“Chief, it looks like this one has quite a few pipes and other equipment on the outside.”

“Hmmmmm, I think it is safe to say that this is probably the dome that houses the camps infrastructure systems. I wouldn’t think that operations would be in this building.” they approach the outside of the dome keeping to the shadows.

“Ukogh, can you see anyone up and about? “

“Not near you, I see some activity around those three domes that are grouped together towards the right and forward of those two bigger ones. I’m figuring those are housing for the Breen assigned to this camp.”

Ngiazav looked up at the sky and then at his wrist PADD. “Makes sense, getting close to sunrise. Possibly getting ready to start the day. Which means we better get moving.” he pointed at the rest of his team and signaled for them to prepare to move to the second large dome.

“I’m seeing a possible entrance point, there seems to be a smaller dome like attachment to the large one and it looks like I can make out a possible hatch on the side closer to the slope.”

“Better than the front door, chief.”

“Agreed, question is. What is on the other side?”

“Only way to find out.”

The chief nodded, he pointed at one of the team and signaled that he would be the first and the others would provide lookouts. After doing so, he reached in a pouch on his side and pulled out a small device, and thumbed the little screen on the top. He then reached into a grouping of pipes that came out of the side of the dome and attached it on one of the inner pipes.

As he was doing this, he caught out the side of his eye the security officer dash across the open ground to the next dome. He signaled for the next two to make the dash. Watching them, he could not help but smile as he saw their hours of training kick in. He crouched and made ready for his dash.

“Ngiazav, hold. You have a couple Breen making their way to the bigger dome. Almost missed them in the dark if it wasn’t for the light from those damn masks of theirs.”

“Get low…” Ngiazav called out. As he too hit the ground and laid prone.

Several minutes went by before he heard an all clear come over his comm unit in his helmet. He got up and started his dash.” Ngiazav, hit the deck.” he quickly threw himself on the ground. “What the hell?”

“Another group making their way, guess it’s time for shift change.”

“I’m in the open here, battle. What are they doing?”

“Hold on, damn. Do not move. Whatever you do, don’t move.”

 Ukogh watched from his vantage point as one of the Breen separated themselves from the small group and made their way toward the open area between the two domes. He watched as the Breen came to a stop and looked to be scanning the area. He easily thumbed the safety selector on his rifle he nestled it deeper into his shoulder, and started to steady his breathing as he started to ease his finger so the trigger sat in his the flat space between the second and third knuckle.

“Come on, keep moving damn you. Nothing to see, nothing to see.” he knew subconsciously his finger had begun to tense against the trigger and his breathing had begun to enter a metered pattern.

He then watched as another member of the team turned and started to scan over the landing zone area, nodded and continued moving toward the dome. He watched as the first one continued to scan the area for several minutes, then look up, and scan the top of the ridgeline for a couple more.  

“Nothing to see, nothing to see. Just keep moving.” After several more tense minutes crept by, Breen slowly turned and made his way into the dome.

“Move, Ngiazav, move.”

****

Aryanna entered the bridge from her ready room, smiled at a few of those that offered her a good morning or hello’s and made her way to the center seat where Meadow was currently sitting. “Anything yet?” as she stood looking at the main view screen and took a sip from her mug.

“No, nothing yet. Should be any time though.” Meadow stood and stretched. “Early morning, I had a few files to go over. I’m still the ship’s counselor you know and I have an appointment in twenty minutes.” as she held out the Dragon ring.

“Yes, we need to discuss that one of these days. Maybe, bring on a second counselor?

“I was wondering about that myself this morning, usually a ship this size would have a small two to three counselor office.”

Aryanna accepted the ring “I have the conn.” She stayed standing watching the bridge staff as they went about their business barely noticed the sound of the turbo-lift door opening and closing as the counselor made her way off the bridge.

****

Yatokki and his team had a much longer journey to their intended targets, much as they had done on the way to the camp; they kept themselves to the crevices and outcroppings along the slope just under the ridgeline.

After nearly an hour, they finally reached a point between the two mine entrances that looked over a majority of what they suspected was the slave labor camp. This camp was different in its layout from the other side. Two rows of domes with a larger dome on each end, forming an elongated rectangle. Lights from above shown into the middle of the area with well-worn paths between the domes and towards the two larger domes on either end were noticeable. They watched as a group of five Breen made their way to one of the domes on the far side and entered. Several minutes later a group was led from the large dome on the right hand side towards the dome next to the five Breen had just entered, there were a total of fifteen more Breen escorting.

“Lieutenant, I count 362 in that line” as the officer let out a low whistle.

They watched as several of the Breen started to push and prod several of the slower slaves with what looked like medium sized tubes of some sort.

Yatokki let out a few choice words as he watched the actions of the Breen on the slaves, “Well, we can confirm that slave labor is used.”

Yatokki and his team watched as the ten of the Breen exited the dome and made their way over to the one that the five had just entered. Several minutes later, they watched as another line of slumped shouldered haggard looking individuals made their way from the dome to the one located on the right.

“I count 379, lieutenant. Sir if those numbers hold up we are looking at just over three thousand souls.

“They don’t seem to be keen on the slaves mingling do they? One group enters and only after they are all in does the other exit.”

“Makes sense though. “ Yatokii added “they know even in the state that those slaves are in you get too many in one place and it’s going to be hard to control them if anything goes sideways.”

“True, sir. But even 300 to 15 are not good odds.”

“True, but they hold all the cards… Food, water, protection from the environment. Those slaves know if it were not for the Breen, they would surely be dead. “Yatokki sat back on the large rock behind them. “Think about it, if things go sideways all they have to do is lock down the domes and wait for the environment to do all the work.”

