Sometimes you have to Step Up
Part Three, Confrontation (Defender Point of View)
The U.S.S. Defender sits in orbit in the Cait system, with Commander Zenade on the bridge, monitoring the crew and ship, as Commander Kas was in the holodeck training the security teams in repealing from ropes down onto a roof top, the crew preparing for a mission, as the ship’s sensors are on full scanning mode, monitoring many CDF deployment changes, with new ships being rotated in and older ones being conveninantly sent on deployments or excises that would put them away from the system for at least a few days
Zenade looks over at the Tactical Officer Commander Haituk “How many crews rotated does that make it now?” she asks as she sighs and rubs her eyes
Haituk the Vulcan tactical officer, glances up from her console and then gives a small nod “Counting the M’Grora task force, and other assets, we are up to at least two full task groups, as well at least ten security teams on the planet, if the transporter signals and shuttles are any indication”
M’Koin Jhizit, the Chief Helm Officer, spins around on his chair to face Zenade “Captain, I don’t like this… the deadline we had been given to leave is getting closer, and the system is looking a little less friendly, if trouble kicks off, we might find ourselves short on friends”
After a few more moments, Carlos Kas walks onto the bridge in a heavily modified suit of Omega Force armour that lacked a lot of the leg and shoulder plating in favour of movement. He then looks to Zenade and gives a small grunt “Ahhh, there you are, Cap”
Zenade whinces at being called Captain, despite the tradition to call the Commanding officer Captain, her Captain was down on the planet and split off from family, and she wanted to get him back “Kas.. how is the training going?” She asks as she turns to face Carlos as he approaches her
Carlos would give a small nod “Going well enough, you wouldn’t think these guys had done this before.. and just needed a refresher, but we should be ready in a few hours to go to make sure no one falls to the roof or misses it completely”
Zenade gives a small nod and sighs softly “Alright, run me through the plan one more time, just to be safe. Let’s make sure we are all clear on what is going to be done”
Carlos taps on his wrist comm system and brings up a holodisplay just in front of the three command chairs on the bridge, and then clears his throat “Alright, we start by deploying the Leopard from the Defender, we time this right with a set of maintenance that will make a hole in the CDFs scanner network, with our own hull plating we should be able to slip down” the holodisplay shows the Leopard detaching from the back of the Defender and heading down to the surface “Once we get to the hospital, the Leopard will hover just off the roof top, where me, teams five and six will repeal down to the roof using cables we will deploy from the Leopard’s shuttlebay” The display would change again, showing the Leopard just above the roof top of the hospital building, it would then show figures deploying down to the roof using ropes
Zenade would nod slowly and then rub her chin as she watches the display and listens to Carlos “So far so good, what happens if you encounter resistance?” She asks, looking at Carlos and giving a soft sigh “As I doubt the CDF will just let us walk the Captain out”
Carlos gives a small nod “We will have phasers and will stun anyone we need to, though we are not expecting much trouble. The hospital staff are unlikely to object; we might only have to deal with some Caitian guards, but there should be some Sh’ow agents on the same floor covertly, which should help us if shooting starts”
Zenade nods slowly and gestures to the display “Carry on, please”
Carlos nods and then continues his presentation “We will move through the hospital, taking the stairs and sweeping slowly through the hospital until we reach the Captain’s room, should only need to go two floors down from the roof” The holo-display updates to show the figures moving into the hospital through a roof access down, and then slowly moving to the Captain’s room “Once we have him secure, and ready, two of the medics with us, will load him onto a stretch and with us escorting, will carry him to the roof for evac, which will be done by the two runabouts, with the Wye already having been altered to have the Medical gear we need, all in all should be in and out within an hour”
Zenade would nod slowly and sigh softly “This has so many risks, yet we have done this before.. Though before we had a cloak and marines”
Carlos nodded slowly and smiled softly “We still have our fighters.. and our skills, we will be fine, but the only question that matters, the whole CDF or Sejea.. who would we rather take on?”
