[Locked to 45825243_t78_a]
According to the briefing, the Zolii away team was relatively routine. She and another engineer were headed down to the planet to help repair their reactor, and Ensign Bree was coming along to pilot the shuttle. When she showed up at the docking port, she certainly wasn't expecting to see Logan standing there. "Hi," she said, quirking a curious
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Logan on a mission could only mean one thing: somebody needed to die. The reasons might vary, and so did the methods, but death it was. In this case, nice and quiet, preferably seeming accidental. Not Logan's forte, but he could make it work. He'd been in this game long enough to pick up a few tricks.
Climbing into the shuttle after Gaila, he tried not to leer too much, but she had a great body, and he had some pretty good memories. Enough that it was distracting him from the mission for now - or maybe it was the prospect of a kill that got his other most primitive urges going. With Logan, it was hard to say.
"Nice bumpin' into ya the other day." He tried to be casual about it - too forcedly casual to fool anyone, though he at least had the decency to keep his voice down.
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The shuttle took off, and Gaila kept an eye on the engineering systems. The other eye was distracted by Logan, but she made sure to do her job.
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He should probably stay seated, but as soon as it was remotely safe, he got up, standing behind Gaila. Under the pretext of looking at whatever she was looking at - like the engineering systems meant anything to him - he leaned in over her shoulder, close enough to touch her.
"Maybe even a third."
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Except for his presence, of course. But if he didn't see anything wrong with a little harmless flirting, neither did she. And because he was so close enough for her to do so, she turned to breath words against his ear. "I promise to make it worth your while."
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Irrational fears aside, everything went off without a hitch. While the team was led to the reactor, Logan used the first opportunity he could to disappear around a corner, trying to stick to shadows, machine rooms, ventilation shafts - anything where he would hopefully stay off the metaphorical radar. The actual kill shouldn't take long; it was only the sneaking around that took some time. And even so, he should be reunited with the team long before they were finished, catching a ride back, and no one the wiser. That was how it always went. And Logan had no reason to assume this time was any different.
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Getting the shuttle to the planet was easy, but Gaila payed close attention during the landing, making sure that all systems were functioning properly. Zolii had a very easy to navigate atmosphere, and a landing area cleared by the natives. Everything went off without a hitch.
As they walked to the reactor, one of the local engineers updated Gaila on the problem. She didn't notice Logan's disappearance at first, but at some point in dawned on her that he was no longer with them. She knew better than to draw any attention to the fact.
It was only after they'd arrived at the reactor that everything went to hell. The masked men showed up out of nowhere, aiming weapons at them and ordering them to desist. Apparently they'd stumbled on a planet mired in political controversy, with some people believing that the reactor represented the government's oppressive tendencies.
Gaila knew it wasn't her place to negotiate; she offered to withdraw, and the rebels agreed, but their guide pulled a weapon on the intruders, starting a volley of fire that killed Ensign Bree. Gaila and Samson dove behind a console. "Stop firing! The reactor could explode!" Gaila shouted.
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Logan was pretty pleased, even if this assignment hadn't been much of a challenge. He didn't get all the details, but he knew there'd been some political unrest, and taking out this government hardliner would presumably help smooth things over in the long run. Logan suspected some past incidents of the man's orchestration had made it a little more personal than that for Starfleet, but honestly, he just didn't care. The jobs he'd done for Starfleet always seemed reasonable enough, serving the common good more than anything else. That was good enough for him.
Though there was probably no hurry in returning, Logan went right back all the same, taking his time - until he heard weapons firing. That was not good. Immediately, he made a run for it, fists clenched as he fought to keep in his claws. Whatever the hell was going on, he was going to end this right quick.
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"Obviously this is a domestic affair. All we want is to withdraw," Samson said.
"Unlikely," drawled one of the masked men. "The Federation's Prime Directive hasn't stopped it from interfering when they had no business. Federation captives will at least give us something to bargain with."
Gaila was already tense, but the idea of becoming a captive sent a chill through her. She knew nothing about these people; if they were truly focused on their political goals she might be okay, but she knew how Orion captives were usually treated.
"If you try to shoot us, there's a chance you hit the reactor," Samson argued. "The prudent course of action is to let us go."
"If I hit the reactor, then I'm a political martyr. Try to escape, and I will fire."
Samson and Gaila exchanged looks; there were no guarantees here.
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The problem was, it was only him. While that wouldn't have been an issue if he'd been truly alone, he currently had two massive liabilities standing around, about to be taken prisoner - and while Logan wasn't too worried about getting shot himself, it was different with Gaila and Samson. Reasoning with the rebels didn't even enter Logan's mind; by the time people took up guns, the time for words was over anyway. Picking them off one by one seemed like his best option, but that would mean letting things go a lot further than they had already - and the situation was too damn unpredictable for that.
Well, when in doubt...
