The Line in the Stars (IC) [PG/14]

[Paladin Sheppard]

INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Kal and Dominic's bunkroom

Grinning Kal looked up. "Just making sure the corporal got everything, but I think she missed something..."

Kal reached into his deskdrawer and pulled a marines private rank badge. "I assume you know how to sew?" he tossed over the rank badge to Brittney.

"You wear those till you prove yourself to me. Then I cut one of those cords of the band. Every time you do something I judge worthy I will cut the remaining bands. Once all the bands are removed I will release you of your bondservice...If you still wish it."

[Metal Juggernaut]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room

"Yes sir!" Davis barked. Davis didn't yet know anyone's names ,but he knew they outranked him, and that was all that mattered for now.
     Davis rushed to find a locker, which he spotted at the far wall.He opened it,luckily finding it empty, and forcefully shoved his gear inside.
     After storing his gear,Davis then ran to a nearby bunk,which had no tell-tale signs of anyone using it.Good he thought,I get to sleep alone.He folded a corner of the sheets to show that the bottom bed was taken, and then scurried off to find some armor.
     He found some in a pile of standard issue balistic armor.Now came the part he always found most annoying...sizing up.All the armor ranged from small to large sizes,but no XL's,which were the only size armor he could wear.He grabbed a L and tried to put it on.After grunting and pushing it on,he looked like a stuffed sausage.He could barely put his arms down ,but it would have to do.
     H then dropped for push-ups which would be a major pain in his too-small armor.He huffed and puffed at the end of the 50,hating the other soldiers faster push-ups.Screw it, now I can show off.And ran to the shooting range.
      He found a two-tier gun locker near the shooting range,rifles on top,pistols on the bottom.He grabbed a rifle and slung it over his shoulder,then grabbed a pistol,looking and feeling like a kid's toy in his hands.The locker next to him was a ammo locker,so he heaped up on all the ammo his pockets would carry for both guns,for he liked to be well armed.
     He then turned to the gun range,and slapped in a magazine into the rifle with a satisfying 'click',and then went to work on the silloette targets.Davis fired in quick three-round bursts,all landing in the head/neck area.He then placed the spent rifle on the table to his right and then whipped out his pistol.He was a far better shot with a rifle,and fervently hated using a pistol in combat,much rather wanting to use the ARAM shotgun favored by engineers.He fired off all the rounds in the pistol,this time aiming for the chest area,so he could actually hit the target.
     He knew how to field strip and gun,actually he had known how to since he was 6,when his dad showed him how to hunt.But he decided that it was best to let the other being show him how to do it,after all,he didn't want to repeat the push-ups again.
     After putting his rifle back together,he then rounded up all his things and threw them altogether.
     "Done sir!" He said after everthing was done.

[Lushin]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room
Romulus shook his head at the newcomer. He smile abit seeing the big grizzly in the armor slightly too small. Once he said he finished Romulus looked him dea in the eyes. "You'e not done til I say you are. *Romulus looked at Donovan* Got any spare armor this guy can wear? Looks like they don't have any in your guys size here. *Romulus looked back to Davis* Repeat the firearms and the field striping" As Davis run to comply Romulus did the same thing he did to the others. Fired Just over their heads while they where targeting practiceing. he continued to fire just over Davis's head while he was field stripping his rifle and pack.

[Metal Juggernaut]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room

After hearing the wolverine say to repeat the target practice and field stripping exercises,Davis ran to comply with the orders.He started to run back to the target range when a shot rang off.Davis whipped around and saw the wolverine holding a gun which was smoking.Sonofa was all Davis thought to himself.I hope the ricochet doesn't hit me,'cause this guy doesn't seem like the caring type.He pulled out another rifle and pistol,loaded them,and fired all the rounds downrange,while still being fired at.He then stripped the guns,rebuilt them,and then replaced them in the gun locker.He then ran back to the gun-firing wolverine,and just stood at attention."Awaiting orders sir!" Was all Davis said,not 'done sir' for that would earn another set of punishment.

[Lushin]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room
Romulus looks at Ben when Davis ran out to him. "Well he's in your squad. Anything you want him to do"

[ShadesFox]

In the shuttle, out there in the black.

"You probably don't even need to consult with the Captain, I'm sure he will say no.  I would think that there is a reason for that thing, and there seems to have been an unpleasant spat of trouble to get it on him in the first place.  No, Loki knows where it is, and he can take us to it now."

Aaron just sort of grins as Loki.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

In the shuttle, polar orbit

Nova didn't think she would need to do this so soon, but checking her palm computer behind Aaron and sneaks audio recorder on.

