Rocks n Hard Places

Posted on Fri Jun 3rd, 2022 @ 7:51am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Remal Kajun

Mission: *CD*
Location: Bajor
Timeline: before the Sunfire leaves DS9

Weapon lowered slightly as the words were exchanged Rhenora felt a strong sense of discord and unease rolling off the woman with the weapon behind her. She could see Remal was trying to ascertain the identity of all parties, and seemed semi-convinced that Zio was one of them. The comments about ‘them’ and ‘trackers’ left her very uneasy. They had been followed the entire time they’d been on Bajor, that eerie feeling that someone was always a few steps behind them.

She lowered her weapon all the way, making the decision those with the weapons presently were most likely the least of their concerns at the moment.

“ Where do we go?”

From the thickness of the woods emerged a young man approximately twenty years old. He waved them towards a small clearing and down a makeshift path. "This way." He said, giving away his age as his young voice crackled to life.

Patin was instantly on edge as she walked up alongside Rhenora. She whispered, "It's Grakou all over again. I feel like we're being led to our death chambers." She shook her head, "I don't trust these people any more than I could throw them."

Remal pulled up the rear, Zio next to him, the daughter in the back, using a branch to brush away their tracks. He thought about talking with her, flushing out details, but her look was one of worry. Something he had rarely remembered seeing on the one legged warrior. Together the party of six moved deeper into the wood, often using the terrain to cover their tracks. A rock here, a log there, and then a rise that ended at a rock wall. The only way out was up.

Zio’s son took the lead and handed some nearby rope over to Remal. “Tie this around yourself.” He said as he moved over to a nearby tree. Remal eyed the shoddy looking vines and swallowed his worries in order to make room for more.

The other sibling began free climbing the rock face. She moved swiftly, with a grace and agility her mother once had. Back when Remal knew her to have two legs. With one occupied in lifting Remal up, and the other climbing the rocks, Patin saw a shift in tactical superiority. Still not comfortable with where they were being led, she decided now was the time to act.

The ex resistance fighter scrambled to the side, using the distraction of the others to her advantage. In an instant she vanished into the thick nearby scrub, obscured by the foliage yet making sure she kept an eye on the group. Whisper quiet she waited for the time to strike.

Zio was distracted. She also held the appearance of someone dishevelled and worried. Remal quickly surmised the trio had escaped the fire and had been hiding out in the woods. Clearly they were hiding, waiting, but for what he did not yet know. Zio's daughter reached the top of the rock face before Remal. She gave a glance back and immediately spotted that they were one person short.

Unable to yell for fear of giving away their location, she instead resorted to getting her mother's attention using hand signals Remal recognized from the occupation resistance. Despite being too young to have experienced the struggle, her mother had taught her children survival skills. Zio recognized the hand gestures and immediately turned to Rhenora, "Where's the other one? Where's your friend Mama Kaylen?"

Rhenora looked around, realizing that Patin had taken it upon herself to vanish and either stage or coup de tat, or bugger off completely. Either of which was completely possible.

"I don't know, she was here a minute ago" Kaylen looked around honestly, wondering what chaos Patin was going to cause.

Zio’s daughter began helping Remal onto the ledge and out of the makeshift harness. His weight no longer a factor, Zio’s son took a respite and relaxed his hands. Despite his counter weights and elaborate pulley system, Remal was a beefy sort of man. He too, began searching the surrounding forest as though expecting trouble to find them at any moment. The trio had obviously lived in a heightened state of paranoia since the initial attack, if it could be called that.

Patin meanwhile was waiting, watching for her opportunity. She wasn’t sure yet what the situation called for, only that she did not like having the upper hand. She also reflected momentarily on the central figure. Remal had called her the one legged warrior, yet she stood tall with two very defined looking legs. She spied the harness coming back down, her time to strike was fading away.

Zio reached out and took the harness, “You’re next mama Kaylen.” And she began helping Rhenora into the harness.

Rhenora searched the surrounding area for Patin and came up empty, hoping the other woman wasn't going to try something wild, as was her usual repertoire. She climbed into the harness, adjusting the straps to provide a firm and even pressure around her aching and aging body. It was a long way up, and Zio's daughter had made it look easy, scrambling up the rockface as though she had done it a thousand times. Maybe they had. Whatever was hunting them seemed relentless.

