RP: NSS Acadia [Mission 2]: Brotherhood and Sisterly Love

Due to the number of military shuttles leaving the planet at the time an escort wing of N/F-As were brought in. The ship-based multi purpose fighters weaved through the lazy ion trails of the mini transport fleet. The wavy lines distorted the view of Nepleslia down below, which otherwise looked exactly the same as always, seemingly unmoved and unaffected by the young men and women sallying forth in her defence.

Triggering their CDD's, each shuttle raced into the horizon of space in different directions, taking their leave of each other. What would have taken a century using conventional drives was reached within hours as the shuttle jumped out of space near Starbase Golding light years away from the core Nepleslian planets.

There were still superficial damage to the station surface, but thankfully to offset the insecurity elements of the 1st Assault Fleet were directly docked to or in orbit around the station. The work crews weren't idling for the three days since the attack and have fully repaired all essential systems on the Golding. There were a long line of them just outside the damaged warehouse section, just starting the long task of returning all the crates littered around the station back where they belonged.

The shuttle passed over the drydocks where the NSS Acadia and its sister ship the NSS Emden were constructed, except neither S1 Hray was there. The last the marines heard of the Emden was when it jumped into deep space to escape the pirates, while the Acadia was stationary a few kilometres above the docks in close proximity with a Red-Hill class transport.

The S1 Hray is just about the same size as the basic Nepleslian hauler, except it has twice the amount of point defences and a large assortment of primary and secondary batteries powerful enough to give any ship a run for its money. While NSS Dust Devil was easily seen on the Red-Hill, the printed words of the NSS Acadia could only be seen as the shuttle neared the hangar doors. Unlike other combat vessels, the deck space of the Hray class is just large enough to make landings possible, but small enough for it to be bloody difficult. The deck crew made themselves scarce until the shuttle made a wobbly touchdown.

"All right." Fian stood up, medal case and IPG file under one arm. The black lines under his eyes were gone after he took a 'shore leave' of his own in the form of a few hours nap. He was slightly happy that they finally made it to their assigned ship at last. "We've not received the full crew complement yet, so there should be a lot of empty rooms. Bunk up two to one, take a shower and assemble at the briefing room at..." Here he looked at his watch. "... 0930 hours, that's thirty minutes from now."

A blast of air smelling strongly of fresh paint surged into the cabin as the airlock doors were open. "I'm going to have a chat with the Captain." The Master Chief smoothed out his uniform and then stepped through the doors, executing a salute to a Navy Officer at the foot of the stairs who promptly returned in kind. He was presumably Captain Esther's replacement, no additional details could be deduced from the stained windows of the shuttle.

Both officers disappeared from sight, leaving the lower ranked soldiers to their devices.

Anselm quickly hopped off the shuttle, leaving the others to their on devices, and went to find his personal effects, disappearing down a hallway before anyone could say something.

Trey stood up and stretched, looking about for Lilly and spotting her. Picking up two of the grocery bags, he called for her attention "Hey, Lilly, could you help me with these bags? we need to find the kitchen to stow these things before finding bunks."

Phaedra stepped off the shuttle and into the Acadia hangar, her eyes wide as she took in her surroundings. She hefted her duffle and rifle case and followed the line of marines out of the hangar. Most of the marines headed down the corridor and went up a line of stairs, and Phaedra assumed that was where most of the rooms were. She traversed the corridor and clambered up the stairs, finding a long room-lined corridor to either side of her.

Phaedra shrugged and started walking down one of the corridors. She passed by a door with "Shower Facility" emblazoned on the doorway and figured she might as well choose a room nearby. Phaedra opened the door to the room just past the showers and flipped on the lights. The room was simple, with two bunks bolted to the wall, two dressers, and two desks. She tossed her rifle case and duffle on the bottom bunk sat on the edge of the bed frame.

Phaedra slipped off her beret and sighed, running her right hand through her hair.

"It's nice to have someplace to call home..." she thought.
Phaedra then began to unpack her belongings and stow them throughout the room.

