You issue a stream of orders as soon as you get out of the meeting. Dr. North is sent back to designing vehicle armor, SG teams are tasked to continue searching for advanced technology, and scouts are sent back to planet Aztec.
Mid-September1,1
Ore mining on P-4Y-J886 has nearly ground to a halt. Apparently they've been able to steadily improve their ability to interpret the geological scans provided by the device, which sounds nice until you get into the problem with mining purer Brucinite. Thermal friction from the drill bit activated a Brucinite vein, and the resulting explosion killed a crew of workers, destroyed a mining rig, and greatly slowed efforts reinforce the camp. The camp boss says he'll have it cleared up by the end of the month, and mining will resume at slower speeds with cooled drillheads.
3*
Dr. North reports that he's 'close' to getting the kinks with the vehicle armor worked out, though he still adamantly refuses to give you a timeline on the project. Another of his lab assistants has been admitted to the infirmary for minor lacerations due to an exploding armor panel.
6
The only thing that brightens your day is a scouting report from P-7K-S005. A pair of teams had managed to get boots on the ground without being shot, and have managed to confirm that not all of the original translation team were killed.
The civilization on P-7K-S005 is, as originally seen, very close to that ancient Aztec society- with a rather pronounced social divide. Every single caste but the warriors, all of which wear armor modeled in a eagle motif (which your staff members postulate is strongly related to
these fellows ), wear simple clothes of handspun cloth, sleep in simple homes, and generally lead lives comparable to those at or slightly below the technology level of the Aztecs of Earth. Your scout mentions 'slightly below' due to the fact that he has been unable to find any evidence of a written language, and he searched hovels for some time searching for anything to send back to the base for translation.
Extensive observation have shown that the typical citizen is involved in one of three labors: mining, farming, and beautification. The miners have a massive quarry to the southeast, and typically carry covered shipments of stone back into the Ziggurat once per day. Scouts never report seeing material leave the Ziggurat. The farmers toil as farmers do, but your scouts report that they seem to be preparing for a massive feast of some variety in the coming weeks. It's the last class that dumbfounds your scouts the most. A very small percentage of the citizens (both male and female) spend all day exercising, applying ointments to their skin, taking care of their teeth, and painting elaborate designs on one another under shaded pavilions. At the end of each day a warrior with gilded wings of articulated metal inspects them. Most days he simply sends them back to their homes, but twice your scouts have witness the warrior pulling a citizen forward and bludgeoning them brutally. Thereafter, the disfigured citizen works in the mine or with with the farmers.
The warrior cast, however, are rather fearsomely technologically advanced but seemingly few in number. As their helmets cover their faces, and only a few are present at a time, your scouts have had considerable difficulty in getting an accurate count of their numbers. There seem to be two captains who wear gilded and jeweled armor, with full articulated wings emerging from their backs, and perhaps a dozen lesser soldiers with short wings and no gilding. The soldiers send nearly all their time in the Ziggurat or watching the miners in shifts. Their weapons appear to be heavy staves, weighted on one end as a club, and possessing some form of energy blaster built into the other. Your scouts have witnessed them using both on citizens.
Three members of the security detail assigned to the translation team have been collared and chained out front of the Ziggurat, stripped down to loincloths. There are bowls for food, water, and waste, but there is no shelter. All three show signs of severe sunburn.
Your scouts have also detected a group of citizens that meet at night, seemingly in secret, at the edge of the city. Observing these meetings would require a certain risk, and the Scout leader deemed it necessary to request further orders before attempting to get closer.
A- Give the go ahead to investigate the secret meetings.
B- Ask one of your scouts to acquire some native clothing and get close enough to tell your captured men that you're coming, and to hang in there.
C- A and B.
D- Tell your scouts to hang back and continue to observe from a safe distance.