Upon reaching their destination, which so happened to be at the center of an abandoned village, Elm provided the entire exploration team with their orders and instructions. Scientists and security guards immediately set out to their respective tasks. Gue'rach, whom up until this part was busy playing the part of an overgrown pack mule, finally laid down may duffle bags he had carried all the way here. Arranging them all in a row and opening each bag, he revealed that many of the sacks contained an abundance of supplies. A couple of the bags contained water containers and a variety of pre-packaged meals, along with the typical rations most crew members would rather not consume unless their very survival depended on it. Gue'rach honestly didn't understand his crew sometimes, especially with them not holding the protein-rich supplements with any high regard; he practically lived off the stuff while he was in the KIDF. The other bags in the row possessed medical supplies, full-on first aid kits, cargo harness, additional universal power cells, and an array of electronic equipment and sensors. It was clear he had made quite the arrangement with the logistics and supply department to relinquish many of the assembles assets available to everyone in the group. But perhaps the most impressive of his arsenal was the large metallic container he had carried in which, upon unsealing the box which unfolded itself upon his command, deployed a transportable console for field-use. Similar in design to the terminals found back on the [i]Prize[/i], the mobile console allowed for the same kind of functions, such as site-to-site communications, analysis scans, and data storage. As everyone spread through the ruins, Gue'rach spent most of his time setting up the seemingly convenient device and establishing the wireless and digital handshake with the [i]Prize[/i]'s main computer. Minutes later and after some fumbling with the apparently not-as-convenient-as-originally-thought device, Gue'rach has programmed the console to rune several automated surveys of the local area. Already, he could see data being compiled, ranging from soil make-up to carbon-dating. Satisfied, he had the program run in the background while allowing anyone in the team to use the console as they saw fit. --- For about an hour, Gue'rach wandered through the village on patrol, passing by some of the researchers and security personnel as he strolled through the street, assuming the cobbled path he was on was in fact a street. While he wasn't much of an archeologist, he couldn't help but ponder in interest on the history of the ruined village they dwelled in. Obviously, they knew next to nothing of the inhabitants of this planet and could only, for the time being, uncover the most basic of aspects of the people who once occupied the small town. The architecture belonging to some of the mostly intact structures seemed rudimentary and matched that with similar construction practices shares by many other ancient and primitive civilizations, such as the notable use of clay - assuming the material he was observing [i]was[/i] in fact clay - and the use of archways to strengthen the design of the structures. His venture eventually lead him to a rather small and narrow building, probably large enough to hardly house a single person. Half of the structure appeared to have rotted away, resulting in the roof caving in. But perhaps the most notable feature was inside of the building. As Gue'rach curiously peered inward, he could make out an elevated platform at its apex, a rimmed circular cavity purposely falling into a compartment within the altar-like platform. Turning his head slightly to his right and presenting his two left eyes, he looked into the pit before him. Using a light-emitter, he could see dark greenish stains splattered about the floor of the pit with clumps of what appeared to be ash scattered inside. He emitted an intrigued hum and produced a scanner and held the device just over the small entryway. After a few seconds, the scanner resonated a ping, indicating its scan had concluded. The scan report detailed that the composition of the material within the pit contained several mineral compounds, listing components such as silicate, calcium carbonates, calcium phosphate... The list continued, soon containing an additional listing of unexpected biological material and then - coprolite. Gue'rach suddenly groaned and with the instinctual evasive movement one would perform to avoid getting decked, he recoiled away from the pit and soon from the entire structure. As it turned out, the building was, in fact, an ancient outhouse. As Gue'rach stomped away and compiled what was quickly becoming an embarrassing report; a report he was suddenly keen on scrapping, his communicated badge had pinged. And then pinged again. It was quick widespread message from Captain Carabello ordering the exploration team to abandon their mission. [color=f7976a]"Crap,"[/color] grumbled Gue'rach. --- It didn't take a genius, or even perhaps an empath, to grasp the mood that spread like an infectious disease through the [i]Prize[/i]. After a quick debriefing, it was made known that the Holy Vei and maybe even in association, the Havi people, had rejected ISA negotiations for coexistence and had promptly banished the Prize and any other ISA civilizations from the system the wormhole resided in, thus effectively ending any interests of exploring other star systems outside the Havi system. Gue'rach could understand how this could damper the spirits of the Prize's ISA crew of explorers. Even he felt disappointed that their mission had come to such an unfortunate conclusion such as this. Then again, he could somewhat understand where Vie was coming from. The Kotor Star Union, despite being an ISA member state, had often grown tiresome of the advances of some of the peaceful members, especially calls for more potent immigration treaties and full disclosure of cultural information. The stress was also shared by many Auval’kotor as well, with a smaller and yet growing percentage joining the ISA. Though in comparison, Vie was presuming an extreme and unproven notion of full cultural assimilation. Gue'rach pondered these thoughts at his main station on the bridge while going through the routine system and security reports. Before the somber mood could fester any further, the communications officer snapped to Carabello and reported a smaller Havi fact was hailing them. Gue'reach quickly looked up on the main screen and brought up his station's defensive and offensive features and redied them, standing by and waiting for Carabello's word. At it so happens, a Havi individual was pleading for help, stating they were hurt and being pursued. The declaration seemed suspicious but before Gue'rach could interject, Carabello had already ordered to have the Havi being brought aboard. Seconds later, Korax made the advisory that if the individual they had just rescued were being pursued, their pursuers would not be far behind. [color=f7976a]"I agree with Korax's assessment,"[/color] he declared to Nick, [color=f7976a]"it would be advantageous for the [color=f7976a]Prize[/color] to be brought to Yellow alert."[/color]