Norvan followed the rest of the marines, for a bit, most of them crowding around the barracks to find rooms. He detached himself from the crowd and headed to a quieter section of the ship, hoping to find a room where he could relax for a moment. A room opposite the galley seemed best to him, opening the door he saw the room had two bunks, two dressers and a desk in the corner. There was a window in the room, allowing him to look out into space. He threw his duffel bag onto the bottom bunk and sat down at the desk, staring out into space. Eventually he moved, reaching out for his duffel bag and removing his holster along with a small box. Opening it he took out two clips and his HHG revolver, putting one clip in the gun, he put it in one of the dresser draws with a lock code.

As he reached down to take out some more clothes, his arm brushed past his face and he had a strong smell of sweat. I do not smell fresh. Grabbing a towel and some soap he headed to the shower room.

"Ah, good old recycled air." Harrison said as he stepped off the docking ramp and plopped his duffel down on the floor of the hangar. He noted that, as requested, his original FIRE1 had been moved over tot he Acadia from the Melissa-Kenni. "How very nice," He said to himself as he put his foot down on the FIRE1's massive boot-leg-thing.

As Lilly stood and stretched, she was caught by Trey. It seemed she still had to ensure the safe delivery of her produce. "Oh, right, sorry. I forgot all about that." She freed one of the large bags from his grasp, and took off down into the ship. She followed the rest of the crew out of the hangar, and up a set of stairs. As she reached the top of the stairs, she looked to either side, to get her bearings. To either side of her was a sign with an arrow pointing around the corner, one labeled 'Shower Facility,' and the other 'Canteen.' Canteen, isn't that like a bar? I guess that's the Nepleslian idea of a kitchen. Oblivious to Trey, curiosity got the better of her. She walked up the slightly odd-looking plywood floor hallway, and entered the canteen.

"What the fuck do you mean, you've lost my fucking baggage? Is this fucking political because you piece of shit Caretakers constantly tighten your assholes when actual working members of this military show up? Is fucking Central making sure the entire Caretaker Corps is fucking with the Marines in order to keep us ready to kill people? If so, you and your broom-waving fuck buddies had better write in a request of transfer because Central will fucking find out that eventually we will start killing the wrong people."

The Chief had long since gone after Fian exited the shuttle, and was currently in the process of claiming his baggage amongst the piles of other peoples luggage. Ran always tried to get his belongings transferred from the ship he was previously on to his next station, and it appears that since he didn't report to the Acadia in a timely fashion, the crew on board had simply forgotten about it and had placed it somewhere in the ship.

The Caretaker he was growling at probably had nothing to do with it, but the Chief had been messed with by Caretakers for far too long.

"Listen, you little shit, you had better fucking grow wings and haul your ass to the multipurpose room and find my fucking gear before I start shitting in your fucking bunk room. Every fucking night, I will see to it that you land in a steaming pile of dookie when I kick your ass out of your bunk. I'll fucking morph into some terrible thing from your nightmares. I will make sure that you will fucking know fear. I will introduce him to you and you will both get to know each other quite well. You will have tea parties except he'll have you tied up to a fucking ENGINE with barbed wire, and he'll be sure to serve you a pretty pink fucking tea cup full of rap-"

The Chief was then interrupted by a gentle-looking female Caretaker, who presented the Chief his belongings with a genuine "fuck you" smile. The female Caretaker had grabbed her less-ballsy companion by the arm and dragged him off, the sound of a trail of tears breaking through the awkward silence that had been produced.

"...I don't get paid enough for this bullshit." The Chief grumbled and walked off to his room, choosing one next to the Gym.

Anselm edged past Chief Rui with a casual "Pardon me, sir" and deftly plucked his belongings from beneath the mountain of identical duffels, he smiled as he walked away musing to himself "it's always at the bottom" as the marine made his way towards the barracks, grabbing a room at random. It happened to be empty so the albino grabbed the bottom bunk and quickly stowed his things and made for the showers. By his guess they had roughly twenty minutes left till the briefing.

"You know, I usually take the bottom bunk."

Not too far behind Phaedra was Amelia, leaning against the door frame with her very light pack at her side. (She didn't have that many belongings.) She gave a faint smile as she sauntered inside the room. In one smooth movement she tossed her pack up onto the bunk above Phaedra's and jumped up onto it herself. She peered down at her comrade, "Do you mind if I lay claim to this one? I'd prefer to share with someone I've become acquainted with rather than some random greasy fourth class private." Amelia was reminded of her last bunk which bordered one such person. The man had a bad habit of groping her chest on the way out of the room if she was at her bunk. She usually started after him in anger, but what the man didn't know was that the touch actually hurt her, due to him grabbing the scar tissue on her chest. 'Should've listened to Adrian...' She shook that memory from her mind however.

