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Star Trek: Iliad

The funny thing was that if T’Kurs had been more Vulcan, his attack probably would have succeeded. If he’d just managed to hold his mask for twenty more seconds — if he’d been able to keep his ego in check — then T’Vara could not have reacted quickly enough to avoid his knife. As it was, however, his premature gloating gave T’Vara the warning she needed. She brought herself to a sudden stop as T’Kurs moved into her path, pulling her torso back in anticipation of an attack. The knife cut through the air in front of her, narrowly missing her body. She caught hold of his wrist to prevent him from swinging again, as he grabbed hold of her by the shoulder — and for a moment the two of them struggled, T’Vara’s eyebrows narrowed in concentration as T’Kurs laughed in her face…

And then P’rmess intervened.

T’Kurs saw the improvised missile first and threw himself to the ground to avoid it, taking T’Vara with him. The two fell and rolled in a tangled heap, his knife finding purchase and splashing a spray of green blood across the vault’s wall. A moment later P’rmess barreled overhead, leaping clear over their fight. T’Kurs tried to get to his feet, but T’Vara had ended up on top and found leverage first. She drew back her head and slammed it into the false administrator’s face, dazing him long enough to break his grip on her shoulder. Forcing herself upright, she turned and hurried after her vanishing crewmate — but before she could make it far herself, a forcefield sprung up in her path. T’Kurs had scrambled over to an emergency panel, and cut her off from following P’rmess.

Turning, T’Vara exhaled slowly as she faced T’Kurs warily across the room. Her eyes lingered for a moment on his bloodied nose and bloodied knife. Her hand went to her side, pressing against the tear in her uniform and the slow flow of blood from the cut he’d inflicted. She had to be careful. She couldn’t count on having a physical advantage; he may not have really been Vulcan, but he could still be a Romulan, or some other equally-strong species in disguise. In addition, he was still armed, and she was wounded.

Her best option for now was to stall. He’d already demonstrated that his ego was a weakness, and perhaps revealed a little about his plan. T’Vara was sure, now, that the thieves had some interest in their shuttle. T’Kurs had intervened to keep them from reaching in, when he could have kept himself out of danger. She wasn’t yet clear on why; if all they needed was a shuttle, it seemed like they could have easily acquired one by now. They’d gone to considerable trouble by waiting for Starfleet’s arrival.

“You must realize your plan will fail,” she said. “Even if P’rmess does not make it on time, when Odyssey detects our shuttle entering orbit without our comsignals or biosigns aboard, they will move to intercept. Your co-conspirators will be caught in a tractor beam before they can go to warp.”

She smirked, an intentionally smug expression which she believed would drive him to make a mistake. “Logic says you have wasted eight years of your life.”
 
"Aye Sir." Leata replied crisply, stepping over an unconscious couple of vulcans and relieving them of their weapons both as a precaution and arming herself in the process. She was of course ambidexterous for all practical purposes. There was a .57 nanosecond delay when she attempted to fire with two weapons at once, slightly longer if the second target was outside her immediate field of view of 157.3 degrees at any one time. It was enough for her to ace the Academy firing range on her first try.
With Comander Stephens watching over the captain she got to work on his task, considering he was now in charge. The jamming signal was easy enough to isolate and neutralize. "You should be able to reach the other members of the away team and the Odyssey now Sir."

She continued working at the console. "It looks like all or nothing on the transport inhibitor Sir. I can take it down but not selectively." She accessed a few more and probed the coding around the inhibitor, it was tightly written by some of Star Fleet's best coders. "Our engineer might have some off book tricks Sir, but there is nothing in Star Fleet literature that provides a work around." While Leata had learned tricks of her own over her various occupations, and new nearly all published Star Fleet manuals, her security clearance with the Federation was relatively low. Thanks to the lack of trust the higher ups had in her alien coding.
 
"Leave it up, we have comms and that's enough for now." Stephens helped the Human security officers clear the area of hostiles, then pulled out his tricorder and locked down the Athena. Tapping his combadge, he said, "Stephens to Odyssey. Captain Keoh is down, I'm taking temporary command. The security situation down here is unknown. Send all available security personnel. Tell them to detain anyone, I repeat, anyone who appears Vulcan once they arrive. That's an order. Do not allow any craft to leave the surface or orbit." Once he'd gotten the customary "Aye, Sir," from whoever had been in charge on the Bridge, he'd switch his comm channel. "Stephens to T'Vara or P'rmess. Status?"
 
