"Well, don't really have a ton of room do we?... I mean, honestly, how big is this room end ta end- 30 feet? If that? Won't be much of a marksman's range that's fer sure. Stryker said there was steel plating down in cargo we could bolt to the walls, but dependin' on the ammo bein' used, no tellin' what could happen, could bounce right back off it, or blow right through it, and the wall behind it. No, think our bes' bet is to get ahold of a roll of insu-gel next time we hit port, ya ever seen that? Low-cost insulatin' material they use in prefab homes on th' colonies. Think they use it as a base fer the rubber rooms in asylums too. We put the steel plating up as backing, stick a couple layers of the insu-gel on, fasten it into place and then it's off to the races. Could even grab a stack of those paper targets, stick 'em right to the gel."

Benny nodded in agreement at the idea. Imagining how that would work as the physics of it pieced itself together in his head. "Aye, soun's good. Once saw that gel stop shrapnel launched by a frag when it was thick enough. No bullets goin' ta' be flyin' wild in here with that catchin' it. Migh' be a bit 'ard ta' track where energy weapon shots landed though," He replied, wondering if he could sneak a few extra loads of the gel to perhaps convert the old containment chamber in the lab into an explosives-testing chamber by adding a layer of the insu-gel on the inside of it to keep the hardened glass from breaking. He'd made do with much simpler set-ups in the past anyway.

Personally, he had never been much of a marksman himself. But there were just some problems a computer virus or a good explosive couldn't solve and so he actually got fairly good at handling his BR7, at least in mid-range combat. He figured that it would be useful to brush up on those skills, and perhaps even improve on them for times when the situation gets rough. "Guess we betta' start settin' up the steel plates so we know where ta' stick the goo, aye?"

When Amy arrived back at her room, she noticed the water bottle and note under the lamp. Setting her toiletries down on the table, she picked up the note to read it. So it seemed as if Stryker wanted to have them practice their shooting. Fair enough, it never hurt to be too prepared, especially with how often they went into battle, or at least, they used to.

Amy looked around the room for a while, deciding that it was best to just go out there and be in the company of others. She wouldn't achieve anything in bed, and given that they'd just woken up not too long ago, it'd be especially hard for her to fall asleep again.

Anticipating she'd be doing some work, Amy put on a black pair of leggings, a white t-shirt, and a gray sweatshirt. She pulled her short hair back into a ponytail, although inevitably some strands would just not cooperate and just fell behind her ears, and she headed out to go to the med bay and get some medication, the water bottle Grayson had left for her in her hand.

Once she took her medication, Amy headed across the hall to the armory, seeing some of the other team members but not engaging them as to not have to answer any questions.

The Juz’ felt like it had been such a long time since he saw the outside of the prison-like facility that kept him for nearly a month. While his face remained as stoic as ever before he donned his helmet, his body ached as he moved around in his armor. The only consolation that he has for walking limply towards a shuttle is that he has Unaysah safely resting in her carrier, and that he will be staying in a ship: somewhere where he would feel a little more alive in than in a static building. He only has a few items on his person now, too. Three bags that he managed to bargain for since the rest of his items have been thrown out or taken in as evidence for his past crimes.

”What’re you waiting for? Move!” a guard would say as he nudged Koren into the shuttle heading towards his pick-up point for an Alliance project that he hesitantly accepted. [b]”The Revenant Project,”[b] the female officer with a well fitting suit says as she finished his last test that left him with the said limp that he is nursing at the moment. The deal was that they were going to ship him off with a bunch of other baddies who did a lot of wrongs and got caught red-handed for it in exchange for potential freedom somewhere along the line. Though he wasn’t too eager to lack the ability to partially choose who, with, and what he would work for, he didn’t have much of a choice. It’s either he gets sent to a slow death or a horrible one if he was sent back to Juz’ and get sentenced to torture and execution in charges of treason.

While the hull of the annoyingly rickety HY-4530 ship shuttle was less than preferred, with its incompatibly strong thrusters and weak power core, he would rather this than staying another night in that hell-hole they call a testing facility.

@iTem@superservo27

An hour or two later, the Revenant jolted slightly as it began cutting through the atmosphere of Laredois'nabashon, known simply as Laredo to the humans that called it home. The Miranoi Cluster was technically in Republic territory, but Laredo (as well as the other two habitable planets in the system) boasted an 80% human populace. The Cluster was one of 5 systems that made up the Belt, a informal trade route that ran between Earth and Coralis, the central seat of the Galactic Council. As part of the trade agreement, the Republic allowed the Alliance to build a military outpost on the small desert planet, and over time, a settlement blossomed and eventually linked into the (thankfully peaceful) indigenous population. The ship was guided down to a landing pad just inside the fence of the Alliance's outpost, when Stryker made his way down to the cargo bay to walk down the ramp, he was greeted with the sight of a squad of fully-armored marines standing around a uniformed captain.

"Stryker is it?" the captain said as he approached, sliding out a hand.
"That's me" he said as they came face to face. Stryker glanced down at the outstretched hand for a moment before shaking it.
"Tristan Vega, I'm in charge here." He looked like your typical jarhead, probably mid-30s, clean-shaven, not a single crease in his uniform.
"Pleasure's all mine" Stryker managed to say without puking, everything about this sickened him, the clean sheer white sheen of every surface, the surgical cleanliness that just screamed 'ALLIANCE SCUM' at him, he turned back to Vega "Well, won't get anything done just standing around, let's get down to business shall we?"

"Yes, my people will load your supplies, come with me, we have your recruits in the holding cells."
"A few of my people have business in the town... sorry, back up, did you say 'recruits'? As in, plural? I was under the impression we were only here for one."
"Well, you were wrong, there are two people sitting in the holding cells, labelled for Project Revenant, so unless you want to put a bullet in one of them, you're taking them both. Right through here."

@Xandrya@Rultaos

Grayson, coated in sweat from the work, stepped back to look at what he and Benny had accomplished.
"Lookin' good to me, all we need now is a roll or two of the gel. Hey Benny, you mind headin' out for that yourself? I gotta hit the shower. I'll stop by the requisition terminal on me way, get the gel on file so we can use the Alliance account to get it, alright? Thanks mate."

He headed up to the crew deck and as he bent over the requisition terminal and typed in the brand name and quantity needed of the insu-gel, he reached up to his ear and tapped his comms. With a few taps, he'd opened a private line to Amy's earpiece, hoping she had it on her as he started to speak.
"Hey, how you feeling?"

Laredois’nabashon is an uncomfortable place for the Koren. He saw a good amount of Juz’ around the area and those Juz’’s kept looking at him. He hated attention this way so he lowered his head to avoid their gaze while he was being escorted into another holding cell. He was feeling quite thankful over the fact that they still allowed him to wear his armor due to his body’s condition so at least they are less likely to question his presence. Inside the cell that he was escorted into was another human that he assumed he was going to work with as well. Though he didn’t make any vocalizations to acknowledge his presence, the Juz’ would face his cellmate and stare.

