Canterra: Operation Cold Comfort - Dancing in the dark

Posted on 10 Aug 2019 @ 3:07pm by Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Commander Iria Taltos & Lieutenant Commander T'Lara & Lieutenant Harry Stevens & Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Walken & Lieutenant Junior Grade Emma Walken & Lieutenant Junior Grade Anyi Nila

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: The Xore Strike Mine
Timeline: T+3 17:30 hrs Zulu

[ON]

[Xore Mine – Level 9]

A moment later several small red emergency lights flickered on, there were not many of them, they were dim and much of the tunnel was left in deep shadow. In the half-dark the Gorn appeared to be engaged in a discussion on their communication systems and did not seem to be paying attention to the workers.

“Dammit it all! The Frog Squad did it!” Mason whispered “We need to act now, before they get organized”

The woman she had spoken to earlier came up, there were five others with her, all were carrying their tools “This is your doing right?” She gestured at the darkness “Whatever’s next count us in!”

There were whispered murmurs of agreement from the others. “Tell us what to do! I’m ready to bust some lizard heads!” One fellow urged carrying a large pickaxe.

"I love the enthusiasm but keep safe, we only have one phaser and it is still in pieces. Ensign get the phaser together quick. Mason if the Gorn over there get to close, we are going to put the pickaxes in their throats and take their rifles." Walken ordered as he lifts the pickaxe over his shoulder moving a little closer towards where the Gorn last were.

Emma turns her head, "Hand me the pieces as you get them, they drilled me so much on how to put this thing back together I could do it in my sleep." She whispers as she holds out her hand for T'Lara.

"Alright," T'Lara took the pieces and handed them to Emma. She observed the woman how she put the pieces together.

One at a time Emma had the pieces handed to her, the most important thing was to get the phaser ready. Slotting the pieces together she slowly had the old mark one phaser ready and passed it over to her brother. With the phaser in his hand, she began on the small communicator.

The small group of colonists waited impatiently while the weapon was assembled and were ready to go as soon as it was.

"Ill distract them" The fellow with the pickaxe said. He moved away a little, then threw his mug down on the rocky floor of the tunnel, it clattered towards the four Gorn guards.

"Im fed up with eating this slop!" He yelled at them "You green bastards need to feed us better! Or you can start digging your own ore!" He kicked over one of the buckets sending it towards the guards.

There was a growl from one of them and it advanced on him. "Yous stop that! Pick that up!" It gestured at the bucket

"Get stuffed!" The man yelled back "Pick it up yourself lizard!"

The Gorn bared it's teeth and the talons on his hands clicked. It advanced on the man. The rest of the Gorn were watching intently.

Walken didn't hesitate as he fired the phaser on the Gorn that was approaching the man, "Mason get his disruptor!" Walken ordered as he began to provide covering fire by firing at the other three Gorn that had just been watching the situation.

Mason ran for the fallen Gorn, it was down but not out and raked at her with one set of talons while trying to bring it's weapon to bear with the other.

Mason kicked the weapon away from it and they both went scrabbling after it.

Meanwhile two of the others were coming over raising their weapons.

A couple of the workers charged one, slaming into it and beating it down with a shovel and hammer.

The other kept advancing on Walken.

Walken locked his eyes on the Gorn that was charging him, the only thing he could use for cover was some of the heavy machinery but he wouldn't make it that far. He did the only thing he could do right now and that was to fire on the Gorn. Making his choice he began to run towards his right as he fired on the Gorn.

The Gorn lifted it's disrupter and fired back. The beams chasing after Walken as he ran, the rocky floor exploded when hit, sending jagged fragments flying. There was a cry as a worker went down, hut by some of the shrapnel.

T'Lara rushed over to the worker, making sure she was staying down and out of the way of fire, She immediately started to treat his injuries with what little she had at hand. As she was a pirate before, and there were times they didn't had enough medical supplies, she often had to make due, and she gotten very good at it. She looked to Walken. "Sergeant, I need cover to help the injured. This battle can not go on too long."

Walken began to move towards T'Lara not much cover he could provide but at least he could position himself between them. He raised the phaser and fired once more at the Gorn.

