Foothold:Ch. 1, Wall.

[Kokuten]

Asher, turning his head in the younger PFC's direction, reached for his leg-plate, and pulled out a foot long pipe. The item was clearly worn from use. One end had the faint stainings of blood, while the other end appeared ground down to dull the sharp edges of the pipe. The soldier aimed this pipe at Pepper with a threatening stare.

"Next time, you'll ask f'ya fruit if ya knows whats good for yahs!" he loudly responded, also drowning out near-by conversation.

[CadetNewb]

"Ohmygoshhepulleditout!" Pepper screamed - "He's going to shank us all and jam his shotgun into our wounds like that one guy at the desert base that ran out of water but had all those weird cactus all around filled with this really strange liquid which though highly quenching turned out to contain a powerful cocktail of drugs which induced massive bouts of paranoia and hallucinations promoting that one marine to go on a violent rampage which fortunately claimed nobodies lives due to advanced cryogenic equipment available on site used to put the bodies into safe suspension until proper medical teams coul - ack!" she choked as her voice went hoarse and dry,

"Asher, Asher, I need water! Water!"

[Gwathdraug]

Card sighed as Asher and Pepper got into what was turning out to be a rather obscene argument – and Dom was down on the ground, thinking he was blind and no one seemed to have even thought a wit about the poor, eccentric, tech-obsessed marine.

Pulling out the fruit Westwood had thrown at her early, Emma stared at it forlornly before decided that sacrificing it to get things quieted down would be worth losing some sort of fruit-based revenge plot on her ex-student. Tossing the fruit over to Camilla with a underhanded throw.

“Enos, give the fruit to the kid and she'll forget about all this and spend the whole ride down just happily munching away – I got to go help Dom.”

Crouching before the 'blinded' marine, Card pulled out her legitimately purloined scout's stealth poncho and used it to wipe off Dom's visor. “Wow, Dom, you look like crap – you all right in there?” Tapping on the other marines helmet with her right hand's knuckles, Card lifting Dom up by snaking her left hand underneath his arm and making him stand up at the same time as she did.

Walking him over to the lift and the rest the squad, Card shook her head. “Let's forget about the mechanical arm of madness right now and see if we can somehow snag you an AI from somewhere – heavens know you need one to look after you.” Letting Dom go as they arrived fully on the elevator down, Card gave the other marine a light punch to his shoulder in camaraderie.

“Privates Card and Connelly ready and here Sergeant!”

[Straken]

After connecting with the wall, the remainder of the fruit had fallen underfoot and Dom subsequently slipped. Thankfully for him, his squad mate Private Card was close by and willing to lend a hand as opposed to discussing a pipe of some sort. Upon rising back to his feet his kind squad mate led him the rest of the way to the lifts while he set about trying to wipe the messy fruit off of his visor.

"Much appreciated," Dom said as he thanked the woman. "And yeah, I suppose I can become a little too lost in thought from time to time. An assistant droid would be a big help."
Even as he spoke about becoming lost in thought he took the time to test out his helmet's visor modes the see if the worked through mushed fruit. Oddly enough, his visor still managed to give him the silhouetted forms of the rest of his squad. Which, while an interesting discovery that may help him later at some point, was mostly unneeded as Card escorted him the rest of the way to the lift and as he managed wipe enough of the fruit away so as to be able to make it well enough on his own.

Now at the lift and standing on his own again, Dom looked through his dirty and smeared visor at the rest of his armor. There was fruit and fruit juice all over the mask, right arm, and left leg. "Aw man, that's gonna need some real cleaning later, and hopefully I don't attract any of the native bees," Dom remarked as he tried to shake the remaining bits of fruit away. "You ever seen the bees here? They're fricken massive."

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Camilla reflexively shrugged off her Sergeant's hand. It was a slight motion, likely undetected by Winters. She didn't appreciate the show of friendly gratefulness when they were certainly nothing more than colleagues. She made no remark on the matter, however. It wasn't worth the effort. She walked caboose for the squad in silence. It was just a matter of minutes before they destroyed any semblance of discipline yet again. Camilla played along, snatching the fruit from the air and proffering it to PFC Mills wordlessly. The sooner they got to the lower wall, the sooner Camilla could put all this behind her... hopefully.

[Kokuten]

Asher fingered the canteen on his hip, picking it up, and looking at the cap. He stuffed the breathing piped back under his armor plate, and unscrewed the cap. He tilted the canteen back, drinking some of the water. The man took a thoughtful pose, wiping his lips dry and shaking the water container.

