[snip]

El furrowed her brow. “I thought big cats lived here,” she replied. The echoes of her voice made it sound like there was another person present. She had moved along not too far from the Commander, splitting her attention between finding secure footing and glancing at her own scanner. She had to admit that the cave, similar to that of ones she had been in on Earth, were a comforting familiarity. With it came thoughts of her sister, Meiling, still in Manticore, another comforting familiarity though now literally light years distant. She had to remember to take photos along the way to show her. But would she ever get back to Earth?

They came to a branch in the cavern. “Left, Commander,” she said, getting a further reading, stronger as they were getting closer but still not near enough to say just what kind of a find they may have made. “Reading is stronger here. Getting closer.” El was sure that the Commander had that in mind too with her own scanner but this was a cave. She was the junior technician who was technically supposed to be doing the scanning and the Commander leading and, hopefully, making sure they don’t fall into a big pit along the way.

El, Eng

Kenzo touched glanced behind them at Baumann’s comment, changing his grip on his plasma pistol. Stopping to let everyone in front of him, he spoke, “I’ll keep an eye on the rear should someone come up behind us. Keep me updated, please.”

LtJg Kenzo Kurata, Chief Armory Officer

El’s ears caught the softly spoken words from the armory Lt. She didn’t know him but she caught the very familiar Asian accenting. All of this ‘military’ bearing and focus was disconcerting. She battled within herself; there was that pull toward anxiety of the unknown - which was here in spades!! - and the feeling of sufficiency and railing against feeling pandered by the others. Between all of that El sought the peace within. To be sure she relished this chance. There were few instances where she was so tested in her upbringing’s lessons. This was something to be embraced even if there was a part of her that did not mind the routine. And, on a starship, there was, El found, a great deal of routine. It harkened back to, again, her upbringing which was a very long day compared to now, but full of routine and ritual.

To break the seemingly inherent tension of this operation, El’s curiosity raised over the surface. “Has anyone been on other worlds before?” she asked. Even though she said it quietly it sounded louder in the confined space of the tunnel.
- El, Eng

With the course set the group soon emerged from their travel into a much lower though much smaller height area. The ceiling here was barely above 6ft above their heads, though it was quite wide nearly 80 yards by 40 yards almost from floor to ceiling were engrained deposits of dilthium and lithium ore! The quality was rough but acceptable, not quite Starfleet grade quality that they would want on their ships but for lower warp cores like those in use by Earth’s merchant fleets these would be more then sufficient. The ore was pretty deep down though it would require quite a bit of work to get a mining operation setup this deep and processors back up on the surface. They would also need to prospect for more deposits to make sure this wasnt just some tiny one off fluke.

Of course they should also probably get back to the surface with samples not to mention check in with the other team given they had found it seems local natives elsewhere on the planet.

GM CockRoach