The Cosmic Ocean

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Clarity grinned, following Alexei through the tunnels. "Poor Aeros. Getting his heart broken before he even had a chance to confess his feelings. You're a cruel man." She slipped through a tight spot, exhaling afterwards before carrying on. Chuckling to herself, her gaze slid over Alexei again, this time more slowly, given he was facing forwards and probably wouldn't notice her. "Art isn't meant to be hidden away from the world, it's meant to be seen, and appreciated." She commented. At least she would have a nice view while they clambered through the strange mechanics of the ship.

"So, been here long?"

 

"You're a cruel man" More than you'll ever know Alexei thought to himself, but on the outside only smiled at the joke as they crawled through the tunnel. He was facing forward so she wouldn't be able to see the sadness that flickered across his face for less than a second. "Oh believe me, many have appreciated this art" He said with a little wiggle. As they continued through the tunnels she asked some more of him "Long enough to get a basic idea of the ship, but it's really new, I haven't had much chance" eventually, Alexei stopped and analysed a nearby machine while biting his lip. He flashed a smile at Clarity "You have arrived at your destination" recklessly, he knocked out a ceiling tile and crawled over to the other side of the hole "Ladies first"

 

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Clarity laughed, the sound echoing through the narrow tunnel. "I hope it's more bite then bark." She teased, in reference to his art. "Although I hear that's a good way to contract venereal disease." Halting, she grinned at him, before executing a bow, though it was basically a head nod. "Such a gentleman." She grabbed the edge of the ceiling tiles still in place before sliding down, until she was hanging from them. "Don't let go, Jack." She said dramatically, before her fingers slipped, and she dropped to the floor, landing on her feet. Straightening, she brushed herself off, pausing as she caught sight of someone else in the room.

"I live up there." She said automatically, pointing to the tile. This man had an air of importance about him, and her immediate thought was that she didn't want to get Sparky in trouble. Perhaps if he heard her talking to someone else, he at least could escape the punishment, if there was any, for climbing through the ventilation shafts of the ship. "It's quite small, but it's nice. Saves the ship a bunk space. You must have forgotten to ring the bell. Everyone forgets to ring the bell." She shook her head, before stepping to the side, a little more in front of the shaft. If Alexei dropped down now, he'd likely land on her. "Is there something I can do for you?"

 

Sparky had a feeling this Clarity would become one of his only friends on the starship, he could have bantered with her all day long but it was time for her to go. Alexei gave Clarity a quizzical but good-humoured expression as she made a reference he did not understand, and then she was gone. He could hear conversation though, clearly she had quite literally dropped in on someone.
"Blackmail, sir?" Sparky smiled as he dropped out of the vent, being careful not to land on his co-conspirator. "All I was doing, sir, was performing routine maintenance. It's hardly my fault she decided to follow me. Perhaps she couldn't resist the romantic idea of crawling around where she shouldn't be with a roguishly handsome young man" Alexei grinned and winked at Clarity "Ensign Alexei Pavlov, sir. Don't worry, I won't tell the captain. You can drug yourself up as much as you like, sir"

 

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Clarity stared at Irrin, his words making all too clear what she was seeing in front of her. "You're a drug addict." She found no humor in the situation, and instead stared in open horror at the Inspector. "And you're lecturing me on my behavior?" She was growing angry, indignant even, that he would threaten her with punishment, when he was openly feeding his habit in front of two..no three witnesses. She noticed the guy in the corner, and pressed her finger to her lips before turning her attention back to Irrin.

She stepped towards him, tempted to smack the container out of his hand, when Alexei dropped out of the vent. She couldn't help but smile at the engineer, though she couldn't resist whispering in reply, "at least you got the young part right." But she didn't agree with letting the Inspector continue to drug himself. It was wrong. It was against everything she stood for as a medical officer. "Alexei." She hissed, before turning to the Inspector. He didn't care about her, or her vows, or her desire to help people. He was abusing it, and it enraged her. "Maybe I don't feel like keeping quiet." she said through gritted teeth, her hands clenching.

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"Thank you, Ritter." Brianne murmured, clenching one hand on the armrest of the seat. "Stand by to alert the crew to emergency procedures. Should this not prove the wisest course of action." She turned to the communications bridge, and took a deep breath. "Yes, hail the foreign ship." And down the rabbit hole we go.

 

Once he had gotten to the sick bay, it didn't take long for him to see that both Clarity and the weird ceiling guy, otherwise known as Sparky, already there. That didn't really mean all that much to him to be since he wasn't a fan of cramped spaces in general. Adding more people would only be making it worse for him. It wasn't long afterwards that he heard automated voice speaking to him. If his presence was being requested then his hands were pretty much times and he had to comply. That said, he was probably going to need some for of an excuse to justify where he was. Fortunately for him there was a small container of medicine that he could use. Pocketing the medicine, he went back towards the elevator and headed towards Deck 5.

While Crow had been working on organizing his work space, it would appear that some other people had arrived in the sick by. He wasn't exactly sure just how long one of them had been here, but two had come down the ceiling. Odd when they could've just used the door like Aeros did, who taken a container filled with medicine used for headaches. Maybe he had one and Crow just didn't know. Well seeing as he had already left, Crow went back to what he was going before and listening to what was going on with the other three.

 

"Hey, I also got the man part right. Want me to prove it?" Alexei grinned as he leaned against a wall, arms folded. Serious conversations weren't really his thing so he didn't really pay attention. "Well it looks like everything's fine here. I'd better get back to doing whatever it is I do around here. I haven't even reported to my new boss yet" he laughed shortly. That was the good thing abotu being unimportant, nobody really cared what you were doing as long as you looked like you were doign work most of the time "Nice to meet you inspector" he nodded respectfully at the man, before winking at Clarity "See you around Clarity. Unless there's anything else?"

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The Scout wandered among the ruins of the once-great Cirifex city. It was all alien to the man, a Varuna. He was comfortable with uncharted space, but this was just beyond anything he'd seen before. Alien geometry, indecipherable scrawlings written in chalk on the sides of old rusted bits of metal, as if they were written by some madman. Little did he know, he was right. Then there was the machine itself, a great hulking construction, a massive circle. Like an enormous turbine, with alien lights and patterns covering it, most of it falling apart and buried in sand. The scout stared up in wonder at the machine
"Le Gasp!" Came a voice from a behind him. Shrill, yet deep. It seemed to echo through the man's mind "Could it be?" the voice oscillated. The scout turned, gun raised, the find the source of the voice. But he could see nothing "A new student!" The voice was behind him this time, and as he turned there was suddenly a man in a suit with a white mask and a cane. The man approached him ecstatically. The scout, terrified, raised his gun and started to shoot. But as abruptly as he had appeared, the strange man was gone. Suddenly, white gloved hands from behind him ripped the gun out of his grasp "No guns in the classroom" Saturday instructed disparagingly, before forcing the dumbfounded scout to sit down on a rock. He ran over to a makeshift blackboard and took out a piece of chalk "Right, so what can you tell me about the nature of dark matter?" he questioned, gun aimed right at the man's forhead
"Please! I'll give you anything? Just let me live!" the scout pleaded. Saturday's one eye glinted in anticipation
"Oh I'm not going to use this thing, it's just to prove a point" he waved the gun in the air recklessly. Suddenly the gun released a couple of shots into the air "Whoops. It would be a shame if that attracted a rescue party" Saturday said without humour, eyes glaring at the ships orbiting the planet "Anyway, you said you'd give me anything right? Okay. Give me the value for X" Saturday began scrawling an equation on the blackboard. His hand moved quicker than the human eye could follow as numbers began to appear in the form of an excruciatingly long equation "Solve. I'll give you ten seconds, that should be long enough"

 

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Brianne had been tolerant of the coarse conversation, up until Ritter spoke. She stood up, using a nearby abandoned data pad to scan through the list of crew members. "Ritter, please open local comms channels for the ship." She waited until she heard the click, before speaking. "Crew members Crow, Winters, and Pavlov, report to the armory immediately. The rest of you, stay on red alert for possible ship invasion." She waited a second, as Ritter turned off the channel, before asking him another favor. "Please contact Captain Altius and inform her I will be leaving the bridge to lead the landing party." She turned, tapping Yvette's shoulder as she walked by. "Pilot, you're with me. Ah, good of you to join us, Ensign Rivida." She greeted Aeros as she walked by, not waiting for a salute.

"You're in charge of the ship. Please, in the event of a landing party, don't crash her into the nearest asteroid. I'd like her, and the Captain in one piece when I return."

She walked towards the elevator, pressing the button before stepping inside. As the doors closed, she stared straight ahead, keeping her cool. This was what she was made for. This was what she was good at. She stepped out of the doors and into the armory, heading straight for the weapons locker.

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Clarity narrowed her eyes as Quint laughed. The high and mighty attitude irked her to no end. If she had been a green medic, not ever having seen the battlefield, or dug her hands wrist deep into a man's stomach, then maybe she would have been more respectful, less argumentative. As it happened, he had a perfect excuse for why he needed what he did, and why he didn't want her to do it.

She stepped away from him, refusing to remain by his side any longer then she had to. She might have punched him otherwise. "Convenient. But still an addiction of another kind." She hissed, giving him the barest of salutes. "I understand perfectly well, Inspector." Wishing to get away from him before her frustration and anger drove her to actions that would typically land someone in prison, she turned to Alexei, who still managed to make her smile, despite the inner turmoil. "Now that you mention it, I could use a d-" She was cut off by Commander Lightwood's voice. Well that doesn't sound pleasant. Glancing at Alexei, who's name had been mentioned, she winked. "Careful not to get shot down there, or I'll have to put my hands on you. And the last man who experienced that didn't stop screaming for hours." She purposely left out whether it was in pain or pleasure, and turned to her desk, staring down at the supplies. She would need to get organized. Battle always meant injuries, whether minor or severe, and she wanted to be ready.

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Ana was curled up in the lounge, rubbing her bare feet on the soft material of the couch, when she heard Brianne's voice come over the loud speaker. A small twinge of worry clenched her stomach as she listened, then slipped on her shoes. If Brianne had thought she was in danger, she would have taken Ana with. She had promised Ana would be safe.

Grabbing the datapad she had been staring at while the ship had been flown to their destination, she pulled up the screen again as she paced the room. Her chemical substance should be enough to deter any intruders. She had hoped to test it further, but it seemed time was of the essence. Her wings fluttered, then settled against her back, drawn in tightly as they did when she worried. She stepped out into the hall, and made her way towards the bridge. She would need to get Captain Altius' permission for what she was about to do.

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Dietrich Winters had boarded the ship as early as possible, wanting to get a good idea of it's layout and capabilities and to see what was in stock. He had been sifting through the armoury. He had already been in a light version of armour after an unfortunate incident resulting on him not being able to sit down for 6 months. As the Commander gave the battle stations, he looked around the armoury as security personnel came walking in, some not as certain what to do, well we wouldn't have that now, not on his watch. "You heard the lady, move like you got a purpose!" The Security officer barked at the obvious green recruits. "For all you greenhorns around here that wanted to see some action. This might be your lucky day. Suit up and move to your rally points." Dietrich barked, he himself was changing out of the lighter armour, exchanging it for the full combat load, grabbing a rifle, he waited in the armoury barking at those that didn't seem to have a clue as to what they were doing throwing the odd insult left and right at them as he waited for further instructions from the Commander. Who had just arrived in the armoury, which resulted in Dietrich after clearing his throat to shout "Commander on deck!" Saluting the Commander, his security personnel followed suit, halting what they were doing, giving the Commander a unified salute.

 

Honestly Aeros was expecting to be reprimanded for being late, hence why he brought the medicine with him. When that didn't appear to be the case, he simply saluted his commanding officer as she walked past him. "I'll try not too." Aeros replied in a joking manner before heading to his station.

 

Alexei grinned at Clarity "If there's one thing I'm good at, it's not getting shot" he explained "Well I was hoping to have an uneventful day but I guess I'll get going" he left the room with a wave goodbye an meandered his way towards the armoury, taking his time. He wasn't used to being needed urgently.

When he did eventually arrive he simply walked in, hands in pockets, and leaned against the wall. He gave a casual salute to the Commander. "Hey" He greeted the room in general. Sure, it wasn't professional, but Alexei was never professional. He was pretty safe in his job security, because he was the only one who could ever really be bothered to do the small jobs, and who knew enough about them. "So what are we doing?"

 

"Right." Giving the other pilot a nod before heading to the seat. With the only thing that he had to do right now was keep the ship in idle, which really wasn't a hard task to do. However while that was the case, it didn't mean that he could slack off or make any careless errors. Keeping that in mind, Aeros took hold of the conrtrols, making sure to keep the ship in it's idle position.

Once again Crow's organization was halted by the voices of someone else, though this time it instead of it being people who had decided to enter from the ceiling, it was Commander Lightwood instructing him, and some others, to head towards the armory. Having spent most of his time in the sick bay, Crow wasn't sure just what was going on that would require those left on the ship to be prepared for a ship invasion. Still, with these questions he had to head to the armory as per his instructions. Having gotten up from his station, he walked out of the sick bay and headed towards the armory.

 

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"At ease." Brianne nodded to Lieutenant Commander Winters, before turning to the rest of them. "All of you, suit up and load out. I want at least one weapon if not more on each of you, provided you know how to use them. And if you don't, then I'm not sure why you're here." She herself grabbed another gun, an assault rifle, checking the stock before grabbing the combat armor from her locker and sliding it on over her clothes.

"Ensign Grear, you'll be piloting the shuttle. I want us in and out, quick as you can. We're here for a pick up only, don't focus on taking out the enemy unless they're about to snatch that life form we want or they're about the put one in between your eyes. Ensign Crow, you'll be staying back. I don't want our only medic getting shot on our first day if I can help it. Both you and Grear take at least a pistol, just for self defense. And if you shoot any of us in the back, then god help you. L.T Winters you'll be on point. Keep them off us and make sure we secure the target. I'll be watching your six. Ensign Pavlov...." she paused. "If you have any abilities to overload their weapons or machinery, do it. Otherwise, stay back and watch Ensign Crow's six, and maintain the ship. Any questions?"

 

Alexei grabbed a light machine gun from the walls as the commander instructed them to bring weapons, and equipped it. As she said his name, he turned, an eyebrow raised. "Heh, I think you're vastly overestimating my capabilities Commander. I'll do what I can" he responded with a smirk. When she asked for questions, he raised an arm "Yes. What are we picking up exactly?"

 

The Lieutenant Commander stood at ease as the Commander told him. He had already suited up in his full combat armour and had an assault rifle on him and hell did he know how to use it, he picked up a pistol as well for a sidearm. He had enough years of field experience prior to and after switching branches that it felt like just another day at the office for him, he looked at the young lad grabbing the LMG saying that the Commander was overestimating him, clearly the captain wasn't the only person doing that... The lad did ask what they were gonna pick up but he had done enough retrieval missions to have killed his curiosity of such things, somethings as they said were better left unknown. "What sort of resistance can we expect, Ma'am? Anything serious? Properly organised?" Dietrich asked, that was all he needed to be worried about, what he was shooting and how well they'd shoot back.