Star Trek: Starbase 777 - the-forcefield-border

Acheron IV, despite it's intimidating name, welcomed the away team with gentle, warm weather, and a calming, blueish hue of it's dense vegetation. While they couldn't feel the breeze directly - sitting in the shuttlecraft generally prevented such pleasantries - it did feel like a reassuring, good sign of things to come. As they approached the location, the more curious ones by the windows could already spot their destination, looming over them on the horizon. A massive dome, the outpost's forcefield, encapsulated the building and the affected area around it like a monstrous snow globe, filled to the brim with swirling, colorful, liquid-looking substance - like petrol rainbows in unnaturally blue water...

Aoife was sat in the shuttles copilot's seat fiddling with a phaser pistol as she gazed at the dome. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it not being a scientist. At least it looks pretty. "It kinda looks like a giant snow globe." She mused as she calibrated a power cell.

Silver hadn’t been expecting a place so.. inviting. She really didn’t know what she HAD been expecting, to be fair, but it wasn’t this. Something about a breach, she’d been expecting some kind of wasteland. She looked down at the vegetation below, wondering what it all was. She was horrible with botany unless she was very familiar with the plant, and she was sure that whatever these plants down below were, they weren’t from her home island. Looking ahead, she spotted the dome. It looked like there was liquid inside.. did something in there need to stay damp? For a moment, she thought back to chemistry class, where sodium samples needed to kept under mineral oil to not catch fire. Surely, she hoped, it wouldn’t be that bad. They could fix all this and help, surely. But Silver was forever an optimist. “It does look like one.. I hope no one picks it and shakes it.” She joked, though her tone remained pretty much the same.

”We’ll shake the scene up pretty soon.” Marze had been curious enough to take a look, but soon sit down again to check on her own weapons, a small smirk on her lips. Her previous experience with an away mission had been… fleshy. She hoped whatever breach the transmissions mentioned did not involve living dead. Or that if it did, they were in the very least shootable. “Did you bring your snow gear?”

Maggie had gone on so many away missions recently and had a real bad time on them all, but maybe this time would be different. “Woah, I wonder what that liquid is! I’ve never seen it before.” She said, looking out the windows like a child going to meet Goofy at Disney World.

"Not water?" Paco answered Maggie, hecould only guess. Unlike Maggie, and despite being an anthropologist, Paco's had only gone to very few away missions. Some of them, like the last one he was unwillingly dragged to, did not go well. Either way, its a new day. New day, new mission to where 'No Man Has Gone Before.'. He was cautiously excited for this away mission. "I don't know if I packed enough... but I have snow gear."

“I mean I guess it could be water, but it doesn’t look like it.” She responded to her fellow nerd.

”It's so colorful!” She exclaimed. This was Klaa’s very first away mission. She tried her best to keep her excitement from bubbling out.

The last away mission had been very fun, so the fact that they got to encounter and document unknown phenomena again meant that Iki immediately volunteered for the mission at hand. They were not following the conversation, and thus had no idea why snow was suddenly being mentioned, nor why there was a discussion about water. This was a forcefield, right? Were they the only person who'd read the briefing?

"water with gasoline?" Paco guessed again with a shrug. "I brought a lighter, we could test it."

Alizati had left the Furberus with a trusted friend that day so that he could participate in in the mission without worry. He stepped carefully onto the outpost, his arms clasped behind his back. "The colour is indeed vibrant. Let's not light anything on fire though, please. Not right now."

”Probably just field distortions giving that effect. I’m not an engineer…” Her riffle powered up as she ran one last test. “But I’ve seen and tampered with a lot of these. This is the most colorful looking one I’ve encountered though.”

”So you’re saying we can set it on fire later?!” she genuinely asked. That sounded like fun to her.

"Just gotta find the power source and shoot it." Aoife said after Marze mentioned breaking force fields. "Failing that a big rock or someone's skull works pretty well." She placed her power cell into her personal pistol and powered it up as she spoke.

"I will not rule out a future possibility of lighting things on fire, but currently no. We need to gather information first," Alizati said with a steady tone. He couldn't help but feel like he underpacked. Some people looked ready to ski or something, meanwhile Alizati was only in his excursion attire. "I would-- ah I suppose it is too late for me to advise not to shoot things. I would prefer trying to.. i don't know, find an off switch," He said with a double vulcan eyebrow raise to Aoife, attempted a bit of sarcasm and sass but he wasn't very good at it.

"If we could, we probably couldn't drink it... or swim in it." Paco's thoughts were briefly interrupted by the sound of a phaser powering up. "W-wait, we're supposed to be armed for this one?"

"Perhaps it is prime time to reread the mission brief, if you feel such a need," came Saren's voice, a mellow warning to get it together and focus on the mission. The assistant in training was sitting not too far away from the pilot seats, posture relaxed, yet his gaze was sharp as it landed on the rest of the away team. "Outpost 13 was studying time-space phenomena for 20 or so years. What we are seeing is indeed distortion, most likely of temporal nature. Concentrations of it pushing against the restricting border."

”Or a granade. Honestly, you have a good chance with any liquid too. You’d be surprised how many dumbasses do not liquid-proof their field power sources containments.” She looked back at Aoife and smiled, her teeth fully shown. “But I’ll have to test the skull suggestion.”

Thank Surak for Saren, Alizati thought. He was not prepared to stop people from doing something foolish straight out of the gate. Shooting, grenades, drinking the mysterious water, all things the engineer had no desire to do and hearing Saren's statement only confirmed he was right to say that should not be doing any of those. "And Lieutenant," He looked at Paco. "Did you perhaps get a different mission briefing by accident?"

