The glow of the transporter faded for the last time, leaving fifteen figures standing on an icy mountainside.  In their environmental suits they were comfortable, but the air outside was blisteringly cold and incredibly thin, even by the standards of the altitude.  The planet to which they had beamed down lay just outside of its star’s habitable zone; in theory, it might have been possible for people to survive here, but not on the surface, and not without technological assistance.  As such, it was quite likely that anyone who survived the crash-landing of whatever ship whose wreckage now lay at the bottom of a ravine was now dead.

As Lieutenant Akashi and his two fellow Starfleet officers produced their tricorders and began to scan the surroundings, Subcommander Sovikruk turned to his ground team.  “Secure the perimeter,” he ordered.

The eleven other members of the ground team split into four pairs, each moving out in one cardinal direction – relative to the planet’s poles – and beginning to sweep the area.  The remaining three stayed back with the subcommander and the three science consultants, a ready reserve in the case of hostile contact.  Over the ground team’s tactical channel, Sovikruk could hear the various duos sounding off: “North sector clear!”, “West sector, no contacts!”, “Negative hostiles, south!”, “Clear, east!”

Sovikruk turned to face Akashi, though his face was hidden behind his visor, which was tinted darker than those of the non-Remans in the team, on account of his light-sensitive eyes.  “We will keep guard,” he told the human, “while you conduct your investigation.  Report all findings as you confirm them.”

“Yes, sir,” Akashi replied.  “We have the wreck site on our tricorders, but just at the outer edge of their range; for detailed readings, we will need to be closer.”

Sovikruk nodded.  “Move out,” he ordered.

The ground team began to move, its eight outer watchers holding at around ten or fifteen meters from the core seven.  They had beamed down only a couple of minutes walk from the site where the wrecked ship had impacted, and reached the location quickly.  The site was littered with debris from the crash, all from the largely shredded forward sections of the transport itself.  Unlike what Kormoran had observed from orbit at the crash site of the Goldfinch, though, this transport did not crash-land with relative grace and slide down the mountain; it landed hard, on the edge of the ravine, its hull buckling with the violent and sudden deceleration as its forward sections simultaneously pancaked and shredded.  The mass of the unsupported stern then had inexorably rocked backwards, tumbling down the ravine to its final resting place, crushed and crumpled on the floor of the canyon.  The debris had seemingly then laid for years, slowly becoming more and more covered by ice until now only small sections remained above the surface at the top of the canyon.

While the wreckage on the surface had largely lost all coherent form, the aft section of hull on the canyon floor retained enough of its shape to be visibly that of a Romulan transport.  Taking out his tricorder, Akashi began scanning the surface debris, taking readings.  “Subcommander,” he said after a moment spent analyzing the data, “while we’d need to bring pieces back to the ship to conduct a fully detailed analysis” – or as fully detailed of one as his team’s ad-hoc lab was capable, not that he mentioned that – “quantum dating suggests this debris is consistent in age with a pre-supernova Romulan vessel.  I think this is a piece of internal bulkhead, but without more wreckage for comparison I cannot be certain.”

Sovikruk nodded.  “Is this the missing transport?”

Akashi shrugged.  “I can’t say for sure.  It’s definitely possible, at least.”

“Then we will need to reach the rest of the ship,” the Reman replied.

Before he could go further, Lieutenant (JG) Mryala noticed something on her tricorder.  “Subcommander, Lieutenant, I’m detecting organic material below the ice!” she called, though there was a solemnity to her voice.  “I think bodies may be buried with the wreckage.”

Akashi immediately began to cross towards Mryala, waving Lieutenant (JG) Vela to join them, but only made it a few steps before Sovikruk interrupted.  “Leave them,” he ordered.  “We have an objective to complete.  Once that is done, we may come back to investigate further.”

Vela opened his mouth to protest, but closed it in silence as Sovikruk’s faceplate turned towards him.  Akashi nodded.  “Yes, Subcommander,” he replied.

Just then, Sovikruk’s communicator activated.  “Kormoran to Sovikruk.  Suspected cloaked hostile in orbit.  A ground team has beamed down to your southwest.  Out.”  The channel closed; this was only a message, with no need for conversation.

Considering the terrain, Sovikruk turned towards the cover team.  “Alert southwest,” he snapped, sending the eight into a fanned formation between the science team and the direction of possible contact.  “Lieutenant, down the ravine; we will follow.”

