Esailia

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

Kat had stood and listened for as long as needed, nodding when appropriate. But the moment they were dismissed, she made a beeline through the bowels of the ship, bartered her way into a female crewmember's quarters, and hopping into their shower. She didn't know if she had quarters of her own, being a pilot, but at that moment she didn't care. Standing under a hot rain of fresh water, brought memories back to the feline pilot...

"This is the last time I trust you to do your job the way I want you to do it!" James yelled at her, storming towards the door of her quarters. He stopped short at the threshhold and looked back at her "This isn't your room anymore. You have one hour to get out, or I will have you shot for trespassing." he shot at her, before stomping down the hall.

Kat stared at the empty space of the door, where her captain, her confidant....her lover, had stood. Frozen in shock for minutes...she finally snapped out of her brainlock and huffed in frustration, before she began packing. The only thing she did was break the upstart's finger! This is her reward for making an example of him for James?

She threw her clothes into a military sack, leaving out a change of clothing before heading to the attached bathroom. Might as well use the facilities before she was booted off the base. "Screw 'im. Give him a kitty to play with, and he throws it out with the trash!" She growled to herself, undressing and stepping into the shower. It was a nice sensation to feel the streams of water through her light fur on her back and shoulders...

Kat stepped from the bathroom, rubbing her head and feline ears with a towel, to see the stare of the female crewmember at her lightly furred upper body. "What? I've tried shaving and waxing. It always comes back." She explained as she got her bra and vest back on, before heading out the door, towel still in hand...

She headed for the Mess, still drying her fur as she got her food and located the table where the rest of the pilots had gathered, taking a seat to listen to the conversation. Upon hearing Scott's voice again, her left ear perked up, seeing as the other was under the towel currently "Oy, wingman, right? nice flying yourself. I'd be much happier if I had you on my slipstream for every strafing run in the future. Bloody good flying." Kat smirked at Scott, taking a bite of chow.

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

*Stumbles in* Okay.....time to try a post while in muscle relaxers....joy.

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

Kat listened to the radio as everyone else was doing at that given moment, and quickly pulled Twilight off her current course and out to sea to rally on the deck of the Stormbolt. There were no whales this time as she flew over the water in turmoil... Kat slowed her aircraft down as she got in line for landing. Tapping her fuel gauge, she started worrying about falling out of the sky as plane after plane landed before her. "Oy, I'm on fumes 'ere! Tell the crews to get those planes off the strip!" She called to the Stormbolt's tower, whom calmly replied with "We understand, remain calm. you're clear to land in two more planes." The feline pilot huffed at the answer. "Easy to say when you're sitting stationary, and no in a hunk of metal that won't float if it hits water." She muttered to herself. But soon enough, and with the gauge arrow bumping the empty peg, she swooped low and caught the wire with her hook, landing safely on deck. It was a close call, for just as she slowed to a stop, her engines sputtered, coughed, and died. Kat unlatched her cockpit and hopped out, running a hand across Twilight's fuselage. "Girl's never let me fall, even when starved for fuel." Walking off deck to let the crews handle the exhausted Twilight, Kat met up with the rest of the pilots, she gave a lazy salute before sounding off "Callsign Kat reporting." She glanced at the others, waiting for further orders as they were. She knew trying to ask questions would be useless and only add confusion.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Naida saluted once more with a quick "Yessir. Thank you, Sir." Before walking back to her place beside her brother while Esailia slumped in her chair, rubbing her temple as the meeting continued. Things were not adding up in her head. Whether or not the captain of the crawler was ex military, the entire place was spotless, as if they intentionally cleaned up to hide what happened there. They had passed multiple rooms, not all crew quarters. Every one was cleaned up so nicely a drill sergeant would cry with joy... Nathanial took note of the captain's slumped form, and rested a hand on her shoulder, conveying so many words with a silent gesture. Naida and Edward were on Esailia's other side, muttering to themselves. "This isn't right." Naida mumbled out the side of her mouth. "What do you mean?" Edward leaned in to ask. "You don't clean up unless you're trying to hide something." "You heard him, the captain was ex-miltiary." "No, even passenger quarters were clean." "....what?" "Yeah, and what's more is that...how'd the three bandits get in without anyone seeing them? Unless they were-" "Already inside before you." "Yeah. Waiting to ambush." Edward tilted his head slightly, her brow furrowing "What if you surprised them?" "If that's what happened, why were they there?" Naida shot back. The siblings fell silent, both now thinking about possible answers to the riddle. As the debriefing came to an end, the Firesquad escorted Esailia back to her hospital room. "We've got eight hours of down time. Use them wisely." Esailia stated, laying back down on her bed. "I don't need supervision by anyone right now. Go, relax you three." The trio exited the room, looking at each other solemnly. It was only after a few minutes of silence did Nathanial finally speak up "I'm going for a drink, then sleep." before he walked off. Naida and Edward glanced at one another, and simply followed behind...

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

Kat let out a quick laugh at the notion of compitition. "Ten bucks says I don't get a single bullet in my fuselage!" She shot back before tipping Twilight's nose down to follow Scott's dive. She didn't have fancy lock-on missiles, since usually her load was meant to decimate tanks and soft bodies of infantry, but against the freezing waves, the tops of the ships seemed like beacons to her heat-seeking Mavs. "Fox Three." She reported over the radio as she let loose her third maverick, before pulling up and listening as her missile exploded, tearing the last APC to shreds. Grinning, she was gaining altitude when she heard enemies were retreating. Kat punched the air and yelped with victory, which could be heard over the radio rather clearly. "An' now it's t-" She started to say, only to hear an explosion inland. Tilting her plane to get a better view, Kat saw now the bloom of dirt and smoke over the island. "Kat reporting in." She responded to the summons, noting with a bit of distress her fuel gauge nearing empty. "Twilight's got about ten minutes of fly-time left. The trip across the sea took a lot out of her, and the combat didn't help. I can scout as I angle for a landing, but that's about it without risking a drop from the sky."

