AT - R01 General Survey (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 16 Apr 2013 @ 1:01pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Ensign Varek
Edited on on 17 Apr 2013 @ 12:33pm

3,618 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: Rojar II R01 - Surface Peninsula
Timeline: MD 05 - 1240 hrs

Previously, on R01 General Survey (Part 1)...

Aria smiled as she arched an eyebrow before clapping her hands. "Awesome. Let's call this place safe on first glance and be happy about it. And I'll buy the first round of celebration drinks when we get back to the Galileo!"

"You're on Lieutenant Rice. I call the keyboards or I'll bring my sax for the entertainment!" Jacob replied smiling widely.

"Okay," Kiri wanted to focus on the job rather than potential socialising right now, there was more than enough to think about already. Looking back to her tricorder she could at least agree that the area they were in right now was as safe enough not to pose imminent danger.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

In the near distance while camouflaged by the thick brush, a set of large predatory red eyes watched through natural infrared vision as a group of strange creatures wandered through its territory. He had never seen such beings before, and their appearance looked other-worldly. He did not understand it, or them, and it frightened him. They appeared to be bi-pedal and their limbs were thin and lanky...and on the tops of their torsos they had tiny, feeble heads. They were all covered in some sort of strange body-clout, and they had...various silver and grey things strapped to them and hanging off of their limbs. Disgusting. Frightening. Ultimately weak predators. But nonetheless, a threat. And in addition, there appeared to be another inferior creature; a quadruped that was tiny in stature and seemed to loyally follow the most dominant male of the group with unwavering faith. Two different unknown species somehow united was more than a threat. It was an invasion.

Several meters away was his mate who was nursing their newly-born children, and he sprung into action to defend her and their territory. Sneaking up through the bushes as his spikey fur naturally changed colors to blend in with the surroundings, he stalked the alpha-creature and its companion for a few brief moments. They seemed to have no idea of his presence, and when they aimlessly wandered into range, he pounced.

With a powerful thrust of his back paws, the six-legged creature's feet churned up dirt as it exploded into action against the quadruped. Moving with a swiftness and speed unseen by any Earth animal, it closed the gap between Stone and his dog in less than three seconds. When he reached the feeble four-legged creature, his large jaws extended and snapped forward like a Great White shark's, and skillfully latched onto the animal's neck. Razor sharp teeth dug into the soft and hairy flesh of the creature, and a quick predatory shake of his head snapped the creature's neck with no hesitation. Releasing the grip, the dead animal was flung several meters into the distance back towards his mate as food for the children.

The creature was now fully exposed to the away team and quickly sized them up with a viscous alien roar; it was three meters in height and seven meters long in width, with a bear-like appearance and spiked fur which shimmered in the sunlight and rapidly changed colors to blend into its surroundings. It's jaws composed 50% of its head, and it was obvious upon first glance that this creature was close to the top of the food chain on the planet.

Its next target was Stone, the supposed alpha-male who lead the entire group of creatures. If he could kill him, then perhaps the group would retreat from its territory. Circling slowly around the biped, the alien animal hissed and roared at him with an unwavering presence.

From his vantage point there was simply nothing that Holliday could do - with the group so wide it was near impossible to support Security who were sweeping the perimeter for threats. Grabbing his phaser, the XO began to spring towards his team, but it was never going to be in time.

It had all happened within seconds. The death of his dog was still a shock, one that slowed his reaction down. Stone's eyes widened and he reached for his phaser, but too late. The creature was fast and big, its six legs making it faster in comparison to the human who wasn't used to the gravity. It lunged at Stone, smacking its body against him to send him flying through the air, before it went after him, its jaws opening before closing around his throat, pulling its head back. If Stone had been able to scream, he would have, the blood pouring from his throat as the creature threw a piece of him away with a shake of its head, sneering as it moved slowly towards it dying prey.

"Shit!" Aria had pulled her phaser out when the dog was killed, but the animal moved bloody fast. She watched Stone with wide eyes before firing, her phaser set on stun. "Get the hell away from him!" she moved forward, firing again...it seemed to do nothing to the creature. Except maybe pissing it off.

