(( start here when  needed))

  The Burian fleet  pulled its  ships out  to 20,000 miles    to set up a  'Dome of  sorts, the  Delta fleet  would be inside that dome. alot of vessels would be on the docking arms,  others would be in the orbiting Docks. All of them, even the vessels that were in stationary orbit...would have supplies    loaded  whole while  the   3 day lay over lasted.

'corridors' were set up for   merchant vessels   from all over the  Black, bringing items in, take  it4ems out. The Burian were becoming a power in the   merchant would, even if only as a way point form  other  stations and planets, to save shippers  transportation costs.

The Hermes  was given the  dock  closest the the planet, the  other  3  flag ships  were set  at  4 points to keep  all 4 , from being in the same place.

The Harvester, was docked  right next to The Hermes.

  The Mechs  and armor  Units  were Dropped off along  with  Admiral Hennings. Hawkes also   stood with Hennings  as a Bodyguard, of  sorts

 Sorry you were piked   to  Babysit me Hawkes..

 aye to that Admiral  Hennings, but  i don't trust the  Bananas, too much. i 'remember  the Alamo II'

 A general   came up, His  Mustard   Yellow   tunic,  but   ESN Blue  trousers  markign him a Nivar-ESN/

  I am General  Zilis? I was  expecting Admiral Hack.

 Indeed? I am Admiral Hennings I came  to over see our mechs and Armored Unit...

  Yes... these..these  suits?.. i have heard of them..but...well...

 Hennings Brushed him Off.This  is master   Chief  Kira Ambermoon. She  leads the mech  section of the Hermes... this..he points  to Tarja,is Corp Vanska. She is the lead of the Armor  Unit....

Zilis nods to them...he turns  a Vidboard  around.we are as you humans  say.... 6:00.... the main unit  of  scout  tanks will lead the heavy  takes  to the   Tree line of the forest. There  are some 100  Empire troops there, according to  Burian  rangers... they have a   base   either close to, or inside of the small mountain there, at 12:00?


 The  scout  tanks   can only go so far, because of swamps  and   ravines  and the like. While the  armor makes noise and shells Gava   and Naragrans  are  coming  from  9:00.. you mechs and armor  will come  in from 3:00... these games...were set up to catch the  enemy off guard, we hope to sanitize this place today.

  The Diamond was settling  down  20 or so yards a way from Hennings.

 your people  will received   red..Green and Blue  some canisters.... Red  of  Enemy  concertation, the  heavy  tanks  can shell that area....Blue  for  if  someone needs  EVACed... Green  if you  capture a contested area...um?  we  really do not want  captives?

    admiral Hack,  Roy  and  the largs  piled out of the   BU. The were no sooner  on the  ground  when   Roll was calling them largs over, one  By one... and began fitting their  boarding Helmets on. Hor   sat   near  Roll ,  4  hind legs  Straight out  and front  legs held out  as if begging. a  thick Chain  was attacked to his  collar  and it was attached  to the Hover cart.

 General Wikiss  approached with his , Mustard   Yellow Tunic  and ESN  Blue pants...Admiral Hack?... and you  Brought the SM....he looked about as the BU left and the Spade  was  coming into land.

 I have some Concern about  My larg Unti, General Wikiss. I felt the need  for  some trusted people to be  around them, lest your  Worts and Largs    get...how shall i say.... depleted?

Wikiss    snarled a bit,Our Worts are hard to restrain.... our largs will listen to our Larg Masters, for the Most part...

 he points  down the   hill  , there are close to  20  larg groups, all  have  4 largs  and 4 worts...noticeable  by their massive Bulk were the   Larg  Alpha Primes.

 our Largs  may not  agree  with the  'freedom' your largs have, and the Primes  may wish to challenge  them

 Disna  and Puskie  shook thier heads... Puskie  says,I was there when Larry  Killed  a prime... tore his Thorat out... then offered  food to the  largs that were subjugated

 Disna nods,Larry is bigger now, and has a Pack...

 he waved  at the comical  Pup sitting  by a bou who was  fitting the larg head gear on..

 what the 9 hell's is that?  A child?  a Larg Pup..the pup should be getting   'condition  training'

 beth Set up  by  the hover  cart, she looked at Henry,I guess  we  couldn't get Mila   to bite   that banana in the ass?
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:27, Sat 03 Sept 2022.

  the BU landed  and  waited, the  Club was coming down.. Captain Sis  stood   By Shadow   as  Shadow   talked to the  pilots  and SEC  who were doing the  run

 Right..here  we are, one   the  most beautiful planet in  The Black..well..if you like green and blue... there were some  chuckles.

  Burian Commands  found this place  for us... as you can see, about..i duuno
 6-8 miles away is  that pretty  plateau ., now.. everyone is  going to be dropped off
 where a Burian Command is standing.. you'll be  about 1 mile away from the next  crewman..once everyone is   set..The BU is going to that Plateau..it will sent  up..pink smoke.. why pink? because the other guys are using other colors and we don't want to mess them up...even though we are pretty far from each other.

 anyway.. our  job is  to reach that  pink... The Burian Commando  will give  you a yellow  can  of  smoke, if you get too hurt to finish.... you will have a red can, if you encounter 'real enemies'' Like empire folks , or dusters. Shadow  chuckled,and since this is being timed, you really don't have time for prisoners...right?

Captain Si will be here  with Magin and The Club...Captain SI  will COM you all when its  time to start you Run....use  your head... use  your training.. he stepped off,  a truck took 30 Pilots to the  east..the BU   sailed to the   west  , to drop  people off.

Climbing into the truck with the other 29 pilots Justin checked his Rifle, Glock MP's, extra mags, Trench knife, Grenades, compass, canteens, rations, Aid kit and Survival gear were all secure for the ride to the drop-out point.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:26, Sun 04 Sept 2022.

"That child is our Cadet Larg Master, and he's probably killed as many enemy troops as you have, General.  A few of them with hand-to-hand weapons."  His tone made it clear that he had little tolerance for Wikiss' attitude.

"And if your largs have issues with the freedoms ours enjoy, you've only got yourself to blame.  This isn't even close to the first time we've had some kind of joint operation, and our largs have routinely outperformed yours in every battlefield encounter."  His eyes narrowed as he added, "And we get that kind of performance without shock prods and abuse.  You should try it sometime, General...you find out just how good your handling techniques are when you can get them to comply without the threat of pain or death."

Mila scampered over to Beth wagging her tail. Her eyes sparkled and she emitted a couple of sharp YIP YIP noises.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 13:17, Sun 04 Sept 2022.

 Sam landed with the Bug Ugly at the plateau, she set up the finish line, setting up comms and getting ready to track and time all the participants. Once Sam was ready at the finish line Sam sent to Beth and the LC. " The finish line at the Plateau is ready, we are ready to begin when you are Sir, Ma'am."

"She's saying 'Can I eat it?', Beth," translated Henry.

He wandered over to the command group.

"General Wikiss. I am Doctor Christie. It will be interesting to see how your largs perform."

He made it sound like an item of purely academic interest, a mere curiousity.

 Lizzy listened to the LC; she was ready for this. She did ok on the last Bura survival run but this one was more intense and greater risk of danger. Lizzy got into the BU to be dropped off at her starting point like last time.

Nestled among the other pilots, Madison went through her pack again, making sure everything was there. There was a lot going on in there, but it was mostly lightweight stuff. The rifle was heavier, but she was used to carrying one over long distances. She was nervous about this. It was going to be unnecessarily dangerous, but even if it was an optional exercise, she would do it.

The LC's instructions were good enough, because most of the pilots there had done it before. Otherwise they were typically brief. Madison just stuck close to the others and kept Candy in sight.

 NA-CE was nervous, but it couldn't be any worse than fighting the Empire on the moons. She would give it her all, that's all she could do and hoped that was enough. She was still new and needed to make friends and get to know the other members of the crew.

 Pilots  and  SEC  troopers   alike, stood  10 yards  from the tree line, all manner of green was there,,boles  of trees  as  thing around as  an assault shuttle, branches  moves  as  animals  and  birds .

 otherwise it  was  quiet.. white and  yellow clouds in the azure  sky... the trees against it....howls from deep in the forest...odd shrieking bird  calls.


 The Commander  of the   Burian commandos who were spotting the starting sites,Shadow, LC?  should  you not..maybe  have Pilots  run..then SEC ?... it is taking , much long  to  set people up

  All my pilots  fly , cap0tain, so they all run.... The  SEC  tropers , no matter   if they are Navy or  Marines.. are Hermes   Marines and   fill out the  boarding parties..so
 it doesn't hurt to  add to their  ground challenges...

 Captain Si says...The  truck is empty, there  are   30 more people in the BU...

 Shadow Nodded to  Captain Si as he watched the BU  with his Binos.

 Shadow, LC...are you going to the plateau , before or after the start?

  Shadow Looked at Captain  Si , she shrugged, then to the Burian Captain...I am running?

 but/ You are Shadow, LC?  what if  Nuska  eats you!

 Shadow  chuckled,Then? I'll stop running...

WiKiss   looked   back at  Rolls  who wasn't  paying a bit of attention to the General as he  locked on head   gear and  made sure the armored  Jaws  were  comfortable , Roll did  pull up the   visor  since they wouldn't  need  to  protect against   vaccum, it  also made the   jaws  move up and down  , more  naturally

Thor   yawned   as   whined a bit...Once they   go to do their  jobs , me and you wil run around here  by  The Admiral...

 You know of course, we have  claims on all  your Largs  except  your 'larry'...
 Yoru Disna and Puskie  should be truned over as  well and..

 SHUT UP...general? This   is my , gods  be damned  fleet.. i pick folks  for my boat, or other boats as  I damn well please.... I needed Larg Masters.. so there they are..Hermes lLargmasters.. i got a gods be damned  Largmaster  Cadet.. i have two  larg Cadets... and I have a  functioning unit  of  Largs and a Fur Larg..... Now..General Wikiss... I can send you to  Delta prime  and you can work with teh ape folk there.. see if you can train those  that are  still 'wild"  to be  citizens  of  the APF.. i can take your Largs  and worts   and add a unit to each and every vessel..if i want to...but  don't push your  Luck , General.

 The Generl stightned, his eyes on Thor  before turning them to  Hack...Grey smoke  will go off.. your Units   has the right  Flank, Wort, Naragrans  and Gava  have  the left flank... Our Largs   have the Middle.... let is  see who can  get the most 'clean' objectives.. there are close to  30   building hidden in there..most  have  stragglers hding there, a dn there will be native creatures  as well.

 he   moved  off down the hill,  The Admiral says...so?  do we  let  Larry take them in himself  or  do  the largmasters, SM  and henry go too?

   soon the   word  was Given, the  armor   sped  across the  5  miles  of plain towards the  Tree lines..there wasn't  any  fire, but that  didn't  stop the   armor from   shelling the  flanks   until they walked the rounds   right down the Middle..., The Panzers  stopped  about 30 yards away from the tree  line, the  Stuarts     crashed into the  tree line  and  had  to stop after  about   40 yards, rises   and  Hillocks  were the  order of the  Day..this was not a place  for   tanks   Instead, the Stuarts  set up a 'wall' of  sorts  with   weapons ready in case they  saw enemy troops.


 The   Naragrans  and thier Gava  allies    swept in from the   left flank...  Kira  and  Tarja's [people swept in from the  right flank.

 Meari stood by Tara looking fairly imposing too General hopefully. Meari worked with Tarja to get everyone ready for this. Meari stood her ground and got into position with their Mech units and the other members of her squad.  Meari then would follow Tarja into combat. She checked the suit it was doing ok but she couldn't wait for the one that would actually fit her better.

——> Hangar Dec

Tarja had spent most of the ride down to the planet’s surface standing in the aisle between the seats, which were too small for them, with the rest of her squad with her magboots turned on listening to music. During her time within the military she had learned that different people had different ways of dealing with the stress of going into combat, even if it was only a training exercise. Some got really aggressive and started boasting how many they were going to kill, others would obsessively check and re-check their equipment Tarja meanwhile listened to loud and aggressive music at a high volume.

When the transport touched down Tarja would shut off Creeping Death and signal for the squad to follow her out where they would be met by an officer in yellow and blue. It was then that she would learn what they were here for ”Empire troops? I was under the impression that this was training exercise?” she said, glad that they had brought live rounds and mini rockets with them, whilst wondering how she was going to break it to them that they were going into combat ”ok, what sort of troops are we talking about? Lagrans? Demons? Armour? Also how dug in are they?” she asked, clearly unhappy about not knowing what she was leading her team into.

Hopefully with her questions answered she would return to her squad ”Ok, plan has changed we are going into combat, Bjarne get mini rockets loaded! We will be going in at the bounce” she said before instructing them on how to use the mini rockets and jump jets so they could actually use them before leading them towards the AO.

Nikki got out when told standing there waiting for the go signal.  She took a moment to get her bearings and the direction of the extraction point.  She also looked around and listened after the craft took off.  She looked for recent tracks of any creatures about and listened as well.  When set, she began at a brisk jog.  This area was going to be crawling with things wanting to end her life...she was going to make sure they would regret even trying. she began by wielding her machete in the underbrush.

  Morgan  said to Tarja,from what i understand. the Burains    wanted us to do out training, in the areas that had  not been sanitazed  yet.... so..there will be live  fire..and the creatures   here aren't goign to  be very happy about those  shells  blowing up their world...

——> Obs Dec

Wearing her armour and carrying a carbine with her, Izzy would pass on the survival run in favour of helping Sam and Beth with the comms and vidscreens ”so would you be up for a girly night out once we’re done here?” Izzy would ask Sam from where she was crouched down behind a stack of power units running cables to the various monitors ”…it’s going be like a hen party for Lizzy and me, probably looking at a spa followed by a night of drinking and dancing, we’ve got Nikki and Madison so far…how’s that looking?” she said as she connected the last of the cables, waiting until Sam had confirmed that the connection was good before moving onto the next task, with her being in a very good mood after her talk with her mother.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Sun 04 Sept 2022.

Billie was nervous over this particular run but she was going to push herself like she did every other run. She had checked her things multiple times...and had made sure she took an appropriate dose of the lime green to dull out her overactive nervous system. She had made it a point to pack a couple extra just in case. She looked around at the others there, doing her best to keep herself calm. Waiting for the signal, Billie inhaled deeply through her nose and let it out slowly. When the signal was given, she started off at a somewhat brisk pace, eyes darting about.

”Well yes but…there is difference between maybe running into a few holdouts and attacking dug in force” Tarja replied to Morgan’s point about them operating in an area that hadn’t been declared free of enemy combatants with her clearly worried that not only would she mess up and get the entire program cancelled but would get her squad killed in the process ”my squad has only had a few hours of training in the suits and I don’t even know what we’re going up against!”

  Morgan turned his  Gremlin to her  so she could see his  face inside the glass...welcome to the  Tip of  The Spear.... on both sides of this  war, there are people who  have  paralysis, by analysis...we  get what  info  we get, and  we got out and  do our  job...there are  always surprises. BUT.. our  actions  , help eliminate those surprises, because the bad  guys get surprised, that we are...surprised?

 who knows.. Maybe Hack sent you out here to see  what you can do, with what you have to do it with?

Admiral Hennings   said...tanks  and  Naragrans  have  already started....

 Meari looked at Tarja and said," We are ready Tarja lets do this shall we. Kira we will take point follow behind us." Meari began to move the squad out with Tarja in the lead. Followed by the three Mechs. Meari will head for the closest building to 'clean'.

  The  COM  came back to Captain Si.. CAptain SI hit all COMs...Target  area, send up your Pink smoke....alright... on my signal..go.. you want to finish as  fast as you are able...but  use your head..this is   almost a dangerous  as being behind  the lines... ..on my mark..go........

There was a brief  interval as Captain SI waited for Magin to nod  at the time...MARK!

 Shadow  took Off  towards the trees, leaping over  some  brush and  was gone... The Burian Captain looked back at Captain Si, she just smiled .

 Sam smiled at Izzy and responded," Oh yes I would love to go, but what is a hen party?" Sam gave Izzy the nod it was connected.

 Sam sent up the pink smoke so the runners could find them. Sam replied on runners comms," Smoke is up runners good luck." Sam them took her seat and began to track the runners through Bura.

 Lizzy waited at her drop off point, she was ready, she scanned the area around her to get a lay of the land. Then she saw the pink smoke and Captain Si said go. Lizzy went out at a good pace not mind blowing but a good solid pace she knew she could keep for 8 miles thanks to the tunnel runs.

At Morgan's words there was the brief flash of a pine covered ridgeline scattered with bodies within her minds eye prompting her to take a deep calming breath and forcing herself to make a decision ok I can do this, this is not like last time. Switching to a group channel she would address the squad of armoured troopers under her command moments after Meari had spoken to her, with Tarja feeling grateful for the woman's presence "Ok, Sergeant Meari is right, we need to get moving, Squad form skirmish line and move at the bounce, keeping pace with Mechs, lets move!" she said before running several steps and leaping into the air with the jump jets extending her leap to a far greater distance than it would otherwise with her then running a few more steps before leaping again. Travelling in such a manner would allow the squad to cover more ground than a standard infantry squad could "Keep them peeled, we are heading into hostile area...keep watch for heavy weapons" she warned as they rapidly moved towards the enemy position alongside the mechs, watching for any sign of trouble as she did so.

NA-CE waited, her MP40 in her hands she listened and then she saw the pink smoke, then the Mark was given. NA-CE took off at a good pace, but she was in heavy brush and used her Angel Steel trench knife to cut through it. She would watch for animals and signs of enemies as she went going as fast and safe as she could.

In reply to pilots. (msg # 26):

Waiting for the start order Justin  guestimated the distance he'd be travelling. Hearing MARK Justin started off at a steady trot moving towards the distant smoke.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Wed 07 Sept 2022.

Through the brush and scrub forest Nikki seemed to breeze through.  For her this was like being back home and hunting deer.  Other than a few small not dangerous creatures she came across no threats.  She did pass one newbie pilot who was also running she had to turn about as he was running the wrong direction.  She calmed him a bit and told him think and run at the same time, not run or think.  she let him go across his own path to the plateau.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately Madison would wait to see if she was still alive in a few hours before she could enjoy it. She and the other pilots were going to race across this amazing land to a plateau off in the distance. The pink smoke made it so she wouldn't need her compass, but she would still have find the best way through the wild lands of Bura.

On the Mark, Madison took her bearing and headed for the smoke. Going fast was essential, but going smart was just as important. The path could have Hungry predators and/or enemy soldiers, so going in a blind rush could be disastrous. Being attacked was a possibility, but so were simple and more likely hazards. The way was wild. If she was racing across the wilderness back home in Wyoming, she would have to be more worried about slipping down a hill side or stepping into a prairie dog burrow. Not to mention the risk of simple exhaustion. It was long run, and she was carrying an extra 20lbs of gear. If she didn't pace herself she would burn out or could be too tired to fight if she was attacked. Fast but smart, that was how she went.

Jug, Jerboa, and Gula made their way quickly through the woods as they started their run.  they were fast and quiet as they moved.  weapons ready, and eyes peeled for any danger.

 Lizzy ran really well through the first part and was making extremely good time, the terrain was beautiful but right now also easy to traverse. She went fast but no so fast she stumbled blindly into something, but she was moving at a very good clip, if only she could keep this pace and still stay alive.

Considering the terrain and obstacles Justin covered ground relatively quickly. Moving from way point to way point, identifiable terrain feature (ITF) to ITF

"I trust Larry to operate the pack with his normal efficiency," said Henry.

"However, in this situation oversight is required for the safety and well-being of our largs. To be frank, I do not trust the 'General Larg Master' not to attempt to interfere with them."

In reply to Mechs (msg # 24):

Kira was silent for the most part as she listened to the instructions of the particular wargame while it wasn't what she initially expected it was nothing she hasn't done hundreds of times already with Morgan and the others, "Understood General we will cleanse the filth from this area"

As they marched out coming in from the right flank Kira noticed her Corporal was starting to have cold feet and was less then pleased that Morgan had to 'talk' with her, "Keep a eye out for heavy weapons and snipers now lets get in there and wipe this filth out!" she then ordered the team to move as her group covered the power armor units as they drew closer to the enemy forces.

As soon as the signal was given he hit the ground running, his eyes alert to all manner of danger as he moved fairly quickly all the tunnel runs and conditioning really paying off for helping him keep a good pace.

   From the  air, one  could barely tell there  were runners in the forested  area.  now  and a gain, one might  see a  figure  hit a clearing  before they continued to run.

  Shadow  was angry as he  came to a   steeps   hillock  and  slide  down, , but then had to   climb up the other   side,  digging his boots into the loam, and   Grabbing roots  or  Brush   to help him climb up.

  distance weapons  fire   could  be  heard well to the north, some one   was  finding something to shoot  at... then he snorted, or, someone  was found by someone, who shoot at them!

all around the Plateau,  Pilots    when through their  paces, some   in  good form, others  struggled, the forest was damp, humidity  was rising  with the  sun and the calls of angry creatures  could be heard.

Troopers  made a batter  work of it, though some   stumbled. Jax    struggled  and grew  angry with himself...knowing you way through Tunnels and streets , was the same  as  making your way through the undergrowth.

The track Madison found was surprisingly easy. Even avoiding the natural trails and obvious clearings where predators or enemies might ambush, she hit few obstacles. There were a few creeks to jump and the humidity was a little stifling, but no major hurdles so far. She did hear weapons fire from somewhere off in the distance. That would draw attention from any Empire forces camped nearby, but probably scare predators towards anywhere but the firing. Still, it was a reminder that the dangers here were real, and her thumb found the safety of her rifle just for assurance.

Moving at the bounce the squad would quickly cover the open ground with any ravines so long as they weren't too wide proving no obstacle to the armoured suits. Upon reaching the treeline Tarja would momentarily bring her suit to a stop at it's edge before proceeding at a steady run "ok we go on foot from here, trees and swampy terrain will just cause injury if we try and bounce" she explained, not to mention the fact that the sound of them crashing through branches would alert the enemy to their presence. With any luck they would catch the enemy unprepared and be able to mop them up before they were able to mount any real resistance.

Looking up from the bundle of cables she had been sorting, she would frown a bit at Sam's question before replying "it's like a bachelorette party, though Lizzy and I are having one together rather than one each...ooh I'll have to show you the wedding dresses I'm looking at later, Ok smoke is up and we are a go" Izzy said, suddenly switching gear as the pink smoke was deployed with her moving round to sit beside Sam and help her man the vidscreens.

Henry called Larry and the rest of the Hermes largs together and took a knee. Mila pronptly licked his nose, which got larg tails thumping.

"Settle down, folks. This is what we have to do. We have the right flank... the local largs will be to our left in the centre, and worts and gava right over there on the far left. We are heading for that grey smoke. Anything we encounter is fair game, no known friendlies in area. Larry, take a couple of largs and scout ahead, if you find anything call up reinforcements. Mila and I will follow up with the rest of the pack, Disna and Puskie too."

As he spoke he laid out a model/map showing the zones and directions.

"Everyone got that? We play this straight, but be wary to your left. I don't trust the larg master general."

Larry got up and burbled. Freddie and Tess arose and joined him and the three set off. Everyone else followed at a discreet distance.

After a few minutes of scrambling, there was a larg call from up ahead. A heavy pulse weapon fired. Henry split the remaining largs into two groups sending one with Puskie to the right and the rest with Disna to the left. Mila and he moved up behind Larry's position, finding the alpha larg indicating ahead. Mila trotted forwards and images filled Henry's mind... a nest, a hole in the ground with some breastworks, partly roofed, with maybe 4 largrans. He called Mila back, and loosed the largs.

The fight was short, fierce and one-sided. The largs sustained no injuries. The same could not be said for the Largrans.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:50, Mon 05 Sept 2022.

   The  largs were thumping  tails  as they feasted on bits of  Lizard man...

 That was  one  clear... Puskie  sent up   smoke to claim it.. it was the first one of the day.

  Gregor 's head popped up..blod on the  metal jaws  of his head  hear as he  looked towards the  west..


  Disna  was  closer to  Roy as they made thier  way in.

 Roll was running  around  with Thor on his leash, the happy little  pup still confused  what   grass was.. and he  would  duck down into 'hiding stance' when the wind  blew too hard.

  Admiral hack watched the   Larg Master General, he shook his head. The only thing that stopped Nivar from getting cracked open like an eggshell , after what happened to Si...well... resources were  important...at least until the war was over..

 Hennigns  COMed...so far  so good..... mechs and armo  are flanking in...

 Si here... The LC and his people vanished into the trees.. we can her  some weapons  fire....

Largs  went in.. I see smoke.. looks like our  Largs got the first kill....

Nikki continued her run.  She only stopped when she came to a creek ditch.  It was a bit deep and decently wide.  Look as if a few people tried to climb down...one looked to have fallen in actually.  All were gone now, leaving only tracks and impressions.  She looked about to see if there was a better way to cross.  She found it in the form of a strong but limber tall tree.  climbing up, her weight would bend it to the other side.  She adjusted her gear and climbed.  The 20 ft tall sapling only a few inches around flexed back and forth until bending over the ditch.  using her harness, she slipped around and landed a few inches from the edge on the other side.  Feet safely on the ground she made sure to release the tree without getting herself hit or losing balance.  'Not bad' she thought to herself as she continued on.  In the distance she could hear, but not see other runners.

Roy grunted at the question.  "I say we show them how we do it, Hermes-style.  We've got our sector...have Larry and Freddie scout it and if they finds anything more than single individuals, we let the whole pack rush the target and clean it up.  The Doc and I can follow along so the Nivarians don't have a panic attack about largs running wild."

He walked over to where Roll was finishing up getting the largs' headgear on.  He double-checked a couple of them, a very cursory inspection because he knew Roll knew how to do the job, and gave the boy an approving nod.  "Nice work, Roll.  They look great..."

He turned back to the largs.  "Okay...we've got a specific sector to sweep and clear.  The plan is this...Larry, Freddie, you scout it out.  If you find individual threats, take them down, but if it's anything more than one enemy, you come back and lead us to the area they're in, and we'll work out the best way to send in the whole pack and take down the target fast and dirty.  The rest of you hang back with us, so the Nivarians don't piss themselves about largs running around without handlers."  He grinned at Tess and Gla, adding, "Don't worry, you'll get plenty of chances to run into action, I'm sure."

