Canterra - Operation: Winter Haven: Search & Rescue Black Ice Seam
Posted on 29 Sep 2019 @ 2:08am by Lieutenant Harry Stevens & Lady Sif & Commander Juan Zamora (Dec [CDO]-Jan 2389 - TRSNFR to Gorn Dip.) & Lieutenant Amiri Aldana 365, D.V.M., M.D. & Captain Edward Bolingbroke (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Luuna C.G.CA/U & Sombra C.G.CA/U, C.PSA, C.ESA
Mission:
Hahai i na pilikua nui - Hunting Monsters
Location: The Xore Strike Mine
Timeline: T+3 2315hrs Zulu
Tags: Luuna, 7F03YTY836M, Sombra, 3CW4YMF696F, Lady Sif
[ON]
[The Xore Strike Mine]
A Marine approached the group of Starfleet personnel on the Colonist holding level, it was late in the evening of the liberation of the mine. “I’m looking for a Lieutenant Stevens and a Doctor Aldana, both from the U.S.S. Hawai’i” He announced.
“You have found him,” replied Harry looking at the Marine as he was still a bit groggy from the stun, he shook his head trying to clear the cobwebs from his it.
Sombra nudged Alpha and pressed into hir hand. That was hir cue, with a ruffle of his ears, s/he took a breath and stepped forward with Sombra and raised hir hand. “I’m Aldana.”
Sombra was in full well labeled tack and gear for his disability service animal duties. He hadn’t needed to be leashed in a while, and he tugged at it accidently when they stepped forward together.
“Gunnery Sergeant Maddocks, 3rd Marine Infantry” The Marine introduced himself. “Captain Bolingbroke sent me to find you. We’re still trying to find some colonists down on Level One, it’s one of the bigger tunnels in the mine, they call it the Black Ice Seam.
Xore Mine Plan
“The Captain said you two have Canines who could help in the search?”
“It would mean having Lady Sif beamed down in full battle harness, it would mean contacting the ship now to get the canines down here.” Stevens asked, “just how many canines do you want?” He knew this would be a good test for the whole K-9 Division.
The Gunnery Sergeant shrugged “I have no idea sir, I’m just a Marine. I’m sure you can contact your own ship. Bring as many as you think are needed…”
Aldana looked quizzically at Stevens. “Aren’t eight dogs a bit much for one handler? Not to mention, we don’t know exactly what to expect down there.”
“This is a search and rescue mission Doctor,” replied Harry looking back at the medical officer, he finished,” we need all the help we can get,” as he knew the more the merrier and the more, they found the better.
Aldana politely kept hir thoughts on Harry's rude comment to hirself. In response to the Gunnery thought, s/he perked up. Finally. It had been so long. “Yes, Luuna is my best SAR,” s/he beamed as s/he smiled with pride and joy. S/he looked down at Sombra, ~ don’t worry bi’guy, we’ll see if you can help too.~ “Sombra isn’t so bad either if he could be of assistance too.”
“Ok get them beamed down and we’ll take you down to the level” The Gunnery Sergeant replied.
Harry tapped his commbadge and said,=/\= Stevens to Hawai’i, prep all K-9 division for SAR duties and have Lady Sif readied as well,=/\= as he knew that Lady Sif would be happy to be out of the kennels and back with Harry once more.
=/\= Hawai’i to Stevens, roger that Sir, K-9 Division activated=/\= came the soft female voice of the ships Operation Officers, as she finished, =/\= they will be with you in fifteen minutes, Hawai’i out=/\=
Harry knew that this was going to be easier for him, and for him to be reunited with Sif, this would make him happy, as he heard the whine of the transporter beam, he had missed Sif and now having to do Search and Rescue with the K-9 division; but still he did feel a slight bit of discomfort from the double stun, but it was wearing off. he finished,” The K-9 division are on their way Gunny,”
The Marine nodded.
