Worth the Price, Part 2

Posted on Tue Jul 8th, 2025 @ 12:55am by Ensign Dani Harper & Lieutenant Ryan Keel & Lieutenant JG Jean-Baptiste Dorsainvil & Lieutenant JG Thivi & Josef Forstinger & Lieutenant JG Fulvia

1,829 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Bombs or Bombshells
Location: Outskirts of Nowhere, Freecloud
Timeline: MD 02, 1200 Hours, (After Part 1)

The Chamber was working, that much one was able to tell just by the constant whirr and condensation it gave off. Strangely enough, it bore no identifying marks-though just by how bulky it was, one could be able to deduce perhaps that this Chamber was old, very old-if the Rust hadn't already started giving that away. Though there was no way to look inside, as what little glass there was on the metal cylinder had practically frozen over.

However, the Tri-Corder, able to penetrate through the metal and circuitry, picks up a life sign. Faint-and encountering some interference from the machinery, but it was there.

What the Tricorder did not pick up, yet anyone with even some light knowledge on engineering could tell, is that this Cryo Unit was beginning to fail. It already looked like it had been ripped off of some ship-as the cylinder came with pieces of metal wall paneling, but also the long power cord that led back into the shuttle. The Connection was jerry-rigged to begin with, so who knows how long the power will hold?

Or what will happen when it inevitably fails.

Dani knew they needed to keep the Nausicaans engaged while they formulated a plan. Waking up the Human was out of the question. She couldn't tell exactly how old the cryo unit was, but chances were he'd never seen a Bolian or an Orion before, and would be hard-pressed to believe that she and Adoran were friendly faces.

"I'm interested," Dani stated nodded slowly. "Now, I see some promise. Work still has to be done. What are you asking? Does it wake up?" She tried to drop some clues to those listening over comms.

" Pods still working. Prime pre-federation terran perfect for any fighting pit." The Nausicaan beamed as he gave the pod a slight slap. The pod seemed to whir and shake before settling down.

" How the hell did these clowns get hold of that?" Fulvia asked into her coms as she observed the scene through her scope.

If they would take the money and let them go, that would be ideal, though no one suspected it would be that easy. Dani knew they needed to start giving the team more information, and soon. "The pod is worthless. We will be lucky if it survives the trip. I think the human is worth twenty bars, but I will give you twenty-five."

" Oh no take him as our gift. As a token of are appreciation and longing to look forward to more work with the syndicate." Replied the seller, his face still keeping it's grin.

While the price discussions between the two parties was ongoing, something happened. A Spark, A Power Overload-and the Cryo Chamber failed. Powering off with a sputter as the lifesign inside flatlined.

Then, if anyone was still scanning the pod, there was a sudden surge of electricity....then another, and another. 3 bursts of 1000 volts. Then the Lifesign came back, this time much stronger than before.

Zaygh turned at the sudden sputtering groan from the cryo chamber, his bright yellow eyes narrowing at the sound. The surge of electricity hissed and cracked as if it were a cornered animal, and for a moment, he just watched, lips curling back into a toothy grin that could have been interpreted as either amusement or menace.

Raez drew her her weapon and looked at the aliens with suspicion. "Put your equipment away! Whatever you just did, stop it now!" She barked.

Dani raised her hands defensively and took a step back. "Just scans. Like said, we'll pay a fair price. We aren't asking for handouts. We will not be threatened though."

Then, the door of the Cryo Chamber was launched off its rusty body, sent flying across the room and into a corner. Lighting permitting, there wasn't much one could see inside the chamber.

A Noise, metallic whirring-and the shifting of pistons. Before the Terran reveals himself. At first one might think he was Borg, but no-instead he was wearing a metallic exoskeleton which seemed to be connected to his main vest. Which appeared to be Kevlar-but also much to bulky to be just that. His Face hidden by a Gasmask and helmet-whatever skin was visible was seemingly necrotic-Not to mention that he was also bleeding from a stomach wound under the vest-which seemed to however slowly seal up.

Oh, and the Tricorder clocked this one's heartbeat at 200 BPM.

And without even so much as a word, the Soldier brought his Bullpup Assault Rifle to bear, and fired several bursts towards the figures opposing him.

Fulvia let out a curse as one of the Nausicaans fell under the burst from the soldier's weapon. "Everyone take cover. " She yelled as she opened up with her own rifle. Two more of the nausicaans fell as the tasers' tipped, round embedded in their skin and activated, sending them twitching to the ground.

Zaygh's body slammed hard against the deck, the breath torn from his lungs in a wet, gurgling grunt. Thick, dark blood poured from the ragged wound on his side, pooling fast beneath him and spreading quickly around him.