A little later, four individuals arrived by their holding cell and only two were notable enough. One of which was the captain that accommodated them earlier and another human that he never saw before. The man seemed out of place from the pristine military vibe that the whole place and its people had so he found himself focusing on him. Koren cocks his head and stood to get near the visitor to examine him. He stopped when the guards pointed their weapons at him, making him freeze on his tracks and he had to raise his cuffed hands to show that he had no ill will; a barely noticeable breeze made itself present within the room when he did. The Juz’ looked at the guards before speaking. “I just wanted a look,” he would say flatly before he turns his attention back to their new guest as a lingering thought passed his mind. “Are you here for us?”

She was just about to take off her comms device when Grayson chimed in.

"Hey, how you feeling?"

"I'm doing alright," Amy replied, walking to her bed to sit cross-legged on one of the edges. "I'm not sick anymore but I don't know, I feel a little bit weird." She look around the room as she talked to Grayson. For some reason, she liked to take in the little details on the wall, the desk, etc. It may be boring for some, but for someone like her, who had been blind for years, it was still entertaining.

"So I'm guessing you'll be done soon, right?"

Amy then stood up again just as quick, walking over to her door to head out. For some reason, she felt a hint of anxiety, but she attributed it to being alone in her room for longer than she was used to lately.

Inside the cell that he was escorted into was another human that he assumed he was going to work with as well. Though he didn’t make any vocalizations to acknowledge his presence, the Juz’ faced his cellmate and stare.

Harrison looked up when he heard the door open. He thought he was going to be escorted somewhere again when he noticed a Juz’ get pushed into the cell. “Oh, hi Mark. I bet I’ll have to work with you.” He waited for a response, but all the new occupant did was look at him. “You know it’s rude to stare, right? If you want to say something, say it.” When Koren continued to not talk, Harrison decided to power on, trying to make something resembling a conversation. “Anyways... I’ve seen some fancy, cool, high-tech armor, but I’ve only ever seen your armor in pictures. How much did it cost to buy. And judging by the bulkiness, you probably modded it but with what?... You know, I’ve seen others like you. I know what you can do, I’ve seen it in action. Your flamethrowers are really cool. My question is: what can you bend? If it was earth or fire, you’d probably be out... ah, whatever, it doesn’t matter right now.”

"Yes, my people will load your supplies, come with me, we have your recruits in the holding cells."
"A few of my people have business in the town... sorry, back up, did you say 'recruits'? As in, plural? I was under the impression we were only here for one."
"Well, you were wrong, there are two people sitting in the holding cells, labelled for Project Revenant, so unless you want to put a bullet in one of them, you're taking them both. Right through here."

A little later, four individuals arrived by their holding cell and only two were notable enough. One of which was the captain that accommodated them earlier and another human that he never saw before. The man seemed out of place from the pristine military vibe that the whole place and its people had so he found himself focusing on him. Koren cocks his head and stood to get near the visitor to examine him. He stopped when the guards pointed their weapons at him, making him freeze on his tracks and he had to raise his cuffed hands to show that he had no ill will; a barely noticeable breeze made itself present within the room when he did. The Juz’ looked at the guards before speaking. “I just wanted a look,” he would say flatly before he turns his attention back to their new guest as a lingering thought passed his mind. “Are you here for us?”

About half an hour after Harrison stopped trying to get Koren to talk, some guards came escorting an officer and what he assumed to be the captain of the ship he was going to be on. He took out his phone (it pays to have a backup) and started recording himself. *In an Australian accent*”G’day, g’day, you bloody legends and welcome back to another vlog. Today I burned down a house, passed out and now I’m going to live on a spaceship, so that’s going to be fun. Might shoot things, might shock things, might just prank people, who knows? Might even get a cameraman.” *cough* ”I’ll be back later, though when you see this, there’ll be no change.” He wiped a hand in front of the phone and stopped the recording. He turned to the people and said in a normal voice, ”Are you here to pick us up? Because if so, that was fast.”

@superservo27@iTem

Stryker nodded at both men in the cell "Yeah, I'm the captain of the Revenant. Call me Stryker. I assume you've been briefed but evidently not to the full extent." He shot his gaze over to Vega who shrugged as he said "Not my fuckin' job."

"Well, anyway, I'll go over the bullet points: as of this moment, you both are legally dead. All public records of you ever existing are being scrubbed entirely or placed under heavy encryption. Project Revenant exists under the highest levels of classification, very few in the Alliance are even aware of it's existence, which is entirely by design, given the nature of the work. To that end, we're not permitted personal communications devices, except for short-range earpieces we use to keep in contact on the ground, so... Harrison right? I'm afraid that phone is gonna have to be decommissioned before you step on the ship. There's a little more to the briefing, but its kind of hard to do without being on the ship itself, so guys, come on, let 'em out, give them back the rest of their stuff."

While the guards unlocked the door to the cell and went about giving both recruits their gear, Stryker turned to Vega for a quick word.
"Your people, they know the drill?"
"These guys here are my top men, they know the penalties for revealing anything about this, as for everyone else on the base, they've been told the ship is just resupplying before heading back out as part of a deep-cover op."
"Ok then. So I was saying before, a couple of my people need to head into the town for supplies that weren't on your list, a few last minute requisitions and whatnot, so in the interest of keeping your cover story active, I figure it's fine for the ship to stay right where it is until they're back?"
"Fine, I can give you an hour."
"We'll be out in thirty minutes tops" Stryker stated, he barely contained the sarcasm as a grin crossed his face "Cross my heart."

Once the recruits were ready, Stryker gestured for Vega to lead the way "For appearances of course."
No one spoke as they exited the holding cells and crossed the courtyard back to the ship's landing pad. Stryker threw up an exaggerated salute to Vega for any onlookers as they parted and he led the way up the ramp into the Revenant's cargo hold.
After taking a quick look around to make sure none of Vega's men were still on board, stowing away the resupply crates, Stryker turned back to Harrison and the other.
"Ok, first things first, I guess a tour is in order, and any questions you guys have I can answer as we go. I think we'll start with this corner, right over here by the crates" As he led the way over, he dropped his voice down and spoke to Harrison.
"Sorry about the phone thing man, had to keep up appearances for the jarheads. I wouldn't care about it normally, but the goddamn Alliance has this ship riddled with surveillance, this corner of the cargo hold is one of the only safe places to talk, thanks to a.. little incident way back at the start of all this. The higher-ups catch wind you've got a way to make contact with people, the penalties would be so much worse than being forced into this job." He turned to the Juz' next "So, I guess the Alliance's idea of a joke is not telling me that you were gonna be waiting here too, I don't even have a name for you if we're being honest."

@Xandrya

Grayson had just finished typing on the requisition terminal and was just standing up to walk back to the room and get a change of clothes when Amy replied.

"I'm doing alright, I'm not sick anymore but I don't know, I feel a little bit weird..... so I'm guessing you'll be done soon, right?"

"Well it's good to hear lass.. the not-sick part, not the feelin' weird bit." He said as he walked. He slid open the door to their room and almost walked right into Amy as she was moving to walk out.
"Ah, sorry Ames." he said as he reached up to turn off the earpiece and chuck it over on the unused bed "So yeah, I s'pose this answers yer other question, we got it nearly done, just asked Benny to head into the town an' grab the las' few things we need to finish 'er up."
He tugged quickly at his shirt to show off his haggard, sweaty appearance "As ya can tell I insisted on helpin' with the heavy liftin', despite that arm of his havin' strength enough to do it all himself, so I was just headed over to the shower, but that can wait for a minute. Come on lass, spill it, what's got ya bothered?"

