Johnny climbs out of the wreckage and is happy to find that his grenades survived the crash. After mapping this section of the caves with his tricorder, he begins his journey towards the surface.
"Better salvage what I can from the shuttle and get moving..."
I salvage what I can from the shuttle and head into the tunnel.
By about 200 meters into the tunnel your boots are soaked and you're up to your ankles in fast-moving water. But you come to a fork in the road. The down-sloping passageway off to your left looks like it was deliberately carved -- may have been natural originally, but you can see tool marks in the rock and a crude brick dam keeping the stream out.
You also find a pail by the side of the stream. It looks like it's made of some kind of reptile skin, tanned into leather, and it's anchored to the bank by a rope and a crude iron spike.
"Ouch"- I wake up in a pile of debries and begin to salvage what I can once I reorient myself. I'm able to salvage all of the things I mentioned were my equipment. I then dust off my armor and get on the move.
Upon closer inspection there's two ways off this ledge. You could head up the underground stream, or you could sidle your way along the ledge -- it looks like you're at the join between two layers of rock, and one has shifted backwards. Just wide enough for you to cross, and it slopes upward.
Extan takes a moment for his fallen comrade who was the pilot and proceeds to salvage what he can from the shuttle before moving on.
Looks like there's a couple of ways off this ledge. Underground stream, or you could try to squeeze through a large fracture in the rock face. Looks like a faint light on the other side, thirty or forty meters in. Tight fit but you can make it.
I emerge from the ruins of my shuttle, first things first, I salvage the transistors from the subspace signalling beacon and pick up a survival pack, it's going to ruin the lines of my suit, but sacrifices have to be made. My glasses have also survived, I heave a sigh of relief and put them on.
Before moving on I use the last of the emergency power in the shuttle to activate the sensor grid, I end up with a partial map, energy emissions indicating other downed craft, and a scan of minor lifeforms (mainly mushrooms).
I check my supplies and move out, I'll need to find some food or water first, then see if any of the other emission trails lead to a functioning shuttlecraft.
You detect the signatures of downed ships for hundreds of kilometers around, some on the surface, some underground. At least two signatures have enough power remaining in the emergency batteries to be recent arrivals, but some may have been here for centuries -- you detect one that is definitely an original T'varo-class warbird -- they used a particular hull alloy in that model but never again, as it proved fatally weak to Andorian weaponry during the Earth-Romulan War.
As for water, there's the underground stream coming out of the tunnel through the rock face. And before the battery died, your shuttle's computer was able to tell you that some of the mushroom species are edible and reasonably nutritious, if not exactly appetizing.
But there's no other way off this ledge than through the stream coming out the rock face.
Johnny climbs out of the wreckage and is happy to find that his grenades survived the crash. After mapping this section of the caves with his tricorder, he begins his journey towards the surface.
The rock is too rich in certain rare minerals for you to be able to scan more than about twenty meters through it. Your tricorder just doesn't have enough power to punch through the interference. But you pick up an interesting energy signature 6 kilometers into the 22-klick-deep fissure. It's consistent with what's known via the Klingons of Hur'q power generation.
Suddenly you feel a tremor and part of the edge of the cliff you're standing on fractures and plunges into the gorge. Time to move.
In addition to the underground stream coming out a tunnel on this level, it's possible for you to climb the rock down the cliff face; there's another ledge about ten meters below you with several large openings you could enter through. Which way do you go?
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
You detect the signatures of downed ships for hundreds of kilometers around, some on the surface, some underground. At least two signatures have enough power remaining in the emergency batteries to be recent arrivals, but some may have been here for centuries -- you detect one that is definitely an original T'varo-class warbird -- they used a particular hull alloy in that model but never again, as it proved fatally weak to Andorian weaponry during the Earth-Romulan War.
As for water, there's the underground stream coming out of the tunnel through the rock face. And before the battery died, your shuttle's computer was able to tell you that some of the mushroom species are edible and reasonably nutritious, if not exactly appetizing.
But there's no other way off this ledge than through the stream coming out the rock face.