"Sorry to have rather ditched you back there. I didn't realize you were gone till it was too late." Amelia glanced around the room with a slight frown on her expression. At what, she wasn't letting on. "The briefing will be rather soon, so don't worry if you don't get everything unpacked yet. If I'm in here with you, then we can just lock the door on our way out since we know we won't be using the clearance for the room to rifle through each other's things."

The newbie, Christian Rivers, jumped out of the shuttle, looking around quickly with an expressionless face. "Ummmmmm..." he muttered under his breath, sliding his hand across his shaved head, embarressed and very confused.

With a pack of essentials in one hand and his weapon case in the other, Rivers started to follow the marines, utterly confused.

"I'm a newbie here... I'm wondering where the bunks are. Anyone mind telling me?" he'd ask when men passed by, looking around wildly. He went through a hallway to end up stuck between a thick crowd of marines, Claustrophobia quickly setting in.

"Holy!" he hissed, trying to push through the crowd. "I'm just trying to find a damned bunk! Let me through, come on!" he growled aggressively, attempting to push away people with his right cybernetic arm, only to get pushed back by more marines.

"Ack! Someone, help! I'm claustrophobic!" Rivers cried for help. Sweat went down in small beads down his young face.

"No, it's fine," said Phaedra, yanking off her boots and her socks. She stood and placed some folded clothes into one of the dressers.

"I eventually met up with some of the crew at that bar. It helped me relax a little," she said, glancing back to Amelia. Phaedra's bare feet padded oddly on the floor; her right foot flesh and blood, her left foot metal alloy and rubber pads.

"I'm not really familiar with anyone else either; well aside from Harrison possibly...so I'm pleased that we are roommates," she said with a slight smile. Phaedra grabbed another set of clothes, placed them in the dresser, and then grabbed a towel.

"Well, I could definitely use a shower; the skin around my...replacements tends to get sore," said Phaedra, stretching her left shoulder and hip.

"See you at the briefing then, Amelia," she said as she exited the room.

Phaedra glanced down the corridor to see marines still hefting their baggage and finding rooms. She walked the short distance to the shower facility, entered, and found herself a shower stall.

Trey followed Lilly, she seemed to know where she was going, and arrived quickly at the canteen, entering behind the strange woman. He looked around, finding a table at one end that appeared to be used to serve food, and plunked the bags of produce down, figuring a caretaker would know what to do with them. Just as quickly, Trey left, finding the area where everyone's gear was stowed and nabbing his own bag, he absentmindedly made his way back to the bunks, finding an empty room near the canteen, and claiming it as his own. From here, he could get up and help make breakfast if he wanted to, which seemed a great idea.

Sniffing himself, trey realized he still hadn't changed since the attack on Golding, and deftly pulled out a fresh uniform from his bag. Heading towards the showers, the Yamataian-Bodied Nepleslian vaguely wondered how much time he had before the briefing.

The Showers were surprisingly empty, most of the room was empty apart from a few marines dotted around the room. He assumed that most of the crew had probably got a shower, before the shuttle took off, or he was very early.

Stripping down to nothing he turned on the taps of his shower, hot water spurted out in a trickle before spraying him with water. The sudden heat made him jump for a second before he got used to the heat. The water poured all over him, it felt refreshing, he thought. He reached for some soup, before he could stop himself, his robotic arm grabbed it, puffs of dry soap flew out as his arm crushed the soap. "Huuump." he sighed as he picked what remained of the soup with his left hand and started to clean himself.

Originally he had never wanted the arm, then again before that he'd never wanted to be in the military. It had been his misfortune to be created, not born and worse he was a ID-SOl. It hadn't bothered him when he was young, until one day he managed to leave the facility. Three days in the real world, made him realise what he was missing, when he returned he had rebelled bitterly against his instructors. Norvan thought of how stupid he had acted back then and chuckled under his breath slightly at the memories.

Then that changed, he lost his right arm and his left eye and everything changed. The Court Marshall had presented him with two alternatives for what happened at UX-5. Instant dissimial from the army and jail, or accept the robotic limbs and organs offered and serve in the army for at least five years.

