What's Inside the Box

Posted on Mon Feb 8th, 2021 @ 11:03pm by Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell

Mission: The Jungle
Location: Jungle
Timeline: Current

The open area with rope net was too exposed and so she packed up her gear and moved off into the tree line. She didn't go far though as she wanted to keep an eye on the net, to see if anyone would eventually come and collect. Instead she found a little spot, well hidden, like when she played hide and seek with her papa. That was essentially what this was, a giant game of hide and seek, but with the potential to die if you were a bad player.

She regretted her mistake to enter the trap, but as she opened the tool kit those regrets vanished. The kit contained everything a starfleet engineer would need minus a tricorder. Taking stock, she sat the tools inside the helmet, then the rifle and the combadge next to them before pulling out the ration pack and breaking it open.

The pack came with a utensil designed for the contents which once broken began to sizzle as it cooked. As she dug in she commented to herself "wonders of modern science." Then she took a bite. "Still tastes like shit." Sitting on the floor of the jungle, knees up, ration pack firmly in hand she thought back to her Academy training. She couldn't believe there were people who would swear by the packs, claiming they tasted better than pizza. Sacrilege she proclaimed.

Once she finished her pack of what tasted like liver and onions, she rolled her garbage and saved the trash for later. No reason to leave a trail behind unless she meant to. She then turned her attention to the helmet.

It didn't take long to remove the broken battery pack whose cells had split. She immediately cursed herself and her large rear for accidentally falling on the hunter even though it wasn't her fault. Accessing the combadge was a bit trickier. Small parts, no workbench and one hand made it a challenge. After several minutes she had the small battery out.

Before she continued she checked her surroundings. The jungle environment was highly detailed with sounds, even smells. From her hidey hole she knew there was a camera on her, nearby, possibly a nano-cam. She could faintly hear a buzzing that was more machine than insect. Other than that there was no other noise detected so she carried on.

Transferring the battery required a small voltage conversion, which the tool kit provided a diagnostic tool for. That done, she set the battery in place, closed up the access and switched it on. She put the helmet upon her head and booted it up. The HUD was based on LCARS and therefore familiar. She could control the view with voice commands as well as using her eyes to navigate. Instantly she saw why the hunters held an advantage.

The helmet had visual ranges for infrared, night vision, a friend or foe targeting lock and once she dug a little deeper she found the grid control. Access to the holo grid was locked down, of course. But she was able to see a target finder with an overview of the playing field. She could see the cave where her crewmates were currently camped out. And just outside a bit, a few more. And she could see hunter positions. They showed up on a map overlay and when she toggled the control she got an augmented view showing distance and telemetry.

As she turned her head to view the augmented world around her she could see in her HUD a small view of herself from an external camera view. Tracking its location she found it was hovering in a nearby tree. She waved and then did the next best thing she could think of and flipped the camera off. "I see you."

Full of herself she was about to turn it off when she noticed two blips coming her way. They were hunters and they were not happy. "Time to go."