RP: NSS Alliance [Marine JP group] Starship Troopers

It had been a few minutes since the Captain had left the bridge with a bewildered Cadet in charge. Sitting at his console with multiple windows up in tile format, the young Lionheart kept his eyes mostly on his sensors manager, which was scanning the planet with unidirectional sensors and scanning the space around the ship with omni-directional sensors, and the communications manager as he monitored the space around him for any transmissions that weren't on friendly channels.

He had worked like a warrant officer would have for the most part, since nothing drastic had come up as of yet. But a small pit of anxiety was in his gut, fearing what would happen if that critical moment occurred. A moment that would instantly thrust him into making a command decision. "Let's hope the shit doesn't hit the fan anytime soon," the warrant officer sighed as he sat back a bit and stroked his trimmed facial hair.

Rico relaxed a bit as he watched the tension between the two settle, and moved from his prone position back to standing. After he shouldered his SIAR, Rico waited until the marine began extracting the body from the ruined armor before making his descent towards Jet. He kept his eyes on the marine as he worked, however, ready in case something should come up.

"Sub-Lieutenant Endurain, we're beginning ascent back to the Alliance. We got a shuttle waiting for us back at the LZ...we should get going soon."

Jet turned to Rico and nodded then back to the marine who was how shouldering his fallen buddy. "Come on you guys let's hurry back to the LZ, don't wanna be left on this rock." He said and looked at Rico. "Lead the way, I don't know if anything had blocked the way we came in to start with." he said and turned to the greenhorn." Just follow us out alright man?" He asked and started back toward the LZ, trusting everyone to be behind him.

"The name's Paul George, Soldier 3rd Class," The armor said, shouldering his friend as best as he could. "Al here was my good buddy... one of the few who understood what it was like being us. He always kept things real when I couldn't. Great sense of humor, too."

The Nepleslian soldier let out a hopeless laugh.

"And now you've gone and died on me Al, you dumb prick. Who's going to be the comedian now? I ain't no good at jokes, but it looks like I'm gonna have to hold the torch for you while you're gone..."

His voice had barely started to crack into sobs when he cut off communications with the others.