The shot was on target and the Gorn fell, then lay motionless.

Mason and her Gorn were both down and fighting each other for the disrupter, she had one hand at its throat trying to keep it's snapping jaws away from her face, the other on the barrel of the disrupter, while she repeatedly kicked it in the ribs.

"Could do with a hand here!" She yelled, cringing away from the sharp teeth inches from her face.

Emma looked around and didn't see much she could use except for a shovel that had been on the ground that one of the other colonists must have tossed down. She ran towards it and grabbed the shovel. Running towards Mason she raised the shovel over her hand and proceeded to swing down on the back on the head of the Gorn.

The spade smashed in the back of the creature's skull with an unpleasant crunch. It thrashed around as it died, jaws still snapping at Mason's face. She managed to kick it off and rolled away. The Gorn lay there twitching, until it was finally still.

"Damn that thing was nasty" Mason muttered, suppressing a shudder as she got to her feet and retrieved the Disrupter. "Nice swing with the shovel though!" She gave Emma a broad smile. "Now let's get some more!"

She checked the Disrupter's battery pack, put the sling over her shoulder and brought the weapon up ready for combat.

The forth Gorn was shouting into its communication device, trying to raise the alarm and summon aide.

Kyle's eyes shifted to the last Gorn, he was calling into what must have been a communication device. Again he ran towards that Gorn firing the phaser, he couldn't allow that call to get off otherwise they might blow the explosive and cave in the entrance to this level of the mine.

The Gorn saw him coming, turned and ran. It was big and strong, relatively fast over a short distance but not built for the long run.

Workers scattered as the Gorn charged down the tunnel, but there were too many of them in the way to give Walken a clear shot.

Even do he was steadily closing on it and was within eight feet when they rounded the last corner, thirty yards ahead was the ring of explosives.

Once they rounded that corner Walken felt his adrenaline spike, 'The explosives!' That thought echoed in his head as he gave everything he could muster as he ran after the Gorn. Twenty yards he was five feet behind, there were still too many people around for him to get a shot on the bastard. Ten yards remaining the Sergeant was within three feet, it was now or never Walken pushed forward in a leap as he fell he wrapped both of his arms around the Gorn's right leg taking him down to the stone ground. Walken crawled up the creatures body, his phaser trained on his head not close enough for him to knock it away in case he tried to move or fight back. "Move and die." Walken exhaled at once as he caught his breath.

The Gorn slammed into the rocky floor with the wind knocked out of it. It trashed and gasped, trying to heave Walken off but stopped, eyes wide at the barrel of a phaser inches from its snout.

“Yous dies” It panted “You’s all dies! Battle Master he kills yous all!”

"Oh really now, because the power going out wasn't just a random fuse. I'd say your little Master has about five minutes before the boots of every Marine break down the door." Walken was to his feet now as he circled around to the front of the down Gorn. "I'm gonna make you an offer, I'm assuming you have little hatchlings back home that you want to see. How about you give me detailed information on the operations that you know about on this planet. Then you will sit on board the brig of one of the ships away from the combat and away from the danger of death once we take the planet back. We fake the reports make it look like you were wounded most valiantly defending your post and even fake an attempted to sabotage the ship you will imprison on. You get to go home, we get our planet back, simple as that."

The Gorn sneered back, baring it's teeth. "I never betrays Hegemony! Yous will all dies!" It spat and turned it's head away, refusing to look at the Humanoids.

Mason and Emma came jogging up. Mason aimed the barrel of her disrupter at the Gorn, holding it in place so Walken could disengage.

“Nice going Kyle” She said “What now?”

Kyle turned back, "I don't suppose any of you or the other prisoners know anything about disarming explosives?" He asked pointing out the explosive to his sister since it was Mason who noticed it in the first place. "T'Lara still with the other prisoners?"

"Yeah, one took a bit of rock shrapnel. Bled a bit but should be ok" Mason replied.

Emma had no idea they had put that there or even noticed it when they were marched in, "Not my field." She relaxed a little.

"I got it" Now that Walken was back on his feet, Mason went over the the explosive collar lining the tunnel. She poked around, found some wires running to a box bolted to the rock wall. Opening it there was a switch and some kind of remote sensor.

