The Archanis Campaign: Hazard Team Delta Squad

JShepard

Squad Leader: Ensign Vakai - Romulan Male

Squad Second/Pilot: Ensign James Ryker - Human Male

Squad Heavy Weapons: Petty Officer 3rd Class Gomo - Cardassian Male

Squad Demolitions: Crewman Gomez - Human Female

Squad Rifle-person: Crewman 2nd Class Koyda Daco - Bajoran Male

Squad Rifle-person: Crewman 2nd Class Maya Egil - Bajoran Female

The Archanis Campaign

Hazardous Territories

Mission: Infiltrate, Gather Intel, Exvil

After what happened on the Training Vessel with Vakai and Ryker, Starfleet decided to place them in charge of a Hazard team on an important mission to assist Starfleet in gathering vital intel to be done with the renegade Klingons. Whatever intel Delta Squad can acquire and bring to Starfleet, will likely be analyzed and hopefully used to end this conflict. So instead of sending a large assault team or several starships, a single team of six personnel will be deployed to a Colony that is being raided by the Hunters of D’Ghor and they will have to devise a means of getting into The Triangle and locating any sort of base the D’Ghor has, and get that intel….

JShepard

[Meronia Cluster]

[Federation Colony]

[Shuttle Pad]

After being deployed from the USS Vesta, the shuttle had reached its destination and made its landing on the Colony’s shuttle pad along with the other crafts that the Vesta had deployed. Vakai opened up the weapons locker and started handing out the Compression Rifles to each squad member. “The reports we got so far is that the D’Ghor raiding party is at the south of the colony. For right now, our job is to eliminate the threat to protect the citizens and secure the colony. Switch your rifles to beam mode and check your fire.”

“Do we get to kill these Klingons?” asked Gomo.

“The orders were very clear, Petty Officer. Eliminate the Threat. These Klingons want nothing more than to die an honorable battle, so let’s give it to them. Besides, Starfleet has not been able to extract information on any D’Ghor prisoners. Well if they did, they wouldn’t tell an Ensign anyways.” Vakai looked at the rest of them, “Are we all good then? No more questions?”

“No, sir.” They all announced. Vakai nodded his head once, “Good. We need to reach the south of the colony before the raiders advance any further and cause any more harm. So let’s move out and double time it.”

Gomez hit the hatch button, where the rear of the Type 11 Shuttle and once the door, rear hatch and ramp had stopped moving, they all came out in a column formation, hurrying down from the shuttle pad and then sprinted into the colony. As they grew closer to the sounds of scream and disruptor fire, they slowed their pace down to speed walking, rifles raised and checking their corners. Moment they knew they were about to cross paths with D’Ghor raiders, Vakai pointed at Ryker and signaled him to move towards the right to take cover behind crates, and he pointed at Gomez and Maya to go with him. Vakai then pointed at Gomo and Koyda to continue to follow him, where Vakai took the steps to the top of the premade building to the left of them. Vakai then pointed at Gomo and Koyda to deploy and cover behind the solid half wall railing while Vakai went to the third level of the premade building and took the catwalk that connected the building he was on to the one just to the right of it. Here he set himself up behind the solid half wall and activated the scope on his rifle while switching to marksman mode, the barrel extending about an inch and a half and the power settings adjusting accordingly.

They did not have to wait long as a dozen D’Ghor Klingons came running into their engagement zone and Vakai gave the signal by choosing his target and firing a phaser lance right into his chest, burning a hole straight to his heart, the warrior yelling out more in surprise than pain. Everyone else rose up from their cover spot and fired, five more went down and then six, the fight over in seconds.

The team regrouped together at the ground level, looking at the bodies. “Well, I was expecting it to be more fun.” Said Gomo.

“That’s what the element of surprise does. Makes it short, but sweet.” Maya grinned.

“Don’t we still have more to deal with, Vakai?” Ryker asked.

Vakai nodded his head once. “Intel suggested there was at least two dozen of D’Ghor Raiders. This batch are the ones that strike hard and fast, the other group mainly mops up anything left behind. They’re more precise and cautious, so we will have to be cautious too. Start checking buildings and be very careful on your targets. Gomo and Ryker search the south east wing. Maya and Koyda search the south west wing. Me and Gomez will check the rest.” Everyone acknowledged and split up per instructed, while Vakai reset his rifle settings back to normal before raising it up.

As Gomez and Vakai walked down the paths checking the buildings for any signs of the enemy, Vakai heard noise coming from up ahead. As they approached the building ahead of them where the noise was coming from, they pressed their backs up against the wall and peaked around their corner. Vakai pulled back and looked at Gomez, “I have an entrance here.” He whispered.

“So do I.” Whispered Gomez.

“Then you take that entrance and I’ll take mine. On three. One. Two...three!” They both twisted around their corner, rifles raised and came up to their doorways as the doors slid open. But apparently they caught the two Klingon Raiders right as they were leaving.

Vakai wasn’t able to see what was going on with Gomez when the Klingon brute in front of him started to swing his Bat’leth. Vakai moved his right hand from the pistol grip to the top of the rifle butt as quickly as he lifted and used the rifle to block the Klingon’s attack, connecting the rifle itself with the blade from each swing. Vakai took advantage of the next swing by deflecting the blade as far away as he can to make it difficult for the Klingon to recover before taking the butt head of his rifle and slamming it into the Klingon’s stomach, and when he lurched forward, Vakai tightened his grip on his rifle and slammed the side of if right into the bottom of the Klingon’s jaw.

As the Klingon fell to the ground, Vakai saw that Gomez was struggling with keeping the D’k tagh from reaching her chest. So Vakai raised his rifle up to fire but when he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. He looked down and saw the Klingon he knocked out had a pistol, so he reached for it, yanked it out of its holster, aimed and fired a bolt right into his side which made him turn around and face Vakai, which he fired several more disruptor bolts into his chest before he fell to the floor. Vakai then aimed the pistol at the unconscious Klingon at his feet and fired two bolts into his chest.

“You alright there, Gomez?” Vakai asked.

Gomez nodded her head as she hunched over a bit with her hands on her knees, catching her breath. “Yessir.”

“Good.” He then raised his rifle up in his left hand and inspected it, only to notice that not only was the power cell cracked, but the firing matrix was completely trashed. “Well this is useless.” He tossed the rifle into the room.

Gomez picked her rifle up off the floor and saw that it was perfectly fine, especially since the Klingon really just knocked it out of her hands rather than try to slice through it like Vakai’s did. “You can take mine.”

Vakai shook his head as he reached down into the Klingon’s vest and pulled out a rifle stock attachment, inserting it into place and then twisting it to lock it, hearing a slight wine and hum coming from it as the energy pack in the stock became active. “I’ll just use this.” He told her as he started adjusting the settings on it.

They both stepped out of the building to start looking for more Klingons when the rest of the team showed up. “We just killed three from our side,” said Ryker. “Same here.” Said Koyda. “So really, that leaves the pilot then?” Asked Gomo and Vakai nodded his head. “Seems that way. Ryker, Gomo, head back to the shuttle and prep it. Rest of us will go locate the craft the Klingon Raiders came in and secure it.” Ryker and Gomo nodded before heading back to the shuttle as the rest of them left the colony in a wedge formation, heading right past the treeline and into the forest.

Both Koyda and Maya were able to locate the tracks that they needed in order to follow all the way back to the craft that the D’Ghor raiders used. After traveling for about five kilometers, there was an opening that revealed a Klingon Transport. They dashed from the treeline right up to the transport before carefully walking up the ramp into the transport where they would find the pilot in the rear bay with his back turned. Vakai gave a nod to Koyda, who fired the kill shot right into the pilot’s back, and simply watched the klingon hit the deck, hard.

“Well that was easy.” Said Gomez as everyone lowered their weapons.

“It won’t be from here on out.” Vakai told her, “Koyda, Maya, do something about that body before it stinks up our new home.” He then tapped his badge. “Vakai to Ryker.”

“Ryker here.”

“Hone in on my signal, the Raiders’ craft has been secured.”

“Copy that. Ryker out.”

Vakai watched as Koyda and Maya heaved the body up off the floor, carried it half way down the ramp and then dropped it right over, watching it hit the ground. “I need all of you to start inspecting the transport. See what supplies we have, any issues the transport has, and how much fuel this vessel has.” All three of them nodded, all pulling the strap out of the butt of their rifles, fastening them to their barrels and slinging their rifles before doing their tasks.

Vakai headed on down the ramp and stood there before it while he waited for the shuttle to appear, which really didn’t take long when he just saw it pass over and swing around. He knew that was Ryker’s way of picking a good landing spot before doing so. Vakai then went on over to the shuttle once it had landed to assist in unloading their supplies and bringing it over to the ramp of the transport. In about twenty minutes, Gomez, Koyda and Maya came down the ramp to make their report.

“We have about a dozen Bat’leths, Mek’leths and a crate full of disruptor pistols with a few rifle stock attachments. But also found a crate full of various weapons. Starfleet hand phasers, rifles, even some Orion weapons.” Reported Koyda.

“There are a couple crates of rations, what exactly...I don’t know. I know some are Klingon, some even Federation, but others...not quite sure.” Reported Maya.

“Transport seems to be intact, there’s a fluctuation in one of the main thrusters but nothing I can’t fix. As for the fuel level, there appears to be enough to return to where this transport came from in The Triangle, which I took the liberty of checking. This transport came from a planet that appears to be a base camp of some sort for the Hunters of D’Ghor.” Reported Gomez.

Gomo tilted his head. “You, a technician? I find that to be a surprise, especially for a demolitions expert.”

Gomez scoffed. “I found the best way to demolish something, ya gotta know how to fix it first.”

“Sound advice.” Ryker chuckled.

“I guess we’re going to have to take what deuterium we have in the shuttle and transfer it over to the transport if we want to make it out of The Triangle alive.” said Vakai, Ryker and Gomo nodding their heads and heading right back to the shuttle to set up the transfer. Ryker simply moved the shuttle closer to the transport where the fueling port would be and Gomo took a hose to connect both crafts before making the transfer.

“So what are we going to do about my baby?” Ryker asked when he came back out of the shuttle.

Vakai smirked. “Before we leave the system, I’ll send a transmission to USS Vesta to let the Captain know where we are going and where we left our shuttle. Just leave enough deuterium in there for them to be able to pick it up.”

“Can’t they just transport it?” Asked Maya.

Ryker chuckled, “That’s if the Vesta has the transporters that can do it.”

“Figured all starships did.”

“Yeah but Vesta is built for speed, not a carrier.”

“Alright, transfer is complete. I left just enough in the shuttle’s tank.” announced Gomo.

Vakai sighed softly and then looked at everyone. “All right team, this is where the hard part starts. Ship transport likely don’t go faster than warp five-”

Gomez shook her head. “Barely.”

“And so we will likely be living on it for a few days if not longer. So even though we will be bringing out supplies, we do have plenty on board the transport. Most likely spoils from their previous raids. Nevertheless, we may or may not even find what we are after at this base camp that we’re going to. So we have to be prepared for the long haul. Meaning, make yourselves at home and try not to bite each other’s heads off, understood?” Vakai looked at them all.

“Understood.” All of them said before they started bringing their supplies from the bottom of the ramp up into the transport, aside from Ryker standing there beside Vakai.

“Think we’re going to get what Starfleet is hoping for?” Ryker asked.

Vakai shrugged his shoulders. “These aren’t typical Klingon renegades. They don’t dress like normal Klingons, and their tactics are wild. If we find any sort of computer terminal at this base camp, we’d be lucky it holds anything valuable.”

Ryker nodded his head. “So we could just be on some wild goose chase, likely risking our lives for nothing?”

Vakai shrugged again. “We signed up knowing the risks, so did they.” He pointed at the Non-Coms. “All we can do is put our training to use and hope for the best.”

Ryker nodded again and then chuckled when Gomez came down the ramp with a Compression Rifle. “I asked Koyda where he found the crate of weapons when he mentioned Starfleet weapons were amongst them. Figured you’d like a replacement.”

Vakai smiled, taking the Compression Rifle with his right hand and handing off the Klingon Rifle with his left. “Appreciate it, Gomez.”

“Any time.” She took the Klingon weapon and headed right back up the ramp.

“Think she’s got it for ya.” Ryker smirked.

Vakai shook his head. “I doubt it. I only saved her life, is all.”

Ryker chuckled again. “Well, saving someone’s life tends to have an affect on them.” But before Vakai could say anything, Ryker started heading up the ramp. “I’m going to prep the transport for take off.”

Vakai sighed before grabbing the last bit of supplies left at the bottom of the ramp and then headed on up. Koyda and Maya took the items from Vakai, only to go pressing a couple buttons to make the ramp come up and the hatch close. Vakai then headed on off to the ‘bridge’ where he took the Co-Pilot seat to check up on the launch prep. Once everything was in the green, sort of, he went and typed up a message before sending it off to USS Vesta. The message was simple:

-Klingon Raiders eliminated, colony should be secure now. Found a D’Ghor transport that came from this system, coordinates attached. Heading off to The Triangle to see what is there in that system. Left our shuttle at these coordinates, should have enough deuterium in it to take off from the planet surface and be stowed on board whenever you get the chance. But if you don’t pick it up, it’s no issue, we’ll have it locked down, which will need these codes to gain access to it. Still have your offer in my back pocket, will use it if we get in trouble.

Sincerely,

Vakai

Vakai then sat back in his seat and watched as Ryker got the transport up off the ground and slowly got them out of the planet’s atmosphere. As soon as they left the planet’s orbit, Ryker increased speed to get them far away enough before taking them into warp. Though when he increased the transport’s speed to warp 5.3, it’s maximum, it began to start shaking uncomfortably, making Ryker dial it back to just warp 5.

“I really don’t feel safe flying this thing.” Ryker laughed.

Vakai smirked and shrugged his left shoulder. “They got here on this thing, so we’ll make it there with it as well.”

“Sure as hell hope so.” Ryker said as he checked his displays, looking over the readouts.

Vakai nodded his head. “So do I. So. Do. I.” Then Vakai got up and headed on to the back to grab himself something to eat and to check on the rest of his team.

JShepard

[The Triangle]

[D’Ghor Transport]

[3 Days Later…]

It had been a long three days of crossing through empty space towards the system that this transport originally came from. The team spent mostly doing what exercises that they can, weapon checks, and keeping themselves entertained through the whole trip. Other than that, they’ve also come up with better sleeping arrangements than the Klingons originally had, setting up hammocks in various rooms that appeared to be sleeping rooms.

