RP: The Wayward Unlisted (Ep. 6)

Lake

Ana was shaken after that whole ordeal. She had the small presence of mind to put away her little weapon into TB once he was back on her, but other than that, she was still in a bit of shock. "I knew I should have stayed on the ship..." She stumbled a bit as she walked along with Quinn. There was no way she was going out again after that! Though she knew that the moss wasn't deadly, she was still rather careful on where she put her feet, trying to stay on the same path back to the ship as they took out before.

Forest

Janelle continued her cautious retreat, never turning her back on the creature and pistol still tightly gripped in her fingers. Movement in her peripheral vision drew her gaze upward as Nan released his drone, and involuntarily she felt her muscles tense in nervous anticipation of some kind of reaction from the beast, but she willed herself not to deviate from her course. A root sticking up out of the ground caught her boot heel, however, and she felt herself stumble, barely managing to catch her balance before her backside met the dirt. Her sudden, jerky movement startled her more than the near-fall, however, and wide-eyed she fixed her attention back on the monster, hoping against hope that she hadn't startled it.

Forest

For a moment, it seemed like everything would be over, Janelle's new dance moves would sure draw attention at a party, but also of this bear creature, or so she thought. Rather than Jan being the object of attention, it was Nan's drone that has rustled some branches by mistake from above. It was not the plant, but Nan had the creature's attention and he used it to draw it a good portion away at least 100 yards. They were in the clear, at least for a little while.

Lake

Anna and Quin were able to retrace their steps and begin their way back to the ship with no difficulty. They also got a call from Tanja along the way.

"We hear you about the life on this planet, got a message from Gabi that they had to deal with strange fauna as well. Since you found water come on back and relax, we'll work out our next steps from there." Tanja spoke softly and tried to keep her voice as relaxing as possible, knowing they had been through a lot.

Forest

As the sound of the beast's plodding footsteps receded into the foliage, Janelle's shoulders slowly relaxed inch by inch, and her fingers flushed bright red as her grip on her pistol loosened enough to allow the blood to rush back into them. Blowing the contents of her lungs out through puffed cheeks, she holstered the weapon and brushed an errant strand of hair off of her forehead, smoothing it back with the rest of its sistren.

She turned her face up into the forest canopy, quickly spotting Nan silhouetted against the sky, and motioned him down with an urgent wave of her hand. Not daring to risk regaining the animal's attention by using her voice, she tapped her ear with her index finger twice, then extended her thumb and pinky and held the rest of her fist to her cheek, pantomiming the action of calling in their findings. It was apparent enough that the young woman felt they'd found enough excitement.

Forest

Internally Nan gave a huge sigh of relief, it was was actually relieving to him that he was not going to get the newest recruit eaten by a monster bear thing. He started floating down as he sighted Janelle's hand signs but kept a healthy wary eye on the direction the creature had gone. He landed softly by the woman and gestured that they should move away whispering when he felt they had a decent distance, "That was awesome. Did you see that thing? I mean, I told you you would be okay, I wouldn't have let it hurt you. You want to call it in or should I?"

Forest

With teh bear like creature distracted they were able to make their way out of the forest without issue. But as they were deciding who should call in, they were called instead, and the voice was of course their captain.

"Janelle, Nan, how are things, you've been quite on the radio for a while now, please don't tell me Nana fell in a hole."

Forest

With a big smile and an infectious giggle Nan opened his comms to his Captain, "Nope, no hole falling today. Had to go silent there for a bit because we came across a big and annoyed creature. It looked almost like the bear thing we encountered a while ago. It was digging for some roots and kind of cornered us. Don't worry though, I totally saved the day. I was all like, pakow and pew pew, and it was like roar roar rooar. then I was like skidaddle, razzle tazzle. Then it was like yeow, boo hoo and ran away.

"So yeah, it would not have made a good pet. I know you mentioned wanting one earlier and I really tried Cap."

While talking Nan had also brought up the visuals from his others drones, the one circling the ship and the one surreptitiously following the Ana, Doc duo. He at least wanted to be sure everyone else was okay.

Forest

Janelle had opened her mouth to reply to Nan's question, but before she'd even started the airflow to form her response, the radio on her wrist buzzed to life with the captain's voice. Again, she started to reply, but the Minkan's rapid-fire, birdlike chatter beat her to it once again. Despite herself, she felt the corners of her lips involuntarily tug upward, and she quickly pressed them together and turned away, putting her hands on her hips and pretending to survey the surrounding area.

She felt a snicker threatening to pop out as Nan continued to rattle off his trumped-up version of what had transpired, and simply shook her head while trying to fight off the smirk that seemed to be stuck to her face, scanning the surrounding trees for any more signs of wildlife. By the time Nan finished, she had been mostly successful, but when she looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes were still faintly shining with amusement she couldn't help.

