Ready... Aim...

Posted on Mon May 27th, 2019 @ 11:16am by Lieutenant Gunnar Arnason

2,933 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Snow Birds
Location: Haumea Colony
Timeline: MD05, afternoon

"I think I see one," a voice sounded softly from behind a snowbank.

A giggle responded, "How could you not? He's ginormous!"

The blush of boys huddled together, hands working to pack snow together, whispering as they ducked along the route of the tall man strolling along Haumea's main road. There were others in sight, but Aaron had chosen the blond-haired man out of all the rest. Easy pickings were still pickings. Jack and Rashane followed close behind their friend, trying hard to stay out of sight until they were needed. With a little push, they urged their friend out into the open.

Dashing into the street for a second, Aaron lobbed his snowball at the back of the target, scrambling back to his beckoning friends to escape notice. The boys giggled at their success, and they began to circle around the building to come at the target from another side. Jack handed over another snowball to replenish Aaron, whispering, "Good job."

At the initial hit between his shoulder blades, Arnason had frozen, but relaxed an instant later the sound of giggles. In fact, a boyish grin spread on his face...

As the trio reached the side of the building opposite where Aaron had found their target, Jack poked his head around, only to pull back with a splotch of snow against his face and knit cap from the snowball hit. He growled playfully, but spun around again for another strike.

The snowball fight had begun in earnest!

Gunnar laughed, seeing that he had timed jumping back perfectly to let the kids’ crossfire work against them. Having been a kid in a place where snow was more the norm than the exception, he had more than a passing feel for such tactics. And countermeasures. He ran past, lobbing a fistful of snow in each direction.

Tulilah ducked back, but not in time to avoid some of the hit. Worth it to have tagged Jack though. She grabbed another handful of snow, determined to get the giant blonde human this time.

"What happened to our truce?!" the small Miran shot off as he ducked the scattershot from Gunnar, glaring at the girl, who seemed delighted to assume the role of his nemesis. He quickly packed another snowball, muttering to his cohorts, "Cover me, I don't trust Tulilah anymore."

"Did you ever?" came the rebuttal from Rashane. Jack only grinned in his direction before setting off behind the tall Haumea resident, with Aaron close behind him. Out in the open and exposed now, the boys relied on speed, not stealth.

“Hey, I was aiming for him!” Tulilah protested, gesturing toward the tall human. Seeing the boys take off, she shrugged and packed an extra snowball, “But if that’s the way you want it….”

Arnason’s second handful of snow struck R’ssa in the ear from behind; eliciting the instinctive response: Her fur, including her swishing tail, floofed out reflexively. Spotting the perpetrator of the hit running off, however, her eyes narrowed, whiskers twitching as she packed a snowball of her own. Once she had a few of them, she tracked his movement for a few more moments...then in an astonishing burst of speed, ran forward and took a power leap up and further forward, unleashing a rapid-fire barrage on him before landing perfectly in a nearby snowbank and dashing off.

Gunnar felt the first hit and ducked and jigged, taking most the rest on his coat. The whoosh of another body sailing past might have been startling except that after months of living among felinoids the sensation was almost familiar. He looked up in time to see a still somewhat poofed tail disappear over the next snowbank and laughed. Expecting a potential ambush from that direction, he dodged back toward the building and reached up, ready to knock a coating of snow off the roof at whoever came at him next.

Stealth was the domain of the Andorian now, who knew how to hide in snow and ice. Rashane crept around the colony street, sticking to shadows and snowbanks, stalking his prey. Spying the tall man pass around the side of the building, he made his move. Leaning down over the edge of the roof, the blue-skinned boy whispered down to the golden-haired Human as he shoved off an armful of wet, sticky snow onto him from above. "Boo."

The human was less alarmed by a face full of snow than expected; in fact he smiled. And then reached up and grabbed Rashane and spun him down. “Utvop [Got you]!” he said in passable Andorian.

Rashane yelped as he was dragged off the roof, falling off into a soft snowbank with a distinct oomph. He glared up at the snow-covered face of the man, saying, "Ngimed!" Not fair! Then he laughed and scrambled to scoop more snow for ammo to pelt at the man in front of him.

“Completely fair!” Gunnar replied, plowing up a big armful of snow. “Andorians are the only folks here who beat me for cold tolerance,” he laughed as he flung the snow back at Rashane.

“Thwack! Thwack!”

Two snowballs aimed from behind hit the boys watching the action unfold.

Jack spun as he felt a hit for the second time, whirling to spy Tulilah again at the center of the trajectory. He growled to Aaron, who was now seeing the same scene he was. "This means war! GET HER!" His arm wound back with its clasped snowball, and then he whipped it forward toward the enemy. Aaron joined in, making it two against one. When they had exhausted their snowballs, Jack tagged his friend and they both ran to find cover behind another snowbank.

