The Battle of Kannok, Part 2: Extremist Attack

Posted on Fri Jul 10th, 2026 @ 2:02pm by Captain T’Kal & Ensign Emmanuelle Larose & Lieutenant Commander David Erickson & Lieutenant Commander Valerie Novis & Lieutenant Commander Clay McEntyre & Lieutenant Karane Inda & Lieutenant JG Renata Novotná & Ensign Blaine McCray & Ensign Siat-or-iian Elkovais & Master Chief Petty Officer Jefferson Clark

4,065 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X04: All the Friends We Can Get
Location: Kannok
Timeline: SD 8965.7 (28 August 2290, 15:15)

IN FRONT OF THE KANNOK GOVERNMENT PLAZA

"Sir," a junior security officer called out to Lieutenant Commander McEntyre. "More and more people keep filling in this crowd. I'm having trouble keeping line of sight."

"If that shield goes down, sir, we're going to be in some bit of trouble." Torii still looked out over the crowd, bringing up a pair of binoculars to keep here eyes on everything she could, "Think the government may be able to bring in a negotiator to talk to their leaders?"

"My feeling is that this may dissolve into conflict before they even consider peaceful resolution. I don't get the impression that this government is open to talking things down. Be prepared to defend ourselves from our...allies" Clay pondered, pragmatically.

KANNOK GOVERNMENT PLAZA

Above them, parts of the shield grid flickered. Though the line separating the main crowd from the building was intact, visible from their window, there appeared to be gaps in the field overall.

A security officer activated a screen, getting the attention of the Drenkul and Federation teams. “Shield grid is fluctuating. Measuring gaps here, here, and here. This part,” he pointed to the lowest one, under the complex according to the diagram, “is a tunnel that connects into this building.”

“Double the guards outside this door,” Utani Wulam-Drenkulo ordered. She turned to T’Kal. “Can one of your teams respond to this infiltration?”

T’Kal nodded and opened her communicator.

IN FRONT OF THE KANNOK GOVERNMENT PLAZA

McEntyre's communicator pinged. "T'Kal to McEntyre. Local security believes there's a group trying to get into the complex via another path. Portions of the shield are down. The crowd may be a distraction. Send a team to the coordinates we're sending."

Torii flexed her fingers as she overheard the message coming over the comm, "I can go, sir, it'll give me something to do other than sit here and pick at my claws."

"Take two with you and check it out. Do not engage unless you are engaged first. We are not aggressors." Clay reminded the young ensign as his nerves went on end. He could feel the tension in the air and what was to come. It was not going to be pretty if this pops off.

"You got it, sir." Torii waved at a pair of NCOs and motioned them to follow her, playing with her gloves impatiently. She couldn't take them off yet, don't look aggressive. That was the key. She began to bustle around the crowd, expecting the two to be able to follow her, even if just by her ears.

JUST PAST THE SHIELD PERIMETER

“Incoming!” called the point man in the terrorist assault group. They trained for this. Sripat gave the signal for them to stop and find whatever cover they could before they started shooting along the corridor ahead of them.

The tunnel was remarkably wide for what it was and Torii with her security team had made their way into the entrance and set up defensive positions. The fire incoming proved that this decision had been made correctly, though there was a curve between where they were and where the fire had come from, "Hold your fire," She whispered loudly to her companions, "We're good to hold this position, they can come to us. Choose your targets carefully."

She was right. One of the revolutionaries tried to get closer and a Starfleet security officer hit him square in the chest.

Sripat grinned and gave a hand-sign to one of her lieutenants. She tossed her a grenade labeled R-VG-T. The pin came out, and Sripat rolled it down the corridor. “Masks!” she called out. A few revolutionaries donned primitive face coverings, though they never gave any to David or Karane. “You two might want to hang back a minute.”

"We were willing to hang back at the shield generator," David muttered. He pulled his robe up over his nose and mouth, closing his eyes almost completely. He looked at the gas starting to fill the hall and gently nudged Karane, making a subtle gesture behind them.

