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[TheMajonese]

Chris already got back on his feet but he tried to avoid showing the left side of his head to Naomi. Even though Chris knew that the injury wasn't lethal because he was still alive but he had no idea how bad it was. His left ear seemed to be deaf, at least for the moment and the dizziness made it hard to hit anything with his rifle. Their enemies were already trying to flank his position, so Chris gave up trying to shoot them and instead moved to Naomi.

 

"The others are coming for us but we have to get down that cliff!", he shouted over the gunfire of Naomi's Mattock and pointed at the edge of the slope, almost fifty meters away. The problem was obvious; there was no cover for the twins on the way to the edge. Just a few moments ago, this had been a great advantage for them to take out quite a few of the enemy soldiers, now it meant that their only escape route was going to make them easy targets. "You think you can make a run for it?"

 

"Are you really okay?", was Naomi's first reaction when she turned to her brother.

 

"Yes, of course! I'm fine. The question is if you can..."

 

The sound of an eezo engine caused Chris to stop and they both looked towards the cliff. The next second Kamau's trike appeared and parked relatively close to the edge. There was no need for the twins to say anything, Naomi gave her brother a questioning look and he nodded in response. Then Chris tossed his last grenade at the soldiers and after taking a deep breath his sister began to sprint towards Kamau's vehicle. Her injury was slowing her down significantly and Chris covered her by firing at the enemy soldiers until the magazine was empty.

 

Naomi dropped to the ground right behind the trike and her brother reached her just two seconds later.

 

Chris could hear his sister's heavy breathing, she was leaning against the trike and held her right leg with both hands. The bleeding was getting worse and Chris could only imagine how bad the injury was. "Come on, we have to keep moving!" This time Naomi couldn't give any answer and she needed his help to get back on her feet. The trike was providing at least some cover when they moved closer to the edge. Chris gave Kamau a hand signal to let him know that he could leave now as they didn't need the cover any longer.

 

Jumping down the slope was a weird feeling. Despite its height, the low gravity of Parasc made it actually quite easy to descend savely. Naomi still needed Chris' help and she wasn't able to stand on her injured leg any longer. The sprint seemed to have caused more internal damage than expected.

 

The left side of his face felt unusual warm but Chris tried to ignore the fact that the blood was already trickling over his shoulder while they moved toward the other members of the team.

[Cknarf]

As the twins drew closer, the extent of their injuries became more obvious. Naomi had clearly taken a nasty hit to the leg. Chris, while appearing mostly intact, was practically helmetless on a planet where you didn't want to be without a helmet for any longer than you had to. Kurik had moved to meet them halfway. Putting his rifle on his back, he switched to his handgun before taking over for Chris. He gave him a bit of an encouraging shove toward the rest of Stormhammer.

 

Even with a fresh shoulder, moving Naomi was slow going.

 

"Take it." Kurik handed her his pistol, and scooped her up as he did with Saba earlier.

[TheMajonese]

Naomi didn't even resist when the turian picked her up which clearly indicated the pain she was suffering from. Her brother took Kuric's pistol from her because he knew that she wouldn't be able to shoot at anything right now. Besides he had no ammunition for his own weapons left.

 

They finally reached the rest of stormhammer and got past Reith's mech. That didn't really help them against their enemy but at least the twins now weren't sperated from the rest of the team. After taking cover Chris wanted to open his mouth to say something but the left side of his face felt as if it was something artificial attached to his face. The skin that was exposed to the freezing air of Parasc's atmosphere was completely numb and it was as if this numbness was spreading in his skull. It took him a moment to get used to that feeling.

 

"What now?", Chris wanted to know while he fired a few pointless shots at the enemy. The distance and the armor their enemies were wearing would make it near impossible for a single pistol round to be effective. But that was all that he got right now. "We have to get somewhere the Lucky-7 can pick us up without being shut down!"

[Kel Riever]

The Lucky 7 had gotten closer, if one could imagine, at great risk to the ship.  She'd stayed lifted a handful of meters off the ground, then backed up with ramp extended, while firing whatever she could to hold off the enemy without dropping shots too close to the very people to be rescued.  The Lucky 7 put down close enough for those on the ground to make it.

