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 Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:53 pm
"Yes, I should be here with you for this." a voice in Kai's and Cibo's ear spoke. Cibo turned, and saw Killy some distance away and coming closer. She became visibly irked, but restrained herself to just a slightly unpleasant face and voice.
"What. What was that just now?" Yotruyan continued to close in with the two, and kept on talking,
"Practicing my voice projection. It is very useful, especially with Drathonians." When he was finally beside the two Terrans, he laid an armored hand on their shoulders. "How are you two? And Marcus?" the Ottyo asked.
****
An image on standard United Terran Republic frequencies appeared from the Frigate, depicting an Ottyo sitting in a floating throne of some sort. It wore a Nerve Skeleton similar to Yotruyan's but it was quickly apparent his or her suit was more up to date. Several vines with faintly glowing pinpricks of light were coming down the ceiling, and most likely plugged into this individual's suit. This Ottyo was much older in appearance than Yotruyan as well, with the longest feathers on his head easily two feet long, and swirled with age, giving the impression of blond, bouncy curls falling to the shoulders in bushy bunches. It opened his mouth.
"Principality of Chaion, Alchemist's Stone" the Ottyo spoke in Terran, with a slow and raspy, yet commanding voice. This one was male. He went on, occasionally stressing the wrong parts of words; a moroseness could be heard in his voice. "I am Boblki*****. Shipmaster of this vessel, and the Inquisitor with whom you'll do most of the negotiations with." The Shipmaster-Inquisitor's name was nigh incomprehensible to any Terran, almost humorously so. He leaned his head towards the side, as if listening to someone whisper in his hearing membrane, and nodded. "Excuse my name. Please, Shipmistress Evelyn, call me Bob."
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:17 pm
Evelyn smiled back at the representative, listening to him. "Ah, Thank you, Bob." She began "I was wondering why we were being brought to such a remote point of the galaxy, but I see that you have found a large stockpile of resources. Shall I guess that you currently do not have the numbers to utilise such a find?" The Gynoid stated her observations based on what Killy had told her and the fact that Terrans had not come into contact with the Ottyo before, despite their extensive travels and exploration of the Galaxy. "If this is the case, What is your proposition?"
As before, even though the Terrans heard Evelyn speaking in Terran, the Ottyo ship would recieve the Admiral's replies in Ottyo. Granted a bit rough Ottyo.
******
The Endeavour's squadrons had been launched lazily, forming a protective screen around the two Terran ships, With GS-E hanging close around the Hymn. Close enough for personal communicator range.
"So, Steven. Fancy us getting assigned to the same misson. It's a shame your squadron is stuck inside while we get to fly." Rhiannon teased in a voice message, hopefully getting his attention to get a live conversation going.
******
Kai looked over the Ottyo soldier, and nearly laughed. As outlandish as Killy looked in his own armor, wearing a couple sets of Terran Savior armor over his own was a highly amusing sight. As was the mix of Terran weapons and the alien's own. This nearly got the images of the alien's savagery out of Kai's head, and helped him remember that the Ottyo weren't quite as evil as the Drathonians, and decidedly more civil.
"So you already know you've been assigned to tag along with my unit, Correct?" Kai asked the creature, Adjusting his own uniform and feeling slightly better that he looked what he considered 'good' in it.
******
From almost a completely random direction, all the vessels in the area would suddenly recieve the sensor signature of a couple of ships in Hyperspace. Probably not Ottyo, they were definitely not Terran. As a Precautionary measure, the Endeavour rotated towards the signatures and charged up all weapons systems. Soon, the contacts were pulled out of hyperspace, and their delayed reactions and odd angle of travel showed they had been unexpectedly pulled out of their journey by the Planemo's gravity well.
The Red hulls quickly identified them as Drathonian, and the Endeavour wasted no time in firing upon them, but some sort of anti-miracle gave some drathonian pilot the clarity to pull out of the way of the shots just in time. Unfortunately for them, it was into the Planemo's thin atmosphere. A Ball of glowing fire engulfed the Ship, but it was obvious it would survive the trip down mostly intact.
"Excuse us, I think we need to do something about this." Evelyn notified Bob quickly, as the alert klaxons in the Hymn began blaring. The Hymn's and Endeavour's marine CO's would recieve emergency orders to go down to the planet, as sensors showed lifesigns down there, which hadn't been before. The two captains knew that the only weapons they had that could penetrate the atmosphere usefully were the Solaris, and they did not want to do that much damage to the precious resources of this Planemo.
