[Francia/Acadia][Mission 0] - Journey to the North West

Trey paused a moment to scratch at his stubbly chin at the announcement. I was only fighting in three of those. Ah well he mused mentally, before returning to his rifle. Being famous was nice, but having his family safe and secure was more important.

That, and the rifle was unbelievably dirty. How it had gotten so dirty was a mystery, though Trey knew he hadn't actually cleaned it since finding it. Such was the life of a marine who could fix things AND cook, as he was in rather high demand by the non-combat staff at times.

Fian appreciated the approvals and return salutes, what he just claimed was hard to believe when the marines were living in squalour now compared to the luxury of a Hray-Class, but throughout his career he wasn't one to lie. He shook his head to clear the sentimentality and proceeded on to gradually more serious business.

"Now, not withstanding all our tactical victories, we have been present on site of many strategic defeats which were out of our power dispite our best efforts." He then switched the slide to side profiles of three Hray-Classes: The NSS Acadia, NSS Emden and NSS Alder. "It has been the Mishhu's intention from the very start to capture a number of our stealth gunships to launch a suprise attack on our seat of goverment. Our impromptu defence of Golding prevented the hijacking by pirate mercenaries of one of the two Hray-Classes docked there."

The slide then changed to that of the Wazu Nebula. "After a pursuit to what we did not know was the handover point to the Mishhus, we managed to recapture the NSS Emden but with the loss of the NSS Alder which supported us during the operation."

The screen switched to the order of battle on Rok'Veru, showing an overwhelming disadvange in numbers by the defensive forces. "While we were busy on Rok'Veru, the squids made do with what they had. They had managed to repair the NSS Alder at least marginally. In combination with the efforts of undercover operatives in High Command, they successfully disguised it as the NSS Acadia and..."

The last slide popped into view, it was the aftermath of the Senate attack with the building partially in ruin and the bodies of security and zombies strewn about. "... Finally launched the attack." The MC impulsively rubbed his palms together, what followed next was the ultimate achievement of the Acadian marines. "It was performed with one patched-together Hray as opposed to two pristine ones, with a ground attack instead of an orbital strike. When the NSS Alder was engaged by the Acadia high above the planet, it did not and could not return fire, its weapon systems were damaged beyond repair."

"I think you guys get the trend by now. We arrived again to throw a spanner in the NMX works. With the exception of one suicide attack of which ... of which..." The Vel Steyr visibly faltered, dispite his best effort, the sentence simply did not allow itself to be finished without some discreet sign of anger and self-pity. "... Most senators survived. The remaining NMX attacks were repulsed and the seat of the Nepleslian goverment is now moved to the more defensible Nepleslia Prime, which coincidentally happened to be a more condusive place than Old Nepleslia to prosecute the war. Nepleslia Prime is rich in resources, with a new state of the art industrial base and most importantly free of sectarian strife and saboteurs."

"Sure that we lost more than we gained, all in all." Fian pressed on, he did not have a slide for this one. "But we have turned what could have been a crippling blow to the Imperium into a figurative vaccination shot. The Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia is now stronger than it would have been if the original form of the attack did happen, or the attack in the form we reduced it to did not happen."

"And." The MC then leisurely produced a small bottle of beer and removed the cap with an opener he kept on the rostrum. "It is all thanks to you." He raised the bottle and his voice to the crowd. "All in a Marine's good day of work I'd say!"

"All well and good except our replacements are serving under that recluse of a one Heram J. Wazu, sir," Anselm added bitterly, standing up and leveling eyes with his former Master Chief, utmost respect mingling with no small amount of resentment at leaving the Acadians with the Admiral, "last I had the pleasure of the NSS Asp's accomodations, he still seemed to have made up his mind that our actions were worthy of admonishment rather than praise, even to the point of hiring that fucking neko mercenary, Harm, as our NCO."

At this, the marine spit over the side of his table to show just what he thought about that sort of thing.

Suku tuned out Vel Steyr for the most part, mainly because nothing he said pertained or would pertain to her or her work. This was a room of Marines, not Naval personnel. Since Alex managed to get most of the work done on her end, Suku just patted her on the shoulder and went back to her meal. Those hot-wings were going to get cold if she didn't get back to them soon enough.

She sat down next to Carina and grabbed another hot-wing off her plate, and stuck it in her mouth as she stared boredly at Fian.