Everyone was able to get on board with the freighter's guns doing their best at long range, and Reith keeping it together at short.  Each of those who had landed had a number of kills to their name they couldn't count.  Despite being out of range of effective fire, the loose rounds kept coming.  Last to board was Reith in his mech, and just in time as some large bore sniper shot caught it in the unarmored section of the mech's leg, effectively immobilizing it.  Kamau was the only one who didn't board, taking his vehicle and making a break for it across the rough terrain of Parasc.  He assured his team that he'd meet up with them later and would be safe.  When the ramp was closed, and everyone else secured, the Lucky 7 blasted off without a second to spare.

"We took some hits, a few of which need lookin' into," Sally said over the com. "That's a stop at the starport where we first put down here.  Mom's gonna want to know what happened to her kids anyway, and drop the one off."

Sally, of course, was talking about Saba, who among the wounded was the most severe.  The stoic asari maiden was in and out of unconsciousness, calling out her dead sister's name at moments when she was awake.  The crew of the freighter included a doctor and a nurse who tended to those hurt.  Both seemed to be quite experienced in what they were doing, fortunately.  Saba was first to be tended to by the doctor, but the nurse immediately went to the twins.  Cadi had hauled herself over there too, to check in.

Reith had to take a bit of time pulling himself out of the mech with its damage.  His cigar had burned down fairly well, by that point, but it was still going.  He came over to Kuric and Lauren, both of which he gave a look at without words.  And both knew that in his mind, they had earned a respect with the major that would not be forgotten.

[Cknarf]

Kurik had declined any medical treatment, taking only a packet of medi-gel, with him to the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, he pulled away the upper parts of his armor for a better look at the damage. After a brief assessment, he reached for his blade. Remembering what had become of it, he allowed a short sigh to escape.

 

"Inconvenient..."

 

No matter. He still had his talons.

 

Kurik calmly washed his hands, and angled himself so he'd have some better lighting. Without hesitation, he began working to extract the projectile.

[TheMajonese]

The first thing Chris did was to take off his now useless helmet and drop it right where he was. The skin of his face that had been exposed to the cold atmosphere had a slightly purplish tone and even though the blood made it hard to see details, it was obvious that a part of his left outer ear was missing. But when the nurse wanted to approach him he immediately shook his head. "I don't need help!" Then he pointed at Naomi.

 

He and the nurse helped his sister to get to the small med bay of the ship where Naomi had to lay down so her wound could be examined. The nurse came to the same conclusion like Chris before: Naomi had been hit by an explosive round. "I'm not sure if we have the equipment to deal with such a wound", the nurse said with a frown. "It looks like some of the fragments have penetrated the bone while others are stuck in it. For now I can only make sure that there's no further damage to the leg and apply more medigel. In any case you must stay here, walking around could cause the bone to completely shatter." 

 

Chris was a bit worried that Naomi hardly showed any reaction. "Hey, are you alright?", he asked her.

 

"Yeah, I'm fine..." Her reply wasn't really convincing. She hadn't said a single word since the Lucky-Seven had picked them up. Her face was pale and she was lying on her back while staring at the ceiling. That suddenly changed when Cadi entered the room.

 

The moment she saw the blue-haired woman, Naomi was like she had recieved an electric shock. "YOU!", she shouted and sat up, her face contorted with anger and pain. "Who do you think you are?"

 

Chris was completely dumbfounded and had no idea what was going on. His sister continued to speak. "You think you can just take command of the shuttle that came to rescue us? I'm sure Liz would have come to save our *sses if she knew that she would end up dead just because you felt that the lives of your friends are worth more than our lives...!"

 

"HEY, wait a second...", Chris interrupted his sister. "What are you even talking about?"

 

Naomi glared at him. "There was a corpse in front of the complex where we left the airlock. A corpse with a Koehler's Brigade armor. And have you seen Liz anywhere around? I didn't! So I'm sure she's dead." She turned back to Cadi. "And she died because of your personal little rescue mission. You just took the shuttle without asking anyone! It should have been YOU taking the grizzly, YOU should be lying here with a hole in your leg..."