******
Kai's Personal communicator beeped, and he read the message quickly. "Looks like we get to go now. Come on, Let's get ready!" The lieutenant called to his men, and quickly rushed out of the room, while ordering the armory to put the squad's combat gear on a Caballero so they could put it on on their way down to the planet.
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:20 pm
The yellow curls and feathers gently moved in solace as the red fleets arrived. "And I was hoping to put my hard earned Terran to practice. Then these buffoons had to show up." Bob shrugged. He rapidly chirped, whistled, screeched and growled out orders; suddenly the background of the circular room he was in changed, as several shields were erected around the Ottyo frigate's bridge. The chatter of unseen subordinates could be heard under the faint hum of something large powering up. "Please pardon our actions; you most likely guessed it my fellow Shipmaster, but we cannot let them escape. Yes. We do not even have the numbers to make use of these resources. But more importantly, it must not be used by the likes of them." A powerful interdiction field emanated from the space black ship, trapping everyone in the system for the time being.
****
"Yes Kai-Lieutenant, very much so." Yotruyan replied. Before he could say anything else, the Kai-Lieutenant's attention was caught by a communication device on his body. Yotruyan lifted his head a little, and turned it towards the disturbance.
"What's up Killy? Worried about tagging al - " Cibo was cut off as the armored alien suddenly raised a finger up into the air, essentially telling her to shut up. The Intelligence Officer opened her mouth to protest, but again, the Ottyo stopped her, his helmet-plate's sensor feathers moving about.
"Interdiction field. Old model science vessel judging by the frequency. They're here."
"What? That's bull! And who's they?!"
"The Reds. Lets go." The Inquisitor grabbed the Intelligence Officer by the hand and lead her away, only to stop and go back for Sehene as well, pulling them both into a shuttle like a pair of unruly children. Needless to say, Cibo was playing out the role of 'unruly child' well.
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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:01 pm
Kendrick tried to picture the alien skinning a Drathonian alive just as Lieutenant Hendlow had said, but then shuddered at the thought and dismissed it from his mind. Just so long as he doesn't try and skin one of us, that would be as much a nightmare for me as it would be for the injured party, he thought to himself.
When Lieutenant Nakamura gave the word to head out, Ken followed along obediently as the squad hurried along to get their equipment and start the mission. In the back of his mind, the new medic was starting to feel anxious, not so much out of fear of impending doom, but more out of a nagging worry that he wont fit in with 215's standards.
Steven, at the encouragement of his squad and Command, was grudgingly taking some R&R in order to, as Command put it, recuperate from “traumatic events.” Which as far as Steven was concerned this was just a nice way of saying that they didn't think Steven was in a stable state of mind, and therefore a hazard. He hated being grounded; ever since he became a pilot he began to consider being taking off active duty to be the same as being thrown into a prison cell. Even though Command had assured him that he would be placed back on active status before the next mission, Steven gritted his teeth through the whole talk.
Fred had taken over temporary command as Green Leader, and Dan had been moved into the Green Two slot. This put Steven's mind at ease a bit, but Dan on the other hand protested in favor of him staying in his brother's pairing and having Arcadia moved up from Three to Two. He withdrew his protest after Steven drove the point home that this was only a temporary deal and would change before anything major went down.
So in the Captain's vast amount of free time he resigned himself to haunting the corridors of the Hymn, loitering in the mess hall, and soliciting the hangar engineers to see if there was any work they needed help with. Steven was almost bored to the point of smashing his head against his desk until blood came out his ears simply because it would give him something to do.
But despite how much he complained about his boredom, Steven past month had not actually been a complete snoozefest. Green Squadron had only scrambled two times, which had been for completely mundane reasons, so Steven was able to spend time among friends most of the time. Steven, much to the amusement of his squad and the other bar patrons, had indeed had a drink or two with Fred; the night ended with Steven singing karaoke of Come Sail Away by Styx, of this Steven has very little memory of. He was also using the time to catch up on reading many of the books he kept in his room.
Now, Steven was strolling down the corridor that led to the mess hall, having just woken up from an “afternoon” nap the pilot was now hunting for some coffee. As he strode down the hallway his comm buzzed indicating a message, it was Rhiannon. Steven completed the link and started the live chat.
“Hey Rhiannon. Yeah, small universe, eh?” Steven greeted, “Not only is Green Squadron inside today but I am also on R&R until Command deems that I am “mentally stable” again. I've forgotten how boring it can be to have nothing to do.
“So yeah, we haven't had much of a chance to catch up yet, so how have you been these past few years?”