He leaned forwards and rested his head on the wall under the shadow and willed those memories away.

"Yeah, see you then." Amelia seemed slightly vexed at something, but she didn't comment further as her new roommate ran off.

Unfortunately for the rest of the crew, Amelia had taken a shower much earlier before the shuttle flight. She needed only to make sure her things and uniform were in order before attempting to find the briefing room on her datapad. Of course, the chances of her using the showers while anyone else was around was slim to none. Letting anyone see her without clothes was unthinkable and would have to remain only in the imaginations of others.

For whatever reason, she decided that on the way to her destination, she would tap her metal fingers along the wall and on every door leading into the bunks. How annoying this was depended on who was listening to it. She barely seemed aware she was doing this however, which brought to question how well she could hear.

When Talbain exited the transport he made a strait shot down one of the quarters hall. He found himself ending up at the 4th from last room. About as out of the way as he assumed was going to be happening on the ship. Dropping his gear ID-SOL folded down the rooms sink to shave and wash up his face before heading to the briefing room. Luckily he hadn't been drinking or involved in the fight at the bar so he was still clean.

Trey arrived quickly at the shower bay, and quickly changed into a bathing suit he had slipped in with his new uniform before heading out to the showers, trying to ignore the other, less modest people in the room. He screbbed himself down quickly, washing his hair and rinsing himself quickly as well, it looked to others as if he did not want to be there, though in truth he was enjoying his shower. He was just not in the mood to be late. After less than five minutes, Trey was walking down to the briefing room, his dirty clothes stowed, a fresh uniform on, and smelling, well, pretty damn good if he had to say so himself.

Norvan left the shower room as more marines started to enter. preferring to get changed in privet. Reaching his room he put on a fresh uniform, checked himself over and headed to the briefing room. Unfortunately he had forgotten that he had no idea where he was going and became very lost.

Turning a corner he saw a woman tapping her fingers on the wall. She had brown hair just above her shoulders and a scar under her left eye. He moved closer to her, to ask her if she knew where the briefing room was. He was taken by surprise when he saw how beautiful she was. An audible gasp escaped his lips. The only thing upsetting her beauty was the scar under her eye. He stopped in his tracks and tried to ask her where the briefing room was. He'd rehearsed it a few times in his head before he spoke to her, but it came out all wrong. Excuse me, could you show me where the briefing room is, it's my first time here and I'm afraid I'm lost, is what he wanted to say, however. "Excus...Yo...Co...So...Good bye." is what he did say. Turning around he walked off in the opposite direction hoping to save himself from the metaphorical grave he was digging.

Harrison, meanwhile, had procured the bunk across from Amelia and Phaedra. Plopping his duffel down on the bunk, he promptly busted it open and took out the contents. His uniforms went into the lockbox at the foot of the bed, along with his pictures, laptop computer and those few books he had, the keys to his Airbike hidden in one of his shoes. He then pulled on his SMoDIN pullover, attached the weapons belt, straightened his beret and headed over to the briefing room.

He, apparently, was the only crew member who could go without a shower for a day.

Phaedra sighed as she reached around the shower curtain to grab her towel. She dried herself quickly and then emerged from the shower stall, the towel wrapped around her securely. Her damp, white hair had been released from it's typical braid and fell on her shoulders.

Had anyone seen Phaedra leaving the shower facility, the first thing they would have noticed was Phaedra's left arm and leg. Entirely cybernetic, the metal limbs contrasted starkly with her pale skin. Slightly darkened scar tissue covered her leftmost side, especially where flesh joined with metal limbs. Her stern features appeared slightly softened, and her posture relaxed. Phaedra appeared somewhat different out of uniform, and it was entirely possible for her to be mistaken for someone else.

But Phaedra did not linger in the shower facility; as soon as she exited the shower stall, she grabbed her clothes and retreated into her room. Amelia's bunk was vacant; she had already left for the briefing. Phaedra quickly changed into a fresh uniform, dried her hair and returned it to the familiar braid. She slipped on her boots, fastened her pistol belt around her waist, and then set her beret on her head. Phaedra affixed her nameplate to the left side of her pullover and then swiftly left the room, allowing the door to lock behind her.

"Now I just have to find out where the briefing room is..." thought Phaedra as she strode confidently down the corridor.