Ice Planet Expedition: Cave Science, part 4

Posted on Fri Jan 29th, 2010 @ 8:20am by Commander Raven Adams & Commodore Edward Fannin & Commander Jack Tolren & Commander Basil Hart & Khiy Tal'ehrihn

991 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: FORGING AHEAD
Location: Tyberius X
Timeline: current

ON

[OLD]

T'mpest walked over to him. "What?"

"Giant, vicious... RATS. Poison. Got me... need medic." He cried out in pain and doubled over, grabbing his gut and rubbing his eyes.



Basil ran forward, taking out his medkit. "LIE DOWN!" he ordered. Running his tricorder over the ailing Marine, he cursed under his breath. "Bloody poisons! Need blood samples. Strong neurotoxin, breaks down the Myelin Sheath, disrupts the flow of neurotransmitters..." He pulled out a hypospray, first taking a blood sample, then injecting the Marine with Atropine. He took another tricorder reading, then swore out loud. Basil swapped phials on the hypo and injected a massive dose of 2-PAM chloride, the followed it up with stokaline. The marine began convulsing violently, vomited, then lay still. Basil hung his head. "Damn."

It was at that moment that Sam, Raven and Trent walked into the cavern. They all caught the tail end of what happened.

Sam took it especially hard, as she felt responsible for the Marine's death. She wasn't looking forward to telling Damon why one of his men died on her watch.

Raven waked slowly over to Basil. "So, I guess we should get out of here before more of these things show up?"

T'mpest walked over to Sam and put a hand on her shoulder. "They're called k'naar. They grew aggressive over the short time the Romu lived in these caves. Commander Gifford found a journal. There's not much more here. No real records that we've found."

That didn't help Sam feel any better. Not only was she responsible for a man dying, he'd apparently died for nothing.

Someone in one of the back rooms screamed.

Commander Gifford turned to T'mpest. "We need to get the away team rounded up."

"First we need to get everyone together," she replied. She looked over at one of the Marines. "Spread the word. Everyone in this room. Now."

The Marine nodded and headed out, calling loudly. "Everyone, back to the main cavern on the double!"

Raven heard T'mpest's order, but she wanted to see who had screamed. She grabbed Trent and headed in the direction of the cry. She wasn't alone. Another Marine had gone down before them. In a back room they found a girl in a blue uniform. She was obviously dead. Five of the rodents were feasting on her corpse.

The Marine aimed his rifle and shot two of them. Raven took out another one with her phaser.

Trent followed suit and squeezed the trigger of his TR-116. The bullets struck the first rodent about center mass, nearly cutting it in half from the impact. Quickly he cycled his targets and again fired upon the next creature with similar effect.

With the rodents dead, Raven and Trent carried the body back to the main cavern and lay it gently on a table.

It was a young Ensign. A science officer who had been on the Orion.

As they were dealing with the dead science officer, rodent jumped on the Marine from on top of a shelf. Before anyone could react, the Marine had been bitten and the rodent had run off. His eyes rolled up in his head, and he dropped to the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

Trent's eyes went wide with concern and he lowered his weapon. Unsure of what to do, he quickly through his pack to the ground and started to look for his med pack.

Basil barked at Trent. "Don't bother! He'll be dead in seconds. Concentrate your fire on those rodents or more of us will die! Don't you leather-necks have something loud and bright that would scare these things off?"

Trent's eyes burned with anger at the comment. "When it's one of YOUR own dying on the ground, YOU can decide not to bother." He dared not look at Basil for fear he might hit him. With his hands still buried in his pack, he retrieved a flash bang. With his weapon securely fastened, he moved to the Marine and lifted him on to his shoulder. Trent grunted with strain as he lifted off the ground with the full weight of the man on him. Using his teeth, he pulled the pin of the flash bang and tossed it into the room. "Move!" He yelled to the rooms remaining occupants.

A moment later the flash bang ignited bathing the room in light and letting off a resounding 'crack' that left everyone's ears ringing.

T'mpest refrained from commenting about the Marine's excessive use of explosives. Instead she ordered, "Everyone out before the k'naar return. Grab the dead. We can send teams back here later when we have a better idea of what we're up against.

On the way out, Sam grabbed a dead k'naar and put it in a bag, careful not to touch it with her bare hands.

Trent motioned to the only other remaining Marine to take the flank as he was currently had a body draped over his shoulder. With his free hand, Trent flicked open a clasp on his side and pulled out his TR-110 pistol from it's holster. It was certainly no automatic weapon, but considering the circumstances he was happy to have it. Turning to the rest of the group he spoke. "Okay, we will be moving as quickly as we can. Stay as close as possible to each other. No one get's left behind." He made sure to put extra emphasis on the last part.

OFF

USS Endeavor:

Commander T'mpest Michaels
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander John Gifford
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant JG Anjen Torvil
Assistant Chief Science Officer

Ensign Beatrix Marelle
Alien Archaeologist/Anthropologist

USS Orion:

Lieutenant Commander Samantha York
Chief Science Officer

Trent Kushner (NPC)
Marine Rifleman

Starbase Typhon:

Lieutenant Commander Basil Hart
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Commander Raven Adams
Chief Intelligence Officer

Ty Seven (NPC)
Intel Officer

Lieutenant Lucinda Sprout (NPC)
Science Officer, Glaciologist

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