The day was quiet, but Mason didn’t trust quiet. He particularly didn’t trust quiet with no birdsong or the sounds of other small creatures or insects. That kind of silence meant that there was a predator nearby. 

Or predators in this case. 

He and his team moved through the small woods as they approached the farmhouse that was their objective. Lifting a clenched fist, he brought the team to a stop just inside the treeline and crouched down, studying the farmhouse and its surrounding buildings. 

It looked abandoned. But recently. The curtains that fluttered in the open windows looked bright and clean, rather than ragged and dirty if they’d been in a window open to the elements for long. The gate in front of them was half open, creaking slightly in the warm breeze. It was red, the paint not peeling or cracking. The whole scene gave the impression that the owners had walked out, perhaps left for a nice summer stroll. 

He knew they hadn’t. The best case scenario was they’d fled to one of the camps nearer the city that the team on the Resolute even now would be trying to contact. Worse case scenario… he slid a sideways glance to Rennox, kneeling down next to him. 

If the owners hadn’t left, he didn’t want the kid finding them. Not the condition they were likely to be in. He was holding up well, but he still looked a little green after that ambush.

He arched an eyebrow as Rennox looked up, a silent question. The yeoman swallowed and nodded, his grip tight on his rifle. Mason looked back front, not missing the bruise blossoming over the kid’s jaw where he’d clocked himself with his own rifle butt. 

The farmhouse was still silent. And he still didn’t trust it. 

“Okay,” he murmured in an undertone, the sound carried to the team’s ear-piece comms. “Break into two teams, alpha takes the front, bravo takes the back. I’m hoping that team we caught out in the woods was it, but don’t count on it. Moving in three… two… moving!”

Adrenaline surged through Tav as he followed the captain, trying to stay low, move fast and light just like he did. But he couldn’t. His breath rasped in his ears so loudly he was sure every Jem’Hadar on the planet could hear him, his legs felt like lead weights and he managed to step on every twig between the wood and the edge of the wall of the farmhouse. 

His back hit the brick as he took position behind Mason, who was already firing off hand signals to get the rest of alpha fire team moving like dancers on a stage as they surrounded the red farm gate. They used the wall for cover as they poured through the tiny gap, somehow knowing who moved first and who covered what area with their rifles. He was still trying to remember what Mason’s field signals meant, while trying not to fall over his own feet. 

This was not like the fight with the pirates on the ship. There all he’d had to do was stop pirates getting into sickbay. And they’d only been able to come at him from one direction. Here not only could the Jem’Hadar come from any direction… he couldn’t even see them. 

“With me, kid,” Mason rumbled. Tav stumbled as he followed, the captain’s broad back cutting off his view. Two of the team followed them through the gate. 

They didn’t stop, moving silently up the main path toward the farmhouse. Mason nudged the door open with the barrel of his rifle, boots silent as he led the way into the house. 

Tav’s eyes were wide as they went room to room, his heart a frantic tattoo in his ears as he expected the scaled enemy to emerge from thin air by the big range oven, or from behind the comfy couch in the living room. 

But room after room went by without the world becoming chaos again, each time the captain leading the way, checking each room with a sweep of the big gun he carried. Tav understood why. It wasn’t a starfleet weapon, it seemed to be a cross between an energy weapon and a slug thrower. And brutally effective. 

“House secure,” Mason announced as they reached the last room on the single level dwelling. “Post sentries, bravo team how yo—“

He didn’t finish, his words cut off by bellows and the sounds of a firefight erupting from the yard behind the house. 

“Go Go GO!” Mason bellowed and Tav was almost crushed as half the team barelled through the house, heading for the back doors. They spilled out into the back courtyard and right into a scene from a nightmare.

There were Jem’Hadar everywhere. Tav screamed as two appeared right in front of him, their scaled faces contorted into a battlecry. Somehow he managed to bring his rifle up, finger on the trigger before he aimed properly. One got hit in the shoulder and went down, but the other kept coming, death in his eyes. 

Something big hit Tav in the side and he stumbled sideways, slamming into the wall of the farmhouse. Eyes wide, he watched the captain despatch the Jem’Hadar that had been about to gut him with two shots. The body crumpled to the ground. 

He sagged against the wall with relief. Just a moment, then he’d get into the thick of it. Turning, he jumped as he found himself face to face with a pretty young woman with wide violet eyes.

“Ohmygod, I’m so sorry,” he said quickly as her mouth opened and closed soundlessly. She was obviously terrified. 

What was she even doing here? This was no place for a civilian. His protective instincts flared and he reached out to pull her behind him, to put himself between her and danger. 

Then she fell forward, onto him, and he looked down. She was covered in blood from the chest down and—

She collapsed into his arms, her eyes wide and sightless.

Then the screams started.