RP: NSS Nerkat [After-Mission 1] Picking up the Pieces

[Exhack]

<<EXCERPT>>
...once the SAM sites were disabled, the Crusade and Mendelev deployed full complements of marines in armor. The Reds, being faced with impossible odds surrendered and powered down their weapons. We managed to take everyone aboard the newly arrived vessels when the enemy commander set off self-destruct protocols on the base, completely destroying what remained of the installation. The IPG probably isn't too happy about that, but most of my crew pulled through. There were exceptions... <<END EXCERPT>>

A set of four Vipers arrived in the bay of the C1 cruiser and landed with a small thud as alloy landing gear made contact with heavy foam flooring. Metallic doors opened up, with resounding grind and hiss, exposing the still armored crewmembers to the brightly lit and spacious chamber. Medical staff and junkers came rushing to the new arrivals, equipment at the ready.

A medic entered the Viper that Fay was in and made a round gesture. "Which one of you has the head? We need to get her to medbay before anything fucks with her CC." He demanded, his tone gruff and a little exhausted.

----

Esther sat at the bridge, keeping tabs on the marines through the video feed being sent to her datapad. She took a small sigh and allowed herself a small smile. While it wasn't a battle without casualties, at least they'd managed to pull most of them out alive, and the one that was dead could be brought back.

"Kat, send the marines orders to head to Medbay once they're unsuited. No delays, no exceptions." She turned to face the ship AI, her face regaining a bit of it's usual solemnity.

 

[Kyoki]

"Yes Commander Belmonte." Kat saluted. The AI guessed it might be best if the marines saw a 'kind'... well, kinder, face after the battle rather than just being ordered around some more by a disembodied voice.

The avatar left the bridge and headed towards the bay where the marines had landed. She'd wait for the marines to semi-relax and get themselves situated before announcing Esther's message.

 

[Koenig808]

Ran had been the first one out of the Viper, rather too eager to get his VOID armor off and have a cigarette. Standing in one of the disassembly areas, the Chief sighed as, bit by bit, the weight of each part that comprised his VOID was removed from his body.

"That was a shitty fucking deal." Was all he said when he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket, pulling one out that had been noticeably squashed by the armor he wore. "Last time I'm ever wearing my uniform underneath an armor..." Checking to see if his fly was zipped up, the chief pulled one of the few unbroken matches out from inside the cigarette pack and lit one up, succumbing to the quick buzz that the Nepleslian Green offered.

"One dead, about five wounded..." Ran could only sigh to himself and sit down with a THUD as smoke leaked from his nostrils. "I miss the good old days of proper air support and planning...But then, it's not really my place to bitch and moan about what happened." Ran lit another cancer stick on the now shortening end of the one he was finishing, stomped out the old one and put the butt back into his pack.

No use causing the CO to worry about her floors not being clean.

 

[Dragonnova]

"I certaintly hope this isn't the standard kind of mission we have. There were enough screw-ups as there was in planning. Hopefully the brass learned something from this." Amelia exited the Viper and removed her WATER. She had a limp, her leg noticably torn up and the uniform around it had been ripped apart pretty well. The armor's leg wasn't much different. Her arm however, was fine. It had been only the armor that had any real damage. Her forearm and hand were mechanical after all.

She reached down her uniform and pulled out something that she had worn around her neck underneath it. She examined it for a moment before putting it into her pocket. As she passed Ran, she nodded to him. "Im a bit suprised we managed to completed our mission. Seemed kind of hopeless at one point."

 

[TeslaTornado]

"don't worry about it, Weynolt." Third off the shuttle was Harrison, sans helmet. His brow was caked with sweat and his bangs were plastered to his eyebrows. A thin line of blood dribbled out from the side of his mouth, which he wiped clean. Moving over to one of the stations where he took off his FIRE, Harrison slipped out of the metal suit and pulled on his uniform top and beret. He then produced a flask of port from beneath the beret and took a swig, then walked over to Weynolt.

"Chances are someone is getting their ass court martialled in Command, and we survived another mission. Autumn'll be back good as new, real soon. Want a swig?" Harrison suggested, offering the silver flask to Amelia.

 

[Dragonnova]

Amelia shook her head. "No thanks. Im not that big of a drinker." She leaned up against the wall to take the pressure off of her leg. "And I certaintly hope so. Though I suspect it was more than just one persons fault. It almost seems like the entire intel group fucked up."