Between sipping at the can and listening to the Master Chief go on about something she didn't really understand, Carina was somewhat bored. That was until Suku came back. With her mother looking boredly at Fian just as she boredly listened to him the girl remembered.

"Momma? How come I didn' hear no screams from Big Shnozz?" asked Carina. "Ya were lookin all mad at'em an' stuff."

"Remember what Uncle Wii said about waiting for the right moment to profit?" said Suku after cleaning off another bone and setting it down next to her collection of defeated chicken legs. She looked down at her daughter buffalo-sauce stained smile before picking up another hot wing. "Right now isn't the right moment, but soon..." Suku stuck the wing half-way in her mouth before clamping down and snapping the bone between her teeth with an audible crunch. Cooking oils ran down her chin, mixing with the already half-dried blood, which made for a very ominous picture. She crunched at the mix of chicken bones and meat and eventually swallowed it. "It's just a matter of time." said the positively evil doctor, waving the remaining end of the bone.

Pat on shoulder from Suku made her happy. It meant she did something good and it was appreciated. She will have to do her best to stay on good side of this woman.

Alex went back to her seat and raised her bottle of whiskey to toas with MC. She then went back to her roll.

While the sinister looking appearance may have scared some it did little to deter Carina. After all, when you lived with Suku, you got used to Suku. Even so every once and awhile she did still give the child the creeps. Just this time was not one of those times. Albeit she did wince at the sound of bones crunching between chews.

"Uncle Wii tol' me y'make profit for waiting for tha' righ' opportunity. Bu' he also said tha' if it was bad y'do it where y'don get caught. So y'don get in trouble."

Carina shook her empty can and only heard a few little dregs remaining.

" 'is why I waited t'cut tha boy who tried t'steal Schmoopy."

As Fian raised his beer, Sam momentarily panicked. Aw fuck, I don't got anythin' to toast with! She frantically looked around the table until she spotted a half-empty bottle of whiskey someone had left; she leaned over, careful not to unsettle Carina on her lap, and grabbed the bottle to raise it to the Master Chief and then take a gigantic swig.

After her own gulp, the marine looked down to the girl in her lap. "Hey, you want some, y'li'l squirt?"

Alexandra was happily chewing on piece of... something, when Sam took her bottle of whiskey. She did not mind exactly and went back for chewing and focusing on not thinking what exactly she is chewing. This was a little drawback of Manly-manroll. You never knew what you eating exactly. But that was probably for the better.

Sam took a gulp of Whiskey when Alexandra finally managed to swallow that load. She raised her eyebrow seing how another quarter of her bottle was gone. Sam could take it down pretty well. Alexandra's eyebrows would go even highed if it would be possible when marine across the table asked little girl if she wants some whiskey. "I am not sure that is such a good idea Sam, I have energy drink here." She said and took a can of Thrust and Speed from ration box. Of course she didn't realized that it could make the child quite hyper and it was not really that better than the whiskey.

The Chief at this point had finally finished his flask of whiskey, by now feeling a slight tingling sensation in his head, which helped to dull the horrible pain he was feeling in his left eye. The Chief had a piece of debris impact against his left eye back in Funky City, and because of the rushed nature of the evacuation and of the rescue mission that followed soon after, he wasn't able to address this issue. Despite the fact that half his vision was blurred.

Maybe it was the alcohol suddenly taking effect. Or perhaps it was the sudden realization that he wasn't expected to undertake another mission so soon, but the Chief had headed toward Suku, pulled up a chair three feet away, placed it with the back of the chair facing the Master Chief, and sat reversed on it.

After a few awkward minutes, the Chief turned towards Suku, and said "My eye is fucked up."

Suku gibb-slapped the back of Sam's head as soon as she had mentioned giving alcohol to the aforementioned 'lil squirt'.

"Don't give my lil' squirt alcohol." growled the monstrously motherly Suku. She then pointed down at Carina, "And you don't drink anything these guys give you. It'll make you sworlier than a pig-whore at a swinfest. And no I'm not explaining what a pig-whore or a swinefest is."

"My eye is fucked up."

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Suku spun around, pulling a scalpel out of her overshirt's inner pocket and pointing it at one of Ran's eyes. Once again the genuine smile was on her face, somewhat unsettling with the scalpel being held to his eyes.

