Aftermath (Post Job, Horizon/Orlando Crews)

[robertborden]

Borden looked out the window of the dragonfly class transport known as Horizon. The frozen planet of St. Alban's was one of the few this far out that still remained solidly part of the Alliance. This may have been due to the low population or the fact that the alliance had a base here.

He still had to get used to the informality that was vital to their mission and now he would have to explain it to a new crewman. However, if the intel was correct, Boris Grishenko would have no problem with it.

The trip had been relatively short. The pilot knew what she was doing, it took them only a fraction of the time that Borden had estimated and that was fine with him. "St. Alban's outpost, this is transport 1334217, we are requesting permission to land...St. Alban's out post do you read me?" he let the question hang there for a minute. He had disguised his voice with an accent so as not to be recognized if overheard. The should have heard him by now. He flipped the switch to broaden the frequency before repeating the message. Someone will hear it now

[kyliegrasan]

Kylie was tired, exhausted and feeling sick. She also still had a patch on her head from where she was injured. And yet there she was again, freezing her ass off on the surface of some backwater planet guarding a pile of rubble. It was a miracle they were able to get the Esteem this far, considering the state it was in.

900 people. Approximately 400 dead, 200 injured, leaving merely 300 who were only mildly battered to man a ship meant for 900. Like many, Kylie hadn't stopped working since after the attack. And not just on the bridge. Most of the time she had been helping repairing stuff, cleaning blood in the corridors and even assisting doctors in the medbay.

Like everyone else on the groundteam, she was wearing her Alliance issue snowcamosuit, a white armybeanie along with a tactical/bulletproof vest, a handgun on her hip and an assault rifle on her back. After the Reaver attack she didn't want to be unarmed ever again.

Kylie looked up at the ridges, where marines were posted to keep an eye from above at the valley below. Aaron and the two Toms were around somewhere too.

They had set up a command tent as well, where they'd keep track who was coming in and out of St. Albans.

Kylie walked over to her friend Barney, who was standing at a burning barrel, warming himself along with other enlisted.

"Djeez Kyles, how long do we have be on the ground for this?" Barney asked.

"Command said we'll be relieved soon." Kylie answered. "But you know the Alliance. Wouldn't be surprised if we're still here next week. Rumor has it too that we'll probably have to get to drydock on Londinium on our own as well."

"Ah rut!" Barney cursed. "And here I was thinking I might be able to sleep somewhere in the next two weeks!"

"I know Barn." Kylie answered. "But I guess we'll manage..."

Kylie wasn't too certain of her words. The Esteem was in bad shape and Londinium was on the other edge of the 'Verse. It would be a miracle if they'd make it that far. Either way, they all wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep until the reached Londinium.

"Permission to cook up some soup?" Barney asked, knowing he didn't need to ask such a thing to Kylie.

Kylie gave Barney a careful smile. "Granted." She answered.

Barney walked away and started making another fire to put the improvised kettle on. Kylie just stared into the fire. She could feel her face defrosting the longer she stood there.

Her peace and quiet time then got disturbed when one of the radio operators from the command tent called for her.

"Lieutenant Grasan!" She called. "We've got incoming!"

Kylie ran over to the command tent and entered it. She went and stood behind the operator that called for her.

"Report." Kylie said.

"We've got an unknown incoming ship lieutenant." The operator answered. "We caught them on the armory's frequency. They identified themselves as Transport 1334217, but we're not expecting anyone until at least tomorrow morning."

Kylie thought about what to do for a moment. Maybe they were looters, or maybe they had something to do with the armory being blown up. She wasn't going to take any chances.

"Tell them they're trespassing, and then guide them here." Kylie ordered. "They might have something to do with what happened here. And order the Esteem to ready her weapons in case they should make a run for it."

Kylie then ran outside and grabbed her comm as she waved some of the marines to follow her.

"Wright, Denton, Legran, we've got incoming. We're guiding the ship towards us, get back here!"

She let go of the comm, and took the assault rifle of her back. She sure hoped she wouldn't have to use it. Nevertheless, she prepared herself for what was coming.

[OOC: I'll leave the whole guiding The Horizon in up to Sarah with Frankie.]

[darkreaction3]

Thomas was in a bad way. After the attack, each room had been thoroughly and methodically searched, no exceptions. They were looking for Reavers, of course, but any contraband found in the process would be confiscated. So, Tom had rid himself of his injectable anti-depressants, his addiction, before they could find it and demote him once more. Withdrawal was harsh and his depression was coming back. The fact that they'd had to work non-stop on little to no sleep since the Reaver attack didn't help any. Tom felt like an empty shell, and not just because he hadn't been eating much. Amara was gone, the drugs that would have dulled the pain of her loss were gone, and now they were stuck on the most miserable planet.

