(G265 19/02/2016 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 46

(G265 19/02/2016 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 46

DAY 125(thu) cont...

They left the village at high speed, Kirk and Adam on a krodak each and Marion and Guyus together on a third. They rode more or less non-stop for seven hours until they reached the caves that Marion knew of. The trail they had followed led steadily back up into the chalk hills and they arrived at the cave entrance in the dark at about 2000 hours.

Kirk tried to get the krodak's into the cave entrance, but the big riding lizards were too nervous. He entered the cave and used his tricorder to scan for dangers. The only thing he detected was underlying issues with the atmosphere of the planet. There were contagions and diseases in the air that his body's immune system had no defence against. Right now he felt fine though, so he carried on.

Adam, not waiting for instructions, decided to enter the cave and start mapping it. He numbered the tunnels and caverns as he went, patrolling in as best he could, in a circle around the entrance. These mountains were evidently riddled with a vast network of caves, extending for mile after mile, a confusing maze that would have been easy to get lost in if it weren't for his computer intelligence.

In the meantime Kirk eventually got the krodak into the cave when Marion suggested blindfolding them. Since he couldn't communicate with her by any other method than pantomime he used his tricorder to investigate the jamming signals. He detected one to the north east and one further away (or possibly just a weaker signal) to the south west.

As the evening wore on Adam realised he was not alone in the caves when he heard a scream. When he tried to get to where it had come from he found he either had took the wrong way or the person the scream had emanated from had moved on.

Meanwhile, Kirk, either because of fatigue or carelessness had neglected to even look out the cave from time to time to check they had not been followed and the first he knew about the people outside was when his MATSE unit detected life signs at the entrance.

He made his next mistake when he made no attempt to communicate with the people who entered the cave, they could have just been innocent travellers after all, and he opened fire straight away.
In actual fact, it was a posse from the village, a large group of trackers and soldiers, with their sniffer-lizards.
When the first shots were fired, the krodaks in the cave bolted, badly tramping Guyus, who Marion picked up and carried further in to the caves.

In the firefight that ensued, Kirk gunned down two hunters and two soldiers, at each shot retreating a little further into the caves. There were many more soldiers though, and even if they were just using cumbersome and slow matchlock rifles, Kirk still had to activate his Personal Shield to protect himself.
He killed the last soldier with a shot to the head and hustled along Marion as quickly as he could. Going as fast as they could and firing a last shot to keep the pursuers at bay they ran deeper into the caves.
After a while they paused to get their breath back and Kirk performed some first aid on Guyus and got the poor lad back on his feet. It also began to dawn on him that there was no way he could admit to killing natives when he got back to Voyager, assuming he did at all, he would be court martialed for sure and Janeway would lock him up and throw away the key this time.

A couple of hours later Adam arrived back at the cave entrance to report his perfectly executed mapping of the caves and found the place deserted but with very clear signs of the resent fighting. Not having any way of communicating with Kirk, Adam turned on his heals and headed back into the caves.

DAY 126(fri)

At 0100 hours, more by luck than judgement, Kirk picked up another exit and a water source on his Tricorder, just a few dozen metres away. After scrabbling around for a bit in the tunnels they eventually arrived at a small cave entrance that was also home to a small pool where a spring bubbled up. They had a drink and set up camp.
Kirk settled down to sleep and set his alarm for 0600.

At the same time Adam was still moving through the caves, not lost, but not knowing where he was going either. He discovered an abandoned campsite, just a few days old, left by persons unknown. As he entered another large cavern he met a squad of soldiers coming the other direction and for lack of any better idea he surrendered to them. They lead him out of the caves and to Lord Chamris, the vulcan that Kirk had shot back at the village, and was then taken to a coach. The coach had a team of six krodaks pulling it so they made quick progress to the city.

Kirk was awoken by the alarm on his Tricorder and felt pleasant sunlight on his face as the morning sun shone through the cave. As he ate his breakfast and planned his next move he realised he had no idea where Adam was and decided the best thing to do was head back to the Caco.

Adam arrived at the vulcan city at 1000 hours, where the coach took them to the courtyard of the keep of Lord Chamris.
They disarmed him and took away everything except his shirt and trousers. He was lead into a high windowed hall and interrogated by three richly dressed vulcans.
'Where is your ship?'
'What are your objectives?', they asked. Adam only told them that he was here to look for a Katric Arc.
Some food and water was bought for him, but he refused it.

At 1100 Lord Chamris and the three vulcans were joined by another, extremely well dressed lord. From what they talked about Adam gathered that the Cacophony had already been located by trackers in the mountains.

At 1200 Adam was put in a cell guarded by six vulcans armed with pikes. He shut his eyes and began some diagnostic and repair routines to remove corruption from his systems. For some reason, despite there being no evidence of it, Adam thought Kirk had also been captured and was content to just wait for the situation to resolve itself.
He also received a message, a short blip of subspace data, from the Cacophony, confirming that they had been discovered and that a dozen or so soldiers had just arrived at their location.

While Adam cooled his heals in prison Kirk travelled on foot with Marion and Guyus. He managed to make decent progress west over the chalk kills and then north up the next valley towards the mountains where the Cacophony was. Using his Tricorder for a map they eventually stopped at a wooded area and spent the night there.


DAY 127(sat)

At dawn Kirk woke once more, his second night sleeping rough, and they made their way north once more. Now their luck ran out though. As they approached a partially dried-up river a patrol of riders came out of a line of trees and spotted them from about half a mile away and turned to intercept them.
Looking around Kirk also noticed, high up on the hills to the north, the tiny specks of five or six figures right on the ridge line of the way they needed to go.
'How am I going to get out of this?', he asked himself.