As I leaped over the transfigured barrier, I cast a wandless, wordless, Reductor Curse at the Drone whose shields had been stripped away by my Amber Spear attack from earlier. The spell was optimized for use against non-organic, non-living, objects and it turned out that Tzenkethi Drones qualified as both of those. The drone was hit by the spell and blasted into a trillion little pieces by the curse. Almost immediately, however, I had to jump away from one of the other drones firing its glowing blue Tetryon Beam at me. A second drone attempted to shoot me with its beam in Mid-Air, but a burst of aerokinesis flung me to the side out of the way of the lancing blue beam.
I landed near a Vulcan who attempted to fire his phaser at me only to suddenly find it telekinetically ripped from his grip via the Force. Undeterred, he attempted to assault me using hand-to-hand combat, his punches powered by the tremendous burst strength of Vulcan Physiology. My own, Chi-Powered physical capabilities, further enhanced by the empowerment from Totemic Bear Spirit I had received as well as the Metallic Arts, were more than a match for any Vulcan, however, burst strength or not. I parried the furious punch combination the Vulcan sent my way at the wrists before utilizing the Dragon Pulse to locate a weak point on his body. A swift strike to that weak point sent the Vulcan slumping to the deckplates.
Turning about, I noticed that Dax and Tuvok had worked together to take out another of the Tzenkethi Drones, while Shelby was directing her security team to lay down suppressing fire on a group of Vulcans that were being forced to duck behind the corner of a nearby corridor. Unfortunately, one of the other Drones swooped in and let off a burst of Tetryon Particles that blasted a chunk out of the deckplates near Shelby's Team, wounding two of the Andorians and the Beta Zoid on her Security team and forcing the others to scurry back behind cover.
With a growl, I incanted a Ferromantic spell that stripped that drone of its shields in a burst of polarized sparks. The Malfunction opened it up for an Amber Spear that I flung right through its optics and caused it to explode, tossing a nearby Vulcan Seperatist to the deckplates and allowing Dax to stun him with a burst from her phaser. The last of the Tzenkethi Drones then honed in on me and began firing bursts of Tetryon Particles at me. I brought up a mystic shield that cracked a bit as repeated pulses of Tetryon Particles washed over it, before immediately diving to the deckplates as an intense blue Tetryon Beam shattered my shield.
To do that, however, the Drone had to overcharge its Tetryon Emitter, which my powers of Comprehension from Amestrian Alchemy told me would render its shields inoperable for a few seconds. I lunged to my feet and fired off another Amber Spear at the last drone, which struck it just before its shields would return, sending it up in an explosion. I couldn't bask in the glow of my victory, however, because the Dragon Pulse warned me of an incoming attacker mere moments later, forcing me to duck as an odd, coruscating, orangish-yellow and red beam crackled out above my head. The beam slammed into a nearby bank of consoles, utterly destroying them and sealing the main corridor that the enemy had come from shut.
I turned and growled to see the Vulcan in Armor who had been controlling the Tzenkethi Drones taking aim at me with a wrist-mounted weapon of some sort. The Beam fired again and forced me to dive to the side as it partially melted an exterior bulkhead and exposed part of the section to the thin, but ultimately breathable, Martian Atmosphere. Terraforming had rendered the surface habitable in Archer's Day if I recall my Star Trek Lore correctly, though some parts were a lot more habitable than others. The area around here was breathable, but in the same way that the air in the Himalayas was breathable. Unless you were a Sherpa, it took some getting used to.
I didn't have time to think about that, though because the wrist-mounted beam was firing again, this time forcing me to dive behind a bank of consoles. The beam slagged the consoles, exploding them in a shower of sparks and electricity, but they didn't control anything vital and were largely just there to function as a sort of Holoviewer to display upcoming shipyard projects. As a ship that looked something like a prototype Steamrunner-class winked out in a shower of sparks, I popped up and tossed an Amber Spear at the Vulcan. The Spear was stopped by a shield, only for me to incant a Ferromantic Spell that short-circuited the shield. Dax and Tuvok popped up from behind their cover and fired phasers set to stun at the Vulcan. His armor took the brunt of that. It didn't fare nearly as well to my lunging right cross.
