Glein
Vaigarin Elder
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2021
- Messages
- 45
- Reaction score
- 15
Medusa Expanse - 011030:6 (Sirris II, Sanctuary System)
Obsidian City Barrier Wall (Wall Gate)
The large tarmac that had once been used to help facilitate the construction of the great barrier wall which rose high above the land, having housed supplies and enabled aircraft to land and depart as needed, now was serving a new purpose. The gathering point for the first ever Sirrisian Expeditionary Group. Not everyone present of course, was there to take part, those were in fact helping to finalize the last of the supplies and maintenance tasks before the expedition. The three heavy trucks, one for supplies, one for fuel, and one for water, 2 armored infantry vehicles, and 2 light utility vehicles formed a semi-circle around the tarmac, with people moving around them. Most would normally have considered the combat vehicles overkill, if they were not familiar with the kind of creatures which live on the surface of the planet. And they were often such dangerous things that the native population regularly and fairly consistently built their cities underground. So the combat vehicles were less of an 'extra' and more of a necessity.
Sitting on some of the boxes present, a woman in worn leather, durable belts and fur-lined fabrics watched the entire affair. She had resting on her shoulder and the crook of her knee a long musket, which had some engravings on the wooden stock and grip. Most people of course barely gave her a glance, despite the horns which curled from her head, framing the curling brown hair which flowed down to her shoulders. Admittedly, most of the people gave her a wide berth. Elizabeth Turcari was the native guide who was to help the expedition with navigating the world and its many hazards. Hanging from her mouth in an almost haphazard measure, was a cigarillo with smoke rising from it, her eyes lazily drifting over the whole scene around her.
Idaho Harris had a bad feeling about this. He checked his archaeological gear for the fifth time, but everything was in place. It all seemed to be well organized. He looked around. The engineers and maintenance crew around the tarmac seemed well organized. Everything seemed to be going to plan.
‘Ah. That’s the problem.’ he thought. In all his years as an archaeologist he’d never gone to a dig, expedition or ruins without something going wrong. There was always some cannibal cult, vicious treasure hunters, delusional military types seeking occult weapons and other assorted lunatics. Always trying to go for the shiny metal artifacts and breaking everything worthwhile on the way. Usually leaving Idaho to wrangle with some sadistic trap.
“Maybe this one will be different.” he muttered, leaving the supply truck and heading towards one of the light vehicles. He dumped his duffel bag in the trunk and opened it. He began to assemble his gear. After he was done, he caught a glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror. A stranger looked back. He was brown haired and brown eyed like him, but more weathered. More worn out. Still fit for duty He wore the same leather jacket, sleeves rolled back to display his vambraces, and the same high-crowned, wide-brimmed sable fedora he treasured. It took him a moment to realize, that was him.
‘Damn, I got old. When did that happen?’ he sucked a breath into himself, and leaned into the vehicle for a moment, enjoying the gentle breeze.
Checking over his old gear for a moment wearing light armor and gray uniform. A tattoo of something involving barbed wire could be seen poking from under his right sleeve of his shirt. Once satisfied with his gear he would continue listening to his wife over the phone. Leaning near a stack of medical supplies and ammo boxes he brought with him. A NDC operator attempted to reassure their wife that they have everything handled and not to worry. “Yes I’ll make sure they eat properly and get proper rest. I gotta go okay, I have to get my stuff onboard.” Hanging up he shook his head. His neon green eyes gaze over the boxes as he begins carrying what he can before looking over to the Archaeologist. “Hey can you give me a hand with these?” The gruff and grizzled operator asked.
Two twin cat girls walked up behind the NDC operator. They had on standard kit and standard weapons with them. They looked at each other with mischievous grins before looking back at the man. “What's wrong father getting too old you cant lift up your equipment?” Auska said and Rei just nodded her head smiling. “All those lagers must be getting to him.” Rei teased playfully
Frank looked behind himself. “Well raising two mischievous cat girls takes a lot out of you. that and making sure you don't get hurt all the time.” picking up one of the boxes he begins loading them onto the truck. “If ya feel like helping your old man maybe help by carrying the ammo and gun box of mine to the trucks while I get the medical supplies.” he said with a chuckle.
