ALIENS: Deluge (IC)
<h1 id="title">Elliquiy Role Playing Forums</h1>
		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Bondage, D/s, S&amp;M =&gt; Bondage: Human Small Groups =&gt; Topic started by: tobisquestion on 24-01-2022, 14:45:56</h2>
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				Title: <strong>ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>24-01-2022, 14:45:56</strong>
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				(https://64.media.tumblr.com/731828b60e3acfaa4035dd1943fc2fc6/ee3bcd767a55ec96-2d/s1280x1920/65aea9d85f3f11e04bed1afc29ef69d09ff97a5d.jpg)<br><br><hr><br><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font"><br>Winter wasn’t sure if that faint fish-aquarium smell had always pervaded the habs near the hydroponics lab and he’d just never noticed, or if that was a new thing. Or maybe it was just&nbsp; the sour smell of being awake at 3:48am. He hurried over the steel grid flooring, not making any courteous effort to mute the stomp of his books or to avoid the grid panel he knew was slightly loose and made an especially obnoxious ‘clack’ when he stepped on it. <br><br>As the old saying goes, <em>Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris</em>. If he was going to be awake at this ungodly hour, he was going to share the misery.<br><br>He found the source of his misery in the form of a hysterical hydroponics worker flapping her hands in the direction of her bedroom. As stated in the maintenance report that had interrupted his pleasant dreams with angry bleeping, several strings of water were dribbling through a ceiling tile close to her bed. The worker (whose name he hadn’t bothered to make note of, even though it was in the header of the maintenance request) spoke with some kind of Eastern European accent, which Winter would have found cute if he’d been in any sort of mood for it.<br><br>“Oh my god, are we sinking faster than Garner told us? When is the rescue coming?”<br><br>Winter tried to stop the woman’s twittering with a disinterested hand. “We’re not sinking,” he said, leaving an unspoken addendum that they were on the totally opposite side of Almayer to the flooded sector. “It’s just a burst pipe. I’ll isolate it for now and we’ll get a repair out later today.”<br><br>He wondered if Garner actually would assign an engineer to repair the pipe. It wasn’t like anyone was gonna be hanging around this junkyard much longer anyway, right?<br><br>Nevertheless, he located the valve to isolate the offending bit of pipework, and sure enough the leaking stopped. He went through the motions of updated the work log, and left the emotional hydroponics worker to her blubbing and catastrophising.<br><br>On his way towards administration - where he would need to update the records manually because the connection on his PDA was broken, meaning he couldn’t do it from his hab - he stopped with a jolt as a slumped figure stepped out in front of him.<br><br>Jeremiah Garner looked at him through hooded, impatient eyes over an unlit cigarette that hung limply from the corner of his mouth.<br><br>“Greenwood,” the administrator said. “Never seen you around this early. What’d you do, shit the bed?”<br><br>Winter forced a tight smile. “Haven’t done that in weeks, sir. Just delivering a status update on a maintenance request.”<br><br>“In person? How diligent of you. Which is good to hear because I need someone to do something.”<br><br>Well wasn’t that just freaking great. Winter had hoped to be back in his bunk for a couple more hours before his regular duties began. His regular duties being, of course, monkey work in the hydroponics lab ever since that damned spaceship fell out of the sky and took out the whole western wing of the Almayer facility, where all the interesting work happened.<br><br>“Is it maintenance, sir?” Winter asked. “Because most maintenance is getting de-prioritized on account of…”<br><br>“It’s not maintenance,” Garner interrupted. “The rescue team are due it arrive in exactly ninety four minutes. I only just got the message because we only have one comm satellite operational since the impact.”<br><br>Garner said that last part as though it was Winter’s responsibility to fix the comms satellites, which he was pretty sure it wasn’t.<br><br>“That’s…good news, isn’t it sir?”<br><br>“Yeah yeah,” Garner scoffed. “I’m creaming my panties with excitement to get back to earth. But first, someone’s gotta volunteer to escort the rescue team to the Weyland-Yutani labs.”<br><br>“Uhh huh…” Winter smirked, assuming Garner was joking. “The labs which are half-underwater right now. We’ve made sure to tell them to bring their water-wings, right?”<br><br>“Real cute, Greenwood. I’m serious. They want to check out the impact site and, owing to the circumstances, we don’t want to rely on blueprints. We need someone who knows their way around that part of the facility.”<br><br>Winter sighed and shrugged. “Well, I moonlight for those guys as a submersible pilot, so I’m pretty familiar with the area. I’m assuming there’ll be a bonus for liaising with the USCM?”<br><br>“I don’t want <em>you</em> to do it, Garner spat. “They don’t want to be dealing with some smart-mouth colonist. I want you to get me someone from the W-Y team to play escort. Someone will have to go in person because they won’t be checking their messages before the marines arrive.”<br><br>Winter deflated somewhat, but on balance this seemed like he was getting off the hook. It had been more than two weeks since the disaster that took out the research wing. Two weeks to get used to the idea that the first woman he’d started to think he could actually grow to like had been declared missing, presumed dead. He’d come to terms with it, and he didn’t need to be guiding some grunts down that way to prove what everyone already knew.<br><br>“Yeah, alright. I know someone who could do it. Someone who isn’t too…well, you know…’company-ish’.”<br><br>“Great, who is it?”<br><br>Winter shrugged. “I try not to learn the names of the Weyland-Yutani science guys. It humanises them.”<br><br>Garner rocked his head back in exasperation and groaned at the clusters of pipes and ducts running down the corridor. “Just get someone - get a couple of people to be sure - and bring them to the community hall to meet with the marines, OK? And if you can do this without me having to interact with you again until we’re on the ship back to earth, that would be extra fucking sweet.”<br><br></span></span><hr><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font"><br>Winter stared at the code pad to the Weyland-Yutani science team’s hab block, incredulous that it had rejected his passcode. It had only been a few weeks since he’d been down here. They wouldn’t have changed the code, would they? Or could he have actually cared so little about this place that he’d forgotten it?<br><br>This was a spanner in the works. But he didn’t want to have to go back. Garner would be pissed if nobody could get a message to any of the science guys before the marines arrived.<br><br>Normally, the Weyland-Yutani scientists were the guys you really, really wanted to mess with, but knew it was absolutely a terrible idea. They, of all people, had the kind of access to the company that could make your life really difficult if they wanted.<br><br>But now that the whole colony and mission on LV-186 was <em>FUBAR</em>, there really wasnt much any of them could do to make your career any more miserable.<br><br>Taking a long utility key from his belt, he located a specific bit of trunking on the wall that he knew led to the female science officers’ quarters. Taking a deep breath, he began drumming an enthusiastic reggae rhythm on that very duct, and singing the word “Beauchamp” with a melody and volume that he was certain would bring Sophie to the sector door in quick order.</span></span>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Nowherewoman</strong> on <strong>24-01-2022, 15:15:24</strong>
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				<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/0b/40/c70b40fa22c31104fc1dd073630d1a4c.jpg)</div>"Peretti," Karn barked to her teammate, her shotgun muzzle-down by her right leg. "If any of them try to rush the buggies, shoot them." The lilt of Jo'burg still shaded her speech, making her sound somewhat amused. She wasn't, nor was she angry, or...anything recognizable as an emotion, really. The affect, or lack of it, had made people assume she was a synth at times; she and a few other people knew she was something far worse: a human who really didn't care if any other particular human lived or died, so long as the job got done. Her job, right now, was to keep as many of the colonists alive as possible through this shitshow, and she wasn't going to let a couple of panicmongers fuck that up.<br><br>"Try for their legs, but if you have to, shoot to kill." That calmed the small knot of mostly techs right down. They'd come rumbling up, a small, leaderless riot, insisting on being given access to one of the swamp crawlers. Armed with wrenches, hammers, and a few knives, they could have made good on it if they'd caught one of Karn's people by themselves. Just their bad luck the Security Chief had been doing&nbsp; a walkdown on the vehicle bay. Whatever else they thought they knew about her, they knew she meant it.<br><br>Dressler didn't blame them for trying, though she wasn't sympathetic. Even as they played their little dominance game, the platform shuddered and a deep orgasmic groan came from somewhere down below. The station was fucked, the mission was fucked, basically all of them were fucked. The worst fucking of all was that even if they used all the buggies and the couple of submersibles they could still get to, they couldn't get more than thirty or so of the crew off. What <em>verdammt</em> Earthside <em>poepol</em> had decided to build a floating research and 'forming base without any real boats to hand?<br><br>"We're stable for a good long while yet, citizens," she drawled. "And the Marine rescue group is inbound. Now's not the time to turn into a mob, <em>Ja?</em>" <em>Clack clack</em> went the barrel of the shotgun against her boot, where she tapped it for emphasis. "Go back to Commons and wait. Like the civilized people you are.&nbsp; You'll not steal anyone else's life for your own."&nbsp; Unspoken was the the question of how, exactly, they'd decide who got out if the rescue attempt went sideways.&nbsp; That wasn't her problem. Yet.<br><br>Finally, still glowering and muttering, they dispersed, and Karn let out a breath.&nbsp; "Stay put," she ordered Perelli. "I need to talk to Garner, find out when we're getting off this leaky tin can."<br><br>"What if they come back?," the officer asked, sweat beading his face. Karn just looked at him.<br><br>"What do <em>you </em>think?," she snapped at last, and strode off for Operations.
