Thankfully, this landing party mission seemed as if it would be more peaceful than your last one. Well . . . okay, peaceful wasn't quite the right word. The planet was experiencing torrential downpours, and it was turning into a massive muddy slip-and-slide, but at least there were no hostile aliens attacking you. So far, anyway.
"Mr. Spock!" you yelled over the rain. "This cliff face over here is giving off the strangest readings I've ever seen!"
"What do you mean, (Y/N)?" he shouted back.
You squinted at your tricorder and then up at Spock. He was barely a foot away from you, yet you still had to raise your voice to be even slightly heard. "It looks like brief flashes of intense gamma radioactivity!"
"That is highly improbable!" He wiped the water off his own tricorder and looked down at the display. "These rocks contain high concentrations of tungsten! That should be blocking the gamma particles!"
"But it's not! You mentioned that the Enterprise's sensors detected unknown elements on the surface?"
He nodded slowly and looked back at his tricorder. "I am not picking up anything now! This is most unusual!"
Suddenly, over the thunderous hammering of the rain, a loud, crunching crack! resounded through the air. As one, you and Spock looked up at the cliffs above you. A large chunk of the stone had broken loose, and coupled with several tons of thick mud and slick weeds, had begun to grind its way down the incline. Spock didn't bother with yelling over the noise this time; he merely seized you by the wrist and began running. You could hear the landslide gathering speed as it crashed down the cliff, and realized with a swift hopelessness that you couldn't even begin to outrun it. Then all at once, Spock altered his direction. Within a few very befuddled seconds, you were aware of three things: Spock tackled you sideways, a blur of black mud obscured your vision, and a deafening silence assaulted your ears.
