Shaq'l'phard sat upon his perch in his office and tore into a hunk of not-so-fresh meat. He had the door locked, preferring not to be interrupted while eating his breakfast.
Vesper hummed very softly a slow song like a Celtic folk tune as she went about the medical area, taking stock of things and making sure it was all in it's place, clean, and sterile. It was routine work so it took only two passes to make sure everything was set and with a smile and a continuation of her song (which had since shifted into some kind of dirge, she sat at her desk and worked on some filing, making sure the schedule was set, once again. She would be doing the same things many times over, but she didn't mind. It just meant everything was working smoothly, and there were no kinks, yet, to fix as far as the medical area was concerned.
In a separate area of the Facility Quarters,
Dresden gave a smile and a wave to the cute girl behind the desk and jogged down to the engine rooms. Here, he went through the standard checkups with the engineers there.
Sojana entered the armory and hit a red button on the wall by her desk. An alarm instantly went off and a red light illuminated the armory. "MOVE MOVE MOVE!" She shouted, her voice amplified my the manipulation of cartilage.
Skiff fell out of his bunk the moment the alarm went off but quickly made it to his feet, slipping into his gear within seconds. Being Skiff's battle buddy Rhodes had been asleep also but was tieing into his boots by the time Skiff made it off the floor.
Doors and Jim had the evening shift and where standing at attention in front of Sojana before Skiff and Rhodes could grab their weapons. All four men where standing at attention within 11 seconds.
Rhod was whistling slightly to himself as they descended in the elevator, but quickly stopped when he remembered his partner in there had no lips. "So she is springing this on them now?" he asked, turning to D'mitri.
"Correct sir. Hopefully she will have them prepped and ready when we get there."
D'mitri said as the elevator slowed. "We will head to the observation area where you may watch the exercise. And you may whistle all you want, it does not offend me."
"Just being civil, whistling's meant to be rude after all"
Rhod pointed out the doors opening up into the main hall of the police department. As always it was busy, but Rhod guessed the Commander and the Chief of Police could get through easy enough.
"Thank you for the civility, sir."
D'mitri said as he stepped off the elevator. Everyone in their way had a sudden compulsion to move to a different spot a few steps away and suddenly a pathway appeared for D'mitri and the commander to walk on.
"Handy"
Rhod mumbled to himself, trusting that D'mitri wa leading them towards the observation deck. So many levels, so little time, he couldn't remember every inch of this place.
"We're getting a little visit from the Captain and Chief."
Sojana informed her men "Apparently the Chief has prepared a training simulation to gauge your response time. I don't know what's he's got in mind but I want you all to double up on weapons and ammo. No telling what the telepathy has up his sleeve... What are you waiting for? GO!"
The men dispersed immediately, doubling up on their usual gear and bumping up their explosives. Because Sojana was part of the team too she slipped quickly into her exo-suit and double checked her gear. She packed on extra ammo and weapons too and triple checked her sniper rifle.
D'mitri lead the Commander to the observation deck and made some last minute checks and preparations on the simulation. He hoped that this simulation would not be to much for the soldiers. The last thing he needed was the squad to look bad in front of the ship's leader.
Since
Rhod was looking rather impressed by the ship still, it probably wouldn't take much for the Squad to impress him. Really they only needed to get to the end... but then again he shouldn't let them relax, he had been in battles before and sometimes it's the people who are told they're doing great who get torn to shreds first.
Within seconds
Sojana and her men where armed to the teeth and ready for war. She congratulated them on their lightening quick response time and the five of them made their way to the Chief's simulation.
D'mitri saw the team walk in and threw a few last switches. The doors behind them sealed and the simulation began to load. The scene before them was of a lush jungle and it seemed like all the plants were over-sized. The air was very moist and humid making everything stifling hot. The sounds of local wildlife loud in the surrounding area. The mic chirped in and all the ambient noise ceased. "This simulation is created solely to test your ability to react to the unexpected. This simulation is based off of personal and cultural experiences. It will randomly generate 1-5 different creatures in groups of 1-3 in size with a 15% of spawning one creature of substantial strength and ability. The safeties are off so personal injury may occur but death is improbable as it has a fail-safe built in so anyone's vitals hit the danger zone it will automatically switch off. Any questions?"
Rhod glanced sideways at D'mitri, nodding slightly at his choice; he'd probably just asked some programmers to make it for him, but it was a good course and would test the squads' endurance.
Sojana's team immediately responded with a resounding "SIR, YES SIR!!" and Sojana was forced to stifle a smile at their eagerness.
