Running and Gunning

Posted on Thu Feb 29th, 2024 @ 11:09pm by Captain Björn Kodak & Ensign Eekit Drol

Mission: Stardust and Sin
Location: Apartment 1317, Habitation Sector
Timeline: Mission Day 2 at 2041

[Apartment 1317]
[Habitation Sector]
[MD 2: 1947 Hours]

As soon as Gorn-Kodak had ripped the apartment door free and thrown it aside, the shooting had begun.

Drol and the Chameloid — bereft of ranged weapons of their own — had ducked to either side of the large hole now opening the apartment to the Habitation Sector at large. And it was through that hole that a stream of viridian pulses was now flashing past their crouched heads to incinerate the sofa that had ultimately led to the pair’s freedom from their restraints.

“Wasn’t the most comfortable couch but it didn’t dessserve that,” the Gorn sissed with a growly-chuckle to Drol.

Pressed back against the bulkhead, hoping it was more solid than it looked, Drol glanced sidelong at the Gorn. "At least this way they can replace it with one that doesn't smell like human feet," she shot back.

Humor — always with the joking where Kodak was concerned. It calmed his anxieties and the Captain deeply appreciated Drol’s own penchant for the same, for whatever personal reason the quipping served the Cardassian as well.

Drol made an abortive attempt to glance out of the hole Kodak had torn in the wall, pressed back into cover by the barrage of energy weapon fire. Her nervous system was still buzzing from her last run-in with it; she had no desire to repeat the experience. "How many can there be?" she asked mostly rhetorically as the greenish blasts continued through the hole where the door used to be.

Leaning ever so slightly to his side, the Chameloid-turned-human-turned-Gorn peered through the hole as best he could without getting his face blasted off. Rather than slitted, reptilian eyes, Kodak's familiar gaze -- the downside of a Chameloid's imperfect shapeshifting abilities -- studied the walkway and greenery beyond the ground floor apartment. As another pair of pulses blazed past — eliciting an even deeper duck from Kodak — he finally got a sight of what they were up against.

“Two people. I do not see the Hirogen. These must be underlingsss,” the Gorn hissed. “I’m going to use this as a shield,” he said, reaching with his long arms and claws for the twisted door he’d tossed aside moments earlier. “I’ll run out towards them to draw their fire. Think you can sssneak out and around them?” he asked of Drol.

If the Cardassian could use the plentiful greenery out there to disguise her movements as she shifted from cover to cover, perhaps Drol could take at least one of the bounty hunters out while Gorn-Kodak was distracting them-- it wasn't a bad plan, except that it put the captain of the damn ship straight into harm's way.

Keeping her head low, Drol glanced out and was chased back again by the barrage of fire. Her brief glimpse did not present any better plans and she clenched her jaw in frustration. "I don't like not knowing where that Hirogen is," she said, while her brain furiously sorted through ideas and immediately discarded them. She came up with nothing better.

Well so be it. If a bad plan was their only plan, she would just have to make sure it went off without a hitch.

Right. Because that had gone so well so far.

Resettling her grip on her mallet, Drol set her features, reaching for that place of steel, the one that had gotten her to where she was today, the one that wouldn't bend despite the destruction of her home or the loss of her family or the crushing disappointment of her father. She reached for the steel and said finally, "Yes." With that, she made herself meet the Gorn's unsettling reptilian eyes, and finding Kodak's familiar golden gaze staring out from them, she gave a sharp nod.

"Then we go. And we go hard," Kodak said, returning the Cardassian's nod. Holding the door aloft like a tower shield, the lizard-like man gathered his legs and counterbalancing-tail underneath him, consolidating his strength over his center of gravity. The Gorn looked almost cat-like as he wriggled his hind end slightly in preparation to dart forward. And then it happened: explosively and with a great guttural roar as the the reptilian sprang through the hole, pushing against the energy blasts splashing against the door held in his claws.

Drol was a half-step behind, crouching low to make herself as small a target, and to take as much advantage of the dubious cover of the door as was possible. She made a quick visual sweep of the area, assuring herself that the disruptor-- or whatever it was they used here-- fire was indeed coming from only one direction. Indeed it was, but there was plenty of it; it lit up the corridor, splashing against the floorplates and the repurposed door in Kodak's claws, casting the entire scene in eerie, strobing light. Knowing that there was no way Kodak could hold the door against the underlings indefinitely, Drol chose her moment without delay, when Kodak leapt at the leftmost attacker.

