Posted Jan. 24, 2023, 8:22 p.m. by Lieutenant Naomi Locke (Science Officer) (Janice B.)
Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Pod 2 Cave Exploration
[snip]Rachel, who had been absentmindedly staring at a rock she’d picked up. Well she was using her hand scanner and focusing most of he brainpower on keeping an eye on the team’s vital signs and any potential life signs. It took her a few secons to register the conversation. When Locke went forward she sped up slightly to walk next to the Scientist “You are aware that L-T is your rank not technically a nickname, MACO’s still hold to the archaic military fashions of old Earth” She said in her usual absentminded professorial tone, unaware of any potential social taboo’s she might be breaking.
Hutchins looked confused for a moment and then shook his head. “Fleeters…” he mumbled under his breath and began following the team into the tunnels.
At the fore, Kristensen smiled in the semi-darkness and hefted her weapon slightly. Hutchins was always a smart-ass, but if that Lieutenant wasn’t careful, she’d learn the hard way that Hutchins was a con artist of no small skill.
MACO
Seeing ahead, Ensign Sanks noticed that the cave was splitting into two paths, he turned toward Kristensen. “So the path is splitting up ahead, I can take a team on the right and you can take a team and go left, unless you have a better suggestion?” He proposed, not really just to her, but the group as a whole.
Ensign Sanks, SecurityKristensen shook her head. “I’d recommend not splitting our personnel, sir. But that is up to your ranking officer.” Hutchins nodded in agreement, but said “But if y’all decide to do just that, we’ll split up. One of us with each group.”
“Non, I agree. No splitting up.” Marceau said, nodding to the MACOs. “We have several days to survey, I see no reason to risk splitting up to rush. Let’s check the water tunnel first, then the larger tunnel tomorrow.” He waved the MACO ahead. “Then we can spend all day exploring deeper and getting the mineral samples.”
~ Captain Renault
Helena nodded making her way to the tunnel entrance at the north end of the cave. She stood back from the rest of the group as she took scans and sketched out the 11ft wide and 6ft high entrance, and then the 100 or so feet to the much larger chamber. This she left blank on the paper until she could see more.
Then she fell in with the rest at the back of the group.
Laursen, nav
Heading down the tunnel to the approaching’s water ways, the group soon emerged out of a 5ft high 11ft wide natural made cave mouth into a larger cavernous area. Stalagmites and Stalactites rose or dripped in differing ways about. A somewhat hastily running river near the middle of the roughly 100ft wide, by 200ft or so fully long cavern with a floor to ceiling height of about 13ft spanned about. The underground river was moving roughly 13mph and though quite clean and drinkable was also quite cold in tempeture running around the 42F mark. In total the river was about 2-4ft deep in places and ran from a roughly west to east fashion the far end of the eastern part in this cavern would see it collect into a basin which then overflowed into a quite deep falling waterfall pit that fell about 80 or so feet into the depths further below.
Moss was also present in spots, as well as a few small deposits of what might be rodent or other burrowing animal droppings or passages. A few small such skeletons showed the big cats probably came down here to drink at times and caught some of such animals napping or drinking themselves as a snack. One thing that would catch everyone’s attention though was a roughly 3-4ft circular tunnel near the southern-east edge of the cavern. The tunnel had quite smooth edges too it and as they got closer to inspect the contours came up to be far too neat and unnatural. There was clear signs of primitive tools at work, chisels and hammer bits of stone that gave it a crude right angle work. The tunnel here was also quite a bit warmer then the rest of the cavern system so far, and a bit of warm wind was felt and for those with sensitive noses they might pick up the faint smell of what might be cooking meat!
This left the first evidence there could be possibly some kind of primitive intelligent life that lived deep underground on this planet that for obvious reasons had not been picked up by the passing survey probes or by their own limited scanners in orbit or in hand.
GM CockRoach
It didn’t take Naomi long to note her light tease was not taken the way she was hoping. She sighed softly. It shouldn’t have been a surprise. The only reason she believed she was on the ship in the first place was because of her knowledge and dedication. In truth, she was lucky to get off Earth at all.
Her expression retained its cheerful tone without missing a beat. Though her eyes didn’t seem to match it, at least not completely. Instead of giving an answer, Naomi just shrugged and followed the rest. No point in wasting time with explaining.
Once they made it into the cave, she observed and appreciated the structure. Upon spotting any nearby moss, scat or bones, she paused and took samples of each for the lab. They continued onward while she placed it in her bag for the labs later. When she saw the unnatural carving of the wall, discomfort washed over her. She reached to touch the obvious unnatural forming of it. This was done by higher intelligence, but she didn’t know how high. She guessed something similar to early humans.
In a quiet whisper, she spoke her thoughts out loud, “Oh… I’m not sure I like this.”
-Lt. Naomi D. Locke, Sci
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