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[Kel Riever]

Lauren spent a few minutes as her basic readings came back with data that, unfortunately, didn't reveal much from it's initial scan.  Part of the problem was that the vorcha had been dead a while.  Part of it was that while traces of some foreign substances could be detected, common between more than one of the corpses, there was no telling if it was malicious.  Miners could easily have medicine that was frequently used amongst them to protect themselves from exposure or accidents (evident from the files given by Hestyas), or in an unorthodox way, to increase their productivity such as system enhancers to stay awake.  Worse, there was always the chance of a false reading. Still, at least she detected the presence of a common foreign substance.  It was going to take lab work though, and possibly a couple of hours of it to determine more.  Particularly in the case of making sure malicious use of a substance was a certainty, particularly to get an idea of what kind, and particularly if the person using it didn't design it to disperse from detection.

It wasn't great news, but it was a lead.  A lab would have to be found, tough in an outlying facility.  Possibly if there was an on-site hospital, and that meant going to the Control Center.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren found a kitchen which contained some plastic bags and tongs in one of the drawers. She then used her laser cutters to take tissue samples from several of the miners and used the tongs to drop them in the zip-lock bags. She put the bags in a larger plastic trash bag which she triple bagged.

 

She looked up at Cadi. "I'm detecting a foreign substance in the vorcha. I would like to take three of them back to the Control Center and perform autopsies. There are large trash bags and duct tape in the kitchen. We can put the bodies in them. We need to go through decontamination before we enter anyway. We need to know exactly what we're dealing with. This could be a drug. If so I need to know which one."

[TheMajonese]

While the others were more or less aghast at the sight of the gruesome scenery around them, Naomi moved casually through the corpses as if she was on a walk. She occasionally stopped to examine one of the bodies but she didn't seem to care that she was in a room that was filled with countless dead vorcha.

 

Naomi knelt down and placed her hands underneath one of the corpses to turn around the vorcha that was lying on his face. "Holy crap", she shouted and then burst out laughing when she noticed the guts that hung between her fingers. "Bah, that's disgusting", she said with a smirk. She stood up and turned to her brother while she shook off the bloody guts from her hand. "You're thinking the same as I do?"

 

Chris nodded and turned to Cadi. "How many vorcha were working here? Do you think they're all lying here?"

[Cknarf]

Kurik returned from the kitchen with the bags and tape.  He had a little something extra under his arm.  He dropped the mangled torso. It landed with a thud near Lauren's feet.

 

"This one is a more convenient size for transport. Whether we take it is up to you." He nodded, and started bagging one of the more complete bodies.  He handled the corpses as one would a bag of garbage headed for the trash.

[Kel Riever]

"Stop!" Arcadia called, out.  "Stop...not like that."

It was the sound of disappointment in her voice that was most prominent, and yet it had the quality of not being personal towards Naomi, or Kuric.  It was more the disappointment with the truth of how people were treated when they were nothing more than a pile of flesh and bones any longer.  She had initially sprung hurriedly to Kuric but slowed as she came to him, bending down to help put the corpse in the bag.

"They did not deserve to die like this, and there are those, even if we do not know them, who care about how they are treated, even in death."  As Cadi worked to carefully get the body in the bag, her gloves became covered in the thick residue of gore.  "We can bring them out to one of the Grizzlies, and lay them in the back, which will make sure they get up to the Center as intact as possible."

After the third body was bagged, Cadi knelt by where it had lay, and sighed.  She stared around at the other dead bodies for a minute before getting up again and saying, "This building has a few levels above us.  According to the records given by Hestyas, there were just under two hundred vorcha who worked here.  Very roughly, this appears to be half or more of them.  There were also supposed to be three asari on site.  I do not see any of them here.  We should sweep the building before we go up, to make sure there is nothing else left to uncover before moving on."

[Cknarf]

"Agreed." Kurik rose from his crouched position, and pulled the rifle from his back."I'll take the lift to the top floor, and work my way down."

[TheMajonese]

"It's tragic what happened to them but now they're dead", Naomi said to Arcadia with a disdainful snort. "These are just bodies, not people, so who cares about-?"

 

"We'll come with you, Kurik", Chris quickly interrupted his sister before she could say anything else. "It's better if none of us goes alone." He grabbed Naomi's upper arm and pulled her to him and then pushed her gently towards the elevator. At least she didn't resist because she knew what her brother was trying to do. With an apologizing look at Cadi, Chris followed Kurik and Naomi.

[Cknarf]

Kurik slapped the button for the elevator, and waited off to the side. He drew the knife from the sheath on his boot, and held it tight against the pistol grip of his Vindicator, with the blade facing down. When the doors slid open, he entered, quickly glancing to the left, and then the right. Chris and Naomi followed.

 

"Proceeding to the third floor."

 

The blood on his hand added a little extra to the smear that was already on the controls.

 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I care," Lauren said. "They're damaged enough. These vorcha had friends back in the commons. How would any of you like it if it were us in their place and they found us and treated us like garbage. In any event, this is a crime scene. And the way the bodies are arranged, it could  be a mass murder. Who or what did it is yet to be determined," she said with emphasis. "Let's take one of the most damaged ones, one of the least damaged ones, and one of the moderately damaged ones. We'll make  some makeshift body bags and use the duct tape to seal them.

