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RP [Nepleslia] Job 1 - River Raising

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Don and Tara came back with the final two crates and strapped them down into position before putting their jacks away. The man then told his partner to start working on the pre-flight checks as he started checking that all the cargo was properly fast. Once done his circling Don then looked at everyone that had made it on board.

"Alright everybody, as soon as Helen gets back we're going to get underway. The fridge and snack bar near the fore is yours for the duration of the trip; if you see something you like, go ahead - though not stocking up! If you need the can, follow the lighted signs until you get to the room that smells like that blue stuff.

"Should you have any further questions, let me or Tara know - though it's best not interrupting her when she's flying. Otherwise find yourselves a seat and strap in."

Helen, on the other hand made it into the terminal and started a sweep to see if anyone had been left behind.
 
The time had arrived and Helen made it back to the shuttle to see everyone packed away and seated as the engines hummed from pre-flight. Happy that things had been settled she signalled Don that everything was good and to take off. The man nodded and headed up to the front to give Tara the go ahead.

Within moments the whole craft began to vibrate as it climbed its way from the ground into the air semi-vertically. It was moments more before they arrived at cruising altitude at which point the shuttle arched into a flight path towards it's first navigational beacon.

It would be almost two hours before Helen checked their location on her datapad and moved up to the front in order to help pick a landing spot. Anyone looking out would see mountains on the left and foothills turning into plains to the right. After a few more moments the shuttle began to descend towards a particularly hilly area and into a valley quite similar to the one the geologist had shown earlier at the pub.

As they got closer, some of the shadowing of the trees had soft lines and angles to it, almost as if they had been planted in a rough grid pattern. In closer, the open areas near the convergence of two rivers started showing some of its moderate rolling within a meter of the water height, while the lines and angles seemed to disappear. Finally upon landing on a relatively even spot ten meters from the front, out the one side the water could be seen, while on the other various kinds of conifer and deciduous grew among mounds of moss that had straight seeming sides and rough, semi-jagged tops up to two meters in height and several wide.

Don made his way back to the hatch and keyed in the opening code. "Alright, get yourselves ready to disembark!" he called out as the doors slowly opened, the ramp lowering down until the grassy surface that they landed on showed.
 
"Hopefully not so much adventurous." Amelia commented to herself as she heard Griselda, buckling up as she waited for the shuttle to take off. The xenotechnologist relaxed and waited as the shuttle vibrated and shook, she was used to doing that already, and kept an eye on the outside as the shuttle headed for its destination, which was more than enough to keep her busy on the two hour flight towards their destination.

She got up as soon as the shuttle landed, grabbing her backpack and then struggling with the heavy duffel bag again as she headed for the exit ramp and waited for the others.
 
"That eez remained to be zeen meine liebe," Griselda replied to the young girl. She then enjoyed the flight, looking down on the nature, whenever they were low enough. Nepleslia Prime actually had some nature, unlike Planet Nepleslia. Though it was probably just matter of time, until forests on this planet get swallowed by cities. Well it was the was of nepleslians. Griselda could not really judge it that much. It might have seemed for her, but at the moment, Nepleslians did not have many other choices. They could not just force growing populace out of the planet. Well they could, but not without trouble.

As the shuttle landed. Griselda opened the long tube on the side of the bag and drew out a large rifle. It was abwehran piece, most likely un-known to anyone on the ship. Good solid piece for hunting. It could kill people as well though. With that, Gris put on her backpack and moved to the exit of the shuttle.
 
Helen closed the door to the cockpit after returning to the main area where mostly everyone was. She looked around at everyone to see that two had moved, but not so much from the others. The geologist was about make a comment about it when the door she had just closed, blew into the main compartment and took a path straight through Don's head as a result of an explosion.

Smoke poured in from the cockpit as the smell of burning plastic and flesh filled the air. Helen tried to see if she could check on Tara, but the flames had come up and it was too hot for her to get inside. That was when the sound of several small craft buzzed overhead.

"Everyone out! Get to the trees!" she called out before she started herding people out, "Move! Move!"
 
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Giani had done his best to keep quiet for most of the trip. The others were free to talk and "shoot the breeze" but the Nepleslian linguist and demolitions expert preferred to just keep to himself. In fact, Giani was essentially silent until they finally touched down and he caught sight of their resident alien tech expert, Amelia he remembered her calling herself, seeming to struggle under the weight of her duffel. He grabbed his own duffel bag, which held a large portion of his demo-kit. It was heavy but he'd carried more than just this stuff at multiple points in the former Marine's career. He hefted up the bag with his cybernetic arm, put on his aviators, and had jogged to catch up with her.

"Amelia!" He waved a bit, "Hey, need some help?" He held out a hand as offer to take the bag.

