This is the Perfect time to Panic!

Posted on Mon Mar 24th, 2025 @ 12:44pm by Captain Luka Mahone & Lieutenant Commander Lylja Tigerlilly & Lieutenant Commander Sofia Nikedoros & Lieutenant Alan Harrison & Shea Voran II & Cornelius Warner MS

1,960 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Terrorpin
Location: The City
Timeline: Just before the emergence

The scream of a siren sounded through the streets of the Colony as Shea sped through in an old Jeep with a flashing blue beacon on a pole. She slammed on the brakes, turning a corner sharply at the intersection she had told the base she was heading for to meet up with whomever Starfleet sent to respond to ... whatever this was...

Pulling the brake she huffed and killed the engine, glancing at the poor farmer beside her before hopping out and motioning toward the group of Starfleet Officers she had spotted rushing into the area. "Which one of youse in charge?" She snapped, holding open her leather jacket to show the badge and pistol clipped to her belt.

Master Sergeant Anya Volkov turned to look at the rapidly approaching woman, narrowing her eyes at the badge before rolling them. The Marine leaned towards the left and spoke into her comms mounted atop her rigging. "Captain, I got a civie cop here looking for you."

"Of course you do," the system chirped back, the vaguely annoyed tone of Rhys Dunnel coming out. "Send them through to the tent," he added, stepping out from where he was under the hastily constructed investigation control centre. Clad in infantry gear, Captain Dunnel waved the person forward.

The Master Sergeant offered a head tilt towards the tent. "Captain'll take care of you."

Lylja was setting up a comms relay when the Marshal rolled in. She was on the verge of stepping forward when the Master Sargent intervened, so she went back to her work.

Alan had yet to meet the newly arrived Marshal but now was hardly the time for formal introductions. He stood back to watch the impending interaction.

Shea gave a nod to the senior NCO, heading for the indicated officer, pulling out her tricorder. "Captain." She greeted, opening it.

"Where did you say the Captain ran off to? Well get her back to Command!" Helena rounded the corner, wearing a uniform that, while it was in her Starfleet gold, reflected in the light to be much brighter. Around her waist was a pack that would hold all the basic essentials for assistance in search and rescue. She looked about the gathered members, before zoning in on the Master Sergeant. "Got most of the civvies in the area evacuating out of the colony toward Command. Seems to be the farthest location, and it'll be easiest for us to move 'em if it turns out not to be."

Irritation with the growing gaggle of Fleet types, the Master Sergeant instead offered a slow nod, thinking over herwords carefully. Somewhere a grizzled old Warrant Officer was waiting for her to run her mouth and get the joy of busting her ass for a short while. Landing on being polite instead, she jutted her head towards the tent. "Officers are gathering over there."

Hearing the shout, Shea glanced up at the gold-collared Officer, motioning her to join them. "Over here, Lieutenant." Looking back at her tricorder, she brought up the scan she did of the 'rock' in the field. "I found the source of our earthquakes. About an hour ago I responded to a complaint from a local farmer; she had some sort of object in her field, about three klicks east of here. It was most definitely not a meteorite or boulder pushed up by the quakes. Take a look..." She turned to show them. "... damn thing was organic, and it extended a good hundred meters underground. That's as far as I scanned before I decided to call for backup. ... then it woke up." Looking from one officer to the next she summarized her report: "I don't know what it is but it's big, and it's cranky..."

Helena, for her part, did not seem to be paying attention to Shea as she looked over the woman's shoulder. In the distance, she could see the offending 'damn organic thing' rise over the scape of the outline of the farmlands. "... Would you say it's a giant turtle maybe?"

Shea blinked down at the tricorder; "Uh... Yeah, why?" She turned and blinked in the direction she was looking at. "Oh..."

Lylja paused as she watched the huge shape move. "Well, there is something you do not see every day." She had already unclipped her tricorder and started a scan while tapping her combadge. "Ops central, lock on my location and run a deep lifeform analysis in the surrounding three kilometers and do it right now."

Hearing the ruckus, Sofia dashed out of the Chapel and turned to look where everyone else was looking. The enormous bulk moved and something like a head lifted issuing a sound like a deep groaning growl. At a flash of memory of Deorna and the monster ravaging Edossa, she crossed herself, whispering "Behold now behemoth..."

Shea broke the shocked silence by looking down at her sidearm. "I've seen a lot of strange things in my 30 years in Starfleet... THAT is a new one. Now I wish I brought a bigger gun. Someone please tell me we have a Starship in orbit."

Lylja linked her scans to those coming it. "That is one big creature. Its muscular-skeletal structure must be fascinating."

"The Atala is away," Helena stated plainly, "And it is very likely we won't be able to just 'shoot it dead' without the ire of most if not all of our scientific community here. Or at least the ones who have had too much coffee today." She stared up at the beast as it seemed to find its bearings, slowly rising onto its hind legs. "... I don't even know if any of us have a big enough gun to deter it regardless."