@iTem

Benny wasn't too pleased about being sent out on errand boy duty, when he and Grayson finished with their preparations for the firing range. He grumbled about it, but since there didn't seem to be anyone else to do it for them he didn't have much choice. He went inside his cabin to get a change of clothes into something more comfortable for walking around, and got ready to head out. On the way from his quarters to the ship's exit as it was docked, he passed by Matija, who would quickly notice their agitation, being able to read their body language when they're upset during the time they had spent recovering together.

"Benjamin!" she yelled out to him to get his attention. The Mecorian walked over to him, wondering where he was planning on going since he wasn't one to change unless he has to go do something somewhere. "What's up with you? Ya look more sour than a lemon on vinegar," she added as she prodded Skelly. Boomer looked at her in surprise as she approached him, and sighed in response. "It's nuthin' much, really. I'm jus' bein' asked ta' go run some errands an' deal with tha' locals," he replied, in a somewhat self-deprecatory tone. His words amused Matija, making her caress his face while she held a shit-eating grin that shifted into a mock pout. "Aww... Wee babe don't wanna deal with them locals. Prefer yer tools an toys, baby boy?" She asked in a mocking tone.

He blushed in embarassment at the way she chided him and he turned away from her. "A-aye! So wot if I do? Tryin' ta' deal with people feels like chemistry withou' tha' consistency," He responded somewhat defensively as he continued moving along the ship. Matija chuckled at his defensiveness and watched him walk away from her. "Hey,Ben! Wait up! I'mma come with ya!" she said as she jogged to walk next to him. "What's this whole thang about anyway? I thought you were doin' stuff in the gym with Grayson?" She asked. "We were, though we were missin' a few things needed ta' keep the firin' range from bein' as deadly as actual fire," he replied without turning to look towards her as he continued onwards to the exits. "I'm supposed ta' pick up wot we need so we can finish the bloody thing," he finished.

A moment passed before she spoke."I'll come with ya. Ya need someone to haggle, right? Where are we buyin'?" She asked. He considered her offer for a moment before shrugging. "I s'pose some company wouldinnae be amiss. We're headin' ta' the town right next to some military outpost Stryker's pickin' up some more scoundrels from," he replied. "Hmm... Near military compounds ain't easy to haggle in. I'll see what I cain do." She said in response.

After a while the duo had reached the nearby town, all filled with law-abiding Alliance citizens "As expected from people living next to a bunch of boy scouts Benny thought. The furst thing on their list was some kilograms worth of insu-gel for the firing range. They headed to a hardware and supply store for that. The place seemed well-stocked, probably because this town would be expected to supply the military base in the event they get cut off from Alliance Command. They wanted this town to be self-sufficient for a while. "Hey, ain't that the insu-gel that you boys wanted?" The Spider walked over the eager merchant and smiled at them. She checked the brand and found it fitting for the one that they needed and the merchant handled the rest.

"This thing right here is one of the best brands of insu-gel that you can ask for. Reasonable insulation, and you can keep slamming your head on it no problem and you won't feel a thing."

"Ahuh. What's yer price?"

"Just 30 credits a pound."

Matija squinted at that, not wanting to go for that. "Uh. Yeah. Let's keep lookin', Ben. Might be better prices around,” she concluded. Benny shrugged in response “Yer tha’ boss” He said as they left the store.

For a while, they wandered about the general area, looking at various hardware, general supplies, and construction stores for the insu-gel. The crowds were not very large, but the streets were still fairly tight as the town was well industrialized, again likely due to the need for self-sufficiency in times of emergencies. People gave the two of them odd looks for how different they looked from the average citizen, between Matija’s white hair and his own bionic arm. Benny was distracted from it for the most part though because of how Matija seemed to insist on remaining in close proximity, latching onto his arm at times the way most couples do and it made him Benny fairly flustered as he wasn’t used to this kind of contact. His only reprieve was when they entered shops and Matija went off to speak with the salesmen to inquire about their prices.

"Heyy, hon. Guess you're the one after all," the mecorian joked, making the shopkeep perk up and smile. "So how may do you need again, Ben? This lil pumpkin here's gonna make it worth your while, aint'cha, sweetie?" The shopkeep smiled and nodded eagerly, wanting to impress. "Like I told you earlier," the merchant said with a slight lisp, "These are the newer insu-gel mixes from Frox Corp. Best in the line-up because its mixes are less likely to separate from each other and it keeps bullets from ricocheting if you use it like you said you would. It's only 28 credits a pound for you if you really want that much of it."

Matija seemed to have furrowed her brows to the price, wanting it as low as possible. "What about halfing that?"

"Um... No I can't do that..."

"No deal then. We saw someone selling it at 25 creds and i'd prefer baggin' that."

The Spider turned around and was about to walk away when the flustered merchant piped back up. "O-okay! I'll give it at 25!" Matija grins, but her face reverted to neutral as she turned to look at the merchant. "Give in an extra pound and you got yourself a deal."

The transaction was wired to the shop's account from their Alliance conenction, and they picked up the containers with the exact measurements for the insu-gel they needed. Fortunately, he was also able to add a little extra insu-gel for his personal use thanks to the discount that Matija had gotten them, making it so that it did not exceed the cost of the amount requisitioned by Grayson. He was impressed by how Matija operated, and how she managed to accomplish what she did with only a bit of bluffing.

"Stealin' from 'em in broad daylight right in front o' their faces. Yer a proper thief, ya are," Benny complimented as they arranged for the containers to be shipped to the docks where they would pick it up after presenting the receipt they were given. Matia seemed quite pleased with the compliment but felt flustered by it. She jokingly took a soft jab at his arm and smiled shyly. "Yeah, well I didn't grow with much money so I had ta get the most with what I had,” She said. He nodded in response to her statement. "Aye, I can believe that. Only people who get desperate enough, do tha' kind o' shite we got real good at doin'... Not that I'm complainin' abou' gettin' to blast apart space stations," He finished with a smile as they started heading back out onto the streets.

"Even if I had a choice,I'd stil choose this," she would say with a glance towards him. Benny thought over that response for a moment. He thought back to his experiences back on his home world, and the turns that his life took that led him into the job that he did today. To his surprise, he found that looking back, he could not picture himself doing anything other than what he had been blackmailed into doing by the alliance. Once he concluded that, he turned to look back at her again. "Y'know what? I think I woulda' done the same,” He finished. She chuckled at the though, stopping just by the entrance of the cargo door when they approached it. "Heh. Us fuckers ain't gonna trade this shit for anything in the world," she would say with a grin.

