Shield Takedown in 3

Posted on Fri Oct 6th, 2023 @ 12:28am by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Lieutenant JG Ghemora

Mission: Repairs and Retribution
Location: Kunar
Timeline: Current-ish

Her scanner showed someone was moving in their direction so she quickly shut and concealed the tricorder then tapped Ghemora on the shoulder and motioned '1'. Then she proceeded to carry on as though she were a Cardassian like any other.

"Agreed," Ghemora responded but then muttered, "...as long as you don't appear Bolian." She was starting to get a sense that the small mentions between Bonnie and the others were more than just idle joking, though she knew she'd still stand between the engineer and a soldier's disruptor if it came to it.

The sudden tap on her shoulder and Bonnie's mimed indication caused the Cardassian to stiffen as she stood, taking on the usual, if not a little tense given the outpost's situation, posture for those moving about as customary. "Just act like you're supposed to be here and we're headed to stabilize the shields," Ghemora whispered over her shoulder as she prepared the two for first contact with an opposing force.

As the tall Cardassian male came into view, he was clearly defensive. His rifle was drawn and at the ready. Clearly, he didn't know who or what to expect what with the power outages and random distant shouting. "Halt, who goes there? State your name and identity number." He bellowed in a low thick grumble of a voice. It was commanding, something Bonnie gave him credit for.

She stepped left and around Ghemora, accidentally knocking over an unseen bucket of water as she walked. It was somewhat hidden in the shadow and her eyes had been fixed upon the soldier. She stumbled, caught herself, then proceeded to act 'in character' even as the water raced towards his feet. "We were told to come and relieve you by the boss lady. She's wondering why it's taking so long to restore the power and demands we find out what seems to be taking so long while her prisoners run free." Bonnie sounded almost convincing herself it was true.

He lowered his guard slightly, the disrupter in his hands still pointing in their direction. She wondered if he bought it but would not get a chance to find out. Just as the water pooled at his feet, Cardassian cursing erupted within the power shed to his back. Then, as if the amperage in the electrical grid had suddenly been jacked up to 11, the lights lit up bright, reigning down sparks upon them. Then the light directly above the soldier arced a single bolt downward, passing through his body and into the water below. It was a split-second moment and then they were plunged into near darkness once more. He let out a single breath before falling face-first into the dirt.

Bonnie looked at Ghemora, "That went well." Then she gestured to the power shed, "After you?"

Turning her head to the side to look at Bonnie's Cardassian appearance as she stepped past the engineer, the Cardassian gave the slightest smirk and shake of her head as she muttered, "Lucky…" It was the most she could do not to snicker.

Pushing forward up to the power control shed, Ghemora pressed her back to the wall next to the open doorway. Faint whiffs and the strong smell of electrical smoke continued to flow out, but she could hear the slight sounds of someone working on the panels inside. Edging in and peeking through carefully, the woman spotted only one soldier, struggling to do work he was clearly underqualified to do, trying to make repairs.

Turning to look at Bonnie and raising her finger to her lips to indicate the need for silence, Ghemora swept her rifle behind her back and retrieved the hypospray she'd used before. Checking its settings, the Intel Officer disappeared silently into the power shed…

…The sound of a heavy body collapsing to the metal floor proceeded the woman's familiar voice calling, "We're clear," beckoning the engineer to enter. Once she'd stepped inside, she saw Ghemora dragging the unconscious loyalist to move his body out of the way, but pausing to look up to Bonnie to order, "Get to work deactivating the shield, but try to leave their secondary comms up if you can. If they go down, it could warn Lady Maccet of how much control she's lost, and keep us from being warned of any reinforcements she may have called in."

Once the unconscious soldier was out of the way, Ghemora checked that the disruptor pistol on her hip would pull easily free and was ready before moving over to an opposite console to get to work accessing and taking over the prison's comms array. She didn't look up as she stated, "If you need any help with a translation, just call it out."

Having attended what she thought was the best academy in the quadrant, Bonnie had learned dozens of languages and their syntax, roots, and even some of their fad dialects called slang. Her favorite language by far was zeros, ones, and twos however as she sat down and set to work. She let Ghemora's brash order slide into the back of her mind's filing cabinet for later and shrugged it off as the Cardassian woman was just that way. Bonnie had experienced her type before.

She hammered away at the console for about two minutes in silence as she concentrated on doing what she did best. The power grid contained only two rudimentary layers of redundancy and one of them had been compromised which had caused the power fluctuations in the first place. The tech had managed to bypass several of the relays and was overloading the one remaining system in an effort to keep the anti-transport shield in place. Once she realized this, she mapped out the relays and prepared a subroutine to shunt everything in the direction of the shield emitter.

She then stopped and looked at Ghemora, "How are you doing on the Comms? I think we should contact the ground team before this blows, just in case. I don't want anyone accidentally getting caught in the blast." A statement more than a question, she was simply looking for confirmation.

The previous power issues had caused several faults in the primary comms array, but the secondary comms array, which was situated parallel yet separated from the primary, was still functioning. Within only a couple of minutes, Ghemora had been able to 'piggyback' their encrypted Starfleet Comms signal onto it, giving the teams contact with each other despite the terrain.

"Got comms...What?!" the Intel Chief asked as she turned sharply to look at the engineer. "'Blows'?! What do you mean? Why are you causing it to blow? Why not just disable it so we an get our people out of here?" Ghemora asked with audible shock and confusion in her voice. She wasn't sure what purpose there was in causing an explosion in these circumstances besides needless death.

One thing was becoming clear to her as she closed up her 'jury-rigged' work: there seemed to be an overwhelming feeling of speciesism amongst some of the members sent on this team. It suddenly had her concerned for the well-being of herself and the others who had beamed down.

Readying herself to go back out into the fray, she told the woman, "Lieutenant, our comms should work as long as the secondary array is operational. I'm going to go help secure our people to get them to safety. Disable the Transporter Shield and notify when it's down." Gripping the disruptor rifle in both hands, the Cardassian dashed out of the shed to dive into the prison to find her crewmates...

Ghemora was slightly right, but then Bonnie may have exaggerated her words a bit. The truth was there was no telling how much damage would be done when the power was all channeled into the shield emitter. It wasn't as if she didn't care, she did. She simply cared more about ensuring they could get off this rock when the time came.

[Exit Ghemora]

And now she was on her own. Her partner effectively abandoned their teammate, a sign that future trust should not be applied. Something, something about dereliction of duty, for a later time perhaps. Bonnie activated the subroutine as planned. It would take a minute or two for the buildup to reach the emitter, she had that much time to warn the others.

She tapped her badge, "Lieutenant Durnell to ground team, if you are near the shield emitter, be aware it's about to blow. Zara has left me to do her own thing and I am unarmed. Sunfire, if you get this message and can get a lock, I'd sure appreciate a beam out." Closing the channel, she left the power shed as sparks erupted from the console. Outside the lights grew brighter momentarily and then shut off completely. In the distance, she could hear an explosion and the ground rumbled beneath her feet, and then silence once more.

TBC