"My my, what should we do about that." said the Doctor, pearly whites shining.

"Ngah." The bottle sloshed in Sam's hand, spilling booze all over the table. She sighed at the waste. "But it'll make her big 'n strong, an' all the other kids her a - oh. She ain't listenin' anymore." The marine turned slightly to look at Suku almost stabbing Ran in the eye, returning to nibbling on strips of bacon with a thought of par for the course.

Carina was busily rolling her empty can on the table when Sam's offer was uttered and then stopped with a firm slap along the backside of her head. She knew who did that almost instantly as Suku's growl and voice followed after. And once again leaving the child with more questions than answers.

She was about to open her mouth to ask what such things were but had promptly been shut down before even beginning. Carina'd opened her mouth again to tell her mother she wouldn't accept any of the drinks but then watched as Suku swiveled around on her chair with a scalpel right next to Ran's eye.

Naturally Carina just sighed before going back to the can.

Sean just kind of sat back, dozing off slightly as the announcements about the squad's accomplishments went on. He was really only there for two of those, and didn't feel like they'd done anything all that special during any of it, either. Regardless, based on what he'd heard about their new posting (what little there was to hear), it certainly didn't sound to him like they were being 'praised'. More like buried in an out of the way place where they weren't in any danger of messing anything else up. He took another bite of his manroll, chewing slowly, completely and utterly ignoring Suku and Ran. Even if he hadn't been around these people for long, his own meetings with Suku and his time around Ran gave him a good idea that this was probably something which could be counted on to happen with almost alarming consistency.

Alex withdraw her can of energy drink upon Suku's comment hat little girl should not drink anything providne by marines. Alex was not really sure if she was part of that, since she was half marine and hald medical staff, but she was not willing to risk that.

SHe finished her tasty meal and then looked at Suku, wishing to ask an question. But chief was ther first talking about his eye. Something seemed to be bad with it. It meant that Alex was responsible for that. She was with him in Funky city and that meant she did not took good care of any problem Chief Ran had.

"What is the problem chief," Alex asked Rui. She knew that Suku wanted to play with Chief firt, but she was not in mood for that. No matter how mad Suku could get at her later.

The Chief just sat there on the chair, crossing his arms on the top of the backrest and supporting himself. Like a man staring down a bear, the Chief had to show no fear against this terrifying beast that some ass had thrown into the medical profession.

"...Why the fuck do you carry a scalpel with you?" Was his only response to Suku, before turning to Alex.
"I've been working with fucked up depth perception ever since Funky City. I'm pretty sure this thing is fucked." Indeed, the swelling around his eye had gone down some since Funky City, but it was still swollen enough to hide how putrid the Chief's eye had become.

"I don't really care who removes it. But I do care how it's removed. And I'd rather not have it removed with a rusty spoon or something." His one good eye darted to Suku at that.

"We'd have to take an X-Ray and do some tests to see how far the infection in your eye has spread." said Suku, tapping the butt end of her scalpel onto the table. The woman rubbed her chin and inspected the man like a hooked and butchered piece of cattle. She lifted the scalpel and began to motion it around, as if performing some sort of operation. Her stare was distant, deep in thought before she broke that focus and set the bladed utensil back on the table. She grunted.

"The Medical facilities on this station are a little lacking, but I think we can rip that eye out if we need to." said Suku as she picked up one of the spoons that had been lying around. She pointed it at his eye like she had done the scalpel and smiled sweetly once more. "Okie dokie, just sit real still."

Alexandra was really expecting Suku to do just that. And she was not saying nothing at all, there was good chance that the infection in the eye spread too far anyway. That said Alex would probably do the same, only she had her combat knife with her and now scalpel. Though even if they removed the eye right now, it could not be put in cryo here.

"I'll get bukkit of ice ma'am," she said to Suku and went to cooks. She was calm, and it really did not matter if they removed eye here or in the tent set up in hangar-bay.

"But momma... don'tcha think y'need ta take his eye out where ya work? 'cause if y'do it here... won' a bunch'a people see you takin' his eye out 'an get sick tummies?" Carina piped up as she saw the woman waving the spoon about. And the doctor's lack of love for more than one patient a day.

" 'cause y'know... more people'll show up 'an ya'd have to work on'em to."