The Vulcan staggered, skidding back from the force of my punch and I followed that up with another wandless, wordless, spell, this time a Severing Charm that slashed into the front of the Tzenkethi armor and carved a gash into the ablative plating. Another pair of phaser blasts from Tuvok and Dax slammed home into the armor, joined by beams from Shelby and her surviving security team. Under so much firepower, the armor practically melted off the Vulcan, who raised his right arm and fired the wrist weapon again. This time, it launched a ball of crackling red, orange, and yellow energy that exploded in the midst of our group.
I grunted as I was thrown back through another bank of consoles, feeling the electricity of the malfunctioning power surge course through me even as the remnants of the energy ball scorched my front. I hit the deckplates with a grunt of pain, body smoking, but using the Force and Alakhestry to shunt the pain aside and keep fighting. I noticed the rest of Shelby's security team was down, but Shelby, Tuvok, and Dax were still up and fighting. The Vulcan had been forced to take cover behind a bank of wrecked consoles as angry beams of phaser fire lanced out at his position.
Pushing myself to my feet, I called on the Force to telekinetically grab every single fallen phaser, aim them at the Vulcan around his cover, and fire them. Eight beams of bright orange phaser energy lanced into the Vulcan from around his cover. Some of them were set to stun, others weren't. The Vulcan went down screaming, body convulsing as he revealed himself to be an Undine.
Tuvok and Dax turned to see me, surprised I was still up and fighting. I sagged to my knees and reached into my Bag of Holding, immediately chugging a healing potion as my wounds healed and burns disappeared. I grunted at that and pushed myself to my feet.
"You couldn't have done that earlier?" Demanded Shelby.
"I was sort of busy." I grunted.
"My team paid for that business of yours." Scowled Shelby.
"Hold on." I sighed.
I reached out with the Dragon Pulse and the Force to try and gauge wound levels. Most of the security team had been knocked for a loop but would be fine with a bit of rest. Two or three were actually wounded and those I force-fed Healing Potions. My battlefield triage got the Security team patched up enough to make it to the Sickbay nearby and I nodded at Shelby.
"They'll make it to sickbay." I insisted.
"So you do have limits." Mused Tuvok.
"Everyone has limits, even the Q. It's all a matter of perspective." I huffed.
"I doubt the Q have any limits. From what I've heard, they're supposed to be Omnipotent." Doubted Dax.
"They do, it's just that they're playing in a higher league, so to speak. To an ant, it must look like humans have no limits, after all." I shrugged.
"Save the philosophy! That Thing fused shut the only door that leads to sickbay from here. How are we getting my team to Sickbay if Sickbay isn't accessible?" Questioned Shelby.
"I can open the door, but you're gonna have to shoot any Vulcan Separatists who may be lying in wait on the other side while I do." I cautioned.
"Can you not do that by yourself?" Queried Tuvok.
"You try disabling a magnetic lock using only telekinesis while being shot at and see how easy it is for yourself." I scoffed.
"He has you there, Lieutenant." Shrugged Dax.
"Hold on, I want to know just what that Thing lying there is." Insisted Shelby.
"That, Lieutenant Commander, is an Undine. The Infiltrators I told you about, which means that the wrist device was a Fluidic Antiproton Wrist Lance. I'd keep that around for study if I were you. You'll be wanting something that can hit like that in a few years." I informed.
"Noted. At this point, I'm willing to believe you about being able to see the future." Sighed Shelby.
"Should we not be attempting to open the doorway now? The more time we wait, the more chances that our opponents get away with any technical information." Asked Tuvok.
"Right, remember, shoot anything lying in wait." I nodded.
Then I got to work using the Force to attempt to disentangle the magnetic clamps locking the thick, duranium, blast door in place using telekinesis. It took me a while to figure out the system, but my powers of Comprehension from Amestrian Alchemy helped there. After a few minutes of concentration, there was a clunking noise from behind the bulkhead and the blast door shuddered as I tugged it free of the magnetic clamps' grip. I forcibly retracted the blast door into the bulkhead revealing another squad of eight Vulcans just outside of sickbay in the corridor ahead. One was attempting to cut through the door into Sickbay with a phaser while the others turned in time to see us.
