RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Mission 4.0] Planning

"Understood, sir. I'm not going to complain about a plan that gives me more opportunities to squash squiddies. If you want to talk about NMX clearance codes, we do have a bunch of nekos in our custody." Rita replied with a shrug. She sat in her chair with her back straight and her hands clasped, resting on the table in front of her. Etiquette seemed to be something that Rita was familiar with, at least.

Cedric gave a curt nod.

"I understand entirely, sir. We wouldn't want the lil' squid-heads to have a guess at what we've got planned. I had just been hoping to be a little more informed before going in." He shrugged, "I'll just do my part and make sure we get those hackers to what they need."

He looked at the others, leaning back comfortably in his chair, and he had one hand tapping idely on the packet of cigarettes in his pocket. He wanted a smoke bad right now, in a case of pre-mission jitters that he hadn't felt since he had been a green P3C first arriving in the squad. Such information restrictions always made him nervous: especially when he felt that his rank on the team making him second only to Phaedra should mean that he was allowed a peak in to at least the lower echelons of the "CLASSIFIED: EYES ONLY" club.

It almost seemed as if someone had given them permission to talk freely, but that wasn't really the case was it? As she moved to take her seat she'd listen to the briefing in silence. There really wasn't much for her to ask after all. She was a newbie to the team and there weren't any issues that she saw with the mission. They were marines, point them in a direction and tell them when to stop. However, it became more and more apparent to the woman that her team mates weren't the...quietest bunch. It almost made her wonder which of them had been her opponents in the simulation a few days past, and which of them had outscored her in their own hazing.

The only real question she had in her mind was which fire team she was joining, and in what suit. However, that wasn't really a question for the admiral, was it? No, more likely she'd have to ask their squad leader later about those small details. Still there was one thing that she did have on her mind ever since the admiral had made a point of noting the low security for the facility.

"Sir, how long do we have to obtain the data? Is there any estimation as to when reinforcements will arrive to assist the observation post, if any?"

Admiral Valken thanked Sergeant Volkov. It was clear she knew how to respect that some information cannot simply be revealed.

"Their interrogation is being handled by our staff. But so far, everything we get from them is what we already know. The NMX don't seem tell their lowest ranks where they're going until they get there. Wise precautions. Maybe I should start implementing that..." Valken mused, seriously considering it.

He turned to the new Marine... Private... Kalev. "I don't know. The facility is isolated on the moon. The Fleet will keep any reinforcements from the planet getting there. We will deal with NMX warships as and when they appear." Valken spoke like the prospect of reinforcements was hardly worth talking about.

"Wow." Matteo simply stated.

"Just wow. We really lucked out this time...I just finished supplemental training on hacking." He spoke explaining his near tardiness. The ex-hitman turned marine reclined into his chair before reaching over to snuff out Cedric's smoke for good measure. "Sorry buddy, but it's either this or you'd be going against orders." he teased the man. With that little bit dealt with, he turned to face the marine he was going to be paired up with.

"Well Lisa, looks like we're in this together. Watch my back for me would you?" he asked, offering a fist up to bump.

"If the Mishu don't trust their own people, that's their business, Admiral. I'd have trouble trusting 'em myself, to be honest."

Naomi had been mostly quiet the whole time, having nothing to say and not really wanting to draw attention.

"Blind armies may suit them," she said with a shrug. "Who knows?"

The ex-ganger, still looking a bit irate, leaned back in her seat while she looked at Admiral Valken. She grinned at her fellow 'Pike," Matteo spoke.

"Don't worry, Matt," she said. "We'll keep your ass breathing. Maybe the rest of you, too."

He had been late for the meeting, a simple diagnostic of his ocular implants were what caused him to miss the start of his briefing. It was either a wiring malfunction or one of the programs he used with the remote datapad control contained a virus. Alrik grunted as he hastily walked down the corridors and passageways to the meeting room of the 4th Fleet, at least the one they were using today. His eyes started to twitch again as he grew closer to his destination, they were a hue of red, with several sections of coding and numbers flashing on the sides. "Damn eyes, I can't believe this shit." He muttered to himself as he approached the door to the briefing room.

Looking down at his uniform, he took a moment to straighten himself out and smack the side of his head, attempting to pull his ocular implants in to place. It worked, for the time being, as all his sensory input was returning to normal as he progressed into the large room. The meeting had already begun, as most of the other's aside from the Admiral were now asking questions from the briefing. "Shit." He thought to himself, as he snapped to attention and held it until the Admiral or the man in charge released him from the stance. Bellowing out your name and rank at this time would have been inappropriate.

