Getting the lay of the land

Posted on Wednesday 21 April 2021 @ 12:08 by Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding & Lieutenant Nir’anyar & Major David Scarlet & Gunnery Sergeant Alexander Beck

Mission: A Cry from the Darkness
Location: Celtic Beta 4
Timeline: MD 5 1030
2372 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Anya, along with the rest of the away team materialised. Watching the Marines tense ever so slightly, clutching their weapons as if ready for trouble, she instead plucked her tricorder from its holster and began running scans for pathogens that could be loose in the air, not wanting to leave anything to chance she also set her scanner to passive scan when she wasn't using it so it would be constantly pulling data.

"The air looks clear but I would recommend leaving the breather masks on until we know more Commander!"

Miles nodded to Anya, "Thank you Doctor. If the scanner isn't picking anything up, then is this something Star Fleet has never encountered? If not then it might be spread by touch ... let's keep our suits on until we know more. I don't want to give the wrong impression, but I don't want to add to the number of ill or dead." Miles looked around, then leaned closer to Anya, "I don't like this. If this is all a hoax, is there anything specific you can scan for ... something that would give the general side effects, but not necessarily be as bad as they are reporting?"

"Spread out and secure the beam in location." Richards instructed. "First squad, secure the north and east, second squad, secure south and west. Third squad, stay with the away team. Bijoux, deploy those pattern enhancers around this spot in case we have to leave in a hurry. I want squad leaders to check in with me the moment they've secured their objectives and I want a lay-of-the-land report ASAP. Remember, full BIOCOM protocols until told otherwise."

"Yes, sir!" Pearl answered and hustled to do as requested, placing the enhancers whilst the others were being given their assignments.

Several marines nodded and they moved out to secure their objectives, the first and second squads breaking up into their individual fire-teams to cover more ground. They would move out about a hundred meters in a circular direction around the beam-in point and then report in, as was standard protocol for an unsecured transport site. Since the original plan had been to arrive in shuttles, which would have been secure locations to keep the senior officers in until the marines had secured the landing zone, they were now making up the security arrangements on the fly since the XO had seen fit to change it to transporters at the last moment. Nothing that marines couldn't handle, but it did make things more complicated than they needed to be and now the bridge officers were out in the open and exposed, rather than in nice protected craft that could fly off or be hermetically sealed if needed.

A few moments later, the marine squad leaders reported in and Richards turned to Scarlet. "Transport site secured, Lieutenant. Initial scouting shows no signs of life within our immediate vicinity, but that there is a large structure to our immediate south with signs of recent use."

"I want it scouted." Scarlet said beneath the breathing mask. Make sure there are no hostiles and I want a layout of it." This wasn't an invasion force, but if they were going to be attacked he wanted to know from where and how to defend against it.

Mathias with his gear on, once he materialized, gave Scarlet a glance and a nod, turned to Anya, "So far so good." then pulled out his tricorder to begin scanning the area.

Miles watched the Marines for a few moments, rethinking his idea of beaming down rather than using the shuttles. The situation still had him worried though. Tapping his combadge he reaches out to the Merlin, "Captain, we're here. The Marines are establishing a perimeter. Nothing is showing up in the air on the medical scanners. There is a structure to the south of us, but so far it looks like no one is home. What did the colony leader say about meeting us?"

"Copy that Number one." Melody's voice came back over the comm. "Just be careful. We've been contacted by the colony leader, a Mr Ransa. He would be coming to meet you. Keep me informed, Jones out"

Just as Miles contacted the ship, a man who seemed to be in his forties walked out of the nearby building. He had dark brown hair with a touch of silver at his temples, stood sort of tall, and walking with a slight limp. As he approached he called out, "Hello, I'm Ransa, I was the one who called you, who is your leader?"

Pearl went slightly alert but kept still as the man approached.

"Hold!" One of the marines on the perimeter called out, holding up his rifle at the 'at-ready' position, his team members also taking up a defensive posture. "State your identity and purpose!"

"My name is T'embien Ransa leader, I contacted you, the Federation to come help with the disease we are facing." he responded halting his progression forward.

"Your call, Commander." Richards said, looking to the First Officer for guidance.

Anya stepped forward, the breather mark muffling her words ever so slightly but still she pressed on. "If I may Commander... I am Doctor Nir'anyar. We need as much information about this illness as you can provide us, specifically if it is an airborne pathogen and illness it is, bacterial, viral, sub-nucleonic prion?"

"I am afraid I really can't answer all those questions. I'm a leader and not a doctor. You will have to go to the medical building over there. " pointing towards another building further out. "Whether it is airborne and the other things mentioned, it still hasn't been determined. It has us stumped, well at least it has me stumped."

Miles watched the man. While he wasn't sure everything was on the up and up he made his mind upon a course of action. Miles stepped towards the man, "I'm Commander Marbim Rejal of the USS Merlin. Why don't you escort us to the medical centre? Doctor Nir'anyar and several of the marines have medical training, maybe seeing the patients and the information you have gathered might give us some insight into what is going on here. I'd also like a timeline of events. Maybe something occurred on or around your world that precipitated all this. Once we have a better idea of what's going on medically, we have support craft we can bring down to assist in offering medical laboratories and act as medical bays for your most critical patients."

Scarlet glanced in that direction and gritted his teeth. "Richards, I want a detail going with the doc to that medical centre."

"Copy Lieutenant." Richards acknowledged, his voice distorted by the mask. "Bijoux, me and your team will escort the doc. Gunny, I want overwatch on the buildings if you can. Ranger and Thomas, stay with the landing party. Felps, take your squad and scout out the surrounding area. I want this place as tight as a rich man's wallet, got me?"

