A journey to an ice-covered hell. [Silver Jedi Order - Rangers]

[Roona Osmari]

Roona listened to the briefing closely, trying not to let her imagination run riot as to what may have happened to the employees at the mining facility. Holding tight, she bumped shoulders with the soldiers near her as their transport set down. The cold made itself known almost immediately, the temperature drop noticeable, but tolerable due to their armor kits. Following the others out the bay doors and into the snow, she stayed low – rifle in hand.

Joining her team mates near Colonel Calderon’s position, she listened to Valkren’s instructions. “Copy, sir.” She responded.

Not a moment later, her group had already assembled at her heels, ready for action. Taking a moment, she turned her attention towards their destination: the security station. There was an obvious check-point standing outside the complex, but it appeared to be unmanned, which was odd, to be sure. Like the rest of the buildings that made up the mining complex, the security station appeared to be without power. With weather like this, she imagined that it might not be all that of an unusual occurrence to lose power… but surely this place had backup systems in place.

“Looks like the station’s gone dark, we’ll need to get in there.” She answered. “Let’s get to it.”

Without wasting another moment, she took off for the station at a brisk pace. Out of the corner of her visor, she would glance back at the others as they went. The snow made the trek just a bit slower, but they were getting close now. Her sharp eyes narrowed slightly, scanning the snow for any sign of footprints… but the snow piled up so quickly here that it was near impossible.

As the team neared the entrance, it became clear that the blast door was ajar. Clark placed himself up against the wall, and nodded to the others. Steeling her nerves, Roona entered first – the light mounted on her rifle illuminated the dark hallway. Turning her head, she could see no signs of movement, and then glanced over her shoulder to see the others. Her trigger finger still at the ready, she would keep her senses alert and sharp.

Lighting up the corridor, there was what looked like a control room up a head -- the room had definitely seen some kind of struggle. Inside there were smashed consoles, overturned furniture, and other things strewn about in a rather reckless (or desperate) manner.

“A facility like this would surely have a generator, we need to locate it and get it working. Then, perhaps the security logs and footage can give us some clues.”

[member="Beltran Rarr"], [member="Tyrell Caphey"], [member="Valkren Calderon"], [member="Jyoti Nooran"], [member="Charlie"]

 

[Vertigo]

“Lowder. You see anything in this crud.” [member="Valkren Calderon"] The reptilian not liking the wintry conditions one bit. Keeping the OS-1GG blaster chaingun out front of him, clipped to his waist in a sweeping motion. Dex was walking to Valkren’s right side. His feet were getting stuck in the snow, making it slow progress for the heavy Houk, acting more like a snowplough than anything.

“Copy that Chief.” Vertigo rumbled a replied to the Colonel as they got further in, and out of the snowfall. Swinging the gun around to check the corners of the motorpool and get a read on anything out of place. Everything looked peachy. “Looks clear.” Vertigo rumbled. He stomped a few paces to his right across the motor pool to get a closer look at any tracks or clues. The tracks didn't tell him much, looks like they were playing catch up.

Keeping pace to move to the living quarters. The big Houk would turn the chaingun before they got to any doorways, nodding he was ready, and then waiting for Lowder to hit the door controls. Safely checking the corners of any rooms or hallways they came to then advancing further inside. Mgnnhhh he rumbled. “Don’t like this. Where was the battle.” He figured they’d be seeing some sort of fire fight on the walls or something by now. Knowing was easy. Not knowing was trouble.

[member="Tyrell Caphey"] | [member="Valkren Calderon"] | [member="Beltran Rarr"] | [member="Roona Osmari"]​

 

[Tyrell Caphey]

He wasn't able to give the elder corporal more than a quick nod before the sergeant gave the command and headed off to the security facility. Corporal Caphey and the squad followed closely behind her, maintaining observation at all sides when they moved towards the ajar blast door. As the second Ranger to enter the compound, he raised the ''Famos'' beam rifle against his shoulder in a ready position and lit up the flashlight of the weapon. A snowdrift had penetrated thru the hallway, temperature not differ much between the outside and the inside. Sticking to sergeant Osmaris back as they advanced inside the control room.

When the control room had been secured the corporal lowered his weapon slightly. Looking around thru the T-visor with the light cone from the flashlight breaking through the darkness. The sound of the ice storm had faded away more and more as they moved into the facility and was now a muffled noise in the distance.

