Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

Among the Stars [LilGunner & rskde]

"Cigarettes...they pair better with gin. Never cared for cigars. Most of my professors would argue cigars only go with a fine port," she said with a small laugh. Despite the earth having united under one banner that certainly hadn't halted regional culture. The Brits were still very British. Though she glanced at him sideways when he offered to grab a drink some time, even owning up to possibly having a bottle of whiskey. She wasn't a snitch but shook her head all the same. "Celebration would be nice but I try to bend the rules, not shatter them," she said with a light laugh. "Secret's safe with me though, I'm no blue falcon." Even chatting it didn't stop the steady tapping of the keys, though perhaps slowed it a little.

His mention of better quarters and their potential uses stilled her fingers a moment; a slightly inappropriate conversation to be sure. She felt her ears warm just a little before going back to typing. It had been quite a while for her but she just tried not to think about it. "Well we should be used to that by now. It's not allowed on a ship after all and certainly never happens," she said with heavy sarcasm with a light laugh and delicate clearing of her throat. Oh it was well known sailors, and marines even, would squirrel away to some hidden spaces to get it on.

It turned a little quiet as they spoke of home. Her hazel eyes turned aside to him as he looked down to the floor and tried to make light of his own history. A colony farm boy. Not exactly the same podunk image of farms on earth of course. Oxygen farms were slightly more sophisticated. She laughed with him and his disdain for ecology. "Hey we wouldn't have those colonies without ecology, try not to hate it too much. But I get it...it's not exactly the most exciting of the sciences. I wanted to go for biology but they're a dime a dozen, less competition in this field."

"But a handsome guy like you not having a girl from back in primary? Kind of shocking," she said wryly. "Smart way to go though. How many fresh booters marry their high school sweetheart right after joining then end up in a messy divorce two years later? Too damn many." She finished the document with a hard tap of the final period and heaved a happy sigh, sitting back up and pushing her glasses back up. "There....now just a mishap report. Keep fuckin' up out there and I'm gonna make you write your own reports," she teased as she took a long drink of the quickly cooling tea.

"Sorry if I'm keeping you from anything. It's nice to have some...easy company," she said, pausing a moment with a thoughtful frown. "The wardroom is an odd place and even after four years I'm not tally used to it. So...formal and kinda stuffy, all kinds of protocol. Just nice to shoot the shit and say whatever for a change."
 
“A woman of taste.” He noted while setting his hands behind his head, chuckling to himself quietly, though he tended to enjoy the odd cigar every now and then, cigarettes helped to take the edge off when they weren’t floating around in space or being forced to remain inside of habitats for fear of asphyxiation. “Technically if you mixed the whiskey with something, it would be bending the rules.” He chuckled. “Plus it’s not like you possess it.” He decided to leave the conversation alone at that point, they would have to grab a drink when they were allowed to actually have them on the surface, until then they would have to suffer through being dry. “I love it when you officers use enlisted phrases.” He sighed with a quiet chuckle.

Her sarcasm made him laugh, it had been quite a long time for him as well, with little to no time for it when on ship and really no good candidates walking around aside from women like.. well, Lynn. But he made damn well sure to keep that to himself, officer enlisted relationships were highly taboo and would certainly illicit a swift reaction if anybody were to find out about it. “Yeah and I wouldn’t have had a childhood of shitty chores and working my ass off without ecology.” He laughed, though he couldn’t exactly complain considering what his past had developed him into.

His eyebrows raised when she mentioned him being handsome and being surprised that he didn’t have a girl from back home. “Believe it or not, I wasn’t always this handsome.” He laughed before shaking his head. “What about you, then? Beautiful lady ought to have someone waiting back on Earth for her.” He prodded while rolling his chair a bit closer to her, looking over her shoulder to look at the mishap report that she had been generating.

“Sorry only my supervisor can write those reports, computers give me damn headaches.. at least my HUD doesn’t do me wrong.” He rubbed his eyes before shaking his head again. “Nah I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway, besides you’re interesting company when you’re not freaking out over rocks.” He teased with a cheeky grin on his face.
 
"Well I am former enlisted," she said with a pointed look. "Habits die hard ya know?" Linguistics would be an interesting area of study as well. Why certain phrases just seemed to stick where others didn't. Even going through school where people tended to use a much stronger vocabulary it was strange to be back on a ship and shoved into spaces, working with officers who also tended to use a broader vernacular. Then again she was likely guilty of that too.

She tilted her head at the returned question about her own love life before giving a light shrug, lamenting the way her ears heated up once more. Her head turned as he rolled the chair a little closer. Even seated he was quite a bit taller than her, able to peer over her shoulder to look at the screen as she brought up the template for the report. "Nah...had a few boyfriends in college but...eh, they didn't get the whole going back to the military bit. Got dumped by the last one just before my commissioning to ensign." Though it had hurt at the time she laughed then, careful to keep leaned forward as he sat so close behind. "All the pictures of the ceremony my eyes are red and puffy. Since then just...too busy I guess," she added with a nonchalant shrug.

Lynn glanced back at the marine and his comment about rocks, her expression somewhere between amusement and annoyance. "Rocks are very interesting I'll have you know. You should be well acquainted with them since they fill that space between your ears," she shot right back at him. She turned back around and got to filling out the blank spaces of the report. "Let's see...marine too distracted by disdain of rocks to notice predator in grass..." she muttered with a snarky grin. "Anything to say in your defense?"
 
