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Once again the meeting point is on the Keant, once again. Even down to the same person briefing, who has a slideshow prepared.
Arizhel is seated in a chair, her legs crossed at the knee and her hands clasped in her lap. She seems to be just looking around idly as she waits for the briefing to start.
Newt's seated up front, climbing his fingers against each other as he sits in his seat.
Into the room comes Sara. She once again takes a seat near the front, a nod of greeting offered to all those present already.
"Fortunately our initial contacts did not go poorly." he opens up with. "Given that far more time has passed on the surface, initial reports indicate the natives have a reasonable command of a Terran Standard derived language, which should be helpful for future interaction." the screen shows a small settlement, primitive by most standards, but better than the previous group encountered. "After some migration from the initial group..." a dot shows up indicating the blizzard prone locale, "They are quite close to meeting this group shown" the first slide is shown again. "Unfortunately it has been several years for them since they have been in proximity, and we are sending people in to discern the situation."
"...It's going to be... interesting... trying to keep track of them," Rish notes, furrowing her brow just a bit. "Though at least the language barrier is set low." A pause, the Terran pursing her lips thoughtfully. "Do we have any idea *how* they speak a Standard derived language?"
Newt says, "I reckon it's cos they're from here."
Sara raises her hand at this, "I believe that somebody had been down there already. They had a rock for carbon dating when we were there before and the 'wise sage' said he had learned the language so there would be somebody to converse with us when we got there."
"Cloned from humans, from what my briefing told me." is the reply, mostly directed at Newt. "Terran was introduced by other expeditions as time went on for them and we were sure they could communicate. By that time, they had some primitive languages of their own, so there may be some differences."
Arizhel goes silent at that, simply nodding in agreement. One finger taps thoughtfully against her chin.
Newt ohs, then scowls slightly. "Why'd we do /that/?"
Sara falls silent waiting to see what the answer might be.
"Don't know why." he admits. "Actually not even sure who made them. My orders were that they're to be considered people, so it's still important to let them develop."
Arizhel nods. "I'd tend to agree," she replies, albeit quietly. "In any case, you said that they'd migrated. So now there's two groups close together, yes?" Cue another thoughtful pause. "I'm guessing someone's already thought of the fact that there could be conflict."
Newt just scowls silently for now.
Sara leans back in her seat at this, "Ah, the classic philisophical case of group A, group B, and group C. The real question is will we remain true to group C and not interfere in anyway?"
"We prefer to think of it as minimal interference." is the explanation. "While we do not want to alter anything too much, these people are aware of our existance, so it should be safe to operate openly. The objective here is investigation, and acting if needed. Neutrality is a better word. You will be touching down a ways outside of the settlement shown. The weather should be better than last time. Any further questions?""
"None from me," Rish replies, shaking her head. She places both feet on the floor and makes as if to rise. "Shall we then?" With that, she gets to her feet, looking over at Sara and Newt.
Newt shakes his head silently and slides off his seat.
Sara stands, "I'm good. Ready to go when you are," she replies.
The clearing designated for landing is far better than last time. It's a bit rocky, but clear weather and being a mere mile from the settlement means it will be quite easy to land the ship.
Arizhel simply sits through the trip calmly and quietly, seemingly lost in her own thoughts for the time being.
Newt lands the ship softly this time. No need for anyone to loose their pants. Smiling he sits up and announces, "We're here. Weather's nicer."
Sara too remains quiet for most of the trip. A dataslate is in her hands and she types away at it, and periodically she looks around at her fellow crew mates. As the ship lands she unbuckles and stands, the dataslate slipped away. "Are we ready then?" she asks looking first to Rish and then Newt.
Outside the ship is quite nice, by most standards. A bit high for elevation, which means it's a touch colder and snow adorned slopes are nearby. Trees occupy various points, split apart by a primitive looking road, heading towards the settlement.
"Let's shall," Rish agrees with a faint smile, unbuckling her harness and getting to her feet. She stretches a bit and slips into a lightweight jacket, then heads out the airlock, stopping near the bottom of the ship's ramp to wait for the rest.
Newt finishes off at his console, doublecehecking everything and gets out of his seat, "Ready."
