Star Trek: Starbase 777

There were nothing but ruins of something once homely. Upon entering through the arch, the away team would enter the northern site of what was once a newborn city. Where once stood a multitude of houses, all that was left of them were their empty rooms and burnt walls, corners covered in weird, circular burn marks. The streets were painted with black in scorch, and littered with broken glass, scattered items, and indiscernible trash. Looking down south, what seemed like a path down to the river and a broken mill could be seen.

Lama jogged ahead past the archway to the northern part of the colony. He quickly stopped in his tracks when he saw the rubbish that littered the streets. Dark eyes lifted to see the burn marks that covered the walls, giving him a weird eerie feeling. There were no people there to mess with his empathic abilities but.... The vibes were.... Not good. Lama had seen destruction like this before.

“Oh, oh no.” She said as she entered, looking around at the utter destruction of the colony. She took a knee and placed her rifle down as she uttered a small prayer to the prophets before taking her rifle back and standing. “This is…..terrible.”

"Yeah umm...." Lama had a few horrifying images flash before his eyes but he tried to ignore them for now. "I guess let's start investigating.... all the burn marks... yeah."

He were lucky not to have experienced a large-scale tragedy like this before - at least, not one so personal. There was that one time he saw hundreds of corpses floating in space... He couldn't see any corpses here yet, though. Not that he was in a rush to find any. "Terrible indeed," he said, squeezing Saren's hand.

3

It reminded Thal of the ecological damage they'd had to clean up after the war involving a resort planet. They wondered if this place was habitable, and if people could ever live here again. Would that help heal the wound? Wordlessly, they approached one of the strange circular burn marks, but without much weapons knowledge, they were unable to identify what weapon had caused it. That was probably Aoife's specialty. Their interest lay more in the path down to the river.

“Here, let me look at that.” Kya said as she moved to examine the burn marks, trying to identify what kind of weapon could leave a mark like that. She recalled everything from her training. “Let’s see here…”

"I don't like this." Bellona stated plainly as she approached one of the burn marks and scanned it with her tricorder.

Whilst the others were scanning the burn marks, Lama picked up a piece of rubbish to scan it to see what the make up of it was.

He squeezed back, while also looking around to ensure that everyone was safe and followed them here. "Don't enter the houses that still have roofs on them," he quietly advised, meanwhile choosing to scan the surviving patches of grass by the house others were inspecting.

That hollow feeling was back. The remnants of life, that someone had been here. Rehszan swallowed a curious sensation that felt like all the power was drained from his core and dumped into the pit of his stomach. "Very well," he responded to Saren, scanning one of the marks. "Please do watch for broken glass as well.."

Five held on a little tighter to her toolbox, a familiarity she couldn't quite place buzzing around in the back of her mind. Not now. Just... Keep going.

Looking at the burn marks, as well as checking them with the tricorder that would be able to compare the parameters of these burn marks with a variety of weapons, would find a possible match - disruptor fire. The marks matched something that utilized antiprotons to deal damage - but the particles themselves were long gone... The piece that Lama had picked up seemed to be something melted together from high heat - in other words, a fire. Perhaps this was a piece of a couch, long ago?.. The scan of the grass provided peculiar results - while it was growing fine, the recent DNA analysis provided signs of damage from something hot and ionized - plasma?

"Perhaps we should call Eventide and let them know we've found the settlement," Saren chimed in, closing his tricorder. "Just to reassure them we're fine."

Kya sighed as she stood up and looked at the tricorder readings over Bellona’s shoulders. “Disruptors, figured, but still.”

"Alright," he said, assuming that was because the roof might fall down or something. He didn't want to let go of Saren's hand, so he took some pictures with his phone.

Lama grimaced and put the piece of rubbish down and looked up to see the burn marks when Kya said 'disruptor'. "And.... yeah, burn from high heat," Lama sucked in a big gulp of air through his teeth and shook his head. Things were not looking good, not at all. "Yeah so... Air strike or... attack of some sort, with disruptors and explosions.." Lama walked up next to Kya and looked at the scorched wall she was examining. "But who did it an why.. I guess is our next question."

"After we contact the Eventide, we should investigate the river and the mill," they said, pointing in that general direction.

"Elachi. The remnants of T'Ket's forces. Nausicaans looking to make a swift plunder and get out." Bellona suggested plainly. She forged on down the path in searcb of any other identifying artefacts. "My sense remains with the Elachi."

Kya hummed. “I’m less concerned about the why.” She said as she looked at the burn marks. “You don’t always need a good reason to be a monster, some people just are.” She said grimly.

