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.
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Kokuten
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Kokuten »

"Less' hope she shows," mused Asher after Camilla, moving up to match pace with the only level person in the group, Dom. "Otha'wise, I'm gunna' be in charge 'til she shows, yeah? I mean, Camilla, you got a piece of that wall lodged in 'er head; Card obviously ain't on the food chain no more; Dom 'ere is green on tha' nose; an' Mills don't know 'er lef' ass cheek from 'er right."

With a certain degree of confidence, the Surandanian's broken stride worked into a confident, "I'm tha' mos' well-adjusted all a yous."

That is, until he shot a look over his shoulder at Pepper with a quizzical look, "What tha' hell is fanfictionin' anyway?
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Gwathdraug »

“Just think about half the thoughts yah think to yourself Westwood. Analyze them a bit and then ask yoursel – ah –” Smirking at Asher from behind her helmet Card let out a laugh before nudging Dom with her elbow. “ – ask Dom here what actually goes on in reality and then you'll have pretty good understanding about fanfictionin'.”

Tightening her grip on her rifle's shoulder strap and pulling the weapon closer to her back Card cleared her throat to speak again. “Sergeant should be along soon enough. You sure that fall isn't going to -”

The squad radio all of a sudden crackled and a squeaky but whispering voice that was unfamiliar to the group could be heard talking. “Yes. The importance has... yes... no... they will be informed immediately Sir.”

Two extremely forced coughs rang out over the communications channel followed by a somewhat muffled “Ahem” before the voice raised in volume but sadly retained its somewhat embarrassingly high pitch for the average male Terran. “Hello Squad 22 this is Communications Lieutenant Broskin. I have just been informed – and my line to the good Sergeant herself very rudely cut – that Squad Leader Winters has been detained for reasons unexplained. Ah, there is a note that was just rung down complaining about some nonsense with marine combat troopers not showing due respect to Officers of the support corps, but I doubt that is anything for all of you to worry about.”

Broskin paused and then a series of less forced and somewhat serious sounding coughs followed his silence. “Excuse me. Now, Command has stressed that your mission is still to be undertaken but there are no spare bodies to replace your Squad Leader at the moment. So, one of you is to take temporary command and I have the updated folder here -”

Another round of heavy coughing interrupted the Lieutenant's instructions followed by the sound of a thick set of papers – most likely the folder – falling to the ground sounding out over the radio. “Ah. Ah... please hold.”

Card just leaned up against the cavern wall and shook her head as the squad sat there listening to the overworked Communications Officer mumble to himself as he gathered up the no doubt unnecessarily large pool of papers he had spilled across the ground.

Popping her helmet off so she didn't have to talk over the radio the former Captain sighed and dragged a hand across her face. “This is going great.”

“Here-” Another round of coughing jarred across the squad channel as Broskin announced his return. “Here we go. Private First Class Asher O. Westwood you are not receiving a temporary promotion but are none-the-less responsible for the completion of Squad 22's current mission. Please gather your Command and lead them to Assault Tunnel 629-5 - it should be on the far left with the rest of the 629 coded entrances. I will provide further explanation once you are along your way.”
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Kokuten
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Kokuten »

"Mm mm mmm." Asher's confident stride had turned into a pleasant swagger, his elbows locked into his side as he walked the way down the tunnels. He chuckled a little bit, and a little darkly at that, before turning to the rest of them. "Well well well, look who's da' baus now, huh? Look. At. Dat. Mm mm mm."

He tugged off his Ork, and started to dance, his feet bouncing in a way that he walked toward the 629 series of tunnels. "So y'kids betta' check y'self fo' ya wreck y'self. Check y'self, fo' ya wreck y'self!"
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Straken
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Straken »

Thankfully for Dom, his helmet hid the pained look on his face when Asher assumed command of the mission. It wasn’t that the engineer didn’t think Asher was fit for command; so much as he felt the command position should go to someone a bit more stable. With Winters taking care of business elsewhere, Dom would have figured Card or Camilla would have been more sensible, but Asher did have rank over the others; though technically so did Pepper.

“Asher’s in command, huh? Well at least we won’t have ta worry about this being a boring mission,” Dom said optimistically as he clapped his hands together before following the ad hoc leader.
CadetNewb
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by CadetNewb »

Unbeknownst to Camilla, what Pepper said was no jibe. No jibe at all...

When she said she was going to fanfic them, she meant it! The youngest marine of the group sat there like a cat watching from the ceiling, already rabidly concocting her Asher X Camilla in mind as she bit her lip in anticipation. It wasn't until Asher asked her just what a fanfiction was that she returned to reality and shifted her attention to him. "What? Impossible!" she accused him. "You don't know what a fanfiction is?!" Pepper exclaimed in shock. "A fanfiction is an the most pure form of expansion on preexisting material! Fanfiction lets things keep on going into territory where they've never, ever been before!" the youngest of them passionately explained to Asher. That aside, she paused for a moment and put a finger to her lip in contemplative thought.

"Now that I think of it, it might just be a good place for new writers to practice and learn the ropes of writing," Pepper mused. Soon however, their orders came in, and she couldn't help but cringe at them.

