The Wolf's Fangs

Posted on Wed Jan 8th, 2025 @ 10:55am by Captain Rovak & Commander Alex Flynn & Lieutenant Rune Thul & Lieutenant S'Lace & Ramielos Volsunga & Doctor Intharia T'Zor & SubCommander Saa & Lieutenant Commander Atna & Senior Chief Petty Officer Gaz & Ensign Shova Qiil & Ensign Talar Thayn & Ensign P'Lar & Staff Warrant Officer Umet'Okan
Edited on on Wed Jan 8th, 2025 @ 11:23am

4,967 words; about a 25 minute read

Mission: Masters of the Stars [2]
Location: Delta Dock HazMat Lab
Timeline: Immediately after 'Opening the Can'

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" Volsunga called out, his voice magnified and deepened to a terrifying battlecry. The enormous supersoldier was already a threatening presence when he was sluggishly moving and lifting his massive suit of power armour with his own strength, but now it's power systems had been restored, and he could move like the wind.

It was too late to seek the Captain's orders and so called out to his team. "Fire!" Rune immediately pressed the trigger and a round table of orange-yellow phaser beams lanced out from the guards. All the sizzling heated lines of what Starfleet knew to be their effective destructive anti-personnel energy weapon impacted Ramielos at multiple points.

Gravity was lost as the central node was smashed and so the Security team members got propelled back into the lab's walls because of their weapons discharge feedback, it was enough to slightly cause one or two beams to go off target but they redirected them back once those officers were stable against the wall.

In another moment several of the beams moved to impact the same places as they continued to fire. Rune hoped that their new distance from Ramielos helped him and his team react faster should he lunge for anyone. Thankfully Lifesupport was on its own power supply so O2 and heat was still being pumped in. Rune growled as now the Flash Scan wasn't an option without main power, but he was a little busy focusing on Ramielos. He suddenly had a thought that this was probably all his fault for being overly cautious and kept his weapon up instead of lowering it as he should have after Atna's words about not being Ramielos enemy.

He will own up to his mistake as soon as he can.

Rovak drew his own phaser quickly but did not fire, waiting to see if any opportune target presented itself between the efforts of Thul and his team. As the security officers around him were knocked about, he realised for the first time the gravity was gone. He had been tense enough to not miss it, and others elsewhere in the room were unaffected, the radius of failure seemed to fan out from where the Wolf-marked soldier had struck the floor. He kicked himself back off the decking, hoping to get as far back as he could, hoping the gravity would not be restored suddenly. He held his phaser arm forward and his free arm back to stop himself when he reached a surface.

The phaser beams struck Ramielos harder in the chest than he expected, but he retained his balance. Still, after a moment, his internal readouts showed that the servomechanics in his chest armour were beginning to slow in paralell to their exposure to the weapons they used. This was no aeldari weapon his chapter knew of. He shrugged his pauldroned shoulder into the path of the blast and ducked down so most of the rest of him was obscured by the circular array he was still within. He needed a moment to regroup.

"We've got partial power. Gravity will be back over five seconds. Prepare for normal G!" Gaz shouted even though he was connected by an open channel through his badge. He was sweating. He wanted out. But he had to make sure his job was done first. The lights slowly came back on as the effected area of floor received an influx of surplus gravitons.

Atna could not bring herself to fire. It was illogical to draw its attention when she could provide analysis from what few sensors still functioned. Remaining alive and intact as long as possible was an ideal outcome. Is this fear? She asked herself, quickly dismissing the thought. She did not experience that emotion.

"Phasers are working. Sustained fire should disable the active components of his armour, if only temporarily." Atna said into her combadge.

Rovak pushed himself down as the gravity began to return, and stopped in place. He waited for another opportunity to present itself as he moved to cover behind a terminal, the massive shoulders appeared to be designed specifically to absorb incoming fire.

It did seem like they were making progress and Atna voiced it, though witnessing Ramielos fortress down gave Rune concerns. "Switch target points!" He called to his team, and they shifted their points of impact to anywhere on Ramielos that appeared not to be overly armoured.