She checked a few connections then pulled out a couple of wires.

"That should fix it" She said with a grin. "Although if there's a loud bang, l may be wrong! "

She shrugged "What now?"

"Make sure the comms are up, I want the assault group to know that level nine is secured filled with only colonists and one Gorn prisoner. As for us unless we have something that could help us bridge the gap in the elevator shaft we could make it to level eight, begin to clear it out if I recall there is a small elevator there as well that stops near the pumping station." Walken answered.

Mason walked up to the main shaft, there was a waist high guardrail before the immense drop. She looked up and down the shaft, then listened intently "Hear that? That's weapons fire!" A moment later there was a distant rumble "And explosives!"

Walken slowly approaches the ledge but keeps his eyes and phaser trained on prone Gorn. "Well, sounds like our people are here..." He stopped himself form speaking his other thought about how it could be the Gorn either executing people or sealing the tunnels with the explosives. He walked back to the Gorn. "Hear that, sounds like the Gorn are losing. You know my offer still stands, you got a few minutes still."

The Gorn snarled and bared its teeth. "Yous dies! Battle Master kills you all!"

It glared and hissed at Walken and the surrounding workers. Some of them shrank back, still overcome with fear of the creature, whom until a few minutes ago had held the power of life and death over them.

Some of the group of workers who had first helped the Starfleet team arrived. Without a word one of them walked up the Gorn, swung a pick axe and buried it to the hilt in the Gorn's head.

The creature thrashed around for a moment, the body jerking as brownish blood gushed from the wound.

"This bastard killed my brother last week, after a rock fall broke his leg. They said he couldn't work, wouldn't give him any medical attention and he was still alive when this sack of puss threw him down the shaft!" The man said, watching the Gorn die.

The other colonists were silent for a moment, shocked and confused. Then one cheered, ragged at first, but others joined in

The worker placed his boot on the Gorn's crushed head and yanked the pick axe free, giving the corpse a kick for good measure.

The cheers got louder as more joined in and suddenly they were all cheering, laughing and clapping.

The Gorn's body was seized up, dragged to the guard rail and thrown over, it bounced off the shaft walls a couple of times before disappearing into the darkness below.

Another group of workers dragged the remaining Gorn bodies down the tunnel and they too were thrown down the shaft. The colonist's shouts and cheers echoing off the walls as each one went over the edge.

While the liberated colonists celebrated their liberation a woman approached the Hawaii team "Do you know anything about what they did with the children?" She asked

"They took my son and daughter away when they brought us here, Mark was nine and Sharon was eleven. I haven't seen them in two months" Tears in her eyes as she looked for news from the people who had come to save them.

Kyle was appalled at what he was watching, he was a Marine someone who took lives when it had to be done. But what he just saw upset him greatly, the Gorn had surrendered he was still a piece of shit but to just execute him it wasn't right. His thoughts were interrupted by the woman asking about her kids. Sure he was one of the people to there for the classified mass graved filled with children. His eyes locked on the woman and he shook his head, "I won't lie to you, I don't know...if they are not here I can't tell you what happened to them. I won't crush your dreams or give you false hope by saying one thing or the other." He was partly lying as he spoke he didn't know if her kids were dead but odds were that they were in the grave.

The woman collapsed to the floor, covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

His attention turned to the crowd, he cleared his throat. "I can't say I have been in the situation as long as you all have but, I was a POW of the Gorn before I was rescued...I understand the hardships you all went through, I wasn't forced to hard labor though I was tortured for weeks."

As he spoke he hoped to get through to these people showing his situation was similar to them. "But we can't let our anger control ourselves, we are supposed to be better as a species, we can't let lose ourselves in fear and anger. That Gorn was scum, but when did we become the people who blindly execute people?"

"The Federation is supposed to stand above, I'm not saying we forgive them hell I'll be on the frontline of this war till the end, but we can't become monsters by executing prisoners."

A few if the colonists looked away, but many were defiant. The one who had killed the Gorn spoke "You didn't watch those lizards burn your house, kill your parents and then throw your kid brother to his death!"

