the_zone | [SEMIOPEN LOG] EXPEDITION 5, ALL TEAMS

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[SEMIOPEN LOG] EXPEDITION 5, ALL TEAMS

Semi-open log for the 4th expedition, Team 1 (Niou, Marui, Zaizen) and Team 2 (Sanada, Oshitari K, Mizuki) + Ibu tagging along to whichever he pleases. Technically they're in the same place so he can switch, too.

How this works: only characters involved in this event can tag in this log.

Pre-Expedition Events (Open until everyone gets tired of it): e.g. Training and Packing. These events will involve only training/supply personnel (e.g. Medical for First Aid, Engineering for equipment, Logistics for requisitions, Tachibana for rations etc) and the personnel going on the mission. This will also include everyone hopping on the shuttle to get to the seaside expedition location (total 7 expedition folks + one NPC pilot)

Expedition: (Open until everyone gets tired of it): Set up categories/threads as needed, for example :Camping, Digging, More Digging. Other characters can also tag eg if someone makes a comm call, but make sure you ask/inform that person first, and this should not take up significant portions of the log. As always, ask in the Discord if you have any questions.

Just to refresh your memory: Team 1 does outpost related scouting and evaluation of outpost locations, + a little drone diving, Team 2 goes looking for mystery organism(s) and clears out threats. Both teams will regroup in the shuttle at the end of each day to eat and rest.

Note: Expect bad weather, rain, and occasional disruptions to communications. Try not to get lost and keep some water on you.

There maaaay be an event halfway through the expedition :D

Have fun!

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Niou cackled a bit, feeling quite safe from the bug-crawly-things from his spot on Sanada's back and patted him approvingly on the head. "The right answer." He patted Sanada on the shoulder and shifted a little to be more securely wrapped around him. "Alright, Genichirou. Let's go check out the seal on the shuttle door, and then try and get this thing moving."

Sanada was more than happy to hand off Marui to Oshitari and then readjusted his balance as Niou moved about. "Make yourself useful and check the shuttle cameras to see what's out there." He shooed a few of the critters off his datapad before passing it to Niou to use. He then made his way over to the door, not completely successful in avoiding all of the creatures and really wishing he had worn his boots to bed. He didn't want to think about how many of these things were currently in them.

"The door should be sealed or we'd be having trouble regulating the temperature or getting sand inside," Sanada said but still assessed the door and the seal anyway. It seemed tight which was good but also meant that the little things had found a different way in.

Kenya wrapped his arms around Marui and made it his job to make sure an accidental rampage didn't start. He shooed off any creatures that managed to crawl out them, and once he was sure Marui's helmet and hair were clear, he helped him into his helmet. "That should help."

He looked at now hybrid mass that was the heads of engineering. "I assumed they came in through the filtration system."

Mizuki, while still mostly terrified, had calmed down enough to function once he saw that everyone was up and about and there was a plan.

"Um...while I'm up here, I guess I'll check the vents?" he offered timidly. "Someone pass me a broom or something."

"Excuse me, I'm always useful." Niou frowned as he awkwardly held the datapad to poke at it to access the cameras, making sure that he stayed draped over Sanada's back at the same time.

The feed from the external cameras came up and he tilted the screen so Sanada could see. "Outside... The ground is completely covered in these uhh... Things." Niou zoomed in just in case and yes, yes there was definitely no mistake. He frowned and accessed the radar, which was currently a mess of very small living things, and... Niou paused. "There is... Something big nearby. We might want to move."

Sanada pulled out his multitool and got it to the right setting before passing it to Mizuki. "This will take the vent off. Use the light function to take a look after that." He had no doubt that if they were in there, they'd be able to confirm it quickly.

He then took a quick glance at the datapad Niou kept shoving in his face and had to frown. That was a lot of little creepy crab things. "Must be buffet time for whatever that is." And he did not want to become the main course. He stumbled his way to the pilot who seemed to be as frazzled as most of them but at least was doing what Sanada thought were engine checks. "How is it? Can we move?" He asked.

"We can risk it. Not sure how much we'll be moving afterwards though," The pilot said.

Sanada hoped that if the engine failed later that he and Niou could get it running again. But getting out of the path of whatever Niou was picking up was the current priority.