Now it wasn't really making any difference, "remodulate as much as you can!" Rune called, he already knew it probably wasn't going to help in time, but it was worth a try regardless.

It took a few moments for the security team to get themselves sorted.

S'Lace watched as things spiraled out of control from the safety of the observation deck. One more phaser was not going to amount to much. The being seemed largely immune to the gas, his armor was handling the phaser fire. What else could be done? Transport him out of the armor? Transport something in? Transport something small?

Transport something small.

"She tapped her badge, "Doctor S'Lace here. Would it be possible to transport something of small size into the armor, namely into the being's stomach?" she opened up her medical kit, "Such as a powerful, concentrated sedative?" it would have to be powerful, she thought as she rummaged through the options. Something the would knock her third husband senseless at the very least. Recalling Klarth's metabolism they would have to go for maximum dosage...

"I like where your heads at Doc, but somebody's already working the transporter." Gaz said into his own combadge, surprised to see the system functioning just in time.

Ramielos had determined his strategy a few seconds after the gravity returned. His helmet scanned the structure of the large array around him, and he found the correct point to slam his fist into to break the array away from the foundation it was connected to. With minimal difficulty he got his hands under it and threw it over his head towards the general direction of the armed officers.

Rovak threw himself down to present the smallest profile possible, hoping the array would pass over him.

"Hit the deck," Rune yelled, though he chuckled as he both shoved against the wall to the floor and recalled the moment the soldier did just that with his fist. This action resulted in all the phaser beams stopping in order to get out of the way.

The array section audibly whistled through the air toward the security officers, who dove aside, but it never struck. In another instant, the mass of equipment had frozen, held in place by the unmistakable scintillating glare of a transporter confinement beam that encompassed the central part of the lab and the warrior himself.

The array put up no resistance, and was quickly disappeared elsewhere. Volsunga was another matter. Though he could not consciously resist the transporter, his suit's own deep strike systems recognised a hostile teleportation attempt and immediately began outputting aggressive subspace static across all wavelengths. The confinement beam failed as the system tried to resist the feedback from the static, and Volsunga was released.

"That armor's disrupting the transporter lock!" Saa reported, erasing any doubt about who was operating the beam, and answering the doctor's query at the same time.

Ramielos expected more of the xenos beam weapons to impact him, and so made a grab for his boltgun and fired a one-handed shot over their heads as he turned and fled for the door, trying to keep his vitals out of range of their weapons.

The sound of the transporter brought Rovak out of cover. He realised what Volsunga was going for as soon as he broke free, but the massive soldier moved faster than Rovak thought possible, the beam he fired at the weapon on the ground found its mark a moment too late, hitting only the floor underneath where it had been.

He tracked the projectile as it flew, covering his face as it exploded into the roof directly above them. Whether deliberate or accidental, the explosive had hit the worst point possible for the defenders below it, the long-term storage containers and cargo from the deck above began to rain down as the roofing bulkhead parted, its load-bearing support destroyed.

"Look out!" Rune called as he watched the projectile, like most of the other present. He wasn't as quick as he used to be, but narrowly missed parts of the roof and the contents of the above deck. At last glance, he saw the security team making the same mad dash for safety.

"We do not need a transporter lock," S'Lace replied calmly, "Simply beam the contents to the coordinates and-"

S'Lace froze as the roof came literally crashing down. She tapped her comm badge a second time to cut the connection and form a new one, "Sickbay, S'Lace. Prepare for multiple casualties."

Atna heard only silence for a long moment after the explosion, but she felt the collapsing debris reaching the ground through the floor. The silence was replaced by ringing, but she moved towards the site of the collapse, knowing those below would need aide. She took cover against the corner Volsunga had just fled past, she needed to make sure he wasn't looking back. Having seen his weapon operate confirmed her earlier theory that avoiding his attention was the most logical course of action.

Alex took that as the cue that she was needed elsewhere. She didn't know if Rovak and the others were even alive under there, but she knew command had to come from outside. She tapped her combadge, and made it clear to the crew outside the lab that they needed everyone who could hold a phaser ready to make sure nobody got off Delta Dock that wasn't supposed to, even if they had to forcibly detach it.