 

"This is your own fault!", Chris tried to defend Cadi. "Naomi, you wanted to split from the rest so we could make the way back to the space port on our own! We should have stayed with the others..."

 

"SHOULD HAVE STAYED? THIS IS WHAT YOU THINK?" Chris winced when his sister yelled at him. "Liz was at the machine gun! Who do you think would have insisted on taking her place at the gun if we would have stayed? Who would be lying dead outside the complex with a hole in the head? Think about it and tell me again we SHOULD HAVE STAYED...!"

 

Both the twins suddenly became silent. Naomi returned to staring at the ceiling while there was nothing Chris could say in return. The thought that his sister was shot like that made him cringe and he wanted to cover his face with his hands. But when he spotted the blood at his fingers Chris remembered that he was wounded himself and suddenly he also felt the pain of his injury.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Being treated for minor cuts and bruises, Lauren just listened to the shouting, and when it was over spoke. "I would have."

 

There was silence in the room. 

 

"I would have. Liz' brains are all over my hardsuit. They could be my brains," Lauren said. "You may not like me, Naomi, but I really don't care about that. The people in this squad are my comrades in arms. There is no my friends or your friends or her friends. It's us. John Reith was down there fighting with the rest of us. That means he is one of us. We don't leave one of us behind because we are all we have. 

 

"I only hope we can rescue Kamau. I hope no one has forgotten about him."

[TheMajonese]

Naomi stared at Lauren, then released a short, joyless laugh. "You know, you and my brother would make a great couple; you are both idealistic idiots. It's time to wake up, princess. We are no knights in shining armor, fighting for honor and freedom and we aren't the Alliance. We are just a bunch of guys, trying to make money. I really hope that Kamau will make it but I wouldn't risk my life for him, nor for any of you. There are other people I care more about."

 

There was a pause before Naomi continued to speak towards the ceiling. "And if this self-sacrifice attitude is required to be part of this team...well, I guess I'm disqualified. But I didn't plan to stay anywaAAAAAH...!"

 

Chris had pretended to stumble and seemingly coincidentally hit Naomi's leg above the knee. The contact was enough to cause severe pain and make Naomi stop talking. But still he really meant it when he said: "I'm sorry."

[Cknarf]

With nothing more than a slight twitch of the mandibles, Kurik pulled the slug from the wound.  The blood-covered piece of metal hit the steel sink with a dull clang sound. Holding a towel over the hole to keep blood from getting everywhere, he tore open the packet of medi-gel using his mouth and applied it quickly. 

 

Satisfied with his patch job, Kurik cleaned himself up, as well as any mess that he might have made before heading back out into the ship's corridor and towards his room.

[Kel Riever]

The nurse, who had stopped when Naomi had made her outburst, tried to ease back in and take care of the woman without upsetting her.  

Cadi listened and looked like she held back a comment.  Her eyes flickered from Naomi to Chris, then she turned to open up a shelf nearby her and started taking out supplies to tend to herself.  The nurse asked if she knew what she was doing and Arcadia gave her a nod.  She sat on a med bay bed and gently removed the armor plates over her abdomin, which showed the coagulated blood underneath.  Medigel had sealed the wound but it was ugly under the plates.  Once the wound area was naked, Arcadia laid down on the bed.

There was a medical bot that very much looked like a monitor above the bed.  It was the kind of simple bot one expected to find on a standard flying vessel.  The kind that tending to an injury like a bullet wound was at the top level of its programming, not the kind of bot that could be relied on for everything.  The bot began hovering over Cadi's wounds, and she gave it short verbal instructions.  The projectile, or fragments, had been stopped by the armor mostly,but had gotten under the flesh and with the bot's assistance, Arcadia anesthetized herself locally and got the fragments out with medical tools.  It still must have been extremely painful, but she uttered a clenched sigh maybe once.  Bleeding and other injury from the removal was taken care of by the bot and medigel.

