carnage below was hard to determine. Many blobs were simply gone, others were smaller and spread over the field glowing from red to yellow to blue. Third of Five stood up to get a closer look. The blobs in the trench lie motionless.

"Lieutenant Acilius, contact the squad," Third of Five said with only a slight hint of concern. The ops officer tried several times. No one answered. Third of Five turned around to face the rest of the bridge. They all stared at the main viewer. Subcommander Motius at flight ops looked away before his eyes met his commander's.

"Helm, return us to station keeping orbit please," Third of five said with his usual expressionless tone. "Returning to orbit aye," The helmsman said her voice cracked slightly. Third of Five returned to the command chair and sat down as he had before. No different from the motions of a robot, or a Borg. Silence filled the bridge as the duty officers attempted to carry on as though nothing had happened.

"We're okay!" A raspy voice managed to shout. "We're good, well sort of. We need an immediate emergency transport!" Lieutenant Acilius spun around in his chair to state the obvious. "They're alive!" Third of Five shot up out of his chair. "Move us into position and get those people off the ground!" Cheers sounded across the bridge as the ship moved closer to the surface for transport.

---

Centurion Domna walked into the commander's ready room a nervous wreck. She was exhausted and barely had a wink of sleep for weeks. With Chedgu gone, the entire mess that was Caecilius lay squarely on her burn scarred shoulders. Domna was never one to embrace leadership roles or anything involving taking on responsibilities. Had she not been a conscript she would gladly have applied her talents to working as a crewman on a remote civilian station.

Centurion Domna stood in front of the commander's desk waiting to be acknowledged. It wasn't helping her stress levels to be standing in front of the Borg Reman man that was placed in charge in Kruger's absence. "Sir, you summoned me?" Domna finally asked. She ran a shaky hand through her disheveled hair, she stopped when she felt the area where her right ear had once been.

"We all have our scars centurion Domna," Third of Five said as he looked up from his computer. Domna put her hand down. "May I sit? I'm not feeling well," Domna said nervously. Third of Five raised a hand and pointed it at the chair but said nothing.

Domna sat and stared at her Subcommander. Third of Five closed the computer terminal at the desk and stared at her for a brief moment. "How long would it take to disconnect the dorsal half of Caecilius?" Third of Five asked with a stern tone. Domna looked at the subcommander, her nerves continued to fray.

"How long?" Third of Five asked again. Domna ran the process though her head. Under normal circumstances the process was largely automatic and only required a command from the commander of the ship. The problem was that Caecilius had suffered a large amount of structural damage. Many of the locks holding the two halves of the ship together were fused. Even some of the wiring and power transfer cables were damaged.

"Why do you want to disconnect the ship?" Domna asked. The simple truth was that the dorsal half of the ship was no longer operable on its own. Chedgu and the rest of engineering had shut down the singularity core onboard the dorsal half. Restarting a singularity in a damaged core was suicide.

"I was thinking of leaving the dorsal half of the ship in orbit and using the ventral half to provide Kruger with support, if she requires it." Third of Five stared at his assistant CHENG with as empty of an expression as when she first entered the Ready Room. Domna mulled it over in her head. She understood Third of Five's intentions, Kruger was the best commander Domna felt they could ever have. She respected her people and the conscripts that served alongside her.

The ship and most of its crew were an experiment. The Romulan Republic needed all the help it could get and decided to bet on conscripts. Like Domna, most of Caecilius's crew were former prisoners that had been liberated from a Tal Shiar prison. The Tal Shiar held both legitimate prisoners and political prisoners which had been convicted under false charges. Before the Tal Shiar facility was liberated, the operatives destroyed all the files they held. Without knowing if the inmates deserved their fate or not, the Republic chose rehabilitation through conscription.

"I can sever the connection between the two halves but it's going to take time and require most of my team taking a trip out onto the hull." Domna was going over the process in her head. The ship's repair drones were taken up on various hard to reach repair activities. The drones that were working at any rate. Her hull team would need torches to cut the connections and de-energize the power cables that run between the two halves. "We could probably get auxiliary power running on the dorsal section. Should make it possible to use weapons for a fire support mission or two." Domna was getting engrossed in the process.

"Again Centurion, how long will it take?" Third of Five was growing impatient, not that anyone would notice. He watched as his assistant CHENG seem to stare down toward the table. Her lips moved with small tremors as light whispers emanated from her mouth. Her eyes shifted slightly, side to side.

Third of Five tried asking her for an answer two more times. They were all fatigued, but he knew that her problem wasn't from lack of sleep. The assistant CHENG was prone to catatonic bouts. She would withdraw into her head at times. Thinking or distancing herself from her surroundings, Third of Five wasn't sure.

Domna was chosen as the assistant CHENG, not because she was leadership material or because she was the greatest engineer. It was done as a cover for her problems and because she was someone that all the engineers could accept as an authority. In truth, they cared about her well-being, looked out for her, all the engineers did.

Domna's crimes were not severe, at least as far as what she had told the Romulan Republic, but the punishment was. It wasn't known why but the Tal Shiar had tortured her, for punishment or for their own pleasure. She had been set on fire, had her right ear cut off, and had been beaten severely. Actions that had clearly left psychological problems. Third of Five stood up from his desk and walked over to the young woman.

Domna jumped with a start when she felt her Subcommander's hand on her burn scarred shoulder. "I'm sorry sir, the process will take about 28 hours, provided nothing goes wrong," Domna said with labored breathing. Her heart was racing, like she had just had a viscous animal lunge at her. She was quick to withdraw into her own head. Taking her out of that state was clearly taxing to the young woman.

"I'll have you start tomorrow. Select the people you will need for the job and order them to get at least twelve hours of sleep, that goes for you too." Third of Five felt concern for his junior officer and judging from the expression on her face, he had actually managed to express it. Separating the ship would take time, time Third of Five felt they didn't have. The process of separating the two halves of the ship would not be easy, rest was crucial.

"Aye aye sir!" Domna said as she shot up to her feet. She stood at attention with uncertainty.

"Dismissed," Third of Five said formally. He watched her leave before returning to his seat. Command wasn't going to like what he was planning but he refused to leave his boss without support. If they were lucky, no one would know they left, or care.

FOUR

Trimalchio shuttered as Kruger adjusted course. "You're pushing the engines too hard again. Course corrections need to be done at a quarter of the power output you are using," Chedgu said, frustration creeping into her voice. "If I keep dropping us down to warp oh-point-five for every course correction than we won't make it to the supply depot for another two days!" Kruger yelled at her combat engineer in anger.

The trip to the supply depot was only supposed to take three days. Three days to plan the operation, rest up in preparation and carry out the operation. The three days back would be nothing but resting easy until returning to Caecilius. A day in a half into the journey Trimalchio's diagnostic sensors sounded the alarm on a fault with the shuttle's inertial dampeners. The alarm dropped them out of warp and safety locks engaged to prevent the ship from accelerating beyond sub-light speeds.

Chedgu examined the inertial dampeners, they were working fine. After four hours of running diagnostics and inspecting various systems. Chedgu found the problem. A faulty sensor deep within the shuttle's guts was giving false readings to the shuttle's computer. Bypassing the sensor should have fixed the problem but two hours after the bypass was completed, Trimalchio was back at sub-light speeds with another problem.

Another three hours to correct the new issue and they were back at warp. Over the course of four days, new problems kept occurring and requiring that they make repairs, bypass faulty equipment, and troubleshoot problems they could no longer fix. They were now five days out and only a few hours away from their objective, traveling at warp 1.895. Anything faster and the ship's now faulty structural integrity field would give way resulting in the shuttle flying apart. The only good news Kruger still had was that Trimalchio was still cloaked.

L'Tana approached the helm from the crew compartment. "You want me to take over commander?" L'Tana was being uncharacteristically friendly. It was the only visible sign of her fear. The shuttle could take her life without her being able to mount a defense. She was a soldier through-in-through but if she could fly a shuttle. She could still be useful.

"Take it," Kruger said with a sigh. She stood and allowed her tactical specialist to take the helm. "I'm going to get some sleep. Wake me when we get there." Kruger walked to the crew compartment, careful to avoid the wires and cables lying all over the deck. A console at the center table reminded her of the state the shuttle was in.

The screen was flashing red and highlighting the dozen or so systems that were malfunctioning. Chedgu had silenced the alarms days ago, but the computer still displayed the list on every console not being used. The silenced alarms required that Kruger place two people at the controls at all times but even still, the crew was able to find time for sleep. Kruger climbed into one of the racks to lie down. She didn't bother to strip down to anything comfortable, she only had five hours.

---

Third of Five lay on his back engrossed in the task he chose to take up. Centurion Domna and a team of her best engineers were busy with the task of separating the two halves of the ship, but the ship's repairs were still a high priority. Third of Five decided to assign more of the crew to maintenance, at least any members of the crew that weren't already doing important work and had basic engineering experience. He did not stop at the junior officer level either. To set a good example, he took up a large list of complex tasks for himself.

He had never had a career or training in engineering but after his assimilation and later liberation, Third of Five possessed a wealth of engineering knowledge he could never forget. The crew was making good progress despite their lack of experience. Third of Five pulled out a charred circuit board. He lay it down beside him then opened a package containing a new circuit board he had left sitting on his chest. His wrist mounted communicator chirp causing him to jump slightly.

"Subcommander, the situation on the surface is looking good. The last pockets of resistance are surrendering now." The Operations officer on duty spoke with ease, as though a great weight was lifted from his shoulders. The last few days saw an unexpected uptick in activity from the Vaadwaur on the surface. It was a response to the actions of a Federation strike team. They had raided several forward operating bases and then hit the main front line headquarters base placed within a few dozen kilometers of the capital.

During the strike team's mission, Caecilius was used for a number of fire support missions. The activity was enough to keep Third of Five from sending Domna out on the Hull. The risk of danger to Domna and her team was minimal, but he needed his best in case the weapons failed during the fire support operations. After the bulk of the fighting was done, Third of Five sent the entire engineering team. They had only been working on decoupling the two halves for about four hours.

Third of Five finished connecting the circuit board before pressing a button on his wrist mounted communicator to respond. "Very well. Helm, set a course for the Devore sector, Kel Vatore system." Third of Five spoke while replacing the panel and using a hyperspanner to fasten the panel back in place. He sat up slightly and began putting all his tools back in the nearby toolbox.