"I never leave the house without being armed Paco." She replied to Paco only half joking, who knows what was under Aoife's pillow at night. "Yeah a skull it's alright in a pinch tie thicker the better you gotta get a good grip though. Sometimes they can be slippery you know?" She said turning to Marze with a sarcastic look on her face.

She looked over to Paco. ”Dude I am security. I am always armed.” The guy seemed… fragile. Maybe she should keep an eye on him. In fact there were a lot of new people around and she started to pay attention on those she had not met yet. At least the redhead seemed reliable. The Romulan she knew, Saren. He was level headed… in that annoying superior officer way, but they had no problems yet.

She had stood up once the outpost came properly into view and had been glued to the window ever since. The colours were pleasant to look at if nothing else. Turning around to raise an eyebrow at the people talking, she said: "Well we certainly know who to go to should excessive force become a necessity..." Like a hypocrite, as if she wasn't perfectly willing to use whatever force nessesary when it came down to it. "Regardless, I would like to remind everyone that there is something to be contained here. There is a reason that forcefield is in place."

"Being armed and making active plans to shoot things are two separate concepts," Iki mumbled to themself, their eyes still trained on the forcefield. Behind that barrier was a temporal anomaly of an unknown nature, and it was up to them to figure out what it was and what to do with it. They were almost getting excited.

Vara'l quietly worked his way through yet another check of his equipment and phaser rifle. As he did so, he listened to the others talk, listened while he worked. Vara'l was disinclined to talk yet, he wanted to finish his final checks.

"I didn't bring grenades... needed a higher access code..." Paco quietly said to himself as he ruffled through his stuff to grab a PADD to reread the mission brief. "I-I did, Sir. Like, thrice when I packed." He answered Alizati, always nice to see him. Without opening the mission brief, Paco paused for a moment to recall the mission. "A temporal space outpost suddenly went dark after running for two decades. It's now barred off under a force field. Cryptic messages of a 'breach' were sent out. We go in; find out what happened; and search for survivors… ohkay doke"

She bit back a “no shit” at Evoras reminder. This was still a superior officer and she should not anger anyone this soon. “Don’t worry Commander, no one is talking about blowing this forcefield yet. Red and I are just sharing interesting personal experiences. Ah… by the way what’s the name, red?” Her hazel eyes came back to Aoife.

"It's, Commander O'Rielly, Lieutenant G'khar." Because of course Aoife knew Marze's name she was wearing a purple uniform, she knew everything. "Don't worry Commander, I only shoot things that need shooting, and the occasional thing on a hunting trip." She said in reply to Evoras, she was a somewhat sarcastic person but when it came to it she was a pro.

6

"Not only it is holding something in, it also currently has Federation's people trapped inside. We do not know if we will be pulling out live people, or this will turn into a corpse recovery mission. So I would generally implore everyone to pay attention, and take this seriously," it was half a response to Paco, half an address to everyone else. Lock the fuck in, everyone, you are on a search and rescue mission...

”Alrighty Commander O’Rielly, kudos on the pronunciation.” Klingon surnames could be hard for humans. Was she fazed that the other knew her name? No. Aoife probably knew the whole story… and Marze had a feeling she did not mind much, unlike many other officers.

It had been a very long time since Autumn had been out this far from 777. Being surrounded by their colleagues made it slightly more bearable, but there was an unease regardless - mysterious temporal shenanigans did that to anything when it became involved. So, Autumn had mostly been silent on the way here, content with listening to others yap about who knows what.

Paco took in a deep breath, both to calm himself down and also to punch down whatever embarrassment he may have perceived from that. "Aye aye, sir." He calmly responded with a nod. Nothing much else to do other than get mentally ready for whatever may come next, good or bad... hopefully good.

The Vulcan merely listened to the continuing conversation as her eyes drifted from speaker to speaker. She didn’t know most of them, not yet at least, so she felt little need to butt in unnecessarily. T’Evoryn did notice Vara’l though, the only other officer here that she had actually met. She nodded briefly to him, but refrained from saying a word.

Saren mirrored said nod, "I just don't want you to potentially run into some very unpleasant surprises, Paco. Or anyone else here, really. You're okay." The aforementioned scientist was much more sensitive, however, to... many things, from Saren's observations.

The shuttle slowed it's gait halfway down, while still continuing to move towards the anomaly zone. The people inside of it could hear the soft hum of it's modified shields being deployed - made so specifically to bypass the protective walls, like a virus breaching a cell.

Fingers drummed delicately on the his PADD as Iviaan listened to the chattering around him. Temporal distortions, forcefields... all things he was wholly unequipped to deal with. "Any suggestions on how we get inside that don't include getting ourselves killed?" the TTS posed politely.

“Shoot everything that moves, maybe…” The ensign grumbled from where she was standing.

"I'm okay." Paco mirrored before he glanced out the window to the sight of the shuttle bypassing the protective forcefield. The first thought that came to mind as he stared out the window, as he watched the sight of the force field go further and further, was the possibility of whatever may be contained here possibly of the shuttle getting captured and gutting it, like a paramecia being surrounded and eaten by a ameoba. "I'm finding a phaser later. For the meantime, maybe we should... not do anything threatening as a start until we land and can get a better idea of what's going on."

"We fly in and then do our jobs that's what the modified shields are for." Aoife said as she looked over the readouts from her position in the shuttles copilot's seat. "Put your tray tables in their upright and locked positions and ensure your seatbelts are fastened." Aoife said in her best impression of an airline pilot.