Sara checks her bag and tugs her jacket a little tighter closed, "Off we go then," she says and follows after Rish, eyes scanning the area around her quickly, trying to get her barings.
Arizhel shades her eyes and looks off in the direction of the settlement, squinting just a bit. "There's a man running toward the village there," she murmurs quietly to the others. "Hopefully this doesn't go south." Optimistic, aren't we?
Newt's visor going down to shade his eyes and he nods, having spotted the man himself. "Yeah. Would be nice."
The group is just outside of a shuttle on a primitive planet. The ramp is still down and the group is preparing for...well...anything.
Sara clutches her bag tightly and nods at Rish, "I see him. He's probably going to relay that we're here to whomever it is that's in charge. Perhaps...they were waiting for us to return?"
And the man is running towards the city, not taking to long to be out of sight, given the road's primitive nature.
Volidana nods "He likely noted our presence well before we noticed his. shall we follow
"Perhaps," Rish replies, offering a slight shrug to Sara. "At this point I don't think anything would surprise me." She picks up a small rucksack from at her feet and shoulders it, then starts off down the road toward the settlement. "No use in hiding. She's right. We've already been seen anyway."
Newt follows along, "Yeah, true. Hopefully they're nice and don't want to poke us with sharp sticks."
Sara snickers at Newt's words, "You're right," she says to Rish, "Lets just be ready for anything, hm? Be cautious..."
Arizhel chuckles quietly. "If they have the pointy sticks out, at least we know where we stand, hm?" she observes, offering a mischievous wink Sara's way. The Terran's hands rest in her pockets as she continues down the road toward the settlement.
Volidana follows the rest softly with a keen eye should more inhabitants appear
Newt kicks a rock as he walks along, watching it tumble forward, "Did anyone remember to bring a stun gun or something?"
"And me without a proper pointy stick to fight back with..." Sara grumbles softly as she too kicks a rock.
The settlement, if it could be called that, is mostly a couple natural caves with a trail leading up to it. The man who had ran away earlier is here. "We have visitors!" he declares.
Arizhel takes her hands out of her pockets as she approaches closer, letting them hang at her sides. They are clearly empty. She offers a smile to the man. "Good day," she greets, a polite nod following.
Sara follows in after Rish, remaining silent for now as her eyes scan the small set of caves.
Kallyn, who has been FREAKISHLY silent thus far, sets her actions between those or Rish and Sara. She smiles, but she remains silent and examines their surroundings.
No one else comes out quite yet, but the man looks at those approaching. "You have come to observe, yes? We have heard of your kind, they ride the dragons of silver and watch us for a short while."
"We've come to visit for a bit, yes," Rish replies, giving another slight nod. She looks aside to Sara and Kallyn, one eyebrow raising slightly, then back to the man she's speaking with.
"Are the others not wanting to be observed?" Sara asks curiously as she notes the lack of people joining them.
Kallyn just nods and crosses her arms. Apparently she's not in much of a mood to speak at the moment, but she's at least polite in demeanor.
"No. They're probably off finding something we made. We wanted an opinion rendered." the hunter says. "It's a spear like this one, the edges set to do more harm to the targets. Several years ago we found a different kind of stone that could sharpen our spears like this."
Arizhel tilts her head slightly. "Oh?" she asks. "Good. It'll be interesting to see what you've found." A pause then, the Terran's expression thoughtful. "How many years has it been since the last visit?"
Sara frowns at this, "Is hunting your largest concern at the moment?" she asks. "What do you folks do for recreation?" there's a hint of curiosity at this. "Have you made any other tools yet?"
"Several new tools, but this stone is incredible." another male comes out of one of the caves, "Ah, that's the stone right there." It looks more like a small diamond than anything else. "These people in the mountain defiled a landing site, so we've been preoccupied with food and them."
"Recreation?" Kallyn peers over at Sara, "Yeah, let's see you try to have some fun when you're struggling to survive. Invention probably /is/ recreation." She raises an eyebrow, then, "'Defiled a landing site'. What do you mean, what did they do to it?"
The Terran looks from Sara to Kallyn, then back over at the new arrival. "Can I see it?" Rish inquires, holding out a hand. "Don't worry, I just want a look. I'll return it." She then goes quiet, as if awaiting an answer to Kallyn's question.
