#Snowscape – April 12, 2016

Nathan brings the snowmobile to a stop besides Yan, peering over at the probe. "Poor little bugger," he comments, resting a hand on his leg idly. "Though, unsurprising given the terrain...".

Uvena hops off the snowmobile once it has come to a stop, and looks over the probe. "So, what are we going to do about this?" she asks.

Yan Sun climbs off her snowmobile and looks over the probe, hands on her hips. "Yep, they were expecting these things might struggle with the terrain... and the climate. Let's see about getting it out of there, yeah?" She tries to climb into the pit, but ends up sliding down. It's only a meter or so deep, and two wide, so it matters little. Once back on her feet she looks up at the security duo. "Give me a hand?"

Nathan nods and turns off the snowmobile and clambers off. He slides into the pit and lands on his feet. He walks over to the probe and gets into position to try and push it free. He waits for the other two first.

Uvena nods. "Of course," she says and slides into the pit after the others. After some flailing, she lands on her lower back. "I'm alright," she says as she starts to get to her feet.

Yan Sun stumbles slightly as Uvena joins them in the pit, and then places her gloved palms against the overturned probe, putting her rather limited strength into trying to push it up the slope.

Nathan pushes hard against the drone with a grunt, trying to find traction in the snow. "Hnnnnng!"

Uvena gets to her feet and starts pushing the probe, as well. "I don't have any biotic tricks up my sleeve for this," she admits. "In case you were expecting that."

Yan Sun succeeds, with the help of the others, in getting the probe out of the pit. It topples back to the correct orientation, tracks once again touching the ice. After catching her breath, she climbs up the small slope. "Thanks." she says simply and kneels down next to the machine, activating her omni-tool and performing a diagnostic.

Uvena walks a few steps away from the probe to catch her breath. "Are you planning on sending it on its way again?" she asks, keeping a look out for threats as is her job.

Nathan clambers out the pit and sighs, pulling off his rifle and scanning for any threats.

Yan Sun studies the results of her scan, glancing over at Uvena. "That's the plan. They want as much of the area as possible scanned for anything interesting. Just have to patch it up. One of the sensor arms was crushed when it got overturned." She detatches the broken appendage at one of its joints and looks it over, her eye glowing. "Fetch me one of the spare sensors and an omni-gel canister." she says without specifying who, left

Uvena glances at Nathan. "Do you know what that part looks like, Ten?" she asks, and she may or may not expect him to go get it.

Nathan nods. "I got it," he assures them before holstering his rifle. He walks over to the aforementioned parts and plucks them up, quickly identifying them. He nods to himself and then walks back over, placing them in Yan's hand. "Here."

Yan Sun grabs the parts, putting them down on the ice. A moment later her

Nathan watches in idle fascination for the moment before replying. "Yeah. Wolfe wanted me to rig up some mines to set around the perimeter," he says before drawing his rifle and scanning the surroundings again.

Uvena keeps watching their surroundings. "And we were told very politely that we couldn't," she says.

Yan Sun continues to work on the repairs, the new sensor arm forming well. When it is fully fabricated she tests the joint and then inserts the sensor into it. "Yeah, I heard about that. You should work on your people skills." There's no real hostility in her voice, only making idle chatter while proceeding with the repairs.

Nathan snorts lightly. "My people skills is fine. It's just that... Harmonica," he starts. "Is such a- no, no. She's not worth ranting about," he says with a firm nod. He then looks across to Uvena. "Hey, it seems clear for the moment. Want me to give you some pointers on driving one of those?" He asks, nodding towards the snowmobile.

Uvena turns towards Nathan. "Why not?" she says, and walks towards the snowmobile she and Nathan shared earlier.

Yan Sun opens her mouth to respond, but thinks better of it for the moment, and instead focuses on the repairs. She attaches the new sensor arm to the probe and then repeats her diagnostic, studying the results on her omni-tool display.

Nathan follows alongside Uvena, then stops besides the snowmobile. He, once again, holsters his rifle and pats the snowmobile. "Alright, so, how much experience have you got with vehicles? Preferably bikes and the like?"

Uvena shrugs. "I told you already, I've got none with those that move on the ground," she says. "I've piloted all kinds of sky-cars, though."

Nathan hums and then taps the handlebars. "Well, the only similarity is that you need your omni-tool to turn it on," he says. "Go on. Hope on, start it up."

Uvena hops on, and enables her omni-tool. "How hard can it be?" she asks before tapping on it to start the vehicle.

Yan Sun stands up after confirming the results of her diagnostic and turns towards the others. "Alright, I've got good news and bad news."

Nathan opens his mouth to talk to Uvena, before turning back to Yan. "Alright, bad news first."