Zenade nods slowly, giving a small grin “Good point.. get to it Carlos, we don’t have much time” suddenly Zenade is interrupted by a beeping from the sensor console
Haituk looks up from her console “Captain, we have incoming, a Caitian interplanetary shuttle, with a group of stalker fighters in hot pursuit. Before comms got cut, the shuttle sent part of Commander Sh’ow’s access code”
Zenade looks to Haituk and grunts. Then looks to Carlos “Go.. get ready and wait for my order” She then looks to Ops “Ops.. get the black tails in the air, get them close to the shuttle, they only fire if they are fired on” she then looks to Jack “Nightingale, get down to the shuttlebay.. drag whoever is on that shuttle up here”
Jack and Carlos quickly boarding the turbolift, with Carlos heading to the Leopard and Jack heading to the shuttlebay with two security officers, meanwhile as the Caitian shuttle speeds towards the Defender, the ship’s shuttlebay was becoming a hive of activity, as the well rehearsed launching sequence took place, with fighters quickly being scrambled in groups of three, and once six had been launched they sped towards the incoming shuttle, and narrowly missed it and the pursuing fighters behind it, before spinning around and moving to put themselves between the Stalker fighters and the shuttle
The ops officer on duty looks over at Zenade “Incoming transmission, Captain.. it is from the leader of the CDF fighter squadron”
Zenade nods slowly and sighs “Put them through” As she said that on the view screen, she saw the rest of the Defender’s fighters grouping up with the first six launched, all forming a defensive screen around the incoming shuttle
On screen would appear a helmeted CDF pilot “Captain Zenade.. I am Commander H’arr of fighter squadron one from the CDS Falcon … we have orders to escort that shuttle back to Cait, call off your fighters”
Zenade would grunt and grip the arms of the Captain’s chair, then speak “Captain, that shuttle had transmitted a Federation clearance code. Until we clear up who is onboard, we are allowing them to land, I would advise you break off your pursuit now!”
Captain H’arr could be seen adjusting her controls as she growls softly “Captain.. we will be contacting the general..” After closing the channel, the group of six Stalker fighters turns around and heads back towards their carrier
The incoming shuttle quickly lands, with the fighters of the Defender starting security patrols around the ship until they receive other orders
Zenade looks over at Haituk “Alert me to any more incoming.. as early as possible” she then taps her combadge and goes to speak, but is suddenly interrupted
Haituk looks over at Zenade “Incoming, sir. We have two Aspero carriers, two Atrox carriers, and ten escorts. They are approaching from the main Starbase and will be here in five minutes”
Zenade stands up and rubs her eyes “Alright.. yellow alert till we know what is going on, let’s hope the person on that shuttle has an explanation”
After a few minutes, the Caitian group would be in range of the Defender, with all of the Caitian ships being at yellow alert, just like the Defender. Just as the group arrived, agent H’ille, who had previously worked with R’Nol on the planet, was escorted onto the bridge by Jack Nightingale and two security officers, one Andorian male and one Bajoran male
Jack would walk over to Zenade and clear his throat “Captain, the person from the shuttle as you ordered..” he then gestured for the Caitian agent to approach Zenade, with the two security officers keeping a close eye on the Caitian
H’ille would speak up “Hello Captain.. I am Agent H’ille of the CDF internal affairs office. I was sent here by Commander R’Nol” He said, and went to carry on, but Zenade would interrupt him
Zenade would fold her arms and look at the Caitian “I don’t mean to be rude, agent, but as you can see by the company just outside, we are hardly in a relaxed setting, so skip to the important bits.. as I have a Captain on the planet in need of help, his Bajoran wife likely on her way to rip someone to peices, three young cubs caught in the crossfire and my own ship and crew likely to end up as CDF target practice if we are not careful”
H’ille would clear his throat and then offers Zenade a padd “That has everything, but the short of it is, there is a bomb under Captain Sh’ow’s bed, coded to trigger in the presence of Caitian Bajoran Lifesigns, and R’Nol and Rria are on there way to stop all this, and expose the General behind it.. but we need to buy them time”
Zenade taps her combadge before she takes the padd and starts to read it “Kas to the bridge” she then looks to Jack “Resume your post” she then looks to H’ille “When you say General.. you don’t mean General R’Noaw, the current head of planetary security, do you?”