And with that, he gestured in the general direction.  "Out there...from that cluster of trees..." and he pointed out the landmark that delineated their operational sector, "to that low hill, right there.  Larry, you take the left side, Freddie, you take the right.  Stay low in the grass...show those size queens that bigger isn't always better."

He chuckled, then made a curt wave of his hand in the direction of the target zone.  "Go find out what the enemy left behind for us..."

Both largs zipped into the grass and underbrush and were instantly out of sight.  Roy turned to Henry, as he swung his assault rifle into position and made sure there was a full magazine in it and a round was chambered and ready to fire.  "Shall we, Doc?" he asked, a playful grin on his face.  He was obviously expecting to show up the Nivarians...and quite enthused at the prospect.</blue>"

The pace of their advance would slow due to necessity as the forest they were in became more densely packed with undergrowth and interspersed with marshland that they had to carefully pick their way through. With her squad spread out in a rough line on either side of her Tarja would catch glimpses of them in the dense terrain with her having to rely on her suits HUD to keep track of them as they advanced.

With Hipper pointing out the smoke rising above the canopy in direction of where the Larg units were operating Tarja would turn to briefly examine it before continuing on ”Well that confirms enemy presence in the area, let’s pick up pace trees open up a little here” she stated picking up the pace a little as they continued to press onwards ”is everyone ok with what they’re doing, any questions you need to ask?” she asked wanting to make sure they all knew how to operate the suite of weaponry carried by the suits, though she was probably needlessly worrying ”Kira? How are mechs doing? Have you seen anything? All is clear up here” she then said, switching comms channel to check in with Kira and make sure they weren’t outpacing them in the dense terrain, with her wondering where exactly the enemy were hiding.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:43, Tue 06 Sept 2022.

"Absolutely..."

Henry returned Spencer's grin and loped along beside him. Mila ran with the rest of the largs, a flash of white fur amongst the scales.

 When   The largs  were   told to Move  on, Gregor   was up on his  hind legs looked to the  west.

 Gla  Nudged  Roy and Looked to wards   gregor  who looked  like a  3 foot tall Prairie dog.

 ...

Roll was  happy that  Roy  checked his  work and said he did  good, Then Continued to run about  in  a  50 yard  area.

.....

.Adkiral  Hack  COMed,  ALL COMs Congrates to The hermes  Larg Unit, they have the first offcial Cleanse of the day!

 Beth Giggled,Wikiss  , is trying to block our  ALL-COMs

 we he be able to?

 beth  put  a Hand on her Chest plate,Admiral!... You  wound  me to the core...

Hack chuckled,Just  Checking...

 Meari stayed with Tarja, she looked around slowly down some as not to alert everyone within 10 miles to hear them. Meari would search for any enemy activity using the suits HUD to try and easily track any empire scum down. "Aye Tarja still looking for any Empire scum, ill inform if I find any."

NA-CE was running her ass off, but ran into heavy brush, and then had to cross a river on her next section which also slowed her down. She kept moving but kept her eyes and ears open and her wits about her as she headed for the pink smoke.

 Sam smiled at Izzy and replied," Oh ok I have never heard it called that before, plus I was very socially awkward so didn't go to too many weddings.

 Sam listened and watched her screens for a bit then smiled at Izzy and replied," Oh yes I can't wait to see them and try to match a little bit. I am so happy for you two." Sam then went back to her comms and screens to make sure everything was good.

"Don't inform, just frag them" Tarja replied to Meari, chuckling darkly as she scanned the trees ahead of her, preferring to rely on mark one eyeballs, after all they had served her well so far "Also you stick out like parrot" she added teasingly, with Meari's Black and Purple paint scheme contrasting vividly against the greens and browns of the forest...mainly greens, in fact come to think of it nearly all greens "Is everything always this green?"

Kira pressed forward the Gremlins hard no trouble traversing the terrain as they made there way close to the combat zone, "No hostiles on my sensors yet but we know they are out there stay vigilant they cant hide forever" she kept a close eye out for moment in the nearby trees as they marched onwards.

Zob continued to push hard through the forest but perhaps a little to hard as his foot caught part of a tree root causing him to fall forward and nearly impaling himself on a mess of thorny branches but only just falling short, 'hells that could of been bad... gotta be more careful' he then took off running once again this time being a bit more careful.

 Lizzy had a much harder time with the next stretch, she had a cross a large ravine, and a small broke with very loose rocks. She made it through and then tried to pick up more steam to get closer she was about halfway there now.

Bog and Uvuvu's teams were doing well on their runs, no unexpected surprises.

Jugs team, continued quite easily as it was.  Only stopping to help if help was needed.  Using their natural acrobatics Jug taught those with her to use trees to effective use.  They did come across more tracks of obvious humanoids.  Their boot treads said 'not Hermes'.  They evaded as many 'humans' fail to look up.  all three moved swift and silent.

Whatever that shooting was seemed to have stopped. Unless it was nearby, Madison wasn't going to get worked up about it. What she would do is stay vigilant while moving quickly. No stopping, just keep moving and looking ahead for hazards or threats. As she passed near a clearing, se looked for the pink smoke. It was right where she expected it to be.

The terrain was hilly and rocky, which made it difficult to go too fast, but was actually safer. Simply put, by expending some more energy to travel on the path of some resistance, she avoided the natural traps and ambushes that would almost always be placed along the path of least resistance. As trite as that sounded, it worked. But she was trying to be realistic, but so far her run had been smooth and without much in the way of obstacles. Hopefully her luck would hold out.

 Shadow  was walking up  another  slope...gods be damned?.. are there any flat places  in this damn forest??

  Then there was the Smell.. he had  his   face shield up, or  else he would have  never smelled it... He  looked around  as  he kept  walking... the brush, and leaves  moved...  a Big Fur covered  beast  slowly rose  out  of the muck,..ahhh, Comon!....

 The    Creature  lurched  Forward, standing on 4  hind legs   while the   front  Claws  rose into the air...

 The creature  wasn't used to   a Lights out  agent..   Shadow ran right  towards  it,  the SMG  on his   shoulder,  as he pulled the trigger,   the other  hand Pulled his  trench knife...

 SMG  rounds  pounded into the   thick Belly as the creature's roar   changed  from Challange , to pain and surprised, Sounding like a  women falling off a  tall building, when the  Creature   looked    for  Shadow,  his  trench  knife  switched to his   right hand, while the left   hand  pulled the SMG   around.. Firing into   the   front left  right, middle Leg,  Shadow  had   time enough  to drive his blade in twice,  He   jerked it  down each  time,  Green-Red Blood   Leaked from the wounds as the Beast tried to  turn and   find the thing that hurt it...

  as  it swung around to its hurt   side.. Shadow    charged  again.. this  time , trying to  firing into  the  left rear leg,,   This  time the   creature   turned a swipe ,just  missed the LC,,..he stopped   dead as the SMG  clicked..  the   blade  went Up  and Under the chest area were..he hoped    were  ribs were.

 The Creature  Roared , this time the  backhanded whack  sent the   LC some 15 yards , he    rolled the best his   could, getting up  he  ejected the Mag  and slammed  another one in.. The  Creature   yelled in  Pains, it  couldn't Move like  it wanted..  Its    Growls  and roars   got  Softer,,  It turned its  head and Looked at Shadow... then stopped  moving... mist rose from its  nose...

   Shadow  looked at it  as he caught his breath...all Coms...Hey?  Green Guy Captain... what's a Nuska look like...

 Captain  GO-LN,,, they look  like  mountain of  fur and  claws.. get very big..they are very fast... why?

 I Stumbled  on one...its dead now..but..its  big.. I'll stick a marker on it  for the  Rangers to get for  food for the Villages...as..WTF...

There was  a movement  small bundle of  fur  came from under the   'nest'.. it was  about as big as a beagle.. it made a sorrowful  cry..

 gods be damnned! it had a cub.... I didn't Know that.. i would have run instead...

 Shadow, LC? You must Kill the   Cub... it will die,, it will not have  a nice  death..kill it..show mercy...

 The  Little creature   bawled a cry  as he  claws  at the  dead   beastie.

 Shadow  merely said.... Right.....

 Shadow, LC, Bring back  a fore claw.. the longest    talon?.. it is very important...

 weill do.... see you soon


 He    cut  a  9 inch talon from the   right   claw  and   tucked it in his   pack, , The  little beastie   kept    bawling..

    Shadow looked at his COM, he was losing Time... he pointed the   weapon at the creature's  head.. it  bawled  again, its nose  sniffling as it looked up at him...

  all your  Mom needed to do is let me run by.....

 The    little  creature  laid its  head on the  dead creature...it was whining...

    He looked at  it  as it closed its  eyes.....FUCCCCKKKK!!!!

  he   opened his  pack    moved  grenades  to his belt , bottles of water to his  jacket... He  Picked the   creature up... it  wiggled a bit, but  he managed to   stuff it in the  Pack as it  flexed out.. he  closed it  up..the Things  head   was out  ..it stopped   crying...

  Shadow  began to  Run again, ..go for a   gods be damned  run.. and I ended up  with a  demon version of Teddy Ruxspin.....the creature  wasn't light.. but  it  stayed still, Shadow   shook his head.. he   killed  people..lots of them,, some right in front of relatives to make a point..but he couldn't kill a gods  be damned  Hamster on steroids..   As he  Struggled  up  another Hill , he sent   Si a COM...

  Captain?..I couldn't  do it.. I have it in my backpack... maybe  Doc  or  a  some Villagers  can do something with it... i... I just couldn't...

 Captain Si  smiled , GO-LN was shocked...no one   , has returned  with a  cub, by themselves.. he will not make it..

 Carry on ,LC.... she looked at  GO-LNwhy would a cub be such a terrible thing?

Nuska, they are .. Family animals.. If they hear the    Cub.. they will run the LC  down..he cannot out run a Nuska..

 Captain SI  hit ALL COMs....Attention..The LC has  Killed  a Nuska.. large  bear like  things.... he..um... is bringing the CUB to the target area..beware of   other Nuska  on the Move... That is all...
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:34, Wed 07 Sept 2022.

Roy glanced over in Gregor's direction, and grinned.  "Catch up with us when you're done there, Gregor!" he directed, proceeding onward.  He stayed low, not quite a full crouch, and encouraged Henry to do the same.  "They may have gun positions," he explained, "and while I trust our largs to clear a safe space for us, there could be enemy positions outside our area of operation that could fire in on us.  Minimize your target profile..."

They moved forward a little further when Larry turned up unexpectedly, his stump of a tail bobbing in excitement, until he turned and began a low slither through the grass.  "He's got something," Roy commented, dropping lower and following the larg.

Larry paused behind a low hill, his head coming up just far enough to look through the grass on top of it, a low, dangerous burble in his throat.  Roy dropped prone on the backside of the hill, easing his way forward until he could look over the crest, just barely, relying on the grass and underbrush to camoflage the helmet of his armor.  "Largrans...gun emplacement..."  He scuttled back down the slope, and rolled onto his seat.  As Henry and the other largs caught up to them, he drew a simple map on the ground.

"That's the emplacement...this is this hill, right here.  Larry, you're fastest...I want you to circle around to here, and wait.  Tess, you go here.  Gla, over here.  I'll give you all two minutes...then I'm going to shoot the gunner.  That's your cue to rush in.  They'll be looking for me, by the time they realize you're there, it will be WAY too late for them...Go..."  He turned to Henry.

"Keep an eye out for Freddie...or anyone stumbling in behind us.  Mila should be able to tell if trouble's wandering around out there in the grass, even better than the largs..."

He scuttled back up the hill, easing his rifle into a firing position as he mentally counted down, giving the largs time to get in position.  As he counted the last of the one hundred twenty seconds that ticked past, he settled to the scope.  Oh, the blessing of dumb luck... he told himself.

The gunner was eating.  As the Largran raised a claw of whatever it was consuming to its open maw, Roy sent a round through the back of its throat.  It lurched backward in the gun pit, the other Largrans raising their weapons and preparing to fire at anything they saw that looked like a threat.  Only one of them managed to turn partway to see the gaping jaws of a charging larg.

It was fast, and brutal, and very definitely messy, but in about five seconds, the Largrans were all dead.  "Score another clean-up for the Hermes..."

Henry smiled his acknowledgement of Spencer's advice and did his best to run in an awkward crouch. Well, awkward for him, it looked quite natural for Spencer!

He heard Shadow's All-com message. "I'll be along in a bit to take the cub off your hands, Kray."

Interesting. Maybe it too could be raised and trained to become a part of this motley crew of fighting beasts. He turned his attention to the immediate matter at hand. Larry had gone into full stalk mode, he'd spotted something.

He listened to Spencer's directions and set Mila to watch the rear as the largs went in.

   When Roy  Fired. The    Largran   under  the  low  branch  jerked  sideways, the other  LArgrans   looked  around, the 'smartest ' one , looked in the direction of   Roy, since his  comrade   shifted in the opposite direction.. it was saying something, that the  translator  chip could not  discern from that far  away.

 By then Tess  and  Gla   came in, like a Pincer. Both 'flew' through the air..well..as much flying as a  300lb+ , six legged  lizard  could Fly. the  crashed   down  on the meager  Camo over the   Largrans  heads, that  deeps   screams  from the throats of the  trapped LArgrans  were loud....and   short...

 Gregor  zipped   over the  hill  running  and weaving like a snake  with Legs...  Larry had  not  attacked  yet.., The  smaller Larg found Larry , Just  as  Larry Made a similar   'pounce" on another   'nest"  One Duster  trying to Get away   but  Gregor  made a heroic  leap at him...but missed... falling a  foot or  two  short. The Human with green-brown camo paint on his face, Looked  terrified  and surprised  as his friends screamed in the hole, and  the smaller  Larg  appeared in  front of  Him.. Gregor seemed ;put Off' that he 'misssed'.. so he  bit the man's let left off at the Calf.

 Roll and Thor had  stopped playing  for a bit, Roll gave Thor some water...Admiral Hack looked through his  Binos..not that they did  him much good...too far away, too thick undergrowth..

 Our Largs  are making alot of eati8ng  noises.. I bet  we'll have lotsa   smoke things..

Admiral hack turned and Smile...hope so, Roll. Every one of them  we get rid of now, makes Bura  safer....

 Roy?  Henry?..make  sure you send up the smoke... Beth says helmet cames  have   two more attacks? that should be three total? it never occurred to him, the enemy would  prevail...

"Already done," said Henry, reaching for a smoke grenade as Roy supervised the mopping up. Reminding Mila not to chase it, he pulled the pin and tossed it.

With the ground ahead of them starting to rise Tarja wouldn't realise the mistake she had made until she reached the crest of the rise and found herself standing within a man made clearing, with the trees and undergrowth having been seemingly cleared by explosives. It was just as she was about to open her mouth to warn the others, or possible even suggest they skirt around it when a barrage of heavy pulse fire came from somewhere just the other side of a dried up riverbed. Being the only one to have reached the clearing she was the natural target with a pair of shots finding their marks, with one grazing her hip and the other glancing off of her shoulder causing her to stumble backwards and drop to one knee, with the shoulder in question flashing up amber on her HUD along with several warnings about damage to the ablative plating and energy coatings and the computer informing her that it was re-routing power down auxiliary  cables. Thankfully however the medical suite would remain silent, meaning that despite it feeling like she'd taken a hit from a hammer that she was unharmed by the incident.

Whatever celebrations that had been taking place in the weapons nest would be cut short as Tarja rose to her feet and five more of the suits crested the rise behind her "Enemy position sighted, by the numbers, two by two covering fire lets cross this ground as quickly as possible and show them how it's really done!" Tarja snarled before contemptuously sending a mini rocket in the direction of the nest. Without even waiting to see if it had hit she would run forward three steps before leaping into the air using her jump jets with her just imagining the shocked looks on the enemies face before landing at a crouch and firing a burst of gatling fire into the treeline, waiting for Meari to catch up and say she was in position before leap-frogging forward again at a rate that would take the unit across the open ground and land them in amongst the enemy in no time.

 Meari halted then ran then leaped to follow Tarja. She landed then followed Tarja into the nest, firing her gatling gun at anyone not of her group moved. Meari would cover Tarja as they moved forward to take the nest. "Already done, ok armored troopers lets kick ass and hopefully send some green smoke up.

Kira and her group pushed up into the clearing behind the armored units, "Hostile sighted engaging" she said with a rather cold and calculated tone of voice as she pressed forward sending a hail of both heavy pulse and hard ammo towards the enemies position making sure to avoid any friendly fire while the armored units got into position.

 weapons  fire  range out  from the other pairs.  Tress  fett there was  a pair of enemy Bodys, looking  like  Dusters , that were ground up  by minigun gun fire.

 Andre  had  veered a little closer to the  suits.. he  fired  a Burst in the  Dirction of  ConRad's targets.

 Morgan Pointed  to a  old color 'stone',..Kira? that's a blokc house... covered by natural growth..

Kira swapped out her heavy pulse in favor of her napalm and pressed upwards keeping her hard ammo pinned on the position luckily the building was off to the right hand side so the risk of friendly fire was low enough to attempt burning it, "Not for long... stay clear of the enemy block house" she then blanketed the emplacement in liquid flame if anyone was inside they were about to have a very bad day.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:56, Wed 07 Sept 2022.

Nikki was getting close, the terrain drier and seemed more stable for running, she sprinted a bit faster, using her machete to forge a train towards her goal.  She tried doing it quietly as not to draw attention, but one can only be so quiet.  listening she heard of the bearlike creature that Shadow killed and of the cub.  Another one for the menagerie she thought.  Hermes was going to become an interstellar zoo.  As she began getting closer the smoke became more clear as well she could tell the land was rising up.  She hoped for an easy climb.

 Lizzy hit the third part of her trip and ran into a fucking knee-deep swamp. This slowed her down considerably, as she got out of the water and checked herself as often as she could. She hated swamps, why a fucking swamp really. Lizzy trudged through best she could it started to turn into semi dry muck, and then Lizzy finally saw dry ground for almost 2 miles. Lizzy was pushing herself she lost a lot of time in that swamp and damn she smelled horrible now.

 Lizzy knew now to pull out everything she had this was the final leg of her second survival run. She focused on that pink smoke and gave it everything she had.

 NA-CE did really well in that second part she hit halfway and ran right into a swamp. NA-Ce used her height to her advantage and stayed in the swallow areas of the swamp as well. This slowed her down greatly, she got surprised by a snake or 2 a few times but she managed to make her was through the swamp and head for dry ground heading right for the pink smoke and the end of this grueling great test for her and statement to make, that she was here to fight and kickass and save lives.

Leaping through the air Tarja would land at the edge of the trees in amongst a pair of mercs in brown coat that in the process of fleeing the smoking remains of a concealed gun pit. Grabbing the nearest man by the lapels of his coat she would hurl him through the air before walking three paces towards the second, ignoring the 9mm rounds currently ricochetting of her armour, and delivering a backhanded blow that would break his neck ”spread out, find them all and kill them!” she commanded in a cool, calm voice as the mechs entered the fray with Kira proceeding to torch a nearby blockhouse ”Hipper! Paskins! Circle around blockhouse and make sure none escape out of back way!” she said whilst continuing to advance deeper into the enemy position, firing upon any targets that presented themselves.

 Sam was monitoring the SEC and Pilots all heading towards her. The LC was bringing back a baby Nuska was it, and the LC could be bringing more Nuska to her location just wonderful. " Copy that Beth glad I got armor and a pulse rifle."

  The  Blockhouse   plants  Burned on the outside, while the  napalm  slipped into the  view  ports.

    People  Died, These  seemed to  be all Dusters... One , Morgan had   by the  leg , Bashing  him off  two  trees  like he was  ringing a dinner bell.

 Andre  veered away from the   Armor  suits  as they seem to recover from the  initial shock..  Andre Popped   smoke to signify  the  'cleansing'

 Meari saw one last nest of Dusters, she ran toward the nest she saw 8 Dusters, she hit the jump jets and as she was up in the air, she the first group of 4 with the gatling gun. Meari annihilated them they didn't know what hit them. She then drew her Udenese swords, landed between the other 4 and began to cut them to ribbons. When she had the nest cleared, she came out and gave a thumbs up and they got a 'cleansing' that was awesome.

 Meari then Com'd Tarja, " We should regroup we have one more area to check." Meari cleaned her blades on the Dusters and then put them away, she was happy she was able to bring them.

Justin kept up a steady pace covering the terrain. So far So good. he thought as he'd managed to jog four miles without incident from either the locals or the wildlife. Pausing he checked his bearings then sipped on some water. Securing the waterbottle he continued towards the endpoint. After four minutes he noticed ahead the glint off sunlight off several puddles of water. Slowing his pace he stopped to scan the way ahead. Swamplands... Thats just great... he quietly thought. Diverting Justin skirted the boggy terrain managing to avoid it.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:52, Thu 08 Sept 2022.

  Captain Si  Hit All COMs.. two pilots  sent up distress  smoke,,,sending    the Club to  find them..Shot    fired  near them.. everyone  be  aware!

   Mara  came on the COMs...LC..a Massiave bear-thing   is tearing aprt   three Dusters... they are shooting it..it doesn't  seem to care..

 Yeah?   all  the Yogi's in these trees are upset.. let them kii the right people, Just keep moving, we're  all  at the point of  no return..

     Shadow    was nearing the slope to the plateau.. he took a peak at the  Cub...The   Cub is sleeping!... how do you sleep with all this going on... Come on
 folks... I'm  making a  run at the slope that leads  to the climb... try to beat me!

   Cavi, the Felrite pilot of the Club...LC.. we have  the  one  called  Finn.. and one  Called Harmon..legs  are broken, falling off  something..they should be  fine...

 Thanks Cavi..if you see   any Dusters  or  lizards gunned them  down...

 It will be , beign done, my LC...

 Shadow moved   quickly, Knowing that the bear things  can  , most likely Climb better then him... he stated talking to the Cub...I might be up there  already, if it wasn';t for you!... all those  square  Miles? You pop up whe i come by....

 On the COMs   The Captain  of the Burian rangers  asked...Shadow, LC...are....are you talking to the Cub?

 yeah?  killing time  while i wait  for  some green elephant or  something   to appear  next....

 The Buurian  Captain LAughed,did he say anyhting important....

 yeah...something about getting  even  with a  Little green CAptain who jinxed be about Nuska?

 The Captain Looked at  Captain Si, she  smiled..I would not be surprised?

Roy lobbed a smoke grenade toward the other site, making sure the Nivarians would realize there were multiple points cleaned up.  He had no sooner done so that he turned to find Freddie waiting patiently for his attention.

"You found something?" he asked, and the larg dipped his head, almost like a nod.  Roy blinked once in surprise, then nodded.  He let out a low whistle, calling the largs back to his position, then told Freddie to lead on...

The larg stopped after a while, sitting down to look back at Roy, then ahead.  Roy dropped to his belly and crawled forward, scanning the terrain ahead...he wasn't seeing it, but he trusted Freddie.  "Wait for the others to get here...then lead them in...I'm not seeing what you found, but I trust you."

So far Jug and her team were making good time.  She kind of wondered if it was bad or good luck they had run into no trouble.  a check with Bog and Uvuvu revealed the same.  "Perhaps the forest creatures are afraid of us?" Jug joked as they ran for the plateau.

   this  nest was   newer, set between  two big boles... largrans inside.. camo-ed  as  god  as  any Burian would be...however.. Bura  didn't have native Largs.

  Larry   stood crouched    off to the side. letting  Freddie lead the others... they flattened out  and  scuttled through the grass,  quick, yet  smooth .. about  20   Yard s aay  Freddie let out  s   snorts  that was the only signaled... the  creatures    vaulted     through the   high grasses .. the 'seldom heard'  scream of fear from LArgran troopers,  Bursts of  fire  were   sort... Then all was   Quite.. Gregor  appeared  on the  go of the  rocks, thumping his   tail , trying to look around, but  blue-green  blood  covered his   face shield,..

 Larry stood on his   Hind Legs  and Gave  a  Sharpe  m blood chilling yell of 'the hunt".. all the other  Largs  answered.. from a mile or so back, they could  even hear the tiny    ;'roar'  from Thor.

 Though  the COM was  sent to  The Admiral, through Beth..Beth  fed the COMs to  Roy and Henery as well..

 it  does not count for the smoke  for  each  enemy trooper!..you must clear all the   emplacements!..

 I believe  they are general  Wikiss. We wouldn't have  enogh smoke grenades   if  we did  each  trooper they  killed..

 from far  to the  west...  angry challeneg calls  came from primes   and Alphas..

 Larry didn't answer.. his statment was made...

Roy snorted at the disclaimer from Wikiss.  "Does that mean, General, that we're only supposed to pop smoke when the entire area is clear?"  Without waiting for a response, he grabbed another grenade and lobbed it in the direction of the nest that the largs were...well, pretty much finished with.

He glanced over at Henry.  "I don't know if you're the type that claims trophies, Doc," he commented, with a grin, before continuing, "but Largrans make some REALLY good hard-ammo sidearms and I'm guessing there's a whole pile of them going to be available by the time we're done.  You might want to claim one...carrying a 'spoils of war' weapon could be a nice touch for the whole 'Warrior Prof' image that has sprung up around you."  He could envision the muttered conversations amongst the intellectual dignitaries they encountered, when Henry presented himself with a Largran pistol on his hip, especially if word got around that it was taken on the field of battle and Henry had been present at that battlefield to claim it.  He didn't have to say anything about whether or not he'd killed the enemy trooper who'd been the previous owner...the mere fact that he'd been part of the battle would speak for itself.

"If that's not your thing, no problem," he added, knowing that Henry had his own sensibilities about such things...and it was clear from his tone that he respected those sensibilities, even if he didn't always share them.

"Let's go get them moving again...make sure our sector's clear."  He moved up to the remains of the gun pit, reaching out to clap Freddie on the shoulder.  "Good work, Freddie," he commented, heartfelt approval in his voice.  Raising his voice slightly, to address all of them, he said, "We've got a sweep to finish...and, maybe, if we get done, just to piss someone off, we can poke into the adjacent sectors and help these slowpokes out..."

