Momentum: Saito: 5 Kenn: 2 Eddie: 1 Xo: 1 Pappy: 0 Ric: 0 Igor: 0 Konrad: 0 Waremart: 0 Heat: 22 D+3 (Arrival Day +3) The night passed again without incident even with a lighter watch guard as Pappy stepped into Atl's original role after it was done helping Kenn with patching up Konrad. He carried around Konrad's entrenching tool once again with pride and ready to bash anything to a pulp. Breakfast wasn't as good as it was with the Scots Guards as they went back to their plain and dry ration packs. It didn't raise any spirits but it did give everyone the calories they'd need for the day ahead. Speaking of which the food supplies on Waremart were looking lower. They had been out for almost half a week now. Now with proper light and rest the team could comb over the camp more properly looking for clues. The night before during his watch Saito spotted something but waited until daylight and with rested eyes to look at it. In the morning he went to the area he noted from his perch. It was about 7 meters away from the main camp going north east. It was a massive tree that crashed into a larger thicket of trees. Spoiler: Clue info for Saito The fallen tree wasn't all that special beyond its enormous size. One could drive a truck down its hollowed out truck from end to end without problem. What the tree did do as well was serve as a easy path through this massive thicket without any issues. Something in Saito called for him to take a look inside. He flipped on his torch and went in. There was nothing at first but then he started to see it. Pellet markings and then dried out blood... a lot of it. There were imprints on the floor as well that indicated a Mulebot was present as well. [To piece together the "crime scene" I'll need an Intelligence+Ballistics D1 and Analysis D2.] [For everyone else an Observation D1 test is needed to find anymore clues. The area not looked at closely is the communal area. More Momentum spent after a successful test the better the find.]
After the rough day yesterday, and his lack of sleep that night Ric was feeling it when he got up to take his watch. As the Tohaa Medic comes towards him, he frowns: so far the Tohaa hadn't seemed to be pulling his weight. Grudgingly he admitted that his surgery on Konrad had been competent; not as good as a Daktari could do, but certainly adequate. So when Kenn-tal offered to treat his wound he acquiesced. He also took the opportunity to grab a tablet of Blue Khat: that stuff was pure gold for getting you going again after a long watch. Immediately before breakfast he takes the tablet. He feels the familiar buzz, and his mood picks up. Less tired, he again searches the compound. Starting in the communal area, but also widening his search to the perimetre of the camp. Based on what they'd read on those datacaches, it looked like at least one, probably two, of the science team had died while they were here, so it's possible there's another grave near by. [Ric's takes Blue Khat and gets +1d20 on observation tests. Searching the camp (TN13 FOC1): 3#1d20 17 7 2 Reroll due Sharp Senses: 1d20 17 Passed. 3 Successes with Super AWA, so +2 Momentum. I won't spend any Momentum yet: I'll see how everyone else goes.]
Saito views the scene in front of him. Gentlemen. I seem to have found something worth looking at. Pinging his location for others to have a look at, Saito sets his geist up to help him make out whatever he can. Intelligence+ballistics test. TN 11 (8+3). roll is 1,2. Two successes. (Spending that momentum to roll more for the next) Analysis D2 TN 10. Roll is 1,5,8. Three successes. Geist assist. TN 6. 3,19. One success. Combing through all that's around him and compiling with his geist. Saito begins to build a mental picture of what happened here.
Momentum: Saito: 6 Kenn: 2 Ric: 2 Konrad: 1 Eddie: 1 Xo: 1 Pappy: 0 Igor: 0 Waremart: 0 Heat: 22 [For the future assist rolls are only 1d20 not 2d20.] Spoiler: Clue info for Saito @Daemon of Razgriz Saito with the help of his geist reconstruct the scene. AR constructs present two generic figures (Person A and Person B). Then there's a mulebot construct. So three figures in total were in here. Person B was traveling down the tree with the mulebot. Person A was behind them or came up behind them. Ballistic projections all originate from Person A. Speaking of ballistics Saito identified the pellets came from a boarding shotgun. Make and model unknown but it is a standard Human Sphere design being caseless. So it wasn't a Morat or Ariadnan who shot them. Counting the pellets Persona A shot Person B once. Checking out the path Person B and the mulebot were taking it would of started them on a path towards Zawacka. The amount of blood that was lost from Person B would of been fatal if not treated. It appears Person A let Person B bleed out. Spoiler: Clue info for Ric @inane.imp Konrad seemed to already have the communal covered so he checks out the camp perimeter. It would of been impossible to see in the dusk or night but in the day time a tree with a hole in it had a memorial. Simple pieces of gear, some prayer beads, and not much else. It didn't say who it was dedicated to. Then he looked down where his boots were. This was another grave. He gets the entrenching tool from Konrad and gets to digging. Another black bag but this time there's no sealed notebook with it. He uses Waremart drag it out and he cuts it open. Another skeleton but no ID. [Need a Medicine D2 for a basic ID of the skeleton.] Spoiler: Clue info for Konrad @DrunkCorsair Konrad snoops around the communal area. He was mainly seeing was Eddie saw the night before but he took a finer approach and scanned every inch. His eyes caught a small piece of smart paper sticking up from the dirt. He pulls it up. It's burnt and soiled but the material seems to have held out from 3 years of abuse from Paradiso. Scrawled across it in rough writing in Spanish: Runenberg, Runenberg, Runenberg. We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll all get there! Zawacka is a trap. Nothing but aliens and war between us and there. Runenberg is the hope. Our only hope.