"Say again sir?" The quizzical voice was a young lieutenant at the helm. "We need to get to the Kel Vatore system. Set the course and then wait for me to return to the bridge," Third of Five said with a bit of anger in his voice. He wasn't used to his crew questioning his orders but to anyone that wasn't present for Kruger's mission briefing, Kel Vatore was a meaningless wasteland of rocks and slow forming planetoids revolving around a blue dwarf. Traveling there for anything but a scientific study would seem unusual.

"Aye aye sir!" The helmsman replied. Third of Five crawled free of the maintenance shaft, his toolbox kept ahead of him. It crashed onto the deck outside the shaft without opening. Third of Five finished crawling out of the shaft and dusted himself off before picking up his toolbox. He headed directly to the turbolift.

"Subcommander, are you trying to leave orbit with us still out here!" Centurion Domna said in a panic. Third of Five cocked his head to the side as he entered the turbolift. "How did she know?" Third of Five thought.

He pressed the button on his communicator, "We are no longer needed for ground support operations, and it has been more than three days since Kruger left the ship. She should have contacted us by now." Third of Five pressed a button on the turbolift to take him to the bridge. Caecilius actually had two bridges, the bridge in the dorsal half of the ship was the main bridge but given their intentions, Third of Five had already transferred control of the ship to the ventral half's bridge. "You'll be relatively safe out on the hull Centurion. I plan to monitor warp field integrity as we travel."

Third of Five could still hear Domna's breathing over the comm for a moment. "Roger that, sir," Domna said after a moment. The last thing Third of Five wanted was to have crew performing EVA while at warp but he couldn't just leave Kruger and the rest of her team without support. The turbolift doors hesitated to close. The turbolift shaft was warped in several places due to structural damage.

The turbolift shot through the shaft with its usual speed. A few seconds into the ride the Turbolift shook and shuttered and the lights flicked as the Turbolift struck a rough section of the shaft. A moment later the turbolift doors opened onto the secondary bridge. Third of Five walked down to the command chair, his toolbox was still dangling from his right hand. The young lieutenant at the helm glanced at him nervously.

"Do you have the course plotted Lieutenant?" Third of Five asked emotionlessly as he placed his toolbox down below the command chair's left arm. "The course is plotted sir, but Domna and her team are still on the hull," The lieutenant said. He had diverted his gaze to something on his screen as he spoke. "I'll give you all directions as we head out," Third of Five said loudly enough for everyone on the bridge to hear.

Third of Five sat down at the command chair and flipped up a monitor on the left arm rest. "Subcommander, we are receiving a hail on a Romulan command frequency!" The Ops officer said with shock. He turned to meet his commander's gaze. "Put it on the screen," Third of Five said. He straightened up but remained seated.

The imposing figure of Commander Decius stared at Third of Five. His eyes burned with rage. "Where is Commander Kruger?" Decius asked with a gravelly voice. The wrinkles and hard lines on his face spoke volumes for the man's long life and long history serving the Romulan military.

"Commander Kruger is on assignment for Commander Jarok, sir. What may I assist you with?" Third of Five kept a professional tone. Decius wasn't known for being a friendly person, but it was clear something had him enraged. "You can't assist me with anything, Reman." Decius practically spit the word Reman from his mouth. "Orders came from the top. The fleet in orbit here is being called to the staging area for Alliance Command's main offensive on the Vaadwaur. I was told to leave Caecilius here in orbit to support the Kobali."

Third of Five stood up from his chair at the mention of his ship. "The threat on Kobali Prime has been neutralized, support is no longer necessary," Third of Five said with a quizzical tone. "I'm aware of that and leaving Caecilius out of the formation will leave my fleet one dreadnought short." Decius hesitated for a moment. "Doesn't matter, we'll do without. I see you have left lower orbit, set a course, zero, six, eight, mark, eight, five for the debris field in high orbit. Caecilius looks like garbage, might as well pretend to be drifting garbage while we are gone."

Decius cut the channel before Third of Five could reply. "New plan Lieutenant, wait until the rest of the Romulan ships in orbit have left, then we will head out. Until then, do as Decius suggested, move us away from low orbit." Third of Five returned to his seat. He quickly called up a program on the left arm rest console.

On the program was a list of figures and readouts. He pushed a few buttons on his wrist mounted communicator to open a channel to Domna. "Sir, we are moving again. Can you please let me know what is going on?" Domna spoke the moment she heard the com signal connect.

"We are going to wait for Commander Decius and the rest of the fleet to warp out of system before we engage. Get as much work done as you can. The dorsal half of Caecilius is a liability in battle until we can cut it loose." Third of Five kept working calculations on his console as he spoke. "We won't be done for at least another three or four hours Subcommander." Domna said with a shaky voice.

"Set your mag boots to their highest setting and stay as low to the hull as you can. Once we are at warp you should only feel the occasional pull as we increase velocity. To ensure that you are not forcibly removed from the hull, I will be monitoring warp field integrity as we move," Third of Five said with what he hoped was a reassuring tone. Under normal circumstances, walking out on the hull at warp would have been nothing to worry about but the damage to Caecilius's hull and structure made the activity far more dangerous. The fact that the ventral half of the ship needed to generate a warp field around the entire ship without power from the main singularity core complicated matters.

Third of Five didn't hear a reply at first. The breathing on the other end of the com signal got more and more labored. "I copy that Subcommander. We will do what is asked of us," Domna said with a voice so small she might as well have squeaked. Third of Five closed the channel.

Five

Trimalchio dropped out of warp without the usual disturbances in light and radiation typical of any vessel dropping out of warp. The various emissions from the craft, blocked or masked by Tachyons spread from Trimalchio's cloaking field. The shuttle sailed through the void of space on impulse. It accelerated toward the densest part of planetary debris, heading straight for a large asteroid surrounded by chunks of smaller rocks and frozen gases. Chedgu was at the helm, seated in a replicated booster seat allowing her to reach the controls.

Kinana sat at the operations console monitoring the dumpster fire that was Trimalchio's subsystems. Nearly every system was running in the orange with a few major systems running in the red. Kinana was in full combat gear and waiting on the rest of the team. Chedgu had been chosen to stay behind and monitor the situation from the shuttle. A necessary precaution as they couldn't guarantee the site-to-site transporter, or the main computer wouldn't fail during the mission.

Shenera Volo Kruger stood in front of a mirror mounted to the inside of her locker door. She was already fully dressed in her combat gear. Like the rest of Kruger's Hounds, her combat gear varied on personal taste except for one item. The item was considered the only mandatory uniform for the mercenary unit. Kruger straightened out the collar of the item, a black trench coat. The long coat, her long coat was made from synthetic leather.

Kruger used the mirror for the final part of her mission preparations. It was a ritual of hers, to paint her face with the markings of some ancient god she had read about in a book. She had applied the white foundation, smoothing out the blemishes and aging lines in her face. She was now applying the finishing touch, black eyeliner and a matte black paint that she applied around her eyes. The design was simple yet served a superstitious purpose that Kruger found comforting. With her war paint, she would never fall in battle. Finished, she looked like so many evil figures found in song and story. Her only intention was to invoke the guidance and strength of the god of war from who's culture she had forgotten.

"We're approaching the facility Boss," L'Tana said from the center table. She was finishing her own ritual while monitoring the sensors from a console at the table. L'Tana had cut her palm and wiped the green blood across her forehead before using a dermal regenerator to repair the damage. She never explained the reason for it and Kruger never thought to ask. It seemed too personal.

Kruger closed her locker and headed for the front of the shuttle, L'Tana close behind. Jillia trailed behind, almost without notice. The three stood just behind the seats. "We are approaching transport range," Chedgu said as she began to decelerate. The facility looked larger in person than on the data chip.

"Have we been detected?" Kruger asked as she inspected her disruptor pistol. The pistol was a fairly unique design. It fired small disruptor bolts continuously as long as the user kept the trigger pulled. Chedgu did a quick scan on her console. "Shields are down, station is operating on minimal power. No freighters or combat vessels detected in the area or docked."

Kruger returned her pistol to its holster and clasp her hand on Chedgu's shoulder. "We're going in." Jillia activated the transporter from a console near the shuttles hatch. "Missions a go," Kruger said casually to her team. She moved to the transporter still feeling pre-mission jitters. Kinana stood up from the OPS console and grabbed her rifle from the side of her chair. "Keep the ship running, its our only way back," Kruger said to Chedgu. As the rest of the team huddled together in the small transporter, Jillia stood on the tips of her toes to press the activation timer and moved over to huddle with the rest.

The group was swallowed in emerald light as their bodies were deconstructed molecule by molecule and transferred into the buffer for matter conversion and transport. Kruger's Hounds were beamed into the supply depot bypassing armor plating, pressure hulls, and bulkheads. The team was reconstructed within a confined beam at the center of a small janitor's closet. The emerald light that had enveloped them before now dispersed with such intensity within the tiny space that it would have blinded anyone looking into the room. Provided the individual in the room hadn't been combined with the team transporting in.

The team scrambled about for a quick second before realizing they were hidden with the tight space. It didn't stop Kinana from accidentally bumping into L'Tana tipping her forward and crashing onto Jillia. The whole mess caused Kruger to kick a water cart into a bulkhead as she tried to avoid falling on top of the others. Despite the scene, Kruger's hounds were professional. They avoided saying anything, laughing, or even groaning over their clumsy entrance.

Out of caution, no one moved to regain their footing. Jillia removed L'Tana's tricorder from her holster instead of attempting to reach for her own. She scanned the area for a bit before looking at Kruger. "Area is secure for now boss," Jillia said with a professional tone despite one of Kinana's feet being in her face. "We can unscrew ourselves now," Kinana said with a smile.

Kruger stepped to the door and pushed the button to open it. The door slid open with a light hiss exposing the team to a brightly lit passageway. Kruger pulled her hood over her bald head and stepped out. The rest of the team poured out of the janitor's closet before regaining some dignity, taking covering positions with their weapons at the ready.

Jillia still held L'Tana's tricorder. She surveyed the area with it. "The guard positions are just like what the file claims." Jillia said as she closed the tricorder and tossed it to L'Tana. L'Tana returned her tricorder to its holster using her left arm, keeping her eyes and her rifle down range at the end of the passageway. "The file wasn't that accurate, we ended up in a closet," Kinana replied with a smirk.

"That could have been Trimalchio's fault," L'Tana said in a serious tone. She continued to scan the passageway ahead of her despite Jillia giving the all clear. "Either way, you know the mission. Secure the explosives around the main reactor and the auxiliary batteries, disable the communications network and then contact me. I may need you in Cargo 10," Kruger said. She was the only one on the team who hadn't drawn their weapon.