"Sound off!" Rune called as the dust settled in the ruined lab, the lighting had shifted to red alert status and just the random broken sounds of damaged equipment could be heard around the lab.

One by one, the security team did reply, shaken and a little hurt but seemed okay.

Rovak managed to uncover himself, he was lucky that most of what fell on him was empty. One container that had fallen on his left leg was however not. From the pain he felt as he tried to move out from under it, he felt like his knee was broken. He reminded himself that pain was in the mind, and that it would not be sensible to vaporize the container, convenient though it would be. "I believe I am injured, but I will survive." He announced.

"Alive," Saa clicked shakily, emerging from under a pile of rubble, her body still quivering with the effort of throwing aside the half-ton crate that had pinned her. She tried to wobble up on her gravitics and capsized. Sparks danced across her shattered armature. Spotting a functioning console half-buried in the rubble, she heaved herself toward it, her fluke pushing her awkwardly across the debris-ridden surface, intent on a damage report. "Chief-! Operational-!" And that was it. She'd passed out.

"Lieutenant, go. You must stop him. We will survive until help arrives." Rovak told Thul, knowing they at least had Atna's support until then.

They had to go after Ramielos, Rune got to his feet and made his way to his team members. He was glad that they, and the other senior officers truly are okay. That's when the Captain told him and his team to head out. "Yes sir," after a few moments. "We better get going," he told them as he helped them to their feet one by one. Just one thing was a problem, their weapons were insufficient. Perhaps a projectile weapon was called for, the TR-116 with the micro transporter or it's new model, the TR-120. He had to get his team equipped with them and go after Ramielos.

Once the team members nodded at him, Rune nodded back. "Let's go." He said and knew that they could talk to the Captain and or Commander Flynn on the way should they contact him.

Volsunga had raced towards the only door out of the lab, firing a single shot ahead of him to ease his passage.

Gaz would have soiled himself if he hadn't skipped breakfast that morning. He held his hands over his ears and tried to make himself as small as he could as the massive suit of armour ran by him with disturbing speed.

The shot struck the sturdy hazmat lab doors. It warped and disabled their inner workings, but they remained in place. Volsunga leapt towards them feet-first, kicking them off their runners and supports with his massive weaponised bulk. He landed on his back outside. His magnetic foot-soles activated, causing him to spring upright in an unnatural movement. He raised his weapon ahead.

From within the shattered lab, a blue glow signalled that medical teams had swept away the injured.

Ahead, the hallway looked empty.

"Fire!" Flynn ordered, and more then two dozen yellow-clad officers released a barrage of pulse and stream phaser fire in coordinated groups. The holographic view of the empty hallway faltered as the beams went through it. Flynn and the waiting security teams stood at the opposite end of the long hallway outside the lab. They all wore personal shields and were positioned behind heavy anti-personnel shield emplacements projected by mobile emitters. Flynn set her hand-phaser to maximum, aiming it directly down the barrel of Volsunga's massive rifle and releasing a stream.

Ramielos let off a single shot as he realised what was happening. His helmet's sensors flashed as the xenos weapons began to paralyze his limbs. As he tried to let off a second shot, the bolt in the barrel ignited as Flynn's phaser struck it, blowing the end of the weapon apart. He was undamaged, but the boltgun was useless. He tried to release it so he could grab for his plasma pistol, but it took concentrated effort to release his hand from the rifle. The weapons were turning his armour to stone, it was more difficult now than when he had no power.

The rogue shot struck one of the emplaced shields, weakening it significantly, but not enough to drop it. Flynn lowered her weapon to heavy stun and concentrated her fire on his weapon hand.

Rune felt a surge of satisfaction as he surveyed the Security teams he had strategically positioned throughout the dock’s corridors. Small squads to larger teams fanned out in a radial pattern from the lab, creating an overlapping web of vigilance. The foresight paid off—they had maneuvered behind the soldier, Ramielos, putting them in a most advantageous position. The closer they could get, the better their chances of neutralizing the threat with precision.

