RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 2] Recovery

[Zack]

“If you’ll please come with me.” The junker drone announced over its speakers as it turned away from the airlock doors to lead the new medic deeper into the starship. Its body was covered in a pair of green scrubs that had been glued in place to make it look like an orderly. Just below the single, glowing, red eye was an air filter face mask which had been tied in place over a speaker.

“You have been assigned to the NSS Asp for the time being to serve as a medical officer. We are expecting casualties to arrive in the next ten to twenty minutes so you will need to get the med bay ready to receive injured. Leave your personal items here, they will be taken to your room for you.”

The drone didn’t give Bernhard much time to get adjusted to the ship, or even to get familiar with its layout. He had only just received his assignment and was being put to work immediately on preparing a medbay that wasn’t completely set up yet.

All off the necessary equipment was here, beds, an operating room, a morgue, stasis chambers, fabrication machines to produce medicine, and a host of junker drone nurses ready to follow his orders, but this was the first time the medbay on the ship had been used in any serious capacity. Much of the equipment was still under plastic wrapping or locked away inside of storage areas in the walls. The area also had an open floor plan, the spacious medical bay sharing the same space as a small morgue and the ship’s science lab.

With a very matter of fact voice, the drone would add, “You may instruct the junkers on how to proceed.”

 

[Sigma]

Bernhard sighed. What kind of crap unit was this? Recently arrived and already thrown into the grind! And by drones, no CO to greet him even. The expectations for a unit that he had gotten from his drill instructors and the realities didn't seem to match.

There wasn't even another soul in sight. Of all things, that was the most messed up thing in a military.

"You three," Bernhard pointed to three drones, "Unwrap all of this stuff and lay it out properly. Then sterilize it." What else... "Your four, prep the operating room. Make sure everything in there is sterile. And no dust. Then get the equipment ready and anesthetics prepped."

He started undressing, throwing his service pullover to the side. "You, I want details about numbers and status. Does this unit have a medic I can use? You, get me something sterile I can wear. The rest of you, start prepping anesthetics, bandages, and painkillers. Once they start arriving, I want you four working triage. Do you know how to do that?"

Bernhard took the surgical gown from a junker drone and put it over his undershirt. There was no time to get the boots and trousers covered. "Someone have an ETA on those patients?" he shouted out loudly, as he flung his beret alongside the pullover. Next, he unbuckled his holster, dumped it on the ground and kicked it over to the growing pile of equipment.

 

[Zack]

The last thing Cedric would remember was being sent down to Malaise, a bright flash of light, an intense headache, and then he was here, naked, laying down in a cold tube with a junker drone perched over him. The single red eye would sweep over his face, examining his responses. He would then hear the sounds of the other robots moving about.

“Yes, we can handle triage, and the marine group should be here in five minutes” One of the junkers shouted out as they scurried about the medbay to get things ready to Bernhard’s satisfaction. The marine group was already heading back up from the planet via shuttle but there was one particular thing to handle before they arrived.

“Sir! We have a respawn order for a one: Cedric Sommerville.

The last Brain Spider backup was done while he had a bionic eye installed so you will need to help recalibrate the device on the body we just brought out of storage. He is waiting in that Stasis Pod we just opened for when you are ready.”

“TWO MINUTES!” Another junker would yell out. By now the shuttle was docking with the NSS Asp and the marine group was disembarking. Wazu and Avel were nearly dead from blood loss and the group’s neko was missing an arm entirely. The uninjured marines also needed to be checked over and as a group they were all guided up to the medbay.

When they arrived they were greeted with a junker drone shouting, “THEY ARE HERE!”

 

[Sigma]

"Alright, hold on a minute. Run a check on his vitals first. Check for any physical or mental trauma." Bernhard washed his hands with hot water and soap.

"All of you who aren't occupied, begin triage and get patient vitals. I want notification if we have any critical or severe cases. If they're just bruised and banged up, run standard first aid treatment until I can have a look at them."

He turned his attention to Cedric's vital signs.

 

[Cedric]

Cedric's head was ringing as his eye opened.

