Jincai

Having been helpfully directed towards what would be a temporary hospital, Enoch thanked the Xupra and began move off in that direction. However, he was almost immediately interrupted by another individual, whose speech was of a strange tongue. And so, Enoch used the same method as he had but a moment ago, pressing into the mind of the other to discern the thoughts. And the man's thoughts were an explanation of the situation (of which Enoch was already well aware), followed by in inquiry as to his purpose here.

"I was sent here by the Father," he responded to the man in Caelestic, though he knew the man couldn't possibly know the tongue. He accompanied the words with thoughts of their meaning, allowing the man to comprehend him. "I am here to lend aid unto the children. Thou needst not concern thyself for my duties or my welfare, sir. I cannot succumb to the plagues of the mortals. It is, in part, why I was sent."

He glanced over toward the building that the Xupra indicated for him.

"If thou wouldst allow me, I would see to the aid of those in need."

He then waited patiently for the man's decision.

The health of the Xupra had rapidly declined, and nearly a third of them were showing symptoms of the mysterious illness. The healthy had been separated from the ill, but more were coming down sick each day. Some of the wounded had already succumbed to the illness, and their bodies had been removed and were being held for the arrival of the UDW.

Avantia had sent what assistance she could to Jincai, but after a human had begun to display symptoms, the village had been quarantined. The temporary infirmary was filled with the sounds of hacking coughs and moans of the feverish as those who braved the illness sought to offer comfort as best they were able.

Medical supplies had been sent, but Volaria lacked the medical research or experience in nanites to do more than buy the Xupra time, and to try and ease their suffering. IV's had been hooked up to keep the sick hydrated, but they remained unresponsive to all treatment efforts. And to worsen the situation, four of the Xupra who had fled the village were still unaccounted for, and the Xupra who had not yet fallen ill begged and pleaded to be allowed to flee the village.

A Xupra woman wept on the street as she confronted Ambar.

"You're killing us! You're killing all of us! You can't keep us here like this, it's wrong. Please, you have to let us get away from here."

He grimaced. He couldn't understand a word she was saying, but he could see the fear and grief in her. They couldn't afford the disease spreading through the countryside though. The avorians didn't seem susceptible to the disease, but if it got into the human populations... it had the potential to spread like wildfire.

"I'm sorry," he told her in Volarian, in the hopes that she might pick up on the sincerity behind the alien words.

In a few short days everything had become disastrous. Choas had ensued and if the Xupra had been in more population and healthier, they probably would have been rioting. It was terrible. Bo Alla was trying to calm down a family. He could feel the beginnings of the disease in himself but was refusing to succumb to the disease in order to help his people. He was not going to let it get him and leave his people to suffer. He frowned, a mother holding the body of her dead baby as she lay dying herself.

He hadn't seen Binx'o as of yet. He knew that his friend couldn't move. He had no idea if his friend had woken or not. If he was dead or alive. But he couldn't think about that. He didn't know that Binx'o was still in with the sick, but wasn't showing any symptoms. He moved forward, looking at a sick child and taking in the supplies that she being given. It wasn't going to work!

Bo Alla moved over to the woman that shouting at someone from the land they'd appeared on. He frowned at the man, choosing to speak in English. "We need help! This isn't helping. Can't you see they're dying!" He shouted angrily.

Meanwhile, Binx'o was struggling to understand what was going on over the days. He was in too much pain to move, but he could still hear. With all the chaos, he had been told about his crushed legs having to be amputated, and now all he could hear was screaming and shouting. He didn't have the strength to move. And it still hadn't properly sank in that he'd had his legs removed. He wanted his Captain who he hadn't seen since waking.

"Help!" He shouted in both English and Xi. "Bo Alla!" He screamed once more.

About an hour after landing, the two Ox skimmers raced forward with scarce a whisper over the ground, wheeling sideways as they decelerated as they approached the field hospital. The medical teams onboard prepped to to immediately pile out, half their number equipped with satchels filled with immediate relief medicines, pain relievers, auto-format nanites awaiting symptom keys. It wasn't an immediate cure, but an effective treatment to rush relief of the worst symptoms. The other half prepared to offload their equipment to the field hospital.

Gliding to a halt, before the hover drives even settled the craft down on their landing bases, the relief unit was rushing out the doors, the white armor emblazoned with red crosses marking the medical corps for what they were. They made their way into the field hospital with haste, their economical movements demonstrating military grade training.

The unloading team began to draw material from the skimmers quickly, moving crates one after another, the more integrated equipment within the hospital itself, the general source materials stacked neatly without. Working with hand signals, the teams identified the most needing of the sick and focused their treatments to that portion of the Xupra.

Two men not involved in either effort approached the Volarians, their face behind their faceplates passive as their men hurried to their tasks. Drawing their foreign salutes, the shorter of the two spoke. "Medical Master Sergeant Imu Talda, and this is M. Corporal Alden Rim. Anything you can tell us would help while we get the diagnostic and intensive equipment set up."

The corporal nodded. "Unfortunately, the two full auto-docs we have are back at the spaceport. No time to dismantle and get heavy lift equipment ready for transport, but we've got four semi-docs. They're a lot more limited, but that's the best we've got. We'd like to save those for the worst of the salvageable cases, but we need one of the sick that's not critical for the initial formatting. Preferably someone of their authority that we can speak with, who can help settle their people down."

As the men spoke, from the field hospital came an unusual sound, one of unknown instruments playing a mellow, melodic song.