Next to step out was a red headed, slender man with gun metal gray eyes and porcelain skin. "Um… excuse me. Please be careful with that." He said to one of the workers unloading a crate of supplies. "It has very sensitive equipment inside." He added, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah, sure Dr. Graves. No problem." The man said, rolling his eyes.
Dr. Edward Graves had stumbled across the offer to explore Sirris and he had jumped at the opportunity. Even though he was more suited to lab work than to field work, he was eager to explore the unknown.
"Careful with that!" A short, heavily scarred and green eyed brunette shouted at a pair of soldiers loading what looked to be a small spacecraft cargo pod into the supply truck. The woman fussing over her geochemistry and analysis equipment was one Thorn Ironhart-Pine, a geologist and stellar prospector known for taking risky data acquisition missions. Though this wasn't unknown for her, it had been several years since her last mission. And she had spent every moment of it with her wife and her sister.
The pod got loaded, without the sound of breaking glass inside, and she thanked the soldiers for their work, moving to meet up with the rest of the party. Her fatigues hid the small figure well, with a band tee shirt and a fresh haircut giving her a blatantly collegiate look, as though a simple intern. However, the scars on her face and arms, from injuries sustained in the field or surgery to implant or remove augments showed that to be a foolish and dangerous assumption. "So who've we got? Sorry I missed the briefing, my pre mission physical went longer than expected."
Turning towards Frank, Idaho huffed. “And here I thought you military types were supposed to be all tough and whatnot.” Gingerly picking up one of the boxes, his eyebrows raised slightly at the sight of the man’s daughters.
‘Is this an expedition or a school trip?’ he thought, exasperated. Last thing anyone needed was to be slowed down by some kids wanting to go on a picnic. In his experience it always spelled disaster. But who was he to judge anyway?
Perking up at hearing somebody say doctor, he turned towards Graves. “Hey there, you must be the other PhD of the trip. Graves, microbiologist right? I’m Doctor Harris, the archaeologist. But you can just call me Idaho.”
“Well, we’ve got grunts like daddy over there in the back, us from the college and one student, who still hasn’t shown up. Oh, and our Tumnisian guide over there. Quite a varied bunch, that's for sure.” Idaho said, answering Thorn’s question. When he had first seen Thorn’s surname in the expedition roster, Idaho had been very surprised. He almost assumed the worst, before reminding himself that Pine was a common enough surname from the pre-Exodus days. She was probably just a distant relation. “Say, you’re one of the Ironhart twins, right? We’ve had some correspondence before. You guys do solid work.”
"Yeah, heard her name mentioned a couple times. I'm your party's geologist and student botanist. I'm sure we've met in the field before, Dr. Harris. Rose is the astrophysicist and astronav teacher. I prefer a nice relaxing cup of coffee in my ship, watching the CMEs of a neutron star during core scans. Or having a nice cup of coffee on some barren rock whilst hand checking rocks for bulshittium ore. You know how it is. I think I read one of your papers a few months back. Very thorough analysis of pre-aluminum farming Tumnisian pottery.. Hey, Frank, been a hot minute."
Watching the group present chatter, Elizabeth worked her jaw slightly to move her cigarillo slightly while she took a relaxed pull from the thing. While she had no doubt about the prowess of their weapons, if the tales she'd heard were accurate, she was less sure about their, what'd they call them? Scientist types? The people this whole thing was meant for. The reason she herself had been selected for this little excursion was simple - She was one of the most experienced and longest surviving hunters from Orgar City, which currently served as the main place of settlement for the Bahum Family. Sure, she also served in the city army, but that was a side-job for her really.
One of the security guards walked over to her, and politely coughed to get her attention. Her gaze lazily rolled over to look at the man. "Ma'am, I need to make sure that nothing we need is in those boxes." He said, gesturing to the crate she was sitting on. She didn't even bother changing her bored expression before lifting her musket, getting the man to tense up, before swinging it around to rap the butt of it against the graphene crate, getting an empty hollow 'thud' sound with each impact. "Made sure it was empty before I sat down." She stated bluntly, even her voice sounded bored as she spoke, putting her musket's butt back into the crook of her knee.