Aldana needed to call someone who Luuna was familiar with. S/he immediately thought of only one person and tapped hir commbadge. =/\=Aldana to Masterson.=/\=
=/\= Masterson here, um, what can I do for you doctor? =/\= The Young scientist replied quickly, but with a note of uncertainty in his voice.
=/\=Masterson, Luuna trusts you; I need you to go to my quarters, gather her SAR gear, put it on her, grab her survival kit – might as well grab one for me and Sombra – and bring her to the transporter room.=/\=
=/\= Alright, I can do that. =/\= Adrian answered. He briefly took his leave of his colleagues, grateful he wasn’t monitoring experiments today, and made his way double time up to the Doctor’s quarters. once he found himself standing in front of the door, he took a deep breath and pressed ‘open’ on the control panel.
[Luuna’s Quarters, U.S.S. Hawai’i]
The doors parted to reveal pitch-black nothingness. The room was dark, suddenly from somewhere deep inside a pair of small shiny jewels illuminated in the distance. The jewels grew bigger rapidly, then came two sable paws, reaching out from the darkness, then a nose, followed by a canid face. These separate elements resolved themselves into the form of Luuna, flying through the air to tackle young Ensign Masterson, not unlike a certain tiger from a famous Earth comic-strip about a 6-year-old-boy and his stuffed tiger.
Luuna Pounced Ensign Adrian Masterson
…Having at last untangled himself from the enthusiastic canid, Adrian looked hurriedly around the doctor’s quarters, scrambling to gather up Luuna’s all-important SAR gear, and get her sent on her way to do good on the planet below. Believing that he’d found it all, he quickly dressed her for work and began to lead the way out into the corridor. “Are you ready girl?” He asked, speaking to fill the silence.
Luuna darted back in the bedroom. Some crashing about could be heard as she rummaged around for something. When she returned to Adrian, she had 2-pair of paw protectors just her size. She loved wearing them, but she didn’t get to nearly as much as she would like. The dog booties were midnight-violet with cutie branded crescent moons on them.
The ensign couldn’t help but grin with a half-giggle. “Alright, hold still, let me help you; you’re probably right they are in a mine full of rocks that could be sharp.”
Once they arrived at the transporter room, Adrian looked down to his temporary charge and said, “good luck down there,” before waiving for her to go in and join the rescue team. Suddenly with dread, he recalled Amiri saying something about vaccines for the away team, but almost as quickly as that came to him the worry was gone, since he then recalled his friend told him, s/he was going to vaccinate hir ‘guyzos’ in case they were needed. Good thinking my friend. he thought to himself.
[The Xore Strike Mine]
Aldana collected Luuna, who was wiggly and bouncy with excitement. SAR was the best!
Aldana knelt and brought Sombra around next to Luuna and put him in a sit. She gently took Luuna by the face and looked her in the eyes to get her attention. ~Sit. I know you’re excited to be on one of your first away missions, but I need you to put your best paw forward. This is our chance to show everyone what you’re capable of. I need you to be focused and on your best behavior. Lives are in the balance.~ S/he kissed her on the nose and let go of Luuna’s head. She yawned, trying to relieve some of her pent-up energy.
Aldana stood again and looked at the two of them. Sombra couldn’t look more worried, he hadn’t had much practice in this. ~I need you two to try and help each other; see if you can feed off of each other’s opposite energy. Sombra, remember your training, we’ve practiced for scenarios very similar to this.
Luuna started licking at her brother’s face, her way of trying to get him excited, and pass on her enthusiasm.
[Level One - Black Ice Seam]
Once the animals had arrived Maddocks escorted the group to the mine elevator and down to one of the shallower levels.
As they got off the elevator the Gunny said “We believe there are maybe eighty to a hundred colonists lost at the far end of the seam. There have been some cave-ins caused by the Gorn detonating explosives. We are working on clearing the rubble but it’s hard for us to get past some of the falls. Maybe a couple of people and dogs could squeeze through…”
“It sounds like you have a precarious situation down there, Gunnery Sergeant, it sounds like light foot-work is needed here. I may need to use one dog at a time.”