Quick as a darting wompat Drol shot forward, low and to the right side of Kodak and his door, taking a few hunched running steps before diving forward to barge into the lower body/knee area on most humanoids. She was fortunate this one was built like most humanoids. She was not fortunate to be fast enough to avoid all of their fire; a searing flash of electric pain shot through her booted foot. Ignoring it as best she could, Drol bore the underling down, grappling for their weapon as she shot a vicious elbow to their face and took a knee to her own. Once again, she was fortunate: her own visage was protected by a considerable array of bony protrusions, while the underling's crunched like a wet melon beneath the sharp impact of her elbow. Dazed, they released the weapon and she immediately turned it on them, firing a quick series of pulses straight into their head without even a momentary pause for the expected Starfleet mercy.

The Captain might have arched a scaly eyebrow at Drol's use of lethal force -- had he been facing that direction and seen it -- but the Gorn-shifted Chameloid was too focused on his own prey to have noticed. The door had, thanks to the repeated energy blasts, become a bit molten on its outer surface. This made the door more malleable than it had been before, something which Kodak was using to his advantage. Strong arms had turned the door length-wise and were now bending the metal around the other bounty hunter. The man in question screamed in quite a lot of literal white-hot pain before the sheer overwhelm of sensation rendered him unconscious.

"That'ssss two," the Gorn hissed, having turned to Drol, spying her handiwork as she climbed laboriously to her feet. If he had a comment on the Cardassian taking a headshot -- several of them, really -- it went unvoiced. Instead, Kodak looked around wildly before spying what he'd been in search of: a sign across the courtyard denoting a path to The Exchange: the heart of Hukatuse's economy and probably the most public -- and thus safest -- place on the whole station. "I'm sure their friends will be coming. We should make our exit, hmm?" Had Kodak been in human form, his right hand would have reached up to gently stroke his bearded chin. Instead the sharp black talons of his hand scraped against scaly skin.

Testing her foot with her weight, Drol winced. Well goody. This was going to be fun. The appendage buzzed with the high-powered stun's after-effects and she found she couldn't trust it with her full weight. Gritting her teeth, she reminded herself that some weight-bearing was better than none and resolutely turned her attention to the signage Kodak had spied. "And fast," Drol agreed of beating a hasty retreat. Glancing quickly at the scraping noise, and then away-- Kodak's mannerisms in the Gorn's body was oddly unsettling, in a familiar sort of way-- Drol limped past the lightly roasted underling, scooping up his energy weapon and handing it to Kodak while she took a point position.

Kodak took the energy weapon and nodded. As the Cardassian led the way, the Captain noted Drol's favoring of her foot, which led his golden eyes to take in the damage that had been done there. It looked very painful but the security officer was powering forward without complaint. He admired that but also worried about the sustainability of that approach. If they'd had more time, he'd have tried to attend to the injury with the medical supplies back in the apartment. Unfortunately, Subrek's bounty hunters were absolutely not going to give them that chance. So Kodak, too, powered forward, ready to catch and carry the Cardassian if needed.

It was as well Drol was leading the way so she couldn't catch the captain's expression; if there was one thing she hated, it was being the weak link. So, fortunately ignorant of his attention, and heavily favoring her left foot so as to avoid the entire limb collapsing out from under her, Drol set a pace that was brisk if not as fast as it might have been. Numbing cream was great, but phaser wounds did not heal themselves and she had no desire to further injure either Kodak or herself. In any case, it gave her time to scan for hostiles. She knew they must be inbound; the underlings would have alerted their pals that an escape was in progress. At least, that's what she would have done. Her skin prickled, as they crossed the open space of the courtyard, keeping to cover as best they could. Glancing back over her shoulder at the reassuring bulk of Gorn-Kodak, she said, "I'm sure I can find the ship from here, sir. Tactically, you should grow some wings and return to the Sojourner with all possible haste." Her tone was oddly resigned; if he'd done what was tactically expedient from the beginning, they probably wouldn't even be here right now, and she had little hope that his policy would change.

To Drol's urging, the Captain shook his head. "It's taking most of my energy to hold this form right now. Given my injuries, I'm honestly not sure I could shift to something else right now. Besides, leaving you on your own wouldn't be polite. I'm a gentleman, after all," he smirked at Drol, the version of the half-smile on his face looking somewhat terrifying on a Gorn. What the Cardassian had said was true, though: if he'd been on his own from the outset, he could have ducked behind a gaming machine in the casino, become someone else, and walked away from the bounty hunters without them being the wiser. But he hadn't been about to leave Drol to their clutches then and he certainly wasn't going to now.

"Oh, my most sincere apologies," Drol said, half-turning from her scan ahead to drop him an exaggerated bow that was half old-earth curtsey, half respectful Cardassian genuflection, and owing to her injured foot, lopsided to boot, "sir, I certainly wouldn't want to intimate that you were anything but." She contained her expression to a smirk, dark eyes glittering, then sobering as eyed him carefully for a brief moment to assure herself he wasn't going to collapse. Not satisfied, but equally unsure she'd be able to tell if a Gorn was about to fall on his face, she gave up and continued forward, hardly missing a step.