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				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>24-01-2022, 21:00:10</strong>
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				<span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Lieutenant Shvedova watched the freestanding terminal in front of her, listening to the sound of boots filing into the <em>USS Cargadores</em>’s dropship hangar. She’d had three strong coffees and the hypersleep fug still hadn’t completely worn off. She was almost thankful for the state of anxiety that these men and women had kept her in almost constantly since they’d assembled for the trip.<br><br>She lifted her gaze to the marines assembling before her. She would have thought that soldiers who had been through the ringer like these had would have more respect for each other. The squabbling and fighting could only be put down to PTSD to a certain extent, but every single one of them had been signed off by medical. It seemed prudent that they’d been assigned Cpl. Harris - a more qualified medic that an outfit such as this would normally justify. <br><br>But there were some understandably fragile egos in this squad, as a result of the fact that it was made up of the survivors of two other squads that had been decimated in separate battle incidents. A little extra care might well be necessary.<br><br>Nevertheless, the sight of the squad gave Shvedova a momentary optimism. These were skilled and seasoned men and women. If they kept their shit together, they could handle anything.<br><br>She waited until they were settled and Sgt Brekke was stood at her side. She then waited a moment longer until all their eyes were on her, standing in the shadow of the Cheyenne UD-4L dropship they would be packing themselves into in less than an hour.<br><br>“Marines,” she said, her voice carrying a weight of authority despite her diminutive stature. “Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read the briefing on file, but it’s been a quick turnaround and I know how it is. So here is the situation.”<br><br>She rotated the terminal screen in front of her to show a rendering of a planet that looked like a moss-green marble with a roiling stormy surface.<br><br>“We’ll be dropping onto LV-186,” Shvedova continued. “It’s one of Weyland-Yutani’s longer-lived science projects and a well established colony. The colony itself is a facility called Almayer. It’s an amphibious research facility housing one hundred and eighteen souls: a mixture of Weyland-Yutani science officers and colonial staff.<br><br>“Seventeen days ago, Almayer were set to receive cargo from a Heliades Class science vessel, the <em>USCSS Doramin</em>. The <em>Doramin</em> suffered an unknown catastrophic failure shortly after atmospheric entry and crashed into Almayer.”<br><br>The marines in front of her looked at each other with a blend of winces and smirks. They were right in what they were thinking - the situation was not good.<br><br>“Almayer is sinking,” Shvedova went on, raising her voice slightly to recover the squad’s attention. “Current information is that only a dozen or so people have been lost, all of them shortly after the initial impact. Our mission is to extract the remaining colonists and Weyland-Yutani science staff.”<br><br>As Shvedova paused, a ripple of frowns and discontent came over the men.<br><br>“Wait,” said Private Lawson, raising his hand. “Extraction? Did they really need to send Colonial Marines to facilitate an extraction?”<br><br>Private Lindahl scoffed loudly. “What’s the matter Lawson? Sound like too much heavy lifting?”<br><br>Lawson’s dark face grew even darker. “Screw you, Lindahl. The fuck you know about heavy lifting? I would trust you to lift my dick out of my shorts.”<br><br>Shvedova sensed a spike in tension and interjected quickly. “The situation on Almayer is stable, but potentially dangerous. The colonists are spooked and we need to put on a show of confidence. The dropships have been modified to maximize passenger space, meaning we’ll be light on ordinance but, since this is a combat drop only in name, that shouldn’t be an issue.”<br><br>“So that’s all?” Corporal MacCartan said. She was one of the cooler heads in the squad, and Shvedova was grateful for her tone.<br><br>“Not quite,” Shvedova said. “There is an additional objective. Squad 1, under Sergeant Brekke, will be coordinating the evacuation of the facility. Squad 2, lead by Corporal MacCartan, are to retrieve the cargo on board the <em>Doramin</em>. All we know about the objective cargo is that it’s sealed up tight, safe to handle and that we needn’t worry our pretty heads about what’s inside.”<br><br>Private Zabinka - the dropship pilot - turned to Lindahl and sniggered. “It’s definitely the company’s shit, then.”<br><br>Shvedova raised her voice slightly again. “The <em>Doramin</em> is currently submerged, along with the western sector of Almayer. It won’t be easy to get to, but we’ll find a way.”<br><br>Lindahl clapped his hands and shrugged. “So I guess we can just leave our guns behind and keep our hands free for all those grateful colonists, huh?”<br><br>“Yeah right,” Lawson goaded. “This is bullshit. I should have known we’d be on some pussy mission when they joined us up with your pussy outfit, Lindahl.”<br><br>Lawson had barely finished his words before Lindahl had launched himself off the bench and thrown the first punch. Immediately, four other month leapt up and into the fray, some trying to pull men apart, some lashing out with fists.<br><br>Lt Shvedova gulped and gaped for a moment. She opened her mouth to say something, but immediately realised that none of these men had known her more than a few weeks. There was someone else who was better known and trusted…at least to half of the squad.<br><br>“Sgt. Brekke,” she said, turning and looking up at the men who was head and shoulders taller than her. “Handle this, and do it quickly.”</span></span>
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				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Valerian</strong> on <strong>25-01-2022, 01:29:00</strong>
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				<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/7/72/Sophie_Beauchamp.jpg/450px-Sophie_Beauchamp.jpg)</div>At 3:48 AM, Sophie, unsurprisingly, was dreaming.&nbsp; She was strolling casually through a lovely park, someplace she'd never been before, and yet, as was the way of dreams, she knew that the park was impossibly large.&nbsp; Even if she strolled all day and all night, she still wouldn't reach the end of it.&nbsp; But that was all right, since -- again with the bizarre logic of the subconscious -- she also knew that waiting outside the park for her was something dark and terrible, something indescribable.&nbsp; But inside the park, she was absolutely safe, surrounded by beautiful flowers and large shade trees.&nbsp; Everything was all right here.<br><br>Then something started clanging quickly and rhythmically in the distance, and her dream-self frowned, trying to ignore it.&nbsp; That plan might even have worked, except then she heard her name being called out among the metallic clanks, and the next thing she knew, she was awake and painfully aware that real life had gone completely to hell.&nbsp; "<em>Merde</em>," she muttered into her pillow, then sat up in frustration as both the clanging and the calling went on relentlessly.&nbsp; It was impossible to recognize the echoing voice, but she knew who it belonged to just the same.&nbsp; "Winter," she said, biting back the urge to scream at him.&nbsp; That would only wake up anyone who had so far managed to sleep through this 'musical' performance, and certainly wouldn't get him to stop.&nbsp; Besides, at this point she'd prefer to be in a position to smack him around anyway.<br><br>So she scrambled out of bed and into a pair of coveralls, wrestled her feet into her boots, and grabbed her glasses on the way out.&nbsp; She didn't really need them -- she was a bit farsighted, and she primarily used them to help with the close-up work she often had to do in the lab&nbsp; -- but she felt they made her look more intimidating, and she would want that.&nbsp; Officially, they'd all been told to follow their usual routines as much as possible, but unofficially everyone on the station was panicking to one degree or another, and Sophie had only been asleep for a couple of hours.&nbsp; And she was not normally a night owl, so she was, admittedly, easier to annoy than usual at the moment... though it was always easy to be annoyed at Winter.<br><br>As she hurried down the hall, more than one angry coworker stuck a tousled head out into the corridor and demanded to know what all the racket was about.&nbsp; With a string of whispered apologies trailing behind her, Sophie quickened her pace.&nbsp; Reaching the sector door at last, she slapped the panel to open it so hard her hand stung, barreling through while it was still sliding open.&nbsp; Looking around, she quickly spotted Winter, utility key in hand, and stomped over to him.&nbsp; "Stop it!" she hissed, her accent growing stronger, as it always did when she was upset.&nbsp; "Everyone's angry enough as it is, what's going on now?"
