Operation Toe Dip : 3d MSOT - CallSign Fawcett - Contact!

Posted on 01 Jun 2019 @ 11:41pm by Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Eira Cortez & Major Terrance West & First Lieutenant Gregor Goss (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Ensign Spencer Griffith-Bailey & Senior Chief Master-at-Arms Isabella Kelly
Edited on on 04 Jun 2019 @ 2:33pm

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: Canterra - LZ Bogota
Timeline: T+1 0420hrs Zulu

[ON]

[Canterra - LZ Bogota]

Continued...

The Air Boat moved past, then slowed and turned, coming back to the beach. Suddenly the craft's engine died and it slowed to a stop, drifting silently just off shore. The dark shapes moved around, one came up to the weapon mount in the bow, there was a hum as the weapon powered up. Two others jumped into the knee-deep water, one going to the left, the other right and began wading ashore.

Cortez noticed the one going to the left and wasn't aware if the others had noticed it so she tapped Goss on the shoulder, pointing in the direction of the figure and waited for his input on it, eager to make sure there was a good distance between them and herself if or when the shit hit the fan.

Gregor put his finger up to his lips to indicate silence. Hunkering down behind the fallen logs his element was using for cover, he watched his wristguard tensely, monitoring the video feed from the cameras the other elements had set up.

As Isabella had taken point and had noticed Cortez motion to Goss of the impending attack and took up a spot that the attackers would not notice her in, As she turned her rifle onto silent mode, she hoped that they would not get jumped without the Gorn knowing that they were there.

The two figures moved up onto the beach. The one on the left knelt down, raised the weapon it carried to it's shoulder and slowly tracked the barrel back and forth.

The other one was crouched over, moving the sensor wand over the beach. It checked a few areas then turned off the tricorder device. A moment later a thin red pencil beam flicked on and the figure began checking the sand with that. It stopped a couple of times, then knelt and gave some kind of signal to the other one, pointing into the treeline.

The Hilo's thrusters had swept the beach when it lifted of, but had a stray trail of footprints been left behind?

Whatever the figure had found, it was leading It towards the Marines...

Gregor readied a grenade and then glued his eyes back on the video feed. The instant it looked like they might have been discovered, he would lob it over to the Gorn and start firing.

The figure moved forward again until it was just a few feet from the trees. Closer up the shadowy shape looked small for a Gorn, not quite the expected silhouette. It stood there for a moment then called out, speaking in clear Federation Standard, in a Human female voice.

"Hey! However you are, come on out! There's gonna be a Gorn patrol through here in about forty minutes. We need to be outa here in ten!"

West looked at Goss. They looked like Gorn, but didn't sound like enemy Gorn.

Isabella stayed where she was, as she said into her mic, "Permission to hold back and cover you Sir," as she would follow on behind so that any trouble coming thier way she would spot first, she continued, "as this could be a trap."

"Hold your fire and cover me," West whispered in the radio.

Cortez began moving slowly towards the newcomers with her weapon lowered; she still didn't trust them. "Awaiting further instructions, sir." she said into her commbadge.

West crawled down the tree and popped down, his phaser rifle at the ready. "How do I know you're not part of the Gorn patrol?"

Gregor watched the exchange, still ready to spring.

The figure turned the red light briefly on itself, it was a Human woman, in her late forties. She was wearing camouflaged clothing, with a military style harness, both items looked to have been cut down from Gorn originals. "Do I look like a seven foot tall, three hundred pound, green reptile to you?" She said patiently, as though addressing a child.

"Well, now that we've got a better look at you, no. Who are you, though?" West asked, still unsure about these rag-tag humans in Gorn uniforms.

"I'm Helen Wells, Doctor Helen Wells, I was... am... Professor of Biology at the Onidon College team.

"I was out on a field survey, with a dozen students, when the Hegemony arrived. We've managed to stay clear of them since. Met up with a few others and we're doing what we can to resist the invasion." Wells explained. "It's been rough, they've been chasing us around for weeks. We don't stay anywhere more than a couple of days but we've taught them we've got a sting if they get too close."

She raised the weapon she carried, it was a Gorn assault disrupter. "They lost an ordinance Cargo Lifter in the initial assault on Onidon. Came in on fire right over our survey camp and we found it in the bottom of a canyon about a couple of days later The Lifter was wrecked but the cargo was good, been using their own weapons on them ever since!"

Although Still in her hiding spot with her rifle still trained on the pair, Isabella was not going to take any chances until ordered not to, she said into her mic =/\= I have you covered Sir, any movement they make, I will stun them both=/\= as she didn't trust the pair in front of them.

"Where have you been hiding out?" West asked.

Before the woman could reply the other figure joined them. It was a tall thin Human male, also dressed in camouflage clothing. "You check them for 'Plants?" he asked Wells

"They'er Starfleet Marines Joe, they just got here. They don't have Implants" Wells replied.

"How many of you?" The man demanded without preamble or introduction

"About 17 of us... we do have our own transport," West said, lowering his weapon.

"Not enough to take on the Gorn and too many for the A-Boat" He replied "Typical Federation, send a squad instead of an army! Helen, we need to go!"

The woman nodded and patted the man on the arm "Easy Joe, give me a minute okay." She turned back to West and Goss "This is Joseph Binkman. He's got a farm, about twenty kilometers East of here."

"Had a farm!" Binkman spat "'Til the damn lizards arrived!
Where was the Federation and Starfleet then, huh? Having coffee and donuts with the Gorn to resolve this all diplomatically?!"

