Krtog'r pt.6

Posted on Sun 3rd Dec, 2023 @ 4:00pm by Captain Kr'torg

2,204 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: O' the Cardiff Rose

-Previously-

“…Don’t sacrifice, you told me two thousand crew right? Are they really all to die?”

The computer core clicked on, and consoles repopulated with data but the script was in Romulan. Mellikor had taken the computer over. As a response to this, in only a moment more a voice issued from the bridge of Overseer Ranahnd,

“Overseer’s order. End defensive actions. All boarders know the action is over. Cease hostilities immediately or we will be forced to self-destruct. All hands prepare to depart in emergency vehicles.”

{Chokola HQ- Undisclosed location within the Triangle.}

Partha was not at all surprised to have his comm paged only moments after the conversation with his son. Ckall had an update of Kr’togr’s logs forwarded. Staggering at the dark ebon wood table half drunk with his friend and cohort was a familiar, homey feeling. This of course evaporated at the revelations of the last few months. Boreth had not allowed regular communications. All messages were inscribed and carried by hand, as such Partha had been cut off. He had only been given the story of how it all fell apart.

The Zakdorn had forcibly moved a mining operation of nearly ten thousand people living in asteroids. Hundreds died resisting, hundreds more in mishandling of the forced relocation. The population was given “equivalent” materials to start over in a new system. Kr’togr had leveraged this into a hideout, base of operations, and crew base. His philanthropy to them had come at great cost but they fed his his operations need for materials to sell legitimately, and markets for the ones acquired otherwise.

It was impressive, and the very thing Partha remembered doing in his youth. Had H’tek not plundered Chokola and the First Federation mirror ship their operation would look decidedly similar albeit franchised. The Zakdorn militia was fiercely independent eschewing Starfleet enforcement within their borders, hiding failures and preserving their image as strategic and tactical masters of their domain.

There was even a tender spot in the logs for a fling he had, a desire to return to see her. There were no logs for a month afterwards, and the next one broke Partha’s heart.

Another forced relocation. More resistance, thousands involved this time. Most of them were arrested, or and sent to penal colonies across the sector. No names, just thousands of dead, and tens of thousands more reduced to a serial number spread to the stars. It made the old mans heart stir, and the cool reserve warmed in rage. Kr’togr was building a life, a legitimate life, and they came to him… twice. Bullies who would wait for a large enough mining operation to establish only to take it over and force everyone to start again.

Partha would have made war, H’tek would have lost himself in fiery fury chasing vengeance.

Kr’togr… dear gods what was the boy doing?


{Zakdorn Command Cruiser Zaleef}

Kr’togr tried not to smile, negations demanded a bitter face. As it was a puckered grimace shared the room well with hardly repressed glee.

“So you’ll cap the munitions, and hobble the engines, leave us stranded to our devices, easy prey to be found by your rescuer… only we will miraculously recover and fly away.” You retain your integrity, your crew sees you as a tactician who values their life…”

Recapping their tete a tete also served to buy time for Mellikor to override Rahanands command privileges for self destruct. Any halfway decent commander had a heartbeat sensor for command privileges and this one proved the point. Melli had an override to match it, and needed only time. Rahnand was also happy for time, as reinforcements were inbound within the hour. If the pirates managed to control the vessel he’d still be able to activate the self-destruct.

Sometimes finesse was required, so a third path was forged in the form of making a deal. He let Rahnand take the high ground.

“You’ve killed quite a few of my crew already, I am compelled by that integrity to resist your efforts to kill more. I have unshakeable faith our help will arrive and apprehend you. My capitulation is the sound move to ensure their safety, unless you intend to murder us in even, colder blood?”

Kr’togr had to admit the stuffy Zakdorn argued well. The key to that was muddy waters.

“Dozens at best, just the ones who really tried to get my guys, mine who were using stun grenades and low energy pulse weapons.”

“Preserving the ship-“

Kr’togr cut him off, “No!, Preserving lives in your crew as I am not out to wantonly rob soldiers of their families, their oath is to protect Zakdorn, I am no threat to Zakdorn. I am actually after a whole separate prize Rahnand.”

“In what way are you preserving anything you treacherous cur!”

“Arroya Miners Uprising, Syndaa Miners Revolt. Those two instances were begun by Zakdorn aggression. This is a long arm of the same conflicts. I seek names.”

Rahnand pursed his lips, “Terrorism, piracy, insurgency, is all the same. Those miners operated on leased territory. Zakdorn ownership was reaffirmed in both instances by the courts.”

“I dont need you for the names Rahnand I just want your ship. I can arm it, you can scuttle the weapons. It’s the best way for you. Or we all die.”

The Captains sat and stared at one another, Kr’togr managed a non fearsome scowl, though his blood demanded the smug face waving off the atrocities of his lifetime get a gauntlet slap.

“Torpedoes, Computer Core, Engines. You can tow it. The rest is easily recoverable. I’ll turn it over on those grounds.”

Kr’togr pretended it hurt him to consider, “You’ll let us tow it away, leave you in the escape pods?”

“We wont be there long, and I hope to be on the ship which catches you.”

The Half Human in him cheered, while the Klingon scowled its worst.

“Deal.”

Rahnand smiled broadly, “All this effort, for nothing. I will see you hanged.”

Kr’togr stormed off, playing the part until he turned the corner away from the holding cells. He almost laughed out loud. After containing his joy the wily captain tagged his comms,

“Melli, we have the bridge?”

The haggard voice told a tale on its own, the bridge was not so easy to hold, “Aye sir, we hold it, firmly. Engineering reports command locks lifted, did we get a deal?

