Operation Toe Dip: 4th MSOT CallSign Hillary - Comm Tower Pt 5

Posted on 16 Aug 2019 @ 9:19am by Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Jinn Tevran (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Steven Bernard, Ph.D. & First Lieutenant Eleanor Hargreaves (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Corporal James Robert, House of Rogath

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: Communication Tower Hill - 4 K East of Onidon
Timeline: T+2 05:40hrs

[ON]

[Comm Tower Hill summit]

After a night spent watching the settlement below the Marines had discovered the various fenced compounds dotted around near the Gorn weapons sits contained groups of colonists. It appeared they had been placed there as some form of living shields to deter attack.

The Gorn activity had decreased as the night wore on, there were few patrols, mostly in vehicles with the vast majority of the occupation forces seemingly sleeping.

The night had been chilly but the rain was long gone and it was a tolerable forty nine degrees as the Marines sat hunched in their OP.

JimBob nudged Bernard. "Chow time, lil feller. Pop a few of those rations. The rest of the Team should be on their way up by now and we wanna be ready for go time."

Bernard grinned and unzipped one of his Gorn MREs. This one had some dried, green meat and a candy that looked like fish-eyes but were made of some kind of gelatin and tasted like sweet teriyaki. The MRE also contained a mineral drink mix that was absolutely useless to mamilian species and tasted like sea-salt, saw dust, and lemons.

The black and white man smiled."I'll trade you my gummy peepers for your deep-fried crickets if you got 'em, JimBob."

JimBob chuckled softly, popping a piece of his dried rations into his mouth. "Boy, if I had any of them crickets, I sure as shit wouldn't be trading 'em."

It still wasn't total daybreak yet and so visibility wasn't great, but he thought he saw movement coming up the hill. He turned to Bernard.

"That the cavalry, comin' up?" he asked.

Bernard now saw the tops of heads coming up the hill. He took a relieved breath. "Gold Element," He said, "Let's convince them that this Gorn-ade is an aphrodisiac and trade them for their crickets. I have 18 packets of this garbage."

"Why in the hell did you grab 18 packets of Gorn, MREs?" JimBob asked, shaking his head.

He offered a wave to the group currently ascending the hill, to show them to their spot.

Bernard laughed. "The crickets," he said.

At the request of Marine Command the Team had been tasked with placing video monitoring devices on the hill to provide observation of the colony. 4MSOT was on their way up to the top to place them.

Hargreaves led Red and the HQ Element, keeping a low profile in the darkness before the dawn, up the hillside towards where Gold Element had been settled down for the long wait of observation. Only the hint of insects waking up, of distant birdsong, broke the light rustling of movement, unlikely to catch the attention of even the most sharp-eyed - or eyed - surveillance.

Jinn followed along, allowing the lead elements of 4MSOT to take charge. He wasn't entirely in his element here and would rather not be the first man up, lest they run into trouble.

Bernard called Jinn: "Jinn, is the whole family coming up to our hill? JimBob and I aren't giving up our spot. I'm getting a nice tan."

Jinn reached the Security Ensign and his burly Marine partner as the rest of 4MSOT fanned out around them. He offered Bernard a smile.

"Well, Ensign," he began replying, "I don't think you'll be needing the spot much longer. We've made contact with the Battle Group and things are now in motion."

Bernard shook his head and looked at JimBob. "And just like that, they don't need us anymore, Cpl. JimBob. Shame. A cryin' shame."

"Nice and straightforward," Hargreaves concluded after laying out the plan. "We don't want to start trouble; might draw attention to the hillside even if we win, and if the Gorn find the devices, it's for nothing. Gold will watch our backs with Sergeant Thrane and Sergeant Knorr; you've done good recon work. Red's with me and the HQ Element." She looked at their Starfleet guests. "Lieutenant, Ensign; if you'd stay with Gold for backup. They'll benefit from your eyes." For all she'd been using their skills, outright stealth operations needed a level of professionalism and unit cohesion she didn't want to assume existed in this case. "Let's move."

For once, it went like a well-oiled operation. Hargreaves and the other seven moved with swift precision, deploying the surveillance devices under Sergeant Seeley's strict instructions under the shroud of darkness.