Volunteering for the task and glancing over to Osmari, his voice broke thru the helmet. ''I'll do it. If this place has lower levels, and if you ask me... I think our best bet would be to search for the generator down there...'' While awaiting the sergeants response he looked over to corporal Rarr as a signal asking if he wanted to go with the search group.

[member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Beltran Rarr"] [member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Vertigo"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Charlie"]

 

[Beltran Rarr]

Specialist Rarr entered the structure behind Sergeant [member="Roona Osmari"] and Corporal [member="Tyrell Caphey"], passing by Private Clark as he did so. Once inside, he fanned out covering his section of the interior with his rifle. He remained silent for the most part as the team began to get the lay of the land. The cold feeling in the back of his mind continued to manifest itself, growing and ebbing in intensity with no discernable rhyme or reason.

After a moment’s pause, Beltran moved to the front of the group and began to move toward the control room. Sergeant Osmari’s voice crackled through his helmet coms, followed quickly by Corporal Caphey-who was volunteering to go down to the lower levels in search of the building’s power generator.

In truth, the Lorrdian had no particular interest in following Caphey down into the unknown. It was better to let the brave souls among the squad do the dangerous tasks. It wasn’t that Beltran was a coward, but when he risked his life he tended to do it for specific, tangible, reasons.

Still, he reasoned, there might be something of value down there, and even if there wasn’t Beltran was very interested in getting a look at the security footage and personal logs on the facility’s computer terminals. He wanted to know what, exactly, was gnawing at his mind.

“I’ll join the Corporal,” He added a moment later. He then held position and waited for the Corporal to lead the way. After all, just because he wasn’t afraid of rushing into danger didn’t mean that he would pass up the use of a fine human shield.

 

[Eugen Aker]

After speaking with Valkren in the cockpit, she exited it behind him to reconnect with Charlie.

"Alright, prime time," she said, taking a seat next to Charlie. "Keep a close eye on your suit integrity and core temperature."

With their interconnected systems, Jyoti could pull up the vitals of everyone. She did that with Charlie's suit for a quick reference. More than usual, she felt responsible for the health and safety of her apprentice as she had let Charlie come to a planet that was so hazardous to her health.

Valkren provided one last briefing before touch down, relaying to everyone else that the Ranger had still failed to make contact with the mining compound below.

During and after the briefing, she noted how rowdy Valkren's group was. They reminded her a lot of her own Dragoons before deployment, hyping themselves up for combat. However, underneath all those Gung ho acts, she could feel several Rangers become anxious from dread of the unknown. At the end of the day, no one really knew if they would make it back to Kashyyyk, and such a thought could be terrifying as one considered how tenous their mortality really was.

Save for an unusual bit of turbulence, it was a smooth flight to the mining compound as the first leg of their investigation. Rangers quickly filed out through the ramps to conduct their initial sweeps while Jyoti stood back with Charlie as not to interfere.

From the edge of the dropship, Jyoti conducted her own search by extending her senses to feel out for life signs. She frowned as she felt nothing. Something was definitely wrong.

Valkren then contacted her directly as he was assigning people to check out different buildings, requesting she look into the Research Compound with Charlie.

"I can do that," she radioed back. "Heading out now."

She motioned for Charlie to follow her to research station, cautiously checking her surroundings with each step. In on hand, she wielded a shatter pistol. Surgical with the mass driver gun, rarely did she miss her mark. However, like any good Jedi, she had her Lightsaber clipped to her belt.

"Do you feel anything? I thought I felt the Dark Side here, but nothing now. It is strange that the complex would be emptied in such weather."

[member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Charlie"] [member="Beltran Rarr"] [member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Tyrell Caphey"] [member="Vertigo"]

 

[Charlie Nooran]

Charlie examined her equipment again and began to do the force technique that Jyoti had showed her earlier. She could understand it, but she really didn’t know how long she was going to be able to keep it up. The skill was tiresome because of the focus she had to put into it. One day, hopefully the Force skill would become second nature to her, monitoring her body temperature was extremely important. Charlie focused intently on the Force, she didn’t hear anything else that happened around her with the Rangers. She needed to focus because if she didn’t she was going to end up dead weight for Jyoti to deal with.

Finding a rhythm, just in time, Charlie felt the warmth flow over her and she stood up once they had landed after the bit of turbulence. She waited for her orders from Jyoti, the woman oversaw her despite the Rangers being here as well. Never having to work with Rangers or anything of the sort, Charlie was a bit confused as to what they were doing. She would question her Master later for the rundown of how and what the Rangers did. Now they had orders and Charlie felt the excitement add to the warmth of the Force and her suit.