The man had tears in his eyes "l will never forget him crying out to me when that... that thing! ... dragged him to the shaft and threw him down.

My kid brother....he was nineteen years old... He just started college ... He was going to be be an architect... He ... He never hurt anyone... Didn't deserve what they did to him... None of us did!"

"That Gorn got was was coming to it! They can all burn in hell! Every last damn one if them!" He shook his head, tossed the pick axe aside and walked away.

The rest stood around, some cried, others just stared blankly, many sat down, quietly huddled in groups on the floor of the tunnel.

Mason looked to Walken "Nice speech Kyle, that was getting ugly and l didn't want to use this on our own people." She said quietly, patting her disrupter.

"But we'd all have done the same thing if that was our kid brother" She gave him a look almost daring him to deny it.

"I don't blame him if they did the same to Emma...I would burn their planet to nothing." Kyle looked over to his sister briefly.

Mason nodded, then after a moment gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. "We got comms yet? Would be good to find out what's happening up there."

Emma held up the commbadge, "It's ready."

Kyle tapped it once it was in his hand, =/\= Operation Cold Comfort Frostbite Assault Team Leader this is Staff Sergeant Kyle Walken of the infiltration team. Level Nine of the mine is secure and Gorn free. What status on the Assault up top? =/\=

There was a hiss of static then a female voice replied, weapons fire could be heard in the background =/\= Walken this is Puma Two! Good to hear from you! Assigning you callsign Insider One! We're inside the complex! Working on taking the elevator control room right now. Sit tight we'll be down there soon! =/\=

=/\= All copy Puma Two, Insider One out. =/\=

T'Lara walked up to the rest of the group with the worker leaning on to her while limping. She helped him sit down with the rest of the group that had huddled down. She had no idea what transpired here, but she did hear the cheering and screaming. She walked to Kyle. "Any more injured that need my immediate attention? If not, what are our orders?"

"Nothing caught my eye when I ran past, you can start checking on the colonist on this level, that way you can get an idea of what you will need brought down from the battlegroup to start helping these people. Otherwise, if it's something you can take care of now go for it."


[Xore Mine – Colonist Workforce Pens]

There were nervous calls from the colonists in the dark, while outside the fence the Gorn could just been seen the red glow of the emergency lights. They were huddled in a group and seem unsure what was happening.

Harry knew that this was the signal and that the Frog Squad had done what they said they would do, He looked over at Taltos and said," Are you ready?" as they now had to help those nearby. Now was the time to rebel and take back the planet from the Gorn.

Iria was glad her eyes were suited to nighttime and the dark but not everyone else was that comfortable in the dark. "Will be happy to get ready but I can't exactly reach the latches on the implant for the phaser along my my back, on my own." She paused and looked at Ensign Anyi, "Care to give me a hand with that? Or I can get the communicators started though."

"Someone should be on watch and ready to intervene if they try to stop our progress." Iria added after a glance at Stevens.

'Keep calm Nila.' She thought to herself as she looked to Taltos it was her call right know being the ranking officer here. Not that they had much of a choice with the guards still breathing down their necks. She moved around the back of Iria and placed her hands on the top of the implant, slowly releasing the latches she twists the top off and begins to pull out the pieces for the Engineer.

Harry looked back at Iria and said "Ensign Nila, I will assist Lieutenant Toltos with the fake implant whilst you be the lookout for us," as he moved over towards Iria as he hoped that the Ensign would Listen to him.

"No Stevens you're already in a better position to keep the Gorn busy, and Ensign Anyi has already started handing me the pieces," Iria held up what Nila had handed her thus far, "I think it's best if you stay ready to defend us untill we have the phaser together okay? And don't call me Toltos my family name is Taltos."

"Roger that," replied Harry as he stayed where he was, "And my first name is Harry," He continued looking back at the Engineer, as He started to watch the Gorn, as he knew that now he had to step up and protect the women whilst they worked on the weapons and the communicators.

Just then a Gorn noticed something down nearby and started to head towards them, Harry said, "Great, we are going to have some company in 10 minutes," as he knew that he had to do something to give them time to finish what they were doing.

