Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) in Into the Volian’s den (Science and Security team. All reply here to merge threads)

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 Dagen Thor (CE) in Into the Volian’s den (Science and Security team. All reply here to merge threads)
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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

If by passing by one of the holes he peered into, if any of the gel like substance happened to touch Dagen’s skin, or anyone else’s, they would feel their skin go instantly numb. It would remind one of an analgesic to take away pain on contact and create the sensation of one’s limb going to sleep.

There was that gel inside that made it just look goopy and ikk inside. Dagen satisfied himself with rapping at the outside. He rather remembered a caution that his mother - no, Thrace’s mother, Thor’s second host, saying to not put his fingers where they shouldn’t go. Not that that hindered Thrace, though Dagen was not compelled to touch. He wasn’t sure Thrace would have either. Granted Thrace never was off Trill. He’d likely never be caught dead in what looked like rodent catacombs anyway.

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.

The substance was extremely strong reminding one of concrete but the gel like substance had the viscosity of oil. It was extremely slippery if rubbed between one’s fingers. It also had a numbing effect. If it got on one’s skin it would create the sensation of one’s limb falling asleep.

“”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

Reia couldn’t help but smile when she saw what degen was doing. There had been many technical taps along the way in their marriage. Mostly, devices in their quarters that had misbehaved would be met with the solid thwack, desired behavior achieved.

“I’m not hearing anything either. That could mean one of two things in my opinion. Either, there is nothing to hear and I really don’t believe that. The other thing, which I believe is more likely, is that we’d better really be preparing for something terrible.”

• Reia, CIO/Comms

Dagen looked behind and ahead. “Anyone getting anything?” he asked. His wasn’t the only device that they had. The corridor was faintly claustrophobic what with the alien ‘architecture’ if one could call it that. It looked like some kind of either pod for larvae or their habitation den. Either way it seemed nobody was home. Maybe we should have brought a pie along. Mother always said bringing a pie or cookies helped out the ‘meet the neighbors’. Perhaps he should put that into a suggestion for first contact scenarios. After a quick scan replicate a batch of good old fashioned cookies.
- Dagen, CE

Tom looked back over his shoulder.

“We might be the pie or cookies. Anyone consider that the Volians might still be out foraging and might be coming back soon to find us, strangers, standing in the middle of their home?” Tom asked sounding a little nervous.

• Tom, IntSec

Dagen lifted a brow at that and turned to Tom. “I’m probably a cookie. A bit too crunchy I think for a pie. It’s being too nutty. Comes with being an engineer.” The thought of being either did not sit well with him. He had, on away missions, rather relied on an escape clause like the transporter but that was not available for them what with the mineral in the ground preventing it. No technological bolt hole this time. He checked his scanner ahead for life signs that were not Volian.

Reia always thought of herself as a slightly above average woman on the bravery scale, if such a scale existed, but this mission was definitely trying her patience on that front. She looked around again and did another scan with her instruments. Cookies, pie, no thank you. She didn’t want to be either one.

“Well, my introductory chemistry teacher did once call me a tart. I don’t think that’s what he had in mind though.”

• Reia, CIO/Comms

Thomas suppressed a snicker at the comment.

“What flavor I wonder .. ” Dagen murmured so that she could hear and, when she looked, gave Reia a wink.
- Dagen, CE

Reia merely gave Dagen a look and licked her lips. He knew damn well the flavor was mango.

During the pause in the banter, a small moaning like sound could be hear. It was not a moan of pain but more of someone waking up from a sleep. The sound was about 30 meter ahead of the group.

GM Kate

“Ah crap,” Thomas muttered, hopefully quiet enough to not be picked up on comms.

“Hopefully they didn’t leave behind a guard to deal with that.”

COS

Dagen stopped short at hearing that sound. It sounded strangely like his father rising from an after work nap. But echoey and far away. That was some ‘waking’ as he consulted his scanner and got nothing inside of 25 meters. “Somebody’s not quiet,” he murmured.
- Dagen, CE

Tom began a tactical advance towards the sound. He hoped that none of the cloaked guards were in his line of movement or fire.

• Tom, IntSec

Reia heard the noise and begin doing something similar to what Tom was doing. Security came in many forms and she was one of them. She had wondered if something like this was going to be happening sooner or later. What had happened to everybody these creatures had taken? They were somewhere, here was as good a place as any.

• Reia, CIO/Comms

Thomas reluctantly advanced along with Tom and Reia, unable to suppress the bad feeling he had about this.

COS