Shortly after Kaeci's demise a few of his belongings had been placed into storage, including a case that held what remained of his friend, Harriet. Presumably the efforts to bring her back after her death. The idea that it was possible had been entertained but once the mind behind the project was gone it got put to the wayside due to other priorities and lack of expertise. Over the last several months though the process that had been set in motion continued steadily unattended. For some time even if someone had opened the storage room the case was in they likely wouldn't have noticed anything was happening. Eventually though small vines and roots found their way out of the case, anchoring onto any surface that had a hold. As they grew the case itself buckled from the pressure and opened to reveal a leafy pod. No longer restricted the plant expanded throughout the small room with the pod suspended in the back.

As the pod grew it began to change and expand into a more humanoid shape. Cells having matured enough the rest developed quickly. The skeleton of sorts more rapidly was covered by softer tissue before another durable layer wound around that. The figure became decidedly more feminine and a human like face formed. One last layer of leaves covered her body and the process of growing stopped.


Despite it all the woman didn't move for several days and even when she woke there wasn't much strength in her. Groggily she opened her eyes and only saw the dimmest light creeping in from under the door of the storage room. Her movements were stiff and restrained. Struggling briefly she broke from the vines that had held and sustained her up to that point to fall to the floor. She tried to speak, to herself perhaps, but nothing came out. Her lungs were empty but she felt no need to breath. Still it was almost involuntarily as she took in a breath. She could hear and feel a creeking inside her as her chest expanded. Where the hell am I? she belatedly thought.

Set on her feet after a period of adjustment she took hold of the storage door and pulled it open. The flood of light blinded her and she stepped out into the hall by the Gym and Tech Lab. Bracing one hand against the wall Harriet studied the space briefly before her focus trained on her own limb. Frozen for a moment the fog that had clouded her mind was blown away by the realization of what she was seeing. "Oh sh..." Looking back into the storage she saw the plant life she'd been attached to. The exact circumstances of how she got here were uncertain but one thing was clear to her, she'd been exposed.

The question of where she was now had more urgency than before. The facility? No, it had been compromised. Quarantine had been enacted and breached. Likely the complex was now another crater on an asteroid. She'd managed to make it out on an escape pod but that was around when her memories stopped. Had she been captured, crashed landed, maybe picked up? None of those made much sense given where she'd just come from. Maybe she'd stowed away. There were too many unknown and very little to go on. She had to get out of here before... Her sudden move made her acutely aware of just how weak she was. Tripping over herself she tumbled and crashed next to the ladder to the Cargo Bay. She wanted to get back up but she didn't have it in her at the moment.

Koren

The man apparently named Stryker called himself the captain of the ship that they were going to board. Thankfully, he spoke more sense than the other dark-haired man that Koren considered as quite daft. Stryker explained an overview of their situation to them and he nodded when he finished, finally understanding a bit more of what I expected of him. “I suppose legally dying twice should make me immortal now,” he said flatly with a shrug as he followed his supposed captain into their ship after they were finally allowed to retrieve their personals again.

The ship itself wasn’t anything spectacular. It was some standard Alliance frigate. Quite old and some of its original parts weren’t there anymore likely due to its age but it seemed to have seen some battles, at least as far as he’s seen. But the ship excited the Juz’ all-the-same. Being in another ship made him feel comfortable and he would rather a frigate than the other smaller ones that he had been in. Hopefully he was allowed to tinker about it to learn about it and its components.

“Ok, first things first,” Stryker said, making the Juz’ turn his attention towards him instead of the ship that surrounded them. “I guess a tour is in order, right over here by the crates,” the captain said again as he led them towards an oddly specific spot. Koren was hesitant to follow. But considering that he’s in death row anyway, might as well. “Sorry about the phone thing man, had to keep up appearances for the jarheads,” the man would explain before saying that leading them on this specific spot was necessary for their own safety and privacy. Then he would turn to Koren who was just unlocking his helmet, releasing it from his head with a hiss as the compressed air inside escaped between the gaps. What greeted Stryker was the face of the Jus and his helmet hair, which he immediately fixed after placing down his helmet on one of the top of the containers nearby as his captain spoke to him. “So I guess the Alliance’s idea of a joke is not telling me that you were gonna be waiting there too, I don’t even have a name for you if we’re being honest.”

“Koren,” the Juz’ responded after he finished tying his hair back up on a relatively neat bun. “My name is Koren,” he explained further as he looked at him unblinking. “This ship. You said that it’s not supposed to be here and that we are all legally dead. Will we be sent on missions where we are expected to die?” the Juz’ inquired in a curious yet casual manner. His face remained emotionless and unchanged, even as he blinked and directed his attention to the other man that he nearly shared an unfortunate hour with.

@Rultaos@iTem@superservo27@t2wave

"Alright, Koren. Got it. And to answer your question, I think the Alliance is surprised we've lasted this long to tell you the truth. Being on this ship is just a less boring way of serving out a life sentence... usually anyway, these last few weeks have been fairly dull, but that'll change fast. So, gentlemen, to kick off the tour..." he gave a half-hearted sweeping gesture around the Cargo Bay "... the Cargo Bay. Not a lot to really see here, considering it's mainly storage for additional supplies and parking space for the shuttles. Engine room is up those stairs over there. Hope one of you guys is mechanically-sound, we haven't had a proper engineer on board in months."

"Leave your things here for now, no need of dragging around your luggage while I'm showing you guys around. You can pop back down for it later once we settle the rooming arrangements." Stryker led the way over to the elevator and called it down "Let's start at the top and work our way back down shall we?"

He kept the tour fairly brief, showing the newcomers around the main areas of the ship in a timely fashion, not really lingering on any one place for too long, unless either of them had a question. He ended off the tour by bringing them into the gym to check in on how much progress Benny and Grayson had made on the firing range, and found Matija and Benny inside.
"Oh, you're back, that's good" he started "Well, before I ask how it went, I guess I'll do the introductions. Harrison and Koren, this is Benny and Matija. Benny and Matija, these are the new ...."

A crash coming from just outside the door cut him off. He rounded on his heels and marched outside to find an unfamiliar figure lying in front of the hatch covering on the ladder leading down to the Cargo Bay. A female Hemiplantae who was conscious, but unmoving, and very clearly equal amounts of confused and exhausted. As he stepped closer, he got a good look at her face, and his jaw dropped as he realized he knew her. All at once, it came back to him. Serros Station, Vanderos, Kaeci. Harriet.. that was her name. He didn't believe it was possible, all of Kaeci's talk of bringing her back from the dead, but against all odds, here she was.

"He did it.... the crazy son of a bitch did it." he said in amazement as he knelt down beside her. Coming back to the present, he snapped into action "Alright don't panic Harriet, you're ok now. Guys, come on, we gotta get her up to Med Bay, right now!"

The Juz’ nodded at the mention of his name. Though it’s technically said wrong, he knew that he had to compensate for human diction.

“…I think the Alliance is surprised we've lasted this long to tell you the truth. Being on this ship is just a less boring way of serving out a life sentence... usually anyway, these last few weeks have been fairly dull, but that'll change fast…" said Stryker, making Koren mentally note the information that he just gleaned. The captain told them that they can leave their things there for the time being, and the Juz’ obliged by putting down his duffle bag and the heavy hard-case trolley that he had been dragging around so not to hinder their little tour. The captain quipped about them needing an engineer and the Koren pursed his lips at the thought. “Might be able to give a hand or two with that. And what about you?” he says, turning towards Harrison. “Will you also be joining me?”

