Star Trek: Starbase 777 - highsplint-outskirts

The outskirts of town, alongside the town itself, are surrounded by a dense forest of pine trees, likely brought to the planet by the original Earth settlers and propagated quickly. The trees are not the only points of interest, though, as up ahead on the path into Highsplint there seems to be evidence of a struggle...

Aoife was busy giving the transport area a once over after she arrived. Expireance had thought her that making a mental note of where they started their mission was always good practice incase something went wrong or she got separated. As she cased the area she noted the signs of struggle further up the path. "Hey, you see that up ahead? Looks like someone was fighting." She announced to the members of the away team nearby as she pointed further up the path.

Rifle slung over one shoulder, spine straight but shoulders relaxed, Senang made for a perfect picture of observant Vulcan poise, taking in the scenery they'd beamed into. It was hard to suppress the anticipation she felt; from the briefing, there'd clearly been something going on. "I see it. Let's get ready to follow the trail."

D’rthrek crouched low, rifle resting against his shoulder like it belonged there, his movements fluid and silent despite his size. The area felt wrong—he couldn’t name how, but his instincts stirred uneasily. When someone called out about a scuffle up ahead, he didn’t rise, only shifted to face the sound and murmured, *“We should be cautious. Could be a trap.”Colonies didn’t vanish without reason, and whatever erased this one might still be watching.*

Iiani was trepidatious after landing. Something was off here— at least the others seemed convinced of it. She herself didn’t particularly feel it, but her sense of danger was incredibly dulled and she trusted her team members more than she trusted her own sense. So it stayed at the back of the party, leaning forward only to inspect the scuffle, seeing if it could figure out anything else about it.

Ato arrived with the rest of the team, a med kit slung over his shoulder and easily accessible in the case that anyone got hurt while he was there, or he happened upon anyone needing help. He closely followed the TAC officers, and over Senang's head he could see what looked like evidence that there had been a struggle not too far away. He peered around, trying to find evidence of any other beings or blood. And he was listening with his 1/2 Romulan ears to try to identify if anyone was making pained noises. Officially, he was on the look out for people injured.

On some of the tree trunks, there were phaser burns. One of them even had even been shot with what appeared to be a disruptor, considering the large hole. There was also some...oh, dear. That's blood.

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Vesta found herself on the away team. She was a specialist reascue officer and it seemed that there were people who would need to be rescued. She set her visor to translate words into text for ease of working in a group, and also set it to pickup and translate background noise. When she saw the damaged trees and surrounding blood however she furrowed her brow. "That's not good." She signed, which was of course translated audibly to everyone else.

D’rthrek got up and carefully approached the nearest tree with disruptor blast, eyes narrowing at the scorched bark. He crouched beside it, studying the pattern—phaser fire, but from what type? Starfleet issue or something else? He brought a hand close, not touching, just feeling for residual heat. His gaze traced the angle, spread, and depth of the blast, trying to read the story in the burn like a tracker reading prints.

D'rthrek, from the looks of things, these are definitely not Starfleet standard issue. Maybe the company had been manufacturing some of their own? The level of burns the bark has endured, though, makes it clear that they were set to kill.

Ato followed Lt. JG. D'rthrek to the trees with phaser burns, having noticed the bloody substance. What color was it? He also pulled out his medical tricorder and begain a cursory scan to better identify what species of being it belonged to. Maybe, just maybe, there was a small chance it wasn't humanoid? Perhaps an animal got caught in the crossfire? He could hope...

Though it had dried, it was clearly red. Human blood. (edited)

D’rthrek examined the scorch marks a moment longer before his eyes narrowed getting up softly to show his height. “Definitely not Starfleet weapons,” he said, turning to the group. “Set to kill, judging by the burn depth.”His voice was steady, but his stance shifted—rifle ready, gaze sweeping the treeline. He didn’t expect silence to last. Not here. Not with fresh blood and weapons set to kill.

Aoife not liking the look of the phaser burns raised the setting on her phaser rifle to a high stun setting, it should be high enough to fairly reliably stun an angry Klingon a setting she was all too familiar with after the war. "Figures." Aoife said after D'rthrek. "Doesn't look like we're getting a warm welcome today keep your eyes open and weapons at the ready." She said to the group of officers.

"Set to kill could be cause for concern. There should have been no reason for the original away team to resort to that." Senang agreed with Aoife by nodding, taking their rifle off their shoulder but keeping it pointed at the ground, for now. Set to stun, obviously.

Ato grimaced, his antennae, and his eyebrows, turned down unhappily. "That is human blood, folks. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for a wounded human. I'll trust the rest of you with whoever wounded them..." He trailed off, not wanting to take too much attention off of the tactical conversation.

Iiani set her jaw. None of this seemed good. In fact, it all seemed VERY BAD. Outwardly, though, it didn’t seem too flustered. As stoic as ever, she double checked that her phaser was set to stun before holstering it again. She didn’t like to hold it for too long without a target. Instead, it opted to pull out a tricorder and check for any life signs.

Multiple life signs down the path. Seems like there are still some people in the town?

T'She was taking everything in, whatever happened seemed serious, especially if there was blood visible on the path. They clutched their medical kit close to them, keeling their eyes trained on the path in front of them.

“There are life signs further down. Maybe there are people left in the town? That or- it’s some sort of ambush.” It closed the tricorder with a click and looked at the others. “We should probably approach slowly and not on the path, right? To get a good look at who’s in the town.” It was no tactician but it seemed like the safest way to approach this.

Another away mission, another forest. Except, Allan hoped, there wouldn't be any run-ins with the Tal Shiar this time. And, you know, one of the first things they found being a disruptor shot rather than any other weapon wasn't a great evidence against that, but ... well, had to keep trekking. "Going to the town sounds like our best bet, yeah, maybe - someone might know something?"

Continuing down the path would lead the away team to the #highsplint-town-center

Vesta took in all of the information she was reciving from her visor and nodded. "We're here to recover the missing team and the colony. Standing around does nothing to help either." She signed. She was aware that there was potential for danger, but doing nothing wasn't the answer.

"Yeah towns the best bet, best case there's some people around who knows what's after happening." She moved her rifle into a ready position however, this place was NOT passing the vibe check. "Let's get going, eyes open for survivors." She said as she took a few tentative steps forward hoping the rest of the away team would start to follow.

For a mere moment, right after materializing on the planet's surface, Syrax got a feeling that he wasn't where he was supposed to be. He was a helmsman, after all - someone tied to the ship that he had just left behind, in the arms of another pilot, instead choosing to follow the away team to Highsplint to... do what, exactly? He checked the issued phaser - locked and loaded and set to stun - before looking around and taking in the scenery. Today he was here as the Command officer. Feeling like a fish out of a bowl was fine; it's just been... quite a long time between away missions. Yeah. That was the reason. And of course, in the best Syrax fashion, his face revealed none of the turmoil he was busy having. "Just be careful with handling the talks," he voiced a gentle reminder to the team. Something told him, with the information they had about the place and the visual clues, that... things were not going to be easy.

"I'll take up the rear, everybody behind Commander O'Rielly," Senang called out, noticing that aside from Allan, they were the ones outranking everyone, and in tactical matters, them two were probably more well-versed than Allan. Respectfully.

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"Well, as a doctor, I want to go where the people are." Ato said. Happy they'd made a decision to head to town, he fell in line behind Commander O'Rielly as directed, noting the placement of his phaser on his belt and his medkit to the side. Whatever came next, he was ready.

T'She agreed with Ato, and so, they also followed behind.