Posted by Commander Heather Grace (Executive Officer/Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Surface Return

Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineering Officer) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Surface Return

Posted by Mar. Captain Wulf Baumann (MACO CO) in Main Sim - Wolf 359 Planet 2 - Surface Return
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[snip]

[O] Well it’s just speculation at this time Captain. But we did notice a dampening effect on our scanners while we were in the caves. The effective range was pretty dramatically reduced. This could definitely be impacting the ship’s sensors as well. Ground penetrating scans are only so effective, add in something diffracting the scanners, and then add in that we weren’t surveying for life signs. It’s quite possible that we didn’t even see any of the life sign readings, or the computer automatically categorized them as small animals, because the signature had been so greatly decreased. I would need to do a deeper analysis of the original scan data to be sure Captian. [C]

Cmdr. Grace - XO/CSO

El thought that given the surface scans of the area with the various rock layers, their thickness, and their angle or pitch or whatever geology term one used for that sort of thing, that they would be able to extrapolate the rock strata at least roughly. It would give a better idea for surveyors who would be coming next to take core samples and much better map the area geologically. Their scans could give them an indication of what was there. Further work would tell what it looked like under the ground. That was beyond a mere engineer unless El was working on the machinery taking the samples. One didn’t worry about a dampening field when one was taking physical samples out of the ground.

The mention again of natives to the planet was exciting. Apart from ‘seeing’ a Vulcan from afar she had never met an ‘alien’. Sure the sounded primitive but it was new. What were they like? But more importantly to El, what mattered was who they were as a people and would we from Earth be able to coexist with them both peacefully and equitably. Had humanity changed from mere centuries ago where those lesser humans were exploited upon contact? El had her doubts. One of her mentors had said to her that ‘Civilization as we know it is a very thin veneer. Peel it back and you will find chaos and anarchy. Mankind thinks it has grown but we will never outgrow our character. Be mindful of pride, Elemirre.’ This will be a very interesting test for humanity, El thought, for herself as well.

• El, Eng

As the group was speaking a pair of double beeps drew everyone’s attention to one of the setup scanner consoles nearby. Heading over NE Cullins spoke, “..Seems like survey probe 9 just went dark. It was burrowing down to about 300ft below the surface 200 yards north of here passing through some veins of iron, and lead veins laced with traces of gold and diamonds when it just went dark at the 336ft mark.” He said.

GM CockRoach

Baumann looked at Cullins and said “What was the last reading sent?”

Baumann, MACO CO

”..Not much given the probes limitation, ma’am. It showed hitting 336ft deep, and had just taken on a sample of diamond and gold traces for analysis when 2 seconds later it went dark..” Cullins said.

GM CockRoach

Heather moved over and looked at readings on the console over NE Cullins shoulder. “Definitely possible that we just lost signal. Between the signal degradation we saw down in the caverns, the lead could be further insulating the signal, or some other combination of the ores.”

Heather stood up and just looked at the data for a second.

“What is the probe programmed to do if it loses signal? Is it set to continue its mission, or does it have a come home command in case of signal loss?”

Cmdr. Grace - XO/CSO

”..No in this case someone is going to have to go to the survey line and pull it up manually. Looking at the last few seconds I would suspect something either killed its power cell or damaged the probe or the cell. So we’ll have to pull up the line and probe back up here to get more information..” he said.

GM CockRoach

Heather muttered under her breath, of course it was.

“How positive are you that it was sabotaged? And not just signal loss or some other mechanical failure?”

Cmdr. Grace - XO/CSO

”..I have no information on anything that it was sabotaged, ma’am. It could be mechanical failure, it could be something external, or something else. Again only way to know is to pull up the line and look at the probe directly..” he said.

GM CockRoach

Baumann looked at Grace and said “Let us go. We can scout the area and, if it’s clear, we can bring the probe back. The less of us around the area, the less chance we have of interfering with the natives. And if something has happened and the probe was deliberately taken out of commission; we can report what’s happened and come back and devise a plan.”

Baumann, MACO CO

“If it just lost signal,” El suggested, “like what we had in the cave, could it restore if it comes back up above that level?” She was curious. It seemed like it was a technological misfit that it couldn’t be power lifted up. Some engineer didn’t do a very good job on that. How hard could it be for someone to put a motor on the one end to power lift it? That being said, El was game to help. “I’ll get a tool pouch in case it’s damaged,” she said, taking off for the shuttle pod to collect it. While the others were sorting things out further, El circled over to where Cullins had said were the ration packs. She rifled about and picked up six of them and chugged down a bottle of water. If they were going to get back to work in the waning day everyone would want to have something to eat. Sure it was only 200 meters away which they could nearly see once they cleared the camp.

Returning to them El offered the ration packs to the people. She was well able to help lift that probe out and she could nibble along the way. The others could leave them or put them in their packs for later. The walk to the drill site wouldn’t take long, but pulling something up a hundred meters could take time. And if something had been damaged then she would need time to fix it. Settling the tool pouch over her shoulder and making it comfortable she added the ration pack to it. Settled into it she broke the seal on one end of it and pulled out some dry crackers. Something to have on the way anyway.
- El, Eng

Heather shook her head. “Two teams Captain Baumann. Lt Kurata, Ensign Serinde and myself have the goal of getting to the probe, and getting back to the surface. I want your MACO’s to scout ahead of us, and then I want your team to continue on to see if you can find any of the locals. No direct interference, no direct contact. Find them, record any sensor readings, visuals if you can, and get back to the surface.

“Everyone else, I want camp broken down, packed up, and headed back to the Sojourner. When the shuttlepod comes back, bring it down closer to the cave entrance in case we need to make a quick exit. Understood?”

[O] Grace to Renault. We have a probe down in the cave system that we just lost contact with. I’ve got a team headed back in to retrieve the probe, and we’ll keep our eyes open for any natives we may find on our way. Otherwise we are packing up camp, and I’m sending any non-essential personnel back up to the ship. [C]

Cmdr. Grace - XO/CSO

OOC: OK, I’m confused. Is the probe in the caves? Or is it ‘burrowing’ in a spot outside the caves?

James

OOC: Thought it was just a couple hundred meters away outside .. think Cmdr Grace got a little ambitious. Maybe the increased gravity and no dinner got to her and she was confused. <G> .. Gene

OOC: I thought it was in the caves itself. But if we are having to go retrieve it, I doubt we are going down the same hole, might as well go the easier route. Ha
Steve

OOC: The probe is just a few hundred meters away in the woods beyond the camp. Not in the caves. You just will have to pull it up on its line by hand presumably from 300 some feet deep.

GM CockRoach