Without saying anything else
D'mitri clicked off the comm and the simulation started up.
Sojana gave the signal and the four men around her separated into groups of two, moving in a slow, wide circle with their guns drawn. They kept low to the ground, utilizing the overgrown underbrush for cover. Sojana inspected the enormity of what could be considered trees and decided to get a look of their surroundings. Slinging her rifle onto her back she dug her nails into the the blue fleshy bark and began to climb until she reached high enough to survey the area.
The surrounding area looked pretty much the same. Tall trees and jungle foliage as far as the eyes could see. The only thing out of place was a shimmering off in the distance about 10 miles that signalled the edge of the simulation.
Sojana lifted her rifle and peered threw the scope. At ten miles she could only zoom in about five but she could make out something in the distance. She radioed the boys on the ground "52,800 marks northeast of our location, move in steady and keep your eyes peeled." She made her decedent from the
tree in a very cat-like manner and followed the boys, making momentary stops to take a look again via the treetops.
The team traveled for some time with no signs of anything. After about 15 min, however, there was a rustle of leaves to their front-left. It stopped almost as soon as it started.
Rhodes and Skiff froze, the movement had been near their location, they'd not seen it but their helmet's sensors immediately picked up on the disturbance. Instead of speaking to relay over the radios that they'd found movement Rhodes keyed his mike, sending a series of coded clicks to the rest of the team. This gave
Sojana, Doors and Jim (the new guy) their exact location. Sojana clicked back to tell the boys to lay low and fan out and that she was taking purchase in a large willow-like tree a few metras out from their location.
As Sojana climbed up into the tree she got a good view of the surrounding area. Everything was quiet though including the usual sounds of life. Out of the corner of her eye in a near by tree a very large feline looking creature with a dull grey-green fur and a very wide mouth that looked like it took take in a humanoid in one bite, had crawled out onto the edge of a tree branch and looked as if it was ready to pounce on one of her men.
Sojana's attention was drawn to the nearby tree and she quickly spotted the creature. Since her sniper rifle was equipped with a stealth silencer she didn't have to worry about giving away her position and quickly laid the cross-hairs of her scope directly behind the creatures ear and fired. She clicked a message back to the boys that the local indigenous wild life would most likely be moving in around them.
The cat creature let out a half yelp before falling off the tree limb and laying lifeless on the ground in the middle of the group. Almost simultanious with the creature hitting the ground two more leapt out from the trees and foliage, except these two were twice the size of the one Sojana had shot. They never stood still for more then a few seconds before darting in or out or trying to pounce on one of the soldiers.
The clicks of useful information where useless now that the shooting had started. Jim fired first, newb that he was. He had narrowly escaped the razor sharp talons of the cat beast. His first mistake was shouting "HOLY HANNA!" as he rolled out of the way and emptied nearly half a mag into the beast's side. Doors, for good measure and since he was in close proximity to Jim took the opertinuty to make sure the beast would meet it's end by firing four or five rounds into the thing. "You boys ok down there?"
Sojana asked, taking a quick moment to assess the creature she had killed.
The creature wobbled a bit but stayed up and activly attacking the group. He made another attempt to devour the nearest humanoid while the other one tried to flank the group to drive them together.
"Im glad the system picked these creatures."
D'mitri said to Rhod. "They are Scat'lash's and are very had to put down. I have seen one take a tank shell and keep moving." he said with a mental smirk. Thats when something caught his eye on the board. "Hmm...seems like an error in my coding has allowed a fluke in the spawning system." There was a pause, "Lets see how they handle this."
"There's another one over here." Rhodes informed the group as the second beast flanked them. The two trigger happy battle buddies began unleashing round after round of ammo into the thing as they evaded it's heavy maw.
"These things are tough to put down!" Doors shouted, emptying his mag as Jim exchanged his.
"Try explosives."
Sojana told them as she jumped threw the trees towards her men "They've got a compound musculature with hard fiber woven fur. Sort of like your Earth's armadillo before it went extinct."
"Thank's for the history lesson Mom." Skiff said pulling the pin out of a plazzy and launching it at the cat-thing.
"Dude, the Captain's watching!" Rhodes reminded Skiff.
"Interesting, very interesting"
Rhod admitted, rubbing his chin as he gazed down at the battle below; they seemed well formed, adapted well... but the sudden attacks had thrown them off guard, they'd fired wildly at the creatures to no affect. He would have thought the mouth as well, anything that large was a good soft target.
