Jungle fever

As the group took stock of their location, they oriented themselves to the research team's last known location. The team set off through the jungle to avoid missing any signs of travel.

Mercy connected, "Rookies, communication with orbit will get spotty, but we are monitoring from above. I will patch you into the research camp's leader to ascertain more details of your task. Dr. Aidan Swartz will be able to provide you with more details about who you're looking for. Remember, being a mercenary means looking out for the client's interests, so do not neglect this interaction. I'm patching you through now."

The doctor appeared on the video screen on each display, looking haggard and worried as if the weight of responsibility restrained him. "Hello, raiders. Your help is most welcome at this time when my people and my only son are lost. If there is anything I can do to aid you during this mission, I will arm you with whatever relevant knowledge we possess."

Borridin responded immediately, "On my honor, we will find your missing team, Doctor. You have nothing to worry about. Let's get going!" Seemingly taking the lead in a random direction to the west.

"Ahem, I appreciate the enthusiasm and your word. The last known location is southeast of your position, however.."

Borridin paused and chuckled sheepishly. "Right, of course..."

Azamir stepped in. "Doctor, aside from the Razaraptors, do you have any more information about the area that would help? What is the last status of the personnel you lost? What specific quirks do they have, or what equipment do they carry that would make it possible to track them?"

Dr. Swartz responded with a nod and sent a few files over to their display. "Yes, there is one thing that should stick out. We armed the expedition group with lures and repellants for the local fauna to keep them from bothering the camp. Seeing as anything beyond nonlethal weapons is allowed to the military or privately recognized mercs in this region of space, we were not able to have the means to fight them off. The bait/repellant can easily be traced due to its scent and the amount of Razaraptors in the area."

"Bait... I got it. We can even use some of that to help. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, here are the profiles of all the missing team members, including my son Zane. That should help identify them. Please hurry... if not for my responsibilities, I would be out there right now looking for him." The doctor gripped his chair as if he was shackled. "Please.. he is all that's left of my family after my wife passed."

'It looks like the data would satisfy the mission parameters. But that's not what he cares about here...' Azamir schooled his face to project confidence and skill. "You have nothing to fear, Doctor. We are professionals."

With the conversation concluded, the team neared where the expedition made camp and what looked to be the result of a landslide devastating the area. Half-destroyed prefabricated habitation modules were strewn about, with broken equipment everywhere. Not a soul to be found. Their suits filtered out the air but noted the scents and flagged one storage area ahead.

Theo poked around and noticed something odd. "Hey, guys? There are no dead bodies around. You would think in a sudden landslide, someone would have been caught off guard."

Vessa also said, coming out of the storeroom, "Half of the bait and all of the repellants are gone as well. At least, that's what the manifest on the crates would lead us to believe.

Azamir looked around and noticed a broken antenna half-buried at the bottom of the cliff. He inspected it from afar and zoomed in, triggering his analysis skill from the system.

[communications equipment]

[status: disabled due to physical damage]

[partial repairs noted. Critical components heavily damaged.]

Zooming out. Azamir also noticed several repellant casings next to the array. Looking as if a survivor had attempted to repair the equipment after the disaster but failed to get it running before the repellant expired.

Curious, Azamir stepped off the cliff and, with a puff of thrust, landed near the exposed communications beacon. Looking closer, he noticed the camera and message recorder seemed functional, with a pending message notification blinking on the partially cracked screen.

Theo poked his head over the lip of the cliff. "Find anything?"

Azamir looked up and responded, "Yeah, I think I found some busted comm array... someone might have left a message for a rescue party to find. I'll see what I can pull from it." 

Kneeling in front of the panel, he found what looked to be a busted keyboard and input system. It was as if someone wanted to prevent access or changes to anything stored on the beacon. Unfortunately, since it prevented tampering, it also prevented any random individual from viewing the message.

On a whim, Azamir engaged analysis again. To see if anything else of note popped up.

[scanning...]

[Planetary communications relay: Base range 2000 km]

[Status: recalculating . . .]

