998: Thinning the Ranks

by Lara Valera Ryn and Salvek
91206.2100
After Ask Questions First, Shoot Later

-=A Large Forest, on Sibalt=-

The key to this game, from Salvek’s point of view, was to eliminate your target in one shot. If you missed, that gave them the chance to retaliate, and if that happened, one could easily be eliminated. He had been tracking his target for over half an hour. Crewman Parrish still had no idea he was being followed, nor did he realize how close he had come to being eliminated several times. Salvek had been nearly guaranteed of hitting him on a few occasions, but “nearly” enough to satisfy the Vulcan standard of a sure thing.

Despite being oblivious to Salvek’s presence, Parrish was very aware of the fact that if he lingered in the open too long, he would be vulnerable. Hence he ducked behind trees several times before moving on. This tactic kept Salvek at bay and ruined several of the Vulcan’s attempts to fire.

Parrish leaned against one tree that was not particularly large in diameter to take a sip of water. He set his gun down and left most of his left side exposed to Salvek.

Seeing this best opportunity yet, Salvek raised his weapon and fired twice, to be sure. The first shot hit Parrish square in the side, and the second shot knocked the canteen out of the crewman’s hands, and into the dirt. His shoulder’s slumped, mostly out of frustration from having lost his water, which had spilled out of the container and been absorbed by the soft moss covering the ground.

“The detention area is approximately one kilometer to the northeast.” Salvek said calmly as he revealed himself. “I assume an escort will not be necessary.”

“No, sir.” Parrish said. He picked up his canteen and dropped it just as quickly as a spider scurried out of the opening on top.

“Please do not litter.” Salvek added, as he turned to head off deeper into the woods. Parrish shook the offending bug off the canteen, and began his long walk to the detention area.

It did not take Salvek long to locate his next target, Sue Tenney. The communications officer was trying her best to not bring attention upon herself by hovering around a small patch of land by the edge of a clearing. The trees afforded her some cover, and the clearing allowed her to see anyone approaching for at least half of her surrounding area, meaning she only really had to worry about people sneaking up on her from the other half, the forest. Salvek’s well-defined ears picked up the faintest of sounds as she moved, and it did not take long for him to spot her.

He lifted up his "weapon" and took aim. His finger hovered over the trigger and then he stopped. He heard something else. No, someone else. Immediately, he sought to get his bearings and those of the other person around him.

He saw no one. But yet he knew someone else was out there. He took a step or two back and hid within the recess of a tree, watching Tenney, gauging whether he should take the shot and possibly expose himself to whoever else was out there.

And then a nut fell. Right at his feet. The aim was too perfect, he realized. It was either a distraction, and thus a trap, or something else. When a second nut fell within a foot of the first nut, he deduced it was the latter.

His eyes (and his gun) followed the trajectory of what tree the nuts may have "fallen" from. As soon as he looked up, he saw the other person.

Lara Ryn was crouched up in the tree, about 10 meters off the ground. And she did have a perfect angle on Salvek, but she also had one on Sue Tenney.

She nodded with her head toward Tenney. He nodded back. They both took aim and fire. Salvek's shot landed square in the unsuspecting Tenney's back, while Lara's knocked out here firing arm.

Tenney dropped her gun and admitted, "You got me." She looked around for the person who had shot her, but saw no one. So she kept walking around, quite obviously, looking for something or someone, but something told Salvek it was not him or Lara.

Salvek motioned for Ryn to stay where she was while he acknowledged Tenney's hit. But then he stopped. There was something about the way she was moving. Something was right. So Salvek returned to the recess of the tree and motioned for Lara to join him.

She nodded and began to climb down the back of the tree, even taking advantage of the noise of another player crying out loud after being hit to mask her descent. She stopped at the base of her tree and peered around. It appeared clear. She glanced at Salvek, who nodded. She ran over to him.

They both looked over at Tenney. She was now gathering her gear, but just a little too slowly.

"She was the bait," Salvek softly stated.

"The question is then, who's the hunter?"

He shook his head. "Circle around clockwise for 25 meters. I will take the other direction. Let us see if we can ferret this other person out."

Lara nodded. They both started to move and had not even gotten a full body length away from one another when a splat exploded on the tree where they had just been hiding. Both ducked for cover.

“That’s a fine how do you do.” Lara grumbled. There was little sense in trying to communicate silently now, since their position was compromised. “Can you see anyone?”

“No.” Salvek said. This made him unsettled. He should have been able to determine where they were being fired upon from by following the trajectory of the shot. By trying this however, it appeared that the shot had originated underground, which didn’t seem to make any sense. Also, the paint splatter was blue, which did not correspond to the colors of either team. “We are being deceived.”

Lara saw a metallic flash out of the corner of her eye, and realized Salvek was about to be taken out. “Move!” She shouted.

Salvek dove out of the way, just before a shot flew past his head. He hid behind a tree, opposite of the direction the shot had come from. “He or she is underground, the gun popped up from under the leaves. I saw it over there.” Lara jerked her head in the direction the shot had come from.

“We done Lieutenant. They must be hiding in a trench of some sort.”

“Not the Sera team, is it?” Lara asked.