He raised a hand, signaling his team to advance silently. The tension was palpable as they moved in unison, their footsteps barely a whisper against the deck plating. They managed to close the distance, and Rune quickly noted an empty room nearby—a perfect staging point. He gestured to his team, issuing a low-voiced command to wait for his return before initiating the attack.

Sliding into the room, Rune’s sharp gaze immediately fell on a replicator. Wasting no time, he darted toward it and keyed in commands with practiced efficiency. Moments later, a TR-120 rifle materialized along with a tactical headset. Loading the weapon with precision, he donned the headset and rejoined his team in the corridor.

Rune’s team had crept forward to maintain proximity with Ramielos' rear. Rune took position, exhaled steadily, and leveled his aim. He squeezed the trigger, firing a series of carefully targeted shots. The first round struck a leg joint. Rune followed up with successive shots at the arm joint, shoulder, and other key points, focusing on incapacitation. Each shot was precise, deliberate.

His team joined the assault, unleashing a coordinated phaser barrage that struck joints with accuracy. The combined assault created a relentless onslaught. Rune and his team maintained the attack, determined to exploit every weakness and bring the soldier down before he could recover.

The echoes of weapons fire reverberated through the corridors, punctuated by sharp orders and the occasional shuffle of advancing bootfalls. Rune’s meticulous planning and his team’s disciplined execution were paying off—but the battle wasn’t over yet.

Ramielos tried to draw his plasma pistol, but his paralyzed hand could only knock it from its mount, where it fell on the floor. He felt the impact of the kinetic bullets against the joints it struck, but they failed to penetrate the flexible alloy coating. As sustained phaser fire from Thul's team impacted his backpack, the suit once again lost power and slumped forward. This time he could not move it, the paralyzed internal mechanics were locked in place by their weapons. He was stuck where he was. He screamed and thrashed with frustration, but it was inaudible through his helmet to the outside, and he remained perfectly still.

Atna watched through the ruined doorway Volsunga had kicked in, cautious of the light of so many phasers. Her tricorder told her that the suit had lost power. Looking closely at the readings she could see that the phaser beams hitting the powerpack were having the most effect. She tapped her combdage. "Atna to officers in Delta Dock. He has lost power. Hold fire. If my theory is correct, a single sustained phaser into the power unit on his back should keep the suit powerless and locked up". She gestured at the nearby officers who were firing into the power source to keep going. "Be ready to resume fire if it is not."

Alex held her fire, and once the others stopped, she moved briskly to cross the space between herself and those behind the apparently disabled armour. She kept her phaser trained on it, just in case. "If it moves, don't stop shooting 'til it's still." She told the armed officers surrounding her.

Other than the pair Atna had instructed to keep going, the phasers went quiet. It had worked. Volsunga was still, despite his efforts. Umet'Okan looked to Thul and Atna. "Recommend we try beaming him out again now that his armour is disabled, sirs." The Jem'Hadar told his superiors. "I would suggest beaming him into the empty space of the lower dock surrounded by a forcefield and enough oxygen to keep him alive while we figure out a more permanent solution."

Atna's eyes jumped between her tricorder and the suit of armour. She did not want to take her eyes off it for too long. "Logical. The system that disrupted the transport last time appears inactive." She said in response to the Jem'Hadar's suggestion. If nothing else, Volsunga's unlikeliness to behave would give them an ethical opportunity to study the effects of vacuum exposure on him. "My recommendation is that we beam the armour into space once he is extracted from it. Your thoughts, Mr Thul?"

Atna’s calm, stoic voice crackled from Thul’s commbadge reported that they've successfully disabled Ramielos’ armour. Relief washed over Rune, but it was tempered by the reality of the situation. The armour’s power unit remained vulnerable, held at bay only by the continuous contact of a phaser beam. This task fell to one of his team members, stationed behind the extraversal supersoldier.

Rune allowed himself a moment to catch his breath, his team doing the same, but his mind remained sharp, evaluating the precarious balance they maintained. Umet’Okan’s voice broke through the tension, offering a recommendation: beam Ramielos out of his armour and into a secure holding cell. The suggestion had merit, but Rune’s instincts pulled him back. He recalled the incident involving the Enterprise and the Angosians—a super soldier turned their enhanced strength, and battle hardened mind, into deadly weapons against the Enterprise crew. The thought of underestimating Ramielos left a bitter taste in his mouth. Victory, he reminded himself, was never so easily won.