Uvena turns the snowmobile off and gives her attention to Yan.

Yan Sun nods faintly and looks to the north from their current position. "The camp has lost contact with the northeast-bound drone, so our little road-trip is not done just yet."

Nathan hums. "Alright. Good news?"

Yan Sun 's eye lights up, and her gaze darts around for a moment. The probe comes to life and starts moving east again. "Good news is, repairs are done." She says with a small smile, blinking and her eye returns to normal.

Nathan chuckles lightly and offers her a thumbs up. "Nicely done, Yan," he says with a nod.

Uvena nods. "Is it far from here, the one that's dropped out?"

Yan Sun glances at Nathan, and seems about to say something, but when Uvena speaks her attention turns to the asari. "Yeah, it'll be another two hours roughly. Hope you ate before we left!"

Uvena shakes her head. "I didn't," she says, "but I ate enough for three back at the shop so I'll live." She taps on her omni-tool to start the snowmobile.

Nathan furrows his brow beneath his helmet. He turns without a word to sit on the back of the snowmobile. He keeps his hands resting on his legs for the moment, peering over Uvena's shoulder.

Yan Sun returns to her snowmobile as well, choosing silence as well. It's not long before she's heading north, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Uvena is managing to follow.

Uvena looks down at the handlebars for the throttle. Having seen Nathan driving, she identifies the it shortly after. She goes a little too hard on it, making her speed forward with a sudden nudge. She lets go off it after a second and she vehicle slows down to a stop.

Nathan jolts in his, hands flailing as he almost tips off the snowmobile. When she stops, he chuckles. "Holy- easy on the throttle, yeah? Lean forwards to distribute your weight to the front too," he offers, now gripping onto the sides of the snowmobile for purchase.

Uvena chuckles as well. "Copy that, Ten," she says as she leans forward. "Hold tight!" She is more conservative with the throttle this time, opting for a slower acceleration. She makes a few gendle turns with the handlebars once it picks up some speed, making the snowmobile zig-zag a few times as she gets a feel for the sensitivity.

Yan Sun slows down as she notices Uvena's trouble, glancing back regularly to make sure they haven't fallen off.

Nathan chuckles... nervously. "Doing good," he assures her. His fingers grip into the metal. "Now, gently pick up some more speed."

Uvena has a wide smile on her face, but the helmet makes that impossible to tell. "Can do," she says as she accelerates, making some slight turn to not crash into the back of Yan's snowmobile should she not pick up speed at the same pace. "Feel free to hold onto me if that's better."

Nathan starts to arch backwards and quickly wraps his arms around her waist, nodding fiercely. "Yep, holding on, much better," he says quickly, chuckling lightly. "Hey, you're a natural!"

Yan Sun speeds up once Uvena seems to gain better control, proceeding on their way.

Uvena keeps pace with Yan, staying on her eight 'o clock for the most part. "Don't expect tricks and jumps, though," she says. "That fun won't be worth the time in the infirmiary!"

Nathan chuckles. "Maybe another day, yeah?"

Uvena gives a slight nod. "You'll be driving home, Ten," she says. "So that'll be up to you."

Nathan snorts. "Aw, well, in that case... how do you feel about double backflips whilst hanging onto the handlebars...?" He teases with a laugh.

Nathan looks around with a concerned hum. "I don't like the looks of this," he says, chiming in to Uvena's comms directly. "I don't think you need me to tell you to be careful."

Uvena nods and hits the brakes -- very suddenly and hard -- once she notices Yan Sun stopping ahead of them, causing her to lean forward while still holding onto the handlebars. She's too focused on the driving at the moment to comment on the sights.

Nathan smacks his head into the back of Uvena's armour. He leans back and shakes his head slightly, mumbling something about warning.

Yan Sun climbs off her snowmobile, and, thanks to the studded boots of the environment suit she manages to not fall victim to the slippery ice. She looks around, eye glowing again. There is no sign of the missing probe, infact the only remarkable feature nearby aside from the breaks in the ice is an odd jagged lump near another hole over a hundred meters northwest. She doesn't seem to notice, or pay much attention to it, and glances

Uvena sighs. "Sorry!" she says before turning her attention towards Yan Sun. "I assume that our proble is somewhere in that water?" She then catches sight of and looks towards the odd jagged lump, but she doesn't say anything about it for now.

Nathan steps off the snowmobile and, very carefully, walks across the ice to Yan. His rifle is already in his hand. "No way we can salvage the probe," he hums. "Who knows how far down it is by now?" He looks around and pauses when he looks at the jagged lump. He zooms in on it with his HUD. "Hmm."