“Yes, he wont blow us all up. Gave him the soft pitch, he went for torpedoes, computer, engines.”

“That’s a lot.”

“It’s what we got. Did you see the disarm of the biometric triggers?”

“I do now.”

“Is it standard? Fleet issue sorta thing?”

“Its tied to computer core, looks like regulations exist for it, why?”

“I want to disable this one, any others we come across. Can you get it done?”

“Yes, but we still have the pressing issue of our escape.”

“We’ll lose engines and computers here, but have power and comms right?

A silence followed, Mellikor sighed inwardly as he messaged back, “Coordinating with fleet, we can tow at warp three at best.”

“We aren’t towing it Melli.”

Another moment of silence before Kr’togr heard a confused and tired man ask, “If we aren’t then who is, we are losing the engines soon yes?”

“There is another big boy inbound, another Zaleef?”

“Aye, just under an hour.”

“We couldn’t possibly get anywhere to fix it up they couldn’t find us, so this is all a waste of time and resources right?”

Mellikor was realizing the game being played, Kr’togr had a plan.

“No sir, we are in the fray, and like you said the best place to be is right in the middle.”

“You do listen! Well, this ship will need some work for sure, but its not the prize.”

Mellikor came back over comms loudly, “YOU BASTARD I LOVE YOU!”

Kr’togr had the full face of joy, “Let’s get this lovely piece of bait on the hook then. Have Cid oversee the engineer, scuttle away.”

Returning to Engineering after a moment he saw the Captain and the Engineer speaking with Cid. The smug self satisfaction on Rahands face was fuel to Kr’togr’s ire. He fused the warp coils, exposed the antimatter warheads to inert gas and disarmed them, then he practically danced as he hit the panel stud to wipe the computer. The process was final and irrevocable, The Zaleef had no brain.

With the scene set, Kr’togr marshaled the crew into escape pods and began their jettison, the towing of the Zaleef spacing them out, prolonging rescue efforts. Restoring cloaks on the three raiders gave them a coverage over the large cruiser but motions and engine actions leaked without control. They had to come to a stop in order to achieve a level of true invisibility.

The ship was empty, save the thirty odd troops remaining on board. A pocket computer console gave them the rudimentary ability to interact with the ship but the hulk was well crippled. His plan required two baiting actions, one was the bluff, and the other its double.

From the Bridge Kr’togr waited, Mellikor at his side. At a distance their predator in pursuit made its appearance. Scans of the area revealed nothing but the escape pods and recovery began. Like a trail of breadcrumbs, the new Zaleef appeared.

Open channel broadcast intoned from the bridge speakers, “Aless-Hajik… respond. Blue-Seven-Timberwolf.”

Mellikor answered before it was asked, “That’s a top level query, it's a response or be presumed hostage code.”

Kr’togr nodded, “Only helps us really.”

The Romulan leered, “If this works, truly…”

“What do you mean? If?” Kr’togr joked to lighten the mood.

“If Rahnand’s device is standard issue there is no if.”

The half human made a celebratory face, “Damn, 50/50 then?”

Engineering called to them, “Signal leaks ready!”

Kr’togr had known the Tv Hhan would not survive the battle. It was a reactor with a cloak by this point in time. They had to trade one for the other, and the precious cloak would be lost as well as a sacrifice for their tactics. One plan had been set aside out of expediency but was now back in line for their second prey of the day. As soon as Kr’togr gave the word, they would slam the Hhan into unsuspecting shields after detecting their inert stationary sister. Command codes and two crews at risk minimized chances of forced core breaches.

One in the hand got the other to come quickly. Two command vessels for an old raptor.

“Remote pilot equipped, It’ll broadcast the jamming signal after uploading the worm. We’re aiming for a side along on port to minimize engine damage.”

“Well done, Let us say farewell to the good ship Tv Hhan. May this chariot ferry souls to Sto’Vo’Kor! Q’apla!”

{Chokola- Second Sons HQ}

The communicator chimed, a purple strobe announcing the incoming message.

H’tek called, “Partha! We have word!”

The other old man staggered back to the table, well drunk by now. He picked up the strang clamshell comm, “Kr’shgr, Krtgirg. Krigrar.”

Kr’togr knew the slurs of speech from bloodwine all to well, “Father!”

Klingons could come back from blackout drunk, it was a gift which let them drink on the clock. Partha wheezed as he sat.

“My Boy, ho’d it go, are you okay?” The old mans worries betrayed fatherly concern.

“Father, I need a back road route. I am in Zakdorn Sector, do we have any here?”

Partha looked to Ckall who nodded, he replied to the comm, “Sending coordinates. What is your report?”

“I’ve got two Zaleef class heavy cruisers and two Raptors powering cloaks that will not hold for long.”

Ckall had a look of shock on her face. H’tek and Partha were both confused. She didn’t expect them to understand the true differences from Federation Tech and Klingon Tech. So She only said, “Two of them could put up a fight with a Jem’Hadar battlecruiser, three would win it.”

The importance of this phrasing was that a single battlecruiser had laid waste to their operations in several instances. Impervious to harm, nothing they had tried had worked. Only H’tek had survived their bold attempts to thwart. It was a symbol in his iconography of madness.

“Partha, we must secure this prize. The boy bit off more than he could chew, let us help him bring the beast down!”

Ckall made ready and stood at once, “We can intercept, they are nearly a day away from the Egress but I will escort-”

H’tek also stood, “You arent alone Ckall. We were sitting here getting drunk but destiny has brought us another chapter yet.”

Partha felt true pride in his heart. Kr’togr had brought them new blood. The people and ships to rebuild as well.

“To arms then. We answer the call of damned souls once more."

-TBC-

 

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