Iria muttered under her breath as she started fitting the mark one phaser together, as she glanced at Nila as she accepted another piece of the phaser from the Bajoran Ops office, "Thanks for the help."

Iria tried to ignore the fact that they were going to have angry company as she tried to beat her record to get the phaser ready in under fifteen minutes.

Harry knew that he had to somehow give the ladies time to fix up the weapons and the corms and he had to distract the Gorn for long enough for them to complete the work, as he looked back at the girls and knew he had to do something, he walked up the corridor towards the Gorn, as he came to a stop he said,” Excuse me, I think there is a problem in shaft 2” as he hoped that the Gorn would follow him from where he was.

The Gorn Looked back at him for a moment,” Whhat do you Mean? Hissed the Gorn worrior who swished his tail as he moved towards Harry as he knew that Harry should be sleeping now, “You get back to the sleeping pen,” as he prodded Harry with the front of his weapon. Harry responded with a polite manner “I obey,” and turned around and headed back up the way he had come.

As he arrived back to where the girls were, He asked, “Is Everything ready Ira?” as he posed the question to his shipmates, as he continued, "I am sick of this place and I want to get out of here,” as he hoped that they had finished the task at hand

Nila had just grabbed the last piece from the implant and handed it to Iria, "The Lieutenant has all the pieces just have to wait on her." She replaced the top on the implant and rubbed her temples.

Iria didn't comment on Stevens having called her IRA, she was too focused on getting the mark one phaser together, she would tell him off about it another time when the crap wasn't about to hit the fan. She muttered under her breath as she got the last three pieces into place she offered it handle first to Stevens, without a word, though her expression was furious that he had gotten her name wrong yet AGAIN, in less than an hour and she's been part of the ship and worked with him on other things for MONTHS. It was disrespectful, it was rude, and she had enough. But she wasn't going to voice it here. Once back on the ship yeah she and Harry Stevens were going to have quite the conversation.

Damn he had gotten her name wrong again, boy was she mad as hell, and was he going to get it once they were home, as he took the weapon from her, He said, "Right let’s get out of this hell hole and do what we were sent here to do,” as now it was the Gorn turn to know that you pick on the little guy then don’t expect the little guy to fight back. He finished, “But all I ask is that the big guy is mine and mine alone,” as he now wanted to show him that he was not meek and mild, But a Starfleet officer who took not shit.

After her hands were free she snapped off the fake implant parts from around her wrists and forearms, setting to work on the communicators assembly. "Ensign Anyi can you please get the rest of the fake implant off of my back?" She figured it was safe enough to drop the act and disguise if they were going to be fighting the Gorn in the emergency lit caverns of the one.

"I suggest you hold still." Nila placed her hands on the top of the implant slowly she began to feel the snaps that held it in place, quickly removing the first pair as the implants top moved slightly. Lowering her hands she repeated the process four more times until she pulled the metal implant free from the Lieutenant.

Iria shook her head, at Stevens' comment about wanting to be the one to deal with the big Gorn, as she worked on the communicator pieces, "Do what you think is best I am not done with the communicators yet." She was working as fast as she could. She wasn't going to stop him from doing anything; now that he had the only weapon among their half of the group. By general size comparison all the Gorn were big nasty lizards in her opinion.

A few minutes later there was a Commotion beyond the fence. A large number of Gorn formed up in to a squad and jogged away down the dark tunnel back towards the elevators.

There seemed to be only four of them left and they stood in a group by the gate in the fence.

Harry kept watch whist Iria continued to work upon the coms units as he could see the group of four Gorn by the gate, Harry said,” there must be something big going on as there are four left,” as he wondered if Walken and his group had started fighting back, he asked Iria, “Are you nearly finished?” as he wanted to attack the Gorn nearby.

Iria had just finished getting the communicators together, a task she wasn't used to doing in darkened area, let alone with someone interrupting every few minutes. She tapped them to test the signal and once it made the proper sounds and confirmation of working order she handed one to Ensign Anyi and to Stevens not saying anything but gave him a glare to show she eally didn't appreciate how he was trying to rush her, which could have seriously affected the build of the phaser and communicators functionality endangering them all. "You're holding the weapon lead the charge!"