The three Starfleet officers immediately ran for the ravine’s edge.  Thankfully – as they had not brought climbing gear – the ravine’s side was neither sheer nor concave.  It was also not smooth, and from what Akashi could tell there appeared to be a possible route down.  That route would not be safe, though; while it was exposed rock and not just ice, the face was still very icy, and it would only take a single mistake – one bad step, or one misjudged handhold – to send a climber falling to their death.  Hoping against reason, Akashi glanced around on the off chance that there was some trail that could be walked, or at least an easier path.  However, such things would have required a settled presence, as they do not develop naturally in most cases; as this was an unpopulated world, there was no such path to be found.

Orders were orders, though.  Taking a deep breath, Akashi turned to his two fellow Starfleet officers.  “Be careful,” he bade them, “this will not be easy.  I’ll see you both at the bottom.”

One by one and Akashi – the at least semi-practiced mountain-climber of the three – leading, the three began to lower themselves over the edge, starting the climb to the bottom.  It was a treacherous descent.  Some of the hand- and foot-holds that looked viable from the edge were far slicker than they appeared, and Akashi felt a boot or hand slip more than once.  Fortunately, his slow pace ensured that he never had fewer than three points of contact to the cliff at any given time, so he was able to catch himself before taking a fatal fall.  Mryala and Vela, one after the other, followed in his path, each moving carefully to follow their team leader’s path as exactly as they could.

Up on the clifftop, Sovikruk had been keeping his focus on the direction in which this other ground team was likely to approach, but spared a glance over his shoulder.  Seeing the Starfleet trio over the lip and likely working their way down the cliff face, he turned his gaze back forward.  “Fall back.  One by one, over the edge, outer watch first.”

Obedient to the subcommander’s orders, the twelve atop the cliff began to edge backwards towards the lip.  Reaching the edge, they began to split off and descend one at a time, attempting as best they could to follow the path of the three Starfleet officers further down in their free descent.  Standing watch over the action were the subcommander himself and the three members of the ground team who had stayed with him in the initial split-out; they would be the last four over the edge.  The descending tactical element of the ground team, unfortunately, lacked the benefit of having directly seen where Akashi had shown the ideal hand- and foot-holds, and so their progress was slower and more gingerly than even his cautious descent.

The seventh member of the tactical detachment was just going over the lip when an emerald beam streaked past Sovikruk’s head; the other ground team had found them, and was evidently very much not friendly.  “Contact!” the Reman bellowed, drawing his disruptor pistol and raising it to return fire.  “Keep moving!”

In an instant, the clifftop became a battlefield as the four remaining members of Kormoran’s ground team dove for whatever cover they could find, returning fire against the twelve-person ground team coming at them.  Emerald energy criss-crossed the space between the two teams as disruptor pistols and rifles cycled.  Every so often – perhaps every minute or so – Sovikruk would call “Go,” and another one of his team would cease fire and sprint for the canyon’s edge.

Soon only the Reman himself remained.  Sovikruk moved backwards at a crouch, firing steadily, until he reached the cliff’s edge.  Holstering his weapon, he slid over the lip, strong hands gripping the icy rock through the gloves of his environmental suit as he began his descent.  As he began the treacherous climb, the other ground team reached the lip and began to fire down at Kormoran’s team, making a dangerous situation even worse.  Sovikruk gritted his pointed teeth; if they didn’t return fire and try to suppress their assailants, his team would be shot to pieces, but if they did then they risked falling.  He made a snap decision.  “Those who can, return fire as you climb!” he ordered, pausing on what looked like a reasonably secure hold to lead by example, drawing his own pistol and firing back up the cliff.

Four of Sovikruk’s personnel similarly found relatively safe places to take a few shots, then re-holstered their weapons to continue the climb.  One, though, wasn’t so lucky; a young Romulan uhlan was in the process of drawing his weapon when a disruptor blast smacked into the icy rock directly in front of his face.  Startled, he released the cliffside with his free hand to try and shield his face, overbalanced, and fell, screaming in fear until his comm line suddenly went dead.

The vertical firefight continued unabated even as the distance between the combatants increased.  Fortunately, the Starfleet science team was far enough down the face at this point that the team on the cliff’s edge – some of whom were beginning to try to climb down themselves – were not really aiming at them, but the closer members of the team were much better targets.  An unlucky – or lucky, for the team up top – shot from one of the attackers claimed another one of Sovikruk’s people, a Reman woman who served as the ground team’s demolitions expert, who took a hit through the shoulder, the disruptor ending her life immediately and sending her body tumbling limply off the rock face.

The attackers were starting to take casualties as well, though; one of their soldiers, looking over the cliff’s edge as they prepared to start their descent, took a disruptor bolt to the chest and pitched over the edge, their falling body narrowly missing another one of the attackers who had already begun to climb.  While Sovikruk’s team still outnumbered their assailants, the other team held the advantage at the moment, as they still had members at the top of the cliff and able to fire from relative safety.  “Sovikruk to Akashi,” the subcommander grunted, focusing for the moment on a particularly tricky section, “When you reach the bottom, proceed to the wreck site and take cover.”

