Lt Natthen addes.
Shemp can hover right.  Maybe he should go upwards.
Adds a third direction to worry about.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 76):

"I'd prefer we all stay on the ground," says Jon. "We'd literally be sitting ducks up in the air without any cover! Besides, the Bras d'Or can provide the third dimension. Let's go!"

Tony says, "Yep, them and the Thames. On t'other hand, you're right. He seems not to be operating with a full Borg database. He's a Doc, so he may not be fully up on the phaser's capabilities." Tony glances at Nathan. "Sorry, Nate, just an observation. MD's tend not to be into weapons. Anyway, he might still get a lucky shot in, but our range is only a hunnert'n'fifty metres. If we had a sniper phaser or Swann's slug-thower, we'd have a better chance."

Lt Nathan turns to Tony.
The only reason a doctor would fire any weapon in anger is to destroy a non-living barrier that preventing him or her getting to his or her patent.
Only reason a doctor can use one of these things at all is because some admiral think it maybe useful somehow.

At this point Lt Nathan step back and closes is eyes.
Concentrating on Dr Doven.
Always worth a shot.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:03, Tue 11 Feb 2020.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 79):

Jon, Tony, and Shemp peel off to the right, while everybody else goes left. They all manoeuvre into effective range, being careful to keep under cover as much as possible.

"Carson, Tony and I will take some shots to draw his fire," says Jon over the comms. "While he is focussing on us, you should be able to get a good clear shot! Everyone ready?"

Jon, peeking out from the cover of some trees, aims his rifle and fires.

In reply to Lt (jg) Jonathan Clare (msg # 80):

"That sounds like an excellent strategy, Lt. Clare. Doctors, Dahlakino, try to find some cover over near that group of boulders."

Buran zigs and zags around the savannah before taking up position near the large rocks. He readies to fire at Dovan when the others draw him out, he wonders, "Tony is right about the range of Doven's hand phaser.  What could their plan be?"

As the thought occurs to him, he tries to figure out what the assimilated doctor and exo-comp's tactics could possibly achieve.

OOC: Using Planetary Tactics to try to guess their plan of action, while readying an action to fire when Dovan is drawn out.

Buran notes the tall dry grass and realises that this is the makings for a perfect ambush. Suddenly, the gazelle-like creatures wheel towards the party. His tricorder indicates that Dovan has started a fire between his position and the pursuing Starfleet officers. The smell of smoke begins to permeate the air.

Meanwhile, Nathan senses that Dovan has gone completely psi-blank. Whether this is normal for assimilated psions or is some form of Borg psi-blanketing technology, he is unable to determine.

Clare's commbadge chirps "Jon, this is Zed, I'm calling in a couple of runabouts with fire suppression foam. Capt Samson ordered them put on standby after we shot down the Rom runabout."

A second hail cuts in, "Bras d'Or to all units, we've detected indications of a six-pointed star-shaped installation 25 kliks northeast of your position. Tactical evaluates it as a Type 2 Romulan Observation post... The tachyon net is still up and is interfering with its cloaking field."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:13, Fri 14 Feb 2020.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 82):

"Shit!" exclaims Jon, as the flames and smoke obscure his shot at Dovan. "Karson, I don't have a shot anymore! How does it looks from your side?"

Jon takes out his tricorder to see if he can pinpoint Dovan's position through the haze.

"This works both ways, of course," says Jon to Tony. "Can we use all this to sneak up closer to him?"

Lt Nathen draws back and keeps an eye out.
He lets the others act.
He worried the others will end up in the fire and get burnt.
He ready to act if this happens.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 84):

Jon confirms Dovan's position on his tricorder.

"Let's move in closer, using the smoke as cover" says Jon to Tony and Shemp. "Try not to get bunched together, but keep moving fast! For all we know Dovan can see fine through all this murk!"

Using the cover of the smoke and fire, Jon moves in closer looking for a clear shot.

[OOC: Tried to reply the other day but RPoL refused to accept it...]

Sloane is listening in on your comms chatter, "I've switched us to a secure frequency courtesy of our Security chief, so Dovan can't listen in. Your tactics are sound, but I'm having Talja beam breathing masks to all your commbadge locators. We don't know what toxins may be in the local grass, and breathing smoke isn't recommended for your health anyway. Sorry, Nathan, but I don't want to give you more work treating smoke inhalation. The Bras d'Or has detected Dovan's presumed destination. We don't want to lose Dovan or I'd beam you there site-to-site. Capt Talliaferro is beaming down a Security team to observe the installation 'til you can get there. Zed out."

Nathan estimates that he has sufficient burn gel, spray bandage and a fully charged dermal regenerator, all courtesy of the mission to treat the Chirpers, to treat any exposure to the grass fire.

