Paydirt and Retribution

Posted on Fri Oct 29th, 2021 @ 1:15pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes & Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Lieutenant Aiko Kato & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis Dr

Mission: Breen in Paradise
Location: P-class world

Shran watched as the rest of the away team activated their cloaking devices, watching as they faded from vision much the same a Romulan vessel would do, yet it had a certain Jem'Hadar shimmering to it as well. He finally activated his and was pleased with the result, though he had to admit the sudden momentary psychic strain and the twist in his gut for a few moments was less than appealing. But these both passed almost as quickly as they had come on and he looked about to see what the situation looked like at this point.

He was happy to see that things were as Celes had explained, and while they were certainly invisible to the normal vision spectrum, he could still see his people from his vantage point. If nothing else that made movement as a group easier. He wondered if the others had experienced the same discomforts he had when they activated the devices, and if so, if they had dealt with them as well as he had. He looked in Ayana's direction and used a simple hand gesture, and she nodded and began to make her way forward towards their destination, the others slowly beginning to make their move that way as well.

As soon as Dex activated her device she noted what seemed to be a very short delay in time. She looked at her arm and moved it out seeing it move but feeling a second or two before her eyes found it. It seemed to dissipate after a minute or so but left her with a feeling of nausea.she moved on with the group.

Aiko felt a queasiness in her stomach which was both familiar and strange to her. It was familiar because it was similar to the same feeling she experienced in her stomach when she was executing high-g atmospheric manuevers, or when executing complicated maneuvers in space that strained the inertial dampeners.

The queasy feeling was strange to her because there was more to it than just a simple unsettled stomach. She felt painless tingling sensations across her body no doubt as the cloaking device's field cast its effect on her body to render her invisible.

Belatedly, she wondered what kind of side-effects the personal cloak came with, but it was too late to ask that now. At any rate, neither the nausea or the tingling sensation lasted beyond a few seconds.

Observing the Captain's command to move forward, she began moving with the group, phaser rifle in hand and eyes scanning the surrounding environment.

The away team made its way across the open foreground of this Breen complex, moving in a tactical fashion despite being under a cloak. It was a strange feeling for Shran, moving across open ground like this so brazenly, and just as strange was being invisible. He assumed that it was equally as strange and disconcerting for the others, but he couldn't allow himself to be distracted. He saw Ayana and Weasley reach the first checkpoint, the far side of the building they were moving towards. He quickly made his way there as well and looked back to see Aiko, Dex, and the third security officer coming across the complex ground, thankfully unnoticed.

He was about to give the order to move out once more when a pair of Breen soldiers came around the corner in an obvious patrol. Ayana trained her weapon on them but Shran quickly shot a glance her way and concentrated, telling her to hold fire telepathically. They watched with bated breath as the two guards walked past them without so much as a flinch. Shran continued to watch the two Breen until they were out of sight. He looked around once more, looked to Celes who gave him an all clear, and then used hand gestures to signal Ayana to move forward into position to enter the building.

Dex had seen the Breen patrol and stood stock still watching as they passed by. She felt calm and in control when only a few days ago she never thought she would feel emotionless again. It was beautiful yet beauty, she realized was not emotionless. She watched the other members of the team especially Aiko hoping her training would not give out. She realized that she might indeed get to visit the labs where the virus had been constructed and get the answers to the questions she had. Shran was ready to enter the building and Dex realized close quarters would be far more dangerous. She waited for the signal.

Luckily, Aiko's mental fortitude was stronger than her natural impulse upon seeing the pair of Breen soldiers on patrol so close and in range of her rifle. Her weapon was trained on the soldiers the entire time as they moved away from the Away Team, although her finger was not on her weapon's trigger.

A part of her felt sorrow and a small measure of anger that the Breen soldiers were oblivious to how close they had come to their demise. But she whole-heartedly agreed with the Captain's order. From a strategic perspective, there was little to gain from incapacitating these particular pair when they could easily avoid them.

