Aftermath! (part 2)

Posted on Tue Sep 13th, 2011 @ 6:41am by 1st Lieutenant Kara Melo & Major Leroy Mangalia & 1st Lieutenant Noelle Ghassan & Lieutenant Commander Leanne Bowen

968 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Shades of Gray
Location: Michnar VII

ON

[OLD]

"We just finished Ma'am," they said in unison. "Nothing to report, and one poorly thrown grenade that wasn't armed. The person in question was long gone before we recovered." The Marine on the left hefted the ancient fragmentation grenade and shook his head. "M-82 anti personnel 'pineapple'. Effective range, fifteen feet, once the pin is thrown. Three to five second fuse time. We have a feeling it was nothing more than a scare tactic."

[NEW]

Noelle nodded and took the frag grenade from the Marine on the left and looked at it "Whoever threw it either didn't know alot about munitions or didn't plan on actually hurting anyone." She said thoughtfully "Did it come from within the compound or outside and thrown in?" Noelle asked "A working theory is that whoever tossed this may have also laid the mine that injured the Captain." She said "We find who tossed this, we may find who injured Mangalia."

She grabbed a canteen of water and took a long drink, her mind wandering to who would try to prevent them from helping people.

"It was thrown from inside the perimeter, but the person who threw it only had out to run. It was down Alexander Street, that ally that runs right out of the controlled zone," the Marine on the right said. "And I doubt that the person who threw it didn't know much about the weapon system, the top was spun, like a current day photon grenade." Looking out the window, the one on the left started walking towards it, checking something out. "And we have some of the remains of the mine that took out the Captain."

Noelle was thoughtful as she looked around and motioned for Kara to join them "I think it's time for a bit of recon outside our little compound here." She said "I think we need to see what's going on beyond the warehouses, down Alexander street and the like." She said "Kara gather up the fragments of that mine that got the Captain, send it back to the Calypso so that they can start analyzing it and compairing it to this frag grenade."

Kara walked over and nodded. "Aye, ma'am."

Noelle looked at the twins "Feel like a field trip?" She asked.

The twins saw a flaw in the plan and spoke up at once. "Ma'am, theres a huge difference between the grenade and the mine. The mine was a F-258 HE grenade, meant to fry what ever set it off. The trip wire was set up by fiber optics line, so the smallest amount of pressure would snap the line and set off the mine. The grenade is a pull, throw and forget weapon, not a place, set and forget."

Noelle nodded "That is a valid point. However my line of thinking is that they are one in the same. Someone knew that we were coming and had the time to plant the trip line." She paused "The pineapple grenade was just a distraction, possibly to allow someone else to get into the compound and set other mines, kidnap our people or destroy medical supplies." She said "There could be any number of reasons. That's why we need to find this person or someone that might know what's going on." She said not sure if she explained her line of thinking very well since she was translating it from Arabic into English in her mind.

"Yes Ma'am," The twin on the left said looking to the twin on the right. "There are several ways to do that, besides going building to building. If we make it look like we've drawn back, like our entire group has fallen back to the Calypso, then they would be more apt to come out into the open. If we put a show on of us leaving-"

"Then who ever attacked, laid the mine for the Captain, they would come out of the wood work, letting us capture them with ease." The other twin finished the sentence for the first one. "We could disguise ourselves as members of the general populace who either have not contracted the disease, or are taking over because Starfleet has decided to waste no more on this run down place."

"I like it." Noelle said as she looked at the rest of the Marines "Let's put on a show. Make it look like we've fallen back to the ship. Myself and the twins will change into clothing and blend in with the rest of the people and see if we can shake a few things loose from the woodwork." Noelle said "Any questions?"

****Surgical Suite****

A transporter beam lit up the small area, and down plopped a Corpsman, with a large rucksack on his back. "Doctor Bowen? Corpsman Tyrr, Biological, Chemical, and Nuclear Weapons expert."

"Great...glad to see more helping hands," Leanne said as she approached him. "I'm still working on trying to solve the virus. It's a complicated one, so it is taking longer than I expected."

The Corpsman nodded, dropping his ruck and started unzipping it. Out came collapsible Marine tools for creating, and negating chemical and biological weaponry and started setting it up. "Do we have a viable sample that isn't from a host, Doctor?" Unclipping legs, he set up his own little table, and started unpacking several more tools, including a radio microscope that was much smaller than what was found on a ship. "If I can find a sample that isn't tainted by human blood, then I may be able to figure out how to De-weaponise it, if it's even a weapon."

(To be continued...)

Commander Leanne bowen
Chief Medical Officer
USS Calypso

2nd Lieutenant Noelle Ghassan
Marine XO
USS Calypso

Staff Sergeant Kara Melo
Platoon Leader
USS Calypso

Marine Twins
NBC specialist
NPCs

 

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