Colonization: Ch.2: DESCENT [Mature, IC]

[Arcalane]

Isaac shakes his head, "No way MarsCon could hide satellites like those in planetary orbit, not with the Anty's sensors. Pioneer's a survey ship too, not much room to spare, much less carry a bunch of satellites... no external rigging, see?" he gestures to the shining white upper hull of the Pioneer settled in the clearing, underbelly of the surveyor blackened by atmospheric entry. There are no external mounts a satellite could be fitted to, only extra fuel tanks. No way to launch a missile satellite from inside, either. Well, not without depressurizing the entire cargo bay. Technically possible, but hardly practical.

"Besides, why would they leave a bunch of missile satellites in orbit? If they were dropping satellites, it'd be a relay sat, like ours. Something they could send a big distress signal with. I don't think MarsCon were planning for this sort of thing to happen."

Isaac wanders down into the clearing proper, peering at the tents before heading over to the distress signaller 'bin'. He kneels down next to it and slides one hand across the frame until he finds a recessed catch, flicking it and pulling a piece of the casing off to reveal an old-looking display and a set of input controls.

"Looks like they set this thing up maybe a few days ago, but they can't have headed out until recently by my guess. It's possible they ran into trouble with the satellites too, figured we were with whoever set them up, and decided to head for the mountain for safety. The Anty'd be hard pressed to pick the Pioneer up after the EMP hits in the air, and there's no way we'd see it from our landing site even after the main array got put back online..."

The launcher's crate is a bit heavy... it actually has a pair of straps on the back so it can be worn like a backpack. The launcher itself is fairly lightweight (well, relatively speaking), and hums quietly as Jaks plugs in, bringing up a window on his AR. Some kind of longwinded legal disclaimer about safety and biometric security systems and being preprogrammed with data on the specialists to prevent it from being used by enemy forces. It has a camera aligned over the top of the barrel as well as a manual display window that can be folded out on each side of the main body, allowing use by any handedness of person and/or augmented user.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jaks looked out the window after Issac spoke. "...Hrm, you know, you're right about the satellites. Well dang, that means that, yes, there is in fact a third party running around this place. My, this planet seems popular all of a sudden. Still, I think it's a good diea to check the ship's data first, to get better clues on who it is wer'e searching for and a more precice idea of where they went. Heck, depending on how functional the Pioneer still is, we may even be able to use it's own deep scanners to survey the surrounding area, see if we can't find the crew that way."
   The cyborg was then quiet for a moment as he read and absorbed the information from the launcher's minicomputer. He took another minute to run through the procedue of registering the biometrics to be recognized as an authorized user, then put the launcher back in its carrying crate and strapped it to his back, taking a moment to steady himself under the bulky weight. One of his two larger robots suddenly appeared at his side without any beckoning, and he took the three missiles for the launcher and secured them to the robot's back. Finally, he made sure the battlerifle was well-set under his arm, and moved towards the exit ramp, waiting for the others to make their final decision.

[Azlan]

Rebecca gave the crate of firearms a forlorn look before turning back towards the others, "as a doctor, my concern is with the crew at this time.  I do not discount the importance of information gathering and will abide by the majority decision."

[ShadesFox]

"On general principal I don't object to information gathering, but leaving to find people at a time that is not immediately will greatly reduce the chances of finding them.  Fat lot of good finding a bunch of dead or finding no one at all will do any of us.  But hey at least we will know about them after they're gone."

[Inumo]

Marianne furrowed her brow as the others debated over which place to search first. "Now hang on a minute," she said, temporarily halting the conversation. "We've got, what, 8 people or so? Is there any radio jamming preventing us from just sending maybe two o' three people to search the ship while the rest of us search for the crew?"

[Malakin]

"Well, if we are sure to be able to contact the guys remaining here.. A compromise then, like Marianne suggests? Two stay here with Isaac and check for information and they can take the car if we need them, the rest in the APC tracking down the missing crew. Means we can both get the information and bring any equipment we might find we need but have left behind. Also if something does happen we have at least three people who are certain not to be stuck in whatever situation we get into."