Vakai was just finishing his breakfast of Romulan rations, one of the random rations that were found in one of the crates, as he sat down at the Co-Pilot seat to check the displays on their progress.

“We’re about fifteen minutes away.” Ryker told him as he adjusted himself in the seat. “God they do not make these seats comfortable.”

“They’re Klingons. They believe comfort makes them weak.” Vakai sat back and watched the stars.

“You think being sat down at a console for many hours of the day, they would add some sort of cushion.”

Vakai shook his head. “I’m going to let the team know that we’re almost there.” Then he got up from the seat and headed on towards the hold where the team were doing whatever they could to keep themselves entertained.

Gomez doing pushups, Koyda and Maya throwing knives at some board with the D’Ghor’s leader’s face on it, and Gomo doing routine maintenance on what appeared to be a micro quantum launcher.

Vakai decided that this may be the best moment to get the team to know each other better. “Hey guys, I need your ears for a moment.” He said as he pulled up a crate half as tall as him and sat down on the lid. “I think before we get into the mess of things, we should say a bit about each other. Gomez, how about you start.”

Gomez had gotten up to her feet when Vakai asked for their attention, nodded her head and placed her hands on her hips as she caught her breath. “My name is Sophia Gomez. I am a Crewman in the Starfleet Hazard Team Division. I am a Demolitions Expert, basically I blow stuff up.”

“What were you doing before this, Gomez?” Vakai asked.

“I was actually a technician at the Devron Fleet Yards before you picked me up, sir. The Hazard Team thing was just a secondary that I took as a just in case measure really.” Gomez answered.

Vakai nodded and then looked to Gomo.

“Well now I guess it is my turn, and I thought we already went through the mess of things.” No one said anything. “Tough crowd. Anyways, I am Petty Officer Third Class Gomo at your service. I am essentially a Heavy Weapons expert from Phaser Minigun to the Micro Quantum Launcher here. But before the calling, I was actually on board one of the ships on border patrol as a Security Officer.”

“Why did you join Starfleet, Gomo?”

“Ah, had a feeling you were going to ask me that. It’s because I’m Cardassian, isn’t it? And I am one of the very few, am I right? What about you, sir? Why did you join Starfleet?”

Vakai smirked. “I joined because my parents and foster parents encouraged me to. My Parents are members of the Tal Shiar and they sent me to Earth because they did not wish for me to be indoctrinated into the Tal Shiar. Believe it or not, but some children born from members already in the Tal Shiar tend to get implants and some gene modifications almost immediately after birth and then are literally molded into a perfect Tal Shiar agent. My parents did not want that. Plus my parents were not given ‘permission’ to have me either, nor were they given ‘permission’ to fall in love. Tal Shiar is very strict with their policies, especially when it comes to who can be mates and who can not. But I could be wrong. Tal Shiar don’t tell their agents everything, and they tend to mislead their own from time to time. Very suspicious nature.”

“Oh.” Said Gomo. “Well I joined out of spite of my parents. They wanted me to join the Cardassian Military, if you can call it one but me and my parents never truly got along so instead of doing what they wanted, I did the complete opposite. And I thought, why not Starfleet? They did, however, save our homeworld. But for some reason my people are still...angry and I never could understand why.” Gomo shrugged, “It doesn’t matter to me anymore really, I was a rebel child, spoiled rebel child, I think that may have been why I hated my parents so much. Despite how hard it has been to rebuild Cardassia, my parents still had it all and just gave me everything I wanted even when I could see all the other children my age getting hardly anything they wanted. It felt like I was part of some...class higher than others and I felt disgusted. So I lashed out the best way I could. How am I doing so far?”

Vakai grinned, “Fine, Gomo. Just fine.” He looked to Koyda and Maya.

“Well, my name is Koyda Daco.”

“And I am Maya Egil.”

“We are both Crewmen Second Class and served together on an outpost just along the border. We mostly monitored communications and did our own maintenance when needed. Outpost was short on crew so, if anything broke, we had to fix it ourselves. You know, one of those old Outposts that Starfleet has tried to upgrade but things tend to get in the way of that, or some major crisis comes up and resources are needed elsewhere, that sort of thing.” Koyda said.

“We were actually just about to take a trip to Bajor to have our marriage ceremony and play some Dabo on Deep Space 9.” Said Maya, “But then these Hunters show up and our vacation is cancelled and start pulling double shifts…”

“We were actually really glad that you chose us to be part of your team, sir. We knew our part was important but we were going out of our minds on that Outpost.”

Vakai nodded his head, “Well I do apologize that your marriage arrangements were cancelled, surely after all of this, you’ll be able to get it right back on track. As for myself and Ryker, we both just graduated from Starfleet Academy not too long ago. We were actually on board the Training Vessel that was captured by a different group of Klingons with a different agenda than the Hunters of D’Ghor had. Whatever Starfleet Intelligence knows about this group, they’re not going to share it with an Ensign like myself. Nevertheless, because of what me and Ryker went through, they thought that we would be suited to lead a team into The Triangle and gather some intel. Plus Ryker is a really good pilot and I have quite a bit of extensive training under my belt. I know several forms of Martial Arts, both from my parents and foster parents and I know how the Tal Shiar work, so those kinds of skills come in handy.”

“Geez, your parents leave you holo-training programs or something?” Gomez asked.

Vakai grinned, “Something like that. I had months of notes, messages, letters, training instructions and the like left by my parents and when my foster parents handed all of that to me and explained to me where I came from and learned it from my actual parents, I had no intention of skipping any of it. I knew I was different, ears were a dead give away and seeing that I wasn’t on Vulcan or with Vulcan parents, I knew I wasn’t Vulcan.”

“Hey, if you guys are done with the bonding and all, we’re entering the system now.” Ryker said over the intercom.

Vakai stood up from the crate. “Gear up, we should not be that far from the planet now. As soon as me and Ryker get an idea of the layout and where we decide to park, we’ll let you know what the game plan is.”

“Yessir.” Said the team before Vakai went back to the Pilot section of the transport.

“What’s our time?” Vakai asked.

“We’re about ten minutes away from the planet. I did a quick passive scan, not wanting to draw attention and managed to locate the camp. We came in at a great time. The camp just entered the dark side of the planet, so we will have the darkness on our side. And what is even better,” Ryker pointed at the display at the Co-Pilot station where Vakai just sat down and took a look. “Heavy rainfall. So not only will we have the cover of darkness-”

“We will have the clouds and the rain to help as well.” Vakai said as he went over more of the data on his displays.

“Precisely. This should be an easy mission.” Ryker grinned.

Vakai sighed, “Until you jinxed us.”

“Bah c’mon. Who believes in that superstition crap? We got all the elements we need to get in, get the data, and get out with almost no conflict at all.”

“Mhmm. Set us down here,” Vakai marked the spot and sent it to Ryker’s display. “It’s a couple kilometers away from the camp.”

“Wouldn’t they be suspicious if we land outside the Camp and not where the landing zones are in the camp?” Ryker asked.

“We would look suspicious coming home early.” Vakai told him. “I had been doing some reading, whatever there was in the computer, and this ship was not due back for another week.”

“I see. All right. Outside the camp it is. So what’s the plan?”

Vakai smirked. “I’ll let you know once I have one.”

“Oh boy….” Ryker chuckled

JShepard

[The Triangle]

[D’Ghor Transport]

[4 Kilometers away from D’Ghor Base Camp]

[Time is roughly Midnight]

[Weather - Heavy Rainfall]

A pile of clothes was just dropped onto the floor in front of everyone, all who looked down at the clothes now looked up at Vakai who dropped them. “So here is the plan. Ryker, Gomo, you two will stay here on the transport. In case things go south, and I mean really south. I’m going to need you two to fly over the top of the camp and provide some sort of air support.”

Gomez nudged Gomo’s side with her elbow and then air quotes. “Air support.”

Vakai smirked but ignored it as he looked at Koyda and Maya. “You two will be coming with me and Gomez into the Camp. All four of us will be wearing D’Ghor outfits. Now, with how dark it is, with these clothes and helmets, we’ll pretty much look like any other among the Hunters of D’Ghor. That should make it easy to locate the computer terminal and gather what intel we can. So honestly, you guys, this should be a piece of cake.”

“You say that now, but what you have done is doomed us all to oblivion.” Said Gomo.

Gomez snickered, “C’mon now. You. Superstitious?”

“Oh don’t get me wrong. I create my own luck. But still, I err the side of caution and refrain from saying that a job would be easy.”

Maya grinned, “This from experience then, Gomo?”

Gomo looked at the bajoran woman, “You could say that.”

Vakai raised his hands. “Relax. From what I’ve been told on numerous occasions…”

Ryker spoke up, “Romulans don’t believe in luck.”

Vakai eyed Ryker before looking at everyone, “Like Ryker said, we do not. But I wasn’t raised by my Romulan parents. I was raised by my Human foster parents on Earth. Nevertheless, I’m with Gomo. I create my own luck.”

Gomez shrugged before reaching down and grabbing the clothing. “So how do we put these on?”

The team spent about an hour of getting changed, and applying black paint on their faces before putting the helmets on. Vakai suggested it as a precaution in case it is not dark enough outside. Then they would gather up by the main hatch, checking their equipment.

“Keep our tricorders hidden under these clothes. I don’t want the Klingons spotting those.” Vakai instructed before lifting up the Klingon Rifle and checking it. “Also make sure to check your power cells on your Rifles and pistols. If things get hairy, I don’t want anyone to try to discharge a weapon with a cracked or dead power cell.” Vakai then looked at the three of them, all looking like Klingons of the Hunters of D’Ghor now. Sort of. “Are we ready?”

After a minute of double checking their gear, Maya and Koyda having some stun and plasma grenades on their belts, about two each, Gomez would be the same but she was carrying three each, and instead of stun, photon.

Vakai then looked at Gomo. “One of those containers had a grenade launcher, correct?” Gomo started eyeing one container at a time before he recognized the container, tossed the top off of it and pulled out the launcher.

“It’s crude and looks like it has seen better days and from the looks of ammunition...I got maybe a couple photon shells and a couple smoke shells…” Gomo let out a heavy sigh of disappointment. “That’s it, sir. The Hunters must have used the majority of it in their previous raids.”

Vakai made sure he took note of it before nodding his head. “All right. When I call you and Ryker in, be ready with that launcher. Because those smoke grenades are going to come in handy for when we need to escape.”

“How many Klingons are here?” Gomez asked.

Vakai froze when she asked that. That sadly was the one thing that him and Ryker forgot to check. Vakai cleared his throat, “We couldn’t exactly get a good read with this storm so…”

“He doesn’t know.” Said Maya.

Gomez stared at Vakai. “Sir?”

Vakai sighed heavily. “Yes, that is correct. I do not know. Hopefully with these costumes and the cover of the night, rain and clouds, we should be able to pull this off without a hitch.”

“But what do we do if we come across a whole battalion?” Koyda asked.

Vakai sighed again, “If the numbers of our enemy are too great, I’ll call it off. Is that satisfying enough?”

“No.” Said Gomez as she hit the mechanism that started to open the main hatch and lower the ramp, soon the sound of pouring rain reached their ears. “Because Starfleet wants their intel.”

“Besides! More Klingons the better!” Said Gomo as he lifted up what looked like some sort of energy minigun. Everyone looked at him with a bit of shock. “What? Oh this thing? Yeah it would be great if it worked, wouldn’t it? I mean, could you just imagine the look on the Klingons face when this transport hovered above them, me strapped to the ship, and standing there on the edge of the ramp with this thing in my hands? They too would be shocked, just as you are.” Gomo then tilted it where he could see the power unit. “Sadly, if this was used by those Klingons that were using this ship, they drained the cell.” He said with disappointment in his voice before dropping it on the deck in between a couple crates.

Everyone else looked at each other a bit relieved while Vakai shook his head, Ryker...well he was sitting in the cockpit, just waiting for the call. “Try not to break anything, we need this ship to get off of this rock.” Vakai told him.

“I will do the best that I can.” Gomo smiled.

Vakai shrugged his left shoulder and started walking down the ramp, soon Gomez, Koyda and Maya followed right behind him. He quickly took his tricorder out to pick up the marker he had placed where the camp is, just to get his bearing before he gestured to them to follow as he stepped off the ramp, right onto the damp earth and started walking. He would put the tricorder away and trusted his sense of direction would bring him right to the enemy camp, as he picked up the pace and started to jog, the three behind him picking right up.

Due to the rain, terrain on their path, considering they had to go through woods to get to the camp, and double checking their bearing with their tricorder, it took them forty-five minutes to make it to the very perimeter of the camp. Now, they were crotched behind some trees while Vakai and Gomez were attempting to get life sign readings inside the camp. Vakai kept recalibrating his tricorder but he kept getting mixed numbers between twelve and twenty-three. And from the sound of Gomez’s curses under her breath, she must be getting the same issue.

Vakai stayed crotched as he went over to her, just to check up on her. “Having the same problem as I am?”

Gomez sighed as she lowered her tricorder and looked towards the camp. “I can’t get an accurate reading. I don’t know if it is because they got something in the camp that is distorting our readings or if maybe the atmosphere is causing issues or the storm. I honestly do not know, the tricorder can’t even tell me what the interference is either.”

Vakai thought about it for a moment, “It may very much be man made interference. Or something in the soil, on this planet. These Klingons chose this planet for a reason, it can’t be just because it’s close to the Meronia Colonies.”

“Well when we’re done dealing with these dam rebels, maybe Starfleet will send a science vessel to investigate.” Gomez smirked.

“Maybe. If someone else doesn’t lay a claim on the planet by then. It’s probably nothing special either, just something we didn’t check with the transport’s sensors. Or the transport’s sensors are not sophisticated enough to detect it. It is old.” Vakai looked at his tricorder again. “I’m getting readings between twelve and twenty-three lifesigns. You?”

Gomez raised hers and smirked again. “Fifteen and twenty-four.”

Vakai raised his left brow. “Now that is interesting. So our best guess is that they have roughly a dozen to almost two dozen warriors here.”

Gomez sighed and nodded. “That seems to be what we’re getting.”

Vakai smiled, “Then this won’t be so bad after all. Most of them should be asleep.”

“If they sleep at all.” Maya said. Vakai having now just realized that Maya and Koyda had gotten closer to the two of them.

“They will probably have a guard or two patrolling the camp. Can’t be too cautious, right?” Said Koyda.