The last thing he could remember was Malaise, and now he found himself laying on a bed in what he assumed to be the medical bay with a junker drone hovering over him. It was checking his vitals with that creepy-looking red eye it had and once it was done, Cedric moved to sit up. He had quickly realized that his left eye was . . . inoperable, and after a brief poke, he quickly realized that it was no longer organic, and then quickly set to work on other things he had to do . . . like found out why he was naked and in a medical bay with no memory of what had happened to him before-hand.

"Oh my god." It dawned on him.

No memory? No idea why he was in the medical bay? No clothes?!

He had died. That was the only explanation. He had died and they had cloned him. What the hell had he screwed up so badly that got him killed?! Cedric then looked to the approaching medic, deciding that he should focus on issues that he could do something about; not things like fretting over the fact that he had died.

"Hey, doc." Cedric looked to the man in question from where he sat on the table, "You think that maybe I could get some pants?"

The next question was directed at his fellow Marines as they entered, "Somebody want to . . ." However, he quickly realized the condition everybody else was in, "What happened to us, guys? I'm dead, the cat is missin' a limb, and the rest of you don't look too good either." He shook his head, "I'm almost glad I don't remember."

 

[Sigma]

Looking up from the monitor, it was obvious that Cedric was alright. Bernhard glared at the Marine. "Lie down and be quiet, Marine. Your mechanical eye has not been calibrated and the memory loss is a side-effect of the transfer. The others are in another room, being treated by junker drones. I am about to see to them so lie back down."

Bernhard looked to the drone, "Drone, if he does not comply, restrain him. If he continues to resist, feel free to sedate him. Marine, I am going to treat more critical patients first. Consider this a test of your mental fortitude. Lie down now and I'll give you a towel later. I don't think either the drone or I are flummoxed by your nakedness."

With that said, the medic strode out of the room where the rest of the Marine squad was being treated. All of them were Nepleslians, save for a single Neko. Bernhard let the drones get to work injecting medical nano into the wounded. He bent over Wazu to find out his blood type, he did likewise with the rest of the Marines. He directed the drones to get saline and blood drips ready and prepare for intravenous treatment. As good as the drones were, Bernhard was not going to trust them with something as delicate as intravenous lines.

Finally, he got to Harm. "You're not an NH-29. Or a very, very advanced one that shouldn't be here. So, stay with me and tell me how I can help you," he said to her, injecting medical nano.

-------

Laura slumped against the bulkhead, exhausted from the escape. It had been a stupid mission, nothing gained, and she had done nothing.

She barely registered the medic taking her information down. And then Laura remembered that she was also a medic.

"Hey, I'm the squad's medic, give me a minute to change and I can help you out," she said quietly to the male medic. The man turned to her, away from Harm, and seemed to be thinking it over. "Sure. Ask one of the drones for a set of scrubs and a medkit. Can't have you in surgery though - not sterile. There's a respawned Marine who needs his mechanical eye calibrated in the other room."

Laura ambled over to one of the nurse drones and received a set of scrubs which she hastily put on. "You can treat that one," she said, looking over Wazu.

 

[Zack]

@ Bernhard

“Two patients in critical condition,” the Junker explained to Bernhard as the bodies were lifted up onto the triage tables.

Heram Wazu, G.S.W. to the upper back, exit wound through chest. Patient also has a minor G.S.W. on the leg, respiratory distress from smoke inhalation, and various non-threatening cuts.

Avel Sitkeas , G.S.W. to the face, stomach, and arm. Patient also has numerous minor cuts and respiratory distress from smoke inhalation.”

---

@Laura

Harm would find a place to sit, and then do so. “I’ve already got plenty of nanomachines.” She said, looking drained, “I just need raw-materials to rebuild, and some new clothing.” The back of her dress had been almost entirely burned off from her rocket jump and much of her mass reserves had already been used to rebuild the parts she had lost in combat.

Instead of waiting for an IV to be set up she’d grab a bag of saline solution being carried by one of the drones and bite into it, rapidly gulping down the liquid inside.

---

@Cedric

“Yes Sir!” The junker would shout at Bernhard before it took a perch over the stasis tube. It would lower itself, placing its red eye just infront of Cedric before whispering to him,

“…are you complying?”

