Star Trek: Starbase 777

Bercumitor was in the midst of the final stretch of Autumn, and the forest that the shuttle landed within was filled with trees slowly dying, bare branches and leaves littering the ground. The entirety of the forest was foggy, and eerily quiet… (edited)

With the shuttle landing safely, Suun stepped out of her seat and out of the vessel to be met with the woods. Beautiful, brisk, and offering her an air of uncertainty.

Holly frowned slightly as she stepped out of the shuttle and into the fog. It felt like the twig breaking beneath her foot might have been an explosion with how silent this place was.

Aoife was one of the first out of the shuttle, she proceeded around five meters forward from the shuttle door with her rifle held in a low ready position and she began to survey the eerily silent woods.

Mountains loomed in the distance, and the coordinates for the facility pointed them deeper into the forest, deeper into the fog…

He did the offshuttle sidestep! you know like in the starfleet reenactions?, but he did make sure to stay behind holly, he didn't want to compromise their perimeter. He did however pull out his tricorder and start to take data in, man he was spocking out.

1

Khirena had brought them down without a hitch, everyone should be very proud /j. Once she turned everything off, she too stood up, following Suun out into the woods. She held her phaser like Aoife did, it just seemed right and she was sort of in her era of copying everything the real officers did because they knew what they were doing. Probably. She followed Suun and Aoife into the forest.

4

Ehlai stepped off the shuttle and looked around, "Should we scan something? It sounds pretty quiet for a forest..." He offered as he followed everyone into the forest.

“It’s… beautiful, is it not?” She raised a brow, moving forwards with the others next to her. She held back any comments about how unsettled she felt already, it was, after all, just nerves. (edited)

She hopped off the shuttle behind the bundle of intel and security officers. Best to stay out of their way. She did one final check of the equipment she had on her, and then proceeded to follow behind the group.

Vesta stepped out into the woods, the area of trill she had grown up in had been temperate and costal, but Starbase 611 was forested. It remained her of that. She breathed in the cool fall air. “I can see why people settled here.”

Goosebumps and sweat already. Visible tension in his shoulders. Not the fog again. Would he see her...? No. Sometimes fog is just fog. "Fog is just fog," he muttered to himself.

6

"You'll tell me if any ghosts appear on your readings, right?" Holly whispered to Vokk with a little smile when she noticed him behind her. She had also drawn her phaser, but wasn't aiming it. She didn't like walking around with a raised weapon.

She quickly jumped off the shuttle along with the others that carried the rifles. It was their job to keep the others safe and to guarantee the perimeter, so she acted accordingly. Focused and serious, very different from how laidback she had behaved back in the shuttle-bay.

"Don't worry commander! i'm on it, but really i'm looking for anything sapient made, also some topographics since fog." He saluted.

“Good call.” She glanced back at him, before spotting Khirena. God, she was sneaky. “Are you doing alright, cadet?”

“I remember the last time there was fog on an away mission.” She said far too cheerfully, keeping up pace with Suun. “Yep! I’m usually not on the ground, but this is alright.”

“You’re a brilliant pilot, I imagine you’ll find your footing out of the air.” She complimented.

According to Vokk’s scan, the scientific facility was 3.2 kilometers off from their current position. The way forward was hilly, meaning it would be quite the trek without a proper well-trodden path.

Taking a deep breath in, she looked around. “Right. What direction is the facility. No time to waste.”

Since it seemed like they were now something of a pair on this mission, Dakom remained beside the one person he was currently tolerating. He seemed like he needed it, maybe—not that he had any real capability to protect Dmitri, being a weakass doctor. From fog or otherwise. He didn't even have a good reassuring answer, but at least being Not Alone in it would help, right?

Paco quietly stepped off the shuttle with tricorder on one hand and the rest of his kit on the other as he joined the others. "Hm... actually quite nice here..." he said to himself

Vara'l also smoothly stepped off the shuttle with his phaser rifle clasped in a low ready position. Training something that simply pressed him to do this instinctively even as he freed one hand once on the perimeter and pulled his tricorder out and scanned for life signs other than the away teams. At the question about directions, he looked around, spotted the ensign that had also started to scan and returned to his own tricorder.

"Okay time to find us a route!" He pressed some button's trying to map out less of a hoke, even if he was sure most of them could make it theres effifience to be had.

“At least I don’t have to outrun a fog dragon this time. Hopefully. It was fun, though!” She replied, picking up the pace to keep up over the rough terrain. Khirena was not built for this. She was built like a stick, actually, and that was being generous.

