Edwards Air Force Base Emergency Beacon mission -- RPLOG - RPLOG
Participants
Date
28/1/2017
Log
It's a quiet day outside the city of Fairhaven. The skies are clear, with a few puffy clouds drifting lazily along.
At least, it would be, if it weren't for the two agents arguing right outside an impressively large looking transport truck, designed to accomodate whoever decided to come along, diesel engine idling with a thunderous rumble of pistons firing and cams turning. The taller, burlier agent, a Doberman-morph, appears to be waist-deep in a fight with the smaller, scrawnier one, a severe-looking Owl-morph. They both are wearing standard Zephyr uniforms, and appear to be both male. The owl spots a few agents approaching in the distance, pointing it out to the doberman. Noticing the slew of agents approaching, he frowns, sighs, and stops arguing, while the smaller one smiles smugly and crosses his arms, waiting for the team to draw closer.
Light is walking up slightly ahead of the pack of agents, arms behind her back while walking. Female clad in a dark colored kimono along with her darker colors, revolver at side with a pack on her back with a red cross on it. She nods towards the two men while she continued onto her approach, humming along the walk towards them.
Firecracker, a pint-sized pale pink pony pegasus, drops down from above to land atop the truck. She looks down to the others from over the side as she happily chirps, "Hiya! I'm Firecracker! What're your names? And is the place for the stuff with the things?" She hangs her forelegs over the side of the vehicle as she watches more people arrive, giving a smile and a happy wave, introducing herself to each as they come.
Fenris trots up to the transport and snaps off a smart salute, then stands at ease with his thumbs tucked into the heavy utility belt around his thick waist and a pleasant smile on his face. "Heard someone needed help?" he says, polishing the copper badge on his chest that reads SGT CHUBBS. He smiles at the pony and points at said badge. "My badge says Chubbs!" he says, by way of introduction.
Naiko was the last to arrive for now. A large, sturdy looking completely mechanical robot. They slowly walked up to the transport truck, waving to all the agents around.
A Synthetic robotic voice echoed from the robot's speakers, "It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Naiko." The robot did also glance at the Tanuki for quite a little while, adding.. "Hmm. I think I recognize you!"
"Welcome, welcome! My name's Sherrod." The owl says, looking significantly more amiable since he 'won' the argument." On the other hand, however, the canine merely grunts gruffly. "My friend here is named Stu-" The doberman growls, warningly. "Simon, I mean. He's not feeling particularly friendly after he lost a bet just a little bit ago."
"Yeah. This is the trip for the stuff. And the things." The owl notes with a dry smile to the excitable pony, and offering a nod towards to chubby canine. "Welcome, yes... someone should need help, according to the radio. But we won't know until we get there."
The fox chuckles for a bit while she hears everyones name, "My name is light, and its a plasure to meet all of you." She listens in and laughs a little towards Sherrod giving the little situation that his buddy lost in. "A bet? Well thats a shame." Her laughs goes down to a snicker while she looked at Firecracker, turning around to Naiko then Chubbs. "A pleasure too meet you both aswell."
"Then what're we waitin' for?!" Firecracker shouts as she hops up into a standing position atop the truck, thrusting a foreleg forward to point onward towards adventure, "Onwards to adventure!" After her little announcement, she hops right off the side of the truck to land atop Fenris's head softly, ready to go! "Hiya, Chubsy! You all ready for adventurificationizing?!" she asks the group in general.
"Adventurificationizing is my middle name!" Fenris says, thumping his belly to make a sound like a bass drum! "Let's get a move on!" The tubby tanuki agilely heaves himself into the back of the truck, even with the pony settled on his head.
"Good! If things get a little ugly I'll do my best to help." Naiko clicks and whirrs, hopping on the truck. "Adventurifi..Cationizing? I'll make a note never to say that word out loud." They laugh, shaking their head lightly. "Onto... Adventure. Gods, I haven't said that word in a very long time."