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				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>greypsychman</strong> on <strong>25-01-2022, 07:48:37</strong>
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				<div class="floatleft"> (http://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/sandcastle03.jpg) </div><b>Name:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Craig Brekke<br><b>Age:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 30<br><b>Height: </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 6’1<br><b>Weight:&nbsp; </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 200 lbs<br><b>Hair Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Brown<br><b>Eye Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Blue<br><b>Profession:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Sergeant- Colonial Marines<br><br><br>Craig wasn’t very happy with the current situation. While he wasn’t against the idea of mixing those two squads of survivors, he didn’t like the fact that the marines hadn’t had time to train together and become a more cohesive unit. It normally took weeks to build that, but this platoon wasn’t given that luxury! Instead they were thrown together and then thrown out to the wolves to try and survive. On top of that, the Lieutenant was new to Craig which meant he couldn’t totally trust her judgment until she proved to him she knew her stuff.<br><br>The Lieutenant called the troops together and started to give them a briefing. As she spoke, Craig recognized the fact that this mission was already going sideways and it hadn’t even started yet! From the look on the faces of the soldiers in the squad, they recognized it too. Then things started to go downhill. There were questions quickly followed by bickering between a couple of marines.<br><br>The Lieutenant was trying to maintain control of the situation but wasn’t winning that fight. Then the shit hit the fan and the marines were fighting! Craig was already moving in to break up the fight even as the Lieutenant told him to break it up. Craig bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Marines! Knock that SHIT OFF NOW!” At the same time he was yelling, Craig grabbed a couple of marines and threw them away from the fight. This time he yelled, “Stand DOWN!” To the remaining few who were fighting, Again while yelling, Craig was able to get a hold of both Lawson and Lindahl by their collars. <br><br>Craig’s muscles were straining as he shook the two marines and continued yelling, “Enough you dipshits!” By now, most of the marines had fallen back into their ranks and were standing silently hoping that the wrath of their sergeant didn’t fall on them. Lawson and Lindahl fell back in the ranks, having come to their senses. Craig got inches away from their faces as he yelled, “You sorry sacks of shit! I’d have you in the brig and up on charges for court martial for what you just did if we were back at base! But, I have a feeling that we are going to need every one of you low lifes!” <br><br>Craig said, “Marines, Atten Shun!” and the marines all snapped to attention. Craig continued, “Now, you will keep your mouths shut and listen while the Lieutenant finishes the operations order.” Craig turned to the Lieutenant and said, “They’re all yours Ma’ am!”<br>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>25-01-2022, 10:50:21</strong>
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				<span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">The sound of the panel being struck made Winter jolt even over the racket of his own banging on the duct. He took a cautionary step back, then grinned from ear to ear when he saw Sophie swoop through the half-opened door. The freshly bed-toussled look was quite out of character, but it suited her. The furious glare she wore, on the other hand, was much more familiar to him.<br><br>"Sophie, Sophie, haven't you done this before?" Winter said with an affected disappointment. "When you're being serenaded, you're supposed to appear in a lacey chemise and waving a dainty hankerchief at me. What is it? Don't you like reggae?"<br><br>When it became quickly apparent that this particular brand of humour wasn't appreciated, he held up his hands apologetically and put the utility key away.<br><br>"Alright, take it easy. Garner sent me to get someone from the science team. The rescue party is incoming and for some reason above my pay-grade they want someone who can talk them around the research lab module. And before you ask, yes I reminded him that it's mostly flooded. He says he still wants someone - a couple of people, actually - who are familiar with the layout."<br><br>His last words were hijacked by a violent yawn, reminding him that he wasn't really any happier about being awake this early than Sophie was.<br><br>"So could you just drag one of your company friends out of bed and bring them here so I can take you to Garner. It needs to be now. Can't keep the jarheads waiting, apparently."</span></span>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>25-01-2022, 11:10:39</strong>
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				<span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Garner marched through commons, which was all but deserted so early. Just a few colonist workers coming off the night shift. He ignored them just as they did to him, and closed his eyes as he pictured the route to the drop pad. It had been a while since the last supply drop, and even longer since Garner had been present for one himself. Being near that sector always felt dangerously close to being ready to head back to earth: something he'd never felt one single urge to contemplate.<br><br>As he located the seldom-used utility door leading to the pad, his PDA chimed with an urgent notice. <em>Great.</em> Had the USCM guys managed to patch into Almayer's network already? With a due sense of exhaustion and dread, he checked the message. It wasn't the marines: it was the security chief, Dressler. Apparently, a group of F-Sector geniuses had pooled their half-a-dozen brain cells together to try to steal one of the boats. Dressler and Peretti had happened to be in their way. <em>Christ.</em> Garner almost wished those fucknuts (surely that was what the F in 'F-Sector' stood for?) had <em>succeeded</em> in escaping. They would have been stranded adrift while the USCM rescued everyone else. Garner couldn't imagine colonial marines would make a special trip to pick up some asshats in a sub-tub who'd taken the initiative to further complicate the situation by mutinying. They'd have probably got left behind and it would have been fucking hilarious.<br><br>Still, Dressler had been doing her job and, because of her, those asshats would get rescued in a few hours, along with everyone else.<br><br>With a deep sigh, Garner rattled off a message to Dressler, keeping it short and - as usual - devoid of any express or implied gratitude for her service:</span></span><br><br><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">Acknowledged. Meet me at the drop pad. You can update me there. We've got visitors.</span></span></strong>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Valerian</strong> on <strong>26-01-2022, 02:48:34</strong>
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				"Serenade?" Sophie echoed, incredulously.&nbsp; "Banging on an air duct at four AM is not a serenade.&nbsp; That's something that you do if you've lost a bet."&nbsp; Even before he backed off, however, she was beginning to get the sinking feeling -- no pun intended, considering the state of the base -- that he'd actually had a reason for this outrageously early visit, and she wasn't going to like it.&nbsp; His suddenly apologetic manner convinced her that she <em>really</em> wasn't going to like it.&nbsp; And as he finally explained, she could only gape at him at first.<br><br>"They're going into -- But that's ridiculous!" she exclaimed, then quickly dropped her voice to a whisper.&nbsp; "Right after the crash, I tried getting permission to go in and retrieve some of our work and no one would even listen to me.&nbsp; And that was when there still might have been a chance --"&nbsp; She broke off uncomfortably, thinking of the lost as well as the research.&nbsp; Winter was often annoying and quite frankly rather shallow, as she'd learned to her disappointment, but that was no reason to dwell painfully on what he'd lost.&nbsp; "So now, after more than two weeks they're <em>ordering</em> someone to go down there?&nbsp; What can they possibly hope to find?&nbsp; I know, I know, above your pay grade," she said more calmly, taking a deep breath.&nbsp; "And mine too, it would seem.&nbsp; All right, let me go find someone.&nbsp; Far be it from me to keep any Marines waiting," she added, with a wry little smile.<br><br>On the way back down the hall, she considered who best to ask on this unappealing mission.&nbsp; Finally she settled on Abby, a thirty-something redhead with a slightly freckled face who was one of the chemical engineers Sophie often worked with.&nbsp; If she remembered correctly, Abby also had some small experience in scuba diving, which was suddenly a very valuable skill set to have.&nbsp; And Abby had also always seemed fairly even-tempered, which meant that she might actually forgive Sophie for this at some point.<br><br>A few minutes later, the two were walking back down the hall to meet Winter, though Abby was still asking mystified questions that Sophie could not quite answer.&nbsp; But the newest 'volunteer' was ready to help despite that -- having several more years of experience than Sophie, she was apparently more used to humoring some of the Company's odder requests.&nbsp; Either that, or she wasn't awake enough yet to fully understand what was going on... which was probably more likely, Sophie decided.<br><br>Back outside the main door to the hab, Sophie made perfunctory introductions.&nbsp; "Abby Shepherd, you remember Winter," she said, stifling a yawn of her own.&nbsp; Tooo late, she remembered that the other woman had once witnessed a few moments of flirting between Winter and Sophie, and had naturally teased the biologist afterwards, but there was nothing to be done about that now.&nbsp; And Abby was thankfully diplomatic, merely giving a nod and a smile of recognition.<br><br>"I don't suppose you can tell us any more about all this?" Abby asked, though clearly without much hope of further answers.&nbsp; "This is pretty sudden."
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Nowherewoman</strong> on <strong>26-01-2022, 03:35:05</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/0b/40/c70b40fa22c31104fc1dd073630d1a4c.jpg)</div>Karn had mixed feelings as she watched the pair of landing boats settle towards the range markers. On the one&nbsp; hand, they were beautiful to watch, like gigantic birds of prey.&nbsp; On the other, she remembered when similar birds had hunted her and her mates through the outskirts of Jo'Burg. Not the Marines- the sort of mischief her crew had got up to was far too petty to attract attention at that level. But the SADF, such as it still was, had nothing better to do with their time. And their rules of engagement were quite a bit looser than those the professionals of the USCMC were bound by. As she knew from personal experience.<br><br>Maybe she was feeling sour because she was standing with Garner. That he was a weak man didn't bother her much. Most people were, and he had been relatively efficient at his job. Even his constant complaining was just so much background noise. She didn't think she'd ever met anyone at Weyland outside of the few upper executives she'd bumped into who acted as if they were happy with their lot. Likely, the Marines would be no different. No, the problem with Garner was&nbsp; that lately Karn had developed a creeping feeling that he was keeping something from her.&nbsp; Also not a new situation for her, but if it led to a mess, it would fall on her to clean it up. This was not a time for messes.<br><br>Hell, or maybe her bleak mood was just because she knew that relatively soon the landing pads might be the only remaining signs of their damp, leaky, rattletrap home. That was assuming their reinforced structures managed to remain intact when the rest of the station collapsed and sank.<br><br>"Two boats," she said quietly to Garner, just for something to say. It wasn't as if the man couldn't count, after all, or so she assumed. "If they have come down light, say twenty per boat. Six loads for our people...seven, for a small allowance of personal effects. Then another two to lift the Marines."&nbsp; A few shirt-cuff calculations, mostly based on hearsay and guesswork, flashed through her head. "Forty minutes back to orbit and rendezvous. Twenty minutes refuel and stow. Fifteen minutes hard drop. Call it five hours for total personnel transfer. Perhaps six" Flick-flick, like the eyelids of a snake, a thin smile blinked on and off again. "I think this <em>doos</em> will hold together that long."<br><br>It would take longer, of course. The Marines would have their own protocols, which would delay things, and there would be the inevitable arguments with the colonists about 'critical' knick-knacks, tools, records...the same people who would have gutted one another to get onto a buggy earlier would risk sending all of them to the bottom to preserve a souvenir, now that rescue was immediately at hand. Fools. Like herding cats, ones of an especially stupid breed. But that was what they paid her for.&nbsp; "As soon as you have gotten approval from the Marine officer, I can begin organizing the staff for boarding and lift."<br><br>The first boat touched down, making the frame of the station sing beneath their feet. thirty seconds later, a twin of the vibration reached them as the second boat feathered her engines and teased to a stop on the farther pad. And then from another part of the big raft-like outpost, an echo came, something shifting in the damaged sector, dislodged by the stress of the added weight.&nbsp; "You hear me, <em>doos</em>?," she muttered. "Hold together."