"Well, some of us have different ideas about how to resolve wars," West lamented.

"Joe, c'mon, they're here to help. Go wait in the boat okay, I'll be right there" Wells said soothingly.

Binkman gave the Marines a final glare and stalked off back down the beach.

"The Gorn raided his farm, killed his wife and three youngest children" Wells explained "Just him and his son, Joe Junior, left.

"He's a good man, really, but he's hurt and angry, feels the Federation didn't do enough at the time to prevent the invasion. Not everyone served like me, I did ten years as a Science Officer on the USS Shackleton, 'til I got married and went into teaching. To be honest, a lot of folks in our group think like he does..."

"I don't blame him. You still want to be a farmer?" West looked at the angry local.

The man did not reply, just waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and clambered back on to the Air Boat.

"Goss, get ready for evac," West shouted into the trees. "Ma'am, I appreciate the backfill, yet we're gonna need some coordinates unless you want to come aboard to nav."

"We're camped about an hour upriver, we need to get going, they run patrol boats on the river during the day." Wells said "We ambush them every so often, sink a couple of their boats but they were ready for us last time, had three hundred of their armored troopers ready to beam in the moment we hit them! We lost six of our group and spent three days running from them before they gave up."

"You better not use your shuttle craft. They have installed some kind of electronic jammer and detection screen to detect anything that flies, jam comminications and interfer with sensors. They will have tracked you when you broke it's plane.

"They call it "The Scythe. We think it's out at Sophiaville, there was a radio telescope observatory out there that they took ovrr. It's really heavily guarded and we couldn't get anywhere near it to confirm that but it seems the jamming is strongest there.

"We found out that it doesn't interfer with old style short wave transeivers though, we retuned our comms to work in that band. I'll give you the frequencies."

West was curious where this guy was from, yet understood much of what he said. He also made a mental note, the had to hit Sophiaville.

"Copy. Goss, tell the Hilo to sit tight until we get back," West relayed as he approached the air boat.

=/\= Goss to Hilo, remain where you are until further notice. =/\=

=/\= Hilo to Goss, I'll wait for further instructions =/\= came the response from Spencer as he powered everything down.

The Air Boat's motor started up and a voice called "Helen! C'mon, time to go!"

"Okay!" She called. "I have to go but l forgot to ask, what are you doing here, is Starfleet going to attack?"

"We're here to take your planet back," West smirked.

"Break cover, prepare to move upstream," Gregor instructed, emerging from the foliage. "Do you mean an hour on foot or an hour on that 'a-boat'?" he called to the party of locals.

"By A-Boat" Wells replied. "It would take at least a day to hack your way through the forest and cross the river twic- "

The rest of her words were drowned out by a dense clattering roar, a drumming noise that beat down through the trees, accompanied by a rush of air, dust and leaves.

A pair of Gorn Ducted-Fan Helicopters screamed in, just barely above the treetops. Their approach had been masked by the thick forest and their route behind one of the rocky outcrops.

Two bright orange searchlights flared on and began sweeping along the beach and tree line as the craft came to a thundering hover.

There was an unintelligible shout from the Air-Boat, torn away by the deafening row from the craft overhead. Then it swung in a tight arc away from the beach, as soon as it’s prow came around the weapon in the bow opened up.

A bright burst of disrupter fire lanced out and struck one of the craft, hitting it squarely in the nose. There was a flash of energy impacting the shield then the bow gunner fired again and the beam pierced the Helicopter’s fuselage.

A split second later the craft exploded, dropping from the sky in flames to slam into the end of the beach, where it burned and the Gorn occupants screamed.

The Air Boat began to back away, turning towards the second craft but the it swung back over the jungle after its companion was knocked out of the sky.

The Air boat went into reverse, the fan screaming as it sought to get the angle for a shot. The Helicopter was quicker, with a flash and roar it launched a pair of missiles at the boat.

The first missed, exploding in a whoosh of spray three yards from the boat. The second struck home, clipping the rear of the boat, and traveling on another two meters before it exploded, killing the engine, fan and driver. Another body was blown into the water.

The bow gunner kept on firing as the helicopter shifted to port to line up another salvo. It’s spot light remained locked on the crippled Air Boat, illuminating Binkman standing at the bow disrupter, behind him one of his companions was slumped lifeless in their seat and the remains of the engine burst into flames.

Binkman tracked the craft with his weapon, firing a continuous pulse of energy into it, piecing the shield. The craft launched two more missiles, both sides hit their targets. The disrupter blew open the cockpit and the craft spun out of control over the lake.

The missiles took two seconds longer to cross the distance, even though the hand that fired them was already dead they both struck the boat.

The two explosions merged, Binkman and the Air Boat were torn asunder and began to rapidly sink beneath the black surface of the lake.

A few seconds later the Gorn helicopter plunged in to the water, the fan blades shattered, sending shrapnel in all directions. It too sank quickly, with the motor still churning until it was engulfed in the dark water.

The noise and commotion died away, leaving only the hiss and crackle of the first craft as it burned brightly on the beach.


To Be Continued...


[OFF]


Terrance "Terry" West, Maj, SFMC
CO, 3d MRBN

Gregor Goss, 1LT, SFMC
Leader, 3MSOT

Eira Cortez, LTJG, SF
AINT

Spencer Griffith-Bailey, ENS, SF
FCO

Isabella Kelly, MACS, SF
TACSECLCPO

Colonists NPC'd by
Bolingbroke (Tolkath)