[Summary: Equipment antennae damaged—damage preventing outgoing and incoming transmission capture. The tactile message input terminal is destroyed. Message replay and storage display minor damage. Direct interface is required.]

A small highlight was transposed over his vision. It pointed to an obscure access port that diagnostic techs might use to access the hardware. Intrigued, Azamir took a data jack cable connected to the suit and plugged it into the terminal.

Immediately, a screen popped up and flicked over to the top left of his heads-up display. A simple command line interface blinking and awaiting input. Fumbling with a touch screen on his right arm, Azamir manipulated a few commands until suddenly, the screen switched and displayed the very mug of the person their team was looking for. Zachariah Swartz. However, at first glance, he seemed rougher around the edges, with a cut across his forehead and a torn field jacket. Dirt mired his expression, and worry creased his face. Glancing at the video's timestamp, it would seem that the good doctor's son was alive.. maybe not well, but still alive as of 18 hours ago.

Calling the rest of the squad over, Azamir patched the video feed to the rest of the comms channel. "Raider Squad, go for Mercy. Incoming video feed from a busted comms beacon. Can you download it for playback?"

The Tight beam radio channel responded with Mercy's voice: "Go ahead, Raider. I'm standing by for upload."

His suit was acting as a conduit, and the video file was fed to the prowler's data banks in orbit, where techs processed the video file and restored what they could of the audio and visuals.

"Processing complete. Your video file is slightly corrupted, but we got 45 seconds of usable data."

Appearing again, The video file began to play, showing Zach flustered and breathing heavily. Screams of pain can be heard in the background, and a curse escapes him. "Damn thing is busted, I can only record..." His face seemed to steel itself as an Idea gripped him. "To anyone that finds this message, Our camp has experienced a natural disaster caused by an unknown event. The majority of the team barely escaped from dire injury due to sheer luck. The other seven members and I were observing the wildlife, only to return to a sudden landslide and rockfall. Dr. Anders gave us all, outside of Daniel Ackerman, a clear pass from serious injury aside from a few cuts and bruises. Daniels's arm is broken at the forearm; we lack the proper supplies to treat it beyond a splint. We are left with only the beast repellant we had for our planned outing, a portion of our bait remaining, and a last known copy of our research data. Please send help. We are going to run low on supplies quickly.." A primal screech could be overheard from the video. Zach looked around in fear... "We can't stay here without the repellant... we will head to one of our advance research sites due..." The video abruptly ended with a static hiss, prematurely ending the playback.

Mercy sighed over comms: "Sorry, squad. The file remaining is too corrupted for any further data. At least you confirmed the assets were still live as of 15:30 the prior day. If this goes as we think, there could be a forward outpost they used for research deeper in the jungle. The canopy will prevent solid tracking from orbit, so you will have to search manually. Fly above the tree line and establish comms every hour so we can update telemetry and track your position."

Vessa responded: "Acknowledged."

Disconnecting from the beacon and looking around. The squad grouped up and discussed their next move.

Azamir motioned to the beacon. "Without coordinates or direction from the message, we could search half the jungle and not find a trace of the field team. Did anyone find any hints as to where they could go?"

Theo piped up, "That's not all bad. The collapsed command tent had records of a few research posts the team used over the last month. Three are due north, about 10km from here, and another two are a bit farther out west from the forward position, another 3 km."

 Borridin scoffed. "That's easy then; we can fly there quickly and check them out. Piece of cake."

"well...." Theo responded, miming scratching the back of his head. "The real problem would be the Razaraptors colonies near each site."

"So? A few raptors couldn't put us down. What are you afraid of?" Borridin sneered, visible through his faceplate.

Then, something happened that took all three men by surprise. Vessa spoke unprompted, "Borridin, each colony has at least 80 raptors by definition. How are we supposed to fight that AND protect the scientists? The UNARMED and ON FOOT scientists?"

"Oh... Right." Borridin replied, sufficiently chastised.

"Well, we can't stand around forever and expect results. Let's head to the nearest sites to see if we can pick up a trail." Azamir offered.

Agreeing on a plan of action, the team followed the coordinates, seeking those lost in the jungle.