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>27-01-2022, 11:07:39</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Shvedova watched in silence as Sgt Brekke waded into the mess of brawling marines. It wasn't the first time she'd witnessed something like this, and she was willing to give them a little slack for the circumstances under which they'd been thrown together. But if they were dropping into an unstable facility full of colonists who were already panicked, she was going to need these marines to keep their heads on straight. <br><br>It may not be a combat situation, but it was sure as hell likely to be stressful. The USCM wasn't there to fight, but they <em>were</em> there to inspire calm and confidence. And right now, this squad didn't look up to the task.<br><br>Happily, it didn't take Brekke long to restore a semblence of order, and Shvedova exhaled slowly in relief. Brekke had the respect of the marines he'd served with before, and even the ones who didn't know him seemed to respond to his authoritative presence. She nodded slowly when Brekke passed the focus back to her.<br><br>"Thank you sergeant," she said without glancing at him. "I'm going to overlook this shit once, and once only. I know all of you have seem some bad situations on your last deployments. But I'm gonna need you to remember that&nbsp; gunfire isn't the only kind of stress you're trained to deal with. Combat isn't just about gunfights, it's about inspiring calm and confidence in a volatile crowd. <em>That's</em> the mission we've got today. If any of you ends up discharging your weapon, it won't be because you're a badass, it'll be because you or one of your fellow marines fucked up. And if you fuck up, there are over a hundred people down there who could die. I'll wager that's more lives than any of you have been responsible for in a single operation. Is that understood?"<br><br>"Understood, ma'am," the marines chorused with a variable but overall satisfactory level of gusto.<br><br>"I hope so." Shvedova took a step back and turned to her right. "Drop time is in fifteen minutes. Sergeant Brekke, pack 'em in."</span></span>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>27-01-2022, 11:38:55</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">"I've got a lot of outstanding bets," Winter shrugged. "Chances are I've lost at least <em>one</em> of 'em."<br><br>Seeing her annoyance dissolve into concern was a sobering reminder of just how odd this whole situation sounded. Sophie was right about everything, of course. Immediately after the crash, the research labs had been immediately off-limits. He didn't doubt that the Weyland-Yutani science folk had conspired to retrieve some of their research, but he knew they'd be fighting a losing case there. He didn't know everything about their work by any means, but he understood enough to know that the aquaforming program was only any use here on LV-186. If the colony here was to be abandoned, then what was the research worth? Then again, as he'd already admitted, he didn't know everything they were doing. Hell, even Sophie probably didn't, not being one of the senior science team members.<br><br>"Thanks," he said as she walked away, then called after her. "Not Dr Heydari through, that guy's creepy. Anyone else."<br><br>He waited patiently, his nerves calmed mostly by the fact that if this took too long, he could justifiably argue that it wasn't his fault. He drummed his fingers on the edge of the door until he heard footsteps approaching. Sophie rounded the corner with the redhead from Chemical Engineering, who Winter has mostly only seen through plexiglass panes, in moon-suits or wearing a disapproving frown in passing. Winter lifted a casual hand in greeting.<br><br>"Dr Shepherd, yeah of course. We should walk and talk," he said, sidestepping into a rapid stride that hopefully communicated the severity with which Garner had sent him on this errand. "So I guess the good news is that we're all getting rescued. The colonial marines are inbound to pick us up. But Garner told me that they want to investigate the impact site for some reason. I've have thought they'd have the equipment to assess it from the surface or the air, but apparently they want to get as close as they can. So I hope they brought a seriously powerful bilge pump..."<br><br>It sounded like a finished sentence, but his words trailed off as the guard in his mind briefly dropped, and he allowed himself to consider what it must have been like for the dozen or so people who were cut off after the crash. Which ones were lucky enough to be killed instantly in the impact, which ones drowned or died of hypothermia as the frigid swamp water flooded the west sector...which ones might still be clinging on to life in darkness and fear in there, as vanishingly unlikely as that seemed.<br><br>They arrived in the mess hall, and Winter glanced about in confusion when he didn't see Garner anywhere. He turned on the spot a few times until a cullinary prep technician - who was activating himself with coffee at one of the tables, and apprently realised who Winter was looking for - pointed in the direction of the blast door leading to the receiving bay.<br><br>"Huh, I guess he's gone to the drop pad already," Winter mused, half to himself. He turned to Sophie and ran his fingers through his hair. "I guess the rescue team is arriving sooner than I thought. Damn, colonial marines are so cool. You know, my brother and I always said we'd enlist with the USCM together. We used to play Bug Hunt all around our estate as kids. Can't believe this is the first time I'll be meeting some. How do I look, Sophie?"</span></span>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>TheGrandAdmiral</strong> on <strong>27-01-2022, 20:42:39</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft">(https://www.gateworld.net/wp-content/uploads/mingna_shield01.jpg)</div>Jing Mei did not take part of the commotion that the other marines were making about their mission. She had her own reservations that aligned with the observation about sending Marines to save a bunch of colonists and some cargo. <br><br>But she was a veteran, oldest of the bunch and she knew better than to question orders. Besides it could be a good way to make the team work together, given their histories. A nice and easy mission that did not involve being shot at or shit like that. <br><br>Another point that came to mind was that there could be some civil unrest due to what was happening. Such riots were usual in slums like those on Earth or other worlds. Looters and other opportunists, so the presence of a couple of squads of marines should be enough to cool down the passions of those people. <br><br>Either way she would not question the orders and would not complain. Besides, her skills would be needed, there were bound to be injured people and she would be there to patch them up and keep them stable long enough until they could get them to proper medical facilities. <br><br>She nodded in approval to Sergeant Brekke and stood in attention. The Lt. seemed to have read her mind when explaining the mission that made her smile inwardly. Though the commanding officer put it better. <br><br>Jing Mei looked at the others, they needed a leash, but that was not her job and she was thankful for that! Good thing no one wanted to mess around with her, after all when push came to shove she would be holding their lives in her hands and you did not want to anger your doctor. Oh, there were teases, some innocent pranks, some indecent proposals (to which she occasionally said yes, after all they all were human and had their carnal needs). <br><br>Now she waited for the order to move on and get on with the mission... 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Valerian</strong> on <strong>28-01-2022, 01:37:02</strong>
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			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/7/72/Sophie_Beauchamp.jpg/450px-Sophie_Beauchamp.jpg)</div>Both women had to hurry at first to catch up with Winter as he turned and strode off as fast as he could without breaking into a run, or at least that was what it seemed like to Sophie.&nbsp; But at least they were getting a little more information, even if it didn't particularly soothe her annoyance.&nbsp; "'Get as close as they can'," she echoed, frowning.&nbsp; "I don't like the sound of that."<br><br>"Neither do I," Abby chimed in.&nbsp; "Even if there are still air pockets left, this is probably going to be a lot like cave diving, and there's no kind of diving more dangerous."<br><br>"Dr Shepherd has done some scuba diving, that's why I asked her to come," Sophie explained to Winter.&nbsp; They arrived in the mess hall then, at which point she fully expected to see the entire group of colonial Marines already there and waiting for them with barely concealed impatience, given what a rush Winter had been in.&nbsp; But the room was all but deserted, and she was about to ask a pointed question when the hall's lone occupant waved them towards the receiving bay.&nbsp; At Winter's question, she raised an eyebrow.&nbsp; "You look fine, if you wanted your hair to stand straight up," she deadpanned.&nbsp; "I've never met any marines, either, but somehow I don't think they'll be too concerned about how you look.&nbsp; Probably all they want to know about anyone is whether or not you have a gun and know how to shoot it," she added, with faint disapproval.<br><br>"Let's get this over with, shall we?" Abby suggested, heading towards the blast doors.&nbsp; "The sooner we're done playing tour guides, the sooner we can evacuate with everyone else."