"The shield modifications should be enough to get us through the forcefield, the matter afterwards is whether or not there are any other automated defences and how we bypass them." Being the away team's shuttle mechanic, Autumn was the one who made the chsnges to shuttle's shield - so that it could harmonise with the forcefield and allow them to pass through. Actually, with Autumn being the mechanic, there was a high chance that Autumn would end up staying with the ship wherever they landed. Not that they minded, high octane missions weren't exactly their cup of tea.

For her first away mission serving aboard 777, this one sure was weird as shit. The whole thing looked crazy, but she didn’t even know that shields could DO that sorta thing…she supposed her professors at SFA did say she’d learn a lot more in the field than in the classroom…

She let out a soft hum, almost matching the noise coming from around them, staring out the viewscreen at the strange swirl of colour they neared. “Bizarrely beautiful.” She murmured, “In its own, somewhat horrible way.”

“I guess…” Gimura commented, watching all the colors swirl by and they flew. Maybe this was all just some fucked-up dream. Or trip. Or both, you never know.

There was a distinct hum, as the shuttle's hull breached the forcefield's wall. Melodic in it's nature, it pattered against the metal like an indistinct choir, and mercilessly scraped against the shields like the most gentle ocean waves. Just as apbruptly it began, it just as quickly... ended. They were now inside.

Maggie took a breath as they went inside. “Huh.” She mumbled as she felt all that. “Don’t love how that all felt.”

”Well, we are in. With… whatever else is here, contained.” And she sure hoped they didn’t become trapped for some reason.

“How are our shields?” She asked, leaning forwards slightly in her seat, left somewhat confused and uncomfortable by the sound, and the equally strange end to it.

Shields were looking good. The console reading the outside parameters, however, began to be a bit... inconsistent, with it's numbers.

4

"The shields seem to be holding but the outside sensors are going nuts. Not entirely surprising if there's some kind of temporal anomaly at play I guess? But I'm not a physicist." Aoife kept an eye on the shuttles systems as the descended to their destination.

“Hmm. Our sensors aren’t equipped to handle the distortion, so I believe you may have a point.” She added, gaze still locked onto the viewscreen. This was her first away mission in a long time, and she had no intention of missing any detail.

Paco leaned over to Maggie and quietly asked in a whisper, *"Was that our cue?" *The two nerds are the scientists of the group after all. (edited)

Her antenna twitched at the humming echoing throughout the shuttle. It was just the slightest bit too much of a cacophony. She muttered something about how ‘we’d better be able to leave,’ because she refused to get trapped on her first time out.

Hearing a very faint mutter, she turned her head towards the ensign, who seemed quite disgruntled for someone on their first away mission. “Are you alright?”

Gimura was honestly not expecting to be addressed, her antenna pointing upward like a cat’s tail when they’re caught doing something they shouldn’t, “I just- I dunno,” She huffed, “The…shields that got us in are gonna get us out, right?”

“Most likely. You won’t be trapped here.” She replied, giving what she hoped was a reassuring smile, “If they don’t, we’ll find a new way out.”

Gimura’s crossed arms tightened. She didn’t need reassurance, that’s ridiculous…she wasn’t worried, she would’ve just been pissed about getting stuck, that’s all. Hmph.

"If we do get out, we get ice cream." Paco wasn't sure if that was reassuring or not, but it was a completely unrelated thing to think about. Paco get's himself ice cream when he survives an away mission at least. Just out of curiosity, since it would be a bad idea to walk around the shuttle at the moment to get to the science console, Paco quietly pulled out his tricorder just to see what kind of readings he would get from the outside if he could.

"First away mission ensign?" Aoife asked Guimera without looking away from the shuttles controls. She didn't know this particular ensign well aside from a quick skim of her file when she was reviewing the list for the away mission.

She finally let go of her riffle, deeming it sufficiently calibrated, and relaxed into her seat with arms crossed. Her job now required her to wait for when they finally leave the shuttle. “I’ll have a drink. Maybe a few. And some jumbo mollusks with gah’mok sauce.”

“First away mission here.” She mumbled in response, “Didn’t realize getting posted at a cushy starbase would mean this kinda stuff.”

"If? We're making it out." "If we do get out", that was doubter's talk for weaklings. Iki prepared a held holocamera as they waited for landing, for scanning purposes so they would be able to replay whatever anomalies were present here in the holodeck later. "You weren't even here for the meat moon," they told Gimura, personally of the opinion that that had, at least as far as they could currently tell, been way creepier. And even then it'd mostly been fascinating. They moved over to Aoife's side to look at the sensor readings, noting the discrepancies and the weirdness. Was there any pattern they could discern?

“Yeah? Thank fuck,” She somewhat spat in Iki’s direction. She didn’t even know what a meat moon was, but it didn’t sound pleasant, and she wasn’t on board for that.

“I second that motion, Lieutenant.” She exhaled, replying to Marze, “I have a feeling we may all need a drink after this one.”

"Don't forget the Borg cube or the Undine station." One was completely awful the other was rather fun in Aoife's mind, take a guess at which was which. (edited)

"Ensign, no..." Paco quietly muttered to himself towards Iki. Paco also didn't know what 'Meat Moon' meant, but from the sound of it, he probably wouldn't like that either. "Don't mention the Cube.... makes me think about the Tal Shiar..."

"I wasn't there for either of those," Iki said, looking up at Aoife. "But they sound interesting. Did you go to fluidic space?"