Tulilah ran after delivering her snow ammo. A couple retaliatory strikes hit her jacket and leg, but she dove behind a snowbank before getting too badly pelted. Crouching there, she began rearming, and considering reinforcements. “R’ssa! It’s boys vs girls now!”

R’ssa’s ears twitched, already possessing a decent pile of snowballs and waving a clawed finger at them in offering to Tulilah. “That hardly seems fair. There are two of us and three or four of them…” A predatory feline grin crossed her face. “...They don’t have a chance.”

Tulilah grinned. “As it should be!” She lobbed a snowball at the bit of cap showing over Jack’s snowbank

Aaron felt the snowball whiz over his stocking cap as he crouched behind the snowbank, busy forming new ammunition with his mittens. He growled, moving faster to complete the rest of the line of snowballs waiting as ammunition, remarking to Jack, "You ready? We need to throw these together, just pummel them, or they're going to pin us down!" With an affirmative nod from Jack, Aaron grabbed two, and with a signal to his waiting partner, rose up and let his snowballs fly in the direction of the girls' assault.

Theo had been walking his usual trail of patrol when the first snowball first flew into his field of vision making him stop but then hit him. He drew his rifle for a moment before he realised it was part of the crew that have arrived recently. “Watch out guys… people are around.” The man called.

Across the street, Gunnar had looked over just as Theo brought his weapon to bear, but his attempt to call out was cut short by getting a mouthful of snowball. Spitting, he bolted toward the security officer, waving, but fortunately the man had already reslung rifle and was chastising the kids.

Imagining that he probably looked like a frost giant by now, he paused a moment to wipe snow from his face and beard before continuing toward Theo. “It’s okay, Lieutenant,” he explained. “Just some ship kids getting a little high spirited having a natural environment to play in.”

Theo looked the man over. He recognised him and nodded to the other man trusting his judgement. Now that he knew what was happening he saw it for what it was but with all that was going on the man was a little wired. “I see.” Theo murmured already thinking of just walking on as quick as possible as everyone stared at him.

Gunnar offered a reassuring smile. Theo was okay, just wound a little tight. “It’s just kids having some f-”

*Thwack!”

A snowball hit Gunnar right in side of the face. He spun around and scooped, packed and hurled a snowball back in one smooth motion. “Fun,” he finished grinning as two boys dived out of its path.

Rashane giggled as he dodged out of the way of the bearded-man's snowball, finding himself landing close to the girls. He was halfway through making a return snowball before hearing the shout from Jack, "Rashane, get over here!" The Andorian boy squeaked as he looked up to see the girls' snowballs aimed his way, and scampered to the other side of the street, lobbing a snowball at the newcomer in the middle as he ran to safety on the other side of the street, consulting with his friends. "Okay, what's the plan?"

“Get him!” Tulilah yelled, throwing snowballs at Rashane. Frustrated at missing, she decided the two men were after all technically boys and grabbed two more, lobbing them at the easier targets.

Gunnar blocked one with his arm, took another on his coat, and looked over at Theo. “Do you want to make a dash for it, or,” he swept up a handful of snow, making his intention clear, “fire back?”

“What is going on?” Ildri stood there with her hands on her hips, having come across this altercation. She looked confused and disbelieving about it all. Though new to the whole snow thing, it seemed to her that everyone was not getting along and as a counselor she felt like she should be fixing things before they got physical.

Gunnar shook his head. Covered as he was in the remnants of snowball strikes, he really didn’t see a reason for the level of disapproval. Did no one else remember being a child? “Just a snowball fight - a thing kids,” he ducked a clump of snow hurled from one of the snow banks, and smoothly returned fire. “young and old, enjoy in this weather.”

“I was taught seen and not heard from a very young age,” Theo commented on about his childhood. Something like that would have never happen on New Roanoke at all.

"Obviously, the plan is to put the girls in their place," Aaron said, with the knit-capped head of Jack nodding along. The pinkskins had clearly been adjusting their plans while Rashane had been on his excursion to confront Gunnar and flush him out. That approach was less important now that the girls were making war directly on them. Jack added in, "We need to get the grups over here. The Haumea crew, the two painting themselves as targets in the middle of the road there."

"There's three now," Rashane pointed out. Jack gave him a quizzical look, until the boy pointed at his antennae, "Andorian, remember? It's kind of like a mini-tricorder up there, at least compared to you Humans."