 

[C-Man]

When Avel woke up the first thing she realized that she had somehow survived that disaster of a mission, which was a huge surprise to her. Whoever had decided to have the very man responsible for the Black Syndicates downfall propose an alliance with the 4th fleet to their leader had to have been intoxicated. No sober mind would or could ever come up with a plan that dumb.

The next thing Avel noticed was that she was in a medical bay with the other marines who had been grievously wounded. She then remembered the bullet wounds she had gotten and noticed that her face was no longer in extreme pain.

Shaking herself fully awake and panicking, Avel began frantically looking around for a reflective surface.

"My face! What happened to my face!? It's hideously deformed isn't it!"

 

[Sigma]

Bernhard looked at Laura, his eyes asking Is this what you have to deal with every time? The woman shrugged and went back to working on Wazu.

Well, since she was being hysterical, she might not actually be as critical as it looked. "Marine, calm down. Calm down or I will have to restrain you. Your face is fine but I need you be still so I can treat you. If you continue, I'll have to restrain you for your own good. Please lie back down so I can treat you. Do you understand?" he said firmly, looking Avel in the eye.

Being a medic was not quite so different from being a doctor at an armed clinic. Gun shot wound victims were generally the same. Though, he expected the Marines to have more discipline than this. Wasn't this supposed to be an elite unit of some sort?

-------------

Laura looked over the unconscious Wazu. She pushed him onto his side and plugged up the entry wound with a wad of bandages. That would have to do for now. Quickly, she found a vein and inserted an IV line into it. Laura hooked it up to a machine holding bags of blood and saline. "He needs plasma, get me a couple bags of plasma," she ordered one of the drones.

The machine began pumping blood into Wazu at a machine-gun pace. "Slow it down until you've sealed the entry wound. Then seal the exit wound, then pump it in fast!" the male medic called out.

How was the guy able to keep track of Wazu, Avel and Laura?! "And take a deep breath, you're starting to rush things." Damn him!

Laura started cutting away Wazu's uniform to spray synth-skin over it.

 

[Zack]

Wazu would groan as he came to, his bleeding would only start to get worse once he had more blood to loose and it would start oozing out onto the table he was on. There was also serious swelling where the blood was being rapidly pumped in. All she’d get out of him was a low groan, as the nanomachines started to fix up the more subtle damages in his body.

“Hey, Laura!” Harm shouted, having just finished draining the saline solution, bag and all, “Got anything else to eat?”

 

[CadetNewb]

'Well, Harm popped that eardrum, that's for sure.' Matteo thought. He had helped drag Wazu and Avel into the operating area, but soon wearily walked off to the side, taking a seat. He flexed, his spine and knuckles popping ever so slightly as a modicum of relief came. The marine then licked his lips, noticing his scorched throat. The incessant itchy, scratchy feeling was getting a little worse, or was perhaps noticed now that all hell was done and over with.

Matteo looked about and noticed Harm chugging down a bag of saline. Matteo quickly spoke up, his voice a little rough from inhaling Harm's...fumes. "Really Harm? Really? I thought we talked about this! Cut the junk food, would you?" He sounded like he was half complaining, half joking with the Neko. He deliberately sighed, shaking his head before going on.

"Drei, could you send up a drone with some field rations and bottles of water?" he asked the AI while bringing a finger up to his bleeding ear. The marine was then eyeballing the red now on his digit.

 

[Zack]

“Oh I’m going to beat the crap outta you,” Harm said with a pained laugh, “… Once I’m fixed up, totally going to beat you up then…”

In a short amount of time a chief-junker would show up carrying bottles of water and some pre-packaged field rations. Harm ended up taking one from the bot and tearing into it with her teeth, munching down the plastic packaging along with the food inside.

A medical junker drone would end up walking over to Matteo, “PLEASE STOP!” It exclaimed, “YOU ARE ONLY CAUSING FUTHER INJURY TO YOUR EAR!”

“And how come you got away with getting injured? Fuck you,” Harm added.

 

[CadetNewb]

"Oh, you'll sure get a shot at it if that's what you mean." he smiled back at her. He grabbed a bottle of water and tossed it at the beleaguered sniper before helping himself first. "Phaedra, catch!" Matteo then reached for a plastic wrapped ration for himself, just starting to peel back the packaging when he first heard and then saw Harm tearing into her own like it was a sandwich.