Sak opened his tricorder aswell and joined Vokk. "Vokk, you find a good route yet?"

“I imagine it was, but I do hope we don’t face that this time. It may not be a good day for dragons.” She bit back a chuckle at how the cadet put it.

Holly glanced over Vokk's shoulder. "Aww, and just today I neglected to bring my hiking gear," she mumbled. That was one climb ...

"Uhm maybe this way?, you check the end of the route and i will check the start Sak!" He went to it fortunately he had his part started

18:20

"Wait fog dragon??."

3

3.2 kilometers south-southwest.

Sak nodded and was just about to leave when fog dragons were being discussed. "Wait...fog dragons??"

"He's messing with you, Ensign, keep going," Holly waved off the fog dragon rumour.

"Don't worry about it, Ensign." Paco didnt want to remember anything related to the fog dragon or Fatum-I ever again "It's just fog..."

The fog kept their trek nice and brisk, alongside some wind flowing through the trees and rustling the empty branches. Leaves crunched beneath the boots of the away team.

He started to lead the group... but you know short legs...Maybe it was best sak lead.

“No dragons today, I hope.” She sighed, “Although this is the weather out of an autumn horror story. Crisp, foggy, windy…”

Sak breathed a sigh of relief at Holly's and Paco's assurance. "Well, if that's all, I suggest we get started! Vokk, you gonna lead, or me?"

"You... better i have short legs" (edited)

Fog dragons, regular dragons, regular fog- there was always something going on. Timi just took his rifle off his shoulder just to be ready for anything, but he wasn't even raising it at the moment, only scanning around, trying to parse the environmental descriptions in his audio description from the neverending chatter around him.

The fog grew a bit denser as they continued on, flowing down from the mountaintops that continued to loom before them. Bercumitor was incredibly mountainous. It felt as though the mountains weren’t growing closer, even as they walked.

She narrowed her eyes, trying to parse together the overall horrific vibes. Something was utterly, completely wrong here. “Something is up.” She stated, gesturing to the mountains, “Look.”

Sak stopped as Suun gestured towards the mountains, and squinted his eyes to that position. "Holy- You're right! What the hell is over there?"

Holly tilted her head. "It's like we're not moving at all." She glanced at Vokk's tricorder to make sure they were.

"I think is just an optical illusion?." He always tried to apply logic first.

Timi rolled his eyes at the panicked reactions. You'd almost assume none of these people had ever been on an away mission before. They'd been walking for like three minutes, how fast were they supposed to close in on the mountains?

9

"You're probably right." She chose to respond to Vokk and ignore the eye-roller.

Vara'l frowned at all that happened and mused. "We've just started walking, everyone." And continued to walk. "This planet is very mountainous."

Sak raised an eyebrow at Vokk's suggestion, and looked at his own tricorder with the route. "How long has it even been? We're just going to have to keep walking." Sak lowered his tricorder from his eyes and started walking once more.

“It isn’t much cause for alarm yet, yes. It’s just strange.” She exhaled, “Perhaps I’m just anxious.”

A twig snapped in the distance, echoing through the valley.

"I... do not like the sound of that... this is the first thing I have heard that would suggest something else lives here..." he spoke, in reference to the twig snapping.

Vara'l calmly requested then. "Can someone maintain tricorder scans, I'd like to know the moment there's anything other than us or local wildlife around." The CTO stated then as he continued to walk, his phaser rifle still clasped at a low carry ready position. Ready to be snapped up to firing position if needed.

“Likely just local fauna.” She turned to Ehlai, “You’re safe, Cadet.”

Sak stopped abruptly before looking at the direction of the snapped twig. Then looked at Vara'l and nodded. He opened his tricorder. "On it, i'm opening scans."

Goes over the registry of imported animals to the colony.

"Maybe we're a lot further than we thought..." Paco said plainly as he checked his tricorder to be sure they got the right coordinates to wherever they were supposed to go. "...we've been walking for less than a few min..." He paused answering Sak's question as he heard the snap of a twig, a classic horror movie sign. There are a lot of dead leaves and twigs around them, its autumn... but it didnt sound like it was one of them. It would be a lot closer and not echo like that. "nutes..." Paco reached into his science kit and pulled out a pair of binoculars, setting them to find heat signatures instead of plain sight and looked around to check for anything. It may be futile, due to the fog, but alongside the tricorder, it would provide more data beyond a lifesign.

"Beware of the witch of the woods ..." Holly chuckled quietly, "Anyone brought any breadcrumbs to mark our path?"

