As soon as the view materialized around Frankie, she scowled. She was expecting a lot of damage, but this was worse than she’d imagined. Most of the colony had sustained substantial damage. Smoke was rising from just about every building within her view, and many of them were still actively burning. Closer to them, she saw colonists with tears running down their faces as they moved to draped bodies of dead loved ones to piles of bodies around the village. These people had never been prepared for the level of terror the Orion pirates had dropped on them. No one was.

The rage built in her and came out in a string of Spanish obscenities before she turned to look for the colonial leader. She spotted Maryanne already headed toward them. Frankie waved and moved toward her.

The woman looked worse in person, her pale, sun-wrinkled face was blackened with ash and soot, clean streaks down her cheeks from too many tears cried over the loss of her people. Her hair was wild, even pulled back into a ponytail. She’d been bleeding from somewhere, but it looked like it’d been mostly cleaned up except for a streak of dried blood on her cheek. Her blue eyes tracked between each of the new arrivals, taking stock of the help that had been sent. “Thank you. Thank you so much for coming,” She said, reaching out and taking Frankie’s hands.

“Of course,” Frankie replied, earnestly.

“I can’t make my mind take in everything. I keep trying to help and to do things, but I keep getting lost in it all,” She admitted. “I’m a scientist. We’re just a simple science colony. We have some combat training, but we’re not… we can’t… how do you…”

“Cariña,” Frankie said, putting her hands on the woman’s cheeks, “Breathe. We’re here now. No one is trained for this, it’s unthinkable even for us with all of our Starfleet training. But it’s going to be okay, alright?” 

Maryanne sucked in a ragged breath, but nodded, reaching up and holding onto Frankie’s wrists like they were lifelines. Frankie pulled the older woman into a side hug and turned back to her crew. “All right, I know I’m ranking officer, but French, Thatcher, you’re in charge. What are our priorities?”

Thatcher was taking in the injuries she could see around her and shaking her head slowly. “Commander, we can do a lot with what we have with us, but we’re going to need to get their medical facilities back up and running for long term care,” She explained.

French nodded. “I can split my team, half to start working on repairs to their medical facility and the other to get the primary generator back up and running. You’re going to need way more than just emergency power to manage this,” She said.

Thatcher nodded her agreement and both of them looked back to the XO. “Sounds good,” Frankie replied. “Kartyk, split your team to make sure they’ve got plenty of — what is it?”

Kartyk stood with his brow furrowed, staring up at a nearby ridge. “Movement,” He said, simply.

Frankie stepped next to him and tried to scan in the direction of his eyeline. “Do you have any people up on the ridge, Maryanne?”

“It’s possible, but I don’t think so?” Maryanne stammered, her voice already shaking as she looked up at the ridge wide-eyed.

“That’s what I’m hoping it is,” Kartyk admitted. “But something feels off.”

He barely finished his sentence before a disruptor blast disintegrated the edge of the rock outcropping in front of him. Behind them, screams of terror from the colonists erupted again as they all scattered, dropping bodies in the dirt to try and get to safety.

Frankie didn’t have to say a word to the crew as they all dropped in to take cover. She dragged Maryanne into a blown out alcove. The woman was shaking from head to two as Frankie quickly situated her into a safe spot and tapped her commbadge as more disruptor fire rained down from the hills. “Alita, Juarez! We’re under fire from what appears to be remaining Orion forces hiding on the ridge to our north west!”

Tiffany’s voice snapped back over the comm almost immediately, “Copy that! Richards is en route!”

“The hell are they still doing here?!” French bit, returning fire over the edge of the boulder she’d found for cover.

“Probably waiting for them to get distracted with clean up to steal more people,” Frankie growled, firing out into the hills. They had them pinned dangerously, with full cover and a hard line of sight. The best they could do for the moment was fire blindly and hope they rustled them out into a clean firing lane.

The next few moments were harrowing as disruptor blasts pelted the area around them, slagging rock and metal and threatening to find their targets. Suddenly, the constant fire faltered, then stopped. A new sound came from the hills now: Phasers. Frankie looked up and could see the flashes of light against the rock and hear the disruptors firing in a different direction now.

“Push!” She yelled, running out from her cover and rushing up the hill.

Thatcher moved in to make sure Maryanne was okay as the rest of the crew ran up the hill. It wasn’t long before the got to the area just below the firefight. It was clear that the Orions were dug in and causing Melody and her crew some issues. Frankie looked to Kartyk and motioned to take half the team left while she moved the other way to go in and reinforce Melody’s team. The Bajoran nodded and moved out with his half of the team.

When Frankie and her team met up with Melody, it was clear that the Orions had though this through. They were in a narrow crag that left them with ample cover and made an attack from behind difficult.

“Welcome to the party,” Melody quipped over the din of the weapons fire as they came up.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Frankie replied back, ducking into cover. “Kartyk is trying to flank.”

“It’s going to be tricky unless they–”

As if to answer Melody’s statement, phaser fire rained down from the top of the crag the Orions were hiding in, causing confusion, screams, and then silence. Kartyk appeared above them, scanning the crag down below before looking over Frankie and Melody.

“All clear!” He called.

“Nice job, Kartyk!” Melody called.

“Thanks, boss! Just following the XOs orders,” Kartyk replied giving Frankie a smile and a nod.

“Almost like you know what you’re doing,” Melody said with a grin to Frankie before turning more serious. “We’ve almost got a bead on the Orion ship. It’s a wide search area, but it’s better than nothing. So we’ll be leaving soon,” She explained. She jerked a finger over her shoulders at the security officers that had beamed down with her. “I’m leaving these guys with you, just in case the Orion’s left you any more surprises. Fifteen security folks with Kartyk leading them should be pretty solid,” She offered.

Frankie nodded. “Sounds good to me. Go get those bastards.”

“Oh that’s the plan,” Melody replied.

“Commander Richards!” One of the other security officers was coming out of the cave with two devices in his hands, “We got something!”

The man handed them over and Melody narrowed her eyes at them, “Is that what I think it is?” She asked.

“Ship beacon and a communicator. They were definitely planning on a meet up,” The officer replied. “I’m willing to bet Kint will have an easy time tracking ’em with these in the equation.”

Melody rolled the devices around in her hand before looking over at Frankie with a grin.

Frankie grinned back. “We got ’em.”

“Oh, we got ’em.”