Lieutenant Commander Milo sat on the second story balcony, his legs dangling over the edge, a Jem’Hadar polaron rifle resting across his lap. The setting sun pierced through the rain clouds, casting a golden hue over the light drizzle. He sighed, lost in thought, when the sound of footsteps behind him broke his reverie.

The building he was taking shelter in was once a former office complex bombed out in the opening days of the attack. It survived the Dominion attack more or less, but had stood empty ever since… that is until his little resistance cell had taken up residence.

Behind him, footsteps. Despite being light of foot the owner couldn’t help the sound, as was the surface of the flooring. Hard and obviously shiny at one point, now it wore a layer of dust. An owner, somewhere might lament the state of it, if they were still alive. The small boots that made the footsteps came to a halt a foot or so away from where Milo sat, It was Ensign Takeuchi, a weapons engineer and survivor from the U.S.S. Ravensbridge, a light cruiser that had been crippled in the space battle above the planet. Mayoko Takeuchi also had a Polaron rifle which sat over her shoulder, suspended with a home-made sling fashioned out of some sort of chord she had found.

“May I join you, sir?” She asked, her standard heavily accented with Japanese.

“Of course.”  Milo slid over to make more room. “It is a beautiful planet isn’t it?”

“Yes,” the Ensign replied as she carefully moved to sit nearby. “The Blue skies and green flora, it remind me of Earth.” She changed tack. “The perimeter is clear. As far as we can see. There could be cloaked Jem’hadar staring right at us, if there are not much we can do.”

“We’re not the only resistance cell,  and I don’t think we were tracked after our last mission,” Milo said still staring into the distance.  “So it’s not likely that we’d encounter any patrols, but it’s better safe than sorry.”

“Always,” Mayoko agreed, her careful and nervous nature amplified by the extreme circumstances the officers found themselves in. With a twisting of plastic took a slug from her water bottle and screwed the cap back on, surveying the same view Milo was.

Kannnina thought she heard voices. Walking in some tactical boots, she avoided making noise as she attempted to get close to the sounds. One at least sounded female, so she was less concerned about it being the enemy, though that was certainly possible.

She had her issue type II phaser and extra power cells. Raiding nearby stores, she managed to gather some added supplies. A large combat knife she kept cross-draw. Lastly, Kannina ran across a phaser/gauss gun combo, which she held at the low-ready position. On her small frame, it looked nearly comical.

Agonizing minutes were spent crawling closer to the voices now. One was female and the other male. She got close enough to listen when her foot slipped on gravel and crunched loudly. Chastizing herself, she knew she was discovered.

Now she sensed their alertness grow orders of magnitude. Realizing she had it, Kannina called. “Hello?”

“I reckon you ought to come on out and show yourself,” Milo said in his flat mountain west accent. He held the Jem’Hadar polaron rifle to the ready. To his side Mayoko quickly brought her rifle to her shoulder.

“Unless the Dominion settled in the deep south, I reckon, I’m on the right side.” Kannina came out. the large gun slung  but she did have a hand buried in a fold close to her type II. 

“Petty Officer First Class Chasu. I was attached to the Capital City Starport. when it existed.” She said with a bit of malice.

Milo slung the rifle over his shoulder and slid off the balcony hanging for a slit second before dropping to the ground with a soft thump of boots and clatter of weapons.  He was wearing denim jeans tucked into a pair of tall cowboy boots.  On his hip tied low was an old fashioned pistol. The half the loops on the belt holding spare bullets were empty. 

Milo looked the newcomer over with a critical eye. Drawing his Bowie knife he sliced his palm open in a manner her had heard the Klingons were doing.  He let the blood pool and dribble onto the leaves at his feet.  Flipping the knife he presented it to Chasu hilt first. 

To herself she thought, Great. Just what I need, an infection. Chasu took the offered knife.  She wondered the whys of what they doing, as she sliced her palm wincing. ”Are we blood-kin now?”, Kannina offered, trying to inject humor as her blood dripped near his. Wiping off the blood, Kannina handed the ample pig sticker back, correctly, hilt first. 

“Since you haven’t used that on me yet, are we good?” Kaninna asked the man, not taking her eyes off either one yet. Mayoko pushed off from the balcony with one hand, the other holding her rifle. She landed with a crunch of gravel and approached, standing a bit behind Milo and to his side.

“Ensign Takeuchi, U.S.S. Ravensbridge,” Mayoko introduced herself, eyeing the Bowie knife with the sinking feeling she’d be next. A dermal regenerator would take care of it but it’d still sting. She didn’t understand the willingness some had to draw their own blood, her gaze moving to the new arrival. 