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>greypsychman</strong> on <strong>28-01-2022, 06:38:42</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft"> (http://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/sandcastle03.jpg) </div><b>Name:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Craig Brekke<br><b>Age:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;30<br><b>Height: </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;6’1<br><b>Weight:&nbsp; </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;200 lbs<br><b>Hair Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Brown<br><b>Eye Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Blue<br><b>Profession:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Sergeant- Colonial Marines<br><br>Craig hoped that this group of marines would get their shit together in the next fifteen minutes but he knew that wasn’t realistic. He could only hope that they would remember their training and not screw up too badly. When the Lieutenant finished and turned the platoon over to him, Craig snapped to attention and said to her, “Aye Aye, Ma’am!” <br><br>Craig turned to the Marines and barked out, “Prepare to load!”&nbsp; Then he said, “I want the weapons team on the dropship first followed by their rifle team.” Craig continued, “ Squad 2, move out.” The marines snapped to attention and Pvt Parks (smartgun specialist) lead the way followed by Pvt Sugita. Behind them were Pvt Serrano and Pvt Lawson. Cpl MacCartan brought up the rear of her squad and made her way to the dropship.<br><br>Craig bellowed, “Squad 1, load up!” Pvt Lindahl lead the way followed by Pvt Zabinska. However, when they got to the ship, Zabinska went to the cockpit and began prepping the Chyenne for flight. Pvt Rice and Cpl Harris got on board the dropship. Craig stood in the door and looked at the Lieutenant as he said, “Platoon loaded and waiting to deploy.” He stood in the door waiting to the Lieutenant to board and after she was on, he would close the door and take a seat.<br><br>While the platoon was seated waiting to take off, Craig gave some quick orders. He said, “Marines, this is supposed to be a friendly evacuation of civilians. I want all weapons with safeties on! Don’t you dare go live without an order from either the LT our me!:” Next he said, “We are the Colonial Marines so I want you looking sharp for these civilians. When you are told to jump there will be no questions except ‘how high’. Am I clear?” In unison the soldiers replied, “Crystal!” Craig said, “Good.” He continued, “We need to keep these civilians calm during this operation. Don’t do anything to get them riled up. Am I clear?” Again, the marines replied in unison, “Crystal!” <br><br>Craig got a big smile and said, “Well, then let’s go down there and earn our pay!”<br><br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>29-01-2022, 16:16:18</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Despite the rocky start, the loading and drop prep went with encouraging efficiency. Once or twice, Shvedova had to look away to hide the treacherous break-out of a grin when the men responded to their sergeant - not with "yes, sire" - but with the peculiar antiphon "Crystal". It seemed to originate in the men Brekke had served with before, but the other half of the squad seemed quick to adopt it too. It wasn't exactly standard vocabulary, but neither was it contrary to regulation and she had to admit she kinda liked it.<br>&nbsp;<br>Nodding her thanks to Brekke as she passed him, she proceeded to the mobile command center behind the cockpit. Across the hangar, the second dropship mirrored every action of the one she was in, programmed as it was to automatically replicate its path and movements. It was an experimental technology that had proven successful once or twice before, and she hoped it wouldn't bite them in the ass this time. It wasn't something the USCM would ever rely upon when dropping into actual combat. The absence of APCs was the other reminder that they weren't going in hot. It had freed up a little more space aboard the dropship, which would hopefully speed up the ferrying of colonists somewhat.<br>&nbsp;<br>From her seat in the command centre, she listened to the whooping and banter of the marines in the stowage cabin behind her. It seemed like all of the hostility from fifteen minutes ago was forgotten. She hoped that would last.<br>&nbsp;<br>"On my mark," Zabinska declared. "Five, four, three, two, one, release."<br>&nbsp;<br>Gravity seemed to suck in a deep breath and then released it with a scream and the two dropships plummeted towards the cloudy green orb that was LV-186.<br>&nbsp;<br></span></span><hr> <br><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Garner patiently listened to Captain Dressler give her appraisal of the situation with barely disguised boredom, until she gave her final assessment for how long the entire evacuation would take. Six hours, huh? Six hours until the end of his career, or at least what it might as well be. Seven trips, even with the capabilities of the UCSM? It threw into sharp relief just how ill-equipped the entire of humanity was for a shake-'n'-bake colony to be abandoned and evacuated wholesale. Colonies were supposed to be a fire-and-forget affair: send the lucky winners off into the blackness of space on a wing and a prayer and your blessing to never look back. But here he was, with the prospect of doing just that.<br>&nbsp;<br>"It'll hold together," he said when the silence between him and Karn risked seeming impolite.<br>&nbsp;<br>The two dropships lowered themselves onto the platforms, and Garner noticed some unusual lighting in the cockpit of one of them. Only one ship lowered its ramp and discharged a formation of armed and armoured marines. He had to admit, it was kind of impressive, and for a moment seemed almost like overkill given that this was essentially just a ferry home.<br>&nbsp;<br>The first of them to catch his eye was an Asian woman who looked about Garner's age, and suddenly the notion of dealing with the USCM didn't seem quite so wearisome after all. Garner straightened his back and his shirt, but before he could wonder if the Asian woman was in command, another woman - short but with tall features - strode out to the front and addressed him.<br>&nbsp;<br>"Administrator Garner?"<br>&nbsp;<br>"At your service," Garner replied with a lazy, almost sarcastic salute. "Shall I send word out that the taxi has arrived?"<br>&nbsp;<br>"In good order," the commanding woman said. "I'm Lieutenant Shvedova. This here is Sergeant Brekke: he'll be running things on-stage. I would request that until all Almayer personal have been extracted, you liaise with him and give him your full cooperation."<br>&nbsp;<br>Garner gave a lazy eye to the man introduced as 'Brekke'. He seemed more of a classic jarhead, as well as the kind of guy who had little patience for tolerating nonsense. That was fine; Garner didn't intend to give him any.<br>&nbsp;<br>"That's fine," he said. "All I want is for this to be as easy as possible. This here is my chief of security, Karn Dressler. I'm sure she'll be more than happy to assist your boys in any way they need assisting."<br>&nbsp;<br>He glanced at Karn in a way that suggested he wanted her to deflect as much of the heavy lifting of this situation from him as possible.<br>&nbsp;<br>"That's appreciated," Lt Shvedova said with a short nod. "But I'll need you to be contactable in the event of any complications that require administrative clearance."<br>&nbsp;<br>Garner sent a distinct leer towards the Asian woman he'd noticed earlier, who was now milling about with the rest of the marines. "Don't worry. I'm happy to stay close by."<br>&nbsp;<br>Lt Shvedova tightened her lips, then gave a curt smile to Karn. "Officer Dressler, are you able to lead Sergeant Brekke to a suitable operations center from which to coordinate the evacuation? I'll remain in the command center on the dropship, but Brekke will give the the codes to contact me there if you need to. Also, we're going to need access to the crash site. I understand a request was sent ahead for some suitable staff to consult with about that?"</span></span>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>29-01-2022, 16:28:36</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">"Scuba diving?" Winter glanced over his shoulder with a quirked eyebrow. "I'm sure the diving would have been lovely here if we'd ever finished the aquaforming. Not so much your thing I suppose, Sophie? You strike me as someone who's a bit more cautious about dipping your toe in unknown waters."<br><br>He threw Sophie a wink before realising how provocative he'd sounded, but decided not to care. All things being equal, they'd be in cryo by the end of the day, hurtling their way back towards earth. <br><br>After they were given directions and were moving towards the landing bays, Winter frowned, licked his hand and smoothed his hair down at Sophie's remark. He tried to picture himself holding a nice fat gun and decided he'd look cool enough doing it. Maybe the marines would need some more practical assistance getting into the flooded sector. He'd already fantasised about somehow getting to one of the submersibles, coming in under the west sector and finding some survivors in an air pocket and getting them out. It was a pleasant fantasy, however farfetched.<br><br>"Yeah," he nodded at Abby's suggestion they get it over with. "Let's. Might be a pretty short conversation anyway. 'Hey guys, we're the marines, how do you get to the research labs?' 'That's an easy question to answer, mr marine: you can't!'"<br><br>They came out into the hemispheric hangar overlooking the two landing pads, and Winter gaped slightly at the sight of Administratir Garner, Security Chief Dressler and a squad of Colonial Marines already assembled there. And, for the first time, it hit home that this was all really happening.</span></span>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Valerian</strong> on <strong>30-01-2022, 02:53:11</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				"Cautious?" Sophie echoed coolly.&nbsp; "I don't know if I'd say that, exactly.&nbsp; It's more that I wouldn't want to dive in and only then find out how shallow the water is."&nbsp; Abby barely stifled a snort of laughter at this, and Sophie hoped that she wasn't blushing.&nbsp; Without realizing it, her thoughts echoed Winter's -- that soon, none of this would matter because they'd all be on their way back to Earth -- and though she would be very sorry to leave her work, it would be a relief to get away from the soap opera that her life was threatening to become.&nbsp; She didn't even quite feel like the star of this particular soap opera, she thought with a sigh.<br><br>Then they were in the hangar, surrounded by guns and uniforms, and Sophie frowned darkly.&nbsp; It wasn't that she wasn't used to guns, unfortunately, but she had hoped that she'd left that sort of life behind long ago.