The grenade landed right under the darting cat and exploded in a bright blue ball of fire. The cat was lifted into the air and thrown against a tree flopping to the ground. It laid motionless for a few seconds before it began to pull itself back onto its feet. A large portion of fur and skin were burned and melted away from the explosion, it limped greatly as it moved back towards the group to attack again.
"Ho-ley shi-" Skiff's radio was keyed out just in time to keep him from cursing again and
Sojana's voice ordered "Report." As she trained her scope on the one giving Jim and Doors a hard time.
"I hit the thing with a plazzy and it just shook it off." Skiff told Sojana as he pumped another magazine into the creatures wounds.
"Then try a bigger snoose trap." Sojana told him, squeezing off three rounds in an attempt to lead and anticipate the creature's movements.
Amidst all the shooting and explosions there was a distant rumble that was quickly approaching. "It has arrived."
D'mitri said simply.
The Scat'lashs assault suddenly halted as the looked around seemingly smelling the air around them. Amidst the smoke and fire they found something they didnt like and broke for shelter leaving the group confused. Their confusion was soon answered by the sound of loud booms and some trees falling in the distance coming towards them.
Scampering into the topmost branches of a tree
Sojana tried to spy the origins of whatever was coming. She couldn't make out any prescice form but she could see trees bending and breaking in the distance. She decided a few orders where in order, "I want claymores set up along sectors 4 5 and 6, 15 meters apart. Something big is coming."
"Bigger than those lousy cat things?" Skiff asked as he assessed exactly how many claymores the group had between them.
"Much bigger." Sojana replied and the boys set to work placing the claymores in the path of whatever was coming for them. "Set some backup charges too while your at it."
The men had just finished setting the charges when the creature showed itself. It stood five times taller then an African elephant with five times the girth. Its hide was lumpy as if covered in rocks all the way down its tail which was covered with rocky protrusions and five foot long spikes. The creature stopped walking and looked down at the group, leaning down a bit putting its gaping maw closer to ground and let out a ground shaking roar.
"Ten Credits says Jim wet himself." Skiff bet Rhodes once the creature had finished roaring. Four little black figures armed to the teeth darted away from the creature, scattering and falling back for more cover so they could attack it from all sides.
Sojana reinstalled the click system to cut down the radio chatter. Her orders where for her men to keep a fair distance, aim for any fleshy bits and keep moving in a pattern that would draw the beast to the heart of the explosives. She herself; two hundred yards away nestled in the fork of a tree, searched out a soft spot on the creature's head where she might place a highly specialized bullet. She couldn't understand human's affinity for diamonds as jewelry, the Vidian's had been using them to tip long rage armor piercing rounds for decades.
The creature began forward chasing the small black men into the jungle. Thats when it hit the first claymore it roared and reared away from the explosion. There was no obvious damage to the creature, but it was bothered by the explosion. It kept moving forward till the second explosion went off. Furious it whipped around and cleared the entire area infront of it with its massive tail before slamming the spikes and protrusions down onto anything that was there.
"What is that thing called?"
Rhod asked D'mitri, raising his eyebrow at the increadibly dangerous looking thing currently shrugging off mortars like they were pebbles. He really didn't like to think that there could be things out there like that, surprising the team suddenly and causing all this panic.
"That is a Falnz'la which in my language translates roughly into
City Eater"
D'mitri said plainly. "Creatures like this are responsible for about 1/3 of the deaths and 1/2 of all property damage on Aggrosia."
"So"
Rhod said slowly as he gazed at the creature "If they manage to take this thing down... then it really proves that we've got a good team here huh? But I suppose the knowledge to run like hell also proves they're good."
"Not neseccarily sir."
D'mitri said to Rhod. "If they live then it means that they brought plenty of ammo and wanted to live more then the creature did." It sounded brutal, but that is the way the D'mitri saw it.
"I'm a human D'mitri"
Rhod said simply, watching the devastation below "Humans tend to have this annoying habit of being stupid, brave and rely mostly on this little lady. Too much chance. It isn't just calculations and will to live."
Sojana's next series of clicks was a fervent order to take cover and blow the poppers. Poppers where an old fashioned naquada charged explosive cells that could rend a two story Drajonian battle suit into microscopic bits. To distract the beast she squeezed off three rounds with her cross-hairs aimed at the beast's eyes.
Doors grabbed Jim by the scruff of the neck and shoved him down behind a rather large bolder. He waited for the teams clicks to tell him they where in cover before hitting the detonator on the poppers. Three explosions erupted in a triangular pattern all around the thing.
"Noted, sir."
D'mitri said as he turned his eyes back to the scene before him. He turned just in time to see the large explosion engulf the Falnz'la. "Poppers...did
nt know we had those on board."