“Is that so?” He’d seen a couple of Mustangs in his time but had never imagined that Lynn would be one of them, she seemed so excited about science rather than keeping with the military stuff, though she had been quite pressing about him making a brief for the security forces. “Definitely feels that way, I’d probably die before half of my habits did.” He chuckled, and he honestly didn’t mind it that way, sometimes it was nice to have habits.

She answers the question about past boyfriends, and he couldn’t help but be a little surprised that she wasn’t taken, most of the time O-3’s were married or at least dating someone. “Hm, surprising.” He shrugged his shoulders, watching as she filled out the report about him. “That’s shitty, you must’ve dated guys without spines.” He noted. “Breaking up with you before your big day, kinda scummy.” He laughed, imagining that she probably enjoyed dating smart guys like herself, a couple of Oxford boyfriends were probably more impressive than dating some jarhead who’d never even touched a textbook much less attended a college class.

“I have a brain, it’s what saved your clumsy ass.” He shot back with a laugh, moving his chair and butting her to the side so that he could type on the keyboard. “What about ‘Marine showed expert combat instincts and valor, saving two baby scientists.’” For a Marine that didn’t seem to associate with tech he typed damn fast, looking at his masterpiece with a grin. He moved to the side and looked to her. “You should mention my HUD didn’t pick it up until it was on top of us.” He mentioned.
 
Lynn gave a derisive snort at his mention of spineless exes. "Well stereotypes exist for a reason. Haven't met a lot of nerds with spines of steel, I like to think myself an the exception to that rule. Unicorn mustang," she said with a laugh. "Actually that'd make a great tattoo," she said through the laugh. Her eyes turned to the side to glance at him, unable to stop grinning even as he shot back his own retort about the rocks in his head. "Yeah sure, maybe-hey!" She was rudely bumped aside so he could take over the keyboard. Lynn caught herself with the table from rolling too far away. He got it and banged out his own view of the events and she laughed more. She wouldn't admit it out loud but the marine was quickly growing on her and she was really enjoying his company. It was nice to have playful banter.

"Baby scientists huh? Guess you're lucky we didn't try to eat that rock. Though that'd be more your department anyways. What is your favorite crayon flavor anyways?" She scooted back to nudge him more to the side than he had already moved. "Serious now, I'd like to get this done at some point," she said with the amused grin still plastered to her lips. "How about...'due to HUD unfamiliarity with local predators HUD failed to detect threat in timely manner. Sergeant Tolsen acted with valor and speed to protect LT Renaud and ENS Jones from predators. No casualties, damage to Sergeant Tolsen's armor. Recommend updating HUDs to reflect discoveries on Holoron IV.' I think that is reasonable enough." She saved the file and sent it, along with the reports, out to LCDR Moore.

With a soft sigh she sat back on the stool and downed the rest of her tea. "Well...I guess that's it for the evening. With some luck they'll have fixed up your armor. I will let Schaaf and Mayo go out first, whenever we can next. Time was short for Jones and I but...wouldn't really be fair to make them hang back again. See you in the morning then?" She said as she picked up the packed bag of samples for the bio team. "Try not to stay up too late, don't want to totally destroy that circadian rhythm. Good night Sergeant." With a final smile she got up and headed out. The bio team had since turned in for the night so she left the sample in a cooler with a note on the outside and headed off to bed.

As always reveille came far too early. Breakfast was a quick affair before the science team DIVOs grabbed their reports and headed to LCDR Moore's quarters to discuss what had been found thus far. LT Renaud's report was a bit longer and a bit more exciting, recounting the encounter with the predator. The biology team was ordered to try and find the corpses and get what they could of samples from them. They needed to know more about the predators themselves, they would worry about studying live ones later. More curious were those claws that cut right through titanium armor. Fascinating and, quite frankly, terrifying. When they broke from the meeting Lynn lagged behind to discuss some scientists being armed. At first she was met with a skeptical look but at least got a 'we'll see' before she left to meet her team at the lab.

She hadn't seen Tolsen yet and was hoping that his armor was repaired. As much as his exposure would accelerate their findings there was a whole world to explore and discover.
 
Tolsen crossed his arms over his chest when she lightly pushed him out of the way of the computer again, chuckling to himself as he watched her delete what he had written to write out her own report, his eyes following the text as it moved across her holo-screen. "Tattoos are generally great." He laughed. "Not like you probably have many, considering you're an officer." He poked, he had a few tattoos that were beneath his undersuit, unfortunately the Federation didn't like visible tattoos on its Marines. "I did see how you picked up that shovel in defense, that was good.. Aside from the fact that the Cutter would've either destroyed your weapon and killed you or just slipped in behind you to drag you into the grass." He couldn't imagine how many Cutters there must have been scattered about this area they landed in, if that was just the hunting party.

"Crayon jokes are hilarious, squid." He said, a bit of deadpan working its way on to his face and into his voice. "Never heard that one before." He rolled his eyes and leaned back against his chair. "Y'all need to get some new content." He quipped as she went back to writing the report, his eyes remaining on the screen so that he could see her legitimate take on the situation, he honestly wanted to know what he could have done better, aside from not allowing the beast to get close enough to shred his armor like before. Her words about his valor and combat instincts made him bite the inside of his cheek, it was probably the nicest thing she had said to him since they had met, aside from thanking him for saving her and Jones, any officer could take credit for the actions of an Enlisted, but she had chosen to give it to him.

"Yeah.. Sounds good." He said quietly, watching as she stood up from the chair. "Morning.. Yeah, I'll see you then." He watched her walk out of the lab before running his hands through his hair, nobody had told her the true mission of this 'research' base, a built of guilt creeps its way into his chest as he stared at the wall of the lab. The trust between them and their relationship would only get stronger the more they worked together, if she found out that he had known the purpose of this whole expedition all along.. Well, he doubted she would want to associate with him anymore. But that was a problem for another day, he would deal with it eventually.. right?

