RP: NSS Acadia [Post Mission 3]: R&R (Rest and Rations)

"Fuck you." Was all Ran said to Suku before leaning back and trying to let the painkillers do their job. He still could not fucking believe that an attacker took several .45 slugs and managed to kick in his left leg.

Oh shit

Ran bolted up and attempted to prop himself up on his right arm, which slid and made him fall back. "My fucking leg! What the fuck!" He attempted to lift it, and upon failure of that at least rotated it to see the damage done.

"Chill the fuck out, Rui." Suku replied gruffly, prodding the Marine's leg. "Fuckin' christ." Ran's leg had seen better days, and it seemed it was going to warrant an in-ship medevac. She grabbed the man's Datajockey and opened a channel to the med-bay, she sent an emergency call for a stretcher.

The MC heard the gunshot too, just when he thought it was all over.

By the Maker, No! Both situations of either Ran shooting Avel or vice versa were very very bad. Sam Oliver and Suku were both already outside by the virtue of being closer to the door. Fian wasted no time by vaulting over a table or two. Some of the other marines followed suit.

The first thing he saw was Ran on the deck, injured with Suku tending. How could this happen?! He thought out loud, the past five minutes he spent convincing himself that his decision was the right one went out of the window. He drew his ESG and aimed it at Avel's bleeding and fleeing form, but his hand and his resolve was wavering, even if he could draw a bead on the woman, he was not sure if he could pull the trigger.

Then Sam happened. The first bullet happened to be a RED one, easily stopped by any body armor but absolutely devastating to flesh, it dug into the other marine's stomach before exploding to cover Miss Oliver in Avel and Haddock. The recoil sent the next shot, also another RED, into Miss Santhis's chest cavity. Without heart and lungs her remaining time would be measured in seconds but she did not even last that long. The last shot was a plain FMJ that flew straight up, through the underside of her chin and through her head, killing the marine instantly. For her glorious actions on Rok'Veru one wouldn't imagine her death to be so inglorious, disgraceful even, but it happened. With this level of treason it was absolutely certain that High Command wouldn't approve of a CC Revival, the final legacy of P3C Avel Santhis was a bloody mess on the Acadia floor.

"Well, at least she still has a pretty face." One of her fans mumbled in eulogy.

Phaedra ran out of the cafeteria with her RPB and reached the brig just as Sam put Avel down in a gory mess.

"NO!" shouted Phaedra. The RPB dropped from her hand and clattered on the ground. She fell to her knees, her face in her hands.

"Another death on my hands...If I had just mentioned it sooner Avel would still be..."

Phaedra promptly empted the contents of her stomach onto the floor.

Alex was still admiting Eddies work when first three gunshots could be heard. She quickly rised up and saw Sam, closely followed by Suku running to the source of that sound. MC was right behind them.

Alex mixed in group of marines running there, which slowed her down. When she finally got there it was over. Avel was literally everywhere, Sam was covered in Blood. Chief Rui looked bad, but petty officer Suku was already treating him.

She then saw Wolf falling to her knees. She quickly ran to her, kneeling in front of her. Alex was looking for any wound, but there was nothing. SHe quickly grab her shoulder to get her attention. "Hey Wolf! Are you okay?" she said loudly so Wolf would focus on her.

Darn if she went to MC before thant this would never happened. Or she should go with chief Rui when he was escorting Avel to brig. Damn she knew that Avel was psychotic. This is all her fault.

Upon hearing the gunshots, Rico's big goofy grin turned into a concerned scowl. He was all for the gun action... just not so far away from the battlefield. As several of the other marines began to make a dash, firearms drawn, towards the direction of the gunshots, Rico bounded over a table to join them. At least, he was, until he caught sight of Suku, alone, running out into the hall. A simple scan of the mess turned up what he had suspected; the medical officer had left Carina behind to witness the commotion.

For a moment, Rico contemplated doing the same thing; his better senses were itching for a little action. However, as Rico reached Carina's position, the Nepleslian put a hand on her back and began to usher her to one of the empty tables, farthest away from the bulkhead exit of the mess. "Sit down an' finish your grub, squirt," Rico said passively, sitting down on the seat as he pulled out his .45 and placed it lightly on the table, readily accessible in the worst case scenario.

"Holy shit," Sam mumbled. She stared at the corpse on the floor, then at her gun with the smoke curling from the barrel, then back at the corpse, then at the blood splattered all over her face and chest. "I... forgot I..."

The sound of Phaedra letting her lunch go brought Sam back to reality. She fell to her knees as well, bracing her hands on the floor as she emptied her stomach for the second time that deployment, flecks of Avel's blood dripping into the puddle of half-digested wings and bile. "God damn," she moaned, desperately trying to wipe some of the guts off herself. "I was just... followin'... urrgh..."