When Grasan called to him, Tom was seated by one of the command tents. He was not on duty at the moment, but sleep was not coming easily to him despite his exhaustion, so he had posted himself there to help out with whatever was needed. So far, that wasn't much. When he heard a familiar voice call his name, Tom stood and slung his weapon over his shoulder. "Incoming?" He shielded his eyes and took a quick, cursory glance at the sky surrounding as if to verify this. Of course, he could not see the ship yet, but he went quickly to Kylie's side. "Have they attempted contact?" He asked as he also readied his weapon.

[boris]

Boris walked back from the complete destruction that made was the St. Alban's outpost. He didn't necessarily care too much, however. He had never got along with anyone particularly well and that went double for the whiny feds that made up the other staff member.

"OOH, look at me, I'm cold, wah," he said mocking the now deceased alliance members that met their fate on St. Alban's.

Now he was tracking a rabbit through the snow. It's tracks were deep and somewhat far apart, meaning that it was big and would make for a fine soup. He paced himself as he examined some broken twigs and turned with the rabbit's tracks. Luckily it wasn't snowing or else it would be impossible to track.

After about an hour, the tracks stopped and new human footprints had begun. Somevun took my Rabbit he though slightly perturbed. Boris slowly followed the track wondering if they were the killers, alliance or some local who was going to be serving him rabbit stew later. At the edge of a small clearing he saw several tents and Alliance member. There was a tent larger than the others that must have been the command tent. Slowly he crept along the outside the clearing and sneaked his way past the officers and soldiers huddling around barrels for warmth. After a couple minutes he came up next to the ten and heard someone yell, "Wright, Denton, Legran, we've got incoming. We're guiding the ship towards us, get back here!"

With that, the aged engineer walked to the entrance of the tent and announce his presence with a "Hello."

[tomdalton]

Denton was on the outskirts of the Esteems little encampment, looking out towards the vast whiteness. It was nearly blinding.
He could feel the cold wind stinging his face, making it go numb. And the goosebumps popping up all over his arms. He should have worn the full winter camo, like everyone else. But Denton was a man of his own breed. Physical punishment like this is nothing compared to what his father used to put him through when he was a child.

He ran his hands over his shaved head, and down his face, wiping away the dry and frozen blood. Most of it wasn't his, but there was a large gash on top of his cranium, looks like some kind of claw mark.

Tom Denton, Infantry commander (Not sure if thats ok, not very good with ranks and stuff.) was lucky enough, or unlucky for some, to have been stationed at a breaching point for the reavers back on the Esteem.
He had never fought a reaver before, and was more than surprised at their ferocity, and the lack for their own safety.
He lost a lot of Marines up there, but thankfully for him, they where all low ranked. Newbies if you will. He only really cared for the safety of his special forces squad, who he trained himself.

His time spent gazing into the nothingness was cut short, as he heard the announcement to the officers.
"Wright, Denton, Legran, we've got incoming. We're guiding the ship towards us, get back here!".
He sighed, before turning around, headed back for the rows of tents. "I thought we weren't meant to be expecting anyone for a few days yet?" He questioned himself, as he took a quick detour to his own little tent.

Dunking his head into a large bowl of cold water, which was just heated up, he washed away all the blood that lay on his face. He also decided to put on his winter camo jacket. He grew weary of his little game to improve his toughness.

He stepped out of the tent, greeting a few of the passing marines, and headed to the command tent, which was in his line of sight.
Also in his line of sight was a man, and not in Alliance standard uniform. He quickly ran towards the tent, kicking up sprays of snow with every step, watching the man disappear behind the tent flap.
Denton quickly followed, pistol already drawn and shoved into the back of the man's head, just as he had finished his little introduction. "State your business!" He said in a calm tone of voice, which is un characteristic of him, as he usually plays the scary military man. But at the current moment of time, he didn't want too much attention drawn. The pistol in the back of the head would draw enough of that.

Tom knew that after this was done with, he was going to give a few on-guard marines one hell of a scolding, for letting him get by so easily.

[kyliegrasan]

Kylie looked up around to see if the marines were where they supposed to be. She hoped the incoming ship wouldn't be hostile, but if it was at least those marines up on the ridge had a vantage point.

"They've attempted contact through the armory's frequency." Kylie answered Tom. "Not sure if they're hostile or friendly, but we're about to find out."

