----- Original Message ----- From: "James Craig" <jmcraig@sbcglobal.net> To: <chimera@ucip.org> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 10:36 PM Subject: [USS Chimera] SD240406.29 Joint log CO and WepSpec; Col Bretam and Lcpl Kilpatrick == Research station== As the blue shimmer of the transporter disappeared, He slumped a bit forward. He was able to remain on his feet but knew something was not quite right. Once regaining his balance, he stepped forward and looked around, "what happened? " He asked blindly looking for an answer. Keylor searched the small area where they had materialized and only saw four bodies waiting on him and his team, Hathaway was no where to be seen. Keylor looked over at Mercedes, she looks visibly disoriented. As he scanned the remaining faces, his eyes settled on Kilpatrick, one of the ships newer crewmembers. Keylor looked at him for some kind of answer. Kilpatrick merely shrugged, as Keylor looked at him "I have no idea what happened Sir" Keylor looked back to Mercedes and then back at Jason Kilpatrick. "Well what did it look like? It felt like was in there forever, seeing this place and then the transporter room. Then a puff of smoke and then finally, here." he barked out. HE stretched his neck to one side and looked behind Jason. "Where is Ens. Hathaway?" he asked seamlessly. Jason thought for a moment "It looked like the transporter went nuts Sir " Jason looked over his shoulder "She was behind her" Keylor looked over to where Jason motioned with his head. HE squinted and saw no one. Keylor frowned. "Hrm..." He hummed softly. "Well may be she was scouting ahead." He looked back to Jason and then to Mercedes. Jason shrugged "I don't really know Sir; sorry" Keylor took a few short paces to Mercedes, "Ensign do you have the pad with the diagram on it?" He asked. Mercedes stammered as she searched for the pad. Soon she produced it and shoved it at Keylor. Reluctantly Keylor took the pad and looked at the team she was supposed to be in charge of. Keylor then stepped over to Jason, "Here son you take this. I fear or doctor is not feeling well at the moment." <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Jason nodded and took the PADD; quickly scanning it he memorized it deep into his mind and looked to the CO "Orders Sir" Keylor looked back in to the bowls of the station. "Well we should first head to the area the survivors were last reported to be at." Keylor looked down at the pad and pointed. "We are here..." he moved his finger across the pad, " and they were there." about half way around the perimeter of the station." Jason nodded and traced out a path "If we go this way we have a longer walk" tracing a new path he said simply "If we go this way we get to the same point with less walking" Keylor nodded. "Yes, but that way we have to pass through more of the 'HAZE' that these creatures seem to exist in. I don't know about you but the less we are in the haze, the safer we will be. " He sad not commenting on how the ones attacked on the ship were still injured with no cure in site. Jason nodded "What do we know of the effects of this 'Haze'? Keylor shrugged his shoulders." I don't know corporal. Only that those things seem to come from it." Jason nodded once again and motioned toward the corridor "Shall we begin our trek?" Keylor nodded, "Aye corporal, you take point with your team I will head up the read. Keylor saw the corporal nod and then turn Jason motioned to the others in his team and they all quickly moved out. All except Mercedes. Keylor ended up grabbing her by the sleeve and pushed her in the general direction of the march. The first few minutes went without any problems, but a mere 10 minutes in to the trek, the room suddenly filled with a haze. "Hold up corporal." he called out quickly loosing sight of his oda marines in front of him. Jason noticed the bright light and hit the deck; the last time he remained upright he'd darn near got his head taken off his body he was in no mood to experience that again; looking back he could see very little through the haze but he could see the upright colonel "hit the deck Colonel" Keylor ducked in instinct to the call form in front. He had no worries about Mercedes, for the past few minutes he had been keeping her erect by dragging her along less than one arm. After taking a knee, He looked around. "What is it corporal? You see an intruder?" "I don't know for sure" Jason stated "but I intend to find out" Keylor remained on a knee and pulled out the pad from his cargo pocket. He wanted to check to see where they were. He examined the pad and realized it was not displaying the graphic properly. He set his rifle down next to him and slapped the pad with his free hand. "Darn thing!" he muttered. Keylor smacked the pad a few more times with no good results. He then looked over to check on his ward, Mercedes. He leaned in and noticed she was quietly resting against the wall. He