@All Saito, I think I've found your body. Kenn, get over here and get us an ID. Hopefully this one still has the Cube. While waiting for Kenn to arrive, Ric lays out the skeleton while Gabo uses the feed from Ric's eyes to do some basic biomedical measurements. Gabo pushes these to Kenn's geist to help him get a proper ID. Gabo assisting in IDing the body (TN10 FOC1): 1d20 3
Guys, i think i found something. It seems that someone lost it and wasnt happy with the leader. Konrad adds a picture of the smart paper to his notice. I think its from Pedro.
Medicine D2 test results: 3, 2 & another 3 from Gabo's help. Quite the low set of numbers which is perfect for Infinity RPG's tests. Job well done on Gabo's part. Kenn is able to successfully identify the face of the Human in front of him. Kenn Ta'al: "Looking at the pictures our benefactor hirers graciously provided for us..This corpse is beyond a doubt.." Kenn Ta'al: "Considering a note said that "Pedro & Jasem set this group up for failure" it wouldn't surprise me if it was from him."
Momentum: Saito: 6 Kenn: 4 Ric: 2 Konrad: 1 Eddie: 1 Xo: 1 Pappy: 0 Igor: 0 Waremart: 0 Heat: 22 [Kenn's bioscanner gives him +1 bonus Momentum on the ID test so 2 Momentum to him from it.] Gabo pulls up the biometric data of the research from the dossier for Kenn to cross reference. His bioscanner pulls the results from the skeleton. Height, limb lengths, and structure closely associated to females... this is Aria Bat-Levi. Additionally Kenn picks up on gauges on some of her bones indicating projectile damage. Aria was the one who was shot and killed in the tree. Like Nero, Aria's cube has been removed as well. Seems someone thought they'd get out of this alive to resurrect anyone they lost. Saito's Person B gets updates to Aria Bat-Levi. Now the question was who was Person A? The question still lingered about where they went after all of this as well. [Psychology D1 to go off the current behavior of the team and the understanding of who's in charge or Analysis D3 to try and predict their new route using the info they got from the dead mulebot and some patterns starting to pop up from the research team.]
Hmmm, did not expect that. Dusting himself off Ric pulls up the Nav Suite, he starts exploring the options for "tired-person" pathing towards Runenburg and Zawacka. He's not exploring the most tactically sensible or expedient route, but rather the easiest: the sort of route a group of tired and hungry people would take. Gabo projects a map of the area into AR; Ric uses this to display any insights he gets about their likely path. [Basically, I want to use Ric's navigation skills to assist whoever does the Analysis test, or if someone wants to assist Ric he'll lead. Edit: Assisting Kenn with Analysis (TN11, +1 Complication): 1d20 7. 1 Success, +1 from Super-AWA.]
Psychology D1 test results: 11 & 8. Both successes which gives Kenn another point of momentum to use later on top of passing the test. Feeling unsure about the mental state of the team and perhaps figure out which Human was calling the shots, Kenn Ta'al took in his surroundings using his species' natural use of pheromones. This allows Tohaa to "feel" their environment on a deeper level than most species could ever imagine. From what Kenn Ta'al gathered it seemed that Ric was the most likely to take charge of the situation currently. This was confirmed when the human pulled up a holo-map in order to figure out where the most likely route the Haqqites went after leaving this area. Analysis D2 (Thanks to Ric's assistance and successful roll) test results: 6 & 4. Kenn manages to add some info to the data on where the group headed off towards. Kenn Ta'al: "Ricc..I believe that the survivors next steps would vary depending on who killed the female. If it was the Combined forces then the group would have scattered, but remained close by, into the denser parts of this area heading towards..Run-nen-burg & Za..Za-wacka. If the female was killed by someone in the party then the trek would have been more concentrated & one-minded. With a central push into lesser dense foliage since that terrain wouldn't interfere in slowing them down. No apparent danger, no need to head into the heavy brush since it would lead to lost time which they couldn't afford to waste."
