Day 1 | Night | Between the Rock and the Hard Place

[Razar Lanville]

Razar enters the camp from inside the thopter where he had been looking over the instruments and taking notes about electrical interference patterns and issues so that they could hopefully identify anything the could do to make repairs and avoid having their equipment fail due to strong electromagnetic interference in the future. He moves to the center of camp and looks around. "Can we sit down and have a briefing? Figure out what we've all learned and see what we can put together," Razar asks, but his tone is firm suggesting it's more like turning an order into a polite request.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Quickly eating the last two bites of his cobbler and quickly licking his spoon and plate clean, Ambrose stood and responded to Razar with a salute, "Yes sir, instructor Lanville sir."

[Laila Bridger]

"Might need to round up our strays to do that. Got the search party down the cliffs, one of your scouts has prowled off farther from the rest of us, and Hadrian and the Sergeant are grabbing a moment..."

[Razar Lanville]

"Well, let's piece together what we can at the moment and get a head start. As we debrief we'll bring up salient points about related issues and concerns as they arise," Razar replies. "Not like we're back in an office to do this, so best to be as prepared as we can at all times. A little bit of duplication of effort's not uncommon in the field anyway."

He returns the salute to Ambrose.

[Cuyler Gray]

"What's the next step?" Cuyler asked. "Obviously, there's a mission to continue, but what's our immediate priority?"

[Hadrian Martikova]

"Might need to round up our strays to do that. Got the search party down the cliffs, one of your scouts has prowled off farther from the rest of us, and Hadrian and the Sergeant are grabbing a moment..."

Snip

By that point we can assume that Hadrian and Bernard have returned. "Two strays accounted for." Hadrian said filing in beside Laila.

[Bernard Martikova]

Bernard comes in shortly thereafter and salutes his CO for the mission. "Apologies, sir. Little brother here needed me for a moment, otherwise I'd have checked in right away. Ready to give our assessment for thopter #2's situation when you're ready to hear it, assuming Ambrose has not given you it yet."

He knew how to keep his head; it was what he was good at. Even when he just had a few bombs dropped on him not long ago.

[Laila Bridger]

Laila, as a low-pay grade mercenary, didn't really figure she'd be doing much talking during this little chinwag, simply geared up to listen.

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Well, let's piece together what we can at the moment and get a head start. As we debrief we'll bring up salient points about related issues and concerns as they arise," Razar replies. "Not like we're back in an office to do this, so best to be as prepared as we can at all times. A little bit of duplication of effort's not uncommon in the field anyway."

He returns the salute to Ambrose.

They nodded. "I'm ready to share what we saw down there when you are."

[Efren Lanville]

Efren was now present and it seemed as if the information gathered by the spelunking crew would be of use.

It wasn't really his place to speak before Ambrose or Kiran... and he had far less insightful information to provide.

He looked over to Ambrose and Kiran for the report and waited to offer any additional insight that might be asked of him.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Ambrose stood to attention and addressed the Instructor, "Sir, Mr. Hadrian Martikova may provide more specifics on the condition of our thopter. He deemed it salvageable with spare parts. We can return in the morning light and assess the two to determine if both can be brought up to operation or if one needs to be cannibalized for the operation of the other.

The antenna survived landing. Some gear was lost but may be retrievable. After attempting to make contact over comms, we encountered an odd, structured interference, possibly from some electromagnetic anomaly in the area.

After hearing the explosions from your clearing of the manta birds, our team made haste through the jungle to regroup. Along the way, Sergeant Martikova detected man made markings on trees indicating nearby habitation. One more oddity to report from the jungle is a blue, bioluminescent type material interspersed among the leaves.

After Ms. Marsh found us and brought us back to your group, I broke off with Kiran and Corporal Lanville to investigate the bodies. We followed a man made trail to a cave. During our descent, we came to a stream that converged with our tunnel and encountered a cluster of similarly bioluminescent mycelium. From personal experience, I can unfortunately verify they possess a strong electrical charge. The stream eventually led to a den of those manta birds, wherein we observed several of the reported bodies."

Ambrose paused a moment here to collect himself before continuing on, "Observing the bodies, we determined they were of Muadh descent. They had at least the liver if not other organs harvested and were subjected to varying and excessive doses of Ailar. Likely cause of death was overdose.

It is probable the bodies were disposed of upstream and worked their way down to the manta bird den."

[Laila Bridger]

"Wait, you mean we're parked really close to a nest of those things? That's... gonna complicate things if they wake up hungry."

[Razar Lanville]

"The livers were harvested?" Razar asks, narrowing his eyes in thought and confusion. "By wildlife or by blades?" That really seemed the most relevant indicator of some sort of truly horrific illegal operation if they were taken by humans.

"Additionally, I'm guessing that the mycelium and manta birds are indicators of some electromagnetic atmospheric or geological anomaly in the area that is likely older than human presence on this world. Is there anything we can do with out gear or equipment that will protect against it? Some sort of electrical shielding or protection like a lightning rod?" I ask.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

"Surgically removed and sewn up. I couldn't tell if the livers were solely targeted or if other organs were also harvested. The fact they were sewn up suggests it was prior to their death, otherwise why bother."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Additionally, I'm guessing that the mycelium and manta birds are indicators of some electromagnetic atmospheric or geological anomaly in the area that is likely older than human presence on this world."

"Surgically removed and sewn up. I couldn't tell if the livers were solely targeted or if other organs were also harvested. The fact they were sewn up suggests it was prior to their death, otherwise why bother."

"Depends on what else would interfere with the effect of the ailar. They were testing different strains and concentrations on the man. He... probably wasn't even aware when he died," they added, voice tense and quiet. "As far as the electromagnetism of the local flora and fauna, I'm not so sure it predates human habitation of Caladan. We'll have to see if there's more evidence, but the intensity of the electrical discharge those rays could dish out and in the fungus is unusual."

[Laila Bridger]

"How far are we from where those things are hanging around munching on human remains, anyway?"

[Efren Lanville]

“About two to three clicks out.” Efren replied.

[Laila Bridger]

"And they fly. So. Might be we don't want to be here in the morning."

[Hadrian Martikova]

Ambrose stood to attention and addressed the Instructor, "Sir, Mr. Hadrian Martikova may provide more specifics on the condition of our thopter. He deemed it salvageable with spare parts. We can return in the morning light and assess the two to determine if both can be brought up to operation or if one needs to be cannibalized for the operation of the other."

Hadrian nodded at the mention of repairing the thopter. "Naturally I'm not going to speculate on how long it'll take until I've done a thorough accounting of both in the daylight. But essentially, yes. One bird may save the other."

Then he listened in grizzly horror to the others recounting of the cave.

"We... really should get in contact with the local Muadh. As they're the victims here they're also likely the ones with a better idea of how to proceed."

[Efren Lanville]

Efren wasn’t one to speak out of turn but he nodded his head at the suggestion to locate the Muadh.