"'Skidaddle, razzle tazzle,' huh?" she quipped wryly, raising an eyebrow at him.

Nan looked up at Janelle from the volumetric display of his drones and gave her the award winning Jun Nan smile. With a raise or two of his eyebrows he replied, "What you didn't see that? A little lightning, a little thunder, a little floating. I know how to party."

Forest

It was too much now. A single burst of laughter escaped from Janelle's mouth before she stuffed it back down, clamping her lips shut tightly as she stared at Nan, but her face reddened slightly with the effort of maintaining her composure. She shook her head again as she scanned her eyes across the horizon once more before turning to face him, sizing him up as if for the first time again. Giving up on trying, she allowed the squashed half-smirk on her face to grow into a mere grin, and chuckled aloud. "You're stupid," she jabbed, though her voice was noticeably more lighthearted this time. "Come on, let's head back already. I think we done seen enough for the time being."

Forest

Nan kept his broad smile as he saw her hilarious reactions. He had been told before that he was an odd person, been called crazy, lunatic, weirdo, you name it but when she called him stupid with that grin he knew he had nothing to worry about. He had always felt a little outside the social norm, especially for his age but he had decided a long time ago to just be himself. Be free, be wild, have fun and just don't stop smiling.

He nodded at Janelle and tossed his head for her to lead, "Totes, let's bounce. You lead the way, I will find us a sweet triumphant track. We are the returning heroes after all."

Anbruch

The sun had pasted the to of the sky and was on its way down when everyone had arrived back at the ship. Everyone had made it back, but some were a little more beat up than others. Ash and Gabi were particularly scrapped up and muddy faced. Fighting giant bird things would do that to you.

The reports all had a common denominator though, hostile wildlife, but with no civilization on the planet, that was expected. There was accessible water, just had to be careful when getting it. The forest was dense with vegetation, but there was probably edibles inside. And the large landmark was apparently a considerable amount of ore, but also home to naturally armored birds, that do not like visitors.

With everyone gathered Tanja cleared her throat and spoke. "Well our initial investigations went better than planned. We're going to spend a few days here, ship time of course. But I want Stefan to collect plenty of samples from this planet."

Anbruch

Quinn now sat in one of the common room chairs, icing his poor ankle where the vine had wrapped tightly around it and squeezed hard when it had tried to drag him down into what he could only compare to a sarlacc pit. He had a nice bruise forming now but he knew with some pain killers and some icing off and on he'd be alright. "I would highly caution against straying too far from the ship, or if you go use Nan's drones if he has any left to make sure none of the plant life, or animals, decide that you're food." He was trying to be gentle and level-headed like he usually was, but it was difficult when he was actually in some amount of pain and coming down off of an adrenaline high. All Quinn really wanted to do at that moment in time was limp off to his room and recover in peace so he could get back to being the charming, easy-going, care free medic most of them knew well enough by now.

Anbruch - Wardroom

Janelle had joined the gathering late, coming in after most everyone else had taken their seats so that she could slip in and take one of the far booths without drawing much attention. There hadn't been enough time to shower since they'd returned to the ship, but despite her disheveled ponytail and the faint trails of the planet's dust outlining a few dried trails of sweat on the sides of her face, there was an air of weird calm about her. Her greenish-brown eyes were unfocused and distant, and she plopped carelessly down into the seat and kicked her feet out in front of her, crossing one ankle over the other. She made a tight fist with her left hand and then opened it, repeating the cycle a few times before interlacing her fingers and laying them on her abdomen with a long, content sigh.

The mask of checked-out serenity on her face faltered slightly when she glanced at Quinn as he spoke, but she either didn't realize it had shown or quickly got it back under control, nodding her agreement with the medic's assessment. She didn't seem to notice, or perhaps care, that he was nursing a wounded ankle. She offered no opinions or observations of her own, but instead simply cast a sideways look in Nan's direction with a cocked eyebrow and the hint of a grin.

Nan had been sitting in a chair leaning back a little too far, dangerously so, a holo-visor covering his eyes as he seems to be deep in something. He was smiling as his barely visible eyes could be seen moving around the display in quick bursts. As Quinn mentioned his name he shot up, his chair legs slamming down abruptly making quite a racket.

He waved away the visor, "What? Huh? Whatever it was I didn't do it." He looked around with a cross between a broad grin and an embarrassed face.

"Dr. Q merely mentioned that your drones would be an adequate way to keep eyes on our surroundings and help Stefan to collect samples. Perhaps I or the maintenance drone would be a helpful choice," the FARS unit that floated nearby spoke up in a very motherly voice.