Vakai shrugged, “Guess we will find out. None of you have seen any silhouettes have you?” All three of them shook their heads ‘No’ at him. “All right then. We move in, carefully and quietly. Even if our tricorders are not getting an accurate reading on life signs, it should still lead us right to the computer terminal.” Three of them nodded, then Vakai nodded at them before standing up and slowly walking towards the camp with his rifle at the ready across his chest, butt up against his right shoulder and the barrel down aiming at the ground near his left hip. The three of them followed suit right behind, now in a diamond formation as they walked right into camp like they were just part of the group. But they had their heads on a swivel, carefully looking around the tents, checking ends here and there, making sure that they were not caught off guard by a random Klingon.

There were indeed a lot of tents and a few premade structures up, each one having a power generator connected to them. Likely for the interior lights, food replicators if they had any, and other uses for power. But one of them stood out the most. It was slightly bigger, with a large dish on top with a couple long antennae coming out from the center of it. That was the one that Vakai believed they should head to and that is where he led the team. First he pulled out his tricorder when they reached the door and tried to narrow down the search band to see if he picked up anyone inside but it wasn’t cooperating. He sighed and tucked his tricorder away before looking at the three of them.

“Maya, it’s a lever door, no automatic mechanism. See if you can peek inside.” Vakai ordered and Maya nodded, crouching down before reaching the door. She ever so slowly started to turn the lever upwards until she felt the door give away and then she ever so slowly opened it to look inside. Moment she got a wide enough crack just for her right eye alone, she looked inside and saw two Klingons. Biting her lower lip, she eased the handle back to its original position, not wanting to have it spring back and make some sort of noise. Then she looked at Vakai and raised two fingers. Vakai whispered ‘Stun Grenade’. Maya nodded her head, acknowledging before reaching under her outfit to grab a stun grenade, where she then adjusted the timer as well as the stun range before activating it. She then pulled the door open wider, rolled the grenade up to the two Klingons and closed the door just enough to not be affected by the grenade, but also looked away as well...just a precaution really.

When they heard the bodies hit the floor, Maya quickly opened the door and went in, Vakai and the others right behind her as they stormed in. After seeing the two only Klingons were unconscious on the floor, Vakai tapped both Maya and Koyda’s shoulders and gestured to the door. Both immediately knew that he wanted them to stand watch outside, which is what they did, keeping the door open just a crack.

Vakai looked at the two unconscious Klingons before pulling out his disruptor pistol and adjusted the settings. “You’re going to kill them?” Gomez asked.

“Can’t have them waking up and alerting the camp when we leave here.” Vakai told her.

“Should have just done that in the first place then.”

Vakai looked at her. “You can only effectively kill a Klingon at point blank range at a specific setting without the sound of the blaster leaving the pistol and alerting the sleeping Klingons around us. Besides...they have killed many of our own without a single care if they were innocent, armed or unarmed, including women and children. They have no honor and to the Klingon Empire, this...killing them like this...is justice.”

Gomez bit her bottom lip and shook her head. “Can’t we just...wait and see if we find anything useful first? Besides...Starfleet is better than them, better than the Klingon Empire itself. We are better than them. We just don’t kill like this.”

Vakai sighed and then holstered his disruptor before accessing the computer. “Suppose it wouldn’t matter if I killed them anyways, the rest of these Klingons would have been alerted no matter what.” He said as he stared at the screen while accessing files.

Gomez sighed in relief with a small smile. “Thank you.” She whispered then she waited for like five minutes before asking, “Anything?”

Vakai shook his head, “A lot of these files are just garbage. Reports of weather. Reports of how much food has been eaten. Reports of who challenged who, who won and who died.” Vakai slammed his hands on the desk. “Dam it!! Nothing but junk here! There are even reports here of who went out into the woods to take a damn bathroom break.” He growled. “The hell am I supposed to bring back to Starfleet? All of this here...is not just garbage. It’s all a dam joke!!”

Gomez blinked and thought for a moment. “Have you checked everything? All the files? What about the comms? They must use their communications for something.”

Vakai sighed, nodded his head and started looking through the root directory before entering the communications directory. He started scrolling through records, “Comm traffic of mostly supply requests. Few comm traffic of ships landing and leaving and…” Vakai paused and stared hard at one of the records.

“And?” Gomez asked, her curiosity peaking.

Vakai looked at her with his right brow raised. “Large data files being transmitted off world, to one single location.” He said before scrolling further in the records and found another. “Here, a second one, same location.” He kept scrolling before pointing at the screen. “Third. All large.” He then took a step back and started to think. “If they have zero records of their raids, deployment information, number of ships in The Triangle, especially since there is literally no record of what class of ship, name or how much cargo that is dropped off in their supply records...then that means they compile all the important information, information that we are looking for, into a single file and send it directly to one location. This location.” He points at the screen, right at the destination of one of the large files. “Now we just need to know where this goes and what is on the receiving end.”

“Which I suppose is not on this computer.” Gomez theorized out loud.

Vakai nodded his head in agreement. “It is not. They are very cautious about something. Planning something most likely. Something that they absolutely do not want to fall into the wrong hands. Our hands. These are definitely not ordinary renegades.”

“Can we just find the coordinates that the transmission goes to and see what is there?” She asked.

Vakai sighed and started to rub the bridge of his nose with his right thumb and index finger. “We can. Problem is we do not know if we will find another planet, or maybe a station or worse...their flagship or a fleet of ships. If it is another planet, it is likely more heavily guarded and filled with more Klingons than this camp is. If it is a station...I don’t know, probably the same as the planet. If it is their flagship or a fleet of ships, they’ll question why there is a transport in the area and realize that there are no Klingons on board and blast us.”

Gomez let out a sigh herself and then shrugged her shoulders. “Screw it. We’re a Hazard Team. We were trained to take on more riskier jobs than any other Away Team. Hell if Starfleet still had the MACOs, that’s what we would be right now.”

Vakai looked at her and raised his right brow. “The MACOs?”

Gomez waved her hand. “Just some old organization I read about, that was formed before the Federation was, and pretty much disbanded right after the Federation was formed. But they were trained specifically to take on riskier jobs than any normal Away Team. Which is exactly what the Hazard Team does. Thing is, Hazard Teams are considered secondary. MACOs...they were one hundred percent MACO, nothing else.”

Vakai nodded his head, “But Starfleet is not a military organization. So there is no need for them.”

Gomez sighed, “The way shit has been hitting the fan lately… Dominion War… Borg Cube entering the Sol System and almost reaching Earth… and all the other shit that keeps happening… Mars… THIS… We should get the MACOs back…”

Vakai shrugged his left shoulder. “As you said, that is exactly what the Hazard Team is, just we’re more stand by than full active. Which is what Starfleet prefers. To be active on normal Starfleet duties and be on standby in case…” He raised his arms, generalizing the camp and pretty much everything, “Of this.”

Gomez sighed again with a nod and was about to say something before a flashing red light came from the screen. “What is that?”

Vakai looked at the screen and then tapped on the blinking button that was emitting the flashing red light and it brought him to a whole new screen saying something about entering a code. “Oh hell.”

“Oh hell…...what?” Gomez asked.

Vakai grabbed his rifle off the desk and powered it up. “This damn thing is rigged to require a pass code at every interval.”

“Wait...what…?”

“Meaning, every hour or two hours or six hours, whatever...this console requires one of these Klingons here, or any other Klingon who is guarding this computer to enter a passcode before that time runs out. If they do not do it and this clock hits zero, an alarm will go off.” Vakai told her.

“Wait...what?! Stop it!”

“Why do you think I’m getting my rifle?! I don’t know the damn code!” And with that, the timer hit zero and the loud, klingon standard, klaxon went off. Maya and Koyda coming in with concerned looks in their eyes.

“You just had to say that this would be a piece of cake!” Gomez told him as she raised her rifle and powered it up.

“Was Gomo right?” Maya asked.

Gomez looked at her. “He was right. Our leader jinxed us.”

“Are you serious?!” Maya looked at Vakai.

“Hey, how the hell was I supposed to know that they rigged up this damn computer like this?” He asked them. “Look, what is done, is done. We’re going to have to fight our way out.” He took his rifle in his left hand and tapped his communicator under his outfit. “Vakai to Ryker.”

“What did you do, Vakai? I can hear that damn alarm all the way out here!”

Vakai rolled his eyes. “Going to need you to come provide that air support.”

“On my way. Ryker out.” Vakai watched as the three of them went towards the door, so he unholstered his disruptor pistol, and fired on the unconscious Klingons on the floor, ensuring that they were never going to wake up. When he holstered his pistol and looked at the door, he could see the look in their eyes. “I’m the leader. I carry the responsibility and the burden, alright. Let’s go.” He said as he walked over to the door and kicked it open.

The moment that door flew open, Vakai rose up his rifle, found his first dark silhouette and fired, sending a green bolt of light that partially lit up the camp only to strike right into a Klingon’s chest. The other three, coming out one by one, chose their targets and fired. First Gomez, who rolled to the left, saw a dark silhouette and pulled the trigger. Maya came second, rolling to the right and shooting at two dark silhouettes. Koyda then took position between Vakai and Maya and took out yet another dark silhouette. That’s all they saw with how dark it was, just a bunch of darker silhouettes closing in, with no faces, no distinguished marks. All they knew was that the four of them were the only ones on the ground, and the other two members of their team were just approaching from the sky and hovering from above, so all they needed to do was aim and shoot. The ramp, about over half way down, stood Gomo who had four straps, two hooked to his left and two to his right belt, were hooked to the interior of the ship, essentially keeping him stable and from falling off. He held a compression rifle in his hands and used the scope to pick up heat signatures, but also picking up the IFF tags from the four team members’ comm badges, letting him know who were friendly and not to shoot them. From there, he fired several phaser bolts towards a few targets.

“Hey, Vakai!” Ryker’s voice bellowed out of Vakai’s comm badge. He reached in and tapped it before returning his focus on any incoming Klingons. No one could see in this damn darkness, the Klingons were essentially running blind right into their line of fire, so they had no reason to move from what Vakai is calling the Comm building. “What is it?”

“Did you pick up any other readings besides Klingon in the camp?” Ryker asked.

Vakai’s heart sank and he could feel the eyes of the others on him, surely thinking the same thing he is. Did they just fire blindly at those who could have been friendlies? Prisoners? “No, our tricorders were having problems picking up lifesigns.”

“I thought so. Just from being right here above the camp, I am able to pick up different lifesigns. We got about over a dozen more Klingons left in the camp, and aside from you guys, I got a Vulcan lifesign.”

Vakai raised his right brow. “Where?”

“In one of the buildings, just south of your current position.”

“We haven’t even bothered to check the other buildings, we just assumed that they were set up for chow.” Said Gomez.

Vakai nodded his head, as he had assumed the same. “Gomo, cover us, we’re going to check out that building.”

“Figured you were going to say that. Give me a second, I got a group of Klingons near that building to clear out.” Gomo said and there was silence, no phaser fire coming from the transport.

“Gomo, if you’re going to use what I think you’re using, be care-” A sudden loud ‘Thoomp’ came from the ramp above them and a few seconds later, an explosion.

“Don’t worry! I completely missed the building! But I bet those Klingons wished I missed them too!” Said Gomo.

Vakai sighed and tapped his badge to end the comm link before gesturing his squad to follow as he took lead towards the building. They quickly walked towards it but carefully, firing on anything that got close to them before reaching the door. Vakai quickly opened it and saw that there were no Klingons inside, just the Vulcan, in a targ cage.

“Is it safe to assume that you are the cause of the commotion outside of my cage?” asked the Vulcan female.

Vakai aimed his rifle at the lock. “Get back.” He said and when she did, he fired, destroying the lock all together before opening the cage door wide open and held out his hand to her. She reached out and took his hand, allowing him to help her be pulled out of the cage, where she grunted as she was finally able to stand and stretch her out her arms and legs. Vakai noticed the pips on her uniform, as well as the shoulders being blue. “A Lieutenant, Junior Grade?”

She was done stretching the moment he asked about her rank, where she looked at it, as if she had forgotten she wore any pips at all before looking back at him and gave him a single nod. “Indeed, I am.” Then she tilted her head. “You are Romulan?”

Vakai nodded, pursing his lips. “Yeah, what of it? I’m not the only Romulan in Starfleet.”

She blinked as she tilted her head back, as if his words had hit her. “Of course. I did not mean to offend. I was simply surprised. I had expected the crew of my ship to be the ones to rescue me, and as far as I was aware, there were no Romulans serving on board it.”

“Well, sorry to burst your bubble, Lieutenant…?”

“Sivol.” She answered.

“Sivol. Look. I do not know what ship you came from, and unfortunately, if there were reports of officers' missions in action, I didn’t receive any. My mission was solely to gather intel on the Hunters of D’Ghor and bring it back to Starfleet for analysis.” Vakai told her.

Sivol looked away, a slight look of irritation. “So I am nothing but a secondary that you never knew until you arrived on the planet.”

Vakai swallowed, “Actually, never knew until our ship was just above the camp.”

Sivol looked directly into his eyes, where Vakai could feel like she was throwing daggers through them. “So you absolutely had no clue that I was here when you arrived, and could have simply left me behind if your ship never had detected me?”

Vakai sighed, “Let’s not butcher the details right now, Lieutenant. We can happily explain everything but we need to get the hell out of here.

“Actually, sir.” Gomez stepped up to him. “Gomo reported in, said he just killed the last Klingon.”

Sivol looked at her and raised her left brow. “Really? There are at least fifty Klingon warriors here.”

Vakai chuckled, “Not today there are not. They were either relocated or out busy raiding Federation Colonies. Which...by this point...from what I read anyways...most of those raiders are dead or captured.” Vakai smiled at Sivol, who just looked at him and tilted her head. “What ship did you come from by the way?”

“The USS Merryweather, Constellation Class. We were patrolling the border colonies. In fact we were responding to a distress call from one of them when we were attacked by an attack wing of Birds of Preys, four of them. We were caught off guard completely, the shield generator was gone in a matter of seconds before we could even get it online. Warp drive was knocked out next and we were able to take out one of the birds of prey, but after that, our weapons array was destroyed. The Captain then ordered to repel all boarders, which I thought would never happen in my career as a Medical Officer.” She closed her eyes and turned away. “I watched many of my colleagues and friends be killed by these Klingons.”

“Then sorry for asking, but why were you taken prisoner?” Gomez asked.

