Star Trek: Starbase 777

An icy wasteland; a cruel, unforgiving cold wind prickling painfully over uncovered faces, white void stretching far as the eye could see. The sea of white was only interrupted by the shadow of a few buildings in the distance. Warm light flickered in a nearby cave system, illuminating blue-tinged icicles. The sky was dark, blinking with stars of blue and red and white alike.

Ekhesai made a face at the snow and ice blowing up in hers, nose wrinkling. "Egh...cold," she grumbled.

Bundled in her winter gear she had stashed from New romulus Areinnye trudges out and she looks around "Cold is an understatement." She spoke as she handed out some hand warmers

The commander pulled his standard-issue coat a bit tighter to his frame as the wind whistled through the tundra, “…hrm.” He pursed his lips tightly together. The cold…blegh, “Stick close together.”

Donning a long-forgotten face mask, the corners of Five's eyes crinkled up in a smile. "I'm sure you'll be alright. We've prepared for this situation, after all," he nodded politely to thank Areinnye.

In the regulation winter gear, Vara'l snapped out his tricorder shortly after he materialised. He then started to scan for lifesigns. "The Temperature is quite, bracing." Vara'l observed calmly as he concurred with the assessment of the two other officers who'd observed it was cold.

She nodded back to five and she pulled her hood over her ears the tip of her nose turning pink "Commander Maxson is right we need to stay together unless everyone wants to get frostbite." (edited)

The cold, one of Dagis' least favourite things. The rain was find, the cold was not, and this planet was cold, not rainy. Thank the stars for Starfleet Certified winter away team gear.

A few minutes after the away team had beamed down to the planet, Jidol was finally getting into the vicinity of the landing spot. As soon as he broke the clouds, he was blinded by the miles and miles of snow ahead. Luckily, he had brought his sunglasses. And could smoothly set down the shuttle. He walked out the back, covered in a thick jacket and walked over to the others.

Four stepped into the cold and they were wearing their winter gear. They noticed the shadows and the light that emanated through in the cave system. They had trained in the tundra during back in their academy days. They nod and place on their eye piece on their left occipital node. They scanned their surroundings. They then turned to see Vara'l and nod. "We will require shelter soon if we wish to avoid symptoms of frostbite, delirium, pneumonia, and other potentially cascading illnesses. We will attempt to overclock our systems to provide warmth if others huddle close." Four said as they offered their body for heat while they attempted to stick toward the center of the group.

"Four is right we should find shelter soon before the cold weather gets bad..." She spoke as she bundled her thick jacket tight to her body. (edited)

One was honestly quite fine with the cold, though they'd been told they'd spent the majority of their life on an ice planet. They had the strange sensation that they'd had colder. They stuck closely to Five, though they kept an eye on their scientists, as far as possible.

Khanwi on the other hand, was absolutely miserable.... not that he'd show this, of course, he was better than that. His toolkit in one hand, the other clutched to his collar, he traversed the cold environment with the rest of the group, taking up the rear so he could catch anyone falling behind if it became necessary. (edited)

"The stars are pretty," the ACOO noted quietly, looking up at the dark sky. Hundreds of tiny lights blinking and twinkling back at them. It felt familiar. (edited)

He gave a glance toward the sky when Five mentioned the stars, humming, “…there’s that,” He turned to Vara’l, “Where are the life signs?”

"Oookaaay, now what? We scan to see where the life signs are, righ—" The Cadet stumbled over something, landing face first into the snow. She pulled herself up and shook flecks of ice out of her split-dyed hair, trying to get a look at what it was that tripped her. She'd been keeping an eye out for rocks and such, so what..?

2

She looked up "Huh it really is pretty reminds me of the stars above the colony." She replied to five and she sees the cadet fall "Are you okay Cadet?"

"Our weather gear will be sufficient to provide protection against this weather." The ACTO observed before he then said. "Do not undertake any activities that might put your systems at risk." He then checked his tricorder once more for any lifesigns that happened to not belong to the away team. "There was some interference in the orbital scan, scanning for lifesigns now." He informed the Lieutenant Commander as he looked to his tricorder and scanned. When the Cadet then faceplanted, he turned to them. "Cadet, are you alright?" Vara'l also asked.

