Posted by Lieutenant Maximilien Mullins (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim - Landing party - Grove Of Trees

Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Landing party - Grove Of Trees
[snip]

A light soft buzz in everyone’s ear came in then =/\= Merrimack to away team, comms check =/\= came an NE’s voice

=/\= Comms working! We’ve arrived in the correct location. =/\= Glen confirmed, without giving away the thick grove of trees or the the village, just in case.

“Do we need to break up into two groups to travel?” Glen queried as he had heard someone raise the question earlier. “I don’t believe so, there are only five of us, we could easily be a family group or a work party. We just need to get our stories straight. Anyway, the village is that way!”

*Five too many * Hunter thought but said nothing ,instead took a deep breath ‘’Ah to finally breath in some fresh air ‘’ he commented.

“NE Science bod, any traces in the air composition that are unusual?” Glen asked as he made the first step to began the trek to the village.

‘’I agree with the Captain ,we would be safer if we stayed together’’ Sharp commented. He felt the need to be important on his first ever mission.

‘’Well Captain shall we start moving before it gets dark?’’ Hunter asked , thinking they won’t achieve anything by standing still.

NE Lécuyer was ready to follow the team. She was curious about what the village would look like. She wanted to badly get her tricorder out and do some scanning but knew it might give away the fact the team was not from the planet. She just keep her eyes and ears open to see if they heard or saw anything as the team was making their way to the village.

Since Glen has already started walking he didn’t wait for the doctor to catch up, or the engineer. It was several miles to the village, which, unless there was some obstruction should easily be walked in under and hour. The daylight ought to hold for that long at least.

Now he’s off ! Hunter started to wonder if what happened to the CO in the past had impacted him in same way ,he was tempted to take the medical tricoder from underneath his shirt but then decided not to. By now he had reached Glen and was walking next to him ‘’Captain when we are asked who we are ,what shall our response be?’’ the doctor asked out of concern.

“Doctor, I thought that you, at least, would have learnt your script with your false cover ID?” Glen replied. “We disguise our strangeness as itinerant workers looking for employment, from a remote and isolated mountain village within another region. We are simple rural hermit folk who have never been to the city before. Your cover ID is that of a travel nurse who goes from town to towns offering simpler medical treatment in exchange normally for tips, basic supplies and/or rides to your next chosen town.”

“Doctor, I thought that you, at least, would have learnt your script with your false cover ID?” Glen replied.

‘’Of course I know that much ‘’ Hunter replied back .

“We disguise our strangeness as itinerant workers looking for employment, from a remote and isolated mountain village within another region. We are simple rural hermit folk who have never been to the city before’‘.

’’ Thanks Captain that was what I needed to know ..just to make sure we’ ll say the same thing if asked, especially if we end up being separated’‘.

The security who was behind them heard the conversation and became quite agitated, as he either had forgotten or was not told what he was suppose to be .Not wanting to look foolish he decided to stay quiet ....maybe he’ll come up with something along the way .

“Well, we may need to elaborate a little on these stories, so it was a good question,” Glen added. “None of us have any family, either due to not starting one, them passing away, or being estranged and out of contact for some time, but you’ll have to make up your own names there. We should probably decide on the same name for our village. And if you have a partner, then you really need to get that story straight. Sharp, your cover ID is as a hunting partner with me, you also deal as a security consultant in your spare time. We should decide how long we’ve worked together, how we met, the last animal we caught together. You should all work on things like that before we are asked, but the safest thing to do will be to say little and give yes or no answers. The smaller the tangled web we weave, the easier it will be to escape it!”

“NE Science bod, you weren’t given a cover ID for some reason, or any money, so I suggest you are a tinker who travels from place to place mending broken equipment.”

Richard was elated on hearing he’ll be with the Captain but Hunter still had his reservations ,feelings of doubt about the outcome and consequences .He took Glen aside ‘’Captain I sill think it would be better if we don’t stay as a group and the reasons are many ,first we will attract more unwanted attention , second its going to be harder for us to answer questions and be on the same line ‘’ the doctor gave a quick glance at the now not so far away city ‘’ How did we happen to meet? At a cross road? Sharp and yourselves together won’t be much of a problem but me ? A nurse? and what about the others in the group? I don’t think these people have a low I.Q and some will pick us up as strangers in a blink of an eye . Let me as a nurse go by myself ,what ever information we gather and is relevant we still can contact each other ‘’.

