Away Teams 1 & 3 - meeting up

Posted on Mon Aug 29th, 2022 @ 10:20am by Lieutenant JG Nerinath zh'Rhilror [Lalor] & Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Captain Gary Taylor & Captain David Tonelly [Reece] & Captain Samuel Woolheater & Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Lieutenant JG Heather De La Rosa {Kelea-Salik} & Chief Warrant Officer Man'darr [Naxea] & Staff Sergeant Liam "Swede" Reece [Reece]

Mission: Season 5: Episode 4: Reef
Location: Deck 2 - USS Jefferson
Timeline: MD 1 13h00
4452 words - 8.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Deck 2, was quiet as the two teams approached each other from different directions.

Woolheater, by now, was convinced that there was something wrong with his tactical tricorder on his suit. He could tell that an indistinct mass of "people" were coming this way, but the life signs were all screwy. And, it looked like a flying toaster, based on shape, with a blender for a nose cone? It was all coming towards them and Sam knew that this just can't be right. What they needed was a bit of old fashioned countersign and parole word. Unfortunately, there was no time to set that up. At least for Sam there wasn't. But Chief Man'darr was here. Sam came alongside Man'darr and asked quietly, "Chief? That might be a team of ours and it might not. Tell me the sixty-second still uses countersigns and parole words?" Woolheater asked as the "other" group would in in visual range in moments.

"Yes, we use them," he replied as his sensors read the same thing. He only hoped the approaching contact was friendly. Though the Capellan blood within him hoped it wasn't. It had been a side of him he had to learn to suppress during his time in the Starfleet Marines. "Thor!" he called out.

"Thunder!" David sounded off, as he and his team started to turn the corner. After a few beats, he asked, "Where's Richardson, Chief?"

Sam breathed a sigh of relief and powered down his weapon. He was glad to see the familiar faces of his crewmates. He got out of the way so that Commander Taylor and Captain Tonelly could speak. He withdrew to the rear to keep and eye on their six; keeping within ear shot. He would talk to an Engineer when they got back to Elysium about his suit.

"He's with us Captain. We recovered him when he was knocked unconscious from the forcefield failing and Deck Three flooding in the process. Now we all need to get to the shuttle." Gary told David.

Tonelly nodded, relieved to hear that his friend was okay. "Agreed, Commander," he replied as his team formed up with Gary's. "We don't have much time left here. The Jefferson is on her deathbed."

"Then Let's not waste the time we do have." Gary replied. " We get to the shuttle now and leave the Jefferson to die by herself.''

David nodded and gave a grim chuckle. "Well, I certainly have better places to be, Sir. Lead on, Sergeant Reece and I will pull up the rear." He then nodded to the young NCO and the pair moved to the rear of the group, ensuring no one lagged behind.

From the rear, Sam observed the Exocomp. He'd never met an Exocomp before. And he would never mention that he thought it was a flying toaster/blender combo. Best to keep that to himself. There was a security officer that he hadn't met yet. He was closest to him and so Sam could call to him without yelling, "Lieutenant? How many survivor's did you find?"

Woolheater also saw Sergeant Reece, "Swede the Stude" as he had heard and he had recently gotten himself hitched. Woolheater remained focused and simply nodded to Reece.

Liam hadn't had the chance to formally meet the new Marine officer, however, word through the grapevine was, Woolheater was not only a stand up guy, but one hell of a Marine operator. Liam nodded back, offering a friendly grin to the senior-ranking Marine.

Heather was relieved to see the others from the ship, she was looking forward to getting back to the Elysium and seeing Fernando and Cody.

As the combined group formed up Sam said, "This way, thirty-meters, we'll be back where we first boarded the ship. Then, suddenly, the flashing lights stopped. It was pitch black.

Only the steady pulse, slower now, fading of the alert annunciators. Sam switched on his suit exterior lamps. His exhaled breath creating steam as it was getting very cold here. Tapping the comm on his forearm panel, =A= Away Team One to Archeron II =A=

Gary's voice cut through the darkness. It was calm and even. "Everyone stay together, we'll be back aboard the Elysium in no time."

ACHERON II - AT STATION KEEPING ABOVE STARBOARD ACCESSWAY HATCH #1

The pilot of the runabout Acheron II waited to hear from the away team #1 on the derelict ship. She knew that this shuttle was their ride out of here and even though there were some survivors here abd Captain Richardson, she still had the away team to retrieve. As she mulled these thoughts over and listened to the comm chatter, her sensor array detected something. Something big was coming this way. It was over three-hundred feet long (91m) and was some kind of large life form. It was dark here at this depth, the only lights shown were from the runabout itself as it reflected off of the hull of the Jefferson.


