Hunting Pirates in the Dark

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 8:40am by Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Commander James Smith
Edited on on Tue Jul 7th, 2020 @ 1:50pm

Mission: Into the Wild
Location: Sylvaxe Surface
Timeline: Current

A Mission Post by Lieutenant JG Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant James Smith & Ensign John Logann
Mission: Into The Wild
Location: Sylvaxe Surface
Timeline: Current
Sun Dec 17th, 2017 @ 6:12pm


The hunt was on. With the rest of the team beamed safely back to the ship, Logann, Griffin and Smith carefully descended down the ridge, guided by Smith’s hazy sensor contact. The Starfleeters had only minutes to find the Ravager hiding from them, a task not helped by the thick darkness around them or the heavy downpour that made the rocks slippery.

Holding his rifle in one hand, using the flashlight attached to the barrel to see, Cailus could downright feel the approaching Mendazian aircraft, not to mention the surely dangerous Ravager they were hunting.

“How much further?” he asked Smith, barely speaking loud enough for his voice to carry over the pouring rain.

Smith looked down at his tricoder scowling at the sensor reading he was receiving. Punching in a few commands he pointed toward the direction they had been walking in, “another half mile.” Smith continued to monite the area and said, “be careful their may be traps along the way.”

“Yes sir,” Cailus acknowledged. Feeling his combadge vibrate, he tapped it, grateful that the thing seemed waterproof. “Griffin here.”

=/\=It is Ensign T’Kemi, sir,=/\= came the distorted reply, although the Vulcan girl’s clipped accent was unmistakable even though she was only a few hundred meters away and just as sodden under the freezing rain. =/\=The Pandora’s transporters are nonfunctional, repeat, nonfunctional. Lieutenant Mindo is in the process of fixing them now, completion time fifteen minutes. We’re holding position on the ridge.=/\=

“Acknowledged, Ensign, maintain position until transport. Griffin out.” Cailus glanced at the others grimly. “It’s always something...”

"If it weren't for bad luck....." Logann said, quipping something he had heard on Risa several years back.

Minutes later, as the Starfleeters moved quickly through the more passable terrain below the ridge, the trap was sprung. Blindingly bright crimson blasts shot out of the darkness ahead of them, missing the humans but inflicting large explosions into the ridge at their side. A mad, hysterical screech pierced the night, plainly close by but invisible, and another wild volley erupted, this time missing Smith by scant inches.

Logann dove into a kneeling stance, bringing his TR-116 to bear in the general direction of the blasts. Unable to find anything to shoot at, he stayed his finger on the trigger, waiting for the next order from Griffin or Smith.

Smith threw himself to the ground before coming back onto his knees, this is what he had trained for and times like this really got his blood going. Looking at Griffin and Logann he said, “we are sitting ducks here, we need to take that location”. Smith looked around at the narrow pass that they were walking thru and shook his head, “we need to take out the hostile before the traps take us out, any suggestions.”

Crouched against the rockface, Cailus was pondering just that when an ear-splitting roar blasted over their heads, quickly diminishing as the source flew away, utterly invisible in the total black of night.

“That’s no Mendazian aircraft!” he shouted, then threw himself fully onto the ground as more crimson disruptor bolts hit the rocks near him with fiery explosions. The shots were poorly aimed, striking close more from luck than skill, but Cailus resisted the instinctive urge to return fire anyway The pirate had revealed his own location ahead of them with his poor fire discipline, and Cailus would be damned if he did the same.

Poor discipline...

“Listen,” Cailus said forcefully but more quietly, inching closer to Smith, “that has to be the third Ravager ship up there. Those were impulse engines, no question. The pirate is pressed on time, he’s trying to get rescued, so we’re going to pull an ambush of our own, lieutenant.” He gestured up ahead with his rifle, where they could see the gap in the tall rocks that formed a natural choke point where the shots had been fired from. “You need to find somewhere to hide. Logann and I will move up, open fire, then withdraw and bait the Ravager back this way. You will wait for the Ravager to pass then attack him from behind. Clear?”

Smith nodded, “Be careful that ship is out to get us killed as well.” Smith settled down into his hiding place and readjusted the setting on his rifle. It was time to flush this Ravager out and end this once and for all. Hitting his combadge he said =/\=Smith to Pandora please respond=/\= Static was all that came back. Looking over to Griffin and Logann and nodded that he was ready for them to proceed. As they headed out James could here the craft returning for another attack run.

Yet wild another volley was fired at the Starfleeters, and even amidst the freezing rain, Cailus felt the heat of a red bolt flying over his head. He glanced to his side at Logann, assessing the man at a glance, knowing what he was ordering Logann to do. It was utterly insane to charge like this, but dammit, Logann looked like he could handle it. Cailus forced himself into his usual cold, logical combat state, banishing gut-wrenching terror and the memories of other mad charges into a distant corner of his mind.