Wearing the Starfleet issued thermal gear, the assistant in training took a brief moment to look around - and feel the rough climate slowly embrace him in it's unkind grasp. His next breath came out as a huff of mist, an image of a dragon briefly popping up in his mind. Saren looked in the direction of some vaguely building-shaped shadows in the distance, then at the cave. "Two potential points of interest ahead," he informed, looking at the group. Noticing the cadet slipping, he chose to stride a tad bit closer to her in a haste, despite her already getting up. "Life signs are a priority, though, so we should follow them-- you okay, Ekhesai?"

Maybe in any other situation Ekhesai would've flashed a thumbs up and a sheepish grin. Not now. Not when she was looking at someone facedown in the snow, blood pooling out from underneath them. "Hey, are you.." She reached out to gently shake them. "They're still warm, but they're unconscious, I-I think!"

3

2

Beside the unconscious figure was... what used to be some sort of machine. Smashed to bits, by the looks of it.

The commander crouched down and offered a hand to Ekhesai to help her up, before he quickly swapped gears. He grabbed his tricorder and gave the unconscious body a scan, “Hold on, Cadet…”

She rushes over with her tricorder and she scans the body also.

A human woman. Dead. Not by blood loss; strangulation, evident by the marks around her neck. She'd only been dead for minutes.

2

1

The Lieutenant froze for a second, green eyes widening ever so slightly upon the sight. But then his hand found the younger Romulan's shoulder, squeezing it gently as he lowered his head towards her, hoping Sai turns her attention towards him: "Let's give the officers some space to work, yeah? Follow me, right here..."

Ekhesai stood up with Maxson's help, taking a few steps back to let the Medical officer work as Saren instructed. "Is she— is she okay?"

He grimaced. This isn’t good. He gave Saren a small nod when he started to pull Sai away, “…she’s…” He cleared his throat, “Strangulation.”

Four looked over to the Cadet and noticed the unconscious figure as well as the smashed machine. Someone had to have done this. Four stood protectively around the others as they tended to the unconscious body. Their eye piece scanned intermittently as they were on their guard. "Preparation for potential altercation. Controlled breathing protocol engage...breathing mode changed to steady and deep breaths...defenses raised..." Four stood stiffly as their head was on a swivel. It moved from left to right as their eye piece scanned the surroundings.

"Ah.." Five looked around. "We should see if we can find anyone else. Get some..some more information. We have people who are presently in danger, so..."

Jidol did already have a weird feeling about this place but now... The dead body, strangulated in the middle of nowhere with a machine next to them. He already felt that this wouldn't end well. So, he just stood there shocked, without a clue what to do next.

She had been here the whole time of course, decked out in proper winter gear and other necessities and watched the various things go down... she didn't however, expect the team to find dead bodies, at least not so soon after death. She didn't know what to say, she wanted to help in some way, but... how?

There were enough people fussing over the dead body, and Khanwi had seen enough of those in his lifetime to know how they looked. He turned his attention to the remnants of the machine; what could he glean from those?

Ah, an engineer! Perfect. What was left of the machine had all the components for an extremely crude communication device. It was a wonder that it'd reached all the way to 777...

The moment the Cadet said what they said, Vara'l moved over to them, his scan briefly forgotten about. Once close enough, he then proceeded to kneel down. The scan then stopped, the ACTO checked for a pulse as he also started to scan the body. "It's only been minutes if I'm reading this right..right?" The ACTO observed as he checked the scan and attempted to discern if this person was too long dead to be assisted. "Even if they cannot be helped, we should probably get this body transported to sickbay to secure any evidence on them."

Yep. Definitely dead. Didn't need three tricorders to confirm that much.

"Communication device, by the looks of it. This is where the distress signal must have come from," Khanwi concluded easily. Someone really didn't want this place to be found... He was starting to smell trouble.

While the focus laid on the machine and the dead woman, Jidol managed to catch himself and instead looked out into the distance, trying to spot if there was an imminent threat, movement or even a speck of color in the white that didn't belong.

The commander gently laid the woman’s body back down against the snow. He huffed and stood back up, tapping at his communicator, “Lieutenant Commander Maxson to Sickbay. We’ve…a body to beam up.”

"Aye. Go on, then." Five glanced over to Khanwi and nodded. "That doesn't sound good at all, does it? I hope everyone else is okay.."

A speck of color indeed. The ice caves nearby flickered with warm light. A fire, perhaps?..

Four continued their scans. They were out in the open and without much concentration. Once the adrenaline wore off the cold would be ever more present. They had to move. Four looked back to Vara'l after they noticed the light within the cave from their scans. "Lt. Commander, perhaps we should ascertain the source of the light from the nearby cave and if there are any nearby lifeforms. We cannot spend too much time out in the open and in the cold."

He sucked in a breath through his clenched teeth upon hearing the grim verdict from the Security. Poor soul. But such cause of death could mean... "Okay... we need to be very careful from now on. It is possible that whoever who did this might still be around here somewhere. I offer to alert the rest of the group as soon as you see someone, and to not wander off." Upon addressing his main concern, he could pay attention to the unfortunate discoverer of the grisly sight: "Cadet, are you okay? I am not pushing you to, but if you feel like you need to or will be safer back on the ship, we can beam you up right now. Same goes out for anyone else, no matter the rank."

Squinting his eyes Jidol could barely make out the flickering in the distance. He didn't think that there was much to do here anymore. "I think so, too. Maybe there are more people there and the can tell us what happened here."

"I'm fine," Ekhesai insisted, her eyes on the caves. Fuck. Fuck. A body on her first mission, what were the odds? "It's normal Starfleet stuff, right? You don't gotta ..fuss over me."

Vara'l checked his tricorder once more as he resumed his scan for lifesigns. As he did so, he also looked around and checked for anything that seemed out of place. Anything at all. This person had been very recently killed, that meant there was a threat to the away team out and about. More importantly, that meant the lifesigns were actively in danger, as someone else had stated. Cutting himself off as he moved to speak, Vara'l turned to four and then followed where they'd looked. He then nodded a bit. "Our weather gear will be sufficient to protect us against the cold..the light you've indicated though is worth investigation." Vara'l didn't grimace then but, the pause that followed might have indicated the mental grimace he indulged in. "Especially given that this...event has indicated a clear and present threat to those people...and the lieutenant is correct."

Maxson stepped away from the body to give the Eventide room to beam it up, and the instant he put his tricorder away, he pulled out his phaser, “Keep a lookout…let’s move to the cave.”

Fwoosh. Body transported.

Vara'l also pulled out his phaser and nodded slightly. "Aye, lets." The ACTO responded as he started toward the caves, tricorder out as he continued to scan for lifesigns. As he walked, he kept a look out as he watched for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Anything that might have indicated the presence of the person who killed the lady or anyone else who wasn't from the away team.

Four nodded over to their superior officer. They drew their phaser and fiddled with it momentarily. Getting their grip on it as they still weren't used to these Federation weapons. They were far more adept with their disruptor, but the pasher shouldn't be too difficult to adapt to. "We are prepared to move. If there are lifeforms within the cave there is a high probability they may be the perpetrators of the murder." Four followed behind Vara'l. Standing behind them and trying to place their feet where Vara'l stepped to mask their numbers. As well, they kept an eye ahead. They took off their eye piece for a more stealthy approach. They did not want to alert anyone to their enclosing presence.

Already freaked out, Dagis tagged along behind, hoping there would be no more bodies to stumble across. This is what happens when you leave the office.

He met her dismissal with a shrug, "Someone has to. You will be witness to many messed up things in this career, sure, but that doesn't make such discoveries any easier. Especially the first time they happen. It's vulnerable, but that's to be expected from someone with a heart and soul, no?" He lingered there, because it was Saren and of course he did, his head tilted to the side ever so slightly: "In any case, I feel like you are denying my offer. Let's move to the cave, then?"

2

Ekhesai swallowed her pride enough to let out a shaking exhale. She'd been ushered away before she could see the woman's face, but it... "Yeah. Yeah, you're right," she mumbled. Better get going. Right. She moved to follow. Not quite as hot on his heels as she usually would be, like a puppy jumping back and forth, but there nonetheless. "Thank you.." (edited)

2

3

She looked at them "Wait for me."