Team Vespidae: A huntin' we will go <Part 1>

OOC: A joint post by Becca, Chris & Grant
Who: Team Vespidae
Where: New Australia
When: After the Hunt
Keto lay upon the ground, he quite clearly had a broken rib. Mel, the
only other trained medic with them, decided not to mention this; what
with him being a man and all. Keto tried to prop himself up on his
now-bandaged arms, but only succeeded in flailing about in a sand a
little, scattering tiny clouds of dust around as he breathed deeply
in, before finally speaking.
"YOU," he said, one arm buffeting off the ground briefly in Mel's
direction, "Have INJURED me! You'll pay for that! And YOU,"
directed at Peter and Callum, "Tied me up and dangled me in front of
that THING! And YOU..."
There was an audible 'ca-CHICK!' as Amber cocked the shotgun she un-
strapped from the holster across her back, pointing it very vaguely
in Keto's direction. The doctor hesitated.
"...are truly a wonderful human being," he finally spat
bitterly, "Somebody lift me up."
Amber clicked the safety back on and holstered the weapon. She eyed
Mel up, sizing the amount of resistance she'd get from her.
"You." She said to Mel, in a stern tone, proving that it wasn't just
men who could be evil. "Just let that thing get away. I am your
superior here, not a friend. Do anything like that again and I'll
have you court marshalled. I didn't order you to do something so
damn foolish. You could have been killed, or caused it to kill one
of us. AND! You haven't finished treating Keto. My mother is a nurse,
even I can see broken ribs. Fix him up or I'll have you done for
malpractice." Amber growled, feeling slightly harsh at the overly
mean public handbagging. She strung a series of hymenopterran
together under her breath and checked the scanner. The Mush-a-roo
wasn't on.
Peter watched Amber's argument with Mel from the sidelines, he
rechecked his gun, he'd wasted an entire cartridge trying to take the
thing down, lucky he had some spares. He loaded and locked his gun
with a satisfying click, and moved over to where Amber was sitting,
on one of the many orange boulders that covered the area like
acne. "So what's the plan now Lieutenant?" he asked the disgruntled
looking woman, he thought it would be best to address her formally or
feel the same wrath as Mel had.
"We move out, and we find that Mush-a-roo" she said eventually,
standing up "It's wounded and it's out there, if we're lucky we can
still find it and finish the job off."
"That's great," muttered Keto as Callum propped him up, his bandaged
legs not sturdy enough to bear his weight yet, "So I'm going to be
carried around a desert full of carnivorous, now-very-angry
mushrooms. Congratulations on the whole 'bait' idea, people, it
worked really well."
"It did," said Amber shortly, from the head of the group, "We managed
to critically injure the vile, poison-spewing creature."
"Critically injure? It barely looked wounded to me," snorted Keto.
Amber glared at him. "I didn't mean the Mush-a-roo," she
snapped, "Now shut up. It's probably in that scrubland over there.
We should make it in half an hour if we're not slow. Keep up if you
don't want to be eaten."
"Mush-a-roos. Putting the fun back in fungi," muttered Keto as the
group moved out towards the probable nesting grounds of the Mush-a-
roos.
The group set off in a north-eastern direction. Amber took the lead,
Callum and Peter behind her, and Mel helping the wounded Keto along.
They made sure to keep an eye out for any waiting Mush-a-roo's, in
case the bigger, meaner brother of the one they had shot at decided
to pay them a visit.
"Any ideas on what to do when we get to the nest?" Amber asked Peter
and Callum, knowing that they could be facing up to thirty Mush-a-
roo's.
"I think we should risk it and sneak into their nest, and take them
while their sleeping" Peter suggested
"Risk it! you do like taking risks don't you?" Keto snorted
"Only calculated ones" Peter retorted
"Calculated on what? your fingers?" countered the wounded Doctor.
Amber felt very much like pistol whipping Keto right now. However, as
this was her first command as a Lieutenant she wasn't about to ruin
it like that. She cocked the shotgun and poked Keto in the stomach
with it.
"You, quiet. Mush-a-Roo's don't just like live prey." She said with
enough malice to hope it sounded convincing.
Keto opened his mouth, met Amber's eyes, and shut it again, deciding
instead to just glower silently at the back of Peter and Callum's
heads in front of him.
The team reached the edge of the scrubland, the sand underfoot
beginning to be filled with dried, almost dead grass and plant life.
It rustled underfoot, occasionally crackling and making quiet walking
rather a concentration-requiring task. It didn't help that Keto had
two injured legs, Mel was having to support him, and the other three
(being Blue Dwarf crewmembers rather than trained ballerinas) weren't
noted for their graceful walking styles. In short, the team sounded
like a herd of cattle walking on bubble wrap.
"Keep quiet everyone" Amber whispered "we're right in the middle of
their nest now. don't do anyth-" she was cut off by Peter stepping on
a dried twig, which cracked like thunder in the silent night.
"oops, sorry" he whispered back.
"We've got trouble guys" Callum hissed, as thirty pairs of green eyes
appeared in the dark, all staring at them
<To be continued>