It became a long night of staying awake and getting some exercise in, the small habitat having a gym that nobody was using since it was the middle of the night, taking the opportunity to get a shower before heading to Engineering before the day could get kicked off, receiving his armor back. There was a large scar on his armor from the Cutter's claws, but he didn't mind, it gave his chest-piece character, nobody would fuck with him as soon as they saw what he had already survived.

He put his armor on in the morning and made his way into the Ecology lab without bothering to get breakfast, sitting in the corner with his armored boots kicked up on one of the desks, his rifle in his lap in a few pieces as he worked to meticulously clean it of the carbon that had built up from firing it.
 
The three male officers took their sweet time getting to the lab. They didn't have to attending morning meetings. A bit of a lie in and a good breakfast for them. Lynn yawned wishing they were allotted more than a single mug of coffee. Things around the small habitat would be lean until better determinations were found. It was a temporary state she would just have to power through. She pushed the button to the door for the lab and stepped in. She hadn't bothered to put on her suit just yet, unsure if Tolsen's armor was repaired, so she just wore the white under-suit with her hair slicked back into a strict bun and her glasses on. Only one foot made it into the lab when motion in the corner made her jump.

"Oh! Sergeant, good morning," she said. The sleepy, blank haze replaced by a bright smile. It only got brighter when she realized he was wearing his armor while lounging and cleaning his rifle. "So it's all fixed then. Perfect! I'll tell-"

"Good morning Lieutenant," she heard Mayo behind her. He also wasn't wearing his suit, clearly not expecting to go out that morning.

"Mayo, perfecting timing. Go grab Schaaf and get your suits on."

With a sharp nod he turned on his heel and headed off. Lynn stepped into the lab fully and headed over to the desk. "Ready to head back out there Sergeant? The biology team was ordered to pick apart one of those cutters, get as much data as possible." She hopped up onto the stool and booted her computer up. While he went out with Schaaf and Mayo she and Jones would pick apart the samples they had gathered the previous day. "I spoke to Lieutenant Commander Moore about weapons...his 'we'll see' wasn't really promising."

Jones came into the lab with a pleasant 'good morning.' Mayo and Schaaf didn't take long after to come into the lab, both in their suits. Though they appeared calm there was an unmistakable ghost of a smile on their faces. It was finally their turn to head out and investigate the planet. Lynn turned and slid off the tall stool. "Ok so, obviously Mayo and Schaaf will be heading out with Tolsen this morning. We headed north yesterday, skirting along the woods. I would like you all to head west today. Go further out but keep camp in sight for now. Be safe and listen to Sergeant Tolsen." While her tone was strict and serious she spoke to them like a mom would talk to her kids before leaving them with a babysitter. "Be back for lunch, we will have a short debrief on your findings then Jones and I will go out."

Schaaf and Mayo pulled their helmets on, grabbed their sample bags, and were ready to go. The sun was bright and clouds hung heavily in the sky. They were dark and stormy but given the over saturation of color on the planet they might not actually be storm clouds. They turned west and headed through the tall grass. Behind them, to the east, lay the thick forest but before them was sweeping plains, far as the eye could see.

"Hear you were in the lab late with the Lieutenant," Schaaf piped up as they walked. His head turned ever so slightly, the only indication he was looking over at the marine, his tone certainly suggestive. "Didn't think you had such a...passion for ecology."
 
Tolsen blinked as the lights flicked on, revealing the science team standing at the entrance of the lab. He lifted his arms in a 'what the hell' kind of way while raising his eyebrows. "Goddamn, I didn't know we slept in when we had jobs to do." He grinned while jumping up from his seat and grabbing his helmet from the desk he had put it on. He walked over to the team as Schaaf and Mayo walked in, Lynn telling them to go and put their suits on so that they could go and explore the planet today. "Hopefully no Cutters today, eh?" He laughed, he couldn't imagine that it would take long for the Cutters to get uploaded to the HUD detection system, they shouldn't be too much of an issue going forward.

"Yeah I'd reckon so, someone's gotta do it, right?" He laughed while lifting his helmet and putting it on, letting the seals do their work before nodding. "Looks like I'm all ready to go, no more atmospheric breathing for me.. Until I feel like smoking, then I might have some atmosphere to breathe in." He commented. She mentioned talking to the Lieutenant Commander about scientists having weapons and he just shook his head. "I told you he might not be a big fan of it, we'll have to wait for some scientist to get wasted before they think of giving you guys weapons." He looked over to Mayo.

"You hear that Mayo?!" He called out. "You wanna die for the good Doctor's cause? Might get some trigger time for your colleagues!" The scientist suddenly looked very uncomfortable at the premise of being killed out there. "Ma'am you gotta talk to him about his assertiveness, I mean, I know they don't teach that shit in college but Mayo over there is about as thick as a stalk of corn." He laughed.

She let her brief commence and they all seemed to listen attentively, nodding along to her plan once she was finished with it before moving to go to their respective assignments for the day, it should have been an easy day going forward, but with an unknown planet still all around them, God knows what they could find out there willing to skin them alive for breakfast.

