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

"What the fucking fuck, woman." Ran raised his hands at Suku and backed away from the spoon, knocking over some poor Marine that had been punched in the face earlier and into the welcome arms of a cafeteria table.

"Fucking listen to the little kid. Let's get this shit done in the med bay so that the MC doesn't yell at us."

"Oh alright." sighed Suku, looking extremely disappointed at the refusal and the logic of Carina's interjection. She wasn't actually going to do it, but at the same time, it was nice to see that everyone took her seriously. The woman set the used spoon down the table and worked her seat back next to Ran. Then, she slinked up next to him, putting her arm over his shoulder and around his neck to draw them close.

She smiled and brought the two of them cheek to cheek.

"Well my friend, I guess we'll have to continue this when we attach your cybernetic. Which I'll only allow myself to do. Got it?" she said, poison dripping off the last two words. "If I see you walking around with a metal leg I didn't attach, I'll rip it off with my bare hands. Wouldn't want you to have an unprofessionally attached cybernetic, right? Alex can handle your eye if she wants, but..." She separated herself from him for a moment, and tapped the tip of her finger on his knee, "This leg is my bitch until I fix it, kay? Understand? Good! Ciao!" With an uncharacteristically girlish wave, tone, and smile she bunny-hopped her chair back to the table.

Alex returned to the table half-smiling. Part of her found Suku's sadistic jokes a little funny. She was probabyl spending too much time around her lately. She walked to Ran and said, "Okay, sit down chief." She then took a look at his eye. It was not looking good. "By Davis's beard. Chief don't tell me you couldnt have someone take a look at this before. It's swollen and I bet it hurts like hell. God, you might even loose the eye," she said and shaked her head. "Keep the eye closed and after we are done here I will take you to ... 'infirmary' and have a proper look at this. But there is chande Doc will be working with two cybernetics today and not just one."

After the longest delay that felt like forever, the MC continued impassively now. "But no doubt High Command has noticed our independence and resourcefulness in using all manner of gear and all manner of methods to successfully complete our missions, one of which is not limited to but very much specifically disobeying direct orders. As part of our 'reward' for being in SIX of the most daring and/or bloody battles of all time, the other part to make full utilization of our unique characteristics, the 1st Acadia Power Armor Wing is now reassigned to supplement the local Garrison of the planet..."

Fian half turned to point a remote at the volumetric screen behind him. The screen which previously displated the squad's exploits now changed to barely contain the image and readout of a mostly white Class-M world, its name prominently featured on the top right of the screen.

"... Francia." The MC tried not to imply anything when he pronounced the name, it was really up to the squad to decide what they were looking at.

"The planet has a small population of around fourty five thousand and rising. With an efficient economy, established and planned infrastructure, she is well suited to absorbing the many refugees displaced by the NMX invasion. It may be chilly but it is a lot warmer than being dead. I have been told that it can only get better as terraforming efforts are still ongoing. I've also been told that it isn't half bad a place to settle down in."

"The local Garrison number around 5,000 men, almost all of them cloned from vats on the planet itself because of the logistical difficulty and peripheral nature of the system. As we are combat experienced troops, we will be tasked to train these people in what we do best, ideally, making the best of any bad situation and winning against all odds, because any half baked Mishhu invasion force is easily expected to run over a Garrison of this size. Realistically the purpose of the Garrison would be buying as much time for a proper defence fleet to arrive. Would one arrive at all with reference to the knee deep crap our SMoDIN is in, is but a matter of contention."

Fian shuffled his papers. "Between then and now, we'll also be doing patrols, mingling with the locals and generally keeping the peace." He then looked up to make eye contact with familliar faces. "Any questions before I begin with our immediate tasks?"

Talbain hung around the outside of the door looking in. Having arrived late he had no desire to walk into the middle of a briefing. Especially after whatever had happened that involved a spoon being pointed at Chief Rui.

"Must have missed something important." the ID-Sol thought to himself. Not so much about whatever Suku's latest antics were as much as the fact that Chief Vel Steyr was asking for questions and the last bit really didn't give details to work from. Looking around Talbain looked to see who was here that he knew. He had spent a lot of time helping the ships maintenance crews to pass the time and hadn't really seen much of anyone in the time since boarding the Red Hill.

Carina leaned over to her mother after the woman's short 'chat' with Ran. "Momma," she whispered, raising a hand to cover her mouth as she spoke. "We gotta bring tha Girly Man wit'us to tha planet?"

With suddenness and the element of surprise, a hand clasped Talbain's shoulder and a familiar voice came to his ear. "Talbain! S'been awhile."

Private First Class Viktor Kingston stepped forward, following the ID-SOLs gaze into the room. "What'd we miss?"

It was very unusual for Viktor to be late for anything, especially when he had no other duties. However, he had a perfectly normal reason: Kingston had fallen asleep whilst reading a book.

Alex let herself fall in her seat again, having anoth swig from her tiny whiskey bottle. Not much she still wanted to savour it. Not that it was really good whiskey, but it was still a whiskey. She will have to help with Ran's injury most like later, but now there were still things to do. It seemed they will do some babysitting on the colony now. Training clones and what not. It might actually be nice, she could maybe spent more time with Suku and get better in medicine. It will be interesting if nothing else.

