The small, circular room was filled with computer equipment. Roughly a dozen Romulan technicians were seated at various consoles. The last of the armed security detachment lay on the floor, a still-smoldering crater in his chest from the compression rifle blast. A thin haze of smoke hung near the ceiling from the explosion that had forced open the entrance.
"Rico, Jal'el! Round them up and get them away from the consoles," Lieutenant Dick Winters shouted to a pair of his men before turning to look at his Vulcan tech team. "Open up their logs. I'm sure they've alerted their fleet to the situation, but I'd like to guess how much time we've got before they arrive. Jinx, check out their transmitter array. If it's still operational we need to know right now."
"We've got incoming, Lieutenant," Randleman said from one of the windows which lined the walls of one side of the chamber. After moving to stand next to him Winters let out a sigh; another detachment of Romulans, presumably one that had been engaged with Second and Third Platoon, had disengaged and turned back towards the communications center.
"Maybe T'Shal can go check on Captain Spiers," replied Dick with a slow shake of his head. He hoped beyond hope his fellows had been out of range of the explosion, but knew hope wouldn't be enough.
The sound of disruptor shots echoed in from the hallway beyond, snapping the Lieutenant's attention back to the activities at hand. Raising a hand he quickly directed a number of his marines, "Grab those consoles; I want that door blocked right now!"
"Lieutenant, we have something," S'rat called from the communications data console. "A subspace transmission was beamed to a spot roughly thirteen light-years from this system. The destination of the transmission seems to be in open space."
"A fleet?" Randleman asked, approaching from the window.
"Or a communications relay," replied the Vulcan. "In either occurrence it is a logical to assume the Romulan military has been notified of our actions here."
"Jinx! Where's my comm channel?!" Winters shouting, turning back to look across the room.
"I'm not sure this is gonna work, Lieutenant," the Denobulan replied as she worked furiously at the innards of the console. "It looks like they tried to scuttle the equipment after they sent off their warning."
Moving towards the Marine and the console Dick shook his head, "Not what I wanted to hear, Jinx. We need to call in our air support. Now."
After several more moments with the upper half of her body inside the device she finally replied, "Give it a try, sir. I can't promise it will work, and the range is going to be very limited. Don't expect to talk to Unity from here."
"What about Padassa?"
The woman didn't reply, but merely shrugged.
"Open a channel, priority one," he said, after working the consoles for a moment Jinx gave him a nod
"Padassa Station, this is Lieutenant Dick Winters, Easy Company! If anyone's getting this, we need immediate air support! Repeat, we need immediate air support on Norris Eight!"
--
Second Lieutenant Richard Winters
Platoon Leader, First Platoon, E "Easy" Company
2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st MEF
Gunnery Sergeant Denver "Bull" Randleman [NPC apb DK]
Platoon Sergeant, First Platoon, E "Easy" Company
2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st MEF
