Bajoran Militia Interview: Prelude to the Kendra Valley Massacre (Part I)

Posted on 27 Feb 2015 @ 4:42pm by Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D.
Edited on 25 Mar 2015 @ 11:21pm

1,311 words; about a 7 minute read

Location: Starfleet Academy, Security Interview Room Twelve
Interviewer: Colonel Hurnal Rellon, Department of Military Archives (Bajoran Militia)
Date: September 22nd, 2378
Time: 1530 Hours

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The room was not so big. In the Starfleet Security training center, it's purpose was usually as a testing facility. The more advanced security cadets seeking to become detectives, worked various scenarios and case studies to refine their skills of deduction and body language.

Today, however, the room was not intimidating at all. Though the redheaded Bajoran woman with the cane walked into the room as if this would be the most painful interview she would have to endure.

A cadet, like most. Not nervous at all, but very agitated to recant a painful time of the past. There were a few Starfleet brass sitting along the walls. Their purpose, Cadet Benice Gyce was told, was simply to hear about a battle and try to better prepare the Federation and its allies from another atrocity.

"This will not be too uncomfortable, Cadet Benice."

Benice turned her head to the voice. An older Bajoran in the militia uniform of a colonel. She was briefed on him very little. A pudgy, glorified archiver for the Provisional Government. Colonel Hurnal was not a combat officer by any means. Simply a historian of military history. And he wanted to know Gyce's story.

"I hope not Sir," Gyce bantered lightly to cover her true feelings as she took a seat across from Hurnal.

"I know this is not a great subject for you recant," Hurnal began sympathetically as he scrunched his wrinkled head down at the PADD in front of him. "You were the lone survivor in your cell. And fairly young. Seventeen if the records are accurate."

"Yes Sir. They are," Gyce nodded and pushed hard through the emotional pain. "I would prefer if we just dove into the questions as quickly as possible."

"Of course Miss Benice," Hurnal nodded and looked at his PADD. "So why did you join the fight at such a young age?"

"My family lost their farm when the Cardassians put us in an internment camp. And once we were let out, my parents wanted to fight," Gyce explained with an unnerving level of detachment. It was the only way to tell the story without crying. "My brother and I joined naturally, against their wishes. But because we were too young for battle itself, we learned how to set up explosives and mostly stole things from Cardassian soldiers off the streets."

"Was it common to see children fight against the Cardassian military?" Hurnal asked curiously.

"I honestly could not tell you," Gyce answered with a shrug. "I do know our cell never liked the idea of me and my brother pitching in at such young ages. But when the cell got short-handed, or there was a really big time-sensitive op? It was easier to ask us, than seek more outside recruits."

"Why was that?"

"Mostly because the big ops typically took the longest to plan and it was easier to recruit people for those ops and train them and determine if they were on the level," Gyce answered and poured herself a glass of water. "But sometimes a big op came on a short window. And the risks of recruiting someone on short notice who ended up a spy for the Cardassians, was ultimately the reason my brother and I took a much larger part in the major raids. Better the people you know."

"So what was your cell's mission, on the day of the massacre?" Hurnal asked while he typed things in his PADD.

"There was a minimally-guarded weapons depot about ten miles east of our village," Gyce spoke and fought hard not to let her sadness show. "We needed more rifles and explosives for a landing zone we planned to hit a few weeks after that raid."

"What is a typical plan for something this minor?" Hurnal continued to ask. He looked mildly interested.

"Hard tactics would only risk the depot blowing up and killing everyone," Gyce answered after she took a very long time to ponder the question. "So we would plan some sort of soft tactic or diversion to split the enemy's forces. Mostly explosions close enough to our target that the guards are obligated to respond first."

"This raid feel any different than the rest?" Hurnal asked carefully.

"Being in a cell, we worked very similarly to an intelligence team. That meant, in the event of capture, only the leader of our group knew the entire plan," Gyce spoke, then took a long time to sip on her water before she continued. "Even so, what limited information I knew, I believe the raid felt far more odder than usual, Sir."

"In what way?" the older man continued to prod while he jotted down things with his stylus pen.

"I believe who ever the insider was that was leaking our cell information, gave us incomplete data, because the mission was too easy," Gyce admitted with a small hint of anger to that person of the past.

"In what way?" Hurnal asked and looked up at the redheaded Bajoran with much interest.

"Stealing ordinance for a big op is typically not something we do all the time because the more you succeed in the raid the harder it will be to steal from them again," Gyce explained, this time looking at her hands. "So this one felt very odd because when I set and primed the diversionary explosive, five of the six guards came to the explosion."

"Why was this off?" Hurnal asked with bafflement.

"It's basic ground warfare... You move in pairs, minimally, when in contested ground. So to me, looking back in retrospect, I think they knew we were coming, because all of those Cardassian guards were young. Fresh from boot, young," Gyce admitted very soberly.

"Can you go back to the point of the diversion. Tell me what happened from the moment you set the explosive off?" Hurnal prodded more gently this time.

"Humans would call it a turkey shoot," Gyce admitted with that eerie detached front once more. "I call it just plain evil... Because those young men were not prepared for this level of guerrilla warfare. And once they approached the fireball I created, the small fireteam I was assigned to opened fire and killed them in a matter of seconds."

"Why so hard on yourself? Surely you must of taken part in tactics like this before?" Hurnal asked out of curiosity.

"This whole battle was different though," Gyce frowned. "Yes. You pick the weakest targets, but this was a bloody, one-sided battle where our opponents were not much older than I was. Kids. Probably brainwashed by their parents to hate us and were laid to rest with honors, when nothing honorable came of it."

"Just one more question before we adjourn for the day, Cadet Benice." Hurnal sounded very sympathetic. "What happened with the one guard, that was left at the depot?"

"The second fire team took him out with a sniper shot. Which we were quick to move the weapons out of the facility once he was down. We had a window of ten minutes to steal the goods and stash them before a response team beamed in. Then once the weapons and ordinance was safely stashed, we would return to the village," Gyce swallowed.

"Thank you for your time, Cadet. I would like to pick this up tomorrow after your classes. Assuming you don't mind?"

Gyce looked at the nonintrusive admiralty that watched her. She was, in many ways, forced to comply with their presence alone.

"I would love to, Sir." With that, the cadet got up from her chair and walked out with her cane. Her steps felt much heavier than before, as well as her heart.

 

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