The mission had been broken into two parts. Kinana and the rest of the team were assigned to disable the subspace communications network as well as plant explosives around the main reactor and the emergency power backup. The explosives were for guaranteed extraction. The explosives would cloak once activated and could only be detonated by remotes used by Kruger's Hounds. Kruger's job was to make Overseer Kernow's death look like it had been done by one of his subordinates. If she was unable to complete the task, she was to kill the overseer regardless and leave. If Kinana and the rest of the team are discovered, or if Kruger is discovered, they blow the place and escape.

Kruger bolted down the passageway passed her team. L'Tana watched her until Kruger turned the corner out of site before she followed Kinana and the rest of the team in the opposite direction. Kruger continued to run until she came to a four-way passage that was in the guard rotation details. She pulled her tricorder and scanned the area. Just like what was shown in the files, a Vaadwaur soldier was roaming the passageways as a security watch. Had she run through the intersection, she would have been spotted.

The security watch had orders to randomize their roaming pattern. If the soldier continued down the passageway past Kruger than she was fine but if he turned in her direction than she'd have to kill him quietly and hide the body. Killing the man wasn't ideal, it would put a timer on their operation. Kruger closed her tricorder and hugged the bulkhead hoping the soldier would not see her. She couldn't even double back to one of the doors lining the passageway. According to the files, the doors led to VIP rooms, they were always locked except when top brass were visiting.

The soldier walked with a rifle he held with the barrel against his shoulder. The stock of the rifle was firmly planted in his right hand. The soldier seemed more occupied by something on his mind rather than looking at his surroundings. As if he had been marching professionally the whole time, the soldier stopped in the center of the intersection and then performed a right face before continuing to march down the passageway. He was now headed in the same direction that Kruger needed to go.

Kruger moved quietly forward. She did her best to get close to the guard as she continued down the passageway. In the event that he turned around, she wanted the soldier within arm's reach. She drew a knife from her belt. Several meters down the passageway they encountered another intersection. As before the soldier paused at the center of the intersection before making a left face and marching down a new passageway.

Relieved, Kruger ran past him and dug her tricorder out of its holster. She monitored guard movements as she navigated the passageways. She managed to avoid any more close calls. The main offices where the overseer worked were located in a repurposed cargo bay. According to the files they were given, Kernow hated the claustrophobic passageways and tiny offices built into the depot. Kernow had apparently convinced his superiors to give him prefab structures he could use to turn one of the cargo bays into the depot's offices.

Not all of cargo 10 was converted. Cargo containers of various sizes were stacked in rows creating passageways over half of the expansive room. The passageways had no uniform design, giving a maze-like quality. The prefab structures were arranged like children's building blocks, staggered on top of each other. A series of catwalks were built to grant access to the offices. There was no cover, and the cargo bay was the brightest lit room on the station.

Kruger double checked her tricorder. The display showed four people in cargo 10. Two were to her left at the far wall. One person was in the top most office and the fourth was walking along the catwalk, heading into the high office. Kruger studied the map of the area. The map was generated from the sensor scans taken by the Hierarchy and the scans that her tricorder was currently gathering.

"Boss, we have finished planting the explosives, do you want us to beam back or link up with you?" Kinana asked with labored breathing. She was clearly running as she spoke. Kruger jumped at the sound of the voice in her ear. She hadn't expected it.

Kruger was about to respond when she was suddenly interrupted. "There was a problem boss. We were unable to plant the explosives around the core," L'Tana said with irritation in her voice. Kruger couldn't tell if she was running like Kinana. "Kinana?" Kruger asked for an explanation with a single word.

"Their engineers were all over the core in main engineering. I think they were running some sort of drill or training exercise," Kinana replied defensively. Kruger wondered why she had reported the objective complete if it wasn't. She knew her people, they would have found a work around. "Why did you report it was complete?" Kruger asked.

"We found the main power cables and planted the explosives in a low traffic area that will give us the same effect as destroying the core." Kinana said with reassurance. "Do you want us to link up with you?" A burst of static made Kruger wince.

"Boss, there is a freighter heading to the station. It's under escort by one of the frigates assigned to the area," Chedgu said without emotion. An alert sounded in the cargo bay. "All workers to cargo 4 for receiving of stores," a voice announced on the station's PA. Kruger watched as the two figures at the far wall moved toward another passageway.

"We're running out of time. Beam back to the ship, I'll join shortly." Kruger spoke with haste, shutting her tricorder and pulling a knife and her disruptor pistol. She ran for the catwalk. No one was heading into the cargo bay and the soldier that had entered the office with the overseer had yet to leave.

Kruger closed the distance as quietly and as quickly as she could. She made it to the second-floor catwalk when the main office door slid open. One of the Vaadwaur was stepping out. With only one way up or down, he was going to see her. Kruger slowed to give the soldier time to descend the stairway from the third floor. It wasn't the Overseer.

The soldier was looking down instead of ahead. Kruger ran toward him as he got to the bottom step. He looked up with a start as she plunged the knife into his throat. Kruger caught him as his knees buckled, pitching him forward. She didn't try to carry the man; he was too heavy. She just assisted him to the floor as he fell.

The Vaadwaur soldier gurgled and heaved as he struggled to breath. His initial look of shock and panic was replaced with anger and rage as he stared at his attacker. In his rage he tried to reach for the gun on his belt. Kruger moved his hand away and pulled the gun out. She tucked it into her own belt.

The soldier tried to grab onto Kruger's coat tightly. He continued to stare at her as he tried reaching for a knife with his other hand. Kruger watched the man's final moments play out. His grip was too tight to break away without making a sound. She watched as his consciousness slipped away.

The man continued to stare at her even has the life left his eyes. His grip loosened slightly after a few seconds. Kruger peeled the man's hands from her coat and reached into one of the pouches on her vest. She pulled a small thalaron device from the pouch and placed it on the man's chest. She pressed down on the top for a second then ran up the stairs on all fours.

The thalaron device opened, exposing the body to a fine dusting of metallic powder infused with thalaron radiation. The effect was near instantaneous as the body was consumed on the subatomic level. Only a statue-like ash pile remained. It slowly collapsed under its own weight as Kruger got closer to the office door. Kruger peeked into the large window to see the overseer typing on a computer. He was facing away from the door.

The Overseer had an unusual layout to his office. Two desks with a chair in-between. The desk facing the door had multiple screens with two chairs in front of the desk. The other desk only had one screen. A couch rested against the wall near the door with a single table in front of it.

Kruger pressed the button to open the door and stood up. The door opened with a hiss and slight squeak. Kruger slid in as soon as her body looked like it would fit. She approached the desk and pulled the Vaadwaur pistol from her belt. She aimed for center mass and fired.

The projectile slammed into the Overseer's broad back, scorching his coat. The man slumped forward, his face smacking the computer in front of him. Some sort of power cell or shell was ejected from the pistol. Kruger tossed the gun on the desk in front of her and turned around. "Chedgu, Its done. Beam me back to the ship," Kruger said as she turned to face the door.

Kruger felt the familiar feeling of an annular confinement beam take hold of her body. Before the rest of the process could go into effect, Kruger felt a large hand grab the back of her neck. She was pulled from the confinement beam so violently that her whole body felt like it was being electrocuted. With no time to react, Kruger was launched toward the office window. The glass shattered into several large pieces. With smaller jagged pieces spraying out everywhere. Kruger crashed onto the catwalk outside the office.

Several pieces of glass dug into her back and thighs. Kruger rolled to her right side. She started to get up from the catwalk when the same large hand grabbed her by the back of the neck once more. The Overseer pulled her toward him, allowing her to see his face. "You mind telling me why you are here?" Overseer Kernow asked through clenched teeth.

He stared her down. Kruger's face was frozen. She could barely think straight with her neck feeling like it might snap at any moment. "Doesn't matter, you'll still die a slow and painful death," Kernow said with a smile. Kruger pulled her pistol from her belt and squeezed the trigger.

Overseer Kernow glowed a faint blue as his personal shield took the brunt of the assault from the automatic fire at close range. Kernow lifted Kruger up over his head with both arms and tossed her over the catwalk. Kruger shifted her weight, attempting to land on her feet. She hit the floor and tucked into a roll. Kruger spun around and squeezed the trigger on her disruptor pistol. Dozens of small disruptor projectiles collided with his personal shield as he walked casually down the steps of the catwalk.

"Boss, I'm beaming the team back in to assist," Chedgu said without emotion. Kruger didn't answer back. Under the circumstances she wasn't going to refuse help. Kruger continued to fire at the Vaadwaur overseer. His personal shield seemed stronger than most but after a few seconds of continuous fire, Kruger was seeing the desired effect.

Kernow stepped down on the deck, his personal shield was sparking, the emitters in his coat had overloaded and the coat was starting to burn. To Kruger's surprise the Overseer was continuing to walk toward her as though nothing was happening. Kruger had only heard of one case of a Vaadwaur being immune to weapons fire. A few weeks back a Vaadwaur soldier had made it on to the Lleiset and taken control. They had eventually killed him but not before he had managed to kill numerous security personnel.

Kruger holstered her pistol and pulled her broadsword. The sword was made from modern composites and sharpened to a degree that allowed it to cut through bone without much effort. Its cobalt color was odd compared to the color of most bladed weapons on the market. Kernow charged at Kruger in an unexpected rush. Kruger brought the sword down, aiming for Kernow's head.

The sword connected with the overseer's right forearm as he lifted it to block the attack. The blade penetrated to the bone and got stuck. Kernow threw both his arms to the right forcing the sword out of Kruger's grip. Despite his injury he still lashed out with his right arm. Kruger tried to parry his blows, but his strength was too much. He forced her back as he continued to advance.

Kruger suddenly heard several shots ring out. Some were from disruptors, others from the rifles and pistols the Vaadwaur use. The sound distracted her for a second. In that second the overseer charged once more. The sound of the station's general alarm screamed as Kernow slammed into Kruger forcing her into the wall of a shipping container.

The impact knocked the air out of Kruger's lungs. Before she could breathe again, Kernow wrapped his large hands around her neck and squeezed. Kruger could hear the gunfire getting closer even through the deafening sound of the general alarm, see the smoke coming off Kernow's body, and she could smell the burning fabric and flesh on Kernow's body as she struggled to take in air. His hands were too large to keep clamped around her neck so long as he tried to use both. She gasped for more air as Kernow realized his mistake. He dropped his right arm and applied more pressure with his left.

Kruger's vision began to narrow, her head hurt, and she could feel the pressure mounting in her head as she struggled to remain conscious. Kruger suddenly felt Kernow's grip lessen slightly. She saw the look of surprise on his face. A flash of light caught her eye drawing her attention to her team. They had entered the room shooting. Like before, Kernow seemed unbothered by the disruptor bolts striking his body. His sudden look of surprise was from something else.

