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[Silhar]

"Twisted fate, indeed.", admitted the medic, shaking his head in disbelief. He stepped towards the ramp. "Worry not about my fighting skills. I've spent roughly a decade in those boots, and the other one also ripping guts. I am confident that Mr Hagezi had even more fun of this kind in his lifetime. Am I right, sir ?", he said and smiled in some mad way, walking slowly outside.
"Water can be found everywhere, if there's also an atmosphere. The only thing I am afraid is our chance to return home. Hell, where can I make a call to a city ?", added the corporal after a while, noticing no civilisation.

[Malek Deneith]

- That's the spirit... - Hagazi grinned at Siobhan's comment and started to walk down the ramp - I don't suppose any of you have binoculars of any type?

- Been fighting since I can remember... tried to settle recently but apparently old warriors don't get much of a rest... - he responded to Vincent's question, his voice trailing off as if remembering something

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hagazi will go out and do a round around the shuttle looking for a place to go. If lacking anything better will use the the telescopic function of his rifle sights to take a better look at distant stuff. Also will take a look on the shuttle from the outside to see if there are any clues for the reason of crash.

[Xander Morhaime]

Stepping outside, you find that the shuttle had half-buried itself in a hillside. A large rock jutting out in front of it was probably to blame for the likely condition of the pilot's cabin. Facing downhill, you can see little beyond rocks, hills, sand, gravel, more rocks, more hills, and so on. Of course, as soon as you look in the other direction and up the hillside, you can see a massive plume of black smoke rising over the ridge.

[Malek Deneith]

- Talk about smoke signals... Maby that's another shuttle? - mercenary wondered aloud.

[Gargulec]

'Or thing that brought us down' Shioban replied. Go, and scope on it, okay?

[Xander Morhaime]

Coming to the top of the ridge, the source of the smoke is the first thing to draw your attention.

The smoke is coming from countless fires along a massive wrecked superstructure, spread out over a relatively flat area of terrain. Smaller wreckages are scattered around it, adding their own smoke to the already massive pillar. Though the main hulk is twisted and barely recognisable, it bears a striking resemblance to the shuttle hauler that was ferrying you to your destination. Except with the propulsion section missing. And the cargo of shuttles scattered all around it in various stages of "destroyed". As for the propulsion section... well, that's probably to blame for the quickly cooling cloud of plasma hiiigh overhead.

Then your attention is drawn to something else... a colony, of all things. Six round towers of varying sizes and heights, each narrowing slightly closer to the top, clustered together on a plateau, linked together by bridges and surrounded by what appears to be a low wall. The wall seems to have developed a breach, however, likely due to another shuttle managing to come down in one piece only to carve out a rut in the ground and finally smash into the wall, knocking a fair-sized chunk out of it. Further off, behind the towers, you see what appears to be a large pipeline, running off into the distance, though it's hard to make out clearly from this distance. The colony itself seems quiet, only the occasional winking of red positional lights gives it any sign of life.

You estimate the colony perimeter to be about half an hour's march away. The wreckage, should you want to investigate the blaze, is about an hour away.

[Malek Deneith]

- Damn... Seems you were right about not beeing able to leave soon 'doc. You think anyone else could've surived the crash? - Hagazi asks inspecting the surroundings.

[Gargulec]

'I don't like it.' Shioban stated. 'This colony is surrounded by sea of wreckage for a reason. And I am certain, that this reason lies within it.'

 She spat on the ground, angrily.

'Sadly, it seems that this colony, or whatever it is, might be the only way out. But before going in, I strongly advise checking other wreck- who knows, what we may find there? A survivor? Or, better yet, a logbook, to explain what is going out here.'

She turned to Hagazi.

'You don't happen to have spare rifle, do you?'

[Malek Deneith]

- No, no spare rifles. I like to be prepared for anything, but two rifles is overdoing it, even by my standards - Hagazi shook his head - And I think checking the wreckage might be a good idea, as long as we be carefull - even if we don't find survivors or log-books there might be some undamaged supplies left... maby even some rifle for you, who knows.

[Gargulec]

'Be careful...' Shioban repeated after Hagezi, chuckling slightly. 'We're all from military. If we were not careful for entire life, we would be somewhere else now... like six feet under soil. Let's go, then.' 

Placing all her gear in khaki backpack, she spoke again.

'By the way, you can call me Toy. Like my unit did.'

[Silhar]

Vincent took a look at a wreckage and a colony and pondered for a while.
"Small chances for survivors, to be honest, with all that fire and smoke around. Burnt or choked to death. And that colony... God, if anyone was there, they should've sent some rescue team already... Or at least try to contact with us, if they aren't responsible for that mess around. Even if they are, they'd send a patrol upon us. Looks bad.", he said, following the rest. "Let's just keep the pace."

"Our Shuttle. What kind of damage except impact did it recieve ? Were we shot or did engines cease to work ?", Vince looked towards the wreckage and examined it.

[Xander Morhaime]

The first problem, most readily apparent, was the fact that the shuttle was buried half-way into a hillside. On closer inspection, there are signs of laser scoring along the sides, though none apparently touching the vital systems. Those, upon further investigation, look to have been ripped apart on the inside by shrapnel - or debris from a blast. A look inside and past the door to the cockpit (it's a wonder the door still works, really) shows that most of said cockpit, including the pilot and the flight instruments, has been compressed into a layer of debris a few dozen centimetres thick by force of impact.

Long story short - the engines are shredded and there's no way to actually control the craft. This shuttle won't be flying again any time soon.

[Malek Deneith]

- These laser marks worry me... I wonder if other parts of the wreck bary the same marks. Shall we go and check?

[Gargulec]

'Definitely. And maybe do it... now?'

[Xander Morhaime]

The climb down the hillside towards the flatlands was relatively easy and didn't slow you down much. Going lower, without the plume of smoke in the way, you could see the sun, its light a pale shade of yellow. The march to the crash site was rather uneventful - there was little else to do but watch the pillar of smoke still rising from the blaze, and perhaps keep track of the sun slowly moving lower on the sky.

You approached the wreck from its aft, so even from a distance you could examine where the spine of the ship had been severed. In fact, at a distance was the only way to carry out the examination - the fires throughout the crash site continued to burn strong, and the heat they shed meant the wreck was like an open-air plasma furnace. In fact, if you looked closer, you could see some less-durable metal elements melting off the ship's skeleton. Still, even from this distance you could see that what was left of the ship's spine was severed cleanly - likely the fault of high-powered energy weapons, which would also account for the ignited fuel.

The shuttles were in just as sorry a state. Those closer to the main wreck that had retained any structure were already collapsing in on themselves as the heat from the blaze melted away their weaker components. Others were crumpled heaps or little bonfires of their own. One even detonated, creating a tiny, brief sun giving way to a glassy crater when its powerplant finally suffered a critical failure. On the whole it looks like the shuttles that kept fixed to the main hauler were the ones that fared best through the landing, but they were now also in the heart of the raging fuel fire.

But at least if you stand at a certain distance from the wreck, the warmth from the fire is quite pleasant. That is, if you don't mind the chocking smell of reactor fuel, melting metal and... other things.