They walked out of the habitat and Schaaf mentioned him staying late in the lab the night before. His eyebrows raised behind his visor and he looked to him. "Damn, word does spread quick huh?" He asked. "I didn't know you had such a passion for getting a bullet in the side of the head." He pointed a finger gun at him as if emphasizing a point. "No, the Lieutenant wanted to run a final test on my blood to make sure I wasn't going to die from whatever shit I inhaled when that Cutter tore a hole in my armor." He explained while they walked, turning his head to keep an eye on what was happening around them.
 
"Word in small spaces always travels fast," Schaaf said with a mild shrug. He didn't let the threat frighten him. Marines might be crazy but he didn't need to be afraid of the Sergeant killing him. "Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed. Lots of dogs have been sniffing after that ass. First time anyone's gotten close. Not that the others should care, you're too low on the totem pole, barkin' up the wrong tree."

His head tilted at the word 'cutter.' He could only assume the marine meant the creature that attacked him. Of course he had seen the images, the creatures were pretty horrifying. They were lucky the marine breathing the atmosphere was the worst outcome. "Cutter huh? Very creative, I'm guessing that's what you want to coin them as?" His tone was condescending but amused. "Still, better than what the bio team might end up calling it. Better get dibs on the name before they do. Seems only right since one got the drop on you. Just keep a better eye out this time alright? We're not wearing armor," he added with a laugh.

They were a good couple hundred feet away from the habitat. "This is good enough. Can't have mommy worried," Schaaf said. "Mayo start cutting out a wide swatch of grass and dig down a few inches. We need fresh soil," he said to the Ensign who nodded and immediately dropped down to start cutting and digging. LTJG Schaaf watched as Mayo dug and scrabbled in the rich, red soil.

"Oh! Look at this," Mayo suddenly shouted, standing up. He was holding...a rock. It was quite different from the one Renaud had found. Rather than a graying blue and green it was almost black with deep purple striping. Schaaf stepped forward and held out his hand to take the rock which Mayo was quick to relinquish.

"Yeah, super cool," Schaaf said with a bored sigh. "Lieutenant will probably loose her shit over it..." He tossed it aside with a huffed sigh. "We're looking for soil and grass samples Mayo, not rocks. We need to know if we can breathe on this shit hole or not which means...?" He ended with an exaggerated questions so Mayo would pipe up with an answer.

"Finding the chemical densities of living matter..." Mayo said with an annoyed sigh. "I know but rocks can tell us-"

"Yeah, no shit, lots of chemicals, super. Later. I'm ready for a smoke and the sooner we know if we can breathe the sooner we can smoke so get those samples. Finding water would be great but I don't think there's a body of water anywhere nearby." Of course, if he had bothered to check a map of the surface he'd know there was a river running through the forest not a quarter mile from base camp.
 
They walked through the tall grass until they were far enough from the habitat that the samples wouldn't be contaminated by the initial landing or the incident that had occurred just yesterday, Tolsen's eyebrows raising from behind his helmet. "I've probably got a better chance than you ever will." He laughed while looking around, his rifle going up to make sure that no new threats would sneak up on them.

"I know, she's an officer and I'm enlisted.. It's whatever." He continued on, wanting to move on from the conversation that had made him a bit flustered. The vitals chart showing on his HUD had his heart rate spike a bit when talking about Lynn. "Fuck.." He muttered, making sure that his radio was off when he said that, though his camcorder would still pick it up. He glanced over towards the two scientists as Schaaf started talking about the Cutters, shrugging his shoulders as his amused sort of attitude. "I figure it's better than some bullshit contrived Latin name that the Bio team will cream their pants over." He continued searching the area for anything of interest.

"My HUD will register them this time, but keep talking to me like that and I might just ignore it's warnings." He said while glancing about, O-1's and O-2's didn't rate shit in his eyes, he'd been in far longer, and had seen way more combat, they could keep their bullshit to themselves.

It felt like a long time before noon, with the two taking dirt, rock, and grass samples to still try and gauge whether or not the oxygen on the planet was breathable, Ryan was just glad that they weren't attacked this time. They made their way back to the habitat with all of their samples when the clock struck 12, they walked back into the Ecology lab to change places for the day, Ryan giving a wave to Lynn and walking over to her.

"Nothing to report, their got their rocks and dirt and grass." He sat down in one of the chairs with a sigh, clearing his rifle and setting the magazine in one of the pouches in the webbing of his armor.
 
"Yeah I'm sure that will work out real well for you at court martial," Schaaf said as he continued to observe Mayo doing the digging. They were at it the entire time, checking for any different types of grass or plant matter. Hiding in the tall grasses were tiny, flowering plants. The moment the grass was parted and sun hit the flowers they closed up. Samples of those were gathered. Closer inspection in the soil and on top they found a myriad of different bugs and worm-like creatures. Some were gathered up and put into puffed up bags to keep them as alive as possible on the trip back. If they were put in a terrarium over night in the habitat it would be a decent indicator of them being able to breath in the habitat which should mean the humans could breathe on the planet.

The officers barely kept track of the time, needing to be reminded it was time to head back. With their sample bags near full to bursting they followed the marine back to the habitat. They entered the lab and took off their helmets. Schaaf glanced over as the marine waved to Renaud and immediately went over to her. He rolled his eyes and gave a short snort before heading out of the lab, leaving Mayo to unpack everything.

Lynn's head whipped up as the airlock opened and the group came in. She grinned brightly at them and the haul of samples before turning her attention to Tolsen as he walked over to her. "Good, glad it was uneventful. For you anyways, seems the boys have quite the haul. Hope you weren't bored to tears," she said with a small laugh before going over to help Mayo unpack. "Don't forget to grab some chow marine. We're heading for the forest this afternoon. Need you tip top."