"Everyone load up, then. Hop on the truck's back and we'll get to moving." Sherrod says, waving everyone on while Simon grumbles and gets in the truck's cabin, fiddling with a few knobs while all the agents hop in. "Nice to meet you all, at any rate. Hopefully, our mission goes without too much "adventure" and with minimal deviation. I'll give you all a full briefing once we're moving." He looks at Firecracker a little strangely, shrugs, and starts to hop in the passenger side of the cabin. Once everyone is actually inside, the truck gets to rolling, quickly getting up to a decent speed... except, in the back, there happens to be no windows. That's the problem with old trucks.
"Adventurficationizing? Thats a new one to hear, maybe it wont be that last one I hear either." Light giggles a bit before helping herself up to the back of the truck, settling inside and twiddling her thumbs while she waited for the briefing.
Firecracker rides Fenris's head right into the back of the truck along with the others, watching as the light disappears as the doors are closed behind them. "Oh! It sure is dark in here! That kinda makes it hard to play games while we wait! We can play charades! No wait... I Spy! Wait no, that doesn't work either. Marco Polo! That works!" The little pegasus hops off the tanuki's head and starts calling out "Marco!" as she pronks around inside the truck.
Fenris finds a seat and settles himself in, folding his hands over his round belly and tipping his uniform hat down over his eyes. It is only moments before he starts to snore gently.
It's a wonder how Naiko fits perfectly in the back of the truck, considering the robot's size. Their head emitted a faint red laser grid as it scanned everyone in the back of the truck.
"Sooo.." Nodding towards Firecracker and turning one of their shoulders' emergency lights, they exclaimed, "Polo? Am I doing this right? Also, I seem to have seen you often around Zephyr." Turning towards the Tanuki and nodding again, "Nope, still can't recall where I have-.. Well that was.. Fast.." And finally, to Light. "And you..." After a brief pause, Naiko tilts their head, adding. "Look pretty cool actually!"
"Advance teams have already secured the area around the base. Scouts are set up with rifles to pick off any ferals. The risk should be minimal to you all... provided you use common sense." Simon speaks, his voice gruff and harsh, compared to Sherrod's smooth, polite chatter. The trunk goes over a particularly large bump, and everything rattles.
Light smiles a bit as she gets her vision back inside with the Naiko's emergency lights kicking in. "Thank you Naiko, and thanks for the complement." She smiles, turning her head around to look at the point of the noise, nodding towards Simon and Sherrod. "Minimal risk, well thats all good." She sighs in relief, swaying to the side and lightly bounced up and down from the large bump.
"Wow, this game's a lot easier when there're lights on!" Firecracker giggles as she hops right over to the giant robot, tagging its foot with a forehoof. "And yeah, I was there a little while ago!" she answers before being launched up into the air a few feet from the minor bump, simply going straight up, then straight back down with her legs under her as if she had never left the floor. "I have summa that sense stuff, I think," she says in reply to the doberman.
Fenris nods at the excplanation, though he might really be asleep. . .
"Ask first, shoot if things come to that. Seems easy enough, but if it comes to that I'll do my best to keep everyone well covered." The robot synthesizes, before briefly nodding to Light once again.
The truck rattles again. Roads being unmaintained for the better part of a decade doesn't exactly make for a pleasant driving experience. The owl chimes in, Sherrod turning around to make sure his voice is heard. "We don't know who's alive in there, and we don't know what they are. Probability tells us they're probably still human, but. We're there to make contact if there's people, and salvage if there's not. So, yeah, ask first, shoot later is the directive of the day. Even if any survivors appear to be hostile at first, we're not exactly human, if you've noticed. That may throw them off."
"Well thats something that cant be predicted." Light chimes in after, nodding a bit and jostling a bit more. "If anyone needs bandages, I'm not a medic but I do have first aid training." She smiles only for a second. "More humans, thats gonna be something inspiring. Though they will be afraid of us first for sure, lets not be the ones to point the guns right at them if they arent hostile."
"We're not exactly human, but I fancy it's easier for them to conceive a robot thingy than.. Well, Y'know. No offense, anyone. But if you want, someone who's better at negotiating terms and.. Speaking in general can stay inside my cockpit and walk me around or use my speakers." The robot throws their shoulders back, adding. "It's an option."
