RP: NSS Acadia Mission 5: Quick Save

Henry had spent the past few moments contemplating what he'd done. One hostage had died, but the damage to all the others was minimised - however, Anselm's serious injury meant that he'd have to get a lot replaced, and it'd have a profound effect on him, even if he could get the cybernetics written off as combat injuries and replaced without fuss - but an injury of this scale would affect Anselm on so many levels.

However, what truly weighed on his mind was how much more he could keep saying that things like this were necessary losses before ignoring it all together.

He suddenly regained his senses and realised that he had to get his arse moving. Furthermore, he made a mental note to frag Harm at the first available opportunity, or get himself reassigned somewhere where the command isn't terminally stupid - especially not stupid enough to put a Neko in a Man's job.

"No you fucking well don't," Henry scowled without sending it to anyone and keeping it purely to himself, clearly offended that the Neko had omitted his name. He continued cursing and rambling under his breath as he got to the shuttle and forced his way in, regardless of what it said.

This sort of neglect and lack of input was only making his dislike for nekovalkyrja deepen, and the mental effects his combat trauma worsen.

@Cedric

“Yeah sure,” The medics responded to Cedric as relayed the request for a bioweapons screening. The bald Nepleslian male would pick up a blood sample kit and a gas mask from the stark white cabinets built into the walls of the medbay. He would take off the blue naval hat and put on the gask mask before walking over to one of the exam tables. “Just go ahead and have a seat,” The medic told the rescued girl, “What is your name anyways?”

“Fhion,” She responded, walking over to one of the exam tables in the center of the room and sat down. “Do we have to take a blood test… I’ve had enough needless you know?”

“Sorry, orders are orders. We’re going to have to check everyone eventually.” He said as he began drawing a blood sample from the girl. She was watching him, his eyes looking down at the weapon on the side of his uniform, then over to the computer he was walking towards. The medic would then take the sample over to a nearby computer, “This should only take a second….”

@ Anslem

Once she had seen that everyone was onboard Harm would get on the transport and take a seat in the cargo bay. The outer doors would close and the ship would begin heading for orbit. The first thing her eyes were drawn to was Anslem bleeding all over the ship.

“Why are you not in the medbay?” She asked over her suit’s speakers, pointing directly at Anslem. “Get your ass up there and get checked for bioweapons, infections, viruses, ect.”

@ Everyone else

Harm would then open up a comm signal to everyone, “Anyone who has had their armor damage or who is low on weapons, head down to this ship’s power armor bay and get restocked. We’re still on duty until we get out of this star system.”

With the ship heading into orbit, the marines had no control over what was happening outside. Their only connections with what was going on were occasional reports from the pilots.

“20 Seconds until we reach orbit.”

Cedric stood by silently, blocking the entrance just enough to block Fhion from rushing past him. Just in case something went...wrong. If she tried anything he'd turn her in to a fine paste. That was if she was infected, though. Right now she was just a normal Nepleslian girl who had the unfortunate luck of being captured by the Mishu.

"So, Fhion." Cedric tried to get her attention, "You feel good about going home?" He asked.

The small-talk had been more for his nerves then her's. He didn't know why, but he felt tense, and like something could go wrong at any moment. It was probably just the new-guy jitters. If he brought it up with anybody else they'd probably laugh at him for just being a nervous little green-horn.

Phaedra was sick of getting injured; it had an annoying way of inconveniencing you. She had gotten a concussion from the exploding suicide bomber and had apparently laid on the ground for some time before the the Marines began to load up the transport. As if nothing had happened, she rose to her feet, retrieved her MPR, and boarded the transport.

“Why are you not in the medbay?” said Harm, pointing directly at Anslem. “Get your ass up there and get checked for bioweapons, infections, viruses, etc.”

"I would ask you the same, Anslem," said Phaedra, still in her NIGHT armor with the helmet off. She stooped to pull one of the stocky marine's huge arms over her shoulder and her other armored hand gently held him upright around his torso.

"Come on, we can't have you bleeding out when it's something the medics can fix."

Matteo stood off to the side of the doorway, casually checking his HPAR. He didn't go down to the armor bays with some of the others for one simple reason; he still had lots of ammo after that action. Personally, he was curious about why the girl was still alive when the others were not, but he was content with things as they were. What he appreciated even more was Cedric trying to get her to speak some more. It was these little things that counted. 'Besides.' he thought. 'I can't exactly talk much about myself, can I?

The Hostile stood off to Cedric's side, leaning against the wall like another piece of furniture.

Anselm passively resisted Phaedra's assistance, "but I hate medics, can't this wait till we get back to the Acadia," he griped from over the sniper's shoulder, "please, I'll take whatever abuse Suku wants to dole out."