“Whatever you say sir.” Maddicks had no idea why this weird looking Doctor telling him about how he was using his own dogs. He really didn’t see the point; they were the handlers he was just a Marine.
“We can deal with that no problem,” replied Harry as he looked back at Aldana, he continued, “Just show us the way and let us do our job,” as he knew that this was something to do.
Aldana looked at Stevens perplexed at why he’d just been so rude to Maddocks. S/he knelt down to Luuna’s level who was bouncing about at the end of her leash and calling excitedly. She was rarein to go. S/he set a hand on her shoulders. ~Peeeace little-one.~ “Where can we get some head gear and lights?
“No idea sir, since you said you did search and rescue l figured you’d have all your own gear, or had it sent down with your dog.” Now they were asking him for kit? Maddicks wondered if they had even really done searches before.
-=/\=-Masterson, did you send Luuna’s subterranean kit down? I could use one too…-=/\=-
Once they were all ready the Gunnery Sergeant pointed at the tunnel right in front of them. “It’s that way sir. About three hundred meters the tunnel splits, take the left fork, that leads to the main seam cavern. I’ll leave you to it now, we have cave-ins to deal with down the right fork.” He nodded and jogged off down the tunnel.
As Sif came bounding over to Harry in an excitable manner she then started to circle him, Harry knelt down to her level and said, “hello girl, have you missed me?” as he started to stroke her and make a fuss of her, but now was not the time for play, that would come later when they got home.
Aldana got into each of hir canid’s packs and pulled out their non-tinted doggie eye protection and activated the small red LEDs on their chest plates.
As Stevens stood up and noticed the other members of the SAR team, he said,” Right guys let’s get to work and watch yourselves there might still be any Gorn hiding,” as he knew Sif wanted a piece of Gorn, he finished, “and also we take the left tunnel at the fork,”
As Harry and Sif walked down the corridor that was not well lit, they came to a fork in the road, Harry remembered that they had to turn left and not right. He looked down at the dog and knew that she was now happy to be back at his side and he was happy to have her back. As they ventured on in the darkness Harry motioned Sif and the rest of the K-9 division to stop.
Aldana let Harry lead the way. S/he wasn’t sure why he had left without any light, but s/he had every confidence in hir own dogs’ noses. Nonetheless, s/he activated the red LEDs of hir own headgear.
As he knelt down to turn on the spotlights that were on Sif’s harness to light up what was ahead of them, Harry knew that the colonists that were down here might need medical attention which made him glad for having Aldana here with them. He knew that things could go horribly wrong, so he suggested, “Watch out for any landslides and for any hidden Gorn.”
“Roger that,” replied the other members of his team.
As he motioned them to once more follow him; Sif had her nose firmly planted to the ground taking in the smells of the cavern as it wafted up her nose. Harry wondered if this was his best destiny being in command of the K-9 unit. He thought Maybe it is for now, but not forever, as for the moment he was only Acting Chief of Security.
How would he take it as being one of the officers taking the orders instead of giving them? Then he realized that he was taking orders from the Captain. What he would miss was sitting at the top table with the senior staff. To keep the job, he had to show the command team that he was the right man for the job. He knew that on this mission he had made mistakes and those mistakes would cost him dearly.
Soon Aldana noticed they had trekked to the point of the first collapse. S/he reeled Luuna in and tucked her leash into her pack. Releasing Luuna, s/he silently gave her the command, ~seek!~
Luuna was off. Nose to the ground, Luuna discovered a side-tunnel, barely big enough to crawl through. Scrambling down it, Aldana was hard-pressed to follow. S/he looked at Sombra, s/he couldn’t keep up with Luuna, and Sombra, ~down. Stay. I won’t be gone long, buddy. You can help us by showing them where we went; okay?~
Sombra lay where he was, taking point.