Yan Sun nods. "Yep... I think that's a safe assumption." She steps a bit closer, looking down into the dark waters with a certain fascination. "Wow, I can't see a thing..." Nathan would, upon zooming, find the lump to be organic in nature. Some kind of carcass, pitch black and with a decayed look to it. The jaggedness are ribs sticking up into the air, a few tendrils of rotten biomass still connecting them to each other.

Uvena casts a glance at Nathan. "What do you see, Ten?"

Nathan lets out a single laugh. "Huh, seems like there are things... living... here..." he trails off. He pales. "Get away from the water!" He reaches over to pull Yan away, his gun already aimed at the ink black water.

Uvena frowns behind her helmet. "Get on the snowmobiles," she says. "We need to get further inland and report back."

Yan Sun startles as she's pulled back, turning to Nathan with a confused look on her face. "狒狒屁股! What?!"

Nathan points across at the jagged mess of organic matter. "That," he says. "Is a half-eaten corpse. That," he says pointing to the hole that it's next to. "Is a hole leading to the water. That," he says as he points to the hole to which they are near. "Is where our drone disappeared. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't think that's a coincidence. Either that

Uvena sighs. "Then stop talking and get on the snowmobile," she says, sounding both anxious and frustrated.

Uvena shifts back to let him take the driver seat, trusting him to do any evasive maneuvers if need be.

Yan Sun glances at the water, and then decides to take a few more steps away. She looks off in the direction of the carcass. "We should probably take a closer look. The others will want some scans of that." she says, heading back to her snowmobile without waiting for a response.

Nathan is now focused on starting up the snowmobile... until Yan speaks. He gets on it and starts it up. "No. We're leaving," he says firmly. "I'll zoom in on the bugger and snap a photo, but that's it. I don't want to be seconds for some damned sea-demon.

Uvena never shut it down. "That's a big unknown risk, one neither we nor you are taking," she says in support of Nathan.

Yan Sun rolls her eyes. "Kind of a leap from 'dead animal' to 'sea demon', don't ya think? Come on, I'm taking a look. This is kinda what we're all here for. I'd have a lot of disappointed asari on my hands if I didn't." She starts driving towards the carcass at a slow pace.

Nathan groans. "Mutterficker...". He mumbles. He looks back to Uvena, silently giving her command over their next choice of action.

Uvena shakes her head. "We're here for your security, and part of that job is to manage risk," she says over local comms. "They'll get a picture, and they'll send one of the big cars if they figure it's worth looking into. No finding is worth losing your life for, kid, you understand? Tell the disappointed asari it's all my fault if you have to."

Yan Sun stops with an annoyed sigh, and can be seen activating her omni-tool. She remains there in silence, although from her body language it's clear that she's talking. After a while her voice comes back over Uvena and Nathan comms. "Better yet, we'll get enough information to figure that out right now. This is the job, you guys coming? I'm not gonna jump in the water, promise..." She starts driving forward again, keeping the same

Nathan murmurs irritably. "I don't like this," he says to Uvena only. "What do you want to do?"

Uvena shakes her head, again. "Ten, start driving back." She enables her local comms. "We're doing nothing until we've got word back to the camp," she says over comms. "Now, come with us. You're not doing anything stupid without your superiors' explicit approval. At least it'll be on record that you disregarded our advice."

Nathan nods and starts to turn the snowmobile around, taking off at a snails pace for the moment.

Yan Sun is sounding increasingly annoyed as she speaks on comms again. "I already did. They want a scan and some photos. Are you guys seriously ditching me out here? You're pretty jumpy for a security team."

Uvena opens comms to the research camp. "I want it to be on record that Yan Sun is disregarding our advice by going near that hole," she says. "There's no telling what's under that ice."

Nathan chimes into the comms. "Seconded. The drone is a lost cause, our mission is complete. We're RTB."

Yan Sun stops once she's near the carcass, and climbs off the snowmobile. Her further actions would be hard to tell from the distance that Nathan and Uvena are at. She offers no response over comms.

Nathan grits his teeth and turns the snowmobile around. "Understood," he growls back to Jason, clearly annoyed by this whole scenario. "...I hate this job," he says to Uvena, after having switched off his comms.

Yan Sun 's voice comes in over the comms not long after. "Just snapping some pics, I'll be done in a moment! You should see this thing, it's huge! Looks like it was pulled out of the ice..."

Uvena sighs. "Don't get too close to the hole, though," she says, not over comms. "We're not diving after her no matter what the boss says."

Nathan snorts, pointedly giving the hole a wide berth. "Agreed," he replies. "She's not worth the trouble." He eventually pulls up a short way from the corpse. He doesn't get off the snowmobile and instead draws his pistol, holding it in one hand as he scans the environment. He looks back to the hole on every sweep he does.