Edward stood back away from the group watching everyone congregate. He was never one for crowds so was content to watch. That was until he heard his name called. "Oh, yeah that's me. Call me Edward. My focus is Bacteriology which is a subset of Microbiology." He explained.
The twins were busy putting boxes where they needed to go before they looked. “I'm Asuka.” One twin said who a red stripe on her shoulder pad. “And I'm Rei.” The other replied who had a blue stripe. “We are fresh from boot so we will follow your lead.” Auska said. “While running security.” Rei said.
Frank turned to Idaho, “Well Mr. potato, I'm a combat medic with enough time in the ndc to see my share of horrors. I'm also an Operator. My daughters here I decided to take with me on this to give them some experience right outta boot, I can patch wounds and dish them out twice as fast with this here baby.” He says patting a box containing a belt fed slug shotgun.
“Outside of that, them two girls are of good stock between me and their mech pilot mother. So you know, don't anger the healer…I'm also a linguist.” turning away from Idaho he gave a wave. “Hey Thorn, it has been awhile how's the ship doing?”
The twins groaned loudly when Frank gave his nickname and went back to loading the boxes up. “Dad thinks he is funny.” Auska said. “Yeah I would watch out.” Rei added both girls giving sagely nods.
“I am funny, besides Sorry for bee-ing a buzzkill. Maybe later I'll show you guys the baby pictures of the two of my daughters.” he said chuckling.
"Oracle? Bout as smart as a brain damaged pack roach, that one. She's still misbehaving. But I went ahead and donated her to the oceanographic research institute. I'm retired. She needs a good home and work or she gets antsy. They offered her for satellite support, not that it's gonna help much. So she's up at geosync right now playing comm repeater."
Idaho, let a short laugh at Thorn’s crack at ‘bullshittium ore’. “I’m glad somebody liked my paper. Damn thing was sprung on me by the University Dean. Didn’t want me to go off gallivanting alone.”
“Anyone else noticing the Tumnisian eyeballin’ us?” Idaho asked, while staring at the guide in question. He smiled a challenging grin and tipped his hat in Elizabeth’s direction. “Why do I get the feeling she’s not exactly bursting with excitement at this ’grand scientific venture’?
Rolling his eyes, he laid the sarcasm thick on the last words, a direct quote from the advert poster for the expedition.
A machine was among those moving cargo into vehicles, it’s blocky, angular form moving what the others could not. After hoisting a generator into the hauler, it paused for a moment, having been listening in on current conversation. “Professor Ironhart, what is “bullshittium”? We find no response to internal query, or archived record of such a material in the network. Please extrapolate?”, came its electronic genderless voice. Three faintly glowing lenses rotated and adjusted in turn as it waited, the optical module purposely representing itself being in thought on its own question.
It was a small gesture of expression, more for deliberate representation of internal actions, then necessary to itself. However, We had been told such things helped with interacting with the organic part of the populace, a much… appreciated bit of social practice to have been imparted to it. “Additional notice, cargo loading will reach completion soon.”
Meanwhile off in the distance afar, a 5'8 tall figure would be coming by with a relatively sizable backpack, a vest, and a messenger bag, and looks like to be someone who's coming along with the expedition with all the clothes he's wearing. Mainly a vest probably packed with stuff, cargo pants, and a long sleeve shirt with pockets. Granted this poor soul is carrying a fair amount of equipment already. This is the poor college student gunning for his degree in geography that has been delayed consistently. Seemed like he didn't have much of a good night's sleep as he was walking as if he was dead, then again it might be the equipment.
As he was likely also carrying stuff like drones, sensors, mapping devices, and many more. Admittedly you couldn't see how his eyes looked as he was wearing a boonie hat that covered his eyes; he likely had eye bags under it. Soon enough he'd approach the folks around the caravan in a somewhat sluggish manner and would basically ask the simple question through gesturing admittedly in that sluggish manner; where will he put his things? He didn't ask where he was going to stay afterward, heck he might be taking a nap with the equipment given to him by the university. After all, it might go into his tuition if he loses it.