"P'rmess here, captain. The two vulcans had a deep difference in opinion, and I think they are after my ship! On my way to the shuttle..." she replied after slamming to a halt on a bulkhead, leaving her frazzlesand panting, the words rushed out, and only the universal translator's help made all that hisses and meows understandable - thankfully loosing the riff-raff sounds and cussing explanatives.

She had no idea what she would do if there was any real opposition or attack, but if she got there, she could definitely do something with the small ship. Maybe even create a strong sensor ping to break the lockdowns - hopefully the inbuilt Starfleet programming would be faster to restart than the thiefs hackings.
 
"The Athena is locked down, Chief. I had established a tricorder uplink in case something exactly like this happened. And the other Vulcan was not a Vulcan," he remarked sourly as he stooped down over a fallen enemy, whose temple had caught a console on his way down and his green blood was slowly trickling from a cut there, the unconscious Romulan infiltrator lying there with his limbs askew and a phaser stun wound on his left ribcage. "Assume anyone with pointed ears is a Romulan infiltrator. Help who you can, but don't kill anyone. There may be real Vulcans who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Call me if you need me. Stephens out." He did hope that the Vulcan science officer would chime in next. "Leata, are the internal sensors working well enough to locate specific personnel?" He figured they had to have been sabotaged to register the infiltrators' Romulan biosigns as Vulcan, but hopefully that was the only subroutine they fucked with.
 
"They both taste the same..." the Caitian/Kzinti grumbled before she closed the connection on her side to proceed to their 'dropship', as she started to think that if not seized by the supposedly romulans, they could still try to hide the stolen material onboard to some neferious purpose. P'rmess was not interested in the why or their intended goal, but would rather deny them the way to succeed in their plan until they became more diplomatic.
 
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"Aye Sir" Leata responded, her programming no longer troubled by the rank discrepancy between Captain and Commander with the Captain out cold. The android stayed at the console as Commander Stephens and the rest of the actual security detail mopped things up. Her fingers kept their whirling at the console, not even slowing as she called out to the commander. "Will that order refer to Lieutenant T'Vara as well Sir?" She asked, curious to know if the security officers would take orders as literally as she was inclined to do. Though her adherence to the chain of command had never been truly stress tested in a live situation. She of course knew the difference between an exercise at the academy and real life danger. The concept of loyalty and obedience were quite different in the cultures she had experienced so far.

"Taste the same?" Leata echoed the engineer's last transmission, her subroutines practically itching for further data on the subject. Had the engineer literally tasted them?

"Searching Sir." She replied, adding 'Vulcan's and Romulans have very similar biosigns. To the sensors, they taste the same." She said, her positronic mind delighted to re-use the phrase that had so intrigued her.

"Sir, I have patched in the Odyssey's computer specialists to help, but they have no solutions as of yet." Leata reported in response to the Commander's earlier query that was largely interrupted by the attack. "But there is a member of the crew that might be helpful." He sent the personnel file to his tricorder. "Aurora NLN." She stated, indicating the acronym for No Last Name that was hardly unusual in some species so he wouldn't think she was not being thorough in her discussion. Leata didn't know this particular crew member, but she knew the type from her time with the smugglers, they could be quite useful. Not to mention interesting.
 
"T'Vara," Aurora said and watched their face change into the Vulcan science officer's in the mirror of their personal cabin aboard The Odyssey, the door safely locked with their own additional coding.
The ears were off though since the cybernetic tattoo on their face didn't have the ability to manipulate the shape of the ears. This of course they already knew as they had had to use prosthetic ears for that on the occasions they had passed themself off as Vulcan.
"Commander Stephens," they said and watched the tattoo rearrange T'Vara's stern face into the rougher, more human, face of the first officer and head of security complete with a so-called five o'clock shadow.
The result of this was of course a lot more satisfactory but would still need some additional alterations, their small but still clearly noticeable breasts for instance. That was easy enough though with a binder. They would also have to remove their hair to match his hairstyle, or use a wig of some kind.
"Commander Ikire," they said next and concluded that the tattoo was struggling to get the bone structure of the Bajoran woman's nose right.
It usually took some moulding with either clay or silicone to make a convincing likeness.

