Ferengi 4: Mischief by the Filtration System

Posted on Sat Jan 13th, 2024 @ 9:10pm by

1,763 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Campor III Ferengi Settlement
Timeline: MD: C20, After Water Tower Part 3

Lieutenant Ligan heard something up ahead, he instinctively held up his arm in a closed fist indicating for Commander F'Rar to stop and be silent. He crouched low and slid quietly to his right and gestured for the chief engineer to follow him.

He pulled a set of magnifying glasses from his utility belt and found a spot between the treeline where he could see ahead. Two small statured individuals in full body suits appeared to be placing some sort of mechanical device inside of the spillway that was connected to the filtration plant.

He passed the glasses to Paisley.

They had beamed to a meadow near the dam. As they continued ahead, Zeke had stopped her. She stood, silently, listening. She took the glasses, and looked.

"What the hell?" She whispered. She handed him the glasses back, and extracted her PADD from her pants pocket to record. "Here," she whispered again, handing the PADD to the younger officer. Were they Ferengi? Their size said yes, but their overall actions said no. What would they have to gain by poisoning their own people? They operated on greed, not spite.

Zeke adjusted the settings on his glasses and noticed a faint flashing light coming from the device that was now attached to the stone spillway. The light was barely visible, and could almost be mistaken for a reflection in the water. Zeke whispered back, "The suits look like a Breen design, but the helmets are obviously different. I believe they may have just placed explosive devices. Possibly activated by proximity. We should alert the others."

Paisley nodded. "I will radio back," she said, stepping away, further down the path. =/\=F'rar here. Listen, Kendri, I need a security detail at the dam. We have a...situation.=/\=

=/\= What kind of situation? Is everyone okay?" =/\= Kendri asked.

=/\=The people are.=/\= Paisley replied. =/\=The water? Not so much. I am near to the dammed off area with Lt. Ligan. I-we- think someone's placing explosives.=/\=

While off the clock, Paisley was a goof off and not very serious, she hoped that Chalan understood the gravity and seriousness that Paisley was projecting right now.

=/\= Understood. keep your distance. We'll have the marines establish a wide perimeter and see if we can determine what we are dealing with by using our sensors. =/\=

Paisley nodded, forgetting that Kendri couldn't see her. =/\=Alright, I'll pass it on to Ligan. Got an ETA, per chance?=/\= She asked. She wasn't trying to die that day. She turned around and stage-whispered to Zeke once again.
"Commander Chalan is sending a team of the Marines to assist. You got a phaser?" She asked. Paisley usually preferred to not be armed, but she was today, luckily-Jason made her carry when she was away from the boat.

=/\= I'll have the ones in the vicinity move in, and beam down more officers as soon as they are assembled. Just fall back, Commander until we know what we are dealing with. =/\=

=/\=Excellent, thanks. I think we'll be ok until backup arrives. F'Rar out.=/\= The normally-unflappable Carjoran was suddenly a little scared. She didn't like it. She clicked off the channel, and returned to Ligan. "Alright, lie low," she said. "Try to look less...Trill, I guess, the Commander said," she sighed. There wasn't much luck in hiding a 6' tall half-lizard but she'd do her best.

Ligan moved further back to join Paisley in her position. He pulled out his tricorder and held low so that the holoimage he was about to project would be hidden by the trees and the brush. In a low voice he pointed to the two unknown lifeforms that seemed to be moving at a regular pace now.

"They are over half a click downstream, since they slowed they are probably out of the blast zone. Here are the Marines that were already on the ground moving this way. They are too far north. The new platoon should come in from the south/southwest," Ligan explained. "I'll transmit this now."

"Perfect," she said, with a nod. Hopefully they'll hurry.

It did not take Jeksyne and his marines long to beam down to a location 100 meters from Paisley and Zeke's location. Spreading out, they moved in columns and leap frog to cut off the enemy at the Water Tower coming up from the south to aid their fellow Starfleet Officers.

Jeksyne kept the pace, rifle in one hand, close to his chest as he moved at a combat pace with his platoon.

Another Platoon beamed in, ahead of where the mysterious figures appeared to be heading, flanking the runaways' positions.

It was in fact Ferengi inside the suits disguising their appearance that Paisley and Zeke observed tampering with the water system. The two men froze when the teams of marines beamed down in their proximity. Though the team had selected a strategically safe distance, the Ferengis' superior hearing picked up on the slightest sounds of the brush being disturbed by the appearance of the officers.

The two looked around them and took a moment to process the sounds, and with hand signals silently agreed on the safest direction to run to avoid detection and scrambled to get away. The platoon ahead of them had made more of a distraction, and the two turned right, still away from the water, but headed back in the general direction of where Jeksyn's ream had landed.