Sivol turned and opened her eyes to look at Gomez. “I was not the only prisoner. But I was the only one kept alive. For some reason they felt having a Vulcan female as a prisoner would be a challenge.”

Gomez frowned, “A Challenge? Challenge to what?”

Vakai blinked and then his eyes went wide when he figured it out, so he placed his hand on Gomez’s shoulder when Sivol was about to tell her. “They’re Klingons, Gomez. They’re always looking for some sort of challenge, no matter what it is. But let’s get out of here.”

Gomez nodded her head and left the building and before Sivol did, she stopped to turn just enough so she could look into Vakai’s eyes. “Thank you.”

Vakai shook his head. “Don’t thank me yet. Because you are not going to like where we head to next.” He then reached in and tapped his badge as he slipped past her, walking right back out into the rain. “Gomo. Is that quantum launcher of yours loaded?”

There was a pause but then much delightment in his voice, “Why, yes...yes it is. Why do you ask?”

“Do you see that Communication Dish near the center of the camp?”

“Yes. Oh. I see. You want me to blow it up. Wouldn’t that alert the others outside of this system?”

“Maybe. But I figured with how this weather system has been, from the logs I’ve read, it will be days before anyone in the Hunters of D’Ghor realizes that this camp went dark. But if they do find out, they’ll dispatch a ship from...wherever that we will be heading to, leaving that destination with...hopefully less Klingons.”

“Wait. We didn’t get the intel we needed from this camp?” Ryker asked as his voice took over the comm link.

“Afraid not. Once Gomo does his-” He was interrupted when a loud sound of something being fired, along with a blinding blue ball of light raced from the Transport right into the Comms building, causing a large enough explosion to take out over half of the building and leave a small crater full of debris. Next thing he heard was Gomo laughing in excitement. Did he choose the right member for his team??

“Well, once you come down here and pick us up, Ryker, we will be heading to a whole new destination, which I hope will have all the intel we need to get the hell out of The Triangle.”

Sivol stepped up to him, “We are not returning to Federation Space?”

Vakai shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, Lieutenant but you’re going to have to hitch a ride with us. There’s no other craft here on the planet and we have a mission from higher up to finish. And I’m sorry, but Starfleet hasn’t heard a word from Merryweather. I’m just an Ensign, so I may not get casualty reports or anything like that, but I certainly didn’t hear anything about a distress call from a ship in trouble. So I honestly do not know what happened to your ship but I certainly hope some of them managed to survive.”

Sivol shook her head. “No. When I said I expected the crew from my ship to rescue me, it was only wishful thinking. I know, human gesture...but I know what happened to them. One of the things these Klingons enjoyed telling me every time they fed me what little they had, was that they watched as they launched torpedoes at my ship until it was destroyed. I’m all that is left.”

“As far as you know. We Starfleet, have a knack of surviving the craziest shit that happens to us. Maybe some made it to escape pods and were able to avoid their sensors. They were old B’Rels right?” Vakai asked.

Sivol nodded her head. “I believe so.”

“Then who’s to say their sensors are even good anymore?”

Sivol licked her lips. “I appreciate what you are trying to say, Ensign. But-”

Vakai grabbed her left forearm with his right hand and squeezed it gently. “But nothing. The thing that no one else seems to understand why the Federation fights so hard and so dam well, is because we have hope. As long as you hold onto that hope, something good will come out of it.”

Sivol was about to protest but Ryker’s voice was louder. “Hey, Vakai! I got the transport landed, just north of the camp. Gomo also found some deuterium tanks too, so we’ll have some fuel! So do you think we could hurry up and leave this place before someone does show up?”

Vakai gestured with his head for her to follow as he took the lead, realizing that Maya, Koyda and Gomez had already gone ahead. He tapped his badge, “On our way, Ryker.”

As soon as Vakai and Sivol got on board, the transport would lift off back into space, getting far away from the planet before jumping to warp. Vakai sat there on one of the crates as he was using a wet cloth to remove the black paint from his face.

“So where are we going?” Gomo asked.

Vakai pulled the cloth away from his face and set it down beside him and the helmet. “Assuming Gomez was able to figure out the coordinates of the transmissions, I honestly do not know. Unfortunately, as I am certain you are all very much aware, we did not get the intel we were looking for from that camp. They were very strict on what information is kept on their computers, and anything important is compiled into a single file and sent to whatever it is that is on the other end of the transmissions, at the coordinates we are warping to.”

“So we could very much be flying right into a Klingon fleet for all we know?” Maya asked.

“Or another planet.” Said Koyda.

“Or a space station.” Said Gomo.

“An Outpost.” Came Gomez who just entered the hold. “We took some information in regards to The Triangle from Starfleet’s database, remember?” Vakai nodded his head. “Well I did some digging and cross referenced the coordinates to what Starfleet believes to be a small outpost.”

“How small are we talking?” Gomo asked.

Gomez looked at him. “Roughly with a complement of eighty Klingons on board. That’s if they fully man these things. Rumors have it, even the Klingon Defense Force don’t fill their outposts to the full complement. But...there might be a bird of prey or two there, as their line of defense.”

Vakai tapped his chin. “We could scramble this ship’s IFF. We’re coming directly from the camp, so if they scan our warp signature, they’ll know where we came from and maybe they will just let us dock with the outpost.”

“And if they don’t?” Maya asked.

“And fire on us?” Koyda added.

Vakai sighed, “Then we get the hell out of there and I pull that offer out of my back pocket that the Captain of the Vesta handed me. I am honestly hoping we do not need it.” Vakai then looked at Gomez. “We are a Hazard Team.” He looked back at them. “We are trained to deal with far riskier situations than any Away Team in Starfleet. If we can get on that outpost, and somehow keep them from alerting their defense ships or anyone else, we should be able to fight our way to the Command Center, download all the data in their computer core and get the hell out. It’s a rough plan but it’s the best that I got.”

Sivol stepped in, “I’m coming with you.”

Vakai looked at her and raised his right brow. “I’m sorry?”

“I may just be a doctor and not have been trained to be part of a Hazard Team, if they were needed on my ship...but I have some skill with communication systems, and I do have basic combat training. If there is a terminal near the docking port, I can disrupt the outpost’s communications. They won’t be able to send anything out for an hour or so, depending on how sophisticated their systems are and how quickly their comm techs can reverse what I’ve done to them.”

Vakai looked at the others, who all either shrugged their shoulders or nodded their heads. Then he looked back at her and stood up to look directly into her eyes. “As long as you know that I command this team, then I have no issue with you tagging along.”

“I have no desire to command, Ensign. So if you are the leader of this team, I have no intentions of taking that away from you.”

Vakai nodded his head. “Good.” He then outstretched his right arm with an open hand, where Koyda handed him a compression rifle from one of the crates. Vakai then handed it to her. “Then you better pull up your training quickly and remember how to use one of these.”

“Very quick. We have an hour before we reach that outpost.” Gomez told them.

Vakai then looked at Gomez. “You better help give her a quick refresher then.”

JShepard

[The Triangle]

[D’Ghor Transport]

[100 Kilometers from the D’Ghor Outpost]

Vakai stared at the station just before them as both Ryker and Sivol were in the Pilot and Co-Pilot seat, looking at their displays and entering commands. From what Vakai could see, it did not look much like a space station. There were no ships patrolling any sort of perimeter. No defense satellites. And from their passive sensor scans, they were able to detect roughly forty Klingons on board. And there were two B’Rel class birds of prey, both D12s. Unsure as to why these two were not manned, they certainly could be operated by at least six Klingons, which the station had plenty.

“They must be only used whenever the station is on alert.” Ryker thought out loud.

“It is the only conclusion.” Said Sivol.

“Then we better not give them a reason to deploy those D12s.” Vakai told them. “Have they tried contacting us?”

Sivol looked at her display, “Not yet.”

“Bring us in, but not too fast.”

Ryker nodded and started entering commands, the ship picking up speed as they grew closer to the station.

“Now they’re trying to hail us.” Said Sivol.

“Tell them the communication system is malfunctioning, we can’t have video or audio but we can send messages. Tell them we need to dock to conduct repairs and to relay vital information.” Vakai told her.

Sivol nodded her head once as her fingers were tapping away at the screen, obviously typing up the message similar to what Vakai requested and then with one last tap, the message was sent. It would be about five minutes before they responded. “Permission to dock is granted.”

Vakai smiled, “Good work. Ryker, follow their instructions on which docking port we are to use and get us there. I am going to inform the team.” He then left the cockpit to the rear hold where the team was. Gomo looked like he was geared up for war, a strap from his left shoulder across his back and chest to the right hip connecting to his belt, and an identical strap but from his right shoulder, to the left of his belt were just littered with grenades of all kinds, including a knife or two. And in one hand a Romulan Rifle and in the other hand a Klingon Rifle. “Uh, Gomo. I think we’re going to try a different approach than go in there guns blazing.” Vakai told him.

The sheer look of disappointment on Gomo’s face was priceless. “Oh come on! Going in there guns blazing is what I do best! I mean they’re just a bunch of murderous savages that need to be put down because their handlers failed to keep them under control and on a tight leash.”

Vakai nodded as he stopped just a few feet in front of Gomo. “I completely agree with you, Gomo. If the Klingon Empire just picked up their mess, we wouldn’t have to do this. But we need to be smart and tactful, not blind and stupid.”

Gomo let out a disappointed groan and just let go of the rifles, letting them fall and clatter to the deck before unhooking the straps from his belt and just dropping them onto the floor as well. “You sir, are a party pooper.” Gomo then walked away to go digging in the food crate, maybe hoping he finds a Cardassian ration.

Gomez came up to Vakai with a grin on her face. “Are you pulling his leg?” She said quietly.

Vakai smirked and nodded his head. “Absolutely. But I really didn’t want him to go out there guns blazing and risk hitting something that could get us all killed.”

Gomez shrugged a shoulder. “Fair enough. But you really did burst his bubble there.”

Vakai shrugged his shoulders. “He’ll get over it. All right team, listen up.” He raised his voice for everyone. “The station has roughly forty Klingons on board. We could try dressing up as them again but at this point, we would probably be doing both Starfleet and the Klingon Empire a favor by wiping these Klingons out and destroying the station.” That got Gomo’s attention as he was biting into a ration. “What else, is that we’re done with this transport. As soon as we clear out the Klingons, download everything from the station’s computer core and let Starfleet Intelligence sort it out, we’re going to load up what we can on one of the D12s docked at the station, and fly back home in it. Which is no doubt faster than this hunk of junk.”

“So how are we going to take out forty Klingons?” Maya asked.

“They may be renegades but they’re still warriors. The moment they have battle at their doorstep, they will fight to the death. But just in case one of them is remotely a coward, Sivol will tap into a nearby terminal, hopefully one in the docking bay, and completely disrupt their communication systems. This way they can’t go calling for help.”

“And what if they manage to man one of the D12s?” Koyda asked.

Vakai nodded his head. “Thought so. The moment we get on that station, our Priority is to reach the other docking ports and lock them down. Then we will focus all of our attention on eliminating every Klingon on board the station. And to make sure we do it quickly without any hiccups, we will split up into two teams, so that way we reach both docking ports to both D12s and have them both locked down before the Klingons can do anything with them.”

“One problem.” Gomo said with a mouthful, only to swallow just before adding. “Our own compression rifles have maybe half of energy left in their power cells. And I did some checking, a lot of these weapons in the containers are almost completely drained.”

“And we have no way of recharging them or replacing those power cells?” Vakai asked.

“None.” Said Gomo.

Vakai nodded his head, “Then we’re going to load up with as many weapons we can carry and drain them dry.”

Gomo’s crazy smile returned as he went to grab his straps and start putting them back on before grabbing the two rifles he dropped onto the floor. “I was hoping you would say that.”

Vakai sighed and took the Klingon rifle from Gomo’s left hand and then walked around him to sling the rifle so it was resting against his back with the butt sticking up and over his right shoulder. “But we’re going to do it smart, Gomo.” Vakai said as he walked back around to look right into his eyes. “We don’t know how old this station is. We don’t know what state it is in. We can’t go shooting blind and hope we don’t hit anything that will get us all blown to bits.”

“Or suffocated.” Said Maya.

“Or from poisonous gases.” Said Koyda.

“Or from being burnt to a crisp.” Said Gomez.

“Or being blown out into space and either freezing to death while asphyxiating or rapid decompression and having our bodies either implode or explode.” Vakai said while staring hard at Gomo.

Gomo sighed. “Fine! I won’t go crazy on the Klingons. But who is to say they won’t go crazy on us?”

“Then we will just have to kill them first before they can.” Vakai then grabbed his compression rifle and slung it around just like he did with Gomo’s Klingon rifle before reaching into the weapons crate and grabbing himself some pistols. “So no photon or plasma grenades. Stun grenades and smoke grenades will be the only things we can use to ensure that we don’t kill ourselves.” And after Vakai had said that, both Maya and Koyda were taking the photon and plasma grenades off of Gomo’s straps and replacing them with stun and smoke grenades.

“You’ll be our good weapons boy whenever we need a new weapon or grenade.” Said Maya with a smile.

“I most certainly will not!” Gomo told her. “Is this some sort of punishment of what my people did to yours? May I remind you, that was a long, long time ago and my people suffered a lot thanks to the Dominion.”

“No one said anything about that Gomo.” Said Koyda.

“Relax, Gomo. We’re just playing with you.” Gomez smirked.

“I am not some sort of punching bag for your little jokes! I am what I am because I like getting my hands dirty.” Said Gomo.

“You know, if the Obsidian Order still existed, I bet he would make an excellent agent.” Said Koyda.

“Oh now you’re just making fun of me.”

Vakai shook his head with a sigh. “Alright you guys. Gear up, take as much as you can.” Suddenly the ship shook a little and they could hear loud clanking sounds, which by clear assumption, those were docking clamps. Soon, Ryker and Sivol joined them in the hold. “Pack up as many weapons as you can carry. From what Gomo informed me, we may not get a lot of uses out of a single weapon.”

“We’re going in guns blazing?” Ryker asked.

“Pretty much.” Vakai told him and Gomo let out a ‘Yippie’.

“Such a child.” Gomez chuckled.

“Very illogical.” Said Sivol.

Vakai shrugged his left shoulder. “Hey, he knows not to go blindly firing in there now. So the risk of us getting blown to bits is minimum.”

“Unfortunately that does not make me any more comfortable than I am now.” She said as she grabbed a compression rifle.