I go back into the shuttle and remove the seatbelts from the seats, after a bit of work with my knife they are suitable as a rope, I lower myself into the stream and head off towards the Warbird.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though. JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
The rock is too rich in certain rare minerals for you to be able to scan more than about twenty meters through it. Your tricorder just doesn't have enough power to punch through the interference. But you pick up an interesting energy signature 6 kilometers into the 22-klick-deep fissure. It's consistent with what's known via the Klingons of Hur'q power generation.
Suddenly you feel a tremor and part of the edge of the cliff you're standing on fractures and plunges into the gorge. Time to move.
In addition to the underground stream coming out a tunnel on this level, it's possible for you to climb the rock down the cliff face; there's another ledge about ten meters below you with several large openings you could enter through. Which way do you go?
"Too bad I don't have any rope..."
Johnny heads off down the stream, trying not to get his boots wet.
I'll get it up later, I've just been juggling a lot of things.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Extan takes a quick scan of the stream to tell if the water is safe or not and then while pending the results he goes into the crevice.
The water's safe. It's been filtered through thousands of meters of rock at this point.
You emerge on the far side to find the light came from bioluminescent lichens on the walls. The whole room glitters with the light refracting off of crystalline minerals.
I go back into the shuttle and remove the seatbelts from the seats, after a bit of work with my knife they are suitable as a rope, I lower myself into the stream and head off towards the Warbird.
Fifty meters into the tunnel you find the water is cascading from a crack high above, higher than you could feasibly throw your rope. But two more caves split off from your current path.
The one to your right looks like a lava tube. It's only wide enough for one man to pass, and you'll have to bend down a little.
The floor of the passage to your left is carpeted in fallen rocks and swiftly becomes almost pitch black.
Mercenary flack jacket with belts and reinforced body plates with a TR-116 Sniper projectile rifle and a small Jemhadar heavy dual beam pistol
I'm going to give you an alternate starting scenario because I can.
You make a wrong turn while grinding Dyson marks in the Voth battlezone and come out of an Iconian gateway in a cavern dimly lit by bioluminescent mushrooms the size of trees.* The gateway shorts out and starts smelling like burned plastic; there's no way back the way you came, but this cavern is pretty big.
* If you've ever played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, think Blackreach.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Fifty meters into the tunnel you find the water is cascading from a crack high above, higher than you could feasibly throw your rope. But two more caves split off from your current path.
The one to your right looks like a lava tube. It's only wide enough for one man to pass, and you'll have to bend down a little.
The floor of the passage to your left is carpeted in fallen rocks and swiftly becomes almost pitch black.
I pull myself out of the water, adjust my cuffs and head down into the lava tubes, ducking slightly. I see some nice examples of lava pillaring as I enter.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though. JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
I pull myself out of the water, adjust my cuffs and head down into the lava tubes, ducking slightly. I see some nice examples of lava pillaring as I enter.
The passage forks left and right. You faintly hear something off to the left that sounds like "Moo."
"A great leap forward often requires taking two steps back."-Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I take the downhill slope, but keep my TR116 aimed, ready to blow the head off anything that makes a single move.
You hear someone singing, "The rock and pool is nice and cool, so juicy sw--No, hang on, is that the line? I think that's the line."
(Note: I am not entirely sure where I'm going with this.)
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
I stride towards the alien voices, figuring I'll try being nice first, then intimidation, and then eat them and take what I want anyway if they don't cooperate.
Sorry, I had to work Thursday and Friday. Trough drains are a pain in the TRIBBLE. (Probably shoulda said something, though.)
The passage forks left and right. You faintly hear something off to the left that sounds like "Moo."
That's fine, don't sweat it.
"Hmm, a moo, well it certainly sounds more intelligent than anything else I'm likely to encounter here". I set off towards the noise, a jaunty little tune in my head, and a nice new edge on my knife.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though. JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
I look down and see a slimy little creature singing and yell "I got your preciousness!"
I then proceed to expend a few rounds from my TR116 into the cave until I hear a scream. Once that is finished with, I continue down into the cave.
Sorry, people, I haven't been having good luck this week. My main computer frakked out on me yesterday; I'm posting this from my backup box. Gonna have to take the laptop up to Geek Squad tomorrow. But I'll try to be more frequent with the updates from now on.