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Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:09 am
Lieutenant Hendlow was practically bouncing down the corridors on the way to the Caballero. Once inside and armed adequately, he took note of Kendrick. He was been a nervous little greenhorn, and it was bugging Garrett like hell, so he made to alleviate the situation.
"Hey, lighten up, Kenny. We don't get shot that much in the two-fifteen. Look a little less grim for the other rookies, wouldja? Gonna give 'em the creeps if you go around tending injuries looking like that."
Arcadia's highlight of the passing weeks was the suggestion that she be promoted: even though it would have been a temporary upgrade, Pilot Langdon was glad to know her skills were acknowledged and appreciated amongst her squad mates.
That, however, had absolutely nothing to do with what she was currently doing, which was sitting on the nose of her ship with a cup of coffee while she watched the many pilots and engineers go about their business. It was a peaceful thing to her, and always managed to alight a small smile on her face.
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 11:31 am
Kai watched as 215's Caballero filled up simultaneously with gear and squad 215 itself. When he was satisfied that everyone and all their gear was on, he ordered everyone to get ready, because they only had about three minutes until the shuttle hit the atmosphere and it would be too rough for them to get ready anymore.
Kai went about putting his own gear on, the Savior, starting with the legs and going up, then his backpack, complete with BR-0, and survival kit. he strapped on a bandolier of energy packs, then his belt, which held his holstered L/P-50, and his combat knife, as well as a couple of frag grenades and a flash-bang. He then put his helmet on and sealed it, starting the rebreather system that kept the helmet oxygenated for a few seconds to test it before shutting it off to conserve it. Last of all, he picked up his Sugar rifle and checked his communications, which revealed the battle orders.
The Lieutenant relayed these orders to his squad, and the alien. "Alright. We have two, fairly simple objectives. Kill as many lizards as we can, preferably all of them, and infiltrate the wreckage, destroying any and all communications gear we can find. Hendlow has some special orders, You're to asses the easiest and safest way to break down the wreckage, we'll need the resources is holds." And with that, the Lieutenant paused to wait for the tell-tale rumble that was the shuttle hitting the atmosphere.
******
The second and last ship in the Drathonian group was not nearly as 'lucky' as the first, having taken a very hard blow by the Solaris, it was now being pounded into scrap by the two ships' turbolasers, and soon became nothing more than rubble that would probably burn up as it hit the planemo's atmoshpere.
Luckily, no communications faster than radio had been sent out, and any help was decades away at that speed, for the lizards.
******
"You never really were what I'd consider 'mentally stable' " Rhiannon tesed, sighing in relief that she didn't have anything to do, and the big ships had taken care of it.
"I was assigned a desk job for a while, but managed to get myself transferred to R&D. I was actually the first person to fly a scimitar, and now i'm the first person to fly this prototype." she told him proudly. "Command deemed that I had the skills to lead, and to be in an elite squadron, and now here I am, you alter-ego of the Endeavour."
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Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:34 pm
Adrian rechecked the seals on his armour and then hefted his Sugar. The rifle had a good weight to it, despite the fact it wasn't even really a specialized sniper rifle. But, with a healthy dose of trained marksmanship that little deficiency could be overlooked.
Satisfied with his equipment, the older marine looked around him. He had opted to stay quiet when he had joined his newly-assigned squad. The long period of solitude he had as of recently had left a slight rust on his inter-unit communications and general friendliness. Anyway, the sniper felt much more confident now that he had reviewed his memories of previous engagements and even of his basic training lessons.
The Officer in charge, a Lieutenant with a name he hadn't thought to remember, seemed to be of quality and, after Adrian had heard his straight forward explanation of the situation, he found that he also seemed to be very likeable.
Though scanning around the room, his eyes locked on the foreign element in the unit, the alien who he heard addressed as “Killy” worried him a bit.
The Sniper, hoping that the Officer was done speaking for his moment, tried to make eye contact with the, correction his, Lieutenant. He coughed slightly, trying to get attention.
“Sir, this Op seems simple – but there are some unknowns that concern me.” Shifting his eyes towards Killy, Adrian continued. “Can either you or our attache give us a summary of his, ah, abilities in combat. I feel it would go smoother if we know what kind of support he can offer, and more importantly what we can give if he finds himself in a tight spot.”
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Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:33 pm
Cibo was to the right of Killy, and to the alien's right was Sehene, whom he'd dragged into the Caballero along with Cibo in such a degrading manner; some of them looked like they were going to bust a side open from laughing. She glared at him. 'God damn it! I bet I looked like a whiny little kid being dragged away by a parent!' When the Marine named 'Adrian' addressed her charge's abilities, she turned to look at him with her pretty face, and dark, sunken eyes. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" she asked kindly. Her face said otherwise, holding a hint of that special something that dared people to do dangerous things.
