Hunting pt 1

Posted on Tue Jan 17th, 2023 @ 9:36am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Dean House

Captain Kaylen Rhenora was getting up and about, moving through the camp, determined to lift spirits, guide repairs and pervey a feeling of hope to the rest of the crew. Despite the shuttles bringing more supplies the storm has damaged what little they had and finding food was becoming paramount.

She spied Dean resetting the runabout and headed over to him.

"Mr House, I wanted to thank you and Patin for your hard work bringing more supplies" she started as she approached.

“Hmm?” Dean poked his head up and looking to the one with the voice addressing him. “Oh. You’re welcome, but it is kind of our job. That and we don’t want more people to die.”

There was a flash of emotion behind her eyes before it was quickly covered. Many had died in the crash, more again in the cave in, and with rampant illness spreading through the camp who knows how long the rest of them would last. She took a breath and recentered herself.

"We need a hunting party to gather more food, preferably protein. Our food stores were ruined by the storm and there's a lot of hungry people." Rhenora commented.

“Well that begs a question, Nora. Just what happened to all of the MREs and rations that Patin and I kept bringing over here. They don’t go bad just from water. They are sealed.” Squaring his hands on his hips.

"MREs aren't sustainable for more than a day or so for the number of people we

have here. We need protein and plant foods to keep people healthy." Rhenora challenged. "Do you want to eat MREs three times a day? I'd rather save them for absolute emergencies"

“Are you okay, Captain? MRE’s are 24 hour meals and last for years. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with them. Though I suppose regardless, I can get on that live food thing.”

“I’m perfectly fine, I just don’t want the crew to be eating MRE’s for the rest of our time here.” Rhenora retorted, her hands instinctively going to her hips. “Now gather a team and get your ass out there hunting.”

Dean tilted his head a little bit and dropped his hands. “Really, Nora? Get my ass out there. I don’t believe I’ve heard you use that kind of language.” Shaking his head and moving to step outside, raising his voice. “Patin! Get over here! Two others willing to go on a hunt get over here also!”

"These aren't exactly our ideal operating conditions" Rhenora retorted. "I'm sorry if I come across as abrupt" she dropped her hands down by her sides and took a breath. At Dean's call two nearby crewmen came scurrying over.

“It’s fine,” switching over, “Captain,” since the two crewmen came over within ear shot. “We’ll get out there and take care of it as soon as Patin gets over here.”

"Thank you Dean, I appreciate it, and we all will appreciate the change in diet" Rhenora nodded in thanks. Crewman Gertrude Perindale and Crewman Redshirt AlwaysGonnaDie stood waiting for instruction.

“Grab us some gear, what you figure we might need. I’ll give a look over it and see if anything was missed. Patin will as well…..if she ever gets here.” Dean gave a look around for said person.

The crewmen vanished and returned a short time later with some rifles, explosives, a random piece of rope, some tricorders and Patin and her pack. Rhenora had spent the time chatting with Dean regarding how the repair crew were holding up mentally and physically and concluded that whilst stress was high back on the ship, they were doing ok. Those at the camp however were fairing not so well.

"Did the repair team complain of headaches?" She asked, wondering if there was a locational link to the detrimental headaches they were all suffering.

“I didn’t hear anything about it, though I only really mentioned it to Patin while we were there. I’d have thought given the ranking officer on the scene, someone would have if they were having headaches. Specially Bonnie-kins. I do know I felt off some and a lot more irritable though before we took on the transport task.”

"I'll mention it to Sarah, it may help her narrow down what's going on" The Captain mused as the rest of the team hurried back with the supplies. Already Rhenora was forming a contingency plan to relocate everyone back to the ship if it provided protection against whatever was ailing them. "Keep a tab on it once you get out of the area here as well in case it's really something with this location. Once you get up in the air I'm sure you'll find something to hunt."

“I actually wasn’t planning on using the Runabout for hunting. I was going to do it with Patin and I’s knowledge of how to hunt naturally. Following tracks, and migration patterns, as well as the foot prints to try and rule out any predators so we don’t run into those. I feel a little bad about hunting the herbavors but we have to eat also.”

"Traditional hunting? It's much kinder on the environment and on the animals when done properly." Rhenora agreed, knowing Paton's previous hunting prowess. She also didn't mind having the runabout handy in case they needed it.

TBC