At the note of Autumn she sighed. She hadn't known her name, but she knew who he was talking about. "Right off the bat too... Ah.. I suppose that's war for you. Amazing that we can bring people back like that though." She looked at her mechanical hand. "Though I suppose I'll try not to die. You can't exactly replace my body." She was referring to the fact that she was a naturally born nepleslian and not a geshrin.

 

[Fay]

Fay had been, somehow, handed Autumn's head before departure. Just holding the object made the medic shiver. Please... let her be okay.. he silently prayed to whatever diety that actually existed and cared enough to listen. A pang of guilt seeped into his heart as the Vipers returned to the ship. It should've been him... That artillery shell should've killed him and not Autumn. Of course, this train of thought was absurd, but Fay was grieving. If Autumn couldn't be revived.. the Geshrin/Nepleslian tried not to think of that possibility.

During the trip, Fay slipped into a dream full of wailing, crying, and nashing of teeth. He felt a dark glove from some unseen force attempt to take Autumn's head from him. Tightening his grip on it, the medic took the fetal position in his dream to ward off any attempts to lose Autumn forever. Once second, he was holding the head in blinding darkness, then the next he wasn't holding anything and there was a small light nearby. As dreams go, he investigated the light without a thought to where the head went. As he came closer to the light, he noticed that it was actually took the form of a person, perhaps even a woman, outlined in light. "Who..?" he tried to ask, but before the person could answer...

They had finally arrived, and the medic awoke with a start, almost dropping the head! Fortunately, he was able to clutch to it without actually dropping it. He had no real memory of the dream. When the other medic requested the head, a lump grew in Fay's throat. He shakily gave up his clutch on it to hand it over. "Please take good care of it," he requested hurriedly, "I would care to come with you to give my aid if need be.." His body reminded him with an ache that he was exhausted and sore, but there was work to be done... so resting would have to wait until later.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Harrison was about to continue his conversation with Amelia when he saw Fay, with a bloody, disembodied and scorched helmet (that he immediately recognized as Autumn's) clutched in his hands. Observing carefully, he watched the head get tipped off to the medical staff.

"I'll hold my thoughts for another time, Amelia. Right now I have a favor to grant." Harrison said aloud, capping his flask and heading towards Fay.

"Figure you could use this more than I could right now." The old ex-merc said, handing the silver flask to Fay. "After what you've been through, I don't blame you for drinking the whole thing."

 

[Exhack]

"They can clone you, bones and all... as long as they crammed a brain spider into that pretty little head of yours, you can afford to relax a little. Just try not to get shot in the head... or you might just end up being the wrong kind of irreplaceable." Gyles said off-handedly to Amelia, as he disembarked the Viper. He began running shut down protocols on his armor, and would be able to unsuit completely in a few seconds. There was a small hiss as his armor's helmet unlocked and was pulled off by his arms.

Gyles grinned a little as an armored finger pushed up on his visor, resettling it back to its usual position over his eyes. "I'm not really one to talk, though. I haven't lost much more than a chunk of arm a few days ago, and they healed that up right like it was nothing."

----

"No problem, marine." The medical technician answered, taking a hold of the dismembered head and helmet. He tilted it upside down, looking at the severed neck stump and grunted pensively. "Fucking NDI tech. Best shit out there, but the MEC systems are lost on them. From the looks of it, none of the tissues above the neck were compromised, though you'll probably not want to see her face as it is."

"Your friend's not quite fine now, but she will be." The MT said, smiling a little uncomfortably, as he loaded the head into a vat of preservative liquid on a trolley and wheeled it away.

 

[Fay]

Fay was about to object to being left behind, but then Harrison showed up. He took the flask, blinking a bit before realizing that he was supposed to drink from it. After quietly thanking the fellow marine, the medic took a swig from the flask. He coughed a bit while handing it back to Harrison. "I'm not much of a drinker.." he stated between coughs. "Thanks anyways.."

He smiled a little before remembering something. "Oh, Amelia," he called to the female marine, "How's your arm doing? Do you want me to take a look at it now?" Might as well do something productive rather whither in my self-pity at a bar.. he thought to himself.

 

[Tyler]

Once backon the ship, Kagura would de-suit from her FIRE and winced, feeling the shocks of pain running up her left arm. The injury to it was still making it unrresponsive but it seemed like it was just her shoulder that was damaged. "Ah!" she said as she tried to move it, some blood seeping out through the wound. "this is great...just freaking great." she said and held her arm with her artificial one and headed for the medbay still wearing her pilot's suit.

