Commander Ava Munro - Never go on a trip exhausted
Ava Munro
((OOC: as always, IC opinions, views and comments are not shared by the writer))
((The Afalqi Project Hangar 1659 - Meranuge IV))
Munro: We need to triangulate the signal :: thinks :: We can use the tricorders to send a tri-vector transponder signal. Cole, if you can send the same signal from over there :: points to the other side of the gantry. Roy, you go down there :: points again :: Set your tricorders to send out the same wide beam resonant signal as me. I do love the classics, good old fashioned echo location.
Cole: Understood. Let’s see what the hangar forgot to erase.
Not one for waiting around, Cole was already on the move. Another thing she noted beyond Cole’s love for metaphorical and affirmative speaking and direct action was she didn't waste much time.
Once both officers were in position, Ava began to send out the signal and looked to the others.
Bancroft: Ready on your mark, Commander.
Munro: Okay, let's see what we can find.
Cole: If they buried the signal, they still had to bury it somewhere.
Language mattered. Ava would have preferred more direct and precise language when about to initiate a procedure, that way they can all work in tandem. It was what they spent years training in the academy for.
Bancroft: Hopefully, in here.
Munro: Let's focus. Calibrate your tricorders to match the resonance I've configured.
Cole: Details matter. Big stories are easy to arrange. It’s the small inconsistencies that forget whose side they’re on.
Ava sighed, and glanced towards the young security officer with a confused look. She was a plain spoken woman, raised by plain speaking folks in a community of generational frontier people. Cole, apparently, preferred more colourful language that was beginning to get on Ava’s last exhausted nerve.
Not the JGs fault, she took a breath and rolled her neck. She was tense, more than usual. Sleepless nights reviewing scans, docking protocols and manifests from Rylor had drained her.
Bancroft: I’m locked, Commander. You getting anything?
Roy’s voice brought her back to the hangar. This wasn't time to let the exhaustion cloud her judgement. She looked at her tricorder.
Munro: The signal is still active, for now. 50 metres, I've slowed down the signal rate to be more precise.
Cole: I’m getting an echo. Weak, buried, and very much not accidental.
Ava frowned. A jammer would have been more likely to halt the signal completely, not send it back to them… unless.
Bancroft: ::hopeful surprise:: Really? Well, that’s the first bit of good news–
Before the thought could fully form in her mind, it was too late. Seconds.
Munro: Stop! Stop the -
The gantry moved, hesitantly at first, like a sleeping monster awaken to bothersome travellers in its lair. And that's what they had done. When they had sent out the transponder signal they had triggered some kind of fail-safe booby trap.
It lumbered towards them, frantic warning alarms began to sound.
Cole: Everybody clear the drop zone!
Ava moved quickly, as a hook from the gantry swung outwards she stepped backwards then one of the gantry arms moved towards her, its alarm screaming.
She performed a classic. Stop. Drop. Roll. She got beyond the safety perimeter.
Munro: Everyone stay out of the safety perimeter watch out for the stabilising cables!
Ava moved quickly to one of the abandoned consoles.
Bancroft: ::shouting over the noise:: Some sort of automation maybe?
Cole: Not unless somebody taught it timing. Back up and watch the mechanism—if this thing is tied to the signal, we need to know what moved first.
Bancroft: Response
Munro: I'm trying to override now.
A cable swung out, she lowered herself.
Cole: Somebody didn’t just steal the Afalqi. They built insurance into the scene.
From above on the platform, she heard Imril.
Imril: [Expletive redacted] ::Shouting to be heard:: The security footage is deleting itself! I’ll explain later! Typing now!
The gantry moved steadier now, metal screeched, drowning out the noise of the alarms. It was heading straight for the platforms.
Munro: Get off the platform!
Imril: That’s an order, Ensign! Move! I’ll be right behind you!
Cole/Bancroft/Tarsan: Response
Even as Ava searched for an override she knew the act was futile, the gantry had gained enough momentum it was going to take out the platform. And it wasn't going to be pretty.
SCKREEEEEEK!!! The union of gantry and platform wasn’t so much a collision as a slice. Mass and inertia made the gantry a knife, the platform its prone victim. Supports buckled, railings tore away, bits of platform scattered to the floor below. The flooring underneath Imri shuddered.
Munro: Lieutenant! Move!
Cole/Bancroft/Tarsan: Response
She stepped away from the console, and screamed again. More primal, the Starfleet officer washed away and was replaced with the woman she was about to watch a colleague, someone she had survived a savage planet with be crushed in front of her.
SHRRRROOOOK!!!
The sound was deafening as the gantry exerted more pressure against the platform that began to crumble. That was when Imril finally moved towards the ladder, which was barely hanging on at this point and the Bactrican, with surprising grace managed to slide down.
The platform collapsed, and tilted oddly. Ava took several steps back.
Munro: Move!
Cole/Bancroft/Tarsan: Response
She turned around and ran backwards as the platform toppled towards the officers. With one final leap (for mankind) she was free. And with a thundering boom the platform fell. The hangar was just about destroyed. Ava stood up and marched towards Imril, a quick scan to make sure they were physically okay.
Munro: :: angry :: What was that?! You could've been killed :: to all of them :: It's not heroic to end up dead, get that fantasy out of your head now. All you get is your name on a list you don't want to be on :: to Imril :: I hope that data was worth it.
It was harsh, she knew it. They all knew it. She took a step backwards, inhaled a breath and looked to the doctor.
Munro: :: harsher than usual :: Roy, check them over.
Ava took several steps away from them, her back turned, she placed her hands on her hips and took several breaths.
Imril/Bancroft/Cole/Tarsan: Response
She looked at the tricorder and removed it from its holster. It was something.
Munro: =/\= Commander Munro to Captain MacKenzie=/\=
MacKenzie: =/\= Response =/\=
Munro: =/\= The hangar’s been destroyed, while we were trying to locate a jamming device we appear to have triggered some kind of booby trap. I think it would be safe to assume that there may be other traps =/\=
MacKenzie/Any: =/\= Response =/\=
Munro: =/\= Everyone seems okay, Roy is checking them over now. I might have the location of the jamming device and :: pauses and looks at Imril :: Lt. Imril retrieved some information from the hangar files =/\=
MacKenzie/Any: =/\= Response =/\=
Munro: =/\= Understood, Captain. Munro out. =/\=
She turned to the room, looked to Roy for some reassurance that they were all okay to continue.
Munro: Let's take a breath :: beat :: Imril, take Cole and head over to the hangar administration building, let them know what's happened here. They'll need to send a crew. Try and find out what might be in those files. Remember the Da'al are not our enemies but someone left that trap.
Imril/Bancroft/Cole/Tarsan: Response
Munro: Tarsan and Bancroft, let's go find that device.
Imril/Bancroft/Cole/Tarsan: Response
((As we have two threads formed I thought it best to keep the teams split and reduce tags and let both ideas play out
Imril and Cole are going to find out what's on the files in the administration building))
((Short Walk Later - Exterior Afalqi Project Complex - Meranuge IV))
((OOC - we can also assume at this point we have phasers))
Arm extended, tricorder beeping and following the location marker, 300 metres from the hangar.
Munro: Not long now. Be cautious.
Bancroft/Tarsan: Response
Tags/TBC
