Briar and Izar set up together by the knot of gathered away team members ready to make the dash for the shuttle. Looking around, Briar tried to learn the rest of the faces of the Romulan away team. If she were evaluating them, she would have decided that there were a lot of different feelings written in their eyes. Some of them were doing a better job of others than hiding it. They weren’t accustomed to running from phaser fire, most of them. And the very real possibility that they might end up like the lost comrades was fresh in the wide eyes of the youngest among them.

 

Tanock checked the charge on his phaser and reset it to be effective against the drone, being as they were coming in close he set the beam to wide angle to increase the chance of hitting the fast moving targets.  It would drain the power quickly but they did not have far to go.  “Recommend wide beams, they are fast and we will need the extra coverage,” he said to McWest.

 

“Aw, that’s no fun.” Gavin grinned, but complied, nocking the settings on his phaser rifle. There was a part of him that had been looking forward to swinging around in a 360* arc as he dropped the drones from the sky in a real-life game of Velocity… but yeah, a wide-beam setting was safer…

 

The moment of truth had come for erei’arrain Lannar i-Baratan t’Vora, as well as those assigned to this mission. While he had been given the scans as an exercise in trust, the reality of the situation was not lost on him: the lloann’na could merely retake those scans by force, if not worse. Adding to that, he had to consider the risk of some sort of interrogation, which was, admittedly, what his own services might have decided to do if roles were reversed. Regardless, nothing had indicated any ill will toward his party, and he doubted that going along could possibly make the situation worse, so he decided to take the opportunity for evacuation. Motioning for his team to follow, he moved toward the group assembling for a mad dash from the building.

 

Kevax, whose forte so far on this mission had been keeping his head as low as possible while desperately hoping none of those drones came so close he’d actually have to use his weapon, could do little to steady his breathing. Blood pounded in his ears. He was not cut out for this. He was a scientist. He studied new alien races. This planet was a treasure trove of knowledge. But here he was, disrupter in hand, wondering whether he’d ever see his home on Gacrux again. He’d even be happy to see Makar at this point.

 

Once the mandatory shuffling was done, Merin looked at McWest, “Head right and I’ll follow and move left.”

 

“Got it.” Gavin nodded, watched and waited then headed right, adding cover fire for the team as he went.

 

He glanced to his left and saw Merin following suit.  The drones did not seem to have much defense against the wide-beam dispersal pattern they were throwing their way.  Gavin whooped as he felled two drones with one shot, they plummeted nearly simultaneously to the ground with a crash before dissolving into a curious puddle of grey goo. “Take that, Flying Robot Changelings!”

 

“I will bring up the rear,” said Tanock.  “I am not quick but I can take a blow if needed.”

 

By the time the rest of the personnel filed out, Briar and Izar were close to the tail. She appreciated knowing Tanock was at their back as she only could turn in a limited twist while supporting Izar, and the drones were adding up. She took aim at one… two… three of them as she went, and was only sure one of her shots had hit. From the sound of Izar swearing, it seemed he was having about the same success rate with drones coming up over the rise on his left.

 

Tanock moved low to the ground, keeping an eye on everyone else, as he did so.  “Keep moving.”  He took every shot as a drone entered his field of vision, he had every intention of draining the power pack if needed.  “Fire freely, we need to keep them dispersed.”  He matched actions to words as he swept phaser fire across two drones that just popped up.

Izar yanked downward and over to take up cover for a moment behind a low crumbled wall, and Briar felt the heatwave of a laser crackle to one side of her before it took a chunk out of the remains of a building behind them. She tried to crouch instead of fall into Izar as he pulled her off balance. There was rising smoke from the melted materials and a settling of dust as the back wall fell out from where it had been cut into and hit the ground, so she covered her mouth and nose with her elbow to try not to breathe all the dust and smoke.

 

Although she made a quick attempt to try to look around their cover, Fresh drone fire made her duck back again. She could no longer see far enough through the ash and dust to know how Mez and McWest were doing, guiding the Romulan team towards safety. Briar, Izar, and Tanock had been cut off from the rest of the team. She switched the power pack on her phaser while Izar was emptying his charge.

 

“How much farther?” Briar asked Tanock between coughs.

 

Tanock fired two quick bursts.  “Not far.  Keep going, I have your back.”  The Tellarite moved to a slightly higher position with a crumbling wall to provide some cover.  He fired again.  “Persistent bugs.”

