Roam looked at Coralian and nodded.
He turned to Rebekah and Hemon,  "Who wants to go counter clockwise?  Meet Coralian on the other side.  If you want to go, I'll stay here with the Doc."
He looked at everyone, including Coralian.  He pointed at a point about 100ft behind.
"Any trouble then call out, and that is the fall-back point.  Questions?"

When they arrive in the clearing, Hemon pats Tap and tells him to fly. This place is not the best for him and he would be more of a hinder than an help. Then he nods to Roam. "Sure, I can go counter clockwise. Rebekah, do you want to go with me?"

Saying that, he takes his bow and prepares an arrow. When he gets the answer from his friend and the go from Coralian, he will start moving and look around.

Coralian nods at Hemon and starts off on her own half of the perimeter.  "Stay close, buddy," she says quietly to Ajax.  "I know I don't have to tell you to keep a sharp eye out."  She winks and smiles at the anklyo, never quite certain if he understands or appreciates her mannerisms.

Her route is as hidden as she can manage while still being able to spot anything of interest, and she favors reconnaissance over speed.

Roam just quietly stepped back and kept his laser against his middle.  His eyes scanned back and forth.  He stepped back toward the doctor and knelt down.  "Stay still please.  We need to pay attention for trouble."
Tarla took after Roam and crouched.  Her stillness demonstrating her deadly patience.  Roam let his eyes rest on a spot for a few seconds, then picked another spot.  He kept doing this to attract his attention to any movement.
After every couple of shifts, his eyes would move to check over the others before moving back into the clearing.

Rebekah heads off one direction with Hemon, and Coralian the other with Roam.  Dr. Lewis stays behind with her Foozle, keeping deep enough in the tree-line to be difficult to see.

The two scouting groups carefully circle the place.  Hemon and Rebekah see one larger door on their side, big enough for a large dinosaur (up to standard triceratops size) or a moderate-sized vehicle.  It looks clean and well-maintained, though this side of the dome is starting to become crawling with flesh-looking vines that sport large yellow flowers.  The vines extend from the ground to nearly the top of the dome.

Roam and Coralian, your side sports no doors, but you can see some small round windows about halfway up the dome, and the parabolic arc of what is likely some kind of transmitter or receiver.  As you watch, it turns slightly away from you, as if seeking a better field for whatever it is about to do. There is a hint of movement from the windows, but at this angle it is difficult to say what is going on.  You would need a higher vantage point or some other way of getting up there to get a clearer view.

As he does his patrol run with Reb', Hemon also looks at Tap from time to time. When they arrive at the other side and join Coralian, he crouch in the bushes. "There's a big door on this side. Big enough for a vehicle or a quite big dino to take it. What have you found on your side?"

"A window, too high to see through.  Sounds like we need to get close up to learn anything useful.  Shall we head back together?"

"Sure. I see no point staying separated now." Pausing a few moments to think, Hemon then continues. "That window. Do you think I could get a good view from the sky with Tap?"

"Maybe.  I suppose it depends on how transparent the glass is and how dark it is inside.  Why don't we head around that way and you can judge for yourself?"

Coralian turns around to head back the way she came.

"Sure thing. I will follow you." simply answers Hemon before going after Coralian.

OOC: what kind of roll, if any, do I need to do to check if I could get a good view from the sky?"

The window seems to be clear enough, and if Tap is going to be cooperative, then Hemon can get him to land in the tree and hopefully get a decent look, maybe even a flyby.

Luckily, Tap is behaving, and Hemon can not only get a flyby, but Tap can actually land on the dome for a short time, giving Hemon a good look inside.

Beyond the window looks to be a laboratory, with equipment for circuitry printouts (to judge from the flimsies in the output tray), egg incubation (by the eggs within the large, lit compartment), and DNA sequencers (by the classic double-helix shapes and ACGT sequences on screen.  There is also an array of medical tools next to what looks like a gurney, currently unoccupied.

Across the room is a man with his back to the window.  He wears the white lab coat classically indicating a scientist at work, and his black hair is long and unbarbered.  Tall and plump, he is hunched over a computer terminal and stabbing at the keys with an agitated vigor.

And blazoned across everything, every piece of equipment, every wall, and the lab coat itself, is the prominent SATI logo.