"Sergeant, take that man's name. He's on midnight guard duty," Valken said to Phaedra.

Naomi Scroggins. Private First Class, one of Admiral Wazu's hand picked few. "Private Scroggins, I do not recall granting you permission to opine on my musings. That is dangerously close to insubordination but since it is obvious that none of us have yet to become used to one another, I will excuse it this time. Admiral Wazu may have allowed such familiarity during his tenure. I do not."

He spoke matter-of-factly without any hint of anger, like a grandfather educating a child. It annoyed him how ... vocal these Marines were but it was something he knew he would have to tolerate. Introducing officers would only hamper the unit cohesiveness and overall structural flexibility. But enlisted ranks, even NCOs, were too low for him to reveal sensitive information without a need to know. It was a strange gap, having no Marine officers between him and the Marines. And having Navy officers would just make things worse.

"I will not entertain anymore questions because I have something far more important for you. Sergeant Volkov, Private Aubrey, Private Greer, step up here."

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

Bernhard sat quietly, wondering about the Admiral. He was definitely different. Admiral Wazu had spoken with a friendly warmth. Admiral Valken was distant. It was clear that he was an excellent organizer since he'd done a great amount of reorganization to 4th Fleet. New Marines, new ships, new weapons.

It was an entirely different style of leadership, one Bernhard was on the fence about. Then he sat up straighter when the Admiral called his name.

Hesitantly, Bernhard stood slowly. "Go, you dummy!" Laura hissed at him. He cursed her. She wasn't the one going up there with the man himself.

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

Sawyer, too, was surprised to hear his name. He followed Bernhard cautiously, half expecting the Admiral to start yelling at them.

Cedric stared over his shoulder with a quirked brow as Matteo smashed down further on the already extinguished remains of the cigarette.

"Okay, Matteo. Whatever you say." He shrugged, turning back to his datapad.

Tapping on it in a seemingly idle fashion, he only looked up from it when Admiral Douchebag called up three of the Marines. Given the fact that he was calling them up now, Cedric could easily believe it was promotions. The people he was calling up more than deserved promotions if that was the case. Even so, Cedric still had his opinions of the Admiral. The man was a prick, ordering Marines not to smoke in environments where it made no sense, such as the briefing room (though, perhaps the tobacco harmed his sensitive little sailor nose), and acting as if Marines were blaspheeming for daring to ask questions about what they heard. The man was obviously not cut out to deal with Marines. The Navy was like high quality ivory: pretty, polished, and not good for much outside of adding to room decor. The Marines were like granite: rough, heaavy, and the preferred tool for beating things in to a fine powder. It was obvious with the way he acted that the Admiral was a man wtih an obvious taste for ivory in charge of a granite quarry (a very elite and generally experienced granite quarry, at that).

Of course, those were thoughts the Staff Sergeant would keep to himself in his DataJockey. It wouldn't look good of a Marine NCO, nor would it be beneficial to unit morale and cohesion (as if the Admiral was. Wait. No, bad Cedric!) for the Marines under him to think that one of their NCOs thought such things. Or that if he did, that he would let them know. No, he would just keep his mouth shut, and follow orders. If it got them all horribly killed (not that there was any particularly pleasent ways to die as a Marine) due to a lack of information or good command, then the Admiral could deal with the chewing out from his superiors for negligence.

Cedric just hoped that wouldn't happen.

He had already died once and wasn't in a rush to do it again.

"Understood, sir." Rita replied to Valken as he informed her about the progress with the nekovalkyrja's interrogation. It didn't surprise her, and she didn't care about not having any information on the way down. What bothered her was the fact that they were staging an assault on a planet without orbital bombardment, and they had no idea what was down there. Underground, in bunkers, there could be millions of rippers and ravagers ready to tear the 4th fleet a new asshole.

Rita sat quietly when Valken ordered those three up, raising an eyebrow. He definitely wasn't going to be yelling at his star pupil or the guy who got his guts nearly ripped out in the last mission, which meant those three were up there for some positive reason. In fact, Rita was silently jealous. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life as a nobody, not anymore.

Alrik turned his head slightly, attempting to hide the grind in his teeth as he walked towards the seats that most of the other marines occupied. He took his seat quickly and quietly, attempting to understand what was going on in the briefing room and what he had already missed. Perhaps one of the other marines would fill him in or the Admiral might repeat himself. Suddenly, his eyes started to go to shit again. The hue of red started to mix with a rainbow pattern on the eyes, "C'mon... Not now." He muttered to himself as he smacked the side of his head again, something like a television being fixed because of a bad antenna. He tried to watch the three marines being called up, without focusing too much on his optical errors.

