Get 'em home!

Posted on Wed May 8th, 2024 @ 4:11am by Lieutenant Betaras K'ner
Edited on on Wed May 8th, 2024 @ 1:51pm

Mission: Flux
Location: USS Chuck Norris
Timeline: Current

{ Orbit ]

The team listened as Tela gave them the update.

K'ner acknowledged. "Really? Kronnelti twisted one out on that one. Hope he didn't just blow up his custom shuttle. Meanwhile, let's go get our people out since we're already this close. Guess it's fortunate we didn't make it back to the ship yet."

Taz pushed the nose back around into the atmosphere and dove sharply. K'ner held her tongue but cinched up her restraints. Roadie maneuvered to keep up as they navigated towards the cave where the crew was last located.

Landing nearby they surveyed the area then hopped out and sealed the shuttles. They were expecting a Gorn ambush, using the crew in the cave as bait, but seems they may have interests elsewhere when nothing jumped out of the bush.

They got a look at the debris strewn across where the cave opening should be.

"Looks like it was blown from inside, not outside," Roadie said, examining the rockfall.

K'ner agreed. "Can you loosen this up?"

Roadie laughed, "I'm heavy weapons chief, you're the EOD expert on this team."

K'ner waved him off to hold perimeter with Taz while she analyzed it again, then placed some charges to shift the rocks.

Stepping off she brought them out a little farther away. "This should be rather anticlimactic but let's play it safe while we can."

The thump was, as expected, rather uneventful, but the rocks had shifted, loosening up and settled lower. They climbed nearer the top, intending to clear the loose stones to clear an opening. With their suits, this didn't take long.

The shift in dust in the wind tipped them off when they'd opened an air channel, then cleared off a few more to get through.

"Keep clearing Roadie. Taz, stay frosty and don't let anything crawl up his perimeter."

They nodded and kept working as K'ner slid into the cave, flipping up her vision view instead of flashing a light. Panning around she could see a little collateral damage but otherwise intact. The locals would've chosen a solid substrata to house all this machinery to manipulate their time shift. She somberly noted evidence of fighting, four Gorn bodies, blood trails... an absence of our crewmen.

She slowly worked her way further in until she came to the equipment room, buttons and dials and displays glowing in the dark. Movement registered in one spot along a wall, then another just beyond. She kept on her line, just monitoring, hoping to draw out whatever it was. If it was Gorn, it was going down, if it was crew, she would get them out.

A few tense moments later a comm badge pinged on the movement dots on her HUD and she flared out a dim light so they could see her. The two dots moved forward into her light, revealing Charles and Kipper from the regular security team.

"Well, well. Nice to see someone we know, and not trying to kill us." Kipper intoned, clearly tired and anxious.

K'ner wasn't taking too many chances since they were short-handed and kept her suit sealed for now. She voiced through her suit. "Where's the rest of the team?"

Kipper looked over at Charles.

"Two are down with injuries, the rest... The Gorn came out of nowhere, we knocked back two waves, then retreated and closed off the mouth of the cave. There was one trapped in here with us, it took out another and injured two before we neutralized the threat."

They led her back where they'd arranged some cargo crates and loose equipment as a defensive barrier to funnel any Gorn into a narrow corridor of death. K'ner quickly assessed the injured, rendering her version of advanced first aid and then examined the remaining, finding one was Neborian that was in hibernation mode that she could trigger out of it once some healing was done, reducing the deceased count by one.

"Let's get you out of here and onto the shuttles. The 'Norris was mopping up the Gorn ships above, so we'll meet them in the middle and get all of you into the sickbay stat."

The transfer didn't take long with the wider opening created while K'ner had been treating patients. Taz reported no movements in the area, not even wildlife, so the Gorn had scampered off, leaving this as an abandoned cause. Once they'd loaded up on the shuttles they departed promptly, updating Tela once they were in the air to coordinate meeting back up and having the medical team ready to go.

Roadie remained behind at the shuttles once they'd landed safely inside, and the injured taken to sickbay, until K'ner had assembled the squads back to properly remove the bodies and prepare them for their final service.

It had been a long day, time travel included, but they were glad to have it end. The Haz Team were tensely jovial in the barracks, celebrating life and sharing stories of the members now gone. K'ner sent out her reports to Lt Kronnelti and command, and soon joined them, letting the somber tiredness go and tipping a few to friends both here and not before they hit the rack to prepare for another day.


OFF:

Lt Betaras K'ner
Hazard Team Medic TL-B / Acting CMO
USS Chuck Norris