Hallelujah

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 1:31am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Balek The Butcher [Deceased]
Edited on on Tue Jul 7th, 2020 @ 2:09pm

Mission: Into the Wild
Location: The Carnage

A Mission Post by Captain Nycolas Temple & Balek The Butcher
Mission: Into The Wild
Location: The Carnage
Timeline:
Sun Mar 11th, 2018 @ 1:40am

It was quiet in the captain's cabin of the Carnage. The fallen King was propped up against his bed, arms bound to his sides, head slumped into his chest as he snoozed away - a gentle wheezing coming from the breathing mask attached around his mouth. His hair was matted with old sweat, his weighty body hanging like a broken doll that had been forgotten. It was hard to imagine now that this was the Ravager's feared commander, that once his very name caused every pirate to choke up in silent respect. He had been ferocious, violent, and ruthless. He had wanted accolades and power for himself, no matter the cost to his loyal soldiers, and he was more than willing to attack anyone who stood in his way.

This time, however, the glory was beyond his grasp. This time, it had been his undoing.

Nyx was quietly working away on Balek's personal computer, trying to manoeuvre his way though the archaic database system the Ravagers had probably stolen from someone else. It was deliberately multi-layered and confusing, much like the how Carnage ship had been designed - purposefully disorientating for everyone except he who had planned it. The work was taking all of Nyx's previous Intel training to crack, but he was determined to find a way to download the ship's flight records and possible connection to the Ravager communications network.

While Temple concentrated, Balek stirred, his eyes opened blearily as he took in his surroundings. Slowly it came back to him, how he had been beaten by the Starfleet crew, how his ship had fallen apart at the very climax of battle, how his crew had tried to abandon him. And now, to add insult to injury, he was being watched - babysat, really - by just one officer. The very Captain who had brought chaos and disruption to his long-built throne of power. The man didn't even care enough to face Balek, his back was turned on the Butcher, because he was no longer a threat.

Balek groaned and looked down to his torso - where once there had been an arrow piercing into him, there was now a carefully sealed patch of skin. Shot by his own crossbow, by his own crew member! Balek had spent months trying to break Tisar and believed, in his typical hubris, that he had earned the Cardassian's loyalty and fearful respect. But all it had taken was a few days with the Federation and Tisar was ready to betray his Ravager kin; to shoot Balek down during his moment of victory over the Pandora. The shot hadn't been the beginning of the end, but it was the catalyst for everything else to totally collapse around him.

"You snake." Balek spat, his words slurring from the heavy sedation.

"Morning, sunshine." Nyx returned brightly, not bothering to look around.

"My crew will kill you." He hissed.

"Your crew are onboard my ship." Nyx replied plainly. "Locked up and awaiting transfer to a Federation prison. We were going to wait until Security could come to interrogate them but they've been talking non-stop, Balek. Spilling every little secret they can about you. The fourth, the fifth, I can barely keep track of all the major confessions we've had."

Balek snorted at the comment. Even if he didn't want to appear to admit it, he knew his crew were likely to sell him out to the Federation. Once the power was gone from his name, now that he had been defeated in power, it was as if the spell he had over them was gone too. He truly had lost it all. But he would never accept this in front of the Starfleet Captain.

"They're lying to you." Balek simply said. "They'll have you chasing your tails for months."

"Maybe." Nyx shrugged. "That's why I'm getting your database."

The Butcher sneered and tried to straighten himself up again, his neck sore from having been hanging down while he slept. "You will try."

Nyx tapped emphatically on the keyboard and gave a joyful shout, "Eureka!" He finally turned and smirked at Balek, "Got it."

Balek just shook his head and sighed, "If you think keeping me here to watch you steal my people's intel will impress me, you're wrong."

"Why would I need to impress you?" Nyx laughed, as he hooked up his tricorder to the computer console and began to relay the data to the Pandora. "You're nothing now."

"You got lucky!" Balek fired back, his anger returning as he got more lucid. "I don't know how you got to my engineering but if it weren't for that, your rotting skull would be a trophy on my wall, while your crew and ship would be hurtling to their deaths towards the surface of Salvaxe. Don't you believe for one second that you could have bested the Ravagers in a fight. You're still Federation scum to me."

"And yet," Nyx smiled. "Here we are. You lost, Balek, your deathbed ranting won't change that now."

Balek squared his eyes for a moment. "I'm hardly defeated. Thanks to your weak Federation ideals, you've patched me up and I'm ready to fight another day."

"It's simple Federation policy to provide aid." Nyx replied casually. "I didn't have a choice."