Buran notes that Larry's boridium power signature is accelerating in the direction of the installation's coordinates, at a velocity of 75km/h. Dovan is almost certainly not riding him, as this is half again as fast as Larry was able to maintain carrying an adult humanoid.

Seconds later, a breathing mask appears at everybody's location. This covers the mouth and nose, and has a compressed breathing capsule. It is accompanied by a pair of auto-polarising goggles, which Dahlakino discards in favour of the goggles attached to her headgear.

At Jon's command, the team rises a few metres in the air. Entering the smoke, the eyegear resolves their view as if the smoke were not there, and negates the glare from the flames.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 14:42, Wed 26 Feb 2020.

At the mention of a secure communication channel, Buran taps his badge to report his latest findings. "It appears that Dovan is no longer riding on Larry, but hopped off somewhere between the Romulan Observation post and where he started the fire. If we proceed in, we need to be cautious.  Larry is moving quickly towards the observation post, so have the security team be on the look out for him."

At the hum of the transporter, Buran quickly dons the new gear. As he rises into the air, he taps a few buttons into his tricorder to try to isolate any unique materials that would be in the phaser that Dovan was carrying, on the off chance that Dovan could mask his own energy readings, but might not think to mask the gear he was carrying.

He moves cautiously into the smoky area, hoping to move down the closest edge of the fire towards the observation post.

The most obvious distinguishing element in the phaser is the sarium krellide power cell. Even though Buran can detect the power cell in the weapons of all the others, there is no trace of Dovan's phaser.

Buran is just about to give up scanning when the phaser's sarium krellide power cell appears on his scan, abbruptly moving about 10 metres in a ballistic arc, as if thrown and just as abruptly stopping and moving a metre and a half downwards. The signal then gives off the distinctive reading of a ruptured power cell and shuts off. He's able to locate the position of the now-inert phaser on the ground.

Dahlakino signals that the machine intelligence has ceased communication with Dovan.

Nathan is suddenly able to sense Dovan—the suppression of his psionics seems to have suddenly ceased. Dovan is unconscious and in great pain and both he and Buran can suddenly locate Dovan's life signs.

Moving out of the pall of smoke, the team finds Dovan lying crumpled in the wooded area. A number of the pseudo-gazelles have stampeded through the area and overrun Dovan's position. At least one of them has gored and trampled him and he lies in a pool of blood. Nathan drops to the ground and begins assessing Dovan's condition. Tony yells, "Watch out! He may still be dangerous!"

Buran notes the location of the phaser lying at the foot of a tree. There is a gouge in the bark of the tree and the casing of the phaser is quite obviously cracked from the impact.

[OOC: Sorry guys, not been feeling well the past few days.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:45, Tue 10 Mar 2020.

Buran scans the area with his tricorder, trying to determine if any more of the gazelle-like animals were heading this direction.  Buran taps his combadge, "We have found Dovan, who appears to have been ran over by some native fauna. Dr. Pierce is examining him, but his life signs indicate he is unconscious." Buran taps his combadge again.

"Someone should stay here with Dr. Pierce, while the rest of us continue after Larry. Who knows what mischief he could be causing at the Romulan Observation Post."

In reply to Lt Buran (msg # 90):

Jon does a quick scan of the broken phaser, to ensure that it is not unstable.

"Let's beam Dr. Pierce and Dovan out of here, and continue the pursuit", Jon says. "Thames, did you copy that? And does somebody have a pinpoint on Larry's current position?"

Buran still has a lock on Larry, which agrees with Talja's scans. Larry is about 10 klicks away, heading at top speed for an exocomp directly towards the suspected position of the Romulan installation.

Zed beams Nathan and Dovan up to the Thames. Arriving on the Runabout, Nathan continues his scan of Dovan. He's suffering a puncture wound in his chest from the serrated spiral horn of the beast, with a deflated left lung. Nathan hurriedly seals the lung puncture with a dermal regenerator and reinflates the lung itself. Next he continues his inspection, There are a number of more-or-less superficial injuries and a compound skull fracture with attendant subdural hæmatoma. Pending more medical resources, Nathan places the Deltan doctor in a medical stasis tube.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, Kat's commbadge chirps. "Carson, we've got a lock on Unit QXVR135. We're preparing to beam it up into a stasis chamber. Our Security team observing the Romulan installation confirms it and notes that the cloaking field is unstable and flickering. From the few good scans they've been able to get of the interior, the internal conditions seem to be a temperature of 39.1 °C (102.38 °F), 92% relative humidity, an atmospheric pressure of approximately 102 kPa, and trace amounts of tetryon particles. Typical of the Enterprise's recorded readings of a Borg envoronment.

"Transporter room indicates your exocomp is in stasis. How do you wish to proceed?"