Mentally, he was preparing a tally...positions and numbers of personnel accounted for.  It wouldn't upset him at all to be sitting at the rally point, when the exercise was done, waiting for Wikiss and the other Nivarians, and to explain that they'd taken out as many or more enemy personnel as any of the other teams.  Although, more likely, once they finished their sweep, he'd just hop on the comms and ask Wikiss if anyone needed help because they had secured their zone...

Madison's run was going well, she had completed about two thirds of the journey already, with little in the way of obstacles and no encounters with anything larger or more dangerous than a desert hare. She was tempted to think the risks were overstated. That some unexpected by horrible occurrences in past had cause the warning label to get bigger than necessary. But then she reminded herself of the gunfire erupting in the distance. Unless that was theater, it was evidence that the dangers existed, and that she had to continue being vigilant.

While her path had been pretty easy until then, Madison's luck seemed to have run out. The slope of the terrain had been getting increasingly steeper, but she came to a point where it was almost vertical. There were still trees, so she could use the roots and the protruding rocks as footholds, but if she misstepped, she would end up sliding a good way down into a river basin some sixty feet below. With the same trees and rocks covering the ground all the way, it would be a miracle of she wasn't badly injured.

It wasn't ideal, but her only other options were going back and finding a different way, or descending while it was controllable to use the river as her way of passage. Using the river had it's own risks. As a natural trail, she would be more likely to encounter an ambush or a predator, and she'd have to go back a long way before the river wasn't her only way forward. She decided to risk traversing the slope.

Madison judged it to be about sixty feet across. Not too far, but there was plenty of opportunity to make a mistake. Slinging her rifle, she reached out to grab a branch, using it to steady her first step to the roots of the same tree. Clinging to the trunk the slope looked a lot more sheer, but she had already started and there was no going back. For the next ten feet, she held onto roots from a tree above as she shimmied along some rocks. Then she scooted around the back of the next tree gaining her another eight feet. Then she managed another fifteen or so by walking along the roots of two trees that had grown out close together. She was about halfway, but for the next ten to fifteen feet, there was only rocks with little to hold on to.

The first few steps went well, enough. Madison used the hard edges of protruding rocks as steps. She only had other rocks as hand holds, but leaning into the slope made whatever purchase she had enough. The challenge came next where the rock exposure was too smooth to use as a stable step surface. Instead she had to rely on the friction of her boots. It was precarious, but with careful application of her weight, she was able to shift along until she found a root to hold onto. There was only about twenty feet to the end, but she needed a moment to rally her concentration.

About three feet further, Madison spotted a good rock to step on. It would be a stretch, but she felt she could step across. Holding onto the root, she put her foot out, but came up short by half. Bending her leg got her closer, but not quite enough. She had no choice, she would have to add a little shove off to get it. After a deep breath she reached out again, this time leaning toward the foot hold, but instead of getting closer, her supporting foot slipped, leaving her dangling by the root in her hand. ...until she lost her grip.

As she fell, Madison bounced off the rock that she previously stood on. She was airborne for a moment but then hit the slope and slid. To slow her descent, she tried to dig in her heels. It worked to some extent until she hit the first tree and bounced to the side and started rolling. More rocks and bounces, she felt all the hits that would leave a bruise, and some that scraped. Her armor helped, as did her uniform. It went fast, but felt like forever until she hit a cluster of roots. Her armor hit first, causing her to bounce and then land with a splash into the fast moving river.

Karl, in stark contrast to his normal performance on any of the running exercises, took off smoothly and swiftly, moving with care and caution for the environment, but making excellent time.  The difference in the terrain began to catch up with him, though, as he labored more and more to keep moving.  He stopped worrying about trying to keep up with any set pace, and just focused on staying moving...especially when he hit the final section and struggled his way up the rise, to the rendezvous point at the top.

"Not bad, considering I know jack about survival tactics," he gasped out to himself as he arrived at the end.  He hadn't had to worry about survival training since his initial flight training...test pilots weren't expected to have to survive, if they went down, someone came looking for them right away.

But he wasn't a test pilot anymore.  He made a mental note to call up the Hermes' library content on wilderness survival and start refreshing his memory, and adding to his understanding of it.  For now, however, he contented himself with getting some water and waiting for the rest of the runners to make it to the finish, knowing that shore leave was waiting...

Henry looked slightly startled, then grinned.

"Now, that's an interesting idea. Ought to improve behaviour in lectures no end... perhaps you could pick me out a good one. I don't know much about handguns, taken long enough to learn to use my shotgun to good effect. More range time, I imagine... no point in carrying a weapon I cannot use well."

He set Mila to snooping through the 'nest' to see if there was anything of interest there.

Zob continued to push hard during the final part of the run not encountering anything all that threatening as he closed in on the pink smoke and concluding his run, not waiting to see who was here or not he slung his rifle and brought the Ender to bear loaded with high explosive rounds and took aim at the tree line in case one of those bear creatures came charging out ready to fire if it did.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:33, Thu 08 Sept 2022.

Once the threat had been neutralized in the current area she had Andre pop smoke to signal it was clear, "All teams reform and lets check the last area!" she then switched the napalm back out for the heavy pulse before marching forward with her team.

 Meari gathered the armor troopers and checked their status, once they where good too go, she said to Tarja," Ok lets follow Kira shall we hope we get another one." Meari really liked Tarja and hse was a true warrior fought extremely well and very tactical, she was a good leader and a great warrior so far in Meari's eyes.

As soon as Madison hit the water, she pulled her crash kit bag around too use as a flotation device. The river was moving quickly, but it was deep and devoid of and rapids.  As she let the water carry her, she kept track of the trail of pink smoke easily visible above the trees. Even with some winding, the river took her in the right direction for a couple kliks, but when it turned hard to the left, she swam to the right shore to resume running.

As luck would have it, the path back was much like the beginning of the run, Though she did run cautiously, alert for danger, Madison was able to make it the clearing without any trouble. She wasn't the first, but neither was she the last. Once safely in the clearing she went off to the side and stripped down to her shorts and under shirt to dry off in the sun.

  At the Plateau ,  Burian regulars  were  rushing to the   edges,  They  spiked in  Ropes    and lt them drop  to the   runners who were  climbing.

 Burian sniped    were scattered, firing  down on Dusters or LArgrans that  were  chasing  Runners.. Now and  a Agin Nuska  were scene, but were 'distracted  by   Duster  who fired at them

 Shadow used   every trick..  digging footholds,  grasping   roots, after  testing them  with a hard   Jerk, and   using his   trench knife  to help  pull himself up..Shoulders  and Arms  burned,, his  back ached....a voice  whispered, 'it would be so easy to let the  Cub fall.. But Shadow ignored it.. Finally he reached the 100 yards  of   rope that dangled  down. he  wrapped his  ahnd s in  and, and   climbed.. Bots of crock   would  explode  near him as he  climbed.. the 'cough' of a  sniper   riles  above him,  would end the threat, or  at least  send it  to cover. He moved from the edge   so the troops   could look for others to drop rope to.. he  sat his pack down, with the sleeping Nuska  Cub.

 A Burian SGT,, Native Burian, Crouched down..


what are you going to do with that?

 I dunno?  I couldn't Kill it...didn't want to  be a coward   and let it suffer on its own, so? I brought it with me..Maybe Doc Henry  will  want it..

 Villages  out   far? they pay good creds for  baby.. train it to be guardian..

 we'll see.. I just want to rest a bit...

 Lizzy pulled herself out of the swamp and then hit the dry land of the plateau and dug deep to give the last 2 miles all she had. Lizzy actually did really well and made up for the last two subpar sections, she did pretty good to finish it out though. Lizzy climbed the plateau and made it to the finish line and considering she went through the worst swamp imaginable she thought she did pretty good. Lizzy got some water and waved to the others that hwee alread there.

Zob was there waiting he was focused aiming through his scope when he noticed a Largran poke its head out from the nearby tree line and in a new york minute he then squeezed the trigger and the Largran vanished into a pile of featureless gore, "It's down..." he then let out a small sigh of relief.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:48, Fri 09 Sept 2022.

Reaching the finish Justin moved to where the others were gathered Reported in and waited for any instructions that may be given. Having been waved off Justin grabbed a bottle of grape juice one of apple juice and a third of water taking a seat he proceded to take sips from each in turn.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:15, Fri 09 Sept 2022.

Nikki got to the ropes area to get up to the plateau after breaking the tree line.  She gave a tug to check for it being anchored and sound.  Then she began climbing. doing well for about the first 15 or so feet.  Footholds we numerous, until she put her foot into one that was not stable.  As it gave way, it twisted her on the rope.  Losing her grip, she slid and tumbled down.  Her left side taking the brunt, the elbow especially.  She felt it go both numb and in pain as well.  She did something ugly to it.  When she landed, she sat stunned a moment.  Then as she sat carefully upright her arm twisted goofily at the elbow all she could do was look at it and quietly spoke "Well...Fuck!"
Sitting, she looked about and then into her med kit.  Not moving her injured left elbow, but with her good and dominant right hand.  No pain meds "Terrific" she said.  Still, she was not defeated yet.  Using her large machete, she cut a few limbs from one tree to help make a splint of sorts. Then with her space blanket and bandages plus a few knots she managed to secure her arm to her body to prevent further injury.  Then she readjusted her gear to try another attempt to climb up, this time looking for a more safe and secure way.  She was not gonna cop out, but if she came across someone to help her, she would not refuse it.  for the moment she was going to have to rely more on her legs and her good right arm to make it.  after all, if this was going to happen in for real combat...better to figure out what to do now than later.  Damn her arm hurt like hell.
She moved alongside the plateau.  She found a way up that looked like thin narrow stairs.  Maybe a foots width wide.  but the upper portion was slanted a bit inward.  She decided to go slow and put away the machete and drew her combat knife.  Facing the cliff, she would shimmy a step at a time reach out with the knife in her good hand and use it to steady and secure herself.  Then move and do it over again, and again.  working her way up the plateau.  finally she could see the edge of the top of the plateau.  She stopped and nearly out of breath she commed "Hey Shadow, I am about to the top of the plateau...I am injured, but alive.  Left arm is banged up, but I'm getting there....don't give up on me" she then continued.  She was sure she was probably the last pilot in.  Still she was not going to give up.

Actually, the Gavas had a fairly easy run.  All came through with no real encounters or problems they could not overcome.  They tried helping where they could.  Them making extraction point was never in doubt.

This time Henry sent Gla ahead to scout. She alerted a little to the right of their line of travel, towards the based of a rock and tree covered hill. He sent Mila in and she reported Largran sentries who seemed to be guarding the base of the hill... probably a cave there although there wasn't sufficient cover for a white dog to get that close.

Henry looked to Larry. The big larg let rip with one of his howls. OK, so stealth was out. The whole pack responded and charged in.

The crosshair would flash red as it centred upon the brown coated back of the merc seconds before it was torn apart by a burst 5mm rounds that sent the body tumbling into the undergrowth. With the area clear Kira would call for everyone to regroup so they could move on to the next sector as one of the mechs deployed coloured smoke to mark the area as being clear ”you heard master chief, fall in and prepare to move…everyone is to check ammo and suit status, if any amber you speak up, if red prepare to go home!” she called, watching with a small measure of pride as the unit fell in and started giving status reports with a couple having gone a little heavy on their guns but without going into the red ”ok Kira you lead the way, we’ll fall in around mechs” Tarja said as she signalled for the team to move out and head for the next sector in need of clearing.

  Some Pilots  were  helping  the Burans   pull up Pilots on the ropes, , other  Pilots  were lying on the dirt  breathing Heavy  , some were hurt, and med techs scurried  all over Wrapping  limbs, using Foam  and plast.

 Frans approached Shadow.she took off her head hear, Blonde hair plastered  down  by sweat...

 Flores  joined them, she limped  a little and her  armor was  covered in Brown- black Muck

 whatcha  got there , Kray?

 Shadow tapped the  Cun on its head  with his knuckles.. The  Cun  snorted a bit...some baby bear-thing..Nuska?.. Its Mom surprised the heck out  of me, I managed to Kill it.. i think it was just protecting  the cub..if it had been more aggresive? it might have truned out  different. The  Green Guy Captain  said on the COMs  i  should kill it..but i couldn't...

 Didn't you kill Lady V';s  niece in front of her, then feet her to Larry?

 That's different, LAdy  V is  the Enemy  and her Niece  was about to join in a Loyality feats... The Bear things  might  eat us? but   they do it for survival?... I've never  seen a bear-thing do breed testing...

 you are a strange, strange man Kray Shadow... Flores looked at the sleeping  Cub

 Gava were on the COMs ( or at least  the ones  deemed smart enough to be   unit leaders )...Gava and Naragrans   are finding Many  enemies?... Naragrans  are eatign  Humans... they do noit like Largrans>  so Gava must kill them..and Natagrans kill them...

 The  armor units    were done.. the Forest wouldn't  let them  any further in, so  Burian and  Nivarian troops were surging in the Middle.

  Kira  would see, what looked  like the top of another Bunker, but as they closed  in. it was a pair of   metal doors  with  concrete   frame work,  it was the entrance for the Hill.

 The  wave  of Blue-green   Largs    swept   towards the   opening , the Largans  fired  on the   largs, but  most only got  one  shot...when the carnage was over, , what was left of 4 Largrans  lay in Bloody piles..there  was  a wooden door into the hillock, it was party opened.

 NA-CE was feeling it, this was tough, long and dangerous. She pushed herself to the limit and beyond, this was more than training this was too see if you had what it took to be a member of the Hermes.

 NA-CE hit the plateau and she gave it everything she had left, getting up that plateau and ending this. This was a lot harder than she thought, but so far she thought she held her own and did ell, and she was trying to finish strong. That she did, her second best time in the sections as she came to the top and the finish line.

 NA-CE was exhausted she walked around cooling off, as she looked around at the other runners noticing there where a lot there she was towards the bottom of times, she would have to change that now wouldn't she, NA-CE thought.

As more people came in, Madison noticed Candy Flores and Shadow taking over a small bear like creature. Some of the people coming in looked hurt, others were exhausted. As it tuned out, she was in a better state than a lot of the runners. After putting her uniform and armor back on, she went up to Candy.

"Hey, is there anything I can help with?"

 Lizzy heard Nikki was injured and headed over to see if she could help or if they got her already.

Somehow...things had gone rather smoothly for her...which was surprising but she wasn't going to question it. Instead, she continued to push herself as hard as she could, especially when the finish came into view. There were no thoughts as to where she ranked amongst those that finished...just glad that it was over and she made it out unscathed. Placing both hands upon her head, Billie walked around, taking deep breaths in an attempt to regulate it.

 Flores  shook her  head,Tired  and   muddy and smelly.. damn good thing    we had  head gear.

 she pointed to the bear-thing,Shadow  found a bear-thing. I think he's gonna ask daddy if he can keep it..

 Shadow had his  helmet off, he  had a bruise on his  Left  check and  his left eye was  getting black and blue.I Killed its  Mom... if  i wouldn't have reacted  so fast, i might  have been able to Run away, By the  Little Green Captain  guy said they were fast... battlefield  decision.. but?  I could kill it..and i wouldn't let it  die, by abandoning it...

 Lights  Out's number   one assassin , couldn't kill an alien teddy bear..Flroes giggled.

  Frans  shook her head  and laughed...what happens  if  Henry doesn't want it?

  The SGT Over there said  Villages   will pay Creds  fora Cub, they teach them to be guardians?... I'll take it to that Village that  honored  me  a couple  years ago...give it to them.

  That's the place  we had the last survival run?

 Yeah?..good people..or  at least, 'not spoiled' people. They are way upfront and honset...

   Cavi came over to  Shadow after landing the   Club...I am to be taking the  Captain  and magin to  the Larg Site, I was told  to ask if you wanted to come? The felrite's  Til  twitched as she looked at the  cub.

 Frans  shrugged,You can go... the two with Broken legs  are in Med tech... we are missing  2  SEC folks an

 alright..... he stands  m strapping his  helmet to his pack, slinging his   SMG,the  Grbbing the Pack.. The Cub  moaned a bit, but settled back to sleep

 Everyone goes up to the ship, cleans up and cleans their  Gear...then get dressed  and come  down to the  Captial, we'll be landing  at that airfield we used before, that's between the   Twon and the Capital..

 Flores  nodded, That's  where that reporter  joined us...right?

Shadow  frowned,..yeah? all memories can't be good ones... Lets go Cavi...

............

  Frans    got up  and  walked the perimeter <Purple>alright!...all runners...once  we get out  4 missing accounted  for, we will head to the ship.... orders   are, ..clear you gear...clean yourself, then we  come back down for shore leave, at the airbase we  used before.

Izzy would spend much of the day managing the comms and keeping tabs on the runners the best she could alongside Sam, Groaning quietly when she heard about the baby creature Shadow had found and the possibility that it would draw more of them in their direction, with her thankful that she had made the decision to bring her weapons and armour.

As the runners returned in dribs and drabs she would record their times with her keeping half an eye out for Lizzy as she does so. When Lizzy finally made an appearance and thankfully in one piece she would quietly excuse herself as she went over to meet her "Hey Liz, how did it go? are you alright and...what the hell are you covered in?" she said delivering the barrage of questions before wrinkling her nose in distaste at the thick layer of what she hoped was mud on Lizzy's armour "Sorry babe, I love you and all but you're not getting a hug until you've showered"

In reply to Runners (msg # 106):

Justin leaned against a stunted trunk, sipping the juice water combo as he listened to the others chat. Crossing to the LC. Hay Boss, mind a tag along Wingman... Justin asked interest in knowing what the result would be.

   Shadow  Looked at  Justin as he  swung the  pack over  his  shoudler, causing another   bawl, that soon vanished to sleep.

  If you want?  Frans  is taking everyone home to clean thier gear and  change  before they come back down for shore leave..

In reply to Kray Shadow (msg # 109):

Thanks Boss. replied grinning broadly, the day just picked up a few notches. Grabbing his gear Justin got ready.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:56, Fri 09 Sept 2022.

Henry fired off another smoke, then asked Mila to have a quick snoop through the door in the hillside.

 Lizzy made sure Nikki was ok and heard Izzy, she turned and replied," It well very well no injuries, my ankle feels great and I am alive in one piece. The worst smelling, nasty, deep swamp, bog on this planet I think. Yeah stay away I must not smell nice. I see others found the same swamp." 

 Lizzy smiled and when they were dismissed to clean up Lizzy looked at Izzy," There we go need to clean up and head back up, see you for Shore leave my love," Lizzy went to go clean up and get all the muck off of her armor.

 NA-CE got water and wound down from her run. Then she saw a Blue Angel, AZ-EL she was her Angel superior, she then headed over to AZ-EL," Good Morning AZ-EL, Corporal NA-CE finishing survival run and reporting for duty Ma'am." She gave AZ-EL a perfect salute that had meaning and respect.

Nikki finally made it to the top of the plateau.  for a moment she sat near the edge, gathering strength.  She saw Lizzy approaching, she waved with her good arm "Hey Lizzy.  How'd you do?" her voice was a bit stressed from pain.  She rolled carefully to get her feet under her.  Pushing up with her good arm to stand.  "I got beaten by a rope and rock....I think I broke or fractured my elbow" she smiled a bit as they walked to check in. "Made it though.  Walk me to the med station?" she put her good arm around Lizzy's shoulders.  She put her helmeted head into Lizzys shoulder and quietly spoke "Fucker hurts and is also numb.  Think I hit that main nerve"

At the med station Nikki was seen by the Burian med tech for initial exam.  She managed to get her helmet off and asked Lizzy to open her water bottle as the tech spoke to both her and a doctor.  "2 fractures on the left Humerus, 2 more in the left Radius joint area.  Small tear in left Radius tendon. Also, severe pinched nerves along the left Humerus joint.  Patient tells of both pain radiating up to left shoulder and numbness down to left wrist.  She can feel fingers"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Fri 09 Sept 2022.

   The Club was  lifting off... Frans  came over     Umbra   had  an arm in a sling...

 Lyri  followed her  Over,  Maria  was getting a   foot  taped  up.   Mann's Helmet  was smashed in the   visor. it would  have to be  replaced. Gia  was hobblign  as     she made her  way to the   med techs, and Lippen was getting a Hand Wrapped up.

Umbra  was  mad...This is gonna  mess  um me  shore  leave. I am  quite  angry.

 The Master Chief  snorted...Next time you POD  out.. you remember this   run, and  you might realize a bit of  pain here  and there desn't matter much... Two  Pilots  Broke legs  they are  Up  on the Hermes..

Frans Checked her   COMs...our  4  missing  runners are  on the  way up... We're to   head to the  Hermes, clean out  gear, and clean oursleves from  shore leave...

The  Med Tech nods... when Rutledge  gets off  the  BU? She goes stright to med  tech... shoot her  up  inside with the  foam, and  LT Simmons  can  gibve her pain killers.

 Lizzy looked at Nikki took her took hand, " Much better than you, just ent through a deep swamp that's all, but made through good. Looks like you will be ok, see up on the Hermes."  Lizzy helped Nikki to the triage and then to the Big Ugly. Lizzy motioned for Izzy to come along if she was done or if she had stayed to help Sam, " Izzy I want to go up with Nikki she is hurt pretty bad, I will see you for shore leave after I clean up and shower a dozen times." Lizzy gave Izzy a kiss, if she had to stay or she could come. Lizzy got into the Big Ugly and stayed with Nikki for the flight up.

 Sam logged everyone's times down and sent them in, she also added, if they were injured and their physical status upon finishing, Sam also added the LC brought back a Nuska cub.

 Sam waved Izzy when she saw Lizzy come back in one piece. Sam recorded the last times and statuses, then began packing everything up to back to the Hermes for her shore leave.

Nikki took a swig of water and thanked Lizzy "I think 'spa time' is a no go for me right now.  You and Izzy go have fun, I'll be okay, honest" With that the med techs shot her up with pain meds and foam, then properly secured her arm to be immobile.  "Damn...any more of us get injured Hermes is gonna be known for holding quilting bees" she said looking at the other injuries.  Feeling better with the pain killer shot she smiled.  Looking over at Mann "What the hell happened to you?" about his visor cracking up.  She figured it had to be a good story.  Eventually she was led to the BU.  "Thanks Lizzy.  You didn't have too.  I know you and Izzy don't get enough private time"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:05, Fri 09 Sept 2022.

 The    ESN troopers  at the  BU ramp  heard Lizzy,everyone is going up as soon as we  load  everyone up. They did send up two Broken legs  so they  could  set them faster, and get the ready in case we have a Jump off.

 Mann s gave a  sigh... I gunned   down a Duster...at elast i hope he was a Duster, and  i went to make a sprint of the slope? this  Big Claw  smashed into  my  face shield.. neck hurts too, some one  shot at the thing  ands  it barreled after them, looking  like a Grizzly on steroids

 Pilots   climbed up. everyone of them covered in Much, or Mud, or soaking wet

 Troopers had  their   Helmets haldway  back on thier ehads, some carried  an extra  weapon  taken from an enemy  trooper.

  The Club settled  down   near the  Sped, Dropped of  a  Muddy, Shadow, Shade ( and any one who might have  wanted  to  watch.

    Shadow carried the  Bck Pack with the Cub an set it  Down By The Admiral.That's it. No more  pet stores for you... he looked  at the sleeping beastie.

 Did Nil see it

 No Sir, The Club picked us  up and brought us here.. I wanted the  Bananas   to see me.. just to mess with them.

The Club took off to return to the  Captain.

  Shadow  looked  out  over the trees..how  far out?

 all those  green smoke column are outs. The ones closest to us.. that one  way over there  The Nivar marker.. he shakes his all those LArgs and worts? You think they  could  find  more then we did...

 Unless... they knew  before hand, and had  us take this flank, hoping to whittle  down out Largs?

 Hack lowered his Binos and Looked  at  Shadow.. Shadow just  Shrugged...

 Shade was looking at the Nuska,je  bleeped..

 anything , that doesn't eat it first...

 Shade  backed away.

Jug greeted the other Gava teams and compared notes.  eventually all headed to the BU.

In reply to larg (msg # 120):

Justin followed Shadow and his newfound friend onto the Club. Taking a seat facing the LC, Justin kept a wary eye on the creature; just to be on the safe side.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:21, Sat 10 Sept 2022.

Kira called in for the ground troops to form up on the doors location, she wasn't gonna storm no facility without more backup, "Found the entrance to the hillside base its reinforced though get ground team personnel here to lockdown this position and help get this door open so we can finish this and go home"

Roy hefted a grenade.  "I'm assuming Mila will let me know if we need this," he said in a low mutter, the comm carrying the words clearly for Henry to hear.

While waiting for the dog to finish her snoop of the...whatever it was the Largrans had been guarding, Roy turned to the largs.  "Keep moving.  Freddie, Larry, start searching again, like when we started.  Tess, Gla, keep up a perimeter for us here.  Last thing we need is for some dumbshit Duster to get lucky and stumble across us while we're looking in a hole."  He gestured, sending the largs scattering to their assignments.

Mila wagged her tail and slunk forwards, through the open door. Sniffing, she looked around.

  as the LArgs followed Mil , The  was a short  gasp and  parts of a cry of  Pain...

There was   some  crunching noises, as  a Larg was here  snorting in displeasure. Stee   came out of the Bursh behind  Roy. her head hung down as she  hand   part of a  Duster in her  Mouth. Nok  Nudged her forward  with his  snout... Stee lowered her  head, but her eyes moved up to look at Roy.

 Mila 'thinks'  hard at what she see  Larry  and   Freddie   cam up over top the door  and were looking around.

  Gregor  was   a fre feet from Henry , standing up like  a scaled  prairie Dog, looking  around in  jerky   turns of his head.

....................

 Back at the Spade,   Shadow , Shade m Justin, Hack..the  bear-thing, and   The  Nivairian Captain  watched ...

The Nivarian looked at  Shadow,You killed a  full grown Nuska...by yourself?

Shadow looked   bummed out.we surprised  each other, it didn't  think i would attack it, and...after the fact..i found the  Cub.. I think..... he looked away,I could have moved on and  it would  have let me...

 Nivarian  snorted,you humans  worry too much  about  creatures.., you make the  same mistake with LArgs...

 Tell you  what,  Captain 'Dole'....how many of the  markers  our  ours....?

 The Admiral said  , without  lowering his Bino...all of them, but one.