Kylie then noticed a ruckus at the command tent, and walked over to see what was happening. She saw Tom Denton standing there with a gun drawn to an unknown man who apparently had breached the perimeter.

"What's going on here?" Kylie asked. "Who's this guy?"

[tomdalton]

"I seen this guy sneaking through the camp" Denton explained, keeping the pistol firmly pressed against the back of the intruders head, his eye's staring hard. He quickly glared at a nearby marine, who immediately knew what Denton wanted him to do, even without the exchange of words. And the term exchange is used very loosely.

The marine walked over to the man, who had a very low life expectancy if he decided to move, and relieved him of his weapons.
"State your business!" Denton growled, letting the man know that he had no problem with killing him. on top of the gun aimed at his head.

Denton's methods seem brash at the most of times, and he had been told this by many a commanding officer. But the facts where that it worked. Many men, have broken with but a few moments with the crazy guy. His stare usually does the job, but sadly the perpetrator had his back to him. But even so, many a man had commented on how you can feel his stare burning into you, even if you can;t see him.

[amaia]

Amaia watched out the window of the bridge, at the snowy planet below. She didn't mind the cold, or the secretive nature of their mission, but something felt off. It wasn't right.

"Sir," she asked as she turned towards the captain, "If you'll excuse my saying, something's off, I feel it." She looked back outside. She wasn't at all sure what could be wrong; it was an Alliance base on an armpit-of-the-verse world, so it should have little in the way of problems.

As they glided through the atmosphere, and came up on the base, Amaia noticed the rubble, the tarps covering dead bodies.

"Ze zhen shi ge kwai le de jing jun..." she said to herself. "They've been hit," she continued, turning to address the captain and pilot. "Hard. This just got a lot more complicated." She grabbed one of the nearby handsets and toggled the radio.

"St. Albans, looks like you've had a little trouble recently," she spoke into it, hoping the base would fill in the blanks without being asked. "Everything's secure now, correct?"

[boris]

As soon as Boris opened the tent and saw the radio inside, he knew he had made a mistake. The people in charge weren't in there. When he felt the gun on him, he knew there was a bigger mistake.

"State your business!" growled the man trying and suceeding in sounding intimidating.

"My name is Boris Grishenko," he paused, "and I have a feeling you are the scary man of this group, right now, I bet you are have a staring contest with the back of my head," he paused again. He knew he was in some sort of trouble but never really worried himself about it. I am the chief mechanic for the St. Alban's outpost, my identification is in my inner coat pocket, and I would be liking to be having some rabbit stew now," he finished.

[robertborden]

Something is seriously wrong here, thought Borden. "We will comply with your request, we were scheduled to arrive tomorrow but are ahead of schedule. Has something happened to the outpost? asked Borden as he signaled Frankie to begin the descent.

"All crew, this is the captain speaking," he began on the intercom, "It appears as if everything has not gone as planned, we are picking up the signal from an Alliance cruiser and a ground team, we will be landing in a few minutes...Be prepared...Amaia, Gordon. get up here" Borden was starting to be worried that they might be losing their undercover status a little early. Hopefully, it would be okay.


Aaron Legran

Figures, i finally do my job and now I'm getting called back. Aaron was leading a small group in a reconnaissance mission to see if there were supplies locally, they were about half a mile away when he got the message. "Well men, I guess I'm heading back. Nakamura, you're in charge now." Kylie knew he was out here and if she wanted his team she would have asked them all to return.

He quickly jogged back, but the terrain meant it would take him a few minutes longer than usual to get base to the command tent.

[kyliegrasan]

Problems never seemed to come alone in the Alliance. First they had an incoming, possibly hostile vessel and now they had an intruder on the perimeter.

The man identified himself as the chief engineer of the outpost, and said that his ID was in his inner coat pocket. She put her assault rifle on her back and grabbed her handgun and pointed it at the man as well.

"Alright, let's have a look then." Kylie said. "Denton, keep that gun pointed at him."

Kylie couldn't give the order to shoot at another human being. It was something she tried avoiding, next to ever having to shoot another person. The Reavers she killed on the Esteem during the attack didn't count in her eyes. They were humans once, but not anymore.

With one hand she kept her handgun pointed at the man, and reached with her other hand into the man's inner pocket. She then took a few steps backward and put her handgun in the holster again before taking a look at it.

The ID seemed legitimate, and even though Kylie was known to be a bit too gullible in the past, she knew better than to just leave it at that. There appeared to be no survivors in the armory, so why was this guy still alive?

"Petty officer Darala." Kylie called. "Verify this."

Kylie handed the ID card over to Darala, who took it into the tent and put it in a reader. Grishenko's profile appeared on the screen.