"And that's why you are weak, Captain." Balek hissed, "You don't have it in you to kill your enemies."

"It's not Federation policy to execute people." Nyx responded automatically. "You're right, they're not killers."

Balek nodded, "Yes, your biggest frailty. Your ideals will always make you inferior to the Ravagers. You won't survive out here because of that and you will never be rulers of the Inconnu Expanse."

At this, Nyx couldn't help but laugh. "That's not our goal, Balek. The Federation will bring security, prosperity, and superior organisation to the area. You claim it is weakness, but it's what makes us better than you."

Balek huffed, "This region is going to eat you alive, Captain. And I will look forward to reading the news of your demise."

Nyx shook his head, "Unfortunately that's not going to be possible."

With a sigh, Nyx stood from his chair and walked to in front of Balek. The Butcher tried to lurch forward but he realised he had been restrained to the bed. His hands, not just heavy from sedation, were held to his sides with cable ties. It was only at this point that Balek wondered why he hadn't also been transferred to the Pandora. Why had he been made to wait here, unconscious, in his quarters? Was the Federation Captain so sure of his superiority that he wanted Balek to watch him steal the Ravager's database? Fortunately, Nyx soon had the answers.

"Your crew will undoubtedly lie to us. Their faith was strong, but they want proof of your defeat before they'll really talk." Nyx began. "You've broken your throne and lost your ship, you're just a baffled former King. But even if they do start singing, there will always be that legend out there. The myths of the great Balek the Butcher, and I can't have that."

Balek snorted again, "Even if I spend the rest of my life in a Federation prison, I will always be the true King of this region."

"No." Nyx replied, "They'll forget your name eventually. I've seen it happen before. So many people have come to make war with the Federation and ended up defeated. Like Lieutenant Griffin said to you, the Federation always stands victorious. And your Ravager flag will become another one discarded on the floor."

"This is all very poetic." The Butcher rolled his eyes. "But does it have a point?"

"Legacy." The Captain replied. "You do have one opportunity to leave a legacy, and not in the way you imagined it. While it's true, the Federation will always prevail, it's also true that rogues and bandits will try to strike against us within Federation territory. And, like cowardly rats, they will go hiding back into distant corners of the Inconnu Expanse, somewhere they believe we can't reach them."

"Ah." Balek smirked. "The plot thickens."

Nyx stood in front of Balek and nodded, his arms folded uniformly behind his back. The tone in the room had shifted once more, perhaps as Balek began to realise that the Starfleet Captain really did have the upper hand now, but he also appeared to be willing to offer something. And perhaps they could come to an understanding that could see Balek fight another day - depending on what was on offer.

"Indeed." Nyx replied. "We know that the Ravagers in this region have been harbouring rogues that attacked Federation assets. They believed they were safe here, that the Inconnu Expanse would continue to shield them. On this, they were wrong."

Balek just sneered, "You want me to snitch on my people?" He gave a boisterous laugh. "Why would I do that?"

Nyx's face was cold, his tone low. "Because you should do something good with your last moments, Balek. You want to leave a legacy? You can help me flush out the cowardly rats hiding in your territory."

Last moments. The Butcher looked to the man, confusion on his tired and sullen face. He looked around worriedly, his breathing through is mask quickening slightly. The wound in his body had been healed, the Captain was unarmed and unaccompanied. The ship was taken but still standing. He couldn't quite grasp where this arrogant superiority was coming from. 'Where did last moments come from?' He wondered.

"I will never turn on my kin." The old Ravager warrior spat back. "And you are a fool for thinking you could threaten me to get answers."

Still, the Captain was cold. "It wasn't a threat. Merely an offer. I can spend months searching through your database, your ship's sensor logs and geo-data. I can view your internal messages and even find a hack into the Ravager network. I will get there eventually. Or you can save me a lot of time and give up the location of the targets I am after."

Balek eyed him off, he still wasn't convinced of the threat but was trying to play along. "Which ones?"

"The Ravagers who attacked Starfleet's Deep Space Ten in the Carnwennan Corridor." Nyx immediately replied. "And the location of Tomar Gammit, the rogue Cardassian responsible for destroying the Federation colony on Lucis V."

"You'll find the first one in my database." Balek said, eyes still slithered at the man, "But the other, I cannot help you. We've heard nothing from Gammit since his brother died."

"On Gaspar." Nyx nodded. "He was the one to reveal that Tomar was being protected by the Ravagers, so I know he's part of your forces now."

"You lie." Balek wheezed, "He would never have turned on his brother."

"He didn't have to." Nyx shrugged plainly.