There was a loud painfilled roar that was almost muffled by the sound of the explosion. Then there was silence as the smoke cleared, but it was evident that the creature still stood. It was covered in blood and scorch marks, but it still stood. It had found Sojana's tree and took a swing at it with its massive tail, obliterating the tree.
Sojana leaped, almost a second too late. The massive dust cloud caused by the poppers had hidden the creature rather effectively. Not wanting to waist any more sniper rounds on the thing she pulled her semi-automatic and began spraying any portion of the beast that was blistered and bloody. The moment her clawed feet hit the ground she went bipedal, tossing down a few live grenades and zigzagging threw the underbrush to lead the creature back to the remainder of the charges.
Her clicks informed her men and Doors clicked back that there where six more poppers due east of her location.
The creature paused to search the debris for a broken bloody body. It roared in aggravation more then pain when she unleashed a load of bullets and several grenades. It charged forward, following her as she ran.
Sojana moved just fast enough to stay out ahead of the creature and utilized long striding lopes to give it a tastier looking meal to follow. Her tightly knitted scales reflected the suns rays and caused her to twinkle just a bit. She just hoped the boys got the message while all of her fours where grabbing turf, unable to relay the message.
Skiff had scaled into a tree and was clicking back her coordinates to Doors, who calculated the time differential from the speed of Sojana and the speed of the creature. Three seconds, that was enough time for her to do her alien thing and get a hot burst of speed under her before he blew the charges. He relayed this to Jim who dutifully clicked back to Sojana the plan they all seemed to be concocting. He seemed to be good for something after all.
The creature was caught by the explosion and there was a slight background sound of something wet and then a thud. When the smoke and everything cleared the creature lay on the ground missing the bottom half of its body, the blood quickly leaving its body and spreading across the ground like a morbid stream.
"Hmmm...combined explosive pressure in a localized zone has devastating effect." D'mitri said not in a knowing way, but more in a surprised way. He flipped a few switches and pushed some buttons turning off the simulation. He turned to Rhod and in a hurried voice said "I apologize for leaving you so quickly sir but I must attend to something. To leave you head through this door and down the stairs which will lead you to the exit of the sim where the team will be leaving the sim room. Please critique them and be brutally honest." With that he gave a quick salute and made his way to the facility quarters.
Taylor and Teva walked up to the service desk. "'Scuse me?" she asked, waiting for the reception girl's attention.
The receptionist looked up and greeted them with the same weary smile of someone who is forced to answer the same questions again and again. She swore that if someone else asked her where the lifts to the shops were after just stepping off them, or made another stupid comment about her body, she'd snap. "Hello, how can I help you today?" she asked cheerily.
"Hey- where would I find bottles of Gibberellic acid biosynthesis inhibitors?" Taylor asked, not sure if she would know what that meant or not. "We're from the bio labs." she said, guess she would need some sort of proof as to why they would need something like that.
"I think" the receptionist said carefully "That would be within the med labs, if not there is a supply section" she tapped a few times on the screen in front of her, then turned it around to show it to Taylor and Teva "here." It was a small back alley behind the engineering block, a circle around a small door that didn't have a lable on it "They will ask you for ID at both places."
Taylor leaned over and glanced at the map up and down. "Alright... thanks a lot." She paused, "That's on this level, right?"
"Yes" the receptionist said sweetly still, at least these people had an actual queery "I could give you a hand held map if you want?" She held out a small pad, right now displaying a zoomed in version of the map she'd showed Taylor, concentrating of course on reception "If you press the button on the side it speaks, for those who are sight impared."
"Heh...don't worry, I don't think I need that feature." Taylor guaranteed. "But thanks." she took the pad and looked at it. "Did you want this back when I'm done?"
"You can drop it off here or at one of the collection points scattered around, they all make their way back to us somehow" the secretary said, smiling at the two ladies in front of her. She wondered if they were partners...
"Alright. Thanks again." Taylor said before she headed down the corridor, following the map. She waited for Teva before continuing.
Having completed his routine checks and made friends with the engineers, Dresden jogged up the hall. Seeing Teva and Taylor he grinned and waved as he passed.
Taylor was a little confused at the chipper man waving at them. It took a second for her to realize that it was the same guy from the bar last night. The pilot. She lifted a hand and waved awkwardly.
"How sweet," Teva said with slight sarcasm once Dresden had passed. "He remembers you. You'll never be rid of him now," she teased her superior, all without cracking a smile. She looked at the map in Taylor's hand. "So are we checking the medical labs first?"