Ayana moved into position, followed by Shran and Celes. In what seemed like the first bit of luck, the entrance was somewhat secluded from the rest of the complex. This would make entering it a bit easier. Celes scanned the building and then seemed to focus on the door control mechanism. She began to work on her tricorder and after a few moments she gave an assuring nod to Shran who then looked to Ayana. It was obvious that they were going in.

The door opened and Ayana looked in briefly before pulling back, and then darted inside. Shran followed her in. The inside of the building was well lit and had a fairly sterile look to it. Shran immediately identified it as a lab of some sort. Dex would likely be in heaven in here. A single Breen was in the back working on something, his back turned from the door. Shran looked around and saw he was alone, and he moved towards the Breen stealthily. Discharging a weapon was out of the question. It would almost certainly raise an alarm. Shran slung his phaser rifle and reached behind him, pulling out a standard issue Andorian Imperial Guard blade. He decloaked and struck a single time, dropping the Breen. He motioned for Dex and Celes to move in to take a look at the inner workings of this facility while the others took up tactical positions. As the door closed, everyone was able to decloak.

Aiko toggled her cloak off and stuck close to the team although she perused the immediate vicinity watching for signs of the enemy.

There was no ill effect when Dex decloaked. “Nobody touch anything” she said in a low whisper “who knows what is in here, let me look round.” There were several workstations and some small containers dotted around the workspace. “Can we turn these stations on and download as much information as we can?”

"I can work on the stations doctor. A moment if you will" said Celes as the began working with her tricorder.

"Anything worthwhile?" asked Shran.

"Celes smiled. "I believe I have bypassed the security on this terminal. Doctor, I believe this is material you'll want to look over" replied Celes.

She studied and then double bagged a couple of the smaller receptacles containing some sort of blue liquid noting that the virals in her lab on the ship were not blue. “Their way of working seems so haphazard” she remarked mainly to herself. She moved over to where the dead Breen was still sitting slumped in his chair ignored the body and opened her tricorder downloading the information on the screen. Some of what she was seeing was not in a language she knew but some of the chemical formulas and diagrams were familiar. “I think we may have found something to work on here but, I do not see storage for viral pathogens themselves. They are not something one would just leave on a shelf. There must be another dry lab somewhere within the complex. Probably protected with much more infection control protocol and probably more security.” She closed her medical tricorder and put it and her collected samples away. She nodded, ”I’m finished here let’s move on.”

"Doctor, look at this" prompted Celes as she opened a classified file. "This appears to be discussing anatomy of several Federation races if I read this correctly. I think this might be of importance to your work."

Dex moved over to the console. “yes you are right it appears to be a rather long list of Federation races human,Vulcan, Andorian, Ciatian, Denobulans and …oh Surak !” She exclaimed seeming to catch her breath, “Captain, this is monstrous…it appears, and I have nothing to say it is not true, they are using fetal tissue from many of these races in their testing and making of the virus.” She stared at him in horror. “We have to put an end to this?”

"What?!" Aiko muttered underneath her breath as she thought back to her time in Breen captivity. Her outburst was not so much surprise as it was anger at knowing that the Breen proceeded with their callous disregard for the sanctity of life they saw as beneath and inferior to them. "Those bastards haven't changed at all."

Shran's antennae flew up and his face turned a shade of purple as anger took hold. "I'll make them curse the day they were born" he said through gritted teeth. He walked over to Ayana and dipped a hand into her pack and then pulled it out, object in hand. He tapped on it a few times and a small red light appeared near the top. He walked over and placed it on the underside of the desk where the computer terminal was located. "Potential diversion" he murmured aloud.

"If we are going move on, we should do something regarding that one Breen body" said Ayana.

Shran nodded in agreement. He looked around, not seeing any obvious space to move the body. "Have we disabled all security in here?"

"Yes sir" replied Ayana.

Shran pulled his phaser from its holster, altered the power level, and fired a single shot at the dead Breen, disintegrating him. "Desperate times" he said aloud in an even tone. "Ayana, you and Celes determine if we can get out now without issue and determine our next location."

Ayana nodded. Celes moved over and began running scans with her tricorder.