The tour ended up as something standard and not particularly memorable. Though, being shown around helped him memorize the place pretty easily. He decided that he will roam around the ship from top to bottom again, by himself, later on when they are given time just so he can see if there are other alternative paths that he can place in his mental map. By the end of it, they were back to the lower decks where they were heading to the gym supposedly being outfitted by a couple of their members to become a firing range. Stryker came in first, speaking with slight surprise in his voice. Koren lets Harrison in first, not finding gyms particularly interesting nor is the prospect of firing guns. He was about as passive as he has been throughout the tour until he saw an oddly familiar white-haired girl facing away from him as she moved rolls of something at the back-most part of the room with another human with a bionic arm. The juz’ felt his eyes widen at the sight as he was left wondering if this person was who he thought she was. “…Harrison and Koren, this is Benny and Matija,” their captain introduced and Koren’s eyes widened. He felt himself walk past Harrison, and then past Stryker as the woman who Stryker referred to as Matija turned to look at him with an equal amount of shock as the Juz’.

“Koren?“ she started but the sound of something crashing diverted her attention to the door. Stryker moved towards the source of the sound to investigate and Koren’s attention goes back to Matija, as hers went back to him. The mecorian reached out to gingerly caress his face to feel if he was indeed real.

“They said you were dead,” the Juz’ said, not caring much about the commotion outside. “I’m here, ain’t I?” she responded with a smile as she brushed her thumb on his cheek, making him close his eyes and lean towards her touch. “I don’t get why you did that. You just… Disappeared,” she said. “You…” she repeated. “YOU,” Matija said darkly as she raised her palm and quickly struck the Juz’ cheek with a sharp slap, making him stagger to a side as he held the struck cheek. “YOU LEFT WITHOUT A WORD! WE FUCKIN’ THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD, YA STUPID BOY!”

Koren winced at the sound of Matija shouting at him, but he felt that it was justly deserved for what he did. Fearing her wrath, he let her continue speaking as it was better for his health to do so than to interrupt. “Do you know how long we searched for ya? Huh?!” the angry mecorian said with gritted teeth, prompting the juz’ to apologetically look up towards her as she shifted her weight to her left and placed a hand on her waist. “Fuckin’, YEARS!” she said as she threw her hands up in exasperation.

Shame washed upon the entirety of Koren’s body. He hung his head down, not even bothering with the painfully warm tingling sensation of her slap on his face anymore. The Juz’ never thought that he had caused this much trouble, nor did he thought that Matija would react like this when she sees him.

The Mecorian sighs when she sees him at a loss for words, shaking her head as she ends her tirade. Outside, Stryker would call out to them, saying that he needed help in order to immediately carry someone up the Med Bay. Matija sighs loudly and rubs her temples from the stress as she walks to assist Stryker outside. But not before shooting a glare at Koren. “We’re gonna talk about this later,” she said warningly as she left the threshold of the gym to help their captain, leaving Koren standing alone with a familiar sense of dread for what’s to come.

Amy stared at Grayson for a moment with an undecipherable expression on her face.

"I'm just thinking about what could have gotten me sick," she finally replied after a few moments, answering his question with honesty but avoiding the obvious, sr†aight-forward response he was looking for. Amy then walked closer to Grayson until they had but a few inches between each other. "But how about this...I can go into town, get some answers, and you stay here and shower and then we can meet up again after that."

As she spoke, Amy slowly wiped a dirty spot on his forehead. He look worn down, and even though she wanted nothing more than to stay there with him, she had to find out what was going on. She imagined the thought had crossed Grayson's mind at some point, and if that was the case, they were both avoiding the possibility, at least for now.

Grayson could tell she had more thoughts than she was telling him, but for the moment, he thought it best not to prod, she'd tell him everything when she was ready. He leaned in, kissed her forehead and spoke quietly as he pulled away.

"Alright love, be careful out there. I'll be right here when ya get back."

He picked up his change of clothes and towel then set off down the hall to the men's room. Blinking in the bright glare of the bathroom lights for a minute, Grayson headed into the leftmost stall, and locked the polymer door behind him. He shrugged off his shirt and dropped it, along with his fresh clothes and towel on the small bench beside the shower. He poked his head into the shower, reached over to start the flow of water, then pulled back to finish undressing as it heated up. As he stepped in and felt the warm spray run over him, his thoughts turned back to Amy and her mysterious illness, and for the first time in a while, the voices in his head started acting up.

'She's hiding something big, come on mate, just because she got her sight back doesn't mean you have to go blind'
He willed it to shut up, tried to drown it out with his own thoughts, but it was futile, suddenly his head was flooded with voices and they were taunting him with a cacophony of ridiculous possibilities.

'She's allergic to you, just took a while for it to show up'
'Just some bad O.J.? Give me a break'
'She finally realized how disgusting those scars are'
'You knocked her up, game over man'
'It's your fault somehow, you and I both know this

"ENOUGH!" He shouted, forcing himself back to the here and now. The voices bled away as he started to wash himself, and he directed his thoughts elsewhere. Yeah sure, there was something she wasn't telling him, but whatever it was, big or small, they had each other and they'd take it on together.

Out in town, Amy asked around for a pharmacy. She got ignored by some, hit on by others...but eventually, she was steered in the right direction by an elderly gentleman. The store wasn't too far, about a block and a half down the road. She made her way over there quickly, keeping to herself by ignoring some fight going on nearby which was drawing quite a lot of attention. Eventually, she reached her destination and stepped inside, seeing the clerk behind the counter.

"Excuse me ma'am, can you help me?"

"Of course, my child. What illness troubles you?" she inquired, her dark-blue skin glowing under the harsh ceiling light.

"Well, I'm not sick..." Amy whispered, her fingers nervously tapping on the glass countertop. The clerk smiled softly in response, not saying a word as she reached for an item somewhere behind her. She then presented it to Amy, setting it on the counter between them. With a nod, Amy started to reach for her coin purse but the clerk put her hand over Amy's, stopping her.

"Please, allow me."

"Wait, are you sure?" Amy asked, wondering why she was being so generous.

"It's no trouble at all. Now go on, be on your way."

After thanking her, Amy left the store, heading back to the ship in a hurry. Her anxiety was slowly growing, and she was unable to stop it. But she did think about the clerk for a minute or two on the way, especially since she couldn't help but notice that she looked somewhat familiar.

Back on the Revenant, Grayson was just finishing up in the shower and taking a minute to just relax under the heat of the water. His mind wandered back to something one of the voices had said..... what if it was right? What if she was pregnant? How would that work, given their situation? Would the Alliance even let her stay on board if she was? Would he be ready for something like that? He was wholly unfamiliar with everything in that realm of reality, his whole life had been mired in the business of taking lives, not creating them, but despite that, his love for her was strong enough. No mater how tough it'd be, he silently vowed to rise to the occasion if that was indeed what was happening. They were in this together, to the end.

'Are you sure of that?' the voice chimed in, worming its way back to the foreront of his mind 'You ever get that feeling she doesn't trust you entirely? There is precedent for it after all......

Even as he shrugged off the seeds of doubt, he couldn't help but think back to that night....