He ran his fingers through his long hair ‘’ We have our ID to cover each and everyone of us but don’t let us be seen together .Giving a yes or no answer won’t get us far considering we came down to find out what is going on and that would in my opinion be easier to ask relevant question without giving them space to think something is off .....oh and by the way do you know what kind of wild animals are around, the same as those on Earth ? See Sir how easy it is to get caught in a lie with just one simple word ‘’.

“We are travelling together now for our safety; for protection from rogues, and from those wild animals, whatever they may look like,” Glen replied. “Once we get to the city, I agree with you that it will look odd if all five of us follow each other around everywhere, but that really isn’t necessary. One of us can find a room. We can use that as a base. I have no problem with you or anyone going off to investigate separately, but let us at least pair up, so each has one person keeping an eye out for trouble, and looking out for the other. If something were to happen to you; some accident, or if you got carted off by armed guards, then we’d need to follow, and to know where you have been taken, otherwise a rescue isn’t possible. Remember, you do have a pistol, and an emergency beam out is an option too.”

Hunter nodded ‘’Acknowledged Captain’’ .

“Like you,” Glen agreed, “I am a little concerned that we may give away our extra-planetary origins by making some basic errors about this planet. I’m hoping that the townsfolk know so little about isolated rural hermit folk, and vice versa, that we can get away with any such minor slips. Also, these people have all come from the Federation originally, so any comparisons made with Earth, or with other Federation planets, wouldn’t be too out of place. It might raise an eyebrow or two, but I’m sure we will get by… Do you have any other concerns? …because now is the time to raise them, and I don’t want us to be caught out any more than you do!”

Hunter folded his arms ,waiting for maybe the others had any questions they wanted to ask …as for him he was ready.

“Come,” Glen said, “Let’s continue walking towards the mountain village while we talk. It shouldn’t be very much further now.” Glen lead the way but listened to the concerns and the ideas of his crew as he walked.

Hunter was just a few steps away from Glen, he saw that they were not that far from the city now ‘’Hope there’s a sign with the city’s name on it’’ he said more to himself then to anyone else.

“From the ship’s scans we saw earlier, I think the next buildings we’ll come to are just a small village, but there are roads from there that we can take to much bigger places, and the city,” Glen said. “It will be better for us if we find a smaller place first. If you are really concerned we can enter a few at a time, rather than all five of us together. At least any village sign should be in a script and language we understand; I think they’ll speak Federation standard.”

The male doctor could not help but smile ‘’ I think you mean they speak English cause if its Federation standard we’ll blow the whole mission up ‘’ coming across a small stone Hunter hit it with his foot sending it significantly far ‘’Haven’t done that for quite awhile ,say I hope there is a pharmacy cause what use is a doctor empty handed ‘’ he rambled on while for some reason everyone else stood completely quiet .

“Well, it might be a little closer to English than Standard Tongue,” Glen replied, “because some have been isolated from the Federation for quite a while, but we were quite able to understand Michael Duck without the UT. It’s the use of the UT that might ‘blow the whole mission up’ because even in a small isolated village we should be able to understand them without it. But, what I meant was that it won’t be in Vulcan, or Andorian, or in Klingon. These are humans with a distant Earth origin.”

Hunter rolled his eyes he knew they spoke English ,what he meant was not ‘Federation standard’. He did wonder how long it would take before the people realize who they actually where .

NE Beaker shouldered his travel bag, “It’s NE Beaker sir,” he said to the captain, he gave a somewhat large sigh, “Lt Malone said he sent someone with my money and story but I guess they went to the wrong transporter room.”

“Yes, sorry I forgot your name,” Glen replied. “Lt. Malone speaks very highly of you.”

Beaker put his hand in his bag lifting the flap slightly to read the screen as he checked the air composition, “I’m scanning now sir, but at a guess it’s a fairly good balance of oxygen and nitrogen.” his tone was rather annoyed, he was out of his nice safe lab, at first the outing had seemed great but now he was out in the outside, he remembered why he enjoyed living on an environmentally controlled spaceship.