Firecracker bounces up and down as the truck jostles on the road, apparently paying it no mind. "Got'cha! Make friends with the people we find! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Now I just gotta find some lemons!" She looks over to Light, nodding her head as she agrees, "Yeah, guns aren't very good for making friends!"
Fenris must be listening, because the snoozing tanuki is suddenly enveloped in a puff of ramen scented smoke. When it clears, a chubby, completely human man in a police officer's uniform, complete with pants! Though a thick, tanuki tail still wags behind him.
"Anyways. We're just about to pull up now." The owl, Sherrod, notes. Outside.., well.Edwards AFB. Site of several Space Shuttle landings, and the home of the Air Force Flight Test Center. Several experimental planes have took off, went into space, and landed here. Many revolutionary planes had flown for their first times, here.
Unfortunately, the times have changed. What was once an immaculate, highly-guarded fence, has weathered and developed many holes over time. Even moreso, concrete has cracked, and broken-down planes strew several runways. A few hangers have caved in, and the checkpoints now act as gaping holes into the base. How the mighty have fallen.
The transport truck crawls along the road to the nearest checkpoint gate, and, after stopping there, continues through after a short period of tense silence where both of the Zephyr agents look nervously out the windows. Not a soul in sight.
Light takes a deep breath, not hearing anything and the chipper voices in the front ending. After waiting in the near silence except for the purrs and roars of the engine. "So what's going on out there?" She says, arm down on her lap. She looks over towards everyone else, taking a deep breath. "So this was the adventure you wanted Chubbs?"
"Oh! We're here!" Firecracker chirps out as the truck comes to a stop. She flits over to land on top of the used-to-be-tanuki-and-now-human-with-a-tanuki-tail. She leans over his head and knocks a forehoof on his forehead, shouting "Wake up, Chubsy! Adventure time! Operation: Make Friends with the People at the Place with the Stuff and Things is a go!"
Fenris peeks from under his hat, revealing a round, pleasant face. "Not yet," he admits to Light, "But you have to start somewhere, right?" He turns a smile on the excited pony. "Sergeant Chubbs, ready for duty!" he says, heaving himself to his feet. The tanuki-turned-human looks pretty good, if chubby.
Naiko nodded towards the tanuki and the pony, beeping in a low tone, preparing to head out once the truck stops. "I just hope that whoever they are, they don't get too feisty or trigger happy with weapons or anything. Let's do our best to have a passive outcome on this, shall we?"
Watching the truck pull up is a pretty heavily armed and armored dragoness who looked like she wasn't in the mood for nonsense. Her weapon was a massive beast, and her armor managed to conform to her body enough to be clear that yes, this was a woman. She looked bored despite having such a serious expression on her face. Once teh truck stopped, she walked over. "Corporal Buzamu Herrick, USMC. Currently on contract from Zephyr for scout duty for this little expdedition. You the diplomats?" She asked teh agents as they dismounted from teh truck.
"Diplomats. More like salvage team -- you know as well as I that the likelihood of anyone being in there is minimal." Sherrod says, rolling down the window to look down and over at the dragoness. "Between the strength of the signal and observed activity, we estimate there's one or two survivors, MAX. It's a shame, too -- this place had a fascinating history. Anyways, hop in." Simon turns around, glowering at the people in the back. "Don't be getting too riled up back there. After everything's settled, we're going to head unto the base proper. The place is massive, and covering it on foot is impractical."
The fox pulls out her magnum, peeking her head out for a second before dismounting and landing onto the ground right besides the truck. "Either way, we have a job to do now guys." She keeps her gun down onto the ground while she waited for the little bit of talking. "It is a shame, at least we can archive what happened."
"Good thing I don't have any feet then!" Firecracker answers, looking down to her hoofsies upon Fenris's hat. "How about with wings? That's practically practical! And I thought we were there already! Are we there yet?" she asks the two up front.
Fenris takes this opportunity to polish his badge and the shiny uniform shoes he is suddenly wearing. "Gotta make a good impression," he says, then pulls a packet of oreo knockoffs and munches happily on a cookie, spilling crumbs down his front.
"Right. Point the signal's been coming from is towards the storage bunkers. My guess is one got turned into a survival hole on P-Day." Buzamu said, walking to the rear of the truck and pushing aside the flap and climbing in.