The shuttle awaiting them was a 30 minute walk away.

~~~

The long process of docking had finally come to a conclusion, each shuttle having unloaded its passengers. A long line of marines and captives manuevered its way through the ship's corridors and down the elevator to the storage level. None of the captives talked, the word of the vicious beating Fian had dealt spreading quickly and breaking morale for the time being. The Red's body, slumped over an armor's shoulder, only strengthened their fear.

The tally of Ran's team would be the following:

5 marines dead, 19 marines wounded. Of the 30 marines in the entire ship's contingent, 80% had suffered some kind of injury or death, a staggering number.

However, the amount of enemy dead: 15 Red armors confirmed killed, as well as 25 captives of varying degrees of health, made the outcome of the day a statistical victory for the Greens.

That provided no solace, however, for Cadet Willis, who was slowly recording the names and family members of the fallen marines.

The medbay was chaotic. Valo, the custodian robot, was doing an excellent job with most of the marines, but still, it was one machine and one human medic treating 19 wounded men. Adrian grumbled and swore. Where the hell was the medical officer? Was there one? The medic shook his head and moved to a marine with a hole in the side of his armor, with some singed flesh beneath. The guy was moaning, so Adrian hit the correct panels to shed the armor and was met with a spray of blood, which coated the medic's Phalanx suit, which he hadn't had time to take off, and was now quite drenched in the red fluid. The marine started screaming at the sudden spray of blood, and Adrian tried to get his hands over the wound and stop some of the flow.
"GOD DAMNIT, COMMAND! ARE WE THE ONLY TWO MEDICS ON THIS SHIP?!"

Valo had just finished repairing the right side of a marines neck where a portion had been blown off. It heard Adrian yell and made it's way across the room to assist. A needle extended from the index finger of Valo's right hand and with it Valo gave the Marine a morphine shot. Valo's wrist opened and a pair of small claws extended. "Sir. Would you like for me to attend to this injury so you may clean yourself? It would be bad for these men if you were to contract an illness from exposure.â€

Jet nodded to Paul and offered him a grin. "Hey, perk up man, you haven't gotten to know a lot of the other crewmembers just yet...you'll find another cut up to hang out with," he said reassuringly as they made their way back, in a bit of a hurry, as much as could be reasonable toward the shuttle. He was a bit down about the whole situation but, as the sub-lieutenant, he needed to at least keep a cool head.

In the ship the caretakers were trying their best to offer comfort to the marines by providing a decent snack or whatever they needed to help soothe their nerves short of a few physical things.

Ran had not yet taken of his Golem Mk.II armor, and was pacing along the line of prisoners, with his DIWS unloaded to prevent any collateral damage to the ship, but with his pistol's holster undone and his knife at the ready. The butt of his DIWS would be good enough to put any of these prisoners in their place. "Fian, gather up the power armor and weapons taken from the prisoners and place them in the far side of the room. Make sure to unload and disable each weapon. John, assist Fian in carrying all that shit. I'll cover you guys in case one of these pieces of shit decides to get funny." He shot one of the prisoners an icy glare, forcing him a few inches back in his seat.

Two Marines coming back with more prisoners replaced John and Fian in guarding these groups. With a second thought, Ran reloaded his DIWS but did not chamber a round, and kept the gun on safety. "Keep your guns trained on them, you two. I don't want any relaxed prison guard bullshit." Referring to just walking along the line with a person's gun in a relaxed position. "Cadet Willis. Is there an Interrogations Officer on board this ship?" He asked over the Comm Link, assuming Cadet Willis had his power armor on, also.

"Affirmative." Was Fian's abrupt reply as he left for a storeroom somewhere. Yeah, least I beat something to death again.

Fian came back with two large empty crates and set them both down next to the pile of weapons. "Hey John, we will start with the guns first. Ammo goes into the right box, barrels on the left. Once we are finished, we will move the crates to the other side of the room and then start hauling the heavier power armors." Fian said, gesturing a little to make things clearer just in case.

Fian had only started to pick up the first gun when the Vel Steyr heard Ran reload the previously unloaded DIWS. Fian grinned a little, slowly reverting back to his normal self. "We better hurry though, looks like the sarge is missing us already."

As they neared the landing zone, Rico waved a signal at the shuttle stationed there. Before long, they were up in the air, heading back towards the Alliance.

--

Rico released a large sigh as he heard the familiar hums and clinks of his power armor being locked into position in the docking bay. As the hatch hissed open, Rico slowly removed his helmet and ran his hand through his hair...he always had a slight problem with the standard helmet making his hair go in undesired directions. Rico was quick to put on a smile as one of the bay mechanics came over to inspect the armors condition. Rico shoved the helmet lightly to the mechanics' chest, and clasped his free hand on the mechanics' shoulder, putting on a highly-exaggerated serious expression. "Just remember to have her gassed up and back by 11, alright baby?â€

Adrian nodded to Valo. He backed away and let the Custodian tend to the man. He left the room of screaming behind and made his way to the armor bay. He got out of the blood-soaked suit with the help of a tech and wondered whether he should change into his regular uniform before heading back. He decided against it. He started back towards the medical area after taking out a small digital music player and turning on an old ska song. He hoped Valo would be okay with all the wounded.

Re-enty's a bitch

Having slept through the whole escapade of the battle, since it had nothing to do with him, Chris' rest was disturbed by all the commotion going on around the ship. He tried to continue sleeping, but the noise was too much.

Forcing himself up he got dressed and went to see what was happening.

<i>I better go help out since I have such a crucial role; </i> he thought sarcastically to himself, <i>No battle can be won without fresh sandwiches.</i>

As soon as he left his room he noticed the banged up condition of the still walk able soldiers. He didn't know why, but at that moment his heart sunk and he rushed to check on the rest of ‘em. The further and further he went the worse and worse they looked until he heard the moaning and groaning of the wounded in the improvised med bay.

His head not even thinking he entered the room and was shocked, nay horrified. He saw Valo treating the soldiers and, while acting on impulse, yelled at Valo.

"Damnit Valo! You can't just treat their bodies! They're not machines!"

He tended to the troops trying to make the best use of what little first aid he knew. While his nervous hands rushed around trying to occupy themselves with bandages and antibiotics he spoke to the wounded in a soothing motherly voice.

"Don't worry, you're going to be ok. Everything's fine now, we're going to get you back on your feet. You'll be all better in the morning with one hell of a story to tell."

Valo continued to repair the wounds inflicted on the soldiers while Adrian was cleaning himself up. It made it's way between wounded as if following the exact wordings of medical documents on which injuries to tend to first.

When Chris entered the room and started working on Patients Valo turned for a moment to speak. "Attempt to not worsen injuries." With that it turned and went back to work.

Distrust Comes Easy

Chris' distrust of Valo deepened everytime he ran into the thing. Had he been in the proper state of mind he would of probably gave a rebuttle, but his mind was occupied with the wounded. While Valo was doing his part like clockwork Chris was working in a chaotic manner going all around the room to whichever patient looked worse.

Though the situation called for much more then antibiotics and bandages that was the best he could muster and would have to leave the more serious injuries for someone else. He figured his only hope of truly helping in the matter would be soothing the nerves of the injured.

"Stay the fuck down, limp dick!" He pressed the heel of his power armor on the chest of a prisoner, who had just tried to stand up and argue with the already fuming Sergeant. He didn't forcefully kick the prisoner, wary of any sort of legal and disciplinary ramifications that might fall on his poor head. The two Marines on either side of him rushed over with their weapons raised, but backed off when Sergeant Ran waved them off. "Fian, John, how are we coming with all that confiscated shit?"

Acting on an impulse, Ran sent a message over the communications system before waiting for a response from the two of them. "Let's get some mechanics to take our stim injectors out of these suits. I bet the wounded could sure use some fuckin' morphine." He gave the order indirectly, addressing any low-ranking, idle Marine to get the mechanics that worked on the power suits.

"Right Fian..lets get to itâ€

"You know these suits stop working in we break their contract, right? Modifying them breaks the contract," one tech explained.

The hands that toiled in the makeshift medical facility were finally seeing the fruits of their labor. Those with the most critical of injuries were stabilized and lined up before the single cellular reconstruction machine Emry's had provided the NSS Alliance.

Those with lesser injuries simply grimaced and bore the pain, their bandages covered in blood.

The floor of the storage room also had a thin sheen of blood that glowed in the light, the metallic scent wafting through the air. A few of the technicians were quick at work mopping up the mess.

All in all, it wasn't a good day, to say the least.

But at least they were still alive.