As Harry took hold of the weapon and moved back to where he had seen the Gorn before and noticed that they had remained where they were, which were good news for him, but not for the Gorn as he motioned to the ladies to move, Harry leveled the weapon and fired at the first Gorn that nearest to the gate striking him in the shoulder.

As the Gorn Screamed in pain, Harry continued to fire the weapon as he kept Continually striking the Gorn officer repeatedly till he dropped to the floor, as he continued to move towards the gate, he called "Hey Gorn, your not so tough now are ya," as he fired the weapon once more.

Iria didn't know much about security or weapons but she didn't think the remaining three Gorn were just going to let Stevens rain shots on the dead guy without involving themselves. She looked at the bunk beds shook her head she didn't have the type of strength to tear them apart for possible weapon. Instead she focused on the pieces of fake implants, she grabbed some of the sharper bits and pieces and ran forward to throw a handful of metal shards at the remaining three Gorn, it might do nothing but distract or even bit extreme luck graze an eye of the Gorn until Stevens got under control enough to start firing on the others...

The Security Officer's attack had taken the Gorn by surprise at first and one fell to his fire. A second was hit, but the other two were swift to react.

With no contact with the workers to arrange support or a distraction the human had simply walked out into the open and begun firing. There was no cover, no where to hide and he was the Gorn's only target!

Colonists cried out, taken as much by surprise as the Gorn.

The two uninjured Gorn raised their weapons and returned fire!

The first two shots went wild but they quickly adjusted since the man was completely exposed. A woman started throwing something at them from the dormitory area. A couple of bits of alloy clattered around them but they already had the human in their sights.

Both fired, easily hitting the man who was just walking towards them in the open. The energy bolts slammed into the figure, throwing him violently backwards. The human was knocked off his feet, the phaser went flying from his hand, while he was slammed to the floor and lay there not moving!

The Gorn looked at each other, one cursed, the other gave a bitter laugh. In their haste and surprise neither had switched their weapons from the customary stun to the kill setting. Despite the Battle Master's hatred of the humanoids, the guards were under strict orders from the Talon not to kill workers indiscriminately. The human had taken two heavy stun shots, was unconscious and would be for sometime.

But with one of their number killed, another injured and some kind of attack happening on the surface the Gorn now had all the justification they needed. Both flipped their weapons to kill and began walking towards the dormitory area.

Iria shouted "Anyone who has fighting experience please feel free to take apart bedframes or something ready to fight, everyone else take cover as best you can!" She dove and grabbed the phaser Stevens dropped, as the Gorn stunned him unconscious, scrambling back she tossed it towards Anyi, hoping that the Operations officer was a better shot than Iria was, she had barely passed the shooting requirements for the academy.

Nila just saw the phaser and managed to catch it without breaking it thankfully. She gave Taltos a moment to think up a plan before she fired.

Some of the colonists scuttled away, terrified of the Gorn and weapon's fire. But several came forward to help. A couple began kicking over the bunks creating a disturbance; another began throwing cups and bowls from one of the meal tables, another hurled the chairs. More yelled and jeered at the Gorn.

Two dodged away from the guards and ran for a stack of tools by the fence, grabbing an armful of picks and shovels they began passing them out to others.

Iria kept low, tapping the combadge, =/\=Taltos to Team lead Walken! Stevens is out for the count and we have two deadly intent Gorn closing in, ideas please?=/\=

=/\= Taltos, keep the line open and toss the badge behind the Gorn, I will cause a distraction. =/\=

Iria didn't argue she checked the Gorn's position and dashed around her hiding place to throw the communicator. It sailed through the air mostly unnoticed thanks to the rallying prisoners around the pens, she ducked down as shots rang out along with shouts, yelling and cheers. It was chaos.

The two Gorn were hesitant now, even though they were armed, the noise and disruption was unnerving as more and more of the Humanoids began to join in and items were thrown at them. They stopped their advance but began to fire at the jeering workers.

Several were hit, some fatally. The Humanoids began to dodge and run, keeping away from the Gorn's shots. More things were thrown at them and the crowd yelled louder, partly in fear but also in anger.

