I Object! Part V
Posted on Fri Jun 12th, 2026 @ 12:56pm by Captain Thorrin & Commander Marisa Sandoval & Lieutenant C'Mila Juli & Major Hastios Eilfaren
Edited on on Fri Jun 12th, 2026 @ 1:02pm
2,276 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
In The Nick Of Time
Location: The Planet Kroat
Timeline: MD006 1400 hrs
The behavior struck Juli as off. Shouldn't guests be seated and still behave at this time? Still, Juli couldn't make any sudden moves, especially not into Vwaarti company without drawing attention to herself. She was now further away from Hastios and Marisa than he'd recommended before they'd entered into the celebration. She started thinking quickly, running through a number of scenarios about how to get back to them quickly, considering what could go wrong. In all likelihood, most of the people here were just guests; quite possibly, there were many who opposed the wedding even if they weren't here to see it fail. And where in the gods had Wyatt gone?
Wyatt had been standing at the edge of the crowd, wondering how he could get involved without raising suspicions or drawing attention to himself. He determined that he wasn't going to solve anything by standing around. So, he moved toward Juli.
The bride made her way down the aisle with her retinue. She was a sight to behold, ethereal and beautiful. Yet there was something dangerous about her as well. If there was an ideal Vwaarti bride for a Kroat this was her. Korvax stood silent with a smile plastered on his face. Just another face in the crowd. His heart slowed, his breathing steadied and his vision focused. He knew what would happen, and new that this was the moment. As soon as the bride took her place on the dais, she joined hands with her groom, her head was exposed and Korvax was in the ideal spot. He had planned it this way, the interlopers were too late. He was scheduled to die nonetheless. The movement was swift and precise; there was no time for most to react. In a blink the weapon was out and the greenish energy discharged and on its way to its target. Korvax could rest easy, his mission would soon be over and his life would be anew.
Marisa, who had been watching the Kroat, saw the weapon. She didn't think. Didn't hesitate. She dove, knocking the princess aside just before the shot would have killed her. She waited for moment to make sure there wasn't a second shot, then got to her feet.
She would have helped the princess, but others were there before her, so Marisa moved out of the way.
Hastios saw the weapon.
It was only a flash beneath fabric at first, a wrong angle of movement where every other Kroat officer held ceremonial stillness. His hand was already moving beneath his cloak when the green energy tore loose.
“Gun!”
The word came out sharp, but too late to stop the first shot.
Marisa moved faster than the crowd understood. One moment she was among the Vwaarti, the next she had thrown herself into the bride, driving the princess aside as the blast carved through the air where her head had been. The meadow erupted around them. Music broke apart. People screamed. The clean lines of ceremony collapsed into bodies surging in every direction.
Wyatt moved at the same time, cutting through the nearest gap toward the shooter. Brave. Too brave, perhaps. The second shot caught him before he could close the distance, striking hard enough to spin him off his feet and send him crashing into the grass among scattering guests.
Wyatt went down in the edge of Hastios’ vision, and there was no time to look, no time to check how badly. He saw Marisa rising near the bride, saw the shooter swing the weapon back toward them for another shot.
There was no time left for subtlety.
Hastios drove through the crowd, cloak snapping behind him, medals clattering against his chest as guests staggered out of his path. He did not draw his phaser. Not here. Not with panicked civilians everywhere and a thousand years of history screaming around them. He used his size, his speed, and the borrowed authority of the uniform to force a line through the chaos.
The shooter fired again.
Hastios hit Marisa and the bride’s line of fire a heartbeat before the blast reached them. The energy struck him high in the side, burning through cloak, fabric, and flesh with a force that drove the breath from his lungs. Pain flashed white-hot across his ribs and shoulder, sharp enough to drop most men where they stood.
He went down to one knee.
For half a second, the world narrowed to the taste of blood, the roar of the crowd, and the sound of his own breath refusing to come properly.
Then he got back up.
His face had changed. Not the disguise, not the Kroat ridges or ice-blue eyes, but the man beneath them. The dry humour was gone. The careful restraint was gone. What remained was older, harder, and very much awake.
The shooter tried to bring the weapon around again.
The Kroat officers in the Prince's retinue reacted to the word gun. Immediately weapons were drawn, guns and blades. They surrounded the bride, groom, and officiant. Marisa was now within this phalanx of Kroat. No, one would breach them unless they were dead first. Their heads moved from side to side as they scanned for the shooter. The Vwaarti delegation took a step behind the Kroat. Their hands seemed ready for a fight and yet no weapons were drawn. All at once a force of energy surrounded the Kroat phalanx. This shot, meant to kill and disrupt, seemed to have the opposite effect on the dais. The Vwaarti and Kroat worked together in this moment toward a common goal.
The Kroat General who stood at the head of the phalanx looked at Hastios. "There soldier. Take him out. That man now has a blood hunt upon his head, and the rewards are yours. For the Glory of Kroatia." The General pointed toward Korvax and continued to speak. "Do not impede this soldier he acts upon my orders. Now clear." The booming voice of the General was enough for the people to open a path.
