Lest we forget... – Disembarking
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh HoS Matlh & Ne' Leah Vien & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Eredh Hay'legh & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Sogh Marla Varquis

Post Details

Title		Disembarking
Mission		Lest we forget...
Author(s)		HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh HoS Matlh & Ne' Leah Vien & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Eredh Hay'legh & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Sogh Marla Varquis
Posted		Fri Aug 27, 2010 @ 11:59am
Location		Outside the Compound
Timeline		1.95 hours till nightfall

The ramp from the rear cargo bay hit the dust with a loud clang. Ro’ stepped down first. His breath formed in clouds in front of his face and his boots crunched in the frosted sand. He checked his disruptor pistol and knife and looked back up the ramp for the others.

“Ha’,” he called. [Come On!]

"I reckon we've got about two hours at most before nightfall," Jared said, moving down the gangplank in a heavy padded coat, tricorder in hand. "After that, it's going to get cold out here. Like... really cold. Like... die in ten minutes cold."

Ro' pointed to the downed landing craft only 50 or so meters from the ship, “Marie, Marla. Start there. Is everyone else ready?”

Marie grunted something that might have been assent and headed off in the direction Matlh was pointing.

Marla quickly turned and followed Marie.

“Hay’legh, we are proceeding to the structure. Keep the Cloak up, and if any of those defences start twitching, get the F'Hew out. Hang tight out of the outer defence ring until we can contact you.”

Ro’ led the way towards the structure that Jared had identified as the command building. Very little recognisable form remained. It had taken heavy fire, both from orbital assault and small arms fire. A number of Surface-To-Orbit missile silos surrounded it and there were scattered Nephilim, like skeletal giants, still standing in the frigid breeze.

In front of the main door there was an erected barricade that was heavily pocked with disruptor fire as well as scouring from blades, spikes and hand to hand weapons. A scattering of flimsy armour, similar to early design Romulan wear but with more spikes and blades, lay in piles in front of the barricade as if the defenders had been attacked by the garments themselves. Very simple disruptor rifles were lying discarded as well, though the Klingons could see at a glance that even their basic Disruptor pistols was more advanced than any of these rifles.

On the other side of the barricade were three heavy metal suits, resting against the barricade as if they had been in the act of fighting off the attacking garments and decided to lie down and have a sleep. They still gripped their own weapons which seemed to be heavy calibre projectile weapons. It was impossible to tell if there were still people inside the suits. Even after thousands of years they sat as they would have on the day in battle.

Hichop just grunts and makes his way to the suit looking for a way into it. Turning it over he could see that there was no one in it. In fact it reacted in a quite unexpected way. The chest plate and face mask folded back and the limbs rolled open revealing an empty carapace. There were a number of controls and pressure plates inside.

Hichop crouched down looked closely at the armour. He reached out and pressed the palm plate.

The armour leapt. it encased his hand and rolled up his arm. the heavy suit slammed around his body and face and chest plate clipped into place sealing HIchop inside. One moment he was a crouching Klingon, then he was a suit of armour in the same pose.

Ro' leaped forward but Jared held up his hand.

"Hichop?" Ro' asked.

The suited figure stood up easily and looked at Ro'. It raised a thumb and then tapped it's helmet to show the communication system wasn't working.

"That's a hell of a system for putting armour on fast," Ro' muttered, "but it might make it easier to move through the the station if we are disguised in their armour. There are two more suits. Any volunteers?"

"Not sure I'm tall enough!" Jared replied. "They're adaptable for height, but there's limits. Plus... you know... guns..."

He gestured vaguely at the massive large-bore projectile weapon in the hands of one of the suits.

"We probably need to be getting on!"

Leah glanced around with a sharp eye scanning the horizon, the fragile crack of rock and dust echoing her every step. The cool air had hit her like a cold shower upon walking out of the ship. Instinctively she reached up to brush her hair but then vividly remembered her last encounter with Tell.

Leah had tied up her hair in very long ponytail from the top of her head down her back. It wasn't so much of a fashion choice but more practical matter. Even with a good fit the klingon uniform she now had on felt unfamiliar. If she wasn't much of a warrior she at least wanted to try and look the part.

