[snip]

Ovik began scanning some of the other animals and then eventually made his way to one of the homes, trying to assess the exterior and structure before getting close. He tried to ensure he could see the Lieutenant at all times.

Ens. Ovik, Security

Approaching the house, Ovik found it showed signs of a hasty departure or maybe some kind of fighting even. Flecks of what might have been blood marred the entry way but the lack of power in this house meant seeing much further then the busted inward door meant he could see a stair case spiraling up to the second floor, and a split of the entry hall to left and right.

IC: Th’elin took in the carnage of their surroundings once they’d materialized. He was silent, shocked by the scene laid out before them… The Andorian watched as the Vulcan began his scans. “Ok, this changes things…” The Captain called to the others. “Doc, stay close to Ovik, and you two don’t get out of sight line from Ms. Phy-Knight and me. Let’s cover the immediate area. The primary goal is locating survivors, the secondary goal is finding out what happened here. Keep a Comm channel open at all times.”

Before anything else, Th’elin made contact with the Sentinel. =/\=Sentinel, this is Captain Zarath. We’re in the settlement near the Administration Center. This destruction looks like it was purposefully inflicted. We’re looking for signs of survivors now. Please update me with any… relevant information the sensors come up with. We’ll check back in with you in a couple of hours./=/\=

Antennae undulated, snakelike as the Andorian adjusted his communicator and clipped it back to his belt. Then he pulled his Phaser Pistol from its holster and set it to stun.

-Zarath, CO

A reply came back from the ship. . .

=^=Captain, this is Chief Black Wolf. Once we were able to get through the interference, we received two messages. A written text coming from the access to the mining tunnels near Cmdr. Cerny’s position. The message said “Don’t trust the cows.” We then received a second message coming from the administration building near your position, sir. This was a vocal message and also cryptically stated to not trust the cows. A ‘mooing’ could be heard in the background.=^=

CPO Black Wolf (Helm)

Phy-Knight heard the transmission and had to stop herself from bursting out laughing. Don’t trust the cows? What did they decide they were fed up getting milked and so decided to start a revolution? She had to suppress the urge to make the joke that the colonists had been amoozed to death. Instead, she said, “Sir, whatever happened here was probably sudden, but from the buildings, it’s likely that it was a series of repeated attacks, rather than just one. The settlers clearly had time to erect crude defenses. However, that message about not trusting the cows is too vague to tell us what happened. They could either be talking about the actual cows they farm, a group who have assumed the name Cows or even have suffered from hallucinations.” She thought about her last possibility for a moment. “Given how weird that message sounds, I wouldn’t rule out something that’s caused hallucinations.” To be fair, if I was stuck in a backwater place like this, I’d be grateful for anything that might cause me to start tripping. “However, if we do encounter any actual cows still alive, I suggest we try scanning them from a distance.”

Lt Quinn Phy-Knight
Security Chief

As if on cue, Ovik hollered over a bit to the group. “Sirs, you might want to take a look at this.” He was hoping Hudson could maybe do an analysis on the blood samples or at least make some good guesses on what they had here. He wasn’t going to go into one of the houses until he had people with him…

Ens Ovik, Security

Paul stood and walked towards Ovik. ”What have you found?” he asked as he approached.

Docs Hudson
CMO

“Massive amounts of blood. Can you do samples here or do we need to take them back tot he ship? I am… dubious about what animal blood this is.” He was being coy about whether it was humanoid or cow or a less familiar species.

Simple blood checks for race and species could be done by their tricorders

“We should check another couple spaces with this type of carnage.” Ovik was looking at the next few buildings, trying to ascertain if they were in the same shape or not.

Ens Ovik, Security

Looking at other nearby buildings some had this and others just were out right rushed abandoned.

While the Captain’s communicator was still open, Cerny’s voice could now be heard speaking through it:

=/\= Captain, we’re picking up a herd nearby our position, =/\= Cerny reported. =/\= Also we’ve found a fire fighting vehicle here, where there is evidence that a colonist was attacked by at least one of these “cows”. =/\=

– Ivo Cerny, XO/CSO

GM CockRoach