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[Cainhurst Crow]

"So where exactly do you want to head down first?" Menos asked over the comms, "I think the living facilities might be a good place to hit up first myself..."

[Kel Riever]

The door on the lead Grizzly opened with a thud.  Arcadia was the first out, with her Avenger at the ready.

Around, the terrain was as gray as ever.  A slight, fine dust kicked up as Cadi moved out in her blue and white armor.  Outside temperature was ranging on the cool side of a typically cold planet.  As Kamau had recommended, the three Grizzlies had come to a halt outside the facility, on the main road where shallow rock walls sloped up and away  steadily on either side.  While the others disembarked, Cadi put out some tactical  requests.

"We need someone to cover high, and someone to cover low.  I'll be point for now.  We must also have someone keeping an eye left, right, and another rear.  Our drivers should stay in the Grizzlies, engines on, ready to move." 

Scanning, anyone with standard opticals could see the base for what it was now.  Closest was the exploration shaft, which might have only recently been started as it wasn't much more than an unfinished structure with some sort of large drill rig at the idle housed inside its partially see through construction.  Further and towards the west was the largest building on sight, the primary mine, with one of the huge movers the Stormhammer team had ridden on parked next to it.  North was the living dormitory area, with another Grizzly idle outside.  Other buildings were as indicated, with the Command Center north and high, able to get a view of everything around.  Though the glass was polarized, it wasn't one way, and a scan of the windows revealed only 'lights on but nobody home'.

"Kamau," Cadi asked, "Anything change?"

"It's all quiet as before."

Reith's voice broke into the line.  "After you make sure the Exploration Shaft is all clear, you're probably going to have to decide between heading straight to the Primary Shaft or the Living Facilities.  It's up to you.  If you're goal is the Command Center, then I'd recommend heading to the Living Facilities, keeping your rear to the large mounts at the east side of the camp."

Arcadia looked towards Menos.  "Sounds like our preference is for the Living Facilities."  She gave the salarian a nod.  "Let's go."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren followed Menos, her mind drifting a little thinking about Kamau, but she shook it off and focused on the mission.

[Kel Riever]

Arcadia glanced over at Kuric, who had a sort of look on his face.

"Right," Cadi said as she rolled her eyes forward.  "No estaba pensado.  We'll have the Grizzlies roll along side us and we can use them for cover if we need.  It is still better if we stay outside of them as far as firepower goes.  The Grizzlies are armored to protect against mining accidents but they aren't military."

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Covering high..." Menos said as he drew his sniper rifle, cycling through its modified scope to find the appropriate lenses. His armor was doing well to keep the environment out, considering how cold the entire place was. There wasn't snow however, not enough moisture in the air to actually form it, though the ground did crunch with each step.

 

"Hey, you got my back covered, right?" He asked back to Lauren, hoping the answer would be a yes as they kept moving.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren had her Hurricane drawn. "Of course I do, Menos." she said. "It's not like I'm back here thinking about Kamau or anything like that. Do you think we'll see him again after this mission?"

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Hopefully...." Menos said as he continued to scan the hills and horjzon around them, "I mean, if you think about it. The only way we'll not see em is if we don't make it...speaking of which, if I die, tell my friend Bane_O_Blades hes banned..." menos said with a friendly chuckle.

[TheMajonese]

When the team got out of the grizzlies, Naomi realized that Liz had been right with her assumption that they would find only 'a big nothing' at the facility because it was literally what they could see right now. Along with this came also the understanding that their job to find out what happened here wasn't going to be as easy as Naomi had expected.

 

In addition to that, the extreme temperatures and the strange silence around the facility made it even harder for her to maintain the optimism that she had shown before the mission. Menos' comment caused Naomi to roll her eyes. "Who the f*ck is that?", she asked the salarian as she grabbed her assault rifle from her back.

 

Chris drew his Valiant and didn't pay much attention to the conversations of the others. On their way to the living facility he looked out for any movement on the other side of the area, especially next to the primary mine shaft and the exploration shaft that they had passed.

[Kel Riever]

As the team moved past the Exploration Shaft, it was evident there was no one around.  The building didn't look like it had much of an interior area and was mostly dark, though the daylight came through an open front. 

"I can get a closer look without trouble," Tolema offered.