"HEY!" Logan stepped out of the shadows, popping his claws. "You lookin' for a fight, it's right here." Now if only Gaila and Samson were smart enough to get the hell out of there while Logan was having fun being a distraction, everything would turn out all right. He'd find his own way back, somehow. He always did.
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But she'd have to deal with her shock and confusion later. Any second now the masked men would recover their senses and start firing at him. Even if she didn't know Logan well she had a bit of a soft spot for him, and she certainly didn't want to see him die. "Logan, if they hit the reactor it'll explode!" she shouted.
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The first masked man was dispatched with hastily, while Logan and his knife-hands still had some small element of surprise left. After that, Logan had to work for it - and he loved it, relished in the opportunity to let go. He didn't even bother trying to dodge any shots, taking them as they came, ignoring the pain. It would pass soon enough, and everything came down to this moment. Getting shot was no excuse to start slacking.
Logan's shirt quickly became saturated with blood; that of others as well as his own. A smart-ass rebel, deciding Logan was probably wearing something bullet-proof, shot him in the head. The bullet left a deep cut on Logan's forehead when it ricocheted, the noise of metal meeting metal pounding through his skull. Now he was pissed off.
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She darted across the room to duck behind the reactor. Samson didn't follow, but she didn't have time to worry about him right now. She glanced around just enough to realize that Logan was being shot. Repeatedly. But somehow he was still moving. Trying not to worry or let her mind focus on anything else, she tried to concentrate on the job at hand: getting the reactor offline. She accessed the controls and quickly input the necessary command codes, letting out a soft exhale of relief once she'd succeeded.
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On the bright side, when Logan's target was found, if people would suspect foul play at all, the kill would definitely be blamed on the rebels.
Priority now was to get the hell out of there before shit hit the fan in an even worse way - Logan would rather not attract any attention to the fact that he was on the planet at all, if he could help it - so Logan sheathed his claws and sought out Gaila, meeting up with her just as she was getting finished.
"Done?" He'd barely asked before more shots were fired - rebels or officials, he neither knew nor cared - and he snarled. This situation was beginning to piss him off. "We gotta get outta here." Looking around, he tried to spot Samson. Flawed Logan might be, but he knew better than to leave a member of their team behind.
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The reactor was luckily fairly straightforward, and by the time Logan reached her side she was just putting in a lock so that the controls couldn't be reinitialized; with what was going on, she didn't want any possibility of the reactor being turned into a bomb.
"Done," she confirmed, eyes flickering over him. His clothing was riddled with bullet holes... but he looked fine. She didn't understand it, but she'd have to wait until later to puzzle that one. She glanced over at where Samson had been hiding, but he was gone. "He must've gotten out already... Let's go," she said, making a break for the door. She kept her body low to the ground as she headed for the exit, zigzagging just enough to keep her from being an easy target.
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Arriving at the shuttle answered the question of where Samson was: there he was, getting the damn thing ready to take off. At least he was waiting for them - whether because they'd caught him just in time or because he actually had some sense of duty and honor was something Logan neither knew nor cared about. It was a relief to be so close to escape, and yet... something was wrong. Logan wasn't sure what it was at first, his body going from barely tense to full-on panic mode in less than a second - and then it hit him. That scent - not just fuel. Explosives.
Shit.
Logan had no idea how, or why, or when, but this was not the time to think about that. He might survive an explosion, but Gaila wouldn't, and she was still ahead of him.
"GET DOWN!"
No time to explain. Everything seemed to be going in slow-motion as he stepped up his pace to gain on her, prepared to throw her down on the ground if needed, before jumping over her and covering her body with his as best he could, broad shoulders and strong arms surrounding her in a parody of a hug.
Maybe it was some instinct or sixth sense, maybe it was just centuries of experience, but Logan had timed it just right. They were barely on the ground when white light engulfed the world and ended it, saving them from the rest of the experience. No deafening bang; no pain from shards of metal and bigger chunks of would-be space debris - at least, not for Logan. The force of the blast had knocked him out cold, his healing factor too taxed already to fix things anytime soon.
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GET DOWN!
Logan's words took a moment to fully register, but she was hurtling forward at full speed, and she wasn't sure what he was talking about. But then Logan was throwing her to the ground. She instinctively curled in on herself, trying to protect her head.
The explosion seemed to come from everywhere, and she felt a sharp pain in her arm. Her ears were ringing, but she was alive. Logan had saved her life. Logan...
"Logan? Logan are you okay?" She shifted under him, trying to determine if he was okay, then froze. A few rebels had appeared and were aiming weapons directly at them. Logan appeared unconscious, but he was breathing, and she was in no position to fight. "We surrender," she said, trying to raise her arms. "We surrender..."
They fired anyway, and the world went black...
An indeterminate amount of time later, her eyes opened. Her head was pounding, her vision blurry. Where am I?
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