Posted by Lieutenant Tom Jarvis (Internal Security) in Into the Volian’s den (Science and Security team. All reply here to merge threads)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Thomas McGregor (COS) in Into the Volian’s den (Science and Security team. All reply here to merge threads)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) in Into the Volian’s den (Science and Security team. All reply here to merge threads)
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
Lago’s exited the vehicle and began to pass out lighted helmets to only the security individuals that initially started with him. This would include the COS, and XO. Lighted helmets were not given or even offered to anyone who had initially went to the science facility. Beltran weapons were handed out to everyone that wanted one.

GM Kate

Dagen took the weapon and examined it. It felt bulkier than a standard issue phaser and he took what time he had to figure out the switches and settings. Was there a stun here? Was there a wide angle fire? Glancing he pondered whether they would get a brief on order and first contact provisions. They seemed rather more inclined to say ‘we have been planning this so shut up but come along anyway’. Were they then the guinea pigs? The bait? Go ahead first and see what happens? Okay Dagen was feeling prickly, tired and rather left out while at the same time in the thick of it. At least he recognized it. And he did want people rescued.

He glanced at the tunnel thinking of an old vending machine where a single bit of food came out of the slot ..
- Dagen

Thomas’ bad feeling got worse as the tunnel narrowed. Were the Volians capable of patiently marching in single-file through it and then marshalling into their swarm once it widened?

That would put them an intellectual level above the near-mindless drones they’d been portrayed as by the Beltrans. They might even be reasonable… or in league with the Gorn.

COS

Rhea looked at the tunnel in comparison to her small frame and frowned. That did not look good to her.

• Reia, CIO/Comms

Dagen saw Reia’s frown and guessed she was sizing up the tunnel too. She was a better fit than the others but really she was not going first even with a weapon. Too bad they didn’t have any of those first contact suits wherein they could be cloaked. However the rodents could likely smell them or detect the vibrations of their footsteps? He knelt down .. could he hear anything coming from the other side of the tunnel?

‘Don’t everybody rush in to be the first,’ he thought to himself. They were kitted out as much as they would be he presumed. Standing back up and dusting off his hand by rubbing them together he gave a glance over to Reia and the other ‘fleet’ folks.
- Dagen, CE

Tom took one of the weapons and looked it over.

OOC: GM, Please remove the one that doesn’t fit.

OOC: I can make anything fit. Be as creative as you want. I rolled a dice and it landed on A so we can do that. ~ Kate

IC:
(a) Tom took the weapon. Seeing it was a ballistic projectile weapon system he grabbed a few extra magazines, connected his ‘flashlight’ to the lower tactical rail, and readied himself, walking forward, for a potential fight in the tunnels.

• Tom, IntSec

Reia looked at the weapon and fit it into her small hand. It would probably do but, she would love to find out. Too bad there wasn’t a way she could see what it was made of before she actually had to use it.

• Reia, CIO/Comms

The security teams pulled the cloaks on making them immediately invisible. The only way anyone would notice them was due to the sound like Thor predicted. “We shall go in teams of two with one group taking point and one taking the rear. Anyone not in point and rear sandwich the scientists between you.” Lago’s command was followed by the Beltran officers immediately. The scientist group would have the sense of deja vu was they were surrounded by the cloaked officers. They would “sense” they were there but were unseen visually. Any of the Federation officers that had taken the cloaks when leaving the military instillation could fill in wherever they chose. They could take point, rear, or protect their own officers if they wished.

GM Kate

Alas the ‘rescued’ group had not had such opportunity to have such cloaks. He watched with no small curiosity as to how these worked as they looked different from the usual enviro suit style that the Federation had. He counted silently as they winked out of view though couldn’t help frown as they made noises in movement. Good for sight but not sound. By comparison the Federation comprehensive suits had noise suppressants built into their composition to avoid friction and force field emitters on the boots to smooth out contact with the ground. He was going to be traveling close to Reia and likely somewhere in the middle cluster. He winked at Reia. “Hairy Neanderthals first then fair maidens next,” he said which rather well summarized their physical differences. He imagined that his 5’oclock shadow was getting rather pronounced by now .. and his dress uniform was pretty much dirty anyway so any further crawling about wouldn’t make much difference. “Anyone have a tricorder to loan to keep an eye out for your targets and people?” If nothing else he could carry one of those.
- Dagen, CE

Reia laughed slightly. Harry and neanderthal indeed.