After moving the last piece of medical cargo he brought with him. He would turn to Asuka and Rei and give them both a quick pick on the forehead. “Behave yourselves and maybe practice patrolling the area while we load up.” Frank stated before heading over to talk with a someone who caught his eye. “I have to ask out of all the things to bring as a security specialist why a percussion cap rifle?” he asked once in earshot of the woman
Elizabeth rolled her head over, the cigarillo momentarily looking like it was about to fall out of her mouth. "No offense Starman, but this is pretty top end weaponry here on Grenor, which you all seem insane enough to actually want to get lost on." She replied, her Hassan not bad, but it was strongly accented, giving it a rolling prim and proper sound. Her horns would normally have been a dead giveaway to her being a Tumnisian, were it not for the fact that goat mods did in fact exist within the NDC. But the clothing looking much less modern than anything any of the Duskarian or Hassani personnel present were wearing could have been the second.
"On top of that, I don't really know how to use your weapons in the first place. We lack them in Orgar City's militia. Not even the Bahum Guard use them." She continued, somehow managing to make sure her smoke never left her mouth the entire time.
Idaho snorted at the robot’s question. As a connoisseur of deadpan humor, he knew the simple beauty of someone so literal. He grimaced as he saw the student walk in. He’d seen livelier corpses. Even dug up some. He approached.
“Mister Policarpio, I assume? Let me help ya with that,” he said, helping him store his gear in the trucks. “Is…everything alright with ya, kid?”
Edward watched as everyone began chatting amongst themselves, leaning against one of the nearby crates. He reflexively tapped his hip, where his holster was. The scientist had a large revolver sitting on his hip. He may not be a conversationalist or get out of the lab much, but he did need a hobby. And Edward’s hobby was target shooting.
Sal would just nod as he would accept Idaho’s help. Soon after loading the gear on to the trucks look at Idaho. Gave him a thumbs up to show he’s okay and soon after, collapses on to the bag he has, using it as a pillow. Welp looks like he’s definitely knocked out cold.
“Ah this brings back memories of the old college years.” said Idaho with a chuckle, shifting the kids legs so he wouldn’t wake up too cramped. He returned to the group.
“Kid’s out like a lightbulb, probably crashing from overwork,” he said, gesturing towards the truck. He looked over at everyone. “I don’t think we are missing anyone else. I think it’s time we started this party wagon.”
The twins looked at Sal after he fell over then looked at the others. “Do we load him with the rest of the supplies as well?” Auska asked. Rei nodded her head before grabbed the last of the smaller things and loading them into the truck.
Frank nodded at the explanation of her weapon choices. Walking back to the trucks he loaded the last box of his equipment before turning to his daughters. “You girls finished packing your equipment?” he asked before looking at his watch.
The machine, never having received a reply from those asked, resumed their previous tasks. One of which was now walking over to scoop up the passed out man on the ground. "I would recommend leaving Policarpo, a bottle of water, as well as a food item high in calories and low sodium contents.", It intoned with an electronic voice. The geographer was tucked into the backseat of one of the vehicles.
As people finished packing things up, the engines were cranked over, resulting in a long string of thrumming sounds along the convoy. A man in the standard issue NDC combat armor but with a different emblem climbed up on the front glaiz of the forward IFV of the convoy. "Gather round one and all!" The man called out. As everyone did, including the guide who now had her rifle slung off her shoulder while she continued to smoke a cigarillo.
The man nodded once everyone was settled down and looking at him. "I'm Pathfinder Nugen. I'm the man in charge of this lovely expedition. We've got a simple task ahead of us. We're to get lost on the surface of the planet and map it out as we go. We're only getting one hard destination ahead of us, and that's Orgar City. It's where we'll get the last of our supplies and whatever maps we can get ahold of to base our work on. Elizabeth here," he says, gesturing to the tumnisian present, "is our guide. We're taking a direct route to the city, as opposed to the roads already blazed out. She'll be the one teaching us what to watch out for and what's safe to work with as we go."