Karane pulled up the hem of her shirt over her mouth and nose. Seemingly not bothered (at least for now) that her stomach was showing, she tied it tightly like a makeshift scarf over her nose and mouth.

"Gas!" Torii hissed as the tear gas smell hit her sensitive nose and nausea hit almost instantly. She buried her nose in an arm, firing a random shot down the hallway, "Masks, get them on." She ordered as she fired again, this time hearing a grunt from whoever she'd hit with the stun shot. Another shot, but nothing this time as she bought her team time to put on the issue gas rebreathers that were a part of the standard issue. As her team resumed their position, she took as filtered a breath as she could, but caught some of it regardless. She hacked a cough out as she fumbled for her own rebreather, then turned away to vomit suddenly, inhaling a lungful of the gas before one of her team helped her get the mask on while she tried to clear her lungs. "Thanks, on point, we need to keep them back."

Another Revolutionary tried to advance, this time having a much easier time getting into a good firing position while the Starfleet security teams got their masks on. He managed to get a good shot off, striking the Starfleeter in the chest.

Torii cursed as one of her people went down, then settled herself into a firing position, her tails flirting as she took aim at one of the forms moving through the gas and firing, sending another of the rebels down to the ground as another showed itself. Another shot, another form falling. And yet more kept coming.

As those at the rear nudged them forward, David began to cough. Suddenly he coughed hard and dropped to a knee, grunting in pain, knocking back against the fighter behind him and eyeing Karane.

Karane gave him what could only be described as a mischievous smirk. She took the opportunity, grabbing the nearest of the fighter who was slightly immobilised by the gas and drove her foot in between his legs. The man went down from the pain, as Karane moved onto the next, seemingly unphased by the gas.

As Karane jumped into action, David heaved forward like he was going to retch, then snapped up, knocking the fighter behind him back. He grabbed the man's disruptor rifle and, after a brief tug of war, drove forward, using the man's pulling power to drive it into his face, knocking him out. He grabbed it and swung around, shooting the people at the rear of the mob. "Run!" he said to Karane.

She nodded. Immediately she began off at speed.

He dropped three fighters before they had gotten the good sense to turn around and fire back at him. He dodged the one aimed his way and sprinted around the curve after his partner, his longer legs allowing him to catch up quickly. "Lead the way," he said, firing back behind him.

Karane's eyes darted left and right as she studied the tunnel. With her shirt still tied up over her face, she spotted what seemed to be an entrance of an old maintenance tunnel. She didn't shout, she didn't talk. She simply grabbed David by the collar and with one swift, firm tug, pulled him into the tunnel after her.

David almost lost his balance as she yanked him down and forward, but kept his feet under him and altered direction. They kept going until he spotted a door ahead and pulled her back, opening it, shoving her in and ducking in with her, slamming it shut behind them and locking it.

He took a moment to catch his breath and leaned back against the door. He eyed her modified robes and cracked half a smile. "That's a good look on you," he said.

A muffled squeak escaped Karane's mouth before she yanked her clothes down. Her cheeks were bright red. She turned her head away and crossed her arms. "Its not like you haven't seen my belly button before or anything!" She exclaimed. "Plus, even if that gas was mild, I didn't like the smell."

"Can't say I cared for it either," David said, his eyes darting around the room they were now in. With only emergency lighting there wasn't much to see, but it seemed like the room had some large machinery in it. "Seemed pretty strong stuff."

"It was mild to me." She stated. "I'm using to crawling around in warp systems. "Take a couple of lungfulls of deuterium gas, then come back to me and tell me that back there was strong."

"I'll take your word for it," he said, giving her cheek a quick kiss before straightening back up and looking back towards the door. He reached over and flicked a switch, overriding the emergency lighting and illuminating the room. "Looks like an old service room," he said, then stopped as he saw the bulky contraption at the other end. "Tell me that's what I think it is."

