RP: NSS Inquiry [NSS Inquiry] Mission One: Far From Home

Wilderness of Polup

"Ah, son of a bitch!" He cursed as the three rounds struck him. He fired again into the enemy. He then looked forward and noticed the hole forming in their ranks just as Cadence began to call. "Go go! I'll cover you!" He said, moving to swing his rifle around to attack a new group of targets.

Wilderness of Polup

Linda was thankful that she was in a hostile for the first time since she got on this planet, the heavier armor and more potent shields kept the few shots that landed against her helmet from doing any substantial damage, of course she did not want to take them again though. The opening in fire and their formation came at such a good moment that Linda was suspicious of it. "We need to get out of the line of fire!" She did not have time to explain but with beams coming from the parting and the state of the ground she knew she had to get out fast. Her thrusters activated and sent her flying to the side, perpendicular to the line of the beams. She stayed as low as she could to make sure she wasn't caught in too much fire, but she tried to get out of the cracking ground.

Wilderness of Polup

Althea had the presence of mind to think on her feet, bounding from the sudden burst of lightbeams as best her Hostile could manage with an elegant shout, "Shit!"

She tried to keep the Lieutenant, or Sergeant Stein, in her visual range as she did so. Just in case.

Wilderness of Polup

Alec let out a grunt as the shots splashed across him armor. As popped up to retaliate, he saw the gap open in their assault's line. "Hell yeah! Let's move peopl-" He started before watching the lights tear through towards them. "Nononononono! Oh shit!"

He quickly tried to reposition himself at of the way of lights, opening fire towards the gap in case whatever sent it was still hanging around to make another attempt.

Wilderness of Polup

As Tobias saw the lights make a beeline for the team, he groaned internally. Could this day get any worse? He attempted to roll out of the way, firing blindly in the direction of the enemy. Hopefully he would hit something.

Wilderness of Polup

Bright light showered down on all of them and soon, it was gone. Just like that. There was no more and the ranks of the antlered power armor stood stock still, waiting. Watching.

Cadence made to lift her arm, but nothing happened. She realized something, her HUD was off. She manually lifted her arm, something she shouldn't have to do as the neural interface was supposed to take care of that, but even her cybernetic arms couldn't easily lift the weight of the armor.

"This isn't another stun attack they did earlier with their damn fucking hellish eyes, is it?" O'Riley asked as he, too, tried moving his armor.

"You need to get down!" Cadence yelled, moving blockishly as she saw the rest of the team unable to make the same kind of movements that they had been able to accomplish beforehand. "Now, fucking damnit! Now!" She was half yelling at herself for barely being able to accomplish a controlled fall onto her knees and elbows. She set about aiming and clicking the trigger on her gun, but nothing came of it.

"We're fucking sitting fucking ducks!" Sullivan yelled out from his place on the ground.

"Stein! Eval!?" Cadence said over private comms to the Master Sergeant.

Wilderness of Polup

"Ah shit!" Stein yelled. His armor systems shut down and his HUD went dark. He drew his sniper rifle and tried to fire it, but he heard a

*click*

"Fucking hell!" He dropped his rifle down and strained to pull out his pistol. He wasn't going down without a fight.

"Things are bad Boss. Things are looking pretty fucking bad." He replied. "Everyone! Take out your secondaries. You don't go down with out a damn fight!" He ordered, struggling to move towards Cadence.

Wilderness of Polup

Linda's suit managed to get airborne but only for a moment before her thrusters cut out and she fell to the ground, unable to catch herself because of the sudden loss of assisted movement to the suit. Calling this a bad situation was an understatement. "We don't stand a chance if we're weighed down by the armor with no shields." She called out and tried to fix her position. There was no need to get up since she was already on the ground, but she wanted to move to a slightly more depressed portion of the hill to avoid fire.

Wilderness of Polup

Alec found himself less shocked and more annoyed as his power armor became a heavy metal coffin around him again. With an aggravated sigh, he struggled to reach for his sidearm with with his right hand as he kept a grip around his HPAR with his left. He legs and body struggled to keep him in his crouch positioned but gravity and his armor were conspiring against with each other and had him rolling onto his back to stare up at the alien sky.

"I'm really starting to doubt these Hostile suits..." He muttered to himself before trying to the comms. "We need to boost out of here as soon as our armor starts working. Whatever's stunning us is going to keep crippling us all if keep this tight of a group."

Tobias couldn't move, his finger was stuck pulling down the trigger but he couldn't aim.

"What the fuck is going on?!?!"

Wilderness of Polup

The light slowed and soon the cracking sounds lowed to a soft hum before both were absolutely gone.

"Try now!" Cadence yelled. The problem was, comms were out. She tried her own method of getting out of this situation, but to no avail. Nothing was working. The creatures seemed to shuffle about while some of them walked away with their scalar weapon while a couple dozen stepped forward confidently. They surrounded the Inquiry's team and, though each of them moved in order to disable the antlered power armor closest to them, they were unable.