To their credit, the Security Team didn't hesitate, nor did Dax or Tuvok. Shelby did, slightly, but then she was sort of an Admiral's Pet who'd likely never faced something of this level of seriousness before while Dax could fall back on the Symbiote's memories and Tuvok had served under Sulu during the events of Star Trek Six. Regardless, the Vulcan Separatist Squad had all been gunned down within moments.
"Everyone through. I don't exactly feel like playing doorstopper all day." I ordered.
The group rushed through the entry into the corridor with myself being the last to go through as I let the blast door slide shut behind me, letting go of my telekinetic grip. As we approached sickbay, we found the door had only partially been cut into by the Vulcan Separatist's Phaser, which meant trying to get the Docs inside to open up for us.
"Open up, I have wounded out here!" Called out Shelby.
"On whose authority?" Came a tinny voice.
"Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Shelby Serial Number SF-Two-Seven-Two-Three-One-Four!" Insisted Shelby.
"How do we know this isn't some trick?" Demanded another, older-sounding voice.
"This is pointless and illogical. The longer we bicker, the more our wounded suffer. I am using my Intelligence Security Codes to override the door, authorization Tuvok-Pi-Alpha." Intoned Tuvok.
As he did that, the door chimed and slid open, allowing us to usher the wounded into the sickbay. We weren't the only ones in there, however, and it soon became very clear the reason why those Vulcans had been attempting to breach the door into Sickbay. Standing Guard over a portable database were a trio of heavily armed security personnel led by an Older Tellarite in Operations Gold with a commodore's insignia pinned onto his uniform.
This, it would turn out, was Commodore Brof, and he was the brains behind the Quantum Torpedo Project. A project whose data was stored in that portable database. Data which we had just stopped the Vulcan Separatists, and thus their Romulan and Undine Puppetmasters from stealing.
Thankfully, the assault on the base wouldn't last much longer. Five minutes after we had arrived at Sickbay, reinforcements were being transported into the base from elsewhere, beginning to fight back against the incursion. Unfortunately, we would have one more fight before the entire situation was over with. Two minutes after the reinforcements began to arrive, one of the security troops crowded in the Sickbay spoke up.
"Commodore, I'm tapped into the security feeds outside now and it looks like the Separatists are massing for one last shot at the project data!" Called the Security Officer, a female Efrosian.
"Let me see that." I demanded, looking over at the screen.
Sure enough, another squad of Vulcan Separatists led by another armored Drone Controller, which was likely yet another Undine in disguise were beginning to stack up outside in the corridor in one last attempt to seize control of the Quantum Torpedo Data. I counted eight Vulcans plus the Undine in disguise.
"Dax, Tuvok, it looks like we've got one more fight on our hands. I'm heading out there to deal with these guys. Feel free to join me, or don't. I'm tired of playing around with the Undine so I won't be holding back." I warned.
"Is that wise? Reinforcements are clearly already clearing the enemies in the base. Surely it is more logical to wait out any assault from a fortified position such as sick bay?" Tried Tuvok.
"Sure, or I could handle it right now and be done with it." I shrugged.
"Can you really deal with them yourself?" Questioned Dax.
"If I go all out? Absolutely." I answered.
"Then we will wait here. If you truly can do as you claim, you should not need our assistance." Intoned Tuvok.
"Suit yourself." I shrugged.
Then, I headed out into the corridor to face down the Undine one last time. . .
XXXX
AN: The next chapter is already up on my Patreon, so check the link in the threadmarked post if you guys feel like throwing me a couple bucks to get chapters in advance. Everyone who does is super appreciated and I can't thank my patrons enough.
All right, so here we have the next chapter. The Undine have broken out all kinds of tech, Tzenkethi Drones, Powered Armor, Fluidic Antiproton Wrist Lances, the works. Unfortunately for them, doing so has just pissed Jan off and he's done playing around. Next chapter, you guys are going to see him cut loose, which is something he doesn't tend to do because, well, he doesn't like doing that. It's hardly very heroic, after all.
At any rate, the next chapter will be the final battle in Utopia Planetia, and then Jan will get his pardon for helping to safeguard the Quantum Torpedo Data and he will be able to head back to his tower and return to Earth Six-One-Six without Starfleet Security getting on his back.
Stay tuned. . .