When she was done, Cadi beckoned Chris over.  "Please let me take a look at your ear."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren glared at Naomi as she finished tucking her tank top into her BDU pants. "Nice to know enough not to count on you to have my back. This isn't about idealism out there you stupid b*tch. It's about survival. If we're in a firefight and we can't count on each other we're all dead. Or is that what you want? You want to die? Do it on your own time," she said as she tied her boots. She walked out of med bay for the ship's wardroom where she found Tolema sitting and processing the whole thing.

 

She grabbed a cup of coffee and pulled up a chair across from her. "That was something else down there," she said. "I hope I never see anything like that again. Any word on Kamau?"

[TheMajonese]

Naomi had pressed both hands on her knee just above the wound as if it would help to ease the pain. "I really start thinking that Lauren's somewhat confused", she hissed. "At first she speaks of leaving noone behind and then she says it's about survival. She changes her opinion very quickly..."

 

Her brother didn't give any reaction to her words. He agreed with most of what Naomi had said but she didn't need to know it right now. Chris had watched Cadi taking care of her wound and had to admire her self-control despite the pain. With a sigh he came over to Cadi to let her see his wound but since he hadn't seen himself in a mirror yet, he tried to act as if the injury was harmless. "I'm sure it's nothing. It stings a bit but that's all."

 

In reality the upper third of his ear was gone and there were several small shrapnels that went in a straight line over the side of his head from the left eye to his ear. It seemed the helmet had prevented any serious wounds and the blood loss was managable for now. At the same time though it certainly was something that needed to be taken care of.

 

"I haven't thanked you yet for not leaving us behind", Chris said to Cadi. "After all there would have been reason to do so." Even though he didn't speak it out loud, it was obvious that he was referring to the fact that Naomi was continuously causing trouble and that the twins planned on leaving the team afterwards.

[Kel Riever]

"I suppose it wasn't a unanimous decision," Arcadia said as she picked up some sort of patch from the medical supplies she'd taken.  "But I do not regret it, though I wish some things had gone different ways."  

Whatever pain killers Cadi had administered to herself must have kicked in, or she didn't show what she felt, as she stood to examine Chris. "You're ear could be in much better shape," she understated, "and you'll have to get someone better than me to make it right again.  But I'll cover it and keep it safe until you can be tended to properly.  Let me put this on, it shouldn't hurt."

Cadi put on a pair of medical gloves in the kit, and removed the sterile packaging of the patch.  Chris recognized it as a standard wound dressing meant for military purposes, in other words quick to apply and with medigel assistance.  There were a few moments where Arcadia aimed it, covering all areas of the wounds, then she pressed it softly to Chris' head.

One thing Arcadia said was quite absolutely not true, and Chris knew it on first contact.  The application did hurt.  In fact, it stung furiously.

From speakers above, Captain Sally's voice made an announcement on the general com.  Ya'all get yourself sorted because your hire wants to meet with you first thing when we put down.  We're on approach, the doors'll be open in five minutes."

[Cknarf]

Kurik had just gotten his weapons back together when the announcement came. Since his Stormhammer issued armor was more or less fucked at the moment, he dug out his old set of medium armor in Blue Suns colors.

[TheMajonese]

"Thanks..." Chris clenched his teeth together when the patch touched his head. But despite the pain he immediately started to feel better. At least he knew that he wouldn't bleed to death but Cadi's comment about his ear made him a bit concerned. After Sally's announcement there were a few moments of silence. "I guess we were lucky to be at this mining site when...everything happened", Chris mumbled when he thought of the past hours. It felt like days, even months but it had been only a couple of hours since they had left the base the first time. "I really hope that-"

 

"That's what she was trying to warn me of!" Naomi's voice sounded as if she had pondered about something for a while and now found an answer. There was another silence but she didn't say anything else and continued to stare at the ceiling.

 

"What?" Chris was confused. "Who warned you?"

 

But his sister didn't answer.

 

"What are you talking about?", he tried again but Naomi glanced at him and gave a snort.

 

"Shouldn't you be meeting someone?", she asked. "Right now I'm not able to go anywhere, so don't wait for me." 

 

With a sigh Chris gave up and turned to Cadi. The reason Naomi didn't want to tell him what her sudden idea was about, was probably because Arcadia was still around, so he had to ask his sister what was on her mind later. "I guess we should go now", he said and moved to leave the med-bay.