"Besides, I still have to shoot this damn neko for..." he couldn't remember a good reason, "for daring to step foot on sovereign Nepleslian soil... or something," the albino grumbled the last part under his breath.

Sean snorted, contemplating whether or not he should go get his armor fixed up or just use it as an excuse to get out of the fighting later. He flicked an armored hand at Anselm. "Oh, go on. You'll get stuck with something no matter your condition with that woman, so you might as well just go back after you're well if you miss her so much."

@ Anselm

“That wasn’t a suggestion.” Harm said, reaching down to grab Anselm so she could lift him up out of the seat. “Medbay now. Its amazing you can get anything done with this level of bullshit insubordination.”

The ship’s PA system would then turn on, a feminine voice chiming in, “We just made the jump to FTL. We’re out of the higaflan system and should be arriving at our rally point in a about half an hour.”

@ Cedric and Matteo

Fhion would lean back a bit, arching her back and looking over at the doctor as she answered Cedric. “Sorta, The NMX control my homeland now. This will actually be my first time on Nepleslia.”

The doctor would cock his head to the side as he looked at the information being displayed on the datapad. “That’s odd. Looks like her blood is breaking down before the scanning finishes…” His head would have to think about this for a few moments before adding, “…shiiiit.”

Cedric shrugged, "Well I guess this is a special opportunity for you."

He had just been beginning to relax when the medic suddenly announced that he was having a problem. The blood was breaking down? Cedric wasn't a medical expert but he knew enough to realize blood generally wasn't supposed to do that. Raising his HPAR, he kept it trained on Fhion's center-mass.

"Don't move!" He barked, opening a channel to anybody still in their suits, "We have a situation in the medical bay: her blood is breaking down before the scan completes." He then returned his full attention to Fhion, "If you so much as breath funny, you're paste girl."

Makari had just strolled into the medbay when Cedric starting shouting about some sort of blood breaking down nonsense. "Silly Cedric, he thought, "blood can't.....oh shit, NMX?" He saw Cedric draw his pistol; Makari joined in suit with his Peashooter as his HHG was still filled with red shells. He had heard rumors of what red shells did to people and didn't have the heart to test the rumor and paint the med-bay red.

"...But I hate medics, can't this wait till we get back to the Acadia, please, I'll take whatever abuse Suku wants to dole out, " grumbled Anselm.

"Besides, I still have to shoot this damn neko for..."

“That wasn’t a suggestion,” Harm said, grabbing Anselm from Phaedra's grip.

“Medbay now. Its amazing you can get anything done with this level of bullshit insubordination.”

Phaedra was just about protest Harm's rough treatment of Anselm when she heard one of the newer Marines on the comm.

"We have a situation here in the medical bay," said one of the newer marines. Phaedra glanced at Anselm, then at Harm, then ran off toward the Med-bay, drawing her RPB that had been strapped to her armored thigh.

Anselm dropped to the floor with a wince, looking up at Harm's armored height, "Yeah, incompetence like allowing another of your damned sisters aboard this ship," the wounded marine started after Phaedra, HHG in his hand before anyone could notice, "looks like I get to shoot a bitch after all."

He called over the walkie-talkie in his grasp, "and somebody get a gun or seven on our replacement Fearless Leader, I still think she set this clusterfuck up with the squids ahead of time."

He did all of this before realizing Harm still had him firmly in her grasp; the marine silently cursed himself for forgetting that important fact.

Cedric's HHG was loaded with WHITE rounds. Unlike Makari, he didn't have anything holding him back from shooting her down. He had a reload of RED rounds with him. He doubted that he'd need to use those on the girl, though. Even if she grabbed the medic as a human shield, he had no doubt that he'd be able to blast her clear across the medical bay...and through the wall.

He heard all the others come rushing in.

"What's going on?" Cedric addressed the medic, not taking his eyes off of Fhion for a moment, "What's the problem?"

Naomi had been hit by something during the evacuation, or maybe she had been shot. Hell, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that somebody had dragged her sorry, armored ass to a ship somewhere, and she was now resting against a bulkhead. Her rifle had blown up in her face at some point, probably the same time she was shot…hit…something, but in a daze like she was, she would have been no good to do any shooting at it was, and so she was content to simply take up space for now.

“…in the medical bay…before the scan completes!”

It was a broken transmission, or maybe she was still a bit dazed. That wasn’t important. Even in her stunned condition, Naomi could detect the urgency of the speaker’s tone, and that was enough to set off alarm bells. The speaker had also had the presence of mind to give his location. Was that Cedric?