As soon as she arrived back on the ship, Amy did her best to avoid her crew mates. She only had to say a quick hello to one of them before locking herself up in her room. She imagined Grayson was in his room as well, possibly waiting for her at this point, but he would definitely have to wait.

This is the moment of truth... she thought to herself, opening up the tightly-packaged testing kit. Amy quickly glanced over the instructions as she had never been in such position before, but it was actually quite simple. She removed the clear label and lifted her shirt to be able to place the small adhesive on her abdomen. She then reached for the control and pressed the button, waiting in silence for the results as her heart felt it was just about to burst from her chest.

Grayson was moving in autopilot as he shut off the shower and got out to dry off, his mind completely lost in memory.


Amy wasn't in their room when Grayson got back there. He thought that maybe she hadn't gotten back yet, or perhaps she was looking for him up in the armory. Just as he was about to lie down and grab his earpiece to give her a check-in call, he remembered there was one other place she could be. They'd had an issue with storage space in the room ever since she moved in and Matija took over Room 3. There simply wasn't enough space to store all of their things in the one room, so they took advantage of the surplus of rooms available and put some of it next-door in Room 9. He went over there and knocked on the door, speaking just loud enough to be heard.

"Ames, you in there?"

For some reason, Amy was startled when Grayson knocked on the door. She was consumed by her own thoughts at the moment, but she took a few seconds to gather herself before walking over to the door.

"Hey, come on in," she said, stepping aside to let him walk into the room. She quickly closed the door behind him before she spoke. "So, I actually went out to get a pregnancy test, because you know, I had one of the symptoms...but after double-checking, I'm not pregnant."

Amy then waited for his reaction, hoping it'd be a favorable one after just hearing the news.

"You..... what? You thought ya were..... wow." At almost a loss for words, Grayson walk over and sat on the bed, staring down at the little monitor flashing a negative symbol.

"So, how do ya feel, you know, about all this?" he said as he looked up at her and shifted over to give her space to sit.

"Relieved, I guess," Amy replied, sitting down next to him as she reached for his hand. "Well, mainly because I don't know where I'd end up if I was having the baby. I know I'd get dropped off somewhere and we'd be separated, at least until you were finished here for good, but then who knows if we'd even...be together again."

"Nah, ya wouldn't be goin' anywhere." He said, taking er hand and looking her in the eyes "They'd have to send in the entire fuckin' army to try and take ya away, and they still wouldn't have a chance. I don't leave family behind, thought you'd know that after pokin' around in my files."

She looked at him quizzically so he continued.

"Do ya remember way back when we were first gettin' together? I told ya about this woman I used to work with, Julia. She took me under her wing when I was little more than a kid, just startin' out in the 'gun for hire' game. She had a way of calmin' down the voices in my head I thought it was love, but lookin' back, it was far from it. All the same though, for those few years we were together, she was my family. Eventually we ran afoul of some boys from the Merax Syndicate, long story, but when push came to shove, the deal went bad, and I tried, believe me, I tried, but I couldn't save her life. Couldn't stop the bastards from takin' away the only family I'd ever known. I refuse to let that happen again."

"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that," Amy replied, leaning her head on his shoulder as she kept her gaze on the wall across from them. She was relieved to hear Grayson reassuring her he'd stay by her side; it was a welcomed change in her otherwise unstable life prior to meeting him. "I guess it wouldn't be too bad if the results weren't negative, you know? Have a little junior running around, getting into all sorts of trouble just like his daddy...kinda cute if you think about it."

Grayson smiled and chuckled as he brought his arm up and wrapped it around her shoulder. "Oh, the poor ship wouldn't be in one piece for very long if there was a little me runnin' around, or a lil you for that matter, but yeah, never really thought of it before now. I've taken a lot of things out of the universe, good people, bad people, too many to count. Death been followin' me for as long as I can remember, might be nice to bring a bit of life into the world, ya know? Someday, when all this calms down, and we can get a moment to ourselves?"

He turned and kissed the top of her head.
"Should get back down below, Benny's likely returned wit' the other parts by now." He kissed her again "I love you."

It didn't take long for Benny and Matija to rejoin with the rest of the crew after they had gotten back to the ship. They ran into Stryker, who appeared to be showing around a couple of new recruits into their, as the two of them were putting down the insu-gel crates inside the gym for easy access. Their de-facto leader acknowledged them as they entered.

"Oh, you're back, that's good. Well, before I ask how it went, I guess I'll do the introductions. Harrison and Koren, this is Benny and Matija. Benny and Matija, these are the new ...." Stryker started but got suddenly cut off by a loud crashing sound outside. Stryker went off to investigate and Benny was moving to follow behind them but glanced back at Matija as she continued staring at one of the new arrivals before she walked up to them and reached out a hand to the blue-skinned one's face.

"They said you were dead,” the blue alien who he recognized asa Juz' said. “I’m here, ain’t I? I don’t get why you did that. You just… Disappeared,” Matija started. Benny halted by the gym door, looking at them, curious to see where this was going. “You… YOU!” She continued, her tone changing as she delivered a loud slap to the new guy's cheek. Benny flinched from the sudden burst of violence from her and slowly slinked out of the door and into the hallway, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire of whatever was going on between the two, or possibly make her angry by staring and watching what seems to be an argument better done in private. He heard her continue to shout as he went down the hall following Stryker's direction. "YOU LEFT WITHOUT A WORD! WE FUCKIN’ THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD, YA STUPID BOY!" Matija's voice echoed down the passage. Benny could not help but wonder what relationship the two seemed to have, though it felt like a mother scolding a child. Though they were definitely different species so he wasn't sure what to make of it just yet.

He immediately saw Stryker kneeling over the hatch leading down, looming over a strange green, humanoid figure that looked more plant than human. "Alright don't panic Harriet, you're ok now. Guys, come on, we gotta get her up to Med Bay, right now!" Stryker ordered as Benny ran over to help them up, and saw fully the unnatural plant-like creature before them. "When the... when tha' bloody Hell did this thing get on ouwr ship?!" He asked Stryker incredulously as he helped Stryker pick the feminine figure up, knowing for certain that he had never seen anything like her wandering around the ship before. Though considering their captain seemed to know her, it was probably safe to carry and help her, as creepy as the vines were to see moving on their own while this "Harriet" seemed to be mostly unconscious.

Accidental double-post >_<

[…]After taking a quick look around to make sure none of Vega's men were still on board, stowing away the resupply crates, Stryker turned back to Harrison and the other.
"Ok, first things first, I guess a tour is in order, and any questions you guys have I can answer as we go. I think we'll start with this corner, right over here by the crates" As he led the way over, he dropped his voice down and spoke to Harrison.
"Sorry about the phone thing man, had to keep up appearances for the jarheads. I wouldn't care about it normally, but the goddamn Alliance has this ship riddled with surveillance, this corner of the cargo hold is one of the only safe places to talk, thanks to a.. little incident way back at the start of all this. The higher-ups catch wind you've got a way to make contact with people, the penalties would be so much worse than being forced into this job."