• Reia, CIO/Comms

Thomas took a position behind the initial Beltran groups, but in front of Thor and Reia. “I suspect we won’t need a tricorder to find targets,” he told the CE. “More to the point, I don’t know how those cloaks would interact with the scans.”

COS

“I don’t think we’ll be needing specific numbers of targets. I wonder, do they have queens or alphas or .. what amidst these creatures?” he replied both to Thomas but also generally to the others present who might have an answer.

OOC: The tricorders would show any bio signs beneath them. Think of taking a scan from behind a wall. You would be able to see that they were living sentients and all the info you can get from a tricorder scan. ~ Kate

IC: As they made their way down the tunnel, they would find about fifty feet in the tunnel widened and increased in height. The officers would not have to crawl but could walk upright although the ceiling was only about 6 feet high. Really tall individuals would have to watch their head as they walked but again most could be upright. The walls of the tunnel however were no longer earthen walls of packed mud. Instead, they appeared to be filled with some sort of residue. It was hard and had the appearance of bone. Scanning it with the tricorder would show that it was made of osseous tissue. The tissue was not smooth but had holes spaced consistently every three feet. They would also find the tissue was not solid but had a hollow core under each of the holes. It was as if there were small cocoons of sorts however right now the cocoons were empty. Inside some of the cocoons, there were trace amounts of a gel-like substance.

GM Kate

Standing was better than crawling by any standard but the low ceiling had Dagen self-consciously ducking or with head hunched a bit when his hair brushed along it. He kept his eyes on the monitor and his knuckles rapped along this change with the tunnel walls. It sounded hollow and reminded him of a hard crusty candy .. brittle I think someone had described it as once. But it was bleached like bone and showed a certain order to it. “Looks like something one would see with insects rather than big rats,” he offered. He glanced inside one of the holes as they shuffled by. Looking to Reia he shrugged. He was hardly a biologist. As an engineer he saw order and creativity. While it could be instinctive it could also be more.
Dagen, CE

Reia peeked into one of the holes and made a face. Glancing back at Dagen she shook her head.

“I think I’d like to steer clear horror movies for the next two weeks love. Maybe some good old fashioned nature documentaries? Or even those engineering films you’ve been wanting to show me.”

• Reia, CIO/Comms

“Like the wildest nature trails in the Federation?” Dagen said with a smile, “or do you mean the ‘extra credit’ engineering films,” he added with a wink.

Magnus perked up “I have a great documentary on the life and history of the Canadian Goose I highly recommend” He said in a hushed tone, he was unusually nervous as he was experienced at fighting other sapients, not hordes.

XO

“Or that too,” Dagen said.

Tom tapped the material and used a bullet from one of the extra magazines to scratch at the surface. He was testing the hardness of the material to determine if the material was hard enough for him to bounce shots off of if needed.

“”Makes me wish I had my TR-116 rifle right now.” Tom said to no-one in particular, his voice dead calm.

Tom was hyper focused taking into account the positions of the team members he could see and hear as well as the environment they were in.

• Tom, IntSec

On the upside, he thought, they wouldn’t fit into those pouches, whole anyway. With a small sigh he shuffled along with the others. Right now there was distinctly little to see, making rather more glances to Reia than was necessary. Give him a machine to work on, he thought, even though he did find this scarily exciting. It was like being IN one of those horror movies, running to the climax. Or so he hoped it would be a good one.
- Dagen, CE

“Does anyone else feel like they should be getting a notification about reaching a checkpoint in their HUD?” Thomas asked quietly. “Or hearing any ominous music?”

COS

Tom shook his head.

“I always turn the background music off in my games, it’s too distracting if the soundtrack is good.”

• Tom, IntSec

“That is just it,” Dagen said. “I’m not hearing anything. Nothing like the sound of rushing creatures swarming toward you like we heard in and under the lab.” He checked the calibration on the scanner he was given. It wasn’t one of ‘his’ - his being Fleet issue - but it was up to now coming up with just showing them in the area. He did what all engineers and wanna be engineers had done for centuries when he didn’t think it might be working right - he gave it a couple of taps near the display, the modern version of kicking the back thruster.
- Dagen, Eng