Following Jyoti, Charlie instantly regretted ever agreeing to this. She could have gone home, could have remained warm, but no she was here in the cold hating life. Still it was a good lesson and she was here with Jyoti. Charlie didn’t want to seem weak, so she forced herself to continue onward. Charlie kept her mind aware of her surroundings, but she remained focused on the Tapas skill. Her concentration was interrupted when her Master spoke. Cold began to cling to her as she now focused on trying to feel out the dark side of the Force. The feeling was faint, but she was combating the feeling of the hellish cold against her. “I felt it for a moment as well. But why would it leave so suddenly?” Struggling to find the center for Tapas, Charlie shivered and figured they would need to be going inside the complex to investigate further.

“C-Can we go inside? I mean – we ha-have to, right?”

[member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Beltran Rarr"] [member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Tyrell Caphey"] [member="Vertigo"]

 

[Roona Osmari]

Roona’s visor shifted in the direction of Corporal Caphey, and she gave him a steady nod. There was a lengthy pause before Specialist Rarr volunteered to join the corporal’s search for the generator.

“Very good, gentlemen,” She said, “Keep us informed of your progress. Clark and I will be in the control room.”

With the door left open the way it had been, the cold had invaded the building. Drifts of snow had even started to blow inside. Leaving Caphey and Rarr to the dark stairwell, Roona and Clark continued on. Their footsteps echoed slightly against the floor as they went. Their weapons were raised and ready, but there was very little to target here it seemed.

The beam of light mounted on her gun illuminated the doorway of the control room. Clark slid into the room, sweeping his gaze from side to side.

“Big ol’ nothing.” He remarked. But as Roona set foot in the room, she started to take a closer look. It was a bit of a mess. Narrowing her eyes, she spotted what appeared to be the remains of someone’s meal and an overturned cup of caf. The tiny puddle of liquid had already frozen to the top of the control panel.

Her gaze shifted over her shoulder. It almost seemed like whoever had been at this console may have been caught unaware. Gloved fingers reached out to touch a black screen; it had a rather large crack running down the center.

“Hope they get the power back – and quick,” Clark spoke up, “Could do with some heat here. Karkin’ freezing.”

If she had to guess, she figured that the trip to the lower level would be equally uneventful, and even colder than it was up here…

[member="Tyrell Caphey"], [member="Beltran Rarr"], [member="Valkren Calderon"], [member="Jyoti Nooran"], [member="Charlie"]

 

[Tyrell Caphey]

After Rarr's consideration and the sergeants approval of him volunteering he nodded at Rarr to follow. Being their first mission together it might have been odd why he wanted him to tag along, but as they already had a sergeant leading the squad which would stay in the control room he saw it as reasonable picking the other NCO that were present. After all, Rarr had more time in the Rangers than he had which made it feel good having someone to ask for opinions if needed be. Caphey was a man of little prestige.

He gave the sergeant a short nod before he turned on steady and determined steps headed out of the control room, on the way summoning two privates to follow. That made them four. That would do. Walking to the stairway in the corridor, a stone's throw away from the control.

''Alright, let's get this joint up and running. Stay tight, okay? You behind me, Rarr?'' ha said and places the weapons butt to his shoulder, ready for fast aiming. The stairs were slippery of the thin layer of ice that had been built up on them. ''Take it steady down the stairs...''

Bending his knees ever so slightly and taking every step with a very slow, rolling movement of his feet to minimize the metallic creaking and clanking. The cone of light from the weapon making a path downwards for them. It was silent. Dead silent.

Coming down to a small hallway with divided blast doors on either side of them. Both were closed but one of them had buckles to it. Examining the both doors. ''We need to bend these up...''

One of the privates had found a loose pipe. They had to make some noise to be able to flatten it and use it as a skewer and see what was behind the doors. Damn.

Radioing up to sergeant Osmari. ''Sergeant? We've located two locked blast doors down the cellar... Won't be quiet if we proceed... Think there is any problem with that?''

[member="Beltran Rarr"] [member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Charlie"]

 

[Beltran Rarr]

“I’m with you,” Beltran responded to [member="Tyrell Caphey"]’s question. He followed the Corporal down the stairs, taking care to keep his footsteps as close to silent as he could. The heads-up display in his Katarn helmet fed him telemetry as he scanned the area for anything that might seem like a life-form. For the moment, it seemed, they were alone.

