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

Following Trey's lead, Lilly dumped her bag of groceries on the table and scampered out of the room, trying her best to ignore the details of it. Once out, she considered what to do next. All the marines from the shuttle had been lugging their bags around with them...

Lilly walked back the way she had come, finding herself back in the hangar. She was immediately overwhelmed by the mountain of identical bags sitting by the entrance. She'd never be able to find hers! She looked around, seeing a young Caretaker hauling even more over from the shuttle they'd taken in. She approached him, asking a bit embarrassedly, "Um, excuse me, sir? I'm trying to find my bag. Do you suppose you could help me?" Her face scrunched wryly.

The Caretaker glanced at her chest, up to her, and then back down to her chest. He immediately dropped the bags he was carrying. "Huh? Yeah... absolutely! Sure thing." He whipped out a data pad, tapping it a few times. He looked back up at her, his eyes repeatedly shifting down to her chest. "I'll need your name and, uh..... your phone number. Yeah.... your phone number..."

Lilly, intently fascinated by some nonexistent point on his shoulder, didn't notice all of the eye shifting. She blinked a couple times, then looked at his face. "Otarcael Livia, and... wait, why do you need my phone number?" she said, a bit perplexed. Lilly was no stranger to sexuality, but where she was from, nobody needed cheesy pickup lines.

The Caretaker immediately fixated his eyes on his data pad, clearing his throat vigorously. "Hmm? What? Anyway, let's see.... P3C Livia. We, um, moved your bag over with your shipment that came in earlier," he said, pointing nervously into a mostly empty corner. She began to thank him, but before she could get a complete word out, the Caretaker turned and quickly walked in the complete opposite direction of her.

"What a strange man..." Lilly thought to herself out loud. She walked off into the general area he'd pointed, and quickly noticed her great big rucksack sitting next to a crate. A really, really, really big crate. "Oh... oh wow. That is a much bigger box than I expected. That's not getting to my room any time soon... maybe I'll just... go to that briefing..." she muttered, slowly backing away from the crate. She turned sharply, and quickly walked out of the hangar, in search of a briefing room to be briefed, as she felt somewhat debriefed at the moment.

A slight shudder ran through the ship, it seems like the NSS Acadia and the NSS Dust Devil had performed some kind of complicated procedure.

In the XO's room next to the bridge, Master Chief Fian Vel Steyr had finalized the mission plan and was compiling the details into a presentation for the benefit of the other marines. The large volumetric display built into the room was a great convenience compared to the small display screen of his datapad. The discarded cast and soiled clothes laid in a small container doubling both as a waste and wash basket, there were more important things to organize now.

'All right, lets see what you guys are made of.'

Downstairs, some of the soldiers have started thronging into the Briefing room. A large glass window offered a view of outer space, a very cold air conditioner also offered the feel of it. Not very sure what kind of Commanding Officer they were getting, a number of them took the back seats of the amphitheatre-like arrangement.

Rivers sighed as he looked around at the now nearing empty hallway, looking through bunk room to bunk room that had a door open. "Grrrrrr..." he growled in displeasure, grinding his teeth together.

This wasn't what Christian had expected at all, no... He expected better. He had given most of his organs to cybernetic organs and his right arm when he was a tad bit younger to get into the military for multiple reasons for each. The main reason for the organs was because Christian was a sickly child in his way younger years, and he didn't want to get sick in duty, or as sick. As for the arm, the main reason was to lug around the heavier of things without tiring out as fast.

When Christian had finally managed a bunk with a person out of the area, he looked around. Two beds and two closets... That was enough for him. He dropped his items and gun case, looking around. Christian almost always wore his dog tags, they were his pride and joy besides his weapon.

He walked out of the bunk now, looking around for the shower rooms for future reference. He wasn't too bad and he didn't believe that he should take a shower now. "Anyways, where is that briefing room?" he asked himself, walking down the hall, his boots clicking against the ground.

Christian looked around, staring at each sign on the doors that had them, scratching his head, confused. A marine passed, catching Rivers' attention.

"Hey, you!" he called out, moving forward to the marine. "Where is the briefing room?" he asked, but the marine kept going, ignoring this newbie.

"People these days," Christian sighed, walking to a wall of the hallway, putting his back to it and leaning back, slowly sliding down until he was sittting, rubbing his head in confusion and utter agony.

Viktor was the last one out of the transport, taking time to watch them all go their myriad ways, each with a different plan in mind--and that much was obvious: they all certainly had a plan laid out. He smirked to himself for a brief moment and then also headed on his way. The room he randomly decided upon already had someone else's gear: unbeknownst to him, it was Christian's. Well, the MC said pair up, so this'll do. He dropped his stuff on the opposite bed, removed his sidearm, and changed into a fresh uniform. Kingston had been in his civvies up until this point. Once dressed and beret in hand, he headed for the briefing room.