The fox pulls out her magnum, pointing it right down onto the ground. "Either way, we have a job to do now guys." Light keeps her gun down onto the ground while she waited for the little bit of talking. "It is a shame, at least we can archive what happened." She looks up to Bazumu and nods to her, settling the gun right onto her holster again.
And the truck begins to move, again, pushing through the broken checkpoint gate and driving along casually towards the source of the signal. Sherrod glances at a small machine, and occasionally instructs Simon to turn left or right based on it. Everything's quiet... until two uniformed soldiers, a male, a female, come out from behind a tanker truck, one wielding a dangerously large rocket launcher and the other with a service rifle, both pointed at the truck. Naturally, Simon immediately stops the truck. One of the soldiers, the woman, shouts. "Get out of the truck! Both of you! What in the hell are you doing here!?" The owl, very calmly, begins to disembark. "We heard the message..."
Light jerked for a second while she was being taken quite the ride in the back of the truck, taking small breath. She keeps her hand on her holster while trying get onto the both of us. She looked at the each of them and did not say a single word towards her comrades.
(Light's voice comes into each of her comrades minds, "Don't say a word or make any type of noise.")
Firecracker chirps out, "Okay! Now we're really actually here! And our new friends are already here to meet us!" She flies out through the front of the truck as the owl opens the door, popping up a few feet in the air to happily wave a foreleg at the two pointing guns their way. "Hiya, new friends! I'm Firecracker! What're your names?" she asks as she hovers a short distance to the side and above the truck. "We're here to help! Either of you know Johnny?"
As the truck rolls to a stop, Fenris hops lightly out the back and saunters around, obviously not good at following instructions. At least he is less conspicuous than Firecracker. "Are we there, then?" the tubby man asks, tipping his uniform hat back a little, "What's all the shouting about?" He seems to be utterly oblivious to the pointed weapons and raises a chubby hand in greeting. "Hello there!" he says, "Heard there were people out here who could use some help?"
Naiko, however, stands completely still, aside from a brief, silent headshake. The Robot watches Firecracker and Fenris stepping out doing the chatter, but doesn't seem to wish to risk their progress by stepping out. Not yet, at least. Instead, they wait for Light to make their move.
Unable to stop herself, Buzamu rolls her eyes. "I think your thought just went out the window there." Buzamu says to Light, before gesturing for the rest to step out. "Come on folks." She states, walking around the truck. Once in view of the two soldiers, she promptly drops teh magazine that'd been fitted to the M2 Browning Machine Gun, pulling the bolt back and locked it open, putting away the magazine and then raising ehr hands in the air. "I'm not hot now. You both just watched me bolt clear. Corporal Buzamu Herrick, USMC." She states, having shifted her armor to be in the woodland MARPAT design while in teh truck, just in case. Sure, ti was atop her desert MARPATs, but at least her uniform was in proper order despite her changed form.
The two soldiers glance at each other. The man, wielding the launcher, grips his knuckles tighter on the grip. Judging from the size of it, a direct hit, or a nearby, would be neigh unsurvivable. The woman does the same, muzzle tracking each and every person that hops out of the truck. They're both wearing ABUs -- a tipoff that they're Air Force, and not really trained for combat. Well, hopefully not. Simon sighs, and Sherrod does the same. They could probably handle the initial negotiation themselves, but, as predicted, agents complicated the matter.
"What the h- EVERYONE FREEZE RIGHT NOW." The woman barks, firing a warning shot at the foot of Firecracker. Her aim is surprisingly remarkable. "EVERYONE STOP MOVING RIGHT NOW OR THAT THING'S GOING BOOM." Buzamu's diplomacy helps little, as long as the two are spooked. Sherrod grimaces. "We came for the distress sign- YELP!" The owl is cut off by another warning shot.
The fox muttered to herself, taking a small pill covering her face as a small smoke gathers around her. Soon her fur disappearing along with her tails and ears, she reaches into her backpack and pulls out her darkened headphones along with reattaching her COM unit onto her wrist once more. She takes a deep breath and sits there, looking to Naiko with a smile on her face. Light assumed on her human form once again.