Lunch came and went with a flurry. Renaud and Jones ate quick so they could go pull on their suits. Schaaf and Mayo got to work picking apart the samples to start analyzing them through the machines and under microscopes. Before they knew it 1300 rolled around and it was time to head out once more. They headed east this time, right towards the woods. It was likely there might be more creatures there and they would need to be alert. At least there wasn't waist high grass to contend with but the growth was thick and deep.

"I'm hoping to get to that river we saw on the map," Renaud said as they walked. "Water will be the final piece of the puzzle. We should know if the air is safe by this evening." As they walked she and Jones cut and scraped samples from nearly every tree and bush they passed. "I hope Schaaf didn't give you too much trouble...he just put on JG and kind of let it go to his head," she said in a tone between amusement and annoyance.

Jones outright laughed, "that's putting it mildly. I'd bet he made Mayo do all the work."

"If that's true I'll have to speak with him. We're a team. Everyone does the boring work, the hard work, and the fun work," Lynn said with a soft sigh. "Except the Sergeant here. He just get the boring job," she added with a light laugh, nudging Tolsen in the side.

The sample bags were already nearly full by the time they made it to the river. They had to go slow. Sources of water were where all species tended to flock, there could be worse out there than cutters. The coast was clear though and they crept to the water's edge. The rocky, muddy terrain around the rapid flow was that self same deep red, the rocks glittered stripes of different colors and even some bands of crystallization. While Jones sloshed his way across the muddy embankment Lynn stepped up onto the rocks. They looked rough from the naked eye but the moment she stepped up her foot slipped right out from under her, sending her hard onto her side with a yelp.

"Lieutenant," Jones yelled, jumping to his feet in the mud, dropping the vial he had to collect the fresh, running water.
 
"Or it'll be a good inscription on your grave."

They walked back into the lab and he watched as Schaaf walked off to let Mayo unpack everything, Tolsen certainly wasn't against helping out and he walked over to Mayo and helped him unpack the samples before looking up and giving Lynn a smile. "Wasn't too bored, such interesting people to talk to." He nudged Mayo who shrunk away from him a bit, the Sergeant looking around for Schaaf that had seemingly disappeared after they had come back inside. He narrowed his eyes slightly, that officer seemed too big for his own boots, he had taken samples and hadn't even bothered to help unpack them.

Lynn told him to grab some chow and he nodded, walking out of the lab to go and get some lunch, practically scarfing down the shitty meal that they had prepared for them before getting up and grabbing his helmet and weapon, wanting to be back in the Ecology lab and ready to go for when Lynn and Jones returned from their own lunch. He walked in and nodded to the officers sitting around before putting his helmet on and readying himself to go out again.

Tolsen made sure to keep a better eye out once they were leaving the habitat, knowing that the woods could prevent far more dangerous threats wandering around, or dormant ones that could simply take them by surprise. He nodded to Lynn when she mentioned wanting to go to the river, it would be good to confirm that there was water on the planet, though with the discovery of intelligent and aggressive life he didn't doubt that there was a water source for them to live off of.

Her words made him chuckle, though he was far more focused on his surroundings than on the conversation they had started about Schaaf. "Seems like a bit of a cunt if I'm honest." He admitted while shrugging his shoulders. "Respectfully, of course." He chuckled, shaking his head while they approached the river that they had wanted to see. "You know Jones, the trees all look pretty much the same, I'm pretty sure you could just get a universal sample and leave it." He laughed, knowing that they had limited sample bags.

"Not to mention Schaaf ran out of the room as soon as Mayo had to unpack all of those samples.. No offense but all of you are equally worthless in my eyes, no point in infighting." He pointed his weapon around to do a quick scan, trusting his own eyes more than his HUD now that it had already failed them once.

Once they got to the river, he looked at it with awe, it was fairly interesting to him to see life and ecosystems on a planet untouched by Humans, now he knew what the first Colonists felt like after leaving Earth for the first time. "Yeah, my job is pretty boring.. Unless it gets interesting, but then people die." He shrugged.

Tolsen took up a position between the two scientists as they explored, hearing Lynn cry out he ran towards her, jumping into the water and grabbing on to a solid branch sticking out over it, snatching Lynn's hand in the process to make sure that she wouldn't continue down the river. He pulled her into his body, letting go of her hand to put his whole arm around her body and keep her pressed against him. "I got you." He grunted, starting to pull the both of them back on to the shore.
 
Lynn hit the rocks fairly hard, jarring her arm and shoulder. Whatever was on the rocks sent her skidding right into the rushing waters. She went under just a second before popping up and was suddenly halted by a har yank on her hand. Her head craned back to see Tolsen holding a branch with on arm and her with the other. It was astounding how quickly the river dropped off into deep waters. He hauled her up and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders while he held her close. Her ears burned like thermite. She thanked whatever deity might be listening she was wearing a helmet that hid the furious blush. Turning she looked at the river to see her pack of samples sailing away. "My samples..."

Tolsen pulled them to the shore and Jones was right there to help them to their feet. "You guys ok? That was some quick work Sergeant," Mayo said with a relieved chuckle.

"I'm fine...but all those samples are gone," she said with a sigh, looking down the river. Lynn turned and looked up at the Sergeant. "Thanks for the...second rescue Sergeant. One of these days I'm going to prove you wrong about us needing constant supervision," she added with a light, almost nervous sounding laugh while rubbing the arm she had whacked. It was a little sore but nothing felt broken or dislocated, she'd likely have quite the bruise later. "Let's get samples of those river rocks. I can't say I'm the most graceful person that ever walked but I think there is something on them to make them so slick."