She didn't need to tell him. Instead she let out a long, low toned cackle. She sounded exactly like a old classic B-movie as she moved towards the bulky contraption. "Come to mummy!" She said, her arms up and her fingers posed as if ready to pounce on the contraption like some human feline.

She practically skipped towards it and upon reaching it wiped dust and dirt off it. "I knew it!" She exclaimed, a huge grin on her face and her eyes lit up like diamonds. "This is a duotronic shield generator! And its a Starfleet design," she explained. "I've never seen one of these before. Especially since pretty much all of these were replaced by newer models causing these to enter into the civilian sector."

"Looks like someone's been trading on the grey market," David said, looking it over. "Although even now it looks like it's seen better days."

"I wonder..." she muttered as she wandered around the machine. Finally she spotted something and using her shirt, she rubbed at the surface. "David. Come see this."

David came around to where she was looking and leaned over, squinting. "No way," he said.

There, where Karane had wiped clean was the Starfleet logo. Plus, clear black writing.

'U.S.S. CONSTITUTION NCC-1700'

"David, may I introduce you to the original shield generator of the Starship Constitution. The first of the Constitution Classes. This generator is over forty-five years old." Karane explained. "What's that phrase again... 'They don't build them like they used to' right?"

David grinned. "That's for sure," he said. "Think you can get it running?"

Karane gave him a look that simply said 'are you serious right now?'. She didn't even respond as she pulled off its access panel.

David held his hands up in surrender and apology and stepped back and let her dive in. "Just tell me if you need anything," he said, watching her work.

"This is in pretty good condition for its age and the fact its been sitting down here all this time," she said as she worked. "Looks like they traded for this, but couldn't get it working properly. Not surprising really, it wasn't traded along with its master control console, plus its missing several of the duotronic relays in here. Mainly the ones that activate and maintain its internal stabilisers." She briefly paused as she scratched her temple.

"I can reroute some of the un-needed relays in here. It's designed to protect a Starship, not a building. So we don't need it to reinforce any active structural integrity field. And we don't need the duotronic controller to maintain field stability when a ship is travelling at high impulse speeds.... speaking of speeds, I can use the chips designed to use the shields as a backup and assist to the navigational deflector when sweeping away space dust at warp speeds..." she stopped and looked up at David. "Sorry... I was... rambling..." she blushed.

"Long story short, I can get it working. And I feel sorry for the Drenkul. Whoever sold them this knew it wouldn't work for them at all. To coin a phrase... They were totally 'ripped off'."

David hefted the disruptor rifle and walked back around towards the door, standing guard. "Their loss, our gain," he said, keeping the rifle at the ready. "Good luck."

ARK ROYAL BRIDGE

Renata quickly looked at the sensors reading. The Ensign had been right. "Sensors are picking up ten Drenkul shuttles." She announced, then took a more precise scan to elaborate on that. "They're flying directly for the gaps in the shield. I'm picking up twenty life signs on each of them. They're deploying their forces."

“I’m picking up comm signals between them,” Emmanuelle reported. “But I’m having trouble decrypting them. I don’t know what they’re saying.”

"If they board the ship, we're goin have a real bad time, boys and girls" The gruff voice of Master Chief Clark piped from behind the Tactical Console. He had taken over from one of the ratings. "We need a decision here, do we fire on them or do we wait?"

Blaine was instantly tracking the shuttles as well, locking sensors on each of them to aid Tactical in tracking them, as well as helping himself plan evasive courses when they were needed. "Feeding you telemetry on the shuttles, Chief," he reported. "Standing ready for evasive as needed. Just give the word."

This was where the rubber hit the road, Valerie knew, and there was no one else to make the decision. The ball was up to her and the decision had to be made whether to fire right now. "Comms, warn them off. If they do not immediately break off their approach, you are authorized to open fire, Master Chief. Try to disable them if possible, if not?" She sighed heavily, "If not, do what needs doing."

Emmanuelle opened hailing frequencies. “Unidentified Drenkul shuttles approaching Government plaza and starship Ark Royal. Break off and return to points of origin. Repeat, break off.” After a few seconds of silence, she looked at Valerie and shook her head.