Kernow suddenly let her go. She gasped loudly as she struggled to suck in as much air as possible. Kernow was suddenly very still. The surprised look was still on his face. Kruger sank to the deck then looked up in shock as three little creatures skittered across the deck for Kernow.

One of the creatures ran up the overseer's back and entered one of his wounds. He turned and tried to claw at his back. He squished one of the creatures as it darted for his legs. The third sprang into the air. Kruger immediately recognized the creature once it was in the air.

The creatures were larvae, the children of the Hera-Su. Jillia must have released them from her body, but Kruger was accustomed to her Hera-Su employees using their young as grenades, not allowing them to run across the deck. The third Hera-Su larva latched onto Kernow's face and attempted to pry his mouth open. He screamed with clinched teeth as he tried to pry the creature off his face. The Larva didn't last long against his strength as it was ripped apart by his panicked defense.

Kinana and the rest of the team approached with their weapons drawn. None of them fired. They likely saw it as wasted effort. They simply watched as Overseer Kernow flailed around grabbing at parts of his own body. "What the hell is it?" Kernow asked in panic.

Kruger straightened up, breathing still labored. Jillia stepped over to her with a medical tricorder and a hypospray. "Can you move?" Jillia asked. Kruger watched the overseer continue to twist and claw at his own clothes and flesh. "Yeah, I can move."

"Kinana, blow the charges! We need to get out of here," Jillia shouted. Kinana had been mesmerized by the sight of the struggling overseer. She snapped out of it and pulled a detonator from her equipment belt. She pressed a series of buttons. After the first two buttons were pressed the team could already hear detonations.

The station rocked violently, the decks vibrating, and the lights went dark. After the last two explosions Kruger felt the weight lifted from her entire body. She floated only few millimeters off the deck when the station's emergency lighting kicked in. A moment later the grav plating restarted, pulling everyone back down on the deck. "Chedgu, beam us back, now!" Kruger knew as the rest that the station's shield wouldn't stay down for long.

"Chedgu to ground team, I'm having problems with the shuttle. We are leaking drive plasma from the port nacelle and the transporter is losing power. I can't maintain the cloak for very long without draining power to the point of losing the transporters all together." Chedgu spoke with a clinical tone. Kruger could hear sounds of her engineer using a hyperspanner.

"Can you beam us out if we get closer to the outer hull of the station?" Kruger asked with concern. She didn't get a response. A sudden hiss of air startled her. Kruger turned to see the overseer on his knees. His breathing was erratic, and he wore a permanent look of shock on his face.

"If you can get to the dorsal section of the station, I should be able to beam you out, but you'll need to hurry. The drive plasma is starting to penetrate the cloak." Chedgu started hammering something when the com line went dead. Kruger turned to her team. They were all still watching the overseer in case he decided to attack again.

"We need to get going. We stop for nothing. Anyone gets in the way, gun them down. Do you all understand?" Kinana and the rest of the team nodded in agreement except L'Tana, she simply smiled with barely restrained excitement. Kruger took the lead; she picked up her sword on the way out of the cargo bay.

"It's trying to eat me! It's trying to eat me! Its trying to eat me! They are already eating him!" Overseer Kernow was screaming over and over as Kruger's Hounds tore out of cargo 10. He could no longer tell if it was him or the parasite which was screaming. The parasite that had turned him into a god was now borrowing in circles through his muscles and organs trying to stay a step ahead of the creatures trying desperately to devour as much of him and it as they could. The pain was unimaginable, and the parasite was doing everything it could to keep them both alive as teeth and claws gnawed away at flesh and bone.

Six

Kruger ran at a full sprint, her throat stung with each labored breath. Her team was behind her keeping step. Kinana and L'Tana ran on either side of her with their rifles trained ahead. With each intersection, each ladder up, the team would check for enemy soldiers before moving again. Kruger watched her tricorder's screen for new passageways and life signs as they continued to climb to the highest point in the station.

Kruger watched as three Vaadwaur signatures appeared on her tricorder, huddled against one of the bulkheads. She lightly tapped Kinana on the shoulder and did her best to quiet her breathing as they slowed. Kinana quietly took up a position just up against the bulkhead near the mouth of the intersection. L'Tana moved to the opposite wall. Kruger waited for them to do a quick check of the immediate intersection.

Once it was clear, the two tactical specialists gave Kruger the, "all clear" signal. She then signaled back to them that three soldiers were huddled in the starboard side passageway. The two tactical specialists quickly jumped into the passageway; weapons trained in the starboard passageway. They both fired at the same time. A volley of fire from each rifle tore through the three soldiers.

Kruger didn't wait for the, "all clear" before darting down the port side passageway. She looked in the direction of the three soldiers before running down the port side. An access panel was open, and bags of tools and parts rested near the exposed bulkhead. The three soldiers weren't huddled together for an attack, they were a maintenance crew trying to restore power. Kruger continued down the passageway until she reached the end.

A ladder was extended to allow crew to climb to the highest deck. Kruger watched the tricorder readings to check for more enemies. She had thought the area was clear until two dots separated from the four that represented Kruger and her team. They had been running in lockstep with the enemy and didn't know it. Kruger held up a hand signal to get the team to halt. She pulled her sword and waited.

The Vaadwaur soldiers didn't wait to check the deck below before one started climbing down. Kruger waited until the soldier's ass was at her chest level before thrusting her sword into him. The sword penetrated his back just above his buttocks at an upward angle. The man exhaled with a strange and surprised yelp, letting go of the ladder's rungs and sliding further down the sword. Kruger let go of the sword and allowed the man to hit the deck on his butt.

The Vaadwaur started to scream until he hit the deck, and the sword emerged from the top of his helmet. The soldier laid awkwardly on the hilt and began convulsing. The other soldier tried to peek through the hatch leading to the deck below but then thought better of it. He dropped down with his rifle drawn but aimed at the deck to allow him to drop to the deck below. L'Tana, and Kinana both shot the soldier before he could raise his weapon.

Kruger retrieved her sword from the first soldier while L'Tana and Kinana cleared the ladder and climbed up. L'Tana kicked the second soldier to move him. Kruger waited for Jillia to climb up before following. Kruger keyed her wrist mounted com, "Chedgu, are we close enough?" Kruger was hoping they were done, the mission was a failure caused by bad intel.

"You aren't close enough. I need you to run to the center of the facility, I'll meet you by using thrusters." Chedgu sounded stressed. Kruger could still hear the sounds of a hyperspanner in use as Chedgu spoke. "Copy that," Kruger said.

Kruger signaled down the passageway then started running. Her team followed closely with weapons ready. Activity on this deck was heavier than others. Kruger could hear a saw in the background, and she quickly noticed that many of the doors in the passageway were open. A laborer stepped out of one of the doorways only to be shot in the chest by Kinana.

The shot quickly gave away their position. Kruger could hear soldiers barking orders just ahead of them. Three shots rang out from a Vaadwaur weapon, but the team didn't see where the shots came from, let alone where they were going. An intersection ahead quickly got crowded as several boots, hands, and faces became visible for a quick few seconds. Kruger didn't wait for the shooting; she dove into one of the doors to her right. L'Tana ran in behind her and Kinana took cover in the doorway. Jillia scurried in as Kinana opened fire.

The room Kruger had jumped into was darker than the passageway. There wasn't any emergency lighting in the room. She could hear people breathing but couldn't figure out how many people were in the room. "Hounds, sound off!" Kruger shouted on a hunch.

"Kinana is covering the door," Jillia said from the back wall of the room. Her short statue made it clear who she was. "I'm here boss," L'Tana said from the front of the room near the door. Kruger quickly realized that the breathing next to her on her left wasn't one of her people. Kruger pulled her disruptor pistol and aimed it in the direction of the breathing.

"Who the fuck are you?" Kruger asked the breathing void. The whole room seemed to get very quiet, even the shooting in the passageway stopped. "Um, woof?" The void seemed amused with its own joke.

Kruger pulled the trigger on her pistol as someone grabbed her arm and rotated it in a circle. Small glowing disruptor bolts peppered the bulkhead around and over her attacker. In the dim light she could barely make out the figure of a Vaadwaur soldier. He was nearly naked, wearing only an undergarment over his pelvic region. As the light died around them the smile on the soldier's face changed to fear.

The soldier managed to wrench Kruger's pistol from her grip, but he fumbled the weapon and dropped it in the void. The shooting outside the room continued as L'Tana thrust her weapon in the direction of their Vaadwaur roommate and fired. The light was blinding but the soldier had already ducked and charged at Kruger. He knocked her to the deck and began hitting her with random slaps and hammer fists. He began to whimper and cry as he continued his assault.

Kruger kept her arms up around her face to prevent him from causing too much damage. L'Tana threw her rifle over her shoulder and tackled the soldier off of Kruger. He struggled and flailed madly, breaking free of any grab or hold that L'Tana tried. Instead of renewing his attack the soldier squirmed to the far corner of the room. "Please, I don't wanna die here. Just go!" The soldier in the void cried loudly like a child, no longer willing to fight.

L'Tana and Kruger scrambled to their feet. L'Tana grabbed her rifle and pressed the barrel into the Vaadwaur's face. "Hold your fire L'Tana," Kruger shouted. "Just keep an eye on him." Kruger activated her com again. "Chedgu, we're pinned down. Where are you?"

Kruger didn't receive a worded answer. Instead, she felt the restrictive sensation of the annular confinement beam as the transporter locked on to Kruger and her team. Kruger looked up at where their Vaadwaur roommate had been. As her molecules began to breakup in emerald light, the soldier became visible. He was young, scared, and tears still streamed down his face.

As the emerald light engulfed her, she looked on in the only direction the confinement beam would allow. L'Tana stood over the man, rifle still aimed at the man even as her body was being broken down. Despite the restrictive nature of the annular confinement beam, Kruger watched as a wicked smile formed on L'Tana's face. Just before they all disappeared in emerald light, Kruger watched L'Tana pull the trigger on her rifle. The frightened and tearful face was splattered against the bulkhead as an unrecognizable smear of gore.

Kruger re-materialized in the transporter aboard Trimalchio. The cramped space had them all crammed together. L'Tana was standing in front of Kruger, still smiling. Her rifle touching Kruger's leg. "We need to get moving people!" Chedgu shouted from the helm station. She was already standing to allow for someone else to take the helm.