“So how are we going to blow up the station anyways?” Asked Gomo.

Vakai turned and looked at Gomez, who was working on an idea already. “We could check to see how well their cooling systems are holding together. If this station is as old as I think it is, there’s bound to be some irregularities, some that Klingons believe to be an acceptable margin. I can make it where they just ignored it for too long, and the core will simply start to overheat before it goes into an overload and boom.”

Vakai smiled, “So if the D’Ghor come to investigate what happened to one of their outposts, they will see the signature of a core overload and have no clue that a Starfleet Hazard Team was ever there.”

“What about the warp signature from one of the D12s that we plan on stealing?” Asked Koyda.

“I can easily disperse it, so by the time any D’Ghor ships come to investigate, the warp signature would be long gone.” Said Gomez.

“Wouldn’t they be searching for debris of both the station and two D12s?” Asked Maya.

Vakai chuckled, “That is why we are abandoning this transport. So it should be enough debris to keep the D’Ghor from being suspicious.”

“Can we get going now? We should be out there killing Klingons, not talking in here. The least we want is for them to get suspicious and start calling in reinforcements already.” Said Gomo.

Vakai nodded his head. “Three, if not four, pistols each. And if you can, carry an extra rifle than just the one on your back like me and Gomo.” He told them before looking down at his compression rifle’s power cell, seeing the meter was indeed around the halfway mark. “Are you sure these are our rifles? We hardly used them on the colony to fight off the D’Ghor raiders. And I don’t remember using them at the D’Ghor Camp.”

Gomo shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe we were handed faulty rifles.”

“Or maybe he misplaced ours with the compression rifles that the raiders took from all the raids they did.” Said Gomez with a grin.

“That could be the case but does it really matter? Do we have the time to go searching for our own weapons?” Gomo asked.

Vakai sighed and stared at Gomo. “You just enjoy a challenge way too much, don’t you? Are you sure you’re not a Klingon?”

Gomo gasped. “I cannot believe you said that! Of course I am a Klingon, what else could I be?”

“A Cardassian with a screw loose?” Said Maya.

“That too.” Gomo looked at her. “But that sounds to be a lot better than a Klingon with a screw loose.”

“Maybe a Cardassian with no marbles?” Gomez asked.

“What are you talking about? Of course I got my marbles. I always keep them in my pocket.” Gomo went to patting one of his pockets and then started feeling for the rest. “Oh no. I have no pockets!”

Everyone either laughed or smirked, aside from Sivol who shook her head. “You are all highly illogical. My confidence in this mission is not at all being lifted by this.”

Vakai looked at her with a grin on his face. “It’s just a way of relieving tension. We’re about to do something real crazy.” Suddenly there was a pounding on the airlock door.

“I think it is time to go.” Said Ryker as he loaded himself up.

Vakai sighed, “All right everyone. Let’s do this….”

JShepard

As soon as the airlock door opened, the two Klingons that were waiting were met with various colors of beams striking them in the chest, both falling to the deck expelling their last breath. Vakai and his team then emerged from the airlock and proceeded inside the station with their rifles raised, checking corners, and minds focused. They did not have to go far to reach a terminal, where they stopped, covering both directions of the corridor they were in while Sivol went to work on jamming up the outpost's communications.

After several minutes, Sivol looked up from the display and looked at Vakai. "I am finished. Their communication system is now stuck in a diagnostic loop and if they try to bring it out without the proper sequence, the communications array will overload and short itself out."

"How long do you believe it will take them to repair their comms array?" Vakai asked.

"Long enough that we should be finished with this mission and long gone from here." Sivol answered.

Gomo smirked, "Well, then we got all the time in the world, now don't we?"

Vakai grinned at Gomo before looking at everyone. "All right, change of plans. I want to make this a lot quicker. Maya, Koyda, head for the starboard docking bay and lock it down then look for a hangar bay and make sure none of the Klingons try to leave in a small craft. Gomo, Gomez, you two go to the port docking bay and do the same, I want both those D12's secured and inaccessible to the Klingons. Then proceed to their reactor room and prepare to sabotage the cooling system as planned. Ryker, Sivol and I will proceed to Operations, lock everything else down and then download all data from their computer core. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded their heads or replied 'Yessir'.

"Good. Remember, there are a lot of Klingons on board, so pick your targets carefully and the higher the setting you use to kill them, the more power you drain from your power cells. So be very mindful of where your power level is, I do NOT want to hear that one of you got shot. Move out." Vakai ordered and the team split up, each group heading to their objective.

Maya and Koyda moved down the corridor carefully before ducking behind pillars when three D'Ghor Hunters shown up at the other end of the corridor. They looked at each other, Koyda mouthing 'On three. One...Two...' and on the third count, they both knelt down and peeked from behind the pillars, aiming their rifles at the three Klingons and pulling the triggers. First the two green beams of light struck the center Klingon and then the two beams of light hit their separate targets, two remaining Klingons dropping to the deck.

Maya looked at her power cell and sighed, dropping the rifle and unslinging another. "Maybe we should just stun them. Save on power."

"How many weapons do you think we're carrying actually has a stun setting?" Koyda asked as they both stood up and continued down the corridor. "Besides, Vakai has a point. These Klingons deserve what they get."

"Suppose that's fair. But are we not giving them an honorable death?" Maya asked.

Koyda chuckled, "What's honorable in being a renegade?"

Maya shrugged, "Death by Combat is still honorable to them. Although it was a surprise attack so...Eh, why do I bother trying to understand them."

Koyda smirked and soon they reached the docking bay to one of the D12s. "All right, you go ahead and lock that baby down and we will start heading for the Hangar." Koyda told her as he kept a lookout while Maya went to work.

Meanwhile; Gomo and Gomez had their own encounter with four Klingons and were already at the other docking bay. Gomez was working on locking it down when Gomo ended up firing a couple bolts of his compression rifle down the corridor, taking out two more Klingons. Then he dropped his rifle onto the deck and unslung a Klingon Rifle. "You'd think by now that they would know that they had intruders."

"Maybe their internal sensors are not working." She said as she just finished locking down the doors. "All right, time to head for the reactor room." She said as he raised her rifle and led the way, Gomo right behind her, keeping an eye on their six.

"Well that is rather convenient, don't you think? They sure don't know how to keep a station in tip top shape." said Gomo.

Gomez shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe they bought it from someone at price and figured that whatever was wrong with the station, they could either deal with it later or just not worry about it."

"What makes you think they bought this station?" Gomo asked.

"Don't you know? A lot of things tend to get abandoned in areas of space like The Triangle. This may be a Klingon Outpost, but this thing looks like it's been maintained by a bunch of randoms." Gomez told him.

"I still don't follow."

Gomez sighed, "You see some of those open maintenance hatches? You see what's inside, what's installed? I found quite a number of components that are not Klingon, some that stand out so much that I could say that this station used to be owned by other faction. And the faction happens to have components compatible with Klingon Technology."

"Hmmm...smells like Orions." said Gomo.

"Precisely. Of course I don't have any way of proving that." She said and then stopped and knelt down when she saw three Klingons coming around the corner.

"What?!" Shouted one of the Klingons before they raised their disruptor pistols.

With no time to find cover, she switched her compression rifle's firing mode to full auto and unleashed a hailstorm of phaser bolts down the corridor while Gomo fired a few beams from his Klingon Rifle. All three Klingons were struck multiple times before dropping dead onto the deck. Gomez then checked her power cell and dropped the rifle before unslinging another Compression Rifle.

"At the rate we're going, we're going to be out of weapons soon." Gomo told her.

Gomez shrugged then winced when she stood up, only to look and see that she was struck in her left shoulder. "Well dam. When did that happen?"

"Well we were standing very much in the open, one of us was bound to get hit. Now go sit down over there." Gomo pointed to a small crate which Gomez went to and eased herself down carefully.

"I didn't know you were a doctor." Gomez told him when she saw him unhook a med kit off his belt from behind and set it down on the floor.

"I'm not but I did train a little bit to be a combat medic." He told her as he opened up the kit and started treating the disruptor burn.

"Oh really? What happened?" Gomez as while she watched him work.

"I found out that I enjoyed shooting my patients more than healing them." Gomo told her with a grin on his face.

Gomez shook her head. "I hope that was a joke."

"Oh it was. But the sad part is, it is also the truth." He said as he repaired much of the tissue damage he could before applying a bandage to it after squirting some ointment to the bandage. "There. That should take care of it for a while but I recommend you go to sickbay once we get back home."

Gomez smirked, "If we get back home." She stood right up and resumed to leading the way to the reactor room. "Just don't tell Vakai that I got shot."

"No promises." Gomo told her. Once they did reach the reactor room, they quickly dispatched three Klingons inside before double checking to making sure it was clear. Gomo then tapped his badge. "Gomo to Vakai."

"Vakai here."

"Gomez and I have secured the reactor room and are on stand by. Oh and Gomez got shot in the shoulder but she'll be fine." Gomo looked at Gomez who glared at him before rolling her eyes.

"Understood. Vakai out." Vakai sighed as he looked down at the three bodies that him, Ryker and Sivol just took care of.

"It was bound to happen." Ryker told him with a grin.

"Yes but I feel like Gomo is telling me this to both annoy me and Gomez." Vakai said as he looked at Ryker.

"Why is it that beings with emotion strive to displease one another?" Sivol asked.

Ryker grinned as Vakai looked away, who was wishing that Sivol hadn't asked. "Well you see, Sivol. It's a game, you see. We're not at all trying to displease one another or anything by accident. We're doing it on purpose because it's a joke, just to see the reaction they give, and when we do it on purpose, they know we're just pulling their leg. But if we do it by accident, then they know we didn't mean to. Does that make sense?"

"Not in the slightest." Sivol told him.

As Ryker was about to explain again, Vakai raised his hand. "Come on, we shouldn't be too far from Operations."

Just as they were approaching Operations, Vakai's communicator beeped. "Maya to Vakai."

"Go ahead." Vakai answered.

"Yeah, we got maybe...twenty...Klingons over here in the hangar bay. It looks like they're loading up a bunch of shuttles. There's just no way we can take them all out."

Vakai thought about it and wondered if Starfleet would condone such action.... "Stay clear of the hangar bay, I got an idea." He said as he continued to lead the way to the Operations center.

Once they reached the door to it, he pulled out his tricorder and scanned for lifesigns. "Looks like we got five in there. We should be able to take them out by surprise. How are your power cells? I got about a quarter."

"Nearly empty." Answered Sivol.

"Oh well I beat both of you, I'm bone dry." He said before setting his rifle down on the deck and pulled out two pistols, one in each hand.

"Take the rifle off your back, Sivol. Your current rifle won't do us good here." He told her, who did just that, setting her rifle on the deck gently and unslung the one on her back. Vakai did the same as well, before nodding to them to make sure they were ready. When they nodded back, he moved closer to the door to trigger the sensor so the door split open. First target he chose was the one on the far side of the room, Sivol shooting the second one on the far side while Ryker picked one to the left, and one to the right with each pistol, taking them down. The last one ran for one of the computer terminals before he was shot in the back by all three of them, watching him dropping dead to the deck.

Vakai then went to check what was the computer terminal that last Klingon was going after and saw that it had the commands to raise the alarm. "That would of been very unsettling for Maya and Koyda." He said before looking for the terminal he wanted. Once he found it, he set his rifle down on the terminal next to it and started going through the commands.

"Whatcha doing there, buddy?" Ryker asked as he came up behind him.

"Ryker, go to the D12 at the starboard docking bay and prep it for launch." Vakai told him.

"But you didn't-"

"That's an order, Ensign." Vakai snapped at him and Ryker knew there that Vakai didn't want him around for what he was about to do. Ryker simply nodded his head and hurried off to the D12. Vakai then tapped his badge, "Maya, Koyda. Ryker is on his way to the D12 you two secured. Meet him there and unlock the door for him. That D12 is going to be our ride home."

"What about the Klingons in the hangar?" Maya asked.

"I got it covered, trust me."

"Copy." Koyda said and the link ended.

Sivol stood there beside him. "You are going to vent them into space."

Vakai stood up straight and looked at her. "You know they don't deserve anything better than that."

"But are we not better than them?" She asked.

Vakai sighed, "Look. I got the same lecture from Gomez and I do not need it from you. Besides, the Tal Shiar would do a lot worse to them than venting them into space. And where are we going to put them? We plan on blowing up the station anyways, so it is either I vent them into space, or we run risk of them attempting to escape when they realize that the station's reactor is about to blow up in their faces."

Sivol squinted at him. "I believe there is more to this than what you are telling me."

Vakai raised his right brow. "No. There is not. If you think you can peer into my soul and discover that I have some sort of sick hatred for the Klingons, you're wrong. I had a great life on Earth with my foster parents. I have been able to see my parents and be taught by them on how to defend myself in more ways than one against the Tal Shiar and other threats in the Galaxy. What's more, I believe that my parents are still alive, I sincerely hope that they are, and these damn renegade Klingons are keeping me from helping Task Force Ninety Three's mandate on providing aid an support to my people, and maybe by some sheer luck, I'll see my parents again."

Sivol blinked and relaxed. "And there it is. You are blaming the Hunters of D'Ghor from keeping you from helping your fellow Romulans and from seeing your parents.

Vakai rolled his eyes. "Yes I said that but I also realize that I got a lot of years ahead of me, that I got plenty of time to do just that. I have waited to truly see my real parents since I was told about them by my foster parents. I can still wait. But it wouldn't hurt to see them next month or next year, you know? Just..." He shook his head. "I just would like to know that they're still alive. Serving the Tal Shiar may have a fantastic health plan but that's only if you don't bloody die on one of their suicidal operations."

Sivol then reached over and hit the command to initiate the program that Vakai had set up, the hangar bay doors opening and the forcefields were disabled, causing a mass vacuum inside the hangar bay, sucking all the Klingons inside right out into space. Vakai looked at what she did then moved his eyes back onto her, confused. "Why did you do that? You were just questioning me about it."

Sivol shrugged her eye brows. "I was merely testing you. I wanted to see just how compassionate you are about your mission."

Vakai sighed, "Getting the intel Starfleet wants is important, yes."

Sivol shook her head. "Not that mission."

"Oh." Vakai blinked when he realized what she meant. "How did you know?"

"I have a way of reading people. Ever since you rescued me from that camp, when ever you stopped talking to one of your team members, you would become distant, as if you were focusing your attention onto something else, something that did not pertain to this mission." Sivol explained.