[Arcalane]

Isaac looks up from the bin, raising a brow slightly at Marianne. "Y' sure you want two to stick around here? I can sift through the logs here easy enough by myself, unless you enjoy standin' around lookin' pretty there wouldn't be much to do. Nothing came at us on the trip over and hasn't hit here yet... I'd say we're safe for now. I can handle myself... besides, if someone came here in force we'd probably be screwed either way."

[Inumo]

Marianne returned the raised eyebrow at Isaac. "Well, if ya think ya c'n do it all on yer own, yer welcome to it. I was just providing a spare in case there was more to the ship than just logs."

[ShadesFox]

Wolfe make a dramatic pose to point at the APC, "Right, so APC, it's over here. Tally ho and all that.  To find people."

Wolfe makes his way to the entrance ramp of the APC, hoping that someone who can drive it will be cooperative.

[Azlan]

Becky giggled a bit at Wolfe's exaggerated antics.  If anything, it broke the seriousness a bit, but there was still important business at hand.  Grabbing a handy medical field kit, she followed him up to and into the APC.

[Arcalane]

Isaac continues looking mildly puzzled. "It's a survey/recon ship, the worst I might have to deal with is a locked door. Go on, run along after the crew, I can take care of m'self."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Seeing that everyone else appears to have made up their mind, Jaks shrugged and followed suit. "Into the forest, then? Very well..." He carried the rifle and missile naucher he'd claimed towards the APC, with his two larger robots following behind and the smaller one perched on his shoulder.
   "Anyone else up to driving, or shall I take the wheel again?" He said, as he reached the APC and put the launcher carrying crate and his rifle in the back.

[Arcalane]

All Aboard!
Since Isaac can handle himself, the APC seems like the safest bet. Looks like Jaks gets to drive... the forward armoured compartment is quite cosy, with some nice camera displays of the outside of the vehicle and all the blinky lights a blinky light fetishist could ever want (and then some!). The engine revs up with menacing rumbles, and once everyone is inside, away we go!

Isaac meanwhile heads into the Pioneer. As you head away, you can see him locking up the dropship and the Pioneer. At least he'll be safe in there.

~~

Pathfinding
The forest path is a little narrow and quite bumpy (good thing the APC has six wheels and good suspension). The passengers can bring up displays of the outside as well, if they please. The sensation of continued monitoring seems to fade slightly amongst the thicker trees away from the clearing. The trees themselves are conifers of some kind by the looks of things, and they can even spot the occasional brightly coloured bird.

After about fifteen minutes, Isaac manages to hail the APC. The line is good quality. He hasn't turned up anything important yet, just some recent log entries from the crew. They all note feeling the same... watchful presence as the team have been noticing, and one of them seems to be convinced it's coming from the mountain. Evidently he persuaded everyone to investigate. Isaac hasn't managed to pick up any more activity on the island, although there's some very faint, large heat signatures very far down... too large for the crew, likely just potential sources of geothermal energy.

The path seems to be going for a good while yet... you have a little time still to talk between yourselves and ask Isaac if he can dig up any specific information.

[AmberCross]

Ari went with the others to the APC a bit reluctantly. Not because he didn't like them, or wanted to stay, or was put off by the phantom eyes (though he was, despite anything he may say to the contrary), but mostly just cause he felt uneasy leaving anyone on their own. Still, Isaac seemed to know what he was doing and was technically in charge so what he said went for the most part.

Meanwhile on the APC, Ari stared out a 'window' and watched as the scenery flashed by while mulling things over when suddenly something occurred to him. Moving to the radio com, he pushed a button and said, "Hey, Isaac? Ari here... just wondering if you can check how these people got here. If they really did have slower than light travel, how'd they get here so soon? Like Sandra said, even given that they were off course and we left far later than they did, this far out we should have beat them here."

[ShadesFox]

Wolfe enjoyed the view.  Birds were always such pleasant creatures, no matter how weird the xeno birds may look.  He also took the chance to look over everyone again, see what they took with them.

Wolfe could only hope that the heat signatures were geothermal power, and not geo "spring up from the ground and eat us" hostiles.  Still, no need to be paranoid about remote posibilites.  Not when there are greater threats near by.

"Isaac, did he say why it was coming from the mountain?  Was it something that came from the mountain or the mountain itself?"