As they came to the blast doors, Beltran could see the problem. It was true that they could-in theory- bend up the buckled portion of the one door enough to get themselves through but the Corporal was right when he said that it would be far from quiet.

As the Corporal radioed back to Sergeant [member="Roona Osmari"], Beltran went to a knee. Keeping his rifle at the ready, the Specialist scanned the area-looking for both alternatives and hostiles. A moment later, he keyed his own comlink.

“I might have found another solution,” He said, addressing the Corporal directly but allowing the Sergeant to overhear. “Do you see that ventilation grate?” He took his steadying hand off his rifle to point to a rather-conveniently-large grate located on the corridor wall running parallel to where they were holding position. “I might be able to fit through if I drop all my gear.”

That included all his weapons, except his side-arm. In a perfect world, the Lorrdian would have also doffed his armor as well, giving him the most room to work with. But on a world like this, he would be dead within five minutes without the suit’s body temperature regulators working at full.

“Permission to try?”

 

[Roona Osmari]

Behind her visor, her eyes focused on the broken screen before her once more. Though the scene here was quiet, Roona had a chilling feeling that something had happened. Security was paramount in mines like this, in order to keep employees honest and would-be thieves at bay. This complex should not have been as empty as they found it. She doubted very much that the personnel had simply walked off the job, leaving the door to the station open behind them.

Roona was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Caphey’s voice over her comm. “Acknowledged.” She replied, to let him know that she had heard.

Her eyes narrowed at the thought of the blast doors. Indeed their power source likely sat on the other side, but could they risk the noise of breaking through? However, Roona overheard Specialist Rarr offering up another potential solution. In her mind, she could see the vent in question, almost like she was standing there herself.

“Specialist Rarr, please proceed.” Roona returned over the link.

She fell silent once more, waiting to hear about the outcome downstairs. Glancing to the side, she saw Clark leaning up against one of the dark consoles. They hadn’t heard anything from the other teams just yet; perhaps they had found themselves in similar surroundings. If they had encountered any hostiles, that would have been the first thing communicated. At this point, it seemed that no news was good news…

[member="Tyrell Caphey"], [member="Beltran Rarr"], [member="Valkren Calderon"], [member="Jyoti Nooran"], [member="Charlie"]

 

[Tyrell Caphey]

Having secured the hallway downstairs he felt he could lower his guard just a tad for the purpose of having a clear overview of the situation. He lowered the beam rifle slightly and turned to specialist Rarr. That was a noble request, but dropping all gear when they didn't know what awaited them inside or further into the hallway? Ty didn't like that. At all. Not because he didn't trust Rarr, but because he cared about the man as he did with all of his comrades. However, he didn't have time to deny him before Osmari broke into their conversation. She's the boss, he thought with a slight sigh. He wasn't about to question it. After all, it was better than making a hella lot of noise and it was also risky being stationary here for a longer time, figuring out other options.

He nodded at Rarr to go ahead. ''Just keep us updated. See if you can open them from inside. And fall back if you get in trouble, copy?''

Watching him proceed, Ty took his place in the group and he and the two privates kept the perimeter secured, flashlights breaking through the darkness...

[member="Beltran Rarr"] [member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Charlie"]

 

[Valkren Calderon]

"I don't see anything, man." Lowder replied to Dex, popping out behind him as they entered the living quarters, rifle raised. His fingers wrapping against the grip of the weapon as he anxiously scanned their surroundings.

Valkren led the way inside, easily pushing the doors open into a long corridor. Dex was right, where was the sign of struggle? No blaster burns on the walls, no holes from slugs. He lifted the short assault rifle, using the light from the attachment on the weapon and his own helmet to illuminate the length of the hallway. On the side wall, two arrows pointed toward the end of the hallway. One went forward and jutted to the left, with the description 'Mess hall,' while the other pointed to a set of double doors at the end that only read 'crew.'

"Stick together." His voice would come through Lowder and Dex's comms, advancing down the hallway at a brisk pace with Lowder on his tail, but cautiously checking every corner of the turn ahead incase any surprises were waiting for the small team.

Once at the end of the hallway, Valkren halted the three-man team, glancing at the door ahead of them and the hallway that led to the mess hall. To keep their noise low-level, the colonel pointed to Lowder and then directed him towards the crew quarters directly ahead. He'd make a motion with his head for Vertigo to follow him, the team splitting up momentarily as the Houk and Colonel advanced toward the mess hall. Lowder went forward, pushing through the double doors into the crew quarters and disappearing on the other side.