 

"Cadi, Menos, Tolema, would you please give me a hand with them."

[Kel Riever]

Cadi had already arranged a body carefully and was moving it.  For those getting the cadavers of the vorcha on board the third Grizzly, it took some time, and the driver seemed very nervous as he was made aware of his cargo, but he said nothing.  There was cleaning fluid available that needed to be used to get the blood off when those moving the bodies were done. 

Up with Kuric and the twins, the building made of colony boxes was more extensive then it seemed from the outside.  It was constructed to provide housing for the two hundred vorcha on base and perhaps fifty more.  Though the greater massacre had happened below, the upper levels were not absent of the horror that had happened.  It did seem that the great majority of bodies had been dragged below, as the staircases showed sighs of smearing and puddles on the stairs and hallways.  But some vorcha has been left, still staring with dead eyes.  Some had bled out, crawling.  Others were caught mid fight.  And many of the murders were gruesome, such as a vorcha who had been impaled by a metal pole.  Another vorcha had his skull crushed in from repeated banging on an outward window; the reinforced glassteel didn't have a dent, but the blood and even what appeared to be brain matter was left behind.  The tragic victim lay at the base of the window, his head not much more than a loose bag from the jaw up. 

It was clear that the violence had happened at a fanatical level, not just emotionally but from a physical context.  Many of the vorcha were treated horribly long after their death, such as the case with the vorcha slammed into the window.  A rage had driven the murderers to inflict harm long past the victim's demise.  Kuic and the twins were thorough, leaving no hiding place unturned, from the point of view of their own safety if not from that of concern.  Revealing was the absence of most personal technology.  Only a handful of datapads were found in the entire building, and only one standing computer terminal down on the first floor.  None had much on them but basic entertainment programs, a newsfeed provided by Palladium Controls, scheduling and work information (with nothing interesting on them), a few messages from family members and some operational safety manuals.

Positive nothing was left behind that mattered, Stormhammer rolled away from the building after a half an hour.  Kamau had checked in.  As the Command Center was approached, it stood out as the most advanced looking building in the entire facility, perhaps rivaled only by the primary shaft construction.  The storage warehouse and vehicle by it could be seen better, with the same absence of activity.  The vehicle was some sort of automated hauler that looked like it had churned its wheels into ruts before it shut itself down.  One thing that stood out from the Command Center as the team approached was that the entrances that could be seen (the main door and a garage bay gate) were locked.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Lauren said and then went up to the driver. "Can you contact anyone inside and get them to open the gate?"

[Kel Riever]

The driver took a minute to reply, and then passed back through the com, "It is as expected.  No one is responding."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"What do you mean 'it is as expected?"

[Cknarf]

"They have lost contact with those in this area. He was not expecting a response." Kurik spoke up. "I did not expect one either."

[TheMajonese]

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Lauren, for someone who is supposed to be smart, you're asking surprisingly dumb questions", she said with a snort before her brother could stop her. "If someone, anyone was still alive in there, don't you think that they would have tried to contact the headquarter when they realized what was going on here? Everyone in this building is either as dead as the pile of vorcha in the living facility or doesn't want to be found because he or she might have something to do with the slaughter. So stop acting like-" Naomi stopped when she felt Chris' hand on her shoulder.

 

Even though he agreed with his sister, there was no need to provoke others. The situation was bad enough already and he didn't need another argument between the two woman. "We have to get in, that's for sure. Maybe we can break through the windows. Or are there any other entrances?", Chris asked.

[Kel Riever]

The vorcha couldn't hide his nervousness.  "Yes, the turian is correct...," he hissed, agreeing with Kuric.

Arcadia said, "We'll need someone to crack that if the codes we were given by Hestyas don't work.  We can move up and get on that, as long as we can keep a rear guard.  Tolema?  Juric?  Can you keep watch?"

Tolema hunkered down next to the Grizzly and nodded.  "We have it, go ahead."

"All right," Cadi said, "I was going to recommend a direct approach, but maybe it is a better idea if we come in through the side or a window.  A window could create a problem; we'd need charges as the glassteel isn't going to crack with anything less.  But I am sure there is a side way in.  Let's stay on purpose.  The sooner we do our jobs, the safer we'll be and the faster we can get through this.  Same positions, let's go."

Around to the right side of the building, away from the garage door, was the closest, and as anticipated, it did have another entrance.  The airlock door was undecorated, functional, and covered by an alloy awning.  It also looked like it has suffered from some damage, scrapes and small dents as if someone was trying to ram into its reinforced structure.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

(Kel what kind of gate is it? Chain link?)

[Cknarf]

"This is a good sign." Kurik stated, while inspecting the damage a little more closely. A battered, but still intact door could mean that someone managed to lock it from the inside, and keep any hostiles out. "Perhaps someone is still inside, but not responding to communications out of fear. After what we've seen here, that would not surprise me."

 

Kurik took a few steps back, and looked up.

 

"Unless of course there is roof access of some kind."