”Wait you had a Tal Shiar episode AND a Borg cube?” Her eyes went wide with surprise. “I mean, I knew about Tal Shiar, it’s the whole reason I’m here but damn…” She whistled. “I should have asked for transfer way sooner. You got action here.” She could not, in fact, have possibly asked for transfer sooner, as she had had no information about previous incidents aside from the Tal Shiar invasion, but a woman could dream. (edited)

Aoife nodded in response to Iki as she shifted slightly so they could get a better look at her console. "Yup, massive outpost that was basically a holodeck with a prison in it's inner sanctum. We got the call to raid the place after we figured out that's where our people were being held."

What the fuck is going on at this starbase?

7

8

"Fascinating. I will have to read the reports when we get back to the station." Iki sounded genuinely impressed, inasmuch a Vulcan would generally emote.

Wait till you hear about how Aoife and Timi got the intelligence in the first place.

Gimura scooted a bit to the side to put space between herself and Iki.

"I had both...." Paco answered Marze "It is what it is, to be honest... well, I was dragged off the station against my will for the Tal Shiar one..." Welcome to Starfleet, Gimura.

She’s wondering if she was sent to 777 as punishment instead of hoping it’d mellow her out.

”And you survived little man… Qapla’!” The smile directed to Paco was genuine. Maybe not so fragile as she initially thought then!

3

Hearing everyone talk about their experiences, Autumn decided to chime in. "The best away mission I've been on was technically my first - we helped repair a giant robot in a cave."

“I’ve read the reports about that one. I imagine it was a fascinating experience.” She looked to Autumn, “Was it as interesting as the written summary of it?”

"Qapla'." Paco responded back, perfectly pronounced since he knew Klingon, there were a lot more other times where Paco had been thrown around, but he didn't feel like dwelling into those right now. The support from Marze was reassuring though. "You'll live, Ensign." Paco quietly said to Gimura.

The ensign side-eyed Paco from where she was stood. She didn’t need any reassurance, she was fine, she wasn’t worried or scared or stressed! Whatever! Fuck off!

3

"The getting shot by the locals part of that away mission wasn't so fun." Aoife mused as a hand touched her shoulder unconsciously. (edited)

"Can we quit the talk about the Tal Shiar?" oh, that one was... terse. He kept looking outside, watching as the shuttle began to slow down even further for landing.

"Moreso actually!" Autumn replied to Suun. "There was so much technology I personally had never seen, but the locals were very helpful and gave us some pointers."

“That’s wonderful.” She smiled, “I hope to do more looking into it. Maybe I can gain some eyewitness accounts of the experience.”

As for the readings - they seemed to be locking onto what was going on inside the shuttle, with occasional stutters from the outside. Speaking of outside! The half-forested area that they saw before was still here, albeit... slightly different. Wisps of the same whirls - now discernable as fog, broken through by light - were seen in the distance. The vegetation swayed in a breeze, though their hypnotic dance seemed... ever so slightly off, alien. The plants, which were blue outside, here had tints of purple, and red, and green - like a subtle mosaic, made up of different parts.

She looked at Saren, an arched brown. Even more angled due to her Romulan heritage. They had merely mentioned the episode. Personal problems, perhaps, she concluded. He had been, after all, one of the abducted. Though she had no access to what specifically happened to each officer captured. Nor did she need to, she had a colorful imagination. “Just work, sir. As I said, the BARS officers were specifically requested to try and make sure that doesn’t happen again. It’s why I applied.”

Suun turned their gaze over to the view from outside. It was breathtaking, the way everything seemed to move simultaneously in a connected fashion. Sometimes, sights like this made her wish she’d gone into the sciences.

"And we appreciate it," came the reply, genuine in it's tone, yet the man who spoke it bore a seemingly purposefully blank expression. Distance keeping. With his arms now folded on his stomach, Saren angled his head: "Let's just... focus on the task at hand, though. We need to determine if the outside is safe to explore, yes?"

Maggie shivered at the mentioned of the Borg cube. “Yeah, let’s focus on our work.”

According to Maya, in most Starfleet assignments, crazy shit happens on a weekly basis. Paco's glad that in 777, it at least happens on a monthly or so basis.

"Initiate scans of the surroundings?" Iviaan offered tentatively, flipping a button to allow his telepathy to be translated to text to speech. "Any hostilities nearby, terrain or otherwise, should come up easily."

*Klaa had be unusually quiet for herself. She was caught up in taking in her surroundings. She was unfamiliar with most of the technology used here. 20 years is a long time, had some of the equipment failed due to age? The containment field indicated that whatever this was a know hazard. “Wouldn’t multiple fail safes be put in place to prevent a problem like this?”

The young lieutenant shuffled forward in assembly with the group. His reason for being there was vague, but he assumed his use would show itself if a computer console was presented. As is he gripped closely his belt with a pair of gloved hands and emitted a low whine, accompanied by an arching of his brow that made his discomfort clear; less from the unfamiliar terrain and more from having to talk to people.

T'She was there, just in case medical was needed for whatever reason, medical bag slung over their shoulder. They were... intrigued... by everything surrounding this mission, and they did not know what to really expect, but perhaps that was the beauty of this job.

2

"I'll scan for anomalies, sir, but I'm fairly certain everything out here is anomalous. We might just need to move out to look for ourselves," Iki told Iviaan as they attempted to manipulate the sensors so that they'd get more information on what was going on outside of the shuttle.

Suun had not much to go off of in terms of what to expect, since temporal anomalies were never her job. However, operations was operations, and she was there to help with getting systems up and running, and anything that came with it.