Jeksyne’s marines were quick and efficient. A couple moved with a corporal to intercept the fleeting individuals.

Paisley looked at Zeke. "The Marines are here," she said. "Let's move out, quietly." She extracted her phaser from her waist holster and began to quietly move forward. She was careful to remain silent, but alert.

""Aye, Commander," Zeke responded, following behind her, turning around every so often to make sure they weren't being followed.

She led Ligan to where the Marines stood, cautiously. Too much, and they'd be noticed. Once she arrived at Jeksyn's side, she spoke, in a low voice.

"I'll defer orders to you," she said. She was a lieutenant commander, sure, but she didn't know anything about security.

“We’ll move with you. I’ve sent a couple of my men ahead to try and cut them off. Hopefully we can intercept them before they can get away. Phasers on stun, we don’t want to risk them biting the big one before we get a chance to question them”

Jeksyne nods to Paisley.

"Alright, lead the way, Sergeant," she said. She looked back at Zeke, and nodded. "Let's go," she said.

The other platoon Segeant's voice came over Jeksyn's comm's. =/\= "Sgt. Jeksyn, they are coming back your direction, veering east from the water source. I sent two of my men in pursuit. I'm beaming out to try to head them off again." =/\=

=/\= "Solid Copy, We're Oscar Mike for intercept!" =/\=

Jeksyne picked up the pace, moving to cut off the two fleeing individuals and linking up with his fellow marines at the same time.

Zeke looked at Commander Paisley, "I can help out here, perhaps you should head back to the Columbia, Commander."

Paisley looked sideways at the man, but sighed. As much as she wanted to stay, and do her work, she nodded. It was probably safer for her to go back. Still...What should she do?

"I think I'll stay awhile. I am the leader, it's my job," she said. As much as she hated this kind of conflict, she did firmly believe that a senior officer shouldn't ask things of the junior officers that they, themselves, wouldn't do.

"All right, let's move on then, Commander. If you stay behind the marines, I'll cover your back," Zeke said nodding to the officers forging ahead.

Paisley nodded, and sighed, but stepped in-between the two. She secured her phaser in its holster, but made sure it was on, at the ready. While she didn't like conflict, she could take care of herself. She didn't become a Chief Engineer on her pretty face, after all.

The two Ferengi scurried through the wooded area still trying to make it to their transport location despite being cut off from the shortest route there. Neither of the men had experience hunting or tracking and were making quite a bit of noise, the sound of cracking sticks and shuffling feet stirring up vegetation following them as they moved.

Paisley whispered loudly. "We have them blocked, correct?" She asked Jeskyne.

Zeke fumbled for his tricorder while they continued moving toward the Ferengi. While he was doing that he stepped on something hard and looked down to see what it was.

"Looks like they may have dropped something. A data device of some kind," he said as he picked the pace back up to stick with the marine party. He passed the device to Paisley.

"Maybe there's something on there," Zeke said as he handed it over.

The Engineer turned it over in her hands. "Indeed," she said. "Let me see if I can get it on," she said, kneeling to the ground to fiddle with the machine. A bit later, she had it on, and it was working-ish. The screen had shattered in the scuffles, but it was still operable. "Let's get this to ops and the language people," she said. "Sergeant? Are we ready to beam out?" The Commander asked.

"Uh did you hear that?" A voice up ahead asked. The voice had an electrified timbre to it, something that Breen suits seemed to come equipped with.

"Shut up, they'll hear you. We're almost there!" The other voice replied, indistinguishable from the first.

Jeksyne and Zeke charged forward driven by instincts drilled into them from years of training. They got glimpses of the short figures just as the transporter signatures carried them away. Zeke jogged to the clearing where they had just disappeared from and looked over the ground for anything else that may have been dropped.

"Nothing."

Just as they were beamed out, Paisley heard the voices, too. As they appeared on the Transporter pad, the words she was TRYING to say finally came out. "Crap!! Get the tricorder..." She sighed deeply, but tapped her comms.

==/\==Chalan, there's been a development. Send the Marines back out. I'll come up to the Bridge for a chat. ==/\==

==/\== Understood, Commander. See you soon. Chalan out. ==/\==

Back on the Bridge of the Columbia, Kendri signaled to the ops officer to have the team beamed out.

[END]

Commander Chalan Kendri
First Officer
USS Columbia

Lt. Commander Paisley F'Rar
Chief Engineer
USS Columbia

Staff Sergeant Jeksyne Vale
Platoon Sergeant
USS Columbia

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