Tiria Hamasaki - "Innocence Lost In The Wind"

[+ Nadeshiko]

It was a routine arrest mission - Tiria's squad, sometimes nicknamed the Flying Squad for how often it traveled across the sector, was sent to Telstrus 3 to arrest a rogue scientist. Dr. Alfred VanBuren, a weapons scientist, had been trading weapons with the Cardassians, which was fine, if he had a license and was trading export-approved weapons.

He was not, and some of the weapons were illegal even to own in the Federation for *Starfleet*. The black haired woman looked at the planet, and was frowning. Telstrus 3, an older Federation world, had a standard climate control system, and she looked at the Constable handling the sensor readout.

"Constable Lain, that weather looks.. unusual. Can you check the functioning of the climate control system and if it'd be safe to fly through it?" She requested, the precise Federation Standard accent still unusual in her ears, no matter how long she had practiced to arrive at it.

"Yes, Detective-Inspector." The petite Andorian worked the panel, then frowned. "Ma'am, there's an odd interference. There-" A flash in the screen distracted the five man squad, and a beam from somewhere in the southeastern archipelago struck a satellite, then another, then another. The pilot of the shuttle, a Benzite, cursed, and rapidly moved away from orbit, but Tiria only had eyes for a rapidly forming mega hurricane, dominating the southern continent and spreading, with a gigantic eye.

Another, Kazri, an Andorian sergeant sitting at the comm panel, cleared his throat, with a bit of a shaky voice. "We're detecting a message from the archipelago. It's our scientist, and this is apparently a test of a new weapon he's developing - one that can devastate worlds. If we don't guarantee him safe passage to neutral space, he says he placed a virus in another world that would do the same. Distress signals are spreading across the planet."

Tiria took a deep breath, as she was the commanding officer on scene, and needed to prune a few options. "Send a signal to the USS Illinois, with a status report and include the message. Can we destroy the climate control system?"

While that wasn't technically normal operations for Federation Security, she was trained - especially after the Siege of Resilion IV - to take more aggressive actions.

Lain shook her head. "The interference would scatter our phasers - we'd need the power of a starship. Also, we can't destroy enough before the hurricane would reach the size of a continent. Whatever he's done.. we'll need a science ship to figure out."

Tiria suspected that was the only reasonable explanation, but she could see with the magnification the sensors were providing them, the *350 km/h* winds tearing apart even reinforced structures. And sensors were suggesting that it was still increasing.

Lain frowned. "But.. it looks like this requires a constant signal, and if we can cut it off.." The Andorian paled

Tiria took a deep breath. "He'd likely trigger the second system, and without knowing where it is, we can't act." The words were ashes in her mouth. "Priority One distress signal, get Starfleet on scene now, and alert Federation Security." She looked at the strengthening hurricane destroying towns and houses across the continent and had to fight to keep her voice steady. "If anything comes up where we can stop this madness, tell me."

The shuttle fell into deathly silence, as all of them silently witnessed the destruction.

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by Zhanyt Lafizatar
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