Kat looks to Jon. "Clare, you're mission commander. Your decision."

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 92):

"Our orders were to retrieve Dovan and and the exocomp," says Jon "Which we have accomplished, thanks to some good luck and african wildlife!"

Jon shrugs noncommittally. "I'd like to do something about that Borgified Romunlan base," he says. "But we are going to need more intel. Thames, Bras d'Or! Any readings, or educated guesstimates about how many Borg drones may be in that base?"

Jon thinks for moment, and then adds "And is there any reason why we don't just bombard it from space?"

Lt. Nathen had been doing his job.  Waiting behind and when Dovan became injured he took over to make sure the man survived.  Once he place the Deltan doctor in a medical stasis tube their was little he could do for him now.

Lt Nathan to Lt Jonathan Clare.  Dr Doven major wounds have been deal with so that he is stable.  I put him in status until be get back to a bigger medical facility to carry out further healing process.  There little more I can do for him now.  Do you want me to bean back and join the group?

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 94):

Jon responds to Nathan "No, don't beam directly to us. Let's all beam closer. Bras d'Or, is there a secluded spot closer to the outpost that we can all beam to? Also, what are our objective now? Do you want us to recon the base, or somehow destroy it?"

In response to Jon's comment about bombarding the outpost, Kat says, "I don't think that would be a good idea. The only method of bombardment we have is photorps. One of the side-products of an antimatter explosion is hard gamma radiation. The "space" within the Sphere isn't actually outer space. We don't know what the ramifications would be. Besides, the shell of the Sphere isn't true neutronium, but a form of collapsium known as carbon-neutronium. We have no idea what its reaction to antimatter would be. It may actually fracture the structure of the Sphere. What say we don't test that hypothesis, eh?

"As for Borg drones, we have no idea how many Romulans were in the installation. If there were any, the probability they've been assimilated is... well, it's pretty certain."

Tony chimes in, "Ain't that a cheery thought? Pointy-eared murder-cyborgs on the loose!"

In reply to Jon's question to the Bras d'Or, Capt Taliaferro replies, "Well, we could beam you down to join our reconnaissance party. They're about a klick from the clearing around the installation. Lt Churchill can brief you on the situation there."

Nathan and Talja beam down. Talja is wearing full security armour and carrying an isomagnetic disintegrator. "Sounds like you may have need a bigger gun," she quips.


Tony says, "Hey, isn't that overkill?"

She smiles and retorts, "Wasn't it Napoleon that said, 'God is on the side with the best artillery?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:01, Sat 21 Mar 2020.

Lt Nathan add in to talk.
Unless it rains overnight.  Then you have to wait for the day to dry out.
Problems them Prussians are always on the way.

Then he adds.
I think that right.

Talja laughs, "Luckily, I'm Bayerische, not Prussian. Besides, we're not getting involved in a land war in Asia." She hefts the Bazooka-like weapon on her shoulder.

Kat's commbadge reports, "Talliaferro here; Samson agrees that we've got to nip this in the bud. We're prepared to beam you directly to the site."

She looks around and says, "Energise."

The transporter effect envelopes the away team and they find themselves in a more densely wooded area. They are on the edge of a cleared space. A group of Starfleet personnel are concealed in the bush around them. One approaches Carson. "Lieutenant Manuel Espinosa, ma'am. I've got a 6-man recce team. As you can see..." he gestures, "...the installation's cloak seems to be failing." Indeed, a large, low angular building fades into visibility then turns vaguely transparent then disappears again. "It's a bog-standard Romulan type B surveillance installation. As reported, the internal environment is Borg standard. We can't get any life-signs, but that's to be expected."

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 98):

"Don't we have some Romulan prisoners?" Jon asks the Bras d'Or. "Ask them how many people were in this base!"

Jon greets Lt. Espinosa, and then asks "Have any ground-level entrances been identified? And are cloak failures becomes more frequent and longer? I can't say I like the idea of sneaking up on something we can't see!"

"I wonder if this has been connected in any way to the sphere's underground network," Jon says, musing out loud. "Perhaps not, or Dovan and Larry would have come straight here!"

"Yep. Couple dozen. Half of them are wounded and the other half aren't talking. Stubborn people, the Romulans. Comes from being related to the Vulcans," replies Taliaferro.

Espinosa pulls out a PADD. "I pulled up the intel on the place. It's a standard modular construct. We've interpolated all our scans and worked out a model based on them, so we're pretty certain where the access points are, here, here and here." He points out the locations on the PADD. "We're about half a klick from the base here," he points out the team's location at the centre-left edge of the hex-map.


[OOC: Continued in the Thread "Wish Upon a Star..."]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:33, Fri 22 Apr 2022.