Firecracker doesn't even flinch as the bullet whizzes by under her, continuing to hover in the air. "Oh, I can do that!" she chirps out happily, becoming comically-still with her legs locked out straight beneath her, only thing in motion being her wings as they keep her in the air.
Fenris seems unbothered by the warning shots. He pulls another cookie from his little packet and munches it thoughtfully. "So, you didn't send out a call for help then?" he asks calmly, "That is okay too." He holds up the half empty cellophane package in his hand. "Cookie?" he offers, "Before we go?"
Naiko remains still, quietly whispering to Light as she turns human. "Common sense is something... Rare.. Nowadays.." The robot shakes their head slowly and lightly.
"Everyone calm down! There's no need to shoot." Buzamu says, looking over the two airmen. No stripes on their sleeves, which Buz recalled the Air Force did for enlisted, weirdos that they were. Which meant looking at their collars, where having ranks was sensible. And promptly snapped to attention and saluted. "Captain, Lieutenant. We're from Fairhaven, and we heard the comms calling for assistance from a Major Derek, but the signal was garbled."
Nobody moved. That was a good thing. The absence of strange people moving about rapidly gave the two officers time to catch their breath -- at which point, the woman (the captain) sighed and started to loosen her grip a little. "Okay. Okay. What I need, is for those people still in your truck, to come out with their hands up. Then we can start talking about what we're going to do next." Sherrod quickly nods, trying to gesture for Simon, Light, and Naiko to exit the vehicle and do as the nice lady says.
"Yes... at ease, soldier. We.., well. We didn't really want that message to go out, you see."
Light frowns for a second, standing from her seet and walked from the back of the truck. After hopping off the truck she lifted her hands into the airs and slowly came from across the corner of the truck where the others went from. She nods "Alright alright, we are coming out." She says, keeping her hands up for everyone to see.
"Why not?" Firecracker questions as she hovers, moving her mouth as little as possible while still holding her legs frozen in place beneath her. "Do ya not need any help? That's good! But what about Johnny? Does he need help still?"
Fenris stands at ease, finishing his packet of cookies, since no one seems to want any. Then he opens another, munching happily while he waits fir the call to adventure.
At sherrod's gesture, Naiko's servos and various systems quickly came back to life as the robot hopped out of the truck, raising their hands. Beeping and scanning, Naiko synthesized. "I see the situation is.. Kind of under control. Captain, Lieutenant, yes? We mean no harm and only wish to aid." The robot declared its intentions, nodding as it walked forward a little before coming to a full stop.
"Marine. And why's that?" Buzamu corrected, but asked, even as she eased up. "I'm honestly surprised that teh supplies here lasted long enough to sustain a population for these 9 years."
The two eye each other warily, glancing over at the group, the lieutenant especially eyeing the robot lady with his rocket launcher. Sherrod calmly starts to put his hands back down, eyeing Simon as he does the same. "Okay. That's everyone out, I swear." The owl says, calmly. "Now, can you stop pointing those at us, and we can start having a civil conversation? I assume you both already know what the world's like out there." The Captain quickly nods, finally taking the time to look Buzamu up, and down. Oh. They were a marine. "Apologies, marine. And... well, we know what's out there, but we don't know what's out there, if you catch my drift. That's why we didn't want the message to go out. It's also a lot easier to support a small group of people rather than an entire base full of people, especially since we can toss the MREs in a fridge." She sighs, finally lowering her rifle. "I'm Captain Marietta Shaw. This is Lieutenant Frederick Keller, here. I'd love for you all to introduce yourselves, too." Her last sentence is said with both a sense of harshness and of bitter humor.
\///
"I'm Light, scientist. Sorry for the little bit of a scare that you had. Though we had to hear it the signal." She sighs for a second and taps her head for a second. "I also help out the medical staff when needed." She smiles, settling down and putting her arms right down on her sides.