As they were finishing up the placement of the monitoring devices it was starting to get light, a thin gray dawn was sliding in across the lake.

Down below the activity level was increasing and Gorn could be seem moving around the colony.

There was also activity on the landing field, six large helicopters started up and were boarded by several dozen Gorn, then they lifted off and headed west.

A little while later a Marine called to Hargreaves "eLTee! We got company coming!"

The devices in place, Hargreaves turned to the rest of the team and gestured brusquely for the Marines installing the devices moved to cover, in proximity to where Gold had been keeping watch.

Down below another two helicopters had taken off and these two heading towards the hill.

One was a small dark green Gorn craft, with a single fan, possibly a scout. But the other craft was not Gorn, it was a Federation design. A long light blue body, with four ducted fans, a large canopy in the front and apparently unarmed.

Jinn raced for cover near Hargreaves and reached out with his mind towards the approaching craft. He sensed 5 minds between the two craft, one human and four Gorn.

He looked at Hargreaves and held up his hand, indicating the number five.

Hargreaves squinted at him for a moment, then remembered she was dealing with a blasted Betazoid, and just gave him a thumbs-up. Idly she wondered if he needed her to acknowledge him or if he already knew she knew. But for now, they waited.

The black and white man headed to the cover of a few bushes. Thinking that if the helos' sensors hadn't picked them up, all that would matter was sight. He pointed his rifle at the craft, but waited.

The two craft climbed steadily in altitude and drew closer to the summit. They swung off to the right, turned to face into the wind coming off the lake and came into to land on the pad.

The large Federation one was some kind of work or transport craft, there were winches on both sides, an extending ladder and various cables were a fixed to the starboard side and it had a large cargo hatch on the port side.

It was also marked, Canterra CommSat was painted in large yellow letters on the sides.

The smaller Gorn one was mottled green camouflage, it had a distrupter mounted under the nose and what appeared to be missile launchers on stubby wings on either side.

Once they had shut down, doors opened and the occupants got out. There was only a pilot in the Scout, the larger one disgorged four Gorn and somebody else.

A Humanoid male, wearing ragged blue overalls, that had once been the same color as the helicopter, with a matching yellow Canterra CommSat patch on the chest. He looked thin and defeated, his face was marked with old bruises and what looked like a fresh black eye.

He stumbled out of the doorway, falling over on the pad. A Gorn kicked him until he got up and the Gorn gave him a shove, pointing towards the building.

The Gorn pilot wandered around the pad, inspecting his craft. The other three followed the man, they were relaxed and confident, weapons slung over the shoulders and two were involved in a conversation.

"If you'll allow me, Lieutenant, I can get that civilian onto the ground and out of the line of fire for your men to handle the Gorn," Jinn whispered.

Hargreaves gave him another suspicious look, then nodded. "Do it. I see a way for us to get a ride out of here, so I'd want him with us. He needs to get out, and he can give intel." She looked to the other Marines. "Sergeant Shikar, go with Gold Element and Ensign Bernard and loop around to two o' clock. At my signal we advance, take the Gorn down, then we're all flying out of this place. With orbital superiority, I think a day's a long enough holiday on Canterra." She gave them all a sharp nod. "Get to."

"The human hitting the ground will be the signal to fire," Jinn stated. "Be quick or the Gorn will be checking on him and the moment ruined.

Bernard trained his weapon on a Gorn inside the craft. "Aye, sir." Bernard said.

Shikar stepped out with Gold and Bernard, looping around as directed so 4MSOT would be prepared to pincer them. Hargreaves watched them go for a moment then, satisfied they would be in position in a timely fashion, she looked to Jinn. "Alright, Lieutenant. It's your show." She didn't sound very pleased by this.

Jinn nodded at Hargreaves. He reached out with his mind toward the human. The man was exhausted, this would be easy enough. A tired mind was a vulnerable mind. His eyes narrowed as he focused in on the man, penetrating his senses. He implanted the image of a very large rock flying at him. The man cried out in shock and threw himself to the ground instinctively.

JimBob, weapon trained on one of the Gorn, saw the human go down and instantly his finger was depressing the trigger, bolts from his phaser rifle lancing out at his target.