Milo stared at the blood waiting for it to revert to the liquid state of a Changling, but it didn’t. With a nod he sheathed the Bowie. “Well, you ain’t a shapeshifter and you don’t much look like a Jem’Hadar.   Lt. Commander Milo Talon, Starbase 75.”

“Pleased, I’m sure,” Nina said, with a bit of attitude from the tension in the air, but she did manage a passable smile. Reaching into her daypack, she pulled out a small med-kit. Sterilized her own wound, and repaired the damage. Next, she unceremoniously yanked Milo’s hand to repeat the process. “ Now that we are all on each other’s dance cards, can we stop bleeding or is she next?” Kaninna added, her rather gruff response was normal when she was agitated. 

Pulling out a bag of pilfered snacks, she grabbed a dark chocolate granola bar and some peppered jerky. “Apparently, my blood sugar is low. Sorry.” Kannina offered.

He waved the offering away. “How did you find us?” Milo asked, heading for the hole in the wall that served as the entrance. They had hung a sheet of plastic above it to keep the wind and rain out. Pushing it aside, he expected the newcomer to follow. He entered, and the rest of the team looked up.

With a mouthful of candy bar, Kannina said, “Not to put to fine a point on it. Your minds aren’t exacty quiet. I’m half betazoid.”  Knowing that the other Denobulan heritage would be plain as the ridges on her face. The comment squelched the mental background chatter for a moment in the group. 
 

“We snagged another lost lamb,” Milo announced. “This is… I didn’t catch your first name? It doesn’t matter.” He waved a dismissive hand. “This is Chasu. She ain’t a Changeling; I checked.” There were chuckles from the odd assembly of rag-tag fighters.

He turned to Chasu. “Mayoko you already met. From left to right, the goofy guy over there is Tony Hernandez. He thinks he’s a fighter, but he’s a better cook. The Betazoid with the Jem’Hadar neckbones… uh, don’t mess with him. I think Zeron Veylan has gone a bit feral.”

There were more laughs and playful pokes at Zeron, who just laughed. But there was something behind those eyes that sent a chill down one’s back. They were hollow and empty, yet they never stopped darting around, constantly looking for threats.

“And lastly, our scout,” Milo said.

She stood in a smooth motion, sheathing a knife that looked more ceremonial than functional. Like Zeron, she was Betazoid, and her black eyes bore into Chasu with suspicion. “Mirella Rinara.”

“Kannina Chasu.” She thought telepathically to Mirella. Unblinking, she allowed the intrusion, for now, considering the circumstances. Had this been polite company, Kannina would have brainslapped Mirella by now. “That’s quite enough poking around in my head.” She said verbally, her stance solid and unwavering, black eyes meeting in both women. 

Mayoko broke the tension by changing the subject.

“Do you have any intelligence that might be useful, Kannina?” She asked, kindly. “Maybe you saw some Jem’hadar recently or something.”

Milo knelt by the fire only mildly interested in the conversation between Mayoko and the newcomer.   He tested the handle of the coffee pot and picked it up and poured some Betazoid tea into a cup. “Or perhaps you ran into a shipment of coffee?” He took a sip of the tea and frowned,  “Yeah, I still hate this crap.”

Kannina replied to Mayoko while giving the stink-eye to Milo. “Taki, my radar isn’t picking up those bastages either. By the time, I can smell the uglies, it’s gonna be far too late.” Reaching into a pocket, she pulled a cigar-sized tube out. “Kannina. My friends call me Nina. ” 

When Milo reached for it, she pulled it back. “Hands off Greytop,” she said sweetly with a smile. “My supplies. Happy to share. Coffee is life force for enlisted too.” Mayoko frowned slightly, drumming impatient fingertips on the casing of her rifle.

Milo smirked and turned away,  “Keep your coffee. It sounds like there are strings attached and I don’t like owing folk.”

“That’s Takeuchi” she said quietly but firmly, the mild annoyance she felt at her name being shortened radiating to any telepath nearby. “If you like nicknames I was known as Kitty at Starfleet Academy.”

Sensing the woman’s ire, Nina said, My apologies. Takeuchi.” Even adding a small bow. Mayoko nodded once to accept the apology.

Milo sighed and shook his head.  “I am getting too old for this butt sniffing,  big bad alpha dog nonsense.  You folk can do it on your own time. Mirella it’s your turn for watch.”

The Betazoid nodded, picked up her rifle,  shot the newcomer a suspicious glance and climbed the concrete rubble leading to the second story and disappeared leaving only the falling dust and sand in her wake.

Clearing his throat he shook his head, “So our next target?  I was thinking we hit the subspace communications relay for this district.”

