Gary lead the way thought the ventilation. After the encounter with the Kzenti guard and the assumption it had enough time to communicate the intrusion to it's comrades, Gary wanted to lead the team away from the Kzenti morgue as fast as possible. With his rifle strapped to his back and the tricorder in his right hand, he scooted through the ventilation shaft trying to find his way through the maze of ducts. Gary really had no idea where he was going. The facility was particularly hard to scan with a tricorder. Passive scans only showed vague location to power sources and bio signs. Gary had switched form his passive scans to active one. It was a little late now to be worried about the Kzenti detecting them. As the crawled through the vents, he could hear the heavy footsteps of the Kzenti down the occasional vent that lead to a hallway. But the active scans helpd. Now vague power sources were more defined and he was now able to see the vents clearly for 50 meters ahead of him. Gary had locked on to what appeared to be a significant source of power. It was not the largest energy signature in the facility, that was most likely the engineering section where the other team had headed. Gary figured this smaller but pronounced energy source was a likely spot where a collection of devices were located, either a control center or a lab of some kind. Gary could not be sure but decided some where was better than roaming the vents aimlessly. After 15 minutes or so of crawling in the vents, Gary finally reached an intersection. To his left the vent headed in the direction of a hall. After 10 meters or so it turned to the right and went up an incline. He assumed the vent crossed over the hall, but the location would put them in a perfect spot to access what looked like a small room on one side of the objective. To the right the vent moved around to the far side of the objective. Gary looked back over his shoulder to The man behind him, PFC Cortez. Gary whispered. "Pass the word, I believe our objective is ahead. Passage to the right will take people to a vent on the far side of the room. Passage on the left will take us to a room opposite of the vent. First 4 men with me to the left the rest to the right with the Captain. We can start the offensive from the room, drawing the Kzenti attention away form the vent allowing the captain and his group to get out of the vent and take positions." Gary saw Cortez nodded and! look back over his shoulder. Waiting for everyone to be informed, Gary laid down on the vent to rest. His hands were now sore from the crawling, and his left hand was scratched in several places and the minor wounds seeped with blood. After a while Gary felt a tap on his boot , it was Cortez. "Good to go Petty Officer." He whispered. Gary simply nodded his head , not looking back, and started making his way down the vent to the left. He took his time crawling in the vent for two reasons. First was to give Jack and his group time to get in to position, the second was to try not to make any noise. No matter what the room was, there wer bound to be several Kzenti there. And if they were to alert them to their location, they would loose the advantage. The vent was slippery and his left and now started to throb just a little form the scratches. Though blood was slowly seeping form the scratches in small amounts, it still made getting a hand hold difficult. After a few more minutes, Gary reached the incline in the vet, wher eit passed over the hall. {Ok slow and quiet.} Gary thought as he looked up the slope. Slipping his tricorder in to a cargo pocket and adjusting the rifle ion his back, Gary hesitated for a moment before slowly starting across the most vulnerable spot they had traversed since entering the vents. As Gary started moving up, he found it more difficult than he anticipated. There were very few hand holds, only small little lips in the meal where the sections were joined together. Inch by inch, Gary pushed and pulled his way up the incline. Just as Gary was about to start across the hall section of the vent, his left foot slipped form its foothold. A loud "Thud" Echoed through the vent. Gary winced at the slip and froze instantly in place. {Great, tell everyone where you are idiot!" he thought as he waited for some mechanical arm to come thrusting up in to the vent to grab him. The vent grew eerily quiet as all of the oda members stopped .Now just on the level part of the vent, Gary strained his ears to see if his slip had alerted the Kzenti to their presence. Through the metal of the vent Gary could barely make out voices. Though he could not tell what they were saying, the tone of the voices indicated that they had the thud. The conversation was brief and soon there was nothing but silence. Waiting a minute or so , Gary slowly started across the vent , trying not to slipp again. Vent was about 9 meters long as it passed over the hall, just enough room for about two of them to be in the tub at vent at one time. Just as Gary was about through the section og the vent, a faint pop could be heard. Thinking that gary had some how slipped again he froze once more. But this time the sound did not stopp, another pop could be heard and then another. Gary was puzzled at what the sound could be. Then it started to come to him what was happening, but by the time the thought fully formed in his mind, the floor of the vent started to move and gave way to the weight of the two men in the vent. Gary and the man behind him came tumbling down in to the hall below, the pieces of the vent hitting the walls and sounding like claxons alerting everyone to their presence. Gary himself landed awkwardly on his left foot, twisting his ankle bit and landing on his back, jamming the rifle in to his spin. Gary groaned with pain at the impact. Noises could be heard coming form down the hall and around a corner. Gary writhed in pain as he struggled to roll over and pull his rifle off his back and in to his hands. Their presence had been detected and they were most definitely in for a fight. As Gary wriggled about, he noticed a double door just a meter away form where he had landed. He figured it was the room , the objective he had picked out. {Great we are out of position and no way to tell Jack with out giving thier position away.} he thought. With his rifle in his hands , he scooted on his behind to one side of the hall. He motioned to the other man to take cover and called up to the rest of the men in the vent. "Hurry up and get down here. We have company coming." He called out will little regard to noise discipline. He trained his eyes down the hall to what appeared to be an intersection. He aimed his rifle as the sound of heavy footsteps grew louder and closer. Soon the face of a mechanically enhance man appeared. Gary squeezed off a shot , hitting the wall next to the Kzenti soldier. This mad the man stop and hesitate for a second as small particles of the wall flew about in his face. As the remainder of his team slipped out of the ceiling and in to the hall, Gary could only wonder what Jack and his team were up to. This was not the diversion that he had planned, but it still might work. With their back to the doors and their front already covered by Kzenti, they were between a rock and a hard place. He only hoped Jack would have more luck in his assault and be able to keep the Kzenti form walking up behind them. After a few seconds, Gary could barely make out the sounds of voices coming form the corner. Then as the oda were nothing more than an inconvenience two Kzenti soldiers appeared form around the corner and started marching defiantly at them. Gary repeatedly fired his rifle, shots seemingly ineffective. Gary continued to fire, hoping for a lucky shot . "Hold what you got!" Gary commented to the rest of the team now firing at the advancing Kzenti. ===End Log=== PO1 Gary Williams ODA operations Specialist