AZ-EL  nodded to NA-CE,Good to see you take  part...  move into the  BU. We will be goign home  to clean gear, and Clean selves

   Sam and the others  packed up the  Fear, the only thing  left on the  plateau were a dozen of so Burian Rangers, they would wait until they were recalled.


everyone   goign to Hermes to Hanger Dec>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 NA-CE smiled at AZ-EL, " Yes I thought it bad missing a survival run on my first full day Ma'am. Yes Ma'am already done."  NA-CE drank her water and then went ot the BU and brought back to the Hermes.

----->>>>> To Hermes Hanger Dec

 Sam got everything packed up with Izzy's help quickly and then Sam and her gear boarded the BU. Sam smiled at Izzy," Thank you for your help, now lets head home."

---->>>>> To Hermes Hanger Dec

 Lizzy stayed with Nikki," You are going to be fine, don't worry maybe we will postpone so my maid of honor can be there, you just get better I need my wing mate." Lizzy knew this was dangerous that was the point to simulate podding out in a hostile environment, and Lizzy was all for it, but she didnt like seeing her friends hurt though.

 Izzy helped Sam pack up her stuff, Lizzy smiled at Izzy and said," Lets go now I have seen the nastier side of Bura, but she is still a beautiful planet." Lizzy held Izzy's hand and Nikki's hand as they headed back to the Hermes.

------>>>>>> To Hermes Hanger Dec
This message was last edited by the player at 17:07, Sat 10 Sept 2022.

 Meari searched but the terrain took them out of the last section, then Kira found a door to the Hill base. Meari over comms o Varja," Varja lets reform on Kira she found the base entrance." Meari would rally the armor troopers and meet Tarja at the Hill entrance with Kira.

"Kira we are here, shall we wait for more backup before we go in?" Meari checked all her systems and she was doing well on ammo. Meari held her ground until further orders.

Henry 'listened' to Mila.

"Mila thinks there are six people in there, some kind of hidey-hole."

He called her out.

"Largs! Who is for a snack?"

 Largs   moved closer to the    opening as  Henry spoke. That was another Upside , to Larg head gear, they could hear the COMs, though, none of them really liked the  helmet..it  took Puskie a good   5 minutes to wash off  Gregor's Helmet  from 'feasting' before.

Henry got out a flashlight.

"OK, who's here? Gla, Nok, Freddie... in you go."

He readied the shotgun and followed them in.

With the squad gathered they would they continue to advancing into the forest until became clear that they would be unable to go any further, with the terrain becoming so dense that it was impassable for the armour let alone the mechs to cross it. And so it would fall to the Gava and Burian rangers to root out the rest of the imperial holdouts from the area.

However luck would have it that Kira would locate an entrance leading into the side of the hill. Moving up to join Kira and Meari at the doorway Tarja would give a hand gesture to simulate her shaking her head in response to Kira's call for backup and Meari's question to whether they should call for backup, with the armour not allowing the wearer to do subtle gestures such as nodding their or shrugging their shoulders "No, we will cut open door and go in...this is what unit was created for" Tarja replied in a voice that made the suggestion sound like a simple fact. They would cut open the door, they would go inside and they would clear the place. No questions and no doubt as to whether they could do it "Conrad, you were deckhand you know how to use cutter, yes?" she asked "I've used a welder before..." Conrad started to reply with Tarja cutting him off before had any chance to back out or give reasons why he didn't think he could do it "good, come here and open door for us" Tarja replied waving for him to come to the front.

Within a few minutes Tarja would show Conrad and anyone else sensible enough to pay attention where the thermic lance was stored behind their left shoulder, and how to fit it to one of the attachments on the underside of the wrist. With the lance coming alive with a flash of light Conrad would begin work on cutting open the door "I will let you decide if you want to call in backup Kira, but armoured unit will be able to handle this" she said in a confident voice, with this being the real test of their abilities.

With Lizzy confirming that aside from being extremely muddy and smelly that shew as alright, Izzy would offer her a relieved smile before heading off to help her help Nikki up and over to triage, with her helping to support the Southern Belle from the other side "oh no, you've got to come along Nikki, even if we have to knock the spa idea on the head and just go out for a drink and a bite to eat, it wouldn't be the same without you" Izzy said more than willing to change their plans in order to include Nikki, with Lizzy likewise suggesting that they could postpone things.

Whilst Nikki was getting patched up, Izzy would return to her station in order to help Sam pack up their equipment "we may have to postpone the whole spa idea, Nikki's bust her arm and I'm not sure how Madison and the others are, so maybe just drinks, something to eat and a little dancing for those that are up to it?" Izzy suggested to see what Sam thought to the idea as she slid a couple of vidboards into their cases "...also would you have any objections to us asking Beth to join us, I mean I know she's our boss but she's not so bad, right?"

Once they had finished packing up Izzy would re-join Lizzy and Nikki, bringing Sam along with her and climb aboard the Big Ugly so they could return to the Hermes to get cleaned up.

----> Hangar Dec

Kira furrowed her brow and spoke in a tone that would make a Pirloc skink back into its hole, "You will not overstep my authority again either one of you or you will be shelved do i make myself clear?" she was less then pleased she informed the other troops in the area of the entrance before turning back and speaking in a more calm tone, "We will be going in but the ground teams with us need to be aware of our discovery and location in case something goes wrong and we have to pull back, now get the doors open so we can kill the last of the forces and enjoy our shore leave... we aren't looking at a very good evaluation at the moment and i rather not make it worse"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:26, Sat 10 Sept 2022.

As soon as everyone was back, and the injured were taken care of, they called down the BUs for the trip back. Madison gathered her gear and entered, assisting with some equipment. Once on the BU, she found a seat and rode the trip back.

To Hangar dec

It would be hard to tell if Kira’s stern words had any real effect with the armour effectively masking any body language or tells, with Tarja’s facial features likewise hidden as she watched as Conrad cut around the door with the lance. With a rough oblong cut into the door Tarja would signal for Paskins to take the left and Tennis the right as she knelt directly in front of the door with her right arm raised and a mini rocket prepped as she delivered her two word command to Conrad”kick it”

With a loud, hollow, thump Conrad’s boot would send the door crashing inwards closely followed by Paskins and Tennis, their Gatling guns blazing down the corridor at the defenders as they entered. With a wave of her hand Tarja would signal for Meari and Hipper to follow her as she likewise entered the complex, followed by Conrad once he had disconnected the lance from his wrist ”Let’s make this quick, we are on time limit…apparently” she as they cut down the defenders lining the corridor. She didn’t know what was inside or how big it was but she was sure as hell going to find out.

  as the   Door   was  Busted  open, and the   armor  folks entered, they saw  some dim lights.,  the  place  was  dug out, but with a machine ...

 to the  right  , where stacked  with  crates, some of the opened, contain  canned and package   food  stuff

 to the left, was  20 feet of Tunnel 10 foot high  10 foot  wide .. and a set of closed metal door.

In reply to Largs (msg # 126):

Justin didn't correct the Captain's error, knowing the Brass would do so if they chose to; Justin nodded contently that they did. LC Sir; will you be giving the draftee a name?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:32, Sun 11 Sept 2022.

 Meari investigated when the door was open, she made sure the area was clear of enemies. Once that was done, she looked at the metal doors and said over coms," All clear, got some crates of food stuffs, and a 10 by 10 tunnel and a set of metal doors. Awaiting further orders."

Kira moved up with the group making short work of anyone in the room, "Will mark it for retrieval on our way out, Corporal get your team on the door and get ready to breech and clear" the hallway would be kind of a tight squeeze for her entire group but she had been in tighter situations.

Shadow gave a shrug.I dunno?   First we gotta  see if   Herny wants it. If not, I'll  fly to that  Village that  honored us. I'm going to visit the place at least once , anyway.. I'll give it to them

Roy gave Stee a nod.  "Good work.  Thanks for watching our backs. Anything else back there we should see?" he asked, as Henry was prepping the other largs to go into the...bunker? they'd found.

If the largs didn't have something to lead him back to check out, he'd toss another smoke grenade in the general direction that Stee and Nok had come from.

In reply to Admiral Hack (msg # 144):

Justin suppressed an impulse to shrug, choosing to focus his attention on a spot on the deck.

With the handful of defenders guarding the room cut down, they would find themselves in a machine dug room containing several crates containing food, with a short length of corridor leading up to another door ”Looks like supply cache” Tarja commented before Kira instructed them to breach the door ”Already done master chief, Conrad cut door down, everyone else into position” she said waving the squad towards the corridor with the door that Conrad would begin cutting open.

 Meari moved into position, to cover the door as Conrad opened it up. " Already done Corporal, lets go cover positions I want every inch of that door covered hen it is opened." Meari had her gatling gun at the ready in right arm, and the pulse gun in the left arm.

  The Door  was busted opened, it  wasn't locked , but hit was rather  heavy.. there were  at  least 20  people in there, it was kinda  dark.

  There was a shout of warning  when the door  broke opened.
This message was last updated by the GM at 03:56, Mon 12 Sept 2022.

  The LArgs   went  in after the 'people'.. Stee   didn't  seem concerned  about   anything  else  around  them.

  Gregor   kept  standing and watching..

Roy moved over by the immature larg, still staying low.  "Whatcha got, Gregor? Just looking around, or do you see something we should check out?"  He took a good look in the direction Gregor had been looking as he was doing his prairie dog imitation...

It took Roy a bit.. but he saw them... three larges.. led  by an Alphs. The   elf was  rare as it  had a ruddy  red  stripe down it  back...red enough to  stand out , against Blue green  mates..but  not bright, more  like it was muddy.

 Gregor  snorted, and  not in a good way.

.................

  The  Nivarian Captain said..Admiral Hack. I must protest.   The LArg Master general   has Put  Up with your  SM  here, but  your LC was not  to be here... He should be removed...

 Beth Giggled,..good luck with that Captain....

 Admiral  Hack's head jerked up a Moment, and Looked at the CAptain....Captain?  Why are the Worts, coming at the ttarget area , from  20 miles  away from  your main Group, that is going up the Middle?...while  my  tiny unit of largs is a mere 5 miles from your  Largs, and you are worried  about the effect they'll have on your group?

 Shadow  frowned,   He took  the  back pack beastie and set it  by  Roll.You and Thor  watch over     this cub, Beth and the Admiral..ok ?

 Already Done   LC...   the kid  said    with a firm Voice, looking at the Captain. Thor    tried to look mean, but tail thumping   doesn't scare to many folks.

 Stoly? Fire her  up, we're Going for a ride... Justin? you can come  or stay with the Admiral?

Finding the door to be unlocked Conrad wouldn’t waste any time cutting it open, instead waving for Paskins to help push it open with  it being exceedingly heavy even for someone in an armoured suit. A cry of alarm would come from inside the darkened room prompting Tarja to snap on the lamps on her helmet before quickly advancing into the room with her right arm raised and ready to fire at the first available target ”Let’s move people! What’s the matter do you want to live forever or something?” she shouted, holding her fire until those inside had made the first move.

In reply to Largs (msg # 152):

Justin rose from the seat; giving Shadow a 'On your Three' grin. Adjusting his crash kit Justin matched pace and step with the LC as they headed out.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:55, Mon 12 Sept 2022.

 The  Lights  from the  Armor  folks , revealed  14 children, a Mix of  'normal' coloed children, Green Angels  and native Burians

 They looked scared, little ones began to Cry, One boy, about  12 Stood in front of them with a   rock and a stick.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:36, Mon 12 Sept 2022.

 Meari lowered her weapons opened her visor and moved towards the children," We are APF Delta Fleet we are here to rescue you, is everyone ok, anyone hurt?" Meari went from cold calculated killer to protective mother in a matter of seconds. Meari would check the surroundings and then report," We have 14 children here some very young need medical team."

The combined light from the lamps mounted on the units headgear would reveal, much to Tarja's surprise, a large group of crying children cowering before the group of large armour clad and heavily armed people. As Meari trying her best to calm the children, a task that wouldn't be helped by her large size and the metallic sound to her voice as it came through the speakers, Tarja would take a moment to look around the rooms interior for any sign of enemy soldiers hiding within the room or any further doors leading into it.

Once she had determined that the area was safe she would take a single step forward towards the boy and kneel down in front of him so he would be able to look through her faceplate and see that there was a human woman inside and that they weren't some kind of terrifying robot come to kill them "That is fearsome weapon you have...were you going to fight us and keep friends safe with it?" she asked the boy, trying her best to sound kind and reassuring but knowing that social skills were not her strong point and that her thick accent and poor English wouldn't help matters "You are brave boy, to do that...maybe one day you will get armour like mine?" she said with the hint of a smile coming to her face, with her clearly proud of the boys actions.

Still kneeling before the boy she would quickly relay what they had found back to Kira so she could call in the support they would need to deal with the situation.

 The Kid, at  closer  look, had   streaks on his face  from crying, but it must have been a  while  ago. The Grime on his  face  was only  cut  but those  'clear' tracks.

  I would have.... i would have  hurt some of you real bad... his fingers  Gripped  and regripped the    rock, The     Stick   held back for 'bashing"

 The  may have been one or two other    'older kids' like him, they had pushed the crying   kids  behind  them.. those kids half closed  eyes  , mouths  opened and twisted in  cries  and sobs of Terror  as they  Looked  at the  people who broke in.

 Kira was  Calling in a   Shuttle  from the Capitol...

 she  relayed that to Morgan, Morgan COMed, we have smoke up... shuttle's  coming in   to take them to the Capitol for  Med tech check and  scan then, see who they are..
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:37, Mon 12 Sept 2022.

”I’m sure you would have” Tarja replied to the boy, not doubting that he would have made the attempt. With Kira having called in a shuttle to take the children away to a med tech to get them checked out and identified, Tarja would switch to comms in order to reply to Morgan ”Roger that, lets get them outside ready…Hipper, Tennis, Paskins, set up perimeter outside of bunker, make sure nothing approaches unseen” she said, quickly delivering the instructions to her team before turning her attention back to the boy and speaking to him ”Why don’t you get everyone to sit by the outer door and get some sun? We have some friends coming to take care of you all”

 The  Kid  Looked at Tarja...I'm keeping my rock and  stick, to make  sure you don't do nuthin' funny!.. He looked  back,  a girl and another  Bok, the  boy had a big Bruise on the side of his face, they  got  the kids  up. The  Girl carried  two little ones who were   still crying, looking at the  armored folks , massive  tears rolled down thier eyes   as they thought  'this is the end'

 Meari moved away and saw the kids were scared and the armor threw them off they were not sure who they were, and they were scared. Meari would lower her weapons and smile through the visor. She knew they needed something, or they would bolt as soon as they got outside. She said over coms only so the kids couldn't hear," Tarja request to remove helmet, so they knew we are living beings and not Empire. They seem very scared and will run or fight when we get them outside." Meari will wait for a reply before doing anything btu she will try and carefully help the kids out of the bunker.

Meari will say over her speaker, " It is going to be ok we will find your families and get you back home, you are safe now." Meari waits for permission to remove helmet.

Roy's expression turned unpleasant.  "Good work, Gregor.  Sit tight.  If they're going to make trouble with us, they're going to find out that we know how to fight largs...and that there are things besides largs in this group for them to be afraid of."

He'd faced down charging largs before...indeed, that had become the primary reason he never went anywhere without the Verian holdout pistol that had let him walk out of the house on Etna over two dead largs.  He palmed the pistol in his left hand, ready to bring it to bear if things went bad.

He kept his eyes on the largs, trusting Stee, Nok, Tess, and Gla to watch the rest of their perimeter, and rested his right hand on Gregor, in a gentle gesture of restraint.  If he was holding Gregor in the air, off the ground, he could probably stop the larg...but on the ground, his best bet was to keep the young larg from wanting to start moving.

”But of course” Tarja replied, happy to let the boy keep his stick if it kept him co-operative after all it wasn’t like he could actually hurt them with it.

With the children beginning to cautiously file out of the chamber, Meari would speak up asking if she could remove her helmet so as to reassure the children. She would consider for a moment or two before replying “There is catch each side of neck, with gauntlets it will be tricky to remove, also remember you will be unable to speak with others without helmet” she cautioned before tentatively reaching up to unclip the pair of latches on her helmet.

After fumbling around a bit there would be a slight hiss of air as she broke the seal and lifted the helmet off of her head, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the light and lack of a display with her having to fight back the wave of fear and vulnerability. Assuming that Meari had been able to remove her own helmet she would wave for her and Conrad to follow the children out ”ok let’s go and show our faces” she said to the Udenese woman, with her pausing at one of the crates of food and carefully fishing out a large bar of chocolate. It was one of the biggest ironies that ripping doors off their hinges or flipping a car was simply but picking up something small without crushing it was really hard to master.

Stepping outside she would hold out the chocolate bar towards the boy with the stick as she said ”here, you and friends must be starving” hoping that it buy them a little trust or at least keep them distracted long enough for people better suited to this kind of work to arrive.

Sounds   of  an assault   shuttles was getting near  Roy and Henry's position.... Gregor  snorted, his  Nostrils flared..  he  seemed  eager  to  attack.. but  Roy  kept him still, if not  calm.

 The  Largmasters  for the Nivarians, or  at least these two, were careful, but  careless. They moved , covered in Camo paint, as they followed their  largs..a  4th Larg  had  joined the,, all wore the   spiked  collar of   Nivarian LArgs... The 'red striped  creature,  was followed  dutifully.

 what was strange... The Hermes  LArgs....vanished... Disna  was  with   Henry, Puskie with Roy..Puskie saw what was   happening and smiled.

................

 Stoy called back to Shadow,what are  we going to do?  we can't shoot them, they'll claim its part of the exercise..

  Shadow  had  left the ramp Open as he  looked out over the   ramp.... that's exactly what  we'll do  if  we have to... its one thing  getting hurt during an exercise... its  another to get hurt by  stray bad guys...but you don't let   jealous allies   get a free shot....

 Shadow     looed about  as   Stoly made wide circles, he  COMed   The Admiral, Roy and  Henry...Shadow here?  Look? I'm no ranger.. but i see multiple  trails   goign through the grasses and  brush of the trees.. a poor count is a Dozen.... It has to be largs, people  don't leave trials like that, and those bear  things, don't  hide when they attack.... I Think Wikiss is  trying to teach us a Lesson.

   Hack  said...Understood.... Roy, Henry, get out  Largs ,  more to the right flank,  if those largs  follow you, then we know its not part of the  games.....

 Hack switched to ALL COMs  But  made it sound like he was talking to Roy...Good  Job Hermes Unit.. we must have cleansed , near all of  the areas  on the right Flank. Don't get cocky... ELIMINATE ANY AND ALL  ATTACKERS, YOU MET.BE A DAMN SHAME TO GET  HURT THIS CLOSE TO  SHORE LEAVE!

 The  Captain looked  at  Hack...You would  attack allies...?
 The Club was now   making its   way from the North east, with Captain Si, Hack looked up andsmiled, then  brought his  Bino up to look in the area  Ro and henry were.

 Games or no Games, Captain... if my people   are attacked.. we  will strike  back...and ... Your people will lose.

    The  bear thing   was nestled and warm, in Shadows   crash kit back pack, its lazy eyes opened a bit, looking at the  LArg  Cub that   Roll  was slowly  letting   chain out..  Thor was looking about, Tilting  his head , in the  way  the largs  do,,

   The      three 'older kids'   kept the   others  near the  wall, the other  boy picked up a  Thicker  branch,  the girl   stayed   in front of the littler children.

   The  Kid  with the rock   Hande the Candy back to the girl to  give to the  littler ones.

 a Burain Voice   came over the COMs,Burian  MC  med tech shuttle   coming in on your smoke. ETA  2 minutes.

 Meari nodded at Tarja and then took her helmet off as well. Once her helmet was off and the kids could see her face Meari kneeled down to the girl protecting the little ones," You are so brave I know a little girl brave like you her name is Skiffle, she lives here on Bura. Now lets get you all to safety now shall we." Meari smiled at the girl and would help her and the little ones out.

"Already done, Admiral," said Henry,. A final scan of the cave, nothing left living, nothing worth taking. He rounded up the largs and Mila and headed out as directed.

As the boy warily took the chocolate and gave it to one of the girl to share out, Tarja would just about hear the comms message coming from inside of her helmet followed by Conrad confirming the ETA, having clearly realised that neither Tarja or Meari would be able to.

Watching as Meari, now having managed to remove her helmet, kneeling down to speak to one of the girls Tarja would quickly speak up in a firm voice “Do not touch the children sergeant, thats an order” with her giving Meari a meaningful look as she flexed the fingers on one of her hands, not wanting a well meaning but misguided attempt to comfort the children resulting in horrifying results, as being delicate in the suits took a great deal of practice.

Turning her attention back to the boy she would regard the defiant look on his dirt covered face for a few moments before speaking to him as she would an adult ”The shuttle will be here shortly…my name is Tarja, what is being your name?”

  The  boy  looked around  at the other armor  folks. Andre   was  stomping past tpo the  East, Kira  to the   West..Morgon stof  facing away from the doors,


 I an Parget..Son  od   Nall...  The creatures...ate  my sister...

 Meari looked at Tarja and replied," Understand Tarja dont want to accidently hurt someone."  Meari would lower down so she wasnt so intimidating and then helped everyone out, letting the bigger kids help the little kids. Once outside Meari heard Parget's response and she knelt down and said," I am sorry for your loss, but you showed great bravery and honor for her in protecting the others, you are a hero. The shuttle will be here soon and they will clean you up, feed you check you out and then get you home." Meari was all smiles trying to comfort the children.

Roy answered Hack's comm on a direct connection, "Trying to spare the Nivarians some painful lessons, Admiral?" with a chuckle, before he got the all-com message and replied, "Already done, Admiral.  We're pretty much done here, anyway, but we'll handle any hostile action we might encounter on our way out."

He let out a piercing whistle to recall the rest of the largs to his position, standing up facing the Nivarians with his rifle held casually in his right hand, pointed not-quite-in-their direction.  "You get lost or something?  This is our assigned sector.  No wonder you guys haven't been popping smoke..."  The Verian pistol was still held concealed in his left hand...

Henry, surrounded by Mila and the rest of the largs, came out to stand beside Roy.

A Nivairan SGT  stood   up,  the  undergrowth was   slightly   below his chest., His  Visor on  a Nivarian  helmet, allowed  the   head to be  covered  my metal or Composite plastic,  with the  face shield  showing their faces.

 Ahh,,Your  Alpha must have   spotted us? I know he did not smell us, since you have those  comical  Helmets on them..Our Largs do not need  'augmented teeth'.

  Gregor  stoo  up againm,  his   head tilting  and lookign   left and  right..'  more 'lines  ' of LArg movement could be seen, if one looked for it..

  Your unit has  done well..maybe . we should go deeper into the trees?

  There  was a  Loud  Rumblign , deep throated roar, that could  only be the sound of  an Alpha Prime...

  Larry stood and   roared out a  Much Higher, sharpe toned  Pitch, because of  body build, but is there was a way for  a larg to say 'fuck you'..that was it.

....

Shadow  came into a COM to  the Larg Unit  folks..


 we are in a defliald  about  300 yards  away.. we  can pop up when you need us.. I ahve Sahde  and Kase with me, Spades  Guns are ready...

 Captain Si COMed as well..her voice  held, bitter anger ,I am in the Club,.. we are coming in from the north.. we will be there in 2 minutes... if the   Those bastards even pretend to attack.. we will keep shooting unto we are out of rounds.

..........

 Roll?  Make sure nothing Happens to  The LC's  back pack bestie? I am  certain Doc Henry will want to take a look at it?..Make sure....its  Protected..

 Roll thought  for a Moment, then his eyes brows  went up, as hr dropped th chain altogether.. and fussed witht he back  pack.Already Done Admiral...

 The  Click and  Hum of a Sanri Blaster was hear  as   beth laid her  weapon on top her Omincom...and I'll make sure Roll is  ok...

  the  Captain snorted  as he looked at beth, the  kid, and the  Larg  Cub..there were  two Nivarians headed up the slope of the hillock  they were On, they had  Two Younger  Largs, about  Grgeor's size.. one  was  getting zapped  by the handler  when it did not   wank 'just right"

 Beth shook her head,you should thank your gods, that there  are people  out there...who aren't here, to see those  young Largs  treated like that...

 Mind Your COMs, female.. leave the   war training to the   Males...

 Hack looked at the   'suddenly  bold'  statement.

 Oh.... Banana Boy, you didn't just say that...

 he saw the   handlers moving  quickly up the  hill...Your  people need to be taught....Repsect...

  Roll said...you shouldn't  make   Lt  Beth Mad.... she is  more scary then  LC!

   Hack  lowered his Bino,Kids  right?  The LC  will only kill you.... Beth will make you wish you were dead...

 The roar and Counter Roar was hear, the Captain had a Big smile and Pointed   to were some trees  moved...One of  our  Alpha Primes is answering your Largs  challenge!

 Roll spoke up....You fat  larg  roared first... larry answered it.. That  means  your  Larg started it...

 Shut up child,  what do you know!

Disna and Puskie taught me a bunch..I bet i almost know more then you!

 Hack Shrugged he  eyed the  people coming to the top of the hill,he's right , Captain, His adoptive Mother is   out on a personal  Mission,  alot of folks  help take care of him? But he's a Stem Kid...they learn Fast..and he spends  alot of time with the Larg Unit.

As Parget introduced himself, Tarja would offer him a sympathetic look as he mentioned that his sister had been killed with it going a long way to explaining his attitude towards them and the tracks upon his face ”Both of my brothers died during war” Tarja quietly replied deciding to leave the kind words and sympathy to Meari as she crouched down to speak to the children with Tarja simply wanting the boy to understand that he wasn’t alone.

Kira remained in her mech as the shuttle came down to pick up the children as the Sgt came down the ramp she spoke, "Lets get these kids back to the capital so they can get medical attention and back to their families if they are still around" she then let the Burian troopers do their job as she called for a ride home, "A big ugly will be waiting for us back in the field here to take us back to the Hermes, once the Burian transport leaves here with the children we go as well"

Roy gave a bark of laughter.  "Our Alpha?  You got spotted by the smallest, youngest larg in our detachment...on his first field exercise.  He didn't need to smell you."

The Nivarian Alpha gave its challenge, and Larry answered, and Roy gave the Nivarians a look so cold that frost could have formed on their armor.  "Unless you want to lose some largs here today, you better keep your animals under control.  We have orders, and we will put down ANYTHING that takes hostile action against any of us.  You may be proud of that bloated meatsack of an Alpha, but he's not worth shit in a real battlefield environment."  His voice resounded with absolute certainty.

