Do or die scenario training

Posted on Mon Mar 16th, 2026 @ 12:38am by Technical Sergeant Decker & Chief Warrant Officer Karzen Son of Arjune, Son of Ragan MD, MPH & Warrant Officer Loren Baro & Technical Sergeant Josi Baro & Sergeant Benjamin "Ben" Hall & Senior Technician Jaime Mallory

1,590 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Quiet Stone
Location: Firing Range

Decker looked over the Lovelace's specs. The Ju'day raider was fucking double-edged sword. It was small, which made it easy to defend if you had the numbers, but it was also a death trap for the defenders, as they could easily get pinned down, as there were only so many places on the raider.

The plan was simple: if they could take care of the boarders as soon as they breached, if that wasn't possible, fall back to the three choke-points, and then hold them as long as possible, or until they can push them to the cargo hold, where they see and vent. It was cruel, but it is either they survive, or the crew of the Lovelace survives.

Top priorities were holding engineering and the bridge; if those fall, it doesn't matter what happens next. The key priority was also getting the doc to the bridge. Ideally, they would have a nurse or another doc they could get to engineering to help keep those personnel alive until either they fought the boarders off, or......

Karzen arrived, armed with a Klingon disruptor pistol on one side, and an almost machete like thirty-four point three centimeter blade. It was reminiscent of a Filipino Kambantuli. While Karzen was proficient and experienced using it the way it was intended, as a blade, more than once Karzen had pulled off of its mount on his belt still in its sheath and used it to parry or as an impact weapon. The blade, like its cousins in his quarters, was connected to his honor and that of his houses and he tried to only draw it on worthy opponents. Of course, that wasn't always practical, so sometimes he just pulled it, dealt with the problem, and sorted out worthiness and honor later.

Loren entered with her standard Bajoran sidearm, she didn't need to be there but never turned down the chance to practice, only the arrogant figured they were good enough in her opinion. "Well Met." She greeted Decker then turned to Karzen, with a smile. He didn't do things by halves that was for sure. "Honored Elder."

"Warrant Officer Baro," Karzen said. He would deny it if accused of it, but he enjoyed being recognized for living as long as he had. So he granted himself, and Loren, a small smile, and stood ever so slightly taller than he had been standing a moment ago. The old Klingon knew he should probably not let anyone stroke his ego, but he had a bit of soft spot for Loren, as she had been kind to him even though he was his usual grumpy self when they first met. In reality, he was a bit like a grisly old teddy bear made of tough old leather... who carried a fully charged disruptor pistol and what amounted to a fancy machete and wasn't afraid to use both to defend his patients... and his friends.

Loren nodded back, and with another smile took a spot against the wall as she waited

Ben had stepped through the doorway, posture easy but alert, his eyes already scanning the room out of habit.

Josi followed a half-step behind him, her expression brightening immediately at the sight of Karzen. But then her smile faltered, only slightly, as she took in the exchange between him and Loren.

Not romantic. Not overt. But warm. And she noticed the way Karzen had stood a little taller. The small smile he didn’t give easily. The ease in Loren’s posture... Something tightened low in her chest, an unfamiliar, unwelcome sensation. She didn’t let it show.

Crossing the room without haste, she took up a place beside Loren, leaning back against the wall as if it had always been her intention to stand there. Her voice was quiet and neutral, meant only for Loren. “Am I interrupting something?” But her eyes flicked briefly toward Karzen before settling forward again.

Loren smiled in greeting, her pleasure at seeing her sister obvious. It took her a second to catch on. "The Doc? A decent sort. Competent." She smiled again, "Quirky as a Kai wearing a fruit hat. And he shows up to phaser practice looking like a grizzled space pirate. I aspire to be that Epic as I get older." She said respect mingled with humor in her voice.

Josi nodded once.

“Mm.”

That tightness in her chest didn’t entirely ease, but it dulled enough to ignore.