The Coppelius Android Helmsperson Leata was perhaps the one that needed the least additional alterations, if indeed any. Their breasts were even approximately the same size and shape. Lastly they shifted their face into that of the captain, not even bothering to attempt to mimic the chief engineer as the feline bone structure of her facial features were beyond what the tattoo was capable of, not to mention the fur.

This was a practice routine they went through most days. It was always good to keep their living cybernetic tattoo agile even if they had no reason, nor any intentions, to use either of those faces unless it was requested of them or they were ordered to. They were after all still on probation after the deal they had made with Starfleet a year before, to work for them rather than spend the rest of their life in a maximum security prison, or worse, another research facility where all kinds of Federation scientists would poke and prod them trying to figure out their implants.

As soon as their face reverted back to their own they began to apply the special moisturising cream that kept their skin from drying out and ageing far more rapidly than their assumed age. It was then, as they gently rubbed the cool cream into their cheeks that their communicator beeped.
"Ensign Aurora speaking," they said as they tapped the badge on their left shoulder.
It was Leata making a rather odd request for their presence. It seemed she was reluctant to specify exactly why over comms.
"Have you found a way to use the transporter though, or do I need to take a shuttle? Should I bring anything specific?"
 
As Ensign Aurora was the only real choice for solving the encryption problem, so logic dictated she come to the station. Leata decided to show some of that initiative the Academy stated they wanted from young officers. This was despite her repeated experience in Star Fleet that most senior officers only liked initiative from junior officers when things went well. "You will need to jump on a shuttle Aurora, there will be one full of security personnel departing imminently." She spoke loud enough for Commander Stephens to hear her, and assumed Aurora would understand the need to 'move her ass' as some of the saltier academy instructors would say. Despite the reaction from many of her classmates, she had found correlation between the saltiness of the instructors and the practicality of their guidance. At least as far as it correlated with her real world experience with ships and people. "Bring whatever items you need to hack into one of the highest security computer installations in the Federation and still make the shuttle." She suggested with all the casualness of suggesting what she might bring for her lunch.

Back to the task of sorting Romulans from Vulcans she noted some variations that might be significant. "Currently Sir I am tracking 12 individuals with Vulcan biosigns in the station. Of those twelve, five have heart rates more than three standard deviations above the average of the remaining seven. Given the deterioration of their tactical position, we could infer those five are highly likely Romulans." She pulled up a screen that gave the relative location of the five suspected Romulans. "They seem to be converging on the shuttle bay, potentially to escape, or to ambush the reinforcements on their way from the Odyssey."
 
Utility belt on, complete with the standard issue tricorder as well as their non-standard handguns but most importantly the unassuming little box of memory sticks they almost always carried with them, mostly for security reasons, as it contained secrets they did not want to find their way into the hands of anyone else, certainly not Starfleet personnel, and another small box that looked like it could have been a relic from late 19th century Earth, a silver cigarette case, but in fact contained various thin cables and tools that could physically open almost any lock and bypass most alarm systems. Those were really all the tools they needed to bring. Everything else was already present in their cybernetic enhancements.

They put their jacket on and took the turbo lift down while keeping a line open to Leata's communicator allowing them to listen but not for Leata to hear them. Romulans posing as Vulcans, not an entirely new concept but a dangerous one as they were indeed difficult to tell apart unless you could read bio signs.

From past experiences they knew that the easiest way to avoid questions and lengthy explanations was to simply act as if you belonged in a particular place at a particular time and so without a word they simply entered the shuttle and sat down with the other three of the additional security team en route to the surface, it was indeed a skeleton crew or else there would have been at least a dosen, strapped themself in. No one asked a single question, not even when it was so obvious that their weaponry was anything but standard issue.

As the shuttle approached the bay Rory activated the bio sign reader of their left eye turning it a vaguely turquoise shade while the other remained as it was. This would allow them to tell Romulans and Vulcans apart by the very detail Leata had pointed out to Commander Stephens without compromising their aim.
 