Valkren moved forward, pushing through another set of double doors, into a larger room full of overturned tables and chairs, food trays littered the area. He was sure the smell of old food would be destroying his nose if it were not for the freezing weather and suit that protected him. He'd walk along the left side of the room, moving his light about until it stopped suddenly.

His stomach dropped.

Laying facedown in what seemed to be a pile of snow that somehow made it's way into the mess through a vent was a body. It seemed smaller, petite almost. It had to be female, although most of the body's features were impossible to decipher due to the thick suit that surrounded it. All he could tell was that it was seemingly motionless. Still, they had no idea what they were dealing with.

Valkren removed his stabilizing hand from his weapon, pointing at the body so Dex knew he was going to check it. The colonel's approach was steady, but cautious, overstepping several overturned objects as he approached the body. The flashlight focused directly on the head of the body, illuminating brighter as he got closer and closer. Once close enough, he'd quickly shove a booted foot underneath the edge of the torso, kicking the suit over onto it's back and quickly facing the weapon back at the corpse.

His entire body relaxed as the faceless visor stared lifelessly back up at him, his weapon hung in his hand at his side as he glanced about the room once more.

"This is Calderon, we've got a body here in the mess hall." He'd send the transmission out, glancing up to Vertigo as he did so. This certainly complicated things.

Outside in the center of the compound, while Lieutenant Harris and the other rangers mulled about the snow covered yard, the crew members of both transports were within the troop bays, preparing both APC's for action in anticipation for the trip to the dig site and the missing miners.

Within one of the sealed cockpits, Tex was rubbing the stubble on his chin as he looked to the ship's scanner. He'd squint his eyes in confusion as several blips appeared and reappeared all around the compound's outer walls. Brushing it off as a glitch due to the constant snow storm, he leaned back in his chair, watching as several of the green blobs on the monitor appear, then disappear, and repeat all over again.

Tex figured once the team enabled the power, their scanners would pick up on the compounds, and work much better in the storm.

[member="Charlie"] | [member="Tyrell Caphey"] | [member="Vertigo"] | [member="Beltran Rarr"] | [member="Roona Osmari"] | [member="Jyoti Nooran"]

 

[Beltran Rarr]

Permission received, Beltran quickly stripped off his gear. His Famos Rifle and the Sniper rifle he had slung over his back, the Specialist lay against the nearby wall. He then dumped his tactical rig on the ground in front of it, keeping only his flashlight and the side-arm he carried in his hip holster. He could tell that Corporal Caphey had reservations about his plan from his body language, even though he said nothing to belay Sergeant Osmari’s orders.

Moving over to the grate, Beltran systematically removed the four bolt-pins holding it in place-using a handheld multi-tool he’d grabbed
from his rig. For a grate that appeared not to have been removed in quite some time, the Lorrdian was surprised at how easily it was to remove.

Drawing his side-arm, Beltran then proceeded to crawl into the cramped space supplied by the vent shaft. He moved as quickly as he could, making sure to maintain as much stealth as possible. A few minutes later, he was gratified as he came to another grate-this one located on the other side of the blaster doors.

Scanning the area using the HUD on his Katarn helmet, he saw no sign of movement in the chamber beyond the grate. He then positioned his himself so that his feet for against the inside of the second grate and kicked out as hard as he could. The force of his strike sent the grate flying through the air.

Moving quickly, the Specialist followed the object. He jumped down and hit the ground about the same time that the grate did. Bringing his weapon up, he began to scan the room-looking for hostiles. When after a moment, nothing came-he let himself relax just a bit.
“I’m in the generator room,” He radioed back. “No signs of life here. I’m going to begin working on the generator.”

Moving over to the generator control panel, Beltran holstered his weapon and began to inspect it. The main power switch was still in the “on” position, despite the fact that the building was obviously not getting power. A quick inspection of the generator itself yielded no sign of damage either.

“Odd,” he murmured to himself. “I wonder if…”

Kneeling down, he opened a small maintenance port underneath the panel. He then keyed his comlink once more. “Something tripped the generator’s main breaker switch.” He informed the others. “I’m going to reset it and see what happens.”

Setting the breaker, Beltran then returned his attention to the main power switch. He moved it into the “off” position and waited a few seconds before turning back to the “on” position. When he did, the generator immediately began to thrum with electricity. Overhead, the lights began to flicker and then came on completely.