"That would be good to know, yes..." talking through solutions seemed to relax him, just a bit. "Perhaps we could also get a better read on the outside itself, if you are going to adjust the sensors..."

"I'm taking a look," Iki said as they tried to make sense of the sensor readings, keeping track mentally of the calibration adjustments they made. Anything that came up that could shed a light on what was going on outside, they'd relay it.

1

Klaa continued inspecting the equipment. It was extremely different from the terraforming tech she had previously worked on as a cadet. Despite not knowing exactly how it worked she figured that she would be able to see evidence of extreme mechanical damage.

Gimura didn’t plan on getting caught off guard, so she occupied herself by making sure the weapons systems were still in working order after passing through the barrier.

Busying herself with checking the shuttle’s readings from her seat, Suun looked to Seht, who seemed quite uncomfortable. She was surprised how many younger Ensigns and Lieutenants were on this mission, but maybe it was the lack of away missions she had been on in a large amount of time.

Seht was in the corner, flicking away at his PADD, absentmindedly. Nothing much to say to any of the surrounding officers. He was mainly here by duty.

“Any thoughts on what we’ll face, Lieutenant?” She asked him, hoping to at least fill the silence a little, while being actually curious about him as well.

Like aligning radio waves, Iki had to twist the poor calibrations way out of it's normal range to begin seeing sense in the numbers that were being spat out by the console. The range - of around 200 meters - did not register any potentially dangerous lifeforms (or any at all, really...), nor it deemed the dome's climate hazardous for the explorers. It was ever so slightly warmer here than in the outside, and that was about it. As for the rest of the consoles, Gimura would soon discover that everything else was, indeed, functional. It seemed that only the systems that were trying to gather readings outside of the shuttle, struggled.

“Weapons systems are fine,” She reported to the group. After a few moments of dead silence, she huffed, “Okay, can we get out of the shuttle now?”

Seht was jolted upright by Suun's greeting. He immediately tucked it away, conscious of the stranger. "Er, no, Commander." He answered her, not giving much thought to the question before she asked it. He seared his eyes shut as he took in a wide yawn, still evidently drowsy.

“Stars…” The ensign grumbled, standing up and checking her phaser as she moved toward the back of the shuttle, ready to disembark. If things outside weren’t gonna kill her instantly, and the weapons were still up and running, she wasn’t just gonna sit in the shuttle while the Intelligence agent took a nap and the ACOO made small talk! (edited)

“Alright. We will… just have to see, then.” She responded, with a bit of a shrug. Fair enough, really, although his sleepiness was slightly worrying for the sake of the mission.

She is very impatiently waiting for everyone to leave the shuttle with her. She has her arms crossed and everything.

Seht blinked with a glance over to Ensign Gimura marching to the other end of the shuttle. His eyes followed her as she left, his mouth lazily unhinged. In a spurt of embarrassment he blew a few breaths into his hand and smelled it.

"There is nothing outside. At least nothing we'll recognise as life from here," Iki supplied from the sensor readings. "Anyone trying to get a read out there will need to recalibrate their tricorders. Try to match what I've done to the sensors here, and go from there."

They looked over to the Ensign, recreating the same changes they had made to their tricorder on theirs, before looking around to see if anyone else needed help with it. (edited)

She recalibrated her tricorder as she stood at the door, though in the process she does notice Seht and curled her upper lip in the slightest bit of disgust. When all is said and done, “Let’s go, then,” She held her tricorder up, “Scan everything we see or whatever.” (edited)

Iviaan slung his medical bag over his shoulder, fingers curling around the strap. "Very well done," they said politely, "I agree, we should continue on with the mission."

"Very good," he gave Iki a small smile and a nod, some of the residual weariness finally disappearing from the Romulan as he stood up. Well then... "Should I do the honors and step out first, then? I don't particularly mind."

Gimura made a (somewhat patronizing) sweeping motion with her hands toward the door for Saren.

”No offense Lieutenant, but that’s kinda part of my job also.” In a quick moment, Marze had her riffle in hands, passed both, gave Gimura a little wink and stepped outside. Ready and all. (edited)

His movement slowed, and he squinted his eyes. Ope. "Ensign, what exactly have I done to earn the attitude?"

3

She muttered a few things that were incomprehensible and then stomped after Marze.

1

After recalibrating their own tricorder and mounting the holocamera to their uniform so they wouldn't have to carry it in their hands, Iki stepped up beside Saren. "She makes me look charming," they commented, waiting for Saren to lead the way outside so they can pretend to be a good boy who follows orders.

3

His unimpressed stare followed Gimura to the door, before he turned his head towards Iki with a slight, toothy scoff: "Do not twist that into encouragement, Kadal. Let's be out, then."

She had no idea what was going on. She was just ecstatic about getting out and getting a closer look at the facility. “Finally, the good part!”

"Encouragement? I'm not encouraging anything except to get a move on" Iki mumbled, raising an eyebrow at Saren's back as they followed behind him.

Silent initially, having observed the ensign, Vara'l followed the Tactical ensign. Once close enough he cleared his throat. "Ensign, I dont believe we"ve met before, after the mission would you mind..a quick chat?" The CTO inquired in a 'this is not a request' tone

Kill her now. “Yeah,” She said with a huff.

Maggie stayed out of the fight. “Let’s just focus guys.”

Seht quietly laughed to himself at the tactical officer being pulled aside. He looked around quickly to make sure nobody saw him fiddling on his device a moment ago.

