In Defense of Earth (Part 2)

Posted on Sat May 3rd, 2025 @ 4:31pm by Captain M'Raz & Lieutenant Commander Jason Reeves

1,615 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Resistance is Necessary
Location: Starfleet Headquarters | Earth | Sol System
Timeline: MD001 - 0830

[Back With Henry]

"Twenty seven," Henry muttered under his breath as he dropped down into a Jeffries tube narrowing missing as an alien came around the corner and grabbed a master chief. Twenty seven moments when his life could have ended. "Now I get lucky," he grumbled as he crawled through a parallel shaft. "Couldn't have been at the poker game last week, noooo ... not then."

At the first hatch, he paused took a deep breath, and popped his head out, looking first one way and then the other with a sharp turn of his head. No aliens. Maybe not on this floor yet? Heaving a sigh of relief, he took off at a run. Engineering and an idiot. That was all that mattered.

[Security Building]

Hunt watched out the window as a lot of the firing had calmed down. Those were putting up some resistance, now appeared to be these Borg themselves. But without all the extra equipment attached. Now the Borg were going building by building gathering whatever survivors they could and taking them out to the streets. In the background of the security building, he could hear phaser fire trying to penetrate the walls leading to the hidden passages. Suddenly there was a loud booming sound.

"I think they heard that," the Lieutenant announced.

Looking out the window it was confirmed that these Borg were now making their way towards the security building. "Babe were about to have company."

A civilian ran back into the room from down the hall. "They breached the wall to the passage. Just clearing some debree and getting folks into the tunnels."

"We need more stuff to barricade the doors," Marques ordered. The small group began moving as much furniture and equipment as possible. Turning his attention to the civilian. "Go back and let us know when the last person gets into those tunnels."

As instructed, the civilian took off running back down the hall. The Admiral aimed his weapon towards the barricaded doors. It was at that moment, he wondered how his nephew was doing who had gone to school that morning. Hopefully he had escaped. Then there was his adult children Ernest, Jerome and their families. His grandson, Kenneth who was a Cadet here at the Academy was scheduled to return from a week long training. Hopefully he got the warning and didn't return to this mess. Ernest and his wife were in Houston. Jerome, his wife and two sons were located in New York. So he had no clue how any of them were doing at this time.

[Back With Henry]

The idiot, as it turned out, was cowering under a desk which was not what Henry had hoped but there you have it. Young and scared out of her mind, she sat under the desk with a phaser in her hand and tears pouring down her face. When Henry moved into her view, she leveled the phaser at him, and Henry blanched. Please don't let it be set to kill because that would just be ...

"Human," Henry said quietly. "Human ... and just as scared as you are."

"Not likely," Henry's idiot said, her voice quivering with sadness and fear. "But at least you're not one of ... those ... things ..." She lowered the phaser, setting it on the floor beside her as though it were a living thing, as tears fell.

Henry sat down, pulling the phaser to him (and yes, merciful heavens, it was set to kill) and sighed. "Maybe its a tie. Been a hell of a way to wake up, got to say."

[Security Building]

The Borg were now beating on the door and making their way. Firing off a couple of shots, three Borg went down before some kind personal forcefield was blocking phaser fire. "Fallback into the hallway." The security team did as instructed as they fell back throwing all kinds of furniture in the way on their way out. The civilian from a few minutes popped up giving waving in their direction. Moving down the hall the Marques tried to keep up with the younger personnel. Still in fairly decent shape, he was 101 years old. Honestly, he was grateful that these Borg didn't run.

Reaching the passageway, the team assisted him. "We need to seal the entrance."

Firing off a couple of shot at the entrance, he collapsed just as the Borg had arrived at the opening. Whatever the hell this creature was found itself trapped. Before running the looked at Borg that was stuck but still was reaching out to them. Hunt grabbed a tricorder from one of the officers, and quickly did a scan.

"Admiral we really should be getting the hell out of here," the Lieutenant suggested. There was clearly a sense of urgency in his voice.

