Away Team One: mine over matter

Posted on Tue Jul 21st, 2020 @ 12:50pm by Lieutenant Commander William Rogers & Lieutenant JG Haru Hernandez & Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan & Lieutenant Bianca Lee & Lieutenant Valenna & Warrant Officer Koh Ottasu

Mission: Into The Delta Triangle
Location: Kessik IV

The silence of the mine faded quickly as shock wore off, giving way to the moans of the injured and cries for help from the trapped. Lights began to populate the darkness as miners activated their helmet lamps.

Bianca waited until the tremors had stopped, then uncovered her head and began to make sure her extremities were working properly, which they all were. She shifted on her side, causing a small avalanche of light loose rock material and turned to face Haru, “Haru?” She asked, not getting a response immediately, then shook Haru’s shoulder and patted his cheek lightly, then a bit harder to provide a stimulus, “Haru, wake up!”

Haru moaned as darkness gave way to light. His head was pounding, hammering really. "...am....kay." He opened his eyes slowly. He looked up at Lee. "Are you alright?"

"A few bumps and bruises." Bianca patted his shoulder and started brushing debris off him, "Thanks for breaking my fall, though, I owe you one." She forced a smile as she reached up to trigger her headlamp, "Did you bring an emergency medkit? I didn't think we'd need one."

"I do not have one but I am versed in standard triage. We should assist." He sat up his head spinning. "As soon as the cave stops its spin cycle."

Bianca nodded as she helped support him and keep him from falling down. She reached up with her comm, "Lee to Rogers, come in." Static came over the comm and Bianca cursed to herself, trying to remember what the mine actually mined, "Lee to Rogers, come in Rogers." Still nothing. "Haru, I think the mine is blocking our comms... What's it pulling out of the ground?"

"Not sure." He steadied with her help and then looked around. "Walker...where is he?" This was the son of an admiral...he did not want to report this without having Walker in custody.

"Screw Walker, he's a secondary objective." She stood up and reached a hand down to Haru to help him up, "If he survived this, he'll have to surface at some point, but we need to start figuring out how we're going to get out of here."

He looked around. "Ma'am we need to help." He motioned to the group some of who were hurt. "I have basic medical. I can start assisting."

“All right, Haru, you start heah and Ah’m gonna go and try to find one of the real mining staff and work on gettin’ us outta here.” She reached up and brushed off his shoulders and patted the left one, “Ah’ll be back in a jiffy.”

In the saloon Buck pulled himself to his feet. "What the hell is going on?" He had to shout to make himself heard over the noise of the sirens.

"Emergency siren." The barman explained. He already made it to his feet and was tapping away at the terminal that doubled for the till.

“That can’t be good,” Calvin responded, awkwardly trying to remove himself from the bolted down bar stool and the bar, which he somehow got wedged into during the shock. “Both of you okay?” He asked, his medical reflex kicking in as he pulled money out of his bag. “For both of us, keep the change.”

"I'm fine, I'm fine." The barkeep brushed off Calvin's question. He did not protest about the money.

"We'll head for the mine, see what we can do to help." Buck ordered. He fished his comm badge from his pocket as he headed for the door. "Ghost; Rogers. You copy?"

A crackle, a bit of static, "This is Ghost."

"Inform Astraea there's been a disaster at the mine. Away Team One are breaking cover to provide assistance."

"Roger." Ghost confirmed, then moved his craft to get a better signal to the Astraea, "Astreae Actual, this is Ghost. Away Team Alpha reports a disaster at the mining site at their location. They are providing assistance. Orders or updates?"

Ignoring the barkeep at this point, Calvin followed Buck who was walking and talking at the same time. Outside the bar was mayhem of people running in different directions. Calvin tapped his com badge, “Ghost, give Sickbay the order to prepare for possible MCI while you’re at it,” Calvin said, dropping his com badge back into his pocket as the two high tailed it towards the epicenter. “Coincidence that we are here when this happens?” He asked in Buck’s direction.

"Astraea Actual. Update from Away Team Alpha. Advised to prepare Sickbay for MCI possible." Ghost, err... Koh felt very comfortable and at home here, talking like a pilot, flying like a pilot, but all he was here was a relay. He wanted to be there.. even just to lift debris with his fighter.

Valenna had gone to keep Stephanie company as Rogers had requested, but as soon as she made it to Stephanie's location was when the tremors happened. She looked at the engineer while dusting off her outfit. "Are you alright, Lieutenant?"

McMillan nodded. "I'm fine."

Valenna tapped her commbadge. "Valenna to Rogers. I'm leaving the repair center to head to the mines."

"Copy that. Doc and I are on our way. We'll meet you there."

The comm chirp came to life again. "Ghost to Rogers. Provide status of team. Confirm safety and sound off of all personnel. Advised from command, break protocol and offer any and all assistance during crisis. Over." a pause, "I am moving into position to use the shuttle's sensors to help scan the field for lifesigns." as Koh brought the shuttle's sensor suite online to start scanning for signs of life trapped in the calamity.

"Copy that." Buck replied. He raised his hand and waved in the direction of a vehicle heading in the direction of the mines at speed. The vehicle sped past. Buck glanced in Calvin's direction a shrugged.
"Negative on sound off. Lee and Hernandez are unaccounted for: they were in the mines at the time of the incident."

When Valenna arrived at the entrance of the mine, she whipped out her tricorder as quickly as she could and began scanning. She sighed in frustration as all she was picking up was dilithium and other minerals and inorganic matter. She was still waiting for the rest of the away team to get to the mine. She tapped her commbadge. "Valenna to Rogers. I am at the entrance of the mine. I am not picking up Lee or Hernandez on my handheld tricorder, but I think there is too much interference and the sensor in it is not strong enough."

“Pockets in mines are quite common, and it’s going to take some tweaking of scanning to find them in the mine. However time is not on our side,” Calvin said with a matter of fact tone to Buck.

Buck fastened his comm badge to his jacket "Ghost; Rogers. Any chance you can beam us to the mine facility entrance?"

"Roger, moving to position to relay transport. Standby." Cool, clean, professional. This was how Koh earned his red. "Standby, ten count. Locking on and prepping." Koh gave the ground team all the warning he could, with time of the essence, before locking on and acting as the relay to beam the away team to their needed destination.