Star Trek: Starbase 777 - fractal-forest

It was... serene, here. Birdsongs were ringing out without anyone fluttering above their heads, the wind was making the plants move in an odd, off-beat rhythm. The larger of the tree leaves displayed fractal-like patterns, watercolored by the odd fog. Could anything sinister really be hiding here?..

Suun stepped out with her scanner in one hand and her mind as mentally prepared as possible, although the peaceful nature of the forest made her feel like her readiness was perhaps misplaced. “The planet hasn’t failed to be beautiful.” She chuckled, trying to make light of it.

T'She nodded, despite everything, the planet was beautiful. "We need to be on high alert," they spoke the obvious, but it was something that needed to be said regardless.

“Agreed.” She replied, striding through the grass as her shoulders relaxed. Strangely enough, she stood by what she had said before. If it weren’t a temporal hellscape, it would be a wonderful place to spend a few days. Maybe camping, or something.

Well hey, the outside of the forcefield dome is still very lovely. Just ignore the Everything inside the dome!

3

”I mean… how much of what we see can we consider ‘the planet’ with all the weird time distortions and interdimentional stuff going on?” Honest question from the armed Klingon that accompanied them.

Having followed the forest group out, Vara'l simply nodded once at T'She's statement. They were right after all. "Lieutenant Commander T'She is right." He stated then as he walked along, rifle clutched one handed as he snapped out his tricorder and started a scan. As he started that, he'd proceeded to suggest. "Any Security and Tactical officers should maintain a perimeter on the outer edges of the group." That suggestion followed up with silence as he looked around the environment considered in the face of other's statements. Perhaps the planet had indeed 'not failed to be beautiful' but well, that failed to improve his view of it. Yes it happened to be beautiful but it also seemed really rather dangerous. "That's a fair question, Lieutenant." He'd murmured then.

Gimura did as she was told, her phaser tight in her hand as they walked. She was admittedly prepared to shoot anything that moved, though she knew that she shouldn’t just…y’know, do that. Beautiful was not the word she’d choose for this. If anything, she’d describe as too perfect, too picturesque. This entire thing felt like a holodeck simulation, and it was pissing her off.

Aoife placed herself at the front of the group with her rifle raised and tricorder affixed to its side so she could keep an eye on the alarm.

Nothing seemed to be alarming, at least for now. Kove, their guide, kept walking ahead, comparing their path to the available map and newmade sensors.

Iki had placed themself in the middle of the group, here to record, to look at tricorders, and to provide help with the science of it all. They were rather calm, despite the perceived urgency in their colleagues; it wasn't that they were unaware of the danger, or not at all conscious of it; they simply decided to outsource the stress to the Tactical officers, and focus on the rescue mission bit. They checked their tricorder for any biosigns that didn't match their little group, hoping to see any sign of the Aurelian Commander.

T’Evoryn walked a little further ahead, positioned near somewhat near the front of the group as they walked along. She carried herself as usual, phaser ready and her tricorder held firm.

"Strange," Kove said, looking ahead with a frown. "I remember there being... more vegetation here."

2

It looked like something... large, has rolled through this small part of the forest, flattening down the grass and bushes and even some of the younger trees. Almost like a field in the middle of the forest, except... not really.

"Is there anything native to this planet that could flatten a portion of forest?" Aoife asked as she pressed forward. (edited)

"No, and somehow that is the worst answer I could give. Sunhead is quite large, but not... this large, and we have never seen it do something like this," the slow realization that there might be something else in this dome with them seemed to shake the young Lieutenant, who's fist tightened around their phaser.

She clenched her jaw, pressing on with the others and hoping not to think about it too much. “Could a wave of energy have done this? Something related to the explosion, maybe?”

"Looks like we're hunting big game now." Aoife said mirthlessly as she raised the setting on her phaser to max stun.

"I mean sure, but just... this exact part of the forest? Everything else is untouched," they looked at the people holding the modified tricorders, "Is anything showing up on these..?"

Aoife directed one eye to look at the tricorder while keeping her peripheral vision focused on the treeline to scan for threats.

Hmm, no fluctuations in the electromagnetic radiation levels. However, as Aoife pointed her tricorder at one of the corners of the weird flattened area, a steady buildup of chronitons could be registered...

T’Evoryn held her tricorder up slightly higher for a moment. “Nothing significant from my readings. How are yours, Commander?”

"I've got a build-up of chronitons in that direction." She turned and pointed her rifle in the appropriate direction to illustrate where she was looking. (edited)

"Hold on, I get the first instinct to think of it as another creature but what if it isn't?" The Klingon got closer to the flatten area. It seemed uniform, something that made the pressure in a steady way... "What if, just like people can phase in and out, other things can too? Like ships, buildings... this looks too... clean to be made by a creature." Unless it was the biggest footprint Marze had ever seen in her life.

"If the whole patch of forest is phased out of this dimension, then couldn't it phase back in? And you know." Aoife mimed being crushed by a tree suddenly appearing complete with sound effects.

“If it could, would we have any warning? Anything we could pick up on sensors?” She followed up.

The concentration kept going up, up, up, up, up...

"Hey-- hey, maybe we should stand back..." the Betazoid began to do exactly back, watching Aoife's tricorder go up in numbers like it was a Geiger counter.

Her brows shot up at the peek of the tricorder over Aoife’s shoulder, and she glanced around to the others once again, before doing as was suggested. “Back to the trees.” She stated.

The Vulcan merely raised her eyebrow as the others spoke, quickly raising her phaser as she backed up into the trees.

"What? What are you..." She looked back for her companions noticing the concerning amount of those holding their tricoders. "...oh fuck!" She trotted after them, hopefully in time to avoid whatever was about to happen in that location.

Keeping an eye on their own tricorder, Iki followed the group back to the treeline. They had to assume a building or some such was about to fall on their heads, and honestly, they kind of wanted to see it. They were a little interested what would become of anything left in the clearing, though... but couldn't think of anything to leave to test it. They needed their tricorder.

Up, up, up, UP-- "We will shortly be arriving at: London Kings Cross - our final destination. Thank you for travelling with us. Please remember to take all your belongings with you when you exit the train..." Something white and massive zipped right in front of them, out of thin air back into nothingness - the away team could only barely make out individual segments and black windows, as the relic of the past cut through the grass like knife through butter, the might and speed of it's movement pushing the air backwards, forcing the bushes and young trees to bend low to the ground. Just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, leaving behind only ringing silence. The chroniton concentration began to decline.

4

3

Standing there stunned, Suun watched as it vanished. “That’s… what happened to the trees, then.” She muttered, “Is everyone alright?”

"I believe so." came the reply.

"..." good god. "Well, at least we have an early warning system with the tricorders. That is... nice. Can we... continue?"

“Yes, please.” She exhaled through her teeth, trying to re-orient herself after… that.

T'She nodded, taking a second to simply breathe before they ran a hand through their hair, trying to remain as cool and collected as they always seemed to.

Vara'l's jaw worked a bit as he elected to take a moment to recover himself too. That happened to be quite something, what just happened. He disliked it quite a bit. "Hrm." Vara'l grumbled softly. After a moment, Vara'l nodded a bit at the Lieutenant Junior grade's question. "Aye.." Agreement verbalised as he reacted to the ops commanders comment. "Lets...continue."

What the fuck was that? Gimura stared at the aftermath in disbelief. This is insane, why’d she sign up for this mission again? To get out of the base? She’d learned her lesson. She started to move when ordered, not wanting to be here any longer than she had to.

1

Finding some confidence back while looking at the map, Kove began to lead the team towards #the-depths...