Kinana tossed her rifle aside and flipped the highchair out of the seat before taking control of the helm. Chedgu dropped to all fours and crawled into an open access panel. "I'll try to get the warp drive working," Chedgu said as she disappeared in the maintenance shaft. Kruger continued to stare at L'Tana. Her tactical specialist was no longer smiling.

Kruger watched as L'Tana walked past her to the crew compartment. She wondered if L'Tana knew what Kruger had seen. The image of the tearful man's face being obliterated and sprayed across the wall played out again in her mind. Kruger shook off the image when she heard a new alarm. The cloak had failed.

Seven

Kruger ran over to the operations console and sat awkwardly in the chair. Her sword was still at her back, poking into the fabric of the seat. Kinana's hands danced across the console as Trimalchio lunged forward on impulse. The shuttle rocketed past the supply depot spraying warp plasma and drive coolant in a brilliant wake of green and blue. Trimalchio shuttered as the depot's weapons tore into the unshielded hull.

"We are going to get sprayed across the system if we don't find cover," Kinana said. Kruger had been trying to get shields online, she switched to navigation. "There is a dense pocket of stellar debris bearing six-eight-mark-one-five," Kruger said as she set the course for her helmsman. The ship shook and shuttered from another blast of weapon's fire. "We've got three Vaadwaur attack ships on our Six!" L'Tana shouted as she approached the weapons station.

L'Tana would have hopped on the weapons station sooner but they had known the weapons were malfunctioning before they arrived in system. Kruger turned to L'Tana to say something but saw her specialist was already thinking something similar. L'Tana had stripped off her armor and clothes except for a form fitting pressure suit. She held the large shoulder mounted weapon she had packed for the trip. Jillia was standing behind her with a small tool kit and a large bore nail gun.

Jillia noticed Kruger's expression. "Replicator's still working," Jillia said with a jiggle of the nail gun. Kruger simply nodded at the two and returned her attention to her station as the two headed for the airlock. The shuttle was traveling at one quarter impulse despite waste heat and debris pouring from the impulse drives. Nothing was stopping them from getting destroyed by the Vaadwaur ships except their own amusement at watching Trimalchio attempt to flee.

Trimalchio signaled its arrival to the dense debris field with a few micro-meteoroids pinging off the hull. Kinana immediately moved them between a few tight spaces before hiding them behind a larger cluster of asteroids. She powered down everything in the ship including life support and the consoles. All the shuttle's alarms sounded briefly before power was cut from the whole system. "Well, their arrogance is good for something," Kinana said as she sat back in her seat.

L'Tana placed the base of her weapon on the deck, situated near the hatch leading to empty space. Jillia didn't wait, she pulled a magazine clip for the nail gun and loaded it into the receiver. She then crouched down and placed the barrel against the gun's base and the deck. She squeezed the trigger firing an explosive charge that buried the large nail deep into the duranium deck plate. She fired three more nails into the deck while L'Tana grabbed an EVA suit from a rack on the aft bulkhead of the airlock. The suit was a combat variant of the usual space suits used by civilian crews.

Once she had the full suit on and activated, L'Tana stepped under the weapon and stood up until her shoulder pressed up on the large weapon. The weapon wasn't military grade but instead was an illegal crew served weapon designed to punch holes in smaller ships like escort vessels and frigates. The few crews that managed to purchase the weapon often used them for piracy, against bulk cargo carriers. L'Tana powered on the weapon once Jillia connected it to Trimalchio's EPS grid. She began calibrating the weapons targeting system and programming the safeties.

---

Kruger crawled through Trimalchio's maintenance shaft with a purpose. She hadn't heard from her combat engineer since they fled the depot. She found the tiny Hera-Su attenuating the shield on the singularity core using a stethoscope and a physical dial on the controls. "How bad is it?" Kruger asked. Chedgu seemed to ignore her as she continued to turn the dial on the control panel.

Kruger looked around while waiting for Chedgu to finish her work. A small fleshy worm-like thing seemed to wiggle from under Chedgu's butt. "What is that under your ass?" Kruger asked with curiosity. She started to reach for the fleshy thing.

Chedgu quickly closed the control panel and shifted her weight. A muffled little squeal was released. "It's a vole, Boss!" Chedgu said with excitement as she spun around and grabbed the creature with both of her hands. "This little bastard is the cause of all our problems." Chedgu quickly rammed the creature's head into her mouth and bit down. The creature squirmed and squealed until Kruger heard an audible pop, then the creature went limp.

"Please don't eat that in front of me," Kruger said as she tried not to vomit. Chedgu pulled the creatures head from her mouth and placed the dead creature against the bulkhead. "Sorry, boss. Bad habit," Chedgu looked at her with a smile. "Could you give us a status report on what you found?" Kruger asked while trying not to look at the vole blood on the corner of Chedgu's mouth.

"Sure, let's get out of here," Chedgu said gathering her tools. She managed to shove the dead vole into her toolbox before following Kruger out of the shaft.

Kruger gathered her full team in the front of the shuttle. Kinana, Chedgu, and L'Tana all sat in the only three chairs on the shuttles bridge. The rest of them stood around the others in a circle. Kinana only half faced the team. She kept her eyes on her console which she had powered back on to monitor their pursuers.

"So, what do we have?" Kruger asked, looking at Chedgu. The Vaadwaur outside didn't seem to be too much in a hurry to find them. They hadn't used any charges or polaron beams to flush them out, but they were likely to change their minds at any moment. "All our problems with Trimalchio was caused by two voles, a breeding pair," Chedgu said with a sigh.

"They were trying to nest in the shuttle and had even been chewing on many of the power cables that run to various internal sensors and subsystems. At some point they tried to make a home down near the singularity core." Chedgu pulled two dead voles from her toolbox. One was mostly intact and limp, the other was missing its head and seemed shriveled. "I killed the first one while you all were running through the depot. I thought it was the only one until the second one attacked me while I was repairing the core shielding."

"So, what's our systems looking like now?" Kruger asked getting a little impatient. L'Tana didn't look anymore thrilled either. She was tapping the floor with one EVA suit boot. "Warp is out of the question. Even if I could repair the nacelles, the core might not survive that large of a draw on power given its current state," Chedgu said as though lost in thought.

"We have impulse power, but we shredded something in the impulse drive that is vital for normal operation. Might be enough speed to push us out of the system at an extreme velocity but we won't be able to run them for very long." Chedgu still had both dead vole in her right hand. One was starting to drip blood onto the carpeted deck. "Weapons will work as long as we don't red line the core," Chedgu said as she placed the dead voles back in her toolbox.

"I have the bore cannon mounted in the airlock, will that be effected by the damage to the core?" L'Tana asked with irritation present in her tone. Chedgu walked over to the transporter and placed her toolbox on the pad. "If we shut down the transporter and some of the other systems than we can still get a few good shots off. The good thing is that I got the shields working again so we would be better off just trying to make a run for it."

Kruger turned to Kinana, "how close are they to finding us?" Kinana typed in a few commands and then brought up a star chart. "They are waiting outside the debris field. If we try to run, then they will see us before we can get out and run to full impulse. They'll kill us before we can even get to the edge of the system."

"Looks like its settled then. We will use the bore cannon to damage or destroy one of the ships, try to cripple the other two and then make a run out of the system," Kruger said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice. The rest of her team seemed unamused except for L'Tana. The Romulan woman was smiling as though she was a little girl being given the chance to ride her favorite amusement park ride. "Alright Hounds, how do we proceed?" Kruger asked.

The team hammered out their plan within ten minutes. Each member had a role. L'Tana sat in the airlock with Jillia. She would assist with power regulation and reloading of the crew served bore canon. Chedgu manned the operations console to monitor the engineering issues, communication, and sensors. Kinana had moved to the tactical console to handle the disruptors and torpedoes, not that they would have much use. Kruger sat at the helm.

Chedgu used her station to power up the shuttle. She brought the shuttle to operational power using a safe mode which allowed her to power up the ship a system at a time so she could keep an eye on the singularity core's power levels. Several alarms went off and were silenced as Chedgu read the warning then continued to power up the shuttle. As soon as the helm station powered up, Kruger started examining the senors for a vantage point. Kruger waited until Chedgu gave the go ahead then she moved Trimalchio on maneuvering thrusters.

The Shuttle moved up to the top of an asteroid. Before clearing the top of the asteroid, Kruger fired the thrusters to stop the shuttle from continuing to move past the asteroid. She used the thrusters to move Trimalchio's starboard side in the direction of all three Vaadwaur ships. As if aware that the shuttle wasn't strong enough to defeat them, the three ships just sat in formation. Weapons were hot but they held their fire.

"Chedgu, pop the hatch. L'Tana, you have a go. Fire at will," Kruger said in a stern voice. She was nervous and scared, there was little hope of surviving. Chedgu's fingers danced across her console as she popped the starboard hatch.

L'Tana shouldered the massive cannon and flipped out the cannon's targeting scanner. The scanner quickly homed in on the three ships. L'Tana quickly selected the closest ship and zoomed in on the ship's main deflector at the center of the ship. Jillia readied a fresh magazine behind L'Tana. Once her shot was steadied, L'Tana opened up.

The bore cannon was a black-market weapon that had been banned by the federation and by many galactic powers working with them. The operation and use were thought to be too uncivilized. The cannon was design to fire a one hundred- and eighty-centimeter long duranium projectile with a 12-centimeter-wide bore. The projectile was encased in an electromagnetic shell that constantly fluctuates at different magnetic frequencies to increase chances of penetrating the navigational deflector, the shields and the ship's hull. The cannon was nicknamed the blind sniper after it was used to kill three people on the bridge of the Sherman Oaks in 2392.

L'Tana fired three shots, emptying the clip after the last two shots. Jillia didn't wait for the order, she popped the expended magazine and shoved the second one in. The vertical magazine was loaded into the base just above the mount. Hardly the best place to put it but the alternative was to load only one shot at a time in the top of the weapon. Despite the new magazine, L'Tana loaded a single projectile into the top of the cannon from a rack attached to her right thigh.

Before she took aim again, Jillia slapped her calf to signal that the cannon was reloaded. L'Tana took aim again. The deflector on the lead ship in the formation was dying. Secondary damage from the shot was causing fluctuations in power. L'Tana was uncertain where the bridge on the Manasa ships were located so she aimed for a protrusion on the starboard side of the damaged ship and fired three more shots.

The first shot hit something vital causing an explosion which pushed the ship out of the path of the other two shots. Two of the Manasa class ships opened fire with all cannons and beam emitters. L'Tana watched as violet light filled her vision, filled the airlock. Suddenly the light was gone as she saw only the rocky surface of an asteroid. L'Tana shuttered, her legs trembled and buckled as the violet light had enveloped her. Only when the airlock door shut safely did her eyes start to tear up.

