*** Near Einhoften Complex *** The storm was fading fast to the north east and broken moonlight began to replace it through the clearing clouds. The rain, lessening by the minute, became a steady shower. "Wait" Rangi said and the Corporal leading the small group stopped to look back at her. "This is too simple" she said in a loud a voice as she dared use. "Mines at the river bank...and now clear open ground? " She glanced at Terek and Okrin."They know we're here. That explosion would have told them even if they arent already scanning us. I say we go back." Okrin could only agree. He could sometimes smell traps, that sixth sense combat vet developed, and this stank like no tomorrow. "Agreed. There must be another way to get closer to the target." Through shattered clouds, the plain leading to the compound was lit a bit by light cast by a growing moon. It cast on the ground strange shadows, which invoked various ideas. But a good thing was that the rain was not so strong and the storm seemed to fade away. When they walked a few meters into the open space, Rangi stopped them saying that it is too easy. {Well I won't argue with this, you all have more battle experience then I do so, "All right lets find another way..." said Weranis as Nejor agreed with Rangi. He looked at his tricorder on the map Rangi sent them. "Well, we could assume that it'll be probably be just as dangerous as our little intended moonlight walk, but we can try this way." And he highlighted an area where some sort of sewer flowed into the river and showed to others. "There will be probably be booby traps, but if we're careful, we could be much more covered than here." They retraced their steps Rangi feeling very aware that she wasnt making good decisions. There had been no word from Walshs team {which could be a good or bad thing } she reasoned to herself as she slid back down the bank. She took out the padd of blueprints from her bag and studied it, picking out the possible route that Terek had suggested. Handing it to Okrin and the Corporal she said. "This seems the best way." Weaver took a good look at the map, Rangi was holding, and looked up, to find natural markings to orient himself. "Sounds good, we can follow the river up to that point. I just hope it's big enough for humanoids." he said, already searching for alternatives once they all got there. Okrin looked at him. "It's going to have to do, Corporal. We don't have much choice, unless you want to try a go at open ground." "No worries sir." he replied. "I'm happy with the river option, I'm already soaking wet, anyway." Okrin nodded his understanding of him and the corporal took point again. They resumed the marching order, towards what they hoped would be a way into the complex. The older ensign took a hold of his tricorder and initiated a scan of the surroundings for life signs. What he found did not surprise him. "We better move, I have five unknown bi-pedal lifeforms headed this way with good speed." The river was a better option than the narrow bank so each waded back into the water and began to move upstream. The banks were high and gave no chance to see who or what approached them and Rangi, glancing upleft and right, half expected to see a dark shape materialise at any moment on either bank. Already soaked, Terek got himself back into the river and without a word he moved forwards with the group. Luckily the water wasn't too deep, so they reached the bottom, but as for the stream, it was wild from those monsoon rains here, their progress was slow. One good thing was that the sound of the hurrying water completely hid sounds of their movement in the stream. The water flow was pretty hard to move against, but they made good time, all things considered. The moonlight chased part of the darkness away and they could see what was ahead of them and around , up to the banks, with nighttime detail. It took a good hour to get there, but they eventually reached the complex and the sewer opening they had hoped to find. "It's good enough." Weaver said, turning back to the group, that was coming up the stream to meet him. Terek was right behind Weaver as they reached the pipe built into the high bank of the river. It was in a good height to get to it, but not so high that the raised level of water would flood it. It was covered by a grid that looked quite hard. Hopefuly they have the proper equipment to cut through. {But first things first...} thought Terek and as others were getting to the narrow pad on the both sides of the pipe's mouth he pulled out his tricorder again and scanned the area. "Hmmm... this is strange....It looks like there are no heavy security measures at all...." he mumbled for himself as all he discovered was a hidden acces panel on left side of the tube from outside. Most probably it was used to open the hatch. This looked too strange to be true. There has to be something hidden and he had to discover it, because the eyes of the group were focused on him and with every moment they remained on one place, those looks were more and more unpleasant. Now not mentioning that they could be anytime from now discovered by a patrol group. He tapped a few commands on the tricorder to switch scan mode and then again, as he discovered nothing in the thermo scans, but as he switched to EM mode that was something different. On the very edge of the measurable scale was a small increase in a high EM field frequency. Nothing too significant, but still usually those were merely fluctuations which lasted only for a few moments, but this was a constant increase. Few more taps to enhance the section, modify scan parameters to include only high band and magnify. The warning came on the screen that measurments taken in this resolution may not be accurate, but he didn't need accuracy, only confirmation. {Yes, that's it!