From: Nai (naomi_lara_at_optusnet.com.au)
Date: Fri Jan 19 2007 - 04:03:29 PST
Location: USS PATRIOT Stardate: 2422 [2.7] 0119.0607 Scene: MCO Office Colonel Bret Maverick was seated at his desk, going over the reports as they came in real time via the comm link from the fighters. So far they'd scanned the surface doing high-altitude flybys, and no sign of either Clarkson, Calhoun or Benoit. They were scheduled to do flybys twice more at the same altitude, before diving in progressively lower in hopes that the levereged distance would allow them to scan as far subterrain as possible. He wore a grim look on his face, the same one he'd had ever since he'd been given the news, which wasn't helped by the interruption of his door chime ringing. "What is it?" he asked irritably, looking up as the doors slid open. "You're back." Catherine said as she glanced at the Colonel, disregarging his brisk manner. "I've been doing some research..." The woman paused as she glanced at the visuals from the planet below. In fact, she froze. Things weren't adding up. Last report she had was the balloon attack. Since when did that involve a fighter squadron..."What's going on?" Catherine asked as she glanced at Maverick with an intense look. Things were definitely not what they had seemed to be. Some dynamic had shifted. Something big was going on down below, and Sterling suddenly realised, that intentionally or unintentionally, she was out of the loop. Maverick looked at her, some of his anger fading away as he did so. "A force of rebels staged a coup and took over the capital city of Belial," he said, his voice a bit calmer as he spoke. "As a result, two marines that were stationed in the city are now missing in action, along with two security officers that were stationed with them." He sighed. "And Cindy and Kyle are missing too," he said quietly. "I'm sorry to hear about Kyle." Catherine replied sympathetically. She knew the marine, gruff as he was, was really a harmless cuddly man under a tough exterior. "And I'm confident that we'll find everyone." She did hope they weren't empty words. Two officers were already dead in the explosion, and with an increase in the level of violence, it might only be a matter of time before more died. "I came to tell you. I think I know what's going on. It's litterally a coup within a coup...." She paused when she realised Maverick had been studying her intently. "What is it?" "Daniel was at Belial. I thought you knew." He replied softly. "Seems to be a common assumption." Catherine replied calmly, but internally, she was in shock at the news. Belial was under attack, with Daniel personally guarding one of the relics of the old government who would have been a prime target. The woman bit her lip and swallowed all of her emotions. She had to trust Daniel would keep himself alive. And her freaking out would accomplish nothing. "When was I going to get told?" She asked him, her voice pitched very softly. Maverick was silent for a few moments as he thought about what she'd just said. "I'm not sure," he answered finally. It was honest, but hardly sufficient. Catherine and Daniel were still newlyweds, and her not being informed of his disappearence was strange, and unacceptable. "He was the first one to disappear," Maverick said, his words quiet. "He was guarding a priest named Palthainon, and the compound underwent a prolonged and vicious seige from the rebels." "Kel was able to find out that in the aftermath of the occupation the rebels removed five bodies of Esperion security guards, but nothing was found to indicate that Daniel, the priest, or the security officer died in the seige." "Then they're in that city hiding, or they managed to get out. They would rather proudly display the priest if they caught him." Catherine replied. it was a hope, a faint one, but it was all that she had. She glanced down at the data padd in her hand. It represented hours and hours of work. Most of the infromation was probably useless. Indeed, she wondered if security and marines were already five steps ahead of her. But maybe, there was a little snippet in there that they could use to track down the persons behind all of this. Not just for the initial attack, but also the groups and the leaders behind the destabilisation of the current government. "Here, maybe you can use this." She handed it over to him. "I'll be...somewhere...if anyone needs me." Somewhere could be anywhere. But she wanted to be alone for a while. "I'm sorry Catherine," Maverick said at her retreating back, the PADD clutched in his hands. "I hope they find Kyle." She paused at the doorway long enought to say that before exiting the room. She suddenly decided that she wanted to go home. Location: ESPERION Scene: Rural Area well outside of Belial City "What's our current status?" Ben asked. "Relief efforts are proceeding as normal," Kel replied. "Still no word on the possible locations of any of the six missing officers." "There's not enough time or manpower to devote resources to a search." Kenta sighed. It was a difficult challange that they would have to surmount. They could look, but it would be easier for the missing peoplet to find the search parties then the other way around. It really was a needle in the haystack. "We have the boosted scanners that we can use." Kel said, they were handy for picking up small bursts of em chatter. The sort of chatter a com. badge might make. It wouldn't allow them to talk to thier crewmates, but it would help isolate their location Kenta nodded. "We'll get some of our people to take them out on a sensor sweep once relief starts slowing down," he said. He was about to continue when a sound drew both of their attentions. They looked up, and to their sheer astonishment they saw a fighter do a low flyby, flying right over their position. "I didn't know the Esperion government used fighters," Kel commented. "It's not anywhere in their databanks." "They don't," Kenta replied grimly. "That was a Starfleet fighter - and I'm willing to bet the Captain had nothing to do with sending it out." The last parts of his sentence were cut off by two more fighters doing flybys, one of them so low as to heavily rustle the foliage in the area. "Damnit Maverick," Kenta muttered under his breath, before turning back to Kel. "I don't think we'll be need "I don't think we'll be needing those boosted scanners after all," he said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NRPG: Yay, another offering V. Rahul Chandra <vrccan_at_gmail.com> Playing... Lieutenant Commander Jeffrey Gorman, MD Chief Medical Officer/2nd Officer GATEWAY STATION, GS-2 & Captain Daniel Clarkson, MD Executive Officer - Marine Contingent USS PATRIOT, NCC 5781-A & Lieutenant Sevlock Junior ACT Instructor Starfleet Academy, EARTH and Naomi Lara Lt. J.G. Catherine Sterling-Jade Intelligence Operative USS PATRIOT And Lieutenant Tellah 'Cal' Callishendrack'Hylarmarishnakaashanah Chief of Operations USS PATRIOT And Commodore Teneill Danara-Bennow Deputy Chief of Starfleet Intelligence From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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