 

Crossing the space between their current perch and where the pinned-down officers struggled to hold their space was going to be tricky – especially once the drones realized what they were about. If they didn’t know already. Glancing at the officers flanking him, Drew nodded his head. “We’ll assess their condition; hopefully McWest will be able to assist with cover.” He considered the other options, then motioned for the two to follow him.

Tanock saw two of his fellow security team members approaching.  He waved to get their attention.  “Over here.”  He pointed to Briar and Izar.  “Get them out, I will cover you.”  He expended his current energy cell and changed it out with the smooth efficiency of many hours of drill. Tannock continued to lay down fire, preparing to follow the rest of the team as soon as they started moving.

Dodging fire as best possible, Drew came in alongside the quartet as his ‘entourage’ took up positions to aid in the efforts of keeping the drones at bay. It struck him how familiar this scene felt, but he pushed those thoughts aside as he crouched beside the Commander. “What’s the situation here, Ma’am?”

 

“Everyone else is ahead of us. Tanock is keeping rear guard. Mister Izar here has a bum ankle.”

 

“Sorry,” Izar offered, kind of pitifully. “I twisted it when we first ran to shelter.”

 

“Gregovich, cover the Commander as we moved out.” he motioned to Briar as he pulled Izar’s arm over his shoulder. “Kellek,” he noted West still taking shots with the Tellarite. “Cover us while the others bring up the rear.” Once Gregovich was in position, Drew pushed to his feet, pausing just enough for the wounded man to settle. “Let’s go.”

Aboard the nearby shuttle, LTJG Hanmore was in the second half of the age-old hurry up and wait procedure, when electronic noise blanketed all sensors and comms. She could visibly make out drones coming in on multiple vectors, and could imagine others were approaching from where she could not see. “Brace,” she called back to the two security personnel in the shuttle. “We have incoming.” And, since she had no weapons that could be brought to bear when on the ground, she pulsed the shuttle’s lift thrusters and ascended some four or five meters, before rippling off phaser shots, which were more cover fire than kinetically effective.

 

“I need a gunner,” she shouted, as her bobbing and weaving meant that she couldn’t do much by way of accurate shooting. The jamming kept the shuttle from automatically targeting the drones, and her hands were too full to manually engage them with any expectation of success. “And we need to get everybody off of this rock,” at least until they could figure out a way to return in force.

 

“On it!” Petty Officer Camus, a young antican who had volunteered for the away team, lept from his auxiliary console to fill the tactical role. Quickly he found how the scattered targeting was preventing what would have otherwise been a fun exercise in picking off so many small enemy marks in the scopes, like one of his favorite holo-shooters since his school-pup days. Instead he had to manage with visuals and manual entries. Which meant spread-pepper fire for the purpose of suppressant was the order of the day. With how fast and thich they were coming as more and more of the probes amassed, gathering it seemed from the far horizon now, he could be more efficient knocking them back than he could be effective in destroying much.

 

With the care and feeding of weapons off her plate, Jenny wove and weaved her way as close as she could get to the building where the team was holed up. Comms were down, but she suspected that those present would take the hint. It was going to be a very tight squeeze, but she needed to get them out of here as soon as was inhumanly possible.

In the blink of an eye, Jenny caught sight of the ship’s resident gung-ho hero, McWest, and selected the closest point to him that she could manage. Before descending, she leveled and performed a three-sixty, rippling phaser shots in all azimuths, mostly firing for effect. This, she hoped, would scatter the drones for a moment or two, and buy the team precious seconds. To get aboard.

 

The ramp was open before she’d even touched down, but the shuttle’s systems corrected the change in mass nearly imperceptibly. “Maximizing dorsal shields,” she announced, as the major portion of the incoming fire was from above. She knew they wouldn’t hold for long, and hoped that they wouldn’t need to.

Ushering Briar in before him, Drew welcomed Gregovich’s assistance in bodily hoisting Ivar up the ramp and into the security of the shuttle before handing him off to a seat. He glanced back to see Tanock coming in before making his way up to the front. “We’re ready to close up and head out.”

 

“Closing the rear boarding ramp!” Camus shouted. He was glad everyone was aboard but he was far from relieved- the Probes amassing were no longer a wave, but a swarm outside. “Let’s get out of here!” Hopefully they could be outrun.

 

Tanock leaned against the side of the shuttle and switched out his second expended energy cell.  “Well done everyone,” he said, making a mental note to carry more extra energy cells in the future.

JP by

Briar as herself, Izar, Camus

Cielj as Tanock

Darney as Gavin McWest

Jenny as herself, Lannar

Iskander as Drew DeFalco, Gregovich, Kellek

Yearling as Kevax