"I dunno... What's the magic word?" asked Asher tapping the canteen against his chin.

[Kai]

Lucy nodded as Card announced that she and Connelly had arrived within the lift.

"The magic word is press the button" Winters responded to Asher, just a bit snarkily, pressing the button as she did so, causing the doors to clang closed and the Lift to suddenly jerk downward and sideways as it descended down the slope of the mountain toward the lowest wall. The lift moved quite quickly, and scenery passed by them as they went, ranging from glimpses of hallways, to more open-air areas, to views of apartment blocks, tunnels delving deep into the volcano, and the occasional destroyed sector, damaged by the constant battle on Foothold. Before too long, the squad made it all the way to the bottom, the lift thudding to a stop on its well-worn mechanisms, the cage doors sliding open with a bit of a novel 'Ding!' signifying they were safe to exit.

Winters took off immediately, not saying anything, making her way toward where they had been posted, Her carbine no longer lackadaisically propped on one shoulder, but instead at the ready as she moved this way and that through the bustle of soldiers moving from station to station, or similarly exiting lifts, and otherwise going about the business of preparing for an attack. Occasionally the helmeted Sergeant had to push and shove her way through throngs of obviously green recruits who were all ganging up in small spaces, but a growl and a prod with the top of her carbine was usually enough to clear the way.

Before too long, Winters finally stopped, coming to a standstill right near- a gap in the wall. Crushed and crumbled, the metal-faced reinforced concrete wall looked much worse for the wear. Currently, there was an engineering squad working at hastily barricading the hole using large metal beams held up by posts, and then draping and welding thick metal sheeting to the front, forming a less than magnificent facade, and less than stellar defense. At this point, however, the engineering crew had just finished making a sort of scaffolding near the top where they could stand and fire upon any charging enemies.

Winters pointed with a thumb, announcing in a sort of annoyed manner: "We drew the short straw this time, we're up there."

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Regardless of young Mills's gratitude or lack thereof, Camilla proceeded into and down the lift in silence. Her eyes were outward, fixated on the bottom sector of Foothold and its outermost wall. The rest of the view- the apartments, the mines, and so forth- held no interest for a woman born among it all.

Private or not, Camilla bore a powerful aura that was enough to keep any new recruits out of her path. She left a visible wake where she strode, a clear path for the less formidable members of her team. When she spied the loosely covered gap in the wall, Private Enos knew immediately it was there. After Sergeant Winters confirmed the assumption, Camilla made sure to remind her that, "Foothold is the short straw, Sergeant."

Typically in such an ugly situation the Foothold native would take some time to study the terrain- in this case, the patchwork of beams and sheet metal- and examine it for points of interest and weakness. After the first glimpse, however, it was plain that the entire section of wall was one massive weak spot, an open wound freshly scabbed on an otherwise hardy and scarred exterior. They would be in for a long and grueling fight to be sure.

[Straken]

On the ride down Dom succeeded in removing the remaining fruit flesh from his armor, but there was little he could do about the fruit juice. Even now as he retested the joints on his armor his could feel them sticking ever so slightly, and to be honest it was already on his nerves. Though with no real option aside from hoping it rains a little Dom did his best to ignore it.

Now at the bottom of the lift, the gearhead followed after the leading members with a brisk pace, and conveniently enough he didn’t have to worry about bumping into anyone since they all kindly moved out of the way when Camilla got close. As they approached the wall Dom looked expectantly at the battered defensive structure along with all of the spot repairs taking place.

“Tsk tsk, working under pressure is no excuse for a shoddy patch job,” Dom said lightly as he inspected the hustling engineering crew in charge of the repairs, all the while noting small flaws amidst the larger ones. Then to top off his bad impression of the fix, his squad was stationed on it. This made the man wince. “We have to sit on that? That is like being forced to use someone’s used gym towel,” Dom said as he voiced his displeasure.

[CadetNewb]

Pepper stuttered along as the group moved, hand vainly reaching out for support - her dry, hoarse voice choked in her throat, and then all was well again. "Gah! I was worried that I was going to choke or something, but then my mouth started to water again, and everything's fine," she explained, licking her lips as she did so. "I don't need the water anymore Asher, I think I'll be alright, though, I'm not so sure about magic words. I mean, we got Abracadabra, Hocus-Pocus, Open Sesame, Alakazam, Pipiru-piru-piru-pipiru-pi..." the redhead prattled off, counting each on her fingers as she did so.

"Why do you ask?...are you into tabletop games or something?" Pepper asked him with an inquisitive stare.