2nd Landing Zone

Pulling another box away and helping an Ensign up to his feet “Come on dust it off.” The Tellarite looked at the injury on the Ensign’s arm “Mmm flesh wound, nothing to be crying about. Go to the medical tent to let it be tended to. When done get back to your station” He looked over his shoulder seeing his Chief and smiled softly. “Lieutenant Junior Grade Nirech Crim, I am one of your senior security officers. So what did our dear Commander in Chief have to say?” He turned his attention to Kat.

Kat smiled politely at Crim before observing the departing Ensign.  “Not much Lieutenant.”  Despite being raised in the Highlands of Scotland she had done her best to even out her accent so as not to draw unnecessary attention to herself,  but in times of stress it had a way of slipping through. “Commander Ga worries that the wild beasties may be riled up.”

“Ahh the beasties” Nirech looked over his shoulder to the thickly grown forest. “Well we had some minor incidents minutes after the quake had happened with unknown creatures breaching our grounds. Gladly we had no injuries….they would be more paperwork for us” Turning back at Kat “Plus the fencing is broken in various locations so either we fix that, or we have one heck of a night” 

Kat sighed and glanced around, “Aye well… I suppose that’s up to us. We can’t ask the engineers. They are shorthanded enough as it is.”

Nirech growls a bit and nods. “Like the Operational Center has any priority right now, I mean it is still standing” He points at the damaged building that lets loose of another metal plate “Kinda is….well anyway what are your orders Chief?”

“Well…” Kat started, “Let’s take a look a those breeches so we can determine the extent and what we need to shore them up aye?  Let’s get an anti-grav skiff and inspect the parameter visually.”

Nodding to her and walking in the northern direction of the base. It didn’t take long to arrive at their destination as Nirech stopped and placed his hands at his side. “There it is” The basic fence setup that was used to hold back any wild animals temporarily had collapsed on various points of the base outer perimeter. “I can tell you, I ain’t no engineer, but this needs an engineer touch”

She stared at it for a minute.  She certainly lacked the skills to repair it properly.  “What about portable force-field generators?” She suggested. 

Thinking for a second “You might be onto something. It might be possible to set up small force field generators to keep them running” Nirech blinks a bit. “And attach a detection alert system to it, so we can pinpoint any wild animal trying to breach it” 

“Stun them if we can. We can relocate them with a transporter and hopefully that animal won’t be a nuisance in the future.”

“Well I know some folks will complain, but transport is down due to the impact of the quake” Nirech pointed out as he thought “But stunning down would be a thing we could do. Modify the generators to send a low-tune stun when the creatures hit the shield?”

Kat nodded, “That sounds reasonable, but if we just leave them they… well, I guess it doesn’t matter. In theory the parameter should hold and if they try to breech again they will just be stunned again.”

“If they are hitting the shields again, then we are dealing with some dumb creatures Chief. I personally do not tolerate stupidity. But if you desire them to be carried away, I can pick up some slackers to do that?” Nirech looked at her.

She smirked, “Na… They’ll learn eventually. Let’s get those generators, or it’s going to be a long night.”

Nirech smiled at the Chief seeing that she saw it his way. Stupid animals will have to learn it the hard way. He nodded “There should be some spare generators in the cargo hold. That is if the engineers didn’t snatch it already for their repairs” He rolled his eyes while starting to walk. 

She frowned realizing that the same idea could have occurred to the engineers in patching up holes in walls and roof.  “Aye well, hopefully the bloody bampots decide to actually do their wee jobs instead of being lazy suggs.”

They were not even at the storage area as a proximity alert went off. Nirech looked in the direction of the alert seeing a giant beast of at least 2 meters in height and 3 meters in length included with its tail. Trapped into the wires with his sharp teeth “Well we got the first visitor” The head was formed pointy and had 3 eyes on each side, not more giant than a small ball. 

Kat raised an eyebrow at this.   The capacity of threat was there, but was it a threat? She raised her phaser rifle and hesitated. “What if shooting the wee beastie just makes it mad?”

Seeing a part of the box fly by to the side by the amount of force of the tail. Nirech grabbed his phaser and looked at the setting “I think that it will only piss the creature more off…but you are the Chief so it’s your call” Nirech aimed his phaser and waited for the order. 

“I hate to kill it… the threat is clear.  Max setting.”  She adjusted her phaser and raised it sighting down it. As the beast closed in she still hesitated.  It was just doing what came naturally,  and they were invaders in its habitat. 

The beast rushed to their position “Max setting ready Chief”  Nirech breached himself aiming the phaser at the beast. The beast was on a wild rampage as it didn’t stop rushing towards Kat. 

Kat fired, the beam striking the hide and it barely seemed to slow it down.  She let out a series of Gaelic curses unfit for a pub on football night.

Nirech followed Kat with the firing as the beams reflected off the creature’s skin. Without a moment to lose, Nirech pushed Kat out of the way and gets hit by the creature. He flew backward through some containers and a rough growl was heard. The creature looked around, panicked, angry, and highly tense. 

Kat hit the ground, the impact knocking the wind out of her.  Ignoring the pain she took aim with both hands while still on her back and fired at the  smooth underside.  The beam burned a neat circle into the flesh and the beast screamed in pain.  Kat winced in sympathy.  

The creature growls and slide over the ground placing its claws into the ground to make a dramatic stop. Then turned its head to kat and showed its teeth and giving hisses. It was observing Kat body language and waited of her next move. 

Kat held her fire waiting for the beast’s next move. “Go away,” she whispered. 

More security arrived at the scene and gave off warning shots. The beast snaps its jaws at them but looked at Kat who was down on the ground then slowly moved away and jumped over the fence disappearing in the thick grown jungle. 

Security Officers rushed to the wounded as one kneeled at Kat side “You okay sir?”

“Aye. I’ll do,” she said still coming down from the adrenaline high. “Bloody hell was that thing?”

Nirech limps to Kat “A cruel introduction to the fauna of this lovely planet” The Tellarite smirks and rubs his leg. “We need more scientist to ID these creatures so that we can better react in a safe method on it” 

“That’s a wee bit of an understatement,” Kat replied.  “You better get to sick… the whatever it is that we are calling a medical facility around here.”

A painful laugh came from Nirech as he looked at his chief “I think you need to look in the mirror Chief, you are pretty much beaten up by that beast” Looking at the officers. “Well stop standing there, help her up on her feet, and get her to the emergency medical tent” He points behind him in the direction of the tent. Looking back at the chief “No worries, I am right behind you.”

“It’s nothing,” she protested. Sighing she saw that the others wouldn’t be satisfied until she went and got checked out. “Oh bloody hell! Let’s go.”