The Descent

Posted on Thu May 14th, 2015 @ 12:22pm by Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Cor Cordale & Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Lieutenant & Ensign Moriloth & Lieutenant Valeria Mordin

Mission: Debts to be settled......
Location: Danube of USS Victory

[ON]

It became soon evident to all that a carrier jockey must have taught Ens. Moriloth to fly. Those pilots didn't lift off, they catapulted. Victory's Danube streaked out and away from the ship, gravity compensators pressing hard against the passengers.

Valeria wasn't quite ready for the sudden jerk of motion, and was thankful that at least these seats had restraints.

Cordale, on the other hand, enjoyed the thrill of the thrill, and could hardly suppress a 'Whoooo hooo' at the catapult-like departure. "I'm gonna love this posting." he mentioned, once inertia leveled out.

Elijah was sat in the seat and looked at Cor. "Not if you end up scrubbing the Hull with a toothbrush." The Commander joked as he checked the Equipment.

Cor joined in the chuckle'fest, "That all depends on the toothbrush."

Bertrand kept his teeth clenched shut, his gloved right hand gripping the console in front of him.

Tracking atmospheric events on a small monitor, Moriloth laid the Danube into a high speed roll towards a swirling cloud mass. Logic dictated that the eye of a possible hurricane would be the most navigable. "Deflector shields... on. Tachyon sonar... activated."

The Commander looked at Moriloth. "I think I have traced the Outpost, I'm picking up faint Energy Readings at 245.456 South western Vector."

Eyes still fixed upon instruments, the pilot responded in her weak voice, "Aye Sir, 245.456." She put the runabout into a tightening spiral approach. "Anti-collision set to auto-evade. No indications of sensor jamming."

"Give us a fly by first, ensign," Bertrand cautioned. "Let's not sit down till we have at least had a reconnoiter."

"Happily, Sir." As the Danube circled in, a holographic image of the landing site began forming based upon sensor echoes.

It was a fairly standard layout. In the centre was a large prefab structure that served as a communal mess hall and congregation point for the 15 man team. To the East about 100 meters were a set of four remote habitats designed for 3-4 people to share. Each could run autonomously, but were probably linked by feeder cables to the main complex's power grid. A similar distance to the west was a large Garage/Machine shop where the image of a long distance land vehicle covered in a tarp could be made out even through the simple radar imaging. A long building led north off the central structure and split into a variety of smaller buildings. For those familiar with the design it was easy to see that many of these were in fact Danube Class modules, deployed when the Science team first arrived. This was where the individual labs and research were performed. A clear area to the south had been marked out as a landing zone. It was covered in leaves and other debris but the beacon lights were still working.

"I am reading minimal power and life support, but can't get an actual life reading," Bertrand reported. "There is too much biomass in the area confusing the signal."

He turned to those in the cabin, "Priority is to make contact with the science team. If there are medical concerns these need to be dealt with first, followed by and engineering support we can give, and any supplies they may have need of. If all else fails, we upload what we can from their computer logs for analysis back at the ship. I recommend Cor and I take the forward position, and once we have gained access to the base we can call for back up."

"No we all go together, strength in numbers." Elijah said making a point to his Security Officer.

Bertrand grimaced, "Then can we at least leave Ensign Morolith with the Runabout? Her comms will strengthen our own relay connection to the ship."

To that, Moriloth gave Bertrand nervous, wide-eyed nods of agreement.

"Agreed. " Elijah commented. "Antos I would like you to stick close Cor and out of harms way." The Commander looked at his team "Bertrand is taking the lead with myself and Valeria close behind."

The Thux gave Antos a nod, to establish eye contact for starters, and to let him know that Cor had heard, "I'll keep him out of trouble."

Despite the choppy winds and uneven landing platform, the landing was without incident. Betrand stepped briskly from the Runabout, even as the door was still opening. His phaser was holstered but his eyes flashed back and forth. Something was wrong, he could almost taste it.

"No welcome party," he muttered to the Captain as the senior officer joined him. "Even with Comms down, they should have heard us. I suggest we head for the Main building. It is the most likely place to find anyone.

As the crossed the muddy ground, buffeted by the strong winds, Bertrand took in the fact that much of the Machine shop tools had been left out, exposed to the elements. There was also piles of leaf matter pushed up against boxes near the Main building, suggesting they had not been moved in some time.

As they were still three or four yards from the door Bertrand held up his hand to signal a stop. He then crouched close to the ground as if looking for something.

"No foot prints," he explained, "with this amount of mud around, a print should last for up to six hours unless there has been heavy rain, and the amount of dry matter around suggests that hasn't happened for a while. No one has comet through the main door for at least that long."

Valeria took the moment to look down as well, then looked up to Elijah, "When was the last solid transmission from this outpost?"

"15 Hours ago, all reports were tings were normal." Elijah said turning to Valeria.

On arriving at the door the first sign of real problems showed. The door's access panel had been forced open. Water had got inside and there were scorch marks indicative of a short circuit. It would not be possible to open the door without some work.

"Stay here a bit." Cordale asked of Antos, then turned towards the shorted door. "Thux on the move." Cor announced in something of an enthusiastic whisper. Head low, his long strides brought him to the shorted out panel. "Water short, looks intentional from the forcing." Cor mentioned as he brought up his bag of tricks. Well, engineering tools, but he liked to dream. With the right tools in hand, he removed a panel covering the manual access rotatory. Mostly a hydraulic release, which he'd have to crank by hand. Fortunately for him, his favored arm wouldn't get tired.

He looked across to Bertrand, and gave him a silent three count before he started to crank open the door. His prosthetic limb might seem a curse, or a sight of pity to some, but to the Thux it was just another limb. A tool, a hand, and sometimes both. He could crank the door all day.

With the door Cranked to the Outpost Elijah turned to his Team. "Eyes open, Phasers on stun just to be safe." He then switched on the light of his wrist attachment and proceeded forward into the abyss. They did not know what was waiting inside, all they knew was that something was clearly wrong. Their Descent into the unknown had begun.......