Lt. Cmdr. Kirsty Carpenter - Weekend Warrior

[IsKah]

I love the detail that @Kirsty L. Carpenter put into this. Nothing like fighting in the Holodeck with iffy safeties. 

 

((Kirsty & Teryn's Quarters, Deck 9, U.S.S. Ronin.))

 

Kirsty felt like she had just gotten to sleep, her body still getting used to the new sleeping arrangements, when a very odd Security Alert thrummed through her personal terminal. Odd in that it seemed to originate from Engineering. 

 

It seemed Ensign Is'Kah had been running a...fairly complex and fairly power-draining holoprogram. And for...quite a long time too. Repeatedly over hours and across ungodly times of night. For multiple days, or nights, rather. Like right now, in fact. Which is what triggered the security subroutine. It seemed one of the Assistant Chief's had clocked the program and the strain it was putting on ambient power cores and computational powers and set up a "dragnet" for it. 

 

But the only question that seemed to occur to Kirsty, standing in front of her personal terminal with a curious frown in her pajamas was...

 

oO What the hell kinda program is this? Oo

 

She decided she was going to find out for herself.

 

((A Short Time Later...))

((Holodeck Main Level, Deck 7, U.S.S. Ronin.))

 

Kirsty only looked at the external terminal display of the deck for a bit. She couldn't really make heads or tails of it, but it seemed to be fluid to a degree. That was, at least, if the constantly ticking upward Level designations on the display were any indication. 

 

Anyone else might have gotten an Engineer, or maybe called for backup. But Kirsty only found herself more curious about what this could even be. And how much control Is'Kah seemed to have over the program itself. 

 

She would mark this later as the first of a few mistakes.

 

She barrelled into the Holodeck into a brutally beautiful winter wonder-hellscape. Implacable stars and a harsh moonscape hung above an endless white waste, complete with howling winds and sharp, stinging particulates of snow and powder that instantly stung her frame and face. The wind itself seemed not to blow, but PULL, grasping her harshly and sending her skidding like a poorly flying bird into the nearest snowbank.

 

She didn't even have the time to grasp the holo-arch, which disappeared almost as soon as she was cleared of it. One of the "physical conditions" of these high level holoprograms. She tried to call for it, but the snow and wind choked her voice back down her throat. She hadn't expected this. And further hadn't expected just how unforgiving the conditions around her seemed to gleefully be. 

 

oO What the hell...Oo

 

She finally got herself back to her feet, using the stinging of her bare feet as a steadying point. She peered against the horizon. Tried to take it all, or as much as she could, in. No landmarks. No distinction between the geography either. There was just snow and wind and the burning stars above and now...movement. 

 

A hunched, darkened figure was looming toward her with the wind. Stretching and bending an impressive wingspan alongside its flattened, blocky frame. It didn't look like Is'Kah, but she had to take a chance...She started to raise her voice over the wind, cupping her hands across and around her mouth to raise her yell further.

 

Carpenter: Is'Kah! THAT you!?

 

The figure then SPRANG! Suddenly and violently. With enough ferocity that Kirsty lost her footing in the snow with an instinctive backstep. She sprawled backward, landing with an audible crunch and OOF as the figure sailed above her. Revealing the snarling teeth and antenna of an Andorian Ice Hunter. And the flashing ushann in each hand.

 

Carpenter: whaaaa the h-h-hell?!

 

She sputtered to the rapidly piling snow around her, but she scrambled, half flopped to her belly, trying to get eyes on the Andorian as quickly as possible. He had landed a lot better than she had. Rolling and pitching on his shoulder, leaving barely a ghost of a trail into the snow. Well-worn white-and-grey liveried medium armor protected his body from the elements, including a choice pair of boots and gloves Kirsty found herself intimately jealous of. Especially once she had gotten back to her feet, plunging her bare feet back into the snow almost to the ankle.

 

The dual ushann ice-knives would protect him from everyone else. But higher level programs also hinted at lessened restrictions on safety protocols. Just what in the hell was Is'Kah playing at here?! The Andorian took one leaping step to the left, then another to the right and forward. Kirsty raised her arms, tightening her fists for likely heavy work. The Andorian's fists, wrapped tightly across the middle hafts of the ice-knives swept the right blade wildly. Kirsty took another unsteady step back, hating the way the snow was slowing her down.

 

But then the Andorian made HIS first mistake, trying another glancing blow with the left blade, which hit nothing but the under part of his wrist against Kirsty's sharply upraised knee, jarring the knife in his grip. But nicking her upper thigh, sending a hot lancet of blood across the snow for their trouble. It was enough of an opening though, and Kirsty didn't hesitate. Knowing that the Holo Andorian likely wouldn't either. 

 

She lashed out violently, but with a feral focus. Driving her right fist flat against the Andorian's neck. One of the few unarmored points of his body, as most Ice Hunter armors don't have any ballistic underlays or neck scoops. The Ice Hunter's body jarred like his wrist had and normally she would have kept him jarred with a left hook, but her wobbly stance kept her from her usual one-two.

 

Instead she took a page from the Andorian's book, springing her own frame into a bullet. Pointed to further drive the Ice Hunter from his feet and away from using those ushann. They both tumbled into the snow, limbs akimbo, but Kirsty's shoulder thumped against something hard in the snow. She snaked her hands after it, whatever it was.

 

The Ice Hunter roared just feet away. His voice eerily joining the howl of the wind and a ghoulish churning sound of the snow around his whipping frame. He barreled toward her, looking like a deadly plow, parting the snow around his rage. Kirsty gripped the haft in her dominant hand, brought it up blindly but surely, bringing up a spreading curtain of snow along with...the upturned bottom of a LIRPA?!

 

The heavy block of weighted metal sunk heavy and true against the side of the Ice Hunter's skull. Sending him flinging like a puppet with his strings cut into the snow bank to the left of their erstwhile battleground.She turned the Vulcan weapon in her hand, blade up toward the starry sky, and leaned heavily on the staffen middle of a thing she was...kinda growing to love?

 

First...she was gonna get those Ice Hunter's boots and gloves...and then she was gonna find Is'Kah and finally get the skinny on...whatever the hell this was.

 

Carpenter: Alright, Ensign, it's your game...let's play.

 

She started forward. Eager and now armed against whatever was coming next. 

 

Is'Kah/Any: RESPONSE

--

TAG/TBC

--

Lieutenant Commander 

Kirsty L. Carpenter

//\\

Chief of Security & Tactical

Starfleet SAR

(Marine Rank: Major)

//\\

U.S.S. RONIN

 NCC-34523

ID: E239512QC0

//\\

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