Defending the dock

Posted on Tue Jun 10th, 2025 @ 2:02am by Major Victoria, Daughter of Kalath & Ambassador Drusilla Creon

971 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: The Serpent's Tooth [3]
Location: F-Dock walkway - DS13
Timeline: 2005 - MD08

Five Jaffa were firing their staves ineffectively into the shields that cut off F-dock from the intruders. They had been at it for ten minutes, and the shield had only dropped 6%, but still they persisted. Eventually, they would succeed, assuming those staff devices did not run out of ammunition.

"Jaffa, Kree!" Came the booming voice of their goddess from ahead of them. Behind the shield, Hera appeared. They stopped their firing and pointed their weapons away. "My queen!" Their leader said, awaiting Hera's instructions, watching her through the transparent energy barrier.

"You are the leader of these Jaffa?" She asked, now only an arms length away from the forcefield.

"Yes my Queen." He responded with a nod.

"And you do not kneel in the presence of your Queen?" She asked sternly.

"Kneel, Jaffa, kneel!" He ordered, and went to do so himself.

"Whoever is first to shoot him will be the new squad leader." Hera told them, and two of them fired shots into the man at the same time.

"Good. Now," Hera turned to the shorter of the two men who had fired into the squad leader. "You can't both be squad leader. Fight for it, the winner shall lead." She told them, and he immediately fired a shot through the taller man.

Only three remained, now. Hera exhaled, matching their tense energy. "You all fight well, my Jaffa. You should know that Thallistra has fallen. I require a new first prime. Whomever among the three of you can -" Before she could even finish the sentence, the three had simultaneously shot each other, and all fell dead in front of the shield.

'Hera' tapped at her wrist, and the holographic disguise disappeared. Drusilla Creon was visible once more as it faded, she turned back to the nearest stairwell, there were still four levels above with Jaffa picking at their shields.

At the same time on the top level, Major Kalath checked to make sure each of the half-dozen Jaffa she had stunned with a wide-beam shot as they rounded the corner towards her were unconscious and adequately restrained before leaving them, dropping their weapons in a nearby fountain. When she reached the next level down, the shield was just beginning to fail. She took position behind cover and prepared to fire at them as it fell, she was glad there were only four this time.

On the second level up from the bottom, Creon once again activated her holographic disguise as she approached the final turn before the shield. Her timing was poor, as she rounded the corner the shield fell, and a stray zat blast struck the floor near her, and the static discharge disrupted the holographics, causing her to go from visible to invisible in front of them.

She swore quietly in Romulan as she realised she was spotted, but managed to get two shots off from her phase-disruptor pistol, felling two of the five Jaffa. She raced back towards the corner for cover, staff and zat shots missing her by less distance than she was comfortable with. She found cover, and shots continued to explode against the corner. A moment later she heard an affirmative beep as her holographic cloak returned. She activated it and skipped back around the corner, avoiding the shots from the advancing Jaffa.

She sprinted towards the one in the middle, driving a flying knee into his chest. The cloak failed as its battery finally died as she made contact. She grabbed his staff out of the air and swung it back into the face of the nearest Jaffa, before deftly leaping and rolling herself over a staff shot to plant the club-end of it into the final Jaffa. With all five downed, Creon took the zat from one of them and shot them once each, just to be sure.

Kalath had once again managed to bring down all the Jaffa who opposed her on level two, though one had managed to hit her in the shoulder with a staff-blast, she wasn't doing anything with her left arm any time soon. She went for the middle section once she confirmed them all as down.

At the final intersection, Kalath and Creon encountered each other at opposite ends of the corners leading into the main walkway. Each got a bead on the other in a moment, and dropped their weapons once they realised. Creon spoke into her comm-unit on her wrist. "Major. Your face is a salve. You look to be injured."

"I'll be fine, Madame Ambassador." Kalath moved to a nearby terminal and checked it. "The shield is at 13%. They'll be through before long. You armed?"

"Just my phase-disruptor. And my wits. My holographic cloak is out of juice." She told the Marine.

"Sounds useful. But I think we can take them. Do we ambush or confront?" Kalath had a plan, but she knew the woman's reputation. She wanted to see her work.

"Ambush." Creon said after a moment's thought. "A shame to see you go into battle without a blade, Major."

"There will be time one day for such a sight, Ambassador." Kalath said, grinning provocatively.

Out in the corridor, they heard the shield in the middle section of the F-Dock walkway finally fail. They closed their comms and waited in silence at the corner, ready to put the Jaffa down as rapidly as they could.

In less than two minutes it was done, the clomping column of Jaffa lay unconscious. Kalath and Creon felt the station suddenly shift, but both kept their feet. Creon checked her wrist-comm. "Hera has escaped. It seems she did not bother to uncouple her ship. Let's get you to sickbay." Creon noticed as she put a hand on Kalath's good shoulder supportively that a staff blast had cut through the dangling sleeve of her robe.

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