The Inquiry members were subdued with some brute force from those in working power armor and tied up by the arms and legs with some sort of non-organic metal. Around each Nepleslian were four creatures that stood by each of their legs and arms in ready positions.

Quietly and in Trade, one of them spoke slowly while raising their arms, "We are the Elefirn. We do not welcome your presence on our planet." With that, they lowered their arms and nodded. Each Nepleslian was then picked up and trotted off away from the hill where they had battled.

If the team were cognizant of their surroundings as they were brought through the bush of Polup, they would see some Elefirn on all fours and outside of armor in the distance. A great many of them stood on their hind legs as the prisoners of war were brought past, trying to get a better look. Their three bright eyes shone in the darkness and the moonlight lit up their slender forms.

After several minutes of moving them away from the hill beside the shanty town, the team could see a fire in the distance. Once near the orange glow of the fire, the Elefirn carrying them set them all down in a circle around it, faced away from the fire and, thus, unable to see one another.

There were several large rocks and boulders circling the fire a few meters away from where they had been placed. Some Elefirn bounded up them, jumping with power and force, but nimbly and with agility, to the tops of the rocks. Others stood in wait, watching as the one that had spoken to them earlier slowly got out of their power armor, giving the pieces of plating and their helmet to another that set them each down on a rock. She stood fully erect, wearing nothing, and set her eyes on the Inquiry team with a look of determination and little remorse.

"We are a race unlike yours in many ways. We smell the testosterone on your bodies and reply in kind with our own more feminine pheromones. We are a species that needs not males in order to live, unlike your own that could never survive without them."

"Fuck you," Cadence yelled. All of Inquiry had been trying to speak to one another and to yell at the Elefirn on their trip here, but their voices were barely audible through their helmets, so it was no surprise that the Elefirn simply cocked her head, her majestic pair of antlers tilting as she did.

"Remove their helmets," said the Elefirn with a wave of her hand.

Cadence spat out at the Elefirn, who simply moved to the side and away from it.

"Now, now..." She turned away and motioned with a hand for them to be watched while saying some words in her own language to another Elefirn. She then went down to all fours and bounded away.

Cadence turned her head, trying to look at the rest of the team.

"Stein, you there?"

Wilderness of Polup

As the Elefirn removed his helmet, Alec lips were pursed in more out of disappointment than trying to prevent himself from breathing the alien air. He tried struggling uselessly in his bindings as he looked around at the growing hopeless situation. There had to be something he could do here...

"So uh, what are you all trying to prove here?" He started, feeling like he could maybe distract them for a bit for the others to figure out some badass escape plan. "I mean, we didn't see a 'No Trespassing' sign on the way in and you did kind of trap us here, which is fairly bad on your part because the next group on the way here will probably be much less friendlier than us." He shrugged as best he could in his bindings. "We are supposed to be the next best thing to a friendly greeting party, believe it or not."

Wilderness of Polup

Linda did not offer much resistance to being captured, she couldn't with her heavy suit not operating functionally. Instead, she took note of everything she could, trying to grasp the size of the group as well as keeping track of where they were relocated to, they were on an unknown planet after all and she had to make a mental map.

The suits that carried them did not look that strong, but just a few of them were enough to carry a Hostile armor, so it would be a mistake to underestimate their physical strength. At such a close range she could tell that the armor was not as thick either, it looked like a handgun would pierce it but Linda could not be sure until she tried, it was likely made out of a material she had no experience with.

She stayed quiet even during the little speech and once her helmet was off she looked around to account for numbers and how well armed they were, then tried to examine how she was bound, escaping without strength assist would be difficult, especially since she would have to get out of the suit as well. If she wasn't in such a bad situation she might have admired the fact that these people spoke trade too.

Wilderness of Polup

Stein cursed and thrashed as the Elefirn picked him up and carried him and his team away. If he was going to be taken, he sure as shit wasn't gonna make it easy for them. He summoned as much strength as he could to kick and punch at them as he was carried.

When he was set on his knees he fought as they took off his helmet. "I will gut you and mount your stuffed head on my fucking wall..." he snarled at the one who removed his helmet. "I will strangle you with your own fuck'n entrails..." he added, spitting as much venom as he could muster, which was in abundance at this point.

When he heard Cadence, he calmed enough to focus. He turned to see they had placed the two next to each other. "I'm here. You okay?" He asked as he took in their surrounding.

Wilderness of Polup

Glynn finally made his presence known again by being dragged around by the Elefirn. He had been trained in the use of a hostile but he was still miserable using it compared to the others. He had stumbled around like a buffoon trying to fire back at the attackers only to be disabled in the end.

Though he couldn't think about that as the mob of Elefirn tied and dragged him away a slight distance away from his commanding officers. They began to inspect his Grenade launcher and confiscated it after a quick inspection. He would have to get that back later, but he couldn't take it back yet without putting his life or without putting everyone's life in danger. Instead Glynn took on a friendly approach and a forced smile when they removed his helmet.

