Lt JG Imril - Quest For Fire: The Next Generation
Chris Taylor
((Somewhere Between The Edge of the Forest and the Mouth of the Gorge - Callis I))
Munro: :: resolved :: Let's go!
Silveira looked at his team, then gestured that he would take up the rear.
As Munro stood, she winced.
Jaran: Commander, I saw that. Can you run? Walk?
Munro: It's okay...
Imril didn’t know the Commander well enough to tell how honest her answer was. How much she was underplaying her wound to keep everyone moving. There’d be plenty of time coming up to get better acquainted. Assuming everyone made it through the storm alive.
The team steadily moved forward, toward the yellow rocks. Munro looked back briefly, and her eyes went wide.
Munro: :: awed :: Wow.
Jira turned their head to look, along with Vitor and Imril. The forest was being swallowed by fire, red blooms of burning embers carried from one tree to the next by the wind. The wind, only minutes before an omnidirectional menace, was now blasting purely from its direction. A one-way furnace that was only going to get hotter as the wildfire spread.
Silveira: Damn, looks like we made it just on time.
Jaran: Keenly said.
Imril: We’re not out of it, yet.
The wind seemed to be whipping a little less by now. The rain slightly less urgent. But the storm still raged, and they needed to move. Munro still took advantage of the lessened threat to check in with her team, though.
Munro: How is everyone? :: winces :: Anyone hurt?
Vitor looked at the Commander.
Silveira: Soaking wet, but you don’t look too comfortable Commander.
Jaran: Yeah, we're going to have a look at you first chance we get to rest. But that's going to have to wait. Unless someone's bleeding out right now, we need to go.
Imril: ::Repositioning their gear to get moving:: Not bleeding.
Munro: Response
Silveira scanned the surroundings.
Silveira: We have to find some cover and get ourselves dry.
The Doctor took a look toward the rocks they'd been moving toward.
Jaran: Let's keep heading to those rocks. Maybe we can find one to act as a shelf over us.
Imril: Let’s hope there’s some ground between it and us.
Or something to ground it.
Munro: Response
Vitor kept looking at the forest and pointed.
Silveira: And we must recover some of that fire. Grab a torch or something… And quickly…
Jaran: We need to get the commander to cover so I can make sure she's not in danger. I'm going to keep going with her to the rocks.
With the Doctor looking after Munro, that left two others to pursue burning branches. Preferably, both of them. For no one should go chasing fire alone.
Imril: ::To Silveira:: I’ll go with you, after she’s safe.
Munro: response
Jaran: ::turning their head and speaking loudly:: There! We're headed for that hollow under the right-most rock in that row.
Imril: Got it!
Munro/Silveira: Response
An eternity of struggle followed Four humanoids against a world bent on casting them off of itself. In the course of this journey, Imril saw another stone struck by lightning and shattered into three smaller pieces. Noting that crackles of electricity did not linger on the broken stones. The rock absorbed however much energy as it could and then exploded, the remnants rendered inert.
At last, they reached what did end up being a space under one of the yellow rock formations, just large enough to fit a few bedraggled Starfleet officers and their scant equipment.
Yet another flash of lighting lit up the hole they’d all just come through. The sound of falling stones accompanied the next roll of thunder.
Imril set their their pack down against what would have to count as the far wall. They would have liked to rested, or best as they could with soaked clothes and chilled bones. But, no. The team needed to capture some of the fire. And the sooner the better. For once the storm abated, the return of thin air would strangle the flames of oxygen.
Jaran: Ok, catch your breath and have a seat. Commander, I'm wasting no time. Let's take a look at whatever it was that made you wince.
Imril went through the packs to find something to cut wood with. A fold-up hatchet would have to do until a better inventory could be made. Then they pulled up as much of their left sleeve as they could cover their hand.
Imril: ::To Silveira:: I recommend finding something to cover your mouth and nose before heading back out there. We don't know what’s in the ash or smoke.
An engineer knew well enough to worry when an unknown material was burning.
Munro/Silveira: Response
Jira took a close look at Ava's side, then up at her face. They prodded tentatively and observed her reactions.
Jira tutted and lowered their eyes.
Jaran: Commander, I have some bad news for you. It appears you're suffering from ecchymosis, caused by a dermal tissue haemotoma. ::pause:: Commander, it's a bruise. I'm sorry it hurts, but... that's kind of what bruises do sometimes. Should I administer last rites?
Imril smirked at the joke, a scant bit of warmth in a cold and unwelcoming place, and looked to the Tactical Officer.
Imril: Ready when you are, Sir.
Munro/Silveira/Jaran: Response
((OOC: Separating tags as Imril will be out of earshot of Munro and Jira. Silveira movement discussed with his writer.))
Back into the storm Imril went. Wet fabric up over their airways. Barely managing to retrace the teams’ steps back to the part of the first the team had come from. Not for lack of sight of the muddied footprints that glowed with each fresh streak of lighting. But for the wind that had other ideas of which way to go, and shivering limbs that were all but out of energy to resist its bullying.
Silveira: Response
Luckily, if luck existed here, their path took them close enough to a precious scrap of fire to see it clearly. Flickers of red and orange dancing a black and twisted staff of black wood. Long enough it might take both of them to move it as a single piece, thin enough to be broken down into two or more pieces and brought back to the others that way.
Imril: ::Uncovering their mouth for a moment:: Over there! A branch got blown clear of the forest!
And with it, not just a branch. But a handful of scattered, oblong orbs about the size of a photon grenade. One of which suddenly vanished in a puff of noise. POOM! The sound was like the shot of an air gun, muffled by the storm but still audible. Imril recalled that there were trees on Earth which produced seedpods that depended on fire to open them. Just in time to hear another little bomb go off.
POOM! Something sizzled into the right side of Imril’s forehead, hot and fast as a paper cut. Leaving a red line of pain behind.
Imril: ::Hiss of pain!::
Silveira: Response
Imril: ::ducking for cover:: I’m fine! How do we get to the branch in one piece?
Imril remembered that the last time they’d run into a round of projectiles and shrapnel, back on Galaris IV, they’d earned a safety lecture from the senior Lieutenant. A message they could ill afford to ignore in favor of charging for the branch and hoping not to get hit in a more vital area.
Silveira: Response
TAG/TBC
----------------------------------------------------
Lieutenant JG Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12