****
"How you holding up?" Marcus asked over the Terran communications network.
"Well enough, though I'm concerned I may have somehow offended Cibo. Those facial twists you do are strangely blunt in expressing. Right now, we're checking over our gear. Can you call back later?" Yotruyan replied. It was strange. The Terran seemed particularly interesting in his well being. 'Why? Even if I am the temporary representative, he is paying much attention to me. Why not the others? I do not see him conversing with some of the people serving under him as much as myself or Evelyn, though, she is Shipmistress, it is...disconcerting.' Yotruyan sat there, tail folded under and between his legs while checking over the MC-R; he wasn't worried a bit about the Terran Sugar. 'I'll have to get rid of this piece of s**t soon.' Cibo mentioned asking him directly for some reason, and he went back to his memory to find out what it was the young Terran wanted. 'Ah. Yes.' He turned his head slightly towards him as he was revealing the innards of the living gun, stretching out a piece like one would old cooked gristle. "I can snipe, scout, set up improvised traps, ambushes, and fight them head on, though not as well as I should, considering I don't have my old gear. I can also run distraction; since we've been running sabotage and espionage on the Drathonians, we've become especially hated amongst them, and are most often called 'Demons'. Any more questions?" the Ottyo asked. The voice was slowly gaining more sophistication, and that last bit sounded playfully annoyed, cocking his head to the side for emphasis.
****
'Bob' relaxed in his chair as the enemy group was being smashed to bits. "Shipmistress, if you do not mind, I will be sending down some of my own soldiers." he spoke, over stressing 'sending' and under-stressing 'own'. "They will cover the areas that your own people do not."
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Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 1:23 pm
“Thank you Sir, but that is a sufficient for me. I always do prefer my information straight from the horse's mouth.” Adrian stated politely, giving Killy a stiff nod along with his thanks.
Then, switching his attention to Cibo he matched her look with a feral smile. “Ah – I actually assumed I was speaking to our foreign attache. I had assumed my terminology was more politic than simply calling him 'alien'. Well, besides that, I do hope you perform as proficiently as he will Miss, it is always sad to see a minder be out performed.” His voice had been much more rigidly polite than the words he shared with the Ottyo and his challenging smile was still plastered on his face as he finished. The sniper stepped back and calmly began to go over his equipment once again.
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:55 pm
Ken was slightly startled both by Lieutenant Hendlow's sudden appearance and by his level of energy. “Uh, sorry about that Lieutenant. I'm just a bit anxious for this first mission. I mean, I don't want to go disappointing you guys, now do I?” he responded, doing his best to sound casual. “I'll do my best, Sir.” As he continued on with the group he did what he could to not let his anxieties show.
When they started gathering their gear, Ken went about as well collecting equipment. He donned his body armor, grabbed his rifle, and rounded up his specialized medical equipment and put it all in his pack. He had all he needed, but was slightly saddened by the lack of a shotgun. “All ready, lets do this,” he mumbled to himself.
As he waited with the squad he ran over the procedure for mending a ruptured artery to pass time.
“Hmm, this coming from the woman who had an irrational fear of men until our second year at the Academy,” Steven responded to Rhiannon's quip. “And it sounds like you have had a pretty good thing going these past few years, that's good. I on the other hand have led a much humbler existence here aboard the Hymn. I can fill in the exciting details over some drinks sometime."
Fred walked casually into the hangar of the Hymn, stopped, and to and over exaggerated deep breath. “Ah, I never get tired of the smell of acetylene torches and grease,” Fred announced as he began once more to stroll over towards Green Squadron's block.
As he drew near he observed his temporary subordinates going about running routine checks on their ships. Aside from one or two pilots most of the pilots in their cockpits. He noted the closest, Arcadia, and deviated a bit from his course in order to exchange pleasantries.
“Afternoon Arcadia, how're ya doing today?” he asked giving a slight wave as he got closer.
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Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 7:14 pm
Cibo watched as Killy spoke with an annoyed whine, "I'm not a horse." before turning his head away slightly in what the Intelligence Officer took to be an indignant expression. She felt like bursting out in laughter at seeing it's displeasure.
"Keep it up Adrian, I might like you yet." she replied with a mischievous grin. The form fitting suit she wore suddenly attempted to blend into the ship's interior, as though by a flick of emotion. 'And that's working, good.' She then turned her attention back to the alien next to her, who was now intently staring at the medic named 'Ken'. She noted how he was green, and how he mumbled to himself. For that moment, both Cibo and Killy stared at Ken in unison. 'Now, what is Killy thinking?'