"Oop, careful there, you pull that trigger and you could kill a lot of your own kind, and that would be bad for the both of us. After all we are your prisoners, and we would not want to insult you in any way."

There had to be reason these creeps didn't kill them yet even though they didn't welcome the Inquiry, perhaps there was still a chance to escape from this mess, Glynn just needed to reach for the grenades strapped to his person inside the Hostile to create a distraction, a smoke grenade would be enough to hide in and it could signal for help as well. On the other hand the frag grenade could cause more chaos but could hurt his team and there was still a slim chance they would get away when their power armor is practically useless. However Glynn truly believed the Elefirn had some other purpose than the execution of prisoners, they wouldn't plan an entire assault and suffer casualties just to capture and kill them would they?

"Am I right guys?" Glynn spoke dully.

He just wished that the lieutenant recognized this as well, he readied himself for his commanding officer's next order by shuffling around in his armor to reach his grenades, if he could get out of the armor that is.

Wilderness of Polup

Tobias shook his head as his helmet was pulled off, attempting to clear it. What could these creatures be thinking? By attacking their team they would have put themselves at risk from retaliation from the Inquiry. Not only that, but the Inquiry's away team hadn't been aggressive at all.

"What's the point of all this?" He asked the creature who seemed to be in charge. "We'd only come down here, and hadn't done anything to present a threat to you."

Wilderness of Polup

The Elefirn closest to Alec stepped forward on only two legs, then fell to all fours and knelt, looking inquisitively into the medic's blue eyes.

"If you're a greeting party, where are you from, fuckers?" the creature asked Alec in a whisper.

"Apparently they learned Trade from someone with a mouth," O'Riley said in a low voice next to him, but allowed Alec to be the one to reply.

To Tobias, a different Elefirn clothed in a green bikini said from its perch on one of the boulders, "We don't know if you're a threat or not. We're waiting for the—"

"Damnit, shut up!" Another Elefirn said in a quiet, almost indiscernible voice.

O'Riley spoke again, saying, "For a species that whispers so much, you really have foul mouths."

The green attire that had spoken earlier asked, "We do?"

Cadence shook her head. "You do. It's a bit of a dichotomy. The way you look and whisper versus the fucked up language you use."

"We don't mean any ill-will to you..." she said from her perch. "I am Allorow and this is—"

Again, she was cut off, "Shut up, ass hat!"

Cadence raised her eyebrows. She had a plan, but it would require everyone to work together. And for them to intuitively figure out the plan, as well.

"Stein, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Cadence asked with a grin.

Wilderness of Polup

Alec could feel some odd sort of bewilderment as sat there in his bindings, staring back at the Elfrin. Apparently despite being light-years away from home, things haven't really for him. He gave Glynn a quick nod as best he could from where he was. "He's got a point. Listen, we come for the very industrialized Imperium of Nepleslia- but golly gee wilikers," He interrupted himself. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" He continued with his improvised distraction with as much fluff as he could.

"I mean, look, I had a sister that was rude and filled with attitude like you all but even you'd make her blush with how obscene you ladies are being. I'm assuming you refer to yourselves as ladies but feel free me to stop and correct me if I'm wrong." He didn't stop for any corrections. "Now look, trust is a two way street. I can understand a little light caution and a little light detainment for strangers but blowing up our shuttle and and opening fire on us is a very, very, very bad way to start off this first contact relationship. I don't know if this a custom of yours or not but where we come from, that's usually not a very good sign of a peaceful first contact. Now, I would hate it if we unintentionally start off a long, pointless war over a little miscommunication because this could lead to some long term relationship issues with a lot of intergalactic neighbors. And the last thing you fine ladies need is a relationship issues on a galactic scale. I could go on about how bad this really is but I feel this issue is stemming from another, more internal problem and what I know is this: Do you all have relationship issues?"

He really hoped Cadence and the others were about attempt a breakout plan.

Wilderness of Polup

Linda continued to take notes with everything that happened, it was rather interesting to see how the Elfrin spoke and it gave her a few clues as to how they learned how Trade, probably from some movie or a single person. She knew other languages but she was unsure of whether or not her own teammates did, one of the problems with being a soldier that spoke a language that tried to become a 'shared' language for multiple nations.

The IPG operator tried to wiggle around in her bindings and loosen them some so she could escape when needed, hoping Alex would provide enough distraction.

Wilderness of Polup

Stein nodded to Cadence with a smirk on his lips. "Hot damn!" He yelled. "We got ourselves a potty mouth. Shit and I thought the 'Corp was bad." He said looking to the others. "I swear the drill instructors weren't even this bad. If they had a mouth like your's I doubt they could kiss their own mothers!" He called.

He looked up to the Elefrin in the green bikini. "Hey! Allorow was it? How come your friend has a stick up her ass? I mean damn! How do you get that shit all the way up there?" He asked.

He had to get them riled up and fighting each other.

"Now what were you saying Allorow? Who are we waiting for exactly?" He asked the Elefirn.