Vakai shook his head, "Am I that easy to read?"

Sivol looked up to the right as if she was looking at the ceiling but he knew what that really meant. Then she looked right back at him with a sudden smirk. "Indeed. I also know something else about you."

Vakai was taken aback at seeing a Vulcan show emotion. But then again, he was told that it wasn't uncommon these days. Unless they take that Vulcan ritual that completely and fully suppressed their emotions, they're bound to show some of it every now and then. Vakai shook his head and went over to another terminal as he started going through the directories, looking for the main computer and what data it contained.

"Ryker to Vakai."

Vakai sighed and tapped his badge before resuming his search. "Go ahead."

"It looks like this ship is ready to go but I want to have Gomez check it out, see if there's anything really wrong with it. I mean, these Hunters of D'Ghor really didn't need to leave two D12s here. I mean, maybe one, but two?"

Sivol then went to another terminal and started pulling up reports on both the D12s, maintenance records, damage reports, etc. "It appears the D12 docked at the port side is unable to go to warp. The dilithium chamber is completely empty."

"You think by now, Klingons would have the technology to recrystalize the dilithium." Ryker said.

"Doesn't necessarily make it an infinite supply." Vakai told him while he pulled out a data padd designed to hold massive amounts of data. He set it down by the terminal and started downloading everything from the outpost's computer core. The padd then indicated that it would take twenty minutes.

"Okay so, what about the D12 that I'm preparing here?" Ryker asked.

"The only thing that comes up is that the Cloaking Device's components are fused, making it unusable." Sivol explained.

"Oh great. So we can't fly out of The Triangle under cloak. Fantastic. Won't they be a little suspicious that one of their D12's is heading into Federation Space?"

"Doubt it. Unless they keep records of where all ships are going and why." Vakai said as he turned around and leaned his rear against the terminal.

"Gomez to Vakai." Gomez voice came in.

"Go ahead."

"How long do we have before I sabotage the cooling system?"

Vakai looked at the Padd. "About fifteen minutes. Go ahead and send Gomo to the D12 at the starboard docking bay. I want to load it up with everything we can."

"What exactly do you wish to load it up with?" Gomo asked.

"How many torpedoes does it have on board, Ryker?"

"From what the inventory says, fifty. Just like it should." Ryker reported.

"Do you think we can squeeze another ten, or twenty on board?" Vakai asked.

"Why?" Ryker asked.

"Some of the data I read that I'm downloading now. Ship movements, deployments. I feel like something is going down. And you know what, if I read something wrong and there's really nothing to worry about, we'll at least have a ship that we can use to help with fighting the D'Ghor out of Federation Space." Vakai explained.

"I will need to have a look around of the ship, but if no one plans on sleeping in any of the crew quarters on board the D12, I can probably squeeze twenty-five more torpedoes." Said Gomo.

Vakai grinned, "Then get to it. We don't have a lot of time left."

"What are you talking about? We got plenty of time!" Said Ryker.

"I doubt it." Chimed in Gomez. "If they rigged that computer terminal back at the D'Ghor Camp the way that they did...I bet that this outpost is rigged the same way."

Vakai nodded his head. "Precisely. If this outpost reports to someone or something bigger...and it doesn't report in on time, we could be looking at more Klingons showing up than we need to deal with."

"I'll do the best that I can." Said Gomo before the link was terminated.

After the data was downloaded onto the padd, Vakai took it and tucked it away in his uniform before leading Sivol to the D12 at the starboard docking bay. Vakai tapped his badge, "Vakai to Gomez. Go ahead with your sabotage. How much time do you think we will get to avoid the blast?"

"I say about roughly between ten...fifteen minutes. It's not in the best shape really and sabotaging it could lead to the reactor going critical real quick, so I have to be careful on how I do it."

"Well do what you think is best and then get your ass to the starboard docking bay."

"Roger that." Gomez then started entering commands on the terminal, adjusting settings here and there before she was satisfied that they weren't going to get blown to pieces in matter of seconds. Once she was certain she started running through the corridors to get to the D12 at the starboard docking bay. "It's set! We need to go!"

"Everyone on board?" Ryker asked as he was sitting there at the helm station, ready to seal the airlock and release the clamps.

"Everyone's here, go!" Vakai ordered as he entered the bridge.

"Here we go!" Ryker said as he quickly entered the commands, airlock closing and sealing shut, then the clamps releasing the ship. Ryker then put it in full reverse, getting them clear from the outpost before swinging them around, pumping the ship into full impulse to get them clear as he sets up coordinates back to the Meronia Cluster. Just before Ryker could engage the warp drive, multiple internal explosions came from the outpost before it erupted into a much larger explosion, taking out the transport and the other D12 docked with it. "That was close but neat."

Sivol was at the science station getting readings. "If anyone comes to investigate, they'll get the same thing I am getting. Reactor overloaded and there's debri that shows there was in fact two D12s here."

"Let's just hope none of their science officers are too smart and discover that one of the D12s was actually a transport." said Ryker as he engaged the warp drive.

"How long till we reach Federation Space?" Vakai asked.

"If I push her to maximum warp, less than a day. What are we going to do about the IFF on this ship though? Won't we just get fired on?" Ryker asked.

"Starfleet doesn't shoot first. So as long as we don't fire on a Starfleet ship, we'll be fine. But I want to get to Starbase 27 as soon as possible so we can send this intel straight to Command." Vakai told him.

"I can modify the ship's transponder signal to emit a Starfleet Signal." Sivol told Vakai.

Vakai thought about it, "Not yet. If we do that now before we are out of range of any D'Ghor vessels, we would likely attract too much attention from the Hunters of D'Ghor and we can't afford that with this intel. Our mission, now that we finally have the intel we were sent for, is to get it to Command as soon as possible and give them a chance to analyze it. If we attract attention and delay on handing over this intel, well I don't want to find out if we had vital information or not and didn't get to Starfleet in time."

"Then what do you want me to do with the transponder signal?" Sivol asked.

"The moment we cross into Federation Space, have it start emitting a neutral signal with 'Hilo Tango Delta Sierra'. So if a Starfleet ship picks it up, they should know that we're friendly and if D'Ghor picks it up, they'll likely know that we're not on their side but hopefully it won't make sense to them and ignore us." Vakai told her.

Sivol nodded and started setting up a program to do just that so once they cross into Federation space, all she'll have to do is execute a command and the ship's transponder signal will change.

[Ten Hours Later]

The D12 drops out of warp just outside of Starbase 27's defensive perimeter, Sivol having made contact with the station to inform them that they were friendly and had commandeered the D12. Vakai then took over and explained to the Starbase CO of what their mission was and that they have intelligence data that he needs sent to Command as soon as possible. Once Vakai got the all clear, they had the D12 link up with Starbase 27's communications array and began transmitting the data to Command with the encryption level that the Starbase CO could place it under to keep it from falling from the wrong hands. Now Vakai and his team will wait patiently on further orders.

JShepard

[IKS Dut'lech, USS Gottem, USS Suicide Squad, SS Hornet]
[Docked at Starbase 27]

Vakai sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "For the last time. We are not calling it the 'USS Gottem' or the 'USS Suicide Squad'." He said as he looked at both Ryker and Gomo, the two who suggested the names. Ryker who suggested 'Gottem' and Gomo who suggested 'Suicide Squad'.

"I don't understand. They're not bad of names for this ship." Said Gomo.

Vakai stared at him. "You're kidding, right?"

"Absolutely not! If we are about to do what I think we are about to do, we are most definitely the Suicide Squad here. The name would be fitting." Gomo told him. What he meant by that was, Vakai and his team were given orders to get the ship prepared as best as they can and hurry to the Haydorian system. They should of left with the Explorer an hour ago but they were falling a little behind on the last couple of items that Gomez wanted to throw on board. They were able to do a quick overhaul on the shield generators, tweak the disruptor cannons, modify the impulse engines and thrusters for extra combat maneuverability, and modify the Klingon operating system to display english text - that was the tough part. All that was left was four battery packs to be squeezed into the engine room, to be hooked up in some jury rigged fashion. She wanted the extra juice for the shields, having some feeling that the battle will not be all too fun.

"I thought USS Gotem would be great. I mean, we took their ship, they have no idea that we took their ship, and once they start popping up in the Haydorian system seeing this ship, the least they would expect is us turning around and firing on them...with their own ship!!" Ryker exclaimed.

Vakai shook his head, "I don't care. I am not going to have us become the joke of the fleet. SS Hornet will do fine. We don't need the U for United because this isn't necessarily a Starfleet Ship, it's a commandeered D-Twelve and as soon as we're done with it, we got orders to let the Vondem Rose take it. Something about needing the parts."

Ryker and Gomo's mouths dropped. "You are going to let some pirate strip this poor ship down to its bare bones, for parts?!" Ryker asked. Gomo then added, "I don't want to be associated with this team anymore. Not if they're going to butcher this beautiful vessel. It belongs in the museum!"

Vakai once again rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sighed. He is surrounded by children. "Will you guys just go back to your stations, please?"

Ryker looked at Gomo and grinned, sign of saying that they succeeded in annoying their leader before returning to the helm. Gomo returned the same grin before taking the weapons station.

Vakai shook his head some before look at Sivol who had been staring at them for some time from the Communications Station. "What?"
"Just realizing that I am surrounded by crazy people." Said Sivol.

"You and me both." He told her before plopping himself down in the command chair, hitting the intercom button to the engine room.

"Gomez, how are you doing down there?"

"Fine. Maya and Koyda just came back with a couple Starfleet Engineers and the battery packs that I requested. We're rigging them up right now, but we can get under way if you wish." Reported Gomez.

"I do wish, we're behind schedule. Have those engineers departed?"

"I believe so."

"Starbase Twenty-Seven reports that all of their personnel has departed the Hornet." Sivol reported.

Vakai sat up straight and cracked his knuckles. "All right then. Sivol, signal that we are ready for the moorings to detach so we can get to rocking over to the Haydorian System. Ryker, as soon as the moorings have retracted far enough, pull us away from the station then proceed towards the Haydorian system at emergency speeds." Both Sivol and Ryker provided the 'Aye, sir.' response.

"Starbase Twenty-Seven signals that they acknowledge and are beginning to disengage and retract the moorings." Sivol reported.

Ryker then spoke up as his fingers dashed across his board. "Moorings have retracted safely enough for departure. Pulling us away from the station at full reverse." Then as soon as they were safe enough away from the station, "Readjusting impulse engines and course, we are now facing away from the station and engaging at full impulse towards a safe distance. . . . Now proceeding to the Haydorian system at emergency warp speeds." He reported, dialing up the warp speed indicator to maximum and then hitting the 'emergency' button before hitting the 'engage' button. The computer programmed to throw the ship into warp and increase its speed from One all the way to Nine point Eight. "We should arrive in the Haydorian System in less than an hour at this speed."

Vakai sighed, but in content now, happy that they are finally underway. "Sivol, who exactly are we suppose to report to in for the Haydorian system?"

Sivol went over the orders once more before reporting, "I do believe that we are suppose to report to the Acquarius from the USS Odyssey but it says here that the Endeavour will be arriving in the Haydorian system, so I would believe that we would report to them."

Vakai tapped the end of the right armrest of the command chair he sat in as he thought for a moment. "Okay. Signal the Lead Vessel that the SS Hornet is en route to Haydorian system to provide any support that we can. Provide the Lead vessel that this is the Delta Squad of Task Force Ninety-Three's Hazard Team, and the...slightly upgraded specs of this ship." He sighed, however 'upgraded' you can get. "And don't forget to mention that our cloaking device is fried, came with the ship when we commandeered it. Just send them what they may need to evaluate just how useful we will be. I really don't want to upset anyone by not telling them what ship we're flying and what's on it. Also inform Explorer that as soon as we arrive, we will be watching their six."

Suddenly the ship's intercom began blurting a voice, calling themselves Kuskir, son of D'Ghor. Vakai sighed as he listened to the whole spiel before the transmission ended. The had the communication systems tied into Starfleet standard after they received the necessary security codes to make those changes, so now they were receiving this transmission that Sivol informed him that it was being sent to all Starfleet vessels in the area. Guess the communication frequency adjustments made this ship seem like a Starfleet ship. Then after Kuskir had stopped speaking, soon Admiral Beckett's voice started booming over the intercom.

Once that ended, Ryker turned his sweat around and looked at Vakai. "I guess that answered our question of who we report to and get our orders from." He said with a grin.

Vakai shrugged his shoulder, "I suppose so. In that case, he probably already knows everything he needs to on this ship. But just in case, send it through the proper chain."

Sivol nodded her head, "Aye sir."

JShepard

[Colony Operations Center]

[Colony World near Maranga IV]

[Couple of Days Ago]

The Klingon male, dropped to his knees as he grasped the blade of the knife that was in his chest, piercing his heart. He looked down at it, seeing the blood, his blood, oozing out from the wound. Then he looked up at his opponent, the one who challenged him before collapsing to the floor. His opponent reached down, grasped the hilt of the D'k tagh that belonged to him and yanked the blade out of his chest, blood now gushing out from the wound.

The Klingons around him, the opponent's and those who used to be his warriors, cheered for his opponent. He, who was the Governor of this Colony, was no more than an empty shell. The opponent of his that won this battle, was Vok.

Vok wiped the blood off of the blade on his uniform fur coat sleeve before shoving it back into its sheath on his belt. He then looked to his warriors, and to the new ones that will now lay down their lives for him. Vok then grabbed one of them by the shoulders, one who was just underneath the Governor that he eliminated, the Governor who refused to join Vok's house. He grinned, "You will be the new Governor of this planet, under the rightful claim of my house, along with wondrous privileges." Then his grin faded. "Abuse those privileges and neglect this colony, and you will find yourself joining him." He gestured with his head towards the dead former Governor.

"Understood, my lord!" The Klingon bellowed loudly.

Vok laughed and smacked his arms before grabbing them tightly. "Good! Good!" Vok said before stepping away and grabbing his communicator. "Vok to Ya'Vek. One to transport."

[IKS Ya'Vek]

Vok was pleased to be back on board his new flagship. He did enjoy the Birds of Prey he had in his fleet but having a vessel with this much firepower was far more pleasing. He wasted no time to get to his command chair and plop right on down into it. "Comms. Get me Nawa on screen. Now!" He barked.

"Yes, my lord!" The Comms Officer replied.