Giving everyone a firm look over, he nods. "All aboard the vics and we'll get started. Oh, and expect to have your asses beaten into submission since we're driving right through a forest to start with."
Obsidian City Barrier Wall (Wall Gate)
The large tarmac that had once been used to help facilitate the construction of the great barrier wall which rose high above the land, having housed supplies and enabled aircraft to land and depart as needed, now was serving a new purpose. The gathering point for the first ever Sirrisian Expeditionary Group. Not everyone present of course, was there to take part, those were in fact helping to finalize the last of the supplies and maintenance tasks before the expedition. The three heavy trucks, one for supplies, one for fuel, and one for water, 2 armored infantry vehicles, and 2 light utility vehicles formed a semi-circle around the tarmac, with people moving around them. Most would normally have considered the combat vehicles overkill, if they were not familiar with the kind of creatures which live on the surface of the planet. And they were often such dangerous things that the native population regularly and fairly consistently built their cities underground. So the combat vehicles were less of an 'extra' and more of a necessity.
Sitting on some of the boxes present, a woman in worn leather, durable belts and fur-lined fabrics watched the entire affair. She had resting on her shoulder and the crook of her knee a long musket, which had some engravings on the wooden stock and grip. Most people of course barely gave her a glance, despite the horns which curled from her head, framing the curling brown hair which flowed down to her shoulders. Admittedly, most of the people gave her a wide berth. Elizabeth Turcari was the native guide who was to help the expedition with navigating the world and its many hazards. Hanging from her mouth in an almost haphazard measure, was a cigarillo with smoke rising from it, her eyes lazily drifting over the whole scene around her.
Idaho Harris had a bad feeling about this. He checked his archaeological gear for the fifth time, but everything was in place. It all seemed to be well organized. He looked around. The engineers and maintenance crew around the tarmac seemed well organized. Everything seemed to be going to plan.
‘Ah. That’s the problem.’ he thought. In all his years as an archaeologist he’d never gone to a dig, expedition or ruins without something going wrong. There was always some cannibal cult, vicious treasure hunters, delusional military types seeking occult weapons and other assorted lunatics. Always trying to go for the shiny metal artifacts and breaking everything worthwhile on the way. Usually leaving Idaho to wrangle with some sadistic trap.
“Maybe this one will be different.” he muttered, leaving the supply truck and heading towards one of the light vehicles. He dumped his duffel bag in the trunk and opened it. He began to assemble his gear. After he was done, he caught a glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror. A stranger looked back. He was brown haired and brown eyed like him, but more weathered. More worn out. Still fit for duty He wore the same leather jacket, sleeves rolled back to display his vambraces, and the same high-crowned, wide-brimmed sable fedora he treasured. It took him a moment to realize, that was him.
‘Damn, I got old. When did that happen?’ he sucked a breath into himself, and leaned into the vehicle for a moment, enjoying the gentle breeze.
Checking over his old gear for a moment wearing light armor and gray uniform. A tattoo of something involving barbed wire could be seen poking from under his right sleeve of his shirt. Once satisfied with his gear he would continue listening to his wife over the phone. Leaning near a stack of medical supplies and ammo boxes he brought with him. A NDC operator attempted to reassure their wife that they have everything handled and not to worry. “Yes I’ll make sure they eat properly and get proper rest. I gotta go okay, I have to get my stuff onboard.” Hanging up he shook his head. His neon green eyes gaze over the boxes as he begins carrying what he can before looking over to the Archaeologist. “Hey can you give me a hand with these?” The gruff and grizzled operator asked.
Two twin cat girls walked up behind the NDC operator. They had on standard kit and standard weapons with them. They looked at each other with mischievous grins before looking back at the man. “What's wrong father getting too old you cant lift up your equipment?” Auska said and Rei just nodded her head smiling. “All those lagers must be getting to him.” Rei teased playfully
Frank looked behind himself. “Well raising two mischievous cat girls takes a lot out of you. that and making sure you don't get hurt all the time.” picking up one of the boxes he begins loading them onto the truck. “If ya feel like helping your old man maybe help by carrying the ammo and gun box of mine to the trucks while I get the medical supplies.” he said with a chuckle.