The team continued to move down the slope and and entered the Cavern that was big, big enough to house at least twenty groups of colonists and with two massive boulders to hide behind, this time Harry was not taking chances as he waved half the team behind the other one.. As he looked around the corner of the boulder to see what was their all he could see was colonists, but that wasn’t to say that there were Gorn here.
“Stevens!” Aldana hollered after him; “Luuna has a hit,” the doctor called as s/he lowered to hir hands and knees, disappearing down the hole too.
“Oh god, Who wants to live forever,” Harry said to the rest of the team and followed after her with Sif racing ahead of him, as he knew that taking your time to take in your surroundings might get you into trouble has he had found out by getting stunned.
After following Aldana down the tunnel, Harry and Sif came to a side tunnel, as she suddenly stopped with her head down and started to sniff the floor, Harry asked,” What is it Girl?” as he knew that something had caught her nose, as Harry came to the side of her. As the rest of the K9 division caught up with them. He looked up at the team and said “Half of you follow Aldana, the rest with me,”
As half the K9 division split up and headed off in the direction of Aldana, Sif gingerly started to move down the tunnel with her brothers, followed by their Handlers. As they continued carefully down the tunnel, Harry started to hear what seemed to be crying, Sif and the rest of the doggs padded silently towards the sounds as there torch lights shone in front of them.
As the beams started to carve out shapes before them, Harry noticed that some of them were children and some were adults, He said,” Hey we are here to rescue you, we are Starfleet,” as he looked at the child, He continued,” This is Lady Sif, she is a friend and will not hurt you,” as Sif sat down in front of her. Harry Tapped his combadge =/\= Stevens, to medical, I have found a group of colonists in a small Left hand tunnel off the main Path,=/\=
The tunnel was small and sloping downward at around -30° – -45°. “As the mass of 4 people, and 4 quadrupeds started to squeeze into the tunnel the already precarious flooring gave way, starting a rockslide. The footing of the cannon fodder yellow-shirts gave way, and they started to slide down the angling confined angling passageway, sliding uncontrollably down the tunnel toward the AMO and hir companion.”
Aldana perked up. The roar of the mass of rock and bodies mixed with yelling, crying, and yelping came barreling toward hir. Steeling hirself for the inevitable impact. Fuck this is going to hurt… ~LUUNA BRACE FOR IMPACT!~ Aldana braced hirself, back toward the encroaching locomotive onslaught.
The force of the rocks and bodies came flowing at hir with slightly less force than s/he was expecting -- though only just -- it forced hir down the tunnel toward hir Precious, the red light of her vest coming to meet hir full on. Scooping up Luuna as best s/he could, s/he did hir best to wrap hir body around the canid in hoped to protect her the best s/he could.”.
~It’s OK, it’s going to be okay, you’re going to be O.K.~ All s/he could think to do was to keep reassuring hir love in hopes of keeping her calm. ~Whatever happens I’ll see you on the other side.~ Which “other side” of what however, was yet to be seen.
Suddenly before the pair, another rock partially blocked their path, s/he sent an image to Luuna to flatten out as small as possible, as s/he maneuvered Luuna in front of hir, s/he did the same in hopes to pass by unscathed. It worked and behind them a larger mass was wedged in the tunnel -- though a rock, dog, or person, s/he did not know -- the pair continued to plummet, alone now, until finally a chasm opened up, and leveled off, the pair skidding eventually to a stop. “UUHH!” Battered Aldana slowly tried to raise to hir feet. ~Anything broken?~
To Be Continued…
Lieutenant, Doctor Amiri Aldana 365, D.V.M., M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer, SF
&
Lieutenant Jg Harry Stevens
Security Officer/K9 Division Handler
&
Lady Sif (SFWD)
K9 Division
&
Luuna C.G.CA/U
Search & Rescue Specialist (Reserve)
&
Sombra C.G.CA/U, C.PSA, C.ESA
Part-time S&R Dog
