Final Preparations
Posted on Sun Apr 21st, 2024 @ 6:22pm by Lieutenant Alan Harrison & Lieutenant JG Tamra Pren & Lieutenant Commander Lylja Tigerlilly & Lieutenant Kyan Mackenzie & Lieutenant Gunnar Arnason & Lieutenant JG Kikua Mahone
1,648 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Crossed Wires
Location: Landing Pads
Timeline: MD 02: Afternoon (After "Department Cooperation")
Alan double (and then triple) checked the equipment they were bringing. Originally, he had planned on bringing the Atala with all the storage space that entailed, but the interim CO had ordered them to take a shuttlecraft instead - something about not wanting them to look like a threat. He understood her logic here, but his protests that they may not have the space or equipment they needed if repairs on the mysterious vessel were needed seemed to fall on deaf ears. He'd had to downsize their loadout, which was now so barebones that he had to make sure they at least brought the essentials.
Tamra observed Alan's final checks. Alan had requested that she look over his shoulder and double check his work to be absolutely sure he didn't miss anything, "All appears to be in order, sir," she noted.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Alan replied before noticing some of the others lucky (unlucky?) enough to be assigned to this mission starting to arrive with their gear.
Lylja arrived with a rolling case of gear. "Room for one more?" she asked cheerfully.
Gunnar arrived with an emergency medical pack slung over his back. He very much hoped it wouldn't be needed. He'd originally signed on for this thinking that whoever was on the aging vessel might be in need of medical as well as engineering aid. Now, if Sofia was on the ship... he wanted to believe the aliens were friendly and just looking for help, in which case the Counselor had possibly been the best pick for them to establish a rapport, but if they weren't... Her abduction triggered too many memories and he couldn't help thinking about the shape he'd been in when he'd been recovered. Given a shuttle's limited medical capability, he was going to be prepared.
Lyja smiled at Gunnar. "Good to see you again, Lieutenant. It turns out the Eclipse was just my style."
"I'm glad," he replied, glad for the reminder of normalcy. "I'll get back there at some point."
Lylja nodded and gave a wink. "It was just what the Doctor, or maybe the Nurse, ordered." She started back toward the shuttle. "This should be fun too."
The remark made him remember that First Contact was generally high on his list for fun. If not for Sofia's abduction he would be very much looking forward to meeting this new species. It might still turn out that their intentions were good and this would be a fascinating experience. "I hope so. The recruiter originally had me at 'seek out new life and new civilizations'."
Kyan had to admit, what the toy store on Haumea lacked in action figures, they definitely made up for in their game selection. Not only did they have a very respectable selection of titles, but they also had the Rom-tek HGS portable, which he had been wanting to pick up for quite a while.
The console consisted of a headband that projected a small holographic sphere around the user's head.This could be set to translucent if the player wanted to be able to see the area around him, or dark if they wanted to be fully immersed in the game. In that case, the player would appear to be wearing a sort of tinted fishbowl on their heads to anyone around them. The console had body sensors for actually VR play, and a handheld controller for those who were playing in a confined space where they couldn't move around.
Since it was compatible with most of the games he already had,there had been no need to buy new ones. But the best thing? It was connected via to the Romverse, a subspace gaming network where players from all over the sector could ply and interact. Kyan had been up most of the night playing Call of Duty: Dominion War, and was still playing as he walked up to the staging area with his duffel bag slung over his back.
"Aye mate I see ye! I'm about to clap yer cheeks like a Capellan thunderstorm! Get ready boyo... "
He'd set it on transluscent mode so that he could walk to the landing pads, but was focused on the game and didn't see the person in front of him. The Onlie ran headlong into them and stumbled back, dropping the controller. Apparently that caused something catastrophic to happen in the game.
"Oh shutup! I ran in tae someone standing here! Ye dinnae kill me I killed meself! Yer still targ shite! One v one me later an I'll sort ye out!....Whatever. I gotta go tae work... like yer mother does at the dabo hall ye jobby wanker!"