then looked forward. "Corporal, is your pad working? Do you still have the map?" Jason reached into his pocket and withdrew the PADD "Affirmative Sir" Keylor tossed his pad on the floor and grabbed his weapon. He then began to crawl up to the corporal. Though the haze was the traditional blue-green they had reported on the ship, it was different some how. It was thin and hard to see through. Meter by meter Keylor crawled up to Jason, bumping in to a few other oda members on the way. When he got there he rested on one knee and looked at the corporal. "So where are we?" he asked looking a deep in to the haze as he could. Jason pointed to a spec on the map "About 1/4 of the way to where we should be" Keylor listened as Jason spoke. He could tell Jason was pointing at the pad but Keylor was not looking. Instead he was scanning the area in front of them for any signs of movement. "Ok since we are in this soup now, what is the quickest way there?" Jason looked down "Straight ahead........" he trailed off as he caught a slight movement in the corner of his eye "Heads up Colonel" Before he even finished his statement his weapon was up and aimed at the approaching alien. Keylor glanced over to Jason as he pointed the way. It was not even a fraction of a second that he had taken his eyes off the area in front of them when Jason drew up his rifle and aimed at some thing. Keylor reacted out of instinct. He quickly raised his rifle to his shoulder and pointed it in the same direction at Jason. Keylor saw the vapory figure approach. It appeared just as the reports form the oda team had filed about the intruders on the ship. Keylor whispered, "Don't fire until we are sure it is headed this way. We don't want a fight if we can help it." he said gripping the stock of the rifle firmly. "Understood" Jason looked at the alien and sighed, "I hate these things" Keylor did not respond. He kept his focus on the figure moving about in front of them. Not a sound came form any of the team; even the resting Mercedes seems to know to be quiet. A minute passed by as the figure seemed to walk aimlessly around the intersection of halls. Then it turned and started to walk away down a hall to the left. Keylor signaled to Jason to move out and one by one they began to quickly move forward. Keylor was the fourth to cross when he noticed movement form the hall the figure had headed. Keylor looked to his right, not noticing several figures emerge quickly form the hall to his left. Jason felt a tingling sensation in his body; quickly turning he noticed movement. Bringing his rifle to bear he motioned the colonel to move quickly. Keylor glanced up to where Jason and the others had moved to and noticed Jason once again pointing his rifle. Keylor glanced to his left and noticed many more figures heading his way. Keylor motioned behind him to hurry up his team but it was too late. The figures moved rapidly and were soon very close to Keylor. He stood up straight and firmly placed the but of his rifle in his shoulder. The figures were going to cut off the remainder of his team and that was not acceptable. HE started to fire at the closest one, "COME ON! MOVE IT!" he called to his team. Jason never faltered keeping his rifle firmly squared at the leading figure trigger slightly depressed under his finger waiting just waiting; knowing it was useless he called out anyways "Ok stop right there" Keylor fired as fast as he could, only waiting the bare minimum for the cells to recharge. He slowly moved sideways and the remainder of his team did the "shoot and scoot" across the open intersection. The shots seemed to slow their aggressors down, just as Keylor had red in reports, but slow is all it did. As the seconds passed Keylor counted a total of 8 figures having emerged from the hallway. Keylor was about a meter away from the safety of Jason's team when one of the figures darted out form behind another and cut Keylor off from his escape route. Jason opened fire and ran forward "I've not had to do S&R in a while" Catching the mysterious figure in the back with a well placed shot he watched it slowly turn "Oh shit" was all Jason said as he opened fire again peppering the figure with as many shots as he could. Keylor quickly stumbled backwards. They had been over run, even though the numbers seemed to match them up evenly. He motioned to his team and pointed back to the clear hallway opposite of the invaders. He then scuffled backwards yelling at Jason. "Continue to the last known location of the researchers. We will find a way to double back when we can!" He quickly popped open his phaser rifle and ejected the spent cartridge. He reaches back to a pocket and pulled another out and slapped it in. In seconds he was firing again. "Damn" Jason motioned his team to continue forward as he moved back peppering the figure with shots as he went. ==End log== Col Bretam Keylor Captain & Lcpl Jason Kilpatrick ODA weapons Specialist