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"Stephens to Odyssey shuttle. Prepare for possible ambush upon landing," Stephens barked into his combadge, before making his way towards the exit and asking Leata to tell him where precisely T'vara was. "You two, with me!", he ordered two security officers to accompany him to the Vault, which was T'vara's last known location; if she'd moved, he'd alter his course accordingly. "Stephens to T'vara, come in," he said, a note of urgency in his voice. When no answer was forthcoming, he broke into a run.
 
Leata kept scanning lifesigns looking for the rest of their crew. P'rmess was easy enough to track, not only were her biosigns rather unique on the station, she bounded and moved like few bipeds. There were two Vulcan like signs that were for a short time practically merged together. One of them was most likely T'Vara but she couldn't be sure which one, both had relatively rapid biosigns suggesting stress, or injury. "Best guess Sir is still in the vault, she may be injured." She gave her report over the combadge then without further orders decided to help prevent an ambush in the shuttle bay. Standard shuttles were rather utilitarian and not made for assaults on a hostile landing. She had a phaser in each hand as she headed towards the shuttle bay.

She ran when it was safe to do so, but was cautious around corners and through doorways, still uncertain of the overall tactical situation. As she neared the shuttle bay, she heard more weapons fire, it had been a hot landing. She hurried forward, logically assuming the ambushers would be more focused on the newly arrived shuttle than on the rest of the station.

The first two security officers were cut down right at the door of the shuttle. Despite the warning they were given, the single exit door of the shuttle made for predictable targets. "Ensign Leata to shuttle." She said after touching her combadge. "I can get you a bit of a distraction but I can't take them all." She said, hoping between them the could create a crossfire to pin the bad guys, whoever they were, and take the initiative.

@MsBloom - your move!
 
Still listening in on Leata's comm Rory had waited in the seat closest to the shuttle door where the wall provided cover as well as the element of surprise on the Romulans posing as Vulcans. As might be expected from a security crew that greatly lacked in experience, as all the more experienced officers were already on the surface, the first two to draw their weapons and attempt to exit were blown back into the shuttle in pieces, well maybe not pieces per say but definitely taken out of commission and from the information Rory got from their bio sign reader the Romulans were shooting to kill. This meant that it was now them and one hesitant looking feminine presenting member of the team left inside and as far as they could determine there was only Leata outside, unless you counted the six Romulans.
"Ensign Aurora to Ensign Leata. Do your thing and we will do ours. Three against six aren't that bad as odds go. Though of course I had preferred to not have those two hotheads taken out quite that quickly."
They drew their left hand weapon, readying the right, and held up their right hand with all the fingers spread out to the team member sitting directly opposite them.
"On five just stick your phaser through the door but nothing more and fire twice," they whispered and began the count down closing their hand into a fist finger by finger and as the pinky went down they did exactly what they had instructed the only other surviving member of the team to do, stuck their handgun through the door and fired twice.

@LeaT Your move.
 
Stephens, with the help of the Institute's security officers, reached the vaults and swept the rooms for T'Vara and her attacker, presumably the Romulan posing as the director of the facility. When he found the male about to plunge his knife into a stricken T'Vara, he raised his rifle and audibly charged it up. "Even Romulans know never to bring a knife to a gunfight. Drop it. Now." If he complied, Stephens would order the two security officers to take the infiltrator into custody; if not, he'd simply pull the trigger. The other two officers had the impostor dead to rights, so even if the Romulan had decided to try and throw his weapon, he wasn't getting out of this. Everyone's weapons were set to stun. It seemed that the man had nowhere to go.

( @east If you're here, this might be something you need to adjudicate)
 
Shortly before Stephens’ arrival…

T’Vara had hoped that her taunt would drive T’Kurs to anger, but instead the faux-Vulcan responded with a dismissive sneer. “You see? Arrogance. You Vulcans always believe that you have a monopoly on basic intelligence. Of course I have contingency plans in place, you naive child.”

The administrator quite deliberately turned his back on T’Vara, and moved to examine the control panel of one of the two remaining transporter pylons. The young woman tensed for a moment, tempted to rush him, but thought better of it and held herself back. The distance between them was still too great, and he was still holding the knife. There was a good chance he was baiting her. Instead she took a few quiet steps to the side, shifting for a better view of what he was doing.

