RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 1, Briefing] The Dust Devil Cometh

Carina paused as she remembered the men from before, then looked a little distressed. The girl looked up at her father, the look apparent on her face.

"Papi...those men from before...one got sick, an' he said it was from the food from here..." She said rather tentatively, not wanting a tummy ache...or worse. After all, if it was worse, she may have to go to the doctor, and godforbid that happens...both from who her doctor would be, and past instances of her having to go with her mother.

"Is all food on ships like that? Makin' people have the runs?" Carina asked.

"..." Henry was quiet as he got his datapad out of his pocket, stood up and moved to a slightly more private part of the ship, pressing Milly's phone number number into the datapad, then pressing "CALL"

Biddilybeep, biddilybeep...

Zwoop...
"Hello, who is it?" A female voice came to life over the datapad's speaker.
"..." Henry didn't have the confidence to speak up, upon fear of rejection.
"Hello? Anyone there?" She questioned, wondering if it was just a wrong number or crank call.
Henry then hung up. He didn't have the guts to go through with it.
"Maybe... later..." He mumbled to himself as he stowed his datapad and walked back into the mess, getting himself a plate of slop.
Good old slop. Got all the good vitamins, minerals along with other weird things to make the body grow, and no artificial colours or preservatives. A shame about the taste though.

Viktor nodded along, and couldn't suppress a smirk when she said she had to 'remedy her virginity.' It was certainly more than amusing. She was as determined to lose herself as much as the men that he had met last night. That wasn't particularly rare, he thought, but it was something he hadn't anticipated. He could, however, relate to her ideas on scars, and nodded a bit more emphatically.

"I can understand that; feel the same way about mine. The challenges I overcame to become a leader on the streets have left a mark. I cherish each one." As was normal for Viktor, he began to reminisce vaguely of his teenage years and the various events that transpired, though he didn't find them the least bit interesting to bring up in conversation.

Fian Vel Steyr smiled ernestly, coming back into active frontline service was materializing just as how he imagined it behind a desk. The squad buddies around him, the gear being loaded under them in the Dust Devil's cargo bay and the anticipation of a new mission. But what he did not expect was the dismal quality of the food, it may have been because the cooks on the NSS Alliance were of the less common kind but who the hell screws up making salad and mashed potatoes?

Leafing through the leafy greens, he concluded that they looked fresh enough but a growing unpleasant sensation in his stomach demanded that he investigated further. The smile degenerated into a neutral expression and then progressed further into a constipated frown when he found HALF a cockroach leg between the shredded carrots and the lettuce.

Keeping himself from gagging and possibly throwing up all over the other people at the table, he clapsed his mouth and extracted himself from the cafeteria bench, quickly making his way out of the mess hall without saying anything to the others except making a few uncomfrotable noises.

"Most a' the food is like that, yeah," Rico answered as they walked, keeping his sight glued on the horizon attentively. "Just gotta know what's good an' what's not good, yannow? It's somethin' ya learn through...experience? Yeah, experience."

When the two reached the corridor containing the bulkhead to the Dust Devil's mess, Rico pushed his back against the corridor wall and pressed Carina back with his hand, putting her back in the same position beside him. Rico's expression was all business now; he was now on a mission. The mess, no doubt, contained many of the marines and ship crew that he would be working with for the next few months...and he certainly wasn't planning on waltzing in there with a little girl in tow, proclaiming the potency of his gender for all to hear. No no no...he needed to do this quietly and discretely; get Carina's blood sample to the captain, get Carina herself to a room, and then get in there and reassert himself as rightful King of the Marines.

A perfect plan, or so he believed.

"Alright kiddo," Rico spoke again, keeping his eyes set on the doorway further down the hall. "Stick right here...I'll bring the cap'n to us an' we'll talk about where you'll be bunkin' up. So...sit tight." Rico didn't wait for an answer from the little girl, instead quickly slinking his way towards the door. Before entering, he spent a moment or two conditioning himself...straightened his beret, gave his uniform a once-over, made sure his appearance was undeniably devastating to the female eye (as it always was). When he decided he couldn't get any more handsome, Rico sauntered into the mess casually, confident smirk playing across his face.

'Awright, find the cap'n, find the cap'n...'

Before Rico's daughter had time to speak, he'd entered the mess hall. She had just opened, and closed her mouth several times before sighing, and sitting down, back to the wall. She noted the deck plate was actually quite cold despite her wearing jeans...

Her stomach growled, bad food or not, she was hungry. She just hoped her father remembered she'd not eaten yet today.

Autumn smiled at Viktor again, "So are you looking forward to our next dance in the combat zone? I can only imagine just how much fun this mission will be after the events of the other one. Or are you going to the Acadia for the chow as a POG?" She poked at the concoction in her bowl with her spoon for emphasis as she watched the Marine, she still hadn't gotten a feel for who the man was yet. He seemed friendly enough but she wasn't sure if he was quite her 'type', whatever her type happened to be this week, that is.