Using small razors they scrapped off a layer of very fine, completely see through algae. Earth had plenty of algae varieties but none that were clear like that. Even to the naked eye it was near impossible to see the coating on the rocks but for a light glimmer in the right light.
 
His eyes clenched shut from the feeling of her body weight yanking against his arm, grunting as he pulled her from the river to stop her from drowning. He doubted that she would have been able to swim against the large current that rushed down the river, hell he was half surprised he had been fast enough to catch her before she went under.. he didn’t mention that of course but it was written all over his face behind his polarized visor. She turned to see her samples floating down the river and he shook his head. “You can get more, you’re the one that’s not replaceable, Lynn.” He said before Jones ran over to them. “We can always get more on the way back.” They had plenty of time to gather them.

“Yeah, I just.. reacted I guess.” He reached up and rubbed the back of his helmet, glancing between the two that stood next to him now. “Let’s not play near the slippery rocks anymore, eh?” He laughed.

He laughed at her words and shrugged. “I dunno, you’ve only proven me right so far.” He nudged her with his shoulder before watching as the two got to work, scraping algae off of the rocks to take samples. “Are you injured?” He asked her on the direct comm, pulling up her vitals to see the pain rocking through her body. “I have stims if you need them.” He offered, glancing around the tree line for any sign of predators lurking in the shadows. “Gonna be another tough report for you to write, having to admit that I saved you again.” He laughed before glancing at the time.

“We should get back before it starts getting dark, God knows how many creepies come out at night here.” They hadn’t done any night surveys due to safety concerns, they would have to get permission from LCDR Moore for something like that.
 
Tolsen's use of her name was...surprising. Utterly against regulations of course but it was nice to hear her name. She'd been out so long she'd almost forgotten what it was like being called 'Renaud' all the time. Now interspersed with 'ma'am' or 'lieutenant.' With all that in mind she let it go even as she felt Jones staring at them for a little. She was jarred some from Tolsen's playful nudge. Her head whipped back and she sighed, shaking her head. "No no I'm alright, just some bruises. Pride and body," she added with a light laugh.

Jones was still staring and she glared at him from behind her polarized helmet. "Eyes forward Ensign," Lynn growled softly. She heard Jones snort but he said nothing. Fraternization was nothing to sneeze at. Last thing she needed was getting fired from her post. They went on gathering more samples of the algae and other plants found at the river bank. Both were careful to stay off the rocks. They worked and gathered until Tolsen piped up. Their heads lifted up to the sky. Indeed the sky was darkening as the sun set. "Right, let's get out of here then. We have more than enough to make our determination.

"Once a proper, more secure area is built I can't wait to watch the sunset and sunrise here," Lynn commented as they walked back. With the thick layer of quickly darkening clouds it was hard to appreciate the colors of sunset anyways. A path already well cleared they made it back to the habitat with relative ease. At least it had been an easy day, barring a dip in the river. Schaaf and Mayo were in the lab, hard at work with their samples.

"Good new Lieutenant, the densities are a near match for earth," Schaaf spoke up as the group entered. He held a notebook while Mayo seemed to be doing the actual work with the samples.

"We got good news too, made it to the river and got water samples. Last piece of the ecochemical puzzle," Lynn said with a bright grin as she pulled her helmet off. "It's going to be a late night guys. Let's grab some quick chow and get to it. I want to get the conformation up to Lieutenant Commander Moore at the brief tomorrow morning." She turned to look up at Tolsen. It was almost a shame he would be well asleep by the time they were done and she wrote up the reports. "Why don't you join us for dinner then get some sleep Sergeant. I'd say you earned it today," she said with a little smirk. "No cutters in here and you'll probably be bored to tears."
 
The walk back was luckily uneventful, the Sergeant’s HUD detected a couple of Cutters watching them from the trees around, but the little bastards had seemingly decided that the Humans weren’t worth the trouble, especially not when they had already lost two of their own with zero human casualties. He hadn’t realized that he had broken code with Lynn, the name had flowed so naturally out of his mouth that he hadn’t considered the breach in formality until they reached the habitat again, his eyebrows furrowing together in thought.

He felt bad that he couldn’t save her samples, hearing how her voice had dropped as her bag disappeared down the river, he could relate to losing personal gear like that, it had happened to him a few times. He wished he could make it up to her, but at least he had managed to grab her before she went down the river with them, but it still didn’t excuse his slowness. “Sorry about your samples.” He said quietly as they walked into the lab. “And your bag.. I should’ve been faster.” He lived in a career that required having lightning fast reflexes, maybe he was losing his touch.

“Comes with getting older, I guess.” He laughed before shutting his mouth as they walked into the lab, his eyes settling on the two officers that had been outside the wire with him earlier. She mentioned being able to see a sunset and he nodded, it was probably one of the few things he enjoyed about the outdoors, many times he had gone hiking with his family to see a sunrise on his planet, though there wasn’t much of an atmosphere to speak of which just gave a view of a ball of fire lifting over a black horizon.

“I’ve actually never seen a proper sunset.” He admitted while taking his helmet off. “I’ve always been on non-atmospheric worlds, I was on Earth for a day of leave but I was too drunk to really see much.” He laughed, the brunt of his experience on Earth was just appreciating the actual non-recycled air that he could breath rather than the condensed shit that spewed out of ship vents and into domes in the Colonies.

It was a lot easier to colonize planets that didn’t have dangerous alien life on them, after all.

