RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 2.1] Hiking

C-Man said:

"I get the feeling you don't exercise much." She said plainly.

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At Avel's words, the marine started to slowly curl up into the fetal position, clutching himself and moaning in pain. Matteo continued to lie there, sweat tricking down his face and onto the sunbaked ground under him. "I think...I think..." the ex-assassin struggled to speak, his words forced and strained.

Cedric said:

"Hey, Matteo." He had a grin spreading from ear to ear, "Are you okay there, Private?"

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"Auuughh!" Matteo suddenly cried out before writhing and rolling in place. Horrible, horrible flesh tearing sounds and bubbling and gurgling could be heard Inside the man as he continued to jerk and twist in sheer agony.

It was as though he was being eaten from the inside out.

Avel quickly realized that whatever was wrong with Matteo, didn't have anything to do with his level of physical fitness. She quickly called over to Laura.

"Something seems to be wrong with Matteo's stomach. Can you take a look and see what wrong with him." She said, noting the noises he was making.

"I think he might have lethal food poisoning or something like that."

"Auuughh!" cried Matteo.

Phaedra jerked her head in his direction. She saw him writhing around in pain on the ground.

"Medic! Romero, get over here on the double!" yelled Phaedra as she approached Matteo's prone form.

Laura and Bernhard had been ambling along behind the rest of the group, awkwardly unsure of what to say to each other. The sudden call to action spurred the professional within them. Bernhard tossed her the medkit while he rushed up to Matteo to check his vitals.

As Laura rummaged through the medkit for everything she needed, Bernhard shouted to her, "Painkillers! Now!"

To Matteo, "Stop writhing, man, and tell me what's wrong! You're a Marine, this seriously cannot be as crippling as you make it to be!"

Laura yelled back, "Ready! If he continues to be a wuss, can I amputate?" Bernhard shot a glare back at the younger medic. However good her medical skills were, her manner lacked any sensitivity.

"Get some painkillers in him!" Bernhard yelled at her. For a moment, she pouted before injecting Matteo with a small dose of Clem. "Come on, Private, pull yourself together!"

Wazu was only just pulling himself up over the ledge of the cliff as Matteo was undergoing his episode.

“Shit,” Harm said, looking over the marine as she secured the cooler, “Looks like he has scurvy… or Lupus.”

“Harm…” Wazu said, sitting down near the edge of the cliff as the medics went to work, “… Not now.”

“OH come on, it isn’t like he is going to die from this. Worse case scenario you just cook up a new Matteo and…”

“HARM.” Wazu said, this time far more sternly.

“ok… ok… not like witty banter ever hurt anyone…”

To Harm; Sawyer said in an aside "heh, true enough, witty banter is fun but excessive amounts tend to cause bodily harm to the overly witty one, but I suppose that matteo's day truly can't get much 'shittier' than it already has. 'besides, at least even if the worst happens he may end up dying staring at a nice set of tits' hell at least even if they do clone him he probably won't feel like shit anymore."

Cedric felt almost totally helpless now as Laura and Bernhard rushed to Matteo's aid. The most he could do was step back to give them space and watch the two of them work. Here he was, as the squad's Number Two, and there was nothing that he could do to help Matteo. However, it wasn't all bad. However, if the worst possibility came to fruition: Matteo would die and he would be cloned back on the ship. Unlike Cedric, he would also have a full memory of the mission that they had gone on, and not need to spend time watching himself die through a high-quality video feed. So Cedric just crossed his arms, letting the two medics work, ignoring Harm's banter, and briefly glancing over the other Marines to make sure none of them were starting to keal over.

"All you lot who can't keep your mouths shut, continue on. Need a couple volunteers to stay, preferably friends of his," Bernhard growled, angry at the lack of courtesy from not only Laura but the Neko and random Marine.

"His name's Matteo," Laura said, taking his temperature. The patient did feel pretty warm. In this heat, rising body temperature could either be a fever or just the body overheating. Either outcome was not good. "We should move him into the shade. Who's staying? Hurry it up and decide, then we need you to find some shade in this accursed place!"

If it was a stomach problem, Matteo was unlikely suffering directly from the past missions. At worst, those conditions were slightly reducing his body's ability to fight whatever harming him. "Applying medical nano," Bernhard stated, injecting a dose of medical nano into Matteo. He didn't know if the miracle tech would work but it may at least give the man a placebo. And right now, anything was good.

"Come on, Matteo, talk to me. What's wrong, what hurts?" Bernhard repeated.