[Cknarf]

Palaven

 

Under a dark sky and heavy rains, a long line of young turians, only a few weeks into their year long training, stand shoulder to shoulder. Beneath their feet, the ground is no longer solid, having become a thick, black mud that makes any sort of movement a challenge. Drill instructors, comfortably dry in sealed armor and helmets, stomp through the muck both before and behind them. Their orders, as well as their insults are mostly drowned out by the howling wind.

 

Near the end of the line stands a young woman with red facial markings, and bright green eyes. Out of all of the recruits, she is by far the smallest. Shivering visibly, she sways with each gust of wind. One of the instructors quickly takes notice.

 

"What's wrong, Trudas? Doesn't it rain where you come from?"

 

"N-no ma'am!"

 

"Are you f*cking with me, short sh*t?"

 

"I'm from Omega, ma'am!"

 

"Omega, huh? Makes perfect sense! It doesn't surprise me in the least that trash like you crawled from a dumpster like that!"

 

The recruit let her head drop slightly. Moments later, she was surprised with a firm fist to the torso that sent her to her knees.

 

"Did I say you could sit down? Stand up! Stand the **** up, and look straight!"

 

She struggled to stand, slipping in the mud several times before finally making it back to her feet. The recruit next to her shook his head, prompting the instructor to focus on him instead.

 

"You got something to say, Tavex, you country ****?"

 

"No ma'am!"

 

"I didn't think so! Spirits, this is the worst group I've had yet!"

[Kel Riever]

The Lucky 7 put down at the starport and things had change quite a bit.

First, there was a series of clearances that had to be gone through and anyone getting a look outside, saw that there were a series of defense guns that had been hidden and now were visible and active.  Second, the Koehler's Brigade ship was gone, completely gone.

"Ran her tail out just before everything went to hell, I hear," Sally remarked.  "No clearance or nothin'  Bunch of cats with the hair standing straight on their backs, in on the whole can o' worms, I'm sure!"

When the ramp deployed to let everyone out, Saba was first on a grav stretcher.  She was conscious by then, but hooked up and more half awake than full.  Teklia, an entourage of guards, and paramedics, were there to take Saba. 

"Saba!"  Teklia, in her high collared white gown, ran to her daughter.  Saba's eyes wandered to her mother.  Teklia fretted, looked her up and down as tears welled up in her eyes, and asked, "Hestyas?"

Saba weakly shook her head."

Wringing her hands, the tears flowed from Teklia.  "Taker her to the hospital," she ordered the paramedics who were quick to remove Saba.  Glancing quickly over the team, her eyes fell on Reith.  The Major was there in his olive T and fatigues, stoic but his face not unkind.  "I have too much to ask and too little time," Teklia said in a wavering voice while wiping her tears, "So I will leave it to the question I must ask first.  Can you stay to assist?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren took the asari's hand and turned her around and pointed at the oncoming horde. "Look! The base is lost! We're low on thermals. We go back and we're dead. All of us! I'm sorry. Kamau is waiting for us. We need to pick him up. Maybe Hestyas is with him?"

[Cknarf]

"She's dead." Kurik said plainly. Giving this asari any sort of false hope would just complicate things further. He thought for a moment about the potential bonus that could be negotiated for staying behind, but ultimately decided against it. Credits were pointless if you aren't alive to spend them.

 

"I suggest an immediate evacuation of all surviving personnel, and nothing more."

[Kel Riever]

A familiar voice was heard over Lauren's shoulder.  "I caught another ride," Kamau said to Lauren.  He gave her a nod that was rather calm give the situation they'd been through.  The irony was even there visually, as his suit was dusty and though his helmet was off, his face was sweaty.  "But I'm afraid that we haven't heard anything to deny what Kuric is saying, or what Saba believes.  There's no sign of Hestyas and nobody is able to go back to find survivors.  That mining hub and its outlying complex have been completely overrun."