  The  SGT   looked  up  at Roy, The  Red Striped Alpha  was   begining  to move rapidly, and at least  11 others  in an acr  were closing In.

   about  500 or so Yards away, the   trees  were being Pushed  down, or around, By the Alpha Prime

 Gregor let out  a warning  Hiss  as he    dropped  down and Flattened out  In Larg attack  style..

 The SGT  laughed...oh? it  seems  as though    your largs crossed into our  area.. The  Red Stripe Rose  as the other  Largs  charged  Larry  and the  red Stripe met with a  sickening  sounds  of  Board  armor on  scaled  flesh , The Aplpha  tried to Bite  Larry's    Neck,.. Larry   tore the  front Left leg off the    Alpha..

 Like  Salmon swimming  up river, The Here's   largs did  somwethign  , Even Pushkie had never seen, they Leaped into the  air ( as much as a larg can Leap)..  and  Came  Down upon the front  Line of the  first 6  largs.. Gregor broke    Free  and  Zipped through the   grass  trees  and  fighting Larg Flesh.. The SGT never  saw  Him   com9ing, until  the smallish Larg's  teeth  closed on  his  Next...

 Disna  shouted,Form together!... protect Mila!


 Puskie  was  shooting in the general direction of   largs that were closing in  from the right  Flak,  Puskie threw a  grenade at the  left plank, for that very reason

...............

 The Captain Turned to   The Admiral...My Largmaster general, will no longer   be taking orders from you..

 He Drew His  weapon,  Roll said quietly......Now..Thor...

 The  captain  weapon  came up quickly, even as   The admiral  was being leveled..., But the CAptain  screamed  as his  right  arm was  gone  and a Happy little  Larg  cub  ran around him  with the  arm, still holding thr  weapon.. the  Chains  wrapped  around the  Screaming Captain causing him to  Fall..

ADmiral!,,, come  back here!...  Beth shouted, the  CAlled  Into the  COMs,The Admiral is under attack  by Larg Masters...!

  The  Admirals    scooped Up  Thor and Waved   Roll behind the   equipment trunk,..he  pried the  weapon from the  dead arm, and let Thor  keep eating it as his stubby tail thumped.. Handing it to Roll he said..Point it  at bad  guys , and pull the trigger.. the longer you hold the   trigger.. the bigger  the Pulse  burst... don't worry about the Power cell running out. One  way or the other, we won't be here that Long

 the two Handlers  with   two.. largs that  were some were  between the age of gregor  and Stee.. were   coming Up the    slope. carefully now, Beth  Had  her   Sanri Blaster  ready..

..............

 LC.. You help the Largs ...  I have  SGT Zob with me, we're going help  The Admiral, Roll and Beth

 Already done..Stoly?.. take us over there.. all of our LArgs have   armor on..shoot to kill the  others..and  any Bananas  you see with them... This nis some kind of Larg Munity   Rising up over the   defilade ..the  Spade   moved towards the largs.

Roy raised his rifle, spraying from the hip one-handed at any other Nivarians after Gregor took down the sergeant, and began moving forward, following the Hermes largs.  Any ammo he didn't spend on Nivarians got turned on their largs, firing to annoy and distract from rapidly-closing distance, buying seconds for the Hermes group to pounce.

"Gregor!  Pair up with Mila!  Watch out for the Doc!" he directed as he moved, relying on the largs' innate understanding which had hopefully developed in Gregor's mind by now.  Once he got close enough, he let the Verian pistol do a faster version of what the Hermes' largs were trying to do, dismembering the Nivarian largs with a single shot at their torso.  He counted on the Hermes largs to keep the others busy...for all that he was cool-headed and picking his targets efficiently, if the Nivarian largs recognized him as a bigger threat and turned to charge him all together, the pistol's incredible firepower wouldn't protect him from more than a couple of them before he got taken down.

But he sure as hell wasn't standing back and letting Larry and the others fight without his support.  "Henry!  Spot incoming for us, especially that Alpha that's in the trees!"  Henry's shotgun was great in close quarters, but it didn't have the rate of fire that this kind of heavy traffic called for and he'd be safer maintaining a stand-off distance.  Besides, it would be better for them all to have a spotter calling out new targets as they appeared.  And he was certain they would.

Zob was decked out still in his heavy boarding armor from the run, he had his Custom Largran assault rifle in hand and ready to go, "Everyone of them is gonna die, no one attacks us and lives Captain" he then stood up and got close to the back of the shuttle ready to charge out the moment the shuttle got into position.

    The Club  swung around with the ramp pointing  to the  west, so no one woulf have a clear shot into the  cargo area..

   Roll held  the   pistol  with both hands he  aimed  and fired   at the  first  Nivarian  to   come up over the   Rise, two  long bursts   slammed into the  trooper's shoulder  and he   Ducked  down.. the   Largs   were flat  and  sliding up the grass towards   the  'barricade..  Beth held the Blaster, Hack had  his SMG...

 The  bear thing was sleeping.. Thor  was standing up on his   4  back legs  sniffing..
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:35, Thu 15 Sept 2022.

"Got it," said Henry, and began to call out the locations of the Nivarian largs.

Mila stood at his feet, growling, every hair standing on end. Gregor trotted over to join her, standing on his back four legs, head on a swivel.

Henry readied the shotgun, ready to defend the two of them and himself if needs be, but for the meantime following Roy's directions and acting as spotter.

Bracing against an adjacent tree trunk Justin aimed at the nearest hostile Larg. When rogue Largs were in effective range Justin squeezed off three bursts at the  beastie; sending 9  rounds at it.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Thu 15 Sept 2022.

Zob got a good overview of the situation and figured they needed more serious firepower so he climbed into the bubble gun on the club as he was familiar with the heavy weapons they used, took aim with the twin 50s and let the hell fly on the Nivarian traitors and Largs doing everything he could to avoid friendly fire.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:20, Thu 15 Sept 2022.

 Meari stood with the children waiting for their pickup, Meari would then send on comms, " Shuttles in route to pick up kids, Armor unit waiting for further orders."

As the medical shuttle landed in the clearing in front of the bunker, Tarja would get back onto her feet and awkwardly put her helmet back on. Needless to say the med tech's looked and sounded a lot friendlier than they did and would begin to usher the children onto the shuttle "It was good to meet you Parget, these people will see you right, all the best" Tarja awkwardly said before watching them all heading towards the boarding ramp, with Tarja then turning to address the sergeant that had come with them "There are crates of food within bunker that should help with feeding them" she said deciding that if anyone deserved to have it then it was those children.

With Kira having called for another transport to take them back to the Hermes, All they really had to do now was wait for it to arrive.

 The  Club  came into   View,,,   Zob  could see trails  of  largs     Trying to  encircles  the  Admiral's  small Hill top.

 Captain SI  Hit ALL COMS...This is Captain SI of the   ESN 351  Hermes.. Our Admiral  and those with him are under attack  By rogue  Largmmasters....  The SM , Doctor Christie are in the  trees a few miles  away, facing the  Same attacks... Ant  ESN  untis  able  to Lend  Aid..., becarful...

her voice  was  damn near venomous  now ,ALL NIVARIANS , WORT HANDLERS  AND LARG MASTERS WHO ARE PART OF THIS TREASON, pULL YOUR  ANIMALS AND UNITS  AS FAR TO THE wEST AS YOU CAN MOVE THEM. aNY nIVARIANS, lARGS  AND WORTS  IN MY  ao  WILL BE ELIMINATED...

 Stoly was  ziping in from the  north east.. twe 37 MM  rounds Hit  an   Alpha Prime,, Blowing out its  sides and toppling it, send  handlers  and   Largs  runnign in  all directions...

 The Bubble  gunners  shot   at  any animals they saw... Hermes Largs had their  boarding armor on  to aid in training..

 Shadow Pointed  to Three   Nivarian Officers  who were  with   2  Larg Primes...The LC Looked at Justin and Shade...then shouted...Shoey?  Drop me  were those brass hats  are.... come in about  10 feet?

 The  Shade  and Justing  he says,Your  call.. come  with  me, or stay with  stoly, and  see if you can help  the Admiral

 Shade    secured his  gear and Ponted  at Shadow  and   moved to the ramp.

.................

 Hennings    Hit All COMs,Master Cheif Ambermoon?...     The Diamond is   settling down by you... get you  mech to hand off the  runners, and put the   armor  units  inside.. Come in from the   South  west of the lards.... not hard to  tell where they are.. .. if you see Alp[ha  Primes  Moving towards the  Admiral...kill them.

Kira got a com from Hennings she wasted no time heading outside she was all business now, "Everyone we are leaving now this is not a drill, the diamond is coming in to pick us up everyone get on board the admiral is in danger!" she then moved quickly to the LZ and when the shuttle landed she would attach to the outer hull of the craft, "Double time!" once the team got aboard she would give them the go ahead to take off.

  Meari quickly stood up and put her helmet back on just in time for her to hear Kira's orders. Meari checked her systems and smiled her 30-cal was in that shuttle, it was time to go to war the Admiral was in danger, all traitors will die. Meari went into full combat cold calculated kill mode, her eyes went jet black, she was ready for a war.

 Meari quickly got the Armer group with Tarja's help ready to board the shuttle and kick serious ass. " Master Chief already done."

Zob saw the situation and frowned he had to think quick he fished in his pack and attached the rappelling rope and gear to the back part of the shuttle before hooking it onto himself, "Pilot bring me in as close as you can I'm gonna jump down and try pulling them out, Captain Si and Gunners cover me" he then waited for the club to get in close before making his attempt, 'Zob what the hells are you doing you crazy bastard?' he thought to himself then when the moment presented itself he went for it.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:54, Thu 15 Sept 2022.

It was as the medical shuttle was lifting off with the children onboard that they would receive Captain Si’s message closely followed by Admiral Hennings telling them to board the shuttle and move in on the admirals position ”you heard master chief, squad fall in and get on that shuttle! Meari headgear!” Tarja shouted down her comms before moving at the towards the shuttle before the ramp had even fully lowered.

Once the entire squad was inside she would turn on her suits speakers before shouting towards the cockpit ”Squad is inside and ready!” letting the pilot know that as soon as the mechs were in position that they were good to go.

 Hennings   watched the  Troops that were doing the war games, the Nivairans   were  Pulling  back and Armor  was   heading to the  area to be recovered  for the ride home..He saw the Diamond left off  with Amdre and   Kira locked on the   sides, and  Morgan  holding onto the runners.

 The ramps were down  do the  armor Units   would be  able to deploy  as soon as they hit the  prescribed area.

......................

   The  Club Swept  in, the  starboard  50's opened  up along the top of the  hillock.. One  larg  screamed  as  round  tore  through scaled Flesh..

 Cavi called  back...There  are  More  coming up the hill, they will be attacking  very soon?

    Captain  Si  hooked on her restraining  rope,  and Laid  down , using her  angel steel pulse rifles, squeezing off  two burst  per target. On Larg  master  Died   when he  head left  his shoulders... Captain Si  Smiled,,,Next time, they will wear armor...

 Zob  slid   down,,  Beth  Send  a Blast towards    A larg that was  creeping over to their     Right, between the blast that hit it, and the  dirt and rocks  from the  rest of the Blast, The  Larg   Ducked  down, while  a LArg Master  beat it  with a whip.

 Roll was sacred. He has been scared lotsa times!.. but this  time..he had a gun! Another 'gregor sized' Larg  came up on his   Side... he  fired  long bursts  into iot..  It  yelped in Suprise.  and    rolled on its  side, hoping to  make the     Pain go away..Thor Snarled  at it... Bitting   at its  Front legs,  Crippling it  as it howled in pain and confusion.

Admiral   Hak fired  round like he  was paying for them. two round here, one  round there..his marksmanship needed  work, but  he seemed to have  always  hit something. One Larg  master  lay  dead on the rim of the Hillock...

 Hack  shouted  as the   Port side  gunner  was picking up largs  form the north!Get Roll and Thor... The    Beth.. then  me!.. I can even grab the runners if needs  be....

 Beth  grabbed the back  pack with the beastie  and  slipped it on...Hack looked at her...What?   Kray told us to watch out for it...

.............

  Shadow , Shade ( justin?)  Jumped  down  into the  'command  area.. the   Spade  was   firing , all around, largs  and Nivarians  were getting  Tore up.. at least 2 Alpha Primes  , were smoking heaps of  animal Flesh

 There  were  Three  Generals There  who  were  surprised  by the  dropping   ESN  people... Shadow landed on  one, his  trench Knife slashed out, severing  both hamstrings, they kicked the   man in the face.   Shade  took a  knee  and opened  fire..shooting out the Knees   of   the two others..

   three captains  turned in as the   brass went down.


..................

    Larry   shook the red Striped caress  about.. a larg master  screamed in sorrow   as if  his child hand  died..  Puskie  shot him in the head..

 Gla  was  wounded, badly she was  trying to Limp and  fight.. Disna  stayed  near her, firing at   any Larg that didn't have  armor on.

 The Alpha  prime was getting  close  as it felled  dying or smaller  trees, , its bulk send   waves  through the   forest floor.

   It was  too easy for  henry and Gregor to pick out  bad  guys, there was so many of them.. yet?  they seemed  afraid to press the advantage..

 ..........

 A very  angry  ALL COMS  went through every COM on the planet.

This is Captain Morris  of the ESN 351 Hermes....all Nivairan larg units belonging to   NT005  transport Base of the  Nivarian  contingent   will stand down.. Those who are not   involved   with the attacks on  Hermes  personnel, should make you way  west as fast as possible.... Those who wish to surrender.  , leash your creatures and lay down  your  arms...those, who wish to die...keep fighting... The Burian  airwing is  taking off  as i speak...

Zob needed his hand free so a rifle here wasn't really a option so he had the DT5 with frag rounds equipped as he fired at anything trying to sneak up on them as he told Roll to hold on for dear life, "Roll hang on!" he then recalled the line as he zipped back up to the shuttle to drop off Roll and Thor taking shots with his free hand once they were dropped off he went back down to get Beth and the Admiral.

 Thor    scrambled in..  Rol chained him  close  to the end of  the benched, He saw   Captain  Si firing away, he could hear the   empty casing hitting the  dec from the  Bubble  guns, he   got the restraining rope from the other   side, and  attached  it   to his  belt, The  he   fired his    sidearm  down to the   slops..whther he  hit anything, it didn't matter..it was  fun!

    Admiral Hack  Nodded to  Beth  and she waited ..  One Larg  made  a dash for them, the oil thing saving them  was the slippery  slope..  Beth Balsted  it in the    face with her  sanri Balster...  Hack finbished it off  with a  burst of  hard  ammo to the head.,  Beth looked up at  Zob.. as she tightened the staps  for the  Nuska   to  ride on her back

Zob zipped back down to get them both he was moving fast before they all decided to charge the hill, "Admiral lets go grab on to me, i can take you both!" he really hoped he wasn't gonna be stubborn but alone down here he was likely to get killed and Zob wasn't gonna have that.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:24, Fri 16 Sept 2022.

 Meari got on the shuttle, got her 30-cal, loaded a belt, had one more in shuttle and put 4 around her body. She braced herself and tied herself off and moved to the open ramp with her 30-cal looking for bad guy Larg Masters and Largs to chew up. " Ready to kick ass. and get the Admiral." Meari double checked her headgear as they got close, she had an itchy trigger finger for traitorous Nivarians.

Roy continued moving in steadily, changing course to intercept the oncoming Alpha Prime.  He rationed shots from the Verian pistol, waiting to be certain his targets were well within the effective range before the odd physics of the weapon turned parts of them into shredded goo, keeping careful count.  As he moved, he called out targets for the other largs, keeping the Hermes contingent operating in an unorthodox combination of coordination and free action that was totally foreign to the Nivarians.

"We make it through this and I am gonna personally gut every single one of those sons of bitches!"  Part of his fury was because of the treachery...and part of it was inspired by the abusive beating of the largs that were being driven to attack the Hermes group.  There was no good way to try and turn the largs back...the best they could hope for was that some survivors would be in salvageable condition.

But that wouldn't be any of the largs he was shooting, he told himself, as another shot from the pistol flayed back larg hide and shredded meat from bones before the bones themselves disintegrated, all in a fraction of a second that caused so much physical trauma that even the largs he didn't kill were reduced to a state of shock that made them capable of little more than weakly clawing at the ground they were laying on.

Their best bet, he knew, was actually if Larry took out the Alpha Prime...based on past observation, all the largs subordinate to that one would form up behind Larry...but he wasn't going to let Larry face the thing alone, and if Larry decided it was too dangerous, he was going to be there to help out.

Keeping pace with Shadow; Justin moved moved towards the traitors, firing controlled bursts from his MP's at any opposing largs that threatened them.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:59, Fri 16 Sept 2022.

With her mag boots locked onto the shuttles dec Tarja would stand by the open door of the shuttle watching for any sign of the enemy as they flew towards the AO ”We are going to be going in hot, check ammo, check systems…Sergeant Meari what are you doing? Put the toy down your fingers won’t fit in trigger guard” Tarja said with a sigh at the sight of the belts looped about Meari’s armour ”you are like excitable child” she said with a chuckle as they drew ever nearer to the battle.

Once they were there Tarja would see the rogue Largs and their trainers as they moved in for the kill ”ok here is good for us!” she commed the pilot, although she would give Kira the final say. Once the shuttle had stopped in preparation to land Tarja would paint several targets before firing her four remaining mini rockets, causing the area in front of her to explode into balls of flame ”ok let’s give them hell!”

  Stoly was causing distractions ( and damage)  with his  37 MM..firing   at  the 'end of  trails' left by the  attacking largs... sometimes  bits of  Largs  or Nivarian would been seen, other times  , just dirt and  trees

  the  50's   started  to  Pick and chose  as the   got  use  to the  enemy Movements..The top Bubble  Ginner says into All COMs...I see a  formation of  aircraft coming from the Captafol's  Big base, to the North..ETA is  about  5 Minites..

    Ther  three Generals  were Lying on the  Ground,  Shadow  took a hand full of   dirt and   jammed it in the wounds   , using the Nivaian's own  Foam to seal the wounds..

 The  Larg Master General snarled...YOU FOOL!.. we could get infected...

 Shadows  SMG   gunned  down  some troopers  who were thinking about  attacking, he even smiled while he did it...ahhh..don't you worry , LMG.... you won't be around  long enough for that.. i just want you to Live  for the Captain to   decide  what to do...

 What  about the Admiral....

  oh?  don't  you worry  Banana brain, the Admiral Has  an axe to grind. But this  is the 2nd  time  your people  used  treachery against allies?.... I don't see a Good  end...

 Shade  was  rolling around the  Ground  with a  Nivairan SGT.. the tussle  add when  a sharp  Crack was  heard  and the SGT  screamed, looking at his   ar in the  shape of a 'W'.

 Shadow pointed to the Omincom...Justin?  clear  any   enemies  from that   machine... and  announce their CP is taken... make sure  we take that Omioncom back with us. They don't grow on trees.

Some   Nivarians   ran  for the west. two Alph  Primes  retreated   with  a Larg Master  riding on their  backs... other  Alphas  followed them, causing their packs to  follow them as well..

 Stoly?.. move  forward a bit... keep  trimming down the bad guys...when in doubt, shoot to kill. we can't screw around with   'enemy largs"

 Already  done, LC.. The   Spade moved  forward   200  yards.. its  weapons   selecting  targets , or chasing others to the West

  The  Diamond  dropped  down. Morgan let  Go  and Landed,,  he used  his flames in the  general direction of  their   advance. more to  confuse the   Larg groups, then to do  real   Damage. he   moved  forward  a bit as the Bubble   gunners   fired  all around... this caused  more Larg masters  to    turn to run to the west...whatever  punishment awaited  them there  had to be better then  what the   Fleet would do!

 Some Turned   and  Attacked the  mechs... Andrus Dropped down from  the  side  clamps.  a  Larg  slammed into him , trying to bite the   metal arm. the  Other     Arm was   put  under its   chin and   a dozen , minigun  round   exploded from its head.. He  got up, out of the forest  Muck, moving towards    Morgan's left side.

 The armored  units   ran out of the shuttle,  they could see  The Spade,  a half mile  away, slowly moving to the Admirals   hill.

 at least   4 largs  ordered to attack the   units..  Fenne's 37mm    hit some others  that   were between them  and the Hill.

  The Battle  was  downright nasty where they were.  Some  Nivairans  put their  weapons   down and dropped to their  knees... a dozen or so  largs  started to  run away , to catch up to Alpha  Primes  that roared out  some  kind of 'signal' as their masters, turned back to the  Drop zone.

 One  Alpha Prime  Kept  coming towards them, it  had   many Largs with it, mostly the Side  of Gregor , maybe as big as Rigg... None were ' Larry and   Freddie ' size

 Gla  was hurt, and  so was Disna, he  had  patched her  with 'larg' foam..   and he  lay against her , shooting at  anyone, or any thing  that   came  close. Tore  Largs  lay  in a wide  area, some dead.. some  moaning  , other  would be  dead  as they laid still eyes  darting around.

 Puskie   was shooting Larg masters.. everyone he saw, he tried to bring down.

 Then  Larry  let out  ..HIS..challeneg  Roar... echoing  because   of the   Metal  Jaws that opened  as he  did...

  He charged towards the  great beast... Freddie  and Stee    charged  with  him... many of the smaller   largs  scattered.. Stee  Grabbed   one   by the  Tail that hesitated, ,  tearing the appendage  off, causing the  enemy Larg  to scream  a high pitched  scream as it  ran into the   trees of the  east.

 Larry    didn't  waste  time, he  fought a Prime  before when he was  younger. Now he was trained, and he was smarter, and he was,,,very angry...

  Gregor     snuffled  as he  wanted to attack, but there  wasn't many 'Gregor  sized'  bad largs... That  Changed  when a  Larg  as big as Tess,  came  slipping in  from behind  Henry... Gregor  let out a gregor  sized  roar, and   attacked  without  hesitation.. Growling for Mila.. The  larger  female was  shocked    as Gregor's   'metal Jaws'   Clamped on the front   forepaw, and   began to 'saw' away, as the young   larg twisted his head  back and  forth.

 Roy could  see the Three  Largs , Arrowing for the Only Alpha Prime  left in the  area, the others  were  retreating to the  Drop zone  as  'ordered'.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:44, Fri 16 Sept 2022.

Henry stepped forward and aimed the shotgun at parts of the enemy larg that weren't in Gregor's mouth and fired.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Fri 16 Sept 2022.

Mila joined in, darting round to the rear of the attacking larg and harassing its tail and the hamstrings of its hind legs. She'd been knocking around with largs so long she knew where the weak spots, the places where the skin is soft, were.

On my way responded Justin. Firing single shots at any opposition as he wove his way towards the Omioncom. Grabbing the device Justin quickly scanned the area for immediate threat.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:55, Sat 17 Sept 2022.

 The Admiral  frowned  as  Zob shouted,  He loked at   Beth, and the  Nuska,  and  at Zob..

 Beth  just shook her head,The Cub, comes with us. whatever happens after  is  up to you guys?..but  Kray wanted  to keep it safe..

 The Admiral waved Beth to  Zob..  and he  kept  firing at the   edge of the slope , The Captain took another  Largmaster's head off with a long burst from her  Pulse rifle. The  Admiral  threw his last grenade, then   Grabbed onto Zob's Leg,  then reached  for the   rope, with   one of his hands  , to try and  take the  strain off Zob.

  Roll was  grinning darkly..he was getting the idea  of  aiming, and  he hit a few Largs, and did drop a Largmaster, but  couldn't tell if the guy was dead.

  The   50 cals    kept  firing, there were enemies  'stuck' at the base of the Hill. They could not run away, because they  would be  uncovered  for the  50 Cals...they could not   like, because  of the shuttle's   support fire/

 Captain Si , screamed in anger, into ALL COMS...YOUR LEADERS ARE DEAD OR CAPTURED.. TRHOW   DOWN  YORU WEAPONS..OR SHOULDER THEM AND   RUN TO THE   DROP POINT..ANYONE STANDING TO FIGHT. WILL BE KILLED OUTRIGHT.

 Meari looked at Tarja then at her hands and realized she was right and put all the 30-cal stuff back down. When they landed and the Mechs moved out front, Meari drew her swords and using the pulse cannon in her left arm, and the gatling gun in her right arm while having her swords at the ready for hand to hand with Larg masters or Largs.

 Meari will see the other shuttle heading for the Admiral's hill. " Tarja we need to get there to the Admiral, ok everyone lets kick some ass." Meari would go full out hunter kill mode, and move into combat with the incoming Largs. She would use her ranged weapons and if she saw a cluster of Larg Masters or Largs she would use a mini missile.

 Meari heard the roars of the Alpha Prime and Larry and wished she could watch Larry take down the Prime.

Zob secured Beth and when the Admiril grabbed his leg he hit the switch and started zipping back up the line unfortunately he had to keep his hand free to make sure the Admaril didint fall once to the top he made sure Beth and Hack got aboard and secured, "Now let's kill the rest of these bastards"

Kira swapped out her left hand for the flamethrower and roasted any Largs that decided to charge at her while her right was spraying hard ammo at any distant enemies in her FOV, "Push forward leave none of them standing!" With that her and the team marched forward in unison with a absolute incredible amount of weapons fire going down range as they made there way towards the target area.

The shuttle hadn’t even touched down when Tarja led her team out with the wave of her arm, cutting down a nearby handler with a burst of Gatling fire ”Form skirmish line and follow me, keep pace with the mechs!” Tarja shouted before beginning to advance on the admirals position, with the combined might and firepower of the mechs and armoured infantry cutting through the enemy like a hot knife through butter with her more than happy to carry out Kira’s orders especially when one of the smaller largs leapt from out of the undergrowth and clamped its teeth about her leg, a move that would bring down a normal trooper. Tarja however wasn’t a normal trooper with her reaching down to seize the creature about it’s neck and begin squeezing with the creature thrashing around as it realised its mistake far too late as Tarja’s power assisted strength snapped it’s neck ”Damn thing has scarred armour!” Tarja said with obvious disgust as she glared at the grooves in her armour before pressing on, firing as she went ”keep pressing on, we’re almost there!”

