Away Team

Posted on Thu Nov 3rd, 2022 @ 5:42pm by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Chester "Duo" Maxwell & Patin

Mission: Planet of the Dinosaurs
Location: Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Current

Savar looked at the rest of the away team as they assembled in the shuttle bay. They were each outfitted with a phaser and a phaser rifle. Maxwell and he also had tricorders. House had a drone he could control remotely and Patin had a medkit. They all also had water canteens. "Until we know more about our surroundings we will stay together. No wandering off on your own." He stated.

" Kaylen to Away Team. I'm sure I don't have to remind you of what we have riding on this. But please, stay safe" The sound of the Captain's voice echoed around the shuttle bay.

"Understood Captain. We won't let you or the crew down. failure is not an option." Savar replied.

She was the odd one out, which for her was par for the course. She kept her head high and her mouth shut for she was not there to impress any of them. In fact, her main goal was simply not to die and maybe not let the rest of them die either. She had her priorities though and if it came down to her ass or theirs, hers was by far cute. She double-checked, yep way cuter, and besides, she was rather fond of it considering her attachment. Literally attached at the hips.

"Understood, Commander." Dean set the drone controls up to his preferences.

As the away team prepped to leave, Rhenora activated the small screen near her command chair, jerry-rigging the sensors to follow the shuttle as it left what was left of the shuttle bay. Although she wasn't able to help them, at least she could watch them.

Dean gave it a moment before he had the drone flying up and down a little in front of the feed he'd set up. So she could see inside the shuttle and them. Tilting his head back and grinning, "I can see you, Kirk. Can you see me?" Just all kinds of shit-eating grin going on.

"I can see you're smiling like the cat that got both the cheese and the mouse" the Captain replied with the hint of a smile herself. She could see both the shuttle, the team and out the front windscreen of the shuttlecraft. "Now aren't you supposed to be finding us a new temporary home?"

"Maaaybe." he gave a crinched nose toothy grin. "I suppose sorta. Though my hands are still kind of messy. Probably why Savar gave me the drone. That or just wants to see if I can punch a dinosaur in the nose and get it to back off. You know you can do that to a shark and it will. Since neither of us have much to do at the moment, would you do something for me?" Dean asked.

Patin eyed the exchange Dean was having with Rhenora and couldn't help but roll her eyes. This was a situation to take seriously and he was acting like a child with a new toy. "Oy, I'm not gonna have to save your ass because you're too busy playing with yourself am I?" She asked with a straight face.

In the cockpit, Savar listened to the exchange with House and Rhenora and then Patin added her honest opinion to the exchange. For himself, he was silent. Rhenora was married and pregnant and in his own opinion that he kept to himself, House showed a decided lack of respect in talking with Rhenora. But he kept silent. Turning to give those behind him a glance he announced, "Strap in and prepare for liftoff."

Rhenora watched the exchange with bemusement, House could be cheeky and knew that Savar was more than capable of reining him in when required. Patin, however, was sure was going to save somebodies ass at some point, hopefully not hers.

"Why would you need to do that?" Dean shook his head, "Lemmie know how Bonnie and the rest are doing, yeah?" Setting the drone down, though it was still on for them on the Bridge to be able to see. Getting buckled up in his chair.

Duo listened to the silently, a small smile on his lips. He thought it was good that the crew was keeping high spirits in such a dire situation. Morale was linked to success of failure and in this case life and death. He re-checked his restraints and turned his attention back to the co-pilot console he was sitting at.

"Commander, all systems are normal. We can launch when ordered."

"Understood," Savar replied and applied the necessary thrust to lift the shuttle from the deck.

The small craft lifted off the deck at a strange angle and then shifted into a natural up-and-down position before moving forward and out of the hangar bay near the front of the ship. They were immediately surrounded by blueish-green skies above and a jungle terrain below, dotted with vast open meadows and the occasional rocky hill. In the distance mountains and what appeared to be a red sand desert, but it was many kilometers off. They simply need to pick a direction to begin their search pattern.

Once the shuttle was airborne, and far enough away from the Sunfire, Savar turned in his seat and addressed the other members of the away team. "Any preference has to which direction we begin our search for a suitable campsite?"

Patin of course had her opinion. But instead of voicing it, as Nozzie had suggested she mind her tongue, Patin simply offered. "No opinion. At least not until we know what we are dealing with." She wondered why a commander would ask his subordinates instead of giving orders, it just felt backward from what she was used to.

When no one volunteered a direction, Savar gave his, "West, we will go West. Mr. House make sure the drone is ready.''

"It's ready. Now that I think about it, however, Commander," Dean paused. "We should follow migration and hunting patterns. It's obvious we are dealing with at least some type of dinosaurs. There's going to be both of those. Which means also territorial areas as well."

