Operation Toe Dip: 4th MSOT CallSign Hillary - Contact!

Posted on 24 May 2019 @ 5:16am by Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Captain Akio Tachibana & Lieutenant Jinn Tevran (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Steven Bernard, Ph.D. & First Lieutenant Eleanor Hargreaves (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War)

Mission: Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: Outskirts of Onidon
Timeline: T+1 0800hrs Zulu

[ON]

[Lay up point]

After descending the mountain in the darkness before dawn the Team had found it's way to a lay up point on a low foothill some eight kilometers from the capital settlement on Canterra.

The land consisted of rolling hills, dotted with copses of scrubby trees, brush and the odd pile of small boulders, separated by patches of tall grass and several shallow valleys with creeks taking snow runoff to the lake besides which sat Onidon.

To the North and East the hills stretched for another two kilometers or so, to the West the land gradually leveled out to open prairie and farmland. Several farmhouses could be seen in the distance, at least one of which appeared to be a burnt out ruin.

There was also the wreck of a Gorn raider shuttle in one of the distant fields, the crumbled craft lay at the end of a long furrow gouged through the crops.

To the West and South, a line of hills continued along the base of the Skyscraper Mountains, reaching almost to the lake shore and overlooked the colony settlement. On one of them was some kind of tower, constructed of girders it was five or six stories tall, there were a couple of communications dishes mounted to it.

The sun had been up for about an hour and a half, it was cloudy and would probably rain later but for now patches of sunlight broke through in places, the temperature was in the low fifties and steadily increasing after the bitter chill of the night.

Here and there some small rodents scurried about in the brush and overhead was a flock of something that looked more bat-like that bird. Beyond the local fauna nothing else seemed to be stirring.

It had been, for now, time to wait. Hargreaves had encouraged her team to rest, starting with Element Gold while Red stood lookout. Nestled among the trees, they had camouflaged their position as best they could, and for the moment Hargreaves was resting with her back to a fallen tree near their perimeter, having a swig from her canteen.

Sated, she turned and lifted her binoculars for another check of the area. As the sun rose, she was taking the opportunity to scan their environment as best she could. Surprises had to be kept to a minimum.

"I don't like that wreck," said T'Kalla, next to her. "Someone might come looking for it, and we don't need that kind of attention."

"No," Hargreaves agreed. "But we're here to gather intel. On the other hand, I don't want to go near the locals until and unless we're here for the long-term. Then we're going to need them."

"I hate the waiting game."

"Don't love it myself, T," Hargreaves sighed. "Aside from immediate assessment of our environment, getting secure, and not dying, we can't plan our next operational move 'til we know about the space battle. If it's successful, we're going to want to have been more acquainted with the comms tower." She looked over in Tevran's direction, and tried to not sound too reluctant to ask a spook's opinion. "Thoughts, Lieutenant?"

Jinn had been sitting cross-legged, relaxing and allowing his mind to drift outward, past the confines of their perimeter, attempting to gauge information that way. His breathing slow and easy, as he tried to take in as much as he could. Hargreaves' words had caught him by surprise, he he'd been more focused out than in.

He drew himself back inward and looked over to the First Lieutenant. "Our mission was to get a lay of the land, as well as potentially set ourselves up for an extended stay. Regardless of how the space battle goes, that should still probably be our objective. Better to be prepared than to need to react when a Gorn fleet appears overhead, no?"

"Quite," Hargreaves murmured, and checked the horizon with her binoculars again. "That crashed shuttle still needs watching, you're right, T. I don't want a Gorn rescue mission crawling all over these fields. I say we give it an hour, get a bit more rest, see if anything changes there; I don't want us out in the open if some rescue mission is coming. If not, see about getting a closer look. I want us moving south to check out the comms tower, but let's not get cut off from the mountains if the Gorn presence in this area increases."

"Playing it a bit safe, L-T," said T'Kalla neutrally.

"Playing it a bit alive, Gunny."

Bernard piped up: "Excuse me, Ma'am. I can go check out the wreck if you want. If Gunny comes along."

"Whatever we do," Hargreaves said, voice now in that persistent blandness she used to great effect when not dealing with telepaths, "I don't want us sticking our heads over the parapets just yet -"

Checking the wrecked Gorn craft again on full magnification, it was about thirty two hundred meters away, it looked like it had been there for a while. There had been a fire but the smoke stains on the hull were streaked from rain fall; there was no sign of Gorn, living or dead and in a couple of spots in the crash-furrow some plants were coming back. It was probable it had gone down in the initial assault on Onidon, some two months ago.