And so they trudged forward, passing through the archway leading in the direction of The Exchange. The hallway -- well, really more of a tunnel -- spanned the vacuum between the main hulk of Hukatuse and the Habitation Sector, which had been welded on like an afterthought. On either side of Drol and Kodak, transparent windows looked out into space and across the landscape of the station's hull. Inside, however, various aliens in all manner of composition passed back and forth through this passage; any one of them could be working for Subrek's bounty hunters. All Kodak and Drol could do was keep their eyes open and pay as much attention to their surroundings as possible. This strategy served them well until, alas, it didn't.

A ringing disruptor blast -- shot overhead -- diverged the crowd ahead. As the people parted, running in fear, Korvas stood amongst the throng with a sneer across his mottled face. Small and thin for a Hirogen -- possibly a runt cast out from his nomadic pod -- the leader of the bounty hunters threw back his head in a throaty, growling kind of laugh. "Did you really think you'd rejoin your ship so easily?" he asked. "I admit, that apartment wasn't the best cell to keep you but sometimes, you just have to make do. But," he hissed, "I'm afraid I can't have you leaving the station. At least, not until Subrek arrives to take you himself."

"Why, with the talking?" Drol muttered to herself, having ducked to one side, taking what shelter she could against the curving side of the corridor. "Always with the talking."

Over Korvas' shoulder, The Exchange was visible in the distance. Its glowing lights and cacophony of sound beckoned like a beacon in the night. But the Hirogen and his Right and Left Hands -- the Haazari man and the Vaadwaur woman the Starfleeter's had seen previously -- stood like an impenetrable wall between Kodak, Drol, and freedom. "Subrek wants you alive but he said nothing of taking you healthy. Let's see what we can do about that, hmm?" At that, they all raised their weapons and began to fire.

Drol spit a Cardassian curse and plastered herself against the bulkhead, presenting as small a target as she could. The thinning press of people provided some cover, morally dubious though that was, and amidst the screaming and fleeing, she was able to press herself close to the windows, reasoning that Subrek's minions would avoid damaging the superstructure and subjecting them all to the decidedly unhealthy vacuum of space. As she skirted forward, she set to firing her own disruptor with skill, if not the precision she normally prided herself on, avoiding bystanders and windows, but unable to be particularly affective at hitting the trio in their way. Turned out flesh wounds affected your aim. Go figure.

Most of the hostile fire was concentrated on Kodak as both the easiest and most dangerous target. As Kodak's security detail, Drol was immediately certain that simply wouldn't do. Nevertheless, it did give her an opening as she stepped out from behind a towering, fishy-smelling alien to find herself within grabbing distance of the Vaadwaur. She'd occasionally heard her crewmates refer to them as 'knock off Cardassians' in casual conversation about who they might come across in the Delta Quadrant, and perhaps in calmer circumstances she could have seen the resembleace, but here, now, fighting for her freedom-- and perhaps her life-- she could only scoff at the comparison. If this was a knock off Cardassian, Drol hoped the Hirogen hadn't spent much on her.

"Hey," Drol growled, which while lacking in wit, had the advantage of being incredibly direct. It had the immediate effect of drawing the Vaadwaur's attention which meant less attention on Kodak which was good. But it meant a well aimed palm-strike at her face, which was bad. Drol weaved to the side, catchign the strike on the scaled, muscled edge of her neck, and using the momentum of the move to half spin, barging her shoulder into the Vaadwaur's center of mass to overbalance the woman backward. Anything to stop the Vaadwaur firing point-blank at her. It worked-- sort of. The woman did stumble, a shot going wide and splashing harmlessly against the metallic superstructure between two windows, but she also caught a hold of Drol's swinging braid-- such a good idea in her room aboard the Sojo, such a terrible idea how she was in a firefight-- and jerking viciously, dragged the Cardassian closer.

Drol stumbled on her half-stunned foot, wrenched forward by her hair, and managed to overbalance the both of them. Twisting desperately as they fell, she grappled with the Vaadwaur, each striking the other to either dislodge her, or stop her using her weapon, neither managing to claim the upper hand. Drol's injuries counted against her, but it seemed whatever else she was, she was a scrappy, dirty fighter, more vicious by a noticeable margin than the Vaadwaur.

Kodak, meanwhile, was engaged with both Korvas and his Haazari henchman. He'd made it past the initial burst of disruptor fire with a powerful leap but, even at close quarters now, the two were still trying to fire at him. Shots were going wide, however, thanks to the unexpected benefits of having a tail. It turned out they were great not just for keeping one's balance, but also for swatting at the second assailant while attacking the first with his claws. Kodak made a mental note to talk to Gar'rath about said tail benefits when next he saw the Operations officer...assuming, of course, he'd survive the scrap and make it back to do so.