The team nodded.

“Ok, gentleman, we have work to do and we don’t have much time. As he started to crouch and prepare to head out one of the security team grabbed him on the upper arm and pointed at something else.

They watched as a large group of Breen exited the other side of the camp and started to make their way towards the ships. Six of them veered off and made their way toward the two Starfighter sized ships while the rest continued to make their way toward the three Plesh Tral’s.

“Looks like we may have timed this just right, I bet they are going to meet the incoming convoy”

Yatokii blinked several times as he watched the ship’s crews separate and load up. “Agreed, which means we need to get moving. You know your assignments let us get moving. Meet up by that dome, “he pointed toward the first one on the right in the row nearest them. “In thirty minutes, make sure we mark both of those mine entrances.” he watched as two of the team separated and made their way back along the ridgeline toward the further mineshaft. The rest of the team separated and made their way in towards the rows in front of them.

****

“Captain, we have something on probe delta.”

Aryanna sat upright and looked toward Zoltia at her science station.

“Looks like we have three ships, data coming in now.”

Skagath looked at the captain through his holo display, “Captain, looks like three Plesh Tral’s. Raiders, ma’am.”

Aryanna nodded. “According to the last reports we got from obsidian, those could be the ships from the surface.”

“That would make sense, could be patrolling the avenues before the convoy arrives.”

Zoltia nodded. “I can confirm captain, it looks like the impulse trails are coming from the planet’s surface. Not going to get much more than that from the probes.” Several minutes went by as the bridge went silent waiting to see what happened next. “They just entered warp, can’t tell in which direction just that they all suddenly went off the probe’s sensor arrays.”

“Guess the convoy isn’t coming to that one. “ Skagath said from his console.

Aryanna stood and moved over towards Zoltia’s console. “Doesn’t look like it, the question is, where did they go?”

“Got ’m ma’am “Zoltia exclaimed several minutes later. “Probe alpha.”

Aryanna tapped her knuckles on Zoltia’s console and made her way back to her seat.

Viameli turned to face Aryanna. “Ma’am, that one is near the second moon. I do not think we can move on it without them getting wind. However,” she looked at Sustram.

Sustram turned in his chair towards the captain. “I was just discussing this with my sister ma’am, in case this avenue was used. The second and third moons are getting ready, within the next few days, to eclipse each other. Meaning we could possibly hide on the far side of the third moon and be outside of their sensor range but yet close enough that we could follow them on our arrays.”

Aryanna looked around the bridge, “any other thoughts?” no one said anything as she noticed a couple of nods from others on the bridge.

“Viameli, take us to the third moon, warp 9.”

Viameli and Sustram turned back toward the consoles as they watched the ship begin to move forward at impulse speed before it jumped to warp.

****

Ngiazav and his team stacked themselves in the night shadows beside the hatch that Ukogh had noticed.

“Check the door,” he tapped the first person in the stack.

The first man, Ensign Oshriviab, looked at the PADD on the side of the hatch and shook his head, he then reached down and pulled out a small slightly curved device, it looked much like a handle to a weapon, and tapped on a few buttons before holding it to the PADD. After several seconds, a small green line appeared on the device as the hatch slid open just a small amount. Putting the first device away he pulled out a tricorder, he opened the hatch just another inch or so noticing that no light spilled forth and held the tricorder just inside the opened hatchway and then nodded.

Ngiazav tapped him on the shoulder as he quietly opened the hatch just enough to slip in and proceeded to enter, the other three members of the team were right behind as they all quickly entered the hatch.

Upon entering, they noticed that they were in some sort of extra room, possibly a supply room. They quickly scanned the room and closed the hatch behind them.

Oshriviab moved toward the hatch he found on the other end of the dome as the others stood toward the two sides of the hatch. He crouched down and using the tricorder, he quickly scanned the hatch getting an idea of what was on the other side.

“Looks like a hallway that turns towards the left, probably toward the main entrance area. Not reading anybody on the other side.” he said in a whisper over the team comms.

Opening the hatch, they all held their breath to see if any type of audio or visual alarm went off seeing nothing, they silently entered the dimly lit hallway.

“Door” as they slowly made their way along the left hand side of the hallway. Stacking, Ngiazav leading the way they once again caterpillar’ed their way into the room. As each one entered, they showed the hours of training they had undergone as they followed a choreographed group of movements to clear the room. Four “clears” came over the team comms as the door silently slid closed behind them.

****

Ukogh made his way from his vantage point toward the three buildings. Reaching the first of the three buildings, he ducked and hid in a shadowed area as he reached up to find the place where a group of tubing and other things made their way into the side of the building that he had noticed from his vantage point. Thumbing a device similar to the one used by Ngiazav on the other dome he placed it against the underside of the tangle of items and thumbed it again as he felt it seal against the metal.

“One down, two to go.”

He silently made his way to the second dome and repeated the process.

Upon reaching the third dome, he looked up as he heard a loud noise approaching from the opposite direction, repeating the process that he did on the previous two as he watched the three Plesh Tral’s flyover then turn and land. Followed by a group of ten medium sized freighters and five smaller ones. Followed by another six Plesh Tral’s.

“Damn.” as he noticed the two fighter sized craft continue to circle the camp. “Why couldn’t you guys land like the rest of them?”

Completing his assigned task, he made his way using the shadows and the domes as cover to the hatch he had watched the team enter earlier. “Ngiazav, I’m where you entered the dome. Covering the escape as planned.”

He received three quick beeps in response. Knowing this was a signal that Ngiazav could not verbally reply he knew that the team was probably getting themselves in place for the final entry.