Roy kept moving toward where Larry was tangling with the Alpha Prime, using his sidearm to eliminate lesser threats.  Some part of the back of his mind protested...the largs were just doing as they'd always been trained, attacking at the behest of their handlers, with no notion of who was friend or foe, of their own.  They'd been raised to be mindless beasts, handled as such, conditioned to be such...

Which was, the rest of his mind answered the protest, exactly the reason they had to be put down, under the current circumstances.  There would be no convincing them to stop, that their handlers were the bad guys...given time and the right conditions, yes, in Roy's experience, they could be won over.  But there wasn't time, and these were massively far from the right conditions.

So he tried to make his shots merciful...the Verian pistol was a gruesome way to die, but a hit in the head made it a very quick death.  While Larry (and anyone else) dealt with the Alpha, he could eliminate what was left of the Alpha's pack to make sure that larg didn't get any help.

 The mech unit s   move in a line,  Nivarians, some tropers, but most were larg Masters  and Larg support groups, were falling.. Some of them went to thier knees,  but were  cut down anyway.

  No one took chances with the largs...Wort Untis  were called   back, and they all  made haste to the Drop recovery area

 There  was a Little less  the  100 yards  from  hack's Hill, The  Club  was well out of larg  range. Its  50 calls   keit  firing well trained  Burts.. Zob, The Admiral , Captain  Si kept  firing,   Rol, up gaints   the  ramp frame, kept firing his Pulse  Pistol..he was hitting more then he was missing now

 Beth sat towards the Front, shakign her  head  as she looked at the happy  little  Thor, Nivarian Blood  on his  head and shoudler... as a th4 Dozing  Nuska in Shadow's back  pack.

 I BETTER GET MY OMINCOM  BACK! she said,  having  to leave it behind to  take the Nuska.

  there were sonic  booms a plenty, as  Burian fighters  were now, only a few seconds away/

 From the small er  Hill , Shadow, Shade and Justin  had  7  prisoners, 3 generals, 3 captains  and a Sgt Maj..there were also a number of  dead officers,  and   Largs  that  had gold  collars.

  Shadow  had  several. 'good   Nivarians"  Line  up the larg masters  and any Largs that had  not  continued  to attack.

 all told, from the   Larg Master general's CP.. 20  troops, 4  largs were marched to the   Recovery area... Shadow   making  the   wounded Generals  walk with thier 'botched   patch  jobs... the  could  barley  Stand, But  Shadow would Push them forward,

 Lets go , LMG?   I have seen your  LArg Master  use  prods  on wounded l;args... Justin?  find a  a dead Larg Master, or one of the ones in line here.. get me a Prod...

 One  Larg master was missing  an arm, it was hard to tell which side  larg  tore it off.. he was having trouble  walked.. when he fell the third  time, Shade  shot him, and keep walking...He Bleeped  when  Shadow looked at him..

 He's right!..you are all traitors. you attacked  your  Admiral..MY...Admiral.   That Larg master was no longer use to us, so Shade  put him down, just like  you would your  largs...now..Keep  moving. My Little buddy is  in a bad mood.

 Meari was giving no quarter to the traitorous Navarians, she wished she could spare the Largs, but they did what their master's told them, she was going to kill every last Navarian Larg Master. If a Navarian Larg Master tried to surrender to her she would just use her swords and cut of it's head and move on.

 Meari was pissed they went after the Admiral, then Meari hit her SEC Comms," Do we have word on the Admiral and the rest of his team, this is Sgt. Meari under Coporal Vanska, and the Armored unit and the Mechs are coming in everyone."

 Roy, an and Larry  Approached  the  Massive  Alpha  P{rime. , Larry looking  like  the size of  a sleek Bison, Compared to an African Elephant.

 Freddie  and  first Alpha Slammed into  each other, the  ferocity , was mind shattering, as  Claws and Jaw   snapped  and cut  at  each other in blinding speed.

 Nok Hit  the other 'wingman' for the Alpha  Prime, Leaving     Larry to  face down the   Prime ...

   With a   shuttle over top of them and  Burian fighters    circling around..Larg master, and support troops ,dropped their weapons, 4  Largs were left, none of the  primes. all of the  wounded Disna was  laying On top  of Gla, three  largs  and  7   support troops lay dead  around them... Disna  was in a bad  way.. Gla was  weak  and  took breaths  in heavy gulps.

 Cavi  dropped  the  shuttle  down near Henry.

...........

   Larry   run  under the slower  moving  Prime. but   zipped  pit    to tear  a chunk of   the  creatures   left front  , rear leg..  The  Creature   roars  trying to swat  Larry with   a tail as thing as  an oak tree,   Larry  just darted  in and  took a   savage  bite from the left rear, back  leg.... A  Larg  Master   on Roy size, who felt  safe  enough from the   defender's weapons,   deciderd to  take    Aim at Larry  who was  hopping and darting around behind  the  sluggish  Prime.. Larry was   getting ready to make his  run up the  beasts  back...

Roy hadn't had time to reload his assault rifle, and the Nivarian was too far away for the Verian pistol...but he had his machine pistols.  He dropped the rifle, letting it dangle from its sling, and pulled the machine pistol in a quick-draw that ended with a burst of rounds flying at the Nivarian.  "No cheating, asshole!" he called out.  If the Nivarian was still alive after the hail of hard-ammo rounds, he'd definitely be distracted...and if he wasn't, well, the words made Roy feel better, all the same.

Larry looked like he had a plan for the Alpha Prime, and Roy wasn't going to interfere, knowing that Larry taking the beast down on his own would definitively prove the Nivarians wrong...and would win Larry Alpha Prime status with all the largs that had been part of the Prime's pack.  He wasn't going to leave Larry to his own devices...if things turned ugly, he'd rather put down the Prime and keep Larry alive and leave the Nivarians to keep questioning, although the ones who'd been the most resistant were the ones who were getting splattered all over the battlefield, here.  And he would definitely cover Larry's back and keep anyone else from tipping the scales from outside the fight.

"Go for the belly, Larry!"  Taking chunks out of the legs would slow the bigger larg down...but the thing was so overgrown that if Larry went after its underbelly, it couldn't really turn fast enough to stop him.  And trailing intestines would slow it down a lot faster.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:11, Sun 18 Sept 2022.

Henry went to check on Disna and Gla. Both were in need of medical assistance, so he did what he could and yelled "Medic!" to attract attention.

In reply to Meari (msg # 212):

Zob responded back, "Ive secured the Admiral aboard the Club we have them on the run, its a matter of cleaning up at this point be warned there is Burian fighters inbound" he went back to firing upon what was left of the broken enemy force.

”Roger that Marines, armoured unit is approaching your position from south west, would appreciate you not shooting us” Tarja responded on an open channel as she gunned down another Larg as it charged towards Tennis with the creature tumbling head over heels as the rounds tore through it’s body “Careful guys we have friendlies up ahead…also there are flyboys in the area” she said with an audible roll of her eyes, with it clear that she was more concerned about being strafed by their own air cover than being killed by the enemy ”We’ll be at your position in another five minutes or so marines” she added as her line of armoured troopers continued to cut a bloody path through the enemy.

  Larry's helmeted  Head   took a  brief  glance at   Roy,  The Larg  charged  up the  Prime's back, his   claws   Gouging chucks  of  scaled flesh as the Prime   Roared in Pain..

 A Support Nivarian tried  to   get in position to shoot   Larry , but the  Prime  shifted  and stepped on him, The Nivarian  screamed  as the  bones  snapped and shot through the   skin of his   legs,  he continued to  scream, until the foot came down  again to turn the   nivarian into paste.

   The 'Hermes Prime'   reached   the  Neck,, his enhanced   Jaws  of the boarding armor    dug out  a   4 foot  circle  of flesh, gushes of  purple-blue   blood   shot out. Larry,  , however  Fell off the  Prime   Landing with a thud  on the forest floor.  The  Prime     shook its head  back and  Forth, the    big  chunk of  flesh, most likely  weighed  50 lbs or  for  swung with it, causing more  pain as the  flesh ripped   more.

 Larry  scrambled to  his   feet.   charging under the beast  , and taking Roy's   tips  Grabbing a mouth full of    Fesh  and   running.. The  Prime  screamed again..

  One of the older looking   Larg Master    was pleading...STOP!!! YOU ARE KILLING HIM!

 Tess  ended the  Larg Master   pleas , as she   bit him in half.
..................

    Med techs   ran over and started to  care for  Disna.  The  were lading Gla on a rigid   litter  and  were    taking her  to   the Med tech  shuttle


 Mila   and Gregor  stood  guard  over  Henry..there were three Larg masters  that took a  Knee  with a Larg next to them, all Three Largs   had  wounds, and  where   lying   down , breathing heavy

..........

 The Alpha   was   screaming, instead of  roaring, some of its own movements  causing   more damage  and  pain..   Larry was  out  and away, behind the  Alpha Prime.. getting  ready to make another Run.

 Puskie  shot a larg master  dead, as he the nivarian  shocked  the wounded  beast, trying to get it to move...  The Puskie    knelt  by the beast... trying to calm it  as it looked  around, it  sported   many shock burns, as    some   Claw wounds.

 Meari was moving forward with Tarja and the Mechs, she came up to three Larg Master Officer's trying to gain control of their Largs. Meari had other plans, she sed her jump jets and a leap to go up above their little cover area. She shot the left with her pulse cannon, shot the right with the gatling gun and then came down on the middle one with her swords and the Armor weight.

"Zob good we are coming towards the hill do you need us anywhere else to help out and where are our friendlies located, anyone on the ground still?"

     The  Burian   fighters   began to circle  the, the  forest.. there   were   explosions to the south west as   Dusters and  Largrans  were  trying to  run, Confused by the 'war games' were trying to Run south, and Picked up  by the fighters who were  strafing them.

   Hack  stood  On  The Ramp...ALL BURIAN RANGERS, I WANT EVERY  LARGMASTER, SUPPORT UNTI, AND LARGS, WHO TOOK PART IN THIS MUNTINY, TAKED  TO THE dROP AREA. i WANT ALL THOSE  WHO DID NOT  TAKE PART, STAGED  IN THE SAME AREA... BUT APART.

  he looked over the Combatants  form 20 feet in the air.SEE THE LC  AT  THAT AREA.. ALL OFFICERS ARE TO BE DELIVERED TO HIM..ALLOW  THAT LAST  LARG COMBAT TO PLAY OUT.. KILL ANYONE
 WHO INTERFERES...

Kira kept pushing up towards the hill area, "Lets get to the hill kill any possible resistance that's left there, and then will start making our way towards the drop zone and stand watch over the prisoners until the admiral delivers his judgement once this is over you all will have your shore leave... we earned our pay on this one"

In reply to Meari (msg # 219):

Zob responded, "The Burian rangers are escorting most of whats left of the traitors to the drop zone, The SM and Dr Henry are in the small field just down the hill a bit with the Largs but it seems they got it under control from what i can see... just continue getting to the hill then escort us back to the drop zone unless the Admiral has further orders for you" he took out his Ender and took aim through the scope as he kept a eye on the battle of the Largs in case anyone tried to interfere.

Roy was just raising his machine pistol when the Prime stomped the Nivarian that moved to stop Larry.  A moment later, Roy's question about whether to shoot him anyway was resolved for him when the Prime stomped the Nivarian to paste.  He turned as the larg master started pleading, only to have Tess silence him forever.

"You started it, dipshit," he answered coldly, as what was left of the corpse collapsed on the ground.  The Prime was bleeding freely, from the neck and the belly, as it flailed to try and keep up with Larry's high-mobility, high-speed onslaught, and Roy watched with clinical detachment as the smaller, faster, armored larg continued to take apart his opponent, one eye on the fight but mostly focused on watching for any Nivarian personnel that tried to intervene.  They wouldn't get the chance...

 The Hermes Largs  began to spread out,  as if some sort of scaled  perimeter. LArg Master Support troops were either  running away. or settling into  'surrender  clumps' Unlike the   Nivairan  Largs, The  Hermes largs  did not  seem affected  by  Alpha Prime  roards,  as some of the  Primes  called out   on their way to the  Recovery site.

Gla  was on her way up to the Hermes for  Med tech Disna  was put on board with her.  Larry    kept  coming in from behind Chomping on  back Legs, and  an occasional run, under the build of the great beast, so  the augmented jaws, might  tear away a chunk of  Flesh  ,there  as well.

  the  Prime was  weakening.. Its  Roars  were not as loud,, it  swayed, more then it  Moved .

   The shuttle  with the Admiral Joined the  shuttle  with The Captain..they hovered  above the  area, as Mivarians sorted th4emselves out,  While  LArry's used speed  and savage , hit and    Run attacks...

 Puskie  watched  as he stood next to Stee, his weapon  was raised, but it was to keep the  LArg Master  Support troops honest..

  Roll  jumped   up and  down   near the  ramp way..shouting..bite him up  Larry!!!


 Thor, on his  chain, being Held  by Beth   gave  out  little   'thor  roars'.

   The Admiral   watched, Captain Si, in her shuttle, still laid  down  with the rifle  trained on the clumps of   Nivarians  who had  surrendered .

 All COMs  came on.Nivarians!    I never thought   it would  come to something like this. I should have, after the   treachery  at 'The Alamo'. Those of you who will survive this, I want you to note. Our  Largs have attacked as a unit, and never once, prodded  with a baton...our larg masters do not even carry one..When this challenge is over, You will begin to march to the recovery area...Admiral Hennings  and   LC Shadow, and those with him will sort you all out...

  The end  came  , close to  10 minutes later... one might have thought  Larry was punishing the  Prime...some would thing the   Prime was  just too big, to take down fast. In The   End,  Larry made  another , clawing  run, up the  Primes  tore  back, reaching  the   necks , he launched  himself  forward, to Clamp on the  loose    hide   under the chin, The Jaws   shut, and   some  500 pounds of larry , swung  Backs  at forth   as the prime  tried to shake  him loose. All that  did  was Help Larry  'saw away' at the   4  foot  Chuck of    Flesh , that the Hermes  Larg Dangled from. The last Shake  sent   Larry  flying off to the    brushes, , a massive  wad of  Flesh in his mouth,

 The    Prime was  gasping, its  eyes  wide in confusion m as it wavered , Then it   fell  side ways , landing with Soggy thud... the  air   rushed our of its  Nostrils,  as its eyes  stared at nothing.

 Larry    Came  limping back, climbing up the prime's back.   The Hermes LArg  stood  on  his hurt hind legs, Shouting at  Roars , All the Hermes  largs stood   to answer that  Roar.. if little Thor in the shuttle.. Three other Largs, from the Nivarains   survivors  stood   and Roared  as well.

 Disna  shouted...We claim those  three Largs, as out prize!

   Hack used ALL-COMs  again,Nivarians.. start  your March , Double  time, so we may  finish this  and get on with shore leave,,, the  shuttle  and Fighters  will be in the  air.
A total  of 25 larg masters and support people were all that were left,  4 largs  walked  with them.. Three   were lead to Puskie  and  the   Largs bowed their heads in supplication.

 Larry stood  on tope of the  dead Prime..  looking over his 'domain'. Puskie talked to the  3   'prize  Largs' he   gave them  head rubs   as he  talked soothingly to them, The creatures  seemed uncertain, maybe  confused. Freddie   stalked over to  them  and they seemed to lower  themselves  further...The Admiral  had his  Shuttle  take him Down, He sent a Burian trooper to 'Hack's Hill' to  get  Beth's   Omincom ( at her repeated insistence)

   Beth walked  up to  Henry... she  struggled  with the  'back-pack bear'...Here Doc?   Shadow said  you might  be interested in this. If not, he would  take it to the Village that knows him.

The Bear looked at   Henry with  large brown eyes  as it was pretty secured in the back pack..

 Roll kept his brand new  pistol,  as he and Thor  moved through the Hermes  Pack, checking on  The  wounds  the Hermes largs received.

Humm..
This message was last edited by the player at 11:28, Mon 19 Sept 2022.

  Shadow   walked with the Nivarians   they had  captured. Shade  took the liberty  of  shooting another    Officer, who seemed overly defiant.

  it  took a good  15 minutes, , More then Once Shadow   would grab an officer  by the  scrub  and  send him Flyng  forward... Kepp  moving!... There is a legion on Earth. Thier Motto is, 'march or die"...in this case, it is very  spot on!

 .............

 At the recover  site, Burians rangers   were sorting out  those Nivarians ,Into  3  groups...1..did not attack   Hermes folks. 2... attacked  but surrendered. 3...only surrendered   after if  was 'clear' that they lost.

 A Buria Colonel  stopped  Shadow's  Group, But Shadow shook his  head...all of these  people go into group 3, except  for the Omincom operator, put her in the  1st group, she never  drew a weapon...

 The Colonel was about to protest, Until he saw  Shadow's name   stitched on his jacket .Very Well, LC, I will have to report it to My superiors?

 you do that Colonel... 'cause the Admiral will be here shortly

 The Colonel  followed    Shadow    gaze to the two Assault shuttles  heading towards them, one shuttle    hand landed  at the  'challeneg site'.

.................

 when the    Groups  were  sorted  out. the last bits  were the larg masters, Larg support and  few largs that survived the attack. The Largs were sent to  a gathering area of   the Largs who weren't sent into combat, or had  been  brought  back, as larg masters  thought the better of it.

    Hacks  Shuttle  sat   down, Hennings  Joined him, the med  Tech Shuttle  returned  with  General BAle  and Captain Morris  aboard  Med techs  made their  way through  the    gathering,  But Hacked stopped them from  treating anyone in the  3rd  group

10 Officers,  captains or lower   were brought over  by Burian rangers...These officers refused to take part, and refused to allow their  troops to take part

 He looked  at the  Captains, eyed their service patches, before pointing at two of them..

 Gentlemen?  you are all about to receive  Battlefield   promotions... You... he pointed  at  an Older  Nivarian,will take charge of   group one, get them sorted out, and  you will recommend officers and Non coms for  promotions, to fill the   ranks  that are  emptied by deaths...

 The Younger Nivarian Captain, with more service bars, Hack said, You will do the same  with group two..if there are any you find , that are overly hostile to the APF, or ESN, you will send the  on the long walk home...

  Hack waved  a   wheeled   ATV  over, , and Climbed up the on top,  he  used the Omincom that Justin carriers to Address, not Only the  Nivarians, but the Fleet.

  Shadow  and Shade moved to  group Three.

 This is a dark day for the APF. We understand, the  hate or dislike some   worlds have  for  humans, or even...myself? But in the end, no matter what excuse you tell yourselves.  To attack   another APF  member is treason... you are aiding the  enemy. That cannot stand. On hearth, the best way to deal with weeds, is to   rip them out by the roots.

 Admiral Hennings   moved over to the Larg Masters   and their LArgs  that had been gathered in group 2...

 General   Bale used the Omnicom to  deliver  Judgement...As  Provost for the  Delta Fleet, and  the APF  board. I hereby  sentence    all in Group  3...to death.... the  manner  and Timing will be decided   by Admiral hack...

 LC!.. have  everyone  in group  3, remove thier unifroms... They  have betrayed, both their planet, and the APF...They are not  fit  to wear  them  any longer.

 Hennings  was  walking over   with  4  Larg masters, and 8 Largs...

  Hack's voice  was icy cold...The Burians   call these lands, The Savage   Land... our war games   have   elimnated  hundreds of   Empire  hold outs... we are  goign to eliminate more...

 The Larg  Master  general, his legs bright gold  with  his seeping wounds, standing in his underwear with bots..YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!

 Hack snapped,I HAVE EVERY RIGHT!... you attacked us... now.. you pay the price   of   traitors, and? incompetence

 Shadow  and    Shade , gleefuly  readied thier  SMGs..

 LC!...AMBASSADOR?.. NO..  THEY WILL DIE IN A MANNER THAT SUITS THE OCCASSION.

 Admiral Hennings?

  Larg Masters?  Send in your charges...

The lead   Largmaster , an LT  simply said,Already done.... KILL!

 The   8 largs  doid  not  wacer,, the rushed  in as   any LArg  until would, The Horror of those  who now  stood in underwear, in the wilderness of   Bura   were Savaged and  torn to  bits  by the  8 larges., Close for  50 Officers and Noncoms died..

 when the screaming  ended... Admiral  Hack said into ALL COMs...All Nivarians   who were not executed  for treason will report back to thier ships... The  Admiral in charge of the   Nivarian groups  wil  resettle thier  chain of command, for the rest of  this day... The  Nivarians will then be permitted to come down for shore  leave tomorrow...This, will not happen again..or there will be one less planet , in the APF...

 med techs walked  through the  Piles of  Flesh lookign for  wrists to scan.

Listening to the Admiral with half an ear, Henry was checking the condition of the Hermes largs and any other survivors. Mila padded at his heels.

With everything done and over with Kira decided it was time to recall her people back home so they can enjoy their shore leave, "Lets get aboard and go home" she said pointing to the the BU quite looking forward to some R&R.

------> To Hermes
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Mon 19 Sept 2022.

They would arrive at the hill in time to witness the aftermath; with the Nivarian renegades being led away to meet their fates which considering that ammunition for her gatling gun was flashing red was probably for the best. Once everything had been squared away  Kira would call for them to board the transport and go home for some well deserved R&R ”That…is very good idea…let’s go home everyone” she said waving her team towards the BU’s.

It was as she was walking that she would speak to Andruss on a private channel ”so…are we still on for tonight? Because I really need to unwind” She asked looking forward to a quiet night out after a tiring and stressful day in the field.

——> Hangar Dec

Zob watched with a rather blank look on his face as he watched the traitors get cut down by Largs a rather fitting death indeed but once that was over He turned to both Si and Hack, "Gonna head back on the BU here get ready for shore leave" he gave Hack a rather gentle pat on the shoulder as he walked on past him and boarded the BU back to the Hermes so he could pack.

-----> To Hermes to change out and pack for shore leave.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:30, Tue 20 Sept 2022.

 Meari helped secure the last of the traitors and their largs, once they were rounded up and the hill and the Hermes people where safe, Meari headed back to the drop ship. " Alight let's go everyone we kicked their asses lets head home for shore leave."

 Meari headed to the BU with the others to head back to the Hermes.

----->>>>>>> To Hermes Hanger Dec.

After the action Justin returned to the campsite tidied up and catch up on necessary admin. Reading the waiting message

Sounds great. Meet you ASAP. he responded.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:59, Tue 20 Sept 2022.

Once the Prime went down, Roy made it his first priority to check on Larry, taking a moment to remove the grim and bloodied headgear so he could verify all the blood was the Prime's, and not Larry's.  "You did good out there, Larry...made the Hermes proud and made me proud to be in the same unit with you."

He checked in with Henry, reporting Larry's condition and checking on the others, before he made his way over to Disna, with the newly-claimed largs.  "We're going to have to see about modifying access to the bio-tech labs, so the largs can get in and out freely and have more space...the pack keeps growing and I don't know how much longer Dr. Christie's accommodations will hold them all without encroaching on some of his other guests."

He smiled at the three new largs, waving Freddie back as they continued to display their submission.  "We'll have to come up with names for them...even if they already have names.  They're starting a new life, they deserve to have that start as fresh as possible and I don't want to be calling them anything that's going to remind them of what they've already endured..."  He grimaced tenderly as he noticed the scars of past abuse with the stun batons, and he crouched down, reaching out slowly to add his touch to what Disna was doing to accustom the largs to the different kind of handling they'd be getting.

"Here...let's see what we can do about that," he said, as he noticed a couple of the scars were fresh, and still tender, from the way the largs reacted to touching near them.  "This will feel a little weird, for just a moment," he explained to them, as he pulled out a can of the larg-specific dermafoam, knowing that one of its properties was a mild topical anesthetic.

"But you'll love how it feels after that."  He foamed the baton burns lightly, enough to medicate them and cover the burn but not so much that the foam would bunch and bulge as it adapted into new tissue.  "Just a little more here..."  He used an armored fingertip to smooth the foam into some creases in one larg's hide before it set up.

"That should be much better..."  He used the same calm, reassuring tone with the largs that he would have used with any other trooper he might be applying first aid to, approval in his voice without ceding any authority.  They worked for Larry, now, which meant they worked for him, and he trusted the largs' inherent ability to comprehend meaning.  They might not understand the nuances of the relationship, but as long as they understood that the Hermes personnel were friends and there was a clear chain of command they were expected to follow, that was all he needed them to understand right now.

 The Admiral acknowledged  Zob as  he went off to get transport  He  piled into the  assault  craft  and  soon Landed  By   The  Hermes  Largs.

 Shadow   came  down the  Ram, his  SMG   held  ready but Casually.  Beth  Came over the Shadow  and , unceremoniously , handed his the  Bar Pack  bear..

 what?   You  don't like him?

 He smells like a  swamp! she  kept walking...

 So do we !  We had to walk and fight through  miles of it!

 Get a Shower then!

 Captain Si   gave Shadow  an amused  smile,

  The LC looked  for Henry  as he  slung the beastie on his back...   as he neared Roy and the others, Shadow let out a low whistle...That ones bigger then the one he killed on Aqra...but>? he's bigger too..so i guess its relative?

 Larry  came  Up, nudging him with his  snout... Shadow    knelt   down  and  gave  larry's eha da  hung  and   Rubbed his  nogging.. Freddie  came over  for 'some of that'..as  did others, Shade help   run  heads  and hug necks.

  They Getting Shore leave?

"They've earned it, that's for certain...but I don't know if we can have them roaming around down here with three new largs that haven't acclimatized to the Hermes' way of operating."  He looked over at Puskie, questioningly.

"With Disna back up on the Hermes keeping an eye on Gla through recovery, I guess it comes down to you and me...Roll, you've earned shoreleave, too." While he was beyond impressed with Roll's sense of responsibility, Roy didn't want to rob him of the chance to enjoy being a little boy when and where he could.  He turned back to Puskie.

"What do you think?  Can the pair of us keep the pack from terrorizing the countryside for a couple of days?"

  Roll smiled  at    Roy...I have a Gun! The Admiral Gave it to me  when he thought we were gonna get eated...

