Problems of the U // Team 9's Feeling Fine!

[tanteiotaku]

The last place he wanted to be when the earth shook like that was underground. But maybe, just maybe, after that first shake that was all they were in for.

It was not to be. As the world came down around them, he ducked and covered his head. Through the dust and falling rocks, he didn't see that fairly sizable stone coming down toward him. He let out a shout of pain when it made impact. He rolled over onto his side and scrambled away from the rock, in case more were coming. Fortunately, it was a glancing blow. A stone that size could have hurt him a lot worse if it had hit him squarely.

He stayed curled up until the shaking stopped, and the last pebbles settled. He patted his vest. It didn't seem like anything critical had been damaged.

Time to see how the others had fared. He called out to the room at large. "Oi--ow!" he wrapped his arm around his chest. Okay, that really hurt. The black of his vest and pants was muted by the settling dust as he pushed himself to his feet. "Everyone alright?"

He had someone else to check on, too. He pulled out the Stag Phone, jabbed a button and put it to his head. He was rewarded with a loud, shrill shriek and he jerked it from his head. Okay, that was weird. He started pushing pseudo memories into it, the flying blue Bat Shot, and the skittering yellow Spider Shock. "Go find anyone else in trouble," he told them.

While he did that, he experimented a bit with breathing in a way that wasn't painful while he looked around the smaller space that had been the large main room. Nothing but rocks. He took a few steps around the rock that had wounded him. "Anyone else out there?"

Comments

[dreams_dont_die]

For a moment, Dylan thinks he's going to be able to keep his feet. That's one of the advantages of being a Heavy Worlder -- though his genetics are designed to withstand high gravity, they also give him a solid basis for keeping his feet. He makes it through the first tremor, every sense he has suddenly on alert, but there's only a moment before it starts again.

This time, not even a Heavy Worlder can stay on his feet as the world lurches around them. He gives a shout as he falls to the ground, rolling to (mostly) avoid a rock that glances off his back, partially deflected by the heavy material of his coat. Rocks and dust are falling and everything's shaking, too unstable to even try to get up, so he just drags himself across the cave floor, towards one of the walls where a narrow tunnel mouth gives him something to brace against, hunched in the entranceway as rocks crash down somewhere further along the tunnel. His shoulders press into the rock behind him so hard they hurt as he tenses, pressing his hands into the ground to brace himself.

Somewhere in there, something dashes against his face, leaving a smear of blood after it, but he barely registers it in the sudden thrill of adrenaline. The whole cave he'd been in is full of dust and falling rocks and the massive rumbling that sounds like half the cave complex is collapsing.

In that way that time has when too many things are happening -- except the one time it really should have seemed that way, when apparent moments had lasted three hundred years -- time seems to slow, survival instincts his crew say he don't have kicking in to make him alert, aware, for moments, minutes maybe, that seem to last far too long.

Finally, the chaotic noise dies away, the echoes of a last few rocks falling in the cave its last remnant.

Dylan lets out a long breath, which turns out to be a mistake, because the air's now so choked with dust it's hard to take the next one, and pushes slowly to his feet.

The lights have gone out.

He reaches under his coat with one hand for his lance, tapping his comms implant with the other.

"This is Dylan. Report."

But what had been meant as a message to his crew gives him a sharp squeal of static as well, and he has no idea if the message even got through.

A voice calls out from the cave, and Dylan ventures cautiously back out into the open, turning the dial on the lance to activate the light source.

He holds it out in front of him like a beacon, the light it casts dim in the dust, but at least it's something.

"Yeah. Anyone else? Anyone hurt?"

[waco_jim]

A middle-aged cowboy half-hobbles over to the man with the makeshift lantern. In one hand he carries a Colt Peacemaker. In the other, he's holding his bloodied nose.

"Nah, I just got my ass kicked a little is all."

[dreams_dont_die]

"Jim?"

That was the man's name, wasn't it? The guy with the fruit. Who wasn't from Texas.

He didn't recognize the first voice that called out, but it at least means there is at least one other person here.

