Wasted Release

Posted on Tue Aug 30th, 2011 @ 10:32am by

Mission: In Our Time of Need
Location: various
Tags: Leroy, qeraQ'

CAVE OF WASTE
OUTSIDE DIVITIAN CAPITAL CITY


The recon team led by Chief Darius Shelton was in trouble. A local cop had stumbled onto the team as they were checking out a cave full of toxic waste. The locals had tried to detain the team, but Shelton and the other shad decided to run for it.

The cops were several levels above the team, unwilling to fire their weapons at them for fear of igniting the dangerous, highly-explosive gas that was being given off by the storage vessels. Shelton and his team of four had put their masks on and were assessing the situation. "Collins, get some samples of this stuff. Make sure your tricorder gets a hit of the radiation levels and contaminant types and levels as well. Rixx, you and Terik keep an eye on our friends up on the surface."

"Uh, sir?" Collins interrupted. "We best be getting the hell outta here! Radiation exposure is approaching dangerous levels."

Shelton looked around and saw an exit. The team quickly headed for the door and it hissed open to reveal armed Divitians holding weapons. "Drop them!" the lead Divitian snarled.

MARINE COMMAND CENTER
DIVITIA PRIME
45 MINUTES LATER


Lorenz came into the holding cell, looking upset. "What in the hell were you doing?" he asked Shelton.

Darius, who was lying on a bed recovering from radiation exposure, looked calmly at his boss. "Sir, we was checkin out the cave like the commander wanted and we found a door, we entered what looked to be a waste disposal site, got stopped by the local yokels and made a break for it!"

"The Divitians wanna press charges against you for trespassing and sabotage!" Lorenz almost shouted.

Shelton handed an isolinear chip to his boss. "I would have Mr. Leroy check that out before proffering charges, sir. I'm no expert, but there is enough waste in that place to mess up a planet if it ever got loose! Many of the storage containers were ruptured and leaking! I bet my pips that the leaking waste containers have something to do with this planet's dying."

Lorenz nodded thoughtfully. "Good job finding this, chief. You and the team are confined to the MCC for this mission's duration. That oughta satisfy the Divitians and get 'em off my ass."

Lorenz walked out of the room and was confronted by the Divitian Constable Szrek. "I will take custody of those men, captain!"

"No, you will not! They have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and are confined to their quarters, then to the MCC until this mission is over." Lorenz walked fast, forcing Szrek to keep pace with him. "My team leader says there is a whole mountain of this stuff stored in that facility."

"I cannot discuss security matters with you!" Szrek replied testily.

Lorenz stopped and faced Szrek, anger on his face and in his voice. "Listen, I am tired of this half-hearted bullshit from you people! We are here to help you, and we may have found a possible contributing factor to your planet's problems, and you 'can't discuss security'!? Either you come clean right now or I recommend to the commander that we bail on this mission!"

Szrek blinked a few times, then nodded tiredly. "The site your men found was indeed a waste disposal area, albeit one we had sealed up for reasons you encountered, containment breach first and foremost. That facility has been there as long as I can remember."

Lorenz nodded. "We need to get this to our science officer and find out just how that place is linked to the planetary damage. How many sites like this one are there?"

"Several hundred, spread across the continents."

"We better move then!" Lorenz said as he jumped into a land craft and roared off, Szrek hanging on for dear life.