"Game over! Game over!"
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

You said it, Camilla silently agreed with Pepper Mills. Orders were orders though, and Private Enos was quickly building up a dam of bad ones. Every one added to the wall just made it easier for her to endure the next wave of shitty commands. At this rate she figured she would be utterly apathetic to bad news in about a month and embrace the mucky monotony that her career as a Terran Marine was quickly becoming. She figured she would eventually succumb and become another thoughtless jarhead who was perfectly alright going from fight to fight subsisting solely on empty bottles and hollow evenings spent painting the town red.

Of course that could never happen, she told herself. Her dream was too powerful, her desire too strong. Private Enos would escape the rotten clutches of Foothold. But one step at a time... "Alright, so we have orders. Private Westwood, if you'd be so kind as to get this party started." Though Camilla tried valiantly to hide it, a trickle of venom still lingered in her voice, and soured her otherwise pleasant tone. If it showed on her stoic features, the helmet was kind enough to hide her face from scrutiny.
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Gwathdraug »

“Don't screw up.” Was all Card told Asher before placing her helmet back upon her head and falling in with the rest of the squad.

Broskin cleared his throat to let the group know he was ready to give out the rest of the orders. “If you follow the Assault Tunnel it leads down only a single way so you can't get lost. Once you get to the end there is a small terminal controlling one of our hidden doors out into the natural cave complex. It is a bit of a walk though so I'll wait and give the code once you arrive.”

The Lieutenant stifled a tired sigh as he stopped speaking, his lack of continuing commentary making the squad's current job clear.
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Kokuten
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Kokuten »

Asher continued to dance down the tunnels pathways, still someone inebriated on the fact that he went from bottom of the squad's kicking ladder to the top. His shoulders cocked alternatively, going left and right. Despite the dour situation that the entire world was in, with enemies abound, nothing could seem to keep Westwood down. Even more, the Marine seemed to be enjoying his situation, and of course he was. The alternative to the hell-hole of a jungle planet he lived on, was the hell-hole of an urban planet he used to live on. Between corpse mammoths and brooding protosaur hulks, Asher preferred the protosaurs. Even over the sounds of his boots dancing their way down the hall, he caught Card's little quip.

"Oh? Don' screw up? Y'mean like whatcha' did t'end up down here?" cackled Asher, moon-walking in the correct direction so he could stare at Card whilst taunting her, "This commandin' thing ain't hard. All y'need t'do is keep an even head. An' I'm tha' most even a'all a'you guys. Thass' why 'dey put me in charge."

With that he continued down the tunnel, eying the end, and the terminal off in the distance, "Awright, boss, we got tha' term."
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Gwathdraug »

Card snorted at their fearless leader's declaration. The former Officer had come to the decision that glaring at Westwood never worked anyway (especially with a helmet on) so she might as well just roll with the ridiculous and metaphorical punches he threw in his efforts to annoy the entire world into submission.

“Seeing as we haven't even been shot at yet o' grand Squad Leader there are really only two ways to describe your command – you are either a genius or an idiot.” Card jerked a thumb back towards the rest of the squad as they walked towards the end of the tunnel. “And I'm pretty sure if you held a vote the answer from down our pipeline wouldn't be that flattering.”

When Asher reported in to Broskin that they had finished with his first set of instructions there was a short pause from the other side of the channel then followed by a tired groan. “Ah, good job Temporary Squad Leader. My proper form of address though would be – ” The Communication Lieutenant's voice trailed off as a yawn overtook him. “Nevermind. The code for the console is commodore, then a dash, followed by seven-six-two-two. Then, ah, please hold!”

The Lieutenant's voice muffled itself, though not nearly enough, as the squad could hear the man exchange a set of pleasantries with presumably another Comms-Officer followed by a heartfelt 'thank you'. Broskin's full return of his attention towards the ground troopers waiting on him was heralded by a long and heavy slurp as the man took a draught of whatever had been delivered to him.

“Aaaaah.” Broskin let out in relaxation, most likely not knowing how loud he was broadcasting his new found satisfaction. “Then, after you have put in the code that is, please submit to the mandatory retina scan Private First Class Westwood. Once that is done I can key you in from up here and let you out." His instructions finished and once again just waiting for them to be carried out the Lieutenant's voice dropped to a murmur. "Mmm, wonderful brew."
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: Foothold: Ch. 2, Of Jungle and Stone

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

Having just resolved her internal issues with Asher's command, Private Camilla found her ire roused by this Lieutenant Broskin as he maintained very lackadaisical communications. Private Enos was unable to contain herself on the matter. "Sir, as wonderful as your coffee sounds with you slurping in my ear, perhaps you could maintain the 'need-to-know' policy and maybe shut off your goddamn mic when you get another caffeinated orgasm." Immediately she regretted the outburst but made no apology. This Broskin sounded like a pushover and not too likely to take the matter up the chain of command. If anyone glanced her way, she ignored their gaze like nothing big happened. She couldn't help it if she was anxious for combat, and it certainly wasn't her fault everyone in a command position was trying to hold her back.
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