In less than a minute, Nawa's face and the bridge of her Bird of Prey appeared before him on the main viewer. "Yes, my love?"

Vok grunted. "You enjoy torturing me in front of my crew, don't you?"

Nawa chuckled. "You are the Leader of your own house, and now have your own property...a fleet...and a shipyard if I am not mistaken?"

Vok grunted again, "It's just a single dry dock. Sure the planet has its resources to build me another Bird of Prey but I would need more from other worlds to build something larger. But that is not what is important."

Nawa tilted her head. "What is, my lord?"

Vok leaned forward in his seat and brought his hands together, fingertips pressed against one another, palms a few inches apart. "I have been thinking for quite some time. Going against the High Council and their foolish ways of keeping this peace with the Federation may have to be placed on hold, least until we grow, which could take years."

"What brought you to this conclusion?"

Vok grunted. "Facts. Many factions have tried to persuade or force the High Council to change, to throw away this peace and fight for what belongs to us. Or try to overthrow the Council for that very same reason." He then leaned back into his seat. "And every faction that has tried, failed. They were simply not prepared enough."

"Vok. What you are saying, could take years, maybe even decades of preparations." She told him.

Vok nodded his head. "The Hunters of D'Ghor will not want our help against the Federation. They're not going to take it. They fight the Federation in their own way, way that even I do not believe is Klingon." Vok shook his head. "No." He then pushed himself up from his seat and stood there before it. "We are going to throw the Federation and the Klingon Empire off of our trail. Taking this Colony will certainly have the High Council send someone to investigate. But if I take the Ya'Vek to Federation Space, and declare that I am here to assist the Federation in the name of the Klingon Defense Force against the Hunters of D'Ghor...that will give us a chance to prepare without anyone looking over our shoulder."

Nawa closed her eyes for a moment before letting out a soft sigh, and began to nod her head. "I believe that you are correct, Vok. If we wish to succeed unlike any other faction, we need to be patient. How do you wish to proceed?"

Vok smiled, "I already had our infamous intelligence officer gather the information that we need. I will take the Ya'Vek to one of the three closest Federation systems that is under threat of an attack and we will provide as much assistance as we can."

Nawa smiled, "And what about me and the attack wing?"

Vok shook his head. "I need the attack wing to stay here in defense of the colony, just in case."

Nawa frowned. "In case of what?"

Vok sighed. "I do not know where Kursik is getting his resources from. This ship is not registered to me in any database, considering that we stole it." He chuckled heavily. "But if he were to find out who I am, I am certain that he will figure out about my resources and may retaliate."

Nawa nodded her head. "I understand. I will keep my attack wing here in defense of the colony."

"Good. And Nawa. Be on your guard. Even if Starfleet defeats Kursik, agents of D'Ghor will not stop if they are given a task, even if it takes them years to complete such a task." Vok told her.

Nawa grinned, "I will be just fine, my love. Now go, and may you bring swift death to our enemies."

Vok smiled at her until her image blinked and the stars took their place once again on the main viewer. He returned to sitting down in his seat and let out a growling sigh. "Helm. Plot course to the Archanis Sector. Maximum Warp." He then turned to his Weapons Officer. "I want this ship in full Combat readiness by the time we get there. I want the Ya'Vek to give everything she has against Kursik's forces." He got both acknowledgements from the Helm and Weapons Officers.

[Present]

Vok stood there before his chair as he stared at the tactical map on his view screen, which displayed a few key systems. His ship, the Ya'Vek, was sitting in empty space under cloak, while his Intelligence and Communications Officer monitored comm traffic. Vok wanted to be ready to strike, to provide as much defense as he can offer with his ship alone. But of course, he can only take the Ya'Vek to one system. If he had his attack wing with him, he could send one bird of prey to each of the three key systems. But instead, he felt it was best to not lose any vital resources and losing a bird of prey was vital to him, thus why he told Nawa to keep her attack wing at home, least that is what he will be calling it when he returns. His house wasn't much of a house until he had actual lands under his name, which he will eventually be able to show his rightful claim to the High Council. But all in due time.

Vok folded his arms across his chest as he stared at the tactical map. "Do we have any indication of where his assault forces are? I need to know which system that would require the most help." The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward, he figured. He was not at all worried about any sort of repercussions for fighting against the Hunters of D'Ghor. They were going to fail, just like any other faction has. This kind of information, these facts that were as clear as day and night, made him begin to question whether or not he should continue to go up against the High Council. To hell what his heritage may be, to hell with revenge. There would be no honor in allowing the warriors he commands, the woman that he loved, to be slaughtered by a hopeless cause.

Vok grunted to himself. 'No. I will not falter from my goals. I will overthrow the High Council. I just,' He hesitated with his own voice in his head as he stared at that screen. 'I just need more time. More time to prepare, to get more worlds under my leadership, more ships. More than Kursik. More than the Sovereignty. More than any other.' But the moment he began to doubt, was the moment his heart was no longer a hundred percent certain about his goal. More needed to happen before this Klingon were to change his mind, much more to make him a proper warrior of the Klingon Defense Force.

"My lord?" His intelligence officer spoke, but her voice was close, very close. He turned his head to see that she was practically standing right beside him. When did she get this close to him without hearing her footsteps?

"Yes, what is it?"

She wasn't sure but believed that she may have interrupted his thoughts. Whatever they were, they must have been intensive to not hear her coming. Not good for a Klingon Leader, as the next time he doesn't hear footsteps coming, could very well be the last. "I have monitored all traffic. We will have information soon on which system is in more danger than the others."

Vok nodded his head. "Good. Inform me as soon as possible when you do find out."

"Of course, my lord."

Vok needed to clear his mind. If he were ever that distracted again, it could very well mean his life. Now...which system should he go... That is the question.

JShepard

[SS Hornet]
[Bridge]

Vakai watched from the command chair as Ryker and Gomo coordinated together to get the job done, repositioning the ship every now and then and firing the Betas to the designated locations. Vakai was even starting to wonder if they were going to have any issues with the D’Ghor at all. Or were they just lurking, watching and waiting for the moment to strike.

“Captain.” Sivol’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“What is it, Sivol?” Vakai asked.

“Getting distress calls from a medical convoy in the Legera system. There are already a few Starfleet vessels from Task Group Twenty Seven but they’re reporting that they’re under fire.”

Vakai sighed. “There’s nothing we can do. Our orders are to remain with the Explorer and assist them with this job. Can only hope someone available is able to respond.”

[Meanwhile…]

[IKS Ya’Vek]
[Bridge]

Vok watched as they grew ever closer to the convoy that was under attack. Watching as Starfleet vessels fight back with their phasers lancing across space to strike at their targets shields. They were merely trading weapons fire, phasers to the D’Ghor vessels, disruptor beams or bolts from cannons, and torpedoes from either side, all traveling the emptiness of space to make contact with one another.

They had received the distress calls that this convoy was sending out, and that was when Vok decided exactly which system he would assist Starfleet in. If he were to keep his efforts quiet from his own Empire, he simply needed to play the part of a Warrior of the Empire. But his thoughts were on his par’mach’kai. He knew going against a foe like these Hunters of D’Ghor would not come without consequences, but he must enact his own plans, so he must keep those plans a secret.

He stood there before his command chair and looked down into the palm of his open hand, staring hard into the medallion that sat there with a small chain laced in between his fingers and hanging from his hand. Medallion of his mother’s crest. “What would I be, if I failed my mission? Who would I be if I deterred from my path?” He spoke softly to himself before hearing a warning sound coming from one of the consoles.

“My lord. Sensors detect three Birds of Prey, and two K’T’inga class vessels. Moderate damage to the Birds of Preys. Heavy Damage to the Starfleet vessels.” Reported his science officer.

Vok pocketed the medallion and growled as he returned his gaze to the main viewer. “Let this day mark as the day we take our fight to the petaQ. This will be the day, where our goal for a better Empire begins...or ends. This will be the day that will determine the consequences of our actions.” If fighting the D’Ghor ruins his plans in the long run, then so be it. But it is a risk he will take to keep his plans a secret.

Vok took a deep breath and growled again. “Combat stations! Decloak the vessel. Target one of the K’T’ingas and fire at will. I will show them what a surprise attack really feels like.”

The Vorcha Attack Cruiser appeared in the emptiness of space as the cloaking generator was turned off, moving in close to the battlefield. As soon as it was in range, a whole volley of disruptors and torpedoes were launched from charged cannons and loaded up torpedo launchers, along with a couple larger bolts from the heavy cannon. The K’T’inga’s shields were overwhelmed by the disruptor bolts, that the torpedoes and the heavier disruptor bolts finished it off.

This of course meant that the element of surprise was gone now, and as his ship began to pull away, the remaining K’T’inga began to make chase, firing a small volley of disruptor bolts into the rear shields of the Ya’Vek. Of course, the Vorcha returned fire with a few disruptor bolts and torpedoes going into the forward shields of the K’T’inga.

“It appears that the Starfleet vessels are now able to fend off the B’Rels.” Said the Intelligence Officer.

Vok grunted. “Of course they are, after we drew the attention of the K’T’inga’s.”

“My lord! Three more B’Rels decloaking!” Said the Science Officer and immediately the ship rocked from weapons fire.

Vok growled. “So now the petaQ wants to play. There any planetary bodies in this system we can use?”

“There is a gas giant not far from here, Class One.” Said the Intelligence.

“I wouldn’t risk putting this ship through that kind of stress, My lord.” Said the Helm.

“We will do what it is necessary to win and survive! We are destined for a glorious death in battle, but not today. Plot the course, maximum speed. Redirect shield power to the rear, and divert power to the aft disruptors.” Vok commanded. “Then I want a batch of photon torpedoes converted into proximity mines, now!”

The Ya’Vek hurried away from the convoy towards the gas giant with the remaining K’T’inga and three new B’Rels in tow, all firing disruptors at each other.

[Meanwhile…]

[SS Hornet]
[Bridge]

After the deployment was complete, Vakai wanted to scout ahead and take the Hornet through the asteroid belt. But in doing so, they were tracked and now being chased in the asteroid belt by two B’Rels.

“It would be nice if I could fire back at them.” Said Gomo.

“Yeah that would be nice too, but I am too busy trying to get them off our tail!” Ryker replied as his fingers were going all over the controls, increasing and decreasing speed, dodging rocks left and right, up and down, doing his best to shake them. “I don’t know who their pilots are but they’re good.”

“But you’re better, so get us behind them.” Vakai told Ryker.

“I was hoping you would say that. I have an idea but wanted to wait for you to give me your motivational speeches.” Ryker grinned.

“No time for speeches, time for action. Whatever it is, do it.”

“All right, you asked for it. I suggest you hold onto your seats!” Sadly only Gomo had no seat, so he gripped the edges of the console tightly as he prepared himself for what Ryker was about to do. Ryker then picked the next biggest rock he could find, brough the ship close to the edge of it and as soon as he was certain, he cut the engines, pumped power into the thrusters and used the large asteroid to slingshot the ship completely around. He used the thrusters themselves to keep the ship oriented so that once they reached a full circle around the asteroid and closed in behind the two B’Rels, the guns would be trained on them. “There’s your chance Gomo!” Ryker said as he reset the power flow and pumped up the main engine.

Gomo had to put all his strength into one arm and hand that was gripping his console tightly to keep him from being sent to the deck, as he used his other hand to get a target lock on one of the B’Rels main power core, selected five torpedoes that were already ready to launch and hit the fire command for all weapons. First a volley of disruptor bolts zipped out and connected into the rear shields of one of the B’Rels, followed by the five torpedoes. First two smacked into the shields, then the remaining three ripped through the main engine and straight into the center of the B’Rel, enough to send a cascade of explosions and obliterate the B’Rel completely.

The remaining one was now the one being chased, as the Hornet fired a burst of four bolts, some connecting with the rear shields of the B’Rel, some missing and hitting rocks. This lasted for several minutes as they chased through the belt, and what seemed like an easy victory turned into another chaotic mess when a K’T’inga decloaked behind the Hornet and began firing on their rear shields.

As the ship shook and sparks spat out from the ceiling, Vakai hit the intercom button to engineering. “Gomez! I need more power to the rear shields!”

“On it! Diverted all battery power to the rear shields now!” Replied Gomez and now the ship rocked only slightly as the rear shields were strengthened. “It won’t last though, any more hits and the batteries are going to be drained dry and it will take twenty minutes for the core to recharge them. Ten if we were sitting still doing nothing.”

“No way we can sit still and do nothing for ten minutes.” Said Ryker.

“And there is no way we can keep this up for twenty.” Said Gomo.

“We may have to retreat back to the minefield, and let the mines take care of them.” Said Vakai.

“I have an idea.” Said Gomo. “The rear shields of the B’Rel are buckling. If I can take out their main engines, I can then lock a tractor beam on it.”

“You’re going to use the ship as a weapon against the K’T’inga. But we are starfleet.” Sivol chipped in.

Vakai thought it over but he only needed a second. “The D’Ghor don’t deserve any respect from us, nor do they deserve an honorable death. Do it.”

Gomo fired another couple twin bolts into the aft shields of the B’Rel to be certain that they were indeed failing before firing two torpedoes into its main engine. Once it lost the ability to use it, the Hornet swept in, locked onto it with a tractor beam and began to do a L-4 maneuver. “This is going to be close!” Ryker said as he had the ship complete little over half of the maneuver, where they were now coming down on top of the K’T’inga. Ryker punched more power into the main engine, forcing the tractor beam to lose lock on the D’Ghor B’rel that was now spiraling straight into the K’T’inga. Seconds after the Hornet passed the K’T’inga, the D’Ghor B’rel collided into it, destroying both vessels.

“Well, I am surprised that worked.” Gomo said.

Ryker turned to look at him. “Seriously?”

Vakai snapped his fingers at Ryker and pointed at the console, telling him to keep his eyes on his displays. They’re in an asteroid belt for crying out loud. Worst time to take your eyes off the ‘road’.

“Well yes.” Said Gomo. “I had assumed that the K’T’ingas shields would have been able to take the brunt of the collision.”

“Shields don’t necessarily work that way, in case you have forgotten.” Said Sivol. “Deflector screens are more tuned-”

Vakai stood up. “Let’s not get too technical on Gomo here.” He said as he turned to face Sivol. “It’s just better to know that some things don’t necessarily work like you think they do.”

“Well I probably would have known if I had taken the full four year course of Starfleet Academy but unlike you three, I didn’t want the responsibilities that came with being a commissioned officer.”