Captain Dunnel looked at the mounting situation taking a half second to scratch at the stubble that threatened to darken his face. It was one hell of a big beasty that was climbing its way into view. Reaching forward he grabbed his coffee cup and took a swig, looking over at the gathered marines who had collectively raised their weapons. It was instinct, had he been holding something he might have had the same reaction. Instead he flipped his comms live to the Marine command centre. "Marine Command, Reccy One Actual. I have some form of creature that has broken through the earth and need to lure it away from civilian occupied territory. Requesting a flight of birds for ground fire. Laser designation code is-" he waved towards a nearby Marine who nodded ready to key in the sequence "- One-Niner-Eight-Eight-Bravo. Requesting phaser pass for distraction, over."

Regardless of the no doubt confusion that had broken out at the Marine Commander Centre the response came back calm as a midnight lake. "Reccy One Actual, Marine Command, flight of Valks headed your way, one minute to target, over." Not a moment later another voice cut through the comms.

"Reccy One, Kilo One-One, we are vectored to you Captain, over."

"Kilo One-One, Reccy One Actual, lights are live, danger close, say again danger close," for the first time in the interaction a slight stress coloured the Marine's tone. "Friendlies marked with green smoke, four hundred meters from creatures position, civilian and Fleet present. Your mission is to lure it away from this location, over." He pointed towards another Marine who had already tossed the smoke canister, a cloud of vibrant green growing away from the centre quickly. The Marine who'd punched in the code raised his rifle, the laser on the bottom barely visible in the daylight but feeding information on strike location back to the datalink with the fighters.

"Danger close acknowledged, Kilo flight approaching low for fire effect, hit the deck, beginning attack run now." The unmistakable sound of Valkyrie fighters screaming closer and closer filled the air.

"Take them to the dirt," Rhys yelled to his Marines, each of whom grabbed the nearest civilian or Fleet person near them and with little ceremony began slamming them to the ground to cover them as the two fighter craft passed overhead. Rhys' own hand found Shea's collar and he tossed her to ground ducking low to cover her as the two fighters passed directly overhead, their Type U phasers opening up in quick succession on the creature. Another two passed a second later doing the same, all four banking wide around the beast and darting away towards the mountains, further from civilization. Plan was rather simple, draw whatever this was in a direction it could do less harm, and if necessary the Marines could hit a lot harder in the future.

Lylja nimbly avoids the marines, "I'll take my chances," she said bounding to a high point to keep her scan running. "We need all the data we can get on this big boy."

Acting on experience, Sofia had dropped before the closest marine could grab her. Unfortunately, he hadn't expected that of a chaplain and barely avoided landing right on top of her, though an arm came down heavier than intended across her back.

Oof. "Sorry, ma'am."

"It's alright," she assured, rolling aside to rise and dust her clothes off. "You had no way of knowing this isn't my first kaiju."

Shea had hit the dirt almost the same time the Captain grabbed her, covering her head as the fighters screamed overhead on their run. She waited patiently for the fourth ship to pass overhead before looking up. "Damn, I missed that sound." She got herself upright, looking toward the creature. "..."

Without saying anything she ducked inside the Marine's tent and stepped back out a second after, viewfinder raised to her eyes scanning the creature. "Good Hits... Damn that thing's got a thick shell. The 5-U's barely scratched it." She handed Rhys the viewfinder. "If its got a feral mind like I think it's curious about the city. Doesn't know what to make of it so it's sniffing around, wondering if we're trouble or not. Might need another Gun Run; associate him sniffing the city with the fighter's stings. Like a Terran insect nest."

The large creature in question turned towards the pesky fighters, following their trail with its gaze. A pair of billowing, deep red clouds of smoke expelled from its nostrils. But then the sounds of the creature stomping off echoed through the air.

"... If it's the only one," Helena pointed out flatly.

Lylja watched it go. "We have to loop science in on this. These readings . . . well. It is phenomenal." She hopped down from her vantage point. "Mineral-organic hide, its bones must be some sort of biometallic matrix, just amazing."

Shea growled softly in the back of her throat. "Does anyone feel like panicking? I feel like we should be panicking..." A beat and she headed back to her Jeep. "We should continue the evacuation. Buy time for Sciences to do their stuff. Just in case, in the meantime... I'm going to go get a bigger gun." She paused; "... We got a facility here with Industrial Replicators?"

"Maybe not shooting too much at it before we figure out what something is gonna do to it first-" Helena started, but a loud alarm rang from the badges of every Starfleet Officer in the area, and Min's voice cut through with the announcement. "To all available personnel; this is a Red Alert. Move to your stations for Emergency Procedures. Prioritize the welfare of all citizens of Haumea, Evacuation site 1 click west of the colony. Do not engage the anomalous creature unless otherwise authorized by the Marine contingent. I repeat, do not engage with the creature until otherwise instructed to do so. Captain Seong, out."

There was a minute pause, but Helena was quick to address the others. "That's our cue."

 

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