Shadow  chuckled., as he  moved through the   devastation, he   came back with a  weapons  belt. Tucking the   Pulse   side arm   into his   chest plate,     Shadow    knelt down and   adjusted the belt . He   gently,  took  Roll's  weapon and showed him the safety. then slid it in the holster.You..um.... don't use this  on  any Hermes  people, right?... when we get up to The Hermes,  you find me, or the SM and we'll go to the   QM  to have  the belt sized better.. Or?.. we can send your  weapon  up to the Hermes  with  Beth  and her  equipment, so you can have  Fun at the  faire thing?

 Roll's eyes got  big...I can go to the Faire? then he frowned I don't have  No one to go with.

   Shade  Bleeped .

 Yeah?   we'll go home, get cleaned up...Maybe   you can   hang out   with Jax
 and the others?

  Roll  shook his head,No...they are aways  looking  for girls? Except  Jax, and He'll have Sneak with him...

 Shadow looked at Roy and the Largs...Hey, Roy?  Its gonna take a bit before   The techs  make room for the Largs on  The Hermes,... what  saw   we  take the LArgs
 to the Lake  by the airfield.. we can get washed up  at the barracks,  and  let the Largs
   swim in the  lake at the south end? Then we  can  go to the   faire fo a bit, , and Roy can spell  Puskie,  and  me and Shade  can go  visit  Lady's  memorial.

 Roll was  excited  as  , Captain Si took the weapons  Belt, she  raised an Eyebrow...(Oliver gave you a weapon?... did you use one  before...?

 There was a thoughtful  look.. No Ma'am. Mrs  Admiral...   Shade  Nudged him...I mean, Captain.. i only shot those things   that shoot little arrows out...but no one let me Keep them ...

 Captain Si was  about to say Something, when The Admiral stepped over. he put an arm on  Captain Sis    shoulder.Well Roll?  You get to keep this one. Battle field  spoils, and we'll make sure the belt  fits.. The SM  can get   a troper  or two to train you on how to shoot.

 Maybe , Mr Shadow!

Shade  started to laugh  his metallic  sounding laugh... The LC  shot Shade a Glare... Shade  decided there was  an 'interest  tree' in the distance to look at.

  Captain Si  let out a giggle of her  own, The Admiral said  with a smileLC has alot of Duties Roll, I am sure the SM  can  find some people to   help train you

   LC  looked   around,OK, if  everyone is finished  making sport of me?  Lets get over to the Lake, and let the Largs  swim  and get cleaned off... he  Pointed to the  Felrite  Shuttle jock. Cavi!...    follow us over  so we  can load up the  Larg Armor   after it gets  cleaned up...Bring back our   bags from the hanger  Dec  so we can get cleaned up.

 It is  already to be  Done, LC..  people filed into the other BU. The  three  New largs  looking around apprehensively , But  Following the  pack.

Henry was watching closely as the new largs began to be integrated into the Hernes pack.

"I shall take a turn lakeside, as well. Now, what have we here?" as a backpack with a dozing bear was brought over.

"What's the story with this little chap?"

He sent a text to Val regarding the need for extra larg quarters, and asked if she and Can wanted to come down to Bura for shore leave.

  Val, COMed back...I will see  to moving the Largs back to  the  end of the Lab,, there will be plenty of   room  near the rear doors that lead to Combat Med tech... we
 should see about getting  doors  , so the largs  that lead to the Ramp way out side the tech labs.....I will put in a work order before we  come down.. I have a Note says were are to stay at the Palace... Can would very much like to go to the Faire.

 When   henry asked  about the  Nuska Cub..yeah , i was on my survival run? One of those things?.. I was  'just close' enough to  wake its Mom up..only? I didn't know.. I attacked it, since   i figure it was  used to chasng things.. I killed the Mom? and was  about to go  when  he poped out of  the  Leaf and Muck cover... Burain Captain said i should kil it...but..well..i couldn't..so i brought  it  for you?  If you don't  want it, let me know, I'll drop it off  at the Village that likes me, when I go see  Lady's Memorial? Burian Captain said they  get cubs to train as guardians.

  Shadow Helped  with  the   Largs  Armor,  He  took off his flight jacket, and  started to complain.. three   tears across the back!... He might have paid for the Jacket maker's house by now!!

 he  laif it  down,  with his armor  and took of his shirt   and placed his   valuables on the pile, then  waded into the    shallow  water in his  Duty  pants, but no boots..  Roll was handing him    Larg armor to  was  off., it would take and  Hour or so  to get the armor   done..  largs  sitting  happily  around , knowing what might Come next..Tails  Thumping.

     The  armor was loaded up, there would be alot of patching to do, Larg's armor   would be used for  scrap.., The others Shuttle came  down, Lyri   brining  Shadow  bag... and  anyone  else  who requested it.

  Shadow  gear  went into the  shuttle with his armor, But he  Kept his  SMG.

 Lyri looked at  Shadow,You're not getting dressed  yet?

 Naw?  not much difference between smelling like Lake, or smelling like  swamp..  as soon as the largs  start playing, I'll take Roll to the  barracks and we can get cleaned up.. I need to borrow  a  fighters, or  small shuttle  to go to  Lady's Site.

  Shadow and Roll  walked  along the shore  towards  the  Airfield both had thier shirts off, Shadow   was  barefoot, carrying his  books

  Roll was  excited, he had   his own gun now, and they got three more  Largs! Also , they would be  going to the Faire..


 Eckles  Bumped into Frans as she saw  Shadow  walking to the barracks  with Roll..wiat?  No one  said   gys were swimming!

 Flores looked at  at  Eckles and giggled, Something  you have to   find out on your own...

 You Knew???

 watch the whole thing...  getting   ready to go in the lake.... washing  down LArgs   like they were  monster puppies...... yeah..goooood  times...

 you are  so stingy!

Roy joined in the laughter as people reacted to Roll wanting to be taught how to shoot by Shadow.  "If and when you want to learn how to fly, we'll have the LC teach you.  For learning how to shoot?  Master Chief Mullins and myself are the best on board...and since Lyri isn't here to claim the honor, I'll give you some coaching when we wrap up shoreleave."  He reached out and clapped Roll on the shoulder.

"Based on what I heard during the fighting, it should be an easy lesson...seemed like you took to it pretty naturally."

He followed them to the lake, helping to get the largs out of armor, setting the pieces (the VERY few pieces) that didn't need to be washed clean on the ground near the new trio, weighing names as he saw their reactions to their new handling and being treated as respected teammates, instead of mindless brutes.  Once they were out of the armor, Roy looked around and found a small rise that would give him a view across the area.

"Okay, tough guy," he said with a chuckle, looking down at Larry.  "Why don't you, Freddie, and Tess teach the newcomers how to play tag.  And don't make them feel too useless, you know they haven't been taught how to properly run...they'd be lucky to keep pace with Gregor, probably."  It was partly a ploy, stalling for time as he kept weighing names...he wanted them short, easy to pronounce...on the battlefield, having to call out a long or complex name was a liability.  But he also wanted them to have some kind of significance...they couldn't all be Larry, with a name that was probably chosen just because it had good alliterative qualities with 'larg', and for no other reason.  But it's not like Freddie or Tess had names that conjured images of ancient warriors or warlike deities out of mythology, either.  The names just felt 'right', in the moment...and he was waiting for that moment.

   Larry snorted    and  Burbled.  he lumbered  down the    Hill,  more  snorts and Burbles  as tess   and Freddie   began to Bounce  around... gregor  went mindless as he started to  Run  around. Puskie  took off   Thor's  collar and   talked to Him a  Bit, the  littlest Larg , looked  up  wiggling and thumping his tail... Larry Snorted  a   small  roar-like Growl,, and gregor took off  into the filed, that  they had  not been to for a year or  so,,

 As Soon as  Gregor  Took off     all the Largs  including  the new ones  took off.. Thor    scrambles  after them, but they were  over 100 yards  away, before he made 10.. but he  keep   scrambling  and    jumping. Puskie stayed near him. to make certain  he didn't get stepped on

 as the LArgs   Moved. it was apparent that Gregor  was  'bait'  for  all the other Largs to   Catch, though gregor  might not be  as  fast  as the others, he was more agile. and considering, Gregor  didn't  seem to  full set of cards in his  deck, he  could  hardly be guessed at for his direction.

Roy chuckled softly as the pack of largs took off, the new ones getting the grasp of the concept pretty readily, and Gregor displaying a surprising degree of agility while running at speed.  Roy watched, still musing over names as he kept special track of the three new largs, watching to assess how well they moved as names began to sort themselves out in his mind.  The tricky thing was picking something that didn't sound too close to crew members...he didn't want to confuse people or largs if he had to call out to them...

He considered, then discarded, Fezzik...the name came to him out of a vague, hazy memory of a favorite childhood story his mother had told him, but none of the largs was large enough to warrant being named after a giant...

The more dominant and adventurous male, he decided, was Homer...the history student in him protested briefly that Homer was not the one who had the adventures of the Odyssey, merely the one who wrote them down, but the connection was close enough.  They were, undoubtedly, starting an odyssey that they had never expected.  That put his mind on a track of Greek mythological names, and Calliope came to mind...too long, but it shortened to Callie nicely.  He couldn't even remember who she was...probably one of the muses, but there was no clear association to anything.  Still, if Tess worked as a name...and it had so far...Callie would work, too.

That left one more male name.  He sorted through Greek names...gods, heroes, warriors...all with too many negative connections in his mind, or too many syllables, or too similar to crew members or past crew members...

Leonidas...

It shortened to Leo.  And while Leonidas, as a Spartan, had some objectionable practices, he definitely held an esteemed position in military history.

Homer, Leo, and Callie.  He nodded, satisfied, and relaxed a little more, watching the largs race around to try and intercept Gregor, chuckling and shaking his head at Thor occasionally leaping in the air to try and get a view of where the others were at as the youngest larg stumbled ahead at the best run he could muster.  He'd give the newcomers their names and explain a little about them...the explanation would mean nothing to the largs, of course, in terms of actual knowledge, but the fact that the names had significance would, hopefully, instill some desire in them to live up to the importance of their namesakes.

But for now, they were whatever name Larry had bestowed upon them in whatever communication largs shared, and they were, possibly for the first time in their lives, playing, and hopefully having fun.  There was time for names and responsibilities later.

   Running  about, gregor  was  getting tired,   He   got. 'nudged' by almost all the  largs. Leo  was the first of the new largs to  get the 'nudge.

   Shadow  , Shade  and   Roll were waling over,  Shadow  watched the      largs   wrestle a  bit,  standing on 4  back  legs  while  the   front  paws  whapped at  each other

   Tell was  laying  down   watching. her  reward for taking a break was Thor  Pouncing on her, she took it in  stride.

   Puskie   sat next to her, watching Callie   was     following Freddie  around. Homer   was  rolling around  with Hool  as they tested  each other.

 Hey Roy? Jax  and   the rest  are gonn be  back down in an hour or so. Me  and Shade  were gonna go down to see  Lady's  Marker?... do you want to Come?  we won't be there long.. about and hour ,  maybe  hour  15  till we get back... If you don't  want to go, Maybe  Roll can stay with you , til' we get back... I'm gonna take him to the faire..Shade  says   him and 'the gys'  want to go in  together, so... Roll might cramp thier  style..

 he means  finding girls that will like them..'cept  for Jax.. he'll have Sneak.

 The Burian pilot  said...Sorry , LC.... I can't just let you take the Shuttle.

  The  LC used his favorite  trick, as he held out  his COM...Tell you what?.. all you have to do is press that little green  button.. and Tell  Admiral Hack, that you can't  let LC Shadow  go down and see  Lady's marker... lady, who helped  fight The Empire ..right  down here on   your  world  for trees...

 but..LC...

 Shadow  hefted the COM again.

 oh..gods   be damned.. take it.. just don't crash it!

 I haven't crashed a shuttle in  3 days!...

 Shade lifted up his   had  and held up 2 fingers...

 OK..2..but hey? I'm on a roll!  whose  all going?
 he  put the   head gear on as he waited to see who all was going.

 LC Shadow  351 Hermes.. to Burian Air Command am  taking a shuttle down to LAdy's  MArker. will return to   Airfield inside  of  2 hours..

 Very Well , LC   Shadow.. safe  flight... don't  danage our craft!

 already Done  BAC....

Roy nodded at the invitation, the smile on his face taking a more somber tone for the moment.  "I should go pa my respects.  With as many times as she saved my hide, I feel like I owe her that much."  He was also curious to see if Lillit, who was so quick to condemn others for seeming to fail to respect Lady, was going to make the monument one of her early stops, or if she was even going to deign to come down to the planet.

"Roll, you can come with us, or stay here and help Puskie watch over the largs until we get back.  Your choice."  Roll was still a kid, and sitting in a shuttle for a ride to visit a monument to someone he never knew might not hold much appeal.  And it would be good for him to get used to the new largs.

Which reminded him...

He stood up, letting out a piercing whistle.  "Bring 'em back in for a minute, Larry!" he called out.  He glanced down at Roll, and explained, "I've figured out names for the new largs...but we need to tell them what those names are, so they can start getting used to them."

  Larry snorted   and   Nudged  and  Got  everyone   moving.  Puskie pulled Thor off Tess and carried him like a football...a big  wiggly , football.



 The Largs came over   and Roll  petted  Gregor.

Roy stepped over in front of the three new largs.  "You've already seen that we do things differently on the Hermes than what you've been used to.  You're going to find a LOT more differences as time goes by.  This is a new life...and as such, I'm giving you new names.  You're not the dumb, vicious brutes your former masters treated you as, and as such, I'm not going to call you by the same names they did...if they even bothered to give you names."

He paced over to the female.  "We're going to call you Callie.  It's short for Calliope, from some old Earth myths that you'll probably never hear, but it's a name that was spoken with some degree of reverence for hundreds of years on Earth.  Welcome aboard, Callie."

Next, he paused in front of the smaller of the two males.  "Your name is Homer, and while some people may laugh about it, I'm naming you after the man who wrote down one of Humankind's oldest and most enduring heroic sagas.  You're going on the kind of journey that he wrote about.  Welcome to our pack, Homer."

He turned to the last larg, the larger of the two and the one that had actually managed to catch up with Gregor long enough to tag him.  "Your name is now Leo.  It's short for Leonidas, who was a great king that led a heroic battle against a massively larger force.  While he lost that battle, his armies went on to win the war, because that battle had slowed the invading forces and demoralized them.  May you be as heroic as he was...and with greater success on the battlefield."

He stepped back, looking back and forth at the three of them.  "Leo, Homer, and Callie...you've already shown yourself to be smarter than many of your former associates, and for Nivarian-trained largs, you've displayed remarkable speed, agility, and endurance.  We're going to help you become smarter, faster, and stronger than your former trainers ever conceived...and you're going to be side-by-side with us.  No more cages, no more shock-batons, no more handling with brutality because we fear what you may become.  Welcome to the Hermes, all of you."  He stepped forward, reaching out to rub each one on the head, fondly, then glanced over at Shadow with a chuckle.

"Gods help anyone who tries a forced boarding on the Hermes when they're all home..."

 Shadow laughed,This keeps up, we'll just send a  whole  boat full of largs to  Hel, let them clean the place out.

 well be  back in a bit , Roll

 Ok.. I'll be  playing with thenew Largs..  as  Roy and Shade  climbed  aboard, they could hear R9ll..I am a cadet LArg <aster.. I am going to  help you be good Largs!

Roy chuckled as he settled into his seat.  "That kid's come a long way, you know?" he asked, as he glanced out at Roll setting up to organize some new game or task for the largs.

He sighed, and added, "Damned shame things didn't work out with his adoption...but I'm glad it held some semblance of normalcy long enough for him to realize that he had ALL of us, and not just that Vampic that decided chasing down her loverboy was more important than taking care of her kid."

Henry sent Mila to play with the largs and settled down with the bear. He checked it over, it seemed to be in good condition. He gave it water and offered a little food, stroking it and getting it used to his presence.

   Larry was padding  around the   gathered Largs, he kept looking around , as the shuttle took off, and th Pilot  sat down near  Henry.


 Puskie said ...Gla  and Disna are on  The Hermes, Larry. They are doing  ok..we will see them when we go home...  Puskie   chuckled  after he  spoke. He looked  at the others...It is odd, is it not. That i call  The Hermes  Home.

 Rolls   was   giggling as  Callie  kept nudging him for more  he rubs.I always thought   The Stem was  my home... I didn't even know where it was? Now  , The Hermes is my home. and I get to play with Largs, and no one sends  me to steal stuff.. and  i get to hurt bad  guys who come in my home.

  Puskie  smiled   as he turned to Jenry...what are you going to   do with the Nuska?

 The    little bear like creature   had stained   fur under its  eyes. It looked very sad indeed.

The Burian Pilot said...If it is a Male.. it can  grow  10 of your feet Tall or..long, depending on  what you want to call it. They eat anything...but  rely on Meat to  keep them strong.. If it is  female..it  make  grow to   8 feet... The pilot leaned forward to look at  Puskie...How  big  does your LArgs  Get... I saw a few massive beasts, but almost all are   close to these  sizes?

 Puskie  shook his head,  Unless   we Test Thor? None of these Largs  will be  Alpha Primes. Primes  are selected  at birth, and  are trained and fed, and made to  grow as big as they are. LArry is small for an Alpha , The  Red Striped one he fought, must have out  weighed him by 200 lbs or more.. Even that LArg, would never have been a Prime.

 He watched Thor   roll down  part of the Hill and Look  around, then  prance after Gregor who seemed to have  made  Thor  his own little 'tag' game.Tess did not have  Thor, from a Prime// Thor is much too little, and  i am certain we could not raise him to  Prime level...

 looking at Herny, he added,This  could be   why, Tess's handle  shocked her  so many times in the tunnel that day. She laid  down in the position that tells a Larg Master , that she is expecting and cannot perform ..but they punished her  anyway? They may have tried to cause complications  in Thor's  birth... Larg Masters    select   the 'right females" to   breed with their  horde's  Prime...other wise, larg Masters   are strict in their  'pairings' of  Largs, so That   Alphas and  the #2  pack leader get to sire   pups. Obviously, we do not  do that here...The Admiral isn't goign to  give  up hanger space
 for  an Alpha  Prime!

 Larry seemed   to be  more at ease when  Puskie told him of Disna  and   Gla.

  Shadow   was in the Pilot's seat, Shade sat back behind the   wall   that was behind   Shadow. Roy could  either  take the copilot's seat of  sit wit  Shade in the back.

   Shadow  Opened the COM...Admiral?   This is Shadow.  What are the chances of you  getting   'The First" to  send  a message or  runner to that Faire? and have them cart  left overs  and such to the largs  at the south end of the lake, They are all playing there now, including the new ones, might be nice for them to eat something that  they don't have to kill?

 The Admiral's  vice   held some laughter,I will COM  her, I would assume she'll do it, Hack out...

  As they  flew over  the  trees Shadow  slowed  just a bit, over the area where the  larg battle was and the exactions took place.  with the   military leaving. scavengers and predators  had  moved in.. There were even stray worts  moving around...and some Largs..Well, It look like Bura  might end up with some Largs  and Worts added to their population, unless the rangers can hunt them down.

Shade  Bleeped.

 yeah? I mean it  can? but it depends  how many  ran away from their Handlers..if its only a couple, they won't take hold... but  if there are  packs  ..it could be a different story....

 Turning   and saying to Roy,Roll is getting tougher. He used to think he was  just there  for 'bait'. Now he has  responsibilities, and he takes his 'job' seriously. being raised in The Stem doesn't make  for cowards, right? Though he was a little Brow beaten... I'm sure  we killed them? But man, i would really like to have  an hour or two with the  Raider or ganger that  made him feel the way he did when he first came to us.

 Shade made a  stabbing Motion as he whirled  and Bleeped.

 Yeah?  You may have never  stabbed a Demon through the face plate...neither have I... Roll did it on the Hanger dec, because he was trying to 'do his job'..which... he shouldn't have had to do. But the fact that he did it, tell you all you need to know about him... and? lets not  for get the Nivarian he put down at the Ball.. He had  Roy and Mean , dead to rights...but he ended up with , just the 'dead part'

 The  sun would be down in another hour or so.This will work out pretty cool? we'll get to take  Roll to the  Faire   as the sun goes down...it  was always cooler at night with the lights  and smells of  food.

 They were now on low  approach. the area of  Lady's memorial was now  lighted. Meta  Glass   box  was over   the  metal  with the  Nose  Art  that  still said  'Shadow's Lady'... though the ' Shadow' was scuffed a bit.. The 'lady ' had been painted   to stand out ( including the Chainmail  Bikini warrior  woman,

 There were two Guard  stations now, one on the east , one on the  west, about  50 yards  from the   memorial

  A SGT , dressed in  'Dress'   jogged over to him. The  fellow  was  a head shorter then   Shadow, but  had a bearing , almost as  'straightforward ' as Roy.

 May the Sunset give  you a  green Morning... Hello, LC... SM.. Ambassador.. I am  Staff SGT   Cutter. I  used to live on   Fuji, but transferred here  about  two years ago, I have been honored to  have my  unit of Rangers, selected to guard the Memorial.

 Shadow  only returned the Salute, because the SGT  made sure he was following  protocol .well, I am glad to hear you like your assignment, but i am uncertain as to Lady  being   happy about a unit   watching over the remains of her  fuselage

 I Understand , LC Shadow. Buy Bura  does not have a long line of war heroes.. Your Lady chose to stay here and fight. We will not   forget that.  She may not have  been a Burian. But she died  as a Burian..

Shade   gave a  sad whirl.

 well, Staff SGT  Cutter, You're  wrong. The whole damn planet is   homegrown  'Burian heroes". You guys fought the Empire  as best you could,..  Empire folks, slavers, pirates and EDT, they are like  parasites, you can't get rid of them all...but you can  make sure  you kill the ones you find....heck? Our Carrier  stations have EDT  infecting them ...but we  clean out as many as we  find...so?  You tell  anyone you meet.. LC Shadow says Burains  are all heroes...

 The Sgt smiled   and Offered his hand to   Shadow, Roy and Shade..I will do that LC Shadow.... it will mean something, coming from you, and not stated  at some  big service over a microphone... SGT Major Spencer..Ambassador Shade....  he left   walking a bit  'taller' as he made his way to the east  guard  station.

 Turning back to Lady's   memorial. he noted  some war metals , or  awards, in a case , the awards with placed haphazardly they were a Mix of   ESN  and APF awards.  a  guard from the west station stopped, as he saw Shade peering at the   glass covered box...The guard cleared his to throat..  as he had been walking  west to east. another guard  had been walking   east to west, on the other side of the  Metaglass structure.

 Excuse me  Sirs?  That box  was  installed, because some people left awards   for her... we did not  want them lying  in the dust and  wind, so  we installed that Box,  People may  add an award  when they  come. It is rare when it happens, but there  is  quite a number of them there.

 Shadow Nodded his thanks, the   Trooper  smiled  slightly, and continued on.well.... I see one she doesn't have here...  he took off his  'everyday'  Blue Max, opened the  case  and  moved the  awards   around a bit.  putting the Max in the Middle..ESN awards to one side, APF to the other... he  clustered  'doubles' together.

   As  he  crouched there... looking over the   fuselage .. the Three   impact holes from Jonny Blu's weapons  showed.. as they trailed into the ground. The rest of lady had  been  'added to' the Hermes  by the Foundry folks, in forms of plates  Her Tail fin was on the  Bow  wall of the Hanger Dec..separate from the  tail fins of traitors.

  Shade stood  by   Roy, whirling and bleeping.

 ..Yeah... I beat  Jonny Blu to death.. Captain Si was there  when i did it...

 Shaded  Bleeped.

 Sure i could have shot him down.. he was  trying to run, he was scared.. an easy target, more or less... Buy i wanted   to see the fear in his  eyes... I wanted  it to feel good, when   the life  left those eyes...

 Shade bleeped another Question.

 since i was  16, i put alot of bad  guys in the ground... some were more rewarding then others...but  i'd  find it hard to  top , how great i felt   when  , what was left of his  face, went blank.

   he   looked back at the metals  and   said  to Roy, though he didn't look back.You know what i don't see?  I don't see  an Udenese  medal here ..there is one Verian medal... You would  think, there would be an Udenese medal?

"The bear appears to be a male. I was proposing to keep him, train him. He will be called Boris."

He rubbed the little creature's head gently.

A short video-comm from Nikki to Roy and Hack:

When he got his blue ribbon and cheers she watched as his new Buran family (a Tall Father, mother, and a younger sister and brother) hugged him and spoke of being proud of him.  They even got to keep the pig for the farm it seemed.  Nikki managed to comm film the scene and then sent it to Hack, Shadow, and Roy.  She was kind of proud to know her small effort brought this kid safely to a new family.  She overlaid a message and sent it.
"This is one of the New York kids we rescued...He looks so happy to have a family now.
 He won the greased pig race and he got to keep the pig."

  Shadow  answered the Text..we'll wait a bit....

   Shade  looked at the   Glass , he  touched  the area close to the  warrior  woman.

  Hey Buddy?  I miss her too?..but you know she's not there , right? That's just the frame.. You have  the other nose art in your room?  and we have her   Fin watching over the Hanger  dec. She's not  really there? That's why its called a Memorial. It was put there
 by the Burians  to honor her.

 Shade  just  gave a low  whirl.   Shadow   gave  Him a  One  armed hug.

  high in the sky  came the    Shuttle from 'Lady's revenge'

Roy nodded, his voice a little bitter as he responded to Shadow's observation, "Yeah...you'd think, with as much as Lillit rants about Lady's remains being respected, that she, out of anyone in the galaxy, would have taken care of that particular oversight already..."

It was an easy problem to solve.  Shadow had even already set the example.  Roy popped loose his duty-version Udenese Silver Apple, stepping forward to set it carefully directly below the Blue Max that Shadow had left.  "Most of the people of Uden will never know just how much they owe to her...she kept us alive long enough to really get up to speed for this war.  Without her, neither one of us would have survived long enough to make it to Uden and defeat the Verians.  She for damned sure deserves more...but that much I can give."

The sound of the approaching shuttle caught his attention, and he looked up to identify the craft.  "Well...it will be interesting to see if anyone more than your sister makes it down here, Shade," he commented, drily, with the acerbic edge in his voice clearly implying doubts about Lillit.

  Shade  Bleeps  and grinds a bit. Shadow figured he didn't need to translate that. The shuttle resp[ected the lines     for   vehicles and   aircraft to land... The ramp came Down and the Staff Sgt Appeared.

 greeting   Dusk   with a proper  salute , he would escort her to the  memorial, with  Meari and  Frakas  following.