Walking the hall, lost in his own thoughts, he heard someone shouting. Looking at the soldier for the first time, Viktor's very first thought was, why are there so many damn ID-SOLs? Of course they made great soldiers, but weren't there enough Nepleslians ready and willing to go fight already? And there'd be hell to pay if the government ever decided it wanted ALL Nepleslians to stay home and work a normal job. Viktor would certainly be in protest; he loved this line of work.

*Edited

Then his thoughts snapped back to what had started this whole mental rambling: the ID-SOL. He was only a few steps away, but Trey had beaten him to the punch. Well damnit, he even stole my line. So, he just resorted to the bland tag-along sentence. "And if you don't mind, I'll be joining you two."

Finishing his shower, Anselm trotted back to his room. Finding Talbain's things had joined his on the bunks, the marine chuckled at the cosmic prank and waved to his shaving bunkmate before digging into his duffel for a fresh change of clothes. Humming an old war song he'd picked up from one of his trainers, Anselm left the room before he was fully dressed, pulling on his undershirt and pullover as he made his way up to the observation deck.

As Trey walked to the briefing room, he noted an unfamiliar marine sitting against the wall of the hallway, looking downright dejected and defeated, perhaps even crying a little, Trey wasn't sure. In any case, the Yam-bodied Nep extended a hand to the lost soldier "Trey Penton, S1C. Looking for the briefing room?"

Rivers looked up at the unfamiliar person, a smile cutting across his face quickly, eyes glinting with new born joy. "Yes. Private Third Class Christian Rivers," he said, taking the hand with his left, human arm.

"I'm quite sorry, but I'm new here and I've got absalutely no clue on where to go. I've been confused for awhile," he talked a bit quickly, moving his cybernetic right arm a bit.

Rivers felt quite out of place here with his scrawnier figure, and he looked around both ends of the hallway. "All I really need is one guide to the briefing room, then I'll be out of everyone's way and getting geared up for anything without too much of problems..."

Talbain nodded to the albino when he waved to him but kept shaving. Bunked up with Anselm, he could definitely live with that. He had already worked with the albino and knew he was someone you could depend on. All he seemed to ask in return is to listen to occasional one liners that all and all weren't bad. Finishing up his shave he wetted his hair and started towards the briefing room producing a comb from a pocket and making sure his flat top was shaped the way he liked it. A slight smile came to his face, so far this was shaping up to be a good assignment.

Amelia thought she heard someone speaking to her, but then again, there were many voices in the hallway and what she heard was likely another marine trying to catch up with his friends. Ignoring that, she followed the instructions on her datapad towards the briefing room.

Along the way, she happened across Phaedra again, whom she acknowledged with a nod, and stopped tapping her fingers on the wall. "You're quick, aren't you?" Amelia figured that she was made to be efficient, whereas herself had to learn to be.

Upon entering the briefing room, she noticed people filing in the back for whatever reason. She shook her head slightly and sat down in the middle rows which were pretty empty at this point.

Phaedra made her way towards the briefing room, following the groups of other marines all heading in the same direction. She happened to catch up to Amelia as the marines began to file into the briefing room.

Phaedra shrugged slightly at Amelia's comment, but said nothing. She entered the briefing room behind a line of other marines, most of which had already been seated. Amelia was the only familiar face she could see at the moment, so she followed her towards the middle section of the seating area. Amelia took a seat and Phaedra sat in the seat to her right.

More marines filed into the briefing room as it began to fill up, and Phaedra glanced about the room for anyone familiar. She anxiously drummed her fingers on the armrests of her seat, but then stopped suddenly when she realized the obnoxious sound her left hand made. She crossed her arms across her chest and waited for the briefing to begin.

"It shouldn't be too hard to find anyway, we're on a ship, only so many places you can go. In any case, the briefing room is just downstairs, at the end of the hall." And with that, Trey took off, Leaving Viktor and Rivers to follow him if they so wanted, seeing as they had to go to the same place anyway. Within a minute or two, Trey had made his way to a set of stairs, descended them, and arrived at the briefing room. He took a seat near the middle of the room, slouching a little in his seat and appearing bored.

Amelia took note of Phaedra's idle drumming and smirked mildly. "Don't worry about it, I do the same thing without realizing it. Trust me that it's much more annoying when the fingers are attached to very old mechanics that make their own noise." It was true that Amelia's hand was ancient by most any standard and it made a noise that suggested it could use some oil on it's 'joints' whenever it moved. She reached over and patted Phaedra's shoulder with organic hand.