Damn. Where are his crew? He saw Tyr down here in the caves, but he hasn't seen Harper since the surface. And there are other people he knows who came down to the planet, including Rhade.

Why aren't his comms working? He's flying blind here.

Still, Jim and whoever had called out earlier makes two people here and capable of speech. Dylan turns the light of his lance on Jim. A little bloodied and battered, but he looks okay.

Damn, he should have brought his bracers.

"Good." He winces as he steps forward; that rock to the back hurt more than he thought it did. "We better see if we can find anyone else."

[waco_jim]

Jim nods. "That's me."

He gestures at the ground in front of them. "You've got the flashlight. I'm thinkin' you lead the way."

[awol_redranger]

Andros had already tried his own communicator with about the same result. It gave an angry beep and static,and the young man swore at what looked like a watch that couldn't tell time. He just hoped it hadn't gone off on Billy or Adam's end and blown their cover.

Picking himself up and dusting off, Andros looked around. Trapped. Why was it you could never teleport or communicate when you needed to? Billy needed to upgrade these when he got a chance. Assuming he wasn't dead.

"Okay here. How's everyone else?" He looked around, trying to get a headcount as to where the rocks had fallen and split them all up. Or, if the rocks had fallen on anybody.

[dreams_dont_die]

There's another voice in the distance, off to one side, in a different part of the cavern. In the big cavern that was the main part of this complex, there's the glow of light, maybe some sort of emergency light that doesn't reach to Dylan.

The new voice sounds young, though, and after a moment to check that there's nobody else around him, Dylan starts to make his way over there.

Without any equipment, he can't tell if there's anyone trapped under rockfalls who he can't see, but there's nobody visible, and he checks the piles of fallen rocks as best he can as he heads over towards the voice.

"I think we're the only two around here." His lips tighten. "That I can see, at least."

Which means if there is anyone, they're probably beyond help.

[awol_redranger]

Andros likewise couldn't see any moving rocks, rubble, or hear anyone needing help. And without any kind of medic, well if anyone was caught under those rocks, they probably wouldn't survive.

"Right. We're going to need to start moving rocks as best we can, find some supplies--water, food. There looks like there's some tunnels over there. Someone might be caught up in them--or they might be a way out. We should split up."

It totally didn't occur to Andros that he might not be the leader in this situation.

[waco_jim]

Jim's feet aren't exactly stable even before the ground gave way beneath his feet. But he's familiar enough with this scenario to know exactly what's happening. Or at least, to think he knows exactly what's happening.

"Mother of mercy, it's the Big One! Every Angeleno for himseEEEEEEEEEEEEElf!"

An avalanche of rubble, loose drywall, and dust carries him down, rolling and sliding down a steepening slope as he struggles for balance atop the moving scree. It's not until he's tumbled over two piles of boulders and taken a rogue pebble to the nostril that he remembers that he isn't in Southern California right now.

With a drunkard's grace honed from years of practice balancing with no legs under him, he skids to a stop feet first, slowly coming to a rest before a jagged boulder that would surely have split his brains open like a rotten cantaloupe.

Jim rolls over onto his side. His nose is bleeding. His knees are scraped. His bruises have bruises.

"Owwwwwwwwww."

He very badly needs a drink right now. He pulls his flask out of its pouch. It is still full and intact.

[tanteiotaku]

There was enough dim light with the emergency lights for Shotaro to pick his way over to Jim. "Hey, take it easy. Did you break anything?" He crouched next to him.

But he still had Philip to check in with. He reached into the back of his vest and produced the Double Driver. He wasn't terribly worried about questions at this point. He would take them as they came. He held it over his waistline and the belt itself seemed to fling out from one side and go around him to the other.

"Hey, Philip, you okay?" Sure, he looked like he was talking to himself. He never did get the hang of keeping the talk between the two of them in his head.

[decideformyself]

The voice that responded in Shotaro's head -- inaudible to any but him -- sounded relieved. I'm fine. Where are you, Shotaro?

[waco_jim]

Jim works himself up onto his knees, keeping private inventory of his structural integrity as he does so. There's nothing quite like a tumble over hard, sharp rocks to sober a man up.