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I was thinking the same thing. No one has even seen everything on it, much less make accurate conclusions of its contents. Naida only remembered it when the civilians were brought up....and I just realized that the disc she pulled from the computer in the crawler morphed into a drive...XD

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I am so sorry. I didn't realize it'd cause that much of a stir. I also apologize that I didn't put it in my previous posts. >.< royally screwed up there XD

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Jed may have been scared and young, but he wasn't particularly dense - especially now he'd managed to get a chance to survive. Nathaniels' meaning was clear to the young Marten, and he nodded in understanding. "It was close," he answered clearly and firmly. "If I'd been there any longer, then they would've had me for sure. If it wasn't for you guys showing up..." he left the sentence hanging and looked between their faces for confirmation he'd said the right thing, clasping his hands together a little nervously.

SilverwindBlade

Nathanial grasped Jed's arm, nodding "No joke. Now go on and get back to your family." he said, nudging the pine martin towards the ramp, before adjusting the rifle strap on his shoulder. "And let's hope we never see him again." He muttered towards Naida, who nodded in agreement. It had felt good, Nathanial finally settled on before coming to the meeting, to help a misled boy. But now he was having second thoughts if Jed had really been a timid pine martin. Was it real, or a farce to play on their compassion to let him go? He knew he was in deep trouble if anyone found out. But he couldn't be sure if Jed had been pulling his chain or not, and since Nathan couldn't control the dilemma at this point, he turned his focus towards his captain, whom must've been thinking the same thoughts, surely... But all Esailia was worried about was the way she herself was fooled by the facade of scared faces she had found in the crawler. She had even been given a bald faced fact that the husband was military, but he didn't say what kind or where he got his training. Esailia glanced up at Naida, the only member of the firesquad to actually remember something else from the crawler that hadn't been reported to Silver. "Sir, we didn't find only survivors from the crawler." the fox began, stepping forward with a small drive in had "The entire crawler looked spotless, as if a military unit had lived there. We did not question it at the time since our mission was to save hostages. But now, we wanted to be sure to bring it up. Why would the crawler be cleaned up? I believe this may have the answer." She held the drive up to Silver "We recovered surveillance footage from the crawler's security booth before we were attacked on the bridge." As Naida was standing in front of the entire debrief, Esailia spoke up "What about the child we found with these undercover operatives? Or the janitors and the third civilian? Were they cleared?"

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

"Thank you for everything doctor. I don't know how many rules you're breaking right now, but I want you to know how much she means to us. So again....thank you." The fox sounded sincere saying this, and he gave Aidan a salute before blinking at the term. "Sleeping bea...Ah." He chuckled and nodded "Of course. She'll be up before then, I'll be sure of it." He replied, and watched the doctor leave the room... Edward had been keeping an eye on Esailia since the doctor had left, leaving the young fox to his task and thoughts. It was strange, seeing Esailia in a hospital bed. She was always so strong, never once thinking about what might happen to her squad if she wasn't around. Edward eventually sat down again, glancing up at the monitors to stare at the line blip with each of his captain's heartbeats. It didn't fill him with relief, but instead of dread that at any moment he might see it flatline. Soon enough, though, visitors passed through. First Mike, whom he didn't recognize. But, assuming he was from the mission, gave him a thumbs up. The first lie of many he'll undoubtedly make for Esailia "She's stable. Nothing serious as far as the doc can see." he explained, smiling. "The coughing was from so much dust in the mine. But the doctor thinks that was because she was more sensitive to it from something in her past." Next was Silver, whom Edward jumped up and stood at attention, saluting him. He didn't say anything to the private, just checked in with a nurse before heading out once more. Edward slumped back down in relief at this. The last thing he wanted to do was give Silver a story when he didn't know what Silver knew. About half an hour later, Nathanial and his sister arrived, Esailia was awake, and they spoke. Nathan explained about Jed and the rest of the mission to Esailia, who in return gave him a firm nod and reaffirming his decision to help Jed. A bit of talk revolved around Esailia's condition, but since they all knew what it was, the conversation was more aimed at what story they'd use. She was shot, passed out, and is now recovering from bruised ribs. "You three know that I am getting worse. Next time we may not be lucky." All three infantrymen nodded solemnly, and that was the end of the conversation. With the help of her squad, Esailia was settled into a chair in the debrief room, listening intently to Silver. While she agreed her team was better trained in GEAR takedown, her squad had been the only true units on the field best suited to comb the smaller tunnels. She intended to speak up and give ideas in how to integrate them better, when Silver started speaking about another mission. She she held her tongue and waited to hear it...

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I'm eating right now, but I'm going to post today. But Silver?

What about this?

Outside the Claw, Nathanial and Naida were whisked away along with other infantrymen as they helped secure the hostages and prisoners, with nathanial keeping a firm hold on the pine martin, saying to the security that he'd handle the prisoner himself. "You did good, Jed." Nathanial spoke to the prisoner as they walked, Naida quietly keeping personnel away from the pair. "I promised you I'd help you get back to your family. But you know that if I report your involvement, the higher ups will no doubt still try to pin crimes on you." The tiger led Jed around the outside of the bustling people from the Claw, coming up near where the hostages had been led. Nathanial turned to look Jed in the eye "It was lucky we found you before those bandits got to torture you for amusement away from the rest of the hostages." He said clearly and slowly, making sure the pine martin was listening and remembering what he said. "Am I right?"

Esailia