Life and Death on Planet Nauru, Omicron Delta - [PM for Invitation]

[Jack_Henderson]

Eight days after the briefing on board of the Hutoka: South East Territory

The drone images taken from high altitude did not give the team much hope of finding anybody around the area there, at least no one alive. The village that old maps showed around their search grid was called "Soñar" - Dream.

A dream that must have ended abruptly at some point, as the small wooden shack suggested that they had searched half an hour ago. No signs of violence. The place used to be a home for a small family, half-dug into the rock. However it seemed that it was left in a hurry, as many things had been left behind. "Could be from years ago..." Joney remarked.

Chief Barnes nodded. "Could, yes. Let's wrap it up. Have a drink, then we move once the pictures are taken." and 10 minutes later they were on their patrol again.

The main assaults of the Core when they took over Nauru happened around 5 years ago, but it was unclear when exactly these remote mining outposts located in the far periphery were targetted. It was not even clear whether they were really targetted or whether they were just abandoned without any direct outer influence. Kyra could hear the curses behind her when part of the roof moved and sand fell onto some of her men.

The history of these ruins, half covered in desert sand, half reclaimed by nature and wilderness was unwritten, and it was unlikely that any witnesses would be found to tell the story. It was the depressing mission of Blue Dune to look for survivors and evacuate them to safety if they wished to be taken to safety. Survivors. Evacuate. If there were any. Out here, Blue Dune had not found a soul in their last 3 missions. They kept strict radio silence out here, so they could not even ask the other teams - like Decker's search groups - about their mission results.

In case the villages were abandoned, evidence of potential atrocities were to be taken. However there was no evidence of any Core activity out here. And judging from the ruins, there had been none in a while. Years. Documenting old war crimes or just a tragedy of a failed settlement was not the mission that was popular with the men and women, but on the other hand it was better than being shot at and die on a planet far away from home. Soñar was abandoned, there could not be much of a doubt when the small detachment disembarked their vehicle and took the last mile on foot.

There was not much left from the old mining site. The dry climate had preserved the primitive building materials well enough so that the human influence could be seen immediately. It must have been a mine dug into the rocky hill, with conveyor belts to transport the ore from inside to the storage areas. The structures had collapsed long ago, and entering the old mine would likely be a suicidal operation.

Kyra was looking at the village through her tactical sights and sighed before she handed it to her deputy. "... Alright. Gather up." she called and her small team went prone near her for the short briefing: "Situation is: In front there is Objective Soñar. A Zoner-built mining complex, indigenuous population. Looks abandoned. Mission: Survivors, etcetera... <sighing> forget about that. We start looking for evidence of fighting as soon as we are green." the binoculars were passed around, so that everybody could get a good view, but none of the visual modes revealed any life there.

"Therefore, we spread out. Buddy teams. Move through the village and clear it. Alpha, this route..." and she points it out the environment... "... Beta, go straight. And... Charly, we move in a left half circle." she pointed the details out:

"Then we begin to look for clues of what happened here." she looked at the men that were not happy: "Spotter and long range, as well as CX-D-7 get into an overwatch position overlooking the village. Callsign: Triumph 1" and she could not help but sneer at the name in sarcasm.

She looked at the operators of Triumph 1 that nodded to her. They also had the CX-D combat droid, one of the toys that their cooperation with the Hutoka resulted in. It was struggling with the sandy dunes more than with the terrain here, so it would not be easy to get it into position, but they all knew that if there ever was an engagement, this drone would provide more firepower than the whole team.

She ended her basic and rather unthrilled briefing with the words: "Remember our Rules of Engagement: We are here to support. Do not fire unless fired upon." and she could hear her men protest under their breath or with body language: "I didn't make the RoE." she told them without emotions that would defend the RoE: "... Let's get it over with. 1 hour up. 30 mikes search. 45 down. Questions?" and no one was asking anything, everybody was preparing themselves mentally for the walk in the searing heat: "Let's get moving." she said calmly and the buddy teams slowly moved upwards towards the ruins.

---

They didn't find anything that gave them any clue about what happened. The village looked as if it once could have housed around 50 to 75 people, and it had been abandoned in a hurry. So much was clear. But the typical evidence of atrocities were missing. They did a terrain scan to look for mass graves and anthropogeneic changes to the natural landscape, but could not find anything. Then the radio communicator came to live:

"Chief, this is Element Charly, Hudson speaking. We found something around grid 6771-9271. Fortified structure, looks abandoned, but it's not one of these damned wood hut villages we've been taking pictures of for days. Sending you a picture. Orders?"

Chief Barnes waited for a few moments before the picture was completely transmitted. It was taken from a large distance, likely Element Charly was still quite far out. She showed it to the operator next to her:

"Finally?" she asked, without really asking for an answer: "Charly, hold position and observe. We come to you. ETA 4 hours 30 mikes."

"My Element! We move out! Back to the taxis. This is trash here and we are not the ALG. We found ourselves a PoI worth our attention. Check your mission screens. Looks like a fortress to me. We are going there and rendezvous with Element Charly." and with that she already started pushing downhill. She had enough to poking around abandoned villages and she knew it would also be good for the morale of her people to do something that perhaps at least had some kind of sense.