STF

War... War Never Changes - Cestus III - Side Sim

Posted April 9, 2020, 12:13 p.m. by Lieutenant Nathan Harland (Counselor) (Steven Sigle)

Posted by Ensign Chloe Harland (Nurse) in War… War Never Changes - Cestus III - Side Sim

10 Years Ago
https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf3/outpost42/notes/69387/ Original post
SNIP

Nathan took her hand as he began to walk her out of the bunkhouse as he looked up at the northern sky as the sun had set leaving just the three moons in orbit as they seemed to illuminate the area with an eerie glow. The yellow light that shone off them was far brighter than the single moon of Earth. The effect reminded Chloe of a lantern at a campsite that was dying as they left the more brightly lit section of the hospital. The farther they moved from the hospital the more shadows seemed to move and slip along the walls of the buildings they passed. Chloe did not say a word as Nathan avoided the check-in station with two men directing people who approached it. Instead, he headed towards the area where a few emergency vehicles were parked. Sliding between them, Nathan disappeared for a second as he jumped down a small retaining wall. Reaching his hands up he motioned for Chloe to follow him. It was farther than it looked as she jumped off but Nathan’s hands around her waist broke her fall enough that she easily landed on her feet. They headed to a small fence where she stood next to him quietly as Nathan inputted a series of codes snapping it open.

“Kinda like our first date,” she took his hand with a smile feeling her heart race as he closed the gate behind him. Nathan would never put her in harms way but Nathan never played anything safe. Wherever they were headed they weren’t allowed but if it granted them some privacy, Chloe would follow him anywhere he led her.

Dashing out he lead her through the back alleys. They were not supposed to be out, curfews had been in place put Pike City had its vibrant underground just like any world. Looking back as she followed him her hand gripped tightly he couldn’t help but smile before he stopped as he pressed her up near a wall in one of the alleys that appeared abandoned as he let them catch their breath.

The night air was starting to cool enough that the exertion from running was making the sweat chill her body. She took the second to catch her breath closing her eyes and imagining a different time and place. Rumors abound in the academy about how to sneak out of the perimeter, but Chloe had never attempted that. Standing here in the murky moonslight, she could not help but feel young imagining a night like this as she and Nathan snuck out like cadets for some after-hours fun at the local bars.

Looking down the end Nathan saw a few guards lights but they wouldn’t find them as he looked back over at Chloe as he leaned in to kiss her deeply as he let himself forget it all. Her kiss was soft and delicate just like the first time he kissed her in the middle of a baseball field. His mind drifted, in and out of focus before he stopped the kiss as he looked deep in her eyes. “I missed you dollface…” he said softly as he smirked at her. It was the same look he gave her, but it seemed to have weight more in this decaying facade of a city.

“See,” she pulled at his jacket moving him back for another quick kiss. “Aren’t you glad I came,” she winked at him. “Dont answer that,” she immediately replied. The subject of her arrival was bound to be heated and right now all she wanted was a few moments as Nathan and Chloe instead of Ensign Harland and Kendrick. “So is this how we are going to have to sneak into your place all the time,” she asked him curiously. Her quarters on the Seawolf was a four-person suite. As a nurse, she slept in one room with four roommates and a single common room. Nathan probably had a single person efficiency which is why he was taking her this way. They might have been engaged but at least her captain reminded the small crew at every shore leave this was not a floating hotel and only the crew was allowed back on board. Hopefully, Nathan’s CO was more lenient.

“Look, we can get back to my place soon… but let’s forget all of this for just a bit. These people, they learned how to let go and just live… and that’s what we are going to do tonight… no one else in the galaxy… just you and me.” he said softly, this was something Nathan often did with her. Found moments to both be in the open presence of everyone yet somehow only focus on her. He could be in a sea of faces and see nothing but her brown eyes and perfect smile.

Her eyes held a more intense gaze as she nodded in response. She had only been on Cestus III for twelve hours yet already she realized the place was nothing like it was presented back in San Francisco. The glistening models of buildings that lined streets dotted with parks did not seem to exist. At least in this section, the only thing Chloe could see was pre-fab modules lining narrow thoroughfares like crates in an industrial zone. Until Nathan had spoken, Chloe completely forgot there was a native civilian population here. It was at this moment, Chloe understood they were not going back to the Seawolf or Hartford. All the clandestine moving about now made sense. McNamara mentioned something about curfews but waved the end of the conversation off stating they would be stationed on the ship or in the hospital at night so it mattered little to the crew.