Mayoko peered at him with mild incredulity at the mention of alpha dog nonsense, nothing could have been further from her mind, she hoped he was talking about someone else.

“Will that inconvenience the dominion?” She asked. “Could they route communications via ships in orbit?”

Kannina said, “I’d rather tag it with a relay and piggyback our comms on theirs, not only for our benefit but potential intel. As the resistance, we have literal obligation to be a pain in their ass, if they have one. Excuse me.” Kannina said. 

Walking over to Milo, she waited patiently. She could tell he was struggling with something. Then again, it could be normal anxiety. When he turned, Nina said softly, “Look, even on a normal planet, I am 5 foot tall on a good day. So I tend to overcompensate in other areas until I know I can relax and be taken seriously.” She held out two small starliner-sized mini-bottles. “All they had was Fireball and Jaegmeister. Pick your poison?” 

“I’m good,” he said with a weak smile.  He was already moving on to a potential target.  “That’s an interesting idea.  Can we say… redirect or split their coms and send them to Starfleet Command?  I don’t know how much intelligence they’ll get, but this whole sector used to run through that relay.”

Stealing the bottles away as she wasn’t in the mood to imbibe, Nina pondered the question. “We should attack it from more than one direction. If I had access to a replicator for a few moments, I could make a dozen low-powered taps that could connect to any nearby tricorder or comm badge. Ifff….I had to I could make a few by hand from spare parts. Those would be used as burst transmitters. Record the message. Tap a nearby link. Pop the message. Leave the area asap. It will be low-powered enough to read as normal EPS interference.”

“The larger problem,” Nina continued, would be something more permanent that could be undetectable hidden underneath their ugly noses.” Still doable, but the more we can find out about the relay before we get there, the better chance we have of it working.” 

“So a recon mission would help but it doubles the chances of being caught,” Mayoko observed, looking at Milo for his reaction. She hoped her trepidation about the prospect of invisible Jem’hadar wasn’t being broadcast too potently to the Betazoid Petty Officer. She also hoped the annoyance she’d felt at Kannina jumping in hadn’t registered either. Mayoko reasoned that actually, while she did out-rank Kannina, being a P.O.1 meant the N.C.O. had more experience than she did in Starfleet, most likely. That made her feel better about things. Her ego checked she decided to listen in to the more experienced colleagues. Being stuck on Betazed wasn’t what she had in mind, but it was a great opportunity to learn.

Turning to the Mayoko, Nina said, “Building stuff is usually better with more hands.” She had felt Mayoko’s discomfort, but she also didn’t believe in being a sidekick. Either she was there as part of the team or not. “Know any good spots to pilfer components?”

Mayoko swallowed.

“The wreck of the Ravensbridge isn’t too far,” she said quietly. “There are a few other crashed shuttles, some escape pods but… a chunk of Starship is probably the best option.” Images flashed into her mind, being in an escape pod, watching through the small porthole as the Saucer of the Ravensbridge entered the atmosphere of Betazed a few miles away, a giant mass of metal and composite wrapped in flames and discarding chunks of material into the sky like pieces of dirt being scattered over a coffin. What was left was a coffin. She hadn’t met any other survivors from the brutalized Excelsior.

“That” Nina paused for effect, “would be a group decision. The shuttles would be far easier targets though the pickings would be slimmer. Just depends on how crawling with Uglies the ship is. We don’t have the manpower for a frontal assault. We need to think more like cavalry. Harass and disappear.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a recon mission to the wreck. There could be some useful items, and if the subspace transmitter is still functional that could be useful as well,” Milo said.

Sensing Mayoko’s anxiety, she reached out with mental support. Non-verbally she thought to Mayoko “That is just what the uglies want you to be. Scared. Screw that. Everyone is always bigger than I am. Just think of it as an elaborate game of pop-up targets.” She said smiling enough for Mayoko to see. “Yes. They scare me too, but I want off this rock or at the very least. Payback. Time to shift the fear more the other way.” Turning she winked at Mayoko.

Mayoko stared at the betazoid. She didn’t seem to happy about the communications but said nothing on it at that moment, instead pointing out that it would make sense for her to volunteer for the mission. She knew the layout of the ship after all.

For her part, Kannina understood how Mayoko felt. It came naturally after training her share of Ensigns, pilots, and other mechanics to help guide them. Kannina was also smart enough to know she didn’t know everything and appreciated group efforts. “if you show me on the map where it landed, I’ll take point.” Nina offered.

“When should we leave, sir?” Mayoko asked Milo. She felt the Petty Officer was a bit too eager.

“In the morning,” Milo said. “Let’s head out before daylight. Go to bed 04:00 comes early kids.”