"Encouragement for oneself is what I meant," despite the brief look of annoyance, it quickly passed. It was also rather clear that at least in this instance, Saren was not being particularly serious. "Though I have to admit, I have not seen you cause that much trouble. Something I should be worried about, ensign?"

The air was fresh, as it ruffled the clothes and hair of the dome's newcomers. The place was far from silent - there were the sounds of a forest all around them, yet none of the activity you would expect. Nothing jumped out at them, or suddenly changed - the place continued it's existence, unbothered by the intrusion...

4

"Okidoke! I'm ready." Paco said, slightly more chipper as he stood up with tricorder and gear on hand and stepped off the shuttle along with the others. "Yeah... we have work here." Paco added, in agreement with Maggie. Fuck, nothing immediately came out to jump them and make bad things happen. This place is truly evil.

Standing behind Marze and doing her best to ignore her new boss, Gimura held her hand against her phaser holster and took a look around at their immediate surroundings. “…weird,” She mumbled. This was honestly helping her pretend like she wasn’t in trouble. She didn’t want another CTO to hate her off the bat. There was an anxious part of her that wondered what kind of insults toward her character and her parentage this one would hit her with.

T'She readied themself to leave the shuttle, still holding their medical bag, watching the group and their surroundings as best as they could.

”Nothing jumping on us so far…. Sirs and fellow officers, what is holding yall back?” She hurried them. The time it took for people to get out after her was weird and being exposed like this was risky. She had admittedly been 100% focused on her surroundings to hear anything happening inside the shuttle. People did come though, the first one was Gimura, earning a huff from the klingon-romulan. “I think it is safe for now. Be alert though.”

"Did you not read my file before I transferred, sir? I'm flattered by your trust in this humble archivist," Iki said in a sarcastic monotone, knowing fully well they chewed out Maggie Roode, who was standing A Few Feet Away, not too long ago. Even though that's a Lieutenant, and they're an Ensign. Their file was reasonable full of little anecdotes about their general... uncooperativeness.

“That’s the plan,” She replied to Marze. Her trigger finger was practically itching, waiting for some little…freaky like…monkey or something to come out of the forest and try to eat her face or whatever.

"Mm. I've seen worse," Okay, yeah. Definitely being just a little bit of an ass, to pass the time while they were waiting for everyone else to step out. "Don't tell Commander Lhai'Ivek I've said that, though."

Exiting the shuttle alongside the rest of them, she took in the area around them, finding it… surprisingly calm. Maybe this wouldn’t be that difficult of a job. She watched the others, specifically the ensigns, with a close eye, hoping no personal disagreements got in the way, but knowing they just might.

Gimura would never let personal disagreements get in the way…she would just dwell.

2

Being in close proximity to the tactical team, Paco simply stayed quiet and focused on watching his tricorder and surroundings. As scared as he was, and he was very scared, there was work that needed to be done. Furthermore, he needed to save the energy of screaming and crying for later

Silver followed, in the middle of the crowd. She walked a tad slower so as to maintain pace, she had long legs. She didn’t have much to do right now, so she just kept up, looking around.

She identified the anxiousness coming from the ensign very easily. “Just make sure not to accidentally shoot a possible survivor.”

Gimura gave Marze a bit of a look, easing up her grip on her phaser, “I wouldn’t…” She hissed a little bit, it it’s clear that she hadn’t considered that as an option until Marze warned her not to.

Grey hued eyes watched the ensign with a emotionlessly analytical gaze. Betraying little with it, Vara'l simply met the Yeah with a calmly uttered. "Very good, Ensign, I'll arrange it once we get back." Before he turned to the others and watched was going on, the ensigns further conduct noted with care. Vara'l watched around the perimeter then, phaser rifle loosely but securely carried. "Ensign." He stated then after a moment. "Lets get regular tricorder scans set up along the perimeter." He then looked to the others around before he returned his gaze to the Ensign. Did so as those grey hued eyes assessed once again. Assessed and considered.

"Is that a challenge, sir?" They knew it wasn't. They were just being annoying.

Gimura glanced toward Vara’l and gave a little nod, still walking with a bit of a stomp as she took out her tricorder and scanned along their current perimeter.

She kept herself from running ahead to the field. As impatient as she was, she didn’t want to get in trouble on her very first mission for being reckless. Or at least not as ‘reckless’ as she could be. She was interested in the technical aspects of the field. Perhaps if she knew more about how it was made would indicate what it was made for. Potentially narrowing down the possibility of what exactly it was containing.

"Alright, the mission brief gave us a map of the outpost. So this should give us a good idea on where to start." Paco casually said as he opened the map up in his tricorder and examined it carefully.

"Oh, definitely not," came the answer, which Saren, somehow, managed to make sound cryptic. His attention then was grabbed by Paco: "Our location is marked, as you can see - the shuttle's landing spot was predetermined. The outpost itself is marked... ah, right over here."

Aoife stayed behind for a second to secure the shuttle from flight and put it into it's idle state. She walked out into the forest area a moment behind the rest of the group with a rifle slung across her shoulder and a tricorder with their map in her left hand. "Let's go have a look at the outpost." Aoife said a moment after Saren called out it's location.

Paco already knew how maps works and which symbols and shapes are which, but out of respect, he will opt to say nothing. Actually that may be towards other people but himself... or it may actually be nothing and maybe its best to not think about it for now and just keep walking towards the outpost. "It shouldn't be too far from where we are. Let's get moving."