Next to step out was a red headed, slender man with gun metal gray eyes and porcelain skin. "Um… excuse me. Please be careful with that." He said to one of the workers unloading a crate of supplies. "It has very sensitive equipment inside." He added, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah, sure Dr. Graves. No problem." The man said, rolling his eyes.
Dr. Edward Graves had stumbled across the offer to explore Sirris and he had jumped at the opportunity. Even though he was more suited to lab work than to field work, he was eager to explore the unknown.
"Careful with that!" A short, heavily scarred and green eyed brunette shouted at a pair of soldiers loading what looked to be a small spacecraft cargo pod into the supply truck. The woman fussing over her geochemistry and analysis equipment was one Thorn Ironhart-Pine, a geologist and stellar prospector known for taking risky data acquisition missions. Though this wasn't unknown for her, it had been several years since her last mission. And she had spent every moment of it with her wife and her sister.
The pod got loaded, without the sound of breaking glass inside, and she thanked the soldiers for their work, moving to meet up with the rest of the party. Her fatigues hid the small figure well, with a band tee shirt and a fresh haircut giving her a blatantly collegiate look, as though a simple intern. However, the scars on her face and arms, from injuries sustained in the field or surgery to implant or remove augments showed that to be a foolish and dangerous assumption. "So who've we got? Sorry I missed the briefing, my pre mission physical went longer than expected."
Turning towards Frank, Idaho huffed. “And here I thought you military types were supposed to be all tough and whatnot.” Gingerly picking up one of the boxes, his eyebrows raised slightly at the sight of the man’s daughters.
‘Is this an expedition or a school trip?’ he thought, exasperated. Last thing anyone needed was to be slowed down by some kids wanting to go on a picnic. In his experience it always spelled disaster. But who was he to judge anyway?
Perking up at hearing somebody say doctor, he turned towards Graves. “Hey there, you must be the other PhD of the trip. Graves, microbiologist right? I’m Doctor Harris, the archaeologist. But you can just call me Idaho.”
“Well, we’ve got grunts like daddy over there in the back, us from the college and one student, who still hasn’t shown up. Oh, and our Tumnisian guide over there. Quite a varied bunch, that's for sure.” Idaho said, answering Thorn’s question. When he had first seen Thorn’s surname in the expedition roster, Idaho had been very surprised. He almost assumed the worst, before reminding himself that Pine was a common enough surname from the pre-Exodus days. She was probably just a distant relation. “Say, you’re one of the Ironhart twins, right? We’ve had some correspondence before. You guys do solid work.”
"Yeah, heard her name mentioned a couple times. I'm your party's geologist and student botanist. I'm sure we've met in the field before, Dr. Harris. Rose is the astrophysicist and astronav teacher. I prefer a nice relaxing cup of coffee in my ship, watching the CMEs of a neutron star during core scans. Or having a nice cup of coffee on some barren rock whilst hand checking rocks for bulshittium ore. You know how it is. I think I read one of your papers a few months back. Very thorough analysis of pre-aluminum farming Tumnisian pottery.. Hey, Frank, been a hot minute."
Watching the group present chatter, Elizabeth worked her jaw slightly to move her cigarillo slightly while she took a relaxed pull from the thing. While she had no doubt about the prowess of their weapons, if the tales she'd heard were accurate, she was less sure about their, what'd they call them? Scientist types? The people this whole thing was meant for. The reason she herself had been selected for this little excursion was simple - She was one of the most experienced and longest surviving hunters from Orgar City, which currently served as the main place of settlement for the Bahum Family. Sure, she also served in the city army, but that was a side-job for her really.
One of the security guards walked over to her, and politely coughed to get her attention. Her gaze lazily rolled over to look at the man. "Ma'am, I need to make sure that nothing we need is in those boxes." He said, gesturing to the crate she was sitting on. She didn't even bother changing her bored expression before lifting her musket, getting the man to tense up, before swinging it around to rap the butt of it against the graphene crate, getting an empty hollow 'thud' sound with each impact. "Made sure it was empty before I sat down." She stated bluntly, even her voice sounded bored as she spoke, putting her musket's butt back into the crook of her knee.
