What's new
Star Army

Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

Note: This is a play-by-post RPG site. If you're looking for the tabletop miniatures wargame "5150: Star Army" instead, see Two Hour Wargames.

  • If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 October and November 2024 are YE 46.8 in the RP.

RP: SNV Gam'trosha [Chapter 3.3] Away Team - Cave Exploration

"Speaking of which..." Ross replied as he gestured subtly at the glittering object. He knew that Vik would keep an eye on it and blast it if it turned out to be the armor of a hostile but his reaction time was only so fast. The swordmaster advanced quickly on the entrance into the room, keeping off to the side to lean against the wall to avoid getting an unhealthy lunch of laser or projectile. However, he waited until Def'leor ordered him to move in before entering the room. "No need to get maimed by whatever it is in there when the NCO can come up with another solution." That is to say, C'ross wouldn't rush in there in a blaze of glory...
 
Def'leor looked, "Hold position" She tried to see what the light was shining off of. But so far there wasn't much luck with that route. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a coin. She tossed it into the space aiming for the shiny item.
 
The coin landed just a few centimeters off the object, smacking into the dirt just beside it - but enough that some of the dirt slid off to reveal that it was a circular object with a chain attached to it, but what it was entirely couldn't be seen as the remainder was still buried. The object, however, continued to glitter - even in the absence of any major light source...

Kil'ndra's scans revealed no signs of life within the room, other than their own; while it did pick up faint traces of metallic objects littering the areas nearest the walls and even a few 'in' the walls.
 
Kil'nda gave a sigh. "There's nothing in there living... scans reveal metallic object in and around the walls. Ma'am, we can't know more unless one of us gose in there to check things out." he said. "I'll volunteer if need be." It may have been risky, but it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere just standing there looking at the darkened room
 
Def'leor had watched the result of her coin toss. She chuckled and replied to Kil'nda. "Didn't your instructors teach you the basic tenet of a soldier. Never Volunteer. But since you did. Go on in we'll watch your back. Make sure you get my coin too."
 
Kil'nda nodded and readied his sword and his needle gun. He took a d second to to inhale.. Exhale. And then he he peered into the door way looking left and right and, assuming he saw nothing of danger, stepped into the room to clear it. He's look around the room before turning his attentoin to the object that had caught their eyes in the first place.
 
Ross sheathed his sword, getting as close to the corner of the entrance into the room as possible. In the event that Kil'nda found himself in danger, the swordmaster was ready to reach around the corner and haul the other soldier out from the fire. (Which may or may not prove literal.)
 
Passage A

Alis'tar had smiled somewhat due to the joke about paperwork, thankfully there was no worry of extra paperwork due to friendly fire; as they didn't even get very deep before their passage split into four more. All things considered Alis'tar was fine with more passages, it was better then an ambush waiting at the end. Alis'tar wasn't sure about the object that glittered in one of the rooms, but it didn't seem to matter; as Kiln'da began to look in the room most likely scanning the object as he did.

Alis'tar stood near the back of the small group when the order to halt came about, with the XO sending a coin flipping towards the object. The coin revealed enough of the object for it's shape to be seen, while Kiln'da's scans revealed that nothing living was in the room with the object. Though as Kiln'da mentioned venturing in to study it; volunteering as he did, which ended up sealing his fate in being the one to study the object. Alis'tar wouldn't have minded being the one to go in there to study the object, something was oddly appealing about it; with how it glittered even without any major light upon it. He readied his rifle, just in case of it being needed; though hopefully there would be no need; so far their luck had remained as so.
 
The cave was eerily quiet as Kil'ndra moved deeper in, the walls remained still and the air smelled stale. The closer he would get to the object, the more of its features would become apparent - despite it being mostly buried - the glint was apparently coming from some king of jewel that was affixed to a metallic holder; what caused it to glint was a very thin beam of light that was only being illuminated when dust passed through it, the light itself coming from a rather small hole in the rocks above.

There was something else there though, as Kil'ndra got closer, a creature popped its head out of the sand and quickly scurried away into a crack in the wall; its movements caused the dirt to move aside to revealed a locket; with the jewel firmly in the center.
 
Kil'nda grunted as the creature popped it's head out of he sand and then ran to a crack in the wall. "Guess our scanners need to be stronger." he said as he looked upon the object. "Looks like some jewel affixed to something." he said. He kneeled down and reached out. Rather than simply pulling out the jeweled object he tried to move more dirt out of the way to see if he could get a better look at it running a scan on the object as well.
 