DECK TWO - USS JEFFERSON

=A= Archeron II to away team? There is a large life form approaching the runabout. Bearing 330 by 090. Closing in on this position at four meters a second. It's definitely large and coming this way. What is your ETA? =A=

Sam tapped his forearm suit communicator, =A= We're at the hatch now. Standby to beam us out. =A= Looking to Lieutenant Hoh, Woolheater said, "Lieutenant? Without an EVA suit we're going to have to beam you directly to the runabout." Looking at the rest of the group Sam said in a loud voice over the water that was rushing in, "Anyone else need to beam up?"

"Get Lt. Hoh to the runabout now Sam. No more time to waste." Gary said. "Everyone else stand ready."

Hoh spoke up in protest, "I'm not leaving my ship!" Sam said, "Commander Taylor says you are."

=A= Archeron II, one to beam up. =A=, Woolheater tapped his badge.

Hoh looked at the away team with heartfelt thanks, "Commander? Everyone? Thank you. I expect to see you all very soon. I'm ready to beam up marine."

=A= Acheron II, I have transporter lock. =A=

Sam gave the order, =A= Energize =A=

In a blue and white column of light, Lieutenant Hoh was enveloped and beamed away. The momentary illumination from the transporter beam chased away the gloom of their surroundings. And she was gone.

=A= Acheron II to away team one; I have the Lieutenant. Whatever this things is, it'll be on top of us in less than a minute!=A= Woolheater said, "That's the last of the Jefferson crew Commander."

"Everybody out, to the runabout. We don't have time to waste. Let's get out of here and back to the Elysium." Gary ordered.


ACHERON II

Lieutenant Sanea Hoh materialized on the transporter pad aft of the forward cabin. She immediately came to the front and saw the pilot. The human woman with lieutenant's pips gave her a nod. "Carly Morrison. Sit down and buckle up. There's something out there and I need someone to look for it."

Taking the second seat, Sanea said, “Sanea Hoh, OPS for the Jefferson. Your away teams are still down there and we need to allow them time to get everybody out and EVA. What the hell is that?” Seated, Sanea brought up the sensor suite and started looking at the data and then to Carly.

"Hoping you could tell me." The pilots eyes were sweeping the depths, looking for the bogey she'd seen on the scanner. The spacing lamps on the Archeron didn't press half as far into the hadal depths as she wanted. "Something big."

Sanea buckled herself in. She glanced over her shoulder, “All of the survivors from my crew have been beamed to the Elysium?” Her voice was questioning and surprised. “Damn! You’re good Lieutenant Morrison.” Returning her gaze to the instruments, Sanea said, “Fifty-eight meters ahead. Bearing 270…it’s big alright. It’s a life form of some kind. Definitely aquatic and can survive at very deep pressures…unlike our ship or the away team. We need to draw its attention from the Jefferson. Allow your people time to escape.”

The shape on the sensor suddenly accelerated, from an almost lazy scull to a torpedo fast movement, baring down on the Jefferson. In an eyeblink, the shadow of something sinuous and undulating passed over the view screen and then was gone. On sensors they watched the long shape dart along the other side of the large ship, thrashing against it before pulling off and away, retreating further into the gloom before Carly could turn the Archeron to about.

The creature turned a long arc, and began its approach again. Carly turned faster, and they got a glimpse of multiple somethings, all bunched together, before it passed over them in a writhing mass as it lined up to come along side. Through the water they heard the torn metal squealing's of the Jefferson as it dragged itself against the flank of the ship.


DECK TWO AFT HATCH ACCESS

The Jefferson violently abutted against the underwater cliff face ledge. The ventral side of the ship scrapped along sending explosive pockets of air through the now ripped open bottom side. Over everyone's commlink the voice of Lt. Hoh was clear,

=A= Acheron II to Away Teams? Commander Taylor? We've got problems out here! A large, very large, underwater creature has taken an interest in our activity. We are attempting to drive the creature off. I suggest you stay inside the ship Commander =A=

" Taylor to Acheron. Negative on staying inside. The Jefferson is flooding rapidly and indoing so it is sliding down the sea wall. We're coming to you."