Gyles had been looking forward to a field posting for months now, and the fact that a vessel that was headed to the front lines was over Golding meant that he'd gotten a ride booked to one of the deadliest battlefronts in known history. Oh sure, the NMX were supposed to be some 'deadlier than ever' variant of the old Mishhu, but he didn't really give a damn. He'd be able to fuck around in a powered armor and do something besides load crates or tow broken-down Wolverines to the repair deck. Kennewes had easily been the highlight of his career before, and he figured that a solid field OP would be pushing him further along.

The major downside was that he only had a year left to his penal service term. Literally, all he'd have to do is survive another three hundred or something days and he'd probably be able to leave and go back to being a civilian. If he died now, and they fucked up on rezzing him, it'd be the equivalent of getting ass-raped by THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

Arriving at the Acadia wasn't too much trouble. The ship was getting serviced and shuttles were going up and down from the station. Everything that he cared about was either too far away or in his suitcase, and the in-flight booze was decent enough that he could keep a clear mind of things. Apparently, his new immediately superior was the same as during the Offensive, so he couldn't help but shake the gut feeling that the crazy shit he'd spouted off to Rico during training might come back to haunt him. Even if the guy wasn't at the top, he'd probably want to dick him around some more just to see.

"Bloody metal manwhich damn right! That dick was trying to fuck me over an' I didn' stand for it!" Gyles muttered to himself, taking a bit of the Manly Meat Roll he'd filched from the station storehouse as a final 'fuck you' to his garrison compatriots. With his luggage in one hand and the remains of the meat roll stuffed into his mouth, he took a step onto the Acadia.

"Shit feels right."

As Carina saw her father making a bee-line for her, she heard the loud report of a .45 caliber handgun followed by the distinct combination of bang and whine of an HHG. Of course she had no idea of what these things were, she just thought they were really loud which made her jump, startled as Rico put a hand on her back. She let out a small squeak of surprise, quickly reassured her it was her father and not some stranger.

A little shaky as the sudden rush of adrenaline subsided, she sat next to the marine, laying out her ration packets. Inside was also included a knife for use in eating it seemed. As she fiddled with the packets, opening them and stopping at the huge meat roll that laid before her. Looking over at the now seemingly concentrating Rico, she cut the large meat roll in half with the knife, using a portion of the empty packet to sit it on; pushing it over to sit in front of the elder Sanroma.

"Papi..." she said in a hushed tone, even tugging at his sleeve a little then pointing to what she'd put over in front of him. Her mother had taught her to share, her father had taught her to horde such precious commodities for what they were, but she reckoned in such a situation as this it was ok to bend the rules, if ever so slightly she thought while opening the can of 'SPEED', an energy drink included in the ration can for herself.

Harrison had formerly been walking calmly towards the mess hall, still a ways off, when he heard the gunshots. His instincts drove icepicks into his skull, suddenly, dropping him into red alert mode. The ex-mercenary immediately dropped into a sprint, making a bee-line for the mess-hall. He plowed directly through a group of Marines who were also making their way there, having been alerted by the gunshots.

Harrison gripped both of his HHGs in iron hands (one physically, one figuratively) as he rounded the corner to the mess entrance. The first thing his eyes fell upon as he arrived was the bloody corpse splattered up and down the hallway. As a matter of fact, his boots had come to a stop in what may have been a bit of kidney or intestine, or brain matter, judging by the particular squelching sound it made when he stepped into it. He sort of recognised the corpse that had been blown to pieces in the hallway - wasn't that the lady who had come up with the plan to 'aspload that reactor back on the planet surface? And was that Phaedra? And why was Sam puking and covered in guts?

"What in fucking god-shit just happened here?" Harrison grunted. He bent down and - much to the nausea of the gathered crowd - started sifting through the blasted remains of Avel's internal organs, getting blood and viscera all the way up the sleeve of his once-clean uniform shirt, before he finally got a grip on something. His hand came out of Avel's torso covered in blood, meat and more blood and meat, two fingers clasped together over a tiny shard of metal. "Who was firing goddamn RED rounds inside a fucking ship's hallway? You could've overpenetrated, and what would've happened if I was fucking standing back there?"

He swiped his hand on his tunic's front before clapping it over Sam's shoulder and grinning. "Good shot, though," he commented before going back to sifting through the corpse's open torso, looking for more fragments. Pasco knows why.

"Clear off." Fian mumbled and grabbed Harrison by the back of his collar and then shoved the much larger marine further down the hallway. As he passed a point, a volumetric marquee projected by the ship appeared to cordon off the area. The flashing scrolling text read CRIME SCENE/ KEEP OUT!

"Someone take these two out of here." The MC calmly commanded, motioning to Phaedra Volkov and Sam Oliver, he had a terrible record of handling psychic shock cases now. He tried to hide all his emotions other than abject displeasure. "Suku, take Chief Ran to the medbay."

"The awards ceremony will be postponed until further notice. Anyone who thinks they know what happened can send me a report. DISMISSED!" He had to raise his voice for this one. Most of the marines seeing how serious it was decided to leave quickly before they got caught up in it. As the murmuring died away, Fian stood where he was. There were still things that he needed to prepare the crime scene for the MPs, but for now, for at least 30 seconds he was just content with burying his face in his palms, quietly.