I stride towards the alien voices, figuring I'll try being nice first, then intimidation, and then eat them and take what I want anyway if they don't cooperate.
You turn the corner and come face to face with a group of about a dozen gray-skinned humanoids a little over a meter tall, holding iron and wood tools. They stop in their tracks and go wide-eyed at the sight of you, and the one in the front screeches and raises his pickaxe as if to defend himself.
I go back the way I came and decide to the river instead.
The ground shakes under your feet and rocks come crashing down. One boulder the size of a small house misses you by a meter and another flattens what's left of your shuttle and sends it falling into the gorge. The ledge caves in under your feet but you jump to the stream in time.
I look down and see a slimy little creature singing and yell "I got your preciousness!"
I then proceed to expend a few rounds from my TR116 into the cave until I hear a scream. Once that is finished with, I continue down into the cave.
Well, guess it doesn't matter where I was going with that. I think this demonstrates the Lord British Postulate: "If you stat it, they will kill it."
Trigger-happy little <REDACTED>...
The cave proves to be a large underground lake, kilometers across. You find the bloody, bullet-riddled corpse of a goblin-like creature with a death grip on a fish. There's also a crude fishing rod (rope on a stick) and a small rowboat. Behind you and to your left is another passage.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
"Hmm, a moo, well it certainly sounds more intelligent than anything else I'm likely to encounter here". I set off towards the noise, a jaunty little tune in my head, and a nice new edge on my knife.
The lava tubes widen out into what might have been a magma chamber once upon a time. You finde a largish herd of cattle-like creatures grazing on fungi and lichens on the floor.
An arrow whizzes by a meter over your head!
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
You turn the corner and come face to face with a group of about a dozen gray-skinned humanoids a little over a meter tall, holding iron and wood tools. They stop in their tracks and go wide-eyed at the sight of you, and the one in the front screeches and raises his pickaxe as if to defend himself.
I cross my thickly-muscled arms and raise an eyebrow.
"That's not the brightest move in the world, buddy. I just want to get off this rock, but if you attack me I'll kill you."
Comments
You also find a pail by the side of the stream. It looks like it's made of some kind of reptile skin, tanned into leather, and it's anchored to the bank by a rope and a crude iron spike.
Which way do you go?
Upon closer inspection there's two ways off this ledge. You could head up the underground stream, or you could sidle your way along the ledge -- it looks like you're at the join between two layers of rock, and one has shifted backwards. Just wide enough for you to cross, and it slopes upward.
Which way do you go?
Looks like there's a couple of ways off this ledge. Underground stream, or you could try to squeeze through a large fracture in the rock face. Looks like a faint light on the other side, thirty or forty meters in. Tight fit but you can make it.
You detect the signatures of downed ships for hundreds of kilometers around, some on the surface, some underground. At least two signatures have enough power remaining in the emergency batteries to be recent arrivals, but some may have been here for centuries -- you detect one that is definitely an original T'varo-class warbird -- they used a particular hull alloy in that model but never again, as it proved fatally weak to Andorian weaponry during the Earth-Romulan War.
As for water, there's the underground stream coming out of the tunnel through the rock face. And before the battery died, your shuttle's computer was able to tell you that some of the mushroom species are edible and reasonably nutritious, if not exactly appetizing.
But there's no other way off this ledge than through the stream coming out the rock face.
The rock is too rich in certain rare minerals for you to be able to scan more than about twenty meters through it. Your tricorder just doesn't have enough power to punch through the interference. But you pick up an interesting energy signature 6 kilometers into the 22-klick-deep fissure. It's consistent with what's known via the Klingons of Hur'q power generation.
Suddenly you feel a tremor and part of the edge of the cliff you're standing on fractures and plunges into the gorge. Time to move.
In addition to the underground stream coming out a tunnel on this level, it's possible for you to climb the rock down the cliff face; there's another ledge about ten meters below you with several large openings you could enter through. Which way do you go?
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
I go back into the shuttle and remove the seatbelts from the seats, after a bit of work with my knife they are suitable as a rope, I lower myself into the stream and head off towards the Warbird.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
"Too bad I don't have any rope..."
Johnny heads off down the stream, trying not to get his boots wet.