Phaedra rose and joined the three men at the head of the table. "Any idea what this is about, Sergeant?" Bernhard asked her. Phaedra shook her head and shrugged as a reply.

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

Admiral Valken pulled out four small black boxes. He took the first one and looked at Sawyer.

"Private Aubrey," he spoke formally, "for valor in the face of the enemy and receiving serious injury without turning your back to the enemy, you are awarded the Iron Device. Congratulations. Never waver in your duties and do us all proud in the upcoming mission."

Valken pinned the triangular medal onto Sawyer's uniform and shook his hand firmly. Then he picked up the next two boxes.

"Private Greer," Valken looked Bernhard in the eye, "It is rare for me to issue two awards to any individual at the same time. It is even rarer for me to be proud to admit that I am impressed. For dedication to your medical calling and unwavering service to the people of Tange, for helping the helpless as your comrades were under fire, I am proud to award you the Civil Defense Award. And for receiving grave injuries whilst upholding the highest of Nepleslia's ideals, the Iron Device. Your actions do you great credit, young man. I am proud to have you under my command." Again Valken shook the Marine's hand firmly after he had pinned the two awards onto Bernhard's uniform.

"Lastly, but hardly least, it is rare for a unit to enter such intense combat, under the most difficult of circumstances, and perform beyond all expectations. Part of that must be due to the mettle of the unit but credit must also be given to those whose leadership allows such exemplary qualities to shine. Sergeant Volkov," once more Admiral Valken took the last black box and took out one of Nepleslia's most coveted medals.

"For superior leadership under extremely difficult conditions and against overwhelming odds, you are awarded with the Combat Leader Award. Few could have done what you did, Sergeant. Never underestimate your abilities as a leader." Valken pinned the golden bar onto Phaedra's uniform and shook her hand.

He took a step back and saluted the three Marines he had just shook hands with.

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

Laura jumped out of her seat and saluted as well.

A few moments later, the Admiral dropped his salute and spoke again. "You all have 16 hours liberty before you are to report to NSS Dauntless in orbit. Please do try to appear sober. Dismissed."

He left the room without another word, papers in hand.

Once he was gone, Laura jumped Bernhard and hugged him. "I see even dummies like you and Sawyer can impress an Admiral!" she laughed.

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

Bernhard felt stunned. He believed he had only done his duty as a medic. Why was that such a big deal? "I guess the old man's not so bad after all..." he mused, returning Laura's embrace hesitantly.

"Congratulations, Sergeant, Sawyer," he said to the other two, extending his hand to shake once Laura had stopped clinging to him like plush toy. Sawyer took it and returned the sentiment.

Matteo whistled appreciatively after the Admiral left.

"Well, congrats guys. Though, personally, I think you all would have benefited more from promotions rather than pieces of symbolic metal." He went on, quickly going from cynical to something much more jovial. "Yeah, with higher rank, comes higher pay, and with higher pay, more booze. And porn. Can't forget about that either. But since that's not what happened this time around, you guys mind if I grab you a few drinks?" The ex-hitman offered.

"Hope you all can get sober in sixteen though."

"Congratulations." Rita said, standing up and saluting Phaedra. She dropped her hand back down to her side and silently exited the room. She thought it was all a bunch of bullshit, even though she'd never say anything. She had taken out a Ravager single-handedly and gotten her legs swiss-cheesed in the process. If that wasn't worth an Iron Device, then nothing was. That asshole had passed her over because of her background, and she knew that for a fact. If there was no chance that she could make something of herself as a Nepleslian marine, then that meant she'd be spending the rest of her life as a human weapon. If that's how it was going to be, then she was going to kill as many NMX as possible in the next mission, orders be damned. All she cared about now was loosing her rage on the enemy.

Alrik would look around the room, trying to adjust his visual settings internally as best he could. " Sir," He spoke in a serious demeanor, " Should I get the information from one of the other marines then?" His eyes started to scan the individuals still present in the room and those that were still standing. His eyes moved to the person walking out of the room, after her congratulations to the marines who were awarded medals and recognition. A hint of jealousy rose up in him, but it was quickly quelled down after the notion of him missing the entire briefing. Plus, midnight guard duty. The guard duty wouldn't be too bad though, always gave him time to think.

