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

It wasn't a problem setting this kind of gear to explode. The problem was making sure the explosion wasn't going to blow an entire section of the planet. Glynn worked hard and fast, he wouldn't know when the enemy would return and he would rather not get shot while his back was turned. Luckily Stein had made his job go twice as fast and was successful in setting up the stash of Hostiles to blow.

Glynn rummaged through his demotions gear, "I do not believe that I have any trip wire... "however... I think I do have a roll of Detonation cord... he. he. he." It was an attempt at a joke.

He stopped trying after that moment, Glynn would be sure to pay attention to stein's response for later. It was his first time trying to tell a joke to Stein in such a dangerous moment, but there was a small hope for a little of the worry to be dispelled for him, Glynn reckoned.

"... I'll hook up the detonation cord anyway then, though I doubt it will go for more than a kilometer. So be ready to run faster than an incoming blast wave and don't breathe when it starts getting hot whatever you do." Though Glynn still set the explosion to fifty five seconds.

Glynn made sure that his grenades were secured on to him well so they wouldn't fall. Glynn would have to throw them by hand now. If it came down to it, he would have to rely the peashooter of the .45 if he got into a combat encounter. However right now, Glynn held the detonation cord reel and the igniter. If anything happened, he would instantly light everything up, and he made sure Stein knew that.

"Better hurry up and run before them come again." Glynn said, and dashed as quick as he could while laying down the cord.
 
Wilderness of Polup - Advanced Recon

Linda acknowledged Cadence's orders and then followed after Vizil to make their way to the spaceport early while assuming a clear path along the way. It would be easy to just sprint on ahead, but she kept her pace at a solid jog, .357 SMG ready to take on any aggressors that might make their way over. "Vizil was it? Your 'masters' are on their way right? What should we be expecting in terms of numbers? Also, do they have weapons like yours? The ones that make people stop moving."
 
Wilderness of Polup

Stein nodded back to Cadence and smiled. He then turned back to Glynn. He gave a half smile at the attempted joke and nodded. "We had better get moving then." He replied, standing up.

He took off after the others, covering Glynn as he laid the detonation cord. His Styrling Dart swung side to side as he kept watch for the enemy. "Keep moving. They should be returning any moment now."
 
Wilderness of Polup

Tobias sprinted away with the rest of the group, exerting himself in order to keep up with the deerlike Elfirn. He motioned to one of them. "What's with the sudden change in attitude?" He asked, suspicious of it.
 
Small Star Port in Wilderness of Polup

A small number of craft were parked at the star port, only patrol craft and fighters, that Linda was the first to arrive to. She had her choices laid out before her and by the time Cadence arrived, she had been able to utilize the time to listen to the Elefirn with her tell her to make her choice.

Cadence, too, relied on Linda's decision, saying, "Which do we choose?"

The Elefirn running with Tobias merely laughed. "Some of us have always thought this way, fuck face! We don't all like to fight their wars!"

There was a booming in the distance once all were at the star port and they could tell by the firey explosion bursting and pluming into the darkness that the explosive had worked. A fire burned and the air turned hot while a wind picked up around them for a brief moment.
 
Glynn's vision was completely clouded by the amount dust and dirt the the explosion had managed to throw up into the air. Of course this was only to be expected, yet just knowing that didn't make Glynn feel better about losing his sight as he wandered in the general direction everyone else had escaped to.

"Hey, hey, Sergeant. You still with me right?" Glynn whispered while he moved as silently and as fast as he physically could.

They both needed to catch up with everyone else. When the explosives went off, there was no doubt that everything in the forest Glynn was in would know that something was very off. As a result, they both needed to hurry because there was no doubt inside Glynn's mind that the Elefirn could catch up to them in their own functioning power armor. That is, if there are any survivors. Glynn would be exceptionally pleased with himself if there was nothing living at ground zero.

Though that was just wishful thinking on his part.
 
Small Star Port in Wilderness of Polup

When Linda arrived at the starport with the Elefirn escort the first thing she did was make sure the area was clear and then check the ships there for their structure and interior. She had never seen these craft before but some things were the same no matter what culture they were from, so she was able to at least identify the function of the types of ship.

"We have a bit of a problem. It looks like we have some transport craft and some fighter craft. There's no way we can fit in a fighter, but the patrol craft doesn't have any weapons. We're going to have to either fly out fast and not look back, or have a few fighters escort us if it looks like we're going to get into a scuffle." Linda gave her evaluations to Cadence, but she couldn't make a solid game plan herself, they didn't have enough information about what had happened above for her to know if they would need weaponry.
 
Small Star Port in Wilderness of Polup

Alec had ran as long as he could before going into a sprint at the sound of the explosion. Without much armor, the combat effectiveness of the unit, or at least him, was not something he was willing to test in a fight against the hostile Elefirn. As he arrived at the spaceport, he looked over the craft, trying to figure out the roles from the shapes and sizes.