Woolheater was almost knocked to his knees with the shock from being hit by the...whatever it was out side. It's not like the Jefferson had a lot of strength left in her anyway. Sam tried to remember what was said at the away team briefing. About the phasers - they weren't going to work so well underwater. Diffusion? Light distortion, something. What good were hand phasers going to be against the 'thing' out there anyway, he reasoned. But, for cryng out loud, they were Marines damn it! In fancy suits with mag boots and science stuff. Man'darr, The Stude, Captain Tonelly, Lt. Blackford. Sam got a kooky idea, "Commander Taylor?" He had to steady himself against a bulkhead as the ship stopped suddenly from being dragged. "The remaining shuttles? Onboard this ship? What about either using them to repel this...thing? Or we pile on in what's left? If anything is left?"

"We're past the shuttlebay and it wouldn't have helped. It's flooded and the power is going through the ship." Gary's voice came through the com remarkablly steady.

David was thinking quickly of their rapidly deteriorating situation. "Commander, perhaps we could try to get to the life pods? they are reated to survive in nearly all levels of pressure. They would also protect us from decompression as they shoot up to the surface."


ACHERON II

Sanea was frantically working the sensors and trying to analyze the...creature, "I can't discern a distinct head from the body. If this isn't the cloest living creature to a shape shifter...I don't know what is! I can see some internal organs. I see many, many tentacles. And a distributed nervous system? I'm guessing?" As she spoke, the shuttle was expertly piloted to avoid actually running into the sea creature. But, it had also not lost interest in the Jefferson. "We need to try and draw it away. Maybe it was attracted to the energy signatures of the Jefferson? Or was it attracted by the sound waves?" She asked herself. "I'm doing an algorithm to calculate how far and how hast the decompression noises would travel in this environment."

"I was just planning on blasting it. The phasers aren't great on this thing, but they'll do more than tickle."

Sanea knew that as sound waves travel through the water, their speed decreases with increasing depth (as the temperature drops), causing the sound waves to refract downward. Once the sound waves reach the bottom of what is known as the thermocline layer, the speed of sound reaches its minimum. She watched as the computer ran the calculations quickly. The thermocline is a region characterized by rapid change in temperature and pressure which occurs at different depths around the planet. Because they did not have access to a global database, Sanea limited to the computer's search to only what had already been scanned by the runabout's sensor array. Below the thermocline "layer," the temperature remains constant, but pressure continues to increase. This causes the speed of sound to increase and makes the sound waves refract upward. The results were on the screen and Sanea made a best guess.

"I think that our guest was attracted by the initial crash and subsequent decompression and flooding sounds. Based on its ability to travel, I hypothesize that it took it this long to reach us." She looked at Carly, "I think that if we create a more interesting sonic target, it will come after the runabout and our people can get out of the Jefferson."

Carly had got the helm about and was turning back towards the mass bearing down on the jefferson. "We're not exactly a party boat. How do we make sound?"

Sanea said, "I'm using the runabout deflector grid to start a low-frequency modulation. With any luck, we should sound like a gas lawn mower or an ice cream truck!" She pressed the button. The runabout's deflector came online and started "broadcasting" low-level, powerful soundwaves directly at the creature.

The sound waves emanating from the runabout's deflector were having an effect and Sanea amplified the lower waves some more as well as expanded the spectrum. She asked, "What's the difference between a lawnmower in July and a Saxophone?" Sanea looked over at Carly with a sly grin and answered, "The saxophone has vibrato!" to which she grinned. "I believe I've added enough vibrato to the deflector, we should start to look like a much more interesting target now. I hope you have a plan for how we're going to get out of this?" Lieutenant Hoh asked as she looked over to Carly.

Gary and the rest of away team 1 and 3 had exited the Jefferson and moving rapidly toward the runabout, Their suit lights cutting through the murky water as they closed on the runabout. he could see a dark elongnated shape moving in the distance. If they hurried they could get aboard the Acheron.

The shape on the scanner was accelerating again, sliding through the water as if there was nothing resisting it, faster and faster until it was a knife slash of darkness on the sensors. It closed the distance in a matter or seconds,. but instead of engaging the Acheron-II, this time it slammed into the ship, its long body curling around the saucer section, tentacles sliding around the saucer and the nacelles, and then patches of light began to throb along the main body, feint blobs of sickly green running up from the bow to stern pulsing in time to the beat of the music blasting from the Acheron-II

Carly looked over to Sanea. "That was not what I expected."