"Everything seems to be in one piece, more or less. Mind you, I ain't exactly in marathon shape."

His brow furrows.

"Is this some kind of test? I remember my own name, okay?"

[aehallh]

Everything happens more quickly than even Irian can track. One moment she's walking through one of the underground passages, casually inspecting one of the cave paintings on the wall, and the next everything starts to fall down around them. The jolt and buck of the earth throws her off her feet; she falls against a nearby wall, catching herself on her hands. For a while, the roar of sound as the cave starts to collapse blocks out everything else.

When she's aware of herself and her own senses again, she realizes the area she was standing in is completely dark. Irian pushes herself up straight, gasping a little at a twinge of pain in her ribs — something must have struck her, though she doesn't remember it. There's wetness running down her neck, and a sting of pain when she puts her hand there: a shallow graze just under her jaw, superficial, but just enough to bleed. The air is thick with dust from the collapse, and an attempt at a deep breath results in her descending into a momentary fit of coughing, probably loudly enough for anyone else in the area to hear. She checks her belt with one hand: her plasma pistol is still there, which is a relief. Perhaps she may need it soon.

This was supposed to be a diversion. A — what's that human idiom? — 'field trip'. Why did she ever think it was going to be that simple?

[dreams_dont_die]

The sound of coughing draws Dylan's attention as he's picking his way through the dust-filled air towards the centre of the cave. He's moving slow, force lance held out in front of him, the light it sheds made hazy by the dust but better than nothing. Parts of the cave seem to have some emergency lighting, and he's headed slowly for them, but he's looking around, calling out for survivors and cursing himself for not thinking to slip one of his bracers into his pocket.

The scanners on those things could have told him where to look for others trapped here with him, but because he wouldn't need to communicate via video-link, wouldn't need the intelligence files, wasn't expecting trouble, wasn't on a mission, he didn't bring them.

Still, he's done this sort of thing before. Just not from the inside. Humanitarian relief missions were always a big part of the work of the High Guard, and he does them even now.

When he hears the coughing, he stops, turns, slowly, trying to locate the sound in the darkness. He holds the force lance out so the light shows, clearly, where he is in the dark.

"You okay there?"

[aehallh]

The beam on Dylan's force lance sweeps across the rubble-filled cave, catching Irian in its glow. She coughs a couple more times, experimentally, clearing her throat, before pushing herself a bit gingerly away from the wall. A thin layer of dust coats her clothing, her hair is halfway out of its ponytail, and there's a rivulet of emerald blood running down the left side of her neck, but she looks alert, conscious of her surroundings.

"I'm well," she says, dismissing his concern in the brisk manner of someone unused to, and disliking, showing weakness of any sort in front of strangers. Her voice is raspy, and she tries swallowing to moisten her throat, though it's fruitless at this stage.

"Perhaps I should have anticipated something like this would go wrong."

It's not self-deprecating, not really; she's cursing herself a little for not having had the forethought to bring her tricorder, which would have been immensely helpful in a situation like this one. But her words are more an ironic reflection on the fact that not even a seemingly uneventful tour like this can go by without something disastrous happening.

[dreams_dont_die]

The beam of light from his force lance catches movement, and he takes a couple of steps closer. It's the woman he'd been talking to earlier, Commander t'Aumne. She looks a mess, but he probably looks about the same, smeared in dirt and with a trickle of blood smeared down his cheek from something hitting him in the cave in.

"Yeah. You and me both."

He's the damn captain. It's his job to be ready for things like this. If this had been a mission from the Andromeda, he'd have scanners, video comms devices, maybe even some supplies. Now, he's got the force lance and that's it. And a comms implant that's giving him nothing but squeals.

And no sign of Tyr who was down here and would surely have reported in when he called out, comms or no comms, or Rhade of whom the same could be said (since Rhade is apparently on his crew in the future he's from).

His crew members occasionally like to tell him that the universe hates him and that he should be prepared for that. Usually, he glares at them and points out that attitude doesn't get them anywhere. But he's also usually prepared for things to go to hell in the middle of whatever he's doing.