With the guns lowered, obviously that means it's time to spring into action! "Great!" Firecracker chimes as she instantly dashes forward through the air towards the Captain to land on her shoulder. "I'm Firecracker!" she says happily in her new position, whether she actually made it to the shoulder or has to settle for hovering nearby. She turns about to sweep a hoof towards the rest of her group, stopping on each one briefly as she introduces them. "That's Chubsy, Light, Naiky, Buzzy, Roddy, and Stu!" she finishes, dropping her leg beneath her once more. "Nice to meet'cha, Mary and Freddy!"
"Now that introductions are in order and.. Firecracker introduced me a little bit, I'm Dr. Naiko, former medical installations specialist. Not a military but I can usually get places, as you see." The robot synthesizes, gesturing as it introduced itself for the military personnel. "It is nice to meet all of you, and as I mentioned before, I'm willing to help to my fullest extents, as instructed by my supervisors." Naiko's voice seemed pretty neutral and robotic. Was there even something organic there? One could only wonder.
Fenris smirks at Firecracker's antics and touches the brim of his hat. "My badge says Sergeant Chubbs," he introduces himself, spraying crumbs just a little, "Just here to help."
"And I've introduced myself and given my rank. As for what's 'out there', well, depends on where you look. You lucked out and are on the right edge of a nanite bubble, one of the things that caused all kinds of hell for the last 9 years, though we're starting to get things back in order." Buzamu responds, resting her hands on her rifle and smiling. "Welcome to the Crazy."
"You're light? What does your weight have to do with anything?" The lieutenant quips, before he's silenced by a stern look from the captain. The captain also doesn't take too kindly to the small creature landing on her shoulder, and quickly grasps Firecracker in a quick hand as soon as they land there. "I take it this... thing... is often fairly annoying, no?"
"Welcome, then, Doctor. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone for you to help unless you can bring bodies back from the dead. If there's one thing we have plenty of, it's bodies." Marietta says darkly, slipping the morbid fact under a thin veneer of 'humor'. The captain takes a quick look at Fenris' uniform, as to not make the same mistake she did earlier. Ah. Law enforcement. "Nice to see you, Sergeant. Nice to see some police about."
"And, yes. We figure as much -- the little buggers were banned on the base, for security reasons. A brilliant decision in hindsight, it seems, though we have to shoot the occasional... creature..."
Sherrod and Simon introduces themselves. "I'm agent Sherrod, and this is agent Simon. We're from Zephyr Inc. and we came to handle the situation. So, what was that you said about the message being unintentional?" The owl says, directly.
"First thing's first, then. The Major is dead. As is, well, nearly everyone else, besides a handful of enlisted we have hanging about still. The marine was right, here, when it came to food... we have some, still. Good thing you came when you did, we had to... let a soldier go, when we caught him eating another one..."
"Jokes like that always seems to run by people, no no My name is Light. Perhaps just call me miss Ishida then at this point." Light smiles and looks towards the lieutenant. "I'm afraid you are gonna have to excuse Firecracker, she's a bit of a nut once you get to know her. Not really much of a thinking person sometimes." She looks a bit more sternly then. "Besides you two, how many are still left?"
Firecracker squeaks when she's grabbed in the hand about the same size as she, simply continuing to talk as she's moved about. "I'm not a thing or a nut, I'm a pegasusususus!" she retorts with a giggle. "And I'm always like this cause I'm always like this!"
Fenris grins, preening a little at being acknowledged. So far, it looks like no one is in need of his particular services, so he turns his attention to checking out the area. Though he does frown in distaste and definite displeasure at the mention of cannibalism. "So, if we were not meant to get the message," he ponders aloud, "Who WAS meant to receive it?"
"Besides the message being unintentional, bodies? Hmm.. If I may ask, what -is- killing everyone?" Naiko beeps and inquisitively asks. "And about bringing people back from the dead.. Well, that is a whole other story, and I believe that a couple minutes after they're gone, they're gone for good." The robot lets out a robotic shrug.
Cannalbalism wasn't a joking matter, but still. "Starvation, malnutrition would be my top guesses. Not a lot of ferals willing to risk going out of hte bubble. Beyond those, you've likely got those settlements still functional that were lucky and avoided the bubbles entirely trying to get whatever it is they need to grow." Buzamu muses. "Food, water, medicine, weapons. It's not a pretty world out there, and with major distribution points of common goods gone..."