The clear tension of the situation had Vik'tor on edge enough as it was and it was made clear how jumpy he was when his aim followed the creature with enough speed to keep up with its pace. Questions attached to his nervous disposition distracted him whilst his immagination made the cave seem a lot smaller than it actually was. The obvious fact of marksmanship becoming less dependable with short range rushed to the forefront of his thought as a quick glance at C'ross and the sword. Soon after the realization guided his actions for a few moments as he took out the sword attachment to his Vela'rius swordrifle and secured it to the rifle before shouldering it again as a sigh escaped him. "And this is when it all goes horribly wrong"
 
Last edited:
As Kil'nda walked further in, he left Ross's reach, and as such the Swordmaster retreated into cover. His tail twitched in agitation and his eyes narrowed. "Shut the fuck up, Vik'tor." He growled, staining his expansive vocabulary with obscenities. Tempting fate shouldn't be the highest objective on a soldier's list of things to do.
 
Even though Kil'ndra was cautious, it wasn't enough to stop what happened next. Moving the dirt even by a small amount caused the pile to shift, with the object having the most effect as it slide down the pile toward the ground; taking along with it the dirt that had been kept in place for so many years. As the dirt was moving, parts of what kept the locket in place began to reveal itself - at first it was a white oval like object, but that changed quickly as more and more dirt moved aside.

After a few seconds, this oval-like object was revealed to be the head of a skeleton, the head shifted onto its side due to the weight of the object. There was a noticable 'dent' in the skull, parts of it were clearly broken off by some kind of force. Sticking out of the dirt pile just a few inches from the head was bone, pointing upward.
 
Def'leor watched as the events unfolded. She feared the worst but there was no blinding flash or devastating explosion. But what was exposed from her position appeared to be yet another mystery.
 
Ross looked at Def'leor when he noted the lack of a command. He returned his gaze to the newly exposed skeletal remains of a corpse. He thought of the possibility of an ambush by local fauna, emerging from the dirt around Kil'ndra, but he knew he would do no good rushing in there to get ambushed with him. Especially when it cedes the away team's advantage in attacking them from a different direction. So he stayed, sword in hand, ready to enter at Def'leor's command.
 
Shar who kept back and watched everyone's back until now had her interest picked up by the dead boddy showing up. She frowned and gestured to Vik'tor to cover everyone's back. She moved closer to the skeleton. "Looks like this guy is not gonna do anything to us anymore," Shar said and laughed a bit. The black furred woman squated by the dead body to have better look. She wanted to identify what kind of blow killed this body. Mace, hammer, sword, axe? Maybe even gun, who knew how old this was. She made sure to not actually touch anything. "Let's see what killed you. Ya know Lex, with this we really need some egghead here. Most of us here are just good at killing stuff and this guy does not need killing anymore."
 
Def'leor stepped into the room cautiously. "That is in understatement. From the moment we got to this location we were dealing with stuff outside of our norm. For example what is the source of that beam of light. What is its purpose. I find it a bit to convenient that it just happen to be pointing at that gem in the skull. I don't believe in coincidences in fact I distrust them. Bag and tag the skull and we'll check the walls for anything unusual. If we don't find anything of merit. I am going to pull the plug on this mission. We'll report back to the Gam'trosha and they can send a team of scientists to explore this city of the dead." She started looking at the wall for unusual cracks, seams, even indications of fire or heat.
 
Kil'nda's eyes widened as something began to happen. He hurried himself back and prepared for the worst. In the end though he prepared for nothing. As all that happened, was that the dirt fell away fro a skull. Whether the dirt had just been very loose r it was designed he didn't know but he couldn't figure out why it would be designed to revile a skull and not something else. He took his breath back and had to agree that they were not the best equipped to handle the ruins but there were also the aliens that had attacked shortly before he had arrived.

Still this had been a recon mission after all it wasn't like they were given orders to wipe out all hostile life on he planet so a larger operation surrounding the planet would probably occur in the near feature. Kil'nda was eager as well to get off this planet. There was a whole new ship and crew to adjust to up in orbit.
 
Vik noted the silent order from Shar to keep the perimeter. Though it seemed easy guard the perimeter when there were limited avenues of approach, at this point he expected anything his immagination would come up with. So, with the idea of something crawling out of the walls, floor or ceiling, he kept his eyes scanning over every molecule he could.

With the idea of concealing himself, Vik stepped aside and into one of the areas of the cave where his team was less clustered. This ended with him on the left side of the entrance he'd emerged into the cave from with his right shoulder pointed toward the skull, the rifle pressed into his left shoulder. Technically, his back was to the entrance he was closest to, but with his eyes trailing over just about everything in the cave for a sign of the unusual, perhaps anything sneaking up on the kit would find a nasty surprise.
 
"Well let me see if I got signal to the tank from here, I can get through it to the Gam, maybe bounce of that dropship above the village." Shar nodded back to Def. Shar tried to boos the signal to the tank, so far just trying to see if she was getting through and not actually calling anyone just yet.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top