"Is everyone good?" Kruger asked through the intercom. Jillia looked herself over before checking L'Tana. She checked the vitals on their suits but when she tried to look into L'Tana's helmet, the tactical specialist turned away. "We are fine, there was a radiation spike, but it wasn't lethal. We were lucky," Jillia said while staring at L'Tana's back.

Kruger pushed the dorsal thrusters to maximum to get clear of the debris field on the opposite side of the asteroid they had been firing from. As soon as they were clear of the asteroid, Kruger fired the impulse engines at full power. Trimalchio shot out of the dense part of the debris field at full impulse heading in the opposite direction of the Vaadwaur ships. Kruger watched on sensors as two of the ships moved around the debris field and then headed toward them on a pursuit course. The impulse engines began to shutter, and alarms sounded as the Operations console screen was filled with multiple windows showing damage to different parts of the impulse drives.

The ship was no longer accelerating out of the system. Instead, it was drifting through space at 70,000 kilometers per second. Kruger watched on sensors as the two Vaadwaur ships closed to weapons range. The ships charged weapons and began to open fire. Trimalchio rocked around from the first volley of cannon fire but kept going.

"One more well-placed shot and we're gone, Boss," Chedgu said. She sat back in her chair, accepting their fate. Kinana had engaged the two ships with the aft disruptor arrays and the one torpedo launcher in the back. None of her effort would stop the enemy. Jillia left the airlock after reporting their condition. She was now lying in her rack waiting for whatever happened next. L'Tana sat on the deck in the airlock. Her helmet was off, and she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest.

Kruger watched on sensors as the Vaadwaur ships suddenly abandoned the chase. The ships kept their weapons and shields powered up but both reversed course as quickly as they could. One of the ships seemed to have trouble with the turn, as though there was damage to their maneuvering thrusters. Kruger manipulated the controls at her station to check long range sensors. She was shocked by what she saw. "Its Caecilius! She's here!" Kruger shouted as loud as she could.

Eight

Caecilius dropped out of warp with alarms blaring. Everyone on the bridge lurched forward as the inertial dampeners slogged to counter act the sudden shift in velocity. A few of the officers on the bridge looked terrified. Inertial dampeners were highly stressed as it was, trying to keep the dorsal half of the ship from crushing the team that was still trying to disconnect it. Third of Five shot to his feet as the supply depot appeared on screen.

"Status report!" Third of Five asked in a shout. The officers checked screens and gathered information. Lieutenant Acilius was the first to respond. "Sir, shields are inoperable. Impulse engines did not engage properly, and the maneuvering thrusters are misfiring!" Acilius turned around to face his commander. "The Vaadwaur know we are here."

"Two Manasa class ships are on an intercept course; the cloak is inoperable!" Centurion Cass shouted from Tactical. He was still focused on his console. "I'm trying to get us under control Commander," Subcommander Motius said in a quieter tone than the others had. Motius usually pulled duty for flight ops despite his master helmsman qualification but there were no working fighters to direct and the main hanger was on the part of the ship they were still trying to cut away.

Caecilius drifted toward the Vaadwaur supply depot at near impulse speeds. The ship was lopsided, and misfires of the thrusters kept the ship wobbling and twisting like a wounded bird in flight. "Do we have Trimalchio on sensors?" Third of Five asked with his usual emotionless tone. The atmosphere on the bridge was tense.

"I have them on sensors. They are heading out of the system at sixty-nine thousand kilometers per second. They are severely damaged," Acilius said while watching his screen.

Third of Five tapped a control on his armrest while still standing. "Centurion Domna, what is the status on that separation?" His voiced sounded stern to him despite his calm. He didn't hear anything at first. He was about to call again when the com crackled. "Subcommander, we are almost done up here. I already sent the bulk of my team back inside to deal with the propulsion systems," Domna said with a few grunts in-between.

"Sir! The Vaadwaur are closing to weapons range!" Cass interrupted from Tactical. Third of Five turned to him. "You may fire when ready, avoid using torpedoes until our team is back inside," Third of Five said. Cass acknowledged his order with a nod.

"Domna, I have a plan for the separation, but it will require that we get propulsion sorted out." Third of Five was still working out the strategy in his head. They hadn't intended to warp into the system before cutting the dorsal half of the ship off. They had barely gotten near the system when they saw the battle on long range sensors. Third of Five had ordered that they enter the system at maximum warp without consulting Domna. They now had dead weight that was wreaking havoc on their systems.

"I'm a little busy commander!" Domna shouted in frustration. "You want me on propulsion or this! I can't be in two different places at once!" Domna was hammering something from the sound of it. Her normal mousy tone was gone and replaced by the voice of a pissed off engineer.

"Stay on the separation problem Domna," Third of Five said in what he hoped was an apologetic tone. He pressed the button on the arm rest to call up main engineering. "What is the status on the propulsion systems?" Third of Five asked in a calmer tone. He felt a shutter in the deck.

"Returning fire!" Cass shouted as the bridge shook. The lights flickered slightly. Third of Five heard heavy breathing over the com. "We just got a look at it Subcommander. It's going to take time," the engineer said with heavy breathing.

The bridge shuttered heavily again. The flight ops console started to smoke. A Centurion that had been manning the Damage Control station next to flight ops pulled a fire extinguisher from a footlocker concealed under his station and opened a panel in the smoking console. He didn't wait to see the fire before spraying the guts of the console. "Motius, see if you can move our dorsal half into the path of their weapons fire," Third of Five said with slight irritation.

---

Centurion Domna plopped along the hull as fast as she could move. Caecilius rolled and wobbled as it continued to drift toward the supply depot. Every step Domna took was one step closer to finishing her task. It was what she kept telling herself as the hull erupted in chaos. Violet light whipped past Caecilius in volleys.

Some of the violet-colored projectiles struck the hull. Without shields the hull was vulnerable and naked. Domna watched in the distance as large pits were formed in the armor plating. The status indicator on Domna's suit was warning her of climbing levels of radiation. A few of the violet orbs that passed by even caused the readings to spike into the dangerous levels.

Domna started to notice that the rest of her team was pulling ahead of her. They had one more strut to disengage before they could pull away from Caecilius's upper half. Domna suddenly felt the whole ship shutter under her feet. As she continued to lumber toward the final strut, she saw debris bounce off the deck on either side of her. Her suit sounded a warning of increased radiation.

Curiosity got the better of her. Domna turned around to see that the port nacelle on the dorsal half of the ship had been destroyed and was now venting plasma in large plumes. "Why was there drive plasma in there?" Domna thought. She turned back to the final strut and kept moving. She was now the furthest from the strut than the rest of her team. Domna tried to increase her pace.

The pace was burning the muscles in her legs. They were screaming with each step. Domna considered decreasing the magnetic tension on her boots but kept moving. Crewman Macrinus was ahead of her but hadn't quite made it to the strut. He looked more tired than Domna felt.

Several violet orbs whizzed by. One orb struck a few meters to the right of Macrinus. The orb gouged out a large chunk of hull plating. Domna looked up to see that the ship was twirling around. She could see that the bridge crew were attempting to keep the Vaadwaur ships away from them but looking past the two halves of the ship was making her dizzy.

"I can't make it," Macrinus said with heavy breathing. He was hunched over. "What's wrong?" Domna asked. Macrinus hesitated for a moment.

"I'm...I'm tired. I can barely stand; I haven't been feeling well and now I'm looking at this damn suit gauge." Macrinus had started to whimper as his body seemed to drift in position. "Keep moving. We are almost done. Then you can go lie down. I'm planning a long bath myself," Domna said as she continued toward the final strut.

"You don't understand. That last hit. The gauge spiked past the lethal exposure limit," Macrinus said with a whimper. He began sobbing as he tried to fall to his knees. He bucked and wobbled instead.

"You aren't dead yet Macrinus. lethal exposure is treatable. Besides it was only for a few seconds." Domna watched her own gauge as it continued to fluctuate. Her vision shifted to see that one of her team had reached the final strut. He waved his hands enthusiastically.

"I'm the first to the strut!" Crewman Crassus shouted as he continued to wave his hands around. Centurion Claudius leapt the final meter to the strut and brought a hammer fist down on Crassus's head. "If you got time to dick around than you got time to work. Let's get this strut prepped."

Claudius was Domna's right hand. The older Romulan was the roughest looking member of the crew. Unlike most of the former Tal Shiar inmates that served on Caecilius, Claudius had actually deserved to be in prison, had actually admitted he belonged there. He was one of the few that gladly told anyone that wanted to hear, all about the people he murdered. Despite that, he had taken an interest in Domna, immediately becoming attached to her.

Anytime someone wanted to cause her trouble, he was there to beat them to a pulp. Domna had always had trouble voicing her opinions and yet he was always there to encourage her to speak, to yell for people to shut up so she could speak, and to give her pointers on everything from engineering to weapons and even a few medical procedures. Claudius was the reason that Chedgu had selected Domna as the assistant chief engineer. People cared about Domna, they didn't necessarily respect her or her ability, but most didn't want to hurt her or challenge her for her position. Those that did, had to deal with Claudius.

Domna continued to move closer and closer to the final strut. She could still hear Macrinus whimpering but at least he had started moving again. The hull started to shutter once more. Domna watched the radiation gauge in her heads-up display spike to lethal exposure several times. She looked down, focusing on moving forward when she heard a burst of static.

"Macrinus…" Claudius murmured. Domna barely heard the name. She continued to move forward for a bit afraid to look up. "Domna, get your butt here now!" Claudius shouted over the comm channel. Domna looked up to see what had panicked him.

A pair of boots were magnetized to the hull where Macrinus had been. The boots were charred black and smoking. The hull plating around the boots was charred and some of it had bubbled. A new wave of fear struck the assistant chief engineer. She froze in horror at the sight of the boots.

"Domna! Get over here now!" Claudius continued shouting. Domna shook off the deep sensation of dread that was trying to overwhelm her. She continued to take a few more steps. An orb of violet Polaron energy struck the hull near her.

The explosion of energy flash boiled the armor plating next to Domna, spraying liquid metal in all directions. The violence of the impact disconnected Domna's boots from the deck sending the assistant CHENG flying across the hull. Her suit was screaming alarms as she flew out into open space. Domna screamed over the comm channel, she could no longer think rationally as the ship and space twirled around her in blinding speed.