Sara looks up at Kallyn, "It's a perfectly viable question. If they're building tools and able to hunt better there's a chance they've evolved past the point of only needing to hunt for foo-" she pauses at the announcement that a landing site has been defiled and falls silent, her attention also on the newest arrival.
"We heard of it. The landing site... collapsed." from the sound of it, the hunter seems to have trouble conceiving of this possibility. "They are nearby, and we will not suffer for it."
As for the other one, he looks over at the first hunter, then offers the gem towards Rish.
"Are you sure that they did this on purpose?" Kallyn asks flatly, "Doesn't seem like something people would go out of their way to do - what would they get out of it?"
Arizhel gives a gracious smile as she plucks the gem up to hold it to the light, eyeing it for a few moments from several angles before offering it back. "Thank you," she says, nodding slightly to go with it. Her lips purse thoughtfully at Kallyn's question, though she remains silent.
"Better tools for hunting? That's survival to these people. If they wanted what these people have...and thought that would get it for them..." Sara comments.
"They don't just do it once, they collapse other things too." the hunter declares. As this happens, there's a loud noise off in the distance, and one of the snow covered mountain tops becomes a more snow covered mountain side. It doesn't threaten the settlement proper, but it is coming down not too far from there. "They did it again!" he proclaims. "We were looking around there for them and they did their collapsing on us!"
"Huh... oookay then," Kallyn peers at the avalanche with a frown, "That was a bit unexpected." She sighs and shakes her head, before turning her attention to the party she is with, "I'm not going to volunteer you guys, but I'd like to have a look into this. Sounds like these others have something they shouldn't."
The Terran looks awfully surprised, flinching and turning to watch the avalanche with wide eyes. "...I don't think that's them," Rish replies, shaking her head. "But we should probably look into it, yes." Rish turns back to the two men from the cave. "You said you were out looking for them?" she asks then, curiously.
Sara blinks in shock at the avalanch and her head nods in agreement with Rish, "What in Kanter's name? There's no way they could have explosives this soon. If they do...somebody's been doing more than just observing..."
Closer to the site of the avalanche, there is a lot of snow covering the trail and other trees. The hunter instinctively starts digging, even though there seems to be no particular aim to his methods. "They're in here!" he proclaims. "You will help save them, right?"
Arizhel has pulled her jacket more tightly around herself as the group neared the snow. She looks toward Kallyn. "I don't suppose you've got anything with you that could detect life signs?" she asks. "There's too much snow for us to dig randomly and find anything but... well, lots of snow."
"Um... no," Kallyn replies to Rish, "I mean... some of it might be useful in abstract ways, but nothing's designed for that." She produces a couple scanners and gadgets to demonstrate, before remarking, "I can make the digging go by faster, though." She flicks a finger at the snow and tries to raise the digging region's temperature minimally - a bit above the melting point but not far enough to actually feel warm.
Sara watches the snow melting, eyes widening a bit, "Um...I /might/ be able to rig something..." she comments softly, eyes still on the snow.
The snow begins to melt, water starting to muddle around as Kallyn begins the melting process.
"...I'm rather useless here all said," Rish notes mildly, with a faint smirk quirking her lips upward on the left side. "I can dig, but..." She blinks. "It would probably make more sense to wait till some of the snow's melted off." She paces crosswise across the trail, then picks her way through one of the shallower parts, perhaps searching in a general sense.
Kallyn quirks an eyebrow, eyes oranging in surprise as the melting idea actually works. The initial color is replaced by caution yellow, though, the woman frowning as she watches her power at work. "So I /can/ control fire once more," she murmurs to herself in Hekayan softly, "Or heat, at least... Light save us all..."
Sara makes an attempt at altering the device. She bites at her lip as a small chip falls out, "Yeah...I'm all but useless too.." she says as she reaches down to pick up the stray part. "We needed that. I-I'm sorry.." she says softly, a frown forming on her lips. "I thought I would be able to.."
The snow continues melting, and the puddles grow slightly. There is one person found, at least, in pretty poor shape and suffering from hypothermia lying where snow was, now covered in water.