The Admiral ignored the young man and kept getting as much information as he could. He suddenly found himself getting grabbed by two sets of hands as the enlisted pulled him as instructed by the officer in charge. "We need to get as much information as possible."

"Sorry Admiral but those things are making their way through the debris."

[Back with Henry]

"Here's the thing," Henry said once her tears had subsided somewhat. "Phasers aren't working. At all. And people are being taken. A lot of people. So, i was thinking ... what about force fields? Protecting areas where people are congregating, giving them some protection while they try to get off world?"

She nodded, wiping away her tears with the back of one hand, as she crawled toward the engineering console. "Let's take a look," she said. She got to her knees, peaking over the edge to be sure that she couldn't be seen by the aliens, and then turned her attention to the console. "No," she said. "the grid is down." She turned her attention toward Henry, a puzzled look on her face. "They know a lot about systems, looks like. Focused on headquarters, took down the force fields, our ships. I'll bet if you started looking at who they are taking, that's not random either."

Henry, who had been kneeling beside her, dropped back to the floor. "There's got to be some way to get to these guys," he growled. "Are there any areas where there aren't any aliens."

"Can't see that from here," she said, "but ... we could go to Security. Maybe we could figure it out from there."

"Okay," Henry said and then repeated slowly, "okay ..." So, they know our systems. Targeting individuals and ships." It took him a minute, to fight through the fear and paranoia, but finally, he pulled off his combadge and stared at it. "These are trackable."

"Yes, they are," she said. "But I can mask them ... so they can't be tracked. Give me a minute."

[Security Building]

Shanice was waiting at the far end of the tunnel which led to opening off the Starfleet Headquarters grounds. Most of the people they helped get out had taken off in their own direction. The last thing she planned on doing was leaving without her husband. A few minutes later Marques appeared with the security personnel. "You're cutting close," she brought up.

"I was trying to get as much information about these things as I could," the older man replied. "But I was dragged away from task."

"I'll take the court martial if I somehow managed to keep you alive Sir," the Lieutenant countered.

"Marques give the young man a break."

Rolling his eyes at his wife, he then turned his attention the Lieutenant. "You did the right thing. I was stubborn young man and now an even stubborn older one.

The security simply smiled and nodded. "I see that most of everyone took off. So much for safety in numbers."

"Naturally most of them wanted to rush off and check on their loved ones," the Commodore replied. "Which is understandable with everything going on. We have our own nephew to check in on."

Noticing the obvious look of concerns, Marques walked over and placed a reassuring arm around his wife's shoulder. "Betes grew up in a Cardassian camp. I'm certain that he will be able to navigate his way through this invasion to safety somehow."

Wiping a tear from her face, she tried to remain solid. "Earth was supposed to be a safe place for him."

[Back in Engineering]

Henry pinned his comm badge back in place and slumped against the nearest console. "We need somewhere safe. Can you call up plans from this console for Headquarters?"

The idiot, whose name was Sarah, hummed to herself, frail and shaky but better than the tears, as she called up maps on the complex. "What did you have in mind?"

"I'm thinking some sort of a heavily shielded bunker that we can use as a base of operations," Henry said. "There's got to be somewhere they take the important folk when bad things happen."

"Probably," Sarah said, "but that's way above my pay grade." She shrugged lightly. "And the Chief is ... well ... somewhere else now."

"Okay then," Henry said. "Let's go find us a shuttle and get out of here."

"Off world," Sarah asked, a hopeful look blossoming in her eyes, "somewhere safe?"

"Somewhere not here, that's for certain," Henry said. "Gather whatever tools you can, I'll help carry. We need to be as self-reliant as possible."

Sarah nodded and headed towards tool storage. "This," she whispered over her shoulder, "I can do."

To Be Continued

Henry and Sarah (written by Captain M'Raz)

Retired Admiral Marques Hunt and Retired Commodore Shanice Winters-Hunt (written by Lt. Commander Jason Reeves)

 

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