Blaine watched the sensor readouts of the shuttles, as well as trying to spot anything else that didn't belong. He didn't want any more surprises. He shook his head as the blips continued to move on his screen. He was concerned that they might try to board, but he wasn't overly worried. It wasn't the first time parties had tried to board a Starfleet vessel, and even though he had not been aboard more than mere months, he had faith in this crew that no matter what happened, they and the ship would weather this particular storm. He made sure his sensor readings were still being forwarded to the Master Chief. "Ready for maneuvers as needed," he reported.

"Try to move us between the incoming shuttles and the surface, or at least as close to it as you can, Mister McCray." Valerie resumed her seat and watched the screen showing the shuttles still oncoming, but decided it was best not to wait for the last second, "Master Chief Clark, fire a warning shot across the bow of the lead shuttle. If they do not break off, fire on them directly."

Blaine's fingers darted across his control panel and the Ark Royal responded by gracefully swooping into position between the planet and the lead shuttle, adapting to its trajectory as he tried to set up shots for Chief Clark.

"Aye, sir" The chief nodded as he held ready to engage if needed.

With the Ark Royal now high in the atmosphere above the government complex, visible in the sky to the protesters and government officials alike, the ship was ready and able to intercept the attackers.

The warning shot had a partial effect. Two shuttles broke off from the assault against the Ark Royal, and another three veered away from the government complex. It seemed, Emmanuelle thought, remembering some of T’Kal’s training, that the pilots of this barely-organized force weren’t the crack, disciplined squad that their commanders thought they were.

But that still left a number of shuttles, piloted by those more dedicated to The Cause, heading for their targets.

"Master Chief Clark." Valerie said, her voice calm and steady, "Engage the lead shuttles. Shoot to disable if possible, but we cannot let any through to the surface." She keyed in a command code for the dorsal phasers to transfer control of those to the command chair, "I'll try to keep the ones heading our way from reaching Ark Royal. Mister McCray, keep maneuvering to give us the best shots, Miss Novatna, I want you on the comm telling these people to turn around. If they do, we will cease fire on them."

"Aye, Sir. Phasers Firing" Clark flip the switch, letting loose the phasers to try to drive back the shuttles. He carefully aimed for systems to disable the shuttles without hurting their crews.

Blaine's mind worked through various maneuver patterns a second before his fingers executed them. He was intent on not letting the ship be a predictable target, and he kept the phaser firing arcs in mind as well, keeping the firing lanes open as the ship moved gracefully. "Kau nam-tor a'was aiwa au hi ni ira au nam-tor sahris,"* he breathed to himself, the words not able to shake his Texas drawl.

*"Wisdom is chasing them, but so far, they are faster."

Commander Novis and Chief Clark’s shots were true, and two of the inbound shuttles exploded in great balls of fire. The remaining ones had been struck in their propulsion systems and started to veer off course; one exploded from engine failure while the other plummeted, pursued by finally-scrambled Drenkul aircraft.

SHIELD GENERATOR ROOM

Karane sighed loudly as she withdrew her hands from the old generator. "The generator's emitters are damaged. And when I mean damaged, I mean I'm not fixing them here and now."

She pondered for a moment as she looked up at David. "Want to go home?"

David eyed her, one eyebrow rising in confusion as he walked over to her. "Sure. Should we get dinner on the way?" he quipped.

"These old generators have a backup comm unit built in, but its not like our communicators. It's actually very simple," she explained. "In case of systems damage, this redundancy can still send and receive information to and from a designated console. That way, even if a ship takes a direct hit to a primary computer line, the shields can still be controlled." A smile spread across Karane's face. "So, tell me, my dear David, do you happen to know any rather large duotronically controlled vessel in the area? One I can trick this generator to interface with?"

David grinned and leaned down to plant a kiss on her. "I sure do. Damn you're brilliant. Okay, we need to tell them our location and Sripat's plans so they know where the main attack is coming from, and where we are so they can send security to come get us."