“I’ve got power in the generator room.” He commed. His next move was to return to the sealed blast doors. Pressing the door panel, the doors slowly began to move outward-parting with a loud creak and allowing the rest of the team access to the room.

This done, Beltran turned and began to scan the room for any signs of what had happened here. At a quick glance, all he could see was various pieces of equipment strewn about-much as it had been upstairs. There appeared to be no sign of any of the outposts personnel or any obvious clue as to where they had gone.

[member="Tyrell Caphey"] [member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Charlie"] [member="Vertigo"]

 

[Roona Osmari]

After a few moments of comm silence, Roona straightened up as Rarr reported that he was now in the generator room. She guessed that he must have been able to slip through the vent without much issue. Her visor shifted in Clark’s direction for a moment, both of them kept quiet in order to hear the commentary that Specialist Rarr was now providing.

The lights overhead began to flicker to life. There was humming as the systems started to come back online as well. At the moment, most of the screens were still dark, save for one or two that currently displayed error messages.

“Sweep through, then re-group in the control room.” She replied.

Roona took a seat at one of the consoles that still appeared to be fully functional, and Clark rolled his chair over to join her. The light reflected off their helmets as they both leaned forward to view the screen as it lit up. Much to their good fortune, the system resumed smoothly without locking them out completely. Needless to say, there were files that they could not access without an access key or a bit of clever slicing. However, the security feed was up and running.

Narrowing her eyes at the screen at the grainy images on display, the split screen showed each portion of the mining complex. At the moment, she could see their teams moving through the other buildings. It would be far too much work to scrub back through the footage, so a quick click brought up the system log.

It seemed that there had been an event logged the day before.

Alarms had been triggered in multiple buildings. After bringing up the corresponding timestamp on the footage, the exterior of the security complex was shown in black and white imagery. Much like today, there was heavy snow – but a dark shape became clear against the white backdrop. If the others had returned, they might have arrived in time to see Clark jump slightly as the shadowy form appeared on the screen. “What the--” He said, leaning closer.

There were security teams present in the footage now, the flashing of blaster fire, too.

The strange creature moved with a surprising swiftness. What appeared to be an arm swiped at the security personnel, and there was a blur of motion as the attack was carried out. Those huddled around the console would be witness to panic, fear, and death. It was quite a gruesome sight that ended with bodies being taken – away from the security complex… bloody tracks in the snow long covered by a full night of new snow.

“Keep looking,” She instructed the others as she stood up, “Check the footage for the other buildings.”

“This is Osmari,” She started, activating her comm-link to the other teams. “We were able to access security footage – there was an attack here yesterday. The personnel in this building were killed by some kind of humanoid alien, their bodies appeared to be taken – there was little evidence left behind here. We are checking the footage for the rest of the complex, I would suggest caution.”

[member="Valkren Calderon"], [member="Beltran Rarr"], [member="Tyrell Caphey"], [member="Vertigo"], [member="Jyoti Nooran"], [member="Charlie"]

 

[Tyrell Caphey]

He let out a sigh of relief as he recieved Rarr's transmittion, and a moment later the doors to the generator room begun to screak open. The squad followed him inside and he gave Rarr a nudge on the shoulder.

''Great work!'' he exclaimed, glad that he was wrong about the risky decision taken by sergeant Osmari.

As the squad inspected the room they found little of real interest and that was when Osmari's voice broke through the comms.

''Copy, we're coming up.'' he replied and nodded at the squad to follow him up again.

They reentered the control room, leaving two men at the door before gathering around the screen where Osmari sat. He leant over private Clark and watched the gruesome events on the screen, narrowing his eyes inside the T-visor helmet. When Osmari stood up he nodded to Clark to continue go through the footage as he were already sitting in front of the screen and the keyboard. Caution were the right word! Even if they all wore helmets covering theirs faces, one could feel and see that all were curious what sort of being they just had a glance off on the screen and what the colonels and the jedis next orders would be.

After a while of silence going through the footage, he looked back at Roona. ''Do you think it's still in the complex?''

[member="Valkren Calderon"], [member="Beltran Rarr"], [member="Roona Osmari"], [member="Vertigo"], [member="Jyoti Nooran"], [member="Charlie"]

 

[Vertigo]

Give him a straight fight or problem to fix anyday. “Smells off.” Following the Colonel keeping watch on the corners, the blaster chaingun was turned to follow his nose which could already smell something out in the open. He wasn’t talking about just that bodies smell, this whole OP smelled off, everyone was gone. No word, no message, no firefight, no nothing. He figured they’d be getting a hostage demand soon. That's about when they got the message about a humanoid alien. Which had him double checking their backs around the compound.

