The Creep Factor

[Crash Calestorm 0]

Osiris Prime was turning out to be a creepy mission.

 

Staff Sergeant Vega had sought clearance from Commander Wesley and Captain Calestorm to deploy Comanche Creek’s fledgling Rapid Reaction Force. And while Crash had questioned the merit of sending out the greenies in a hairball situation such as this, Staff was confident and saw no reason that his newbies couldn’t be baptized by Osiris after months of simulations and training scenarios. The specialized squad, comprised of members from various departments on the ship, had moved outward past the established SEC/MARDET perimeter to handle forward night observation and patrol recon.

 

Were they being paranoid? A combined Security and Marine perimeter with the RRFers out and about as well? Yep. Damn skippy they were being paranoid. Paranoid was just another way of saying you were prepared, right? Join the Border Patrol, see the universe and encounter all sorts of weird things in the middle of nowhere.

 

It wasn’t every day you encountered a dead body, completely depleted of salt and with strange marks on the face; medical technician Ellis, sciences Doctor Maturin and assistant personnel catalogued the information from the grisly discovery with the visual images, scans and forensic evidence transmitted from the investigators to the ship’s bridge. The consensus was that the corporal had met a bad end.

 

Well, no kidding, but Crash was keeping her sarcasm to herself…Tremaine hadn’t died of a phaser or gunshot wound and the absence of any visible external wounds made this mystery all the more sinister.

 

Crash planned to make good on her word to Ellis that’d she’d be returning to the ship for some rest and a general check-up after getting slimed by the Snozzy wasp; she had to admit she felt a little funky. For now she stayed out of the way of the professionals and adopted a spot on top of a boulder. Scanning the darkening horizon through the night vision scope mounted on the phaser rifle, she knew the night always held its secrets.

 

In her opinion, whatever – or whoever – had done this to the recon marine was out there and it didn’t really matter if they drew a bead on her or not; she wasn’t going to get shot off her position. The usual suspects such as pirates, mercenaries and Klingons generally didn’t go around sucking the salt out of a person, so she was betting on the‘whatever’ and it likely already knew they were here. And if the Feddy survey team was still alive, that would be a welcome development.

 

Yep….not freaked out at all. Nope. This sort of thing happened all the time…note to self, locate the incendiary ammo rounds…or something.