On the hunt

Posted on Fri Sep 29th, 2023 @ 5:04am by Ensign Kanan Mishra (Kosugi) & Cadet Third Class Aarfa Barakzay

Mission: The Goddess
Timeline: Backpost
2940 words - 5.9 OF Standard Post Measure

The call had come for everyone to go after the people who had been taken. Ensign Mishra hovered on the outskirts whilst teams were being made. Team after team went he felt bad, he messed up on the first away team, he almost cost the whole mission. He looked about and his eyes stopped on Aarfa, Kanan needed to make ammends, to apologize. He walked up to the cadet, "Hey, Aarfa, do you have someone who will team up with you? And I've been meaning to say, I am sorry for messing up when we were on that first away mission."

It was a sore spot, but the Kainan could read the sincerity in his body language, hear it in his tone. For her kind, that counted for a lot. That and the recognition that she might have done the same, or given in to the impulse to track and kill the goon who had been on Gladiator, if not for Walken's presence as a reminder of the shame of that loss of control. "At least you didn't bite anyone," she replied wryly. "I will be tracking to find my crew, but I could use someone to watch my six."

A relieved smile from Kanan, and he gave a nod. "Thanks I appreciate this." He checked his gear, made certain all was in order. "Okay, you are the lead, I'll follow. " there was a great amount of determination in his eyes.

Giving a quick nod, Aarfa closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. A thousand scents filled her nostrils - smoke, ozone from energy weapons fire, the scents of the team immediately around her, others further off... sweat, blood... A Lot of blood. A virtual river of iron spiked scent flowing toward the fortress. It filled her mind, and for a moment she flashed back: biting back the fear of madness as she paced the locked on in compartment, her only company the overwhelming scent of her crewmates' blood...

Movement nearby snapped her back to the present, but the flashback had left an odd clarity. Her mission wasn't to find the pool of blood, but any crew still alive. It took effort - blood was a strong scent, and one her predator ancestors had evolved to key on - but she filled her mind with olfactory memory. The tang in Yani's sweat, the salt in Erik's, the cinnamon-like scent of C'tral's fur - a hundred scents, each distinct, each belonging to her crew-pack. And then she found them. Some of them at least, but enough for the threads of scent to form a cord to follow. Her head turned, tracking direction. "This way."

"Aarfa you going to be okay?" Kanan asked then gave a nod, his head on a swivel. He could feel his skin prickle up, "Right behind you." he stated following after Aarfa. He may not have the senses that Aarfa had but there was certainly the scent of death in the air. How could one not smell it, and even feel it hangin in the air. The reek of death.

She had already begun moving at pace, following the scent, and had remind herself to slow keep to a speed a non-Kainan could match. It was struggle - the scent of death, blood, mixed with unmistakably markers of fear, anger, and fight-or-flight - it reached into the oldest parts of her mind, urging her to take to all fours and rush to the source. You are not a wild creature. You are trained, disciplined Starfleet! reminded herself. "I'll be okay," she called back. "Tell me if I go too fast."

"Don't worry i will let you know." Mishra picking up his own pace. He was known to be quick on his feet, when it came to athletics used to be on the track teams in academy. "Go at the pace you need to go, Aarfa."

Some part of her mind knew she'd out pace him if she did, but the urge was strong and so she took that permission and ran with it. Literally. Keen on the scents of her lost crew, she rushed ahead, becoming nearly insensible in her single-minded pursuit to even the blasts of weapons fire growing in frequency and intensity as she neared the Trinity fortress. She turned along an outer barricade, following until the scent-trail turned. Peering over, she blinked and then squinted, as if she was using her eyes again for the first time. Kainan eyes were better tuned to motion, and she saw that - figures running, dodging; flashes of phaser and disruptor fire - but after a moment she picked out the shape of a door.

THERE. It had to be. The scents were coming from there. In her excitement, she popped up, ready to sprint for it - and was thrown back with a pained half-barked "Yipe!" as a searing hot bolt struck her shoulder.

Kanan was on the heels of Aarfa, she did have a lead, however he was also fleet of foot. He heard the yipe from Aarfa and this caused him to pick up his speed. He saw her hit the ground and he slid to the ground beside her, to check the Kainan's condition. "How bad is it?" he gruffly said, pulling out the medkit he had with him.

Aarfa sucked air through clenched teeth. "Sqrl!" She turned her head to looked - not a disruptor wound; a piece of hot shrapnel had embedded itself in her shoulder. "Hurts, but..." she probed lightly, gritting her teeth against reaction. "...cauterized edges... I can move..." she said, starting to get up.

