Aftermath

Posted on Sun Jan 4th, 2015 @ 1:06am by Lieutenant Commander Maurelle Valentine & Commodore Kathleen O'Shea & Civilian (Clearance) Erma-Jo Gleasin

Mission: Bloodpath
Location: Mobile Intelligence CP on Taranok IV

The building was dark only lit by emergency lighting following a large disturbance from outside. Upon first thought the shockwave would have felt like an earthquake shaking the structure violently knocking personnel and equipment alike all about the room.

James Sutherland lifted his head gingerly giving it a shake hurling several small bits of debris to the floor from his hair. He looked around the dimly lit room for signs of anyone and clues as to what had happened. For the first few moments his vision was blurred and his ears rang. All he could make out was faint outlines of the emergency lighting.

"Hey! Hey is anyone alive?" James called out as he struggled to his feet slowly fighting the vertigo and ringing in his ears.

Michelle Santiago pulled herself back into her chair and started to run a sensor sweep...well, at least she tried to. "Dammit...main power is offline. Switching to the batteries...nothing, sir." Others started to make their way back to their feet as she worked her console. "We're down, sir. Circuit relays are blown somewhere."

James rubbed his head attempting to clear his senses. "Do we have any in the scout?

"I'll go check on her." Santiago replied as she jumped out of her chair and headed for where their craft was stored.

From somewhere off to the side of where James was standing, the groggy groan of a female could be heard as Erma-Jo regained consciousness. As she did, she found herself trapped under a fallen shelving unit.

"Someone help me!" Erma called in the dark. "I'm trapped!"

James could barely make out Erma's calls over the ringing. He squinted in the general direction of the noise attempting to focus on the source. "Erma? Erma is that you?" he called out walking in a slightly crouched stance towards Erma.

"I'm trapped under the shelf!" She called out. From under the shelving unit, the only things visible were her head, shoulder, and arm as she struggled to lessen the weight pressing down on her.

James' vision began to clear and ringing toned down. His mind was now able to identify Erma's voice and her location. "Hold on Erma I'm coming." he said running over to the shelf. He grunted as he lifted the debris up off of Erma. "Can you wiggle out?" he asked as he continued to struggle to hold the shelf and debris off of her.

As he lifted the shelf, it was just enough for her to get out from under it. "I'm out." She said breathlessly as she moved to lean back against the nearby wall, cradling her leg. "What a way to start the day."

"You're telling me. I haven't had my bell rung that hard since my ex-wife clocked me with a frying pan." James said jokingly.

"This is the first time there's ever been an earthquake in this region." Erma said as she managed to get herself to her feet, and into a chair. As she looked at James, there was a small cut just above her eye, and some bruising on her upper shoulder where it had been struck by the falling shelf. "Much less one like that."

James took note of the cut on Erma's eye and quickly searched for the first aid kit. Remarkably the kit was still affixed to the wall and supplies were easy to access. "Holy crap would you look at that. That's good engineering there." James said as he retrieved the supplies.

He walked over to Erma setting the supplies on a nearby table grabbing an iodine wipe as he surveyed her cut. "Hold still Erma. You've got a nasty cut here. This is gonna sting a bit."

He gingerly dabbed the wipe on the cut to disinfect the wound. James had been lucky and only had some minor bruising on his face and arms and some torn spots on his uniform. He was also covered head to toe in dust.

Santiago returned carrying a small med kit as well. Seeing that James had already procured supplies, she sat it down on an inoperative console as she passed. "Ship's just fine, sir. I've got Thomas and Glenda working to troubleshoot the power problem. Most likely the junction box is blown...no idea what would cause that, though. Normally anything short of an EMP bust won't even effect it, and even then it's fairly well shielded just by design."

"Earthquakes don't happen in this region, and as far as I know, we don't have any kind of weapon that can generate an EMP." Erma said, looking at Santiago. "Ow!" She winced as James dabbed at the cut on her head.

"WE may not have anything that could generate an EMP but that doesn't mean there isn't someone else that does. If Thomas and Glenda can't get us back online we may have to do some recon the old fashion way." James replied as he finished up with Erma's cut.