“Just stay with me, let them know at all times you are mine… people can be possessive… you recall how to belong to someone still right?” he said in a small cool tone. The couple had always had a unique relationship, one that defied all boundaries. Many would call the pairing unusual, but from the first date, their souls melded into each other.

Chloe felt a shiver run down her spine that was not entirely caused by the cool night air. They had strict rules when they were out in clubs and bars. With Nathan often playing something on stage, she was left alone in corners or at tables. More than once Nathan proved he had no issue with displaying conduct unbecoming of an officer when Chloe had difficulty moving someone along who had drunk too much as he played on stage. The solution was simple. Removing the diamond from her right finger she slid it on her left. This universal sign was recognized by anyone who could be possibly interested in Chloe. “Of course. Tonight I am officially Chloe Harland like I have been since Oracle park,” she slowly rubbed her ring finger on her right hand moving the stone around slowly. The light from the moons seemed to make it sparkle more than usual.

Taking her hand into his he kissed the outside as before latching on as he looked out into the alley as he began navigating the dark like he always did, weaving between homes and businesses alike. The Federation complex was separate from the people who lived in the world and do to the marital law few left their homes. When though your life felt on the line every day, few people ever listened to those laws.

She and Nathan weaved down so many alleys and streets, Chloe was not sure she could find her way back to the hospital without help. Each building looked the same: Brown, three-story with one door and one window on the street level. Some had the name of a business that was no longer lit for the night and others just a number. Nathan’s eidetic memory, however, would have mapped out each twist and turn as if the ground held flashing arrows signaling where to go. Abruptly, halfway down an alley that had looked like any of the others, they passed Nathan stopped. To their right was a metal door with no adornments. The slightly thumping of a deep base tone could be felt but not heard as Chloe put a hand on the cold metal.

Nathan knocked at the back alley door then looked over and winked slightly at Chloe as he waited for a response, that response never came though. Instead, a light as bright as a supernova cut through the eerie moonslight causing Chloe to flutter her eyes. The sound of a siren replaced the deathly quiet sound of their breathing only moments before. It was so high pitched it forced Chloe on instinct to cover her ears as she worked to remove the spots from her vision. It all was happening so fast. The flash and siren were soon adding a third sensation to the situation. If Chloe had been back in California, she would immediately thought an earthquake was occurring but she was not on Earth. Later she would try to remember what came first the vibrations of the impact or the boom of the building at the end of the alley as it exploded. Thick choking smoke rolled down the narrow space towards them. Nathan put his body over Chloe’s to shelter her from the objects and debris that had to be contained in the fog engulfing them. The fabric of his jacket, which he wrapped her up in did little to filter out the dust now swirling and settling in the air. Coughing Chloe pulled her face out of his chest hearing the piercing cries of those hurt and calling for help. She might have been new to Cestus III but she was not stupid. The True Way was back, and this time it sounded as if in force.

Deep rumbling screeches resounded overhead as fighters circled the city, which meant the ships in orbit must be fighting hard if they were able to break the barricade. Rumors of an emboldened force were just that, rumors. It seemed the True Way wasn’t going to stop until it had full control of this planet. The flash of heat was intense as Nathan looked around to see where they could go. Their club didn’t answer and everyone now had more things to worry about.

“We have to get back to the hospital,” Chloe spoke only from training and not experience as she stood up and looked around as if trying to decide which direction to run. The alleyway behind them would be hard to get through but that was the way back. A series of snaps and cracks echoed down the alley from the north indicating the True Way was strafing the city. “Nathan,” she called out but was silenced immediately.

“Stay here…” Nathan ordered Chloe as he heard a small scream down an alley to the north of them as he began to bolt.

“No! Wait where are you going,” she yelled immediately following him. Nathan was faster and his strides longer but not so much so that Choe could not follow him. “Nathan,” Choe ran hard towards the end of the alley as Nathan turned the corner ahead of her. Three seconds later, Chloe emerged stopping dead in her tracks. The street looked like a war zone. Martial law had kept people off the streets but as buildings were hit or destroyed, it drove the inhabitants out looking for shelter. About ten yards ahead of her Nathan was moving faster than she had ever seen him run. It only took her a second to snap her focus where it needed to be.

Once arrived Nathan found a group of a half dozen Gorn trying to move back a beam that had fallen on a small Gorn girl. Nathan began to run, sliding under one of the beam as he kept his pace to rush to their aid as he stopped behind them. “Can you get her out H’rion?” he said, clearly knowing the taller Gorn by name as he kneeled down to look down at the small girl still under the beam.