Once Rhenora was safe at the top, and Patin was missing, Zio took the harness, her son took to lifting. The daughter looked on, covering her brother from a distance until at last Zio was up. The boy then dropped all pretense, hid the rope and scurried up the rock face. He was a masterful climber, though still young, and in his hurry he slipped but once yet kept on going.

Dogs could be heard barking excitedly, as though they had found a scent or a trail to follow. Patin's head snapped around at the sound. As the only one not on the cliff face her priority had gone from causing a distraction and gaining the upper hand, to being the distraction and buying them some time. With a silent prayer to the Prophets she no longer believed in but hoped were listening anyway, she scrambled off to wreak some havoc.

Remal spotted the worried look on Rhenora’s face. Daring to risk their head start, he gave a deep bellowing roar as he called Patin’s name. “Patin!” Then, hoping the brief pause in the nearby rustling might be their pursuers he tried a different tact, “Patin, use the last of the explosive on the perimeter and get your ass back here. I still owe you a beating, remember?” It was a ruse. If their enemy thought there were traps and explosives, they may slow their forward progression. Also knowing Patin’s hand with explosives, the situation was entirely possible she was laying such a trap.

As if to confirm his suspicion or to lock in the ruse, a small explosion erupted near to where the trees had been rustling before. Question now remained, was she smart enough to get up the cliff, or dumb enough to play the hero be staying behind?

Patin looked at the small satchel slung over her shoulder, the explosive had gone off as she had expected, taking out one of the dogs and its tracker. Several more remained and she only had one stick left. There were options of course, she could strategically light the stick, circle back and lead them over it right at the time it went boom, she could light and toss it in the other direction hoping to lead them off the scent so to speak.

She looked at the rock face, snow she worked with regularly and could gauge its breakage, descent and final resting place with relative accuracy. Rock however was slightly different. Still, if she wedged the stick deep enough into a crevice she could cause a rockslide that would wipe out any chance of them being followed up the cliff face, and hopefully take out a few of those following them in the process.

Scrambling towards the rockface she started to scale, going fast enough to stay ahead of the trackers but slow enough she could be easily followed. After scaling nearly 20 meters up she found a suitable crack in the ancient rockface, low enough and superficial enough not to effect the larger cliff structures above. Lighting the fuse she jammed it in the crack and scrambled up the rockface for all she was worth, attempting to outclimb the impending explosion.

Hand over hand, foot over foot she moved until at least her hand reached out and grabbed onto something fleshy. Remal and Rhenora had both been there to lend a hand to pull her onto the ledge. Out of breath she muttered three small barely audible words, "we should move." Of course she meant because of the explosive, but also because of the party below and their tracker hounds who had just reached the clearing.

She stood looking at the perplexed faces of her comrades, a smile on her face. Suddenly a loud crack split the air, shaking the very ground they stood on. Below in the clearing, pieces of shale and gravel rained down from the now small crater that was the rock face.

“Always with the boom” Rhenora snorted as she regained her breath after the climb. Rhenora peered over the ledge as the dust settled, finding no movement below them. Patin’s explosives had worked.

Behind Remal, Zio pulled at his tunic. The trio were ready to disappear into the canopy, but Remal wanted answers first. “Wait. We need answers before blindly following into the jungle.” With a steelie eye he added, “I trusted you once, give me a reason to do so again.”

Zio seemed to smile as she reached up and touched Remal’s face, “I trusted you once as well. To save my life, remember? And you did that and more. I lost my leg, but in return I found purpose. That is a debt I can never repay, but I will continue to try. Now, whether or not you believe me, we have a place not 50 yards from here where we can sit and talk without being found. Come, or not, the choice is yours.” Her hand dropped, she turned and together with her kids they turned and disappeared into the wood.

Remal looked to Rhenora and Patin for input. “Well, we’ve come this far. What do you think?” He asked.

“ I don’t think we have much of a choice. Whoever sent those trackers are going to realize they’re not coming back and investigate. I think our time in the open should be limited to what is absolutely necessary. Unless you have a better idea of course” She answered, casting a wary eye to their surroundings and keeping an ear out for any more dogs. She had so many questions, but Zio hadn’t failed them yet, she only hoped that she wouldn’t ever.

Remal looked to Patin too, for she needed to feel important, “What say you, master of boom-town?”

“First rule of any mission, stay alive. If they can keep the bad asses off our asses, I say we stick with them. We can ask questions later” Patin replied, rummaging through her satchel to see what goodies, if any, were left. She didn't trust them, hadn't been given reason to yet, and this situation still felt like they were being led into a trap.

TBC