"Bioluminescence? This might be how is communicates? Look at the pulsations?! It's going in time with the waveforms?" Sanea looked over to Carly, "Could this creature be sentient?" It gave her pause as she considered that this creature might be trying to communicate with them in the only way it could.

"Now!" David shouted into his comms as he kept everyone in front of him as they moved towards the runabout. "While the creature is distracted! Move your asses!"

EVA suits sealed, with one hand, Sam hoped up into the hatchway and opened the seal on the exterior hatch. The forcefield holding back the water was failing. Water was penetrating through and because of the intense pressure, each "blast" of water was like getting hot with a rail gun. He said over the comm in his suit to the group, =A= Hang on....the damn forcefield is...=A= Then, suddenly, the forcefield gave way and all that water pressure fired in. It sent him back down the hatchway, like being fired out of a canon, with a gush and he landed on his back. The suit saved his life. When the pressure, which was equalized in a second, was done, he finished his sentence, =A=...failing. Unff!=A= He said and rolled over back on his feet. He looked to the group and said, =A= Hatch is open now =A=

From the lower side of the hull of the Jefferson, bubbles started to billow and through the bubbles came a hord - there was no other word for it - a hord of weird snake like creatures carrying swords, pikes and phaser rifles which they began firing at the Starfleet personnel as they gathered together with the others.

"Contact! Six o'clock low!" David shouted as he turned and returned fire, ensuring his phaser was on heavy stun. They didn't know who these...people were after all. They and the Jefferson were the interlopers here.

Sam responded, "I see them Captain, taking my firing position now and forming up a perimeter!"

Man'darr cursed at moving slower due to being under water as he returned fire as the snake-like people nimbly dodged his shot. He continued to fire, attempting to make his shot unpredictable in an effort to fool the enemy and it worked as one attacker moved to dodge one phaser shot and ended up being hit by another.

ACHERON II

Sanea was trying to interpret the pulsating lights from the creature now covering a good portion of the hull of the ship when she saw the bubbles, =A= Runabout to away team! You've got company heading towards you! =A= Even as she spoke, the runabout's computer tried to make sense of the pulsating lights.

"Where did they come from?" Carly asked, looking at the tiny dots of life signs now speckled across the scanner. "

OUTSIDE - JEFFERSON AFT HATCHWAY #2 - DORSAL HULL

"~This is so going to plan~ Woolheater thought to himself. Sam took one look after helping the last of the away teams onto the outside hull and tapped his COMM, =A= Away Teams to Acheron II ! Everyone on the away team is out of the ship. We are at aft hatchway number two. Multiple hostiles inbound. Requesting urgent beam out...puuhhlease! =A= Taking a few steps forward, Sam took aim at the wall of slithering mass and called to Damien, =A= BLACKFORD! A lil' help?! Don't worry about aiming. You'll hit something! =A=

Woolheater took his position and took aim at the oncoming, slithering wall of hostility. Their writing bodies, somewhat humanoid with a head, arms and torso that became the ass end of a snake. They didn't look none to friendly either. Those eyes and those teeth. ~Good luck biting through this armor boys. If you want a piece of me you're going to have to learn how to use a can opener first~, Sam said to himself.

There in front of them was a horde of...err...snakes. With pike rifles and energy guns and sharp pointy sticks; so a soccer mob. They were just entering an area of the starboard side pressurized plasma manifold. A kind of pre-chamber that stores a finite amount of pressurized, emergency "boost" for the impulse engines. Not unlike a little punch of fuel to create a burst of motion. It was damaged and the emergency venting system had opened the vent. Then, Sam got an idea.

=A= Captain? Commander? Starboard side at four o'clock. About...sixty-three meters. Emergency PPL has opened. I could light it up. If there's any residual fuel left in the line...it'll blow the fuck out of that section. Maybe give us time to get to the runabout? =A=

"Negative!" David shouted before Gary could reply. "Apologies, Commander!" He then said to Gary. "Sam, if you ignited that residual, the pressure wave would go in all directions, the least of the results would be we would get tossed like paper dolls on the wind. Worst, set off secondary expulsions, which could then set off the warp core, frying us instantly. Not a good idea!" He then fired his rifle a few more rides, taking down about a dozen attackers. "Trust me! I've been living and working under the oceans for longer than you've been alive!"