"Do it. See how far you can get us while still being in the search zone." If possible, he wanted to finish the mission but safety had to come first. Especially since they had the safety officer on board.

Biting his lip, Mizuki thanked Sanada for the multitool and pulled himself up to the nearest vent. He didn't even need to unscrew the grates -- the creatures were already wedging their way out between the bars. He shone the light in anyway and...yep.

"They're in the vents," he told everyone grimly. "I think they're everywhere by now."

"Also, we have to buckle in if we're flying!" protested Mizuki weakly, but he doubted anyone (himself included) wanted to be seated with the horrible critters crawling everywhere.

"Hopefully just a little crawly buffet, and not anything that involves humans." Niou stared at the screen a bit more, keeping half an ear on Sanada. A quick scan at the edges of the camera's range seemed to show them everywhere on the ground, with more coming from the water. How far did they travel.

Niou glanced at Mizuki. "Maybe if you climb into the vent, it'll count as buckling yourself in," he said with a cackle, tightening his grip around Sanada as he heard the sound of the engines starting up. And there was definitely the sound of something wrong with them. "If we crash to the ground, don't fall on top of me, please, Sanada. I like all my bones in one piece, thank you."

"That's not--" Mizuki began, before almost falling off his perch as the shuttle lurched. The jerky movement and the awful sounds coming from the engine suggested the shuttle's functions had been compromised.

"Some warning would have been nice!" he snapped, then shrieked as the movement seemed to shake the not-crabs from all sorts of hidden corners. How were they going to get rid of all of them?!

Marui, on his own side-quest, was busy scooping as many not-crabs as possible into specimen containers. A crab in a box was one less not-crab that could crawl on him, and since he wasn't allowed to kill them indiscriminately anymore (and he had tried, ohhh he had tried,) it was the best option left to him.

"Crabs. They're crabs. Not crawlers. Just crabs." This thought kept him going as he attempted to de-crab a still sleeping Zaizen, only taking a break to swat off all the ones that the jerking shuttle had showered him with.

"Emergency maneuvers override safety protocols. Hold on. We may not get far," Sanada yelled as he braced himself on the co-pilot seat and tried to angle himself so Niou could reach one of the safety bars attached high on the wall if needed.

"Try to get as far out as the big guy's path as you can without completely frying the engine," Sanada said. Escaping the tiny crabs might not be possible with so many in the engine but they needed to be out of the path of the predator. It may not eat bigger things but they didn't know if it would stop to be picky while it feasted.

Niou clung that bit tighter onto Sanada as the shuttle lurched up off the ground, grabbing onto the bar nearby as he swayed. To its credit, the shuttle did manage to move, even though the engine was making sounds that made Niou's teeth grind and his stomach swooped up to his throat as the entire shuttle suddenly jerked downwards before steadying.

"Another... kilometre north west, and we should be clear," Niou said, peering at his screen, again with a sickening lurch of the shuttle whose engines were definitely not okay. "Sit down, Sanada, I think we may have a crash landing."

Sanada could see all the lights and hear the pilot cursing as they dropped again before stabilizing as they took on the new heading that Niou gave them. He would have loved to strap himself in but he could hardly do that with Niou stuck to him. Instead, he peeled Niou off of him and shoved him, as gently as he could given the turbulence and his rapidly decreasing mood, and swiftly strapped him in before Niou could complain about the crabs that were most definitely being squished under him. He then used his new found freedom to brace himself with one hand holding the handle on the back of Niou's seat and the other a handle on the wall. "Will we make it?" Sanada asked the pilot.

"We'll get close! But he's right, it won't be smooth. And no promises on the engine!" The pilot said. One hand was flying over buttons even as he worked to maintain level steering but even still Sanada could feel the lurches and swoops as they slowed and accelerated and their altitude changed.

"Everyone, prepare for a rough landing. Strap in or hold on tight!" Sanada yelled to try and get across the chaos that was still happening in the shuttle. Even though he was sure everyone had noticed their less than smooth take off and flying.

"I hate this expedition," screeched Mizuki, hanging on for dear life as they landed, hard, and bounced, then skidded to a stop with an awful noise. The movement pelted all of them with more of the not-crabs, because of course it could get worse.