What have I done?

Harrison found himself suddenly being pulled away from his investigation, the little pile of metal fragments being scattered at his sudden movement. Harrison was, rather awkwardly, torn away as his hand was in the midst of Avel's former pancreas, and the sudden movement caused him to jerk away and tear a piece of pancreas off with him. The mercenary suddenly found himself standing in the hallway next to Phaedra and Sam with a finger-sized piece of pancreatic flesh in his fist.

The ex-merc realised, with a delayed thought, that standing there holding a piece of human flesh clenched in his fist looked a little creepy. So he tossed the little piece of pancreas at Avel's corpse, landing it inside the massive maw of what was once her torso. He wiped the excess blood off on his soiled dress shirt and offered his hand to Phaedra and/or Sam. "Boss says we gotta go, so we go," The ex-merc grunted.

As Fian started barking out orders, two caretakers arrived with the stretcher for Ran. Suku at the time was helping Ran keep his body up off the floor. With their assistance, she and the caretakers lifted the Chief's body on to the stretcher. For moment she looked back down the hall past the bloodied corpse and the distraught Fian, worrying about the little girl she had left alone in the Mess Hall. Duty called, but it made her sick to leave Carina behind. She had only hoped that Rico may have been around to keep track of her.

"The both of you, I've got this, get a bodybag ready and set aside for the corpse." Suku barked at the caretakers, and then started to push Ran towards the Med-Bay.

"So Ran, do you make it a point to get your ass handed to you by weak-ass women?" Suku chuckled, taking her mind off the other things that clouded her thoughts.

Edward slipped back into his bench seat, when people began dispersing Edward was already doing so. He had scooped up his note pad and was now back to sketching, filling in shading and touching up the detail. It would be easier if Miss Alex were her but from the gun-fire Edward was willing to be bet she would be busy.

Upon hearing Fians orders Alex wanted to help Phaerda. But Harrison was already at her reachin his hand for her so she moved on to Sam. She gently caucght her and helped her on her knees. "Come on mate, we have to leave here. Let's go somewhere else," she said to her.

"Hey Wolf! Are you okay?" said Alex loudly, shaking Phaedra's shoulder.

"Yes...I...I'm fine," she said; her weak voice betraying her assurance. "Go see to Sam."

Staying on her knees to catch her breath, Phaedra stared at the pool of barely digested beans to avoid glancing at the gore infront of her. A helping hand appeared in her peripheral vison.

"Boss says we gotta go, so we go," Harrison grunted grimly.

Phaedra graciously accepted Harrison's extended hand and slowly rose to her feet; her legs were unstable with the shakiness that comes after sudden vomiting. She absentmindedly retrieved her pistol from the floor and strapped it into her thigh holster.

"Will..." said Phaedra, locking her gaze with his before quickly looking away.

"I should have said something...I should have informed the Master Chief sooner. Then this never would have happened," she said, her eyes focused on some object in the distance.

"I knew there was something wrong when she collapsed two days ago...I..." she paused and looked back up at Harrison.

"I killed her by omission! I get my squadmates killed!" said Phaedra, firmly grabbing Harrison's arms.

Ran was in absolutely no mood to hear jokes. Not only did he somehow not kill his attacker, but he had to deal with the fact that it took one of his subordinates to bail him and the rest of the ship out. "If I hadn't have called for help, the entire ship would be fucked. Who fucking survives three bullets?"

The Chief sighed, "What's the leg looking like?"

Anselm sighed when he heard the gunshot and half of the mess hall ran out to the bark of an HHG. The marine reflected on the entire incident from the comfort of his corner until the Maste Chief ordered everyone to clear. He walked past several of his squadmates, heading for his room, with a too-loud mutter on his grinning lips "one down, who's next?"

After setting his things aside at his assigned bunk, Gyles was struck by the idea that he should probably go to his superior and introduce himself. The nostalgia was sort of overwhelming, since he remembered doing the EXACT same thing last time he was posted to a ship. Except that last time, he hadn't actually seen his superior and was sent off on a deployment before he had the chance to be shown the ropes.

Grabbing the small interfacing plug inside one of his earpods, he pulled on the cable and jacked it into the nearest interface point, communicating his interest to the local Drei core.

"Yo... ship AI. I'm one of the new tech sentries on staff and I need a few things." Gyles sent to the ship. "The Master Chief's location, a map of the ship and uh... your name. Mind filling me in?"

"Shit, that's what it looks like. I don't know what she did, but it's gotta come off." Suku shook her head as she pushed Ran into the med-bay, ignoring the other caretakers in the room. With little concern for the Chief's own sense of decency, she undid his belt bulky and practically ripped his pants off, leaving him in his boots, underwear, and anything above that. She placed a finger on the massive and sickly looking bruised area of his leg.

"See this? This means your leg is coming off. Your blood vessels having been squashed and the build up of blood is generating toxins in those vessels. If I even tried to fix your leg, those toxins would go straight to your heart, and kill you." explained Suku as she held up a large cutting instrument. "Try not to scream like a bitch."