"Weapons free," came Hargreaves' low command over the comms - as if it was necessary when the command was immediately followed by her phaser blasts. Half the Marines on either team held their fire, directed to be ready for follow-up shots a heartbeat later if any were somehow left standing, to watch the perimeter in case more trouble arose. And with pinpoint precision and vast numerical superiority and no small amount of overkill, the Marines attempted to pull off downing the Gorn around the smallcraft.

Bernard shot into a small knot of 3 Gorn and missed them. An easy shot because of how close they were. Your dead, gray and gray grandma could've made that shot. "Shut up," he told himself. He made himself feel better by knee-capping a Gorn.

The Gorn screamed and hopped away. Bernard let the Marines finish him off. He had a slight thought about being cruel, but shrugged it off. The enemy needed to be ended. That is all. No malice.

Bernard stood and brushed himself off, checked his weapon and waited for further orders.

Andy Lennon had no idea why he had suddenly felt the urge to dive for the ground. Although he’d thought it was like somebody was going to throw a rock at him. He was about to get up before the bastard lizard could kick him again when suddenly the air above his head sizzled with weapons fire. He shut his eyes and tensed up, sure the green bastard was going to kill him! After months of being their captive he almost wanted it now

Five seconds later he was still alive, the firing had stopped. He could hear movement and voices. Not Gorn voices!

He opened his eyes, wincing at the pain from the left one which was swollen and bruised after one of the lizards had punched him in the face that morning. He peered around. There were figures coming towards him!

Big green figures, with weapons!

But as they came closer he could see they were not Gorn, they were humanoids and dressed in green camouflage clothing. The rumors were true, or some of them were at least.

Either there was a resistance force fighting the Gorn or the Federation had finally returned and there was really a Starfleet shuttle somewhere..

Lennon sat up slowly, in looking around as the figures came closer, they were mostly Humanoid but one had an odd black and white face. He did a quick look around the pad, the lizards were all down and not moving. For some reason he raised his hands over his head, worried they might think he was collaborating with the Gorn.

A black woman approached him.

"Don't worry. You're safe now." Hargreaves said, though at her best she wasn't the most reassuring of figures. Muddy armed and armored and surrounded by her Marine team hardly improved this, though this at least made her convincing. "What's your name?"

“Lennon, Andy Lennon” He said “I’m a communication systems technician for CommSat” he pointed at his tattered overalls and to the helicopter.” Who, who are you people?”

"Lieutenant Hargreaves, Starfleet Marines. The Federation has come back to Canterra. We're just the start. Do you need medical assistance?" Her gaze went from Lennon up to the smallcraft beyond him. "If it's non-urgent, we don't want to stick around. Someone will notice these four have gone quiet before too-long. What were they doing up here, what did they need you for?"

“Starfleet… Starfleet Marines?” Lennon asked, looking around the group. Tears began to well up in his eyes, he just stared around the group, his mouth open, nothing to say, hit by the sudden feeling the months long nightmare was nearly over. He dropped his head and sobbed quietly foir a meoment. Then taking a deep breath, he wiped his face on his ragged sleeve and looked up.

“I.. Im.. sorry..it’s just…” He waved his hands around. “I… er… yeah… it’s been…. bad, really bad…horrible” Tears welled up again but he sniffed and shook them off. “Damn..yeah sorry” His voice shaky.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them his voice was steadier. “Ok… er… well..er… they wanted me to work on the antenna” He waved his hand at the tower

“They are trying to track your communications. They use their own comm systems which arn’t effected by that Scythe jammer thing of theirs, but they wanted to see if the antenna could pick up Starfleet comms from anyone on the surface or in orbit”

"Huh." Hargreaves looked over at Shikar, 4MSOT's Comms Specialist.

The big Caitian padded over. "I'd need to take a better look, but I wouldn't imagine that would be feasible just from this station; not of orbital communications, at least."

“Well there are three antennas in the main grid. This one, another about eighty kilometers back in the Skyscrapers” he pointed at the mountain range over his left shoudler “And then one out west towards Sophiaville” he pointed off behind him to the right. “I ran maintenance on all three before ….” He sniffed again “Before the invasion.” He looked away, his mouth trembling Those .. those bastards killed two of the guys I worked with.”