&nbsp; Now here it was again, adding to all the other chaos.&nbsp; At least these people had some semblance of order and ranks, she told herself, though of course that assumed that whoever was in charge was at least reasonably responsible, which might no be the case.&nbsp; She caught sight of Winter gaping in what looked to be unadulterated admiration of their rifles, and her frown deepened.&nbsp; <em>Would Almayer security be directly involved?</em> she wondered, catching sight of Security Chief Dressler.&nbsp; Though she'd always seemed very strict, she'd never been particularly trigger-happy as far as Sophie knew, so she could only hope that the Marines would pay some attention to the woman.<br><br>There was a dark-haired woman among the Marines who seemed to be the one in charge for now, at least, giving orders to Garner -- which was probably annoying him no end, Sophie thought, though he also seemed a little distracted by something.&nbsp; Then he turned and nodded towards the three new arrivals, apparently in response to something the Marine had said, and Sophie took a deep breath.&nbsp; Like Abby, she was now at the point where she just wanted to get these next few hours over with.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Nowherewoman</strong> on <strong>30-01-2022, 04:24:26</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/0b/40/c70b40fa22c31104fc1dd073630d1a4c.jpg)</div>One boat started to unload- and why only one, she wondered?- oh, of course. The other was probably empty for her people, aside from the flight crew. The Marines that filed off the one looked...well, like Marines. Armored, armed, fit, most wearing a sleepy, dangerous look she recognized from her life on the streets. Their senior noncom was a very large, competent-seeming man; their leftenant was very pretty, very precise- and looked as if someone had shoved something very large up her <em>kakhol</em> before departure, something she was still trying to dislodge. Perhaps it was an occupational hazard with officers, something they learned during their training. Karn had known several police Superintendents with a similar look.<br><br>The Marine leader's mood was unlikely to be improved by Garner's flippant attitude, nor by his gawking at the soldier behind her who, judging from her badges, was a medic of some sort. If the man complicated her own relations with the rescue squad, she might have to arrange an accident for him...To avoid that necessity, she moved as smoothly as she could into the breach.&nbsp; "Leftenant, Sergeant. We are very glad to see you, as you can imagine. I won't need more than half an hour to finish organizing the staff, and then-"<br><br>And then Shvedova made her second, insane request, and the nickel dropped. In a flash, Karn knew what the station Chief had been hiding from her, and why. "Sergeant," she said, lips tight, tone as neutral as she could make it. She directed her remarks to the junior officer rather than the senior because, like Karn, he was a Company man, if of a different sort. Being a worker bee, not a politician, he'd know bullshit when he heard it. And then just like her, he'd have to find a way to make it work. "The crash site is that way-" she gestured "-in approximately seven fathoms...errr, ten meters of water. Mildly<em> toxic</em> water, as it happens- that was one of the functions of this station, to moderate that. And several of the local life forms tend to be aggressive. This is- was- a research and terrforming station. We have dive-rated personnel, but not salvage divers, so far as I know." Her anger was rising. They already had people down there, dead, including one of her own crew. Now they were to delay the rescue and risk more of their people so some Earther <em>dikat </em>could look good in a report?<br><br>"Administrator," she called, rounding on Garner. "You are aware, <em>geen,</em> that the crash site is a Class Three Hazard, at least?&nbsp; Possibly a Four? The pay increment for anyone you send down will be...impressive." No way was she signing off on this. Her job was to keep her people alive, even against their own impulses. If this<em> drol </em>was going to happen, it was going to happen with Garner's name plastered all over it, including the budget-breaking overpayements. "If any member of Staff is still active, then the station is active and the contract is in force, Administrator." Actually, she wasn't sure that was true in the most strictly legal sense, though she'd spent a fair bit of time reading various people's contracts as part of her backgrounding work. But she was quite sure Garner wouldn't know with any certainty either. And in any situation, asking Company personnel to dive on a Company wreck to recover something for the Company- there was no wriggling out of financial responsibility for that.<br><br>Not that the money would be any fucking use if the divers got trapped by a shift of the wreckage, or had their faces chewed off by a barbfish.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>greypsychman</strong> on <strong>31-01-2022, 05:57:52</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft"> (http://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/sandcastle03.jpg) </div><b>Name:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Craig Brekke<br><b>Age:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 30<br><b>Height: </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 6’1<br><b>Weight:&nbsp; </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 200 lbs<br><b>Hair Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Brown<br><b>Eye Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Blue<br><b>Profession:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Sergeant- Colonial Marines<br><br>Once they touched down, the marines quickly departed the Cheyenne and formed up. He was glad that the platoon was looking sharp. Apparently his encouragement, or ass chewing, depending on your perspective had worked. As he was introduced to the Station manager, Craig simply nodded. He really didn’t have time for pencil pushers and hope the man would stay out of the way and let the people who really knew what they were doing get the job done.<br><br>Next, the security chief was introduced. Craig looked at the woman. She had the look of someone who knows their job and didn’t have time for incompetence. That was just fine with Craig. Craig was sure he was going to enjoy working with her. The fact that she was gorgeous didn’t hurt either. Craig caught the leer that the administrator gave to their medic, Corporal Harris. He knew she could handle herself and didn’t worry too much about that situation.<br><br>&nbsp;The Lieutenant asked Dressler to assist him in setting up an operations center on the ground while the Lieutenant would be in the command center on the dropship. Craig’s face didn’t betray it but he was definitely glad to be working with that blonde!&nbsp; Dressler began to speak about to speak and then shifted her attention to Craig after the Lieutenant mentioned the crash site. Craig barked out, “Platoon secure this location and stand by for further orders when I return from my recon.” The marines responded with “Aye Aye!” and got into defensive positions.<br><br>As Craig was following Karn, he listened while she explained the situation. The couldn’t believe it! The site was in 10 meters of water that was toxic and there was dangerous animal life in the water as well! Well, I guess that without being officially told, the platoon was expected to bend over and grab their ankles! Under his breath, Craig muttered, “Fucked again!” as he realized this situation just went south in a heartbeat! He said to Karn, “My marines and I are not divers. Is the crash site totally submerged or do we just have to go through the water in some type of vessel to get there and then the site has breathable air?” He waited for an answer but he was sure he wasn’t going to like it from the way Karn was dressing down the station manager.<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>02-02-2022, 13:15:50</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Garner spotted Greenwood approaching with Dr Shepherd and...one of the other science officers: Christ, how was he expected to know the names of all the Weyland-Yutani eggheads when they lived and operated like a whole separate community most of the time and seemed to delight in undermining his authority?<br><br></span></span><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"We have dive-rated personnel, but not salvage divers, so far as I know."</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">"Speak of the devils," Garner said, extending his arm towards the three new arrivals. "This is Dr Shepherd, of the Weyland-Yutani science team. She's entirely familiar with the area that's been wrecked, and if there's anyone who can help you gain access to the crash site, it's her. And Dr..." Garner squinted, trying to read the other science officer's name printed on her overcoat, but it was folded and he could only make the first few letters, so he guessed at the rest. "...Dr Beaufort are the candidates I've picked out to assist your for that."<br><br>Shvedova acknowledge the two science officers and the civilian with a nod. "Good. That's good. Doctors, I'm going to ask you to go with Sergeant Brekke and Captain Dressler. I'll be in contact from the command center on the dropship. If we get this right, the investigation of the crash site won't slow down the evacuation of the colonial personel."<br><br>While the lieutenant was instructing the science officers, Garners turned to Dressler, who was looking at him with thunder in her eyes.</span></span><br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"If any member of Staff is still active, then the station is active and the contract is in force, Administrator."</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Garner closed his eyes for a moment, not so much doing the maths as trying to work out if this was even his problem. Yes, he had to answer for the colony payroll, but if anyone was contractually due for a salary uplift now, then by the time it got signed off the colony would be scuttled and it would hardly be his problem. The company was gonna lose a hell of a lot more money from this than Shepherd and her pals were going to make in hazard pay.<br><br>"Fine," he said to Dressler. "Whatever. I'll sign off on whatever needs to be signed off. Just make sure the marines get what they need and that nobody tries to get clever with them, like those shitheads in the crawler bay morning.<br><br>Brekke looked like he was ready to liaise with Dressler, so Garner took a step back and tilted his heard towards the sergeant, dismissing his security captain without a word. He took another couple of steps back until he was stood alongside Lieutenant Shvedova. He took yet another glace at the Asian medic, and smiled warmer, but it fell when it became apparent that she was about to head into the facility along with the rest of the squad.