Executive Extraction Part 2

Posted on Sat Apr 18th, 2020 @ 8:49pm by Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery & Ensign Michael Sloan & Lieutenant Sovar & Lieutenant JG Mattias Constantine & Ensign Victoria Jemison

Mission: Mission 2 - Fallout
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: Day 8, Month 1, Year 0 06:30
1582 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Standing nearby, Larson silently lowered his rucksack to the ground in order to shed the cumbersome weight from his person in preparation for a potential fight. In a pinch, the motley pile of survival equipment might even work as cover, but he shook that thought away as he slid the pack out of sight. The weight of the phase pistol attached to his belt seemed to increase by the moment, but he left it holstered.

"Well," Ben's voice was barely audible over the sound of the breeze, "if there's a chance that they haven't heard us, I think we should stay out of sight for now. It sounds like they're moving towards us."

Minna didn't wait or speak, she just moved slightly to the side and crouched down into a good, covered shooting position as she brought her pulse rifle to the ready position and started scanning those approaching.

Maddison listened to the voices, gauging their distance. She turned to the others and motioned for them to fan out and get down before moving forward to act as a distraction, keeping her hand on her phase pistol as she moved towards the oncoming sounds. She just hoped if things did go south that the others would act quickly.

"The sound is bouncing." Lexi pointed out as she ducked back down as a projectile flew over her head and hit the stone ahead of her. The Ensign covered her mouth so no sound would come out. No one uttered a sound, it could have been just pot luck that something had been thrown thinking that it was an animal to something. "We need to go get him," She told them looking at one of the senior officers for guidance as the creatures that were making the clicking sounds moved closer.

With her phase pistol raised, Samantha caught movement in the thicket. Taking a knee, her eye trained on the movement. "Stop where you are and identify yourselves!" she commanded in a stern, Australian-accented voice as her finger pressed lightly on the trigger, taking up the slack. Only a slight more pressure would cause the weapon to discharge. "Another shot and we will react accordingly."

Another projectile came from the thicket toward the group of Atlantians, but this time Minna didn’t wait. A quick flick of her aimpoint and she fired, the orange color of the bolt betrayed that her particle rifle was set to the plasma setting as it hit and vaporized the rock in mid flight.

Ducking incoming fire, Martinez called out, "Watch your fire, make sure you don't hit the Commander." As he found a better piece of cover, the armory officer let out a few red beams from his phase pistol at some of the points of projectile weapon fire.

Minna said nothing as another small rock came flying in their direction and again she vaporized it with another fast and precise shot. She couldn't help herself after that as she replied "I never miss."

"Shit," Maddison cursed, half wondering why the vulcan wasn't taking command, which fell to her. She fired at the movement, pushing to her feet in a sprint as she closed the distance with the nearest clicking sound. "Push forward!" she commanded, knowing speed was of the essence to save Commander Sloan.

"Remain where you are," Sovar said sternly from his position in the foliage, loud enough for everyone to hear him. More quietly, he addressed Walker. "First Contact with sentient species is not conducted at the end of a phase pistol, Warrant Officer Walker. Nor are rescue operations carried out with 'guns blazing.' Do not fire at movement; fire at a target. Commander Sloan may be effecting his own escape."

For a moment, he remained silent and observed the crew. Terrans with energy weapons hasn't seemed like such a questionable idea until he's seen them in action, firing off wildly into dense foliage with little information about the situation. For all they knew, Sloan could have been detained over a misunderstanding by a peaceful but mistrustful species. That species could become an ally in a hostile environment, assuming no one wantonly murdered one of them.

"Take O'Connery and Martinez through the light foliage up the right flank and ascertain Commander Sloan's location and condition," he said to Walker. "If it seems feasible and can be conducted with a minimum of weapons discharge, recover him and return to the shuttle location. I will attempt to negotiate; Chang will cover me. If negotiations fail, we will lay down suppressing fire to cover your escape."