1

Crack.

3

"Uh,,, that must been bigger than a squirrel did this planet import medium mammals?."

"See?" Apparently the witch responded to her.

Vara'l frowned at that. "I'd like a tricorder reading on what did that, Ensign." The Romulan xB stated then before he added. "May well be nothing more than the local wildlife, but lets be sure." As he added that, Vara'l decided to make a mental note to air the possibility of additional drills or something to the Security chief.

Sak looked at his tricorder and looked up at them. "I uh, I think there's something near us? I need to check again to be sure. We need to be on guard though." Sak answered Vara'l.

"Try for lifesigns sak!, i will do a thermal scan."

There were no lifesigns in the direction of the sound.

5

"M-Class planets can have their own native wildlife, ensign." Paco said to Vokk as he continued walking, still scanning with his tricorder whilst looking out through thermal binoculars. "Best we keep moving regardless."

Sak nodded again. "On it, Vokk!" Sak pressed a few buttons again on his tricorder and moved around the general vicinity of the sound.

Being Not Alone was helping. Everyone else reacting so badly was not. "Well, let me know if any of you need a splinter removed."

There was something that appeared on thermal scan, some kind of deer-like animal. The heat was rapidly fading from it, though…it didn’t seem like it was still breathing.

7

"It's probably something that fell down, or some kind of animal." She muttered, mainly minding her own business as she trundled along with them, her hands full as she recalibrated some her tools. She had the time anyways.

“What do you see?” She asked one of the officers scanning, tilting her head slightly in concern.

"Found our lifesign. Deer. May be injured." Paco answered.

"Uh that's odd, its temperature is dropping but i don't see a predator, maybe an accident?."

Sak's tricorder found a lifesign something near the sound, it was an animal that almost fully matched an Earth Deer. "Yep, i see it too. We should help it."

Who remained on alert with his phaser rifle clasped as it had been, nodded to the ensign. "Get me what you can on that something, Ensign." The CTO requested then as he then added. "Lets keep up a perimeter, security and tactical." Then glanced to look for Timi and Aoife before he looked back. While he might not have gotten on well with Timi and had their disagreements, he trusted that the officer knew what he was doing. "Any lifesigns indications on that crack-cause yet?" The Romulan inquired then as he continued to walk. He assumed it was just local wildlife, but was still remained on guard. "You're probably right, Lieutenant but lets be sure." At what was then stated, he glanced to Paco then back in the direction they'd headed. "It's up ahead, this deer?" He asked as he looked to see if it was in or coming into view.

"must be succumbing to an injury from something else from earlier" Paco proposed, it was a possibility, before he tured to Vara'l. "I believe so, Sir. I'll keep an eye out for it, but it should be close by to us."

"Wildlife dies," Holly spoke up, "It's nothing too unusual. We should just keep moving."

Sak nodded at Vara'l and went to work on his tricorder. "Alright, i'll try to get better readings. I don't see anything near that crack-sound, yet. My guess is it's that animal that's injured." Sak went closer to the deer-like animal's lifesigns, moving closer inch-by-inch, to get a better understanding.

Help it. That probably meant him. "If it's temperature is dropping it may well be dead already, in which case there's not much to do for it. I see no point."

“We’ll on the lookout for larger predators, maybe?” She offered, “But yes, I agree.”

"I am not a vet," he said, coldly.

"Yeah, but, considering the um... firepower we have. I don't think predators would really be a concern, y'know? Unless I'm mistaken." She thought aloud.

"Yeah we should focus on the mission, but if is just sick maybe the doctors can do something quickly" He looked at dmitri "Probably not but everyones heard stories of starfleet medical curing a new sickness with a few hours and a sample hehe"

Vara'l frowned a bit. "The temperature drop plus no lifesigns would align with it being dead." The Romulan opined then before he then added. "We're on mission, lets keep moving."

"Excuse me, but why are we even discussing medically attending to ... a deer?" Holly chimed in again, "I love animals as much as the next girl but we have other things to focus on."

Sak looked at the new, better readings on the tricorder and called for Vokk and Paco. "Hey, Vokk, Paco! Can you come here for a second! I just need to know if i'm reading this right. Sorry, just will take a second!"

"I'm just saying it's around, maybe along the way. Aside from the possibility of larger predators or hunters since this planet is inhabited, nothing much we can do at the moment other than carry on and not separate from the group." Paco stated his opinion with a shrug as he gently nudged Sak to stay with the others. "If we do find it along the way, we could at least see its injuries and that would give some context on either, if not, then we push on with the mission."