"If I knew how to fly, I'd be the Navy." He said as he made his way over one of the what he thought was a patrol craft. "Can't our Elefrin friends pilot the fighters and escort us out of here? We'd probably be in some unfriendly skies seeing as we're stealing some ships."
 
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Stein's ears were ringing from his close proximity to the blast. He cursed quietly and covered his face as dirt and dust rained down all around him. "Keep moving!" He whispered back quickly. "We needed to get going."

His weapon still in hand, he watched their backs as they moved. "I don't see anyone coming, but that explosion was big enough to be seen from miles. We need to put as much space between us and the blast site as we can." He said to Glynn. "On the count of three, we make a break for it. Do not stop, do not look back. You just fuckin run marine. Am I clear?" He ordered.

He checked his magazine, sliding back the receiver. "One, two, three! Go go go!!!" They couldn't miss their ride.
 
Glynn didn't need to get ordered to haul ass, but he liked the reassurance that running away was, in fact, in the game plan.

So by the time Stein had counted down to three, Glynn had tried to kick up as much dirt as he could with every step, regardless of whether or not he was faster than his compatriot as per his wish.

Small Star Port in Wilderness of Polup

Eventually he came across the rest of the team. Glynn breathed hard and froze looking at the team before he spoke. Although he didn't feel tired nor worn out, Glynn had to assume that he was for his own safety. Looking at the ships before him, Glynn asked two questions.

"Are those ships broken? Damn, what's the plan?"

He had hoped these ships were still operational. To Glynn, they looked just fine, however you could never trust appearances at first glance, and the fact that the team was held in pause didn't exactly scream 'useful'. This was especially the case with unidentified flying objects of Alien make. On the bright side all ships fulfilled the same purpose, thus they should all function in a similar way, so Glynn was confident he could bust the ship's gears into action if they were operational. If they weren't then Glynn was at a loss, and everyone needed to come up with another plan, because no one here would have the time to fix a ship before enemies crawled in
 
Small Star Port in Wilderness of Polup

"Only one way to find out!" Cadence said clearly to Glynn. Then to the antlered women nearby, she said, "Vizil, Allorow, are these all operational?"

"They are, bitch." Vizil replied, nodding.

Not missing a beat, Cadence asked, "Can you both pilot the fighters?"

"Of course," said Allorow. She got on all fours as did Vizil and both trotted to two different fighter craft.

Cadence put a hand on another Elefirn's shoulder and removed it after the Elefirn had flinched.

The platoon leader said to the Elefirn after her hand was removed, "You can pilot the shuttle?"

"I can. I am Ruda. Follow me." Ruda slowly led the group to the shuttle.

Cadence was the last to get in and looked to Linda. "Good going and quick thinking on your part. Same to you, Glynn. We've all worked well together this mission. Let's hope we get where we need to be going, and fast."

Ruda went through the pre-flight checks and the sound of the other Elefirn speaking in their own quiet language came over comms just as gunfire began to pick at the shields of the shuttle.

"Let's go!" Cadence called out, standing and holding her own gun at the ready as she looked out of the small window of the back hatch. The shuttle took to the skies unceremoniously, as did the fighters. Once in the air, the gunshots ceased and Cadence sat down. She looked to her squad and chuckled.

The blonde, green, and blue haired woman said wholeheartedly, "Well that got close to being a real shit show."
 
To Glynn, things were not done until the debriefing, yet he was content that the end was near, and that his actions were praised. He sat down in the shuttle with a strange sense of unease that crawled his thoughts. He did not get a count of the amount of ships that were in the now enemy hangar, nor did he see any guns on the shuttle they boarded. Glynn also did not appreciate that he was now at the mercy of two sole fighters if the enemy decided to give chase.

Once the team spent a few seconds inside the shuttle Glynn braced himself to get out of his seat in the middle of the flight, and looked at his second lieutenant.

"Lieutenant, with your permission I believe our pilot will need a co-pilot If you do not mind me taking up the position."

He secretly desired to monitor Elefirn piloting them, they still could not be trusted. Especially the one called Ruda, out of all them, she was the one that looked to be the most intelligent and collected. That, and they would need Nepleslian credentials and other relevant information if they wanted to board the Inquiry once more.

Of course, he made sure the decision was placed on his superiors, but he would appreciate being able to watch how the Elefirn pilots their own ships so that Glynn wouldn't have to fumble around if he ever needed to pilot them. However, there were probably more qualified and more interested people in this position, for example the Intelligence Operative. She had seemed to already be interested in what the Elefirn knew and was excited to start questioning them. Not only that, but she outranked Glynn, and her occupation screamed that she would be a good co-pilot and someone who wouldn't let minor details slide. Glynn simply wanted to know more for himself as soon as he could. That was the main reason he decided to take the mantle of co-pilot, just like his pre-military days.
 