After his small flight, Hemon gives a scratch to Tap to thank him for his help. He then reports his finding to the rest of the group. "So it looks like there's only one guy inside. But there should be some backup in the wild. Should we try to get inside and ask him... questions?"

Rebekah considers.  "This 'raptor I captured might be his back-up, or part of it.  I have its camera and locator turned off for now, but I could turn them back on again, if we want to see what will happen.  The control I have over its implant won't last much through tomorrow."

Roam pondered Rebekah's statement.  "Do it.  Sounds like the best idea to figure out what's going on."

"We can take up a position eyeing the big door, from cover of course.  That could cut off an escape route or allow me to gain access."  Coralian patted Ajax as she tossed out ideas.

Hemon nods. "It sounds like a good plan. I can also take on the air to offer some better point of view of the surroundings if ever something unwanted joins us to the party but I doubt I would see much with all these trees." Saying that, he makes a wide moves of the arm to embrace the close forest.

With Hemon going up on Tap, Coralian and Ajax covering the big door, Dr. Lewis and Foozle watching the front with Roam, and Rebekah watching the window side, she activates the implant again and lets the 'raptor go.  It heads straight for the building, circling around it for a moment before its head comes up, the lights on it flashing.  Then it darts around to the smaller door and pressing its snout to a panel there.  After a few moments, the smaller door on Roam and Dr. Lewis' side opens and you can see the tall, plump man with the long, dark hair standing in the doorway.  He puts his hands on his hips, and then examines the raptor with frantic haste and seeming relief.  Heaving a sigh, he turns to wave the raptor inside...

Coralian, not in a position to charge the door that the raptor is approaching, merely waits and watches.

Unable to act swiftly from his position in the air, Hemon continues to watch the surrounding of the building and gets ready for a nosedive at the first sign of his new companions.

Roam tenses.  He watches as the man starts to turn and waves the raptor in.  "Wait here"
Roam gives a low whistle to Tarla and explodes running all out for the door and the man before he can disappear through it.





OOC:
20:50, Today: Roam Linden rolled 16 using 1d20.  Influence Tarla + 1 step.  total =19

20:51, Today: Roam Linden rolled 12 using 1d20.  Running (trained).  Total =15

Roam moves, suddenly him and Tarla both exploding into action. They race across the cleared land, going through the door and stopping in front of the man before he can so much utter a word.  The hacked raptor stands there, waiting for orders that are apparently not forthcoming, as the man seems too terrified to speak.

Hemon can see Roam and Tarla disappear inside, and hears no sounds of struggle.  Rebekah continues to wait, but Coralian sees the larger door open about a foot, and a drone perhaps a foot and a half around slide out and begin to take flight!
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:14, Mon 01 June 2020.

Coralian, not wanting to risk this man calling for reinforcements, fires an arrow at the drone.

Roam walks up to the man, slowing the last couple steps.  His translumina knife in his left hand and his laser in his right.  Standing in front of him Roam leans in just a hair.
"Hi, if you have a second I would like to talk about the errant behavior of your raptors.  Turns out they tracked us down and tried to kill us."

Roam leans in just a fraction more.

"I didn't appreciate that."

As he sees the drone take flight, Hemon releases some weird animal sound from his mouth to ask Tap to zoom by the new target and try to catch it in its claws.

19:57, Today: Hemon Kah rolled 3 using 1d20.  Speed check (DT 3).

Coralian's arrow finds the drone with no difficulty, piercing through a repellor and bringing it down before it can gain much height.  The abrupt drop means that Hemon and Tap miss their mark, but the thunder of Tap's wings certainly help push the drone into the dirt.  They can both see that attached to the drone is a small shield-bubble, inside of which is a miniature piski (a small pteradon, this one black and white and only a foot or so long) with small electrodes on its head.  It gives a shriek as the drone is downed and looks up at Tap with eyes that have gone very wide.

--



The man looks quite terrified, as would be expecting from anyone facing a man and his trained raptor.  He looks down at his own modified raptor, standing still and apparently waiting orders, looks back at Roam and Tarla, and quickly starts talking.

"It wasn't intentional!  They had general programming to seek out certain targets for sampling, and to remove potential threats from a specified area.  No people were supposed to be anywhere near here during the Wild Walk!" he says, his voice cracking and swear pouring down his face.  He seems to be scared enough to be telling the truth, but at this point he chokes up a little, seemingly certain that Roam's dagger is going to find a home in some portion of his anatomy.