She downed it, glass whiskey bottle, toilet paper, glass hot sauce bottle, coffee mix (and maybe gasoline) and all. "Ugh. You're really not going to kick the habit anytime soon, are you?" he asked. Matteo could watch 'Sauce' and whatever other liquids inside the ration dribble down her chin, neck, between her breasts an into her dress. This time, Matteo shook his head in genuine disappointment.

Matteo removed the oddities from his ration before activating the heater, just as a medical junker drone assaulted his good ear with words shouted out at volume 11. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine. It wasn't like I was jamming it all the way in or anything. Just dabbing the outside. What are you, my mom?" he grinned at the machine; the marine knew it probably wouldn't get any sort of joke, but it didn't hurt. As Harm shouted at him again though, he thought quickly on his feet.

"What's that? I can't hear you since you blew out my eardrum!" He shouted at her, cupping his bad ear and directing it at the Neko. "Huh? Fuck me you say? I'm flattered! Still, I don't want to be the one being hit by a kitty's horsewhip while bound and gagged, so no, thank you very much!"

 

[Zack]

The junker drone would pause, then slowly walk itself around Matteo until it was standing on his other side…

“NO SIR, I AM NOT RATED FOR HUMAN PROCREATION. I WAS WARNING YOU ABOUT THE DANGERS OF CAUSING FURTHER DAMAGE FROM POKING YOUR EARDRUM FURTHER BUT YOU WERE UNABLE TO HEAR ME FROM THAT SIDE.” The junker drone said, quite loudly, into Matteo’s good ear.

“Oh ha…” Harm said, swallowing a chunk of glass before continuing. “… way to pick on a girl while she’s missing an arm.” She’d then go right back to her ration, continuing to tear into the packaging until all that was left was the glistening fluid that had dripped down onto her breasts. Her arm would begin bleeding again, the blood forming into bone, skin, and muscle as the food she ate was digested and converted into more mass to rebuild her body. She snatched up another ration back and tore into it with her teeth, chewing down another chunk of food and metal.

“First I’m going to kill you,

Then once Laura puts you back together I’m going to kill you again. That’s two killings I owe you.”

 

[Cedric]

Cedric quirked a brow at the new medic.

"Great, both the medics are gonna' be unjustified assholes." Cedric thought to himself.

He watched as the doctor left and instructed the junker drone to watch over him. Restrain him? This thing was a hunk of bolts and metal. If Cedric wanted, he probably wouldn't have much problem tearing through the thing should it try stopping him. Now normally, he would have been willing to listen to the doctor, but since it was only that they needed to make sure his eye still worked (not to mention, the man had done himself no favors to winning Cedric's respect so far) he was determined to meet the rest of the squad in order to find out what had happened on the mission.

After all, he could hear Matteo (accompanied by a very loud junker drone) yelling through the door. So whatever was going had to be interesting.

Cedric looked to the junker drone, "Yes: I'm just going to head to meet up with the squad. The doctor will be okay with that." He told the seemingly oblivious robot, "Now is there a towel laying around here somewhere that you could get me?"

Then he felt his stomach growl.

"Maybe some food, too?"

 

[cyborgakadjmoose]

Phaedra had helped carry the wounded marines into the med bay and assisted the medics in whatever way she could. Laura and Bernhard (who had apparently just arrived) just told her to stay out of the way.

The squad began to bicker with one another like disagreeable siblings while they tore into their ration packs; in Harm's case literally. Phaedra caught the bottle of water Matteo tossed her way and gulped down it's contents. At this point the bickering had reached the point of threatening each other and Phaedra had heard enough if it. She threw the empty water bottle across the room.

"Alright, Enough! It's hard enough as it is with the Admiral down for the count, but to have you at each other's throats is unacceptable. We are a team, start acting like one!" shouted Phaedra, her hands on her hips.

"If you're cleared to leave the Medbay, then leave and let the Docs do their work. Grab some chow. Get your gear in order and get your weapon's cleaned. Maintain your PA. Whatever, just clear the room." She strode over to Harm eagerly munching on whatever material she could get her hands on.