Though the medics swarmed in, Matteo continued to struggle enough to prevent them from injecting painkillers or medical nanobots. "Wait!" He cried out. The presence of the entire squad bearing down on him caused the marine to calm down somewhat as he began to sit up while taking in deep, ragged breaths. The horrible grinding, bubbling noise continued inside of him however. It was as though a Mishhu was inside him, getting ready to burst out! Matteo just simply looked at all of them in turn, one of his eyes twitching slightly as whatever ailed the man continued to assault him from within. He gave them a sickly, twisted smile before speaking one final time. "Yep. Diarrhea."

Matteo could barely suppress a snicker before laughing his lungs out. "Oh god, I think I'm going to shit myself!" he cackled.

"Really!"

"Damn bro, go and shit in the woods, don't do it right there" Sawyer said to Matteo.

Harm started cracking up, unable to control herself while Wazu's reaction could only really be described as a 'facepalm'

"Lets take a break for a few minutes and let Matteo do his business..." Wazu said.

---

20:00 Hours:

With nearly a full day of running behind them the squad would eventually make it up to the top of the mountain that overlooked the NAM proving grounds. A small, automated, outpost was up here consisting of little more than a shack with a flag and some camera equipment on the outside. A few rocks and twigs were laying around the campsite and there was a small stack of fire wood next to the shack.

Off in one direction was the Nam proving grounds, a sprawling military base filled with hangers that housed various projects. In the other was the trail they had taken up here, and in yet another direction there was the sprawling mountain range that divided the wet area with trees from the desert area where the NAM base was located. This mountain range had some targets set up in the form of bullseyes, wrecked cars, and some discarded shuttles that had various holes torn into them by weapons fire. Each target had a distance marker next to it, and they were spaced out every 100 meters down the side of the mountain.

Phaedra would arrive first, having been out infront of the squad the whole way but she was followed shortly by Harm, who's heat exchangers on her arms and legs flared a bit, releasing some steam as she set down the cooler.

"I supposed we're going to have to wait for everyone else to show up too?" Harm asked.

Sawyer showed up shortly after Harm and upon reaching the site reached to his back and pulled off his backpack survival kit and started pulling out sleeping bags and a tent. "Well that was amusing" he said to Harm "always amusing to see someone decide that it was a good time to shit themselves"

Surprisingly, Matteo was one of the first people there, in spite of what had happened. "I swear, it was like I was the one who carried all the high explosives or something." he spoke with a straight face. With his emotional and physical luggage tossed away, Matteo had showboated, leaping from one rock to another and stopping to help whenever someone else was in a tight spot.

"Ahh...I feel like I got a second wind!" He paused for a moment and rectified his speech. "Er, not that kind of wind."

Phaedra surveyed the area and chose a spot overlooking the target range. She set down her rifle case and backpack and then observed the squad as they filed into the area.

"Sawyer, get us a fire going," she said. She turned to catch eyes with the Cedric.

"Cedric, please ensure that our beverages and foodstuffs are in order." She then picked her way through the camp to find Wazu.

"Admiral, are you well? Do you need any assistance?"

"It will take more than that to kill me," Wazu said good naturedly as he slumped to the ground, sitting in dirt as he pulled out his canteen, a bottle of pills, and then drained the remainder of both.

"Roger that sarn't" Sawyer replied as he started digging in his bag for firestarting gear. Eventually finding it after pulling out two tent and blanket sets he pulled out the portable fire set and his box of matches and asked "do you want a quick fire or want me to build one up from twigs" his drawl starting to become more pronounced as he spoke.

"You got it, Sergeant." Cedric replied.

Cedric had arrived not too far behind the rest of the group, just in time to hear Phaedra's orders. Quickly setting up his tent and sleeping bag, Cedric set his pack down, and headed over to the cooler once his things were set up. Quickly popping it open, he surveyed the contents. Not seeing any cracked or busted bottles, Cedric was satisfied with the conditions of the contents. Once that was done, he replaced the lid of the cooler and looked around at the time: arm's crossed as they almost always seemed to be.

"Hey: everybody has food, right? Enough for the entire trip?" He asked.

"I have plenty of food staff sergeant and if anyone else runs short my bag has sufficient supplies for 3 others" sawyer replied as he began to take the initiative and build the fire using the gear provided in his pack.

"Get a fire pit set up with the rocks around here, then get a fire going. You can use the firewood stacked next to the listening post." Wazu said, standing up and moving over to the cooler as Harm cracked the lid of the cooler to pull out a bottle of whiskey and some shot glasses.

"Then we can start the story sharing and good times. Who's first?" She asked.

"Aye aye suh" Sawyer replied as he began grabbing rocks and setting the pit up before setting the quick starter in the center and going over to start grabbing firewood to set up in a conical shape above the starter so that he could trigger the starter, get the wood lit and then pull the starter out before the wood collapsed. "I don't have much in the way of stories, why don't you start" Sawyer said to Harm.