Edward stood back away from the group watching everyone congregate. He was never one for crowds so was content to watch. That was until he heard his name called. "Oh, yeah that's me. Call me Edward. My focus is Bacteriology which is a subset of Microbiology." He explained.
The twins were busy putting boxes where they needed to go before they looked. “I'm Asuka.” One twin said who a red stripe on her shoulder pad. “And I'm Rei.” The other replied who had a blue stripe. “We are fresh from boot so we will follow your lead.” Auska said. “While running security.” Rei said.
Frank turned to Idaho, “Well Mr. potato, I'm a combat medic with enough time in the ndc to see my share of horrors. I'm also an Operator. My daughters here I decided to take with me on this to give them some experience right outta boot, I can patch wounds and dish them out twice as fast with this here baby.” He says patting a box containing a belt fed slug shotgun.
“Outside of that, them two girls are of good stock between me and their mech pilot mother. So you know, don't anger the healer…I'm also a linguist.” turning away from Idaho he gave a wave. “Hey Thorn, it has been awhile how's the ship doing?”
The twins groaned loudly when Frank gave his nickname and went back to loading the boxes up. “Dad thinks he is funny.” Auska said. “Yeah I would watch out.” Rei added both girls giving sagely nods.
“I am funny, besides Sorry for bee-ing a buzzkill. Maybe later I'll show you guys the baby pictures of the two of my daughters.” he said chuckling.
"Oracle? Bout as smart as a brain damaged pack roach, that one. She's still misbehaving. But I went ahead and donated her to the oceanographic research institute. I'm retired. She needs a good home and work or she gets antsy. They offered her for satellite support, not that it's gonna help much. So she's up at geosync right now playing comm repeater."
Idaho, let a short laugh at Thorn’s crack at ‘bullshittium ore’. “I’m glad somebody liked my paper. Damn thing was sprung on me by the University Dean. Didn’t want me to go off gallivanting alone.”
“Anyone else noticing the Tumnisian eyeballin’ us?” Idaho asked, while staring at the guide in question. He smiled a challenging grin and tipped his hat in Elizabeth’s direction. “Why do I get the feeling she’s not exactly bursting with excitement at this ’grand scientific venture’?
Rolling his eyes, he laid the sarcasm thick on the last words, a direct quote from the advert poster for the expedition.
A machine was among those moving cargo into vehicles, it’s blocky, angular form moving what the others could not. After hoisting a generator into the hauler, it paused for a moment, having been listening in on current conversation. “Professor Ironhart, what is “bullshittium”? We find no response to internal query, or archived record of such a material in the network. Please extrapolate?”, came its electronic genderless voice. Three faintly glowing lenses rotated and adjusted in turn as it waited, the optical module purposely representing itself being in thought on its own question.
It was a small gesture of expression, more for deliberate representation of internal actions, then necessary to itself. However, We had been told such things helped with interacting with the organic part of the populace, a much… appreciated bit of social practice to have been imparted to it. “Additional notice, cargo loading will reach completion soon.”
Meanwhile off in the distance afar, a 5'8 tall figure would be coming by with a relatively sizable backpack, a vest, and a messenger bag, and looks like to be someone who's coming along with the expedition with all the clothes he's wearing. Mainly a vest probably packed with stuff, cargo pants, and a long sleeve shirt with pockets. Granted this poor soul is carrying a fair amount of equipment already. This is the poor college student gunning for his degree in geography that has been delayed consistently. Seemed like he didn't have much of a good night's sleep as he was walking as if he was dead, then again it might be the equipment.
As he was likely also carrying stuff like drones, sensors, mapping devices, and many more. Admittedly you couldn't see how his eyes looked as he was wearing a boonie hat that covered his eyes; he likely had eye bags under it. Soon enough he'd approach the folks around the caravan in a somewhat sluggish manner and would basically ask the simple question through gesturing admittedly in that sluggish manner; where will he put his things? He didn't ask where he was going to stay afterward, heck he might be taking a nap with the equipment given to him by the university. After all, it might go into his tuition if he loses it.