As the rifle came up, Trass's war-honed reflexes kicked in. Springing into action, he barged Dani out of the line of fire, then grabbing her by the scruff of the collar to find what cover he could in the sweltering heat. Heart beating, feeling alive as only combat could make him feel, he peeled off a series of graphic Andorian and Klingon phrases before tumbling into cover behind a large rock formation.

'Some buy you got me on,' he snarled cheerfully, yellow eyes lit up as he cast about himself. Pulling a circuit board from one pocket, a coil from another, sundry electronics from others across his person, he soon jury-rigged a makeshift phaser. 'Glad it wasn't all stale!'

"Holy hell. I thought there was a Human in there. What is that thing?" Dani crawled herself to a seated position. "I didn't think I could get an energy weapon passed scanners. I've got a dagger and a hypospray. If I can get close enought to the Nausicaans, I might get an edge on them. You think we can convince robot-boy we're friendlies?"

Grunting as he looked over his weapon impatiently, Trass risked a look over the brow of the rock at whatever it was that was emerging from the rock. 'Maybe if we fire at the Nausicaans it'll get the idea,' a number of scenarios ran through his mind, and he grinned sourly again, 'on the other hand, it might be programmed to waste everything in sight.'

The lights on his improvised phaser blinked green. 'I can get maybe six or seven stun shots off with this,' he said carefully. 'You think you can down a Nausicaan if I start picking them off? I could use one of their disruptors.'

"Yeah, sure. At least it's a plan," she replied. Her adrenaline too charged for her to have second thought.

'Yeah, a plan,' he replied dubiously. 'On three, yeah?'

"Mmmhmm," she nodded, then breathed barely over a whisper, "One..."

Trass joined her and in unison they counted, "Two..."

And on three Dani bolted toward the Nausicaan as Trass began firing off shots.

Seeing the gas-masked human aiming at Dani, the manga roman aimed her rifle, sending two more of the taser darts toward the exosuit the terran was wearing.

The Exoskeleton itself was hard to hit, but the Magna Roman's Darts instead hit him in the right arm where he was firing, making half of his body convulse as his aim was sent straight up.

Bullet casings rattled onto the floor as Josef stopped firing-and despite being actively shocked, ripped the dars back out of his arm and olive uniform peaking from under the skeletal metal. Seeing as he wasn't a shaking mess on the floor-and as if his heartbeat hadn't given it already away, he was clearly on something.

"FUCKING TEST TUBE BABY" came a roar from under the mask-translated by their Commbadges, before a metal crate was kicked into Fulvia's direction. Josef retreating back behind the Cryo Chamber for cover now while still firing several shots into the Starfleet Intelligence Officer's general direction. A Trail of red Blood following him. Still aware of the Situation, he was looking around for an exit.

Fulvia remained calm even as rockcrete splinters began bursting around her as she dropped another one of the nacusican guards. Only a few of them left. " Any ideas what to do with the human?" She asked into her comms.

Dani's voice came back, struggling as she dodged fire and tried to make her way to the Nausicaan. "He's Human, and unless he's been woken up before he has no idea where he's at. We have to try to save him."

Zaygh clawed forward along the deck of the cargo hold, the disruptor trembling his his enormous fist. His yellow eyes were fixed on the human in the exosuit. With a last guttural curse, he lifted the disruptor, firing-off a wild series of bolts toward the shape.

The strength inside him fled and his body twitched. He sagged forward onto his belly, the disruptor slipping from his fingers and clattering next to him. His last breath escaped in a laboured hiss, his face pressed to the cold deck, staring into the pooling blood.

Activating his commbadge, Trass looked back at Fulvia as he heard the bullets stop and, peaking his head over the lip of the rock, saw what was unfolding. 'Got some stun shots on your rifle? My phaser won't have the power to get through that armour.'

"I'm using the stun rounds, but this guy is on something; it's having little to no effect." Fulvia called out through the coms as she reloaded. She did have a clip of live rounds, but being shot by teleporting bullets was probably something not to do to a recently resurrected ......

Hang on, what had the Nausicaan said? Pre-federation. That word he had yielded out. Test tube.... Her mind ran through what she'd learned in the fleet of her world's twin planet's history. "Hey, jarhead we are not Augments." She yelled out over the din of gunfire.

Sadly, the Magna Roma's words of reasoning went unanswered. Either he didn't believe them or he was too much in his drug-induced rush to hear anything else.

Uttering a near-constant stream of creative curses in several languages, Trass looked about, wondering what he could do with his lone disruptor pistol. He looked at Dani, and frowned. He gave her a warning over comms, 'we need to get out of here.'

Dani grunted in the struggle to get herself up from wrangling the Nausicaan. "Okay, on it." She was out of breath and covered in dirt, blood, and sweat that was unfortunately mostly not hers, but she had to keep going.

~tbc~

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