The Butcher began to shake his head as he realised what the man was saying, how this very scene must have happened once before. "Nonsense. You don't kill people, remember?"

"It's not Federation policy to." Nyx stated back. "But we get the job done. The most important thing we've learned lately is how to shoot somebody who outdrew you."

"You can't threaten me with death, not with your idealism, even if these bandits came into Federation territory you're still bound by your laws." Balek said.

Nyx looked at the man dead in his eyes and said, "We're not in Federation territory now. Remember? I hear the Inconnu Expanse can eat you alive."

Balek tried to strain against the ties that bound him to the chair. He wanted to lash out and grab this man with his mocking stare and cold tone. It was an insult to be threatened in such a way, as if this would make him turn on his Ravager brethren. The Captain must be insane, or so over-confident after his victory over the Carnage that he actually believed this would work. If only he could get his hands free, he'd show this Captain a real threat.

Unperturbed by the Butcher's struggle to get free, Nyx squatted down until he was now eye level with Balek, and turned up the corner of his mouth in faux sympathy. He reached out placed his hands on Balek's breathing mask, the Butcher tried to shake his head free but Nyx grabbed hold of his chin with his other hand. Slowly Temple pulled out one of the oxygen pipes leading into Balek's mask and his eyes grew wide, his breath now a deep gasp.

"Tell me what you know." Nyx warned, his face calm as he stared into Balek's panicked gaze. "Make your last moments worthwhile."

Balek breathed hard and there was a slow whistle of air coming out of the open mask on his left side; the right still giving him just enough oxygen to live. "Never."

"You know you can't go to prison." Nyx commented. "They'll try to break you out because some will laud you as a hero still. You'll find a new mob of loyal idiots willing to believe you were King of the Expanse. The legend of the Butcher has to end here. Restrained, defenceless, defeated. A message has to be sent to the rest of your kind."

"Go... to... hell..." Balek choked out.

Nyx stood again and moved back to Balek's computer; he unplugged his tricorder and began to type away on the console. "I'm accessing the Ravager's internal communications network." He explained. "It looks like you're pretty far away from any other of your ships. Too far for them to come to help you. And it will take a while for this message to reach them, but it will get there eventually."

As he moved away from the screen, Balek could see it was now relaying a video of his quarters from a security camera that Balek had installed over his bed so that he could record his dalliances with slave girls. Now it was being used to film his demise. It was probably ironic if he had time to think about it. Standing off screen, Nyx retrieved the spiked leather jacket he had used as his costume to go undercover on the Carnage and used it cover his head. He stepped back into frame, just slightly on the edge of the video.

"What message?" Balek asked as he gasped for breath.

"Tomar Gammit's days are numbered." Nyx spoke in a low voice. "And you're the proof."

Reaching down casually, Nyx removed the last oxygen tube into Balek's breathing mask and stepped out of frame. The security footage played the former Ravager warrior's closing minutes as he desperately tried to breathe, his body convulsing as he struggled against the inevitable. Gasping panic of a dying man. There was a dwindling blaze of light in every breath, a silent call into the night that would never be heard. In this last moment, Balek looked to the ceiling, a final angry look to the heavens as his life departed.

The room was quiet again, as Nyx shut down the video link and sighed. Walking over to the body, he broke off the restraints and shifted him slightly forwards. He laid the old pirate’s hands out in front as if Balek had broken free from his restraints and had been reaching out. Nyx still remembered everything he needed to do, and there was a calmness to his movements that only came from practiced rehearsal of the procedure. Not that it mattered much, the evidence would be gone soon anyway when the Carnage was scuttled in the dark matter.

Before he left the room, Nyx gave one final look back at the defeated enemy, allowing himself one moment of pity. All the glory Balek had wanted was gone. He was so close to reaching his goals that it had sent him into the wild with frenzy - but also led to a series of critical mistakes that caused his downfall. He did his best, he relied too heavily on his name and his legend, but in the end those weren't enough. And even though it all went wrong, he was defiantly "The Butcher" until his last suffocated breath.

For Nyx, now returning to his mindset of Starfleet Captain, dignified officer, honest friend, and faithful husband; he could only feel relief. Relief that the Pandora had successfully stopped one of the deadliest ships in the region. Joy that the Pandora's name will spread amongst the Inconnu Expanse now as the ship to defend the Mendazians against the Ravagers. He was elated to know that his crew had successful managed this battle on many different fronts, and come out with a clean victory. It was a good day, a day to say "Hallelujah" for the Pandora.

To his mind, everything else was justified.

OFF