"Claudius to bridge, we've lost Domna! She was knocked off the hull," Claudius shouted in panic. Crassus was now the only person trying to separate the ship. He was scrambling and fumbling with his hyperspanner, trying to remove the panel which would give them access to the manual release. His eyes watered as he worked. He had lost a friend today and he was losing another.

---

A shower of sparks exploded from the port side bulkhead, the result of an overload in the EPS grid's primary junction for the bridge located just beyond the flight operations station. Bits of metal sprayed across the bridge like shrapnel and the bridge shuttered and twisted. The blast had knocked Third of Five to the deck. Subcommander Motius slumped forward. Blood rushed from his head and poured over his console.

"Medical team to the bridge," Third of Five said as he stood. He could feel a stinging sensation in his lower back as he neared the helm to check on Motius. "Power has been rerouted through secondary relays," Acilius said at OPS. She had a long jagged piece of metal sticking into her left shoulder but didn't seem to notice. Third of Five checked on Motius. He had a deep gash in the top of his head.

Third of Five pulled Motius out of his seat and lay him on the ground. "Claudius to bridge, we've lost Domna! She was knocked off the hull!" Third of Five heard the shouting over the bridge. "You will need to complete the mission without her Centurion," Third of Five said without emotion. He moved to take a seat at the helm.

Third of Five wiped the green blood off the helm screen so he could see. "I'm not completing shit! You get her the fuck back on board or we can all go to hell on this dying bird!" Claudius shouted until he was out of breath. Third of Five turned to Acilius, "get me the sensor feed for our assistant CHENG." Third of Five's hands danced across the helm controls faster than should have been possible.

"I'll get her back on board, but we need that separation," Third of Five said with a bit of anger starting to seep in.

---

Domna continued to spin wildly. She vomited several times into her helmet. The bile was now stuck to the right side of her helmet. She no longer had the strength to scream, resigned to her fate. That was until she saw Caecilius grow bigger in her visor.

The ship was headed for her, still wobbling on misfiring thrusters and a damaged impulse engine. The ship seemed to wobble at her as though the intention was to slap her with one of the massive wings on the ship. The port side Dorsal wing lifted just before impact. Domna spun and collided with the hull on the bottom half of the ship. She slid across the deck trying to grab on to anything that would slow her down.

Her boots wouldn't engage as she continued to slide over the deck. Domna tried to reach for her mag boot's controls, to re-initialize the magnetic controls. She suddenly noticed that she was sliding in a diagonal pattern. She was heading straight for the final strut. Her vomit threatened to peel off the side of the helmet and rest on her face as she triggered the comm.

"Claudius, I need help. I can't reach my mag boots," Domna said trying to keep her emotions in check. Domna straightened out her legs, trying to slow her slide down. Her boots caught the rim of the maintenance pit near the final strut. She was thrust upward onto her feet and had started to pitch forward when Claudius caught her in his arms.

"I got you!" Claudius shouted as their helmets collided hard. Some of Domna's vomit splashed onto the visor. Crassus re-initialized Domna's mag boots without saying anything. He was too embarrassed over his tears. He returned to his work.

Domna moved over to the panel with Crassus and Claudius. The two men pulled the cover from the manual release. The manual release was operated by a type of cylindrical switch with a small computer console next to it. Domna noticed that both the manual release and the power flow through the strut were both engaged. "Domna to bridge, why is the power still flowing through this strut!?"

---

"It's all in the plan Centurion Domna," Third of Five said while he continued to punch in commands into his console. "Welcome back on board." Third of Five had been focused on his plan from the beginning. He had re-established power flow through the strut in order to enable a remote activation of the dorsal half of the ship's singularity core. After hearing Domna's question, he knew the plan was ready. He punched in the command to activate the damaged singularity core then severed the power flow to the dorsal half of the ship as he punched in another evasive movement for the ship.

"Cass, the lead ship is venting drive plasma. Please concentrate on that ship," Third of Five said as he continued to move the ship around. He was trying to keep the team on the hull from being shot at. The Manasa class ships were getting sluggish as they continued to take damage from Caecilius's sporadic disruptor fire. "Aye sir!" Cass said as he wiped blood from his brow for the third time.

---

Domna assisted Crassus with pulling the cylindrical switch out and turning it to release the strut. Claudius watched the connection closely. They had difficulties with the previous three struts. Most were bent or warped from damage. They ended up having to sever the connections from the inside first, then use the manual release and finally blow open the struts with explosives. When they had checked the last strut's interior they had realized that the strut wasn't damaged.

Domna and Crassus pushed in the switch once it was turned and fully seated it back in place. The switch activated the manual release. A cloud of pressurized fluid sprayed out around the strut. Domna felt the hull vibrate and rumble as the strut forcibly withdrew into the deck severing several lines and cables. "Domna to bridge, the last connection is severed," Domna said with relief.

Domna turned around to head for the dorsal airlock. A Vaadwaur ship slid into view. Its polaron weapons fired at the bottom half of the ship. Domna imagined them arcing up any second to wipe them off the hull, to incinerate them. She froze in fear, legs locked up. Instead Caecilius fired one of its disruptor banks. The well timed shot struck the enemy vessel dead center before moving upward.

The beam of energy shattered the Vaadwaur ship's shield, slammed into the main deflector and then arced up tearing a swath through the unshielded hull. Armor plates peeled away as the beam penetrated the pressure hull. The ship moved on a new trajectory as the venting atmosphere pushed the ship down like a rocket. Claudius pushed Domna forward toward the airlock, guiding her. Domna looked up as she noticed the brilliant emerald color of Caecilius's repulsor beams, they pushed on the dorsal half of the ship, lifting it up and away from the team.

---

Third of Five activated the repulsor beams from his console as soon as Domna reported the disconnection. The reactor activated on Caecilius's dorsal half, feeding energy to every system by the directive of a preprogrammed yet battered computer core. The ship had one last mission to perform. It lacked the sophisticated programming to run all automated functions, so it didn't. The directive required only one thing, to move forward on its current heading.

Third of Five watched as the top half of Caecilius was lifted away from the hull. The ship activated its impulse drives and thrusters as it took off straight for the Vaadwaur supply depot. Cass cheered at tactical as the ventral half of Caecilius raised shields. Third of Five's fingers slowed as the ship got easier to control. The thrusters stopped misfiring as the engineers got the ship under control.

"Subcommander, The Vaadwaur are going after the dorsal section!" Cass said with cheer. Third of Five sat back in his chair, relaxing for the first time in hours. He heard the medical team working to strap Motius into a stretcher behind him. It was the first time he noticed them.

Third of Five programmed a course correction that would put them on an intercept course for Trimalchio. Caecilius moved away from its current course and veered off away from the depot. "Centurion Domna, is your team back onboard yet?" Third of Five asked. He didn't want to run the ship at full impulse with the team still on the hull.

"We are entering the airlock now Subcommander," Domna said with labored breathing. Third of Five brought up the sensor readings for the dorsal airlock. He watched as the hatch was shut and locked down before punching up the speed to full. "I thought the bridge crew might like something to watch," Acilius said with a smirk. Third of Five looked up at the main viewer to see what the ops officer had done.

The dorsal half of Caecilius shot toward the supply depot with a full burn of all its sub-warp engines. The Vaadwaur escort ship followed behind, hammering on the ship's impulse engines with all its forward weapons. A torpedo detonated against the engine housing. The port side engine erupted in brilliant white but the ship kept hurdling toward the depot. The starboard engine was next to go.

Still the ship kept moving on momentum and thrusters. Caecilius, the dorsal half, had a severely damaged core. Without a crew or the computer, their was no warnings and no safeties as the core broke from its reactor housing. The artificially generated singularity began to pull the structure of the ship into it while also shredding through the hull, growing in size and intensity. Still, the ship moved forward to the depot.

Vaadwaur weapons fire from the assault ship and from the depot battered Caecilius. They shredded hull plating and penetrated decks that no longer contained crew or their belongings. The Dorsal half of Caecilius was nothing more than debris and a large singularity when it slammed into the depot at over 70,000 Kilometers per second. The depot and the ship docked with it were obliterated in seconds before being swallowed into the void of an artificial singularity. The singularity grew to such a large degree it started to pull in everything around it within a 100 kilometer radius. The Vaadwaur assault ship was swallowed before its crew even thought to turn and run.

The bridge crew cheered as they watched the brilliance of light and matter dissipate, having destroyed everything in its wake. Third of Five raised his arms up in triumph with the others but cheering wasn't something he felt he could do. The celebration ended with a need to shift focus. "Subcommander, we have another assault ship on sensors. They are damaged but trying to intercept Trimalchio before we do," Cass said as his voice returned to a professional tone.

Third of Five pulled up the menu for warp speed on his console and calculated the time, speed, and position for Caecilius to jump ahead to Trimalchio. "All hands brace for warp jump. We are going to try to pick up our team. Flight Deck, please open the hanger doors," Third of Five said after pressing the button to broadcast ship-wide. Third of Five could see already that they were cutting it close.

---

"Boss, the Vaadwaur ship is closing in for an attack run," Kinana shouted from the helm station. With nothing to do, the entire team was working under Chedgu's direction to try to strengthen the shuttle's shields and repair the impulse drives. Kruger crawled out of a maintenance shaft in the overhead. She tried to do a flip as she exited the shaft but simply flopped out and landed on her back. Kruger jumped to her feet and moved up to the helm.

"How are the shields?" Kruger asked. Kinana stood up and moved over to the OPS station. "We might survive one shot, maybe two," Kinana said with a grin. Kruger sat down at the helm. "What about Caecilius?"

"Closing in fast but they won't make it in time," Kinana said. The shuttle rocked slightly and the tactical console went black. "What was that?" Kruger asked as she tried to reactivate the impulse engines. "The Vaadwaur are in weapons range," Kinana said as she slowly turned to Kruger.

The ship rocked a second time, this time the tactical console started humming as smoke rose from a panel at the base of the console. Kinana started laughing, "Shields are down Boss!" Kruger smiled and sat back. "Well, its been fun," Kruger said, looking briefly at her Tactical specialist. A sudden flash outside the viewport caught Kruger's attention.

---

Caecilius dropped out of warp ahead of Trimalchio matching course and speed. Third of Five fought the controls to stop the ship from flopping around. Despite the fixes that engineering had performed on the maneuvering thrusters, the thrusters had still tried to misfire as they dropped out of warp. Third of Five waited until he got Caecilius's aft pointed at Trimalchio before powering down the maneuvering thrusters. "Cass, extend shields around Trimalchio and bring her into the hanger on tractor beams," Third of Five said as he watched his course.