[Arcalane]

Taptaptaptappitytap~

"Ari... trust me, if I had an answer to that one, I'd tell you. To be honest, I think this whole planet is screwed up something serious, and the satellites and the Pioneer are just the tip of the iceberg here. Why did nobody colonize Kaukai until now? It's not that remote and nowhere near alien territories. People don't simply forget about Earth-like planets... we have maybe half a dozen of them tops. Everywhere else is domes and tunnels. It might be home to some, but the demand for habitable planets like Kaukai here is higher than ever. My best guess is we're going to have to sift through the flight logs for the Pioneer and Antygias, then compare them and see if there's any anomalies in there."

Isaac sighs.

"Anyway... I'll see what I can dig up... hold on."

Another pause for more tapping and searching, lasting a few minutes. Enough that the mountain is in plain view now, the track leading up towards a distant cave entrance.

"As far as I can tell, the guy thinks it was coming from inside the mountain. Unfortunately his log entries before they set out start to get a little... incoherent. Nothing too crazy, no prophetic ramblings of doom and destruction, but he mentions 'voices'... nothing we've heard yet, and 'eyes'... pretty obvious huh? Anyway, if it was coming from inside the mountain, something could be tapping those geothermal sources for power. If they're not geothermals then things could get even more interesting. Stay sharp."

[Azlan]

Rebecca watched a camera display occasionally as she pondered the situation to herself.  She listened to the information Isaac discovered and the speculation he added.  The possibilities bothered her, and ran amok with her imagination.  All manner of dreadful things danced about within her buzzing brain until she visibly shook her head as if to clear it. 

Rubbing her temples she pulled off her glasses and sighed, focus on the people, do your job, we'll worry about this when we need to.  Speaking aloud, Becky observed, "so I suppose they'll be a bit unstable, likely paranoia among other things.  Dashing about, brandishing weapons is probably not our best icebreaker.  Let's be careful shall we."

[Inumo]

Marianne got a little anxious at the mention of "voices." At Rebecca's remark, however, she slowly tucked Ol' Faithful into a safe pocket. "Well," she fretted, "y' can't blame us fer bein' a tad jumpy, as y' c'n imagine. Ah mean, c'mon, this news's a trifle moah disconcertin' th'n we expected. Ah'd rathah not leave this heah ahland with mah brain in a bushel."

[Arcalane]

Isaac somehow manages to convey a shrug over a purely audio medium. "Just 'cause one of 'em's feeling a bit loopy doesn't mean the rest are. Anyway, I better concentrate on searching these logs. Radio me if anything interesting comes up."

With that, he closes the line.

The APC can go no further once you reach a small plateau on the mountainside, which opens into a cave tunnel. There are no signs of the Pioneer's team just yet, but they appear to have left a series of light-stick like rods behind, presumably so they could find their way out again. The cave tunnel inclines fairly sharply a dozen or so meters into the mountain however, preventing the your team from getting a good view of what's up ahead.

[ShadesFox]

Wolfe hops out with the rifle on his back, thinking that one of the smaller guns may have been a good idea.  Too late for that now.

"At least they won't be hard to find.  And only reasonable people leave behind glow sticks to find their way out.  This should be much easier then anticipated."

Wolfe rummages through the stuff they brought looking for a flashlight.  Preferably the sort that isn't attached to a gun.

[Inumo]

As Marianne climbed out of the APC, she spotted the tall man in military pants and untucked button-down shirt digging through their supplies. "If'n yer lookin' for a flashlight,  make it a red one. Keeps from goin' night-blind, y'know? 'Sides, rather not blind the folks in there if they went outta the way o' those lightsticks."

[SquirrelWizard]

"Nobody approach the cave entrance just yet, I want to take a look at it." stepping out of the APC, he casually walked over to the entrance with his Neutralizer out, but pointed down in a nonthreatening manner, well at least as nonthreatening as possible.

Reaching the entrance, he took off his shades and slipped them into a pocket on his suit. Crouching down, he studied the mouth of the cave. Taking a few deep breaths through his nose, he focused his senses to the best of his ability, looking for any recent disturbance in the dirt outside the cave, any smells indicating people had come by. Ultimately he was trying to discern if the people had entered the cave or left it, how many, and how long ago.

[Arcalane]

The hazard-suits have compact handsfree flashlights mounted on the helmets, along with cameras so you can get a nice view of what your teammates are looking at. Handy that.