“Tell me,” T’Kurs continued after a moment, almost conversationally. “What do you think my next move is, hmm? What does Vulcan logic dictate now?”

Despite herself, T’Vara couldn’t help but consider the question. She doubted he planned to use the transport enhancers to get out; not with one of them broken on the floor where P’rmess had thrown it. He could be relying on his co-conspirators to take the facility, but even if they succeeded that would still leave the Odyssey in orbit for them to contend with. It was a rather significant disadvantage, so unless they had some way to even that out…

“The cloaked ship,” she replied suddenly, putting it together. “Those readings were not faked. Your ship is still in orbit. You intend to intercept the shuttle in a lower orbit; or else ambush Odyssey while the crew are distracted.”

T’Kurs let out a low chuckle, and turned slowly to face T’Vara. It was his turn to smirk, now; he was relishing the opportunity to show a little emotion after so long beneath the mask. Behind him, there was some kind of waveform on the pylon display — some kind of signal, maybe? — but T’Vara only got a quick glimpse at it before T’Kurs began to approach and she was forced to focus on him.

“And here you are with no way to warn them. What a shame.” The administrator stopped a few steps from her, the bloodied knife loose in his hand. “Not that I would have let you anyway, of course.”

The two eyed each other for a moment — T’Vara still clutching her side and watching warily for his next move, T’Kurs apparently at ease but likely making similar calculations in his head — but before either could act, they were interrupted by an unexpected noise. T’Vara’s comm badge chirped to life.

It was Commander Stephens.

“Stephens to T’Vara or P’rmess. Status?”

She couldn’t respond, of course. There was dead silence in the wake of his query — and then, all at once, an explosion of movement as T’Vara and T’Kurs both burst into action. T’Kurs lunged forward, swinging high with his knife as he aimed for T’Vara’s chest, but the Vulcan had anticipated that. She twisted back, the knife only grazing her uniform, and with the same motion she unclipped her tricorder from her belt and hurled it right at the infiltrator’s face. T’Kurs didn’t have time to pull out of the way; the hefty chunk of metal struck him hard in the nose and he staggered backwards, free hand lifting reflexively to the wound.

And then T’Vara charged!

The science officer ducked her head and ran right at her opponent, letting her shoulder take his weight as she physically lifted him off the ground. Momentum carried the two of them directly back into the forcefield cutting off the corridor, and T’Kurs screamed as he was pinned up against it. His knife clattered to the ground as energy coursed through his body, prolonged contact with the particle barrier scorching his clothes and flesh. T’Vara held him as long as she could, her own injury objecting to the exertion — and after a moment, when she couldn’t manage any more, she staggered backwards and let him fall to the ground. She quickly kicked his knife across the corridor, then fell back against the wall, breathing heavily and holding her side.

She watched for a few moments as the administrator tried to struggle upright, but the best he could manage was to prop himself up slightly. The Vulcan took a deep breath to steady herself. The air itself smelled burned, the scent mixing with the forcefield’s discharge and her own coppery blood. That had been the most violent thing she’d ever done. She closed her eyes.

“It’s over, T’Kurs. Give up. Starfleet will—”

Her words cut off suddenly in a pained scream as something sliced through the muscle of her left leg.

As if from nowhere, T’Kurs had produced a second knife and with it had sliced violently at T’Vara’s nearest limb! She dropped to one knee in shock, and before she knew what was happening he struck her again, a sharp upwards blow of his palm against her chin. Her vision exploded into stars, and she fell — and then T’Kurs was upon her, kicking, stomping, raining blow after blow on her prone form. All she could manage was to shield her wounded side as he struck her again and again, without mercy. Somewhere in the exchange she heard her communicator chirp again, heard Stephen’s urgent voice, but she couldn’t understand what he was saying. T’Kurs continued until he was sure he’d beaten the fight out of her — and then she felt his knee press against her back, and his knife against the back of her neck.

“Starfleet.” T’Kurs practically spat the word like it was a curse, his voice bloodied and exhausted. “This is your weakness. You lack the conviction to finish an enemy off; to treat them as they need to be treated.” His knife pressed a little harder against T’Vara’s neck, drawing blood. He leant in close, practically whispering his words in her ear. “I’d love to show you, but unfortunately, I still have a use for you.”