“Yes, sir,” came Akashi’s breathless reply.

With both teams now climbing, the pace of disruptor fire slackened off considerably, as both sides now focused on the treacherous icy rock face that confronted them.  The ravine itself was only about a thousand feet deep, but even without weapons-fire a free climb or descent would still take well over an hour to complete.  On an exposed, icy cliff, with no real cover, wearing environmental suits, it might as well have been an eternity.  And feel like one it did, too; eventually the disruptors ceased firing, after one member of each team simply slipped and fell, as both teams focused purely on the dangerous climb, but as time wore on muscles ached and ached, yet none could stop.

Partway through the climb, Sovikruk’s communicator came to life.  “Kormoran to Sovikruk,” came Commander Temoris’s voice through the speaker.

“Speaking,” he replied, voice strained from exertion.

“Orbit is secured, subcommander.  The ground team that beamed down is likely either Free State or Tal’Shiar.  One of their ships was destroyed in orbit, along with two pirates.”

“Understood, commander,” he grunted, pausing to confirm an iffy foothold.  “We have had contact,” he continued after a moment.  “Three dead.  We are currently climbing down to the main crash site.”

“Stand by for transport,” she ordered.  “Kormoran out.”

With that, the channel closed.  A few moments later, a hum and green-yellow glow filled the canyon as Kormoran’s surviving ground team was systematically beamed from the cliff face to the bottom of the ravine.  There they quickly took cover in firing positions, while the three scientific consultants moved closer to the wrecked stern of the transport to begin surveying it.

While they did not know the name of the missing transport, this had to be the ship.  The age was approximately correct, among the biological remains that the three scientific tricorders detected were – tragically – some that were too small to be adults, and some of the cargo containers that had been aboard had been thrown open, and myriad clothes and keepsakes lay scattered and frozen on the ground amongst fragments from the long-rended hull.  Stepping around one section of hull – possibly a part of a cargo loading hatch – Vela noticed a dark spot in the cliff wall.  “Lieutenant Akashi!” he called.  “I think I found something!”

Akashi and Mryala joined him quickly, the trio taking readings.  “It looks like a cavern,” Mryala said.  “And I’m detecting metallic objects inside, as well as…” she trailed off.

Vela checked the reading as well.  “By the Prophets…” he breathed.  “As well as more biological signatures.”

“Subcommander!” Akashi called, drawing Sovikruk’s attention.

Attention was followed shortly thereafter by the Reman’s presence as he pushed himself up on legs that somewhat protested and crossed to the three Starfleet officers.  “Report,” he bade, keeping one eye over his shoulder in the direction of the still-descending other ground team; Kormoran’s team had some time now, as the beam-down had given them an impressive lead.

“We’re reading metallic signatures, and biological remains, from a cave over there,” Akashi said, pointing towards the semi-hidden opening.  “There’s no way they could’ve been thrown in; they had to have been placed there, which means…”

Sovikruk nodded.  “Uhlan Tovikas!” he called, summoning one of the surviving tactical personnel before Akashi could continue.

“Sir!” the uhlan saluted – by voice – as he came up.

“Assist Lieutenant Akashi and his team in removing several metallic objects from the cavern.  Inform me when you are finished.”

“Yes, subcommander!”

Sovikruk returned to the line as the three Starfleet officers – assisted by Uhlan Tovikas – entered the cavern.  A short time later, they began to move metal crates out into the open, staging them just outside the cave entrance.  Meanwhile, Sovikruk keyed his communicator.  “Subcommander to Kormoran.”

“Kormoran,” Temoris replied.

“Commander, we have located a number of cargo crates that apparent survivors of the crash had relocated to a cavern near the wreckage.  Lieutenant Akashi and his team are retrieving them now.”

“Understood, subcommander,” she answered.  “Inform me when they have finished, and we will beam you and the crates back.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Kormoran out.”

The channel closed.  Retrieving the crates took perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes, during which time the other ground team – now homeless, the ship from which they’d beamed down reduced to debris in orbit – continued their climb down the cliff, now numbering eight as two of their number had fallen.  As he had been ordered, Sovikruk relayed the news that the hidden crates had been recovered up to the Kormoran.  Over the next couple of minutes, then, the hum of a transporter echoed repeatedly up and down the ravine as the crates, followed by the ground team, were beamed back to the ship, leaving the hapless attackers alone.  Their own solitude would not last, though, as soon enough they were also beamed off the planet, now prisoners aboard the selfsame bird of prey that had defeated their ship.