</span></span><br><br><hr><br><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Winter was already flushed and bristling at Sophie's retort...though in all truth and honesty, he couldn't entirely say he didn't deserve it. What what should he apologise for? Sophie was nice to look at and Winter had a thing for chicks with accents. True, to an outsider it might have <em>looked</em> like he'd shifted his interest to another woman when Sophie took too long to warm to his advances. But hell, she was a science officer: one of the ivory-tower Weyland-Yutani crew. Clearly it wouldn't have worked out. Tahira, on the other hand, was a security officer, which at least meant that when she was off-duty she ate in the same mess hall as the rest of the colonists.<br><br>He sucked in a breath and blew it out hard, ejecting those thoughts along with it. None of all that mattered now. It would be easy to suppose that karma had misfired, and that Tahira had paid the price for his behaviour...but even if he allowed himself to believe that, there was no question that the price was both disproportionate and misdirected. Maybe when he got back to earth, Winter would rethink his approach to women. <br><br>But there was shit to shovel before that happened. And hell, the marines wanted to check out the sunken area. Perhaps Karma was lining up a second shot.<br><br>He stood next to Abby and Sophie as they were introduced to the Lieutenant by Garner, and tried not to feel crestfallen that the administrator did not so much as mention him, even though he was one of the few colonial civilians qualified to deep-dive the submersible swamp crawlers. But neither did Garner instruct him <em>not</em> to accompany the scientists when they were handed over to the care of Dressler and Brekke, so Winter decided to stay close. Whether or not his help would be required, he figured that this might at least be interesting. </span></span><br><br><hr><br><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class="bbc_size"><span style="font-family: georgia;" class="bbc_font">Shvedova glanced at Garner curiously when he positioned himself next to her, surreptitiously placing himself as though he was in some way the second-in-command of this situation. She decided to let it go and turned to head back into the dropship. Zabinska was still in the cockpit as per procedure. Shvedova made her way to the command center and put on the headset. The monitor screens were all receiving strong signals from the other marines' cameras.<br><br>"Comms testing. Sergeant Brekke, you reading me OK? I need you to accompany Captain Dressler to a suitable ops center, and then form a plan to access the Doramin. I'd prefer you to oversee the evacuation and sent MacCartan with Dr Shepherd, but you're at liberty to adapt the plan as you see fit. Just make sure the evacuation is running smoothly at all times. Once all colonists are in one place and accounted for, we'll start shuttling."<br><br>A movement behind her had her whirling around in her seat, and she was surprised to see the administrator, Garner, standing there looking at her array of monitors.<br><br>"Can I help you, administrator?" she asked, making eye contact with Zabinska in case this was going to become a problem.<br><br>"No, carry on," Garner said with an uncomprehending smile. "I just figured that if this is where things are being run from, this is where I should be."<br><br>Shvedova swallowed a disapproving remark. She wasn't happy about a civilian being on the upper deck of the dropship, but at the very least this meant that he would be easy to contact. He seemed like the sort of guy who might otherwise wallow in a corner somewhere while everyone else did all the work.<br><br>"Take a seat over there," she said, nodding to the navigation array. As long as they were grounded, he couldn't do any harm over there.<br><br></span></span>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>TheGrandAdmiral</strong> on <strong>02-02-2022, 19:40:10</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft">(https://www.gateworld.net/wp-content/uploads/mingna_shield01.jpg)</div>Jing Mei hated the landing procedures. The dropships were made for soldiers, so comfort was a secondary concern to the designers and engineers who made the craft. But since she too was military had to keep her opinions to herself and just bear it like a soldier.<br><br>Once inside she found her place and strapped in. She gave an occasional glance to the rest of the troopers. Brekke illicit a small smile on her lips. He was doing a good job, hopefully he could keep them together when the shit hits the fan. <br><br>Though hopefully not on this mission, given that they were sent to rescue civvies. But you never knew, human stupidity was boundless. And here we go. Once the preparations were ready Jing Mei braced herself for the drop. <br><br>Good thing it did not take that long. At least the parts that she did not like. And the rest of the landing procedures were short enough, so Jing Mei sighed from the relief of being on solid ground again. <br><br>They all disembarked and she got her packs ready. Seeing the Lieutenant and the Sergeant talking to some local representatives she decided to head towards them. "Sir!" she saluted Shvedova "I will need someone to guide me to the med center, I would like to start checking up on the people!"
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Valerian</strong> on <strong>03-02-2022, 03:01:55</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				"It's Beauchamp, actually," Sophie corrected, making sure to give her name its full French sound and shooting a suspicious glance at Garner.&nbsp; Was she really that forgettable?&nbsp; On the other hand, from what she'd seen and heard, he seemed to spend a great deal of energy avoiding any real interaction with most of the people on Almayer, so perhaps she should be more surprised that he'd remembered Abby's name.&nbsp; It wasn't as though he'd ever shown the slightest interest in the work being done.&nbsp; "I worked primarily in the area that was hit," she added, feeling a faint shiver rush through her at the words.&nbsp; When the crash had first happened, she'd been beside herself for some time, in fact, utterly shocked to have escaped the disaster.&nbsp; It hadn't been her shift, but she had often worked at odd hours and it was sheer luck she hadn't been there.<br><br>But she needed to focus on the here and now, considering that they were about to head into something rather dangerous.&nbsp; Surely the Company wouldn't be so callous as to send a group of highly trained personnel into any <em>real</em> peril, but this would be a tricky journey by any measure and they would all need their wits about them.&nbsp; She glanced uneasily at Winter, who still looked quite uncomfortable himself, though she wasn't sure if that was from her admittedly slightly harsh remark earlier or the simple fact that he'd been neglected entirely in the introductions.&nbsp; Given his experience with the submersibles, she'd assumed that he would be coming along, though perhaps as a civilian he wasn't allowed to.&nbsp; Or Garner just didn't entirely understand the plan, which was probably a lot more likely, she thought dryly.<br><br>The sergeant looked like a by-the-book sort of soldier, at least to her unpracticed eye, though she honestly wasn't sure yet if that was good or bad.&nbsp; At least Dressler was thinking of their safety a lot more than Garner was, from what Sophie had overheard, and she took that as a good sign.&nbsp; The less the administrator had to do with this mission, the better off all of them would be.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Nowherewoman</strong> on <strong>03-02-2022, 03:32:09</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/0b/40/c70b40fa22c31104fc1dd073630d1a4c.jpg)</div>"Just 'Chief', please, Sergeant," Karn said quietly to Brekke as the leftenant strode off, with Garner following in her wake like the piece of chaff he was. As she watched him go, a cold, reptilian look came into her eyes, one the veteran non-com knew very well.&nbsp; There was one REMF on-site who had better watch his ass as the op went forward. "If you have to be formal.&nbsp; We're not military, just hired security." Her face eased a bit as she looked up at the towering Marine. "Honestly, we wouldn't even make a good mercenary cadre. We were here mostly to deal with the wildlife, break up brawls, prevent equipment theft, that sort of thing. I'm the only one with real combat experience, and it was not what you would call...formal." There <strong>had</strong> been two of them; Piriyeva had been a police officer of some sort before joining the Company. But she was gone now, had been on duty at the crumpled and slowly sinking end of the station when the plummeting supply ship had slammed into it. A pity. They had understood each other, the smoldering South African street rat and the frigid Russian officer. Had enjoyed each other's company. In several ways.<br><br>"Otherwise, Karn will do," she continued, then dove right into business. "We have several submersibles available, but they have a small crew capacity. Also a couple of crawlers that will float, but do not move very quickly in that mode. You might be able to enter through the Sci Division office, or through the Rec Center- those areas are still partly above water- or through the submersible bay at that end of the Station, if the doors still work.&nbsp; What you'll find inside, I can't tell you. We lost almost all surveillance over there when the main power trunk was cut by the impact." Looking over at the 'volunteers', Shepard and Winter and Beauchamp, she nodded to them. "They can answer your questions with more precision than I can. But there's no need for us to stand out here." Raising her voice, she included the others. "We may as well use the Operations Center while the Administrator is...meeting...with the leftenant. We have station maps there, also."<br><br>The look was back as she mentioned Garner. Not just dangerous, downright feral. The look of someone who might do anything at all, if she felt it called for. "Schransky!," she barked into her wrist comm. "Start them gathering in the order we discussed. Keep them inboard for now, I don't want them getting under foot of the Marines. Jordan, MacClure. I want you two up here at the landing pads, to make sure no one does anything idiotic. Piretti, stay by the crawlers for now. Don't worry, we won't forget about you." <br><br>She grinned at Brekke again. "If any of our people get rowdy, it's better if we be the first line of discouragement. We're already the 'bad guys' in their minds. No need for the Corps to deal with the public relations issues around shooting at unarmed Company employees if it can be avoided." Waving for the collected scientists to follow, she started off at a rapid clip back into the Station, leading the way towards Operations. "And for God's sake, let us have this done in a hurry,<em> neh</em>?"