The commbadge sailed over the Gorn's heads, barely noticed.

=/\= Hand's up Gorn scum, you think you can take a Starfleet Marine you fricken cowards. =/\=

With the noise from the Colonists, the Gorn's confusion and their own weapons fire they barely heard the threat and ignored it. Instead concentrating on trying to hit the workers.

The third Gorn, who had been injured, staggered back towards the gate, frantically calling into its communication device, trying to summon assistance.

Nila couldn't wait any longer, she aimed the phaser at the closer of the standing two Gorn aiming for the center of mass. She fired a second time before she took off running, with her having the weapon she hoped the other Gorn would focus on her and give her time to find some cover behind anything.

The Gorn went down, tried to get up but two workers rushed it and clubbed it down again. This time it did not rise.

It companion turned it's weapon on the two workers, killing one instantly and badly wounding the other.

Behind it another group of colonists charged in, five of them slammed into it. One knocked the disrupter from its hands with a shovel but now the Gorn slashed out with claws and snapped it's teeth.

It latched onto to one of the workers by their shoulder and tore a chunk of flesh lose. The colonist howled and dropped. Another took his place. Even though the creature fought hard, inflicting serious injuries on it's attackers.

Their weight eventually dragged it down, one rammed a chair leg between it's teeth while two others kicked it in the head until it stopped moving.

In under two minutes three Gorn lay dead, along with nine colonists, while a further seven had sustained injury and one of the team lay stunned unconscious.


[Xore Mine – Level 9]

Kyle turned his attention from T'Lara and thought about Taltos' group he had no idea if his distraction worked.

=/\= Puma Two this is Insider One, once you have control of the elevator send a team to the Holding Pens, Insider Two is there and it didn't sound like the fight was going their way. =/\=

=/\= Copy that Insider One! We're working on it! =/\=


[Xore Mine – Colonist Workforce Pens]

There was a shout from the gate. "Gorn!"

There were cries of alarm and all eyes turned to look. There was a single Gorn coming down the tunnel. It stepped under an emergency light and then all could see it had it's hands raided over its head.

A second later a group of Marine Infantry appeared, weapons leveled on the back of the Gorn. They had captured it trying to slip away down the tunnel as they came off the mine elevator.

There was a cheer from the colonists, many rushed forward to hug and greet the Marines. Others sank to their knees, tears filling their eyes; some just started blankly, not yet comprehending their nightmare had ended.

"Looking for the Infiltration Team from the Hawaii" One of the Marines called out "You all alive?"

"We are here." Nila called out, "He got stunned, but other then scraps we are fine." Nila walked over to Harry and had done a basic check to see if he was still alive. "He should still get checked out."

A Marine Corpsman stopped to check on Stevens, a couple of colonists helped lift him onto a bunk bed.

"Vitals look ok. He's just out of it, leave him here, he'll wake up eventually."

The Corpsman had then moved on to deal with colonists with more serious injuries.

Iria looked up at the shout of looking for team from the Hawaii, she had her hands pressed over a gut wound of the colonist who had knocked her out of the way from an incoming shot from the Gorn, "Anyi is Stevens okay? Let them know I am good."

The Operations Officer nodded and spoke with the Marines.

Taltis paused adding, "Someone tell Team lead Walken our status, can help this guy whose is bleeding over here?"

Iria wasn't a medic but she knew trying to keep pressure on the sound to try to keep the guy from bleed out. He muttered weakly as he gripped her shoulder. " You look like my sister...."

Iria swallowed as she looked at the guy in the eyes, who had most likely saved her life, "I'm Iria pleased to meet you."

He coughed twice blood coming out of his mouth, "Thomas Storms... sister was Ceyla..."

The boys eyes fluttered and closed.

A Corpsman arrived, checked the lad's vitals and sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry, he's gone"

He touched Taltos on the shoulder "You did the best you could" and moved on to treat another wounded colonist leaving her with the dead boy in her lap.

Some colonists came over to help lift him and wrap him in a blanket.

Together they carried him to a line of dead, too many but less that it could have been...

To Be Continued...