Chapter Text
-BRIEFING START-
MISSION NAME: Operation Exploration 06
LOCATION: ‘Illinois’, United States
DATE/TIME: 07/03/2102
PARTICIPANTS:
OFFICER THORNE ROSST (Mission lead, Delta Team Captain)
REBBZ KOLINSKY (Medical assistant, Delta Team Medic)
KAI SHIMIZU (Pilot/Engineer, DELTA Team)
AGENT COLE REED (Exploration/supplies Specialist)
Designation: DELTA Team Timeline:
Descent: ~2 hours (Active phase)
Data/Sample Collection Window: 27 days
Ascent: =5 hours (Passive phase)
Total Duration: 655 Hours 2.
Environment Environment and Hazards Conditions:
Extreme heat, immense pressure, highly corrosive oxygenated waves.
Primary Threats (Environmental):
Geological Instability: Possible increase in radiation levels, anomalies, and humanoid dangers.
Systemic Failure: Equipment exposure to Radiation and heat beyond regulation Briefing end
The systems worked fine as they continued flying through the endless void of space. The thrusters were doing their job well, shooting the crew toward Mapoth. If anything were to go wrong they’d know.
Right?
Right….?
“Is that… uh.. thruster supposed to be…” Rebbz Kolinsky, the medic, asked. Pushing away from the window to let the others see. The engineer, Kai, froze at the sight and stood up rapidly. He pushed up against the window and started panicking a bit. “Captain somethin’s wrong over here!” he alerted the captain, Thorne, who sighed. “Is it horrid or just an overreaction, child.” Thorne kept his eyes on the dashboard to steer the ship toward their landing location.
“Really bad cap..” Kai continued, going over to the back of the ship, where Cole was sitting. Cole glanced at Kai with a tired gaze, having been awoken by the ruckus they caused. He stared as Kai freaked out over the windows for some reason. Cole moved to check it out, unbuckling himself and moving toward the windows. There was only one thruster.
There are supposed to be four, obviously, sure they could have one fail and still be able to work but.. It's best if the trusters all worked together to move the ship. Cole went over to his chair and sat back down silently, watching as Kai practically cried for Thorne to get over here. Genuinely, Cole didn’t feel awake enough to deal with this currently. He stared at Captain Thorne expectantly, the Captain stood up with an exasperated glare and froze. The systems finally picked up on the missing thrusters and started alerting them of it. Thorne tried to get back to his chair, so did Kai, but heavy turbulence began as they plummeted toward Mapoth.
Cole felt a strange deprivation fall over him as he fell. The only thing he could hear was himself, and he could only feel the pressure of falling. He couldn't see anything past glimpses of consciousness, and his hearing? Forget about it. His ears hurt, it sounded like a loud dog whistle was whizzing past him, honestly overwhelming. He felt something pushing against him, was it gravity or an item? He seriously didn't know.
But he soon fell unconscious for a longer amount of time.
Metal screaming around him as his senses slowly came-to, his arm felt heavy and warm, while the rest of his body was cold, he felt a thick liquid drip past his ear and smelled the electrical burns of something fleshy nearby. His eyes heavy as he pried them open, dry and tired. His peered around as his gaze slowly unblurred-
The medic was unconscious in his seat, and the other two were somewhere in the ship. He assumed they had found a safe spot to stay during the crash. He got up to check on the medic who only had a swollen ankle, due to him having been tightly buckled during the plummet, the medic groaned in pain and glanced up to see Cole standing over him. “Report..?” He asked quietly, not wanting to actually hear it but following protocol. “Horrible. Caps missing, so is Kai, the ships crashed in the middle of nowhere” Rebbz stood up, a clear preference for his uninjured leg and limped toward the supplies on the surprisingly fine back of the ship, as the front was completely ruined. He glanced out the back window and whistled, long dirt tracks were dragging and seemed to last a bit over a mile, but Rebbz wasn’t sure, far further than they could see in the snow storm. Wait, snow? Isn't it the calendar summer season? Cole followed Rebbz to the window, adjusting his gasmask, nodding solemnly, “Yeah I saw that when I first got up.” He muttered to Rebbz, who was checking the supplies now.