While the others talked about what they had found, Konrad follows with one ear but keeps looking around the camp.
Momentum: Saito: 6 Kenn: 6 Ric: 2 Konrad: 1 Eddie: 1 Xo: 1 Pappy: 0 Igor: 0 Waremart: 0 Heat: 22 Eddie chimed in for the first time in a long time. "That note has to be from Pedro." He said referring to the one Kornad found. "He seemed determined on getting to Runenberg and no protest from the others seemed to register from him." He listened to Kenn. He agreed with what the Tohaa had to say. The question still though was who killed Aria and where did they go? "I'm going to float the theory that it was Pedro that killed Aria. Yeah, there might of been some romantic interest between the two but she was totally going against his plan with her trying to go to Zawacka. That and she was taking the mulebot with her. That was all the supplies the research team had left. That might be the main reason he killed her... she was already trying to kill them. He'd also be the most likely member to carry a firearm being the wilderness guide." He crossed his arms. "If it was Pedro I suspect they took the path Kenn suggests and continued to Runenberg. The man was never going to go to Zawacka even if his life depended on it." [Kenn and Ric have sussed out the path the team would of taken to go to Runenberg and Zawacka. They can't investigate both routes but which ever one they settle one the time to look it over will be quick and efficient leaving more daylight to track the research teams movements. Who ever killed Aria was the one who would most likely drive the research team to whichever location they felt would be best for them.]
"I do agree with Eddie that Runnenberg is the most likely scenario if Pedro is, was calling the shots." Saito stops to chuckle at the accidental pun. "And taken the survivors that way. Although a part of me just wants to check Zawacka just cause. But i'd say Runnenberg is the way."
Kenn Ta'al: "Well if we are mostly in agreement we shall head towards Runnen and get off this planet. Somebody better be found along the way or...How many party members do we have left to find? Surely it can't be more than 2 or 3."
Ric sucks his teeth. Putas, the research team had really made it hard to get rescued. Ric@All: I agree. Looks like they pushed on to Runenburg. Issue is we only have supplies left for 3 days of searching. That's enough time to get to Zawacka but not enough to get to Runenburg. The team had 4 days of Konrad interjects, raising the issue of which option exposes the team to the least risk of running into another CA patrol. The guy was clearly, and understandably, still shook up after getting his skull creased by a round in the last firefight. Ric also wasn't too keen to run into another patrol: yesterday's firefight had made it clear that they could cope with combat, but they weren't a combat team. Ric@All: Pushing on to Runenburg supplies be damned would have the least time in the Jungle and consequently least opportunities to run into a CA patrol. Going back to Zawacka is ~4-5 days lost in transit. But it offers the opportunity to rest and resupply. Getting a resupply relies on external support and possibly attracts attention. On the whole, probably worth attempting. Saito chimes, "I've still got that contact for the resupply drop. I agree it's risky, but if it allows us to stay on mission longer, then I'm ok with the risk." Ric@All: It's probably no less risky than 4 days infill / exfil to and from Zawacka. There's also an option to push the resupply to 3 days time and go for an extraction rather than resupply. 3 days would allow us to cover most of the ground the Research Team could have managed. If we haven't got a handle on it, we can change the extraction to a resupply before it launches. Unless anyone can think of another plan, those two seem to be the best options: 1. See if we can get a resupply tomorrow, getting us enough supplies for a detailed search and then exfil to Runenburg. 2. See if we can schedule an extraction for 3 days time, giving us enough time to catch up to the researchers and get out of the Jungle ASAP once we have the Cubes.
Saito replies back. "I'd personally prefer to get a full ex-filtration once the jobs done. Knowing how our chances go, the supply drop would attract attention. Or they might not go for it at all. But if we can give any and all data on enemy activity, they might jump at the chance to exfil us." "So i'd go for the hard yards now and get a cosy ride back across the front. You want me to give a call out for a pick up in a few days Ric?" "And if worse comes to worse, i haven't had a chance to use my bow, so i could try to hunt some food if we get desperate."
Kenn Ta'al: "If it gets us off of the planet quicker I'm all for it." Finishing his sentence with a drink from his large Saom bio-bottle.