After moving the last piece of medical cargo he brought with him. He would turn to Asuka and Rei and give them both a quick pick on the forehead. “Behave yourselves and maybe practice patrolling the area while we load up.” Frank stated before heading over to talk with a someone who caught his eye. “I have to ask out of all the things to bring as a security specialist why a percussion cap rifle?” he asked once in earshot of the woman
Elizabeth rolled her head over, the cigarillo momentarily looking like it was about to fall out of her mouth. "No offense Starman, but this is pretty top end weaponry here on Grenor, which you all seem insane enough to actually want to get lost on." She replied, her Hassan not bad, but it was strongly accented, giving it a rolling prim and proper sound. Her horns would normally have been a dead giveaway to her being a Tumnisian, were it not for the fact that goat mods did in fact exist within the NDC. But the clothing looking much less modern than anything any of the Duskarian or Hassani personnel present were wearing could have been the second.
"On top of that, I don't really know how to use your weapons in the first place. We lack them in Orgar City's militia. Not even the Bahum Guard use them." She continued, somehow managing to make sure her smoke never left her mouth the entire time.
Idaho snorted at the robot’s question. As a connoisseur of deadpan humor, he knew the simple beauty of someone so literal. He grimaced as he saw the student walk in. He’d seen livelier corpses. Even dug up some. He approached.
“Mister Policarpio, I assume? Let me help ya with that,” he said, helping him store his gear in the trucks. “Is…everything alright with ya, kid?”
Edward watched as everyone began chatting amongst themselves, leaning against one of the nearby crates. He reflexively tapped his hip, where his holster was. The scientist had a large revolver sitting on his hip. He may not be a conversationalist or get out of the lab much, but he did need a hobby. And Edward’s hobby was target shooting.
Sal would just nod as he would accept Idaho’s help. Soon after loading the gear on to the trucks look at Idaho. Gave him a thumbs up to show he’s okay and soon after, collapses on to the bag he has, using it as a pillow. Welp looks like he’s definitely knocked out cold.
“Ah this brings back memories of the old college years.” said Idaho with a chuckle, shifting the kids legs so he wouldn’t wake up too cramped. He returned to the group.
“Kid’s out like a lightbulb, probably crashing from overwork,” he said, gesturing towards the truck. He looked over at everyone. “I don’t think we are missing anyone else. I think it’s time we started this party wagon.”
The twins looked at Sal after he fell over then looked at the others. “Do we load him with the rest of the supplies as well?” Auska asked. Rei nodded her head before grabbed the last of the smaller things and loading them into the truck.
Frank nodded at the explanation of her weapon choices. Walking back to the trucks he loaded the last box of his equipment before turning to his daughters. “You girls finished packing your equipment?” he asked before looking at his watch.
The machine, never having received a reply from those asked, resumed their previous tasks. One of which was now walking over to scoop up the passed out man on the ground. "I would recommend leaving Policarpo, a bottle of water, as well as a food item high in calories and low sodium contents.", It intoned with an electronic voice. The geographer was tucked into the backseat of one of the vehicles.
As people finished packing things up, the engines were cranked over, resulting in a long string of thrumming sounds along the convoy. A man in the standard issue NDC combat armor but with a different emblem climbed up on the front glaiz of the forward IFV of the convoy. "Gather round one and all!" The man called out. As everyone did, including the guide who now had her rifle slung off her shoulder while she continued to smoke a cigarillo.
The man nodded once everyone was settled down and looking at him. "I'm Pathfinder Nugen. I'm the man in charge of this lovely expedition. We've got a simple task ahead of us. We're to get lost on the surface of the planet and map it out as we go. We're only getting one hard destination ahead of us, and that's Orgar City. It's where we'll get the last of our supplies and whatever maps we can get ahold of to base our work on. Elizabeth here," he says, gesturing to the tumnisian present, "is our guide. We're taking a direct route to the city, as opposed to the roads already blazed out. She'll be the one teaching us what to watch out for and what's safe to work with as we go."
Giving everyone a firm look over, he nods. "All aboard the vics and we'll get started. Oh, and expect to have your asses beaten into submission since we're driving right through a forest to start with."