Marshalling Action
Posted on 16 May 2023 @ 12:14am by Captain Corvus DeHavilland & Chief Deputy Marshal: Ridge Steiner - FMS
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: Planet's Surface
Timeline: Immediately Following A Stroll on the Beach
2304 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure
Jogging along the harder sand high on the beach had brought the trio closer to a squat array of buildings, quite what purpose they were designed for was difficult to make out in the darkness of the storm. The reached a point where the beach turned away to the right, heading away from the direction of the signal, which had remained relatively stationary, somewhere up in the shadows of the mountain behind the complex of buildings.
Steiner called a halt, rechecked the Tricorder, the signal was stronger now and pointed towards the closest building. “We need to head inland” he called over the storm.
No sooner had they cautiously left the beach and moved to a side of the building than three Korin waddled around a corner. Their obvious shock and confusion at seeing three Humanoids crouching in the lee of the building slowed them down. Johannes and Binns dropped all three within seconds.
Peeking around the corner there were no more of them in sight and the three jogged up to a low wall.
Gunnery Sergeant Johannes slumped against the wall, double checking his head was covered and then slid down towards the ground a bit. He vented his weapon and took the heated charge pack and put it in his kit, replacing it with a fresh one. Looking over, Steiner and Binns were dropping into their own cover nearby.
It hadn’t been the silent approach he’d wanted, but they’d made it without incident only running into three of the locals who they’d quickly put down with a stun shot. Thankfully they never had the chance to raise an alarm.
“How’s that signal contact?” Johannes asked Steiner.
Steiner glanced down at the Tricorder. “Rock solid, that way” he pointed “And still up that damn hill!” In a flash of lightning, a narrow path could be seen, the start of it was hidden by a couple of nearer buildings but it rose above them and wound its way up the hill.
“Alright,” Gunny Johannes nodded, looking the way that he was suggesting. Something about it just didn’t seem right, and it took him a moment to understand that the way the path switched back on itself on the way up so narrowly, it left them exposed to fire from multiple levels up and they would not be able to see their attacker. He groaned, turning to the left instead at a near sheer facing to the main facility area there higher up on the peak. They were going to have to use the climbing gear, at least to get up to the path he could see and then work their way over to the contact.
“Binns, we’re going to go vertical,” he said, pointing to the face. “To get to that outcrop,” he said. It wasn’t but maybe sixty feet, but it was enough of a stretch that they weren’t free climbing it. Especially not in heavily laden combat EVA’s. “I need you on belay,” he ordered.
“Aye, aye,” Binns nodded, slinging his weapon and pulling his kit around to start working the gear out of it.
“Aww great” Steiner muttered to himself seeing what the Marines were intending. The last time he had been climbing was maybe twenty years ago and that was up some reasonably steep tourist track on a vacation planet, more of a scramble not a near vertical rock face. Before that it had been at the Service Academy, he racked his mind for memories of what to do… Three points of contact at all times, test holds before you put your weight on them, move one limb at a time, don’t hug the face, use hands and feet not your knees, look up and find the route…
Binns tossed him a harness, that at least he knew how to use, he had done rope training before. He caught it, shook it out, stepped into it, pulling it up and buckled it around his waist, checking the carabiner and ascender were securely attached, there was also a descender but they would not need that going up.
Once all three were ready Steiner closed up on Johannes, ‘I’ll let you lead Gunny, like I said this is your dayjob, be faster if I follow you two”
“Ok,” Johannes said, taking a steadying breath. “We go one at a time to the facing. Binns, cover port, Steiner, starboard. I’ll climb it first, then hold egress. Steiner, you come up next, then cover Binns on his climb. We good?” he asked, looking to both of them and getting nods. “Alright. Wait for my signal,” he said, giving his gear one final check and then bounding over his cover.
Gunny Johannes quickly scouted both ways by the climb point, then made a quick assessment of it just to be sure he hadn’t misjudged anything, then turned back to cover the starboard side of the climb. “Binns. Go!” he ordered.
Corporal Binns bounded over the cover as well, weapon up immediately and took up his post on the port side of the climb, scanning the horizon warily in a kneeled crouch. He gave a quick glance up at the climb but kept his focus on the path approaching.
“Steiner, go!” Johannes called.
Steiner rolled over the wall and moved quickly to find some cover, there were a few boulders scattered around the base of the cliff and he pushed in against those. He peered around, checking for any signs of movement, there was none. He rechecked the Tricorder for the countless time, the signal was stills trong and directly above them on the mountain.
With Steiner in position, Johannes slung his rifle to his back and began unwinding his climbing rope from his belt, where he’d moved it. He tied on the small grappling hook, then stood back and twirled the end of rope before chucking it hard as he could over the top rock face. This was going to be the hard part, trying to climb up and set anchors so the two of them could follow. Johannes linked the rope about his carabiner and then began the climb.
It was slow going here, and the most exposed part of the whole thing. The other two were covering the sides but it was on him to watch above and call for help if he needed it. GLancing down, he saw Binns had moved over as expected and was properly belaying the line while watching his angle. He climbed carefully up, setting locking clips into the rock face as he did and adjusting the rope line around it.
