13370/A Crashed Satellite Part 2

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
A Crashed Satellite Part 2
Date of Scene: 15 November 2022
Location: 3C - Lara's Greenwich Loft
Synopsis: Lara and Steve land in New Guinea and make contact with the native tribe they believe has recovered the satellite fragments.
Cast of Characters: Steve Rogers, Lara Croft




Steve Rogers has posed:
The flight to Australia provided plenty of time to review the material on the tribe. Possibly as many as a hundred individuals expected in this area. Hunters mostly, supplemented with harvesting things from the surrounding jungle. Lara has time to refresh herself on the dialect from another South Pacific island that the Dr. Jackson said shares a lot of roots, plus what notes he had on the language including some audio tapes for practicing pronunciation.

After touching down in Australia to refuel, the quinjet flew them up to New Guinea. The cloaked plane flew about the area for awhile, including a pass over the spot where the satellite fragments came down. The scars on the jungle could barely be seen, just a few scorch marks here and there as most of the fragments were not particularly big by the time they made it that far into the atmosphere.

The jungle canopy made it nearly impossible to locate the village directly, the area too warm for even thermal sensors to be much good as it's over ninety degrees, close enough to human body heat they just wouldn't register.

The plane comes in over a river, hovering so Lara and Steve can rappel down by rope, as there isn't a good landing site. They'll have to be picked up in the same fashion when they have completed their mission.

Steve double checks their bags once he and Lara are on the ground. He waves a signal up to the plane which departs. It takes a little while for the jungle sounds to start up again after falling silent in the wake of the plane's engines.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara had indeed spent the flight mostly researching the area, and the tribe they were enroute to interact with. The Quinjets had become a nice benefit of saying 'Yes' to the SHIELD job offer, what with their ability to get her to just about anywhere in the world so long as she got the clearance for the trip from her supervisors. It sure beat the old ways of traveling with commercial airlines, railways, and the dreaded rental vehicles....

Once they arrived, Lara had her stuff stowed and was out of the Jet in short order. She rappells down the jet as good as any military trained officer might, and is on the shore in just mere moments, with her own gear sorted out, a light shirt worn over a sleveless tanktop, water resistant hiking trousers and a belt around her waist with a number of items attached to it. She shows a smile to Steve as she slings her backpack up over her shoulders, and then puts her sunglasses up on her forehead. She looks around. "Oh... to be honest, I think I far prefer this over Martha's Vineyard...." She tells him, letting that adventurer-side of her shine through as ever. She checks her map device, and then motions for him down a cut in the foliage. "This way, I believe. The coordinates I was given should have us there in just a small pass of time." She says in her calming British voice.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers looks over to Lara, confirming she has her pack secured. When the eyes that match that cloudless sky above lift back to hers, there's a smile showing in them. "Seeing you in your own element like this," Steve comments to Lara, that smile growing a few notes and nodding, "there's just something about seeing a person engaged in their passion," he comments.

He hefts his pack over his own shoulders. He might have a heavier amount of their gear, but neither did he seem to try to spare her like Lara couldn't handle a pack. Steve's shield hangs off the side of his pack where he can get at it easily as he starts forward into the jungle.

"Never seen a tiger in its natural environment," he comments as they leave the sunlight by the river and disappear into the darker jungle beneath the thick overhead canopy. "Not quite sure that I want to either," he says, looking back over his shoulder at her. "I figure keeping up a conversation might be best. Avoid startling anything. Whether tigers or other animals, or the tribe we're looking for," he says.

It's not the easiest terrain to traverse, and the air is hot and humid. Steve's shirt ends up soaked through by the time they are thirty minutes into the jungle. As the day winds on they grow nearer and nearer to the area they might expect to run into the tribe.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara grins at him, but doesn't comment on it. As they set off, she would start to explain some about the area, the local flora and fauna that they'd have to watch out for, and some basics when it comes to survival. "I make due where I can." She'd said to him in a coy little way. But as they progressed further, and the sun travelled across the sky, Lara took a chance to remove her outer shirt, it now hanging from a strap on her backpack, leaving her in the grey and black tanktop, with some damp sweat marks along the edges and down the middle. As they trek onward, she speaks over to him, or back to him, depending on the tightness of the terrain leeway they're given.