With that he clicked the holo sphere off and picked up his controller. "Sorry. I dinnae see ye there." he said looking up at the person he'd run into."
Alan looked down at the person who had bumped into him, finding it to be one of the Only crewmembers Haumea seemed to have a lot of. "Lieutenant Alan Harrison, Chief of Engineering," Alan introduced himself. He'd dabbled quite a bit with hologaming back in his youth, so he brushed off Kyan's comments, "I don't think we've been introduced, uh, Lieutenant...?"
Kyan extended a hand. "Merry Met Alan. Kyan Mackenzie." he chirped back. "But ye can call my Kyan. I'm the Chief tactical officer I guess since I've nae met no other tactical officers. He shrugged. "It's ok though. The colony's been bully so far. Where do ye come from? I'm from Miri's Planet meself, but I lived on Cestus III for a while too."
"I'm just from Earth, so nothing too exciting," Alan chuckled, "My department has steadily grown in numbers since I arrived. With everything going on since then, I imagine the tactical department will go the same way soon."
Kyan nodded, almost eagerly. "I hope so, but I've never been on a colony before. Sure and it's alot different than a ship or a station. The only time I did my job so far was when we went out on the Atala."
It was Kikua who arrived next, though he found himself staring at the back of Kyan's head. His brother did tell him to have an open mind about the heads of staff. Caitian? Kainan? Okay, he could do that. He just had to not be insensitive. But the short-statured Kyan caught him off guard. Was that a child?!
"Uh, Sir," Kikua finally piped up, eyes peeling off Kyan and looking to Alan, "Got as much equipment as I thought we'd need for any ship-exterior repairs. You know, just in case we wanted to go for a space-jaunt."
"Good work," Alan replied with a brief smile, "We'll still have the Atala to support us from a distance, so we'll probably leave most of it behind when we take the shuttle and go back for it if we need it."
"Let us get everything and everyone aboard so we can get started," said Lylja brightly.
She offered a hand to Kikua and then to Kyan. "I am Lylja Tigerlilly, the new Chief Ops, nice to meet you."
Kyan took the hand and shook it. "Aye Merry Met! I'm Kyan Mackenzie. It's tactical that I'm s'posed ta do but most of the time I play video games on account of because it's a colony so it is... but I think the boss may be after having other stuff fer me too." He indicated the shuttle. "Hopefully this away mission will be the exciting kind with some shooting. Then we'd all get to do stuff!"
"I am afraid I have had enough shooting for a lifetime but I would be happy if we all get to do things we enjoy," said Lylja.
Kikua rubbed the back of his head after the handshake, eyes on Kyan. "Shooting isn't on the top of my list. I'll let you do the shooting for the bunch of us."
Alan saw that everyone he'd been told was going on the mission appeared to be present. "Ok, gather round everyone!" he announced before continuing quieter so as to be out of earshot of anyone outside of the local group, "I'm sure you've all been briefed on why we're going on this mission. We don't quite know what to expect out there, so I will need everyone on high alert once we get within range of the ship. In all likelihood, this will be a repair mission, so Lt. Colonel Bradley and Captain Seong have seen fit to have me take point. However, I need everyone to be prepared to perform their respective duties at a moment's notice. Any questions?"
"Not until we have more information," said Lylja. "So, let us get out there and find out what is happening."
Kikua shook his head, giving a shrug. "I just wanna see what we're dealing with."
"Ready as I can be," Gunnar said, patting the medical kit he carried. "It won't be the first time if we have to improvise."
Alan heard no more comments from the team. "If there's nothing else, triple check your equipment and we'll beam up one department at a time." He returned to stand near the pile of engineering equipment near the center of the pad and tapped his commbadge, "Atala, three and equipment to beam up."
As he was it for medical, Gunnar simply set his bag beside him and tapped his commbadge. "Atala, One and equipment to beam up."
Lylja let the others beam up. watched them vanish into energy. Since her experience in statis, she found herself more reluctant to use transporters, something that had not been true before. She would have to talk to the counselor about it. With a resigned sigh. she tapped her badge, "One to beam up with stuff, Atala."
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