Search and Rescue (Part 2 of 4)

Posted on 20 Jun 2016 @ 1:02am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Randolf Eklund & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Anthony Duval & Chief Petty Officer Torgeir Naes & Chief Petty Officer Crispin Snow & Petty Officer 3rd Class Veri RN & Crewman Draia Thero
Edited on on 20 Jun 2016 @ 2:17am

2,200 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: Celes III - Landing Site Alpha, Grid 10-298-001-20
Timeline: MD 13 - 0055 hours

Previously, on Search and Rescue (Part 1)...

"Sir? Do we want two lines tethered or split off in groups of four? I ask because we need to strategically place strong people around those who aren't very strong," Gyce suggested to Kohl.

Frowning like a tragedy mask --to be seen through the faceplate of his helmet-- Kohl replied with, "I appreciate the strategic staggering of the team, Lieutenant. Thank you. But I don't like teams of only four out there..." His frown lines deepened and he looked Gyce in the eye to measure if she had the same fears.

Gyce nodded, "I agree." She did not comment on the fact Tuula's chair was a hazard and a liability. Very few of Tuula's friends in the group would see the several scenarios where a chair like that would cause so many mission failures by a single, strong gust of wind.

"Allyndra," Kohl said over the comms, and he turned his whole body to face where the doctor was tethered in. In the EV suit, it was like a dance that was entirely lacking in grace. "Can we extrapolate any meaning from the lifesign sensor readings?" Kohl asked. "Are both modules in critical need of our aid, or can we prioritize one before the other?"

Allyndra was hanging onto anything to keep her in place when Kohl asked his question. "Way too much interference at this distance. However, from what I saw on the monitor it would appear the Semmes-Three took the most damage."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Duval checked his heads up display before he turned off his outgoing com, he could hear others but they could not hear him and that was honestly how he preferred it. "Bah!. This weather sucks." he muttered softly before he looked left and then right. "Yep... Tricorder readings only good for five meters, my HUD good for twice that... and line of sight is zero. How can this not end badly.?" he asked himself.

To the entire team, Kohl announced, "We move out staggered on two lifelines linked back to Galileo, but we work in tandem as one away team." --He crooked a hollow grin in Gyce's direction-- "We wouldn't be Starfleet if we didn't love our redundancies. We'll make our way to Semmes-Three, begin triage operations, and then move on to the second colony module."

"Sounds good, Commander." Gyce gave a subtle nod before she hooked in to Kohl.

Luke nodded, "A perfect plan, what can go wrong?" He said with a wry smile tugged underneath the helmet of his suit as he pressed an arm to Allyndra "I have something to admit commander... I'm hooked on you What can I do? It's over you," Luke sang cheesely and slightly out of tune.

Allyndra was not sure at first what to say and then got the reference and laughed in her light musical way.

The away team slowly moved towards their objective. Though the two distressed colony modules were obscured by an ever-flowing haze of debris and storm-front fog, the winds occasionally broke from their gusting to form large dust devils during which the visibility momentarily cleared for a few seconds around the mini-tornadoes. Charged particles of atmospheric electricity intermittently scathed the landscape with their discharge, sending reverberating sonic concussions and electrical currents reverberating through any nearby object.

In the distance -- concealed from an unseen vantage point behind a far ridge and masked by the atmospheric turbulence -- a pair of magnified infrared lenses peeked out through the storm in order to observe the Starfleet away team and Galileo's large hull. A pair of gloved, grey humanoid hands grasped the tactical binoculars and zoomed in to maximum magnification. Boxy green and white glyphs scrolled across the top and bottom of the digital display to present ranging and biosign information to the viewer. "Lloann'mhrahel ..." said one of the creatures to the other five of his kind hidden behind the rock.

Through the binoculars viewer, the form of Andreus Kohl lumbered forward across the landscape. He took his stride in small, steady steps. Some mammalian corner of his brain screamed at him to run towards the injured and dying aboard the colony module, but his intellectual awareness of his own limitations won out over those ancient vestiges of instinct. Although the EV suit made him appear the same as most any other officer on this mission, Kohl had taken the extra precaution of strapping on his old motor-assist bands beneath his uniform -- should his old injuries flare up in the field.

What wasn't visible through those binoculars was Kohl's question over the comms. "How much farther away is Semmes-Three?" he asked, trusting his team over his own eyes or his own twitchy tricorder.

Allyndra wanted nothing more then to fly. It was instinct as much as anything. The wind and the tug was one thing but there was the struggle of the weight of the suit and lines holding her down. She wanted to rebel against that. The cold did not help either. While the suit kept her warm, the snow swirling around spoke to a part of her that it was dangerous. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other, looking at the tricorder willing her mind not to get sleepy. "Wish I could tell, I get one reading and then another, things are not reliable here."

Randy tuned his Comm to Lt. Benice's channel. "Ma'am, if some of the security team take up position around the team, we could link our tricorders to increase the coverage and visibility. Any of the others with cold weather experience could help with that as well. Those without the experience and the ones protecting them could tap into that and focus on staying together and moving forward."

Gyce made sure she was on Security's private channel before she commed back, "I don't think the tricorders have the ability to boost a range that strong in this weather, even linked... For the moment, we should perform a perimeter check of point-two-five meters out, once the squints are settled at the first site."

"Aye," Randy nodded, though the movement was a bit lost in the bulky EVA suit. "I'll see to it."

