SD241807.08 - Joint Duty Log - CO, COps, & NPCs - "Rocks Fall"

Posted on Sun Jul 8th, 2018 @ 4:33pm by Brigadier General Jonathan Grey

1,272 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Tremor Trouble
Location: YaDalla Colony
Timeline: Current

=^= YaDalla Capital =^=

Smoke rose from the city, billowing from skyscrapers across the horizon. Several buildings had collapsed completely, their rubble strewn across the streets below. Twinkling lights could be seen at a distance around three of these rockeries, as emergency services rallied to evacuate the survivors. Between wounded civilians, looters trying to mug the evacuees, and fires raging between the stones, things were looking grim.

Marine Captain Meitner inspected a dynamic map of the area, populated by a combination of data feeds and sensor scans. The local services had already been contacted by the Versailles Chief of Operations, and were supplying live tracking information from their units on the ground. This gave Meitner a map with glowing dots for the various services, red icons for building determined to be collapsed, and blinking outlines for the areas identified as high-risk (due to integrity alerts, fires, mobs, etcetera).

Around her, the marines of dropship Victor-Niner were strapped into their harnesses. The inertial dampeners were turning the reentry firestorm into a gentle glide, but protocol was clear. Atmospheric insertion required all marines to be locked in place, to protect against the unforseen.

Though Meitner considered the odds of a full-blown triple-A attack low, the local services had reported mercenary companies within the city limits; their objectives unknown. Some were defending buildings or territory, while others were clearly pillaging. Both sorts had been given a wide berth by the locals, who had enough problems without borrowing more.

"We're coming up on sector eleven now, Captain." said the pilot over the comm, banking the dropship slightly as they glided between two tower blocks. This zone was mostly residential flats; built en-masse as the city's population had boomed back in the day. Naturally they were made of the cheapest stuff possible, and as such almost half now lay in pieces.

A pair of shuttles sat at a crossroads on the ground, with starfleet uniforms visible from the air. A few had set up a small cordon, providing a landing spot for Meitner's dropship. The other craft passed overhead as the Captain's came in for landing, each dropship already tasked to attend various crises in various sectors throughout the capital.

As soon as the dropship touched down, the marines poured out and dispersed into fire teams. These left the cordon and made their way into the crowd, each with their own objective. Meitner had made sure to task the Sergeants and Lieutenants before they touched down, to prevent a big crowd of Marines from worrying the locals.

One such fire team never left the Captain's side, the four marines distributed evenly around her as they walked. As the seniormost marine on the ground, she was responsible for coordinating the greens with her counterparts in the blues, greys, and so forth.

In charge of Versailles' overall efforts was the hard-working Commander Dawes, who was meant to be nearby. Meitner pushed a few keys on her padd to lock on to the Commander's transponder, but cancelled the command an instant later when she spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

"Commander, reporting for duty." she announced, approaching the small cluster of Starfleet officers. These parted, allowing her to approach the Commander and salute. Starfleet didn't salute as a matter of principle, being a civilian organisation and all, but technically the Corps was meant to be as Starfleet as the rest of them these days, so it was probably only a matter of time before she was told to stop saluting as well.

As this monologue played in the Captain's head, a rumbling noise built at the edge of peoples' hearing. Dust floated down from the nearest tower block, and the locals started peering upward, cautiously. Those that had survived the first wave of earthquakes had learned to heed the little signs.

Also the bigger signs, like the stone gargoyle that slammed into the top of the parked dropship, exploding into pieces against the fuselage. Lumps as small as a person's thumb flew out in a shower of bits and grit, while the largest bit bounced, spun, and hit the ground in short order.

As one, the Starfleet contingent followed the gargoyle with their eyes. This was a mistake, because it drew their eyes from the building it fell from. Several smaller chunks of masonry clattered to the ground around the Starfleet group, and it took them a moment to realise that the locals had already made tracks towards the buildings that had already collapsed.

One thing about a collapsed building? It's not tall enough to fall on you anymore.

A barked shout from a marine snapped the 'Fleet personnel back into the moment, as they realised a member of the Captain's protection detail was hopping around with a crushed foot.

Dawes was the first to act, snapping into action. She gestured for her group to move away from the rain of rock, and opened her mouth to give orders.

*CRUNCH*

Without warning, a lump of stone crashed into the Commander's head and laid her out flat on the ground.

"Emergency beamout! Fifteen to sickbay!" Captain Meitner shouted into her badge, feeling the situation spin out of control. Looking upwards only cemented this thought, as it appeared the entire building was now in the process of shaking itself to bits as the rumbling underground intensified.

A second later, the group vanished into the air, replaced momentarily by a kinetic frenzy of broken glass, stone, brick, cement, and the contents of some evacuee's living room.

Up in orbit, the support vessel USS Pluck received fifteen people in its medbay, and twelve of them were quickly expelled by a nurse. The two wounded were allowed to stay, and Captain Meitner hung on as a function of her rank.

The doctor ran a scan over Commander Dawes, while the nurse saw to the Marine's crushed foot. Sparing a moment to not at the injured Marine, Meitner focused her attention on Dawes. The commander's skull looked intact, but there was a lot of blood on her face, and that blow had definitely sounded savage enough.

After the doctor had applied a hypospray and a cortical monitor, Meitner coughed to get his attention. The doctor did not look happy to be interrupted, but stepped over to her regardless.

"Yes?"

"Will she be ok?"

"At this stage, we don't know. There's hemorrhaging in her brain, some swelling, a fractured skull... Realistically, we'll have to put her into an induced coma and operate. She might come out of it tomorrow, or if things go south it might take much longer. My advice? Contact her replacement. At the very least, she won't be back to work soon."

"I see. Thank you." Meitner added.

The doctor simply nodded in response, and turned his attention back to the patient. He had to scrub up now to give her the best chance of survival, and already the nurses were prepping the operating theatre.

Taking the hint, Meitner left sickbay and met up with the other staff. Without saying a word, the group headed off towards the transporter room. Things had changed, but those that remained still had a job to do. Yet more civilians were probably injured and trapped by now, and time would be a factor.

The group managed to squash into a single lift, and soon they were clustered onto the mass-transporter pad. The operator seemed surprised to see them, but forbore to comment, carefully tucking the book he was reading behind the console.

"Capital city, sector eleven." Meitner commanded.

"Aye sir."


=^= End of Log =^=

Brigadier General Jonathan Grey
Commanding Officer
Versailles

&&

Commander Rebecca Dawes
Chief of Operations
Versailles

&&

NPCs (Grey)

 

RSS Feed