Getting Inside - Part One
Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2020 @ 1:16am by Commander Tressa Brislan-Antilles & Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi & Company Sergeant Major Jeffery "The Mountain" Duval
Edited on on Tue Oct 6th, 2020 @ 12:07am
Mission:
Mission 9: Interference
Location: Planet Surface
Timeline: 1000Hrs - April 23rd, 2389
Once inside the base, and the Away Team split into three smaller teams, Bremer and Lennox moved forward down the main ‘street’, looking for a place to duck out of the way so they could contact Phoenix with an update. A few meters in, they saw what looked like an old Earth telephone booth. Bremer nodded to Lennox as he stepped inside and pretended to talk on the old communications device while Lennox stood watch outside.
“Bremer to Phoenix.”
"Here," Phoenix replied back, a lot of diagnostic sounds in the background.
“We're inside the facility and have split into three teams as planned. What’s your status?” Bremer informed the Major.
"Ship still can fly. Just tryin' ta diagnose some occasional vibrations."
“Understood. Be advised, we've seen patrols from this base in the woods, some manning anti-aircraft weapons.” Bremer warned.
"Don' see that as a problem, so long's tha cloak is still on," Phoenix reminded him. "But I can probably load an EMP burst, usin' one of the micro warheads, if that becomes a problem."
“We’ll contact you once we have the device in hand, Bremer out.”
After finishing his ‘call’, Mike stepped out of the phone booth, then he and Lennox continued forward. They were a few steps behind two other men who appeared to be Senior Officers of the base. They were talking about the recent air raid.
“...and if we have any chance of turning the tide of this war we need to find a way to stabilize the weapon.”
“I agree, but with constant air raids and threat of ground attack we're behind on our work...”
“That’s no excuse Lanz, the Three-Thirty-Second just arrived yesterday to help reinforce our flank, the Two-One-Nine is reinforcing our position here.”
“Yes Sire, but most of them are recent draftees or came from the northern front and are exhausted. We need air support.”
“There are two fighter squadrons due in first thing tomorrow morning, the Twenty-First and One-Eighty-First, both flying the new Whirlwind class fighters.”
Lennox and Bremer glanced at each other and smirked when they heard the ‘One-Eighty-First’.
The first man gave a nod, then added, “Sire, we’re running out of men, material, and territory. Our way of life is threatened by our enemies, intent on destroying us. M’Pow has given us a gift, we just need time to better understand it, to use it to defend our homeland.” The two men turned down a side street and into a building with two guards standing outside.
Bremer stopped and looked at Lennox, “We need to find out more about this world war of theirs.” He looked around for a moment, “These people shouldn't have this level of technology, but if we remove it, we’ll be possibly interfering with their future and course of evolution...breaking the Prime Directive.”
“Who’s to say this isn't their natural course, and by these people being in position of advanced alien technology isn't what’s breaking the Prime Directive.” Lennox replied.
“That’s the paradox...damned if we do, damned if we don’t.” Bremer replied. He looked around again for a moment, then started walking again, “Let’s find this thing and get the hell out of here.”
Bridge, USS Essex
Billy continued to monitor the primitive military frequencies that the planet used to hear their troop mobilizations and if they had detected the Away Team. So far nothing of note, it was a tedious job, but someone had to do it. And at least he was familiarizing himself with a new language.
L'Verrem purred quietly at the bridge's science station as he continued to observe the tetryon emissions on the planet's surface. The signal strength was rising once again, as he expected. The source continued to destabilize, and it was a race against time to retrieve it before it destabilized completely and either outright exploded with a force he was sure the beings below had never achieved on their own, or bathe everyone within several tens of kilometers with a fatal dose of radiation. His attention was momentarily taken from the tetryon spectral display with a soft tone he knew was a new sensor contact. He looked at the display that caught his attention, which showed the results of the latest sweep of the short range sensors. He cocked his head and in curiosity and trilled. He tapped several commands into the display, which zoomed in on the new contact.
"Admiral T'Lar, I am detecting an object appearing from behind the planet's moon. It is unpowered and following an orbital path," L'Verrem announced.
Deela stood up, "On screen." She watched as the object came into view. "Augment." The object enlarged, revealing that it was a vessel but it was not a configuration that she was familiar with. The vessel looked lifeless and obviously damaged as well.
Deela looked over at L'Verrem, "Any lifesigns?"
The Caitian peered intensely at his display for a moment, then replied "Negative. However, there is considerable epsilon radiation emanating from it. Epsilon radiation is created from tetryonic energy sources. The vessel may be related to the tetryon source on the surface."
"Can we get an away team onboard safely?" Deela asked.
"Yes, so long as we are properly shielded. Environment suits should be sufficient. I will assemble a team immediately. The ship will not be in transporter range for two more days, so I would like to take a shuttle," L'Verrem said.
"I am way ahead of you." Turning to her XO, "Commander Lokran, I'd like you to lead the team. Captain L'Verrem will accompany you. Lt. Keikeya, you will also be joining them. Oh, and have Dr. Brislan come along as well."
"Aye, Ma'am." said R'nard. At last, an away mission. He had been cooling his heels on the ship, and now he was to investigate the ship. He hit his commlink. "Dr. Brislan, report to the shuttlebay."
=^=Brislan here, on my way.=^=
Surface, Base
Meanwhile Planetside. Duval looked around as he waited quietly with Lieutenant Solomon. "El Tee. you okay?" he said softly to the man next to him.
Jack nodded as he answered. He was tapping away quietly on his tricorder, trying to locate the source they were looking for. "Oh yes, in fact..." he started as the tricorder emitted a single beep, "I'm bloody spot on. I've located it, I've got the co-ordinates if your ready to leave?" He asked.
"Alright... nice and slow, lets not draw any attention to ourselves..." he said quietly, mostly for his own benefit as he was not a patient person. "Our big green style cannot be defeated." he smiled at Solomon.
"Agreed," said Jack as they moved off quietly, following the signal picked up by the tri-corder.
Elsewhere, Bremer and Lennox were making slow progress across the compound, when Lennox noticed a small shack with a large power generator attached outside and several high gain antennas attached. They looked around, then quietly entered the small building. Inside, there was two desks set up, one was clearly the desk of a guard, and a sign-in/sign-out book was laid open on it. The other looked like a communications station with an old-style telephone like device beside a wireless radio. The radio had a headset and microphone for voice communication, as well as a tele-type like device that reminded Mike of what a German Enigma machine from Earth’s World War Two looked like. Beyond the desks was a door, but judging by the distance, there wouldn't be anything behind as it was at the far end of the small building. This peaked the Admiral’s interest and he walked to the door, opened it, and realized it was a small elevator.
Bremer and Lennox stepped inside, shut the door, and slid the lever control. The elevator slowly started to lower. It seemed to drop about three to four levels before stopping inside a hardened concrete bunker. When the door opened, there was another guard desk, but again, no one was there. Bremer and Lennox guessed the Guards had been sent to assist in the base defense or clean up following the attack, but before they could step out the Guard came around the corner.