After swallowing a large chunk of Stone's throat, a strange foreign blast of energy struck the animal's shoulder. It hurt, painfully so. Growling back at the team, it realized that they were somehow able to strike him from afar. They were not simply limited to melee combat, and the creature retreated several steps backwards towards the brush in order to re-evaluate the situation. What were these invading creatures? How were they able to hurt him from a distance? What was that orange light which had just struck him? Fear and anger boiled through him, and he roared once again at the team.

Kiri tripped backwards, head over heels and then heels again, stumbling she dropped her backpack as she fell on her bottom. It was huge, there wasn't time to think. It, was he dead? She processed its speed, the phaser fire that seemed to have no effect. If it was wild then, shaking hand shot to her phaser and the other to the controls. Intensity down, power up. While the rest of her could barely move she swept her arm across her body. The foliage that carpeted the ground baked and burst into flame cutting a line between the group and this monster. Her hope was that it wouldn't want to cross that line, or at least it would be effected by fire.

Aria moved forward just up to the line of burning, still firing her phaser. "Get away from him!" she shouted, loudly, breathing hard with adrenaline as she took another shot of it, the flames hot so close to her.

Kiri's legs wobbled but even under normal gravity she would have struggled to make herself move. Her best was a half crawl as she finally managed stagger forwards on all fours. Dragging her backpack by instinct, given how fast they move though, there was no way any of them could out run them. Without thinking she ended up at Pendleton's feet.

Jacob immediately reacted; he moved forward to take the point. He was no soldier, but he knew his size would make him most likely to be the greatest threat towards any enemy. He eyed the creature as he took a martial arts stance, only exposing his right shoulder to the creature. He whistled at the creature and taunted it, "HEY, come here you monster! Want a piece of me?!?" He leveled his phaser (set to the highest stun) and pointed it right at the creature's head. He might be a scientist but he was also a pretty fair shot during his time at the Academy, mostly due to his own confidence as well as just not having much fear about most things.

With both a sense of fear for one of his officers, and one of pride for the others reacting so quickly, John added his own phaser fire to the melee, maxing out the power setting to do as much damage as possible, aiming for the creature's head as he did so.

The next instant, another stream of energy struck the monster right in middle of its roaring mouth. The shot had be fired from the river, passing near the rest of the away team and hitting the creature with the precision and effectiveness one would expect from a vulcan. The energy stream stopped and Ensign Varek started running back towards the others, a water sample in one hand and a hot phaser in the other.

Multiple bursts of phaser fire struck the creature and caused it to roar even more defiantly. Intense waves of pain coarsed through its body and a high-intensity beam burned a hole into the middle of its mouth. With a weakened cry, the animal turned around to move back to the safety of the brush, but collapsed before it could get there. A painful whimper began to emanate from the alien as its vital signs wavered.

"Put those bloody flames out!" Aria breathed hard, moving to run around them...well, run was a strong word with the gravity. She got around, moving to the creature. She frowned, not needing a tricorder to see it was very injured. "Shit..." she whispered quietly, staying out of reach of it, before glancing over at where Stone lay.

Jacob watched the creature for a moment to make sure it was no longer a threat then ran with all his strength to Stone's position. He knelt down to the body. He felt helpless as he ran the tricoder scans over him. He shook his head. A single tear ran down his left cheek and he was unable to speak further.

Varek ran at a sprint towards the away team. His dense vulcan musculature and efficient oxygen delivery system allowed him to move as easily as if he were back on Vulcan, which was also a high-gravity planet. He reached the rest of the away team and dropped his water sample to reach for his medical tricorder. He cast an eye at Stone but knew right away there was no saving the man. "Is anyone else hurt?" he asked as calmly as ever.

Aria looked at the creature, swallowing. "It is," she whispered. And she could tell by the laboured breathing and the slow growls, as well as the twitching, that it wouldn't make it. Even if they could transport it over, this was a new species. She took her phaser, changing the setting to kill before moving closer. "Shh..." she whispered, watching it carefully. Judging by it, the brain was small. The large mouth was open, the bloodied teeth and pinkish foam staring at her. She pointed the phaser, her eyes sad as she pressed the button...making sure to put it out of its misery.