Kanan was about to ask if she was sure about that when he noticed movment coming from the left flank. "If you are able to move, we've got to go, Aarfa." he rising to a crouched stance. "You, me, together which direction?" him searching the area. Then he thought he spotted something, that looked like a door. "Is that where we are going? Then lets do this."

"Yes! That door," she managed, gritting teeth as pain shot through the wound with movement. There was nothing for it but to run and let instinct give her the focus to block it out. She'd lost the scent trail amid the overwhelming olfactory landscape close to battle - death, smoke, the ionized air from phaser fire, and blood... including her own and the wound began to seep. I know where it lead. I'll find it gain behind that door. she told herself, repeating like a mantra and she ran, one ear cocked behind her to keep track of Kanan. On a straight away few humanoids could match her, but she was swerving and dodging to avoid being an easy target, so the man was keeping up.

Closer now, she could see the defenses. A blasted vehicle lay just meters from the door, and she dove behind it, waiting for Kanan to join her. "We'll be exposed at the door. We have to get through it fast," she explained as she tapped her comm. "Barakzay to Command Actual, access to prisoners at fortress wall directly right of my position. Defended. Need a diversion."

Kanan nodded, looking quickly around and over his shoulder. "We definitely need the distraction." he murmured.

"Acknowleged" came the answer to Aarfa's request. A few moments went by then there was a cloud of smoke then a the flash of phasers being fired, the smoke drifted towards where Kanan were at.

"looks like it is time to move. Once we get inside, I need to tend to that wound, Aarfa. On your mark, lets go."

"I can damn well move out of here," she replied, and gritting teeth, pushing up and sprinting to the door. With time of the essence, she simply blasted the controls and forced the butt of her rifle into the seam. Working one-handed, it was not her best effort. "Help me."

Kanan had covered his face when Aarfa blasted the control, but immediately provided aid with prying the door open, grunting a little bit with the effort between him and Aarfa, the door opened just enough for them to slip inside. A shot above the door gave a bit of haste for Kanan to push even harder. He had glanced to see if there was anyone there inside. He didn't see anyone then ducked as another shot hit the outer door, scattering debris, just barely missing his head.

He waited for Aarfa to get inside before slipping in himself. "Lets get a bit away from the door so I can fix that wound." Kanan remarked. A trickle of blood made its way down his cheek, from a cut he didn't realize he had. Right now adrenaline was rushing through his veins and there was no pain. He noticed that there was an area they could go to, just down the corridor.The wall jutting out to make an alcove.

"There, lets go there for me to take care of your wound." Kanan urged Aarfa.

Seeing that blood was more than seeping by now, Aarfa nodded and moved to the alcove. "Alright, but quickly - I smell explosives. If the Trinity decides they're losing, they're just the sort of fanatics to choose martyrdom and taking eveeryone with them."

Kanan gave a nod and saw to the wound, "Its just going to be patch work, but enough to help us get through this next part. I'm no medic but I'll do what I can do." sealing up the wound, then giving a mild, very mild painkiller where the wound is. With grunt he nodded. "Okay which way?"

"It's fine." All that mattered was that bleeding stopped. Right now, either they survived and medbay could patch her up, or they didn't, and it wouldn't matter anyway. Aarfa took a deep breath - explosives, blood...

...she clung to the broken ladder, screams and cries echoing is the newly empty space... emergency shields had shot up, but they didn't shield from what she saw before her - torn bodies floating where the docking ring had been...

"No!" The outburst brought her back to the present. She sucked a breath and lowered her head, ashamed of having lost focus, especially now. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the scents that mattered - specific scents; her pack. "Sorry. This way," she said, taking off before anything else could distract her.

Kanan had a worried expression in his eyes when he saw Aarfa drift off in her memories of something. Any other thoughts though disappeared as he darted off after Aarfa. "Nothing to worry about, Aarfa" He remarked then kicked up his speed. He was on alert just in case there was something that was about to pop up from behind, or from any of the doors that were being passed by. Most of his concentration was upon following Aarfa and finding those people she was looking for.

The scents. Their scents... Aarfa ran, letting keenness on a trail completely overtake her, throwing herself into it - both out of urgency to find her crewmates, and desperate hope that drive would so completely fill her mind that there would be to room for flashbacks. She didn't know how long she'd run. She had only a faint sense of Kanan following. But the scents grew strong, and then her ears pricked - Voices! People calling out, calling for help. "We're coming!" she yelled, and almost instantly realized that if there were guards that was a mistake. She threw her back against the wall at the last turn and brought her rifle up. "Kanan, cover me."

