Exploring the Burned-Out Village (part 3)

Posted on Tue Jan 31st, 2017 @ 3:07pm by 1st Lieutenant Kara Melo & Lieutenant Illise Hale

1,222 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Shadow Dance
Location: Jenefra

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir." She'd let team two finish a second recon of this village for traps. That would let her take Ensign Parhtz and team one to the second village to do the initial recon. She saluted the Colonel and went to do as he ordered.

[NEW]

Kara and her team circled the second village, looking for bodies or booby-traps, but there were none. She wasn't sure if this was good or not. She split up, sending Parhtz to do another recon further out while she and her team heded into the village.

This one also had a funeral pyre in the center of the city, but there were fewer bodies in it. She tapped on her combadge. "Melo to away team. The perimeter of the second village is secure. We're checking the rest now."

Illise waited for the all-clear before entering the second village. The layout was quite different than the previous one, being build on a plain rather thana slope, with straight streets laid out in a rough grid pattern. Like the first village a large crystal stood at it's center amidst a small plaza of sorts.

Illise made her way to the center of the village along one of the dirt streets. The domed dub and wattle homes had been burned to the ground here as well. As she cleared the rubble she saw the stone pedestal but curiously the large crystal was missing. At it's base was another pyre of burned corpses. She shook her head sadly and began recording the scene in her tricorder. But as she approached she began to feel that something was different about this pyre. The bodies were not laid as carefully, and there was something...else. An eerie gloom seemed to hang over this place. It wasn't until she was a few feet away that she was able to see clearly what was bothering her.

The bodies had all been skinned before being burned.

Illise felt sick. She stood, staring in horror at the carnage before her. Her hand went to her mouth as her eyes traced over the bodies, noting evidence of this atrocity among the charred reaming; unable to look away although desperately wanting too. Finally with an effort of will she turned her back on the pyre and forced herself to take a few steps away. She swallowed hard against the taste of bile in her mouth and touched her combadge. "Hale to Raine. There is another pyre in the center of the village." She reported. "They've all been...skinned..." Her voice trailed off as she fought down a wave of nausea.

It took several spiraling laps around the village and through the outer rows of huts before Kara noticed that this village looked like the inhabitants had more time to pack up before they were attacked. There were no dropped bundles of clothing, no weapons. And no crystals. She'd seen several in the first village, mostly cracked, but none here. She put her hand in her pocket and touched the stone. As she did so her head began to throb. She let go of the stone. That was curious. She'd have to ask someone about it later.

She headed for Illise. "Lieutenant Hale, the last village had several small crystals, palm-sized, that were on the ground. All were cracked. They were similar to the large crystal in the center of the village. This one has no small crystals and no central one."

Illise was glad for the distraction. "Yes," she said to Kara, "The pedestal where the central crystal stood in the previous village is missing here. Perhaps they took it with them, or it was removed later." She did not look back at the pedestal or the pyre beneath it as she spoke. "It must have some cultural significance, perhaps religious. I will make a point to inquire when we return to the city." She stepped towards Kara, putting a little more distance between herself and the atrocity behind her. "What else have you found?"

"It looks like they had time to evacuate most of the people out of the village," Kara said. "The huts are mostly empty."

"That's a small grace I suppose..." Illise said lowly, hoping that the children had escaped and not shared the fate of those int he pyre.

Just then Peter jogged up to the two women. "We checked the third village," he said. "A dozen bodies, skinned and burned." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two cracked crystals. "These were near one of the bodies."

"Did you see any other crystals?" Kara asked.

'No, ma'am. Looks like they bugged out before the attack. The center of the village was burned before the funeral pyre was created. It's not the same pattern as the other two villages. Based on the age of the fire, it was started almost a day before the other fires."

Kara looked at Illise. "Well, we now have a definite pattern. The first village seems to have been caught off guard. The second less so and the third was prepared for the attack. A detailed analysis will verify it, but the tactics support the theory."

Illise held out a container to Peter for him to deposit the crystals. "I'll have those compared with the shards of the larger crystal from the first village that I collected earlier." She looked around at the burned huts - someone's home. "Where was the honor in this?" Illise asked of no-one, an edge in her voice. It made her angry deep down, but she quickly buried it. There was a job to do.

Illise forced herself to look back at the pyre with a critical eye. Trying not to think about it too much, she scanned the bodies for record. Looking closer she noticed the same powder had been spread over them, preventing the odor one would typically associate with burnt and decaying flesh. "Either someone returned after the massacre and added this compound," she said, pointing to a patch of the light-colored powder on one of the bodies, "or it was done by the aggressors. Maybe to prevent animals from being attracted to the corpses...perhaps it has religious significance. There are too many questions here."

"Some good questions," Kara said. "I can't see the assailants taking the time to put the bodies in a funeral pyre. So, could the Qunari have come here, built the pyre, and covered the bodies with the powder?"

"That would be a logical conclusion." Illise agreed. "However, if the Qunari were here and know what happened to these villages, we might also assume that the situation could escalate very quickly." She though back to the first village and the remains of the small figures in the pyre. "People, even those who are typically peaceful, do not react well to the slaughter of their children."

Kara nodded. "The more I see here, the more I think this wasn't a war as much as it was a carefully orchestrated slaughter." It made her sick to think about it. "Colonel says to head back to the ship and report our findings. Maybe the others have some information that will help explain all this."

____
OFF

2nd Lieutenant Kara Melo
Alpha Platoon Leader

Lieutenant JG Illise Hale
Chief Science Officer

Private Peter Parhtz
Marine

 

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