Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

The Marines are Berthed in the belly of the starship, and essential for attack and defense, whether it be on the gorund, or inside the ships during boarding actions. Fighter pilots and ships may win battles, but Marines will win the War.
CadetNewb
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by CadetNewb »

Pepper's wide, green eyes darted to the moving black mass, just in time for it to unravel and gently fall down onto her.

Only thing was, it never seemed to touch her head and envelop the young marine. In those few precious moments, the black cloth simply fell, fell, fell towards the ground so that it was almost as though it were a black veil into a great beyond into which she was vanishing into. Only her booted feet were visible as it gently glided towards the floor...before it finally came into contact and enshrouded a curled up Pepper. Fully swaddled in the cloth, nobody could see what her true reaction was to being so suddenly cast into darkness. But, they could guess - the "Om-nom-nom-nom," sound which came alongside several crunches soon faded, and the black veiled form rose to it's full height!

Naturally, a shock of green popped out of the top as Pepper's head appeared as the Poncho fell onto her form. "What'd I miss?" she asked, a single Choconana Bar wrapper falling to the floor between her legs as she did so. "Wait - won't you need Poncho's too?" the green-headed girl astutely observed. Grabbing a few, she tossed them down to the others before working her way down to join them all.
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

With Asher's arrival and all the ensuing commotion, it was impossible for the light-sleeping Foothold native to catch a single 'z.' She resigned herself to wakefulness and stood for a quick stretch. She made a quick turn to verify that Asher was indeed completely naked, but in the process of getting dressed. "Wouldn't leave the dangly bits exposed very long if I were you. There's all sorts of creatures that will bite 'em right off." Normally Camilla wouldn't be so nice, but after witnessing Westwood's gumption and general badassery, she saw him as something of an honorary native-- a survivor.

After double-checking her gear, Camilla snatched up the loose pieces of kit - including a mixed grab of stun and fragmentation grenades along with a single heavy breaching charge that she had managed to get off the Armoury Sergeant with her certification - and stuffed it all in her pouches while she made her way to the tunnel entrance. She refused to enter the hole, however, and instead sat on a small concrete ledge at its precipice, gun held lazily in both hands while she kept an eye on Asher and their surroundings with quickly vanishing interest.
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Kokuten
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Kokuten »

By the time Camilla got herself a seat, Asher was already tugging up his pants. As she looked him, he looked at her, carefully eying her as he continued to get dressed. The feeling was tad strange, even a little surreal. Simply getting dressed with people around you, or a lack there of was one thing. Yet, when a person was watching you, it made one feel a little self-conscious. More specifically, the battered soldier was concerned with Camilla attempting something. She had catlike eyes he was sure he saw in the dead stares of the mutated Surandanians back home. There was a danger in them he was wary of, but not necessarily afraid.

Not long after he left himself bare, he was already strapping in plates and wet-gear. With his armor settled, he slotted in his essentials, weapons, knife, ammo, and the various pieces of striking and mining gear he had thrifted for the event.

"What's your angle?" he asked, shunking his helmet over his head, finally.
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

As Asher approached, Private Enos rose to her feet. His question struck her as more than a little odd and caught Camilla off guard. Her knee jerk reaction was to quirk an eyebrow and go on the offensive. "Are you always that vague? Or does my angelic beauty melt your brain?" Camilla knew she wasn't beautiful by any standard, and spoke of herself somewhat scornfully, happy to have this chance to throw Asher's awful praise in his face. The last thing she wanted was cheap and cheesy compliments.
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Kokuten
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Kokuten »

"You're givin' me a look, soundin' all nice n'shit," answered Asher as he stepped over to the entrance of the hole. He gave her a quick up and down before squatting next to her to prop the hatch. For a moment, he seemed fine to just shake his head and climb down, but he decided to press on with his words. "I'm thinkin' iss' my angelic beauty y'lookin' at, not tha' otha' way around. Don' get no ideas, eitha', I already got a girl. Don't need two. One's hard enough."
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