Not the friendliest encounter, Viktor thought to himself after Trey began walking. He followed, though, matching the sniper's pace down the corridors to the briefing room. He seated himself in the row behind Kai and two seats over. And then he waited.

The Chief had stood over his opened duffle bag for a good 5 minutes, silent for the entire time, trying to understand the great depths of outrage that he felt. While his bag was being handled, it seemed that the Caretakers had gotten into his alcohol stash, and the Chief was glaring down at two empty bottles of whiskey. To add insult to injury, all that was left to the angry Chief was a plastic bottle of vodka, obviously a cheap attempt to somehow make up for two good bottles of whiskey pilfered.

"Okay, then." Was the only thing the Chief was able to say, almost as if the rage he felt at this insult was far too great for mere profanities. Dead silent, the Chief changed out of his old uniform and into a new one, and made his way down into the briefing room.

"Mmm, excuse me." Fian Vel Steyr mumbled as he weaved past one of the new recruits at the doorway of the briefing room, he had an small wooden case in one hand, and a file of data-disks and documents in the other hand perched on his head.

At first the new guy did not notice anything amiss, until his eyes went wide at the silvery grey rank bars of the Master Chief, at this he blurted out. "A-Attention on deck!" The months at basic training kicked in for the rest of the marines as they snapped to and threw up a salute, the sound of boots clicking together was drowned out by the roar of chairs pushed backwards.

Seemingly not noticing the soldiers in his presence turning into saluting statues, Fian made his way to the switches to turn up the lights and close the observation window. He then slotted in a disc for the projector to load and then proceeded to nonchalantly arrange his notes on the podium surface, during this time the only sound heard was the shuffling of papers and a camera lens focusing somewhere in the room. It would be close to an antagonizing minute before he looked up at the assembled marines again.

Lilly shuffled into the briefing a bit late, the click of her boots offsetting the stifling silence that pervaded the room. Most of the seats were taken, and the side aisles were choked with Nepleslian men leaning against the walls, nonchalantly flaunting their self-importance. Lilly had little choice but to walk right down the middle, incapable of hiding her shameful entrance. Rather embarrassedly, she took an aisle seat in the first row. She blushed up at the Master Chief, who was practically standing on top of her.

Harrison smiled mutely as the clacking of boots brought Lilly alongside her. He could practically sense her blushing, she was no doubt embarassed by her little "mistake".

"Don't worry about it," Harrison said softly to the girl without moving his head. "It happens to the best of us."

Rivers understood fully what Trey had told him and followed. At least some people try to help the newbies, Rivers had thought, smiling slightly.

He stepped down the stairs quickly, entering the Briefing room and sitting himself in an empty seat, looking around.

Anselm had found a nice spot leaning against the interior wall, he'd never quite liked sitting. The angles around him caught sound from around the room, enabling the marine to hear quite well despite being in a reclusive and isolated position. When the Master Chief sighed into the room, Anselm somewhat regretted finding the spot as the snap and clatter of all the marines in the room moving to salute assaulted his ears, causing him to whince slightly as he also snapped into a pristine salute.

"At ease, gentlemen. Its for the cameras." the Master Chief said, satisfied while thumbing towards the hidden lens in the corner of the celling. Another round of shuffling ensured as the marines returned to their seats.

Being nowhere as spontaneously charismatic as Rico Sanroma, Fian played to his strengths and took a brief glance at his prepared speech. "Welcome to the 1st NSS Acadia Power Armor Wing." The Vel Steyr grinned for reasons entirely of his own. "I'm your Commanding Officer, Fian Vel Steyr. You'll also be answerable to Chiefs Ran Rui and Rico Sanroma."

"Now." Fian clicked the projector to display an image of Starbase Golding. "For the benefit of those who weren't part of the Wing two days ago, Starbase Golding was attacked by a lone pirate Yui-4." The image changed to the Yamataian designed ship, familiar to those in the control tower during the final stages of the attack. "Using teleoperated Jimmy droids snuck in beforehand and insider help, they captured a few armouries and then disabled key station systems and defences in mere minutes. Their target appears to be a large shipment of our new Power Armors bound for the colonies."

"Such a daring operation would not have succeeded if not for resistance by the station's crew and members of our wing. The retaking of the control tower and the ensuring call for reinforcements cumulated in the arrival of 1st Assault Fleet elements and the destruction of the hostile Yui-4." Here Fian looked at each of the marines as he read aloud names, among them Trey Penton, William Howard Harrison, Henry Morris, Amelia Weynolt, Viktor Kingston, Talbain, Anselm Wyatt and Lilly. "... In recognition for your participation in the defence of Starbase Golding, you are hereby awarded a General Defence Ribbon. You will find them in your rooms when the briefing is over."

Fian allowed a moment for all the information to sink in.