"Everything checks out, lieutenant." Darala said.

Kylie gave Darala a nod and then looked at Denton, who was still focused on Grishenko's head. Everything may have checked out, but there still was no telling whether or not Grishenko had a hand in the destruction of the armory. Conditions were suspicious to say the least.

"Stand down, Denton." Kylie said. "Have two of your men escort mr. Grishenko to one of the shuttles and guard him. We'll deal with him later. And assemble your men, I'm gonna need a firesquad at the ready when that ship gets in."

[tomdalton]

Denton wanted to pull the trigger so bad. The cheek of this guy. But if he shot him here and now, he would probably get court marshalled, not to mention spraying Kylie with blood.
You had to admire it though, staying cool like that, while there is a pistol pushed into the back of your skull.

Tom didn't believe a word that came out of his mouth, and if he where in command here, this guy would have been shot on sight. But that's likely to be the reason why he isn't in command.
He kept his eye's burrowing into Boris's head, while watching Kyle in his peripheral vision, approach and pull out his ID, giving it to one of her subordinates.
Apparently he spoke the truth, but Denton was still incredibly sceptical.

"Stand down, Denton." came Kylie's orders. "Have two of your men escort mr. Grishenko to one of the shuttles and guard him. We'll deal with him later. And assemble your men, I'm gonna need a firesquad at the ready when that ship gets in."

He paused for a moment, before, slowly lowering the pistol back into it's holster. "Yes, Ma'am." he said, grabbing the mechanic by the scruff of the neck, and dragging him outside.

He shouted over to two marines keeping warm by a fire. "Oi, Kawalski, Cooper. Get your asses here!" he barked.
The two, quickly ran over to them, nearly slipping over on more than one occasion, before standing to attention.
"Yes, sir!" They said in unison, staring straight forward, not daring looking at Denton in case he make them run laps or something.
"Take this one to the shuttle, and guard him." he said, shoving Boris in their direction. "And take special care with him.", he said with a grin.

The guards grabbed Boris by the arms, and dragged through the think snow, towards the shuttle. They had smiles on their faces, not because Denton didn't care for this guy's treatment. But because they got where near Deonton, and didn't have anything to show for it...for once.

[takemeout]

Frankie waited for the order to land. Although, orders in the strictest sense would give away their mission. She glanced down below, noticing the dead bodies when Amaia did.

"Well, this doesn't spell fun.." She spoke softly.

With the signal to land, Frankie pushed the wheel forward. The nose of the ship slowly lowered, followed easily by the body. She blinked and tried not to keep her eyes on the same spot for too long. The whiteness outside was blinding. She could only imagine the temperature.

"Almost got our feet on frozen ground, Captain."

[amaia]

Amaia watched as the ship approached the port. As she squinted through the windows, she could make out the figures of people with guns out.

"Alright captain," she said, "I'm going to go put on something warm and unrevealing, and I think I'm going to bring along a few of my choice concealable firearms, if that's alright." She turned to leave, but exited only before adding "I'll be in my bunk if anything new happens."

She jogged down the steps and went into her cabin, quickly swapping her shirt for a thicker sweatshirt. Her pistol's shoulder holster went on after that, and she quickly put her pistol into the holster, followed by the custom silencer that sat snugly in a small pouch attached to the holster. The poor pistol had seen more use and abuse than most military weapons ever see, but she had held together in the best and worst of times, and so Amaia kept it around. It didn't look pretty, but it sure as hell got the job done.

Amaia was about to leave when she saw the shotgun waiting in her closet. She thought for a moment before grabbing it, folding the stock, and clipping it to her shoulder harness. She skipped the buttons on her jacket, instead only tying it with the waistband to conceal the weapons. She then headed up to the bridge.

"I'm on your six," she said to Borden as she arrived.

[gordonmiller]

Gordon was playing with his dog in the cargobay, using a piece of rope with the dog pulling on one side, and Gordon pulling on the other. It was a good exercise for the both of them. Gordon knew they'd be hitting St. Albans in the half hour or so, so instead of one of his regular suits he was wearing the snowcamosuit he got when he was still in the Special Forces. Of course he had stripped the suit of his nametag and all other patches for this mission.

Playtime then got interrupted when the captain called for Amaia and him.

"Let go Raxo. Good boy." Gordon said as he took a dogbiscuit from his pocket. "Now stay. I'll be right back."

The dog immediately complied, and started eating the cookie as Gordon left for the bridge. Amaia was already there as well.

"Sir?" Gordon asked, waiting to be briefed on the situation.