Logann was choosing his steps with his usual precision when the next volley came. Like Griffin, he could feel the heat from the energy weapon as he settled into a half crouch.

Damn, that heat is nice in this rain. If not deadly. Logann thought, before pushing the discomfort of his completely soaked uniform out of his mind.

“We attack on three!” Cailus shouted at Logann, holding up three fingers for emphasis. “Go loud, hit hard then we run like hell!”

Logann nodded, drawing his hand phaser, knowing that would create more of a distraction then rounds from the TR-116 rifle.

“One!” Cailus shouted, lowering a finger. “Two! Three! GO!”

Logann let off several volleys towards the location the blasts came from, before settling into a trot behind Griffin. He turned again, and let off several volleys, then turned to run again.

Perhaps the sheer insanity of the Starfleeters’ charge surprised the Ravager, or perhaps it was their rapid movement from rock to rock, or perhaps it was the reckless barrage of phaser fire; regardless, the Ravager seemed to hesitate. Those crucial few seconds were enough, barely, for Griffin and Logann to close the distance, their weapons firing indiscriminately the entire time, though neither man truly expected a hit.

Thus, now within scarce meters of the Ravager, Cailus was surprised to see a thin orange beam from Logann’s phaser hit the Ravager squarely in the chest, the bright light illuminating the pirate’s outline in the thick black...but the Ravager didn’t go down. Cailus fired a trio of searing orange bolts at the suddenly clear target, but the phaser energy merely washed over the Ravager’s silhouette harmlessly.

“Armour!” Cailus bellowed, then dived behind a small rock to dodge the lethal return fire. “Set to kill and fall back!”

Smith had been hiding in a creaves in the rocks when he saw the phaser fire bounce off the Ravager, Smith watched as his two crew members started to fall back. Smith stood up and returned fire to give them a chance to fall back. Smith grabbed his phaser rifle and adjusted the setting as high as it would go and started firing at the rocks around the Ravager hoping this type of attack would cause him to move. The dust was so thick around the Ravager that Smith could not see what was happening. The familiar return of the Ravager ship caused Smith to take cover. Looking over at Logann and Griffin he said, “we need to concentrate all our firepower on the Ravager it may be the only way to disrupt the armor he is wearing”

The Ravager did move: emboldened by how ineffective the Starfleet weapons were, the pirate launched into a mad charge of his own, screaming an insane shrilling war cry as he sprinted directly at Smith. As the Ravager approached through the gloom, a long pointy thing could be seen at the end of his rifle: a bayonet. He fired a few more wild, ill-disciplines shots at Smith before finally giving up, plainly intent on just gutting the Starfleet officer with his blade.

Logann reached up and released the sling holding his TR-116 and let it fall to the ground. His other hand snaked to the small of this back and pulled out his Mek'leth. Snarling, Logann met the Ravagers charge with his own, using his arm to knock away the longer weapon, and strike with his own blade. Logann felt the knife score at the armor, unknown if the blade penetrated. Logann used his time in the personal space of the ravager to finally get a close look at his opponent.

The pirate laughed cruelly as the knife scraped the thick armour breastplate, but it didn’t penetrate. Up close the Ravager looked like a creature of nightmare in the gloom and rain, clad head to toe in smooth black armour with a thick full helmet that masked his face, and now he drew a long, jagged sword from over his shoulder.

“You are Starfleet?” the pirate shouted mockingly, careful to keep all three of his enemies in front of him. “I expected better!”

"Be careful what you wish for!" Logann shouted and charged in once again, careful of the reach of the long sword.

Smith pulled his own dueling sword from the sheath he had strapped over his shoulder, then reached for the second one and smiled. Smith approached the privately slowly circling him, Smith said, “Let’s see how good you are with that blade, myself I’ve practiced with this most of my life.” Smith attacked the pirate watching him as he met each attack. Keeping up his manuvers Smith was hoping his adversary would make a mistake.

The rain pounded ferociously, the blades clashed with a loud clang and above their heads, the Ravager ship flew even lower, shaking their very bones with the thrum of its impulse engines. Cailus circled around and fired a long salvo of bolts at the Ravager, but even a stream of phaser fire at maximum setting wasn’t enough to overwhelm the fantastical armour.

Meanwhile the Ravager was proving far more skilled with a blade than with a gun, fending off Smith and Logann with ease, proving just as lethal as the Starfleeters in close quarters, if not better. Smith and Logann both scored hits but were unable to push with the force required for their sword and knife to properly penetrate, and soon the Ravager was screeching its war cry, unleashing a ferocious assualt on Smith. His greatsword swung with frightening strength and speed, easily capable of cutting any of the humans in half if given half a chance, driving Smith back step by step.