“Eh, its fine. I don’t know what I thought would happen, but it's better to get it over with. I'll figure out some way to tell my fans that I’m done. And even though having a phone is good, it’s kind of a decoy.” At this, he reached up to his head and took a small white triangle off from near his ear. “A decoy for this. A direct-brain interface that attaches to your head with Van Der Waals force. Anything a phone can do, it can do better. And it’s way less noticeable than taking your phone out of your pocket.” He replaced the Focus on its original spot and turned it on. The only noticeable difference was that the little bar was lit up. “So again, it’s fine.” As the tour continued, Harrison was asked if he would help with being an engineer. He responded by saying that he would. ”Sure, yeah. I’m not incompetent, I made this.” He punctuated this by activating the Black Hole Backpack (note: it’s not a black hole, he just thought it sounded cool) and withdrawing his electric spear. He let the electricity flow through the blade for a few seconds before putting it away. When the tour got to the final stop and the captain gave names to the people, better put those in the database, he saw Koren walk past him. He heard something but paid it no mind. The woman who seemed to recognize his alien acquaintance started yelling at Koren and Harrison quickly noped the hell out of there. When he heard Stryker calling for help, 'there’s no way that's his actual name', he moved to help. Upon inspection, the person he was asking aid for was what appeared to be a plant person, but Harrison didn’t care enough at the moment to question it, so he helped lift her up and carry her to the Medbay. 'After this, let’s find the kitchen. Hopefully, they had something resembling half-decent ingredients.'

Stryker and the others got Harriet up to the Med Bay without incident. After getting her situated and using his limited medical knowledge to get her hooked into the life support systems, he turned to face the others, who were obviously confused.

"I know you guys have questions and I promise, I'll explain everything shortly, but it's probably best if I deal with this one on one, just step outside for a minute guys."

He went over and sat beside Harriet, still clinging to consciousness and clearly very disoriented.
"Can you hear me?" he started "Do you know who I am?"

Given her biology just the introduction of water to Harriet's system made a marked improvement. Before responding her eyes darted around at the various equipment. She seemed to be looking for something but didn't find it. Relaxing slightly she turned her attention back to Stryker. "You're... familiar. But I can't say I know who you are." Given her current circumstances she tried not to move much. Both because she didn't have that much strength yet but also she had no idea who these people were aligned with.

"Yeah, I'm not all that surprised, I don't think I left much of an impression on you when we met before. Ok, let's start at the beginning. My name is Stryker, do you remember your name?"

An interesting question considering. Styker had called her Harriet which meant she he probably hadn't been that close. Best to play it close to the chest. "Dr. Matthias if you would."

"Ok, so not complete memory loss then, he didn't know what to expect, if you were just gonna zap back like nothing happened, or if you'd be an entirely new, but genetically identical being. I suppose the reality is somewhere in the middle." Picking up on how confusing that statement must have been for her to hear, Stryker cleared his throat and started to explain.

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just give it to you straight: you've been dead for just over eight months. I'm gonna assume you have no memory of the events leading up to that, or where you are now, so buckle up. At the time of your death, and presumably for a while before that, you worked for a pirate crew out in the Deadzone headed by a guy named Vanderos. You and another member of the crew, an Iilusian named Kaeci were sent along with me and my people on a job Vanderos had a vested interest in. Long story short, he turned on us all and a lot of people died, yourself among them. Kaeci was never the same, he went off the deep end after that, I always assumed you two were close. He took some DNA from your body, kept going on about how he could bring you back, and to tell you the truth, I never believed him. Clearly, he knew what he was talking about. I know it's gonna be a big shock to hear all this, so just take a moment to soak it up and I'll try my best to answer any questions you have."

Laying there and listening the story sounded too crazy to be made up. She didn't react all that much through the whole thing. It was a skill she learned as a doctor when giving bad news. Stryker wasn't all that good at it but who could blame him? "Damn. I guess I own Kaeci one." She didn't really know who Kaeci was but the sentement still applied. Processing for several minutes she eventually lifted her eye to meet the captain's. Eight months was a lot of time to be missing. And that was just since meeting Stryker and his crew? "What's the date?" The current time was really the only way to gauge how much she'd really lost.

"Today? It's May 23rd, 2167." Stryker replied "Oh, right, I ought to explain where we are, might jog something in your memory. As you can tell from the decor, you're in our ship's med bay. She's called the Revenant, and although she won't show up on any official registrations, it's an Alliance ship. We're not soldiers, all of us on board have been forced into working for those bastards, completely deniable black ops kind of deal. Anything else you need to know?"

Over three years? Harriet furrowed her brow slightly. Lifting up one hand she opened and closed her hand a few times. It functioned like it normally did but she knew and could feel that it only did so because she was willing it to. Spreading her fingers apart they unwound into many different tendrils before wraping back into her regular digits. The whole action was natural. Perhaps residual memory from her last life. It was consistant with her observations of other organisms that had undergon the same process she had. Although she doubted she should have survived or lived this long. Some variable they hadn't accounted for stabilized her biology. She very well could have figured this out before but had simply forgotten when she was killed.

Keeping her thoughts to herself the woman asked. "Not a fan of the Alliance?" She was trying to get a better idea of of who she was dealing with. In some ways the Alliance was to blame for how she was right now. At the very least if everyone knew her as Harriet Matthias then perhaps they didn't realize she'd survived the first time. That was using the term survived loosely.

"Not exactly, no." Stryker said with conviction "It's a long story, so let's just say, I like them less and less every day."
She seemed to have all her senses about her, so the time was right for Stryker to dive into his own questions.
"If you don't mind, I have a few things to ask you myself. First things first, Kaeci's not around anymore, neither is your old boss, so I'm just wondering if you had any immediate plans for yourself? If not, I'd like to extend an invitation to stay here on the ship. We don't have a resident doctor at the moment, or a chief science officer for that matter. Your skills could be very useful to us."

Considering her options for a moment she shook her head. The rustle of the leaves on her head gave her pause. "I've nowhere to go. And I doubt any plans I may have had are still available." She sat up, her recovery time was a lot lower than most. An advantage of having a much simpler method of producing energy. Not quite to 100 percent but steady enough that she looked to be ready to stand on her own two feet.

"So I take it you'll stay?" Stryker said "Great, well, uh, welcome aboard... again."
He stood and started to extend a hand when a thought came to him.
"Oh, right before I forget, there's a couple of things I have to ask. Firstly, what should we do about the plants downstairs? I mean, I don't want to remove it if that'll hurt you in any way, but all the same, we'll probably need the space eventually, and while I'm on the topic, I guess we should figure out where you'll be sleeping. There are a bunch of empty rooms down in the Crew Quarters one floor down, or if you'd prefer, right over there, at the far end of the Med Bay there's a room. I think when this was an Alliance ship, it would have been a residence for the doctor on duty."

"You can remove the plant material. It will die now that it's served its purpose." A second of thought she clarified. "Probably best to burn it." This was all so bizzare. Waking up like she did, losing her memory, having died. Where does one exactly pick up after that kind of thing. Back to the question at hand, Harriet looked over at the room by the Med Bay. It was tempting. "Perhaps for now I will stay here. I have a lot of questions that I need use of the equipment here to answer." Nodding a bit to herself she looked back to Stryker.