She suggested that they grab dinner and he nodded. “Yeah, wouldn’t wanna watch you guys fawning over rocks and grass anyway.” He laughed while setting his helmet on his hip, walking out of the lab with the team so that he could get some chow with them. He looked down at his tray in disgust as soon as they slapped some packaged, undercooked rice and a small chunk of dehydrated chicken on to it. “You know, there were two alien animals laying dead outside, y’all couldn’t do a spit roast or anything?” He asked.
 
“Well when we get this place figured out we’ll have to watch a real sunset,” Lynn suggested as they headed to the mess for some food. One strange, small, bonus of such a small outpost was the mixed dining. There was no wardroom, no E-6 mess, nothing like that. E-1 to O-4 dined together. She glanced over as Tolsen groused about the dry chicken and hard rice noting the glowers from the CSs behind the service bar. “Easy marine, you want them to spit in it?” She said with a light laugh as they headed to a table with Jones, Mayo, and Schaaf in tow.

“Yeah, never mess with the cooks,” Jones said as he dumped hot sauce on the chicken and rice. “Caught the wardroom cook sneaking snacks once and just let it slide. Last person you wanna piss off. Right after the HTs so they don’t shut off your hot water.”

The scientists ate quickly, having to drink big gulps of water to wash down the dry meal. This would be their most important night of study and they expected it would be a long one. After dinner was shoveled down they got up to get to work. “Get some rest marine, alright?” Lynn said with a gentle pat on his shoulder. “We’ll be at it late into the night.”

It was an understatement to say the least. They worked quickly and diligently with their finding. Even the bio team was up with them, people passing back and forth to compare reports. How everything seemed to be working out so perfect was a mystery. By all accounts they found no danger in the ecological, chemical, and biological makeup of the planet that would pose an immediate threat to health and safety. No unusual toxins or parasites were found in the water or the soil. The air was already decently well know to be safe and they had Sergeant Tolsen to thank for the accidental field test. Near 0300 was cause for tired celebration. Bleary eyed and exhausted the team leads rushed to begin filing their reports. The next morning would be an exciting one when LCDR Moore announced people could go out without helmets. A massive boon to those who desperately needed their nicotine.
 
Tolsen shook his head when the two officers quipped about the cooks spitting in his food with the way he was talking to them and he shrugged. "I'll just enjoy it more." He shot a wink to the cook standing behind the screen, not necessarily caring about their gender, being awkward about that sort of thing tended to guarantee that nobody would mess with his food even if they did hate him. "Besides, I'm sure that they agree with me, rice and chicken everyday for the rest of my life is equivalent to a life sentence... I'd rather be lashed." He laughed.

"If they told me, Tolsen, if you take fifteen lashings right now and I'll give you a con bleu? I'd take the lashes." He sat down with the officers and quickly ate his food, the exertion of saving Lynn in the river had really gotten to his stomach and he easily scarfed down the dry and undercooked food.

He got to bed directly after, though how much sleep he had gotten would be considered unhealthy if the Docs knew about it, his eyes fixed to the top of his rack for the entire night as Schaaf's words cut through his mind, critiquing his work in killing the two Cutters when they had attacked the team, how he had blamed him for them creeping up on them.

Tolsen waited until he heard the scientists coming to their racks in the middle of the night before grabbing his gear and slipping away from the racks, walking down to the lab and setting his helmet down on the same table that he had been sitting at the night before. He ran his hands down his face as he thinks about what he could have done better, the faces of the Cutters flashing through his mind as he imagined what could happen if he was so careless again, but with God knows what else is out there. The Cutters might just be the bottom of the food chain, he had to be better at what he was doing if he wanted his team to survive.
 
While the boys had gone to bed in the wee hours Lynn was still awake. Their findings had been conclusive and all she needed to do was write up a report. Terrible as it might be she considered just staying up until the brief then catching some rack time after. She yawned widely in the galley, brewing up a mug of coffee. That was the trouble with leadership. Up until go-fuck-yourself-30 and still more shit to be done the next day. Maybe it was time to consider getting out and doing non-military field work.

Still yawning she ambled to the lab again, rubbing her tired eyes under her glasses. As she stepped in her feet skidded to a halt seeing Tolsen in the lab. She blinked her eyes hard, thinking it might be a sleep deprivation hallucination for a moment. Nope. Still there. So she gave him a tired smile before moving to her computer desk. “Sergeant, what are you doing up at this hour? Can’t wait to hear if you can smoke tomorrow?” She gave a sleepy laugh before taking a drink of her coffee. It was awful, tasting of sour metal, but it was caffeine.

“Well you’re in luck. We have enough evidence that the planet is habitable without need of life support systems. Just have to brief the Lieutenant Commander in the morning…” she trailed off and blinked, glancing at the time. “Er…well in two and a half hours anyways. You good though? You look almost as terrible as I feel.”
 
Tolsen jumped a little when he heard her speak, glancing over to her as sat up where he was sitting, he had honestly been hoping that he would be alone in there until morning, at least then he would be ready for whatever missions were planned for the day. He rubbed the back of his head when she asked him what he was doing awake, just shrugging his shoulders in response, there was really no good answer that wouldn't make him sound like a mentally weak fool that he could give her.

He cracked a bit of smile when she brought up smoking, and then asked if he was doing alright. He took a brief moment, his eyes staring past her before he shook his head. "No.. I couldn't sleep." He said quietly while running his hands through his ever-growing hair, which made it look far more disheveled than it already had. "Nightmares and such.. I've no desire to go back to sleep and let them haunt me again." He admitted, he had already worked with her enough that he could at least tell her a little about what he was going through, maybe it would help a bit.