"Oh please..." Taylor said regaurding Dresden. Examining the map more closely, she said, "But yes...and they should be over this way." She turned and headed down a hall. Her eyes glanced up to the doors, reading their titles. "Nope, nope nope... ah, here we are." Taylor knocked before entering. "Pardon?"
The receptionist popped her bubblegum one last time and rolled it into her cheek "Yes?" she asked, smiling cheerily at the new visitors "What appears to be the problem?" She obviously thought that the two were in here for some sort of medical problem.
"Excuse us, this is Teva Bryndis and I'm Taylor Samson. We are bioengineers down in the greenhouse." she explained, "We were wondering if you had any bottles of Gibberellic acid biosynthesis inhibitors?" She slid the hand not holding to the map into her labcoat pocket.
"I'm... not sure if we're allowed to give our stocks away" the receptionist said slowly "You'll have to check with the doctor... or even the nurse I suppose. If you can do that and they're not sure where it is I can just put it in the computer and we'll get it right up. You'll have to spell it though..." The receptionist gave a shy smile and pointed to a set of doors "Through there. The nurse is called Vesper. The doctor's the one that looks like a vulture." It was easier for people who didn't know the two to find out now than later.
"Of course we would pay for it." Taylor explained before looking at the door. "Thanks." Gesturing to her partner, Taylor walked past the office desk and knocked casually on the door, unsure who or what would answer it.
Having just finished his morning meal when there was a knock upon the door, Shaq'l'phard grumbled and wiped the remains from his beak. He hastily cleared off his desk, not having left much of anything behind anyway. "Just a minute...just a minute." He responded to the knocking.
Taylor glanced back at her partner and shrugged her shoulders. She slid her hand back into her labcoat and waited patiently.
Shaq'l'phard hopped off of his perch once the desk was cleared and moved to the door. He unlocked it and opened it. "Yes? What do you want?"
Taylor was caught off guard by this man's appearance. She was at a loss of words for a second before she cleared her throat, breaking her stare. "Pardon us, Doctor." Well...she sure knew what the receptionist was talking about. Taylor was also getting really annoyed having to repeat herself to every person she met up here. "This is my partner Teva Bryndis and I'm the head of bioengineering, Taylor Samson. I was wondering if you had any bottles of Gibberellic acid biosynthesis inhibitors that we could purchase?"
"Why in the world would I want to sell you anything that I would need here in my medical lab?" Shaq'l'phard replied with, growing more and more agitated with being in their company entirely. For being a doctor, he certainly wasn't very social.
Taylor raised a brow, trying to not lose her cool. Instead she said, "Because our supply ran out and we need it for research?" She paused, "And you know, feed a couple thousand people."
"And so I should let my supply run out so that you can do pitiful research?" Shaq'l'phard asked her, his head bobbing slightly as he spoke. "Whyever should I do something like that?"
"Listen-" Taylor refrained from calling him 'birdie', "We need those inhibitors to make food for the people living here. That's a little important. Like I said, our department can pay for it." Her voice seemed a bit agitated.
Shaq'l'phard held up a hand at her. "No, You listen. Just because you went and used all your supply, does not give you the right to come to my medical bay and request that you buy what is mine. It matters not what you need it for. There is a supply section in which you should petition to collect extra supplies. If, I cannot stress this enough, if they decide that you should come and obtain the supply from mine. Then and only then, will I sell it to you." His body shuddered slightly as he finished his speech
Taylor didn't like taking shit from anyone and he was just too much. "Well that's all fine and dandy but you DON'T have to be so damn rude and unprofessional about it! It was a polite request!"
"Now, now.." Teva murmured to her companion while still looking over the large creature before them. Hadn't she seen Tezcacoatl eat one of these things before? "Don't let him ruffle your feathers, Taylor." She did not smile at her own joke.
"Sir, you're filling the doorway," a happy but calm voice piped up behind Shaq'l'phard. The smiling face of Vesper peeked around his plumage, but just barely. She smiled at the two scientists. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help hearing. Is there a problem I may assist you with?" She turned her smile to the doctor. She seemed to almost be.. leaning away from him, as if desiring very much not to touch him. "Sir, you do know, if they don't feed the people, they'll die, and you'll have no one to treat. Doesn't it make more sense to actually have patients, than supplies? At least they will live long enough to have something that we possibly can treat without the inhibitors." The whole time she didn't seem to be afraid of him, regardless of the fact that she only came up to about his elbow. She was very sweet though. How did someone so nice end up with so abrasive? It was a wonder.