 

[Exhack]

"Idiot! Slow down, we can't have you running while you have open wounds!" One of the medics said, placing a hand on Kagura's cybernetic shoulder. His grip was firm, but seemed to wrap, rather than dig into the shoulder. "We have to at least stop the bleeding, before we let Medlab do anything more extensive."

 

[Tyler]

She looked at the medic over her shoulder for a moment of absolute venom and sighed. Kagura understood that logic there, she could damage herself more if she rushed afterall. "an injury like this isn't a big deal to me, I've suffered worse." She said and shrugged her shoulder. "If you insist on bandaging it first here that's fine. I just wish I didn't have a running track record of being injured."

 

[Exhack]

"It doesn't matter how often you get injured. Losing too much blood would kill you just the same, and cybernetics decrease your ability to recover from it." The medic said, his eyes stern and slightly annoyed by Kagura's needlessly fiery attitude. He was a tall man with a prominent square jaw and dark, deep blue eyes. A small tuft of light curly brown hair hung from his forehead, escaped from his white bandanna.

"If you'll hold still a second, I can seal the wound painlessly and we can both be right on our way." He said gruffly, retrieving an odd pistol-shaped device from his holster. There was a faint, powdery hiss when he inserted a canister into the back of the device.

 

[Tyler]

Kagura didn't bother to watch it nor look at him and just sighed. I hate always getting hurt like this. I'd much rather just let the damn wound heal on its own or replace it with more cybernetics. She thought. "Cybernetics decrease natural healing ability...."Kagura said with a kind of sad tone. "I'd get my arm regrown by our medical tech isn't that good is it..." she asked, looking athim with her single red eye but held still.

 

[Exhack]

The medic removed his hand from Kagura's shoulder and pointed to her outfit, a slightly wry expression on his face. "I'll need you to strip down to your undershirt to do this properly, you know. Unless you want jumpsuit embedded in your left shoulder..."

 

[TeslaTornado]

"Port's a bit strong, eh?" Harrison stated with a laugh as he took the port back. "Alright then. Well I guess I'll see you around then, Fay. Good luck with Autumn." The old ex-merc pocketed his flask and walked out of the PA bay, heading for his bunk, when he felt like his internal organs had suddenly dried out.

"... Oh, right." Quickly turning towards the nearest drinking fountain, Harrison started to fill himself to capacity with the tasteless, clear liquid and eventually started coughing heavily with the drink. "Well, that feels better."

 

[Tyler]

"Uhmmm.." She blushed at that and looked at him. "I'm not wearing an undershirt...." Kagura admitted and unzipped the suit enough to withdraw her arms from it showing she had a black sports bra on under it, the metal of her right arm fully in view now. The suit folded down around her waist as she sighed. " better?"

 

[Dragonnova]

Amelia watched the head of her fellow soldier be carried off with the helmet still on it. These medics had a lot of guts, that's for sure. They had her respect. Plus, anyone willing to risk danger to save the life of another was alright by her.

She looked up at Fay as he approached. "My arm's fine. Shoulder's a bit bruised up, but otherwise, it's fine." She said dismissively. "My leg's a different story." She lifted the injured leg with a small flinch to show him. From the skin exposed, there were a large number of cuts, but all the big ones still had bits of shrapnel in them which kept her from bleeding too much suprisingly. Plenty of smaller cuts made up the small trail of blood leading from her suit to where she stood now, however.

"I suppose if you want to take a look at it, you may." She clicked her tongue. Indifferent as always it seemed. She seemed pretty good at hiding the fact that it hurt a lot more than she let on.

 

[Miyako]

"Get him on a stretcher!" Rose snapped to the waiting teams, taking the chance she had to get out of her own suit of armour when she had it when they scrambled to get Adrian onto a stretcher.

In short time they were moving swiftly down the halls of the ship, and she was giving her best medical assessment which notedly was more than they should have expected to hear from a medic her rank. It was a reaction, something the young Marine was a little pissed at herself for spilling given the suffering he put people through.

Fuck'n oath..

As soon as Adrian hit the table, scans started up and one of the medics took Dream aside to check her out before motioning her away from the flurry of activity the medbay had become. "Fine I didn't wanna' help him anyway..." That was a lie, but even though she was angry at what a catastrophe things had turned out to be, at him, at everything in that moment all it manifested as was a distracting opening and closing of her fist.