"Don't bother calling Doc about it, I don't want a prescription or anything." He rubbed his eyes, telling them that he was no good in the head would just make his life worse, what would he do if they told him he couldn't work this job anymore and reassigned him? Or god forbid separate him from the service.
 
Lynn tilted her head when Tolsen admitted he wasn’t sleeping well from nightmares. Her look of curious concern turned to one of gentle sympathy. He put up a brave front that was for sure. Though he was quick to pretty much ask her not to call Doc about it. Lynn nodded a little, she understood why he wouldn’t want to be put on anything. Given the interstellar climate being put on meds was a sure fire was to get booted from service. She took another drink of her coffee before setting it aside and scooted her chair a little closer to the sleep deprived marine. She reached out and gently rested her hands on his shoulders, ducking her head to look him in the eyes.

“Hey, I won’t sic Doc on you, that’s a promise. Not unless you give me reason to, ok?” She wanted that known first and foremost. Mental health was important but she understood there was a balance too. It was the military after all. “But thankyou for opening up, a little. I…hell I can’t even begin to understand what you’ve been through. However you need to deal with it is up to you, just try not to make yourself batty by avoiding sleep all the time alright? I’m not the right kind of doctor for therapy,” she added with a short, light laugh. “But I’m here for you if you wanna talk or just sit in friendly silence.”

“All that said…I won’t force you to go back to bed or anything. You can hang out here if you like. We’re taking a bit of a rest day tomorrow…er…later today I guess so you can relax a bit. You can’t just stay awake forever Sergeant so keep that in mind as you avoid going to Doc.”
 
His eyes identified that she was coming over in her chair, his mind was always looking for small signs of danger, always overanalyzing everything that was going on around him. She set his hands on his shoulders and his body stiffened for a moment but then relaxed beneath her touch, his hazel eyes looking into hers while she spoke to him about not sending him to Doc. "Thank you Lynn." He said to her quietly before gently biting the inside of his cheek, melting a bit into her touch. "Sorry you had to inherit such a broken off Marine." He laughed quietly, shaking his head with the thought that he was going to be more of a burden to her than a help.

"I haven't been the same since Jorlheim." He explained to her quietly. "You've probably heard the bullshit before, seeing faces and thinking about what you could've done better." He glanced back to her eyes before shaking his head. "No, it helps to talk." He said, she didn't have to understand what he had been through, she was still a good resource to be able to talk to. "We saw so much shit over there, we thought for sure they were going to medically discharge all of us." He shook his head. "It was such a losing battle from the beginning.. Whoever sent us there didn't bother to do their damn research." Words like this were considered treason against the Federation, but he knew what he was saying.

"We were on the offense, we shouldn't have even been there." He shook his head. "Sleep doesn't help any, I just get dragged right back into nightmares." He looked down to the floor, unable to help feeling like he was a massive burden to their team with how he was feeling.
 
Lynn gave a quiet laugh, more like a long sigh through her nose, with him calling himself broken along with a soft smile. She would never understand what he went through, no one really would. He might feel broken but she didn’t see him that way. So she let him talk through a little of it, listening intently and nodding slowly. She felt sad for him to have seen such things, endured such hardships. Certainly there was some pity, it was hard to help. No one should have to endure things like that, pushed into situations without a choice. A wild thought for someone who joined the military.

“One day it might help and I really do hope you find peace one day. You are not broken though,” she said adamantly, ducking down to catch his eye again. Her expression was stern and adamant. “You’ve seen things that even other military members could hardly imagine, suffered and endured. This does not mean you are broken and it doesn’t define you. Our actions define us. You are strong. Every day you fight those memories to carry on and do your duty. If you were as broken as you say I’d be either cutter food or drowned in the river by now,” she added with a light laugh.

“It’s ok to feel weak sometimes…which is counterintuitive for a marine I imagine. It’s kind of impossible to be strong all the time. Since today will be a bit of a rest day you don’t have to worry about being strong for now, ok?” Lynn stood up from her chair and leaned over to give Tolsen a gentle but tight hug. “Wish nice words and a hug would fix it all but I know it doesn’t. Just know that I’m here for you and if you need time off to think and let yourself be weak for a little you just have to ask.”
 
Ryan bit the inside of his cheek once he was finished his piece. He had never really opened up to anybody about what had happened over in Jorlheim, how he had felt about it and how it was impacting him. "We never should've been there in the first place." He said softly, the Federation performed many pointless operations with victories, but when it became a massive defeat during a pointless operation? That's when someone has to start drawing the line. "Command told us it would be in and out, a small garrison protecting the planet's resources and people.. It was a damned military base." He scoffed.

Her words made him nod, those his eyes were fixed on the floor until she ducked down to catch his eyes again, his hazel eyes locking with hers when she asked for their attention. "I think I'll have peace when someone finally managed to kill me." He broke a slight smile, it was unlikely that someone of his grade would get out of the military at this point, even with what he had seen and done, it didn't make any sense for him to leave behind what he had spent so many years building up. He nodded when she mentioned that if he was weak he would already be dead, but he still couldn't help but feeling like he wasn't doing everything he could to stop the weakness from taking over.

"Yeah, we don't exactly push 'weakness is okay' in combat training." He cracked a smile before she stood and walked over to wrap her arms around him, his breath catching in his throat for a moment. After a second he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her midsection, his forehead resting against her chest as she told him that it was okay for him to take a break, and that she wished she could fix it all with this embrace. "I wish it worked like that." He said softly, squeezing his eyes shut, wanting to just stay in her embrace.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom