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RP: SFS Chapter One, Part Two - Orientation

Lamb

Ovine Member
Inactive Member
(This is a new person containment thread, since I have three people waiting to join at the end of Chapter One, which is very slowly chugging along.)

NSS Nemesis

The NSS Nemesis was the flagship for the Fifth Battlecruiser Squadron of the glorious Nepleslian Fourth AASP Fleet. Every Squadron in the fleet was led by an Admiral, and the fleet itself was led by a Grand Admiral-- a lofty rank of which there were only five in the entire navy. Thus, the Nemesis being a flagship, it was painted a regal white instead of the typical Nepleslian Green. Furthermore, its brilliant white pain was in especially good shape with perfect trim because Grand Admiral Dominic Valken had just announced his retirement. Now, every flagship of every squadron in the fleet was putting on its finest show of running smooth and looking great as all the Admirals vied for the favor of the four remaining Grand Admirals-- in hopes that they would be the one chosen to fill the leaving Grand Admiral's station.

This meant that the three marines being guided through the corridors by a tired-looking Petty Officer of the watch were passing over gleaming tiles, closed-tight compartments, and beneath bright flourescent lights. None of the grime that usually passed inspection on a Nepleslian ship was present, nor did any of the running lights need to be replaced. Every wall was decorated with wooden trim and major intersections were carpeted with a rich green shag.

The short, portly man at the head of the group was explaining to them the particulars of this political situation, "... so Admiral Kuznyetski says we have to make this ship look beautiful in case any of the Grand Admirals pop in and visit. At least, that's what Chief Dogard said. Anyhow, the wardroom we're going to is carpeted and the table's mahogany so everything's really nice and I'd just appreciate it if you didn't eat or drink anything while you were in there. I mean, it'd just be nice. Whatever, though, I mean-- It's like this..."

He never even turned to look at the three of them. Privates Roy Rotunda and Adam Edison, walking with Corporal Lisa Simmons; the three of them having been roused from their berths where they'd been left to rot for the last day and a half without so much as half an introduction to their unit. Their unit, they'd been told, was on a one-day leave and belonged to the strange Freespacer ship moored in the Nemesis' fighter bay. Their unit, they'd been told, was not to be sought out until they were given a proper orientation from the Freespacer liason (though Private Edison had already met with one of his squadmates and Private Rotunda had already been shown to his quarters aboard the ship. Their unit, they'd been told, was in trouble for being terrible and they would be, too, if they didn't attend to the Freespacer liason they were being taken to meet now.

"Well, here we are." Said the Petty Officer, removing his cover and standing to one side of the wardroom's entrance. "You guys call me if you need anything, just send out for PO Hartley. That's me."

Waiting for them inside the room, at the head of the long wooden conference table, was a child. Or rather, something that appeared to be a child. With her patchwork blazer tossed over the back of her chair, and her work-shirt unbuttoned by about three buttons, the mop-headed little girl seemed to be playing with her notably small breasts. With some amusement she moved them around with her hands, trying to create the slightest hint of cleavage in the valley of her shirt, a soft tune on her lips. A small, spider-like robot noisily skittered across the table to bring her a strip of tape which she discard instantly. She didn't seem to notice that her guests had arrived.
 
Roy noticed Cloudheart trying to create the smallest visage of breast with her hands and laughed quietly before becoming moderately louder as she discarded the strip of tape the mechanical spider bot brought her.

He recollected himself after a brief moment and cleared his throat, "It's nice to see you again Cloudheart. Guess we're supposed to stay here with you for a while?" His eyes shifted to the other two Marines present and took in their appearance fully, both of whom are noticeably taller than Roy who stands at 5'8" (1.72 m). He sighed in disappointment of his height.

"So, I don't think we've all formally introduced ourselves, I'm Roy S. Rotundo." Roy stuffed plenty of emphasis on the "o" in his last name, making sure Cloudheart heard. "It's my honor to serve alongside you two and the rest of this unit."
 
The Wardroom

Lisa Simmons was a bit angry. Or maybe more annoyed than anything. She thought, she used to be something. Part of the elite assault force that received orders from admiral Valken himself. Sure the admiral was an arse and the chief, he got to lead them was like taking two arses and combining them into some kind of arse behemoth, but at least it was something important. That all ended though.

Next was being a part of hodge bodge band of marines. Sure the sarge that lead them was a bit competent, but on the other hand it did not matter if one was a corporal, private 1st class or the ship cook. Either you were sarge and you had some leadership powers or you were everyone else. When Lisa asked the sergeant what was the line of ranks in case the sarge would not be about, the sarge just said that it did not matter.

That pissed Lisa off. The blonde bombshell fought hard and long to become an NCO and she wanted that to mean something. So she asked for re-assignment. She got it, but it meant hopping around Nepleslia for months, before someone decided to store the unruly marine corporal into Freespacer nursery. By this time, Lisa pretty much gave up. She might as well do her job and don't worry about anything ever again.

Lisa gave the petty officer a nod as he left them. The blonde walked into the room and raysed her eyebrows as she watched something interesting. Whoever was the freespacer sitting across the table presented the corporal with quite show.

"Morning," Lisa just said and sat on one of the chairs and put her feet on the table. She reached behind her cybernetic ear and fished out a cigarette. Lighting it with a fuel-lighter she blew out a thick wad of smoke. "Right, don't worry about that doll. Small ones have their perks too." The blonde woman said to the Freespacer and smiled.
 
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Adam spent the walk to the wardroom looking around the corridors of the ship and trying to catch glimpses inside rooms. If one noticed it would seem like he was admiring the clean, kept appearance. Of course, one would be wrong. He was looking for exits, through ways, and people ambush points where someone could hide to shank him. Shank him on a Nepleslian military vessel? Adam was not of a trustful sort. His time spent looking around was only slightly impacted by his glances at the hypnotic sway of the Corporal walking ahead of him.

Adam was busy scratching at the annoyingly itchy uniform as they entered the wardroom and confronted with, well whatever that rhing was in the chair playing with its knockers.

"What...the fuck...is this," Adam asked as he stood with half a scowl and half a truly confused look? He was partially shaken from his confusion by the solidly built short marine he was walking with.

"Really? Your last name is Rotund-oh? Ah well, the name's Adam," he said as he went to lean against the wall in the corner. His face mixture of scowl and boredom. His eyes seemingly always fallinf bck to the door and rhe room's occupants hands like he was awaiting something to happen.
 
Roy studied the face and shifting eyes of Adam and knew all too well the man expected something violent to happen. Roy had seen numerous faces like that before on the streets where he lived. He wondered what hell the man could have gone through to have the same look. He briefly darted his eyes over to the tall female Marine who had sat down at the table Cloudheart was at and then back to Adam.

"Yeah, my last name is Rotundo. Cloudheart over there has a habit of calling me Rotunda," He'd point his head towards the sitting Freespacer before turning back to Adam. "I'd prefer if you'd not call me by that." Roy smiled as he finished the last part of his sentence.

Roy continued to stand in place and crossed his arms. A flow a boredom finally seeped into Roy as he tried his best to stay ahead of it. He adjusted his field cap which he preferred over the beret and whistled a tune that he had vaguely remembered from someone. Was it a girl named Sunny he had met that whistled it? Or was it a hum? Oddly there was an out of place cardboard box that he can also remember as well for some reason. Roy shook off his thoughts and continued to whistle to himself.
 
"Well, hello!" Cloudheart seemed unsurprised, despite her lack of acknowledgement before the greetings started flowing in. She even explained her purpose to Lisa, speaking politely and cheerily, "Oh, my secondary sexual organs are fantastic, Warmonger. But from what I understand, a Nepleslian appreciates the presence of 'cleaving'."

She smiled at her three new friends, even the one who insulted her (supposed) androgenous child-like beauty by asking just what it fucking was he was beholding. She let them settle in and make their greetings to one another with her hands freed from her tiny breasts to clasp gingerly with fingers intertwined against the table beneath her. One it got to the point where Roy decided he'd rather make music than continue what she called 'social gestation', Cloudheart cleared her throat and spoke up once more.

"Please," She entreated them, "You can all sit down. I am Mindtwister Cloudheart Nixton Nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-one. But you may call me Cloudheart, or Mindtwister, or for a fun game you can come up with your own form of brevity! I am the liason from the Free State sent to ensure that all operations go smoothly and facilitate a social and cultural equilibrium during our terrifying and violent combat. It will be fun. And horrible!"

The youthful-looking 'Spacer brushed a small curl off of her fore head and leaned back in the chair to consider them one-by-one. She pointed to each one as she spoke.

"Now, Warmonger Rotunda, I already know. And based on standard Nepleslian gender-specific naming conventions, that must make you Warmonger Edison, and you Warmonger Simmons." With her pointing done, Cloudheart next spread her arms wide, "Tell me a little bit about yourselves."
 
Wardroom

"Pleased to meet you Nines-oh." Lisa replied and puffed on her cigarette, dropping a bit of ash on the floor. It was not like there was an ashtray anyway. "Talk about myself eh? Well name is Lisa Simmons, just call me Lisa. You could read about my past in my dossier, but why not. I am a general pin in the arse for officers around me, must be cause I am ex-navy. Almost made it trough academy and became fighter pilot, but my big head and destiny played against me, so a guy I fucked at the time, pulled to few strings to not get me kicked out of the military. So I became marine. Served with 4th AASP and kicked butts for old man Valken, then served for a bit on a tin can called Sledge Mama. I am a tech sentry and mostly use VOID armour, but I got training with Hostile and Aggressor as well."

"I am not entirely sure why they picked me to help train freespacers, since I have not really ever trained anyone. Must be cause I am... upgraded." Lisa ended her monologue, and used her mindware cybernetics to send an electronic handshake to Cloudheart.
 
Adam moved to the table and sat in one of the available chairs. He gave a nod of understanding at the last name explanation. He looked at Lisa as she gave a brief yet telling briefing on her past. Adam wondered at the upgraded comment but assumed it was the usual Nepleslian cybernetics. Smoking and cybernetics wasn't usually his thing, his body was his personal temple afterall. That being said he still didn't mind looking at Lisa one bit.

He figured it was his turn, "Yeah, I'm assigned here cause of my past with Black. He was the man who trained me in the pen. I guess he figured a pointman like me would be helpful. Random acts of violence is my thing, and making shit. Especially pointy or pew pew shit."
 
"Rotundo." Roy stopped his whistling abruptly as he spit out his correct last name of which Cloudheart seemingly enjoyed mispronouncing. He resumed whistling for a moment as he stepped to an empty chair and pulled it out just as Adam had finished speaking a bit about himself. The whistling faded as he sat down and again adjusted his field cap. Roy leaned forward into the table, letting his arms rest on top of it.

"Well Cloudheart already knows who I am, but I guess I should explain a bit about myself to you two. This is my first assignment since graduating from training. I used to street brawl for money. I think I was pretty good, I did manage to survive on the streets only off the money I earned for a while." Roy rubbed his right knuckles as he felt nostalgia course through him. Though his time in the streets were mostly memories he'd rather forget, he did always enjoy most of the fighting.

"Luckily for me, I didn't have to make it a career. I was lucky enough to be given a job as a mechanic for time and lived alright. Eventually I enlisted and now I'm here as an average grunt. That's about it." Roy leaned back in the chair, folded his arms, and sighed. His eyes shifted occasionally from each person in the room with him.
 
"Okay, well, that's a great deal of exposition from all of you except for Warmonger Edison," Said Cloudheart, nodding. Though she held no clipboard, her expression matched notations, and clearly somewhere in the dark recesses of her 'Spacer mind there was a list of some sort being attended to. "And Warmonger Edison has been sneering and leering since he boarded this ship, showing prime antisocial behavior, and examining Warmonger Simmons whenever she isn't looking."

Cloudheart schooled her features into a look of concern for the table at large. "You should all be more pleased with this assignment, after all you'll be riding around in a vessel that's far superior to anything of its size in your military. It's also friendlier, not to sound racist..." Then, running the side of her thumb along her teeth, the youthful-looking liason focused on Adam again. "Warmonger Edison, do you require sexual stimulation? Your fixation on pew pew and pointy things indicates a certain wont of attention to your pew pew and pointy bits."
 
"I'm sneering cause its so damn clean and bright in here its sickening and I'm leering cause that woman is smokin'. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be here. Knowing Black as I do I get to finally do what I was probably born to do.

As for stimulation? Fuck yeah I do. I'm not shy about that. Just don't give me no diseases sistah. Otherwise, call and I will show you a thing or two."

Adam leaned back in his chair, sneer still etched on his face. His body language screamed indifference to the conversation happening in the stark wardroom.

Out of interest to their mission Adam asked, " So what kind of situations have gone on since this co-op started? What kind of field work is our primary objective?"
 
Wardroom

Lisa looked at the others and it was pretty clear she was judging both man. She puffed again on her cigarette and then blew the smoke straight at Adam. She did not like the man too much so far. The Rotundo lad seemed pretty solid and Cloudheart, well she was just a nice. And awkward. But most freespacers were like that. Lisa spend enough time on the net using her mindware to know how quirky these guys could be.

"Just do not get too full of yourself greenhorn," Lisa said finally to Adam and took another puff. She saw dozens of marines that were 'born to kill' and generally they ended up being 'born to be killed.'
 
Roy exhaled a great deal of air out his nose and laughed quietly to himself. He fairly amused by Adam's reply and Lisa's remark towards him. Though he wondered what would of happened had he said all of that around Black, especially the part about stimulation and disease towards Cloudheart. He vaguely remembers something Black said about them being family when he first came here and is pretty sure Black would not allow any 'sexual stimulation'.

"I was briefed shortly on the situation before coming here. We're here to patrol Freespacer territory around the Null and Void planets. Our task is to identify and eliminate all threats wandering around the place and ensure the safety of the territory. Correct me if I'm wrong Cloudheart, the information is a little hazy." He spoke while looking towards Adam and switched to Cloudheart as he finished the last part of his sentence.

"That's as much as I can tell you from my standpoint." Roy finished speaking and remained unchanged in his physical position.
 
Adam gave Lisa a grave smirk and said simply, "Over confidence kills, I like living." He could tell that the more experienced marine was speaking true. Though he generally disliked authority, it seemed at least this one may know her shit.
 
Cloudheart laughed baudily. It was not her normal child's laugh. It wasn't a soft, cute giggle. It was the wide, deep laugh of a grown woman. Not only had Roy's summary of the situation been swallowed for the sake of Adam's shame, but it was quite shameful indeed for the poor marine. Having no tear ducts for her soft gel eyes, Cloudheart was left to merely emulate wiping a single tear from one eye as she spoke, "Warmonger Edison, unless you practiced regular homosexuality in your 'pen', I could not confidently allot more than two minutes and twenty seven seconds for our first sexual encounter. Not very ample time to show me a thing, I think, certainly not ample time for two!"
 
Lisa leaned back on her chair yet again and snickered. "Better pack some lead condoms and geiger counter if you go for it greenhorn." Lisa added to the conversation going on around them. Seeing as Cloudheart did not have a big clunky suit on herself, she was obviously one of the freespacers that in fact were not radioactive and did not like to be in radioactive places. Still it was a running joke in nepleslian marine corps so why ruin it.

"By the way Private Rotundo," Lisa looked at the other marine in the room. "Wasn't rotunda some kind of old chapel or something? I think I read about it somewhere. I think Kuznietski used them or something."
 
Adam's face showed surpressed anger at the implied insult to his manliness. It passed back to his sneer as he swallowed it down and used his trained calming techniques. In the end Adam feared Black's retribution more than any humiliation this Freespacer could dish out.

He decided to turn it around, "Practice makes perfect, ot so I hear. Though I care more about getting to work. I'm tired of being locked up. I might as well be back in a cell with the amount of sitting around I've been doing."
 
Roy turned his head towards Lisa with a confused, pondering look on his face. After a moment, he remembered an obscure piece of information about architecture involving the word rotunda. He envisioned a circular based building that usually had a dome built on top of it.

"If you're talking about architecture then yeah Corporal, the Kuznyetski probably did have chapels that were rotundas. Rotundas are just round based buildings with domes. I don't know if they actually called them rotunda or rotundas but some of the chapels probably were built like that architecturally."

Roy wondered why he even remembered this information hidden somewhere in his head. He may have read it somewhere from his childhood from a book that his parents kept in the book shelves they used to have.

"The more you know." Roy said jokingly, tapping his forehead with his right index finger and returned to his crossed arms position before speaking again, this time he shared Adam's sentiment. "But uh, I am also curious about our first mission with the rest of the unit."
 
"So am I," Lisa replied to Roy. So far she like this one a lot more than Edison. It was quite probable that Edison could be pretty good at killing, but he also seemed a bit full of himself and Lisa wondered if he could work as a part of a team. Rotundo on the other hand acted like a soldier, which was almost strange for marine corps. Polite people were fairly rare around here. It also made Lisa remember one of her lover, a man named Henry. A tech sentry and a proper gentleman.

"So, Nines-O," Lisa turned back to Cloudheart. She decided to use Roy's inquire to start talking business. "How is the unit holding up so far? Are they still working on working together? I am also pretty unclear on training of freespacer soldiers. They really did not give us much information ahead."
 
"Well," Cloudheart started her explanation by kicking out of her chair and pacing around the table to stand behind Adam. Her expression was like a housewife or a mother cleaning up a child's mess, "Things have been pretty bad. Everyone did poorly on the last sortie and now Commandant Dad wants us all to have joint training sessions."

With the same gentleness reserved for petting squirrels and approaching small children, tiny and delicate fingers pressed into Adam's shoulders. They deftly searched and wormed around for every center of tension in the overly-aggressive soldier's weary (from being such an asshole) bones. She'd apparently decided that he was going to need special attention to fit in with everyone, and the first order of business was working out that nasty chip on his shoulder. While she worked, the small girl spoke to them.

"Warmonger Rotunda had it nailed down fairly well for what we were doing before, but now?" A shrug. "Now it's all up to the big man. This little meeting of ours isn't really a briefing like you Nepleslians have. It's more of an orientation. I'm here to answer any questions you might have about my people and our ways, accommodate any requests you all might have, and assuage any fears you might harbor about our radioactivity."
 
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