Before he could respond, Atna’s voice came again, this time suggesting they beam the armor into space. Rune frowned. Rash, yes, but not without logic. Studying the armour could yield valuable insights—insights that might save lives if more of these “Battle-Brothers” appeared in the future. His eyes locked on Ramielos, now a prisoner within his own incapacitated armour, a dangerous force momentarily contained.

Rune drew a steadying breath and tapped his commbadge to respond. “I suggest we beam Ramielos to a maximum-security cell,” he began, his tone deliberate. “He’s a super soldier, and there’s no telling what he’s capable of once outside that armour. Containment is our first priority.”

He paused, gathering his thoughts before continuing. “Furthermore, if more of these soldiers show up in the future, we’ll need every advantage we can get. Studying his biology, weapons, and armour will be critical. To that end, I recommend we disassemble the armour once he’s secure and examine it in separate locations to minimize risk.”

Rune hesitated for a brief moment before lowering his voice, addressing only those on the intercom. “We can inform him that his armour was spaced—or melted—if it gets him to cooperate,” he added, a glint of practicality in his eyes. The unspoken weight of his words hung in the air, a testament to the calculated pragmatism Starfleet officers sometimes had to employ.

His team, who heard him, exchanged glances but offered no dissent. Rune’s gaze returned to Ramielos. Contained or not, this was far from over.

Alex considered Thul's response. "It's your call chief, but the cells here haven't been tested extensively. Even a specialised penal facility would struggle with one of these, and who knows what kind of bollocks he's capable of naked. Contained in a massive space that's easily vented where he can only hurt himself sounds like a lower risk option than something he could hypothetically escape from." Alex said, mentally reviewing the rules about treating prisoners and whether Umet'Okan's suggestion would violate them.

For a brief moment, Rune’s focus wavered, his inner devil surfacing with a vivid, wholly inappropriate image of Ramielos—naked. The thought was as surprising as it was unwelcome, though not entirely unpleasant. A flush crept up his cheeks, a warmth that contrasted sharply with the tense chill of the corridor. He quickly shook his head, forcing the distraction away. Not the time, Rune.

He glanced at his team, relieved to find them preoccupied with their positions and unaware of his fleeting lapse. The idea of any senior officer witnessing his moment of weakness sent a jolt of embarrassment through him. He adjusted his stance, willing his mind to refocus on the task at hand. There was no room for distractions, no matter how his subconscious might try to sabotage him.

With a deep breath, Rune steadied himself, forcing his thoughts back to the situation at hand. Ramielos remained their priority—armour-clad, dangerous, and anything but the subject of idle daydreams.

"Captain's in sickbay so I'm taking point. I want no fewer than five people in the room with our guest until he's secured, and just as many watching him in shifts. I want that armour out of here until we're sure we can take care of it, but close enough that we can tractor it. I don't want it exploding near anything valuable. Keep a firing phaser rigged on it just in case. What's the plan if you can't beam him out?" Alex asked Atna.

"In the absence of brig cells I guess we go with armour beamed into space with a phaser apparatus to keep it disabled. Can Operations and Engineering handle it SubCommander Saa and Senior Chief Gaz? We won't move until you arrive." Rune replied before Atna could. "If transporters cannot do it perhaps freezing it will help contain Ramielos and allow us to take the armour apart?"

"Saa's out of action, but she's in good hands. We'll have to put something custom together to hold this bastard but letting him float in the dock for a bit in the meanwhile makes sense to me." Gaz said, having finally emerged through the smashed up doorway to the hazmat lab into the hall where everyone else had congregated around the lifeless power armour. The continuing streams of phaser fire were oddly comforting. He already had an idea for how to rig an attachment with a sequence of phasers so they wouldn't need to replace them regularly.

"If we cannot beam him out, we will cut him out." Atna said, finally answering the XO's question. "It may prove time consuming, but I am confident it will be possible, however troublesome it may be for those responsible." She looked back to Thul, who she assumed would be doing the cutting. She had noticed the subtleties of his brief physiological response to the XO's imagery, but made no comment on it. "Chief Gaz, please prepare an oxygenated forcefield in the lower dock space. We will attempt beaming once it is prepared."

"On it, ma'am." Gaz said, moving to a nearby terminal next to the kicked-in doors. "Gaz to Alph, we need a spherical forcefield eight meters in diameter in the space of the lower dock with a supply of oxygen at a temperature to keep a prisoner in."

"Yes Chief, I've been listening to all the comm channels in the area. It is prepared." Alph affirmed. "Have at you, ma'am." He turned back to Atna with a thumbs up.

Atna tapped her combadge. "Atna to transporter room. Please attempt to lock onto our guest and beam him separately from his armour to the forcefield established in the lower dock. Please report any failures." She instructed. A moment later, the blue light of the transporter glowed from within. The suit slumped slightly further.

"We've got him, ma'am." Came the voice of Ensign Thayn from the transporter room. "Modulating transporter to get him through the shield. Alright, he's there. Transport complete."

The glow of the transporter showed out of the armour as it just sat there. Rune watched it and sighed in relief as it was over, well as over as it could be. "Alright, Thul to Thayn, confirmed the armour is empty."

Atna made no expression of it, but she felt relief. The evaporation of a tension she did not realise had built, despite her training. "With your permission Commander, I should like to begin further analysis of our guest now that he is contained." Atna asked Flynn.

"Please do, Commander. Chief, do what you need and request who you need to get this thing rigged up and beamed out ASAFP." Flynn told Atna and Gaz, respectively. "Lieutenant, please make sure we've got several pairs of eyes on the armour until further notice." She told Thul as she tapped her badge. "All hands, set condition yellow. Stand down red alert." She tapped the badge again. "Be about it. I'll be in sickbay." She said as she turned to leave, trusting each of them to do so.

Atna left behind her without ceremony.

"Aye Commander," Rune replied and both his team and he waited for the armour to be beamed away once the phaser-rig was put into place.

A handful of ops staff came down the corridor, all looking uncomfortable with the giant suit of armour. Along with Gaz, they moved to the nearest replicator and began the assembly. After a few minutes they emerged, with an apparatus ready to snap into place around the backpack itself and a trio of hand phasers set to auto-fire.

He tapped his badge again while he nodded to the operations group. "Thul to Atna, armour is all yours Commander. Where will you want it? I have to have a security team to watch it."

"We'll put it just beyond the shield perimeter, in case it explodes or starts blasting hard radiation." Gaz told Thul, tapping his combadge to patch himself into the conversation, hoping to let Atna focus on her next task. "It'll be ready for you when you need it, ma'am." Gaz tapped a few more commands, raising level ten forcefields around the armour and activating the rigged phasers, which began firing in sequential five second bursts.

"Understood," Rune replied while he waited.

"Gaz to Thayn, beam the armour to 50 meters outside the outer deflector shield perimeter. Sending you the modulation for the shields we've got around it." Gaz ordered.

"Energising." The young Andorian responded. Within a moment, the armour was gone, out the window at the end of the hallway, a distant blue light signified that the armour had arrived. Gaz half expected it to go nova, but as far as he could tell it was just sitting there, the little golden phaser beams firing one after another to keep it immobile. "Good work, Ensign."

Gaz looked at the team who'd arrived to join him. "Alright, might as well start taking stock on these repairs. I'll be monitoring the situation in the lower dock. Lieutenant." Gaz said with a nod to Thul as he left.

"Great work Senior Chief!" Rune called to Gaz. He turned to his team. "Rest up and debrief in 5 hours, dismissed." The team gave a round of aye sirs and milled about for a moment before they headed off down the corridor to meet up with the other security teams Commander Flynn had with her. Rune followed and told them the same but added, "great work everyone," he smiled at Flynn. "You too Commander."

P'Lar, Qiil and Umet'Okan organised for the weapons left on the ground - the exploded rifle and the massive pistol - to be beamed elsewhere for safekeeping.

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