“Yeah. Wait until after this conflict is over, Gomo.” Vakai told him before turning around and sitting back down into the command chair. “Ryker, have us hang around one of the largest asteroids. I want us looking like we don’t exist on someone’s sensors.” He then hit the intercom to engineering. “Gomez, what’s the status on the batteries?”

“Going to need another ten minutes.” Replied Gomez.

“We’re just about to make a pit stop, think they can be done sooner?”

“With the work we have to put in to get the shield grid fully recharged, no, not really. I already got Maya and Koyda working on one of the power conduits that just frits out when the rear shields were taking a beating.”

“Understood. We should be able to sit here without being detected. Do what you need to do.” Vakai then ended the link only to hear a warning sound coming from both Gomo’s and Sivol’s consoles.

“Oh you might want to reconsider that!” Gomo said.

“Two K’T’ingas decloaking behind us.” Said Sivol.

“Shit. Ryker. Minefield. Punch it!” Vakai ordered.

“Punching it!” Ryker got the Hornet moving quickly, dodging rocks left and right until they were outside of the field and hurrying towards the minefield. “I need more speed!”

“Well I need more power for the shields!” Gomo said as he was redirecting all other facing shields power to the rear. “Is the auxiliary generator on?”

Vakai re-opened that link to engineering. “Gomez, what’s going on with the auxiliary generator?”

“The power conduit that I spoke of, the Auxiliary generator, is connected to that. We have to fix it first before we can do anything about it.” Gomez replied.

“Well tell Maya and Koyda to work faster. We got two K’T’inga’s on our six!” And after he said that, the ship rocked from disruptor fire from both ships.

[Meanwhile…]

[IKS Ya’Vek]
[Bridge]

The ship had entered the upper atmosphere of the gas giant, the crew hearing all sorts of creaking from the hull as it was still chased by the four D’Ghor vessels. Thankfully the atmosphere has made weapons lock useless, unfortunately it worked both ways so they were unable to get solid hits on their enemy.

Vok watched, as the main viewer was set to rear facing, as the three B’Rels caught up and the K’T’inga had backed off to stay out of the gas giant’s upper atmosphere.

“My lord. We can’t stay in here forever. This ship was not designed for this.” Said the Helm.

“She will hold!” Vok growled. “Where are my mines?”

“Ten makeshift mines ready to launch.” replied the Weapons Officer.

“About time.” Vok stood up from his chair as he growled with a big smile on his face. “Time to send these D’Ghor petaQ their surprise. Scatter deployment, maximum yield! Helm take us up immediately!” The second the ten mines were deployed and scattered enough for all three B’Rels to run into them, the Ya’Vek rose up out of the atmosphere just before the mines detonated with large explosions, followed by three massive ones.

“D’Ghor B’rels destroyed, my lord.” announced the Science Officer.

“Good. Bring us around. I want to face our remaining opponent.” Vok commanded.

“The K’T’inga is not firing, sir. They appear to be just sitting there.” Said the Weapons Officer.

“My lord, they are attempting to contact us.” said the Comms Officer.

Vok growled as he contemplated on answering or denying the transmission. “I would advise against it, my lord.” Said his Intelligence Officer. “If they learn of us, we risk exposure.”

“What exposure?” Vok turned to look at them. “D’Ghor are nothing but low life scum.” He said before returning his attention to the screen. Even though he did agree with his Intell Officer, if D’Ghor learned of him, he could be facing agents of the D’Ghor later in some future. Those trained to take their time, work and fight like a common Klingon but once the opportunity presents itself, they finish the job they were given and they strike. Vok has seen this happen plenty of times, especially those in the Klingon Intelligence Agency. Klingons as spies, ha…

“They won’t live long enough to say anything to anyone. Open the channel.” Vok commanded.

The main viewer blinked to show a Klingon Commander in the D’Ghor outfit, but the helmet was on the deck rather than on his head. “A single Klingon vessel defending Starfleet petaQ. You are not with the Klingon Defense Force. Who are you?!”

Vok grinned. “I am Vok, leader of my house.”

“I do not know that name…”

“No. You wouldn’t. I am the son of a Klingon Woman whose house has been long forgotten. I plan to avenge her death, restore everything her house has lost, and finish where her house has failed to complete. I am also going to succeed, where your leader will most certainly fail.”

The Klingon Commander laughed. “And what makes you so sure of that?”

Vok grinned. “Planning and patience. Every renegade group or civil war started by some house had always failed because of improper planning and not building up enough forces. Or relying on another empire for help rather than getting it for themselves. I know the truth about your petaQ leader! He gets his resources from the Orion Syndicate. He is just another failure among failures.”

The Klingon Commander growled. “I guarantee that you will not live to see the day that we succeed.”

“Succeed? Don’t you get it? The moment you side with the Orions, is the moment you are slaves to them! You will never succeed!”

The Klingon Commander grew furious, “You will regret this, Vok! You will regret insulting us! Mark my words, everything you hold dear will be destroyed!” Then the connection was terminated, bringing the main viewer back to the K’T’inga before them, just to see disruptor bolts leaving their ports and hitting the Ya’Vek’s forward shields.

“Return fire, all weapons!” Vok commanded.

There was not much to say about this one on one battle, as the K’T’inga was very much out matched and out gunned by the Vorcha Attack Cruiser. So as soon as the D’Ghor warship was destroyed, the Ya’Vek headed back to the Starfleet Convoy to ensure that the remaining D’Ghor vessels were eliminated and to remain in the vicinity in case more D’Ghor vessels arrived.

---------------------------------------------------------------

-Likely to be the last post for the Hazard Team Delta Squad story in the Archanis Campaign

-Hornet will make it back to the minefield, just to have the two D’Ghor K’T’ingas wipe themselves out, and the Hornet will remain near Explorer or some other vessel as they conduct repairs.

-Ya’Vek will remain with the convoy and three other Starfleet vessels from the Task Group until the convoy delivers their supplies. If an attack is made, the Ya’Vek will defend, that is certain.

-Feel free to do with either the Hornet or Ya’Vek as anyone pleases till the Campaign ends.

-Once the Campaign does end (least officially on the 25th) I will be making another story with Vakai and TG44CO in TF93 respected forum area, of Vakai’s Command Training.

-So officially, this will be the end of the Delta Squad under Vakai’s Command.

JShepard

[IKS Ya’Vek]
[Bridge]

Smoke billowed from the ceiling to the deck, likely a coolant leak of some kind that the valve has yet to be closed off. Warriors worked around the clock to bring some power back to some consoles as Vok stood there, a few feet away from his chair as the arm displays themselves were void of life.

“The D’Ghor vessels are in full retreat!” Roared the Science Officer, along with everyone else who were cheering in victory. They earned that right to do so, as when they had returned to the convoy, more D’Ghor vessels had decloaked and the longer their engagement had become. Two of the three Starfleet vessels from the Task Group were crippled and adrift, the third one was leaking warp plasma from one of its nacelles while still holding formation in defense of the convoy.

“My lord. The starfleet vessel is asking if we need any assistance.” Said the Comms Officer.

“Negative.” Vok answered loudly. “Our time here is over. We have given Starfleet enough to keep them from peeking into our affairs. What is the status of the warp drive?”

The Comms Officer went to contact engineering to get that update for Vok, only to respond shortly, “Warp drive will be online in five minutes, my lord.”

“What about the cloaking device?” Vok asked.

The Comms Officer checked with engineering once again before responding. “They just got it working again, my lord.”

Vok sighed with a low growl, “Good. I don’t want anyone tracking us back to our new base. It will take decades of proper planning and preparations to do what D’Ghor could not. And I want no one interrupting my plans. So we’re going to play the good Klingons until the time is right.”

He was about to give the order to set the course back to the new base when his Intelligence Officer grabbed his forearm and was now standing very close so that only him and her could hear each other. “My lord. Fighting the D’Ghor and allowing them to flee was a mistake.”

“The Klingon Defence Force will take care of the rest in our borders. We got nothing to fear.” Vok told her.

“Do you really believe our own incompetent Fleet will capture every single Klingon serving Kuskir? You know exactly what agents can do. We both know this. I’ve done it longer than you have and I know what is coming.” She told him.

Vok huffed. “If you know what is coming, then you will do everything in your power to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

She growled, “You know exactly as well as I do that there is no preparing for this! There’s no defense, no strategy! An agent could be any one of us, your helm, your weapons, your engineer, or even a simple cook. And the moment they know when the time is right to strike, is the moment our guard is down and we cannot have our guard up forever. Our guard will drop and when it does, it is over.”

“So what are you saying? You want to give up this adventure? You want to just go back to the Klingon Intelligence Agency and continue serving a false council?”

She sighed. “All I am saying is, we need to be extremely careful. We need to watch our step and never turn our backs on anyone, even those that we trust.”

Vok smirked. “I trust you. So do I have to be weary of you too?”

She smiled. “I would. The things I know would make Gre’thor look like a nice pleasure resort.”

Vok snorted, “You wish. Get back to your station and when we return to base...we will discuss our options.”

She sighed once more and gave a small nod. “Is all that I ask, my lord. Nawa is...a lucky woman.” She squeezed his forearm before leaving his side to return to her station.

Vok shook his head with a growl, “Women.” He said into his exhale before looking at his helm. “Plot course to our base, best possible speed.” Then he turned to his weapons. “Engage the cloak.”

[Meanwhile…]
[SS Hornet]
[Bridge]

Gomez came onto the bridge and dropped the bag of tools onto the deck. “Welp. That’s it. We got the thrusters back online, they should be bringing the ship to a full stop here any second now but the main engine is gone.” When the Hornet was fleeing from the extra D’Ghor ships back towards the minefield, the moment they crossed the minefield the rear shields failed and they took a couple torpedoes just before the minefield took care of them. The Hornet had been adrift for almost an hour until now. Luckily they weren’t on the path towards anything that would have been life threatening, like a planet or a moon.

“Well it was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?” Gomo said as he powered down his station. There was no need for it now since the D’Ghor were fleeing and any hostile vessels left were on their way out of the system.

Vakai rose up from the command chair and stood there in the center, turning around, looking at everyone. “All right. I guess now is as good as any. Is everyone here?” He looked behind Gomo and could see that Maya and Koyda had joined Gomez onto the bridge. “All right. While we wait to be picked up, I got something I wanted to tell all of you. I do have plans to become a Captain someday. I’m not sure when that will be, or how long it will take but I like to think that we’ve done very well together as a team, and as a team, I like for us to work together again on that day. But I would like for you all to know that I do have an agenda when that time does come.” He reached into one of his pockets and out the VR devices that were placed on the temples. “My parents gave these to me when they left me on Earth. Of course I didn’t know about them until I was of age. Point is, these are devices of the Tal’Shiar, my parents serve them and if they hadn’t left me on Earth, I would have been one of their agents, instead of here, with you guys.” He explained, seeing that he had all eyes on him. He stuffed the two devices back into his pocket. “I want to find my parents, and I think that being a Captain of my own ship, I will have the chance to find them better than being any other officer in the Fleet. I want to know if they are still alive and what I can do to get them out of the Tal’Shiar. Now we know that they are influencing the Romulan Free State, but of course they don’t want to acknowledge that to anyone. So I just wanted you all to understand, if I do become a Captain someday, and request that you serve under me, that we will be dealing with the Romulan Free State quite often. Whether it is through diplomacy, or espionage.”

Ryker stepped up and placed a hand on Vakai’s shoulder. “Dude, whatever it is you’re going to ask them, just say it. We’re with ya.”

Gomez shrugged her shoulders, “I mean, I thought this team was full of a bunch of crazies, but then I realized that Gomo is the only crazy one here.”

“Hey! I resent that.” Gomo looked at her.

Gomez slugged him in the shoulder with a smile. “But everyone’s all right. Even the pointy eared one here.”

Sivol raised a brow. “What is with the ‘pointy ear’ comments that my people receive?”

“It’s nothing personal, Sivol. But Gomez you also forget, Vakai also has pointy ears.” Ryker pointed.

“So what is it you want from us, Captain?” Said Koyda.

Ryker grinned, “That’s right, you are still in command of this ship!”

Vakai shook his head. “Not for much longer. Anyways, you Non-Comms. I plan on vouching for the four of you, to take the extensive training courses needed to become Commissioned Officers. I know being one takes responsibility, more than either of you wanted. But I do believe that you four can handle it, especially after what we’ve been through these past few days. So hopefully Starfleet will accept and let you four go through the courses, because I would really like all of you to be my senior staff when that time comes.”

“Will you stop tear jerking us already?” Said Koyda. “We’ll be there when you make the call. But you think me and Maya can get married before you make us go through hell to become Commissioned Officers?”

Everyone, aside from Sivol of course, were laughing least until an alert notification sound went off at the Comms station, which Sivol checked. “A Starfleet vessel from the Task Group is ready to transport us, Captain.”

Vakai sighed, “That will be the last time you guys will call me that, least for a while.”

“Look. If you’re willing to have a Bajoran couple, a crazy engineer, gun nut cardassian, and a loyal hem officer be your senior staff in the future, you’ll always be our Captain.” Ryker told him.

“Sorry to break the touching moment, but I think there is a Captain out there waiting for our acknowledgement and get back to Starbase Twenty-Seven.” Said Gomo.

Vakai nodded his head and looked at Sivol. “It was a pleasure serving with you, Sivol. Hope we see each other again someday.”

Sivol nodded her head once. “We just might.”

“Well if you would then please activate the beacon, so whoever wants to nab this ship and use it for parts or target practice, they can do as they please with it. Then let the Captain know that we’re ready for pick up.” Vakai told her.

“At once.” Sivol said before turning towards the Comms station and doing just that.

The stolen D’Ghor D-Twelve B’Rel class Bird of Prey now sits there in the Haydorian system, with an active beacon to be located and be dealt with as anyone pleases, as the Hazard Team Delta Squad was transported off the ship and officially disbanded as there was no longer a need for the Hazard Team. Thus, they returned to their normal duties on board the ship, at least until they returned to Starbase Twenty-Seven, where Vakai received another promotion, rising up to Lieutenant, and the rest of the team earned some shore leave.

-----------------------------

-Now Officially the final chapter of the Hazard Team Delta Squad

-The Stolen D12 sits there in the Haydorian System, with its main impulse engine destroyed, and a broken cloaking device. Some extra batteries in the engine room, and maybe thirty or forty torpedoes still available. At a certain ‘pirates’ disposal.