Star Trek: Oblivion

02 || Compromised

The alien barbed lip curled as she paced back and forth in front of Spock. "You will die for this treachery," She hissed, signaling for her men to shoot the Vulcan. She stepped back just as she felt the cold end of a phaser pressed against the back of her head.

"Yeah that would be a really stupid idea." The person holding the phaser informed her.

Kirk threw the black mask he had been wearing to the ground. "Now, tell your people over there to drop their weapons."

The alien hissed, yet did as she was instructed. "Stand down!" She ordered. Her eyes burned with hatred. "I gave you an order!" she shouted when her people hesitated.

They released Spock and slowly backed away. The Vulcan rose to his feet and crossed over to Captain Kirk, stopping for a brief moment to collect the phaser that had been taken from him.

"Now show us where it is," Kirk old the alien.

She hissed loudly between her teeth, turning to face him. "You do not know what you are messing with! Who you are messing with! You will not be able to run from this! I will find you, and I will make you pay!"

Kirk grinned. "Oh, we'll see about that, sweet heart."

The alien moved away from them, her steps reluctant and halting as she walked to one of the large black shipping containers. She waved her hand over the surface and a holo display flared to life. A beam of light slid across her face as the program scanned her retina.

The display made a low chiming noise and a section of the large container slid out in a cloud of white mist and pale orange light. The alien leaned over and pulled away a black sheet of material to reveal a perfectly square box. It was no more than thirty-six centimeters wide, surprisingly small for the amount of effort that went into its handling.

As the alien leaned down to pick up the box. Just as she did that her hand wrapped around the gun she had hidden beside it. She stood, firing at Kirk and Spock. None of the shots hit their target as the two quickly moved out of the way, returning fire. Kirk shot the alien and she fell to the ground, stunned.

The entire warehouse erupted into chaos. Kirk and Spock dashed to the nearest cover, but not before a shot clipped the captain. He slipped to the ground but quickly staggered to his feet. Spock rushed to his side and helped him behind cover.

The entire underground warehouse was filled the acrid stench of the weapons blasting away at the shipping container that they now hid behind. Spock leaned around the corner, firing at some of the approaching aliens. He ducked behind cover as several shots tore apart the edges of the container.

"How badly are you injured?" Spock inquired .

Kirk winced as he looked down at the arm. "Pretty sure I'll live." He clutched his phaser tightly in his uninjured hand and helped his first officer hold off the gang members. He looked over at the gold box still sitting by the unconscious alien.

"We need a distraction," He said as he fired at a human who tried to move from his cover. "Then one of us can run out and grab it"

Spock fired twice. "If my calculations are correct, a distraction should occur momentarily."

Kirk looked at his friend. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

Suddenly the far wall blew inward and the ground shook as pieces of debris flew through the air. A small army rushed into the warehouse, phaser fire lighting up the thick cloud of smoke and dust around them.

"Are these guys on our side?" Kirk shouted over the chaos around them, confused as to who he was supposed to fire at.

"They should be, however there may be a slight complication," Spock informed the captain.

"Complication? What complication?"

"I would recommend we recover the artifact before the arriving party discovers our presence here."

"Yeah, noted." Kirk said as he checked the ammunition levels in his weapon. 

"Since you are injured, it would be logical for me to go."

Kirk attempted to protest but before he could get a word out the Vulcan had already dashed out from around the cover and was making his way across what had become a battlefield. A blast of a weapon tore through the air just inches from Spock as he slid to a stop behind an overturned crate. From behind the shipping container, Captain Kirk fired at the faint silhouettes moving through the smoke, trying to provide his first officer with as much cover fire as he could.

Spock stuck close to sparse cover, maneuvering the hostile terrain with expertise not seen in the rest of the gang members firing wildly away at each other. It took mere seconds before the Vulcan reached the artifact. It sat on the bloodstained ground, still near the alien that had dropped it. He picked it up, finding the box surprisingly heavy even for his superior strength.

He was about to head back to the captain when he heard the faint brush of footsteps against the hard ground. He froze in his tracks as he saw the unfamiliar figure emerge from the smoke. Large compound eyes studied him curiously, humanlike fingers tapped against the trigger. The alien was about to shoot when suddenly a blast from a phaser stunned it, sending it stumbling back into the side of the shipping container.

Captain Kirk emerged from the smoke, scanning the area. "You got it?" He asked.

"Affirmative," Spock replied, nearly struggling at the weight of it. "I suggest that we vacate this area immediately before the battle ceases entirely."

Already the number of people on both sides were rapidly diminishing, the smoke and chaotic glow of phaser fire already slipping into the darkness of the abandoned warehouse.

Kirk and Spock ran to the furthest corner of the massive room, sticking close to the dark shadows until they reached a small alcove in the wall. A rusted metal grate separated the rest of the warehouse from a narrow tunnel that served as a sewer access.

Kirk knelt down and began to pry off the metal grate. Before Spock could assist, the metal made a loud cracking noise and separated from the crumbling concrete frame. Kirk set the metal grate aside and crawled into the tunnel. The Vulcan followed immediately afterwards.