--

A human nose is only so good at this sort of thing... which is to say that smells alone don't reveal much to Marcus as you're still fairly close to the sea, but what's much more obvious are some rough tracks in the grit and dust outside the cave entrance. The tracks only go in, and they look fresh alright, not more than a few hours old. It looks like they were walking double-file, which makes it harder to gauge the number that went in, but there can't be too many on a scout ship like the Pioneer.

[ShadesFox]

Right, handy indeed. Almost handy enough to not forget about it. After briefly looking silly Wolfe made a mental note to not checkout any asses while he has a camera.
"Right, so they went into this cave right?"
He sticks his head into the cave and looks around.

[Azlan]

Linking her wrist unit to the suit, she sets the unit to record all linked feeds.

Rebecca sneaks up behind Wolfe and peers into the cave as well, "anything out of the ordinary?"

[SquirrelWizard]

Marcus nodded, "Yeah, I'd say a group went in a no more than a couple of hours ago." Holstering his sidearm, he reached into one of the pockets of his suit and brought out a small black metalic case, opening it up it revealed several small rows of darts in it. Picking one out, he closed the case up and pulled his rifle forward. He opened the chamber on the underside of his gun, and inserted the dart inside. Sealing the chamber, he gave his gun a soft pat, "Just incase."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jaks had driven the APC up to the target area without incident, People had been asking Issac to retrieve information from the ship's computers while they were riding, but it seemed they covered the important things and he didn't have anything more to add.
   He gets out, double-checks the seal on his hazmat suit, and gets his battle rifle ready. He considered the launcher for a moment, but that thing's bulky case would just get in the way in the cave. Better really hope now they didn't need it.
   He walked near where the others were, and his cybernetic eye's HUD highlighted a few things, namely, the lightstick trail. "Well, that's convenient." He says. He then notices one guy starting to get ahead of the others, and just inside of the cave, there's a step upward ramp that makes it hard to see what's next. "Oh, hold on a second there, Marcus." Jaks said. Meanwhile, the big neon name above his head acquired the caption 'eager beaver'.
   "I can look ahead. Sorta. Just gimme a minute." He looks down at one of his two larger robots. "Deimos, forward."
   The robot then skitters forward, going right past marcus and up the ramp. Jaks started focusing on his remote implant, and jacked into the suit's own transmitter. Oops, wasn't going to be much range with this thing through solid rock. He moved forward up to the mouth of the cave to keep line-of-sight with the robot.
   The little robot approached the top of the ramp and started looking over, it slowed and stopped until it had a decent view without revealing itself. Back at the mouth of te cave, Jaks concentrated intently, and started to get the video feed from the robot in his cybernetic eye.

[Arcalane]

Deimos slows as it approaches the top of the ramp, peering over the top cautiously, just as intended. The resolution is low, the feed is a little grainy and the lightsticks don't cast enough light on their surroundings to be much help for illumination further along in the cave, but Jaks can make out what looks like some kind of metal structure or frame of some kind up ahead. It's hard to gauge what it is from here, but it does not seem to be a building or a wall.

There is no sign of the Pioneer crew.

[ShadesFox]

Wolfe looked to Rebecca, "Nothing to see so far.  Other then a little robot thing going up the ramp."

Not about to be one upped by a robot Wolfe follows behind it.  Once it's head fails to explode for looking over the edge Wolfe peers up and over to see what is in there.  Upon noticing the metal structure that Deimos saw he will try and identify what it is.

[ShadesFox]

Wolfe squints hard... trying to see if he could make out anything.  Alas, all he could see with any clarity was the robot.  After a little bit he again remembered the flashlights on the helmet and, after double checking for anyone, turned them on.

Wolfe spys... a cave.  It really isn't much of a cave either.  In face once above the ramp there is very little cave after that.  Though there is the large metal structure.  Though structure is being a bit generous.  With some small guard rails around a metal platform it looked too much like an elevator to ignore.  Around 5 meters on each side and with one section of rail missing, a handy entry point.

Wolfe turns to the little robot and pokes it several times, "Are you getting this back there? I'm going to go check this out."
He steps over the edge of the ramp and approaches the thing he is calling an elevator and starts looking around it, careful not to push any buttons.