Talbian tensed up at the hand on his shoulder but relaxed again after Viktor addressed him. The ID-SOL replied in a quiet voice to keep from interrupting anything going on in the briefing. "I'm not sure, just got here too. Apparently Petty Officer Matsobuki wants to spoon Chief Rui. And we're all being assigned to train troops on Francia." After pausing a moment he started speaking again "Haven't seen you around since we got on this Red Hill. You been kept busy too?"

"Fairly busy," he concurred, then sighed. "To think: we went through hell 'n back, and they decide there's no better place to put us than an upstart fringe colony training newborns. Unless they're mining Yamataium there, I think it's a waste of our skillset."

What luck. It was going to be a nice change of pace- at first, but Viktor knew that in short time he'd be itching for something a little more interesting than playing drill sergeant for a bunch of overgrown children and policing vagabonds and runaways. Sure, he was generalizing, and sure they couldn't be all bad, but most people that went running for hope were also running away. Only criminals and victims run away- and are never a good combination.

He lit a cigarette; this was common practice for Kingston when he was going to meditate on something.

Fian slowly scanned his beleaguered audience. In the process his cybernetically enhanced hearing picked up Carina's interjection into Suku's conversation, he gritted his teeth a little. Why that little brat! He also picked up some murmurs of dissatisfaction, of which he pre-emptively addressed.

"Of course it is matter of justice, justice to the fighting spirit of the soldier, justice to his selfless intentions, and justice visited against those who wish to do us harm that the SMoDIN does not deny anyone requesting a transfer to, or back to, the frontlines. Anyone choosing this option can see me at your leisure and recieve nothing but my respect, well wishes and full cooperation."

"Now." Fian continued, knocking the pulpit with the remote a few times to redraw attention back to himself. "Step one of our official orders from HQ as I have relayed earlier, is to simply report to the garrison at Francia. However." The Vel Steyr forced himself to swallow a lump in his throat. "I have been recently infromed by Commissar Wanst here from the IPG that he has a prioritised and concurrent order that he wishes to brief the 1st Acadia PAW on." The MC then stepped back to allow the Commissar clear access to the platform. "Sir."

The Commissar stood up from his seat and made his way to where the MC had previously occupied. He avoided looking at the slightly frowning Fian, this being the inappopriate time to sort out their differences. He wore thick gloves and an IPG longcoat, giving an impression that he knew where they were going long before the marines did. Like the MC he scanned the audience once with steel blue eyes and then looked down on his datapad. "You may simply call me Wanst."

The IPG officer looked back up, locked eyes with the marines and then continued. "The organization of which I belong to stands for the control of information for the good of Nepleslia. That stand contains two parts, 'the control of information' and 'for the good of Nepleslia'. The first part I have been repeatedly told while in the IPG is the default position in the event of uncertainty, the right information at the wrong time will eventually find its way to the enemy. Considering there are many uncertainties in this universe that my organization deals with, it is no surprise that we are a very secretive and unsocial bunch."

"Where there is certainty..." Wanst looked back down, now swiping and tabbing away at his datapad furiously, ths projector behind the officer initiated a progress bar to indicate a data transfer in progress. "... Comes the second part of the stand."

"I have read your files. I have no doubts what this squad fights for, how well you fight, and your numerous unexpected and unpleasant run-ins with the IPG. I'm not going to take the services I will eventually require from you for granted, so I'm going to tell you just exactly what we are in for..."


MEANWHILE...

At first it was just the primary sensor array, it was then followed by the secondary and tiertiary arrays as they swiveled, scanned and modulated to decipher and pointpoint a very faint signal that the NSS Dust Devil had wandered into. A military grade sensor that the Dust Devil lacked would have instantly revealed that it was an distress signal, however it would have also revealed that it simply wasnt there before, the signal had activated at just the right range to tickle a civilian grade sensor which the Dust Devil had.

Now this was interesting. The IPG needed grunt work? That was something Viktor had to stick around to hear about. He didn't actually plan on abandoning this team, though the thought had crossed his mind at hearing about their destination's situation. This was his team, a place of belonging. He knew these faces and names- more importantly he knew they were trustworthy. He'd be willing to put his life in any of their hands- except maybe Suku... unless he was dying or dead, perhaps.

Alex listened carefully, not knowing what to expect. She never really dealt with IPG much. Her handlers and then higher-ups always told her to steer clear of them and that was what she was doing till now. Now there was one IPG guy right with them and that could mean trouble. She also had to think abotu the fact that she could go back to war if she wanted, but that would also most likely mean leaving Acadia-group and Doctor Suku. Alex was little afraid of that.

Henry groaned instinctively upon hearing that the IPG required their services. He remembered the last time that happened. A little bit of omitted information and the entire mission almost went balls up - with the possibility of being completely destroyed as part of 'insurance'.

At least Wanst was aware of this sour perception and willing to make the bad news go down easier - if it was bad news at all. At least he sounded willing enough to divulge everything rather than lie by omission. "Go on..." Henry mumbled as he rested his chin on his hands, leaning forward in his seat.