"And you," said Phaedra, staring down at the Neko. "I may have tolerated you for now, for your lack of respect, your lack of discipline, and your willingness to use us for your own personal gain. But not anymore. I understand that you are wounded, that you may not be thinking clearly, but these are my Marines, and no one fucks with my Marines unless they want to go through me." Phaedra leaned closer to Harm, her remaining eye frigid as ice.

"Got it?"

With that, Phaedra turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.

 

[C-Man]

Avel was about to respond to the medic when Matteo, Harm and Phaedra had a screaming match. Their loud shouting only succeeding in making her concussion hurt to the point where it felt like somebody was trying to cut her head open with a butter knife and she instinctively clasped her hands over her ears.

"I'll do anything you want, just put me under before my head splits open from the noise!"

 

[CadetNewb]

As Phaedra stormed off, Matteo spoke to the junker drone in a rather subdued voice, much less livelier than before. "No, that wasn't aimed at you." He waved the drone away. "Just go back to keeping an eye on the others. They're worse off." The marine then turned a little to look at Harm, ignoring what little noise the other patients were making. "Look. For what its worth, sorry. I didn't mean to get the Sarge angry at you or anything." Matteo spoke quietly. "Truth be told, I was just messing and expected a witty comeback or something." he asked her. "I mean, in hindsight, this was a shitty op. I was hoping the bantering after it would at least cheer me up."

He ran a hand down his face, leaving small smears of blood on his cheek. "Shit. This is depressing. You were kidding about the 'kill this' and 'kill that' right?"

 

[Sigma]

Thank you, Sergeant! Bernhard breathed, injecting Avel with a mild sedative. The drug would calm her down significantly while putting her into a nearly unconscious state and allow him to work on her face.

The damage itself was easily repaired. Once he had cleared the debris, it was just a matter of synth-skin and medical nano. Bernhard injected a little bit more sedative to let Avel sleep and allow the synth-skin to set in. "Drone, notify me when she wakes up. Should be in a couple hours."

The other medic seemed to be doing well enough so he left her to her own devices.

"Sergeant, if you or the rest of your squad have no injuries to report, you can leave. I will update you when I am satisfied that all our patients are stable and on the road to recovery. Oh... she's gone..." Not very good leader, leaving like that, Bernhard thought. Didn't even ask for a prognosis.

"Don't ask me if they're always like that, I just joined this unit. And I had to deal with them just like this. Only, I was alone. Be careful with Cedric, the one with the mechanical eye. Not the brightest bulb but he's touchy," the female medic said, not looking up from her work. "Thanks," Bernhard replied, walking away.

He was still unsure about the Neko and what kind of treatment it needed. But so far, she seemed to be able to fend for herself. Was it an "It" or a "She," he wondered, noticing how he used the two interchangeably when referring to the Neko.

Bernhard returned to Cedric, "Right, let's get started. Close the other eye and say something if it itches, hurts or otherwise feels uncomfortable." He turned on his datapad and began to fiddle with the settings.

 

[Zack]

@Cedric

“Good!” The drone shouted to Cedric, “I will not have to restrain you then.” It would then end up jumping down off the stasis pod and hunt down a small, clean, towel from the decontamination area, and a ration pack that one of the other drones had brought up. In short order both would be brought before Cedric.

The drone seemed perfectly fine with whatever Cedric was doing, operating under the assurances that he was complying, so he must be complying.

--

@ Everyone else

Harm just sat there, wide-eyed as Phaedra chewed her out. After Matteo started talking Harm would speak up.

“Daaaamn, I didn’t think she had that in her.” She said with a smile, quickly going back to finish her bottle of whiskey, her teeth crunching down into glass for a few moments longer.

“And yeah, witty comebacks, totally. I’d come up with something better but I’m still mad at you for calling me fat.

Besides, we all made it out alive, no reason to get upset!... Well, ok Cedric and Wazu died but we had a spare Cedric and it’s not like Wazu hasn’t been dead before.”

She would pause for a moment before adding,

“So… Should I go after her? Boss-lady still owes me a life’s story”