It took approximately seven minutes for the ensigns to be distracted by wildlife. Timi already mentally putting together a mandatory seminar about task-readiness and focus on away missions. He knocked on Vara'l's mind telepathically, hoping to be let in briefly.

Dakom openly scoffed at Vokk's remark. "Not everyone is a miracle worker, and not remotely the point of our mission here. I'm not going to attend to a dead deer." (edited)

"Holly's likely right.. sorry deer friend."

She should have stayed on board the Eventide. Caring for creatures was important, yes, but she wasn’t quite at this point.

Sak nodded at Paco's sound reasoning, and went ahead with group, putting his tricorder back. "Yeah you're right. Let's go, the deer's gone anyways."

The thermal scan grew colder, colder…gone. Only way now was forward. There was some kind of thermal blip in the distance, though it seemed similar to the deer.

"Let it die with dignity of the wilderness..." Paco advised as he took point to leading the way. "Another sign on thermals. similar to the earlier deer." he reported once more, taking out thermal binoculars to check if it was nearby.

She furrowed her brows, looking to the other senior officers, before looking back to the scientist. “Do we follow it? Is it out of our way?”

"Is it not strange that we have things dying but no signs of predators...?" He was not going to distract himself from the task, but this did strike him as odd... but then again. He was a cadet, he did not have much of a say.

The mask around his nose and mouth still fit like an old friend, protecting Five from the chill in the air as they kept their gaze forward. Unbothered by the noise, they raised their head, keeping an eye out (haha) for any rustling in nearby brush. "Disease?" he posed gently.

4

Vara'l visibly stiffened then, the knock on his mind detected. After he quelled the part of him that recalled other things related to voices in his mind, Vara'l inhaled, exhaled and then attempted to make it mentally apparent the door was open. Not that he happened to be sure how one did that. "Lets keep moving, while its strange to not see predators yes, we've got a mission to do." A pause at what Five then posed before he looked to him then to the others. "..That seems like a possibility, lets not linger."

Sak opened his tricorder again, as he remembered Vara'l request of maintaining scans. He did see the deer-like thermal scan, though he did not give it much importance as the first time. "Only that thermal reading of something like that deer before, nothing that important. I figure we should walk as fast as we can. Just keep going forward."

"I'll keep an eye on it, Sir, but I feel its best we keep going..." Paco suggested before he turned over to Fives. "Also a possible... best not drink the water here as well, I guess."

Suun nodded at Five, stepping over to greet him. “My apologies for not saying hello sooner. It’s good to see you, Lieutenant.”

Vara'l glanced around, frowned and continued to move. "As said, lets be moving, everyone." The Romulan xB stated then. "We've a mission to be getting on with."

"We'll all just have to pay a visit to the doctors when we get back ... if it's a disease." She shrugged.

Started walking near sak again "First away mission too? everyones else is so focused it's a bit impressive and a bit intimidating!" But he seemed mostly happy.

"Would you mind herding the scientists a little?" Timi requested of Vara'l, exasperation shining through mentally. "They are... distractible."

9

"Moving," the boatswain reported cheerfully, offering Suun a little tilt of his head and a smile evident by the corners of his eyes turning up. "Why does a tree hate a riddle, Commander?"

2

“Mm, I don’t know this one.” She let out a preemptive chuckle, “Why does a tree hate a riddle?”

"Because," Five answered, "they're easily stumped."

3

Vara'l glanced to Timi and nodded once at that no effort attempted to hide the fact he was also somewhat exasperated, though his mind continued to chew on the idea of drills once this was done. "Scientists, follow me, lets be going." The Romulan stated then as he continued to move. "Anyone with rifles, lets keep a moving perimeter maintained."

"Hopefully we won't have to use the DeCon gel...." Paco mused to Holly. Old early starfleet stuff, but to his surprise, it still pops up in use every now and then. "I'll handle it, sir." *Paco timidly said to Timi as he approached the two ensigns. *"Guys. C'mon. Keep focus."

As their walk through the forest continued, eventually the shivering trees split and revealed a #ber-clearing.

Sak nodded and kept walking with his tricorder in the front. "Yep, it's my first too. But, we should be focused-." Sak's words were cut short as Var'l told them to hurry up and they followed Paco.

She wrinkled her nose in joking displeasure, before cracking up. It definitely broke the tension. “That’s good. Perhaps I’ll steal it to stay “hip with the kids”.” She joked, “I’m glad you’ve joined us.”