"In truth though, most of the archaeological community, the 'main stream' elements of it, are very dogmatic and very much not interested in promoting someone like me. I'm the type of person that goes against what they like to speak as truths. I point toward evidence that defies age old ideas." She explains of her position within her profession's community.

Lara pushes aside some foliage and steps over a small gash in the earth beneath their boots. She holds it back for him, not that he needs her help!

"It's another reason I decided to choose SHIELD, because I knew what I was in for with where I was going in my field." She says to Steve then. "Which is to say, I knew I was going to be largely shunned..."

Steve Rogers has posed:
A nod of gratitude is given as Steve steps past the branch that Lara holds for him. "That tendency to look for other answers or truths, or challenge the mainstream views, where would you say that came from?" he asks Lara as they navigate around some thorn bushes with spikes that are as long as a thumb. "Was your father like that as well? Or something that you developed on your own?" he inquires.

There's a steep hill down, that ends up more sliding than walking, though they are able to stay on their feet, grabbing hold of saplings to slow their descent until they reach the bottom. The river that they landed by reappears, falling over a fifteen feet high cliff in a spray of water and mist that is refreshingly cool while they pass by it.

Steve pulls off his canteen and takes a sip before returning it to his belt. "I've had a few eye-opening glimpses into academia," Steve comments. "Some things with a... what was it called. Endowment? That Tony did with MIT. And a few stories from Bruce about graduate school. I hadn't realize it could be quite so cut throat. But then I suppose people are people, wherever they go."

Steve's eyes drift over to a tree to the side at about the same time as Lara might catch a bit of movement there. A person's leg disappearing around the back of the tree out of sight, up on a branch ten feet up. Steve glances back to Lara to confirm she saw it but doesn't show any reaction otherwise, continuing forward. "Though I'd hope that those in the pursuit of science and history would be a little better about such things," he continues.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara descends those steep inclines with well thoughtout placements of her treaded boots, as well as grasping holds on the strongest natural roots and hand-holds she can see, though of course she is getting a bit dirtier the more they go through the harder tests of traversing. She smiles at his words. "My father. After his passing I grew very angry at his methods. I blamed his radical ideas and theories that lead him to his death. Even prior to Yamatai...." She laughs then. "Even on the island, I was fighting my internal demons about him, and his ways, up until.... well... up until I experienced the most obvious signs that this life is not what the history books would want you to believe. We live in a society that has amnesia about its own history, Steve, and we have to push toward being less... /dogmatic/ about what we claim is fact. We're---"

She trails off when she sees the movement in the underbrush, and her hands go up to her backpack straps. She stares for a moment longer before she glances back to Steve as he takes his drink of water.

"Well..." Lara says to him with a smirk before she clears her throat and takes a step toward the direction of the movement. She speaks in some other language, one local to this region, but mixed in with what she thinks could fit. 'Hello." Lara says to the bushes. 'My friend, and I are here looking for something our people lost.'

Her voice carries through the shifting foliage and mixes in with the sounds of the running water, the flowing falls, and the gentle warm wind.

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve stays where he is as Lara takes a few steps towards the tree that she spotted someone in. His eyes are sweeping about the area, though he's otherwise keeping his hand away from his shield and doing the best version of non-threatening that the 6'2" and a lot of visible muscles can manage.

There's no reaction at first. Though Lara catches more movement, this time at ground level, over behind a bush. Steve says quietly behind her, "I'd say we definitely came to the right spot."

Two men step out of the undergrowth up ahead in the direction that Lara and Steve had been traveling. They are wearing hide loincloths, their dark skin adorned with paint. Round circles of white across their shoulders and arms, and arcing lines from their chest down across their ribs. Each is pretty fit, and maybe around thirty or so. Each also holds a spear with a thin, leaf-shaped metal tip.

They regard Steve and Lara both. Eyes probably going to Steve more than the beautiful brunette at first. Though they do look her over too, including their eyes taking in the sweat-soaked top that clings, and the bits of dirt and foliage that cling to her tanned skin in a few places.

One of them looks to the other and they seem to give each other nods. "These are our lands," one of them says in the dialect that Lara was told to expect. "What would your people have lost in our lands?"