Major Reith gave only a few seconds' pause out of respect before saying, "We don't have time to go back their right now, or resources I know of, unless you do.  Tactically we're safe.  The enemy is in the direction Laura is pointing to...the mining hub, and when they come they tend to come straight on.  But we're back, of course.  Back enough in klicks for us to organize.  The problem is when they come, they come in mass.  You've got an enemy that has advanced jamming capabilities so they can cut off communication, and a bioweapon that will turn any vorcha that breaths it in into a savage killing machine under their direction.  There aren't a lot of command, but they've taken us off guard, with the turning of Koehler's Brigade to bolster them."

Teklia wiped her face with the sleeve of her gown.  "This is my life's work.  I'm not going to see it overrun by a bunch of bandit thugs.  I have the future of these vorcha to keep in mind.  They don't have a fleet.  They don't have the numbers to take the assembled forces of Parasc.  Not if you and your people help defend us.  I'll pay you.  I will pay you well."

Reith stepped closer to the asari, so only she and the immediate people around her could hear.  "We did what we could, but this isn't about money.  You want to save your vorcha?  Their future?  Get them out of this area.  You may have the forces of Parasc eventually, but they aren't assembled now and they won't be in time.  Maybe you could hit them with airstrikes, but it just takes a bit of this weapon to get in, and that's the end.  You need time to reassemble, a defensive position far back from here.  You can repair this damage later, if you have people to repair the damage."

With a vrief glance towards the twins, Reith added, "Not everyone here is ready to put up any kind of last stand.  Some of them want to go and it's a mistake holding them back.  We need to sort our own selves out.  Once we do, you may not need us anyway."

Teklia seemed uncertain.  What Reith said made sense, but she was arguing against her emotion.  "We don't have that many craft.  We'll need to start ferrying out."

"Then you need to start right away," Arcadia said.

"You can hire Sally," Reith suggested, "There's room for more than us onboard.  And this will become a matter of hours, not a day."

Teklia agreed, though there was still resistance in her eyes.  "I will transfer your payment immediately to you.  You did your job.  And I'll pay for the ship and your time with a deposit.  I want you to stay around until we're done is all I ask."

"Fine," Reith agreed.

"I will tend to the evacuation then," Teklia said.  She paused before she whirled and left briskly for the task ahead of her.

Reith watched her go, then turned to the Stormhammer team.  He beckoned them with his finger to step close, and he spoke quietly to them after making sure no one else was around.

"We're getting out of here as soon as our job is done.  It isn't that we can't get hired here, but this isn't a good situation for any of us even if we wanted to stay.  I know some of you want to go and I'm going to make sure you get the chance to do that.  As soon as that payment hits, I'm distributing it to you.  I'd ask you to stick around for the completion of this evacuation, but I'm not holding it to you.  I just can't give you some other option for transportation as we need the ship, and I don't think you're going to find a good option with every vehicle likely being used to get this done.  I'm not trying to stop you, just give you the face assessment."

Pulling out another cigar after that and lighting it, Reith then said, "Now let's get set."

Within twenty minutes the payment had been received, and distributed amongst the team.



 

[Kel Riever]

The Lucky 7 was as good as it got for a large evacuation vessel.  Teklia would normally be aboard her own private yacht, but it didn't have a doctor on it like Sally's ship, so Saba went with her ship and Teklia with her surviving daughter.  The yacht was used to evacuate VIPs and as many others as it could hold.

For its part, Sally's ship did a noble job.  Things were quite tight, with a number of asari, a handful of Koehler's Brigade who were apparently counted in the 'expendable' category by their leader, and of course a swarm of Siarist Vorcha.  Many did quite a good job of remaining calm, but many were also scared, the fear evident in their wide eyes.  To see so many vorcha acting calm or quietly frightful was a sight to behold, but it also made for a degree of relief with so many around.  There was practically standing room only in the cargo hold, and the conversation was mostly at a minimum, with a few exceptions.  Those exceptions were mostly the now ex-Brigade.  In fact, Rastus the turian pilot who'd helped the Stormhammer team escape under duress, was still in disbelief, repeating, "I can't believe Koehler sold us out!"

