Search and Rescue

Posted on Mon Apr 18th, 2011 @ 5:00pm by Lieutenant Xylia Lischka & Lieutenant Chet McChet

Mission: Renegades
Location: Various
Timeline: Following: 'Sneak Attack'

Fucking Romulans... she hated them with a passion, and would much rather see them strung up by their toes hanging from the underbelly of the Arizona. Tapping her commbadge, Xylia moved through the halls of the ship faster than she normally would. "Lischka to Shenk and McChet. Meet me on deck two by the turbolift like five minutes ago." Given their current situation and the damage sustained, speed was of the essence. The casualties were already listed at roughly twenty, and she had a feeling it would climb by a few more.

Marc was thrown from his bed, having only been trying to get a nap in right before the Arizona starting getting attacked. Groaning, he barely made it to his feet before his commbadge chirped to life and he heard Lieutenant Lischka's order. Grabbing his pants, he put them on as he was thrown from side to side and narrowly avoiding smashing his head into the replicator. Getting secured, he launched himself out the door into the chaos of the ship - acrid fumes, panicked enlisted and other officers running to and fro shouting orders, and the Red Alert siren wailing in his ears.

Running through the throng, he made his way to a crowded turbolift while the Arizona took even more blows. Rapidly getting to Deck Two, he was virtually pushed out of the turbolift, he looked around in confusion for Lieutenant Lischka. Spotting her, he moved his way through the crowd to her side. "Lieutenant, what's going on?!"

Torn between staying within the confines of his precious brig or responding to the urgent calls of the Lieutenant, Chet finally made the heavy decision of reporting to the turbolift as ordered. "Here I am! I'm assuming we were involved in some type of unfriendly battle thus resulting in these severe damages. It will take weeks to remove these stains from the carpet."

"Lieutenant Chet... I'm not worried about stains right now. We'll send in Merry Maids when the time comes." She looked amongst the chaos around them and tried to keep herself composed. The German woman was angry, and the accent reflected that. It wasn't their fault she was angry, and if she could get her hands on a Romulan at the moment, they would definitely suffer at her hand. "As I'm sure you've both gathered, the ship came under attack. Captain Cowell has given me orders to search the ship for survivors. You two are going to help me. The other members of Security are currently handling other issues." She took a deep breath and let it out as slowly as the situation would allow. "We have lost roughly twenty crew members, and I anticipate a few more to be found during the search. Most decks will likely be impassable, so we'll be using jeffries tubes. Keep your eyes open, and don't get your asses hurt. Any questions?"

Ensign Schenk looked at Lieutenant Chet as if he were mad before tearing his attention back to Lieutenant Lischka. He leaned closer as her accent got thicker and a part of his mind wondered where she had learned to speak German and which dialect it was before giving her his full attention. Twenty deaths on the ship...he shook his head. "Which decks will we be going to, Lieutenant?" He asked, raising his voice to be heard.

"Logic dictates we should visit all decks. Unless there's no air. In which case we could theoretically hold our breaths a long time. I'm pretty good at that. I swim a lot. Mostly because people attempt to drown me often," Chet retorted. "Shall I lead?"

"We'll be visiting all decks short of the bridge like McChet said. As for no air, we won't run in to that problem. The force field system will keep the hull breaches from decompressing compartments." Xylia said, reaching for her tricorder. "We'll start on this deck and work our way down. I'll lead."

Without another word, she moved through the throng of people heading for the more damaged area of this particular deck. It wasn't just the three of them, though. A few others were with them as well to see to getting the injured to sickbay once they were found. Any dead found would be treated with the utmost respect and join the bodies of the others. Notifying their families would be a heart wrenching experience, and she was particularly fond of the idea of not having to do that job.

"Have either of you had any experience in removing deceased bodies?" Chet inquired as he observed the various damages as they went. "You notice the smell almost right away. Reminds me of cheese..." He paused momentarily as he fought to hold a sniffle back.

"Chee...have you taken an injury to the skull, Lieutenant McChet?" Marc actually looked at the man's head for a minute before turning to follow Lieutenant Lishka through the crowd. He didn't want to think about finding dead. If he did, this would be the first time that he had faced a dead body. Although he had seen them on vids, the holodeck, and pictures from in the Academy - some of which were horrifying - he wondered how he would react the first time he actually encountered one. Taking a breath, he resolved himself and stepped around and past people after Xylia.

Xylia stopped when she came to an area where there were injured people being helped by other members of the crew. After a few brief words, she looked back to those following behind her. "Apparently we aren't the only ones looking for the injured. We're going lower. Instead of taking the turbolift, we're going through the jeffiries tube. Ladies and gentlemen brace yourselves. Lieutenant McChet... would you do the honors?" She stepped out of the way and indicated to the entrance they would take.

"Me? Are you serious? Aren't you aware of my claustrophobia? Or being afraid of the dark? Or my... ohhh..." he paused as he rushed over towards the small opening. "It's... beautiful!!! Let's go! Tally ho!" He stepped back and did a couple quick windmill exercises before finishing with a couple lunges. "Onwards!" And he was off in a dive.

Marc shook his head and went in after the obviously deranged man, taking his time as the ship shook and rumbled from the injuries, keeping a tight hold on the grips as he did so. This wasn't his first time on a ship taking damage, but he had seen others get hurt from being less than careful.

Xylia groaned inwardly and had another little 'woosah' moment before following the rest of them in. She definitely wanted to get this over with, but at the same time it was a necessary task and her team was the best for the job. With any luck they would get everyone off to medical and taken care of in a timely manner. "McChet... we're going to deck ten."