And that was when Stephens and his security officers arrived, to find a burned and bloodied T’Kurs kneeling against T’Vara’s back on the other side of a forcefield, a knife against her neck. The fake Vulcan glanced up, alerted by the sound of the forcefield, and grinned viciously as he saw the new arrivals. There was a thin trail of blood streaming from a sharp cut across his nose.

“Ah, Commander!” T’Kurs called out to Stephens. “Perfect timing. I assume this means that my men have failed to take the security center? Well, no matter. If you value this Vulcan’s life, you’ll tell your people to disable the transport inhibitor.”

Shifting his grip on the knife, the administrator suddenly stabbed it deep into T’Vara’s shoulder — drawing a weak cry of pain from the barely-conscious Vulcan.

“I’d decide quickly, if I were you! She’s losing quite a lot of blood!”
 
Stephens regarded the Romulan coldly. "Even if we disabled the inhibitor, the forcefield prevents transport. Ah, but you thought of that, didn't you? Perhaps pretending to be a Vulcan for so long has rubbed off on you?" He was buying time for one of the Ensigns in tow to duck out of sight and try to have the forcefield shut down remotely. But he was right. T'Vara was losing a lot of blood. "Fine. We will shut down the inhibitor, but only if you leave her. Do we have an agreement, or do we have to let her continue to suffer needlessly? Because we won't shut down the inhibitor until she's out of reach of both you and your friends' transporter beam." He'd of course had his comm open the whole time, so there was no one on board Odyssey or down here that didn't know what was transpiring. He had taken a leap of proverbial faith, guessing that they had a cloaked ship in orbit and counting on the man's ego to confirm it. They may still get away, but with luck, that would be their only victory here today. "Oh, and as a show of good faith, you will shut down the forcefield so we can intervene if you go back on your word. And we will lower our weapons." Gesturing towards the security officers, all three of them slung their rifles on their backs, but Stephens did draw his hand phaser before clutching it behind his back, showing he wasnt a complete moron, but he also wasn't gonna phaser the guy as soon as the field went down. He was trying to balance the needs of the many with the needs of the few, offering the man a way out but without the hostage he seems intent on taking. That said, the information she has might harm others if in the wrong hands, so it did seem to be a good decision with regards to the greater good to insist he leave T'Vara behind.
 
“Do you think I care if she suffers?!” T’Kurs suddenly snapped, his thin veneer of calm cracking as Stephens laid out his conditions. The false administrator swept up from T’Vara’s body and stormed over to the forcefield, stopping just on the other side. He paused for a moment to take a deep breath, regaining some measure of calm, before looking Stephens in the eye across the invisible barrier that separated them.

“Commander,” he said, stress and murderous fury still lurking just beneath a more measured tone, “I assure you, I have no interest in abducting your science officer — but this forcefield will not go down until I decide to take it down. I am in control here, and she is running out of time. Lower the inhibitor field.”

His voice wavered as he snarled that last sentence, his fingers flexing around the knife in his hand.

Meanwhile, aboard Odyssey…

The junior bridge crew sat in stunned silence as they listened to the situation unfolding on the surface, until one of them — a young man with frizzy hair and deep brown skin sitting at the comm station — glanced uncertainly back to the captain’s chair.

“S-should we contact the commander for orders, sir?”

“No,” the Andorian ensign in command shook her head, trying to display more certainty than she felt. “We can’t afford to distract him.” She hesitated a moment, then asked, “Is Lieutenant T’Vara in the room with Commander Stephens?”

“I… I think so, sir, or at least, her comm signal is close by,” the young man replied, glancing back at his console. “It’s hard to be sure with all the interference. It looks like her life signs are failing…”

The Andorian let out a low breath, then squared her shoulders and raised her voice as she addressed the room at large. “Charge weapons and get a transporter lock on Captain Keoh and Lieutenant T’Vara! Beam them both directly to sickbay the moment the inhibitor field goes down, then raise shields!”

Her orders were met with a chorus of “Aye!”s as the bridge crew got to work. None of them noticed how tightly she was gripping the arms of the captain’s chair. If the attackers really had a ship out there… well, she could only hope that she’d made the right decision.