Karane giggled. "Of course I am. But, we should include something so they'll know its us..."

"Good point. Tell them..." he thought for a moment, then smiled. "Tell the Captain to remember me to Solan. That should get her attention."

Karane froze. "And exactly who is this Solan?"

David blushed a bit and shrugged. "The Captain's sister. She and I are acquainted. That's all."

Her eyes narrowed as she scowled at David. "We'll talk about this later." She said turning away to focus back on the console. "You best make it up to me for even considering sending such nonsense..."

"Yes dear," he said, smiling slightly behind her.

ARK ROYAL BRIDGE

The tactical console on the bridge began to act strange. The screen showing the ship's shield status began to flicker and fuzz. After a few seconds it seemed to split into two new separate screens. The left returning to a now squashed and stretched version of the shield status display, the other was now very different.

Instead of the clean black, green and blue interface the crew were used to had been replaced. Now a faded yellow screen showed, with bright red, orange, greens and yellow layout showing. An original top down diagram of a Mark One Constitution Class showed in the center.

'Shields Offline' was displayed in retro red writing on the top of the now split screen. At the very bottom, was a black box labelled "Command Log". In it, sat three lines of text written in orange and purple.

Line one comprised of a set of co-ordinates and was labelled as 'generator location'. Funnily it also listed the generator as being on deck twenty six thousand three hundred and thirty six. Line two had four letters. It read simply. 'KI DE'.

The last line, was by far the longest and clearest. It was labelled as 'Command Code' and read 'T'Kal, remember me to Solan.'

Clark looked over the lines and messages. Something wasn't right.

"Commander Novis. I'm getting some something odd. We've seem to have reverted to pre-TMP interface here."

Valerie checked the screen and saw that the shuttles weren't a threat for now and stood from the chair and moved around to where the Master Chief was, looking over his shoulder. "That's... Weird." She remarked, "We only have twenty-one decks, twenty-six-odd-thousand would be... On the surface of the planet or so." Something began to click in her head as she automatically began to do the math that had been the hallmark of her first Host, but she'd never admit that out loud, "Kay, Eye, Dee, Ee." She glanced at the the main screen for a moment, ignoring the third line, "You don't suppose?"

“Mademoiselle Inda and Monsieur Erickson!” Emmanuelle exclaimed. “And that last line.” She had gotten up from the comm station to see for herself. “The Captain told me that Commander Erickson once had a crush on her sister, Solan.”

The third line flickered. And suddenly changed before their eyes. 'Get us the hell out of here damn it!'.

Valerie smirked at the line that popped up and shook her head, "You know, maybe we should leave them where they're at for a few more minutes." She gave a sharp laugh, then hit the comm button on the console, "Transporter Room One: We're sending you some coordinates, transport for two and a piece of equipment as soon as practical."

A few seconds later, a voice came over the comm system. “Transporter Room One to Bridge. We have Commander Erickson and Lieutenant Inda.”


ARK ROYAL TRANSPORTER ROOM

Standing there on the transporter pad was both Karane and David. In between them the old shield generator.

Karane looked right at the transporter operator. "About time!" she said to the poor crewman. He jumped back slightly, clearly startled by her outburst. Karane approached the console. She reached over its top and pressed a button on its comm panel. "Inda to Engineering. We've acquired a shield generator. If any of you aren't doing anything important, get your asses up here and move it to cargo bay three." she said as she held her finger against the panel.

After she released her finger, she could see the young crewman visible shaking. "What?"

"N...n... Nothing Ma'am..." he replied nervously.

Karane shook her head and turned back to David. "I'm off to go take a shower and get into a fresh uniform." she said to him simply as she set off towards the doors. The doors of the transporter room swished open, yet before she could step over the threshold into the corridor she looked back over her shoulder at David. "Well? You coming or not?"

David looked at her, then the transporter operator. "Steady on, Petty Officer," he said, trying to sound professional as he sped walked out of the transporter room to catch up with her, a grin on his face.


To be continued...

 

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