At that call from Aarfa, several blasts hit the wall above where she and Kanan ducked against the wall, "Okay lets do this" Kanan's rifle was at the ready, without another word the security officer stepped out and sent a round of blasts towards the guards. "Go Aarfa!" he growled out.

She did not need to be told twice. With a low growl, she rounded the corner, eyes instantly keying on motion; muzzle flash and taking the first guard square in the chest. Another fell, shoulder practically glowing from the hit of Kanan's fire. The last hurriedly backed away, flipping a table for cover. But he'd backed too far - he'd peeked up to return fire when the captives suddenly hurled anything not nailed down at the force screen, setting off a cascade of crackling discharge right at the man's back. Startled, his head snapped around. It only an instant, but enough for a phaser bolt to take him.

Rushing forward, she hit the control padd, dropping the force screens. "Come on! This place is set to blow!"

The people who were kept inside followed after Aarfa, whilst Kanan kept an eye out for possible enemy. Having had been bent on following after Aarfa at her pace, he was going to have to depend on her giving the directions. As they neared each area that they needed to traverse, Kanan would cautiously look around send out a pattern of shots in order to prevent any human obstacles from getting in the way.

For her part, Aarfa was infinitely grateful for Kanan's help since she was struggling to find the same path out. Scent-tracking had taken over going in, but now those scents followed her, and she had no scent to key on and scant recollection of visual cues. On top of it all, there was the scent of explosive driving urgency, but also the awareness that many of her freed crewmates were exhausted or injured. The fear of losing everyone in some last act of fanatic destruction warred with the instinct to keep the pack together, protect the most vulnerable...

Pausing at a junction she half-remembered, she tapped her comm again, hoping for a signal. Nothing. worse, with the scent of so many with her now filled her nostrils - if there were enemies down one corridor or another, she couldn't distinguish them. Nor could she pick up anything familiar to point which direction to go. She edged around a corner, looking. Which way? Then her eye caught stairs. It hadn't been the way they'd come, but the only direction she was sure of now was 'Up'. Up to where a comm signal could get though and everyone could be transported out before this place blew.

She signaled Kanan, indicting the stairs, and stepped around.

The shot came so suddenly she barely reacted to the noise. The hot sting of disruptor fire clipped her ear even as she heard a cry behind her as Lon, who had taken a guard's weapon and pinned himself to her side, crumpled to the floor. Grabbing him, she pulled back to the corner as Kanan fired for cover. It had been instinct to retrieve him, but Lon was dead and in the moment of realization it was as though a black/red filter covered her vision, and a deep, menacing growl echoed from her chest - the sort of growl that grabbed humans by the hindbrain, reminding them of when they had been hunted, prey to be torn limb from limb...

Her senses were alive and with a focus she inhaled concentrating on the direction of fire. "Two of them..." it came out a near growl. "Get everyone up those stairs into transport range. They," her muzzle jerked in the attackers' direction, "are mine." The word was followed by a blood-chilling howl - the kind she'd learned back home to drive prey from cover into the teeth of the pack - as she brought her rifle around, firing a barrage even as she accelerated to full speed.

Hearing that howl come from Aarfa, sent chills up and down Kanan's spine. A grim smile soon appeared, and he uttered these words. "I'll see you on the topside Aarfa, make certain you return, as I am not going to leave you behind. I'll come looking for you..." with that he ushered those with him covering them as they went up the stairs. Feeling the urgency, he heiped them up, lifting and almost dragging them upwards. His heart pounding his ears also seeking to hear any signs or sound of Aarfa catching up.

They found themselves upon a platform, overseeing the jungle below. He could see areas where there was fighting below and shuttles heading away from where they had landed. "Come on Aarfa, come on..." Kanan murmured quietly.

Interminable moments later Aarfa hurtled through the door with a slight hitch in her gait and half her upper body was stained with blood. Looking ahead, she could see most of her comrades heading for the shuttles, except for those, particularly the medics, who spotted her and began to turn back toward her. "GO!" she yelled, waving them off. 'The blood's not mine!" At least most of it isn't she amended mentally, but whatever injuries bled were not enough to slow her. With the level of fight-or-flight adrenaline coursing her system, little short of a head shot could. She'd crash hard once this was over, but right now she was a juggernaut, dashing full speed until she reached Kanan.

At the sight of him guarding the rear for her rescued crewmates, her heart swelled and she slowed enough to clasp the back of his neck, briefly touching her nose to his in a gesture of respect and appreciation. "Thank you. I couldn't have asked for a better hunting partner."

That mere gesture that Aarfa had done made Kanan feel he was forgiven for his trespass before. Now they can go home.