} "I've got some interesting news here. There is a control pannel on the left side of the tube hidden...." he said plainly as he saw that evan while he was scanning they got out the cutting tools. "We could be able to bypass it and open the hatch...." The corporal moved to the panel.. "BUT, I'm picking up some strange readings in EM band, not sure what it could be, perhaps some sort of security alarm or maybe a trigger for another mine." he was thinking like hell, being sure, he saw this somewhere before, but couldn't remember. Suddenly he remembered. "I think I've got it. If I'm right, then this is special sort of alarm. Most probably it'll be installed inside the tube. It is some sort of forcefield. Nothing that would stop us going through, but when someone passes it it'll trigger alarms inside the compound and who knows whatever else." As he saw that Nejor was about to ask question about how is it that the sewer water can come through and trigger nothing he said. "I don't know how they managed to make the water pass through it, but most probably they can tune the frequency so that water won't activate it. All that we need to do is program our tricorders to emit the exact frequency in order to cheat the receptors as we'll pass." He tapped a few minutes on his tricorder and then sent the frequency to all of them into their tricorders. And now it was only matter of time when they opened the hatch and passed slowly one by one through the forcefield. "We dont have plans for this system" Rangi said "...so lets just make for the first exit leading up" and she pointed a finger to stress the direction. " Once we get above ground we can determine where we are. We'll assume too that whoever is following us will expect us to do that so lets try to keep together. Corporal..when you're ready." Corporal Weaver pushed the remains of the grill cover aside and leaning down crawled into the circular tunnel. Rangi followed him into the darkness and behind her she heard someone swear as they hit their head on the tunnel entrance. Okrin rubbed the pain away, making a face rather than swear from here to Earth. He hated sewers, just like the old training exercices he had done with the 51st in their MOUT training. Then something hit him, the light bulb sparked to life. "Why do they have sewers?" he said, he mentally slapped himself for the mistake, as his voice carried way too far in the system. He whispered:"Why do they have sewers in a 24th century installation?" The reason he asked was that recycling technology was at it's finest in this age and time. Could they be enterring a training ground for the Jem'Hadars? If so why would they have such thing, if they where to be re-educated? Crawling in the stinky tube was exactly the thing Terek always 'wanted' to try. He crawled behind Nejor and as he heard his thought about the use of the sewers in the 24 th century he gave it a thought, then whispered. "Perhaps there are some experiments running that consume great amounts of water which they don't need to anything else so if on one side they take it, then use, recycle it and return it into the nature... Or perhaps they just wanted few Bajorans and humans kept in form. Or they made it just from the goodness of their hearts to give us a chance. " Added Terek sarcasticly. Rangi could only smile to herself at Tereks reply. Up ahead the tunnel opened into a small square area,dimly lit. "Theres a way up." Corporal Weaver said, staring up into the shaft above his head. "I'll go first..wait there." and he began to climb the metal ladder attached to the wall, his boots echoing in the shadows despite his efforts to go quietly. Weaver stood and scanned the area with his raised weapon. Every roof top, window, corner he scanned, but nothing. The base seemed deserted. The surface structures at least. He returned to the man hole and waved them up. The fresh air was wonderful and Rangi took a deep breath of it as she looked around her, feeling the coolness of the wind on her face.She shivered suddenly, for her wet clothes that had seemed almost warm on the crawl through the tunnel and ascending the ladder, now seemed clammy and uncomfortable out in the open. "Its that building there." she whispered, pointing to the second structure to their right. "Thats where the computer core is supposed to be." "Alright then." Okrin said as he emerged from the bowels of the complex. Their scent alone could overpower the Jem'Hadars, he thought, and have them detected. But the good thing is to one another it would not bother them. Everyone smelled the same. He looked back, to see if everyone was following, and he saw the last marine exit the sewers. "Let's get this thing over with, shall we, Commander?" he asked Rangi. They had to ge to the core and then some. {Finally} They were about to go up. Thought Terek wishing that at least Alex was crawling in front of him, cause looking at Nejor's part of the body that usually sits on the chair wasn't pleasant at all. When he finally climbed up, he stretched his body a bit and then waited for rest of the team to get ready to go. He activated his tricorder to scan the area in one hand and prepared his phaser into the other and after shaking a bit to adjust the position of his bag he was ready as well. {Its too quiet..its too 'empty'} Rangi thought. The complex was still as a grave and the blue moonlight, shining from a clear sky now, gave an eerie light to the whole area.The small group moved quietly towards their goal and nothing occurred to give them concern except for the uncanny silence as though someone watched them but did nothing. They came to the door. "Biohazard?" Rangi whispered, reading the warning plaque and frowning at it. Okrin came to her side, as the other two marines, aimed away, keeping a watchfull eye over the officers. "Well, sure. I mean Medical research does work with biological materials..." He stopped in his explanation. "That's Chemical biohazardous materials." He said incrediously. "They wouldn't...You think, more than just genetic manipulation was done here?" He asked Rangi. She looked at the symbol and words on the door then met okrins gaze. "It wouldnt surprise me." she replied darkly. "Theres no telling what we'll find there." She turned to Terek and the two marines. "We need utmost care in here." she said looking pointedly at the Corporal and his fellow. "Dont touch anything." They nodded, only too willing to agree. *** End Log *** Ensign Nejor Okrin AMO USS Chimera & Ltjg Terek Weranis ASciO USS Chimera & Commander Rangi Summers XO USS Chimera & ODA (npcs)