As the Gorn continued to rake at Korvas, the Haazari tried to dodge backwards from the reptilian tail. He was successful — sort of — but while he’d avoided getting hit, the motion caused him to land on his ankle in an odd way, causing it to collapse underneath him, resulting in a fall. Unfortunately he’d also been in the process to trying to aim a shot at said Gorn but it ended up flying not at the Captain but, instead, past him. While the positive was that the bolt avoided hitting innocent bystanders, the negative was that it flashed against the transparent glass that formed one of the smaller causeway port holes. Even more negative was that said glass cracked loudly in response and collapsed in on itself.

As the resultant shards of glass were sucked out into space, so too was the surrounding air. With a growing roar, the rushing wind of inhaling vacuum pulled at those still trying to run away from the skirmish. While the opening into space wasn’t larger than, say, an Earthen basketball, the hole was still large enough for the force to tug at various items that -- until only moments prior -- had been carefully placed throughout the area. Signs from nearby stalls had come loose and flew across the causeway, impacting against the open portal and sticking in place until the force cracked and broke them, their pieces then flying outside as well.

The causeway's exposure to space set off local alarms, with various lights flashing their verdant warnings -- why green meant "danger" on Hukatuse was anyone's guess -- as klaxons began to blare. To seal the Exchange off from the danger in the corridor, a large metal doorway had then begun to lower. Kodak and Drol's window of escape was literally closing before their eyes and if they stayed embroiled with Korvas and his thugs, they'd be trapped behind with nowhere to go but back the way they'd come.

"Drol!" Kodak shouted, head butting the Hirogen and using the momentum to push him off his feet and into a prone position. "We have to GO!" the Chameloid-as-Gorn roared throatily, turning to bare his fangs at the Haazari. The act of intimidation had been effective enough to stall another blast, which gave the Captain a moment to spring forward and backhand the weapon away.

"No kidding!" Drol snarled back, though the snarl was for her Vaadwur clinger-on than for Kodak. The snake-headed woman had opted to wrap the Cardassian up in a tangle of limbs, trying to wrestle her down to the ground. But the security officer was having exactly none of that and decided a little foul play was in order. Sinking her teeth into the bared hand of her attacker, she bit down hard enough to draw blood...blood and a satisfying shriek of pain that resulted in the grip on her arms slackening.

With a well-timed half-spin, half-shoulder throw, Drol sent the Vaadwur careening onto her back. A quick heel-stomp of the woman's head ended the scuffle, though whether Korvas' goon was dead or just unconscious wasn't apparent. The Cardassian didn't particularly care either way. Running forward, she popped off two quick shots -- one at Korvas himself as he attempt to stand, the other at the Haazari who was trying to back away from a face full of Gorn -- and then yelled "You coming or not?" as she raced past the Captain, knowing he'd fall in line behind her.

Whatever reply Kodak made was lost to the roar of the wind but the Gorn was, indeed, following. With Drol taking point to keep the way clear, the Captain bounded forward, the pair of them clearing the lowering edge of the door in a sort of half-duck, half-side. Just as the portal was about to close off the corridor complete, they both skidded their weapons underneath and then stood, entering the crowds of the Exchange as if the battle they'd just escaped hadn't taken place. Looking behind them as they disappeared into the throngs, they could see Enforcers and repair personnel running for the door.

Several minutes later, having reached the Docks and the ramp leading up into the Sojourner, the pair stopped to catch their collective breath. The two security officers stationed at the bottom of the ramp provided more than enough coverage for a few moments of calm before striding up into the ship.

"Please relay to Commander t'Nai and Mr. Oliveria that we're safe and coming aboard," Kodak ordered one of the officers before turning to his Cardassian companion. As the officer did as bid, he quirked an eyebrow at Drol. "Had enough of this place?"

"I am so ready to get off this forsaken station," Drol answered, still trying to smooth down the lanks of hair the Vaadwur had taken pleasure in pulling. "You?"

"I do believe I am," Kodak nodded. "But drinks on the Sojo are on me," the Captain promised.

"Pretty sure Debbie doesn't charge you for the good stuff, sir," Drol replied drolly, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe not," Kodak smirked, "but I usually have to listen to her stories about being a floozie at the Academy in payment. That," he held up a staying hand, "is cost a'plenty."

With a shared laugh, the pair began up the gangway.

=/\= A joint post by... =/\=

Captain Kodak
Commanding Officer

Ensign Eekit Drol
Security Officer

Korvas and his goons (Brad)