And then the ship exploded.

"Lets move! Like the lady said, get to cover!" He was already shifting to run on a purely trained instinct when the acrid and sweet smells of flesh hit him.

They had aircraft. Aircraft and missiles. Giani just didn't know who "they" were. Closer to Amelia than the others, Giani swept the horizon with one pistol drawn before running to keep her covered as they moved.
 
Amelia let a sigh as she reached the exit ramp of the shuttle. The xenotech looked at the area in front of her with a mix of admiration and frustration. For one thing, it was a good view, but in the other, it also meant that they were - for all intents and purposes - in the middle of nowhere. While she wasn't the most outgoing person socially, she at least enjoyed the more crowded areas. She turned around when she heard her name being called out, spotting Giani.

"Sure, thanks." She answered the linguist with a faint smile, and started to hand the duffel bag to him. Or tried to, because then the shuttle got hit, throwing her off balance. The xenotech fell on one knee and looked around, not sure of what was happening at first. She looked back and could make out that there was smoke coming out of the cockpit.

Thinking at first that some really catastrophic failure had occurred with the shuttle, Amelia was about to go there and help when she heard Helen and heard the aircraft overhead. With a remarkable speed she shot up and started running towards the tree line -wide eyed and breathing quickly- with the bag and backpack still slowing her down. Any sane person would've thought twice about it and ditched the heavy bag, but Amelia wasn't thinking, all she wanted to do was get as far from the burning shuttle as she could before anything happened.
 
"Oh my." The smell had quickly overtaken the dandy doctor. The chaos of the sudden attack had thrown him for a loop, and he was roughly shoved and pushed off the shuttle. He didn't quite care much for anything at the moment, and was charging for the treeline. His arms pumping and his chest burning deep, he sprinted the last few yards and jumped behind a large tree, using it for support. He slumped to the ground with his back against the tree, huffing and puffing. "Oh my indeed," he breathlessly forced out.
 
Unlike other, Gris did not give up so fast. She quickly tossed her backpack out of the shuttle so it wont burn down and won't be in the way. She turned back. There was something that could be done. Have to be. The flight suits are generally heat resistand, the pilot woman could still be alive and even if she would not be, burning down was terrible death. Gris looked for fire extinguishing button or fire extinguisher. There had to be something.
 
Helen was about to tell Griselda that there was no time, but the secondary emergency system kicked in and started to close the cargo bay door. The geologist had to think quick, deciding to jump out before she got caught in the next stage. She hit the ground sideways, absorbing some of the impact; but a few rocks did not take to kindly to her landing on them.

The sounds of the small craft faded for a bit, but then all manner of laser fire started hitting the ground again prompting the woman to scramble as fast as she could, despite the pain in her side ribs. Making it to the treeline, Helen pulled herself behind a moss 'wall' to hide. The fighters ahead completing that pass started to get quiet one more time.

The Abwehran did manage to find an extinguisher as the doors finally closed. It was a cherry red in the fire light and looked to be one of those 1.5 L jobs meant for small fires. As Gris made her way to it, however, a hissing sound near the floor began with no sent or taste added to the air and nothing visible entering the room.

Soon flames closest to the floor began flicker and die, then more started to go out half a metre up. By then, however, the air got hard to breathe, or was it that it wasn't providing something useful, vital. Whatever was filling the shuttle it was pushing the oxygen out and fast.
 
Amelia propped herself against a tree, breathing heavily after the run from the shuttle to the treeline whilst carrying her cargo. She had had her share of bad days, but none of them got close to being one where she was in the middle of nowhere and her only way out had been strafed by aircraft. Thinking that over, she decided that it was instead a legendary bad day.

"What the hell is going on!" The xenotechnologist yelled at Helen as she spotted her.
 
Gris' time was running out. She took the fire extinguisher and moved to the cockpit spraying the flames. She just wanted to see if it was possible to get there. To try. If it would not work she would make way for the airlock, which seemed like the best way to get out of the shuttle. After all she would not want to burn to death.
 
Even though he wasn't the one being addressed, the otherwise normally quiet Nepleslia answered.

"We've been attacked, sister." He shrugged off his bag, and looked to her, "I'd suggest you put that down. May be you need to run fast if they come back."

Giani's cover behind the "wall" probably wasn't much compared to whatever it was that their attackers had in the armory. Especially if they had air power entirely on their side. All the linguist and demolitionist had on him was a pair of .45s and a number of hand-held and remote detonated explosives. Not nearly the kind of equipment that you needed to take down low-flying aircraft. He kept sweeping the area, making sure to see that the area directly around them was secured.
 
