JP: Lt. JP: Lt. Kel & Ens. Herrick & 3rd Lead Frolotdesh & Wayfinder Boggarsh: The beast with wings!
Mark P
((Central Power Nexus - Primary Control Tunnel, Central Tholus - Esh-o Colony))
This was the fun part of Boggarsh’s job — made even more interesting by these weird people. Most new miners got lost several times in their first month, and even some more tenured ones like Engish-on-desh still relied on wayfinders.
He saw the aliens whip out their scanning technology as they traversed through the tunnels. A smart idea; scanning equipment wasn’t cheap – especially for the colony so it was a lot of verbal communications and watching maps in the Primary Control Tunnels.
Finally, after several twists and turns, they arrived at another large set of double doors. He reached out and activated the panel, it chimed with a successful scan of his DNA — a safeguard the Zet installed for a price. As the doors groaned and scraped open… something felt off. The illumination was substantially lower than normal and it was too quiet. He reached his arms out to prevent any of the aliens going in.
Boggarsh: What does Aphris have in store for us? This is very strange indeed.
Corelli: Trouble?
Richards: Response
V’Len looked around the room. It seemed earlily still, only a quiet “thrumming” could be heard. The lights seemed eerily half lit.
Boggarsh: There are usually 5-6 people in this room all the time; to keep the power levels stable. But, I don’t see anyone here.
Herrick: (quietly) Lieutenant Kammus, look… ::handing over his tricorder::
Corelli: (whispering) monsters… ::touching Kel and Richards on the shoulder:: Weapons ready, slowly.
Kel: ::whispering:: What!
V’Len had not grabbed a phaser, but he grabbed his hypospray and silently dialed in a large dose of sedative.
Boggarsh’s already large eyes bulged even further as fear quickened his heart rate and pumped blood all over his bodies. Wayfinder did not mean monster hunter, and Frolotdesh said nothing about protecting these people, just guiding them.
Boggarsh: (shakily) Can you… handle them?
Kel: Oh yeah sure.
Herrick: (slightly confident) Starfleet to the rescue.
The bald one must have intuitively determined that the lone Esh-o that accompanied them was more flight than fight, because he stepped ahead. He was unsure that even the Zet had the same level of courage as this man.
Corelli: (yelling) You! Show yourself!
Then the monster appeared, and all the rumors came true. Everything the minors had said was true. It was huge, larger than the Zet and with wings. It was wrecking havoc on the Nexus, smashing into power conduits and shrieking. Boggarsh covered his auditory receptors to block some of the dizzying sound. And then they were soaked in black.
V’Len nearly fell backwards until he smacked against the wall. He brought the hypo up in front of him but the creature passed by so quickly V’Len could not make it out at all. A moment later the room seemed to be empty again.
Boggarsh: AhhhhHHHHHhHHH! Where is it now?
Herrick: ::pointing up at the ceiling:: Look over there!
He was unsure if anyone actually saw where he was pointing, given how poorly illuminated the cavern was but he still made the effort.
Corelli: Boggarsh, quickly, have your people place the charges now. We will deal with this creature.
Kel: ::looking at Corelli:: We will?
Boggarsh, with his limited night vision, saw the Starfleet leader run off but he wasn’t running away. More mindbogglingly, it was more like he was running toward the creature.
Boggarsh: (yelling out into the darkness) I will need some help, my guess is that you need to put the explosives at 2 ends in order for the bit of the asteroid to break off and we’ll need to find people to place them at the right points.
Corelli: Ah, that’s more than I thought.
Kel: So we need to spread out and find some additional miners? Is that the next step? How many do we need?
Boggarsh: Maybe 20.
The Esh-o knew that he should be going and distributing the devices, but he was paralyzed by fear. What would stop him from getting attacked if the creature realized that he was an easy target. His feet wouldn’t move.
V’Len hurried over to the Boggarsh who seemed to be paralyzed.
Kel: Hey are you ok?
Boggarsh: It’s just… I just…
The lone Esh-o was scared out of his mind at the prospect of this new enemy, and a moment later the creature was back and V’Len found himself tossed to the floor.
Herrick continued to look through the darkness, unable to determine where it was and what the best vector of attack could be. He and Kammus stood on opposite sides of the room, waiting for an opportunity.
Corelli: If you can subdue the creature, if not we’ll have to deal with it.
Josh wasn’t sure exactly how they would subdue or ‘deal’ with the creature. It dove at him and Anton, and they tried to wrangle it down but it quickly freed themselves out of their grasp and tossed them towards Corelli. Apparently that didn’t work, as instead of backing off, the creature swooped in again closer to the group.