“Now we can,” H’rion stopped trying to pull the crying child as the two other Gorn grunted under the strain of lifting the beam. “On three,” he looked at his two companions. With Nathan here to pull her out they could raise the beam enough to free her

The child began to cry out as the pressure lifted off her leg causing it to hurt more than when the beam was cutting off the blood flow to the broken limb.

“It’ll be okay…” Nathan said as a loud splashdown of energy fire hit nearby as the walls began shaking as the others began lifting.

“Don’t leave me. Help me. Help me,” she began to panic but unlike an adult who would fight back, the little girl began to sob uncontrollably. The peppering of strafing fire on the next street over didn’t distract the Gorn or Nathan from their set tasks. It did cause the little girl to try and pull back deeper into the crevice created as her father and uncles lifted the beam.

“Look at me Na’len, you are going to be fine little one… Uncle Nathan is here,” he said as the girl nodded as the others began to lift the beam. Nathan heard a small scuffle behind him as he looked back only to find Chloe coming up the rear.

“Nathan we need to get off the street,” Chloe yelled as her words were punctuated by the screech of fighters still trying to destroy the True Way in the skies.

“I said stand put!” he yelled, it was the last thing he needed her risking her life too in the fire and ash.

“You left me in that alley and other people help,” Chloe snapped slipping into emergency room mode. The world might be falling apart around them but with each passing minute more and more people were screaming and needing help.

“Did you ever think there was a reason I told you to stay there?” Nathan growled as he looked back to Na’len as he began to treat the little girl. Her injuries were not severe but anytime you were so little everything felt so much more severe.

“Get back where you were told now,” he said as his eyes narrowed on her before looking back to the small girl who was finally free from the rubble as the others moved her gently to the side.

Nathan Harland

Ignoring him, Chloe took off in a sprint towards a building whose front had collapsed with people stumbling out over the debris to avoid being inside it as it collapsed. As the people exited, Chloe instantly began to triage the patients. Setting her eyes on an elderly man she pulled off her coat and pressed it hard on the top of his leg. “He has punctured his femoral artery,” she announced hoping one of the people surrounding the man belonged to him. “I need a belt,” she blurted out waiting for someone to provide it. She was unclear as to how long ago the man was injured but the slow pulse of thick blood from the wound indicated the elderly man was not in good shape. “Give me a belt,” she screamed out as her palms began to feel the hot, sticky viscous liquid already soaking through her coat.

Her commands were drowned out as the fighters overhead began to reign energy bolts into the street spraying concrete and metal in all directions. Closing her eyes, Chloe tensed up but did not remove pressure from the injury. “I need help over here,” she called out on instinct as she did in the ER as the people around her began to run in an attempt to save their own lives. Cursing under her breath she continued to keep pressure on the wound knowing someone would be coming. “You are going to be okay,” she told the man as his breath began to labor and his movements lessened. “You need to hold on okay,” she tried to maintain her soft, soothing tone.

“Nathan over here. It’s open,” a voice screamed halfway down the alley to her right from where she was working. It was H’rion signaling for his friend and anyone still alive to move to his location. Glancing at the sky the Gorn calculated the amount of time he could keep the door open against the amount of time the next round of fire would erupt from the sky. Right now he didn’t care about how empty or full the room below him was. All he cared about was keeping it open as long as possible before having to close it to protect that below

Now Chloe understood why every ally had a metal door in the same location. They were bomb shelters.

Chloe

“Chloe leave him,” Nathan said as he held onto Na’len in his arms as the little Gorn girl clung to him as if her life depended on it. “He will die by the time we drag him in here, do as you are told, now.” he barked at her as he stared her down sternly. This to some might have seemed harsh, but there were others to treat and dying to save someone who wouldn’t make it wasn’t going to help them in the long run.

“I said move it now!” Nathan spat back with a sharpness to his tone that could pierce the strongest bulkhead as he walked over to her and grabbed onto her arm as pulled her sharply away from the man, his hand gripping down hard into her arm as he began to yank her himself to the door while still keeping Na’len firm in his grasp. As he dragged her into the building H’rion closed it behind as the blasts just began to fall down as everyone began to have a sigh of relief.

Handing over Na’len to her father Nathan looked around and could see there were tons of injured all around as they began to huddle and gather around together as he looked over at Chloe. “Just what the hell was that?” barked Nathan as he helped began to help her up to her feet. He wasn’t one to ever mince words as he got to the point.

“Stop being a child, the dead don’t care if they are left behind… these people though.” Nathan turned to the room of Gorn and Human along with other mixed aliens of al types as all eyes seemed to be focused on them. “They care, you help the ones you can and you leave the ones you can’t. We can’t save them all… but we can save some.”

Nathan Harland


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