When Vertigo reached the body he decided he could have used Tyrell here, Dex could do a basic check of the injured with his first aid training but nothing more than that. Resting up Rucy on the wall, his pet name for his hulking great weapon, and the same hulking great Houk sweetheart back home. The Houk got down on one knee, bent down to check over the corpse. “Gash gone clean through her leg Colonel.” Dex was about to get up but stopped there, “Rrrmmmm.“ He gave a low rumble. “Already frozen Chief when she lost the leg, or died before that.”

Poking around down there on the floor to see if he could get anything else. Any signs of defensive wounds or weapons fire. The size of the gash had him concerned. [member="Roona Osmari"] "Whatever did this, you don't want to get close." Dex warned the whole team. He thought about it, getting up and facing the Colonel. "We make enough noise we can flush it out, then to Osmari's team." There was a wide teethy grin behind his helmet, locking his chaingun barrel back into place. He could do loud. If it was even still here. They had the manpower, better to direct where it went, or at least bring it to them, than wait for it to attack unprepared.

[member="Valkren Calderon"] | [member="Beltran Rarr"] | [member="Roona Osmari"] | [member="Jyoti Nooran"] | [member="Charlie"]​

 

[Beltran Rarr]

Beltran nodded to [member="Tyrell Caphey"], accepting his praise silently. With the doors open, he allowed the rest of the team a chance to look around the generator room while he collected his rig and weapons, fitting everything back where it belonged.

As Sergeant [member="Roona Osmari"]’s orders, the Lorrdian would work with the rest of the team to secure the rest of the building before regrouping with the others back in the control room. He would then watch quietly as the footage of the strange creature attacking the outpost’s personnel.

Even through the insulated armor he wore, the Lorrdian felt a chill run through him at the sight of the creature. It was like something out of a dream, something conjured by the deep recesses of his damaged psyche.

Beltran listened to Caphey’s question quietly. He didn’t think the creature was still here. If it was, it probably would have attacked them. He didn’t exactly know why he felt that way, and he was far from certain-but he had a feeling it had moved on.

[member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Charlie"] [member="Tyrell Caphey"] [member="Vertigo"]

 

[Eugen Aker]

Jyoti paused as they came up to the research compound, noticing Charlie shivering as she asked a question. Frowning behind her mask, she brought up Charlie's suit vitals on her HUD.

By default, life support was deactivated on the armor to conserve power, and Charlie hadn't switched it on yet. Jyoti saw that she hadn't activated the portable osmotic field generator she had given her either.

"You know, that suit is no good to you if you don't use it right." she reminded her. "Once you flip on the life support, then you should feel fine again."

She turned to the entrance of the compound, reaching for one of the handles of the large sliding doors. Slides iced over, the door gave her resistance as she tugged it open, but it eventually gave way to her augmented strength with a screech of metal.

It was pitch black inside from the lack of power, but her visor automatically produced a rendering created from sensor feeds. Her armor picked up no life signs, and she could feel nothing.

"Alright, let's go, but keep your eyes peeled."

Cautiously, she inched into the prefab structure from the dreary frozen wastes outside. Shattergun raised, she swept each hall and room of the compound until she came upon the main lab. As with the rest of the compound, there was no power here, but she imagined she could pull some drives to review later. Allyson with her technopathic abilities definitely would have been helpful here.

"Watch my back for a minute, going to see if I can collect anything from their servers to analyze."

(Just a wee bit behind you all from my perspective. I'll catch up on my next post.)

[member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Charlie"] [member="Beltran Rarr"] [member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Tyrell Caphey"] [member="Vertigo"]

 

[Charlie Nooran]

Charlie blinked as Jyoti reminded her about the life support system and the extra additives that the woman had ensured was on the suit. Fumbling around for a moment, Charlie found the on switch and the life support kicked in along with the osmotic field generator. Instantly, the K’paur felt comfortable again and the shivering stopped. Adjusting to the lack of shivering and her jaw now being sore, Charlie followed quietly behind Jyoti and watched with a curious look as the woman forced the door that seemed rather heavy open. With an impressed look on her face she continued to follow not saying much.