"Nobody. Nobody was meant to get the message. The message wasn't meant to be broadcast. Two nights ago, the Major.., well. He ate his own pistol. Which, naturally, left me in charge of this damned place, but." Marietta sighs, and taps the side of her leg impatiently. She glances at the Lieutenant again, then shakes her head, tossing the little creature out into the air in the general direction of the pair of zephyr agents that drove there. "Also, we're the only two on this base, right now. That handful of enlisted is in the nearby town, holed up in a house somewhere. We can send them a message, if you want to meet 'em, but in all likelihood, you wouldn't be able to meet them today."
"Not everyone died, doc. Many people fled. But, those who did die, died in power struggles, due to murder, due to doing stupid things. If you put a thousand enlisted on a base together and left them in the middle of nowhere amongst an unknown enemy, Air Force enlisted nonetheless, you're lucky if you end up with less than a hundred who didn't run away. We used to have more officers, too, but many left to try to be with their families when the thing hit. All told, after P-Day, we had roughly a thousand staff, total. That whittled down over nine years as people left, figuring they were better on their own rather than on half rations."
"So, yes. Just us two. If you can get us AND the others out of here, we're willing to take some evac here."
Sherrod eyes Simon, who in turn eyes Sherrod. They both share a thought, but sigh. "We can't give an immediate answer, of course. We'll contact Zephyr and see if we can bring y'all back, but..."
Light raises an eyebrow and shakes her head, she then looked as small firecracker went flying towards Sherrod and Simon. She puts her hand over her face and sighed. "That would be for the best, but I think we should contact Zephyr and then assess the entire situation."
Firecracker tumbles through the air, rather gracefully for someone who was just tossed, before stopping in a hover by her drivers. "I say we load everyone up in the truck and go back and have a big ol' 'Welcome to Zephyr, Here's a Lotta Food' party!" she suggests with a bright smile, looking around at the others to see how her idea sits with the others. "Cause those guys must be really REALLY hungry if they're eating guns! They're all metally and probably don't taste nearly as good as cherries, or pies, or cherry pies!" she says as she spins about in place, talking to everyone around her at once.
"Why should they have to go back to Zephyr?" Fenris asks, "If all they need is a lift to Fairhaven, I don't see why we can't just load everyone up. I'm sure the Prometheans would be glad to help out until they can get on their feet." The transformed tanuki considers for a second. "But if you want to get away from the nanite zones. . ." he trails off and shrugs, "Besides, I don't particularly trust the Z anyway."
"I'm pretty sure Zephyr can take some Evac, but sure, all in all it's best to contact Z first to take a look at the situation. Still, I supose they're holed up somewhere under the Major's orders?" It sighs.
Buz can't help but huff. "I don't trust any of the big three. But frankly, Zephyr has the means to move people right now in the local area." she states, sighing.
The captain sighs. "Okay, fine. Feel free to poke about the base, then. It's not like there's anything classified left for you to poke at. We have a few aircraft hangers about with planes still there. Broken planes with no fuel, but. Try to have one of your scout teams contact us when we get a solid answer. I don't think I can hold the group together for much longer without everything violently tearing itself apart."
"And, no. I ordered them to hole up. We knew your teams were coming -- it's not like we're idiots here. Anyways, I'll recall them."
Sherrod nods, and nods to Simon. "Okay then." He turns to address the group that came with them. "Alright, guys, we're going to give the place a quick once-over, grab some gas for the truck, then head back. Any questions?"
"Well with that settled, everyone else want to go take a look around then?" Light smiled and look towards firecracker. "And also, we should keep a good eye with everything around here." She looks towards the others and looked at firecracker. "Thats not what she mea- oh never mind, I don't think you understood what she meant." She grimmaces some, shaking her head.
"Yeah! We can get em back to anywhere really, as long as they get to get a nice big tasty meal!" Firecracker says with a rapid nodding of her head to agree with the others. "And nooooow..." she says as she wiggles her rump in the air, coiling her body up in preparation for take-off, "ADVENTURE!" she shouts, launching herself up into the air over the others to start exploring the base from above.