Greg thought he saw movement from the corner of his left eye, sweeped his rifle around to check and noted that it was just a bit of small debris pushed around by the wind. He swore under his breath as his HUD motion tracker confirmed his findings: "I can barely see three feet in front of my face in this storm." He turned back to face forward. "My science is sketchy, but I am beginning to agree with Duval. Remind me why we decided to do this on what amounts to LV-426? I keep feeling like something is gonna charge at me from the shadows."

"You watch too many scary holomovies, Mister Mitchell," Gyce laughed in kind. If only to keep the mood positive. She too, deep down, did not like the weather. It made it hard to feel safe when you could not see a rock coming at you until impact.

Now that Gyce thought about it, she felt as if no one was truly safe on this team. Off-road did not mean 'Free-For-All Travel'. Anyone that rode in a plasma tank or went canoeing could tell you that Tuula's top-heavy chair was just begging for a massive gust of wind to blow her over in the most gruesome of manner down a steep incline. It was a stress Gyce did not want - to be responsible for the safety of a person you could not guarantee.

Stepping carefully so as not to run into the officer before him, Terje kept his head down against the near-gale force winds buffeting him from all directions. He could feel the occasional tug of Snow's lead from behind him. He thought to tease him, the man had worried so much about blowing away, but he opted to keep his thoughts to himself. He would not be able to talk naturally, and taking up a private link for casual conversation went against all mission logic he had learned over the years. Half-way to Half-way, he told himself as he pressed on.

Luke went to work walking through the storm trying to scan his surroundings to no avai,l "I really don't like this... Going in blind is basically against everything I've been taught." He grumbled "And I have an itchy back."

"Whores will cause such itches," Gyce lightly teased Luke, but was quick to point out, "At least we're all hooked together. Makes it much harder to get lost in this weather."

Luke if he was eating food would have spat it out, Gyce's joke caught him of guard "You're just jealous" He retorted before smirking under his helmet "And you've been hooked on me since the moment we met" His tone was light hearted and daring.

"If only," Gyce snorted. Truly humored by his hubris. There were no remaining people - except for maybe Dru, that knew Gyce had dated Lirha for well over three months. "Truth be told Luke... Big brutes aren't my type. But you're welcome to keep entertaining me with your grandiose fantasies."

Tuula had been doing her best to keep up to the rest of the crew. Fortunately, the all terrain hoverchair was functioning exactly as specified, and she had little problem staying with the group. In fact, in some ways it managed to work out well; she was able to carry more medical supplies in containers strapped to the chair than anyone could themselves. But still, over the past walk, she started to feel a little self-conscious.

"Allyndra," she whispered over a private channel, "You doing okay?"

"Yes, so far feet mostly on the ground." Allyndra replied.

"Good." Tuula took a deep breath. "Listen... is it just me, or is Lieutenant Benice acting a little off? I get the feeling she doesn't want me on this away team..."

"To busy to notice. Perhaps it is the chair. Perhaps the fact that there were better places to colonize. There is still much that does not make sense to me about why here when plenty of easier worlds." Allyndra continued.

Duval listened to the com chatter, he agreed with the Doctor that there were other worlds to colonize and easier places too. This world was downright hostile but there was another world one orbit out that was far easier to settle.

"Hmph." Tuula gave off an irritated grunt, hurt at the notion that there were people on the away team that didn't want her there. Especially Lieutenant Benice, who had her own mobility issues to contend with. "Well, I hope--"

Crispin glanced down at his tricorder "500m!" he called out across the open com in response to Kohl's question. "We should be able to see it any second!"

"Thank the Twins! Veri, you ready for initial assessments?"

"Oh yes!" Veri had that excited tone through her comm. "I've read up extra hard on common bacteria from wreck debris to crushed-bone syndrome."

Greg swept his rifle ahead of him, setting his HUD to different settings in a vain attempt to see through the storm. "I still don't have anything on my end. Will it register on thermal?"

"Negative." Came the dry response from Duval. "My thermal's clean.."
he paused as he added. "Watch your corners guys... Just because we don't like it here doesn't mean someone else... doesn't like it here.." he added, with something of a wry grin on his face.

A moment later as they moved forward. "Guys... the winds picking up." he sighed as he now had to start struggling to walk forward. "Crap.." he muttered under his breathe.

The humor was growing darker as the surroundings grew even less hospitable. Ducking his head against the increasing wind, Terje double-checked his line to ensure everything was good. It was, but he didn't regret the confirmation. He could just hear snatches of conversation, now and then picking up Snow's voice so at least he was faring well.

Luke could sense the teams anxiousness and it didn't stop there he to was on edge and his gut instinct was screaming "It's a Trap!" Just like a quote in a film he had once watched.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Unnamed
Casualty
[NPC Qureshi]

WO2 Anthony Duval
Engineer
USS Galileo

PO2 Crispin Snow
Operations officer
USS Galileo
[NPC Derani]

LCmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Andreus Kohl
Second Officer
USS Galileo

CWO2 Greg Mitchell
Security Officer
USS Galileo

Dr. Josephine Lemieux
Colony Nanotechnologist
USS Semmes
[ PNPC - Mott ]

CPO Torgier Naess
Security Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Benice Gyce
Chief of Security
USS Galileo

PO3 Veri
Surgical Nurse
USS Galileo
[PNPC Gyce]

Lieutenant Luke Wyatt
Chief Strategic Operations Office
USS Galileo

and other Galileans...

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