Posted by Lieutenant Naomi Locke (Science Officer) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Pod 2 Cave Exploration

Posted by Mar. Captain Wulf Baumann (MACO CO) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Pod 2 Cave Exploration

Posted by Captain Marceau Renault (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Pod 2 Cave Exploration
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[snip]

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

OOC: I’m going to assume you quietly moved the drone into the main cavern up to the dark ceiling cause otherwise the tunnel would give it away too quickly....

Coming back down the tunnel and out up into the darker ceiling area of the cavern the drone could now more easily peer down on the inhabitants. They were short figured humanoids, currently 9 in total now in the area. Each had two arms, two legs, and five fingers and a an opposable thumb. They had slightly elongated noses that came out almost 2 some inches from their face. Their eyes were almost 1 1/2 times larger then a humans and slightly more to the side of their head. The setup likely gave them better night or dim light sight in their primarily tunnel environment. The larger nose probably also gave them betters sense of smell. Their bodies were slim and agile in appearance meaning they were probably quite flexile and dexterous to move in cramped spaces. Their body structure also showed signs that better muscular on the lower body or upper arms and such were likely. They had hair over their heads much like a human would, but which also grew thick down around their necks, shoulders, and upper backs. This seemed to be the case for what seemed both male and female like members present. They were currently dressed in crude single body suit clothes of tanned leather with softer plant fiber/cloth inside. It seems at a guess this single body suit would probably allow them easier times working in tight tunnels or for protection etc, vs say a shirt/pants or such combination. Female seemed to carry crude stone or crude metal like daggers or spiked wooden clubs on their waist, while the men wore just daggers or small crude hammer or chisel etc like tools. As the drone hovered there it soon became evident that at a glance without more evidence, the men in this small 9 sample of the society were workers/gatherers, while the women seemed to be care takers, artisan makers, and probably defenders of some kind. So far there did not seem any stand out reason to say who was a leader or not yet. Looking at the crude pile of cloth and such for bedding there was setups for probably about 19-30 or so of these natives in this cavern alone. Presumably the rest were off elsewhere. Oh the final detail of note was all the natives were between 2-4.5 ft in height these also al seemed to be adults too. Where children were was not clear at the moment.

GM CockRoach

Helena did a quick count of the bedding and ‘personal’ spaces and looked back at Renault. “19 to 30 if they take things in shifts.” Crude weapons from what she could tell, and they seemed small statured. But this planet was inhabited they couldn’t claim it as a colony. This was someone else’s home. She moved back out of the way. It wasn’t her call of course. That was what command ethics classes were for.

Laursen, pilot

Hutchins recorded vid and stills of the humanoids, the tools and weapons, and the clothing and living area. He then carefully brought the drone back. Kristensen relayed the information to Baumann and the other team. She then looked at the Captain and said “Sir, MACO directives in dis are very clear. If non-contacted lifeforms are not a threat or capable of interstellar travel, we are not to engage vif dem.”

MACO

“I agree wholeheartedly.” Marceau replied. “I do not want conflict with native life forms.” This planet was not up for claims, somebody already lived here. They were just underground, where Starfleet’s probes hadn’t detected them. “We pull back. We need direction from Starfleet. We were sent here under the idea that this planet was uninhabited. Don’t the Vulcans have a rule about interfering with species that don’t have space travel yet?” He wasn’t entirely sure. “What kind of technology do they look like they have?”

~ Captain Renault

“Stone tools and clubs, fire for warmth. No advanced technology past some primitive metal working that I can see, sir.” Hutchins said as he began brining the drone back. Kristensen radioed Baumann and said [o] Bravo to Alpha. We are falling back. Rendezvous point one. [o]

MACO

Naomi took a deep breath. She had been silently listening to the group determine their next move. With early stages of intelligent life, this planet was no longer viable for mining. Something more critical lingered on her thought though.

“Let’s get back to the surface. We didn’t find evidence of their existence until we went underground. I can possibly gleam more information if I can look at the probe’s data, but I rather not do that here.” She tried to keep her tone calm, but the worry and irritation bled through. She didn’t want to be here.

-Lt. Naomi D. Locke, Sci

Ensign Sanks listened to the comms and the group, when he heard they were headed back to the Rendezvous point on the surface, he started leading the way creating security check points to make sure everyone made it back safely.
“Who knew there would be people underground?” He pondered to himself.
Ensign Sanks, security