"I hate this planet," he added, unhelpfully, pawing the creatures off his hair. He wondered if the multitool had a leaf blower function.

Edited 2023-02-27 14:02 (UTC)

He was pretty sure the straps holding him to the chair bruised his ribs as they crash landed, but Niou supposed that was better than going flying through the air and smashing into something. He unbuckled himself as they landed, hurrying to grab his tools, brushing off half-squashed creatures off himself.

Time to see how bad it was.

"Mizuki, get everyone out of the shuttle and send a message back to base so they know what's happened. Sanada, I'll go look at the engine if you assess the damage to the exterior?"

Sanada grunted as they came to a stop, his muscles working overtime to keep him standing. He was pretty sure he pulled something but he'd have time for that later. Safety had to be first. "Got it," He said to Niou. He then turned to the pilot who was looking a bit overwhelmed by the short flight and the continuing crab chaos in the shuttle. "See what's working and what isn't but be ready to leave the ship at the first call." Nothing was screaming at them on the sensors about impending explosions but who knew what was actually working. He figured the risk was worth it for right now for the pilot to compose himself and then to start doing diagnostics.

He then turned to rest of them to look them over. Nobody seemed dead or dying so that was good. "If you don't have anything to do and it's safe, try to see if you can record what's happening out there. The science nerds will want as much info as you can get." He grabbed his multi-tool off of Mizuki as well as his boots (carefully shaken to empty them) and his helmet before heading out to start looking over the shuttle.

Mizuki sagged in relief as they finally came to a stop, then shook himself. "I suppose can do that," he agreed reluctantly to his colleagues' suggestions. In emergency situations such as these he just had to suck it up, he supposed.

Gingerly, he climbed back down the pipe, trying to avoid crushing any scuttling creatures, and wrinkled his nose as he picked his way through the mess to his things.

After shaking out what seemed like countless not-crabs from his equipment, Mizuki put on his helmet and boots, then turned on the loudhailer.

"Everyone, please suit up and exit the shuttle in an orderly manner while safety checks and repairs are ongoing! Please keep an eye out for hazards and be careful of items that may have shifted during the flight!"

Marui took a good tossing around from the ship's attempt at flying, but there were no head injuries this time so all things considered he got off pretty easy this time. He too started picking crabs off his things, tossing them across the room with the hopes that maybe they'd die from the impact if they hit the walls hard enough.

He looked less than impressed when Mizuki made his announcement. "You have fun with that, I'm not going outside and getting eaten by a sea monster. I'll stay here and get rid of these things so they don't mess up the shuttle more than it already is."

Sanada flinched when Mizuki started using the loud hailer. Why did he even need that in such a small space? He stopped at the door when he saw Marui once more being a brat. "Stop throwing the crabs around. And if the ship explodes with you in it, that's your choice," Sanada said. He left the ship to get on with his own job and just had to hope that Marui's anger toward the crabs didn't cause the shuttle any further destruction. The last thing they needed was crab guts getting into the wiring.

Surveying the outside, there were still crabs but they seemed to be near the edge of them instead of right in the middle of the mob. Hopefully whatever giant creatures ate them wouldn't come this far out for slimmer pickings. Still, it would be best to see how swiftly they could get back in the air. A quick walk around the shuttle revealed nothing on fire though the crash landing had taken out one of the rear lights and it was giving a random sputtering spark every now and then. Still, he hadn't seen anything leaking or looking like it was about to burst into flames. And while the shuttle had some dents and scratches, the hull looked to be intact from what he could see without getting on or under it.

"How is it looking, Niou?" He asked through their comms.

Niou made his reluctant way to the engine (with boots and helmet shaken to be crab free before pulled on), swearing as he shooed away some crabs from the wreckage of the engine and shone a light on the scene.

It was not good.

The little crawling things had gotten all through it as far as he could tell, and been crushed as they'd started the engines. It was a miracle they'd even started and been able to fly away, really.

"Yeah, it's kind of fucked," Niou said to Sanada, kicking the side of the engine and having a few more sprinkles of crab fall out. "... I'll see what I can do, but it might take a while."

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[SEMIOPEN LOG] EXPEDITION 5, ALL TEAMS

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