It wasn't as if Victor had planned on missing the entirety of the meeting, but the moment that drunk connected a punch with his jaw it became clear how he would have to spend the rest of the afternoon. He supposed this would be one of those moments that didn't look good on pen and paper as far as his self-control was concerned. Didn't help that cleaning blood off a uniform took much longer than one would expect.

As he made his way into the conference room Victor began to wonder if anyone was even left in the room. There was no way it could still be going on. Admittedly, he would prefer to make a better first impression than this. But would it be a more honest impression? Looking around the briefing room he noted and the amount of marines still remaining it was obvious he had missed everything. "I suppose the punishment for this is going to suck," he managed to quip under his breath.

Phaedra immediately returned the Admiral's salute after recieving the medal. She then turned to shake Bernhard and Sawyer's hands to congratulate them both.

She then strode over to Cedric and shook his hand.

"Welcome back, Cedric. I did not have enough time to properly greet you." Phaedra then dropped her voice to a whisper.

"I do not like having crucial mission information withheld either, but the Admiral knows what he is doing. He may seem harsh, but he is a fair man. We've come to understand one another." Phaedra glanced over to see one of the new Marines had just arrived to the briefing, after it had already been concluded. She glanced back to Cedric.

"We will talk later," she said before approaching the new arrival. She put her hands on her hips and glared at the newcomer.

"Private...Balthior. Do you normally make a habit of such tardiness?" she said, glancing at his nametag. She gestured to Alrik nearby.

"You and Private Wolf will be on guard duty, while the rest of your squadmates who were on time will be at liberty for 16 hours. I suggest the two of you make an effort to be punctual in the future," she said, glancing at each of them. She turned towards Alrik.

"And to answer your question, Private; a transcript of the briefing will be sent to your personal datapads. Consider yourselves fortunate."

With that, Phaedra walked past Victor and left the briefing room. She leaned against the wall just outside with her arms crossed, waiting for Cedric to exit the room.

Cedric watched in slience as the medals were given out.

It seemed to have been a while since anybody in this outfit had gotten a metal stuck on their chest. At least as far as he knew since he had gotten back from helping form the Fine Arts academy.

It wasn't until he was addressed by Phaedra that he spoke, "It feels good to be back Sergeant."

He watched as she turned away and began to harrangue the new soldier who had arrived far too late to catch any of the Admiral's briefing. In fact, the soldier was so late that the Admiral had already left by the time the Marine had showed up. However, with Phaedra being the senior of the two NCOs, Cedric simply let her handle it by herself. He might talk to the Marines who had shown up late . . . later. Until then, Phaedra wanted to talk to him, and he had to make sure that nobody in the squad got in trouble on their shore leave.

Besides that, with the Admiral gone, Cedric wanted to enjoy himself.

He wasted no time in lighting up a fresh cigarette as he headed for the door. Walking out, he saw Phaedra leaning against the wall right outside with her arms crossed. Cedric took a long drag on his cigarette and moved over to Phaedra. He gave her a polite nod and glanced over his shoulder for a moment to check on the other Marines still in the room.

Cedric gave her a small smile, "Sarg'nt, it's a pleasure to be back. They kept me at the Fine Arts academy for so long that I was afraid they'd never let me see action ever again."

" Yes, Sir." He gave a salute to Pheadra and proceeded to step out from the briefing room to attend another diagnostic of his eyes. Afterwords, proceed to guard duty for the 16 Hours they were given, before the mission. His face scowled as he left the briefing chamber, his first assignment and he was already showing himself to be a lousy soldier, rather undisciplined by the standards. Captain Murdoch would probably have something to say to Alrik if he had seen that, less he hears about it in the near future. Alrik started his way down the corridors to his quarters when he muttered, " Always a chance to improve, I suppose."

Lisa listened to the brifeing responsibly after beint lowered to number two hacker, which was completely fine with her. She looked at guy names Matteo who was number one. Little P1C who smiled and seemed like okay guy. When he asked her to wach his ass she winked at him. It was nice ass after all.

Though she payed more attention to good-looking medic nect to her. Bernard was his name. She often glanced his way and she smiled while he was gived his medal. So he might be look guy judging by that and she made mental nore to get to know him better.

After briefing was concluded and admiral left she stood up and walked to Matteo. "Yo shorty," she said not being concerned by him being P1C. "So we are together on this eh? You bet I will watch your ass, since if it would get raped I wound have to be the one do the hacking." She said with smile. "Also it would be plain shame to loose ass like that."