Smith continued to meet the Ravager attack with care, this enemy was proving more difficult then he first had anticipated. Every once in a while Smith would get in a few blows with his swords, but the stupid suit was well shielded. More had to be done to bring down his shield. As the Ravager continued his attack on him he noticed Logann and Griffin moving into position. For every attack that he received he had to counter, a few times Smith came close to tripping over a few of the rocks, but he was able to manuaver carefully. The Ravager wanted him dead.

Letting the Ravager focus on Lt. Smith, Logann waited for the right moment. Stepping in behind the Ravager and took several swipes with his Mek'leth at the approximate area where the chest armor should meet the lower armor set.

The Ravager cried out as for the first time, the Starfleeters drew blood. Even with the limited light provided by the Starfleet wrist beacons, they could see the sickly yellow blood that stained his back, but even before their eyes, a fresh layer of armour emerged to cover the wound. Enraged, the pirate spun around like lightning and swung his huge blade upon Logann’s head, a strike that would surely cleave him head to toe...

...only for the greatsword to stop mid-swing, inches from Logann’s head. The pirate froze, stunned, as he saw the third Starfleet man standing in front of Logann, having caught the immense blade with impossible ease in his right hand. The Ravager grunted as he tried to yank the blade back, plainly intending to cut Cailus’ hand to shreds, but the blade was stuck fast, the human’s hand not even bleeding.

Now it was Cailus who pulled, dragging the Ravager off-balance into him. With sharp, efficient movements, Cailus twisted the pirate’s arm into an unnatural position, forcing him to drop the sword. The pirate countered with a desperate spin around, trying to punch Cailus, but the armoured gauntlet met only air and rain as the human ducked. Ruthlessly Cailus gripped the Ravager’s gauntlet with his hands, angled his own body and flipped the pirate around in a mighty movement, keeping a tight grip on his wrist the entire time.

The thundering rain was too loud for them to hear the wristbone snap, broken by the sheer weight of the Ravager’s armour being flipped so violently, but they did hear the pirate’s scream as he collapsed onto his back. Not wasting a moment Cailus flipped the Ravager onto his chest, and with his free hand, desperately tried to find some kind of clasp or button to take off the helmet. If they could take that thing off, they could stun the idiot and not have to kill him...

His fingers scrabbled over the wet black surface, but it was futile. There was no button, no clasp. The Ravager screamed again, terrified and angry, and with impossible strength of his own, pushed up with his good hand into a kneeling position with the Starfleeter at his back. Cailus kept a brutal grip on the broken wrist, twisting it even more to force him to stay still, but the Ravager kept his wits enough to pull a device out of his belt...a communicator.

“Em’Visor!” the Ravager shouted. “I’m wounded, the humans...get down here, you coward!”

Cailus slapped the communicator away with his left hand, his expression cold and emotionless. “Give it up!” he shouted. “You’ve lost! We don’t want to kill you!” The Ravager struggled even more, clearly not willing to surrender, and Cailus grunted at the effort required to keep him pinned in place, the armour proving awfully slippery in the rain. The Raider roared overhead again, and Cailus ran the logic: the armour was almost impenetrable, a transporter lock was impossible as long as the Ravager kept struggling, the Ravager couldn’t be incapacitated...

Damn it.

“Finish him!” Cailus bellowed at his comrades, fighting mightily to keep the Ravager pinned. “The neck joint, below the helmet! Jam your phasers in and fire, maximum setting!”

Smith spinning around to grab his phaser he set it to maximum and grabbed the Ravager and put the Phaser right in the neck joint. Pulling the trigger he watched as the Ravager gave a look of surprise and fell off of Cailus releasing the fighting grip he had on him. Smith looked over and said, “you ok, looks like he’s finished.”

Cailus nodded, looking down at the dead body with an undecipherable expression. “Yes, sir. Thank you.” He paused. “Blasted fool didn’t have to die.”

Silently he pulled out his tricorder, tapped a single control, and laid it carefully on the now still Ravager. Cailus glanced at Logann, quite completely soaked and still holding the blood-stained Klingon knife, but simply offered the man a purposeful nod. Praise would come later. Instead, Cailus tapped his combadge.

“Griffin to Pandora,” he said curtly.

=/\=Ensign T’Kemi here, sir,=/\= came the calm reply, barely carrying over the pounding rain. =/\=Lieutenant Mindo has repaired the transporters, sir, but it is a temporary repair. We were beamed up three minutes ago. The Mendazian aircraft are holding position eighty kilometers south of you, and the last Raider is leaving the atmosphere now.=/\=

“Very good,” Cailus answered, although his sad tone implied anything but. “Three to beam up, plus the two meter long object attached to my tricorder beacon. Energise when ready.”

And so, in a quartet of barely visible blue sparks, the aliens disappeared, leaving craters as the only sign that they had ever been there.