Korvax saw what had transpired. How could it go so wrong, he thought. Who were these interlopers? They must be stopped. He looked around in a panic searched for a place to blend in. His head spun on the General's words. Korvax knew the words blood hunt. There was nowhere on this planet he could hide. He would have to leave and they would reset and try again. He reached for his communication device. "Reset now." He said into the device but there was no response. The phase beneath the mask paled. For a man who was destined to die Korvax was suddenly afraid.
Hastios charged.
He crossed the last few metres like a battering ram in formal dress, one hand knocking the weapon arm wide as the shot went wild into the sky. His other hand closed around the shooter’s wrist and crushed down with enough force to make bone and metal protest together. The communication device went skittering across the path. He drove his shoulder into the man’s chest, slamming him backwards through the nearest line of guests and into the edge of a ceremonial post.
“Drop it,” Hastios growled, low and close.
Juli heard the shout of warning and saw Marisa charge. She was unsure if she should still attempt to remain undercover for a while longer. Sheer restraint kept her from instinctively running to Marissa's aid, she would be an alien in that crowd and likely seen as a threat. She forced herself to count her breaths, to slow herself down as she made her way through the Kroat crowd - against the crowd and toward Hastios and his target. Once the first shot was fired, discretion no longer mattered and Juli took off at a sprint, finally seeing Wyatt just ahead of her.
Wyatt! She watched in horror as another shot took him down and sent him into the grass, a sickening feeling growing in the pit of her stomach as she pressed forward, keeping a sharp eye on where the shot had originated and watched in horror a second time as Hastios ran deliberately into the blast.
She now pushed people out of her way forcefully and didn't stop until she was on Hastios' heels as he held the offender prisoner against the post. She had her hand ready, hidden in the folds of her skirt gripping a phaser disguised as a local weapon. She was worried Hastios couldn't take another hit, surprised he was still standing after the way Wyatt went down.
"You may have won today. But, time has a way of coming back around, it always does. The reset will come and I will be here and you will not. So, you have not stopped anything merely delayed the inevitable. We are inevitable." Korvax spoke to the interlopers. When he went silent his thoughts went to his family, his planet and the restoration they worked so hard for. In a swift movement he used his tongue to remove a capsule that was hidden where one of his teeth should have been. He bit down and as the fluid trickled down his throat a purple fluid flowed from his nose, eyes and ears. With a gurgle Korvax was gone, lost to time.
Hastios felt the man shift beneath him before he saw the capsule.
It was small, almost nothing. A movement of the jaw. A change in the throat. The kind of thing that meant something only a heartbeat too late.
“Don’t—”
The word had barely left his mouth before the purple fluid began to run from the man’s nose, then his eyes, then his ears. Hastios tightened his grip instinctively, but there was nothing to hold onto anymore. The body under him went slack with a wet, ugly gurgle, the fight leaving it all at once.
For a second, he stayed exactly where he was, breathing hard through the pain burning across his side. Then he released the dead man’s arm and shoved the weapon away with the back of his hand, sending it skidding across the grass and out of reach.
“He’s gone,” Hastios said, voice rougher than usual.
Only then did he let himself feel the hit.
It came in hot and deep now that the immediate threat had ended, a vicious line of fire beneath the ruined cloak where the blast had torn through fabric and flesh. He pressed one hand hard against his side, more to keep himself upright than to stop the bleeding, and pushed himself back to his feet.
The meadow was chaos around them. Kroats shouting. Vwaarti screaming. The wedding music had died somewhere in the panic, leaving only the ragged noise of a crowd that had nearly watched history come apart.
Hastios ignored most of it.
His eyes searched the dais.
Marisa.
He found her near the bride, alive and moving, and something in his chest loosened despite the pain. Not much. Not enough. But enough to let him draw a proper breath.
“Juli,” he said, without looking away from Marisa for more than a second. “Secure the weapon. Keep people back.”
He took one step toward the dais and nearly regretted it as the wound pulled sharply, forcing him to pause. His jaw tightened. He would deal with that later. Wyatt was down. The bride was alive. Marisa was alive. The shooter was dead.
That was the order of things now.
He straightened as much as he could and forced himself forward, one hand still clamped against his side, his borrowed Kroat medals darkened by blood beneath the torn ceremonial cloth.
The princess was alive. That was all that mattered. Well, almost. Marisa looked around, knowing Hastios would go after the assassin, but she was being herded with the wedding party. She had to get away, find Hastios, make sure he was okay.
She let herself be moved off to the side, but it was only to find a way to leave without drawing attention to herself.
Then an older Vwaarti woman came up to her. "Thank you for saving the princess."
Marisa had to say something. "It was my duty. For the future of both our people."
The woman smiled. "Indeed." Then something caught her attention and she turned back to the princess.
Marisa took the opportunity to casually move away. To blend with the other Vwaarti. To find Hastios.
It wasn't as hard as she thought it might have been. Her steps faltered when she saw the blood. Hastios' blood. Remaining outwardly calm, she came up beside him. "I am here," she said quietly. "Lean on me."
Together, they would find the others. Together, they would get back to the ship.
A Joint Post
Major Hastios Eilfaren
Chief Security & Tactical Officer
Second Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Commander Marisa Sandoval
Executive Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Captain Thorrin
Commanding Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant C'amila Juli
Chief Science Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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