Mercenary flack jacket with belts and reinforced body plates with a TR-116 Sniper projectile rifle and a small Jemhadar heavy dual beam pistol
I'll get it up later, I've just been juggling a lot of things.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
As you walk along the passage you continue to find signs of habitation. Discarded bones with teeth marks, a scrap of crude cloth caught on a stone.
You come to a fork in the road.
The water's safe. It's been filtered through thousands of meters of rock at this point.
You emerge on the far side to find the light came from bioluminescent lichens on the walls. The whole room glitters with the light refracting off of crystalline minerals.
Something screeches and flies at your head!
Fifty meters into the tunnel you find the water is cascading from a crack high above, higher than you could feasibly throw your rope. But two more caves split off from your current path.
The stream dead-ends at a small pool bubbling up from a spring. You can see small, white, eyeless fish in the pool. The tunnel forks right and left.
Yeah, lost cause, I'm afraid. :rolleyes:
Thirty meters in you step on something that squirms.
I'm going to give you an alternate starting scenario because I can.
You make a wrong turn while grinding Dyson marks in the Voth battlezone
* If you've ever played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, think Blackreach.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
I pull myself out of the water, adjust my cuffs and head down into the lava tubes, ducking slightly. I see some nice examples of lava pillaring as I enter.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
He screams (a manly scream, of course) and blasts it.
I take the downhill slope, but keep my TR116 aimed, ready to blow the head off anything that makes a single move.
The passage forks left and right. You faintly hear something off to the left that sounds like "Moo."
You find a broken pickaxe and an iron prybar on the other side.
You hear alien voices coming down the corridor. Can't understand them just yet, but it sounds like they're singing. Badly.
Most of the shot got absorbed by the water and you are now surrounded by a cloud of steam. But you detect a distinct smell of cooked fish.
BLOOIE!
Some sort of leathery wing bounces off your head and plops to the floor. Looks like you shot up some kind of bat analogue.
Then you hear some chirps and screeches overhead.
There's another big crevice ten meters in front of you, or you could go back the way you came.
You hear someone singing, "The rock and pool is nice and cool, so juicy sw--No, hang on, is that the line? I think that's the line."
(Note: I am not entirely sure where I'm going with this.)
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
That's fine, don't sweat it.
"Hmm, a moo, well it certainly sounds more intelligent than anything else I'm likely to encounter here". I set off towards the noise, a jaunty little tune in my head, and a nice new edge on my knife.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
He pulls out his tricorder and scans to see if it's edible.
I then proceed to expend a few rounds from my TR116 into the cave until I hear a scream. Once that is finished with, I continue down into the cave.
You turn the corner and come face to face with a group of about a dozen gray-skinned humanoids a little over a meter tall, holding iron and wood tools. They stop in their tracks and go wide-eyed at the sight of you, and the one in the front screeches and raises his pickaxe as if to defend himself.
Stick to the muscle meat and don't touch the organs.
Suddenly you hear gunshots coming from upriver. Chemical firearm, not a phaser or disruptor.
The ground shakes under your feet and rocks come crashing down. One boulder the size of a small house misses you by a meter and another flattens what's left of your shuttle and sends it falling into the gorge. The ledge caves in under your feet but you jump to the stream in time.
No way out but forward now.
Well, guess it doesn't matter where I was going with that.
Trigger-happy little <REDACTED>...
The cave proves to be a large underground lake, kilometers across. You find the bloody, bullet-riddled corpse of a goblin-like creature with a death grip on a fish. There's also a crude fishing rod (rope on a stick) and a small rowboat. Behind you and to your left is another passage.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
An arrow whizzes by a meter over your head!
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
"Dinner..."
He eats the meat and saves the rest. You never know when alien fish guts will come in handy...
On hearing the sound, he approaches cautiously, phaser in one hand and a grenade in the other.
You see a sexy female human with borg implants roasting a fish on a heated rock.
When I see you, I pick up my TR116 and mount it under my arm.
"Hello?"
I cross my thickly-muscled arms and raise an eyebrow.
"That's not the brightest move in the world, buddy. I just want to get off this rock, but if you attack me I'll kill you."