~~~

Jack Miller looked over the ship schematics within his room, near furious. Cadet Willis and Lieutenant Wazu sat around him. The casualty report Willis had written up for the captain sat idly on the table in front of him.

"Inform the crew that we're going to be returning to Nepleslia for maintenance and recovery. There will be a meeting of available crew in the mess hall in 20 minutes."

~~~

Ally's voice came over the loudspeaker to all hands of the crew.

"Attention: the captain has just issued a statement that we are returning to Nepleslia for maintenance and recovery. Those with minor injuries and otherwise unoccupied are requested to report to the mess hall for a debriefing."

Meeting shmeeting

Seeing the soldiers stabilizing calmed his nerves and raised his spirits. His motherly persona still held control of him, though the urgency of his pace slowed down and he started recovering to his old self; but he would hold on to being nice for awhile longer. He went over to those that were not seriously injured enough to get to go into the machine but were in just a great deal of pain and tried to comfort them.

"Would any of you like me to make you something special, any favorite foods to calm your nerves? Just tell me what you'd like and I'll go and make it just like mother would."

The message from the captain came in and after it finished Chris was angry on the inside, but didn't show it to the soldiers so that he didn't worsen their spirit.

<i>That bastard wants to have a meeting? If we wants to ease his guilt we should be heading back already, not wasting time.</i>

"Don't any of you feel obliged to move. If you don't think you can make it then just stay here and rest and I'll deal with the captain. So, how about those food orders?"

"I could really use a hamburger," one Nepleslian with a bandage around his forehead said. "Cheesburger, actually."

There were murmurs of approval from the nearby marines.

"Yeah, some fries would be good too," another said. "Oh, and grilled cheese too!"