The sun was just starting to catch up, changing the sky from black to a deep blue. It would be dawn soon. Off in the distant clouds they could see flashes of lightning. A thin blanket of thick fog floated over the ground, making it hard for those in the swamp to see where they were stepping and what was lurking beneath it. The search team's noses were filled with the heavy odor of rotting wood, mud, and a swampy stench that smelled like Nepleslian man-ass and/or a football player's dirty sock drawer.

So far, there was no sign of the enemy or the survivors in the area, other than the year-old vehicle wrecks a couple miles up the forested hill.

With the calibration done, Takeyu made one last look over of his drone, ensuring that the module was fitted properly, then launched it into the air.

He watched it for a few moments; then turned his attention to the brushing trees and kept his hand near his sidearm. He didn't say anything though at first, his attention was focused more on the storm he was hearing.

"I hope the Shoi and Miyazawa-hei are alright...." he worriedly said.

As the sky became lighter, Helen could smell the storm which closely followed the sunlight. It made her scrunch up her face a little in disgust, but she had smelled worse, so the disgust quickly passed. She reached behind her, pulling the survival kit tomahawk from her pack, before she turned to her fellow group members. "Once the drones are done being launched, I want you two to start assisting in digging in. We do not know how long it will take to find the survivors, I would like to have a source of shelter before that storm hits if we do not find them before then. Since the drones will be doing most of the foot-work for us, no reason for us to just sit here idle."

With the order given, Helen found a decent spot and began to quickly clear away some foliage, before she sunk her tomahawk into the ground before tilting it, and doing the same procedure over and over again to break up the soil. Her hands then went to work as she scooped away loosened soil, and piled it aside. Helen knew well enough that the coming storm posed more of a threat in the form of flying debris and wind, instead of the measly little matter of rainfall... unless for some reason the planet's rainfall was poisonous or highly acidic, then there would be a problem. She pushed aside the notion of deathly rainfall as she continued her work.

Unfortunately, the ground did not seem very stable. The soft soil moved easily, and groundwater pooled in the holes made by Helen's tomahawk.

In the distance, the sun peaked over the horizon, shining down on a massive stormfront in the distance. On the nearby beach, the water level was already rising from the storm surge.

Kumiko finished her preparations, and set about launching the drone, watching as it quickly made its way into the distance. She turned, and watched Helen's very obviously pointless attempts at digging down, and sighed. Looking around, her eyes brightened as a though came to her. "Why not use the foliage? Instead of digging in, use tree trunks or the side of a hill, and build above ourselves. If we use parts of the foliage, it won't look all that different from what's already around here."

Helen scoffed at the matter of the hole, still clearing some of the muck from it. Even if they're sitting in muck, they'd still be a bit safer, though, she did acknowledge the notion of using foliage. "Alright, get your wire-saws out of your survival kits you two, find some trees that won't make too much of a fuss when they fall, and cut them in sections from top to bottom. Nothing too thick, just some that would make good bracing for a shelter. Until we get some conclusive data from the drone, we'll work to set the shelter up, at least to the point where we will be safer against the storm. If you need help moving what you cut, let me know, my body is designed stronger... I'll work on weaving branches to place between the supports."

She stated, it was basic delegation as she took her muck-covered tomahawk and went to work on cutting thin branches from nearby trees. Once she had a bundle, she began to weave them together to form a sheet of branches which looked rather sturdy. As she worked on that, she left her data receiver open to the stream of data coming off of the drone, passively peering through its sensors as she worked. Inwardly though, she wondered where the Shoi had gone, and she also wondered just why this specific crew of a lost ship was important enough to risk the Princess' ship... it seemed odd to her, especially considering the average number of KIA and MIA which a Mishhu-involved war produced. Though, that was beside the point as she left her mind to ponder more relevant matters... such as just why the survival kit could not include a tent.

Takeyu nodded and swung his pack around, and sifted through it before pulling out the saw and also the cord. He wrapped the cord around his shoulder, then took his pack and set it down beside some bushes before glancing around their area.

It took him a moment as he walked around for a bit before he found a tree whose diameter was small enough that it could be cut down easily with the saw, and yet wasn't tall enough that would make to large of a sound when it hit the ground.

As he checked the area around him, he noticed some bushes near by that were thick. "I'll use those to dampen the sound," he took the saw and set it down on a rotted tree trunk, then uncoiled the cord and slapped it around the tree, then made a loop before threading another portion of the cord through it.

He then picked up the saw; made a few quick checks to make certain nothing was in the way, then started cutting into the tree.

As Takeyu continued to damage the tree, an armored lemur thing of some sort launched itself from the branches above and slammed into the technician's face with a significant amount of force, and then grabbed his ears with its claws. The jagged and clearly irritated creature was about the size of a large raccoon.

The recently-risen sun began to be obscured by clouds and the wind began picking up quite a bit.

Yaiba finished her meal and looked out across the sky, Damn scout is still hovering... could mean they have soldiers on the ground. she thought. She grabbed her camouflage suit made from local plants. "I am going to check out the area. I do not want any surprise visitors during the storm." she said as she threw on the suit and slipped out.

She selected one of the nearby trees and quickly scrambled up. Moving through the canopy of the trees was one of the safer methods of going about unseen. A year of living in the forests had made her familiar with the many hazards, the shredder vines that lived below and the multiple predators. She planned to make a quick circuit of the area and return to the shelter before the weather got too bad.

A brightly colored and confused bird began repeatedly attempting to land on the hull of the scout ship, only to fall "into" the ship hull and fly out again.