Maddison shook her head at Sovar. Last she checked, they were fired at twice despite her warning to stop. To any sentient being, that was a call to defend oneself as the team had. She turned to O'Connery and Martinez. "You heard the Vulcan, let's go."

Without another word, Sovar stepped out of the foliage and into the open along the path. He lowered his weapon while raising his right hand in the Vulcan greeting. "Greetings, I am Lieutenant Sovar of the Atlantis. We mean you no harm. We have come to recover our crewman."

The being that had been firing off shots using an old fashioned pistol stopped in shock at the sudden appearance of one of the beings. It started clicking at its companions like the crew had been hearing before it held up Sloan's communicator. "You are more like the man we found in your group? You say he is your crewman?" The man looked back waiting and wondering if the device he had been given worked with them.

Sovar raised an eyebrow as his eyes shifted to the communicator. The creature was obviously intelligent enough to have ascertained its purpose, as well as how to utilize it. That was promising.

"Correct, he is a member of the crew of the Terran starship Atlantis," Sovar said. Disclosing his rank and position might have tipped the scales too much, given the creatures more negotiating leverage, so he sidestepped that. "We view all members of our crew as vital to its efficient operation. We are suffering due to his absence and would very much like to have him transferred to our custody. Can that be arranged?"

"In exchange for what has been taken, we will agree." The Vrav said without hesitation. They were not evil, they were just trying to survive.

Sovar used only his peripheral vision to monitor the progress of the team. In his mind, he was engaging in logic gymnastics trying to come up with ways of continuing the negotiation to give the team more time without outright lying.

Lexi moved around as requested but her ear was listening to the clicking and language that the being was wanting to convey. She hoped they grabbed the universal translator as she knew Leroux would want to study it as much as her. They slipped back the group to where Sloan was tied to a chair.

Groaning, the commander looked toward Lexi. He was obviously changed, but it was hard to tell what exactly the aliens had done to him. "Time to leave," Michael said more than asked.

"Certainly is sir." The woman responded looping an arm around him hoping someone else would take the other side to support him.

Walker came up and supported her boss. "Let's move," she said. "O'connery, cover us."

"I got your back," called out Martinez as he popped off a few shots that more or less kept a few heads down. "Let's move out." The projectiles coming out of the alien weapons was almost invisible but the impacts on the nearby walls told the armory officer that he didn't want to be on the receiving end.

Lexi mouthed a thank you to Martinez as he took the defensive position whilst she carried on holding up Sloan. Walker might have been tough but it was impossible without her, the man weighed too much.

"Move out," Martinez called from his position guarding the group. "The shuttlepod isn't far, we just have to get there," he added. Before they moved, Martinez opened his comm device to send word to the other team, "We have him. Get back to the ship, things are about to get pretty hot down here."

"We will cover your withdrawal," Sovar said suddenly, which seemed to perplex the alien.

They'd been in a tense discussion about returning the algae while the team worked to free Sloan. But covering someone's withdrawal had nothing to do with the negotiation, which prompted the alien to give the universal translator some attention to see if it had malfunctioned.

Sovar took the opportunity to motion to Chang in the foliage, draw his own phase pistol, and began laying down suppressing fire as he moved to crouch behind a fallen tree among the wilderness. His shots were accurate but wildly missed the aliens; he had no desire to injure any of them, just force them into defensive positions while the team escaped to the shuttle pod.

OFF::

Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery
Comms Operator
NX Atlantis
(PNPC Leroux)

Warrant Officer Maddison Walker
Armory Officer
NX Atlantis
(PNPC Leyton)

PO2 Ben Larson
Engineer
NX Atlantis
(PNPC Constantine)

Lt. Commander Michael Sloan
Acting First Officer/Chief Armory Officer
NX Atlantis

Lieutenant Sovar
Science Officer
NX Atlantis

Sergeant Minna Chang
MACO First Sergeant / Recon Sniper
NX Atlantis

Ensign Luis Martinez
Armory Officer
NX Atlantis
(pNCP Sloan)