Ambar ran a hand through his hair as a second man joined the woman.

"There's nothing I can do," he tried again. But the language barrier was proving quite the hurdle with aiding the Xupra.

He gave a sigh as a pair of the woman's fellow Xupra took note of her hysterics and approached to lead her away, leaving him with just the angry male.

As Ambar moved to direct Bo to go with the others, something caught his eye. There on the ground under a small dogwood tree was a dead bird. He approached and knelt down, pulling a pen from his pocket which he used to roll the dead animal over. There was no sign of injury to it, and mucus had clogged up its nostrils.

"Well shit," he muttered.

He let the pen on the ground next to the bird as he stood up and wiped his hands off on his shirt.

Elsewhere, a pair of of men were speaking with Kamil who was having a hard time following their words.

"Go find Tahir," he told the Volarian with him, before making an effort at communicating with the sergeant.

"Slow," he told them as he pointed with a finger to his lips.

His grasp of the common tongue was broken, and not near fluent enough to follow at a conversational pace and it took him a few struggling moments to formulate a few coherent words.

"Bo," he explained. "Follow with."

He gestured for them to follow as he led them off to locate Bo. A brief awkward exchange with a pair of Xupra escorting a weeping woman managed to get them pointed in the right direction - towards Ambar who was examining something on the ground, with Bo standing nearby.

Bo caught sight of what Ambar was suddenly interested in. An animal - a dead bird. He frowned as he too got in close to look at the creature. He new immediately what had caused it's death and moved back. The frown on his face spoke of realisation as he wondered if he'd brought the disease that had killed their planet here. Had he doomed another planet to death?

"Dead. The disease." Bo spoke, looking up from Ambar to see more people arriving.

He hoped the new men were translators. They really needed that right now. He was so frustrated because it was hard to understand what was going on. And he wanted the people that were well out of here.

"Tell them to let us go. The healthy ones. This disease will kill us all. We need to leave, now!" He told them, though it took some time to form the English. It was broken up with a lot of pauses. "Let the healthy go. You can't save the sick. It's impossible."

Imu looked to his corporal, nodding towards the bird. As Rim collected the animal, drawing a specimen bag to drop it within, Imu glanced to the Xupra, a blink on an icon of his helmet's HUD triggering the UDW translation software. It would start building a Xupra packet as they talked, using smart software to help identify any lapses into their native tongue by context. Speaking slowly, he reached to his belt, pulling off what looked like a rebreather mask. He tapped a recessed button, then twisted the tamper lock to lock it in the setting of bronchial symptoms.

"Take this. Put it to your face. Breath." He mimed the action against his helmet. "I don't have the power to make that call. Though, we come with newer medicine. That contains some."

Rim, his task completed, turned to address the Volarians, after activating the translator, updated with Director Issane's new packet. Though in a somewhat mechanical tone, his armor's speakers translated his speech. "Attacks the lungs, and at a glance, I'd say crosses species fast. This isn't good."

Pausing, as Imu worked with Bo, he glanced to Kamil. "Where's the bodies of the deceased? Once Imu finishes with Bo, he'll start working with the cadavers to try and establish stages based on cell degradation. Once we have that, we can get a timeline going, prioritize treatment based on that."

---

Around the area, UDW medical personnel were distributing the rebreather masks, replacing nanite cartridges after each huff. Within ten minutes, the first semi-doc was hooked together. Attempting to turn it on, however, a man cursed. "Get one of the skimmers closer to the hospital and get the power supply rigged."

As bronchial nanites went to work helping clear mucus, break down fluids in the lungs, and relieve swelling, first stage gene testing on a portable data-pad was undertaking, helping to ID what biological anti-biotics were safe for the Xupra to use.

A bloodcurdling horrified scream resounded from the shadows as a blurred figure emerged quite suddenly stumbling as if it could no longer support it's own weight, crying out in utter desperation with a strained voice between racking bouts of coughing: “Rani! Rani-Seta! Where are you?!” As this bedraggled stranger proceeded within yards, feet - meager inches, a starved mousey young adolescent female staggered up to the group. Her waist-high blonde hair had become matted with dried blood. A tattered piece of brown silk hung from her pencil thin frame, her amber eyes sunken into their dark sockets, feet bare.

“Please...” She managed to slip past her dry lips in a raspy sort of tone that required much air - air her feeble body could not acquire. “...tell me...w..where is Rani?” Her worn face a mask of despair, the young female's eyes widened in horror at a sudden notion - “I...is Rani-Seta dead? Do you know?”

Glance wavering towards the decaying bird, she nodded slightly. “I...see you found my little bird. He has died...but of what? I have many questions, and I am sorry for this! I just want to know if Rani is...dead.”

Bo watched the person that had a mask only for a bit before he was distracted by a woman he knew well. She grabbed his arm, tears streaming down her face. She was coughing and spluttering her words as she spoke it Xi.

"I don't want to die, Bo. Please don't let us die. We left so we didn't die. Please." She cried to the captain.

"I won't let you die, don't worry. Take this." He handed his mask over, placing it against her face instead of his own. He was willing to help others before himself. It was his duty. "Breathe." He told her, holding the mask and still speaking in Xi before looking at the person that had given him the mask. This time he spoke in English. "Help her."

There was another panicked person that he didn't understand. In the end he chose to let the others deal with them rather than dealing with them himself. One he didn't fully understand what they were saying, and he also had to put his people first.