Jinn had walked up onto Hargreaves' right and heard the civilian tech speak.

"Would the Gorn need all three to be operational for that eavesdropping to work?" the Betazoid asked. "For instance, could you take this tower out of commission in such a way that it doesn't permanently damage it, but without the help of a qualified technician such as yourself, it would render the tower, and as such the comms spying, inoperable?"

Lennon shook his head “No need to, the grid is just for regular planetary and orbital comms. It couldn’t listen in to Starfleet anyway. Well, I mean it could, if we had the right channel access and security protocols dialed in, but there’s no way to do it without those and you guys don’t just hand them out… right?"

“Any Starfleet communications went through the Colony Operations room, which is in the colony ship” He pointed out to the lake, where the partially submerged hull of the original colony ship was now permanently landed. “But the dumb lizards blew it up when they stormed the place”

I tried telling these bastards our grid wouldn’t work but they just gave me this and dragged me up here!” He pointed at his fresh black eye.

“So you have a shuttle near by?” Lennon asked anxious to be away from this place.

"Excellent, that makes life a bit easier," Jinn replied. He then smiled wide. "As for a shuttle, technically no. But we do happen to have a ride nearby: It's right behind you and I believe you flew in on it."

"The Blue Bird?" Lennon grinned “Of course I can fly her, she's my ship!” Lennon said “Where do you want to go?”

“Green bastards are pretty tight on tracking stuff, though, their troops have to report in all the time” Lennon said “They will want to know when we’re done here and where we’re going next. Any of you speak Gornish?” he looked around the Marines.

Bernard pointed accusingly at JimBob at an angle only the two of them could see.

JimBob shrugged. "Hiss snarl hiss."

Hargreaves made a face. "A little. Not as if they've been the chattiest people I ever fought. Not convinced I can bluff our way through a conversation."

“We could use their own translator” Lennon suggested. “Most of them can’t speak Fed Standard, except maybe a few words. They have these translation devices they use to communicate with us”

He crossed the pad to the body of the lead Gorn who had kicked him earlier.
He hesitated a moment, the creature still scared him, but summoning his courage he bent down and rummaged in the Gorn’s tunic, pulling out a small gray disc shaped device suspended from a lanyard.

“This is it” He held it up, turned it on and spoke into it “I’m glad you’re dead you ugly green monster” then pointed the device at the Gorn’s corpse.

A moment later the guttural sounds of the Gorn language emanated from the box, repeating the translated phase. It sounded fairly realistic, not too mechanical.

He passed it to Hargreaves. “The lizards call my ship Captured Transport Nineteen. I don’t know what the call sign is for that one though” He pointed at the Scout craft ”Can any of you fly?

Bernard shook his head, because he was a terrible pilot. Then he pointed accusingly at JimBob at an angle only the two of them could see.

JimBob knew better than to pipe up. The Lieutenant knew his profile and it didn't include piloting. He pointedly ignored the Ensign.

Bernard smiled. Not every joke is going to be a hit.

Hargreaves turned to Red Element. "Otero, you're up."

The Staff Sergeant gave an apprehensive grin. "I'm not exactly qualified, L-T -"

"Didn't you meet your husband by crashing into his shuttle?"

"Hey, he crashed into me-" Otero made a face, realising his defensiveness had condemned him.

Hargreaves turned the translator over. "Then you're piloting. I'm doing the talking."

"So," mused T'Kalla, "this should go well."

Hargreaves gave her a Look. "You want to bluff 'em, T?"

"No, I want to be sarcastic about things that aren't my responsibility."

The black and white man smiled. "I really want to get my hands on that Gorn squawk-box," he said. "I could do all sorts of wonderful things with it."

"They all should have one" Lennon said , overhearing Bernard's comment.

Bernard looked at JimBob with a big-eyed look that said: "Do you want two them?! This is awesome!"

"Nah, I'm good, lil feller," JimBob replied. He wasn't a fan of robbing corpses for souvenirs.

"Lt. Hargreaves," Bernard said, "may I search the bodies for translators? I think I could link them into our field tricorders so we could understand what they are saying."

