News Items:

Nano-Breakthrough EIST (Euro Institute of Science and Technology) announces nano-recognition of molecules. Utilizing xenosilicate templates, they have created a nanoprobe which can recognize and bind to sixteen different organic compounds.

Sixteen Killed in NRM Massacre Sixteen people were gunned down in Charlies All You Can Drink, a popular Kingstown bar. It is believed to be NRM related. At least one was an NRM lieutenant.

Atlas Expedition Strikes Gold The Atlas Poseidon System Survey has found an asteroid with a high concentration of metallic gold. Unfortunately, its remote location still makes recovering the gold economically unfeasable.

GEO Announces Atlantis Clinic Local Doctor Bernard Johnson to join GEO medics providing free health care.

Hop To It! Kids Lab Organics, in association with Lavender Organics, releases the FurFrog pet. "It's like a frog... but furry!"

They're Coming Out of the Walls, Man! Infestation Shuts Down US Embassy in Haven. "I've never seen so many bugs."

The expedition starts out by taking the cutter to Atlantis proper to pick up the graduate student who will accompany them. His name is Warren Evans, though he looks Indian, and he has large ear lobe inserts and a forehead insert in the form of a pearlescent half sphere. On the trip up to Kauai he talks a lot about his research, which has been on cross-genera genetic engineering - stuff like the chlorophyll skin and the fur frog, though neither came out of the university. Jenny discovers that his jewelry is electronic, and when she confronts him about it, he admits that they are recording devices so he won't forget things. They do not seem to be transmitting a high power signal, in any case. They find a marshy bay in which to moor the boat and sleep for the night.

The next day is consumed with crossing the marsh. A large land-lizard tries to eat Regina, who gets a bad bite. Jenny is scratched up a bit when she tries to kick it and catches its attention. At the end of the day they make it into real forest and find one of the plants they are looking for on the side of an old dead tree in a clearing. Its root system is definitely designed to cling to the sides of things, and its leaves catch water like a bromeliad. Pilot checks the forest canopy with his remote, but cannot find any more of the plants or a likely habitat for them.

The next morning Pilot's remote won't start, and proves to have a brightly colored red lizard-analogue in it. It's clearly poisonous, but Regina decides to catch it anyway, and it bites her. Her anti-poison biomods clearly work, although her bitten hand is puffy all morning. They decide to head further inland to the cliffs in the hope that the plants live there more commonly. Whitney catches a hexaboar for dinner, and they eat it despite the relentless rain. Warren admits that the field work has little to do with his studies, but claims that his advisor demands field work.

"I drew the short straw! For doing field research! And the field is full of giant lizards!" - Warren

The next day, 041.101, they make it to the cliffs by the afternoon, and encounter a strange relative of the land lizard that hunts its prey by sliding down muddy slopes. Whitney is knocked out by one and only the fact that the others are there prevents her from being eaten. The creatures are christened "Torpedo Lizards" by Jenny. Jenny hacks into Warren's recording devices that evening, but finds nothing other than recording device in them.

The rain finally slacks off the next day and Pilot finds a plant growing on the cliff side. Dive and Whitney climb up and are able to gather ten plants from that clump, with more further along the cliff. Jenny startles something big, green, and bipedal in the bushes, and it runs off. Was it an aborigine? It seemed most like a nino muerto to the biologists, except for the smell and the color and the location.

The morning of 043.101 finds a number of deep three-toed footprints around the camp. Whitney also finds two human footprints, bare, sized for an adolescent or a small woman. They don't really know what to make of this, and set about gathering plants. By the end of the day they have figured out exactly what sort of habitat the plants like.

Before dawn the next morning, the green creatures attack. Whitney drives them off by shooting off the white rifle, however, and they never get close enough for anyone to get a good look. Using their knowledge of plant habitats, they are able to gather the rest of the plants before dark.

Before they can start back the next morning, they discover that the med kit has gone missing, and someone has erased their footprints as they went through the camp. Whitney leaves some survival bars behind when no one is looking as an offering to the forest recluse. Jenny is nearly killed when she falls into a buried rotting log that contains some sort of tentacled amphibious thing, but Whitney and Regina pull her out and Dive shoots into the thing from above (narrowly missing Jenny) and she escapes. The next two days are relatively uneventful travel back through the forest, except that near the shore a psuedoeel tries to eat Warren, but fails. They take Warren back to HIST with the plants and get paid out 30K in GEO scrip.

"I've lost all track of who our enemies are." - Pilot