"Ten, okay! Let's count together... one mississippi... two..." Chet rattled off as he wove in and out of corner after corner. Behind him he could hear the ragged breaths as the others attempted to catch up. "Sorry guys! Lots of practice escaping too."

Marc moved behind him effortlessly, being in good shape physically due to his intense training regimen in working out with weights. He took a moment to let Lieutenant Lishka catch up, making sure that there was no wreckage in the way as he navigated his way through the Jeffries tube. For a moment, he wondered if the deranged Lieutenant had escaped from a mental ward, but again he forced it out of his way. Inwardly, he wished that the Assistant Security Chief take the lead again.

The only woman in their party had no issues when it came to keeping with with them. She was in the best physical shape of her life, and there was no way she would allow something like a jeffries tube get the best of her. "McChet... we should be coming up on deck ten. When you get the hatch, be extremely careful. We don't need anymore injuries today."

"Just call me Chet. It's obviously shorter," the man commented as if the addition of two extra letters made his name much longer. "I can see clearly now! The exit is ahead! Brace yourself!!!!!!!!!" The Lieutenant stopped abruptly and scooted back and forth as if gaining momentum before barreling out into the nearby corridor. "It's alright! I'm fine! However... the decor in here is something to be desired."

A bit shocked at the man's obvious disregard for his own safety, Marc nearly sprinted out after her, but cautioned himself that only fools rushed in where a wise man feared to tread. Good logic, that. He stepped through the exit, looking left, right, up and down before motioning that Chet - as he wanted to be called - was okay to Xylia behind him and that the way was clear.

Xylia moved through the hatch and settled herself next to the two men, blinking at the chaos she found. Chet was right. The decor was something to be desired indeed. "Okay... we're going to start here. This will likely take a while to get through all the remaining decks, but we can do it. Be on alert and listen. We could find people trapped under all of this... crap." That was definitely putting it nicely.

"I'll go left," Marc said and began to make his way down the corridor, avoiding any debris in the way and any sparking consoles. Walking to another intersection, he heard a moan coming from a room. He quickly ran to it and luckily the console wasn't damaged, he entered his Security Override into it and entered cautiously.

A man lay on the floor with a gash to his head, the room in disarray from the attack. He looked up at Marc came into the room. "Wh..what happened?"

The Ensign knelt down by him. "We're under attack. Do you have any broken bones?" The man shook his head. "Not that I know of..." Marc nodded. "Make your way down to sickbay and watch out for debris, taking the Jeffries tubes as you are able. The turbolifts might not be safe." He helped the man up and out of the room, pointing him in the direction that he came from after making sure he's steady on his feet. He proceeded down the hall, checking from room to room, but not finding anyone else.

Strolling along the corridor as if he were taking a relaxing walk at the park, Chet couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of dread nearby. Perhaps it was his stomach and he was just hungry. Or it could have been those fiber induced whole grain waffles that were awakening his bowels. "Oh gosh," he muttered as he clenched his stomach a bit. "It's just horrid I say."

"H... hey! Is... someone out... there?"

Startled, Chet jumped back. "What... what kind of madness is this? My... insides... they're communicating with me!!!!!"

"No... it's... Lieutenant Parks... I'm stuck... behind the door... idiot..."

Chet frowned. "Oh. Well. That is upsetting." Shrugging off the moment of disappointment, the Lieutenant made his way over some scattered piles of ceiling and towards the door at the end of the hall that the voice was coming from. "There's someone in here! I thought it was my stomach at first... but it's just some guy!"

Xylia climbed over some rubble to get to the farther end of the corridor they were in. She pushed some of it away and felt her insides freeze when she spotted a hand sticking out from underneath. Reaching for his, she placed two fingers and concentrated, blocking the noise of the others from her sense of hearing.

Dead.

Perhaps it was best that she was the one to find this particular person. The last thing she wanted was for Chet to start naming off the many different types of cheese the smell reminded him of, not that there was any smell at this point. And, she definitely didn't want Ensign Shenk to pass out on her. Feeling a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach, she began to move more of the debris away in an attempt to expose the face.

The lifeless eyes of a Petty Officer stared back at her.

Xylia closed her eyes and lowered her head. She didn't even know the poor man's name, and for some reason, she felt very guilty. Why? She wasn't sure. There were so many people on board, and it was almost impossible to get to know them all on a first name basis. Placing her fingers over the man's eyes, she gently lowered his lids until his eyes were finally closed. The life of a Starfleet officer... With the good, came the bad and everything else in between.

Pushing herself to her feet, she climbed back over the debris after marking the area for retrieval, then joined the others. "Okay, let's make our way lower. If the injured are able to move on their own, send them to sickbay. If not, I'll be returning with a retrieval team once we've made our initial sweep."

Marc walked back to them and reported the man that he had found and sent to Sickbay. As they made their way through the various decks, he encountered a body, face down under some rubble. Checking to make sure that it was safe, Marc removed the debris and knelt by the young woman. He checked for a pulse before slowly turning her over; his breath caught in his throat. It was a young female Ensign that he went to Starfleet with. A tear came to his eye as he remembered the fun they'd had, but he brushed it aside as he closed her eyes.

Picking up her PaDD, he marked her location in and made his way back to the others, sadness written on his face and in his eyes. "I hope... we don't find ...anymore. I knew her."

"It comes with the job." That was all the Lieutenant said before moving on.

Moving through the remaining decks, no more casualties were found, but the number of injured continued to rise. Medical personnel would definitely have their hands full. Xylia could imagine the chaos that would ensue. Make sure anything life threatening was taken care of, then move on. Surely they would have to call in the reserves from other departments, but she couldn't worry about that right now. There was still the recovery efforts to take place, then to report to the Captain.

The small party headed back up the way they came, and then the rescue efforts were underway.