Kammus picked up a long metal pole, and kicked the power switch attached to the wire coming out of the pole. Instantly the end of the pole erupted in a shower of sparks and fire, splitting the darkness of the room, and bathing him in a golden white light.
Corelli: Lets try to drive it out of this chamber! ::to himself:: wow that’s hot….
Slowly Kammus moved around towards the back of the power core, lighting his way with the flaming lance. The ‘not-Zet’ made that same unbearable screeching noise as it dove towards the brave one and flanked away at the last send when it saw his newly fashioned weapon.
Boggarsh: What is it doing down here? You should kill it. It’s been killing us.
V’Len could not see exactly what was happening, but he crouched near the edge of the room and pulled out his tricorder. He hoped he could figure out what this creature was and perhaps a way to calm it down.
Herrick: Boggarsh, we don’t even know why it’s down here or what it’s intent is. It might be just as scared as we are and just lashing out. I need you to take some deep breaths — it’s not us versus them.
Boggarsh looked at the Starfleet officers incredulously, it was probably responsible for the deaths of his friends down here in the deep and now they were trying to make sure it was not going to harm them?! But, still paralyzed by fear, he wouldn’t be able to influence the outcome.
Corelli: Flank!
Giving up on the leader, the creature set its sights on the remaining folks in the Nexus. Kammus’ light made the outline of the creature visible, and even more horrifying. It looked like it was going to dive right into them.
As the beam of light connected with the creature, it made one final screech that waned over several seconds. It lay a heap in the floor in front of the four of them.
Herrick: You got it! Way to go Chief!
V’Len was kneeling next to the creature in an instant and had his tricorder out. The life signs he was getting were erratic and at the moment the tricorder could not place the species. V’Len could see now why the miners had suspected the Zet.
This creature too was insectoid in nature and resembled a grasshopper. It had broad wings sticking out of it’s back. The creature had four “arms” and two very powerful legs that were no doubt evolved to provide speed and kicking strength. Around its abdomen it seemed to be wearing a kind of boxy metallic armor. It had a large oval thorax which tapered to something that could have been a stinger, but V’Len was unsure.
Boggarsh: ::trepediatiously nudging it with his foot:: Is it dead?
Kel: ::moving the diagnostic wand over the creature:: Not yet. And it won’t be if I can help it. It sustained fractures to its exoskeleton and it appears to have some internal damage.
Walking back over to the large box, Kammus kicked the control again, and extinguished the flame.
Corelli: Not very resilient. Even if its just stunned, lets get to placing those charges. Shall we split into two teams? Thoughts? Boggarsh?
V’Len collected his medkit and opened it up. He had a mobile regenerator and he began to set it up.
Kel: we’re going to need to figure out how to get him out of here.
Corelli: It won’t fit in the shuttle.
Richards: Response
Kammus shifted his weight, and rested his fists on his hips. They could transport the creature onto a support ship large enough, or try to get it out themselves.
Herrick: How did it get down here?
Boggarsh: There are tunnels all over the place; ones that lead right up to the domes and others that lead to the surface of the asteroid. We wouldn’t be able to tell how it came in. Just that it’s here now.
Richards: Response
Herrick tried tugging at one side, but the creature was significantly heavier than it looked.
Herrick: Sirs, I’m worried that if we take time now to move it, we’ll lose time to save the 10,000 folks on this rock. We might need to prioritize.
Kel: I’m sorry gentlemen, I can't leave it to die. I’ll set up the regeneration field and give him a sedative until we return, but I won’t just leave him in a mine we’re going to blow up.
Richards: Response
Corelli: Very well Doctor, we will find a way. I see a few possibilities.
V’Len finished setting up the regeneration field and gave the alien a large dose of the strongest sedative he had. He also placed a cortical monitor on the alien's head so that he could monitor the creature’s condition from his tricorder remotely.
Kel: O.k. Let’s go.
After a time, all the charges had been set, and the group gathered back around the creature in the central power nexus. Hopefully they could convince the extra miners to carry the being to the surface. Perhaps they had a way? Was there something that could contain the giant beast long enough to get it somewhere safe? Nothing Kammus thought of was kind. He was an engineer, not a zookeeper.
----
Lieutenant V’Len Kel
Chief Medical Officer
USS Oumuamua NCC-81226
T239811VK2
He/Him (character and player)
&
LT. Kammus Corelli
Chief Engineer
USS 'Oumuamua
T239807KC3
&
Ensign Josh Herrick
Engineering Officer
USS ‘Oumuamua
O240005JH3
he/him/his (player/character)
&
Boggarsh
Wayfinder
Central Tholus Mining Detail