"Yes El-Tee." Sergeant Felps acknowledged and grabbed his people from Squad Three to head down to the compound.

"Yes sir." Ranger replied, moving his squad into position with Thomas' squad to secure the landing party.

"Aye, sir! " said Beck, looking to Bravo. "Haskins, Shran, Kharok! With me! " he said, calling out the platoon's three best marksmen. He was already training them as Designated Marksmen. Shran was good. Haskins and Kharok, however, had the stuff to go to scout sniper training. He had no doubt they'd make the cut, which is why he'd selected them.

"Yes, sir!" Bijoux responded, following after Richards along with her team.

Looking around the area they were in, Scarlet gripped his rifle a bit tighter and kept his eyes peeled to the surroundings. Without the shuttles they had no real cover in case of attack.

Ransa nodded, "Hello Commander, I'll do so if you'll come this way then." he looked towards the marines and those that were dressed in fleet uniforms. He then headed in the direction of the facility. He paused and looked back towards the rest of the away team. "Isn't anyone else coming along?"

Miles looked at the marine contingent. "No Sir. Some of the marines will be setting up landing zones for our medical craft that will follow once we get some idea of what we're dealing with."

"I'll come with you." Mathias said, stepping forward to stand next to Ransa, and taking a scan of the man.

As Miles closed in on the Medical centre he tapped his combadge, "Merlin, Rejal here. We've met Ransa. We're heading to the medical facility. Half the marines are scouting and clearing a space for our medical craft. I'll keep you posted if anything interesting happens, Rejal out."

"Acknowledged Commander," Melody replied. "We're not picking up any unusual activity. I'll get the support craft on hot standby. They'll be bringing down fresh medical supplies and food. Until we know the exact origin of this disease and how to treat it, I can't risk bringing any infected onboard the ship. Let me know any progress on a cure. Good luck. Jones out."

Anya followed Miles and his team, her own medical kit in hand ready to spring into action whatever greeted her. She didn't really appreciate the Marine stance, she never had but she knew that went back to her time in the Romulan mines, guards surrounding her ready to inflict cruelty to make the workers move faster. She still felt at odds with herself about her new role, not really knowing everyone on the senior staff, not having had the chance before this mission started to stop and say hello at the very least. She remained quiet, waiting for her chance to speak to someone with the information she would need.

As they approached the medical centre Miles once again moved closer to Anya. "Doctor, would you be able to better triage anyone inside once you've looked over their data. You may be better equipped to recognize who we need to treat first?"

"Tentatively yes but it would depend on the data they have and how much about the relative 'R' rate they have determined and the general make up of whatever this is. Bacterial, Viral or synthetic agent... Synthetic agent is not what we want as it would mean biogenic weapons and the strong possibility that it will be near one hundred percent infectious and fatalities would likely be near the same percentage!"
She shot a weighted look at the Cardassian letting him know that the latter was really not what they wanted. "Hopefully we will know more soon though!"

CENTRAL BUILDING, COLONY COMPLEX, MOMENTS LATER...

Beck knelt down and panned his sniper rifle around, keeping an eye on the outer area of their perimeter. He and his team were on the roof of the tallest building in the area, which was four stories high. He didn't see anything, but that meant little. Beck had been ambushed in areas that had been cleared before. "Beck to Richards. We're up and scanning the area. So far no sign of any hostile activity in our vicinity. " he said.


Ransa arrived at the medical building and stepped inside. "Dr. Talbert, we've got representatives here from the Federation, they have answered our call!"

A woman stepped out, tall red headed and wearing glasses. "Oh good much needed help, we keep getting more questions than answers. At first, we thought it the plague." she stated, motioning for people to join. "We've ruled that out. I think your people would have called it the bubonic plague?"

"Not all of us, it never afflicted Benzite" Anya stepped forward and thrust her hand out towards the taller women. "Doctor Nir'Anyar... What can you tell us about it, the infection rate, mortality rate, symptomology... We will need access to all of your data to date!"

"Well, I think it is best for you to read for yourself, way too much to even put it in a synopsis. Come this way, Dr. Nir'Anyar and others I can show you our labs." Dr. Talbert leading the way inside.

"Lead on!" Anya said before realising she was not the one in command of the away team. Her eyes darted to Commander Rejal and she mouthed an apology for taking charge as she had, suddenly feeling very sheepish.

Miles grinned, and ushered Anya ahead of him. As she started to move past him, Miles quietly stated, "This is a medical situation Doctor. You tell me what you need and I'll move mountains to make that happen. We need to begin building positive relations in this region of space, and this mission is hopefully a step in the right direction towards that goal."

"I'm no diplomat Commander... you need only ask Commander Miller about that but I will try and at the very least put our best foot forward!"
She didn't dare tell him that she couldn't dance either... not that she could remember much about the girls night out on Merlin only a week or so previous.

Holding back a moment, Miles shared his nagging concern with Scarlet, "David, something about all this doesn't feel right. Make sure our escort stays on their toes." With that off his shoulders, Miles entered the medical facility to see how bad off the colony really is.


OFF:

| 1st Lieutenant David Scarlet
Marine Company Commander
USS Merlin


●●●● Captain Melody Jones
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin


○●● Lieutenant Commander Marbim Rejal
Executive Officer
USS Merlin


((>>> Gunnery Sergeant Alexander Beckt
Marine Sniper
USS Merlin


Lance Corporal Pearl Bijoux
Marine
USS Merlin


| 2nd Lieutenant Alex Richards
Bravo Platoon Leader
NPC by Godding


●● Lieutenant Mathias McPhee
Chief Operations Officer
USS Merlin


●● Lieutenant Nir’anyar
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin