Spartan Accommodations

*I hate being holed up,* Major Jon Phanan thought to himself. He, along with the other stranded members of the Devastator crew were now taking refuge from the elements in a cave. From the mouth of the cave, a tunnel ran back about twenty to thirty feet where it split into two branches. The branch to the left lead to a dead end. The one to the right led to large room where the group set up camp, and was able to set up a stove unit and a pipe system where smoke could exit the cavern. A natural underground spring was about twenty feet under them. The Marines were able to rig up a bucket, rope and pulley system to get water. For now, their temporary quarters would have to do.

[Truman to Phanan, over.] Second Lieutenant Jack Truman was in the dead end branch rigging up a "booby trap" in case their Barien "friends" decided to stop by. He had recently completed stringing up different sensor nets, and blasting out new tunnels out of the rock to make another exit.

"Go ahead Jack." Jon replied. He was busy sterilising another few gallons of spring water.

[I've rigged up another surprise for our guests. I've also installed the security spy cams. You should be able to bring them up on the monitor control.]

"OK Jack, I'll get on that. Phanan out." Jon tapped his combadge closing the channel. John walked over to a pile of clutter on the ground at one of the side walls. Reaching around, he pulled out a piece of bulkhead that had been salvaged from the Devastator after the Bariens took what they wanted. He then reached, and picked up a wire that ran to all of the cameras. Then, carefully, Jon linked it to the LCARS display screen. The screen flashed, and then went statically. After some fine tuning, one of the camera's views appeared. Pressing a few more buttons on the side of the screen, the display cycled between the views of the different cameras. This would work out fine.

[Sergeant Sharpe to Major Phanan.]

"Yes Sergeant ?" Jon replied.

[We've found a place to hole up for a bit. The Bariens have set-up camp and we're about a hundred yards from their location. We'll keep tabs on them. Hendricks, Jorgenson, Boatner have a busy day planned for these guys tomorrow, and they'll need their sleep.]

Jon grinned. "Understood. Good work Sergeant and good night."

"Sharpe out." The comms channel closed. Tomorrow, Major Phanan, along with Truman, Gleason, Commander Soliel and a few other Marines would be heading out to pick up the occupants of three other escape pods nearby. The closest being about a quarter of a mile from their current location. Captain Goerl and a few of her troops were being sentries up in the trees around their "home". They'd simply use "the back door" that Lieutenant Truman had made to come back in. Commander Rashad along with the rest of the Marines were sleeping. They would be up and about during the early morning hours setting up a few more defences and traps, along with sensor nets.

[I'm bringing it in.] Truman said through the comms.

"Understood." Jon replied. Scanning the water with a tricorder, the water in the pots was registering as safe to drink. Picking up a few pots of water, be brought them over to the small, ion stove from the emergency kit on the runabout, and brought the water to a boil. Coffee would soon become a necessity on this trip. Reaching into his backpack, he pulled out a small tin containing coffee grounds, and a package of freeze-dried chilli mix. "Ahh, the infamous Dinner Number five." Jon said, grinning. True, MREs had become higher in nutritional value and tasted better, however, the technology had changed little since the introduction of the instant foods in the 1940's. Pouring water into two cups, Jon poured the instant chilli into one cup, and the coffee mix into another. Truly, a hearty feast.