[Kel Riever]

Cadi checked the information from Hestyas on her omni-tool.  It took a minute or two but she found what she was looking for.  "There is a maintenance hatch up on the roof but it isn't meant to be accessed from ground level.  Someone would need to have at least a two story ladder or lift to get themselves up there and it is typically locked, made of the same stuff as these doors.  While not inconceivable someone could have used it, it is unlikely.  I think it is a sound idea to go in from this access here, if we can."

Staying alert, the team moved up.  The Grizzlies couldn't quite get to the side of the building because of the rough hewn rock, but they could get close, and were about four meters away at the front of the building nearest that side.  When Cadi punched in the password for the lock, the moment of truth had arrived.  When the hatch gave the 'proceed' light indicating it had been unlocked, there was relief that it would not be a more difficult entrance.

Getting in through the airlock was not a problem.  Lights were low as some sort of general workshop was entered.  Lights were still on, showing that a vorcha had been killed here and lay on the floor, face down.  It also showed that higher, smaller end machines meant more for personal use were in this room.  There was a terminal, a fabricator, shelving storing electronics, optics and other expensive equipment, and a medigel dispenser.  A locker was in here too, though it had been opened and its contents removed.  To get further in a building meant going up a short staircase to a waist high walkway and moving past another hatch, though it was apparent the next portal was not locked.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren did a scan of the dead vorcha.

[Kel Riever]

The group stopped for a minute or two while Lauren did her scan.  There wasn't much more to reveal, but it did confirm the same presence of outside chemicals.

After that, the Stormhammer team moved deeper into the Control Center.  Windows were mostly forward facing to look out onto the rest of the mining facility.  It was as with the upper floors of the living facilities, in other words, sparse occasions of corpses, no charnel mound, at least not yet.  The main control room was found quickly, up a half flight of steps, in the middle of the building.  There might be data here that wasn't in other areas of the bases, and security was run from the room for the base, not to mention equipment overrides where necessary...all the things one might expect in a base that was meant to serve as headquarters for the facility.

It was likely no surprise to find one of the asari here, though the circumstances of discovery were tragic.  In a pond of her own purple blood, she lay, each of her limbs torn off, her head still attached but her face frozen in shock.  And they weren't clean tears either; the limbs looked like they'd been pulled with immense effort, slowly, causing rip after rip until finally bone gave way.  The asari must have been dead long before the last limb had gone.  Who was responsible for the tearing was more than one aggressor; the first vorcha attacker lay nearby, his head caved in by some weighty object and he held an arm in his hand.  The pool of purple blood went in a trail across the room to a doorway on the opposite side, where another vorcha lay, this one with her leg from the knee down.  It was hard to imagine, but either the limbs the asari lost were taken out of the room the other way, or she dragged herself in her trying ot escape her attackers, or both.  

As far as getting an idea of who the asari was, she might have been the facility manager.  She had leathers like a Commando, but it was not a Republics uniform she wore.  Instead it was a suit of simple brown.   She had a shotgun nearby, a Scimitar.  And though her attire was basic, her suit was well maintained.  The asari was nearby a console and it might have been that she was trying to get to it before she died.  On screen of a nearby display was a message asking to confirm a priority emergency request.  No one was ever able to hit 'Send'.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I think we should contact the main base," Lauren said. "Let them know what happened here. Cadi, I think you should send a message to (name of the head asari). The rest of us should stay frosty. There could still be hostiles in the building.

 

"In any event, I'd like to get to med lab and get started on the autopsies. We should secure a perimeter there. The sooner we find out what caused this, the better. Thoughts?"

[Kel Riever]

"They're already informed," Cadi said, not sure if Lauren missed the open com with Reith, and Saba's angry demand.  "I do agree with the rest, though, in that we should find the medical facility next and have you get to work."

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos simply shook his head, walking in a slow and trance like pace as he walked over to the corpse. He knelt down towards the body, reaching down towards her eyes and shutting them with his fingers as he knelled next to the body.

 

"This wasn't where this began....She was moved here..." Menos said as he stood up, "Neither of her attackers here have wounds from her weapon. She probably used up her thermal clips fighting them off...then fled here. I don't know if she made it here before or after the dismembering..." He sounded lost as he shook his head, "I've seen some bad situations in the past...but not even the shadiest STG work or messiest C-Sec case compares to this..."

 

Menos looked to Lauren as he couldn't help but wonder, "These mines...they had to have had decontamination processes of some kind...How'd this chemical you keep finding get in their systems?" He asked as he got on his open comms, "What kind of decontamination process do you have for Vorcha working here? Stuff to keep the dust or other harmful particles from entering their systems?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Oh?" Lauren said in response to Cadi. "I was in the kitchen looking for supplies to make the body bags. I didn't know that you had already contacted them. I tend to get focused on what I'm doing sometimes at the exclusion of other things."

 

She then turned to Menos. "I need an HPLC unit to isolate and identify the compound and separate it from the blood," Lauren said. "Only a complete autopsy will reveal how it got in their systems in the first place. While you're on the open coms, Menos, would you request a list of any medications, nutritional supplements, and other drugs that the miners are given by the colonists on a regular basis, if any? I need to rule these out."