Dex could not speak, the more she thought about it the more she surmised. ‘No cells appeared to have been used but only actual viable fetal tissue. So many questions flooded her brain. How did they obtain it, surely it was not consensual?’ She had fight for a second to bring herself back to the now and the mission.

Sensing Dex's puzzlement and horror, Aiko moved close to her initially intending to comfort the doctor then suddenly becoming mindful that she was half-Vulcan, which meant she was likely uncomfortable to unexpected physical touches.

"I'm not surprised doc," Aiko stated hoping her voice was calming even though she felt anger at the Breen. "When I was their prisoner of war, they routinely collected biological samples from myself and the other prisoners. We always assumed it was for identification purposes and trying to best understand our physiology...but I suppose it is possible that this may have been one of their intended or unintended purpose."

Dex looked at Aiko. “What happened to respect for life? Aiko, I can understand things done in the name of war are often difficult to come to terms with, but to use unborn children..” The knowledge of this discovery had hit her very hard as she remembered her own daughter who had died with her husband all those years ago and as the Riasan part of her remembered, tears filled her eyes as she wiped them away. “Let’s get on” she said. “We need to see more and, I have a horrible feeling we will.”

Shran looked back at Dex and Aiko, "No tears for these bastards Doctor. They have no mercy, no sympathy at all for life outside their own. They've made that perfectly plain. We'll remind them that the Federation is not powerless against such cruel aggressions." The Andorian turned and looked back at Ayana who nodded in his direction before cloaking herself. Shran did little to hide his irate nature at the moment he spoke briefly, "Cloak and move out." He faded into nothing as his cloak activated, only the subtle sound of him slinging his phaser rifle from his shoulder into an active hold could be heard as he made his way to the door.

Ayana pushed forward with Weasley, the two making for a secluded side of a building in the center of this complex. It wasn't the most obvious choice to move to next, but she was going on the hunch that it was where they needed to go if they wanted to gather the information they now sought. It appeared that they had infiltrated the facility at the right time, with no Breen outside moving about beyond a few patrols. As she reached the side of the building she took a quick look around, and once she was satisfied they had not been spotted and no immediate danger loomed, she reached to her belt and took hold of another charge, activated it, and reached just under the building which was slightly elevated and placed it. She was of the mind that the captain would be wanting complete destruction of this place before this was over, an assumption that seemed grounded in fact after what they had just learned.

Dex reinstated her cloak and once again felt the strange feeling of responding more slowly than her movements, however it settled momentarily. She watched the others and wondered where Shran would take them next. She had to find out more of what was happening here before the base was destroyed but destroy it they must. She was sickened by some of what she had seen in the records. She followed Shran and Celes, keeping an eye on Aiko.


Shran and Celes made it to the secluded area and took up a defensive posture. Celes remained observant of her tricorder while also keeping tabs on Dex and the others that were bring up the rear. Shran for his part was keeping a keen eye for potential Breen. He had become suddenly determined to eradicate this base and all the Breen in it with Dex's latest discovery. War and conflict were one thing, but this latest news was unforgivable to the Andorian. This was perhaps in part to the reality, albeit a quietly guarded secret, that the Andorian species was slowing dying out. Females were increasingly having difficulty carrying children to term, and as such the birth rate had taken a drastic nosedive over the last century. For any race to do what the Breen were apparently doing was tantamount to genocide mixed with infanticide in his view, and such creatures deserved no mercy. As Dex and Aiko approached, Celes signaled Ayana to make her way to the entrance and ready for a breach.

Dex knew that something was about to happen that would possibly alert the Breen to their presence but fervently hoped that she had the chance to discover more.

Shran readied himself for the next step. He was keenly aware that moving into this next building was very likely to stir up an alarm, to alert the Breen that someone was in the facility. He didn't wish to put his people in unnecessary jeopardy, but the options were limited at this point. They were about to take things from a covert action into a rather overt one, and what that could mean ultimately was anyone's guess. He thought of a human quote Admiral Carroll had told him in his time with Intelligence, something he had heard from a few other frontline human officers during the war, "Fortune favors the bold." It was time to put that to the test it would seem.

TBC