Arizhel shakes her head and waves a hand dismissively at Sara, then makes her way toward the formerly snowbound person. "Erm." she mutters, crouching down in the newly-formed mud and starting to unfasten her jacket. "This one needs medical attention," she calls toward Kallyn.
"It's fine," Kallyn replies, "I was educated in the dissection and reconstruction of my scanners when I took my job." She holds her hands out for the parts and sets about putting the pieces back together, "While I do this, help that man out of the water and give him a big hug - body heat and friction are ideal, as they warm the body slowly enough to avoid undue strain on the heart. I would do it myself, but I'm afraid I don't have enough experience with this ability to trust myself with regulating a person's core temperature..."
Sara nods and hurries over to help Rish with the man by pulling him from the water and holding him tightly to herself, one hand rubbing against his skin to try and help the process a little more. "Think there's more?" she asks Rish.
"Perhaps," Rish replies, shrugging vaguely. She stands as Sara takes over, looking around before she slogs through the mud toward the deeper snow again. "One can hope, in any case. How many were there in the party?" The last question is apparently called over at the man that came up with them.
"Probably just two." the hunter says, still digging even as the snow melts around him, though he seems a bit confused by this.
"... Shit, hun, what did you /do/ to these?" Kallyn frowns at her scanners, "Looks like I'm doing things the old-fashioned way." The Aukami shoves the pieces-parts into her bag and moves to assist with the new patient, "Crushed from the weight of the snow, freezing to death... Light, what do I have that I can..." She trails off, focusing on the pool of water rather than finishing her sentence. Again with the temperature-raising efforts, in hopes of a nice warm puddle to work with. Because it's better than trying the body itself, and faster than body heat.
Sara frowns, "I don't know.." she says as she holds the man tightly against her, her jacket opened to try and wrap around him a little, "I thought I was just rewiring that part, but that chip shouldn't have fallen out like that. It should have been secured tightly in there.
Arizhel is also digging through the snow in places, though really, it's more like digging through slush by this point. She doesn't dig in any one place for too long, mostly just shoving the slush aside. She doesn't offer any further words at this point, only a nod at the man's reply to her.
The water warms slightly as Kallyn focuses. The man starts to be slightly warmer, though he's still quite a long way from being 'well.'
"Eh, it happens," Kallyn shrugs, focused more on the freezing man as she sets about trying to get him stable, "Keep an eye on that snow, the water's melting underneath and could make it shift."
Sara nods and keeps hold of the man while trying to keep from ending up in the melt also. "Don't worry, I've got him..." she calls out.
Arizhel straightens briefly, stretching her back out. "...I'm not seeing anyone else," she murmurs, sighing. "And I suppose you're right. We can't melt *all* of the snow without getting *ourselves* buried." With a shake of her head, she goes back to work, though her resolve seems to be flagging somewhat.
The other is seen, another male looking like the first hunter. Unfortunately, this one is already dead. As for the water, it continues to warm, starting to melt the snow beneath a little, as well, becoming more difficult as it seeks an equilibrium between the environment and the psionic force applied.
Once the one hunter is stabilized, Kallyn digs in her bag and pulls out a collapsible hovergurney. With Sara's assistance she sets about loading the man up onto it. "It's been dangerously long," she notes, "We'll need to get back so I can work on fixing my equipment, and making sure he survives."
"...Dammit. The other one's already gone," Rish says, scowling as she brushes the snow aside to reveal the second hunter. A sigh is offered before the Terran straightens, looking toward their guide. "Do you bury your dead?" she asks, though not unkindly. Her voice is rather soft, point of fact, and she clearly understands that it's a difficult thing to be asked. "If you do, I'll help you carry him back to the settlement."
"Bury?" the guide asks. "We'll prepare the body." he finally confirms, seeming to understand the question after a bit.
"I have another gurney if it'll make the body easier to transport," Kallyn offers, quite opposite of Arizhel in that the redhead uses a neutral, unsympathetic sort of tone.
Arizhel nods. "That would probably help," she agrees. "We should get out of here sooner rather than later, lest we get caught in another avalanche." The Terran frowns a bit, clearing more snow (or rather, slush) away from the body.