So much for always having a plan b.

"There anyone else in there with you?"

Team meeting here!

[tanteiotaku]

Now that they had an idea of the lay of the land, and just who all was in this particular area, they needed a plan. Some kind of way of getting out of here. As well as all of the others. Shotaro wasn't going to get whisked light years and centuries from home just to die in a hole in the ground on some planet he's never heard of, and he was sure no one else was either.

Stag, Bat, and Spider were still wandering around, on orders to look for anything alive or a way out. It was time to pool resources and knowledge. The small group of scientists they'd unearthed were busy assessing just what kind of damage had been done. But otherwise there was a knockout of an alien woman that might actually knock him out if he ever said anything, a severe ship's captain that looked like the only one with the good sense to bring a flashlight along on a mining adventure, a drunken cowboy with a very strange sense of humor, and this long-haired kid that looked like he'd rather be anyplace but dragged into this circle intended for plan-making. Attitude could be dealt with. At least no one was panicking.

Shotaro may as well get this started. He adjusted the angle of his fedora back a bit, and let his hands rest on his hips. He displayed no shortage of scrapes, cuts, and small tears in his shirt and pants, but looking around, that seemed par for the course. "The good news is that I've been able to contact my partner topside. I told him everyone that's down here, and what our status is. The bad news is that it's much the same up there as it is down here.

"So, unless someone has a teleporter in their pocket they can share, we'll have some digging to do so the elevators can move whenever they get power back on." Because that was absolutely something that was going to happen. Philip was up there.

Re: Team meeting here!

[dreams_dont_die]

"How'd you manage that? I tried to contact my crew and I got nothing." He's blaming the fact that his implant just squealed instead of passing on his message for that. "You hear anything about who's up there? I know I've got people I want to know about." The others may well, too, and he throws a questioning look around the circle; surely some of them must, as well.

Harper. Tyr. Hell, even Rhade. The people he'd met earlier in the day, others he's spoken with whom he saw up top. They'll all have been caught in this. Tyr and Rhade, he's less concerned about. Nietzscheans are born, genetically engineered, survivors. Harper, though ... Harper made it off Earth with his vaunted survival skills, but Dylan's not sure that extends to earthquakes.

(He's just gonna hope Harper's experiences on the World Ship made visiting the caves seem an unappealing prospect.)

"I can help with the digging. This isn't my first earthquake relief. And I'm--"

There's a fraction of a moment's hesitation as he stops himself saying a Heavy Worlder, mindful of Julian's warnings about the reaction people in this world might have to genetic engineering. It's almost seamless when he corrects himself to say, "a lot stronger than I look. "

For a guy who's well over six feet tall and broad-shouldered, that's saying a lot.

He lifts the force lance, letting the light shine in the direction of one of the rock falls.

"We're going to have to be careful." He gives the ceiling a skeptical look, eyes rolling a little upwards, lips pursed. "It'd be pretty easy to destabilize something and make things worse."

Re: Team meeting here!

[waco_jim]

Jim tightens the cap on his flask and holsters it. As much as he needs it, he knows it wouldn't exactly inspire the confidence of the group if he were

"Keeping everybody alive and not fucking things up should be priority number one. I've been in a lot of holes in my time. Easy to sink lower when you're at the bottom. And it ain't gonna be us who fixes this in the end."

He glances about the cavern.

"Having said that, I'm a grown-ass man. Point me in the right direction, I can pick up a few rocks.

Re: Team meeting here!

[awol_redranger]

Okay, see, Andros totally had a teleporter on his wrist, but he wasn't letting them use it. And he already tried, it didn't work.But he kept his eye on Shotaro. Obviously no one could contact anyone electronically. Dylan hadn't had any luck and neither had he. So that left...telepathy? The man didn't look Kerovan. Andros reached out to try to touch the others mind, get a connection. But whatever it was, it wasn't telepathy. At least similar enough to his Kerovan training and abilities.

"Let's do it. There might be some people out there who need our help. And the elevators. We can't afford to keep them waiting."

