Soresu
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2021
- Messages
- 62
- Reaction score
- 116
The Griffin rumbled ever so slightly as the VTOL Transport hit a patch of rough wind. The craft's turbine engines thrummed as the eight people sat in relative silence. Situated in the Griffin's passenger compartment. Such as it was, it wasn't comfortable. But the tallest or near enough of the small party had grown accustomed to BAMF's utilitarian designs and their spartan interiors. All form and function with little in the way of comfort. The craft bucked again, but the silver-blonde-haired woman illuminated by the light of the datapad clutched in one hand continued whatever they were working on.
It'd made the BAMF fireteam wary enough to've been told they were going out into a largely (to them) unexplored area of Ereshkigal, their new Homeworld. But to top it off, what could only be two members of the OIA, Liquidators had been stuck to the pad-wielding woman's sides like glue. They'd been briefed on just what types of fauna the eggheads and their BAMF handlers had come across so far including the horrors lurking in the caves near the recently discovered Atlas Shipyards.
LCpl Grimes 'Stimpy' to those familiar enough with him had already had one of the Liquidators in his face. Laying down the ground rules of this excursion. And despite, in his estimation being a hard bastard paled when the woman, moving a cigarette from one side of her mouth to the other had scared the hell out of him. It was common knowledge you didn't screw with the suits.
The Griffin's crew chief, their name the Qadeshi woman hadn't even bothered to ask for closed the pilot's compartment's reinforced door behind him.
"Ma'am?" His voice reverberated throughout the passenger's compartment and was only just loud enough to cut through the sound of the VTOL's engines and lowered voices of the BAMF team making small talk among themselves before Grimes shushed them with a swipe of the hand.
The chief grabbed onto one of the safety grips looking to who he figured was the more senior of the two Liquidators. "Pilot says we're two minutes out. She's saying all this damned san-" he stopped as the silvery-haired Qadeshi looked up from her pad, the pale kaleidoscope of light playing all sorts of havoc with her dark complexion and the dark blue of her eyes.
The man cleared his throat, "Saying the sand may start playing havoc with the intakes even with the desert kit installed." He was dancing around the 'We'll have to check once we land' bit even as the woman with the pad continued to stare at him.
"And check for potential damage and component malfunction." Her voice was of middling timbre for someone of her height. Looking back to her datapad then, having effectively hung the man by his bootstraps she went back to what she was doing.
In truth, she hadn't wanted to come out to this desert. However magnanimously the Board had offered it up to her people, they'd found it a unique challenge considering the vast expanse was a glittering sea of obsidian particulates, that with a strong enough gust of wind could shred an unprotected individual.
And it was only a few days ago that Doctor 'Umu Almaerifa Čehrāzād al-Qadesh bint Samara bint Albert Dantès d'Marseille (Sherry for short) even heard the land was gifted to her people.
More than a few were woken up in the initial drop from the colony ship to begin exploration. And for whatever reason she'd only now been requested to fly forth to their new homeland. Tentatively named 'Ubar', the request came from the best engineers and geologists her people (Ranking lower on her scale and she'd said as such when told who they were) had to offer that was out of the thaw. But there'd been more to it she surmised. Considering her worth given the contract she was under only someone higher up in Babel's food chain could apply enough power to get the OIA to send out their pet scientist accompanied by two Liquidators and an armed escort.
Which meant it was likely a board member. From the reports given to her - her people had discovered several natural cave systems that showed habitation at one point or another. It'd sparked enough of a debate among fledgling Erishkigal academia's worldview of the planet's alien flora and fauna to become a blip on the anonymous board member's radar.
Samples had been shipped back to Chaldea along with the request. And to her chagrin, she'd been the one chosen, moved like some pawn on the board to go out there. For it to be her, it meant something... less than ordinary given her rising acclaim and the few papers already published on some of the dark little world's native life. And they cared enough to attach this lot to her hip along with every piece of equipment and all the supplies she'd demanded.
Meeting the two suits had been a real treat. Just like having all of your teeth pulled with zero anesthetic. Sherry had made peace with the fact the OIA held a leash about her neck. For the time being at the very least. And perhaps for the ten thousandth time, she'd thought about strangling that Astarte woman for dangling her sisters at her like bait on a line. A Faustian Bargain if there ever was one.
"I hope you both enjoy sand," Sherry remarked having not taken her eyes off her work since the crew chief spoke. Who still waited on the OIA spooks to respond. Many found the sand to be synonymous with her people and their proclivities to the deserts of the old homeworld. Considering those self-same deserts had kept their core territory safe from the precursor of what became Babel for the short war between her people and the Congolomorate still in its infancy. And then the barbarian hordes that'd been the other nations of their world during the War in Heaven at bay it was apt enough. Harsh environments breed harsh and hardy people.