A noise interrupted the quiet, a dull droning sound could heard, slowly getting closer,. A pair of green helicopter-like craft came swinging into view, coming from the direction of Onidon they appeared to be heading North across the farmland.

"Big green bastards," T'Kalla hissed. "Must be going for their downed ship. You got good eyes on them, L-T, or are we going to need to get closer if we want to see what they're about there?"

"I've got eyes on them," Hargreaves affirmed, hunkering against the fallen tree, binoculars lifted. "It looks like this ship's been down a while, come to think of it. Maybe the first assault on Onidon. They've had plenty of time to recover it; it's a non-urgent factor. So we hang tight for now."

Her binoculars came up to the two craft overhead, following their course. "But what are you looking for...?" she asked aloud, more to herself than the Marines and Starfleet no more enlightened than her.

The craft hovered on the edge of the mountains briefly.


[Skyscraper Mountains]

In the distance, two more craft approached, out of sight of the team.


[Lay Up Point]

Hargreaves let out a deep breath. "T," she said to the Gunnery Sergeant, voice measured. "Go rouse Gold. Quiet, now. Not urgent, but get everyone ready."

T'Kalla rose slowly. "We're made?"

"Might be. Let's not get caught napping." As T'Kalla moved swiftly through the undergrowth to where the rest of the team was resting, Hargreaves kept her binoculars on the hovering craft. "They've spotted something," she warned the two Starfleet officers. "If we're unlucky, traces of our passing. Real unlucky, our supply drop. Dead unlucky... us. We might have to fight our way back to the mountains to lose them, but let's not rush into the open just yet." Still, she watched.

Bernard scurried to stay close to the Marines and tried not to think of the foot prints he was making in the dirt and the depressions in the tall grass. He felt he should have take time to review the physiology of Gorn. Can they smell us? He thought.


[Skyscraper Mountains - LZ Eiger One]

Unbeknownst to the team, the two new craft dropped figures, eight in total. The supplies were then tractor beamed up to the craft, some held by the beam below, as they departed.


[Lay Up Point]

With Master Sergeant Knorr and the other resting Marines being roused, Hargreaves extended her binoculars to Bernard. "Watch those craft. Watch the horizon. If anything so much as twitches out there, I want to know."

"Aye Ma'am," Bernard said, and took the binoculars from Hargreaves. When she turned his back to him, he let himself grin like a mad man: Finally, something to do! He thought.

Hargreaves didn't give Tevran any directives, not wanting to enter the realms of trying to tell a spook what to do when it wasn't operationally necessary, and rose to move swiftly through the underbrush to where Gunnery Sergeant T'Kalla was getting 4MSOT all awake and alert.

"No need to get heated, people," she assured them in a low, cautious voice. "Gorn craft on the prowl. We might have to move out. We might have to punch our way out. I want packs loaded and weapons ready."

JimBob rose to his feet slowly, grabbing his gear. He quickly checked to make sure everything was in place. Wouldn't do to leave something behind if they had to bug out in a hurry.

After the further craft departed the range out of sight, the visible craft started to move again, back to Onidon.

Jinn watched the craft begin to depart and turned to Bernard. "Ensign, keep watching them and try and get a bearing on which direction they're heading.

"Aye Sir," Bernard said, and secretly hoped he would get to punch a Gorn today.

He moved quickly and quietly toward the rest of the group as Hargreaves was beginning to rouse them. "Lieutenant, you may want to get back out there. The craft are moving away."

Hargreaves let out a slow breath, gesturing for her team to hold before turning back to Tevran. "Good. Let's take a look." She followed him to Bernard, reaching to take her binoculars back without a word, and scanning the horizon.

"Concerning," she conceded after a moment. "They definitely saw something. I'm not confident in the safety of our supply drop any more. If we have to go back for those, we're going to have to do it incredibly carefully. If I were in those shoes, I'd make sure a booby-trap or ambush were waiting. Worse, if they found the supplies, they know we're out here somewhere."

"We'll have to be cautious of our supplies and equipment going forward," she said. "Loot what we can as we go. If we're here long-term we might have to be more reliant upon civilians than I'd have liked. But that comes later." Hargreaves swept her binoculars to the south. "I don't want us lingering here when we've had fly-overs so close. It's dangerous to move in daylight but I think it's dangerous for us to wait here. So we're going to move out, slow and hidden... and go take a look at that Comms Tower."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]