Seht trailed close behind Aofie, set to follow his division's leader. He swapped out his handheld computer for a tricorder and checked to make sure his phaser was readily accessible from his belt. He was still unsure what he was supposed to provide himself, but he acted as backup to the Mission Observer, for now.

As Paco studied the map, he would discover that there were at least two possible routes to take. The most straightforward one - quite literally almost a straight line from point A to point B - went through a heavily forested area. The other one was marked as a simple road, which followed a river. Easily walkable when compared to the first option, but this one would take them longer.

Suun took a deep breath, as she stretched her limbs. After all these years, she still hated the stuffy air inside of shuttles. As far as she was aware, she was the only OPS officer, so she had no junior officers under her care to worry about, just herself. Although she would probably wind up helping the Cadets, anyway.

You're a Tabletop RPG Gamemaster for 8 years Paco, do not suggest the thing. Do not suggest the thing. Do not suggest the thing. Do not suggest the thing. Do not suggest the thing.Do not suggest the thing. Do not--* "Split the party." *He blurted out, quietly, and under some audible coughing. Hopefully no one heard that. "We have two routes to get to the outpost. We can either walk a straight line in dense forest or follow the road along the river, which would take a lot longer than the straight line." Paco explained, after giving himself a moment to compose himself and stop coughing.

2

”Okay, but what would splitting accomplish us?” She looked back to Paco with a confused face. “We don’t know which route is safer for sure, but we know the one that is easier to walk and the one that is faster but harder terrain. If we split we make ourselves more vulnerable and if both teams make it one will be very delayed before we can rejoin. There is no advantage here comparatively.” She offered her insight. Sometimes to split was an option. This time? Just would literally slow them down.

"The road is preferable, we're too big a group to move quickly through a forest that dense." Aoife mused as she looked at the map on her own tricorder. A dense forest like that was tactically advantageous for an ambush, not that a road they didn't know was much better but she preferred her odds on a path then stuck in backcountry.

“Any injuries would slow us down, including people tripping or walking into things.” She chimed in, “I vote for the road as well.”

"Hm, that's unrelated. Force of habit from a different thing." Paco casually responded to Marze. "Anyways. In one hand, dense forest means we get there faster, but we'll get bogged down by dense forest somehow. The other hand the road is a longer route with us more exposed, but we could move a lot faster to compensate..." Paco thought out loud. "also I'm not sure if and how whatever is contained here has affected the forest in any way, and I don't... wanna find out. So heading down the road might be for the best"

2

"Er... I'd prefer staying with the experienced officers!" Seht piped up. He lingered just behind Lt. Commander O'Reilly, like a child behind a parent. He was no Academy student, he would vastly prefer not being separated from his superior.

Paco received the most “what the fuck are you on man” expression possible coming from the huge half-Klingon, half-Romulan, woman next to him. “Honestly, splitting up is a bad idea.” She eyed the seniors present that did not yet speak up to try and get an insight of what they were thinking. “I agree with the Commanders on taking the road. Easier to see around and to flank the group.” And her riffle was more than ready. Plus, she made a mental note to definitely watch for the little man.

She adjusted the supplies at her side, hanging from the crossbody strap for easier transport. “Plus, we’ll have a clear view of the outpost sooner.” (edited)

"What the fuck are you on, petaQ." was the type of expression Paco returned to Marze. Little man would not have his little nerd-isms dishonorably insulted so insultingly dishonorably. One musn't leave little man unsupervised, lest there be fresh gagh and bloodwine. After that brief moment, Paco just went back to casually nodding and monitoring the readings of his tricorder

3

"The road it is then, let's get going." Aoife grabbed a small backpack with some supplies, rations a med kit extra power cells and the like. She slung it over one shoulder with her rifle occupying the other. Aoife noted the stink eyes between Marze and Paco but decided not to say anything. She simply shot them both withering looks that would send shivers down the spines of even an angry Gorn. The withering expression emanating from her was simple, behave or I'll stun you myself.

Irish intelligence lady scary. Paco drank with that person once. He knew full well not do that any further lest being stunned, or worse, scolded at... Feels like being a targ with its tail between its legs, if that's how the expression goes. (edited)

Honestly, Marze saw absolutely nothing threatening in Paco’s expression. Or aura. Or anything. To her, it just seemed like the little man had stumbled his little toe on some furniture. Her eyes did not linger so she quickly caught sight of Aoife’s look. Now, that one was interesting. Definitely a threat there, which made her smile back. Marze never backed down for a challenge, and despite not knowing what made the woman direct that to her, but speculating it probably had something to do with “professional behavior”, her own message was clear: whenever you want to try, name the place and time. She did follow with her duties though. Aoife was certainly someone she could put her trust on, she finally decided.

Aoife gave Marze a look in return that read "you wouldn't be the first Klingon or Romulan I killed. Bring it." She was beginning to Like Marze, definitely someone to keep an eye on in future. In the meantime she moved to to the head of the group to spurn people into getting a move on. "Alright people grab your stuff it's a hike to the outpost we'd best get going."

Was it decided, then?

Would it be petty to trip Marze. Actually no, that's unprofessional. And really bad. Maybe when they get back to the shuttle. that seem's like a safer place to do it without consequences. But why though... doesn't matter, the guard is down either way. Paco was unsure about the others, but he feels pretty set on taking the long road.

"If we have decided to follow the road, then I would encourage us to begin moving," Saren suggested, beginning to follow Aoife to the #blue-river . (edited)

As per the briefing before arrival, Autumn's job was to stay with the shuttle and keep the engine warm for the rest of the team. To be completely honest they were absolutely fine with that arrangement - they were able to catch up on shows on their PADD and occasionally take a glance at the shuttle readings. The rest of the team wouldn't need Autumn anyway, they were all capable officers who would all be fine and calm in this situation.