"I can contact the Eventide," Rai chimed in, seeing how he was the CO.

Timi entered the colony, and proceeded to investigate the houses to see if there was any information to be gleaned about the people who used to live here. He had heard the exchange about contacting Eventide, but in the presence of so many people with the capacity for verbal communication, it would be impractical of him to offer, so he just made sure to stay relatively nearby, in case he was needed for something.

Hearing theories starting to fly around the group, Saren sucked in his breath. Right, they were... not present in the astrometrics laboratory. And the Bolian officer, now that he thought about it, mentioned nothing about the nature of how that data was acquired. Huh... "Wait," he turned to look at the group. "What else was in the readings? What components?"

“We have traces of anti-protons, but they appear to be long gone.” She said grimly.

"Lieutenant, are you at all familiar with Romulan history?" Five inquired curiously, tilting her head to glance at Bellona. She blinked, then glanced over to Saren as the conversation was derailed. Huh?

Lama stayed silent when Five questioned Bellona's knowledge of Romulan history. He knew their history, and had a feeling many other people in the party also knew, some even more intimately than him. Lama glanced at Saren.

Thal said, bluntly, "They destroyed their things and did not occupy their land. They did not want either of those things. I would assume they had an agenda of some kind. There is one big Romulan faction with an agenda that I can think of." Romulan politics were bloody.

As Ten entered he stopped in his tracks and stopped scanning. A whole town decemated, he had seen it before. A tear foumed in his left eye as memories of the collective surfaced, how they would kidnap beings from colonies then decimate what did not serve them. He knelt down no longer able to keep it in and softly weapt. (edited)

"Romulan disruptors are known to utilize antiprotons in their beams," he blinked, uneasy. "And this data-- if what the head Security of Kinaen said is to be believed - it was pulled from relays between Tal Shiar, or at least what he suspected to be ones. I just now realized that this detail was never made public during the debrief and no one asked... ah, perhaps the officer was not allowed to say it..."

7

Lama nearly lept into action when he saw that Ten was tearing up and rushed to his side. "Hey-- hey, erei'Arrain, it's okay," Lama knelt down next to Ten and clapped his hands softly as a way to get Ten's attention. "You can cry it out, I know it's a lot to take in."

Kya nodded along, Saren made sense. “Damn it.” She muttered as she looked around and saw Ten, moving with Lama comfort them. Kneeling next to Lama. “Shh, it’s okay, let it out.”

"Mhm," they said in response to Saren, awkwardly trying not to pay attention to Ten crying, since they weren't the best with comforting people. It was fairly obvious anyway. The Tal Shiar was a creeping phantom whenever Romulan conflicts arose.

Vara'l entered the colony and joined the investigations. He lingered at some of the burn marks and scanned them as well. He'd continued to walk about as he watched the permitter a bit. He moved off to be near Timi and co as he looked about and his jaw worked a bit more.. as he considered the ruins they were in. "..Then the likelihood it was Tal-Shiar has..gone up." Vara'l commented when he overheard what Saren said before he directed his tricorder to scan for lifesigns. As he did so, he also searched his memory and looked for signs of an attempt to disperse lifesigns signatures as well. At least those signs a tactical officer who's served in three Romulan navies might know enough about to know what to look for.

"I..... I have to say, this definitely tracks in regards to Tal Shiar activity and their... methods of attack," Rai chimed in as he looked around the scene and then at the others in the party, specifically Saren and Thalass, the two who had mentioned it. "I.. am not proud of it, but I am familiar with this style of attack."

"This is--" he paused, biting his lip, because what he was about to say perhaps was too personal and too much and-- but context mattered. He presesd on, "This is pretty much a perfect mirror of what happened to my colony. But we need proof-- " He trailed off then, looking up at Rai. Saying nothing.

"Why weren't they allowed to relay the information? Shouldn't we be conducting this information with as much information as possible?" Rehszan wondered out loud. Maybe it was Intelligence, Command, and Kinaen stuff only?..

Ten turned to Lama tears from his eye. "We...this is l..just like what I...did...they made me do it." He layed his head on his shoulder and continued crying.

"We will find proof," Eshen said. "For the sake of those who lived here." He gave Saren a kiss on the temple. It was strange that this information hadn't been made clear, though. A mistake? Or was it... Sus?

7

8

Hounded by memories he wished he'd forget, Vara'l was..more silent than usual. His comment restricted to one in response to what had been said. "Hopefully they'll have not left something behind to watch for investigative efforts." His jaw worked a bit again and he looked away from the group and coughed slightly as he focused on his work and tricorder. Focused on his training. "..Its interesting that that information regarding the Tal Shiar wasn't relayed earlier.. thats..odd."