“I would surmise whoever it was had Ensign Tenney captured and offered not to shoot her if she could lure one of us in. She knew she would be hit but also knew she would be taking an Alchemy member with her. Lieutenant, you are rather familiar with the outdoors are you not?”

“Are you rather familiar with logic?”

Salvek knew enough of sarcasm to know she was kidding. It seemed to be a hallmark of her race.

“I will accept that response as a yes to my previous question. I will cover you. See if you can get to the location of our attacker. If we can pin him or her in the trench, capturing the person will be simple.”

Salvek had not had a chance to work individually with the Science Officer as of yet, but now was as good a time as any for team building. That was supposedly, after all, what Starfleet Command officially labeled this exercise. Thought it felt more like an excuse to play games, to Salvek. As for Lieutenant Ryn, she was far less vexing than Dabin Reece, which was a definite plus.

Lara took a moment to make sure that her gun was fully loaded with paint and that she was prepared to fire in case she needed to throw off a few random shots. Then she carefully peered out from behind the tree where she was hiding.

Nothing. Not a sound or a sight.

She looked back over at Salvek, who nodded and raised his weapon.

She then darted from one tree to another. She was hardly exposed for but a few seconds yet she heard the soft popping sound of a gun and she saw the paint splash around her as she took cover behind a second tree.

Lara turned back to see Salvek. He shook his head, and she got his message: no clear sign yet. He then motioned to a section of the forest with his gun. This movement covered a sizable track of land, but it was a start. Then again, whoever was out there must have recognized that while he (or she perhaps) had the better position, there were two of them.

Lara knew that the only way to make this person reveal himself was to be irresistible bait. With a deep breath she ran out into the open. She was almost surprised when the firing did not start right away. This person was good. So, in a split second decision, she reached a second tree and instead of hiding behind it, she jumped up and grabbed a low branch. She took a few seconds to swing herself up into the tree, but it was enough. She heard the pops, this time coming from two guns as she made it into the tree. Once secure, she looked over herself. Not a drop of paint. But she was an almost open target.

She heard the sound of footsteps approaching quickly, and turned to see that it was Salvek.

“Did you get him?” she asked, wondering why he had given up his position.

“No, but I have his exact position. See the paint?” He pointed towards a splatter of his own paint on the ground. “He is underneath it. If you see the ground move, open fire.”

Salvek and Ryn spread out by about 20 meters, and closed in on the cover of the foxhole. There was a large piece of thick tree bark covered by heavy leaves that formed the “lid” of the hiding place. They stood on opposite sides, and Salvek kneeled slowly, never lowering his weapon. By now, their opponent had to no he had nowhere to run.

The Vulcan gestured with his weapon, and Ryn nodded. As soon as he lifted the lid, she was to open fire. Salvek kept one hand on the trigger, and the other slid quietly under the strip of bark, until he had a firm grip.

He mouthed a countdown silently to her, three, two, one. Salvek flipped the lid and Ryn filled the foxhole with paint.

“Damn.” She lowered her weapon dejectedly. Salvek did not understand what was the matter, until he peered over the edge into the hole. There was no one there.

“As I said Lieutenant, we are being deceived. I am sure we are not dealing with a member of the Sera team.”

“Where did he go?” Ryn’s eyes darted from tree limb to tree limb, wondering if they were being watched. There was nothing to be see but paint, and a lot of it. It was somewhat amazing the both of them were still here talking given the volume of fire their opponent had brought down on them.

“I do not know. We must have gotten too close to capturing him so he escaped somehow. If he were still here, he would have eliminated us when we exposed ourselves.”

They stood silent for a moment, listening, waiting. Then Lara asked, "Do you think this could be a part of his trap?"

"It could be," came the reply.

Lara froze. The voice was male, but it was definitely not Salvek's voice. Without thinking, she reacted and dove for cover, just barely being missed by a spray of paint balls. As soon as she had her bearings, she saw that Salvek had taken cover opposite of her. He too had escaped, but again just barely.

But now their attacker had made a mistake. His hubris was going to cost him, because he was still out in the open, and they were not. Also, they were on either side of him because his deadly spray had missed both of them.

Without looking at one another, both Lara and Salvek stood up, took aim, and fired. A nice splat of paint appeared on the back and front torso of Dwan Tubman's shirt.

With a shrug of his shoulders, he said nonchalantly, "You got me."

"So it appears we have," Salvek replied with a nod.

Tubman discharged his gun and used it to give his opponents a mock salute. "We who have died salute you," he added before walking off.

When he was out of range, Lara stated, "That was good."

"Yes," Salvek briefly acknowledged.

"So, do we have any idea of who else is out there?" It was an honest question as communicators were not allowed in this game. Some quirky rule of Jelca’s. One of many, that is.

"No. We should find out." Salvek took in the lay of the land. They were in the western perimeter of the game zone. "I will head south," he finally said, "You, north. We will then both swing around east. Use whoever you can find to take the enemy down."

"All right. I'll see you on the other side."

"Unless one of us is eliminated."

"Nah," Lara said. "We're taking them down.”

Salvek hoped her confidence was reasonable. For all he knew, they were the only members of their team left.

******************************

Lt. Lara Valera Ryn
Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012

&

Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012