"Major, sir.... Do you think he can see an invisible ship, anymore than we can with a full scan array?"  asks Lt Nova.  "And how will he turn off the ship's defenses from out here? or why?  I thought we are building a friendly alliance, here"

PBH

[ShadesFox]

In the shuttle, I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me.

Aaron pondered Lt. Honnydew.  There were only few times in his life that he had heard a larger load of crap.  The first time was from the army recruiter at school.

He began to wonder about her for a moment.  He also wondered about the information she leaked in her question.  She called him Major, and said sir.  He never heard her say 'sir' before.  Also, how does build an alliance with a prisoner?  He was getter ever more concerned with this fog of bullshit.

Still, he had a mission to complete, there would be time to execute insidious plots later.  He leans over to Loki, "So tell me, can a little bell collar really lay you so low that you can't find your own toys like Lt. Honneydew suggests?"

[Azlan]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room



Ben was quite a bit cheerful, it was nice to be giving as opposed to receiving for once, but he didn't want to fall into the rut of a callous NCO, he cleared his throat and smiled at Romulus, "I think the basics are pretty much well covered.  I need you to take each of your specialists and have them take the member of my team that corresponds to their MOS and run through their test for them.  Explosives can be handled in the bomb closet behind us in the training room here.  Everything else can be handled in the other training area.  Valynth and Alex will stick with us and we'll go over their duties."

He turned to the new guy Sean and addressed him directly, "good job corporal, not bad for coming in late.  Oh, Darkcloud and I, we work for a living, so don't address us as sir like you would an officer.  Address us by our rank, we earned it."  Ben felt rather silly about saying that as they had just received a two rank promotion each, but he didn't show the embarrasment.




Shuttle, polar orbit



Loki's mischievous little attempt was not working out so well, Nova was receptive to cute, but the Major was not.  He sighed as the Major called his power into question, it was an attempt to arouse his arrogance.

The fox kit smiled wryly and shrugged, "no, I know where it is exactly now that we are here.  The ship made a decision to land due to the space battle that occurred earlier.  So we will have to land and travel to it.  The bell collar does not prevent me from locating it, what it does prevent me from doing is phasing or communicating telepathically over long distances.  I cannot just 'teleport' us into the ship nor can I contact it.  If we try and land too near it, the ship may flee or fire on our shuttle.  I had hoped to make this easy and safer, I have an odd feeling... a bad one maybe.  I can't tell with this collar on."




INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Kal and Dominic's bunkroom



"release me from service if I still wish it?  How would I not want to be free of servitude?"  She sighed and sat down, "look lieutenant, I'm a mercenary and a utility mech pilot.  I've been working for these corsairs for a year or two, when you are stuck in space all you can be is useful.  I'll do what you tell me to and I may even grow to like it, but right now it seems just like going from one type of servitude into another.  When will anyone acknowledge me as a person rather then just some asset or commodity?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Nova looks at Loki with annoyed frown.
"Well, it looks like we will land and huff it, then. " says Lt Nova as she sits and buckles her flight harness. 
She smiles at Loki and ask gently "Please, Mischief, can you get the pilot to a landing site that will not to spook your little ship?  Major, sir.  You'll want to take seat during re-entry."

Lt Nova looks ahead  with her professional emotionless face, and she calls for the data from the shuttle's outside scanners to her wireless palm computer.  She watches to see the scan for any sight of Loki's ship or Is it really is invisible to everything they can scan.

PBH
 

[Paladin Sheppard]

INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Kal and Dominic's bunkroom

"I do value you and not just for your skills which is why I saved you from a firing squad for piracy...I consider myself a good judge of charcter" Kal paused for a moment "I'll take you to meet my ground crew and then I'll have an NCO show you around some."

[Lushin]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room
Romulus nodded to Ben then looked at his squad. "All right gents, you know what to do. Show these rooks how it's done. Wall, no need to go crazy. Keep the ammo use to a minimium. RC, no prank calling anyone you got me? Hacker, no getting into the recards and making people KIA. Nitro, no blowing the rook up. Alright guys have fun" Romulus looked to Ben again. "You're sniper will have to wait til I get some free time. I'm sure they'll be fine though"

[ShadesFox]

Shuttle - Some where well above the rainbow

Aaron takes a moment to reflect on the situation.  Loki is claiming that something 'bad' may happen.  Then again, bad stuff seems to happen to him with disturbing frequency.  Still, it would be nice if the worst thing that happened this time was that they have to march to the shuttle.  Hopefully, Lt. Honneydew was at least trained how to march.  He gets the feeling that a lot of such training was lost on her.

"Very well then.  Please point out where it is exactly so that we can decide on a good landing spot.  From there we shall march, hopefully not far and hopefully not into an angry shuttle armed with nasty weapons it intends to use.  That would ruin my day."