Fenris gives a sharp salute, though the gravitas of the situation does not affect his grin, then he trots off at a jog. He is surprisingly speedy for someone as bulky as he is. Then he stops, mid-stride and jogs backward to the group, "I'm just going to look around, then," he says, then, message delivered, he takes off again at speed to explore the compound, his fat, fluffy tail bouncing merrily behind him. Despite his silly facade, he moves with purpose.
"I'd really want to take a look around, Light. To be honest, I always wanted to see one of these bases up close." The robot does nod to the Captain and the Lieutenant, adding, "Well, It has been a pleasure to peacefully talk to the both of you. If you should require, I can stay with you while the big three handle this situation. Could even show you a couple of things if you'd like."
Turning towards Light once again, Naiko added. "Also, I forgot to ask, have you ever been in a cockpit? Plane or anything the wise? Even I got one for people to control some of my systems."
Buz chuckles. "And now we see the chaos of folks going nutty on a military base. Me, I'd be happy to get ahold of some parts for my kit. And maybe to ahve for the purpose of training tools." She says. "Armory still mostly intact?" Buz asked the Captain. "If so, mind if I requisition some of the armaments? Looking to start building a kind of training program to help those of the Nanite-affected population be able to do things out of bubble. And hopefully avoid causing near troubles like this again. I really do NOT want to expecerience receiving a hot SMAW to the face."
"The armory is nearly completely intact. There's not much to shoot out into the middle of nowhere, here." The captain notes, dryly. "You'll have to blow open the door to get to the heavy stuff, though. I had an engineer weld it shut. Turns out, lots of people wanted to shoot the guy in charge, back when that actually mattered."
"There's a bunch of busted planes, in the hangers. Oh, and a busted space shuttle. Not much to work with, though -- without maintenance, those things fall apart very quickly. Gas should be in the generator room. Take only a few gallons -- we're running low, and we've already tapped all the local gas stations."
"We'll wait here while you all collect stuff." Sherrod says, while Simon grunts in agreement, the doberman starting to take out a cigar. "Also... did you say...?"
"No I can't say I completely been inside of a Cockpit before, but I definitely can learn on the spot if you would allow me to get in." Light smiled for a bit. "That would definitely be a interesting experience, you will be the third entity I merged like this. Do you have input jacks and ports for comm units and extra wiring?"
Firecracker searches the base from above, looking for stuff and things as she collaborates with the tanuki-tailed man on the ground. "Oh! I bet there's some neat stuff and things in here, Chubsy!" she chirps out as she dives into one location or another, moving along with the chubby man as they explore the base.
"Considering the quantity of inputs and outputs and equipment I have, it may be difficult even with those with the proper surgeries Zephyr does to allow interfacing, it may be difficult. I do have the ports, but It might be easier to use the sticks and pedals." The robot says in a rather neutral accent. It stops for a moment before it crouches and its chest plates open downwards, revealing a cockpit. Fully equipped with screens, joysticks, pedals, gearshifts and lots, -LOTS- of buttons. There's even a panel with the following buttons, 'Missiles. More missiles. Homing Missiles. Fire missiles... All the missiles.' "But you're free to try.
After a while, Fenris comes trotting back to the truck. His uniform has gone missing, as has his human form. Instead, the oversized tanuki is wearing the upper half of a bright orange space suit with a helmet with a broken visor and carrying a large cardboard box. "Hey, look!" he calls, "Space ice cream!" He skids to a stop in front of the doberman and shows off his find! In the box is a collection of something that looks like paint tubes along with a number of uninteresting binders and log books.
Watching Fenris return, Buz blinked. "Woah, you mean one of the Shuttles actually came down here? Shit, that'd be hella useful for getting back up there. Or at least getting teh eggheads working on getting the sats online again."
After the team recovers everything, the two zephyr agents have everyone pack it in back on the transport. There's not much else to be said, especially since both the captain and the lieutenant head off. Unfortunately, as the team quickly discovers, the space shuttle Atlantis is very broken. Only two space suits are recoverable, and the rest are thoroughly broken by the test of time. The rest of the day is uneventful -- the mission was a succcess.