Cadi gave her the go-ahead.  The asari moved up using cover where she could, and with the eyes of the team on her.  She cloaked nearer to the building, and got to the entrance.  After she appeared briefly, she cloaked again and went it.  It was only about five minutes later when she came out, uncloaked, fully standing. 

"Only the ghosts in there.  Three office rooms and a bathroom.   The sealed area had idled controls and looked like it has been used, but no one inside."  Tolema then paused, with more concern in her voice when she spoke again.  "But I have found blood, enough of it that could be claimed by a body.  Signs of a struggle.  It was, as scanned, vorcha blood.  I don't know much more than that, though I did check the hiding places.  Again, the owner of that blood isn't anywhere to be found."

[TheMajonese]

Chris immediately turned to his sister and Naomi nodded to signal him that she was thinking the same before she turned back to Tolema. 

 

"You said 'signs of a struggle'", Naomi stated, now sounding alarmed. "How did the blood look like? Were the stains scattered accross the room? Did it look like someone had dragged the body out of there? I don't know, I'm no expert but I'm sure this blood could tell us a lot more. Maybe our science-girl should take a look at it", she said with a nod to Lauren.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren threw her gun over her shoulder with a little attitude and walked over to the area where Tolema was. She took a look around and scanned it. (what did she find?)

[Cknarf]

"I suggest we proceed to the living facilities. Perhaps there are survivors there who need assistance."  Kurik wasn't about to stick around for all that CSI business. "We can return later, after we have secured the complex."

[Kel Riever]

Tolema responded, "I'd say some odd, arced smears, some dragging.  Things strewn about.  But then no blood trail, no body.  That was all I could figure out."  She then explained where she had discovered the scene.

Lauren went back to the Exploration Shaft.  The structure was tall, making room for what was a vertical drill system.  It was as described, no surprises until she had gotten into the three room area.  There was a break or preparation room with an attached bathroom, a storage area with a few outdoor mining suits for vorcha and miscellaneous (nothing useful) mechanical equipment and an office for a supervisor.  That's where the blood was.  It was, in fact, more than expected, the red gore pooled in one large puddle near a computer display.  There were some sprays in other parts, some smears where a foot or arm might have swept through, and a few red handprints.  But there was nothing indicating where the body that owned the blood had gone to. 

The computer was still on, but a quick search of the menu showed nothing unusual, or nothing a person unfamiliar with mining could figure out.  It all looked like mundane records showing mining production, depth of the shaft which didn't seem to go that far down here, a list of names which meant nothing other than having a list of about ten vorcha, and various instruction manuals on operation.  Sadly, the clues didn't extend from there in any meaningful way.  But bodies didn't just vanish, and something must have moved whoever had bled.

[Kel Riever]

"We can move on a bit," Cadi suggested, "But Tolema and Juric should stay back with Lauren until she's done.  Then they can catch up to us.  One of the Grizzlies can remain back as well."

Heading to the living quarters was along a road of sorts, more like a traffic flattened area of hardened dust and dirt.  The ground inclined in a steady, shallow gradient.  Though the area the living quarters occupied was a small footprint, the box like dormitories so common in colonies throughout the galaxy were stacked high, creating more of an apartment feel.  Outside, the nearby Grizzly used by the facility was completely turned off, and on closer inspection with zoomed in optics, it had two of its wheels removed and looked like it had been left in the middle of some sort of maintenance.  As for the dormitories themselves, their lights were on and active, but again, no one seemed to be around from what could be told viewing them from the outside.
 

[Cknarf]

Kurik emerged from the vehicle with his rifle at the ready. Keeping an eye on the windows, he started for the door.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren informed the team of what she found. "I can't say anything conclusive, but bodies don't just vanish. They were carried, not dragged. I know I'm speculating here, but I think we can safely rule out other vorcha. We could be dealing with a xenomorph of some sort."

 

They looked at her strangely.

 

"What? If you think I'm saying they could have been eaten, yes."

[TheMajonese]

Naomi laughed at Lauren. "Don't be ridiculous, if that poor bastard was eaten, along with the other vorcha, then why the f*ck did nobody send any emergency signal to the headquarters? No creature could kill all these workers with one attack and disable all their communication systems as well!"