They had approximately four days worth of unbroken supplies. The medical was clearly bad, Rebbez frowned. It hadn't been found in the pre-flight check? He'd checked himself, so it was unlikely it was bad before they went off… had it? The lights were off at the time so he might’ve-
“Rebbz, how's the supplies looking?” Cole suddenly asked, Rebbz stared back at the injured man with a soft frown. “Come here..” Rebb asked, suddenly realizing he wasn't doing his job. He called Cole closer and then grabbed his wounded arm, Cole hissed at the action but didn’t fight the medic. Cole's arm was sliced in multiple places with shrapnel which dug deep, perhaps adrenaline was keeping him from feeling the pain. But adrenaline would've ran through his system before he woke up… but the two of them didn't know how long they’d been out for. Rebbz sure as hell was in pain, maybe the Opet had interacted with Cole's nervous system in a way the doctors hadn't mentioned.
Rebbz had to put use of some of the contaminated medical equipment, of course, the stuff in the packaging would be fine to use.. atleast, Rebbz thought.
After cleaning out the holes in Cole's arm, Rebbz shoved one of the exploration bags into his grasp. “go fill.” he commanded as if Cole was a dog, which, obviously Cole didn't like. but Rebbz was his superior and he couldn't say no due to that. Cole filled up the two bags with enough supplies for the two of them, then walked back towards rebbz who was putting together enough medical supplies for the two of them. Once they were full, Cole returned to rebbz, shoving one into Rebbz arm and setting the other– His own, down on the ground to put medicine into it.
Cole added a few syringes full of An-25, a harsh red liquid, into the top most pocket and piled foam around them. Once everything was set. They covered themself in less than ideal coats, and walked out into the snowy wasteland. Cole led them, even though he was more injured, the medic couldn't be in front, he was too important compared to Cole. They both stopped a bit away from the ship as ash started to fall from the sky, his gas mask snug around his face, but Rebbz's medical gas mask covered only his nose and mouth. “look at that, huh..” he muttered, staring up at the darkened sky, where plumes of smoke were hovering far above them. They stayed by the ship, just in case Kai and Thorne were somehow alive. It was unlikely though.
They sat down outside the ship, a bit near a forest that was barren of leaves, the ground was squishy with ash and dirty snow. Rebbz closed his eyes, physically exhausted, Cole wanted to follow his lead and rest but he stayed awake to keep watch. Cole shuffled closer to Rebbz, sharing body heat with the sleeping man.
Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be fine to rest.
Cole was woken by cars driving past loudly, the breaks rang and even Rebbz woke up. Glancing between Cole and the car, he stood but Cole dragged him back down- keeping him from being spotted. Cole kept his hand grasped around his superior's sleeve roughly but not painfully “Don’t- Rebbz, they might be violent.” Rebbz nodded solemnly, “Yes they might but we need to get actual supplies.” “but-” Cole started, though he was swiftly interrupted by Rebbz shushing him. The car had found the shipwreck, it seems that's what they had been searching for before they arrived.
The passengers exited carefully and traveled through the tall ash, which was still falling. After a while, they arrived at the ship and left Cole's view, leaving them alone in tense silence as they waited for anything to happen. The driver exited and pointed a flashlight at the tracks dented into the ash, their footsteps. The driver grabbed his hand gun- something Cole, nor Rebbz had, and walked along the tracks, slow, weary.
It took a moment for him to arrive in the clearing, the boots of his shoes stomping through the thick ash, and his flashlight sweeping the forest shakily. When he did arrive where Cole and Rebbz were, they had hidden themselves. Behind a fallen, rotten tree. But he could clearly see where they moved due to the tracks.
“C-come out… with your hands where I can see them.” the man ordered, his gasmask muffled roughly. Cole stayed where he was but Rebbz began to move- catching the attention of the man. Cole pulled him back into hiding swiftly and kept them hidden, it hadn't helped though. The man came closer to the log, shining his flashlight at them and gasping.