Yan Sun would be found walking around the carcass as they approach, documenting it with her omni-tool. It stands taller than any of them, and the ribcage rises high. The rotted flesh remains only around the spine. and skull of the huge, whale-like creature. Stumps are all that remain of what may have been tentacles at the rear of the creature, where a whale's tail would be. It is about twenty meters away from the hole, and seems to

Uvena raises her brows upon realizing just how large this creature is. "Maybe we should get one of the bigger vehicles over here?" she asks, within earshot of the technician.

Nathan grunts. "I'm more concerned with what pulled it out," he says.

Yan Sun glances at Uvena. "If the others want to move it, I guess..." she continues to take pictures until she's covered everything of importance. "Okay... D'Kira said I should take a tissue sample as well." She reaches towards the carcass, looking a bit disgusted as she tries to pull a bit of decayed flesh off. She is met with little success, and looks towards Nathan and Uvena. "Either of you have something to cut with?"

Nathan hops off the snowmobile and moves across to Yan, holstering his pistol mid-stride. He flicks his wrist and a retractable knife darts out of his gauntlet. He fiddles with it for a moment and successfully detaches it from the armour. He spins it around and holds it out to Yan, grip first. "Here," he says with a nod.

Yan Sun takes the knife with the absolute minimum in acknowledgement to Nathan, and gets to work cutting off a small piece of the rubbery flesh.

Uvena unholsters her Locust and loads a clip into it. She looks around for any potential threats without saying a word.

Nathan draws his pistol and keeps a watch on the environment, but keeps glancing back to the creature. "Boss," he says over comms. "Whatever this thing is, it's huge... and it looks like it was dragged out of the ice," he explains. "So that means there is maybe something bigger wandering about."

Yan Sun finishes cutting the flesh away and goes back to her snowmobile to put the sample away. As her gaze moves back to the dead creature she seems to notice something, and moves in closer. A moment later she pulls something out of it. A sharp piece of bone lodged in the thick skin. "Huh..."

Nathan is about to reply before looking to Yan. "Hold one," he says before disengaging the comms. "What?" He asks her.

Uvena gestures at the ice with her Locust. "The ice is different here, but I don't know if it was always like this," she says. "Whatever you have to do, make it quick."

Yan Sun holds out the piece of bone for Nathan to see. "This was stuck in it." she says with a shrug. "Might be a tooth, I guess?"

Nathan leans across to look at it, shrugging also. "Unless there's some tribals living on this planet, I'd say so," he says. "Maybe blubberguts here fought back and got off a decent hit," he jests as he holds out his hand for his knife.

Yan Sun hands the knife back to Nathan without speaking, still studying the piece of bone. She goes back to her snowmobile and puts it too in the storage before climbing aboard the vehicles. "Alright, let's head back." she says plainly.

Nathan takes the knife back and looks at the sinews of flesh from it. He picks at it and flicks it away before reattaching the knife into the compartment in his gauntlet. He keeps his pistol in hand before reaching the snowmobile, where he holsters it and climbs back aboard.

Uvena nods. "Get off the ice and let Yan lead the way from there," she says to Ten, although loud enough for Yan to hear.

Nathan nods, looking over at Uvena. "Understood," he says. "The wind is picking up. I'm hoping we don't get caught in a snowstorm out here," he says.

Yan Sun starts driving her snowmobile to the southwest.

Nathan starts to follow.

Uvena wraps her arms around his waist, having tried holding onto the snowmobile.

Yan Sun continues to drive in silence, the carcass behind them growing into a distant blob as they go further and further from the breaks in the ice.

Nathan keeps the snowmobile going, glancing off to the side at the passing emptiness of the environment. "As much as I live exploring, I can't wait to get back to Aite," he comments. "I already miss my little apartment."

Uvena gives a slight nod. "I don't really care much for exploring," she admits. "I just want to do my job and get paid, and leave the exploration to the younger ones."

Nathan chuckles. "You keep mentioning us as 'younger ones'. How old, if you do not mind me asking (please don't hit me), are you?"

Uvena squeezes him slightly, and chuckles. "I'm four hundred and three," she says. "You've seen my daughter when I visited the office to collect my things. That I'm this old shouldn't surprise you."

Nathan chuckles. "Ahhh, you don't look a day over two-hundred!" He retorts. "Wait, I ha- ooooh, the one who hit me with the duffle bag? The resemblance is uncanny, now that I think about it. What's her name?"

Uvena smiles behind her helmet. "Flatterer," she mutters. "I didn't see her hitting you, but she were helping me carry them. Her name is Va'ynna."

Nathan grins under his helmet. "Va'ynna. Nice name," he says. "Alright, I'm gonna speed up a little. Hold on!" He guns the throttle to bring the snowmobile alongside Yan Sun, gaze focused ahead.