As H’ille goes to speak, he is suddenly interrupted by an incoming transmission with the Ops officer calling over to Zenade “Captain, incoming transmission from the Caitian group leader, they are requesting to speak with you urgently.. seems they are not taking no for an answer”
Zenade sighs and gestures to the guest seat on the bridge “Agent, sit there and stay quiet, let me handle this.. Ops, try to raise anyone friendly nearby.. I don’t like where this is going, and put the incoming call on the viewer”
A red-furred Caitian male would appear on the screen, and once the transmission is fully focused, the eyepatch of the left eye and grey tint to his fur showing his age would be clear “I am Captain H’Mesint C’au, group Captain of the First Caitian Defence Fleet. I have orders from General R’Noaw to retrieve the Caitian breaking the travel orders from your ship and then escort you out of Caitian Space” The Male would grunt softly “Do not make me force this issue, Captain”
Zenade would speak up and clear her throat “Captain, I have already spoken to General R’Noaw and made it clear that we still have people on the planet and given our Captain is currently in the hospital, we need to be in the system and ready to return him to the fleet once he is better”
H’Mesint would then growl softly and look at Zenade “Captain, my orders are more recent than your conversation, you are outnumbered, you have ten minutes to hand over the Agent and make ready to leave the system, or we will remove you by force” Just as the Captain ended the transmission, Carlos walked back onto the bridge
Zenade looks over at Carlos and clears her throat “You just missed our charming Caitian escort. It seems we have ten minutes to hand over this Caitian agent and leave the system,” she said, gesturing to H’ille
Carlos grunts softly and rubs his eyes “Ten minutes ain’t enough to extract the Captain, and our shields would only last so long against that amount of firepower”
H’ille looks to Carlos then to Zenade “Not to interrupt, but that Captain is on the list of people involved in the plot to kill your Captain, and others in the Sh’ow family”
Carlos looks at Zenade and grunts softly “What is he talking about?” he asks, wanting to be brought up to speed
Zenade looks to Carlos “The current head of Planetary Security put a bomb under H’Ltol’s bed, set to go off when his cubs get there. It seems he wants to get as many of the Sh’ow’s at once as possible. If this works, he would get both Captain Sh’ow’s, their kids, H’Ltol’s sister and mother, then it is just a matter of rounding up the rest”
Carlos grunts softly and rubs his eyes “Outnumbered, cut off… and our Captain is in danger.. it is Stations Five in the Gamma quadrant all over again”
Haituk would shout up to Zenade "Captain, we have multiple incoming from outside the system, from the trouble I am having getting full numbers, I am estimating more Caitian ships, but I am also tracking at least two Starfleet vessels as well, the Kitten and the Nicolas, they will be arriving shortly*
Just as Haituk had replied to the information, the Kitty class Carrier, the U.S.S. Kitten, and the Constitution-III, the U.S.S. Nicolas, would drop from warp, each flanking the U.S.S. Defender, both at Red alert with weapons powered, with the Kitten quickly scrambling her own fighters. These two were quickly joined by two Aspero carriers, the CDS, Libertad, which was surrounded by six Caitian escorts, which included the CDS Striker, with it quickly deploying its own fighters and frigates, as did the other Aspero carrier the CDS, H’Morri {named for H’Ltol’s father} with the H’Morri also having it’s own escort of Six escorts, with the H’Morri also entering the system with two Atrox carriers, both also deploying their fighters, with all of the incoming ships at red alert and fully ready to fire on the ships opposite them and the Defender, if it came to that
The Ops officer quickly spoke up “Captain, incoming transmissions from the H’Morri, Libertad, Kitten and Nicolas, it seems we have some friends”
Zenade nods and breathes a sigh of relief “Thank the prophets.. on screen”
On screen would appear the four Captains, with P’Tiarr the brown-furred Caitian appearing for the Libertad, P’Miss, a grey-furred female appearing for the H’Morri, the black-furred Ferasan Junern Jhizit appearing for the Kitten, and a Trill female appearing for the Nicolas, with P’Tiarr speaking first “Captain, we got here as quickly as we could. We apologise for the delay, but we had to collect a few allies”
P’Miss would then speak up “Captain Zenade, I am Captain P’Miss, Captain of the H’Morri. Once we heard that General Sh’ow was in trouble, we got here as soon as we could”
Junern then speaks up and gives a small smirk “You owe me one, Zenade, if it wasn’t for a friend on the Starbase, you might have had to handle this one alone. Don’t mind, P’Miss, she still believes in using family titles. She means H’Ltol”
The Trill officer then spoke up “Captain’s, we should focus up, let’s try and keep this from turning into a shooting match if we can, I doubt Starfleet would approve of a blue on blue shooting” She then looks to Zenade “Apologies.. my name is Asiah Tirrim.. when I heard my previous hosts XO was in trouble.. I kind of felt a need to help, let’s save our Cat and get him back to his family”