"Oh, right yeah of course. That would be totally fetch. Oh! Hi Janelle! Why are you sitting way back there by yourself," he asked as he bounced up and skipped over to plop beside the new arrival. As usual his definition of personal space was vastly different that others. "Listen guys, that place out there is crazy. I mean for cereal. If it wasn't for my quick thinking Janelle might have died!" He emphasized by exaggeratingly slolling his tongue out and rolling up his eyes.

"But yeah Cap, just say the word and my toys are open for sample collecting business."

Anbruch - Wardroom

Tanja surveyed her crew after the whole ordeal and they didn't look as excited or hopeful to see the planet as she was. Well Nan might've liked it, but he was just ignoring the meeting, which Tanja would briefly ignore. "I understand...but it would be a disservice to our employer if we don't explore a habitable planet a little more. I do however want you all to be safe." She folded her arms and looked everyone over.

"There are some things that drones can not do that flesh and blood can. I wont send you all right back out there. But let's think about what we can do to possibly make it safer for you all." She turned her attention to Nan now "Besides, someone needs a time out for not listening during the debriefing."

Nan looked askance at Janelle beside him and said, "Oooooh, someone's in trouble! Time out's are the worst, you are totally in it now, I mean," and just like that he stopped speaking as he read the room. Janelle's obvious look of annoyance, Tanja stil looking his way with that familiar look. Nan jumped up as if he had put his tongue in a socket again. He held out his hand pleadingly toward Tanja, "You mean me? You mean me! Oh that sucks!" He gave out a heavy defeated sigh, "Fine, I will try and come up with some safe ideas while I suffer through this injustice. Power to the Minkans." He finished with a solid fist in the air and awaited his punishment.

Wardroom

Janelle smothered—sort of—a little grin at the captain chastising Nan for his inattention, and rested her forehead on the tips of her fingers. Propped up as it was between her hand and the elbow resting on the other arm still folded across her chest, her head moved from side to side slightly in a "good grief" shake that was simultaneously exasperated and highly entertained.

Once the initial amusement had passed, she looked up at Tanja from the back of the room, still smirking in spite of what she said next. "So, a planet full of critters that either don't take kindly to aliens stomping around their front yards, or are keen on exotic meals," she mused, and paused for a moment to fight off a weird feeling of deja vu. "And we need to go back out there to look for... what, exactly?" she continued. The words came out sounding slightly more sarcastic than she'd clearly intended them to, and she held up her palms to backpedal a little bit. "I'm just askin' because I ain't completely clear on what our paychecks are buying. I mean, it seems like we landed here to check the place out, and that's what we did. What kind of 'samples' are we supposed to be getting? And just how close are we gonna need to get to the locals to do it?"

Wardroom

Analiese had been present the whole time. As per her usual, though, she remained quiet and vigilant...though she was also working on TB. She knew Quinn was in a lot of pain, and she wished she could help him with it...but she had no clue on what she could do for him. She was a mechanic, not a medic like him. As she worked on TB, she studied the bot's "injuries" with curiosity, now that she was sure she was safe to. She listened as Quinn suggested they stay close to the ship and use drones to explore before they did so themselves. She agreed with that, but at the same time she also knew that drones could only tell them so much.

When she heard that Nan was having to be "punished" for not paying attention, a small smile crept across her features. She knew that Nan was overenthusiastic about things and found it rather amusing when he was called out on it...even when he didn't realize it was him at first. She looked up and said softly, "I would like to stay and work on TB. Maybe figure out some upgrades for him for this planet and future ones to where he can defend himself better. Perhaps with Nan's help?" She looked over at him in a questioning plea.

Wardroom

Tanja folded her arms and thought a moment at Jannell's words. "This is the part where if I was still int eh military I would say the more we bring back the better service to our nation. But that's not it." She then looked over to the Stefan. "Since you're the resident eyes, care to elaborate."

The abwehran cleared his throat and chuckled softly "Well yes...you've all gotten some valuable information, however this planet,though in hospitable lifeforms may reside, does have a suitable atmosphere. The data we have is technically enough, but you all encountered some rather strange life forms, and if we wanted to use this planet in the future, we would have to deal with them. The ASE would like to at least get samples of the creatures DNA, or maybe even live creatures so that we can study them for later."

Gabi then spoke up, despite being mostly quiet for the meeting. "We will be paid accordingly I assume?"

Stefan gave a nod and smiled "For each creature you get a sample of you will get a bonus as a crew, but also the quality of the samples will increase the amount. I can't give exact numbers but anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand KS, for the crew of course."

Tanja gave a nod and then looked at the crew "So that means we have 3 different species, we could try for them all or just one or none, but that's what's on the table." She then turned her attention to Ana and Nan.

"I don't mind you two doing your thing with the robots, but you have to make sure they help out on the operation, so just keep that in mind."