Lara Croft has posed:
When the two men step out, Lara turns to face them, her hands still on the strap of her bag over her shoulders. She stares at them, then looks over to Steve... the Captain America shield standing out in this area like a sore thumb, maybe even looking like a child's toy to people like this... but it's really hard to say. She steps once toward Steve before slowing and nodding to what they say. With an exhale, Lara responds.

'Something that fell from the sky. Made of metal, and glass, and materials we spent a long time creating. We were sent here, my friend and I--" She motions to Steve. "To come and retrieve it.'

The indigenous men might think it odd that the woman is doing the talking for the pale skinned outsiders, but they likely might also know that outsiders are off-putting in such ways, if not just outright strange.

After a breath, Lara reaches up to brush her loose bangs off of her sweat-dampened brow.

'It is all we've come for. If we can have it returned, we will be gone from your lands.'

Steve Rogers has posed:
Steve Rogers stands quiet still, though as Lara steps back over nearer, he reaches over to rest his hand lightly on her shoulder. Yes there's a bit of signaling there, if hopefully discretely done.

The two share a few words, voices dropped soft enough that Lara cannot make them out at that distance. There seems to be a small disagreement, though the silent one seems to quickly defer to the other.

"We saw fire in the sky. If your people caused this, our chief you must talk to," he says. Or at least that's the translation that Lara might make for it. As expected from Dr. Jackson, it has the same roots as the language she had some familiarity with, but there are a few times she is guessing. And misunderstandings can easily result from a situation like that.

Steve glances over to Lara, not knowing what is being said. He continues to stand relaxed, though he cuts an imposing form even so. "They have other friends," he comments softly, and Lara can hear someone who was less stealthy than the rest, moving somewhere behind them.

Lara Croft has posed:
It's clear on Lara's face that she's doing her best to internally translate the dialogue, but this isn't her strongest within her rolodex of other languages. She glances to Steve when he puts that hand on her shoulder, then she looks back to the two men who respond to her. She nods softly once to what they say, or at least to deciphering it as well as she can.

'Are you familiar with Doctor Jackson?' Lara asks in their tongue. 'He was a man, like us, who came here and stayed for a time?' She asks, hoping to remind them. 'He helped us here, helpd us find you. He's a friend.'

It's then that Lara looks back to STeve, then around to the sounds of others surrounding them. It's not too surprising, really, but Steve will feel Lara's mostly bare shoulder to be a bit stiffened with internal tension beneath her soft skin.

Ultimately, her eyes go back to the two who are talking to them though, rather than the ones hiding from them still. 'We mean only peace.' Lara adds then.

Steve Rogers has posed:
The two men look at each other at what Lara said. It's not clear at first if they understood, maybe an issue of being lost in translation. But then one of them gestures to the other, hand waving as if indicating the height of a shorter person. And then he makes a gesture over his belly as if tracing a belly that had a bit of a paunch in it.

Yes, that's Dr. Jackson.

The other gives a knowing nod and he looks back to Lara, saying a name that she would probably take as their private name Dr. Jackson.

The seem to consider again and then the one man gestures with his hand for Lara and Steve to follow them. "Come. To village. Chief speak with you," he says. He turns then and begins walking deeper into the jungle, the other man moving to follow him. Three more natives have stepped out around Lara and Steve. Each has a spear, but none of them are holding them in an aggressive way.

Steve looks at them and then to Lara. "I take it that went well? Or, we're being taken to be the main course of a feast?" he jokes. Hopefully joking.

Lara Croft has posed:
The miming to indicate Dr. Jackson's appearance has Lara showing a little grin. She nods to the two men and simply says 'Yes, that is him'

When the directions are given, and the other three step out in to sight, Lara pays them a simple look before she regards Steve on her left again. "Possibly well. Feast not off the table." She answers him in English again, showing him a sympathetic smile. "Hope for the best, prepare for...." She trails off there before she gives those other three men a look, including their spears, before she turns to the direction of the other two. "They said we must speak to their Chief." Lara explains further to Steve in a soft tone of her calming voice. "But they also indicated they did see the satellite." A glance to Steve again. "So... progress." She states with a half-smirk then.

Lara falls in ahead of Steve then, and in behind the first two men as she walks where they lead.

"Jackson spoke very highly of all of you.' She tells them. 'He said he misses you and wishes he could have been here himself.' She adds, always good to be friendly, right?