 

"At least no kind of creature we know of...", Chris remarked with a sigh. "Doesn't matter as long as we don't know aynthing for sure." He followed Kurik to the main entrance of the living facility, his sister was right behind him. Chris stayed close to the outer wall of the building and bowed his head forward to look through the windows.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"....I am not getting face-hugged..." Menos said to lauren flatly, a hand subconsciously moving to adjust his re-breather mask he wore as he looked to the living quarters.

 

"Considering what you guys found, I'm gonna go scout the living area. Clear the first floor of anything dangerous..." Menos informed the others, working his omnitool after he holstered his rifle, "I'm gonna keep in radio contact with you guys. If something happens to me, please by all that is good, help me."

 

He activated his tactical cloak as he began to make his way towards the building, keeping his eyes peeled for anything that might be unusual.

[Kel Riever]

Tolema and Juric caught up with Lauren.  "It doesn't have to be absurd like a ravenous unknown alien.  Could be a rabbid varren?  A pack of rabid varren?  That would sur...you know I'm going to have to go with Naomi and say it does sound a little far fetched."  Of course what Tolema wouldn't admit was that little point of fear in the back of her mind where her imagination ran wild. 

When Chris leaned to get a look through the window, he was peering into some sort of exercise room, which was about the size of one of those colony living boxes.  The living boxes must have been pushed together and welded tight so the whole of them could be turned into a much larger building.  It made them permanent fixtures, but of course made living arrangements much more tolerable.  There were a few treadmills and stationary bikes, some free weights, a typical arrangement.

But it was the state of the room that didn't do anything to put the mind at ease about monsters in the dark.  A treadmill was on its side, several of the free weights were haphazardly strewn about, and there was a splatter of blood on a nearby wall.  That splatter became a smear that headed to the door at the far end, which looked like it had been forced open into a hallway.  And the smear trail went in further to the building, out of sight.

Arcadia was by Menos.  "The airlock is the most vulnerable point.  At a minimum I will go in with you and cycle the lock so that if there is an observer, they will likely not suspect a cloaked individual.  While you search, the airlock will be guarded.  Do not tarry, and contact immediately if there is trouble."

As was the plan, Menos went in.  The cycling of the airlock led to a short hallway that ended in a perpendicular corridor.  Cadi had her Avenger aimed, but there was no one to greet the team.  That wasn't to say the hall was empty, because a spray of dried blood droplets covered the end of the short hallway and became much more abundant in the crossing corridor.

Certainly, as Menos moved in, he was fully alert.  After a recharge of his cloak, he was able to go in further, without detection.  To the left, the corridor simply ended in a bunk room, which was disheveled, but seemed to have the least gore in it.  He speculated that's where the trouble might have started, then moved along the corridor because towards the right, the gore became much worse.  There were bloody vorcha handprints on the walls, dents on the reinforced surface made by some heavy objects, and sprays or streams of dried blood that showed a terrible violence.

But it wasn't until Menos had moved down that corridor that he saw the worst.  There was a set of double doors, jammed open by the first actual body he saw, a vorcha lying face down in a pool of blood...a blood that began to form a coagulated lake inside the larger room beyond.  Menos was looking into what must have been a dining area meant to seat a hundred, assembled with several colony boxes, and in the center was the scene of a massacre.  Scores of vorcha bodies were piled on top of each other, with a few gruesome outlying corpses thrown over tables.  If Menos could smell through his sealed suit, he would have been unable to stop from retching.  As it was, no one could be unaffected by the scene before him.  It wasn't as if someone had stacked some pile neatly, either.  It appeared as if some of the vorcha had died, locked in a fight, while others had been haphazardly tossed onto the fallen.  With the low ceiling, the pile spread nearly to the top of the room, and went out in a wide circumference. 

One dead vorcha lying close to Menos had his guts ripped open.  Another nearby had some of those guts in his blood covered claws, and teeth, the second vorcha appearing as if his skull had been crushed in by a free weight from the exercise room.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos backed away in shock and held a hand over his mouth mask, "HOLY ****!" came loudly over the coms, blowing out thr mics as he breathed hard to calm down.

 

"There's..." he paused, working to nkt throw up. His special forces training and habbits of violent gaming made him no stranger to gore. But this was a kind of gore few bothered tl actually prepare you seeing. The fact his mind could piece together what happened from some of the bodies didn't help.