The door to the kitchens suddenly opened to spit forth a very cowed looking Nepleslian cook and his Savtech companion, who proceeded to silently remove all the terrible slop from the tables, carting it away to be recycled or thrown away or whatever. From inside the kitchen, sounds of furious cooking could be heard, as well as a tall green blur rushing back and forth, making sure everything was done well. With each swing of the door, the scent of cinnamon, vanilla, eggs, bacon, ham, butter, and numerous other breakfast foods could be discerned.

Loud whirrings of small powered utensils along with clanking aided the smells to confirm that much was being done inside the kitchen. There was a loud bang as an oven closed, then sizzling as various meats were flipped in their greasy (but not overly so) skillets, followed soon by another, slower whirring, which was a juicer making fresh orange juice. About this time, the cook returned with the JANE unit, marching through the doorway to see what the crazy MArine had done to their kitchen. they were greeted with orders to help, and the cooking continued.

About five minutes later, the somehow clean Trey walked through the doors, carrying a large tray laden with all sorts of breakfast foods, some of which looked as good as the stuff you see on a menu. he set the ttray down on the recently cleaned buffet table, and announce "Real breakfast is served, now, if you'll excuse me, there are several more of these waiting." With that, the Yamataian-bodied Nepleslian walked toward the kitchen, but stopped short as he noticed Carina...

She reminded him of his own daughter. She seemed about the same size, same age, but this girl was very different. The way she carried herself hinted at a very different upbringing. Then her tummy grumbled, and Trey's fatherly instincts kicked in, and he turned toward her, asking "Are you hungry? What would you like, sweetheart?"

Then came the loud, irate outburst of the Grey-Haired Harrison.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" He bellowed, making a grab at the revoked plate of food. Harrison, deciding not to move, sat at the table and fumed for the next five minutes. The food tray eventually wheeled out of the cafeteria kitchen, and Harrison was already up and moving for it. However, a convenient stop in front of a girl caused Harrison to take a trip.

A conveniently placed chair found its way into the ex-merc's path, and Harrison- paying attention to the food- charged straight through it. His right angle wrapped around the chair leg and down he went. Along the way, his hand caught the end of the breakfast cart, partially upending it and tipping a styrofoam (sp?) bowl of piping hot grits right into his face.

Wait for it...

"HOLY SHITBALLS!" Harrison yelled, scraping off the burning grits as he rolled about on the floor, his right cheek red and angry looking. "Why did you stop!?" He shouted angrily at Trey.

Viktor managed a half-smile in return. "Well I wasn't around this team before, so I obviously don't know what I'm getting myself into; however, I am looking forward to the action. The whole reason I'm here is the Power Armor sitting in the bay with my name on it." Then he took a breath and raised a curios brow. "Forgive my stupidity: POG? Haven't heard the term before."

An incident across the room caught his ear, and he turned to see a certain soldier trip over a chair and tip hot, greasy food on himself. "That's going to get ugly," he muttered. He looked at Autumn. "Is it always this... active around here?"

Trey had a suprised expression as the empty tray he was carrying was sent flying and knocked someone Else's food over. Obviously Harrisson had not noticed when Trey deposited it on another table. Perhaps in his haste, the man hadn't noticed what it was exactly that was going on. Oh well, his mistake. the P1C thought, paying very little mind to the foulmouthed soldier near him.

Carina, during the whole affair had remained rather quiet as Trey asked his question. After all, Mommy said not to talk to strangers... It was at this time when she noticed a loud bellowing of a man and Trey's attention going elsewhere. The girl looked a little skiddish now, her father not being around, and she was watching where he'd gone, hopping the man would come back soon...otherwise she may have to run after him for protection...strangers could be bad people after all.

Before Henry could take a bite from the poisonous slop, he managed to get an eyeful of what what Trey was carrying, then looked at the slop on his plate. There was little comparison to be made over which one would be tastier and more morale boosting.

"Fuck, this shit." Henry mumbled to himself as he pushed his bowl forward and lined up for some real breakfast. Cuing up behind Harrison, then almost following suit with him on the floor.

That's when he noticed Carina. The little girl. What would a little girl be doing in amongst all of these manly man marines?
This day is just getting less and less sensible. Henry thought to himself as he sat back down, "Trey, who - is this?" He queried as he unfolded his napkin and put it around his neck, "I - was not, aware that - children, were - allowed, on board."

"Alright Duke, let's get Belmonte and her crew where they need to be. We lost enough time with that fuckup on the aft verniers." The burly transport ship announced to his bridge crew.

As the remainder of the crew filled into the ship, the Captain of the NSS Dust Devil prepared to take his cargo of people and contraband to Starbase Golding, the station orbiting Fortuna's sister planet, Gold Harbor. Each function was checked, and he had every major and minor subsystem on his ship scanned by his onboard AI.