The black and white man shrugged to JimBob's expression of distaste and did a terrible job of covertly searching for not just translators but anything he thought was cool or useful. Almost no one saw him pocket foil packets of deep fried crickets.

"Go ahead, Ensign," Hargreaves assured him. "Make sure we don't leave anything useful behind."

“What do you want us to do with the bodies, eLTee?” A Marine asked, nudging one of the dead Gorn with his toe.

"Good question. Well volunteered, Baranel," Hargreaves told the beefy Tellarite. "Drag them a distance away and then blast them, phasers set to highest. No bodies in sight should buy us some time."

Palacio made a face. "Aw, L-T, that's rank."

Hargreaves' expression was impassive. "Don't be rude about working with Baranel. T'Kalla, give them a hand with the heavy lifting. Get to."

"I'll give them fellers a hand, ma'am," JimBob offered. "They bred me big and dumb for a reason."

The joke diffused a little of the deeply unpleasant task before the four Marines, who set about dragging off the four Gorn bodies towards the ridge, where at least any residue from their grim work would be far from sight.

Master Sergeant Knorr stood next to Hargreaves and rolled his shoulders. "Disintegrating the bodies? Cold."

She gave him only the faintest glance. "You could say that." Hargreaves turned to the rest of 4MSOT. "Knorr, Red Element, you're with Otero on the Scout Ship. Gold, Shikar, T, Ensign, Lieutenant - with me on the Blue Bird. Load on up, I don't want to be here all day."

Jinn pulled Hargreaves aside, subtly, and conferred quietly as they walked to the Federation copter. "Lieutenant, I didn't want to disagree with you in front of the men, but do you truly believe that there isn't someone here say... A smidgen more qualified at posing as someone else?"

His eyes shifted back and forth in obvious exaggeration.

Hargreaves gave him a level look, trapped in the indignity of a gaffe, a need to correct it, and a knee-jerk reaction to never agree to anything a spook said to her. In the end, she rather ungraciously handed him the translator. "We usually have to make do without your skill-sets available. Well volunteered, Lieutenant."

She looked over her shoulder, and called out towards Red Element. "Otero! Get a translator and your best lying voice while you're at it. We'll try to take the lead but they might question you. Keep in comms with us in case you need help."

As the sergeant gave an acknowledging wave, she returned her gaze to Jinn. "Any other suggestions?" she asked, still unwelcoming.

"How good a liar is your man, Otero?" he asked softly. "As someone who's mind can technically be in two places at once, I could always... Lend him a helpful thought or two if the Gorn question him."

Hargreaves squinted at him. "Otero's wily," she said at last. "Rough upbringing on the fringe; he knows what to say to get by. I don't reckon he'd much appreciate you in his head. Better for us to run distraction the old-fashioned way; make sure you get to do all the talking rather than run the risk you have to fast-talk and backseat-lie in Otero's brain, right?"

Jin shrugged. "It wouldn't be too much trouble, although this way is much easier, yes. If that's all, I suggest we depart."

"Glad you think so." She reached into her pack and pulled out the transceiver, tossing it to him. "While we board, get on the horn to Mother Goose. We've got a rendez-vous to arrange."

Hargreaves turned back to the Marines, still in the midst of dumping and destroying bodies or conducting last-minute assessments of their rides out of there. Or pretending to look useful as they had very little to contribute to either task beyond keep a wary eye on the perimeter. "Let's wrap up, people, then hustle! You've got your boarding orders. You want to stick around until the Gorn come looking for their lost sheep?"

She headed for Lennon, Gold Element, and the rest of her HQ Element committed to the Blue Bird, and at last she gave the civilian a look which might have approximated one of compassion. "Are you ready to get out of here?" she asked him, confident even if this was something of a check-up to make sure their pilot and guide's nerves weren't gone.

The Technician had been staring down at the colony out below. He turned and nodded, wiped a tear from his eye and said "Ive been here seven years, that's my home down there. Those green monsters took it from me, and everyone else down there!

I want it back! I want them gone and I want my home, my life back!"

He looked away a moment, then turned back. "Ok, let's go. Just you promise me, you'll get it back from them, somehow, someday, we get it back!"

Lennon walked over to his work helicopter. "Let's go!"

To be continued...