Kya patted Ten on the shoulder and stood up. “That information not being given to us doesn’t make any sense, it’s mission relevant, and important to our success.” She said with a breath.

"Yeah yeah, it's okay," Lama gave Ten a comforting smile as he clutched his tricorder. He sympathised with him and wanted to comfort him, but he also worried if Ten would be able to proceed if this was already hitting him so hard. "Cry all you need, I can stay with you, it's okay. If you need to take a break, we could get you back to the Eventide if needed."

"Strange, yes. But for now there is nothing we can do. Let us move on to the river and the mill," they said, edging toward that direction. They were trying not to wander off, but they didn't want to stand around and listen to a guy cry either. (edited)

Rai looked back at Saren and then at the ground, suddenly regretting his comment. He wanted to help though, even if he did not have the best history. Rai nodded at Thalass' words and looked forward towards the river and the mill, ready to proceed.

Bellona walked behind Thalass and Rai in silence, with her eyes trained on the forest around them at all times.

Ten noded, choking back tears. "Sir, I belive that would be best could you please call the ship to beam me back? I do not belive I am fit for duty, Lt Cdr Matryx can take on any medical needs the team may have," *He sniffled a bit."

Kya looked towards the others moving to the mill and moved after them. “Well at least we’re wandering off as a team now.”

"I wonder why, then?" he tagged along with Kya. "I mean— that should have been included in the mission... Was someone making an effort to hide something?"

And Ten was beamed up!

"Perhaps there was a lack of certainty." Bellona suggested. "Which does not make it any more excusable for this vital intelligence to be left out of our initial mission briefing..."

With Ten gone, Lama felt a weight off his shoulders. He was an empath so Ten's outburst.. Really hit him. But he was gone so now Lama could focus his energy on the task at hand and followed the rest of the party. "Umm..... yeah.... As if someone purposefully did it.... or something.... I don't know," Lama made shifty eyes, not sure what conclusions to draw from his statement but there was definitely some sus stuff happening.

Green eyes shifted to Eshen, and he nodded. Swallowing down the bitter "No time to cry, we need to work" comment and doing his best not to linger on Rai for too long, he lowered his voice to a whisper, talking to his conspirator: "You and Allan, stay near me, okay?"

4

"Purposefully, do you really think so?" Rehszan frowned at that. Not good at all...and the comms message Rai received confirmed that.

"Of course. Always." He gave Saren a little side-hug as they walked along.

"I have just receive confirmation from the Eventide that it was indeed the.." Rai pausd for a second. "Yes, it was the Tal Shiar. It is information that should have already been relayed to us but... Wasn't," Rai was starting to question the one who had briefed them on the mission, He tried not to look at Saren when he said 'Tal Shiar'. Partially out of his own shame, but also because he could tell the irony of him, a former Free State commander, saying such a thing.

Lama visibly cringed when the word Tal Shiar was used and gripped his tricorder tighter. "Who briefed us again?"

“Huh, that’s….quite odd. We were briefed by that Bollian officer weren’t we? I don’t want to point fingers but that’s….quite suspicious.” She said with a breath, well she was pointing fingers but she wanted to be nice about it. (edited)

"Come to think of it. Wasn't the briefing itself somewhat shorter and more rushed than usual." Bellona added, glancing at the Romilan who'd just spoken. "Don't you agree?"

"The Command probably has information about who did the briefing and assigned teams, it wouldn't be too hard to find her," he commented, returning the side-hug. "We could ask to check..."

"Yeah, can we ask? I mean, I can ask," Lama said with a smile, raising his hand when he spoke.

Allan was absolutely still here despite his roleplayer having the longest sleepy siesta known to man. Currently, he was just running the same idle scans as several other people here - so therefore, staying close to Saren was like, a way more important priority. At least, to him, anyways. "Right here with ya," he confirmed, sticking very close to the other side of Saren.

Vara'ls jaw worked a bit at that as he glanced to Riov tr'Torre'vnau. "That's very odd sir." His jaw worked a moment. "..And probably merits further investigation" He glanced to Saren then. "..I think we probably should ask to check." The Romulan mused before he resumed looking around. "..That briefing was..shorter than usual."

"In the interests of covering all our bases, I believe that may be best." Bellona replied plainly.

"Even so, let's talk and walk," Five suggested, gesturing vaguely to the rest of the colony. "There could be more here."

As the team eventually moved on, they would make their way into #colony-south...

"Agreed." Vara'l responded simply as he moved with the group toward wherever their next destination was. As he did so he continued to check his tricorder occasionally.