One of the machines was leaned up against a partial wall. It was tarnished and looked badly worn, still Leah walked up and pressed a hand to the centre and with a sharp hiss the machine opened. Leah stepped in, a momentary feeling of panic made her heart leap as the machine closed around her to click closed as a coffin.

The interface flashed on between shorts of static disrupting the image screens. One thing was certain, this war machine was in critical condition. Power was available but the controls to move where a bit slow and sometimes unresponsive. It took Leah a bit to get the thing to stand, after the first attempt which tilted the machine so much it scrapped along the wall before collapsing again with her in it.

"Hell's teeth" stated Tell amazed at what she saw "That's incredible!" She was tempted to try the suit on herself and find out exactly how it worked. She took an engineering scanner out of her kit and attempted to take a reading of the battle armour, but either it wasn't working or couldn't detect anything there either way it made her want to try it all the more. "I will" She replied out of curiosity and she only hoped that it wouldn't kill her as it had killed the cat but Hichop seemed ok so far...

Rolling one of the other suits over it also fell open. Tentatively she pressed the palm plate and the suit leapt up and about her. Instantly she felt warmer, shielded from the low temperatures. She also was presented with a visual display. A HUD outlined echo of the Klingons away team in yellow, and HIchop in green. Apparently Tell's comms were working because she could hear comm traffic:

-Hold your Position-
-...can't get a clean target...-
-...Casters empty...-
-Contact!-
-...taking hits...-
-Hold your Position-
-...can't get a clean target...-
-...Casters empty...-
-Tell, Are you okay?-

The last voice was Ro's.

"W- What" Tell mumbled feeling disorientated "What did you say?"

-Are you all okay? Can you still here me?-
-...taking hits...-
-Hold your Position-
-...can't get a clean target...-

When Tell nodded to him, Ro' accepted this and signalled for the group to move ahead. Two Beq Marines took point, with Ro' and HoS behind them. Jared and the suited Tell followed with Hichop and Leah in the other two suits at the rear. The powered armour suits were servo assisted and moved intuitively. There was probably some sort of neural interface which allowed the suit to anticipate the user's intentions and respond accordingly.

Two giant Nephilim stood either side of the gaping hole in the wall that had once been the door. Once the group stepped inside they immediately noticed the change in temperature. The power and life support systems were obviously still operational, at least in this section.

"Automated systems maintenance keeping this facility going I guess," Jared commented as he brushed back his hood. "Probably Transplanar Kinetic Induction Cells powering the place. That or Solar Power. Geothermal maybe."

"Probably means any automated defences will still be operational. They shouldn't be active, but we should probably stay alert."

The corridor they were in was scoured along the walls with weapon fire and the deep grooves made by the spiked armour worn by the attackers. Uniforms and weapons were scattered everywhere.

Ro' called a halt, "This is a military installation. That means the command position will be in the bowels of the facility. We will move there first."

Jared was studying a plaque on the wall. It looked mostly decorative to the others, but he seemed to be reading it.

"Umm... Captain, I think this might be saying the top levels are the Admin complex. It's possible that I might be able to access the computer system from one of the terminals in there. To you want me to head up there and try while you take the rest down to the command section? I can still advise over the comms."

Ro' accepted his chief Science officer's advice, "Alright. Jared, Take a marine and make for Admin on the top level. Tell, Leah this level is probably general quarters and supply rooms. Look for an armoury or data point. Hichop go with them, all three of you have suits. The rest of us will head to the command centre and see if we can get a bigger picture of what is here."

"Any questions?"

"Do you really need me to take one of the marines?" Jared asked. "I mean... I'm sure Heghrup here would be a handy chap to have in a tight spot, but... well, I'm going to a vacant office building to use the computer. Not exactly demanding."

Ro' stared at Jared levelly, "Good, then you won't mind the company. You were the one whomentioned automated defences. I would rather you had someone who was willing to use a gun. Would you rather I sent Leah? No? Then get on with it, both of you."

"Oh," Jared added, "and it just occurs to me. Tell, Leah, Hichop... you might at some point get... odd voices over the comms. Nothing to worry about. Those suits buffer comm signals, so it'd just be replaying old comm chatter from the battle."

Leah nodded, the comm was already annoying as it turned on and off at seemingly random moments.