[Azlan]

INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Kal and Dominic's bunkroom



As Kal spoke with Brit, his comm unit flashed for a few seconds and the screen came to life.  The image resolved to that of Lt. Commander Kason, the ship's Deputy CAG. 

"1st Lieutenant Jeico, Commander MacDuff is indisposed at this time.  He has given me full operating authority in regards to this bondswoman issue."  The fox paused for a second, "Your request is approved, please register her in the logs and send the requests for the appropriate system accounts."



Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room



Everyone snapped to their various duties immediately and began their training of the new recruits.  It became apparent that the recruits were well versed in their various skills and adapted easily.




Shuttle, polar orbit



Loki sighed and stood up, motioning for Aaron to follow as he headed into the cockpit.  Loki dropped down into the seat where the navigator would normally be and began typing furiously on the keyboard of the console.  A few moments later a display came to life with a rendering of the polar surface.  A purple dot illustrated where Loki's ship was.

Loki pointed to a flat area a few miles north of the site where his ship was, "this area is the only safe ground to land on with an approach into the valley where my ship has apparently tried to hide."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Lt Nova calls up the weather and local hazards for the landing site from the computer database,  " I will inform fleet flight control of our request to land on the planet surface with GPS data. We can land on your command, Major, once we are cleared by flight control", she comments from the engineers flight station.

  On the slide, she sets up an email with flight path data for the landing site to the Captain Summer's private account, but she waits to see if the  Major follows protocols and reports the new flightpath to Fleet Flight Control.  She is also waiting on the data about the planet.

PBH

[Paladin Sheppard]

INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Kal and Dominic's bunkroom

"Aye, Aye Sir!" Kal smiled as the Lt Commander signed out. "Well Britney looks like you're with us for the long haul." He stood up and motioned for her to do the same.

"Lets get you registered and introduce you to the gang." With that Kal led her down to the small admin section on the ship and filled out the proper forms.

After they finished Kal led her down to the hangar where his Raptor was being worked on. "Hey! Chief!" He called out when they got to the mecha.

[Azlan]

Shuttle, polar orbit


Loki stared at Nova for a long few moments and then at Aaron, he scrunched up his face like a pouting child, "you two get along now, or I'm not working with the both of you.  Stop being so political and defensive, this is not conducive to a healthy environment."



INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Flight deck


A respectable looking black man popped his head out of the cockpit, he was wearing some type of virtual reality simulation gear.

"yeah lieutenant, what's up?"

[Lushin]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room
Romulus watch the rooks with Ben. "So what do you say we look into getting the rest of our gear transfered over to this boat? They look like they have an idea what they are doing"

[ShadesFox]

Shuttle, polar orbit, where the bears are

Aaron looks at Loki.  He knew she was hiding things.  She was going about and doing a very poor job hiding it.  Between an arrogant choice of words, a complete lack of military discipline,  and an overall no factor about her behavior he was always a tad suspicious.  Though he was hoping to have a tad more information before forcing the issue.

"Interesting choice of words there Loki.  Perhaps we can talk about it."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

On board the Shuttle, polar orbit.

"Okay, Major sir, Protocols must be followed... I am ready to transmit flightpath to Fleet Flight Control once it is plotted.  If Loki wants to us to play by the rules, I am all for it.  You are still team leader, Aaron, you call the shots,  Ready when you are sir?" says Lt Nova with a sigh.  She redirects her email for the captain to Flight Control. 

"We are luck to have winds at 14km and sunshine for the next 15 days at the landing site.  Temperature a bommy -10C and the air is on the thin side with O2 levels are the below normal but breathable.  It is very dry with little snow.  Readings are unclear of about a storm system to the south.   It could break toward us or head south.  We don't have enough data on the wild weather parttens  of this planet."

PBH

[Paladin Sheppard]

INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Flight deck


"Got someone for you to meet Chief." Kal motioned Britney forward "This is Britney Graham, she'll be working with you guys on my Raptor, take care of her ok?"

[Azlan]

On board the Shuttle, polar orbit


Flight control acknowledged the flight plan and signaled the all clear message.

The pilot lokked over to the two fleet officers, but caught Loki's gaze instead.  The green fox's eyes flashed for a second and Loki mouthed the words, "just go ahead and land."  He did not vocalize them however.

The pilot found himself oddly convinced that he had just received the landing orders and brought the shuttle in, forcing everyone to scramble for an appropriate landing seat.

Loki sheepishly watched everyone scramble for a seat, he mumbled to himself in a low voice, "oops, I should have waited till everyone was seated." 



Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room



Ben nodded, "yeah, sounds like a good idea.  When your guys are done instructing the rooks, they can get their stuff over here too."

Ben whistled LOUD, "listen up.  We are going back over to the command ship to transfer our stuff here.  Keep up the practice for another few hours then take a break, get settled in.  After chow we will get more target practice in."



INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Flight deck



The chief removed the VR helmet and climbed down "oh really?" 

He sized her up and noticed the bond cord.

"Alright crew, front and center, new team member to introduce."  The chief called out.

The technical crew of Kal's Raptor appeared in a blink of an eye.  All eyes where on the new arrival, Britney suddenly felt very self-conscious.

A golden brown alsation with red head fur/hair wagged her tail when she saw the bond cord on Britney's wrist.

The chief turned back to Britney, "alright private, go ahead and introduce yourself."

Britney frowned a bit, but returned to her neutral expression, "Britney Graham, formerly technical officer for the 1st Alrehad Lancers, mech squadron of the Defiance.  I am a mechanical engineer and have been a pilot... now I am his bondswoman."

The chief scratched his chin for a moment and snapped his fingers, "for now, I'm going to assign you to sergeant Elder.  As you prove yourself, things will change, but that is up to the lieutenant."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

 Lt Nova starts to fall. but manages to hit her seat, and scolds, "Loki, that was not funny....*giggling* I could having landed on the Major."  *giggle *  "Cmmm Cough, ermm what is the ETA, pilot?"

PBH

[Paladin Sheppard]

INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Flight deck

"Thanks Chief I knew I could count on you." Kal said with a ghost of a smile knowing the good natured ribbing Britney would get from his ground crew.

"And Jessica you be nice to the poor girl I saw that look!" Grinning ear to ear he patted Britney on the rump and pushed her towards the crew, he motioned for the chief over.

"So what hit me out there? That was a hell of a malfunction I'm just glad I managed to find a replacement board."

[ShadesFox]

Shuttle - Going through an atmosphere

"Yes, a little more warning would be handy next time oh jedi master."

He sits down, kind of disappointed he didn't get a cute lady in his lap from the jarring,  and straps him self in.

[Lushin]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx - SpecForces room
Romulus sets out with Ben to go about getting their stuff transfered to their new HQ.

[Azlan]

Shuttle - subarctic surface... it's cold up here


The descent was a slight bit bumpy, once fully into atmosphere, the shuttle switched from Ion drive to anti-gravity units and began a rapid deceleration which was just this side of maximum human/anthro tolerances.

Eventually the shuttle maneuvered into VTOL mode and landed near the entrance of a large valley.  Trees were small and sparse, but vegetation was present.

Loki threw off his restraints, bolted to the door and threw it open before the crew chief could even unbutton his restraint.  The green fox briefly became blue as he turned back towards the crew, "wow, it's cold out there."



INARI Class Cruiser, Revelation - Flight deck


The various members of the ground crew surrounded Britney and whisked her off somewheres.

The chief scratched his chin, "as best as I can tell, it must have been a heavy dose of incident electromagnetic radiation from those big capital Javelin spinal lasers from the Defiance or the Beta particle projectors of the Phalanx.  Those older weapon designs tend to be rather inefficient and cook off much of the power fed to them in electromagnetic leakage.  The shielding over these system boards is rather thin due to the weight limitations and a poorer quality of material to save cost.  One of the many problems of contract bidding.  I can have the crew cut some quality material off the enemy salvage and replace the shielding.  Other then that, there is not a lot of damage to your unit."


Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx


Ben and Romulus grab Amanda's shuttle and head over to the Revelation.  They start pulling their gear from the area on the ship.

A corporal stops by and produces some paperwork for Romulus and Ben, "final transfer forms, just need your signatures, the Captain has already approved.  Any gear you need you can transfer over.  If all your people's effects can be transferred before we are ready to jump to the next system."

[Lushin]

Tribunal Class Troop Cruiser, Phalanx
Romulus spoke as he looked over the orders to make sure everything was in order before he signed. "We'll send them over as soon as we get back over there" Once he felt there wasn't a nasty surprise waiting fro him in the orders he signed it and went about moving his gear.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Rolling her eyes, LT Nova puts on a environmental suit just minus the helmet and oxygen supply.  It was light weight and holds in body heat.  It was a form fitting ski-suit with boots and mitts.  She also pulls out a pistol from the armory and a portable scanner from the equipment cabinet. 

"The scanner showed that the immediate area was clear of local wildlife above small mammals.. Lokki you need a coat or something?" asks the cat girl

PBH

[ShadesFox]

Shuttle - somewhere the is way too cold

"Yes, polar regions do tend to be quite cold."

Aaron puts on a lighter suit, being better naturally equipped for the environment then the others, and tosses something similar to Lt. Nova's get up to Loki. 

He then goes through the weapons locker, a rifle, a pistol, a few grenades.  Hopefully nothing needed to be blown up.  But having the option of blowing things up is always useful.