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>greypsychman</strong> on <strong>05-02-2022, 06:25:22</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft"> (http://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/sandcastle03.jpg) </div><b>Name:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Craig Brekke<br><b>Age:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 30<br><b>Height: </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 6’1<br><b>Weight:&nbsp; </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 200 lbs<br><b>Hair Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Brown<br><b>Eye Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Blue<br><b>Profession:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Sergeant- Colonial Marines<br><br>Craig was taking it all in. He noticed the tension between Karn and her boss. Then there was the boss not really knowing the 3 people from his team that just joined them.&nbsp; Suddenly his comm link chirped with the Lieutenant’s voice and the comm check. So, she wanted him in charge of the civilian evac. Craig had faith in MacCartan so he replied, “Aye Aye, Lieutenant, I will take charge of the civilian evacuation. I will let MacCartan know she is in charge of the other operation shortly.” Then he said, “Brekke out.” because he really didn’t want to talk to the Lieutenant any more. He had business to attend to. Corporal Harris, the medic, asked to be taken to the Medical Center, Craig jumped in and said, “Corporal come with me and Captain Dressler. I am sure she can find someone to get you to where you need to be.”<br><br>Craig switched the radio frequency and said, “Brekke to MacCartan.” He heard MacCartan reply with&nbsp; . “MacCartan here.” Craig continued, “You’re going to take squad 2 into the damaged facility. You will be heading down there with the 3 civilians who were the last ones to arrive at the drop site. Part of your mission, besides possible search and rescue, is to make sure you find the cargo from the downed ship, the Doramin. Keep sending me regular Sit Reps.” [OOC: Sit Reps is short for situation reports or regular updates] MacCartan’s answer was, “Will do Sarget! MacCartan out.” Craig turned his attention to Karn.<br><br>He was definitely beginning to like the woman and was glad he was going to get to spend more time with her. She told him he could call her chief or in less formal situations, he could call her Karn. She began talking about the security detail and reminded him they were not military. She down played the mission of the security force and let it slip she had combat experience. Craig made a mental note to ask her about that later. <br><br>Then Karn launched into her briefing, letting him know about vessels available and the situation in the damaged part of the station. She pointed out the other 3 civilians (Shepard, Winter, and Beauchamp).&nbsp; and said they could answer any questions he had. Craig said, “Hello, I am Sergeant Brekke. The leader of the team that will be going into the station with you is Corporal MacCartan. My vision of this operation is you 3 will be serving as guides and leading my people there in the fastest, safest way possible. My people will handle casualties or anything dangerous. You 3 are there to share your knowledge to help my people get this job done quickly.” He finished with, “Do you three have any questions for me? If not, I need you to report to the marines back by the dropship and ask for Corporal MacCartan. Then you can begin your planning for your operation.”<br><br>Craig’s attention was drawn back to Karn. She was barking orders at her people about getting the civilians organized for departure. Then Karn asked Craig to let her security people handle the civilians if anything happened. Craig understood that the security people would probably handle a situation in a less lethal manner than his marines would. Now, he actually laughed and said, “My marines and I will be glad to let you and yours take the lead. We get paid the same whether we work or watch.” Then he gave Karn a wink to let her know he really understood what she was asking and truly agreed with it. <br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>tobisquestion</strong> on <strong>05-02-2022, 16:52:40</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Winter was starting to feel increasingly like a fifth wheel as he walked close to the marine squad, the two science officers and the security chief. True enough, seeing Dressler and Brekke in charge of the immediate happenings was significantly more encouraging that trusting in Garner to care about who lived or died.<br><br>He listened to the exchange between the segreant and the security captain, and pictured what he knew of the layout of the science wing, which in truth was only the nearer sections. Dressler was right: the submersible bay would almost certainly still be unflooded. It had airlock doors on both the outer and inner sides.<br><br>"Hey," he said, looking towards Dressler. "Nobody's asking me, but I know for a fact that I could ferry a few people - no more than three in addition to myself - across to the sub bay from the main structure. It shouldn't be breached, but the console there should give us a better sense of what's going on in the rest of the structure, right?"<br><br>He turned to look at Sophie and Abby. "One of the swamp crawlers would carry some more people to the top level, which we know is level with the water surface right now. Going in at two levels gives us the best possible chance of finding a way through, no? Especially if we can tactically open and reseal doors and use the bilge system to make a path through the structure, right?"<br><br>The passed a couple of security guards going in the opposite direction, responding to Dressler's order for them to keep an eye on things at the landing pad. As they went through the commons hall, Winter could see that groups were already forming up, eager to find out of the promised evacuation was finally happening. No doubt they would be relieved to learn that it was. Winter caught the eye of Sayida Alnoor, whose husband had been one of the WY technicians working the research wing when the crash had happened. He swallowed a lump in his throat. As eager as everyone was to get out of here, leaving Almayer was essentially giving up on the hope of finding any of the missing people alive. Then again, perhaps the marines would locate some survivors...if they managed to get anywhere near the Doramin, that was.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Valerian</strong> on <strong>04-03-2022, 00:14:03</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/7/72/Sophie_Beauchamp.jpg/450px-Sophie_Beauchamp.jpg)</div>Realizing belatedly that she and Abby were being looked at -- by Winter, of all people, who seemed to be looking for support of his plan -- Sophie at first just shrugged, not entirely sure what to say.&nbsp; It <em>seemed</em> a reasonable plan, assuming that the crash had in fact done what it seemed to have done, though of course they would not know that for certain until they were actually there.&nbsp; But the truth was she'd never really thought before about how the lab was set up, since she hadn't anticipated ever being forced to try to access it in this fashion.<br><br>"Uh, yes, sure, we can try that," she said, hoping that Winter would not take this agreement as encouragement... though of course all he seemed to want to do lately was annoy her, and her mere existence was apparently more than enough encouragement for <em>that</em>.&nbsp; "If that's all right with you," she added, glancing around at the Marines and the security chief, only accidentally including Garner in the look.&nbsp; She still doubted that the man was capable of being any help with anything, at least in a crisis.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>greypsychman</strong> on <strong>17-03-2022, 08:40:51</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft"> (http://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/sandcastle03.jpg) </div><b>Name:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Craig Brekke<br><b>Age:</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 30<br><b>Height: </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 6’1<br><b>Weight:&nbsp; </b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 200 lbs<br><b>Hair Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Brown<br><b>Eye Color:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Blue<br><b>Profession:</b>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Sergeant- Colonial Marines<br><br>Craig took it all in as options were given. He formulated a plan. He said, “Alright, I will send Corporal MacCartan, Private Serrano, and Private Sugita over in the submarine with Winter. But I don’t want to commit the other two marines to a separate operation.” Craig continued, “After the Corporal establishes a beachhead, Winter&nbsp; will come back and get Private Lawson and Private Parks.” Craig looked at Sophie and said, “Then you will go across with those marines.” Craig finished by saying, “Winter will come back and get Abby.” <br><br>Craig quickly relayed the first part to Corporal MacCartan and she replied, “Roger That!” Craig to the attention of the civilians as he continued to talk to MacCartan, “MacCartan, try to keep the squad together as long as possible. I will leave it to your discretion as to whether you will split up or not once you are there.” He asked MacCartan over the radio, “Do you have any questions?” MacCartan replied, “Negative.”<br><br>Craig looked at the gathered civilians and said, “Any questions from you?” Then he waited for their reply.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Valerian</strong> on <strong>19-03-2022, 20:45:09</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Still faintly surprised that her opinion kept being sought -- she knew that others tended to think of her and her fellow scientists as living in ivory towers, holding themselves apart from the rest of the world -- Sophie shook her head at the sergeant's question.&nbsp; "No, not from me," she said, turning to glance over at Abby, then Winter, who would, after all, apparently have to do all the driving required for this plan to work.<br><br>Abby seemed equally surprised and smiled slightly as she also shook her head.&nbsp; "No, sir," she replied, looking as though she was tempted to give a salute before deciding against it.&nbsp; They would have to depend on the Marines at least somewhat for their safety, after all, and it was probably best not to risk antagonizing them in any way.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: ALIENS: Deluge (IC)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Nowherewoman</strong> on <strong>20-03-2022, 03:54:43</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/0b/40/c70b40fa22c31104fc1dd073630d1a4c.jpg)</div>Karn suppressed a sigh. She assumed the science staff was good at their highly specialized jobs- she had no grounding in those fields, and so no way to judge, and so refrained from trying. But they were like <em>verdammt</em> children, needing to be led everywhere, when their lives intersected with the real world. At least they weren't arguing with the Marine officer, the way they had with her so often over the simplest precautions in the field. Perhaps it was true what they said, that a near-death experience focuses the mind.<br><br>"<em>Goed</em>," she said with a firm nod. "I have a drone I can send with you, to allow me to monitor your progress from Operations. If you have an opportunity to restore any of the internal cameras over there, it would be helpful, but of course it is not a mission priority." Almost apologetically, she explained her reasoning to Brekke: "We have people unaccounted for in that wing. It is unlikely they still live, but..." She shrugged, as if it were of no great importance. "If any do, they are my responsibility." It would be nice of some had survived, especially her on-and-off lover, but she held no real hope of that. Still, her conscience- or her drive to do whatever she did well, at least, since she was rather sure a conscience was something she did not have- demanded she give them every chance.<br><br>Unlocking a bulky case that was suspiciously near to hand, she unloaded a gossamer-winged machine about a meter across. A large part of its dragonfly tail was clearly an RF receiver and boom mike, while its unnervingly insect-like 'eyes' were a pair of multi-spectrum fisheye cameras. Its wings didn't flap, of course, but could deform to provide flight control; the thing was driven by a trio of eight-cm many-bladed fans. "I had intended to send one of these over immediately after the crash," she growled as she checked the levels on the drone's power unit. "But <em>Herr</em> Administrator insisted we do nothing to disturb the wreck until your forces arrived, Sergeant Brekke." This time, she made no attempt to hide her annoyance with and dislike of her boss.
			</dd>
		</dl>
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