Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Pod 2 Cave Exploration
[snip]

The party moved back until Kristensen nodded at Hutchins and he dropped to a knee, taking off his pack and setting it flat on the ground. He unzipped it and flipped back the top. There was a small computer, a pair of goggles, a pair of gloves, and a small four propellered drone folded up in a charging port. He pulled out the drone, unfolded the ‘arms’ with the propellers, and then put on the goggles. They were clear, but as he activated all the systems, a display could be seen playing across them. He then pulled out monitor and plugged it into the computer. As he worked, Kristensen said quietly “The recon drone is silent and will go through that carved tunnel. Hutchins will fly it via a VR set of controls. The camera view will be on the monitor.” At that moment, the propellers whirred into action and the drone rose into the air. Hutchins grinned and said “Alrighty-tighty… here we go.” and the drone moved smoothly forward and out of sight. The camera showed the cavern they had been in, and Hutchins spun it around so they had a three-sixty degree view of everything. He then expertly banked the drone and it began a slow flight into the tunnel, staying close to the ceiling.

MACO

Helena was quiet, but inside she was totally geeking out over the drone and the VR controls. She’d used similar interfaces for tests flights and testing out new ship controls and such, but she really needed to get one of those. Well maybe not one as high tech as the Hutchins was using. She could spend hours flying a small one about the ship. Well....maybe the cargo and shuttle bays. The Cpt probably wouldn’t be too keen on her flying a miniature plane above people’s heads all day.

As the drone moved down the tunnel, they saw it kept a fairly constant design to it, clearly hand dunged by stone like tools, maybe primitive metals of some kind. It went on straight for about 100 or so yards before it came to a T split. The left side ended about 40ft in that direction where a primitive wooden and plant rope bound ladder went up. Given the air currents it also let air into and out of the tunnel. The height of the tunnel coming out of their tunnel was now about 5ft or so tall so likely more a ‘main’ tunnel vs the ‘side’ tunnel the drone had come out of. To the right about 60ft ahead the sounds and shadows of the timely lit tunnel showed it emerged into a bigger cavern again. Flickering lights indicating some kind of fire fed devices and the noises indicated 3-10 humanoids were present.

Helena knelt down to ger a more straight in view of the monitors, still far back out of the MACO’s way. She had spent more than enough time in caves growing up. She turned to Renault, “Rough and tunneled out by hand. Too uniform to be natural but still to rough to be from an automated machines.” The ladder gave her pause, “If that goes topside, why didn’t the survey probes catch them. They caught the big cats and dogs. And so close to a main entrance why do they have an out that way? What do they know we don’t?”

The most likely explanation was that the exit point was disguised in some way by brush or other coverings, so was not picked up on casual scans....

Kristensen said “Easy, Corporal… go to de left tunnel. Ease into de vertical shift and give us view to de top. Careful, they may have sentries.” Hutchins nodded wordlessly and the viewer showed the drone turn left and move noiselessly to the left and, staying low and away from the ladder, enter the opening just enough for the top mount camera to get a view of the shaft above them.

As the drone made it way, Kristensen activated her comms to the rest of the MACO. [o] Kristense to Baumann. Contacts. No visual. Drone deployed. Falling back to defensible position. [o]

MACO

A response came after a moment. [o] Copy. Update soonest. Baumann out. [c]

MACO CO

Helena watched the feed from the top mount camera, while every so often glancing back the way they came and the drop off of the water.

Laursen, pilot

As the drone moved back down the shaft to the ladder and panned up they could see a faint light through some cracks in a poorly made cloth covering of some kind. Scans showed no life up near the top. When the drone would peek out the top this would be confirmed that no sentries were present within the area. The cloth covering though would fall down onto the ladder uncovering the entrance, and the drone had no way to put it back to how it was.

“Crap. Sorry.” Hutchins muttered. “Couldn’t be helped, Corporal.” Kristensen said quietly.

Looking at their location this hole came up about 2 or so miles south of the main entrance they had come into this cave area from. It was up a high sloped hill and seemed in the near area to be fairly well covered by thick brush, and a thin array of trees and fallen logs like a pseudo-defense point. A few leaning wooden spears and tipped stone clubs were also in evidence.

GM Cockroach

Kristenen keyed her comms. [o] Bravo to Alpha. No sight of contacts yet. Visual revolution shows primitive spears and stone weapons. Making run for visual of indigenous contacts now. [o]

Hutchins brought the drone back down and maneuvered it back into the tunnel, passing by its original entry point and moving towards the fire light and shadows, staying high against the ceiling as much as possible.

MACO