Years ago - Imperial Relaxation world - Prime Hotel

Commander Li checked his sidearm for the fourth time in the past fifteen minutes, his two armed companions exchanged amused glances. The looks didn’t escape his notice “I wouldn’t be so glib. The last time someone tried to assassinate him it took three weeks just to clean the place. I’ve heard that the Hawks new Captain is still finding body parts in his quarters” His tone was serious enough that his companion’s smiles faded “If that’s the case do you think there’s enough of us, just three?” one of the men, a sergeant in a MACO uniform, asked. “We’ll meet a few more likeminded people on the 29th floor” Li answered, motioning his team to keep moving.

It took them the better part of an hour to move through the ventilation shafts of the luxury hotel, avoiding all manners of internal security. When the finally made it to the 29th floor they met a group of five more men, all dressed in black. Four Humans and an extremely large hooded man whose green hands showed his Xeno features “The hell is an Orion doing here Rawlins?” Li hissed at a slender man sitting in a chair, fiddling with a large knife. He looked up and one eye stared back at Li making his spine tingle out of discomfort “Don’t worry, it’s housebroken” A cruel smile emerged from the one-eyed man “Now our deal still stands, we take out his security and you allow me ten minutes of fun, bastard owes me an eye” Li nodded affirmatively and straightened out his uniform “You all know the plan, my team hits the main entrance and when the rest of his security arrives you strike from the sides” Rawlins’ team all nodded except the hulking Orion standing in the back. With those niceties out of the way, the two groups split up.

Twenty minutes later, having had some trouble with the Security protocols between the two floors, Li and his MACO’s had arrived on the 30th floor without being seen by security and took a step onto the main hallway. The walked with purpose towards the main door. The two armed Starfleet Security officers placed their hands on their sidearms and the senior officer spoke up “Commander Li, we weren’t expecting you. The front desk never called up” He said in as casual of a tone as he could “That might be because the front desk doesn’t know we’re here” Li smiled and quickly drew his pistol and fired his phaser hitting each guard ones between the eyes. Their reactions were good but not good enough. Li nodded to his guards and one of them placed a small explosive on the door and they took cover. The door flew open and they stormed the penthouse apartment but after a moment the three of them stopped. It was empty, they had been expecting at least half a dozen guards like their recon had shown but the luxurious room was quite empty “To the bedroom quickly” Li hissed at his men.

They breached the bedroom but were totally unprepared for the sight. All around the room, the four corpses lay motionless, all members of Rawlin’s attack team. Then Li’s eyes turned to the bed in the end of the room where he saw the one-eyed man looking straight at him or to be more precise his head, the rest of his was not in the room. One of the MACO’s looked back at his Commander with fear in his eyes “WHat the hell happened” Li grimaced, spat a silent curse at the overeager spymaster and motioned his team to remain quiet “Orion?” He mouthed. His men looked across the room and the adjoining bathroom but no sight of the Hulking Alien could be found anywhere. It was then that they heard a loud crash outside. In a single moment, they were outside, weapons trained at the source of the sound. They had found the Orion.

Or at least they guessed it was once the Alien in question seeing as it lacked both arms and head. Li felt his dinner trying to make its way out any exit it could but forced it to stay down. “You really should bring gasmasks on an assault like this Commander” A cold empty voice sounded from the air startling the team, The MACO’s went back to back, walking in circles around each other. “A simple neurotoxin to disable attacking foes was all I needed, although smart bringing the big one” That same familiar voice that seemed to b coming from nowhere “Didn’t take as much of an effect on him, even without arms he was still a threat” Suddenly Li realized that his arms were no longer raised, in fact, he couldn’t move a muscle. It wasn’t fear, was it? Not now!

“Don’t worry, that’s just the Toxin taking hold of you, tensing your muscles” The cold empty voice continued, Li could feel it coming closer, he was behind him now. He heard the sound of a blade piercing flesh twice then thuds, he knew his compatriots were dead. He was all that remained. “Honestly I’d turned the gas off too soon, didn’t expect the secondary assault to come almost ten minutes after the first” Commander Li could finally see the owner of the voice, his Commanding Officer, Captain Gunnar Kaldland. The man stood in front of Li examining his features carefully, Li stared back. The Captain was wearing pajama pants with no shirt, his upper torso covered in Blood. In his left hand a standard Imperial Dagger and in his right an Axe, the axe that cleaved a thousand skulls. On his face, he wore a mask to repel the gas but he removed it after a moment.

Gunnar’s face was emotionless, no hint of anger at this betrayal or joy of its failure “It’s a shame really, I don’t enjoy executing capable officers, useless garbage like Commander Rawlins I don’t mind but you are one of the good ones.” Li felt a slight tingling in his right hand, he was regaining control of his body, he smiled internally, perhaps this wouldn’t be such a loss after all. “I suppose he was angry at me for removing his eye last year, but I have to admit I am surprised. You would have made Captain by next year without… Well, all this” Gunnar looked across the room. Li grimaced “You’re weak” He struggled to speak “You are the Emperor’s loyal dog, not capable of making a decision without that Harlot telling you what to do” He spat the words. Gunnar smiled slightly, the look unnerved Li to no small end “It’s too bad you think that, I had hoped that I could spare you, a few months in an agonizer would do you good. However, you will only do damage to the Empire.” Li’s eyes flashed “Then you shall die too!” He yelled, raising his right hand and pointing his phaser right at Gunnar and pressing the trigger.

Or at least his brain gave the command to press the trigger but it didn’t matter because as soon as his hand was raised Gunnar’s right hand flew up and removed the hand from the arm. It took a moment to realize what happened but as soon as his mind caught up with the fact that it no longer had a hand and the pain kicked in Li started screaming, mostly out of sheer panic at the fact he no longer posses a hand. Gunnar placed his left hand on Li’s shoulder, having sheathed his knife sometime earlier, and started hushing the man. “There there, don’t worry, it’ll be over soon” With those words Li looked from his hand and into his Captain’s eyes, his icy blue dead stare, eyes that didn’t smile with the rest of the Iceman’s face and knew that it was over. A moment later the Axe cleaved his head and Commander Li was no more.

Gunnar sat in his bed, back against the wall, fiddling with his communicator, and absentmindedly stroking the head of the One-eyed Rawlins. He flipped the device open [O]”Captain Kaldland to The Zhànshì, send a message to Starfleet Command, inform them that Commander Li has been executed for treason. Then send another message to Starfleet Intelligence, inform them that Lieutenant Commander Rawlins has been located and that they can call off the headhunt”[O] He raised the head and looked at it for a moment, smiling at his own little joke [O]”Also have a bath prepared in my quarters”[O] After a moment’s pause the Bridge of his ship responded [O]”Should we beam you up immediately Captain?”[O] The nervous voice of his second officer came over the Comm [O]”Not yet, I’m going to have a few words with the hotel security. Kaldland out[C] He closed his communicator, gave Rawlins one last look before casually tossing the had away and getting out of the bed. He walked into his main room and retrieved his Axe, still attached to his former first officer.

Then without a care in the world he left his room and took the lift down.

Gunnar Kaldland - The Iceman - CO