"Ok, duly noted." he extended his hand the rest of the way to shake hers "I guess that about does it for us then, you're all good and feeling ok, right? I'm gonna have a lot of questions to answer when I get out of here, not really looking forward to that, but it comes wth the job I guess. So just to restate it again, welcome aboard the Revenant Harriet."

Finally realizing he'd extended his hand she shook it. "Thank you." Harriet said absently. Things must have been much more casual last time because Stryker comtinued to call her by her first name. "I guess I'll leave you to talk with the others. I did hear what that man said though. I realize I'm not usual but you might want to teach him how to properly address a lady." She smirked slightly.

"I will certainly have a word with him Doctor." He said as he got ready to leave "You should have plenty of time to meet everyone and get to know your way around the ship, hasn't been much action around here lately. And on that same note, wouldn't be any trouble to most of the crew if you asked someone for a quick tour around. I'll leave you to it anyway."

As he turned to leave he nodded in farewell, then exited the Med Bay.

@iTem@Xandrya@Gardevoiran@superservo27@Rultaos@t2wave@Shard@Silver Carrot@BKburke

After a slight delay, the Revenant finally departed from it's berth at the Alliance base on Laredo and once more headed off to the stars. The plant life was swiftly removed from the Lower Deck and dumped out of the airlock. Things quieted down after that and over the next several days, the crew sunk back into that same feeling of monotony they'd been mired in for weeks. Finally, Stryker woke up to an incoming call.

"Gooood morning partner" Dawson said as his face filled the screen and he got his first glimpse of Stryker's 'literally just woke up look' "Aww, what's wrong, interrupt your beauty rest?"
"Shove it Dawson, what do you want?"
"Just figured you folks would be eager for a job, and as luck would have it, there's something here on my desk right now, sending it through.... might wanna jump on this immediately, sort of a time-sensitive issue, but you'll see for yourself if you still know how to read."
With a chuckle, the video feed abruptly cut off.
"Yeah, fuck you too." Stryker said under his breath as the briefing files arrived on his terminal and he began to read through them.

May 27th, 2167
Somewhere In The Belt
The Revenant
War Room

A few hours after receiving the intel, Stryker had everyone gather in the War Room for the briefing. The first image that popped up on the holotable was an image of the known universe, gradually zooming in on a lone system right on the border between the Alliance territories and the Deadzone
"This is the Orion Frontier, the single most isolated system under Alliance rule. They've got one settled planet, Arbonne, and that's our destination. The Alliance started up a settlement here because, unlike most worlds they've colonized, Arbonne was already perfectly suited for human life. Most of the planet is covered with forests, though there are a fair number of open plains, with mineral-rich soil. Their plan at one point was to colonize, let the first generation of settlers get things going, then hand off operations to corporations with interests in mining or forestry, strip mine the unsettled areas of the planet for resources. This never came to pass, due in part to the isolated nature of the system, didn't make financial sense for an Earth-based mining company to send freighters all the way out there to pick up the raw material and bring it back for processing, they'd burn too much fuel. Ditto for setting up a processing plant in the system, too much investment for not enough return, so the plan was scrapped and the settlers were mostly left to their own devices, save for an Alliance supply freighter making the trip out there once every few months. They keep a small garrison of soldiers and an administrative staff on-site to run day-to-day operations. The only reason the Alliance hasn't shut this colony down is their one other vested interest."

The images on the holotable shifted to a topographical view of an empty plateau, which shifted horizontally to show a structure lying underneath the surface.
"The Alliance had this underground R&D facility built on the planet, a fair ways away from the only settlement, for classified reasons. No one knows its there apart from Alliance Command, the administrative staff, the researchers that live there, and now us. Although earlier this week, the researchers made some sort of big discovery, again classified, and now Command wants them and their research brought in, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the latest situation at Arbonne."

The holotable changed again to show an image of the planet surrounded by four Reaver-class ships.
"This is a composite scan from about three days ago, an Alliance patrol ship passed through the Orion Frontier on its way back from the outer-Expanse, they spotted these pirate vessels descending on the planet, they moved in to recon, but they went silent after a lone intelligence transmission. Operating theory is that they're dead, along with the entire military garrison, so it falls to us to get to the surface, get the scientists from their underground lab, and get out. Not the most exciting job I know, but there's a twist."

Another shift of the holotable brought up images of decidedly Nordic-looking pirates.
"They're called the Skaldurm. A mostly-human cabal of pirates that adhere to the culture and way of life of the vikings, an ancient human civilization. They storm a planet, overrun defenses, then raid, rape, and pillage what they want. On an isolated planet like this, their victory celebrations could last for weeks, so we can't just wait for them to leave, then swoop in and grab the nerds. There's also way too many of them to fight head-on, so that's out. And one last wrinkle, there's no way to get direct word to the scientists that we're coming, or to even get access to the facility without going into the town itself. The admins had a terminal they used to get word to the research team if anyone from Alliance Command showed up and needed to go down there. Like I just said, we can't storm the town itself, we wouldn't survive against their numbers, so someone has to go in undercover, alone, and get to that terminal. Taleste, you're the only one who has the skills to pull this off, so I'm putting this task on you, hang back a minute after the briefing, I'll go over the details for your side of things."

"Here's the plan." Stryker said as the holotable went dead "We're gonna breach the atmosphere on the far side of the planet, and fly low under cover of night to avoid any chance of detection, we'll find a landing zone to tuck the ship away then take the shuttles out to the entrance to the lab, where we'll lie low while Taleste does her thing."
He looked over directly at her as he continued "When you get to the terminal, radio back for evac and I'll come back for you at the same place we drop you off, about a kilometer or so outside of town. If you run into any trouble, I'll come back with numbers. If all goes well, none of us will even fire a gun, but after those last few jobs, I want to be prepared for the worst possible scenario, so Grayson... get everyone kitted out for a doomsday scenario, maximum ammo, and I'll also need this stuff as well."
He paused to slide a hand-written note across the holotable to his quartermaster, who unfurled it and scanned it over quickly.

"Shouldn't be a problem, how much time I got?"
"We're en-route now, should be about three hours before we get there."
"Piece a' cake."

"Alright guys, if there's any questions, find me afterwards, I need the room right now to give Taleste the details of her job. We'll reconvene before we enter the system, in the meantime, I guess there's not much else to do but relax and get ready, Grayson'll have your gear ready before we get there."

"Previous verse still stands. What about innocents?" Tibulus was actually downstairs for once, in the War Room with the rest of the crew. He was a bit tired of the cockpit, and the War Room had a sanctioned off table for him to work on, so he migrated there recently to finish patching up the robotic head that would soon become his surgery bot. The entire apparatus was almost completed, actually. All that was left was running the code and testing it out.

Speaking of that, Tibulus typed a prompt in on his holographic coder... okay, maybe it was a laptop with a holographic display, but to him it was more than that.

> run.protocol01/breathOfair
> Protocol loading, please wait...
> "Hello."
> "Bingo. Hello."
> "What would you like to name your device?"

Tibulus chuckled to himself as he spoke into the war room. "I need a name for this guy. Any ideas?"