 

I've found some bodies...There's a pile up to the ceiling in here, too many stacked up for me to get a good count. Signs of fighting, and eating, each other...There's a lot of blood. A lot of old coagulated blood...one of them at the doors got anothers organs in its mouth...." he said as he shock his head.

 

"I...I wouldn't come here unless you're prepared to see some ****..." he said as he smacked a hand to his head, "there all in the cafeteria. But I can look around more if you'd like....clear this place out thoroughly before you guys come in..."  

 

He sounded shaken by the scene he'd sescribed. His fortune telling had ended in death, bad death at that. Judging by this scene, it hadn't been lying.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren was alarmed. This wasn't normal even for vorcha. "I want this area and the mine quarantined. We'll need to be decontaminated before we can rejoin the colony or remove our armor," she said. "Arcadia, I want haz-mat sealed armor, and I need blood and tissue samples from the bodies to be analyzed in a level 4 lab until we know what we're dealing with. Vorcha don't even do  this to themselves normally. Something caused them to do this, and we need to rule out a biological cause. Set up the lab nearby. I don't want the main colony exposed.

 

"Whatever you do, don't touch anything."

[Cknarf]

"Hm."

 

Kurik poked a corpse with his foot.  He'd seen vorcha piles before, but never on a scale such as this.

[TheMajonese]

"Looks like that whole siarist bullshit didn't work after all", Naomi commented when she heard Menos describing the pile of bodies inside the building. She now held her shotgun in one hand while playing with Chris' knife in the other. "Guess we should search the whole building. The pile of bodies means that someone placed the corpses in there and that somebody might still be around. And maybe we find something useful for Miss Science."

 

Her brother nodded although he didn't like the idea of seeing the bloodbath inside with his own eyes. 

 

Without waiting for the others Naomi entered the facility and Chris followed her.

[Kel Riever]

The others had gone past Cadi fairly rapidly after Menos told them what had happened.  It was good in the sense that he had the team there now as backup.  But there were some other concerns.  "Please, come in," she said to Tolema, "Keep an eye on the airlock and the outside of the building though a window."  She then moved to follow the others.

Those in the cafeteria had a closer inspection as much as they may or may have not wanted it.  There was more to the horror of vorcha fighting vorcha.  While some wounds weren't nearly as dramatic as the ones causd who'd gone after another's guts, some were even more so.  A victim had his eyes gouged out, another seemed to have his head partially torn off. Many had their limbs lying irregularly, broke, or perhaps used in some unnatural way that defied comprehension.  As there were no guns in the facility, the improvised weapons made it much worse.  Some would make a person laugh if the result of their use wasn't so frightening.  Fire extinguishers had been used to club skulls, utensils had been pushed into stomachs, anything and everything that could be taken to use in some brutal fashion was, and the carnage showed not just death, but what must have been agony.  Many vorcha had died where they fought, but as some had mentioned, many were also rudely piled high.  Perhaps most disturbing, a handful of the corpses were young, perhaps children of some of the miners.

"There are ears up here, may I remind you," Reith came through on the com, "And eyes that want to see.  Are you ready to link a feed, Cadi?"

"Affirmative," Arcadia said with a heavy voice.  "Just prepare whoever it is for a bad scene."  She activated her Omni-tool, linked with her optics, and sent the images to command.

A long moment went by, and the next voice on the com was familiar, but not expected.

"I want to know what happened!"  It was Saba and she, for once, seemed to have lost her stone like demeanor.  "Don't come back until you search every centimeter of that facility or can tell me who did this!   What did this! I want to know who is responsible for the death of my people!"

Some of the more observant members of the Stormhammer team caught sight of a vorcha who's apparent cause of death was different from the rest.  He was hard to see at first, unable to be distinguished from so many other corpses.  But the tear in the side of his flank, and the subsequent evacuation of his organs out the other side of his body, could only have been caused by one thing; the projectile from a mass accelerator weapon.





 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I want to run tests on blood and tissue samples," Lauren said. "I have a baseline for the Vorcha back in the main compound. Perhaps there are traces of something in their blood? That mass accelerator weapon may have been fired in self-defense, but by whom? And if it was by one of Koehler's Brigade why wasn't it reported? They're the only other ones aside from the Asari who have them."

 

Lauren scanned several of the corpses with her omni-tool and analyzed them against the baseline taken from Besh (?).