Ten feet from the top, as he set the third locking clip, the face crumbled under foot and he dropped two feet before Binns caught the belay line. It was only two feet, but the fall felt like an eternity and it’d taken everything he had not to cry out. He would have never admitted it to the other two, but he was more than a little terrified to make this climb. He might have been the ranking guy, but this kind of assault was a Force Recon gig, not his.
He finally crested the top of the climb and immediately drew his weapon, checking the egress carefully before allowing himself to turn back and secure the grappling hook properly in the rock face so that there were no issues on the further climbs.
“Steiner, you’re up,” he called down, finding a good cover position to watch the egress and Steiner’s side once he was on the move.
As he settled into that spot he was acutely aware of how wise his decision had been. From this angle he could see all the way down the path they’d come up and the path they’d wanted to. They’d probably narrowly avoided being seen thus far. Had anyone come upon them where they’d initially wanted to go they’d have been sitting ducks.
Steiner bit his lip when Johannes slipped, for a second he thought the Marine would fall, but Binns arrested the drop. His next thought was he would have to cover that same face shortly and that was not a comforting feeling.
Leaving the cover of the boulders he moved up to the rockface, slipped his carbine over his shoulder, clipped the rope through his carabiner and threaded it through the ascender, leaving it unclamped for now. He looked at the rock, found a couple of hand holds, reached for them and pulled himself up, jamming his feet in. Once he was steady, he found another hand hold and moved his right hand to it, then his left foot, left hand, right foot. Now feeling great about moving higher at least he was making progress.
Concentrating only on the climb he moved steadily upwards, testing each hold before putting his full weight on it. He reached the part when Johannes had slipped, peering through the rain he scanned for holds. The rock was fractured and flaked, he moved his right hand around trying several places, but each time he pulled down a shard of rock came away and clattered down the face. Thankfully the noise of the storm covered the noise.
Gripping tightly with his left hand and trying to hold on with the toes of his boots, he summoned the courage to lean back as far as he dare and look for more holds. Right above him the face was nothing but a crumbly mess of loose rock, there was nothing he could trust his weight to. Then in a flash of lightning a shadow outlined a little bit of harder looking rock sticking out over to his right, and another piece above that, just past them was a vertical crack, something wide enough to get his boot in.
He stretched out for the first hold, it was too far. He shuffled his feet to the right a little and tried again, now he could just get his fingertips on the edge of the hold, but not with enough grip to move to it. He was about to try to shuffle right again when the rock made the decision for him, he felt the rock under his left foot start to move, crumbling downwards.
“Dammm!” He stretched out his right hand, managed to get his fingers over the rock and kicked off with his right foot, jamming it towards the crack. The toe hit the side of the crack, slipped then went in, but it put a twist on his ankle that was painful. Just as it did the rock fell away under his left foot. He started to fall back left, he pulled hard on his right hand and managed to stop it. Now he hung there, left foot dangling, he tried jamming his toe into the rock but nothing would hold. He could feel his fingers getting tired, the awkward angle of his right foot was burning and knew he would slip if he did not get a fourth hold. He realised he would have to move his right foot, hang on his hands for a moment and then try and get both feet in the crack.
“Belay me for five seconds, got to move my feet” he hissed up to Johannes, hoping the marine could hear him over the storm.
“On belay!” Binns called back, pulling back on the tension to hold Steiner aloft.
Muttering a curse to himself, he pulled up on his arms, lifting himself so he could get his right foot out of the crack, He hung there on his finger tips for a second, then got his right boot back in the crack in a better position and then quickly jammed his left boot in as well. It felt cramped and unsafe but at least it held. As soon as he could he moved his left hand, placing it on the same hold as his right.
Drawing in a breath he looked up, there were a couple more stable looking hand holds now he had traversed right, away from the crumbly rock. He pushed up with his knees, reached for the first hold with his left hand, got a firm grip and then moved his right.
Steadily he covered the last few feet to join Johannes, feet jammed in the crack, moving up hand hold by hand hold. He clambered over the top and lay on his side panting. “Screw this for a game of soldiers Gunny!”
“Not bad for a flat foot,” Johannes grinned as he drew him over. He moved to the edge and looked down to give Binns the thumbs up. “Cover my six,” he ordered to Steiner.
The younger Marine nodded and quickly slung his weapon and moved to the rope, attaching his ascender to it and making quick work of going up, taking the anchors out as he went and then clamoring over the railing with the rest of the team.
“Quick breather, then we move,” Johannes said, moving out from their cramped up position to get a better look at their path. He smirked as he stuck his head around the corner. “You’re not going to believe this,” he said as he did, finally resolving back behind cover to smirk at the two of them.
“Don’t tell me, there was scenic cable car we could have taken instead of climbing” Steiner muttered moving up towards Johannes.
“I can see a Starfleet runabout four-hundred yards that way,” he said, signaling that way with his hand.
Steiner looked at him, then fumbled at his belt for the Tricorder, he peered cautiously around the rocks. “That’s not our Arrow and our signal is coming right from it! “
