Hunting

Posted on Sat Feb 19th, 2022 @ 2:40am by Kyle Cranston & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D.

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: 276; 0800 Hours
1337 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Hefting his backpack, Kyle wanted to get a head start of looking for sources of food for some recipes. It would allow to expand his choices of what to cook for the crew. The on-board hydroponics bay had been neglected for the most part and it would take a week or so until he could get it going to full speed again. With him, he carried a knife and a phase pistol, just in case he ran into trouble, which was very likely on this planet. He turned to see the approaching figure of the ship's doctor. "Good morning, doc."

Avira stretched her back a bit, the antennae on her head hanging low and unenergetic. It had somehow been a rather long night. "Good morning," she wasn't quite sure why she was here, but she had made sure to bring her medical scanner, a first aid kit, and her plasma rifle. "What are we hunting?" She didn't remember seeing any wildlife during her herb gathering on the early days of expeditions on the planet.

"Anything that can be useful in preparing meals," he said as he started off towards the forest. "Plants, nuts, berries, fish, hell, even snake if I get one," he grinned at her. "Thought you'd like to come along since you already went exploring in the area."

"We were gathering herbs that might be helpful for medical. Didn't really keep an eye out for animals." Avira and Manishie hadn't come across any in their trek, but it might've been because they were new, unfamiliar, and loud. Perhaps if they quieted down a bit the native fauna wouldn't avoid them.

"Did you find anything?" he questioned, looking over at her.

Avira nodded. "We found some potentially good stuff. Still have to try and cultivate it in the horticultural bay." Her antennae darted around a bit trying to get a sense of the environment and potential critters being about. "So, which way to go?"

"Thought I'd head northeast today," he replied as he neared the forest. "The area looked promising when I was coming down by shuttlepod. "I'm hoping to get hydroponics up and running. Fresh ingredients are far better than the resequenced crap that I have to contend with for the time being. It'll make the food much better."

"Can you set aside a patch for herbs with medicinal value?" Avira perked up when she heard him talk about hydroponics. "Would help a lot, medical facilities are prime real estate." She checked the compass and started stepping softly in the direction indicated by the chef.

"Sure," he replied with a shrug and a grin as the two approached the woods. "What herbs are you wanting to grow?"

"We've not classified them yet, but there's some we found here that seem high in vitamins, proteins, some very interesting structures that could have medicinal value." Avira was careful to not outright mention the painkilling and anaesthetic properties of some of the things they had found. She was all too aware of the risks associated with those types of herbs and medications.

"Hmmm, sounds good," he commented, as they entered the woods. "I've heard one team had an unfortunate encounter with some monkeys yesterday, even heard there is a picture of Warrant Officer Maddison covered in purple fruit juice," he chuckled.

At times Avira felt like she was not in the loop when it came to shipside chatter and rumours. Perhaps it was because as the Chief Medical she had to keep her own distance to be able to help her patients, but there was always the uncertainty in the back of her mind that it might just be something to do with herself as a person. Her antennae perked up at the gossip being spilt, "You can't say such things without sharing." A smiled formed on her blue lips.

Kyle chuckled in response. "I believe Petty Officer Jackson took the picture, but I haven't gotten around to asking him about it. You know, it would be nice to see you mingle with the crew more often," he suggested.

Avira shrugged a bit, "I guess." It didn't sound at all enthusiastic or convincing. Her antennae twitched and she stopped stepping, "critter." She pivoted towards the source of the movement and sound.

Kyle stopped and looked in the direction Avira indicated. He heard something moving as well as seeing a brush move. "Whatever it was, it was doing a good job of staying hidden. Kyle began to move slowly towards it as he drew his phase pistol just in case. Suddenly the brush erupted as a warthog-like creature barreled straight at Kyle, bearing four large tusks. "Shit!" He jumped, leaping out of the way as two of the tusks sliced his left thigh.

The beast suddenly charging forward gave Avira a moment of pause, which allowed it to clip Kyle. She regained her composure quickly and shot the boar, hitting it directly in the left eye. The creature slumped on the floor with a dull thud. She wondered if it was normal behavior for the beast to charge, normally animals their size would choose to run unless protecting something or unless they felt threatened and cornered. She made sure the animal was actually dead, and turned to give the environment a thorough sweep, and then stepped up to the Chef. "Hold still." She knelt down next to the injured man, grabbing the medical scanner from her satchel.

"Good shot," he complimented as she sat up, looking at the painful wound on his leg.

"I was a soldier before I was a doctor." It was odd how that sentence really encompassed a lot about her life. "It seems to have missed any major arteries," Avira had realised early on with the humans that if she told them it was merely a flesh wound she elicited chuckles at best, or disapproving grunts at worst, for some sort of similarity to an ancient human comedy sketch. She had watched it a day or two before the ship got lost and the humour had escaped her. "Hold still. Let me patch you up a bit."

"At least we can have some real meat for a while," Kyle said grinning, gesturing to the hog-like creature as he got to his feet.

"How many would a creature like that feed?" They still had more than 100 mouths to feed, something like this wouldn't seem like a huge haul for a group their size.

"Depends on what I make," he shrugged as she worked on healing his leg. "Depends on if we bag anymore, I can do anything from stew or bacon to tacos or a roast. I will need to prepare it at the base camp before transporting it to the Atlantis. We'll place a locator tag on it for one of the crew at camp to come and grab it."

"Won't the local wildlife get to it?" Avi had finished up tending to his wounds and gotten back up. Shouldering her rifle again, she was not about to be caught off guard and gored by a local tusky and testy animal.

"Well, we're not too far away from the camp so they should arrive quickly," he replied as he pulled out his communicator. "Kyle to base camp."

"We hear you, Kyle. What is it?" came the voice of Warrant Officer Walker over the communicator.

"Tag my location and send some people to retrieve the body of a hog-like creature that our gracious doctor killed."

"Will do, Kyle. They'll be there shortly."

"Thanks. Kyle, out." He stood, testing his newly healed leg. "Nice work," complimented as he placed a small locator beacon on the ground by the carcus of the hog. "Shall we continue?"

"Can't feed a ship on a single wild boar." Avira checked her rifle and adjusted a setting before putting it back on her shoulder so that she was ready to shoot anything else that jumped them.

Smiling, Kyle nodded in agreement. "Very true." The two continued their trek deeper into the forest.