"Amp the reactor to full power and warm up our shield and drive systems. I want us making whatever the fuck we call intrastellar FTL the moment we've cleared the magnetosphere."

"All systems green, ready for takeoff."

"Not bad. I'll tell the little lady we're good to go." He said, plugging his datapad into a small socket in the back of his head.

Capt. Mack Reynolds said:

Our shit's in order. Give me the all clear and we'll be at Golding in 40 minutes.
-Capt. M.R.

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Cmdr Belmonte said:

I'm not going to be the one to stop you, sir. My men are on board, and starting to get rowdy over that slop your kitchen crew is feeding us.
-Cmdr. E.B.

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Capt. Mack Reynolds said:

I swear to God I'm going to kill one of them so the other falls in line. If those two weren't always spilling supplies and fighting over fucking seasonings, I might not have a permanent case of the runs. At any rate... we're on standby for launch clearance, and will leave this dirtpatch the second we get it.
-Capt. M.R.

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Carina was secretly panicking. All these new people, all staring... it made her a little paranoid too. The child was now becoming frantic as she looked for her father, and hoping the man would return shortly, otherwise, she felt she maybe in some trouble.

Carina made a little sound in her throat as she was continued to be watched, one that gave off the impression of distress, panic and complete shyness and uncertainty as she shrunk away from the staring eyes, trying to retreat.

Blackbird Lore said:

Viktor managed a half-smile in return. "Well I wasn't around this team before, so I obviously don't know what I'm getting myself into; however, I am looking forward to the action. The whole reason I'm here is the Power Armor sitting in the bay with my name on it." Then he took a breath and raised a curios brow. "Forgive my stupidity: POG? Haven't heard the term before."

An incident across the room caught his ear, and he turned to see a certain soldier trip over a chair and tip hot, greasy food on himself. "That's going to get ugly," he muttered. He looked at Autumn. "Is it always this... active around here?"

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"Personnel Other than Grunt," Autumn looked towards the din and shrugged dismissively. "Nah, this is nothing, it's usually more noisy about breakfast time... or anytime there are fresh blueberry muffins."

The Geshrin grinned again, "Personally, I don't get worked up over food, I've learned throughout the years to eat whatever I can to not starve so I think I can eat pretty much anything without getting myself sick. But as far as to what to expect- the guys are pretty lively, especially Chief Ran. But I'd probably do my best to not get hurt... some of our docs are good but a little too eager to get a scalpel."

Amelia stretched a little bit as the fuss over the food escalated. Truthfully? Given the choice she would just skip the meal altogether. (Which seemed to be what she was doing now.) She didn't approve of the kitchen staff's attitude, but with what they had to work with, she imagined there was some breaking point they had happened to reach at the same time they arrived. Not her problem though. She had barely met anyone since her arrival apart from a couple of the more colorful guys of the group. (Namely Ran and Adrian.) Feeling a little out of place, she paced around the room, listening to some of the other marine's banter.

"They're not all bad, though. You should give them a little credit. At least the one I ended up with had the sense to pay attention to his work." Amelia commented idly as she overheard one marine she didn't recognize (Viktor) and.... Autumn, was it? She would definitely require a little bit of time to get everyone's names memorized. She figured it had already been a decently sized team (if it could be called that) beforehand, but now they seemed to have a few more newcomers. At least she wasn't alone in that regard.

After receiving clearance from the spaceport, the NSS Dust Devil took off, gradually making its ascent past Fortuna's atmosphere. The ship experienced a small quake as inertial dampening kicked in and adjusted itself, though nothing strong enough to anything but rattle some cutlery and plates.

The captain of the vessel opened up the intercom/

"Crew of the NSS Acadia, we are now en route to Starbase Golding. You've got about thirty minutes until we get there, so I suggest you ea- ...well ...err, the coffee comes prepacked, so it should probably not give you the runs."

His rain of expletives over, Harrison stood up from the floor, his beet-red face glaring a big old "fuck you" stare at the Marine who had put his grits so inconveniently close to the edge of the table. Shaking his head, he turned to Henry.

"You didn't pick up the call? What happened, man?"

Viktor nodded in understanding as Autumn explained POG, and gave another smirk when she warned him of the doctors. "I'll definitely keep that in mind next time I feel like playing Rambo in the field. Chief Ran... He was in the group I met last night--"

Viktor was interrupted a message over the intercom:

Captain Reynolds said:

"Crew of the NSS Acadia, we are now en route to Starbase Golding. You've got about thirty minutes until we get there, so I suggest you ea- ...well ...err, the coffee comes prepacked, so it should probably not give you the runs."

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Viktor almost laughed. Almost. And then he was right back to his question that had now become a statement because he clearly recalled the others referring to the Chief. "He was in that group I met last night, like yourself. He didn't seem all that lively while I was around."