Looming over his crouched form, it was so difficult for Camilla to deny herself the pleasure of spartan-kicking the scrappy Surandanian straight to the bottom of the hole. But she did it with a deep breath, and some choice words. "Listen up, dick-for-brains. I don't like you. Actually, kicking your ass down that hole right now would make me so happy I can't put it in words, but the truth of the matter is you're the only one I can depend on if we end up in a fight down there. So cut the shit and let's get to work." Silently she prayed he would say something so ridiculous she would be obligated by some cosmic force to punt Asher into the tunnel.
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Kokuten
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Kokuten »

"Now, listen up," Asher began to stand, turning quickly, "I'm fuckin' flattered thatcha' you're--"

His toe turned too fast.

"--fu -uckin'--..."

The heel of the boot didn't catch the floor like it should've.

"--agkhg!"

Asher's form suddenly titled backwards, his whole body falling towards the hole. He slapped out his hands to try and regain his balance, but instead, he simply grabbed onto Camilla's wet-gear. Those strong, tested fingers gripped tightly and pulled, attempting to bring him back up, but he hadn't the angle, nor the litheness to have that work. Instead, he started pulling the woman towards him, over him as he fell into the hole.
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Gwathdraug »

Grabbing her poncho as it fell down into the Tunnel hub Card called a quick 'Thanks' up to Pepper as the other marine made her own way down before turning her attention back towards Dom. It was impossible to tell whether or not the younger girl had seen anything of Asher's show seeing as she seemed as out of things as she ever was and Card figured there was no point in worrying over things now.

“The tunnels, if they are all the locals crack them up to be, should be a bit of an extended break from combat.” Shaking her helmeted head the former-Captain rested one hand on the handle of her dagger. “What I'm worried about is what comes after we make our way through these freakin' things.” Lifting her free hand Card gestured to the wall of massed tunnel entrances in annoyance. “There's no way we will be seeing just the subterranean jaunt of things today and that means only one thing – the jungle.”
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Straken
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Straken »

“Yeah, but whatever break we can get I will gladly take,” Dom said as he found a place to lean against the cave wall. “At least it sure beats the hell out of sitting on the crappiest chunk of wall this base has to offer.” Absentmindedly he began to run his fingers over the seams and groves of his armor like he usually did as he waited for missions to begin. “I actual feel a lot more confident about this upcoming mission than I have for the past ones, I am more comfortable now since these cave remind me a bit of where I grew up; or maybe it is because I blew up a colossus earlier, but eh.”

As he left off, Dom could hear noise from back up the ladder as others spoke and descended to the cave. Thinking about home again also reminded him that he had not gotten to know the others in the squad, and he had questions that he had wanted to ask. “So Card, weren’t you an officer once? What happened that landed you on this backwater planet? Not to mention you are now the same rank as me.”
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Gwathdraug »

Behind her helmet Card smiled and let out a bark of laughter, it was interesting how perspective could change so heavily depending on where a person was coming from. “I worked myself almost into a frenzy trying to get sent out here to the backwater. I'm not suited for teaching swaddled babes how to be soldiers and when the last group was sent out from my training post I wheedled my way out myself.” Laughing again Card just shook her head without further explanation – the story made itself a lot nicer when you cut it short.

Sighing as she herself found a spot of the wall to lean against Card tapped her armoured shoulder with her left hand. “I was the field officer for one of the 'massacres' earlier on with the lizards.” The former-Captain forced her voice to be as jovial and dismissive as possible but the strained undercurrent was clearly showing itself from time to time. Shrugging and dropping her arm back to her side before continuing Emma decided to just get it all out of the way. “I've spent the last handful of years being flagged as 'unfit for line duty' and going through continuous psyche evaluations – they bucked me down to Private because I'm not trusted to be anywhere in the chain of command anymore. Good news for the rest of yah though, as any successes we have they'll look at everyone but me for promotion.”
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