Bug Hunt – Is this a stand up fight?
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh HoS Matlh & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene

Post Details

Title		Is this a stand up fight?
Mission		Bug Hunt
Author(s)		HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh HoS Matlh & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Posted		Wed Feb 13, 2013 @ 5:46am
Location		Briefing room Deck 2

The battle with the Borg is a week behind them now. Adjusting to the change in crew had been a lot simpler than expected. Everyone except Germite was fmiliar with HoS, and the cooking had certainly improved since he had taken over. For HoS it seemed as if no time had passed since he was last on the ship. No one had ventured to tell him he was infact already dead.

Ro' had decided to keep the Borg upgrades, particularly since they had a certain ability to repair themselves. this made many of the crew uncomfortable, but Ro' was captain, and there was no argueing in the improvement in the ship's capabilities.

Now the crew had been called to a briefing meeting and Ro' arrived last. He glanced around giving a quick head count then got straight to business. He pulled up a holo image of a white, ice planet.

"This is Iapteus, a fledling Federation Terraforming colony in the middle of the Triangle. Here," he gestured to a small line in orbit of the planet, "Is Promtheus station. It is a Federation station, but not Starfleet. However it is the location of the Tirangle council, some of you will know about. It is a significant diplomatic facility, though it has little tactical value."

A few days ago a group of VIPs from the Tirangle council were taken on a hunting trip on the surface of Iapetus. A non-indigenous hostile organism attacked one of the groups, and there were a number of deaths. "

HIchop frowned, looking at the white ball of ice, "Are there any species like this 'hostile organism' on Iapetus?"

Jared shook his head, "No. It's a rock. No indigenous life larger than a simple virus."

Ro' gritted his teeth, "I told you, it wasn't indigenous. There must be an alien spacecraft there."

"The short version is; Alien Ambasadors weere killed and the Federation has no answers. The Klingon Delegate, General GharwI' HI', some of you may know him, has asked us to mount our own 'independant' investigation."

"So we are going to Iapetus to search for some dead bodies and hunt a vicious killer. With any luck we might get some R&R there. I understand the locals are fairly simple, so we will avoid them wherever possible. We will need to liasie with their Security coordinator and their Diplomatic advisor."

"Any questions?"

Only the usual, Marie thought. Which bits of me are going to get hurt this time? Maybe I should run a book on it.... Or who gets attacked first.... Or who ‘Ro hits/yells at/abuses first....

"Yes, can I have a holiday?" asked Tell "You know: with a pretty little beach, nice golden sand, a couple of bars and a decent restaurant. Quiet... real quiet; no fires, no people, no one screaming and nothing going boom all the time. Is that too much to ask?"

“What...?” Marie spluttered, dragging herself back into the real world. “Yeah, right, whatever.” Hope was still speaking; Marie caught the end of what she was saying. “Yeah, that sounds like fun,” she said. “A few nice ales then snuggle up to Tell on a beach under the stars. I can see myself lying in her arms, being lulled to sleep by the sound of waves gently lapping on the shore.”

"What?" asked Tell startled. "Unless you want to wake up..."

Marie looked round at Hope. She’s blushing. She’s actually blushing!

"...with a few limbs missing, go ahead. I swear Marie you've been acting..."

“Ah, but I love it when you trash talk.”

"...really strange since we got back. If you want my...

Marie was enjoying this, seeing Hope wound up more and more. She liked the woman – they worked well together – but sometimes the engineer was too precious for her own good. “You don’t really mean that,” Marie said.

"...advice, and you know you do. Get a pill from Dr Doom before it gets worse."

“You know there’s only one thing you love more than the sound of the surf and that’s the sound of sweet nothings being whispered in your ear.”

The others were taking an interest now. Granted it was mean insinuating they were having a relationship but, on a small ship like this, anything could happen. It would be the talk of the ship now; were they or weren’t they?

Ro' sighed and put his head in his hands, "This is why I have never felt the need for children."

"Well," Jared interjected, "Iapetus will eventually be something of an unspoilt paradise. The colony is undergoing a mildly experimental terraforming procedure. If it works, the place will end up as a pretty lovely holiday spot by human standards. Everything from ski slopes, to lush forests to hot springs."

"It's a little... chaotic now of course. More of a Klingon paradise. Chaotic storms, sudden explosive expansions of genetically modified flora and fauna, and unpredictable geological activity. Apparently the colony's home base is currently underwater due to some... unexpected geology."

"And of course, there's the surprise deadly monster. Another favourite of Klingon holiday spots."

"Lovely, that makes a change," said the Engineer "I hate monsters, they always want to rip your head off and eat you. Send Marie after it. She'll soon scare the hell out of the thing."

Ro' grunted, "Do not be over confident. I have arranged for a detachment from the F'Tang to meet us on Prometheus station. Whatever this is went through the defenders there like a hot knife through fat. There will be lots of races watching with a keen eye to see how we get on.

"So first thing to is get there, pick up our reinforcements and get down to the scene of the fight. Jared, you're our science officer. How do you suggest we proceed from there?"

Jared looked thoughtful.

"Well... at this point we're gathering data. We'll want to have a look at the engagement site and see what we can find. We can take some scans, but I wouldn't be surprised if at this point Klingon warrior instincts couldn't tell us a lot as well - looking at tracks. Getting a sense of the locations of the fight. Is this an ambush predator that picked it's spot, or something that was cornered and panicked? Do the tracks at the battle-scene suggest they're really as fast and strong as the reports indicate, or were panicked colonists just exaggerating?

"The Captain's also right, in that we don't want to be overconfident. The info we have says there were armed Klingons on the ground at the time. This thing shrugged off both Federation stun phaser fire, as well as a 'Stun' shot from a Kapular pulse-gun - which is roughly equivalent to HoS hitting you with a sledgehammer.

"I'd recommend we take the F'Hew in low, so we can transport crews out if we need. Keep her cloaked and airborne if we can, although atmospherics might make that hard. Keep people in teams maintaining open comms. And see what the scene of the crime will tell us."

"The reports are a little confused about whether these things show up on scanners. But I can rig each team up with a couple of basic motion sensors - they're hard to fool. Ultrasonics and micro changes in air-density. Simple physics."

Ro' nodded, "I will stay with the ship, as will Jared so he can process the data you find. HoS will stay here with the weapons. May'Bel will lead the assault team, but I want HIchop, Germite, Marie and Tell on the ground as well. Your eyes may see things our warriors might miss."

"If no one has anything to say that isn't some wise crack, we will get started. Marie, You have helm."

"I'd prefer Tell", she said. She immediately regretted it and didn't need 'Ro's glare to tell her she'd been stupid. The time for frivolity was long past; now was the time for hard work. "Aye, HoD," she said.