Sam swore with the microphone off, ~Sonofabitch!~ He turned the mic back on the COMM, =A= Copy. Sir, I plan on being alive a little while longer yet! =A=


Sam widened his stance and took aim at the wall of wriggling bodies and opened fire. The phaser didn't act like it normally would. It did seem slower and like Chief Man'darr, Sam soon learned to fire shots ahead of where he wanted them, =A= Away Team One to Acheron II. Sure could use a ride out of here =A=

AHERON II

Lieutenant Hoh worked the UT translation matrix. "OK, here goes! This will either be 'Stop attacking us' or 'Gee your hair smells terriffic!'

The pulse went out and the waves sped forth. Sanea looked through the windows of the runabout and then back at the sensors. "If we're going to get your crew out of here we'll need to make two passes. I'm transferring power from the engines to the shields and the transporter. We can beam up six at a time, swing around, I'll transfer more energy into the transporter and we go again for the second pass. Then, I'll dump what's left into the shield grid and we high tail it out of here. Sound like a plan?"

"Go for it," Carly brought Acheron II about, ready to make a run for it. "Start beaming."

Hoh nodded, "Away teams? Hang on to your guts. This might be a little...different" Sanea worked the transporter system and locked onto six of the away team members, "Energizing!" she said and locked onto their comm signals and lifesigns. The transporter beam took hold and all six were beamed aboard in one swoop. The transport cycle ended and Sanea said, "Got them! I told you we could do it!! Ha!"

"Uh, Sanea?" Carly was looking at the feed from the rear opticals." The pulsing light from the beast now wrapped around the Jefferson was speeding up, pulses flashing along its length with ever increasing speed. It illuminated the approach of what looked like heavily armed natives. "I think its a toss up whether we get swarmed by natives, or Shamu explodes. Hurry it up!"

"i'm hurrying....I'm hurrying. Come in as closed as you can Carly! I'm still purging the buffer. Come on...come on...!" she said as the runabout came in lower and closer for a second pass. In order for this to be a 'sure thing' Sanea decided that she couldn't afford to start a 'regular' transporter cycle. This would be like a cargo transport. In theory, it would work just the same. It just might be a tad rougher. The runabout came closer and closer, the Krait were already on top of the remaining away team and the derelict ship was sliding off into the abyss. "Energizing!" she said and slammed the transporter into a full power enveloping beam.

It was like being pulled through a keyhole. It was entirely an unpleasant experience. As Samuel fired into the wall of Krait he felt like someone had just pulled the plug on his insides. As if his guts were draining out like bathwater from a sieve. He felt like he was melting and then after ecruciating seconds of that, the familiar white light of the transporter grabbed the rest of the away team.

Being put back together - that's a nice way of putting it - was a monstrous affair. The transporter had so much energy dumped into the system that when the rest of the away team materialized, they were smoking. They were also four inches off the pad and landed with a thud. Sam's helmet opened up, a puff of smoke emerged from it, his blond hair was singed and so was the skin over most of his body. His EVA suit was so charged with static electricity that it was zapping him all over. He opened his mouth and screamed, "AAaaaahhh!!! OooooUCH!!" Sam got to his feet smoldering still and arcs of static electricity sparking off his suit. "Wwwwwhat the hell kind of a pickup was that?!"

Lieutenant Hoh said to him, "The kind you can still walk away from." She turned to Carly and said, "Punch it!"

One minute Gary and the others were busy avoiding their attackers the next
they were grabbed harshly in a transporter beam and snatched away. Gary's EVA suit was smoldering. His helmet visor looked blistered. He landed in a resounding thud on the runabout floor. Removing his helmet, smoke streamed from the suit, up and around his face and neck. He looked like he had a case of bad sunburn. But he was alive as were the other members of both away teams.

David materialized in a heap, coughing and smoking, as he deactivated his helmet, he took in a few lungfuls of clean air. "Well!" He exclaimed, "That was fun! Let's not do that again!"

"That's it," Man'darr said as he caught his breath, thankful for the renewing air of the shuttle craft. "I'm retiring," he joked.

The lights on the beast were now a solid line of brightness that flared, and then a huge cloud of inky blackness spread out from the jefferson, billowing through the salt water, enveloping the oncoming Krait and bowling them out of formation.

Carly didn't hesitate. With their escape covered, she gunned the thrusters, and pointed the Acheron-II at the surface, blasting up into the light, the sky, and finally space once more, before turning and setting course for Elysium.


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