The doorway opened again, and Jaime stepped inside, offering a casual nod as she crossed the threshold. The room pressed against her senses immediately — anticipation, focus, competitive energy, the quiet edge that always accompanied security drills. It wasn’t unpleasant. Just concentrated. Layers of emotion brushed past her awareness: confidence, nerves carefully restrained, tactical calculation, amusement.

And something else.

Subtle. Tighter. Not conflict, exactly — but a ripple beneath the surface that didn’t quite match the rest. Her attention drifted instinctively until it settled on Josi. {Ah} Jaime’s expression remained neutral. She shifted her weight slightly, letting the impressions recede into the background where they belonged.

{Interesting}

She said nothing.

Decker looked around, with faint memories of doing this early in the war, but the opposite training to be the boarders, it was a weird feeling, but he felt like he was back into familiar territory. "Alright, this is pretty simple. If we get breached, there is very little we can do if we can't contain them at their breach point," he said, looking around at the group, pulling up what he was working on.

"It isn't impossible to survive; the main goal is to incapacitate the intruders as quickly as possible, hence why we are doing this and firearm training," Decker added. "For us, the easiest breaching point is the cargo bay. If this is the case, it actually is the best case for us, as if we can't incapacitate them with our firearms, we can seal the cargo bay and then vent everything out."

Before Decker started speaking, Lorens head shifted to look at Josi, her sister's senses kicking into gear. She didn't know what that mhmm' was, but she knew enough to want to ask about it. She opened her mouth to do that, only to close it and shoot Josi a 'We will talk about this later'look before turning her focus to Decker as he began the session.

"....so, when the boarding alarms sound, the doctor needs to make his way to the bridge as quickly as possible, his main objective is to keep everyone on the bridge alive, his second objective is to take the helm if the pilots become incapacitated," Decker said, looking at the old Klingon.

Karzen grunted. "I'll need to get some practice flying this... fine craft of ours," he said, with a slight grin on his face for a moment, before he seemed to catch himself and go back to a moderate scowl. There was nothing particularly wrong with the Ju'Day class freighter. It was old, but so was he, and he wasn't done yet, either. "This ship is at about the upper end of anything I've ever flown as far as size and gross tonnage. It's also been a while since I've flown anything bigger than a moderately sized, warp-capable shuttle or smaller runabout. I'll learn quickly, but I'll need time. Also, we'll need to store trauma kits and more advanced medical equipment on the bridge. If I'm going to use it as a field hospital, I'm going to need more than a couple of first aid kits. I'm a doctor, not a bloody magician."

Decker nodded, "We can do that. The captain ensured we had a full complement of medical supplies, including trauma kits. As for flight time, that'll be up to our captain and XO, but I am sure they'll allow it," Decker added, "now that it's sorted, I want to run through making sure the doc gets to the bridge, meaning we need to make sure the pathway to the bridge is the quickest, while the safest." Decker added pulling up the route.

Karzen grimaced. "I'm old, Decker," Karzen said. "Perhaps even inching my way slowly, mind you, towards decrepitude. But I'm neither dead yet nor completely helpless." Karzen tapped his weapons. "These aren't for show. I'm quite a bit quicker than I look. Just mark off my routing options and leave the rest to me."

"Too risky," Decker said, looking at the old Klingon, "again, I am not saying you are incapable of doing this alone, but that risk is too high, plus we can only spare one of the deputies," Decker said with a small sigh, as he knew the next training the deputies had to do would be how to defend themselves in a one vs many scenario, or "ultimate sacrifice" scenario as it was put to him when he went through SpecOps 'selection'.

Karzen grunted. "Fine," the old Klingon said. Pointless to argue.

Ben cleared his throat quietly before speaking.

"No one’s questioning whether you can handle yourself, Doc," he said evenly. "But if boarders get that far, things are already going sideways."

He nodded toward the route Decker had pulled up.

"They won’t spread evenly. They’ll hit choke points and command routes first. An escort means two sets of eyes on those corners." He shrugged lightly. "Harder for someone to get the drop on you before you reach the bridge."

"Agreed," Decker added, giving a polite nod to Ben.

To be continued....

 

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