Elefirn Shuttle

"Please!" Cadence said, "Do so." To the cockpit, she said, "Ruda, you'll need a co-pilot and Glynn here is going to do that for you!"

Ruda countered, "No need."

"Trust me, he knows what he's doing."

There was no response from Ruda and, so, Cadence nodded to Glynn.
 
Glynn sat down beside the Elefirn, and watched for a moment as the Alien piloted the ship. The shuttle was nothing like he was used to and monitored closely at which dials and buttons did what, the details the radar revealed, the status of the two fighters, how sensitive the ship was, and how the comms was operated. Glynn often took out his data pad, and activated multiple programs that revealed relevant information about the flight for his own reference when it was needed.

Throughout most of the trip, Glynn had made several attempts to maintain a visual on Ruda, looking for any and all sorts of anomalous behavior. Otherwise, Glynn had kept silent and never spoke a single word to Ruda unless it was a specific question pertaining to the task at hand.
 
Small Star Port in Wilderness of Polup

Stein ran up behind Glynn and sighed as they approached the group. He looked between everyone and smirked. "Who liked the fireworks?" He asked as he walked forward to stand next to Cadence. "You heard the Boss, get in the shuttle and get off this rock!" He said hearing Cadence's order.

Elefirn Shuttle

Stein was the second to last person to enter the shuttle, making sure everyone else was in first. Then he made his way up to ramp and found a seat. He dropped down into the seat with a sigh, the adrenaline slowly leaving his body. His legs ached from exhaustion, and he rested his head against the bulkhead. He was so ready to be done with this damn planet.
 
Elefirn Shuttle

Alec sprinted in with the the rest of the squad. His body felt like it was going to go limp and topple over from the almost literal marathon he ran before he buckled himself in and breathed. As much of a shit show as the planet was, there was at least not a lot of casualties he had to tend to at the moment, so he used the intervening time to catch his breath and relax himself.

"Yea, 'shit show'." He muttered in between pants. "Glad those Hostile armors are one hundred percent reliable. No faults in the system whatsoever, completely functional and reliable..." He wasn't hiding his sarcasm at all.
 
Elefirn Shuttle

Once inside the shuttle, Linda did not sit down, after all, she had many things to do, fortunately for her Glynn took the most mundane of those jobs, however, she still had some clean up to do. While Glynn and Ruda worked on piloting, she, without orders or courtesy walked into the cockpit as well and plugged her Datjockey into a terminal and began copying over data. While that worked she moved over behind Glynn and whispered into his ear, her voice was soft yet stern with just a touch of allure and sweetness. "Private, when we land, you will be handing your device to me, and accompanying me prior to debriefing." Those were words most Marines did not like to hear from an IPG operative, especially not one in the intellegincedivision. Glynn had just been caught up in some information control procedures, and what awaited him were likely some measures to keep him from releasing too much information.
 
Elfirn shuttle

Tobias hopped into the shuttle last, sitting down and looking around nervously for a moment, unsure of how to help.

Since there didn't seem to be much for him to do, he decided to ask some more questions of the Elfirn he talked to earlier.

"You said that some of you always wanted out of this situation, so what kept you from escaping earlier? You're formidable warriors from what I've seen.."
 
Elefirn Shuttle
Atmosphere of Polup

To Tobias, the Elefirn said, "Our masters are powerful and have powerful allies and servants. We learned from some of them and surpassed them in some ways but cannot defeat them if they stand unified together."

Cadence looked to what she could see of Linda leaning next to Glynn. Her enhanced cybernetic ears barely picked up what was said, but she gathered that Linda was acting well within her rank and title.

To Alec, Cadence nodded, saying, "We'll know what's coming next time."
 
Elefirn Shuttle
Atmosphere of Polup

Glynn nodded to Linda's words, though he truly wondered what he had to warrant such a response from Linda. Even though they were honeyed words, the fact of the matter is that Linda, Glynn assumed, wanted to speak to him alone. That was almost never a good thing to hear from anyone messing with intelligence, but he nodded. He nodded in silence and accepted, after all, good soldiers follow orders and stay silent.

But to third parties things were different. Glynn waited until Linda turned her head and spoke to Ruda.

"We are currently within the stratosphere, in a few moments I shall pilot the ship to our.... destination. When we are within comms range, you do not answer. We shall let the Second Lieutenant speak and you do what she tells you do to. Be sure to relay the same message to your friends so they don't get obliterated."

He stared outside at space for a brief moment, and before Ruda could say a word Glynn whispered,

"let it be known, that I do not trust you."

and back in his regular voice.

"Is that understood?"
 
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