Can It Get Any Worse?!

Posted on 04 Nov 2023 @ 6:13pm by Lieutenant Maralen Seitha

902 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Antioch III, City Street
Timeline: Short time after Breakdown

Kendall Everett Morris was not a happy man. In the last hour, his team had broken up four riots, three lootings, and a knock-down drag-out between two citizens attempting to steal the same item from a storefront. He had just ordered those two back to their homes and was watching them leave when he was nearly dragged off his feet by someone colliding with him, wrapping arms around his waist, and spinning around behind him. In reflex, he reached out and grabbed hold of his nearest teammate to steady himself before trying to determine what had grabbed him.

The teammate thus grabbed, Nareen Ramoni, caught his arm and looked down at him -- these aliens were so small. "Are you all right, Kendall?" she asked before spotting the reason for his imbalance.

"Yeah," he answered, now steady. Looking around behind him, he saw an Antiocian child hiding behind him. He had gotten used to the adults being so much taller than him, but it was disconcerting to see a child who was almost as tall as him standing there. He was about to say something to the kid when a shout from another member of his team brought his attention back to the street in front of them.

What happened next was so quick that Kendall barely had time to react. Ahead of them and to both sides of them, a mob of angry Antiocians brandishing various objects was bearing down on them and coming quickly. Kendall raised his phaser -- set on stun, of course -- but the shot never fired. A blow from behind caught him in the side of the head, and he went to the ground, vision blurry and consciousness threatening to abandon him. He tried to scramble out of the way and get a shot at one of their attackers, but that hit to the head had made it hard to think of anything.

Around him, his team -- both the Antiocians and the Starfleet personnel -- arranged themselves back to back, reduced to pure defensive postures by the swiftness and intensity of the attack from all sides. As he watched, however, they were overwhelmed. One by one, they fell to blows from objects and fists as well as bladed strikes.

One member of the mob carrying what looked like a short sword to him but was likely just a knife to the taller alien rushed what was left of the team. Kendall tried to focus, to bring his phaser to bear once more, but a swift kick to his head nearly drove him into unconsciousness.

As his vision began to darken, Kendall saw all but one of his team fall. The last standing was the Klingon, Jin'tok. Not really a surprise, Kendall thought -- an odd thought for right now. One of the Antiocians, armed with a thing that looked to Kendall like a short sword but was likely only a knife to the tall alien, rushed the Klingon. Jin'tok, in good Klingon fashion, grabbed an object from another of his attackers -- this one was not a blade, but it did have jagged edges -- and met the knife-wielding alien halfway.

The rest was a flurry of strikes and parries and dodges from both sides. Kendall felt his mind slip as he tried to do something, anything to help his teammate... and failed... again. Jin'tok didn't seem to need his help, though. He was giving as good as he was getting... until two more of the aliens flanked him. At that point, his actions became less strategy and more fury. He struck out at all of them. Whichever one got close enough had to either dodge or get hit. The problem was that there were more of them than there were of him, and eventually, even the courageous Klingon went down in a flurry of blows and slashes from six opponents.

As he saw the Klingon go down, all hope fled from Kendall's mind. Not that there had been much before then, but that ended what little there had been. But before he surrendered to the soft, quiet stillness of oblivion, he managed to groan into his comm badge, "Base... Morris... team... down..." As he finished the statement and darkness claimed him, he saw the child bend over him. The look in the kid's eyes this time, though, was pure rage. The young Antiocian didn't say anything, though, just brought a knife from somewhere in his clothing and brought it down solidly into Kendall's chest with a satisfied smile.

That was the last Kendall knew, that smile, then nothing.

***** ***** *****

Back at the Security headquarters, Maralen frowned at Morris' last report. He would have asked the man to clarify, but their signals blinked out on the table. This was the third such report he had gotten, and he was getting very tired of losing people! Apparently, it was time for him to get out there himself and use all of that Realm training for something useful.

He was about to tell Garshaan to take over here when the door opened. No one was supposed to be here, and Maralen prepared himself to defend. But the person who came through the door was not an enemy, and he relaxed his stance.

~END~

A post by

Kendall Everett Morris
Security Officer
USS Cygnus

&

Various team members

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Maralen Seitha
Security Chief
USS Cygnus

 

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