Shotaro and Dylan

[tanteiotaku]

He could hear his partner sighing in the back of his mind, already knowing that talking him out of it would be futile. Sure, he probably had a cracked rib or two, but it was something he'd fought through before. That didn't keep him from wanting to break through these rocks to get at the people trapped on the other side.

He'd rolled his sleeves up in a meticulous way, even if the shirt was already spoiled by dust and rips. Old habits died hard. He had his hat on its clip on his belt as he worked, swinging that pickaxe as vigorously as he dared. Both out of concern for the integrity of the surrounding cave walls and of the rest of his rib cage.

"Haaaah~~" he breathed, dropping down onto a rock. He took a few deep breaths. "This is worse than being an old man..." Yes, unfortunately he had that experience.

Re: Shotaro and Dylan

[dreams_dont_die]

If this were the Commonwealth, hell, even if this were the Long Night, if this were his world at all and he had his ship at his command, this would be easier. They'd be prepared. The Andromeda has all the gear needed for earthquake relief. Probably the Enterprise does, too, from what he knows about Starfleet.

Damn, what he wouldn't give for his crew right now. Tyr -- hell, probably even Rhade, if his future self's apparent trust in the guy is justified -- would be really handy right now. So would Rommie. Yeah. An android would be really handy right about now.

What he's got, though, is the group he was stuck here with, and the mining equipment they managed to find.

Dylan's studying the blockage in one of the exits from the main cavern they're in, contemplating the practicality and potential risk of using the overload settings on his force lance to try to blast some of the rock out of the way.

Just here, he thinks it's too risky.

The kid who'd called them all over to plan their attack has been digging, while Dylan stands by with a pickaxe in one hand and his lance in the other, the light source shining on the pile of rocks in front of him.

Dylan turns at the sound of his complaint and, frowning, takes a couple of steps towards him.

"You okay?"

Re: Shotaro and Dylan

[tanteiotaku]

The Denden Sensor would probably make this easier. Maybe using it to look for infrared would find hot spots where a focused bit of picking could make the clearing easier. A shame Q couldn't have grabbed it for them. Or, for all he knew, it was squirming its way around some obscure corner of the Enterprise.

This guy reminded him a bit of Terui, especially at first, but without all the revenge. Probably. But he was definitely a capable kind of guy. Cool heads are a bonus in a situation like this. It was likely they were going to be here a good long while, unfortunately.

He smiled a bit abashedly when the light rounded on him. "Aah, it's not a big deal." In the grand scheme of things, it probably wasn't. What was a couple cracked ribs under miles of earth? Or. Did they call it earth when it wasn't on Earth? "I've had to do more than this with worse."

After breaking out Team 6 - Shotaro and Rory

[tanteiotaku]

Well, that was quite satisfying to say the least. They'd accomplished something, that was for sure. He couldn't help but grin, despite the overall circumstances. They had somewhat more ressources to pull from now, and now it was on to the next part of the plan: getting out of here.

A dull ache had set in across his ribs, starting from where he'd been hit in the initial collapse. He wrapped an arm around himself again, and took a break on a boulder to catch his breath. He so far hadn't volunteered that he needed any care, preferring instead to let Rory worry about Sinthia. She needed more help than he did. He leaned back against the wall. Generally, he moved fairly normally except for the odd stab of pain if he breathed or twisted wrong. Perhaps a nap was in order. What time was it anyway?

[rorypond]

Sinthia will be all right. She's a willful girl, and a child, besides. Kids were always far stronger than adults usually give them credit for. Besides which, Rory had done as much as he could for her under the circumstances; the rest is up to her.

So now, wiping his brow, Rory does a quick assessment of the rest of those who'd become trapped in these blasted caves, before spotting a familiar face. A familiar face who looks to be in some amount of pain.

"Shotaro - hey. Are you all right?"

[tanteiotaku]

He smirked up at Rory. He figured it was kind of inevitable. "Yo, Rory." He waved a bit. "I'm all right. I've dealt with worse." He tried a chuckle. This backfired when he flinched again.