Boarding Party

Posted on Fri 9th Feb, 2018 @ 6:44am by Colonel Horatio Drake & Lieutenant Colonel Brooklyn Wellington

462 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: A Phaser as Deadly as a Candlestick
Location: Marine Runabout Gaius Marius

Horatio Drake, Colonel, United Federation of Planets Marine Corps, stood on the flight deck of Marine Runabout Gaius Marius, watching as the runabout closed with the fighters he'd sent out earlier, and the civilian transport Constantine Imperator. He crossed the deck to the communications panel, ignoring the ghosts of Special Agent Ilya Solo and his own husband, Patrick. They'd been following him since he left his office on Vanguard; he didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad one, or just a hallucination. "Vanguard Actual to Caledonia Niner. SitRep."

Wellington brought her fighter around to the aft section of the transport as her wingman circled the opposite way similar to vultures circling a wounded prey. "Caledonia Niner to Vanguard Actual. Target is stopped and awaiting inspection, though the captain of the Constantine Imperator wasn't too happy," she replied.

"I'm not exactly thrilled, either," Drake responded. "Thank you, Captain." He closed the channel and turned, walking through the air-tight door into the platoon compartment. "Listen up, Marines. This is a search and capture mission. Although we have no reason to believe the crew will be hostile, I want a fire team on the bridge and one in engineering. The rest of you..." he tapped the display panel on the wall, freeze-framed on the best image of the woman they were pursuing. "Find and apprehend this woman. She's wanted on suspicion of murder, so no undue roughness, but don't put yourself in danger. When you find her, bring her to the quarterdeck. Lieutenants Perry and Michaels will be there, along with me, to take her into custody. Questions?"

"Who would you like to handle the interrogation once she is in custody?" Isabella knew she was qualified to conduct the interrogation, but she also wanted a chance to impress the Colonel.

"When you have a large task, Lieutenant, you divide it into small, manageable chunks. Right now, my goal is not to let this woman leave the Federation. We'll worry about the details of her interrogation once she's in custody and returned to Vanguard." Drake looked around, trying hard to ignore the pair of dead men standing among the Marines. "If no one else has any questions, let's get moving. Captain Sharpe?"

The Raider officer nodded. "Facial recognition routines will be running in your HUD," she told the armored Marines. "I'll take the bridge; Kurtz, your team with me. Starboard transporter deployment. Bloech, you've got engineering. Port transporter. Other fireteams will follow at thirty second intervals. As soon as the pad is clear of the previous team, get your ketsu up there. Sweep inboard, then forward."

"Ooohrah!" the platoon answered as one.

The first two fireteams hopped on the designated transporter pads and vanished in a flash of sparkly light.

 

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