Taylor was froze in her aggressive stance before her eyes caught sight of Vesper. Cute. Slowly, her tense expression and shoulders relaxed and she rested flat on her feet instead of on her toes to size up the bird brain. Taylor didn't say anything yet, hearing what she said, her eyes shot up to Shaq'l'phard.
"Bah." Shaq'l'phard declared and turned to face his assistant. "You handle this then. I don't need to be bothered by the simpletons. I'm the doctor." He showed her out of his way and hobbled back to his office. "Bah..."
"What an abhorrent man," Vesper smiled, letting out a little giggle as she watched him go, her words only fact and not insult. She turned to the scientists again, her smile unwavering. "Now, let me see about those inhibitors, shall we? Just one moment." With a slight flounce of her petite stature, she had turned away and headed to the back of the room behind her, opened a door and stepped halfway through as she searched for something.
".... I'm starting to think we're going to have to pick and choose our acquaintances," Teva remarked after a pause to let the nurse leave. She looked at Taylor with a deadpan expression. "Manipulation is apparently more necessary in our transactions than necessity, if this is anything to go by." She motioned a hand after where the doctor had gone to.
"I just hope I never get sick." Taylor remarked, not wanting to see any more of that buzzard. Strangest species she's seen in a while, that's for sure.
"We hardly work with people, I doubt we'll catch anything," Teva replied before looking up at a cry of 'ah!' and the nursing smiling at a little brown bottle of something with a white label.
Vesper smiled as she walked back over to the couple, holding out the little bottle to Taylor, her expression charming. "Here you are. And I apologize for the doctor. He's a bit rough around the edges, but he's very brilliant. If you need anything else, just come to me." She tilted her head and pointed to one of the small silver rings on her left ear. "Or call. This one communicates with computers on the lower decks. You call medical ward, and you'll come straight to me."
"Oh- thank you very much." Taylor cleared her throat and stood up straight, glancing down at the bottle before back at the nurse, "I'm sorry, but I don't think I caught your name...what was it again?"
"Vesper," the little woman chirped, clasping her hands behind her back. "I'm your nurse for this voyage, and I am at your disposal. The doctor can be very busy, he's very important, but it's in my contract that I am available for office and house calls. Emergencies are never convenient after all!" She giggled again, the sound quiet and comforting. Vesper, it seemed, had a great beside manner.
"Well that is a relief." Taylor was starting to feel hot in her underarms and didn't have a clue why. She actually hadn't been to a check up in years...something she was dangerously overdue for considering her...circumstances. "Well it's nice to meet you and again, thank you for the cooperation. We really need this for some of the synthetic photosynthesis we do." She glanced at the bottle's bar code, but there was no price. "Exactly how much shall my department compensate for this?"
Rhod couldn't help the look of confusion cross his face, wondering why HE was the one being honest with the squad. But he supposed as captain... He made his way quickly back downstairs, wanting to be there when the squad arrived.
Finding a slick tile floor beneath her fours instead of the rough jungle terrain, Sojana came skidding to a halt just inches before bashing into one of the walls. "Sim's over boys." She announced as if it hadn't been obvious and ordered them to "Fall in!" She and the men assembled a neat little line before the Captain.
Rhod coughed hard into his hand, wondering if he'd actually be fair; time to let the years of army training take hold. "To be honest" Rhod said, cocking his head to one side and gazing over the troops "I'm impressed. You were taken by surprise by hoards of wild beasts, then a natural TANK dropped onto you. You took it down. If this was a war I'd be asking for you guys to be on my team, no matter how suicidal the mission would be if I was." Rhod's eyes scanned over them slowly, he wanted them to remember this "But this is not war. There will be scientists down there, precious machines and resources, some we cannot replace after it is broken. Things that can not run. If you had had those programmed in there would have been a much tougher fight on your hands, and there would have been losses. You took them down, but only after it destroyed half the forest around you, and Sojana had to lead it into a trap. With civilians this would not be a luxury, the creature would NOT ignore a solitary stationary target over a moving one. Your good in battle, I'm glad you're here, but we need to drop those targets quickly as well."
Sojana listened, at first she felt her hearts double beat with pride, but soon realized he was right when it came to the human equation. Anyone in a white coat would have gotten squashed right off the bat. When he finished telling them exactly how he felt she and her men answered with a bold and honest "YES SIR!" She was already formulating ideas on how to improve upon their training and could already see that she was going to be forced to study a little more about humans and the scientific operations on board. Human soldiers she understood, but civilians where a different matter. In a pinch (a pinch of course being an escalated combat situation) would they even listen to orders that where for the good of their safety?