Shuttle

Gris had few to no flames left to deal with as she moved into the cockpit where a sudden draft brushed some critically needed oxygen her way, momentarily. Above her was open sky through a large hole in the fore-dorsal section where the blast came through. Below, next to the pilot's seat was the rest of the blast marks from the remaining energy that the hull had not absorbed.

Tara was a mess of burns and charred clothing, some of which had melted to the woman's skin. The smell of burning hair and flesh hung in the air around her unconscious form, and she did not seem to be breathing. Now and then shadows would be cast over her by the small ships above as they wizzed by.


Outside

"Excellent deduction, Giani," Helen called to him, "It looks like many of these moss mounds are hollow and they go pretty far back into the forest. I'm heading further back so that they can't see me without getting out of their ships. I recommend you all do the same."

The geologist's words were confirmed by the multitude of the mounds going further and further back into the woods. The linguist would have also found that there was very little moving among them, but the leaves higher up on the trees that seemed to be growing out of the moss. Helen began her next craw to the row further back, wincing now and then from the pain in her side.
 
Gris sighed at the sight of the burned woman. She was not breathing, but it was still hard to tell with all the burning. Gris ran back and cycled the airlock, then she went and grabbed the burned pilot. Going back to airlock she walked through and then left the shuttle. She quickly moved to her backpack, which she put on her back with one strap and then she followed the way other were with burned pilot in her arms.

"Hifle! Medic!" She shouted after the groups as soon as she got under the trees.
 
"I can see that, but I wanna know is why." Amelia replied to Giani, seemingly calming down. She wondered who would have a beef with a bunch of people digging up things in the middle of nowhere, but thought of it better and decided to get to somewhere truly safe first before thinking of that.

Leaving the heavy duffel bag behind, the xenotechnologist was about to start crawling away after Helen when Gris showed up. She got up and headed towards the abwehran until the smell of charred flesh hit her, making her recoil back and just stare at the scene.
 
"Because they want to kill us. Obviously." Giani shrugged.

Unlike some of the others on the team, he was in no rush to leave his equipment behind. Along with spare ammo for his pistols and some medical supplies, there were systems for aiding in translations, and not to mention the high explosives that he was carrying. Out of those things only three were really important right now. The medical supplies were hardly anything: emergency aid-style equipment designed to do no more than treat the more minor of injuries and stabilize victims until they could get better medical attention. The explosives were enough that if they were used right, he might be able to move some earth, or fell a tree here and there, or maybe even do some damage to their new-found enemy.

"Hilfe!" It was that foreign girl, their "security", "Medic!"

Like that he watched Amelia take off like a shot. He was off after her in short order, pistol in hand. When she stopped moving, he didn't take the time. He swept the horizon, watching the distant mounds for a moment before determining they weren't about to get gunned down. Yet. He looked to see Amelia still standing there shell-shocked in time for the stench of flesh to hit him in full force. It was with a passing shudder that the linguist moved back in to action. He scooped up the pilot by her legs to take some of the weight off of Gris while keeping his pistol still free in one hand. He motioned best he could, still balancing the weight of his duffel and now roughly half the weight of a pilot who looked like she may be dead, in the direction he'd seen Helen crawling.

"Come on! Let's get her to safety in case that fire hits anything dangerous!"
 
Fighlan was slowly calming down after the sudden burst of energy when someone started shouting for a medic. He crawled to his feet and moved quickly closer to the obvious place. "I'm not a medic." He had taken some offense but at this time he just wanted to focus on the patient. He checked her vitals, some of her skin sloughing off as he brushed it with his hands. There was a terribly faint heartbeat and she was breathing, but only barely. "There is almost nothing I can do without the medical gear I brought along."

He wiped his hands onto his already dirty pants and somberly walked over towards Helen. "Ma'am, she isn't going to make it unless she is in a controlled environment with the proper medical gear. As it stands she wont be with us for much longer. We can get my supplies or use what we have on hand but the only thing I could do for her that would truly make a difference would be to ease her passing with some pharmaceuticals or dope her up so much she wont feel anything." He let them decide and walked over to a small clump of moss and ungraciously flopped down onto it.

"Easy money my ass."
 
"We kann call for help. Dis attack is clearly illegal." Gris said and looked at Helen and others. "If zee girl just passed out because of gasses and her lungs are not burnt, she kann live. We should move on now though. Zee enemy won't be too far." Gris looked around warily, checking the surroundings for armed man. She was a hunter now, but she used to be in abwehran army years ago. She never saw any combat back then, but the old training was still there.
 
Outside

A shuttle came in close, then banked and took off, with the smaller craft appearing behind it, but flying towards the people on the ground. The need to run was accentuated by another pass of the fighters overhead as explosions erupted around the group. A missile also seemed to be headed their way, if anyone managed to get a look.
 
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