And somewhere in the dark, another crew scrambled to finish their own preparations…
 
"It seems I misread the situation. Go ahead and savor your victory while you can, Romulan. It will be your last." The Commander stared right back at the pointy-eared bastard, holding his gaze confidently. He may be in control of the situation for the moment, but not his emotions, and that can be exploited. But for now, it was time to take this fight elsewhere, or perhaps end it if they could not find the cloaked ship before it left orbit. "Stephens to Ensign Leata. Lower the inhibitor field. That is an order." As little as he trusted the man, Stephens did jump to conclusions regarding his assumed intent to abduct T'Vara. "Odyssey, if you have not done so already, tell Sickbay to prepare for casualties. Beam every healthy crewmember directly to the Bridge as well." He of course had no intention of letting the cloaked ship go, but there was no way in hell he was gonna say so aloud. Presumably they were already making preparations to attack anyway.
 
"Acknowledged, I'll pin down the group on the starboard side of the shuttle" Leata closed the comm channel as she readied both phasers in her hands. As phaser fire erupted from the hatch of the shuttle, Leata could see the smugglers shifting their cover, exposing their flank to her. She took a position to one side of the open doorway, limiting her exposure from half the smugglers as she started rapid firing towards those on the starboard side of the shuttle. She stunned one on her second blast, the others shifted their position to take cover from her position. She kept blasting with both hands, achieving what the instructors called fire superiority. They couldn't hide from both Leata and the shuttle.

She heard Commander Stephens' order and while not questioning it, needed to shoot her way towards the appropriate console in the shuttle bay. "Acknowledged Sir." That complicated things a bit but she would have to take some calculated risks. She would have to count on the shuttle crew taking out the others on that side. She kept one hand rapidly on the original smugglers firing blindly now. She shifted her other hand and her gaze to the other side as she stepped through the door,

She made her way to the console, hoping Ensign Aurora would do her part and allow her to split her focus between lowering the inhibitor field and firing blindly. Though it wasn't exactly blind, she had mapped out the counters of the smugglers cover and fired along the contour of their protective cover like she was cutting out a pattern with her phaser. Making it very risky for them to break cover.

@MsBloom
 
Rory determined from the interrupted scream and the loud thud outside, as well as from their bio sign reader that they had hit and killed one of the six Romulans lurking outside. A direct hit from their gun would have torn a hole right through the body about the size of a thumb's circumference and also caused a significant blackened burn pattern on the skin around it.

Then as they heard Leata also starting to fire her phasers and pinning the Romulans on the starboard side of the shuttle they signed to the other person to find cover just outside the hatch and wait while they themself snuck around the shuttle to lay down fire from the front.

Still able to access Leata's comm Rory intercepted the order from Commander Stephens and adjusted their strategy accordingly to lay down cover for her as she made her way to the console. The seemingly random pattern Leata laid down to pin the Romulans was a great help for Rory to advance on them and they soon found themself inn a position where they could take out another two with a couple of easy shots and then move on.
To my right, they signalled with their hands to the feminine presenting security officer and then as they arrived, somehow managing to draw fire from the only remaining Romulan, Rory went left while pointing the other to the right and this way they circled around until Rory had both their handguns pressed against the back of the Romulan's head.
"Since I assume that Ensign Leata has her phasers on stun I don't really think I need to spare your life Romulan," they whispered but at the same time they knew that if they killed her there would be a long conversation about Starfleet protocol from the captain and perhaps they would be decommissioned somehow and forced to spend time in the brig. It was bad enough that she had already killed three.

But also, something about the Romulan female told Rory that she was of a higher rank than the five scattered around the bay and might have a lot more useful information than the other two that were still alive.
"On your feet and drop your weapon," they ordered the female Romulan and told the other to tie her hands behind her back once she had dropped her weapon.

"Need any help," she then asked Leata as she approached the console where the hot android was working.

@LeaT
 
The interrupted scream was unexpected as Star Fleet had rather specific protocols on the use of deadly force. But now did not seem to be the time to inquire as to Ensign Aurora's strategy, perhaps she had some reason for what she did. After all they were the same rank and she had no direct authority over the other ensign who was effectively leading the security team after their leader was felled early on.