"There we go." he said stepping back looking at the wound with a smile. "It clotted up nicely. How do you feel?" he asked Erma.

Before she could answer, an alarm sounded from across the room. One of the few systems that ran on internal backup power announced itself.

It was the radiation monitor.

"GET THE SUITS, GET THE SUITS!!!" James said as he barreled through the rubble towards the area where the EVA suits were held. As quick as he could grab the suits he began distributing them amongst the survivors. "Hurry up, get them on!" he exclaimed frantically as he too rushed to get his suit on.

Erma didn't have to be told twice, as she climbed into her suit. Once she was all suited up, she moved to where the alarm was. "Radiation levels are rising dangerously high." She said, looking back at James. "Anyone not wearing a suit won't survive."

"Do the door seals still work? Can we seal the room, or even the shuttle?" James asked.

"Talon's already sealed." Santiago replied, already suited up. "But we have another issue. How are we going to de-con to enter the ship? It's about to be too hot out here to do so. And more importantly, what the hell happened?"

"We need access to a window, or door or something." Erma replied. "Maybe if we can see outside, it'll give us some clue as to what's going on."

As if on cue the room started to shake violently, accompanied by a loud rumbling. Dust poured through the newly formed cracks in the concrete structure.

"I think that was the Strauman." Michelle said, referring to the 53 story Strauman Bank Center tower located just to their south. There would have been over 1500 people working in the entire complex...

"Son of a..." Jamie cursed. He looked back up to his team who stared back at him expectantly looking for direction. "We can't just sit here. Find us a way out and let's do this old school."

Erma shook her head as she continued checking the radiation alarm. "We've got another problem." She said, looking back at James. "If the radiation continues to rise at this rate, our suits will be useless in about 30 minutes, so we have to think of something, and fast."

"Then that settles it. We will just have to get the Talon out of here and worry about de-con later. Or just trash her...it's a moot point at this stage." Santiago looked around the room. "We need to eliminate all of this as well."

James walked over to a crate lifting it's lid and retrieving items from it. His back was turned to Erma and Santiago as he meddled with the items he retrieved. He turned to the two tossing them each a brick of explosives with a timer affixed. "Think these will help with that problem."

Santiago grinned. "Well, I was actually thinking a couple of torps once airborn, but...hey, anytime I get a chance to play with explosives I won't pass it up."

Erma looked at the item in her hand, then back at James. "Your people didn't teach me how to use explosives." She told him, tossing it back. "I'll work on moving some of what we need into the Talon, while you guys set this place to blow itself to smithereens."

"You've never learned how to press a red button?" James replied looking quizzically at Erma as she walked away before turning to Santiago. "Her loss." he said with a shrug. "Place the charges here, here and here." James said indicating to Santiago points on the structures main support beams. If the charges don't vaporize this place then all this will be buried in rubble. Let's make this quick."

Erma caught James' comment about the red button, but ignored it. She wasn't about to mess with something she was never trained for. Knowing her luck, she'd screw something up, and the charges would blow too early, or too late, or even blow up in her hand. She moved out the door of the room into the corridor beyond, the wrist light on her suit allowing her to see. She stopped as she saw a pile of rubble that used to be a wall, and a hand sticking out to lay lifeless on the floor. Moving on, she decided it was time to get moving, instead of looking.

*Several minutes later*

"Let's go!" Santaigo yelled as she stood on the rear loading ramp, ready to button the Talon up as soon as everybody was onboard. Everybody that was left. They only had minutes to get out of there. All of the charges were set, and everybody that was alive had been found. They hoped. Now all that was left to do was to eliminate the facility and get to safety.

If such a thing existed anymore.

Carrying the last load of items to load into the Talon, Erma was the last one to board the Talon. "Clear!" She said as she closed the hatch. "Get us out of here!"

James took his seat at the co-pilot's chair once he was satisfied all his personnel were onboard.

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Commander James Sutherland
HUMINT Specialist, Det OIC
Starfleet Intel-Gamma Division

Michelle Santiago
SIGINT Specialist
Starfleet Intel-Gamma Division

Erma-Jo Gleasin
Infiltration Specialist
Taranok Mobile Intel (Starfleet Hired)