The outside looked quite lovely - with it's serene calmness, the gentle colorful swirls of the fog... it was but a real life painting, ideal and homogenous. It was no wonder that, at first, you wouldn't notice the figure standing by the treeline.

4

Putting the PADD down, Autumn kicked their feet up and just spent time watching the world outside the window. Giving it some thought, this was probably the most 'alien' world that Autumn had ever been to - in no small part to the anomalies the rest of the team were no doubt investigating. For now, Autumn was content with just sitting in the stillness, listening to the sounds of the outside - like a strange LoFi track that hadn't any music at all.

The figure began to wave, as if trying to attract attention to itself.

Oh- what the fuck? There was a Guy™ out there - Autumn's mind went through several different hypotheticals as to why a Guy™ would be out there waving at them. It was clear whoever it was, was trying to get their attention - maybe it needed help? Maybe it was one of the missing scientists who had found their way to the shuttle before the team got back. Plan of action: investigate, offer assistance, radio it in. Opening the side door of the shuttle (the one next to the cockpit), Autumn looked over at the Guy™ and called out. "Hey! Are you one of the scientists? Do you need help getting over?"

"Oh finally, you're done daydreaming," a familiar voice responded, tone teasing. The blonde half-Trill stepped out of the shade, beelining towards the shuttle in an unhurried manner, "Mind letting me in?"

7

Autumn bluescreened for a second before coming back to their senses. They would have noticed if Lente had been assigned to the mission, right? "Lente!? I didn't think you were on this mission - What the fuck were you doing over there, the rest of the team went the other direction." Saying it out loud made it clearer in Autumn's mind. The entire team were warned that things would get weird, best to play it safe. Autumn (wearing the standard gear for away teams (phaser and a tricorder, like everyone else)) stepped out of the shuttle and closed the door behind them, leaning on the side. "Or did you somehow actually get lost, I swear the team isn't that far from here?"

Lente, clad in her casual clothes, paid no mind to Autumn's questions, "It went fine, yeah. The box is quite large though, so keep the door open."

Okay what. Lente- actually, 'Lente', was behaving extremely sus. Autumn thought about how to deal with this, and their mind concluded that the best thing to do would be to play along, at least for now - the way to stay safe would be to play into not-Lente's narrative, mostly to avoid agitation; although whether or not whoever was in front of Autumn would even acknowledge them is another question entirely. "What's in the box?" This strange, imaginary box that apparantly existed.

There could've been a strange sense of deja vu - like this same exact sequence of events, at some point, had happened already. Perhaps back on the station?.. "How's the project coming along?" ignored, again.

"...The shield modifications? They're done, we used them on the way he-." Autumn stopped themselves, getting too convinced by... whatever the hell was in front of them. "Hey, stand still for a second." Autumn pulled out their tricorder and started to scan whatever was in front of them.

Ahha, nope. The... whatever this was, covered head to toe in chronitrons, continued her advancement towards the shuttle, now being close enough to discern the spots on the sides of her neck and face.

Ahha, what the fuck. "Y'know how about we pin this conversation and we can carry on back at the station, sound good?" Autumn began stepping backwards, quicker and quicker before just turning around and rushing to the still-open back door of the shuttle, scurrying inside and pressing the button to clsoe it, hand on phaser just in case it didn't close on time.

Luckily for Autumn, it did indeed close in time. That, however, did not stop "Lente" from coming closer...

4

”H-hey, stop… I’m warning you” Hand still on phaser, Autumn began backing away from the door as well, slower this time - they were very conscious of the fact that they were losing ground to whatever not-Lente was. Autumn prayed to any deity in range that this thing couldn’t get through the bulkheads.

And a deity did answer indeed. Something large landed on top of the shuttle, landing feather-soft yet it's presence unmistakable. Autumn, from where they were, could see a bright light suddenly engulf the area around the shuttle, as if a beacon was lit, scaring away the darkness. Just as quickly as it had appeared, the Thing left. The illusion, or apparition, or whatever else, was gone, too.

6

If one was looking towards Autumn head on, you would see an incredible amount of god rays and it would look heavenly. Unfortunately, no one else was here - leaving Autumn to witness almost literal divine intervention themselves. It was a little surreal, to say the least, and Autumn was left in the silence afterwards. It was like this for a few minutes, the lone occupant being stunned at the suddenness of it all. The only thing that snapped Autumn out of it was Saren yelling over the comms. Alright, lock in. Autumn near scrambled back into the seat and their hands began to dance around the controls like they were playing the Moonlight Sonata.™

As if feeling the engineer's urgency, the shuttle quickly came back online, ready to be piloted wherever needed. Hopefully that won't attract any unwanted attention!

They began to turn the shuttle towards the coordinates, best possible speed.

As the shuttle accelerated, a whole herd of Gunji jackdaws appeared out of nowhere, running alongside the vessel with apparently zero care of it even being there.

Part of Autumn was scared shitless, since WHAT THE FUCK THEY WERE IN THE AIR. And yet, another part of them barely regarded them - in fact: they almost felt familiar. Being a former farmhand there were times when the local livestock would run alongside the truck they drove. So it was a mix of a strange stillness and sheer fucking panic. But continue they did, because the away team needed them.

At some point, the shuttle was left alone again. Autumn was successfully able to reach #outpost-chi-13.