"Goddammit!"

The XO shouted as he approached the group, now safely regathered around their fallen comrades. There was simply nothing that anyone could do - the creature had already managed to take out both their Security Chief and his dog before falling itself. At least Rice had done the right thing and put it out of it's misery.

=^=Holliday to Galileo - Stone and our K9 unit...are gone. It seems this planet has more than just plants. Lock onto their combadges and beam them to the morgue...then prepare secondary teams for transport to the surface. =^=

Back on the bridge, Lirha's heart skipped a beat and a sickening sensation manifested in her stomach when John's call came through. Stone and his dog were now deceased, and she had just lost two more of her crew in less than a year of being in space. Despite being a captain and trying her best to keep her crew at arm's length, each loss deeply saddened her, and she would never forget any of them.

Closing her eyes with sadness, Lirha tapped her commbadge and responded. "Acknowledged, commander. Stand by." she said solemnly.

A familiar blue shimmer of transporter particles materialized around Stone and Sidi's corpses in their various locations, and they were beamed back up to Galileo to rest in peace.

Aria looked at Holliday, her eyes focused on him before she sighed. "We should transport this creature to the Galileo. Science can study it, maybe get a better idea of what naturally lives here," she said and moved towards him. "I suggest we return to the Galileo. Everyone's shook up and we need a moment. Phasers might need to be recharged too, it took a lot of juice to bring it down. We also need additional Security staff for the following away teams, with heavier weapons in case we encounter more of these creatures. Sir."

"Agreed...I'll make the necessary preparations." John replied with a sigh, before tapping his commbadge once more.

=^=Galileo, landing site is all clear - deploy additional teams at your leisure...recommend phaser rifles and replacement power cells for hand weapons. =^=

"Yes, I concur." Lirha replied over the comm, then began to type up requisition orders for the appropriate weapons on her chair's console.

"I suggest we begin scanning for this creature's biosigns to avoid anymore... incidents," Varek said, already waving his tricorder over the dead creature to get a reading.

Jacob just nodded and rose from where he had knelt. He grabbed his tricorder once more and just began scanning again, trying not to think, trying to continue to do his job and his duties.

A man just died here. Another person she knew had been killed right in front of her while she hadn't been able to do a single thing to stop it. In two months she had lists of department personnel that were gone, Lieutenant Commander Remington had died, one of the men that had abducted her, and now Stone and his dog. No one seemed to care. Half sprawled on the ground with her phaser in her right hand she could see the flames start to flicker. The vines were alive after all, wick and wet, they wouldn't burn long. Closing her eyes she felt herself stand up but it didn't feel like her body. The smell of smoke, blood and burned flesh surrounded her.

Kiri couldn't see the spattering of blood across her own face, only the scene around her. The Commander and Rice talking, Pendleton scanning and Varek not showing much of anything. Wrapping her free left arm around her stomach she clung to herself, trying her best not to throw up. Steps were staggered and under blood, dust and leaves her face looked paler than normal. The animal part of her brain screamed at her to run away, so did the little girl. The officer to do her duty and scientist that death didn't really matter. Right now facet other than the officer disgusted her. Before she knew it she was doubled over, her stomach trying to heave upwards. Fighting for control she forced her phaser into it's holster and blindly searched for her tricorder. Fighting the burning in her throat, the smell and everything telling her otherwise she blinked through her watering eyes to scan the area.

The creatures scattered normal scans, so she hadn't detected them before. As she worked through different concepts and idea she started to recover slowly. After a few seconds she had caught something, by scanning for changes in air composition on a low level she was picking up all large life in the area. The now five of them, and several other something just out of sight in the thick undergrowth. In a voice at paled to a whisper she swallowed, "There are more of them." Falling into a cough as bile tried to force its way up her throat again.