Following in suit, Charlie pulled the small blaster that she was issued, the lightsaber was close at her side. The visor’s automatic function to help see in the dark turned on and Charlie stopped quickly and shook her head trying to find a way to shut it off. Standing there blinded for a moment, she fought the natural urge to make a painful sound. Her eyes blinked quickly trying to get that white flash from her eyes. Racial traits were a bonus and seeing in the dark wasn’t an issue, but she did figure out how to adjust the visor to help her instead of blind her. Looking around she kept the blaster raised and her senses alert. There was nothing there besides the two of them.

Jyoti spoke and Charlie looked over to her Master. “Alright. What are you looking for specifically?” Turning her back to Jyoti’s she raised the blaster back up panning the area for any sign of danger or life. Her mind raced as she wondered what was really going on here, something didn’t feel right and really didn’t make any sense at all. “Everyone seemed on edge earlier, like we’re expecting the worse or some resurfacing of the Rakghoul plague...”

[member="Jyoti Nooran"] [member="Beltran Rarr"] @Vertigo @Tyrell Caphey [member="Roona Osmari"] [member="Valkren Calderon"]

 

[Valkren Calderon]

Valkren's attention was brought down to the leg of the corpse by [member="Vertigo"], causing the colonel to briefly check their surroundings in the mess hall once more, scanning his flashlight about the dark corners, until suddenly the lights came to live within all the buildings in the compound.

"Seems like Osmari's team came through. Whatever was here must be long gone." Valkren watched as Lowder appeared in the room as well, shaking his head 'no' in anticipation to the question if he had found anything.

"We still have a mission to do, let's move outside and get the APC's warmed up. We find our people and bring them home."

Valk' lowered his weapon into a slightly relaxed position, moving to make his way out toward the courtyard once more. It was then when he heard a transmission from Echo, detailing the camera footage of the team in the security room being attacked by some sort of 'creature.' Seemed like things were starting to piece together.

Outside, high-powered lights illuminated the area within the walls, cutting through the constant snow storm to provide slight visibility between the buildings and two drop ships they had taken to get planet-side. Within one of the drop ships' sealed cockpits, Tex was still staring directly at the scanner. With the power of the security stations own scanners, his systems could piggyback off of their methods to scan through the horrible weather.

However, it still seemed busted. There were now several more blips popping up everywhere outside of the front gate. Plus, they seemed to be getting closer every time they'd reappear.

"Hey, LT. Spotlights up on those walls should be working now. Can you do me a favor and shine it to your immediate north? Scanners are picking up something, but I'm starting to think it's just a glitch in the system."

Outside, on the front section of protective walls, Lieutenant Harris stood on watch with several other rangers.

"Copy that, on it now." His voice came through gruff, obviously not enjoying the weather outside his tin-can of a suit. He'd take his stabilizing hand from his weapon to point to Baker and Osteen, urging them to get on the oversized spotlight and point it in said direction.

Konrad moved towards the edge of the railing, squinting from behind his visor in an attempt to pick up movement while the others focused the lights. He was prepared to report back to the group that it was in fact a glitch in the system, until a sudden flash of movement caused a sudden distortion in the wall of snow and ice.

He'd rest his rifle on the railing, facing it directly towards the oncoming storm. He'd slap Baker on the shoulder plate and point forward to get an extra gun with him before sending out transmission to the entire team.

"This is Harris, we've got some kind of movement at the front gates. Need extra shooters on the perimeter, now!"

Several rangers that were working within the troop bays of the transport dropped what they were doing to rush through the snow to the ladder and stairs. Valkren had just exited the mess hall and crew quarters when this transmission went out, causing his relaxed posture to become hurried and cautious as he bounded through the thick snow.

"Come on boys, up top! Lowder, watch our back. If that thing is still in the compound I don't want it sneaking up on us. Vertigo, spin up that gun of yours!"

Just as Valkren reached the top of the stairs, he'd turn back, glancing briefly at the security station in which Osmari's team had been in charge of securing. Perhaps, he thought, if she was within the security station if any sort of combat were to happen, she'd be safer. He knew that in mere minutes Echo, Caphey, and Rarr would all come charging out to support their team members..But it always felt better to think on the positive side, especially with those close to him.

Besides, those three rangers within the security stations were some of his best shooters, and he was sure he'd need them all in preparation for whatever was to come.

[member="Roona Osmari"] | [member="Charlie"] | [member="Tyrell Caphey"] | [member="Vertigo"] | [member="Jyoti Nooran"] | [member="Beltran Rarr"]