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Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:40 pm
Ken snapped out of his mental run through of medical procedures long enough to see the alien, Killy, staring at him. The medic quickly looked away and tried to distract himself again. To no avail, Ken looked back towards the alien again. It was still staring at him. Now he was starting to feel slightly nervous, and he hadn't even noticed Cibo looking at him as well. “Well, obviously the higher ups wouldn't have sent it with us if they felt it was a threat. This could be a chance to branch out and try and get over my aversion to aliens,” he rationalized in his mind.
He gathered up his courage, and after getting enough confidence he turned to the alien and tried to speak. He failed this attempt and turned away quickly again. After another minute of getting his courage again, he turned once more towards Killy.
“Um, is there something you, uh, need?,” Ken said with marginal stuttering. “I, well, noticed you, um, staring. So, uh, need something?” The timid medic, who first could not look directly at the alien, now found himself to timid to look away.
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Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:37 pm
There was still no response from the Ottyo in the ship. In fact, he still was 'looking' at Ken with a hazy eyed intent. 'Wait. His eyes are hazy. What's going on?' Cibo leaned closer, bringing her face mere inches from Killy's. And still he didn't move. 'Oh god, he better not be dead! I don't want to be demoted again!!! Please don't be dead!' Desperate with fear, she quietly spoke like a scared child, "Umm. Killy? Are you...ok?" By now, a few people were looking over at the strange scene of the squad's attached Psycho-b***h worrying over the Alien. She quailed. "K-Killy?" Then screamed. "KILLY!" And then the haze on the Ottyo's eyes drew back as he gave out a honk of surprise.
"WAAARK!" He looked at Cibo. "What?" he asked, annoyed.
"What? What?! That's all you have to say? I thought you were dead and all, with those hazed over eyes and not responding and stuff." She replied angrily. "Its not like I was worried about you. I just don't want another demotion..." The Ottyo gave a growling purr, as he thought.
"Must have been my nictating membranes. I guess I felt asleep with them and forgot to close my eyes." Cibo swore that if he was human, he'd have had a grin on his face. "So. Did you people need me for something? I remember I was watching him." He pointed with his snout to Ken, "Pack his things. And then I dozed off." Cibo's face struggled to decide whether to be glad, or outright furious, eyebrows and mouth twitching.
****
'What's this about her demotion?' Yotruyan wondered.
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Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 3:29 pm
Sehene would have giggled at Killys hurried attempts to drag her and Cibo along, but upon seeing Cibo's expression quickly looked away and attempted to hide her smile; so far she was not on her bad side, and she did not really want to be.
She managed to organize herself and get all her gear on and ready after the trip to the caballero, and nodded as Kai gave orders, "Yes Sir." she called to him, although noticing she seemed to be the only one still using such formalities, but force of habit she supposed. She began checking over her weapons, fiddling around with them and such, while listening in on the conversation. The rooky seemed nervous, and she grinned at his awkwardness.
She paused in her fiddling, also becoming worried at Killys strange state, and was relieved that he was just 'sleeping', although puzzled, and she grinned to herself again at the sheer absurdity of the situation, returning to her weapon.
She caught a glimpse of Cibo's facial expression and couldn't help but burst into laughter.
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Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 11:02 pm
Arcadia instinctively raised her mug in acknowledgment. "Well enough for a day free of combat," she answered mildly before taking another few gulps of coffee. "And you?" It was all mild pleasantries; Pilot Langdon was willing to work alongside Fred, and even converse in a pleasant tone, but she personally did not like him. That aside, there was a time to be cordial and a time to be frank; this was the former.
Unlike Sehene, Garrett was unamused by Intelligence Officer Cibo Malinowsky; quite to the contrary, her behavior grated on his nerves like aluminum in a garbage disposal. The more he was around her, the more he simply wanted to strangle her unconscious. If she would simply stop talking, he could get along just fine, but she had to run her mouth. ALL. THE. ********. TIME.
So he tried to refocus, go elsewhere. He reached for his usual stash of cigarettes, and found it devoid of anything even remotely reminiscent of a plastic-wrapped paper carton stuffed full of the colloquial "death sticks." A heavy and demure sigh made its way out his nostrils. Lieutenant Hendlow threw himself back in the nearest seat and continued to watch the others with his most neutral expression.
Which is to say, he was irritated and it was clearly displayed on his face.
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