Marine SAR
Posted on Wed Nov 9th, 2022 @ 2:58am by Gunnery Sergeant Flarn & Major Cornelius Tremble & Warrant Officer Mercy Ryan & Sergeant Azure Thompson & Corporal Adélaïde Moreau & Corporal Sina Ravenna & Corporal Rairror Thoran & Corporal Tyrigus Fry
Edited on on Wed Nov 9th, 2022 @ 3:10am
1,494 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Episode 13 - Crooked River
Location: Planet Igion Beach
Timeline: MD004 1600 hrs
Tyr gazed over the beach, his eyes roaming over the semi-familiar surface.
A beach is a beach is a beach, after all.
They'd spent yesterday afternoon until dark and then gotten started again that morning trolling the waterways, inlets and tributaries of their respective assignments on the search grid.
And had gotten nada.
A voice behind him reminded him that they had gotten something.
"Corporal. Please be mindful of the lichen on which you are so ungracefully scrambling. It is a delicate growth that must be preserved? Unceremoniously tromping all over our protected habitats is NOT, I think, what was intended when your...help was requested."
Gritting his teeth, Tyr glanced over his shoulder to where the Jutari habitat officer stood, looking at him like he'd just turned the entire beach to glass.
Tyr opened his mouth to suggest Reeva, their Jutari guide, shove some of the lichens someplace safe when he was cut off.
Flarn stood on the beach with his arms folded. At the moment he was to supervise the search grid. However, he felt this duty most unbecoming of Marines. They were after all a fighting machine, and to be reduced to simply looking for what? Something they had no idea about. He grunted audibly; it was something akin to a harrumph. But that was all he could say about anything.
Is that a Plomeek plant?" Azure asked her guide.
"Yes, the colony founders introduced it along with gespar bushes, jumbo molluscs, and some herd beasts." Jugan replied.
"Oh, I'd love to see the gespar bushes." Azure said excitedly.
"Are you hungry, Sergeant?" Jugan asked.
"No, I'm a botanist as well as a Marine Corpsman." Azure replied.
"Oh, in that case you must visit our Botanical Gardens, when this awful affair is over." Jugan said with a smile.
"I'd love that." Azure said returning his smile.
Adélaïde returned from her search grid, a little sweat on her forehead but a look of annoyance on her face. She approached Flarn and huffed a little internally. "Grid 3 search completed with nothing to report Sergeant. I'm beginning to think we are on a wild foot chase."
"I would tend to agree Corporal, but this is the task we have been assigned. With any luck this will be over soon and we can move on to bigger and better things. It seems that Grid 4 is the last of our search assignments. Are you looking to give up now Pathfinder?" Flarn took a dig at Adelaide his way of lightening the mood.
Sina and her Jutai partner, Yenan were surveying their assigned area.
"So, you are not Vulcan?" Yenan asked.
"No." Sina replied.
"Nor, Romulan?"
"No, I'm Wuh pakik, my ancestors were Vulcan colonists that became separated from the Vulcan, due to encountering an unstable wormhole that stranded us deep in the Beta Quadrant. We had to adapt to survive." Sina explained.
Yenan raised a curious eye brow.
"So, what makes you different from Vulcans and Romulans?" He asked.
"We use logic, but we are not slaves to it, and we embrace our emotions." Sina said "Unlike Romulans we are not conquers and we have empathy, others. We are warriors and hunters, but we also work with our environment, not against it."
"Interesting." Yenan said.
While the conversation with Adelaide caused to lighten the Tellarite's mood, he was nothing if not vigilant. A small indentation caught his eye about three yards away. It appeared to be a hole in the sand. "Adelaide come with me for a moment." He jogged over to what he saw, and it turned out to be a hole that was caused by a foot. What made it odder was that the lapping waves was not filling the hole or making it disappear. "What do you make of this?" He asked the Search and Rescue specialist.
"Someone's really poor attempt at a sandcastle?" Adélaïde replied dryly to Flarn bending down to study the hole itself. "Have to say Sarg, you still move with grace and poise." she didn't look up. She always did enjoy poking fun at the more senior enlisted and officers when she could.
"Doc did a good job back when I was comatose, but that is another story. I mean this hole... Is it just me or is it shaped like a foot. And the waves are not refilling it like normal." This mark in the sand had really taken a hold on Flarn.
Adélaïde smirked at Flarn's response, the gazelle like Tellarite always did say things as they were. "I am picking up traces of biological matter mixed in with the sand." she reported as she dug a little.
Flarn pulled out a tricorder and scanned the hole from all angles. He also took some visual images for further study as Adelaide worked. "It is possible that a foot washed up here and had been collected by the Jutrai. But the question is why is the hole not filling with sand. This is completely strange and completely out of my knowledge base."
"Preaching here Boss. Science has never been my strongest suit... need someone finding, someone hidden? I'm your girl, but we can take some samples and send it to the geeks. Either that or this hole is deeper than it looks, and the water is just being soaked up by the sand." Adélaïde shrugged.
"Alright lets collect some samples for the brains and try to triangulate where this hypothetical foot came ashore." Flarn said and then indicated for other members of the team to join them in trying to figure this out.
WO Ryan and Corporal Thoran had completed their respective grids and returned to Flarn's position.
"What've you found, Gunny?" Mercy asked.
"It seems that a foot may have washed up here and left an imprint. What is of special note is that whenever the waves wash in the hole does not fill up. I am not sure what could even do that." Flarn explained to the newcomers in a tone that expected some answers.
Mercy moved closer to the imprint without disturbing it. Activating her rifle's targeting system, she took a scan of the imprint, the scan results being displayed in her suit's HUD.
After a moment she said. "According to my scans, there is nothing there, which suggests to me some sort of cloaking tech, Gunny." She sighed, "I'd check with the blue shirts, to confirm it though." She added.
"Right it seems that if these are footprints they are leading into the water. We can take all the scans and then check in with the science team. Perhaps even we can test the submersible upgrades to the Serenity and see what we can find. I will update Top and you all get the samples." Flarn began to upload a report to the Pioneer bridge and Tremble who would be operating that console at the moment.
"Aye, aye, Gunny." Rairror said and began taking scans. He wasn't a scientist, but he knew enough about energy systems to understand what results he may get.
"Can I just watch Gunny? Please?" Adélaïde joked as she always did. "I'll supervise whilst getting a nice tan... no?" she cocked her head and raised her eyebrows at the usual grumpy Tellarite.
Flarn never understood the human proclivity for cooking their skin in the heat from a star. But that was life, wasn't it the lack of understanding other cultures that is. He hurrumphed as an intial response to Ademaide. "If you wish to cook yourself your may, so long as the job gets done." He gave the closest thing that a Tellarite could give as a smile.
Mercy smiled at Adélaïde's comment.
"I don't know why they call you Grumpy Gunny... you're the best!" she yelled with a turn and a wave as she went off to complete the last task of the day.
A Joint Post By
Gunnery Sergeant Sergeant Flarn
Operations Sergeant, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Warrant Officer Mercy Ryan
Sniper Team 1, The Cure
Sergeant Azure Thompson
Corpsman Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Corporal Sina Ravenna
Pathfinder Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Corporal Rairror Thoran
Weapons Specialist, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Corporal Adélaïde Moreau
SAR Specialist Team 2, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Major Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Commanding Officer, The Cure
Corporal Tyrigus Fry
Rifleman Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
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