"I concur Mr. House. If the drone can pick up and identify migration and hunting patterns, we will go in that direction." Savar replied, while slowly moving the shuttle above the alien terrain.

Dean nodded, "Just let me know when you're ready for me to deploy, sir." Since they were actually on 'mission' is why his demeanor had changed back to business.

"One moment Mr. House." Savar replied as he moved the shuttle further away from the Sunfire and into the open air. "You may deploy the drone now Mr. House. Please make sure the Sunfire is also receiving the feed."

The shuttle hovered in place and the hatch at the back opened into a platform for Dean to use to launch his toy.

With the drone released, and Dean back in his seat, the hatch closed once more. Only a minute later they started receiving telemetry and lifeform readings, followed by terrain data including migration paths, water sources, and mineral deposits. The onboard computer took in the data and spit out information, both to the shuttle and to the ship.

Duo began running over the data collected from the drone. He wanted to look at the topography data first. He knew from his Starfleet training and years of service that water was the chief concern in a survival situation.

"I'm not reading any artificial structures," he paused "on the surface at least. There are unknown mineral deposit blocking subsurface scans past a few meters." He went on, "It looks like we are in the middle of a vast and dense jungle. I am reading a large river about ten kilometers from our crash site. That means drinking water for us...and for all those beasts as well."

Patin had been staring out the front window, but listening all the same. "We're going to want to be downwind from 'those beasts'." She commented before noticing the sun getting low on the horizon. She tapped the wall of the shuttle, "Can this thing tell us what time the sun sets on this rock?" A 10-kilometer walk in the dark was not a good idea unless you don't want to see what is about to eat you.

Savar listened as Maxwell gave his report. "I believe the term watering hole was often used to describe where large numbers of animals gathered Mr. Maxwell." He glanced back at Patin. "We do not know how long it takes for this planet to make a complete rotation. Once we do, we can have an accurate time frame. We can however estimate how much time we have before the sun sets." Savar replied as he took his left hand and placed it outstretched so it rested on the bottom edge of the sun. Four fingers were able to meet the horizon line. "We have approximately an hour of daylight left." He announced.

"How did you come up with that? We don't know how close we are to the Sun, the Sun's size, the rotation of the planet, and you don't have a frame of reference for how 'fast' it's going down." Kudos to Savar if he got it right somehow, Dean just didn't see how a second of holding a hand out got that. Either way at the moment Dean stopped the drone at a spot of trees that looked intentionally pushed aside. Clear evidence of a very massive creature's footprints going back and forth. "I'm willing to bet there's a nest somewhere around there."

"A nesting beastie is a territorial beastie. And if they're big you can bet they have a temper. Just ask big Jake down at the pub. He'll fight you just for looking at his stool the wrong way." She chuckled while thinking about Big Jake. "best avoid that area if we can." Patin offered.

Dean nodded, "That's my thought about it also. We can use that as one point to look for hunting grounds as well. I think we should also look for scatter points. The Sunfire crashing has bound to spook a lot of them. Being if it did, they may be gone from their normal spots, for now, they won't always be."

It was at that moment something on the scanner caught Patin's attention. "Can you swing that thing forty-five degrees to the right?" She had spotted a small stream and a rocky outcropping. There would be plenty of cover in the case of danger and the stream would be enough to satisfy the needs of everyone on board.

Savar sat silently as House swung the drone in the direction Patin requested. The picture showed a small stream and a rocky outcropping. "Do I need to move us for a closer view of the location?" He questioned.

"What's that spot over there, that dark one, Dean?" Patin asked and looked closer at the monitor.

"Um..I'm not sure actually hold on." Dean moved the drone a little bit. Just about the time he did that, there was just the view of a gullet. The screen turning to static. "That's a.."

Patin just glared at him, the moment they both knew what it was, "Oh shit!"

Two seconds after that, alarms started to sound, as well as the sound of metal being crushed. Coming from what would likely be the starboard nacelle of the shuttle.

Three seconds after that anyone not belted in was thrown around the cabin like a rag doll. Given whatever massive creature was out there had attached itself to the shuttles nacelle and was now tossing it back and forth between it's massive jaw. Like a feline would it's prey to try and break it's neck.

Back on the Sunfire Rhenora watched what was happening with dread. With the bridge nearly empty and made her way as quickly as possible to the tactical station and fought with the ship to get enough power for a single shot.

"Sunfire to away team, hang on, I'm gonna use the phasers to get it to drop you..be ready"

She had no idea if they heard her or not but slowly the power built enough to take a single short low intensity phaser burst at the creature. With a whispered prayer to anyone who would listen, she pressed the fire button.

TBC