Ensign Artinus Serinus - Escalation

[Joseph George]

((The Forum, Town Center, Safe Harbor))

 

 ch'Ranni: Captain, that's the last of them. The shuttle isn't picking up any lifesigns in town except for those gathered here. I think we are ready to move out.

Whittaker: ?

Reidella: Very well, captain. We should- ::stopping to yelll at an elderly Sopressian man:: Get on that shuttle, Kelirac! You are not making that trip on foot on your own.

Any: ?

Reidella: :: ~ Everyone! We are going to take a trip to the Red Rock Caves. Let’s get to the front gate and make an orderly line, please. ~

ch'Ranni - oO I don't think I'll ever get used to that. Oo

Stendhal: ::Karen was helping Reidella to organize and to order the line to go out. She said smiling.::

Follow us to the front gate, please. 

Whittaker:

Serinus: ::nodded, following along.::

Reidella: We need a strategy. ::looking up at the skies where the invasion would come from.:: I fear that we might be easily spotted visually if the enemy lands. This large group isn’t exactly subtle.

Sqeour: I concur.

ch'Ranni: What we need - ::looking at Serinus:: - is some sort of camouflage. 

Stendhal: ::Karen looked at Ch’Ranni.:: Yeah that’s a good idea, a camouflage. Can we, anybody… Err… Paint everything Icy white?.  

Whittaker: ?

Serinus: That's a great idea. Also we need to post armed personnel on the front, middle, and back. One on the.left, and one on the right, on high alert, at all times.

Reidella: How low can your shuttle safely fly, Lieutenant ch’Ranni?

ch’Ranni: ::giving it a moment's thought:: If I engage autopilot and let it track my signal ... probably 5 meters above the ground.  ::pause:: Why?

 

Sqeour: On your signal.

Reidella: We have cover now. Let’s move!

ch'Ranni: ::ruefully:: oO Guess I'm glad we're on their side. Oo

 

Stendhal: Wow! That’s a camouflage! ::She said impressed.::

Whittaker: ?

Serinus: That's amazing.

 

 

((Timeskip))

((Near the Red Rock Caves, Safe Harbor))

 ::For the last couple of hours, Artinus had put himself into something of a purposefully induced paranoia. Hyperaware as he was, the cold was nearly unbearable.::

::A primal scream echoed through the still air and reverberated through the rocky canyons ahead making Jona jump in place. Without evidence of the source, people turned around in confusion.::

 

 

::When she heard the primal scream Karen turned around a bit scared and a bit surprised.::

 

ch'Ranni: ::quietly:: What was that?

 

Stendhal: Well it wasn’t me! ::She answered.:: You don’t have any wild dangerous animal here, don’t you? Bigfoots? Mountain lions? Klingons wild hogs? Lawyers? 

Serinus: ::whilst many heard  the echoes ahead, he knew the source was behind them, for he had heard the original scream.:: Security, rear! ::He called out as he sprinted to the back of the formation.:: Usually one for formality on duty, potential combat was another deal altogether, so as he passed the drag marks at the back of the formation, his next shouted sentence was a rushed:: Jona, shuttle, phase scans!:: He blew past the barrier, and there he saw it, just as it's victim let out another ear piercing scream.::

::It was a great cat, looking much like a sleek, black Panther, with an ivy colored stringer on it's tail. It was crouched atop an elderly man with bright orange skin, foreclaws in his chest, it's maw quickly closing in on the man's head.::

::Ensign Serinus' first instinct was to reach for his phaser, but remembered that it was still on the shuttle. So instead, he ran at, and kicked the cat's jaw, seconds before it would have made contact with the elder's face. The beast turned it's head toward the interloper, and while shifting to pounce him, it whipped it tail stinger towards him. The Magna Roman narrowly dodged it, before the predator itself was flung into the air by physic power from the arriving Altered security team. It hovered 20 feet above them, and began to repeatedly  sting itself with it's own tail. Artinus was fascinated, and distributed, as the majestic hunter writhed in brutal agony, swimming in the air, as it died.:

::The cat expired, and was lowered to the ground. Artinus glanced at it again. On it's neck was a collar, with a light glowing red on it.::

::Artinus knelt down to observe it, while the Altered tended to their elder. The collar was black, an onyx colored metal. Satisfied that he could learn little more, for now, he began to stand from his crouch.::

::The disruptor beam came millimeters from his face, before richocheting off the shield placed by one of his new friends.:: Everyone, down! ::He shouted as he dropped prone. Looking to the ridge on the right of the main group, where the rifle had been fired from, two more of the predatory felines in collars rushed down, as a line of disruptor rifles fired from behind them.:: Drop the cats, light up the ridge, I'm flanking left! On my signal. ::He told them, before low crawling towards a fallen tree.:: Now! ::As they gunned for the collared hunters, Artinus stood into a crouch, and ran into a copse of trees. Taking cover behind a thick, oak like one, he waited for the suppression fire on the ridge to commence.::

Ensign Artinus Serinus 

Security Officer 

USS Columbia 

NCC 85279 

C239607A