Once Aurora's team secured the starboard side, Leata laid one phaser down and quickly complied with the Commander's order to lower the inhibitor field. This felt like a mistake, contrary to their mission objective, but the order had been very specific. Leata had questioned many Star Fleet protocols as being unwieldy in the practical universe of conflict and chaos, apparently they were negotiable in practice. That or they would all have a lot of explaining to do. "Inhibitor field is no longer active Commander." She stated into her comm badge.

As Aurora approached with the last of the Romulan smugglers as a captive she placed both phasers on safe and turned to the ensign she had requested. Leata was fully composed, no sign of having been in a life or death firefight just seconds before. "You were requested to attempt to access altered files without detection. But I think the need for stealth is no longer necessary." She added as she surveyed the shot up hanger bay, as she stated the obvious.

Her fingers flew over the display as she pulled up the files in question. "Still, you will likely find more than I using standard Star Fleet methods. Your record indicates you have experience with, undocumented and unsanctioned methodology." She said, standing back from the terminal to allow Aurora access as she considered the Romulan prisoner.

It didn't make logical sense that there would be so many infiltraters still here if they had successfully pulled off their theft. She was sure they were missing some piece of the puzzle.

@MsBloom
@captain_bond
@east
 
Rory also didn't show any signs of having just been involved in a firefight, their partner from the security team did though. It had probably been her first live action since the academy.
"I'd say that stealth is perhaps no longer a necessity," they said in response to Leata's comment and ordered the slightly shaken but still focused security officer to keep the Romulan under careful watch while they worked.
"I assume that one way of another all these consoles are somehow connected, or are the files you seek isolated from the network?"
While asking the question they plugged cables into the console in front of them and Leata. The tattoo on their face moved and shifted both shape and colour.
"Fairly standard Star Fleet by the book stuff at first," they said as they worked their way through the research facility's coding while letting their fingers fly across the console to allow Leata to see the information they accessed as they themself didn't need it.
"This is interesting though. Not standard Starfleet coding or encryption."
They activated a few coding programs to break through several levels of high security firewalls and encryption which took them little more than maybe half a minute. While they did the screen on the console flashed in various colours and fragmented files seemed to appear and disappear at a fast pace, almost as if they weren't allowed time to fully load before being closed again, or as if someone had cut out most of a movie and only left randomly chosen non-sequential images. Still Rory had a feeling that if anyone of the crew could keep up with their work it would be Ensign Leata.
"There," they said with a quick nod at the exact nanosecond when they broke through to where the encrypted files had once been stored.
There was still minute traces of them, like breadcrumbs after one of those sandwiches some of the crew seemed to enjoy as a late night snack, or like the ones those two children from the ancient fairy tale left in the forest to help them not get lost.

Of course in the tale birds eat the breadcrumbs and the children did get lost, and eventually caught by a witch with cannibalistic inclinations, but no birds had been feeding of these crumbs and so they were fairly easy to follow and even though the files had been moved around the network a few times before being downloaded Rory found them with relative ease, breaking literally every Starfleet protocol in the process, probably a few laws as well and certainly bypassing the security level of most of The Odyssey's crew, perhaps even including Captain Keoh's.
"Restoring files and downloading them to a portable storage device."
They inserted an empty flash drive into the port behind their left ear and allowed Leata to watch the process on the screen of the console. The entire process was over in less than ten minutes.
"Not quite as challenging as I had expected," they said and unplugged themself from the console.
"Though I do see what you meant. Few information specialists working with Starfleet protocols could have even broken through the firewalls protecting those files. It certainly took a few unorthodox methods."
The truth was that they had hacked quite a few much more challenging networks and if this was as Ensign Leata had suggested one of the highest security computer installations in the Federation then perhaps the Federation of Planets' data security systems really needed an upgrade. Perhaps the organisation that had unified so much of the galaxy and brought a relative peace to it was no longer as strong as it had once been. Perhaps the old beast was getting comfortable and overly sure of itself and its authority. Perhaps whatever the Romulans had been after had something to do with that decline of power. Perhaps they were looking for the pivotal weak spot where a simple, minor action, might start a reaction from which the whole organisation might crumble.
 
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