Zenade gives a small nod to everyone “I appreciate the backup, I will try ringing that Captain again, maybe they will see reason” she then looks to Ops and nods “Put our friend back on screen”
H’Mesint would appear on screen and grunt softly “Captain, time is running out, I have my orders, and I highly doubt one Caitian ship will fire on another, so let’s skip to the part where you hand over that agent and we let you leave peacefully”
Suddenly, someone would speak up on H’Mesint’s bridge but would not be heard over the transmission, and he would grunt, with all the ships in his group jumping to red alert, with the Aspero carriers targeting the Defender “Last chance, Captain” H’Mesint would say in a stern tone
Zenade would return to the Captain’s chair “All hands, red alert, brace for combat..” she said as the transmission to H’Mesint cut off and she looked to Carlos “Kas, leopard now, we need the firepower”
Suddenly, the two Caitian Task groups would start firing on one another, luckily at the moment both seemed to be evenly matched with their shields taking the impacts from the tetryon beams, their shots narrowly avoiding the U.S.S. Defender, Kitten and Nicolas, seemingly not wanting to drag Starfleet into this, however it wasn’t long before all Starfleet ships would start taking hits, getting caught in the cross fire, with the Nicolas and Kitten starting to attack the Atrox carriers at the rear of the hostile group, with Zenade ordering the Defender to target H’Mesint’s ships weapons, all three Starfleet ships pulled their punches, aiming to disable, as the hositile Caitian ships did no such thing, aiming to destroy, however just as the Defender took a hit to her phaser lance, knocking it off-line, all Caitian ships would stop firing, shortly followed by the Starfleet ships, with the Nicolas and Kitten returning to their positions near the Defender, luckily all ships had escaped major damage, with the Defender’s phaser lance being the only damage, as shields have absored most hits, with the ships all likely toning down weapon energy
Zenade would look around the bridge and grunt softly “Report.. what happened?”
Ops then looks to Zenade “All ships have stopped firing, we are getting a hail from the main government chamber on Cait, sir. They are requesting to speak to you”
Zenade would adjust her uniform as she watched the U.S.S. Leopard slow to a stop near the U.S.S. Defender “On screen please”
On screen would appear three White furred Caitian, two being females and one being males, all seemed to be a lot older than most Caitians she knew, with them all likely at least a hundred years old, the Caitian at the head of the trio, a female Caitian with spiked fur on top of her head, would speak up “Captain.. I apologise for what has happened, but I appreciate your ship not attempting to destroy any ships that fired on you”
Zenade would grunt softly and rub her eyes “Ma’am.. no offence but please tell me what is going on”
The Caitian would speak up again “General R’Noaw has turned himself over to CDF security and confessed to what he had planned. We are already moving to remove anyone involved from positions of power. To ensure no one gets in any trouble, we will be labelling this a sudden War game exercise and quietly compensating families as needed”
The Male Caitian would speak up “We would appreciate your help in securing Captain H’Ltol Sh’ow on the planet if you can spare the security teams.. we are sorry that this was not handled sooner, but the General is a well respected war veteran, when the threats came in we assumed them to be true and the person behind it not to be him”
Zenade would nod slowly and grunt softly “If Sh’ow Sejea finds out about this, there will be hell to pay.. and I have no plans to hide any of this from her” she then gives a small nod “Very well.. we will be spending a team to secure our Captain, I will be sending an explosives expert along as well”
The government trio would nod slowly, then end the transmission leaving the bridge quiet for a moment with Zenade looking around the bridge “Alright everyone, get a repair team on our lance, I want reports from all departments in the hour” she then looks to Ops “Signal Carlos to head down to the planet, his teams are already on the leopard”
After getting the signal, the U.S.S. Leopard would depart from the Defender and head down towards the planet, with the teams from the Leopard, disembarking from the ship and heading into the hospital, securing H’Ltol’s room, and removing the bomb placed under his bed, handing this off to C’Roren as the CDF teams started to remove the ones they needed to, and start work on their clean up operation, with the Defender crew returning to standard operations, as they waited for their Captain to wake up. This would continue until they get called away to assist the U.S.S. Ecstasea after getting a distress call from the ship
OOC This concludes the events of the story around H’Ltol Sh’ow and the family on Cait, and brings the Defender up to the events of AAR: There is no "Routine Mission"