"Dismissed people, you did good out there today. Next time lets try your best" Rhod said, grinning and giving them all a salute; a proper one, not the dismissive one of a superious wanting to be somewhere else. The squad needed to know they were GOOD. "Sojana" he said as they began to file away "A word with you, after you're done." He nodded to her and strode out, wanting to wait for them outside.
All five saluted in return and Sojana ordered no chatter as the men left for the armory. She stood at attention for the captain, after all this had been a formal training exercise.
Rhod cast a glance towards the men as they all filed out, then raised a hand and entered a much more relaxed stance "Relax Sojana. This is the part where I admit that no matter how many battles I've been in, no matter how many training excercises I've witnessed, no one knows their men better than their squad leader. Tell me how you think your guys did out there today, every fault, every hesitation, every ichy trigger finger. The good stuff too, they looked like they dealt well under pressure and followed your orders... but you know these guys inside and out."
Sojana relaxed, her posture loosing nearly six inches of it's length while she settled down into her usual posture. The one most Vidian's preferred when dealing with humans, the one that didn't make them look like a cat ready to pounce on it's prey. The Captain was a good sixty pounds heavier than her, and if she where a different Vidian, he'd make a delightful snack. She had far too much respect for him to let the notion play in her thoughts for even the briefest microsecond. "I trust them with my life sir. I think they handled the simulation as well as any spec or spook, but in all honestly, loosing Dallas was really hard on them. (she was referring to their previous mission, before being dispatched to this vessel) I know Jim is trying to pick up his slack but until the boys share real blood together your not going to get much better out of them. They listen to me no problem and if I'm out, Doors is your man. He's cool under pressure, knows the book and knows how to tune out Skiff and Rhode's squabbling. Even better, they respect him. And I do intend to introduce new training scenarios so you don't have to worry about getting your scientists back in a body bag."
Sometimes it seemed the humans were more trusting and relaxed than they should be, at least he wasn't thinking that Sojana had even considered eating him. "I understand, someone dying can mark the team for a long time, both in training and mentality." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair "Lets hope we have more time to prepare before we have to cover civilians... even then we have a chance, since we probably won't run into creatures that tough."
"I don't want to tell you how to do your job or anything." Sojana began in a respectful tone "But it would probably be more beneficial to dispatch me and the boys before the scientists where dropped. We can have the intended research area secured by the time any of them plants a foot off-world... That is until the boys get used to protecting civies. Am I correct in assuming that at least some of them have had some training, or are we going to be dealing with greeners?" By greeners she of course meat people who had absolutely no survival training what so ever.
"Some of them have had experience in hostile environments, but some have done nothing but study books their entire lives. We grabbed whoever we could, we're lucky to have this many people to be honest." Rhod sighed, shaking his head slightly as he thought "We'd have to send a few scientists down at first however, judge what's inhabitable and what's not to begin with. I mean no use sending you all down there only to find out the plant life are secreting poisonous gases." He sighed and scratched his head "Maybe engineering can work with our bio labs to make an instrument that would help you discern that."
"I'll be sure to speak with them about it." Sojana told the Captain. She was really glad he was much more laid back than a few of her other superiors. She felt like she could actually offer suggestions and not have them thrown back in her face. "What do you think about a little boot camp for the yoke-heads?" She of course meant "egg-heads" but language barriers being what they where she was bound to screw up the earth-lingo from time to time.
Deciding to let the little mistake slip for now, but mentally questioning if he should introduce a "lessons for soldiers" session instead, Rhod shook his head slightly at her. "Not at the moment I'm afraid, right now they're still keeping our food supply functional and our air clean" he took a deep breath and mulled it over for a few seconds "I suppose we could introduce it later on though, once the ship has stabilised a bit and it's mostly run by the ship's computer. Want to keep as many people alive as possible after all."
"Understood sir." Sojana told him but had no other points of interest to bring to his attention.
Rhod nodded and saluted to Sojana, but this one was less formal, it was one of someone who knew they'd be working together for a long time. "That's all I've got to say..." he frowned slowly and rubbed at his right temple slowly "Now... if you'll excuse me..." He turned slowly and headed back out of the room. He needed to go somewhere quiet. Maybe his own room?
Sojana saluted in return and made the trek back towards the armory.
"How's dinner sound?" Vesper offered with a smile. "You keep supplying the food, so this is really the least I can to do compensate to you. Don't even worry about it. You do a lot for this ship, it's my honor to assist you with your work." She was smiling charmingly at Taylor again and only a small cough made her look away, her smile not faltering a milimeter.