---

Caecilius's fat ass appeared dead ahead in a burst of white light and emerald streaks. The ship had performed a precise warp jump in system to intercept. Trimalchio rocked violently as azure beams gripped the shuttle, slowing the ship down and pulling it toward the aft hanger. The doors to the hanger were already opened and ready to receive. Kruger opened a channel to the bridge of Caecilius.

"We are happy to see you Caecilius, you lost weight!" Kruger shouted excitedly so her team could hear. Chedgu and Jillia crawled out of the bowls of the shuttle to see. L'Tana stayed in her bunk in the back. Kruger watched on sensors as the Vaadwaur ship attempted to engage Caecilius. With the damaged half of the ship gone, the shields proved too strong.

"Indeed, we have lost mass Boss," Third of Five corrected over the channel without emotion. "Once we have you secured we will head back to Kobali Prime and hope no one missed us." Kruger smiled at the thought, it only now donned on her that Caecilius was acting without proper orders. "Agreed Subcommander," Kruger said with a snicker. "How am I going to explain this one," she thought.

Caecilius closed its hanger with Trimalchio safely inside. The Manasa class assault ship continued to hammer Caecilius's shields in a desperate attempt to destroy the vessel. The shields shimmered and glowed under the onslaught of violet orbs and beams until Third of Five ordered their response. All aft mounted Disruptors fired a single salvo, boiling and buckling the enemy vessels hull armor. A single torpedo launched from Caecilius's aft torpedo tube as the ship jumped into warp.

The torpedo tore through the ship from bow to stern, detonating a few meters behind the ship. It had followed the course of L'Tana's previous shot, traveling through the main deflector and exiting through the shuttle bay. The blast shredded the ship's drive section, peppering the rest of the vessel with shrapnel that tore through bodies and bulkheads with reckless abandon. A few seconds later the warp core went critical. A full meltdown of the matter/antimatter reactor enveloped the region in radiation so intense, it would have melted the flesh off any survivors.

Nine

A week had passed since the failed mission. The crew of the Caecilius had avoided trouble when they left Kobali Prime. The alliance fleet had been too busy with their final offensive. Kruger filed her report with the Hierarchy and Commander Jarok. The Hierarchy responded rather quickly with their apologies but considered the matter closed. Jarok on the other hand, she did what was expected and passed the report up the chain.

Caecilius was under new orders now. The report had clearly angered someone in the upper echelons of the Romulan government. Caecilius was being recalled back to New Romulus for a formal inquiry. Kruger was a citizen of the republic but not technically a member of their military. The military still payed her. She was dreading the senate hearings, but they were still a few days away.

Kruger sat in her ready room looking at a PADD. She sat on a gray colored couch against the starboard side bulkhead. The ready room was smaller than the one on the dorsal half of the ship. Technically the ventral half of the warbird had a battle bridge with a smaller ready room. The room was furnished with a tactical plotting board that also functioned as the desk. There were no chairs, just the couch.

Kruger was reviewing the medical logs on her PADD. Several members of the crew were still in sickbay as a result of their failed mission. Centurion Domna, Crewman Crassus, and Centurion Claudius had been exposed to enough radiation that they weren't expected to ever be able to have children. Too much cellular degradation. They were lucky to be alive considering.

The rest of Domna's surviving team had been treated for minor radiation exposure. A few of the crew had been injured during the battle. The ship's armory had taken a direct hit. Four people in the armory had died instantly. Two crew members working nearby had been badly injured. One was still in a coma. Jillia even placed four members of the crew on referrals for counseling.

A chime sounded at the door, pulling Kruger away from the medical report. "Come," Kruger said. She knew who it was but wasn't sure if she was ready for the conversation. Still, something needed to be said. The doors parted as L'Tana walked in.

L'Tana looked surprised by the ready room's layout. "Come sit with me," Kruger said. She stared at her PADD but wasn't reading it. L'Tana seemed puzzled but moved over to the couch and sat down next to her CO. Kruger couldn't help but notice the Romulan woman was still wearing ground combat gear.

The uniform, armor, and equipment were clean, but Caecilius wasn't expecting any ground operations, even once they reached New Romulus. "You wanted to see me Commander?" L'Tana asked. She sat forward on the couch as though she expected the conversation to be brief. "What's with the mission suit?" Kruger asked with a smile.

Kruger had hoped to disarm the Romulan with some humor but L'Tana merely shrugged at first. "I'm my most comfortable when I wear this," L'Tana said while tugging on her equipment harness. She then stared at Kruger, no emotion on her face. L'Tana had always been surrounded by rumors and stories. Kruger's Hounds were respectful of those that could handle themselves in a fight and watch the backs of their comrades. Its why Kruger only ever heard the rumors.

"Why did you want to speak to me?" L'Tana asked. She seemed visibly concerned. Kruger dropped the PADD on the arm of the couch near her. The PADD displayed a list of referrals for counseling on it.

"I saw what you did to that young man back at the depot," Kruger said. Just mentioning it brought the memory of the young man's face back her. His eyes pleading for everything to be over. She saw his face evaporate as his head was smeared across the back wall. Kruger winced.

Kruger had killed many people in her career. Some were folks she honestly thought may not deserve it. She had never killed a man begging for his life and she had clear rules about the treatment of prisoners, as did her current employer. Kruger watched as a playful smile formed on the other woman's face. It was the same as the smile after she killed the Vaadwaur man.

"Oh, sorry. I figured no one would notice if I popped him on beam out," L'Tana said with a snicker. The rumors that had spread about L'Tana was that she enjoyed killing, she needed it, it gave her pleasure. Kruger knew the young Romulan woman to be a workaholic. First to volunteer for any mission, first to be geared up and ready to go. She never seemed to sleep or take a day off.

"How long have you been doing stuff like that?" Kruger asked. She winced again as the image in her head of a man's head sprayed out over the bulkhead behind him. She suddenly remembered something a new hire had started to mention. L'Tana was a beast with a strange kink.

She thought it was intended as a comment on a shared sexual encounter, but it now sounded like something else. "Since I was a little girl to be honest," L'Tana said with a smile. Her smile faded when she noticed the stern expression on Kruger's face. "Look, I was told that I would always be like this. Working as a mercenary lets me be me while doing something good. Is there a problem?"

Kruger stared at L'Tana. She didn't quite make eye contact, she couldn't. A monster stared back at her, one she had fighting alongside her for years. She respected the woman, the skills she brought, the natural talent. "Have you ever thought about getting help?"

"Why?" L'Tana asked. Her eyes lost focus. "I kill people for a living. It feels good to do it." L'Tana started to run her hands over her chest... "Watching the life ooze out…" She ran her hands down to her thighs-"...to see the looks on their faces as they know there is no escape…" She guided one hand down to her crotch before snapping out of whatever trance she was in- "...You didn't hire me to be an engineer or a scientist. You hired a killer, and I'm a good one," L'Tana said defensively. She looked slightly embarrassed.

Kruger stared in disbelief. The rumors suddenly flooded back to her. Members of the Hounds laughing and whispering that they caught the Romulan Tactical Specialist touching herself after an intense battle. She often ignored the rumors, didn't act on them. "What should I do about this?" Kruger thought.

"Knowing what you know now, are you going to fire me?" L'Tana asked, still defensive. She seemed nervous in the moment. "You killed a prisoner L'Tana," Kruger said in disbelief. "That is a chargeable offense in the Romulan Republic Navy and its grounds for dismissal from Kruger's Hounds!"

"What prisoner? Even had I left him there to live, he still would have died when Caecilius collided with the depot," L'Tana said smiling despite tears welling up in her eyes.

Kruger thought about it for a second. L'Tana had pulled her out of so many bad situations. Despite the occasional rumor the rest of the Hounds often spoke respectfully of her. In all the years she had known the woman, she had never seen her kill someone in cold blood until now. "You've been careful to hide your activities all this time?" Kruger asked.

"I have. I've done many things to satisfy my…" L'Tana trailed off for a second looking for a more tactful way to explain herself. She gave up. "Nobody has to know. I can keep it a secret," L'Tana finally said.

Kruger didn't like where the conversation was going. She felt like she was inviting a monster to join her, to encourage her and to condone her activities. "I won't fire you over this, but I don't want to see it or hear about it again and if you get caught, I won't go to bat for you. Do you understand?" Kruger tried to look stern but she was more disgusted with her decision than anything else.

"I understand Boss," L'Tana smiled as a single tear ran down her right cheek. She quickly reached out, throwing her arms around Kruger and embracing her. Kruger was grossed out by the action. She saw the pleading face of the Vaadwaur in the depot. His large black eyes looking scared right before his face exploded into mist and steam.

Kruger felt bile rise in her gut as she wrapped her arms around her Tactical Specialist. She swallowed it back as L'Tana let her go and stood up. "Dismissed Specialist," Kruger said while trying to remain professional. L'Tana smiled the first warm smile Kruger had ever seen her do. She turned and walked out of the ready room.

Kruger sat still for a minute. She felt like throwing up. Kruger sifted through her thoughts, trying to find a way to rationalize her decision. Loyalty to a fine soldier was the first thought in her mind. The sense of family she had with all of her employees.

Her thoughts drifted not to the young man that was pasted on the bulkhead but to the man she had killed before encountering the overseer. The look on his face as he died. The look on so many others' faces as they died. Friend and foe alike, they all looked panicked or calm or fearful right before their life drained from their faces. In the moment she felt no different than L'Tana. What set her so apart from her specialist, they both killed. They both watched people die, both watched.

Kruger picked up the PADD again. In the report was a referral for L'Tana to see a counselor. The referral wasn't at L'Tana's request but was placed by Jillia following her actions in Trimalchio's airlock. The referral indicated that Jillia believed L'Tana had experienced a mental breakdown in the airlock after they were nearly killed.

Under the current contract they had with the Romulan Republic, L'Tana would be required to see a Romulan Republic Navy counselor. A counselor would likely find more wrong with her specialist than she would be willing to have them find. Kruger denied the referral request. If anyone was going to fix her Specialist it would need to be after their contract and if they couldn't fix her, at least they couldn't report it to anyone that could derail their contracts. Kruger switched off the medical report on her PADD.

Kruger wanted something positive for a change. She brought up the commendation request form she had been working on a few hours before. When finished and submitted the commendation request would go up the chain and if approved, a shiny new medal of valor would be issued and presented to Centurion Domna, a young torture victim turned battle hardened engineer. She would never be able to present the medal herself, regulations required that it be presented by a true senior officer of the Romulan Republic. Kruger smiled as she made a mental note to ask the young assistant CHENG which officer she would like to request for the ceremony.