[Round 5] All of them, Jim, All of them.

[Guest]

((Planetside) )

::Far below, on the planets surface, the last blue beam materializes from the now derelict USS Ronin. Overhead twin suns burn with a white brilliance. The sky is lit with a permanent visual display, like that of the northern lights on Earth, from the nebula haze interacting with the solar radiation and the atmosphere. Illium and Thelev struggle to catch their breath for a few seconds. Looking out at the sky above them, they can see the dozens and dozens of fire trails from the last of the escape pods as they enter the atmosphere. Behind the tiny trails, a massive fireball follows the crew down.

Illium: *Scanning* It doesn’t look to far to that group of pods.

Thelev: Right. We'll head in that direction and pick up the equipment once it arrives. ::shielding his eyes with one hand as he looks up:: You know, I'm interested to find out how well it holds up.

Illium: And we might want to hurry. I am getting some strange readings around here, and they are headed this way.

:: Jhen shot the Security officer a look.::

Thelev: Strange readings? Could you be a bit more specific?

Illium: Some sort of subterranean vibration.

:: Jhen looked at the ground between his feet with some alarm as he pulled the phaser from his belt ::

Thelev: Well, I guess we're not alone here after all. How many? How far?

Illium: Right now? Just one and it’s still at about 2000 meters and its moving slowly but it’s definitely headed in this direction.

Thelev: ::Nodding:: There's nothing we can do about them at the moment so we'd better press on.

:: He slung the medkit over one shoulder and paused to wipe the sweat from his brow with his free hand before grabbing the toolkit. ::

Thelev: Why do we always end up in the hottest places in the galaxy? What's wrong with with a bit of snow every now and then?

Illium: *chuckles softly* It’s almost like home. I was in training for the Rite of Tal’oth, so I know a few tricks here. You loose most water through your nose and mouth. The heat can be dealt with, cold is harder to survive. * He pauses, checking the vibrations again. He hadn’t had time to grab any equipment so he gestures at the gear Thelev is carrying* You want me to get any of that?

Thelev: Just rhetorical, Lieutenant. And I'm fine carrying the equipment - I need you to keep your eyes peeled and your tricorder out in case anything decides to bother us on the way.

Illium: I am not detecting anything other than that vibration. Not even much plant or lower life signs. What there is appears to be restricted to heavy rock formations with high dense mineral content.

:: The two officers began to move quickly across the dusty plain. After a couple of minutes Jhen turned to his companion. ::

Thelev: Incidentally, Mr Illium, I was very impressed with your actions on the Ronin. Assuming we find him out here, I'll be making a commendation to Commander Wilde.

Illium: Do you absolutely have to? Lt. Commander Wilde is going to skin me alive for not being on one of the escape pods. If he finds out I manually opened the external cargo bay doors…

Thelev: No good deed deserves to go unpunished. Besides, I'm happy we got out alive. Those supplies are going to make things much easier for us if we're stuck down here for any length of time. The engineering equipment on the sleds should prove useful in communicating with anyone who turns up looking for us, too.

Illium: You think we are going to need com boost that much?

Thelev: ::shaking his head:: The solar radiation and whatever's making up this atmosphere is really messing with the comms. I don't know what sort of range we're going to be able to get but I suspect it's going to depend on how active those things are. ::pointing at the twin suns.::

Illium: *Wry grin* You think that a pair of white dwarf stars in the middle of a nebula are going to be quiet little stars? They are sucking in enough matter to keep them burning with all sorts of weird radiation.

:: As they walked and spoke their attention was drawn to the firey streaks ahead as the group of pods came close to the land, vanishing behind some distant sand dunes. Jhen was certain he could feel the vibration of their impact through his feet - they couldn't be too far away. ::

Illium: Uh-oh.. Do you remember that vibration the tricorder picked up? It just changed course and picked up a lot of speed.

Thelev: Moving? Where?

Illium: Toward the landing zone. * He points at the distant dunes*

:: Jhen squinted in the direction Nek was pointing. He wasn't certain, but he thought he could see *something*. It put him in mind of a whale breaking the surface of the sea back on Andor. And the whales on Andor were big. ::

Thelev: How much do you know about flora and fauna, Mr Illium?

Illium: Enough to get a really bad feeling about this. Even on this world, I had expected more plant life due to the oxygen content. The location of what life there is indicates there might be predators.

Thelev: Right. And how many of them do you think will be attracted by the vibrations caused by a ship-load of escape pods hitting the ground?

Illium: Pretty much all of them.

Thelev: I think you're right.

:: The two of them broke into a run towards the dunes. ::

((Time warp))

:: Soaked in sweat from the brutal heat and the unforgiving run, they had managed to stay one step ahead of what ever prowled the sands. Ahead, they hear a scream and look at each other then pick up one last burst of speed. They came between the pods, to find Lieutenant Adair-Walker on a bio bed.::

Randall: It works then does it?

Adair-Walker: Aye it does.

Illium: Thank the gods, we thought it had gotten here before us.

Ltjg Nek Illium

Security

USS Ronin

[Guest]

I know, I know, I posted something partially written by me. I won't make a habit of it...

[Toni]

I just want to say that I'm glad you entered one of yours Thelev. As far as not making it a habit, you should. As Admiral Wolf pointed out, it's not against the rules. I submit mine with others for one simple reason. Any one familiar with the Challenger knows that it is hard to find a sim, (good or bad) that either Toni or one of the PNPC's I play are not in, but I don't see that that is grounds to condemn the others siming with me, simply because I happened to submit it.

[Guest]

Cheers