“Are they any contaminates?” Glen asked. “Any pollution from fossil fuel burning, such as sulphur dioxide, or any radioactivity?”

OOC: You can reply however you like as I don’t have Sim notes to go on and it makes no difference - Dave

‘’Sir if there is a high concentration of sulfur we’ll be having a burning sensation in our eyes and nostrils and high concentration of radioactivity , the first symptoms would be nausea and throwing up ‘’.

“I’ve been to many planets where they burned fossil fuels or they split atoms of radioactive isotopes apart for heating and cooking and in industry, and I can assure you, Doctor, that their populations don’t immediately fall down sick. They certainly don’t create a healthy environment or promote well-being, but in low concentrations of air pollution the population will survive with only coughs, allergies and asthma, and an increased chance of developing a cancer. Depending on which way the wind blows, they may export all their pollution to another part of the planet. I’m just trying to see whether their industries have closed down or not, since their comms have stopped, and their mining outposts are closed. If their factories have also stopped using energy, that could mean that their whole economy has collapsed, and I think we would agree that such a situation must have some larger reason than simply seeing some lights in the sky.”

At this point they reached the outskirts of the first small village. There were only a few buildings at first; small dwellings of stone built on pillars to keep them from the damp ground. They looked to be abandoned but undamaged, as if the people had left in a great hurry.

‘’Captain I know all that what I said was if the radioactive was in high concentration’’ Hunter replied while eyeing the abandoned house .

Glen said, “Lt. Sharp, take NE Beaker with you and please investigate this house. See if they left a note as to why they left, or anything else that may be of interest.”

‘’Yes Sir’’ replied the security rather enthusiastically, he took out his pistol and slowly and quietly looked around going from one empty room to another while searching for any note left by whoever inhabited the house .

Flickering electric lights were still left on inside the house, and there was a sink in the kitchen still overflowing because a tap had been left dripping. Some kind of rodent scattered when the kitchen was entered. The dinning table was set for dinner, but food that had been left on the plates and in serving dishes was covered in small animal footprints and had been gnawed at. Upstairs, the beds were made, with bookmarked books at the bedsides, but there was a flying insect nest in one bedroom which made it inaccessible. The whole scene looked like the residents had left without warning in a great hurry. No notes would be found anywhere inside the house to explain why the occupants had left. In a kind of office, there was a ledger book describing supplies bought and payments made with dated entries. The last date was months ago, from around the time of the meteor strikes. Farm animals had once been kept in a fenced and gated area at the back of the house, but the fences were down and they had escaped. There was one dead sheep in the yard which was thin and starved.

Richard came out ‘’No humans dead or alive present Captain,it seems like they vanished into thin air ‘’.

Richard Sharp sec.

The Captain took out his communicator and spoke to the Merrimack.

=/\= Bridge here. Kahuna speaking. Captain, we’ve been following your movements and monitoring the comms from your lapel pins. You should also be aware that the meteorite appears to be some kind of unmanned spacecraft. We have no records that match a spacecraft of this type; it isn’t metallic, but Guy Fleegman and Miriam Cross think it looks like something they saw once before. Probes sent by the shuttle were downed and it just powered up and scanned the shuttle. Lt. Mullins is getting the shuttlecraft out of there. I’m getting Michael Duck back up here to see if he knows anymore, but I believe he was uncooperative earlier. I don’t think it is safe to send him home any longer. =/\=

=/\= Glen here. I agree with you. I think I know the ship they mean. It was never determined where it came from or who they were, but it was dangerous and well armed. Mullins is correct to pull out. Tell him to return to the Merrimack. We have found this village to be abandoned. I just want to dig around a little more, but if this is the same planet-wide, then we don’t have the manpower to deal with this, whatever this is. I had a suspicion right from the off, that this wasn’t something a single ship could deal with. Glen out. =/\=

• Glen, CO

NE Lécuyer listened to the message from the captain and was worried for her CE and being on that shuttlecraft. She looked over at the captain and said, “I hope everything is alright with the shuttlecraft. That sounds very dangerous, especially being so deep underwater.” She just hoped everyone was alright. But it sounded like the meteor and what was underwater which the shuttlecraft team found might be related.

Lt. Mullins
Chief Engineer