ST:TTV117 | "Jungle Life"
Updated: Mar 18, 2023
Stardate Unknown
Antia was going a faster clip now. She hadn't made it to the jungle edge as fast as she had hoped.. the swarmers slowed her and a few other near misses with some other local pests had causes her to reroute. She'd gone slightly back.
Antia was going a faster clip now. She hadn't made it to the jungle edge as fast as she had hoped.. the swarmers slowed her and a few other near misses with some other local pests had causes her to reroute. She'd gone slightly back.
Now the sun was starting to set. It was unavoidable now... She was safe above the canopy last night but she just had to go looking for the people.... Steve was even taunting her about it, making purposefully loud passes through the trees. She still couldn't see him but she could hear him, it's what he wanted. She knew he didn't like bright lights though and lucky for her, Antia's aversion to darkness led her to prepare for it. She unclipped two small orbs from her belt and tossed them up. They began flying around her and illuminated as bright floodlight orbs that circled her in a slow wide arc. It would give the creature pause, but he wasn't going to just give up.
Her faster pace was to try and get to one of her intermediate camp areas. She was too far from her downed ship right now which was the most safe she could get in the jungle itself, but she knew she couldn't stay there forever. She quickly jumped over a large brush and used a low branch to swing further into an area she new was clear on the ground and would make a decent staging area for a defense.
But apparently something else was aware of that too, because as she landed she was not the only thing there... before her was something she hadn't yet seen here, a giant snake-like creature with large spines along the upper body was laying there, but not asleep she could tell, maybe resting however.. it was huge for the area. Antia was slightly concerned now, she heard a faint rustle behind her. Steve was surprised too perhaps?
"Well... this sucks.." she said to herself, trying not to make sudden moves to provoke the new beast but at the same time on edge as she was presenting the perfect opening for Steve to strike.
A strong breeze flowed through the trees, rustling the branches and leaves and making it even more difficult to spot Steve's movement through the fog and darkness. Even in the dead of night, the wind was warm and humid, and its passage caused loose droplets from the canopy to drip down, causing a brief wave of rain to descend on the ground beneath. The breeze also carried with it a harrowing whistle, an elongated shrill noise that made the mystifying jungle even eerier.
It was only when the whistle sounded again without the accompaniment of the wind that the true nature of the noise became apparent. Another followed shortly afterwards, and the next overlapped atop that one, two voices conjoining to form a cry greater in intensity than that of the individual. Soon, Antia and Ghadruil's surroundings were filled with this feral chorus that had suddenly invaded the silence of the night.
A minute or two of careful listening revealed that the howls were concentrated in the rough direction where Antia was heading- the direction of the damaged escape pod. It seemed that this was the centre of the call, and once that was made, whistles from all around them answered, less loud but echoing from all directions.
As she found the cave, night caught up with her. She had barely noticed that the sun was going down or suns, as that was another thing she hadn't had time to study here on this alien planet, settling into the cave was hard. But after fiddling with her tricorder she found a flashlight setting. She went into the cave and kept going in until she felt she reached a point where it was good to scan for lifesigns. Inside the cave her tricorder could pick up some rodent sized things upon the ceiling of the cave where it got a bit higher. This was a small cave that wasn't creature made and no large creature seemed to have wanted to make it its home. This was fortunate for Roroa. She found a suitable spot to set down her backpack and the other things she had been carrying. She left the flashlight setting on the phaser and took the spare phaser from the backpack and also turned on the flashlight setting, walking around the cave and gathering any rocks she could find.
Eventually those rocks formed both the circle of her fireplace and the source of her light she would have for the night. She used the phaser low setting to focus on heating a trio of rocks for enough time to where they turned red. Although there was no flame within the fireplace she was getting heat from the rocks now. Light, for now, was also present so she turned off her flashlights. She didn't exactly have a sleeping bag or tent. The ground below her was a mixture between barren rough rock and a small amount of dirt that the wind had blown in over the years. Roroa took out one of the packaged set of clothes, out of two that she had, and used that to fan away the dirt near the place she intended to rest. She wanted to improve her resting area a bit further but was too exhausted at the moment and too blinded by the cave's darkness despite her makeshift light source. With darkness also came the drastic drop in temperature. She opened the set of clothes and put on the extra layer of top clothing. Fortunately for her it was a set of clothes meant for an adult so it was easy to get her arms into the top as well to keep them warmer. She used the backpack as a pillow and begun the strenuous work of becoming comfortable on such a rough surface.
It was around the fifth time of rolling to the other side that the ceiling a bit away caught her eye. Originally dark, now slowly coming to life were low glowing objects, lights that were dully coming on but would never reach the point where she could see on the ground. It was those creatures that her tricorder informed her about. Bat-like creatures whom begun to come to life as they were nocturnal. They all didn't leave at once though. Appearing to be a type of creature that sent out a certain gender to find food while the other tended to the youth. This left Roroa with a fake sky of blue lights that struck her emotionally as it reminded her of a time she was in ten-forward on the Gainsborough with Arita, looking out across the stars. It seemed like a distant memory to her after everything that she went through today. The thought of losing the memories of her beloved sister and never having new ones again brought those tears to her eyes.
As she found the cave, night caught up with her. She had barely noticed that the sun was going down or suns, as that was another thing she hadn't had time to study here on this alien planet, settling into the cave was hard. But after fiddling with her tricorder she found a flashlight setting. She went into the cave and kept going in until she felt she reached a point where it was good to scan for lifesigns. Inside the cave her tricorder could pick up some rodent sized things upon the ceiling of the cave where it got a bit higher. This was a small cave that wasn't creature made and no large creature seemed to have wanted to make it its home. This was fortunate for Roroa. She found a suitable spot to set down her backpack and the other things she had been carrying. She left the flashlight setting on the phaser and took the spare phaser from the backpack and also turned on the flashlight setting, walking around the cave and gathering any rocks she could find.
Eventually those rocks formed both the circle of her fireplace and the source of her light she would have for the night. She used the phaser low setting to focus on heating a trio of rocks for enough time to where they turned red. Although there was no flame within the fireplace she was getting heat from the rocks now. Light, for now, was also present so she turned off her flashlights. She didn't exactly have a sleeping bag or tent. The ground below her was a mixture between barren rough rock and a small amount of dirt that the wind had blown in over the years. Roroa took out one of the packaged set of clothes, out of two that she had, and used that to fan away the dirt near the place she intended to rest. She wanted to improve her resting area a bit further but was too exhausted at the moment and too blinded by the cave's darkness despite her makeshift light source. With darkness also came the drastic drop in temperature. She opened the set of clothes and put on the extra layer of top clothing. Fortunately for her it was a set of clothes meant for an adult so it was easy to get her arms into the top as well to keep them warmer. She used the backpack as a pillow and begun the strenuous work of becoming comfortable on such a rough surface.
It was around the fifth time of rolling to the other side that the ceiling a bit away caught her eye. Originally dark, now slowly coming to life were low glowing objects, lights that were dully coming on but would never reach the point where she could see on the ground. It was those creatures that her tricorder informed her about. Bat-like creatures whom begun to come to life as they were nocturnal. They all didn't leave at once though. Appearing to be a type of creature that sent out a certain gender to find food while the other tended to the youth. This left Roroa with a fake sky of blue lights that struck her emotionally as it reminded her of a time she was in ten-forward on the Gainsborough with Arita, looking out across the stars. It seemed like a distant memory to her after everything that she went through today. The thought of losing the memories of her beloved sister and never having new ones again brought those tears to her eyes.
"I miss you.."
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