Rising to her feet quickly, she immediately regretted that, and paused for a second to let the room stop spinning about. Her mind was already racing on auto-pilot, training seizing control in place of active thought processes. Her rifle was trashed, so her hands reached down and found the LSP-01A in its resting location, fingers working to make the weapon ready, even as she started to move out. She did not remove it from its place, but just made sure it was prepared. The vibrosaw-knife was next. She felt a simple kind of comfort knowing the blade was exactly where it should be. It was sort of like her old gang days. Making sure your hidden pistol was ready always made you breathe a bit more evenly.

Her mind was cleared by the time she reached the entrance to the medical bay. It was running like a finely tuned engine, and her blood felt like ice in her veins. She felt a strangely calm sensation. She was peripherally aware of an aching feeling in her leg, still, likely a break or a fracture, but she could still move.

Naomi came up short of the actual entrance, deciding that if something went down in there, it might be a good idea to have somebody outside to surprise whoever’s causing trouble.

Matteo had leveled his HPAR at Fhion with Cedric. The red monoeye of his suit stared at her with an intensity; how could he have missed? Last he scanned her, he was only looking for weapons...could the sensor systems on the suit he wore differentiate Nepleslians from the NH models? And what model of NH was she?! He wasn't sure. 'Note to self, if I survive this, I should look in the manual and then ask someone.'

"Doctor, step away from the patient, and come to us; but stay out of our line of fire." He turned his speech to both of them next. "What model?"

The former liquidator kept Fhion in his sights, and desperately wracked his brains for information.

@Everyone

Fhion would address all the marines by the medbay, speaking loud enough for them all to hear. “I was hoping to get a bit closer to the top, guess I should have brought some Nepleslian blood along to fool the blood test.” She seemed much more relaxed now, the tension in her voice completely gone as she watched the marines start to take up positions at the doorway.

“You should all know that Higaflan is at least an hour or so away from Nepleslia. You’ll still be well within range of retaliation for at least that long. By myself I am fully capable of wrecking this starship enough to knock it out of FTL.”

As she spoke her hands would rip off the tight fitting black prisoner uniform that she had been wearing, replacing it with her body’s own holographic projections of NMX light body armor and an officer’s cap. Her ears and fingers would also slowly start to change, reverting back into the standard NH series look.

“But I am not on this ship because I am looking for a fight. Promise that I’ll get to speak with this operation’s commanding officer and I’ll promise not to start wrecking things.”

---

@ Matteo

The doctor that had just checked the blood would inch his way over towards the door slowly. “Don’t know for sure, the blood breaking up during a scan is a standard feature for the NH series. From what I hear the NMX had their hands on a bunch of 29s, so she is probably one of them.”

---

@Everyone

A deck below Harm was listening in while dealing with Anselm. She would carry him over to the tank in the cargo bay and toss him into the crew compartment.
“Drei, shut the door and keep Anselm locked up. I’ve got other shit to deal with.” The back door of the tank would then begin to close as Harm opened up a channel to the other marines.

“We’re not here to take prisoners. Blow her arms and legs off then if she’s still alive we can wrap her up.”

Cedric watched as Fhion stood up, stripping herself of her prisoner's uniform. So she had been a sabotuer. Well that would just be a fine thing to put on the report for his first mission "Got trapped, forced under the complex, and brought a spy out who wanted to kill us all." Her threat was plain: do as she said or she would mess up the ship bad enough to make sure the NMX could kill or capture them all. Harm's orders were worded in a more straight-forward manner. Blow her limbs off, then capture her if she's still breathing.

Cedric didn't bother changing to RED rounds from white, He probably wouldn't have time. Instead he stepped out, grabbing the doctor, and crouching down while forcing the man out of the line of fire of any of Cedric's squad-mates behind him.

Makari's complexion paled and he took a few paces back. He immediately re-holstered his Peashooter and drew his HHG; screw taking chances, he was going to blow the bitch's brains out.

He called out to the NMX, "Why should we believe you? What makes you so sure that the commander wants to speak with you?" Then he readied his trigger finger.

Fhion would look over at Makari, “We know what he tried to do at Anakes, and we have a good idea what he has in mind when he lets your computer systems try and talk their way into our fleet. Based on that behavior I am reasonably certain he’ll be as interested in talking with me as I am with him.”

After unsuiting, Kingston had seen to it that his Power Armor be fully rearmed. It was shortly thereafter that he heard the call- a problem in the medbay. Wonderful: he'd been heading in that direction, anyways. He caught sight of Phaedra along the way; the fact that she had drawn her weapon led Private Kingston to pull his own Tiger's Tears.

"Did you hear what the hell this is all about?" he asked the "Lone Wolf" as they closed in on the source of the commotion.