Federation News Service/Siege of DSX ends as Maquis leader escapes
| Federation News Service |
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Siege of DSX ends as Maquis leader escapesStardate 239112.28  Maquis Reborn leader Nikael Kalre escaped before Starfleet and Cardassian forces regained control of Deep Space 10.  MENTHAR CORRIDOR — Starfleet and Cardassian forces have wrestled back control of Deep Space 10 from the Maquis Reborn, but the perpetrators remain at large. "The terror is now over," said DSX security officer Lieutenant Lidia Ivanova. "It's up to us—Federation and Cardassian—now to help rebuild and remain resilient." Following the bombing of Deep Space 10's main medical center and assassination of the station's Cardassian CO Gul Tolas Dajhul by Nikael Kalre and the Maquis Reborn, the crew of the USS Garuda worked quickly to regain control of the situation before Kalre's imposed time limit for his demands—that the Federation release all remaining Maquis prisoners—ran out. With Captain Cassandra Egan Manno and the Garuda herself away on an emergency mission, first officer Lt. Cmdr. Nia Calderan took charge as acting CO of the station. The crew had been isolated into several areas, and of utmost priority was releasing the station from the ongoing quarantine lockdown. However, though it was now suspected the Maquis Reborn were involved with the timing of the quarantine to execute their attack, Dr. Chythar Skyfire nonetheless still needed to find a cure for the illness that was spreading among the station's Cardassian population. Judging the matter to require desperate measures, Dr. Skyfire tested the antidote on himself first before beginning to treat the Cardassians. A small group led by Lt. Cmdr. Msafiri Bakari was trapped below in the engineering levels of the station. Cut off from communications, Lt. Cmdr. Tristam Core and Lt. Juanita Sanchez, chief engineer of the recently recovered USS Mercury, devised a plan to use an EMP to knock out the Maquis Reborn's bombs throughout the station. They found a surprising new ally as well: the station's indigenous cyborg spiders, who managed to release the station from the lockdown. In a sealed dining area with air running out, Lt. Cmdr. Mei'konda and Lt. Evan Delano discovered a way out, but tensions were beginning to flare among the civilians as the Starfleet officers swept the area for any remaining Maquis traps. Negotiations with the Maquis proved fruitless, and Calderan ventured with a small team into the Arachnid Dome to get additional assistance from the cyborg spiders. Meanwhile, the Maquis Reborn departed the station, taking Commander Valen Carys with them. Kalre delivered one last message to the station's inhabitants and the Federation, declaring that their lives had come at his mercy and that his ultimate goal had been to display the ineffectiveness of Starfleet to stop him and other threats facing Federation citizens. Before he and the Maquis escaped, he urged those listening to consider what he had said and encouraged them to join the Maquis Reborn's cause. The crew, however, could not trust Kalre's assurances that all was now well, and so the engineers triggered the EMP, which effectively disabled the bombs but also disrupted the medical staff's equipment, much to their frustration. Meanwhile, Calderan and her team, along with science officers Alora DeVeau and Tarsii Asmara, made contact with the spider queen to work together to resolve the situation. When the Garuda and Captain Egan Manno returned to DSX, the situation had changed. A Cardassian gul was dead. A new terrorist group had emerged. While the long, eventful day was finally over, it was clear that its ramifications would be felt a long time to come. About the FNS • |
| SD 239112.28 • Sol Sector Edition |
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