Jacob ran over to Kiri, "Its going to be all right. Stone was a good man. He helped me..." Another single tear ran down his left cheek, "..when I had a bad incident at Vega Colony..." He knelt down and looked at her, "We must continue on Kiri.. he was all about duty and we must do ours... he will get a burial worthy of a Starfleet Officer... come on.. he would want us to finish what we started..."

Right now she was more worried about being eaten than that. She felt sick and her body was heavy and numb. Stone had made her cry, he had injured a member of her team and she was scared of him. His idea of duty and her own were completely different, his way of dealing people, she didn't like him. It was the fact someone was dead rather than him, even that made her feel sick though, that she was a bad person. There were more of those creatures though, huge, fast and strong, even under this gravity. Finishing what they started might well mean they or those creatures were going to get hurt. Blood still on her face she looked at Jacob, "Eyes front," Her weak tone hardly matching the sentiment.

"The rest of you should continue on ahead," Varek said in a professional voice, "We must still complete our mission. I will stay behind with Lieutenant Cho until she has recovered." He began to wave the probe of his medical tricorder over her forehead and said to her, "You should sit down and I will give you something for anxiety."

How could they go on? The moon wasn't going anywhere and Stone was dead, it wasn't safe. It was just a survey, no one's life was worth completing it faster. It made her angry that everyone was treating it so lightly, that they were ignoring the risks. It felt like something was wrong, how they were acting wasn't right. Biting on her lip she looked at the Vulcan, "I'll be fine." If there was something wrong she couldn't leave them alone. She was also the only one that had a scanner that was picking up these creatures. Even in the state she was in there was still a job to do. Bruised, bloodied and now tear stained she wasn't staying behind.

"For the record, I think we should all beam out immediately and return once we have gotten more weapons," Aria said, watching them for a long moment. "We have done a quick survey, we can return once we are better equipped to handle the dangers that we hadn't foreseen." It seemed ridiculous to her, for people to continue this right now. Especially if they had to break up, leaving Varek and Cho alone because Cho needed to recover. "Whatever we do, we shouldn't split up," she added, frowning.

The medical officer placed a hand on Kiri's shoulder. "You are not fine," Varek said in a surprisingly soothing voice for a vulcan. He glanced at Rice and then spoke to Holliday. "I am from vulcan, sir, I am used to high gravity environments and have dealt with creatures on my homeworld as dangerous as this one. I can stay with the lieutenant and protect both of us until she has recovered and I've had a chance to administer a hypospray. Then we can rejoin you."

Aria looked at them with shock before taking a breath. "Not sure if you guys have noticed, but we are currently running on one security guard for an entire away team, which is far less than standard protocol. We have no choice but to return to the Galileo, now. It's my responsibility to keep you all safe and I can't do it with a half-burned out phaser. We need more Security, we need new weapons and we need to regroup..." she looked at Holliday for a moment before taking a breath as she stopped speaking...waiting to hear what was going to be the decision. She had already said several times now that they couldn't continue the mission, that it wasn't safe. But it was the XO's decision in the end. With Stone dead, it was Aria's responsibility to make sure the team was safe. As the only Security officer left standing in the team.

The XO's gut was to hunt down the remaining creatures on this planet and eliminate the entire species for killing off one of their own, but his job as ever was to maintain the safety of the crew. They had already taken casualties and one of their remaining members was coping less than well with the death of Lieutenant Stone.

"We've done our job down here. All away team members prepare to return to the ship."

With gritted teeth the XO slapped his commbadge and called back up to the ship, making the final decision to remove their presence from this planet.

=^=Holliday to Galileo - bring us home. =^=

"Acknowledged. Stand by." came the captain's reply over the comm. She would no doubt be sending them back down to the surface in a short while, but in the meantime she wanted them out of the potentially dangerous area until they could re-arm and select a more secure area of the moon's surface.

Jacob turned away from Kiri as ordered and then stood by to protect the team as best he could.

Bright blue transporter particles swarmed over each member of the away team and their gear, and after a few seconds they had been retrieved by their mothership.

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. jg Aria rice
Security Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. (JG) Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Varek
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus

LTJG Kiri Cho
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Jeremy Stone (KIA)
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

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