"Okay, three then. Does that mini-tricorder tell you their names?" Jack asked, and snow-covered silver hair shook in response. "That makes it harder, but not impossible." Sticking his head up above the snowbank, Jack ducked as a snowball flew his way, rising up again once it was past. "Hey, over here, we've got cover. Unless you want to look like," he stifled a laugh at the big, blond man who was already looking like the abominable snowman's cousin. The Miran pointed at him, and then gestured a beckoning hand to the three in general. "well, unless more of you want to look like him."

Tulilah took the opportunity to fire a snowball at Jack’s exposed head. “Over here!” she called. “It was boys vs girls., but adults are more mature so you can join us.”

Theo turned as as snowball hit him and rolled his eyes. If he wasn’t allowed to shoot them he had two choices walk away or return fire and the tactical officer in him never walked away from a fight without throwing a few shots. “Might as well get out of direct line of fire.” He muttered to the other two.

“Good idea,” Gunnar replied. The girl who’d made the case for joining her side clearly overestimated of his level maturity, but taking the brief break while both sides tried to draw them over to follow the security officer to cover did seem wise. “Are you thinking we make this adults vs kids then?” He was actually somewhat curious as to whether the kids were at an age where it would become a three way fight or result in boys and girls teaming up.

Ildri shook her head, completely confused about what was going on around her. Apparently it was some kind of competitive game, though why anyone would want to hurl balls of frozen flakes at each other she had no idea. She was reluctant to join any side but did, after a few seconds of indecision, dive out of the way in case one of those balls happened to come her way. Obviously she needed more cultural training about humans, specifically children’s games. “How do you know who wins?” She called out to no one in particular.

“Hmm. Sometimes one side surrenders if they get over run,” Gunnar explained. “But from what I recall of snowball fights when I was a kid, it usually ends in a draw when the parents call everyone inside for dinner.”

"Or," Jack said, punctuating his comment by a snowball at the pair of men still blocking the road between the two snowball armies, "It ends when we all die of boredom waiting for the grown-ups to get out of the way!"

“They want excitement, do they?” Gunnar grinned, looking at the other adults. They might or might not follow, but it was clearly time for less plotting and more action. “Wouldn’t want to keep you waiting!” He called back as he scooped up an armload of snow. Despite a distinct lack of anything resembling ancestral berserker tendencies, Gunnar could do a good impression when it was all just in fun.

“Yaaaaa!” He charged their snowbank, yelling as he threw the snow at them a moment ahead of diving over bodily.

A cheer went up from behind the girls’ snowbank. “Get them!” Tulilah cried, overjoyed that Jack had provoked the adults (or at least the biggest of them) to attack him. It wasn’t exactly the alliance she’d wanted, but it worked! “Let’s go,” she said to R’ssa, grabbing snowballs and taking advantage of Gunnar’s attack to rush to a better vantage for raining frozen missiles at the boys.

Ildri backed way up to make sure she was out the way as they seemed to have started again. She smiled slightly, this was all right, some good healthy competition even if she didn’t quite understand why it had to be done. “Well enjoy,” she called out to all of them, wondering if she could get out of here without being hit.

Theo realised a few seconds to late as the snow balls hit him sending him diving over a barrier to escape before he lost his footing or his rifle was discharged or something. He wasn’t one to usually venture into something like this but it seemed like something that could warm him up to his new crew mates and the civilians that he was going to be defending.

The battle had been raging for over two hours. The two sides had been fighting for so long, no one could remember why it all started in the first place. Over and over again, combatants fell for the same piece of ground, only to lose it as quickly as it was won. By the time the snow settled, the only thing visible in the white streets of Haumea was the smallest edge of a hat poking out from underneath a mound of snow. Nothing stirred within that tomb, nor the rest of the colony thoroughfare. The only sound was the whistling of the wind blowing even more snow to fall upon those widowing fields.

After a few moments one of the mounds began to stir, snow shifting as it cascaded away from a human form sitting up and shaking snow from his head. He was joined a beat later by another.

Gunnar looked around the deserted street, covered in remnants of their snow melee. “Huh. I guess the kids got called back to the ship,” he remarked, not without some regret. Despite the snow caked, well, everywhere his winter gear offered any gap, he’d enjoyed the opportunity to revisit his youth - to drop all the responsibilities of LT Arnason and be a kid again, if only for an hour.

He glanced over at the other man with him, and smiled as he pushed himself to his feet. It had taken a bit, but Theo seemed to have given in to that impulse too. It was a refreshing look at a more human side of the usually serious straight-laced security office; a crack in the ice as it were. “We should probably get out of the cold too,” he said, and glanced toward the saloon as he reached down to offer a hand up. “Buy you a drink?”

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