There was going to be one main run on the part of the Lucky 7 to a starport owned by another asari corporation, a quarter of the way around Parasc's surface.  Most would be let off there, before Sally would make a second and last run back.  She wouldn't be the finale vessel to leave but the larger ship couldn't afford to wait around for the last stragglers.  That would be the job of a handful of shuttles.   Word had gotten out, and there was a response mounted towards the invasion, but the planetary defense commander erred on the side of caution, which did not make anyone present happy.  Still, there was an old fighter craft which was still armed, despite being repurposed as an aerial surveyor, and had a retired veteran pilot.  That fighter left its base and began runs on any vorcha advancing out of the mining facility.  Reports were in that it would be enough to cover the retreat.

Teklia was controlled if not consolable.  She had lost a daughter, another was severely wounded, and her company was being torn apart by an unknown invader with an unknown motive.  Reith busied himself with keeping order on Sally's ship, though it was mostly a matter of direction and watching the Koehler's Brigade members.  Kamau was around, interfacing with whatever displays he could to keep an eye on the situation and everyone updated.  And Vihaan threw himself in with the engineering crew.

Arcadia was aware more than ever of the needs of the team, even if she kept it to herself.  She remained steely eyed, however, perhaps a result of her genetics or subconscious mannerisms.  It hid the fear of another situation blowing itself out of proportion with a certain someone who she avoided gazing at.  The hope was that in a couple of hours, the team would be on its way without a hitch.  Something she didn't really expect would happen.

[Cknarf]

"BUMP!" Kurik exclaimed, before immediately clearing his throat. He brushed off the sudden outburst as a side effect of combat fatigue. Perhaps a little rest was in order?

 

"You performed well under pressure. Your actions saved lives, mine included. For that, I thank you." Kurik placed a hand on Rastus' shoulder.  "I will speak to the Major about your future with Stormhammer." He nodded, before walking on.

[Kel Riever]

Rastus scowled in confusion, but then chuckled and said, "I'd appreciate that," to Kuric as he left.

Within two hours, the last evacuation by the Lucky 7 was complete.  Most had gone according to plan, but nothing was stopping that incoming wave of vorcha who'd turned.  Sally was making ready for her ship to leave while Reith was declining Teklia's request to stay one last time by com.  Reports were rolling in of what was concern over the last shuttles making it out of the mining facility, but because so many had been previously evacuated, all personnel from the facility escaped successfully.  As the ramp closed, Reith looked like he couldn't get off world soon enough.

Arcadia was uncharacteristically inattentive to who of the team was aboard, avoiding doing her normal account.  She figured on two people possibly being left behind, though the future of other off world travel leaving Parasc was in high question for the immediate future.  As the Lucky 7 made its final preparations for launch, there was a break-in announcement on general com. 

Someone had the ability to take it over for their purposes.  At least for everyone local.

Those who had viewscreens saw the distorted image of the woman in the black mask and green glowing eye lenses appear.  Her voice was similarly distorted, making it clear enough to understand, but unrecognizable otherwise.  She didn't speak without threat.

"Paladium employees, and in particular Teklia V'Siliou, I have come from a place far from here and inflicted pain upon you for my purposes.  But in my time here I have come to find you have something that I want.  I will give you back your precious mines without further conflict if you will but give me that one thing.

"Capture Major John Reith.  Deliver him to me alive and your assets will be restored."
 

[Cknarf]

Kurik was juuuust about to close his eyes, when he heard the mysterious voice asking for Reith's capture over comms.  With a sigh, he sat up, and climbed out of the bunk. He plopped his helmet on, and scooped up his weapons. There were a shitload of potential threats on board, and he was in no mood for their sh*t right now.

 

"Reith, where are you?" He asked, while stepping into the corridor.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

After hearing Teklia's request to return to the surface denied, Lauren thought everything was over. Then came the demand for Reith's capture in exchange for returning the planet to Teklia as it once was. 

 

The s*** never ends. Lauren thought. She took out her Phalanx and loaded it with a Warp Ammo block and put on her vest. She stepped out into the corridor and nearly ran into Kurik.

 

"Reith?"

 

Kurik nodded as he awaited a reply.