Talbain couldn't help but roll his eyes at the first part of the commissar's briefing, even if the reasoning was perfectly valid. As for the second part, the promise of clearly telling his information was something the ID-SOL actually found troubling. An IPG operative telling the truth left two very distinct possibilities as far as he was concerned. That Commissar Wanst could either be an abject liar, or far worse was also being kept in the dark by his superiors for the sake of having an honest operative with the marines.

The ID-SOL prepared to get as much out of the rest of Wanst's brief as possible. If there was still information being withheld there should still be loose threads that could be tied together to find the missing pieces.

Commissar Wanst waited for the murmurs to die down before continuing.

"Francia not only has its own cloning facilities because of its location, but also because of the persona that resides within." The Commissar switched the projector over to an image of a solemn bearded man in a high ranking SMoDIN uniform and cap. "This is the man you have been ordered to report to. Colonel Dmitry Milorad, veteran of the First Battle of Nepleslia and the Nepleslian Civil War. The high point of his career was command of the Marine half of a Shaika."

"Here he demonstrated substaintial skill in raising and commanding clones. He also..." Here Wanst gave his audience a cautious look over. "...Demonstrated a penchant for initiative that made High Command uncomfortable. As such, he had been promoted to Commandant of the new colony of Francia to better use a man of his talents. This was a little over a year ago."

"I was not being sarcastic. Both the theory and practice of running distant colonies are severely lacking. I will remind you that the current Star Empire of Nepleslia only happens to be half a decade old. It was hoped that Colonel Milorad could come up with new solutions. But what IPG HQ recieved one day from the Colony was a mistake. A single figure on the assets and finances report didn't add up. The IPG's old solution to this problem is to send an operative to investigate, discreetly."

His speech nearing its end, Wanst turned around to hand the MC an offical looking piece of paper of which Fian sheepishly accepted. He then finished, with an earnest appeal. "I have a pre-signed order here, to be officially issued when nescessary, to compel the 1st Acadia PAW to protect me with their lives. HQ is uncertain if I ever have to use this at all, but as the Auditor of that report, I am certain that if that one mistake was actually deliberate, my enemies have already planned for my death and no amount of spontaneous defence can keep me alive."

The brown haired IPG officer got up to "Soldiers, my fate is in your ha-" before he was interrupted with an announcement by a hoarse voice of the Dust Devil's Captain over the PA system. "Gentlemen, a Francia-registered transport nearby is broadcasting a 218 non-combat Distress signal. We are required by intergalactic law to assist."

Wanst turned again to stare at Fian Vel Steyr, who stared back tired and disinterestedly for a moment before his weary brain put one and one together. The MC then belatedly sprang back to life. "In this room, on your body, all your guns and combat gear. Two minutes!" Any underarmed marines quickly left the cafeteria to the individual spaces they have carved out on the ship.

(OOC Note: List out ICly all the cmbat gear you have in the next post)

"Yes Sir!" Henry yelled in reply as he checked his footlocker and overhead storage and got everything remotely dangerous or useful on his person together. Needless to say he was able to scrounge the following items together:

One set of Styrling Muur armour, tried and true with some replacement patches on it. Henry's custom-built lever action 30-30 rifle, a Styrling Dart with a suppressor and three spare magazines, a standard-issue Styrling Silver Special, and as a last resort - a Knife. All in all, three weapons of varying calibres, fighting styles and makes, and a knife.

Utilities wise, Henry was able to bring his Datapad and secure it to the back of his armour and wire it to his helmet to provide extra data to compliment the Helmet's suite of electronics. It was all Henry had on him at the time, and all he could muster. He was able to carry everything comfortably on his armour, "Standing by."

The ID-SOL had an easy time of getting his gear together. Since most of what he owned he kept on his pistol belt. A moment to check the HAS and Styrling special and count up his mags. Being satisfied with his fire arms he abandoned his spot by the doorway and walked into the room making sure his shot gloves were powering up. Talbain didn't even bother to check the datajockey shoved in one of his cargo pockets.

Prodding Henry with his elbow he couldn't help but smirk "Well at least the Commissar saw fit to warn us that we may be getting shot at just by having him around. As opposed to doing something like sending us into a squid hole looking for pirates."

Alexandra did not waste any time. She quickly rose to her feet and ran to her stuff, which were neatly left in medical tent. She quickly sorted through her things and put on her Styrling Muur armour. She then made sure her knife and RPB are on her belt. Last thing she got from her duffel bag was the Na-W/P-08 with ammo. Drum mag, extended mag and two double mags plus extra battery. Last thing she took are were two frag grenades. She looked at grenades for a while, before putting one in each of her pockets. They might get handy after all. She then took a medikit which she put over shoulder and she ran back to mess hall.

Viktor grunted and hustled from the room. He already had his Tiger's Tears on his belt, but the MC said to have ALL his gear, so he returned to his bunk and fetched his HHG, extra ammo for both guns, and Muur armor. He double-timed it back to the room, and settled in near familiar faces: namely Talbain and Henry. He overheard the conversation and jumped in with, "A welcome surprise."