And it was still a point of pride and if only now good-natured jab at the non-natives for what had before their arrival to their continent and its fertile coasts and lowlands.
One of the fireteam's members had been dumb enough to try and mask the beginnings of a snort of derision into a cough before being punched in the arm by their buddy. Who, to their credit mouthed: 'Shut the fuck up.'
It'd made the BAMF fireteam wary enough to've been told they were going out into a largely (to them) unexplored area of Ereshkigal, their new Homeworld. But to top it off, what could only be two members of the OIA, Liquidators had been stuck to the pad-wielding woman's sides like glue. They'd been briefed on just what types of fauna the eggheads and their BAMF handlers had come across so far including the horrors lurking in the caves near the recently discovered Atlas Shipyards.
LCpl Grimes 'Stimpy' to those familiar enough with him had already had one of the Liquidators in his face. Laying down the ground rules of this excursion. And despite, in his estimation being a hard bastard paled when the woman, moving a cigarette from one side of her mouth to the other had scared the hell out of him. It was common knowledge you didn't screw with the suits.
The Griffin's crew chief, their name the Qadeshi woman hadn't even bothered to ask for closed the pilot's compartment's reinforced door behind him.
"Ma'am?" His voice reverberated throughout the passenger's compartment and was only just loud enough to cut through the sound of the VTOL's engines and lowered voices of the BAMF team making small talk among themselves before Grimes shushed them with a swipe of the hand.
The chief grabbed onto one of the safety grips looking to who he figured was the more senior of the two Liquidators. "Pilot says we're two minutes out. She's saying all this damned san-" he stopped as the silvery-haired Qadeshi looked up from her pad, the pale kaleidoscope of light playing all sorts of havoc with her dark complexion and the dark blue of her eyes.
The man cleared his throat, "Saying the sand may start playing havoc with the intakes even with the desert kit installed." He was dancing around the 'We'll have to check once we land' bit even as the woman with the pad continued to stare at him.
"And check for potential damage and component malfunction." Her voice was of middling timbre for someone of her height. Looking back to her datapad then, having effectively hung the man by his bootstraps she went back to what she was doing.
In truth, she hadn't wanted to come out to this desert. However magnanimously the Board had offered it up to her people, they'd found it a unique challenge considering the vast expanse was a glittering sea of obsidian particulates, that with a strong enough gust of wind could shred an unprotected individual.
And it was only a few days ago that Doctor 'Umu Almaerifa Čehrāzād al-Qadesh bint Samara bint Albert Dantès d'Marseille (Sherry for short) even heard the land was gifted to her people.
More than a few were woken up in the initial drop from the colony ship to begin exploration. And for whatever reason she'd only now been requested to fly forth to their new homeland. Tentatively named 'Ubar', the request came from the best engineers and geologists her people (Ranking lower on her scale and she'd said as such when told who they were) had to offer that was out of the thaw. But there'd been more to it she surmised. Considering her worth given the contract she was under only someone higher up in Babel's food chain could apply enough power to get the OIA to send out their pet scientist accompanied by two Liquidators and an armed escort.
Which meant it was likely a board member. From the reports given to her - her people had discovered several natural cave systems that showed habitation at one point or another. It'd sparked enough of a debate among fledgling Erishkigal academia's worldview of the planet's alien flora and fauna to become a blip on the anonymous board member's radar.
Samples had been shipped back to Chaldea along with the request. And to her chagrin, she'd been the one chosen, moved like some pawn on the board to go out there. For it to be her, it meant something... less than ordinary given her rising acclaim and the few papers already published on some of the dark little world's native life. And they cared enough to attach this lot to her hip along with every piece of equipment and all the supplies she'd demanded.
Meeting the two suits had been a real treat. Just like having all of your teeth pulled with zero anesthetic. Sherry had made peace with the fact the OIA held a leash about her neck. For the time being at the very least. And perhaps for the ten thousandth time, she'd thought about strangling that Astarte woman for dangling her sisters at her like bait on a line. A Faustian Bargain if there ever was one.
"I hope you both enjoy sand," Sherry remarked having not taken her eyes off her work since the crew chief spoke. Who still waited on the OIA spooks to respond. Many found the sand to be synonymous with her people and their proclivities to the deserts of the old homeworld. Considering those self-same deserts had kept their core territory safe from the precursor of what became Babel for the short war between her people and the Congolomorate still in its infancy. And then the barbarian hordes that'd been the other nations of their world during the War in Heaven at bay it was apt enough. Harsh environments breed harsh and hardy people.
And it was still a point of pride and if only now good-natured jab at the non-natives for what had before their arrival to their continent and its fertile coasts and lowlands.
One of the fireteam's members had been dumb enough to try and mask the beginnings of a snort of derision into a cough before being punched in the arm by their buddy. Who, to their credit mouthed: 'Shut the fuck up.'