"I'm sorry, but we really should get back... Delicate experiments and all that..." Teva put in, looking between the two with an indiscernible expression.
"Quite! So sorry to be keeping you. Though, feel free to stop by any time. And I'll see you both for your physicals. The doctor is insisting on performing new ones on each member," Vesper informed them, her smile lowering just slightly but not disappearing, as if unhappy about it, but not wanting to frighten them. She looked between the two. "So I hope to see you both soon."
"O-ok." she studdered a bit. Taylor almost choked on her spit. Did she just ask her out on a date? Nodding to the nurse politely, she turned with her partner and headed back towards the hall. Her expression was a bit blank and confused. As the two headed deeper through the quarters, Taylor's thoughts wandered and her cheeks reddened a bit.
Teva had nodded her goodbye to Vesper before walking out with her partner, whom she was now giving an odd look, that included a frown. "What is up with you?" she asked after a long moment. "You've had physicals before right? It's really not that scary, but I get that that bird touching you would be wicked weird."
Taylor gulped a bit, "I haven't been to the doctor since I was 8." she said, as if unashamed. She had strong insecurity issues about her body. Even if it was a professional doctor...she felt treated like an experiment. Are you female? Are you male? Always the same thing.
Teva made a face that probably should have gone with a flinch. "This is going to be rough for you then. I'm so sorry Taylor.... Maybe... maybe he'll go easy on you? Maybe if he knows he'll not be so rough with you.... I'm sure he won't screw things up on purpose when this is so necessary.. and it really isn't that bad... You might want to talk to Vesper some more before it though. You'll only have to go back again if you mess up the first time and... if you haven't been in so long, you might get... too nervous. Specially with that jerk."
"What?!" Taylor shot Teva a sharp look. "I haven't gone in 25 years and I'm not planning on starting now!" She got rather defensive all of a sudden.
Teva blinked at her superior, a little shocked by the outburst. They were not very... dramatic people. This was new. Why was Taylor so panicked? "Oooookay...." she said placatingly, giving Taylor a weird look again. ".... You are going to have to go sometime.... Otherwise, they aren't going to let you work..."
Taylor scoffed, "Keh-" she didn't even want to argue the topic. It wasn't happening.
"Let's just get back to the lab," Teva said after a sigh, her face once again a calm mask. "Maybe the chemicals will relax you."
"Usually do-" is allTaylor said as they headed back to their territory.
Moments later a soft crackle came from the comunicators and a gentle calm voice sounded clearly in the Doctors office "Would Dr Shaq'l'phard please report to the Control deck as soon as possible please? Thank you." a little more buzz then a click as it finished, leaving the air as silent as it was before the announcement.
Shaq'l'phard nearly spit when he heard the god-awful page for his presence upon the Control Deck. He grumbled and grabbed his clipboard and med-bag as he stormed out
D'mitri entered his office in a flurry of movement. By the time he got into his seat he had already set the computer up and transmitting to his home planet of Aggrosia. Before him was the General of the City Protectorate Force.
"What is it?" came a robotic voice from over the channel. Due to the inablility to speak into other's minds from this distance, communication required the use of keyboards.
"I have a breakthrough method for defending against and dealing with the Falnz'las." D'mitri typed quickly. "Today during a training exercise my off-world team had to fight one. It did severe damage as usual but was brought down by several large explosives going off at the same time. It would appear that the severe concussive force and projectiles cause exstensive damage to the creatures tissue."
"This is stupendous news!" The General. "Exactly what grade explosives did they use?"
"They used a very high grade explosive claymore that the team refers to as Poppers." D'mitri explained. "For more complex details you would have to access Earth's military force's database which shouldnt be much of a problem. I would recommend something along the equivalent of a Florsan bomb."
Shaq'l'phard groaned as he hobbled back down to the medical bay. His back made several objections tot he way he had straightened out on the control deck. "Bah!" He said aloud, not caring at all for having to go on a trip. As a coroner not less! Absurd!
Vesper looked up from her paper work when the doctor came back in and tried to give him a cheering smile, but her eyes showed her concern. "Welcome back, sir," she chirped kindly, putting her work on the table and standing to greet his return formally. "I hope your meeting went well. Is there anything you wish my assistance for at the present?" He did look to be in a quite a bit of pain.
Sojana arrived in the armory and apprised her men of the current situation. her news was met with mock disdain when in reality they where all excited at the prospect of a real situation. They where still outfitted for battle considering only recently had they left The Chief's simulation. They recouped their ammo, explosives and personal respirators and made their way to the docking bays
Stumble!