A Bloody Return

Posted on Tue Jun 6th, 2023 @ 4:48pm by Ensign Ilan Ocara & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken & Warrant Officer Ahira Kasamoto & Lieutenant JG Corvin Hartjin
Edited on on Sat Jun 10th, 2023 @ 5:04am

Mission: S1 Episode 5: Ex Post Facto
Location: Government Building, Banea
Timeline: Date 2371-08-19 at 1100
1513 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

A few moments had passed since the announcement was made that Andrei would be taking over on the planet, and a slight exchange of personnel was taking place. After Ivan and Johnathan had returned to Vengeance, many security, operations, and intelligence officers had beamed down, but the last sparkle of light brought Andrei, Sovas, and Ilan.

Sovas immediately began to look around, taking in his surroundings before finally turning his attention to the gathered Baneans as he pondered the aliens for a moment or two. While he would have preferred to pick a few to hunt to see if they might make good sport, that wasn't why they were here. They needed to find their missing crew mate; he was here for their computers to dive deeply into their systems.

As the light shimmered out of her vision, Ilan found herself immediately uncomfortable with the situation. This kind of thing was far from her comfort zone and that fact wasn’t something she could really hide. She would do her duty though and help find Lyra… or whatever was left of her to find. Her lovely eyes moved and fell on Andrei’s back. The malice that was oozing off of him didn’t exactly make her more comfortable, but she could understand it.

As soon as they materialized, Andrei's visible eye fell on Syr. He looked at her for several dark moments, saying nothing. He didn't blink, move, or give any indication. However, the look in his eye would tell her a dark tale of his feelings and intentions. What this man was capable of was unclear.

"Corvin," Andrei called without diverting his gaze. "Line these animals on the wall. All of them."

"Yes, Commander," He replied while motioning to his security teams to round all of the Baneans up; a few resisted and received at the least a shove forward or the butt of a phaser rifle to the face before being roughly pushed back against the wall as Corvin strode before them, inspecting each of the aliens as his men set about confiscating anything that might be a weapon or a communicator until Andrei gave the order for them to be returned.

Once everything was collected and done, Corvin took his place next to the taller dark-haired man to await his next orders. He was hoping there would be examples made of their 'hosts'.

Syr lined up with the rest of the Baneans in the room. She didn’t protest or try to speak at the moment knowing it would be futile. She recalled former commissioner Dol’s reports that this man was unstable, aggressive, and violent. If he was shortsighted and foolish remained to be seen, but she didn’t exactly have high hopes on that front.

“You people amaze me with your stupidity.” He said, spitting the words as he began to pace the line before the Baneans. “Every warning was given you that we shouldn’t be challenged; every opportunity to cooperate with us as allies was presented, and yet you still responded with treachery. You kidnapped a Terran officer and then promptly lost her, showing a serious or, some might say, even shocking lack of judgement. But, do you want to know a secret?”

He asked the question as he paused, leaning in so close to Syr that their lips were nearly touching. They were eye to eye.

“I’m eager to make you squeal.”

He stayed there for a while before finally extracting himself.

“The Empire can no longer justify your independence. You need our help. From this moment on, your investigation; your society is under new management.” Andrei said, his patch constantly scanning the room and the people in it. “Get me a comprehensive list of your government departments and personnel….and bring me the Minister.”

"It will take about an hour for the minister to be brought to you," Syr said, not exactly fearful but certainly cowed. "He was moved into a secure location during the attack. As for the rest, it is all here." She indicated to the room. "Whatever you need will be provided for you."

Andrei gave the almost subtle nod possible, not satisfied but clearly moving on.

“Now, I need you to tell me the details of the ‘punishment’ you inflicted on her. It might help us in finding her.” He said, folding his muscular arms over his chest.

“I’m no medical practitioner of any kind so if you want intricate details of the procedure, someone more knowledgeable can be brought to you.” Syr offered in preamble then shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “The short of it is, we Baneans have the technology to extract the memory of the moment of death from someone who was murdered to use as irrefutable evidence of who committed the crime. The memory is implanted into a temporary avatar which in turn displays it to the judges of the court. Given the memory is from the victim, this is more a formality as the evidence simply can’t be denied. Once the perpetrator is declared guilty, the punishment is the same for all murderers; they are taken to a facility where they have the same memory that condemned them - the moment of their crime - implanted in their minds. For the rest of their lives, murderers are forced to relive that moment through the eyes of their victim at determined intervals throughout the day; the time varies for the… severity of the murder.”

"Call it what you like, but you are psychologically torturing the murderer," Corvin growled as his grip tightened on the grip of his rifle as he fought down the seething anger inside of him at the idea of Lyra being subjected to it. The fact that aliens even though they had the right to judge a Terran by their laws, galled him, but that this had been done to Lyra was secretly even more of a transgression in his eyes.

He looked to Andrei and cooled himself just a fraction so he wasn't speaking to the man he blamed for Lyra being in this situation so hotly. "Commander, with your permission, I'd like to get our investigation team looking over the entirety of the case against Lieutenant Cassiel as quickly as possible to make certain the Baneans didn't miss something with their technological expertise."

"After all, she was the first Terran they've ever dealt with." He turned his attention back to Syr, the acid in his tone unmistakable as he looked at the alien woman.

“No need, Lieutenant. After today, she won’t be the only Terran guilty of murdering a Banean.” Andrei said, his hand moving to pull out his phaser and pointing it at a random Banean woman who was standing in the lineup. He pulled the trigger, and the yellow beam impacted her directly on the cheek. He watched as every cell in her body was set on fire. And as she screamed in agony, she was reduced to a bit of residue on the floor. “You see, it doesn’t matter if she’s guilty or not. I couldn’t care less.”

He turned his phaser to a Banean man at the end of the row now. The man flinched realizing my this was his end, before also going up in a screaming blast.

“What you can do is search the room where she was held. Take Ilan with you and see if you can find any clues.”

Ilan had been very quietly standing by and watching everything unfold. When Andrei began to kill the defenseless, effectively surrendered Baneans, she frowned but wisely said nothing. It was only when he spoke to Corvin and by extension herself that she looked to him and nodded. Given she wasn't the one of rank between herself and Corvin though, she left it to him to verbally acknowledge the command.

For his part Corvin watched on impassively towards Andrei's actions as he brutally executed the Baneans, with a part of him thinking that this was the right course but another part. A quieter part, told him this was wasteful lashing out that this wasn't doing anything to bring Lyra home any faster and was just the other man lashing out because he didn't have anyone or anything else to harm. "Acknowledged, Commander; we'll get on that right away."

Taking a step back, the acting Security Chief looked to Ilan, taking PaDD from another officer as he tucked into a pocket on his vest, giving his dark-haired companion a nod. "Miss Ocara, with me."

On the surface for the moment, he appeared to be calm and collected, but underneath he was anything but. He was seething with anger and much of it was directed towards Andrei as he listened to the sharp whine of a phaser discharge followed by the agonized screams of another Banean as the acrid stench of burning flesh filled the air. He led the way to a turbolift with Ilan in tow, determined to bring Lyra home.

OFF