A mission in progress

Tal'Ara halted her team at the entrance of the prison.

"Okay, they are going to come charging out of here, so lets let them come to us."

She motioned to a group of the team, "Take cover on the right flank. There is a blind spot. They will walk right past you. We will draw them out. Once they are past you and have their backs to you, open fire."

She motioned to another section of the team, "You go to the left flank. Fire only after the right flank begins firing."

"The rest of you, come with me."

They all went into their respective positions. Tal'Ara's small group was in front of the entrance.

"We will draw them out, once they have cleared the entry way, take cover behind these rocks, and let the flanks take them out. Fire at will"

Her group began firing at the entrance, as if they were trying to bust in.

"Brilliant," T'Pren replied, less to the group and more to herself. "Find cover. It's going to be a firefight."

She, however, stayed with the beacon, looking toward the alarm's source, mostly, but aware that reinforcements could be coming from any direction. She tapped her comm again. "Beacon is operational."

The small team descended on the Commander's team and was met with a barrage of phaser fire. Shots were exchanged, three Cardassians and one Starfleet officer were hit.

Once the Cardassian guards were out of the entryway, the two flanks open fired at their backs.

Tal'Ara's group immediately took cover behind a boulder. One ensign was down.

T'Pren's com came through. Tal replied, "Good. Keep it that way."

They waited behind the boulder until the firing from the flanks subsided.

Three of Pren's team were immediately dropped by Cardassian fire, but Pren's shooting was surprisingly accurate. When the dust cleared, only Starfleet officers remained standing.

"Tie them up," T'Pren ordered of the remaining ensigns. She pointed at one of the group who set up the beacon and gestured for him to come keep an eye on the equipment. With hesitation, she holstered her phaser and pulled out her tricorder, moving swiftly to check the vitals on her downed team members.

Two of the three officers were wounded, and unconscious. One had taken a shot to the head, and was quite dead.

T'Pren's stomach twisted when she got the tricorder reading's on the dead ensign and for a moment, her Vulcan mental walls faltered. She'd never lost anyone directly under her command before...but she also still had a whole team counting on her. Somber and shaken, the little halfie stepped away from the downed officers and tapped her comm. "Inabnet to Hippolyta. Three to beam directly to Sick Bay."

The three ensigns were beamed aboard to Zima's care, leaving Inabnet with a few less people to cover her.

As the corpse that used to be under her command dissipated into the ether, T'Pren gave herself a mental shake. Now was definitely not the time to contemplate the nature of death and her role in it for that officer. She shoved her tricorder away and pulled back out her phaser, gesturing to her remaining team to cover the holes in the perimeter. She once again took up watch at the beacon. "Come on, Tal'Ara," she murmured to the wind.

The Cardassian officers had taken to their knees, trying to hit Tal'Ara's team, but with no success. The shots subsided. "We've got you outnumbered! Show yourselves!" one of the officers commanded.

"Well, the do have us outnumbered. We need to draw them out more. Give me that," she said to an ensign.

He handed her a flash grenade. She ripped the tag off of it and tossed it towards the group of Cardassians near the entrance.

It exploded causing a bring flash and thick smoke to fill the air.

With the guards momentarily blinded, Tal'Ara's group moved in, trapping the group of Cardassians in a triangle of crossfire. Both flanks fired from behind, while Tal'Ara and her cohors fired head on, from knees.

With ease, Tal'Ara gunned down the Cardassians, leaving the opening of the facility vulnerable to Starfleet entry.

"Alright people. There are likely to be more guards inside. Stay vigilant. Lets move quickly. Kill anything that isn't in a Starfleet uniform. Once we get to the cell blocks, we will arm the prisoners and rendezvous with Team B. Lets roll out!"

The unit moved into the compound swiftly, phasers set to kill.

Inside the compound was an understaffed labor camp. Two heavily armed prefects and ten officers purveyed over a number of underfed, exhausted prisoners doing backbreaking labor; welding, breaking stones, refining, and other miseries. When the Commander's team was spotted, the ten officers spread out, trying to use the prisoners as shields.

"Break into pairs. Only fire if you have a clear shot. I dont want any dead hostages," she commanded.

Tal'Ara took aim at the first of the two prefects. She fired directly at him with the phaser rifle on maximum setting.

Other members of the team began working themselves into firing positions to take out the other guards.

Luckily, Tal'Ara's training panned out: her team took out three of the guards, and Tal'Ara was a competent sniper, taking out the first prefect with a deft shot.

Tal'Ara took aim at the second prefect and fired.

Her team moved in and recovered the prisoners that were being used as shields.

With only 7 guards left, part of the team focused on recovering the prisoners. The rest continued moving into better positions to take out the remaining guards.

The prisoners who had been recovered, were given weapons, to assist in the attack.

Her troops were closing in on the remaining guards.

The guards didn't stand a chance against Tal Shiar training. Tal'Ara managed to collect the prisoners with no further casualties from her team.

"Okay, everyone," she addressed the entire prison, "Starfleet has sent us to extract you. We are bound to encounter more guards on our way back to the transport beacon, so you will be given weapons to assist. You are to stay in the middle of our team. We will cover you from front and behind. We are going to be moving quickly. So if anyone is unable to move on their own, find someone to help you. We need to work as a team."

Once all the prisoners had been freed from their respective restraints, the party began to move out of the facility. Tal'Ara lead up front with a few soldiers, followed by the mob of prisoners. Behind them followed the rest of team A.

As the tired, beaten and exhausted prisoners followed, some were too weak to hold phaser rifles, others were eager to leave. The straggling prisoners followed Tal'Ara out, only to be stopped by five more guards.
"Halt!" said one.

Tal'Ara didn't hesitate and immediately shot the first guard in the face. Two of her team moved right and flanked the others, as she went in and rifle butted another guard hard in the jaw.

Some of the prisoners were panicked, but the rear of the team kept them in line, like herding cattle.

The right flank fired upon the rest of the guards.

Tal'Ara quickly cut down the remaining guards between herself and the escape route. There was nothing further keeping her from leaving the prison compound.

After a long slog through the sands, Team A finally arrived at the landing site, with all of the prisoners in tact.

She was exhausted, and had plenty of scrapes and bruises from the battle.

Tal'Ara let out a sigh of relief when she saw T'Pren alive and the beacon up and running. She signaled over to her.

Despite a few singed areas of her uniform and being generally very dirty, what with all the ash and sand blowing past, T'Pren had managed to come through the battle relatively unscathed. She shoved her hair out of her face where it had come loose of its French braid as she surveyed the area, leaving a smear of soot across her cheek and temple.

When there looked to be masses of people coming toward them, her breath caught -- this was either going to be the end of them or the end of the mission -- and then came out in a sharp exhale when she recognized Tal'Ara. She signaled back, giving the all-clear, but stayed up on the boulder with the beacon, searching desperately through the crowds of malnourished prisoners for two particularly familiar faces.