The Sgt looked at all of them as he said..This is a great day for me  and My Unit. T see  so many of  Lady's family here. I will allow you time  to yourselves...   give the tower  a wave , should you need  anything. another  sharp salute and he  was  off to his tower.

  Dusk Gave  Roy a Hug First, the Shade, then Shadow.They have improved the  memorial...

 Shadow  said,they  touched up her  nose art.. the added a   glass  display box  for awards... I just added  my  Blue Max.... Roy added his Udenese  apple.   it is the only undenese  award there... he left that hang in the air.

 Granmod has not come, but she as  at the same Dinner , The Admiral is?

 Captain Si said they are coming in the morning, Not  certain who all will come with them.... But today? Lilit  could have been here  when  the rest  came down to The Captitol for small talk? and...Lady  is also blood  to  Lilit ..

 Shade bleeped  rather sternly...Dusk looked at him in surprise...

 Shadow said,he's not wrong...she as been , less then friendly, since the theft  of the   bit of metal

Roy was less tactful.  "For all the noise she's made about Shadow 'failing' and the implied lack of respect for Lady that entails, she should have been here back when the rest of us were dealing with largs and survival runs.  And there should be a full suite of Udenese awards in there...she shouldn't have been recognized by a Human for her contribution to the liberation of Uden."  While it was contained, there was recognizable anger in his voice.

"Admiral Hack had time to come observe the largs in action.  Captain Si had time to oversee the survival run and THEN come help put down the Nivarian renegades.  What was Lillit doing all that time before the dinner?  She couldn't find fifteen minutes and a shuttle to come visit her daughter's memorial?  The one she keeps bi..."  He caught himself and shifted gears with only the barest of pauses.  "Complaining that others were allowed to desecrate and the Humans have failed to recover?"

He caught himself before he said more, looking at Lady's remains in a moment of silence before he let out a sigh that was equal parts frustration, loss, and just plain old emotional fatigue.

"I shouldn't get into that here.  It's not the place for it.  Better, here, to remember Lady for all the heroism she displayed, and not her progenitor for failing to be a better standard-bearer for the family."  His gaze remained on the wreckage, as he added in a wistful voice, "I lost track of how many times she went in harm's way and saved my life...and never once sought any sort of credit for it.  She let everyone believe it was mainly Shadow's doing, and we'll never know for sure just how much of it was him and how much was her.  But I'd bet my sizable pension that Shadow would be much less of a pilot today had he not flown with her...even if she might have just been following his lead, her abilities pushed his willingness to explore the edges of just what you can do with a fighter."

He grinned, a little sadly, and added, "And we wouldn't have you or Shade, and the galaxy would be that much worse for that loss, alone."

   Shadow   chuckled a soft chuckle,I remember, on the way into  Delta , when  we were to  convince the Mulls  not to join the empire.There were  ESN  troops  caught in a fire
 fight with Largrans   and  had Mech  support..  We.. he motioned to  The Glass,Broke off  to   give them aid, Frans  complained  about it...The Admiral and Captain bet me i couldn't  take the three  Mechs out  on  one pass... The  37 MM was hand fired  with a  lever through the nose , back then... I wasn't allowed to have   Lady  help me... I took the bet, Lady  used the lazars  we had  on at that  time. She  chewed up  some ground troops, while i   zeroed in on the   Mechs, Got all three of them... in one pass.  The Troopers  then, over whelmed  what was left of the  ground  troops, It helped send a statement, what Humans   could do..,,and?  I won the bet!

 Shade   bleeped a  few sad Bleeps. Dusk nodded.

 all you have to do, to see that, is go into SEC, we'll get  Beth  to set up Guncam films  for you to see it..see anything, really Damn cameras  are every where, anymore

 Father? Did  Mother  ever have a 'rank'?

 we didn't know?  Until it was revealed  she wasn't just an AI? I Think Evert  said she was  an LT..  which means , she  is very proud  of  both of you , for  rising   in Ranks  higher  then her, or myself... Shade   might be listed as a trooper? But he  still bears the  rank of Ambassador. and you are a Captain...Undenese Fleet  Captain....  he   nodded, stood a  tiny bit straighter.

   Dusk went forward,  she knelt  at the  case, and opened it. Taking off one of her Captain's bars,  placing it Next to  Roy's  Udenese Apple. She Opened her COM  and sent it  to Fleet as she said..As   Udenese Fleet Captain, i  hereby, as  of this  COM, elevate  Lt Lady Shadow, to Udenese  Captain .  all records  will show  of this posthumous  promotion...signed, Dusk Shadow, Udenese, Fleet Captain.

 Shade  Saluted... Shadow followed  his lead.

  Meari followed Dusk out of the shuttle, she watched and listened she then replied," I do not know what has been Grandmods problem lately but you are all correct Grandmod should have been here first. Lady did so much for this war."

 Meari noticed that Roy's was the only Udenese medal in the group, Meari removed her three Udenese medals, the Uden Bronze Star, the Udenese Silver Apple, and the Udenese order of the Tree level 3. She placed all three below the LC's Blue Max. Then Meari took her purple heart medal and hung it from the box.

 Meari kneeled before the box and memorial she said an old Udenese prayer for heroes. Once she was done she also saluted Lady's memorial. " Now she has a few Udenese medals from family. Lady gave so much and I miss her and my mother dearly. Lady will be forever honored."

 Meari then stepped back and let anyone else say anything.

 The Staff SGT  and    a two striper  came over  to the  Glass once more .

  He Saluted the Glass , then the  gathered  people. I just saw the COMs, please excuse me , I have  a duty to perform...

 The  Corporal opened the   Glass , he neatly   arranged the the  medals  , adding the purple  heart to the  case.. one side ESN , on side  APF. the Blue max in the  middle  with the  udenese medals  under it. and the  Captain's  bars  inside   the  folded Ribon of the Blue Max  so it  sat directly above the   Cross.

 the   SGT opened   the  Glass    to  retrive a metal box   that was tucked inside the  shattered remains,  the vidboard there  ws used to add the remianing  medals  and to take a picture of the  newly arranged Box.

 Once the DGT  and his troper were finished,  The SGT   locked the  box  , tucked it away abd  locked the  3 inch Metaglass , Framed by Burian Green  steel.

 when something is added,  we must check it, variety it and record it...it may seem like a small thing, But  we try to keep things  up to date.

  looking at all of them, settling on Shadow,There is a darker place. Most , no one sees. The site where you  killed Captain Blu., we shaped  his  wreckage  into Three  Prongs  from the ground. Traitors  we catch alive, are taked  there and  secured  by chains, and left thier to  die The eldom last longer then a  day, as  beasts from the  forest smell the fresh  food and  finish them. It is Bura's  chance , to  take part in   punishing them..

Roy chuckled at Shadow's story.  "I remember an op...specifics are compartmentalized, so I can't go into much about it.  But on our way out from the objective, Chief Mullins took a round, and was in a bad way.  There was me and one other trooper to try and get her out safely to our exfiltration point, and about five hundred pissed off Largrans trying to chase us down."  He shook his head, thinking about it.

"Some damned fool...FOOLS...came in on a low hover, right near where we were pinned down, acting as both direct fire support and a marker buoy for the APC that was coming to get us out...no idea how many Largrans, or what kind of firepower they were carrying, or how long they'd have to hold station while the APC got as close as they could get."  He glanced at Shadow and smiled, adding, "And we've seen what can happen with planes that decide to hover too close to ground targets...that's how we lost Bo Jagger.  And yet, that pilot and his plane made it out without a scratch, and cut down enough Largrans that we could break cover and make a run for the APC, which couldn't make it to us because the jungle was too thick."

He glanced at Lady's remains as he continued.  "As it was, we only just barely managed to save Lyri.  Without that help, we for sure would have lost her, and quite likely neither of the other two of us would have made it out alive.  She was as heroic as they come."

 Meari smiled and added," Yes Lady was a hero and also my aunt, she helped me get through the death of my mother, Lady's sister. All that is missing and Grandmod to show." Meari then moved away she had said her piece and her goodbyes to her aunt.

  Shadow    puts his  palm  the Metaglass...she  made me a better pilot... I mean? ego aside. I was already damn good..but  she showed me subtle moves  and such that make me  even better...That first time  flying through the Enemy Hanger dec? Even i wondered how much of that was me?..when  i did it again, from the Everest traitors chasing me... It made me feel good that i did it on my own. But I also know,  I did it with Lady...so..it wasn';t too scared.

 Shade  and    Dusk Put their hands on the  Glass  and lowered their heads..Alright..   I gotta get back, Roll likes  playing with the Largs?, but he has to be  eager to  go to the Faire?  as they   climbed into the Burian shuttle, Dusk  headed to the her  own shuttle.

Roy? are you going to the  Faire?

 Meari placed her hand with the others and lowered her head with her family. " Thank you for the ride cousin Dusk, LC can we get a ride back to the Faire with you, Frakas and I."

 Meari did go to Frakas and said," Thank you for coming I know you didnt do anything but being here for me that is what I needed my friend thank you." Meari would wait till the LC answered her before she did anything else.

  The  LArgs   started to look up,  some standing on their  hind fours. heads  turned towards  the   round where it  entered the forest  to the  south west of the airfield.

 A   heavy wheeled vehicle, looking like a  cross  between Buckboard and  Humvee  there  where  a dozen   metal tubs  in the  back,  along  with 6 locals sitting to hold them  still.

 when they reached the   Group, the  Driver  explained that   The LC ordered   scraps for the LArgs.

 The    tins were brought  down,  and the Largs lined up with Henry, Roll and  Puskie settled them into  eat.

 Lots of meat  leavings, cuttings   nad left overs,  to go with  breading  and pastry leavings.

  Roll  made  sure  to get  a Bucket for gregror, Mila  and   Thor to share, since they  couldn't  reach up and over the tub rims.

.................

 Dusk waved her  Pilot off...take  the shuttle back to the Palace. I will ride  with  Father and Roy as well...

 Shadow Grinned from the Pilot seat...if you trust my flying, Hop in..

 Frakas  smiled  at   Meari, then  the  smile stopped...what does he mean by 'trusting his flying"

 Meari chuckled and replied," The LC is just kidding, he is a great pilot, I just hope he doesnt try any funny flying with a shuttle, that might not end well." Meari chuckled again and climbed into the shuttle with Frakas, Dusk, and the others.

  The  shuttle  came  Gliding  in  where the   Largs  were  , now eating. The ramp came   down, and people began to Pile out.

   Shadow thanked the   Shuttle  Jock, he have him  two 20  Cred bills.Go park your craft  and have   something to  drink and eat on me..

The  Pilot  grinned  and  didn't waste  time,  taking the shuttle only abut  20 feet into the air    to zip over to the airfield and  park it.

  Shadow looked at  Roll...You ready for  Faire  time?

 Roll got  excited..I never been to a faire..people  around here  keep telling stories... they have Games to win stuff.

 yep, and  rides  and stuff... and food?.. Now? first rule..you have to each something clsoe to real food? After that you can eat whatever you feel like,,how's take

 Rolls was  almost  jumping up and  down.Are You all coming ?  MR  SM?

 Dusk gave   Roy a  coy smile,

  Can and  Val were   coming over, Can at almost a full run...Val said,we are Going.. there is a Van coming over  to collect Henry..there is  enough Room for everyone?

 Puskie  saidI am staying here   with the LArgs,  I will go tomorrow  when Disna  came  come down as well.. we have to decide  where the LArgs will stay

  we  can het a  BU  to stay on the ground here  tonight, when it gets too cold, they can go and side, and you can button it up, keep  the wrong people from comigngaround

  Andruss     went off with Tarja, they caught a  hover   van going in, Morgan waved them  on as he pretended  to   tie his boots...

 he looked at  Kira,we  can take the walk,,, the night is  warm so far, and it would be  nice to walk without  700 pounds of metal around me.

...............

 The Van stopped at  an area for 'unloading' so they didn't get in the way of faire  Goers... The lights  were brighter   as it  got  darker,  with  the sky  Balck with  millions of  tiny  dots that were starts...and some  fast moving dots that were orbiting ships, or in coming shuttles.

Andruss   ran a hand through his hair and  pointed to  the Buildings of the Town.Let me take  you for   ..like...real food?  then we can  eat faire  food   after, while  we  see what rides and crafts  and games  they have?

 Once they landed, Meari and Frakas said thank you to the LC for the ride and then Meari said," Thank you LC, Frakas and I are going to walk to the Fair we will see you there."

 Meari and Frakas will then make their way to the Fair.

---->>>>>> To Bura Sites and Places.

When Dusk asked if he was going to the Faire, Roy gave a kind of surprised hmph, and answered, "I hadn't really thought about it.  I mean, I don't have any reason to avoid it, but I didn't really have any particular reason to go, either..."  He gave her a grin, and said nothing more about it as they boarded the shuttle.

At Meari's reassurance to Frakas, Roy grinned wickedly.  "He's fine to fly with, as long as you aren't riding the jump-seat in a fighter with him.  We'll be fine, shuttles don't have the kind of performance for him to do anything too insane..."

Roll's urgent plea about him going to the faire got an amused chuckle from Roy.  "Well, I think Captain Dusk has twisted my arm sufficiently to convince me I should go for at least a little while.  How long I stay depends on whether or not Puskie thinks the largs are okay to go to a large gathering of people...if they need to spend more time with each other and away from people, then I'll need to trade spots with him at some point, because I don't want him to miss out on the faire, either."  He looked at Puskie with a grin and a shrug.

Henry asked Puskie if he was OK staying with the largs and not visiting the faire today, with Can dancing around him getting even more excited than Roll, if that was possible. Mila joined in the capering about.

He looked over at Val. "Fancy visiting the faire? Or is there something else you'd like to do?"

He introduced the new largs and the bear-creature, which had fallen asleep again.

ok? going to play, i late!...

 fior the FAire..Puskie is staying, they are using  big Ugly  for the largs to stay in tonight , at the lake.

Val came over ready to go to the faire  with Can..she has a vand to take  us there.'

Meari  and Frakas  are walking..

go ahead  and Post from there. I'll catch up later...

from 4:00 to about 6. we hare haveinga B-day party at my house for 2 grandaughters.. , i'll catch up after that as well.

Post as you will

——> Hangar Dec

During the ride down to the planet’s surface it would quickly become apparent that Tarja was by no means a social butterfly and was seriously out of practice when it came to small talk. However she would reveal that she had never been to a planet since leaving Earth with the closest she’d come to one being the asteroid on which her teams research station was located, though she remained evasive on where it was located with her politely refusing to even say which quadrant it was located with her changing the subject for more details on Bura.

”so everything is green?…you are teasing me, yes?” She asked in an uncertain voice as they descended the ramp and stepped onto the runway where there were several military vans waiting to transport the crew to the various destinations on offer including a local town and a fair whose lights Tarja could see in the distance ”so have you anywhere in particular you’d like to take me?” she asked with Andruss saying that he wanted to take her into town for a proper meal before continuing on to the fair afterwards "We should probably ask barracks to save us rooms...unless you know of any hotels that will takes on short notice" she continued as she started following him, not wanting to wind up begging for a room late at night when everywhere had closed.

In reply to bura fun (msg # 269):

Kira waited until both Andruss and Tarja took off on their own before looking back to Morgan, "Sounds like a plan, when your done tying your shoes we can go" that last part she said with a smirk across her lips.

  Andruss, nodded,Last time we were here, there were  Barracks beds   for   Hermes folks. Or. if you want we can find   a hotel  many some have a couple rooms?

They came to a  Inn that hard a   Lizard  roasting  on coals. "  The roasting Largran " Me and some of the others  came here.. they have  this  steak... i think its  steak?, They must be cattle  bought off   Farm ships, because they aren't  green all the way through.

 they  also got  home soups... I ..I don't know what you like, but its  as close to eat food?... and   the have a Buffet of Burian  stuff  as well.

..............

 Witha Grin , Morgan stand up...That bar b cue  place at the   south end of  town   had Great Ribs , last time we were here, then we can go to the Faire from the Back side..

 As they  sat at a wooden table, Shadow    looked at the   games  and such, seeing what Roll  could  try, and something he would be  good  at.. He noticed  a Buian's 'knock  the Nuska' was handing out   bears and  and other  stuffed  Creatures  as well as hand made beer steins... across the way a Human was   running  the  same game,  baseballs  at Nuskas  and you had to knock down three.. however, the  Human wasn't giving out too many prizes.
 He  Saw Shoey threw  three balls, Knocked   down  two, but the  Third   one wouldn't  go down.

  Shadow frowned  and said,I'll be back.... he   wiped his mouth  and Got up.. Roll watched him as he  swung his legs  back and forth, eager to play  games  and ride  rides.

 Shoe was there  with  Lippen... he was mad..This is crap , LC!.. I hit that thing..it  didn't go  down, I was trying to win Lippy a bear-thing..

 I saw....... he  walked up to the Counter,He..you from Earth?

 Yah?  Sorta ..been out in the Black  about  2 years   down, hitting   settlements  and  colonies... why..

 Mid west...Right?

  how'd ya know...

 went to the academy , we learned how to read accents .. I'm From New York..and..another thing i can spot? a crooked  game...

 You watch your  Mouth  Sailor, I'll have you thrown out...

 You can  try.. but look an me, and look at you... I migh  get dragged out by a dozen or  so Burian  troopers..but  you'll never see it... so?   here's  what i'm Gonna  do.. I  Hopping over this   counter, and checking yoru racks.... if i seem something  wrong,  i'm fixing it..cause that  SGT that was throwing baseballs? he was  supposed to Play in The Red Sox organization, before he signed up... if he can't know  down that bear, no one  can...

   The  Man cals   troopers, they ran over, Three of them.....LC?  Please  Come out of the booth?

 How 'bout you come in here with me...

 The trooper looked  at the  Carney who , now looked  worried.  The   SGT  looked at Shadow  and he studied the   4  racks of  nuska. he  Picke don up it  had a hole in, to set them on a small nub to set them up straight.

 Shadow  pulled a  smallever on the  side of the  rack, and  a 6  inch peg shout up  though the   nubs...

 The SGT  looked at the Carney..let him run his    game.... Shadow  had  a  throwing  dagger  slide  down his   arm to his  hand, a quick  move  sliced a foot  off the string...we had carney's in new york..none of them were straight... See that Burian there.. he has   dozens of people  trying, some win, some don't , but he's having fun, and so are they, and he's still making Creds...

 Now?.. don't fuck over  people who are going   into a shooting  war, in a day or two, this might be their last  time  to have some fun...

 The   Carney  nodded , The Burian  frowned.....don't let us  hear of any  more cheating...
 Shoey   gave him more  Creds, three  swift   throws  and the  Muskas  were There, an Lippy had  a  giant stuffed  Chuka Bird.

  Shadow sat  back down to finish his   pizza.Pretty sure   all the games  will be straight , at least  tonight.

Tarja would be obviously torn over staying in a hotel and sleeping in a real bed for the night or returning to the barracks and saving what little of her wages she had with her kind of supposing that a lot would depend on how the night went ”ok…let me think on it a bit, how is barracks, comfy?” she replied as they walked up to bar going the name of the Roasting Lagran with Andruss saying that he’d eaten there before and that they did a pretty good steak among other things, with her clearly relieved that he hadn’t taken her to a fancy restaurant ”Steak sounds good, though you are teasing me again about the green?” she chuckled as they went inside and found themselves a corner table ”we go Dutch, yes?” Tarja said as she opened the menu and began fighting her way through some of the more unusual items using her limited English.

   Andruss   chuckled,everything  turns green here,  the stuff in the planet?  It gets in the water,  the   plants, the animals, and the People. I'm not real sure? But   they say you can tell  Native   Burians, because they are  shorter the most humans  and a darker green,,, Green Angels  are almost as  dark, then the    half breeds  of Humans  angels and Burians are a lighter shade, They  say, If you stay on the planet long enbough , you egt green too?.. I dunno? we're never here that long.

 The  walked in,  there was some  smoke form  people who used   wooden hand  carved  pipes...  Andruss   asked   for a place where there wasn't smoke. When they were  seated, an Green Angel smiled at them, as she offered them a menu.

Adndurss  loked over the   Menu and  pointed at the picture.. I would like  a 'plains cow steak".. with mashed pototoe thigns  and   what passes  for corn here?  and  a Burain beer?

 he  showed   Tarja the  different  steaks, asn motioned to the  fowel and fish section as well.

She would give Andruss a look that said she still suspected he was teasing her, although she had to admit that the Burian’s she’d seen so far were indeed green so perhaps there was something to what he was saying.

It would take Tarja a little longer to read through the menu with her pausing every now and again to try and figure out what certain words meant, though she was clearly too embarrassed to ask either Andruss or the waiter for help. Thankfully however there weren’t too many items on the menu and she had already kind of decided on steak before sitting down ”I would like the steak and chips please, with the rings of onion and…um…I do not know this word, I think is Burian…sorry English is not first language” she said with an embarrassed flush as she pointed to her choice on the menu for the waiter to see having decided that the mystery item was some kind of sauce ”…. Oh and glass of Green Vale Vodka…I developed a taste for it during war” she said to Andruss, curious to see what the locally made spirit was like.

With the waiter disappearing in order take to their order to the kitchen Tarja would lean back in her chair, glad to be off her feet after so long in the field ”so is this your first tour of duty or you serve elsewhere before Hermes?” she asked whilst they waited for their drinks to arrive.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:05, Mon 26 Sept 2022.

  Andruss  shook his head  as he looked  around, Playing with the   4 shakers  that were,,salt Pepper,some  kid  of  yellow crystal, and  a Orange powered.

 I was a  Security Mech  at The Pit?  I Guess  Admiral Hack pulled my name,  Master Chief  Kira  said  'ok' and i'm here,,, they lost a few mech riders, others  couldn't handle the ehat? anyway, there is just us three here now.

Tarja would nod her head slowly as Andruss spoke of his past ”security mech, is good way get experience I think…did you serve there long?” she asked trying to gauge his age and experience relative to her own”I first served as Jaeger before transferring to mech unit during final year of war…I liked being mech pilot but when war ended I was no longer required so I take different path” she said looking momentarily disappointed by her career as mech pilot being cut short, but then again if it wasn’t for that she wouldn’t be here now in her current role.

When the waiter placed their drinks down in front of them Tarja would blink in surprise at the emerald green liquid in her glass ”oh…you were not teasing” she said, taking a moment to admire the vibrant colour before cautiously taking a sip ”…is very nice though!” she said appreciatively before turning to speaking with a teasing look in her eyes ”so other than admiring the ladies in the tight fitting uniform, what is it you do for fun?”

  Andruss took a sip of green beer. The Pit  isn't   fun?   big old  ball of   dirt and metal..they are Mining it  for  iron they sue  to make  Cap ship steel..at least, that's the  front reason... I think the main reason is, its a  good listening post  for the  Sol  System as it  is  close  to the   Alpha Funnel.

  Andruss looked a bit sheepish,hey? I didn't  design those  suits!  It almost like advertising!...and sadly..that is the extend of my 'fun'.. i watch  Vids,  work on my mech, run the tunnels.., hang out on the  rec dec?  The Pulse is nice, but  its no fun to go there by yourself, unless you think you might ,  get someone to dance with there. Rec Dec is my main hang out.Especially when we get  transfers, we like to see how many of  them learn fast!

”The Northern border wasn’t much fun either…especially in winter” she said in sympathy, however the more horrendous locations did make for the best training grounds, and they had both survived the experience which was something.

At the mention of the undergarments being so revealing Tarja would chuckle as she nodded in agreement ”yes it leaves little to imagination but is needing to be tight to work…see if suit is loose armour can’t feel muscles but if tight like this…” Tarja explained as she gently took hold of his arm, her fingers moving as she signalled for him to flex his arm ”…then armour can sense muscles and react to them like so, allowing it to be controlled” true there were other ways she could have explained it to him but this way she got to touch him and enjoy the feel of his muscles. As they continued to speak it would become apparent that he had no real hobbies other than hanging out with his friends and generally people watching ”the learning fast I’m not sure I understand…you speak of training or the discipline? Also maybe I go to Pulse someday…keep you company?” she said with her hand still gently resting upon his arm.

  Andruss  smiled a bit as  her hand stayed on his arm. He looked around   and said quietly.I heard  Morgan talk about  the 'old days'  when  replacements  came from Earth  and such... there were better people then, he said.... but now we get people from the colonies and  carrierstations? they are pretty good. but we also get people from other ships...lots of times  they  seem to  want to  beard the Lion... The  SM  and LC  make sure  work of them, the  other  tend to fall in line   quickly.. I mean? you get clumsy or something, they'll teach you work with you , but you shoot off your  mouth, or teach the RED DDEC  staff like  slaves...yeah..someone's getting beat up.

 he sipped his  beer  as the waiter  came with thier food.sure  enough, the  steaks were green, most of the  way through, there was a  triangle   piece  cut out so they could look them over,, the  mashed potatoes  where   light green, the gravy was brown. as  was the sauce , thier ketchup was green. thier Mustard was  pale  yellow.

 if everything looks  alright? or you have questions, please ask..other wise i will leave to you eat, you have  but to wave for a drink refill.... out desert today is  Green berry Pie, and  Yellow desert berry pie.

 Adnrus  looked at the  steak his was well done, he nodded his thanks as the waiter  waited for  Tarja

"The LC deals with trouble makers?" Tarja quietly responded with a questioning look, not that she was too surprised after the events of her tunnel run "...That is non com job, surely he has bigger things to deal with...then again maybe different for pilots?" she continued with it clear that she didn't really approve of the idea of officers dealing directly with unruly crew members seeing it as something that the NCO's should be dealing with.

With the arrival of their food Tarja would once again find herself being confronted with green, with her having to fight make her natural instinct that said that meat shouldn't be green...or at least not good meat "is very colourful..." Tarja cautiously replied to the waiter as she examined the triangle of meat noting that despite the colour that it was indeed cooked medium rare like she'd asked "...yes, all is good, thank you" she said with an affirmative nod before adding a dollop of mustard on the edge of her plate and starting to eat what proved to be a rather good steak...even if it was green.

    Takes  a couple bites of his  steak, swirling the meat in his mashed potatoes  before he did.  he  waited    to speak and said,I don't  know how it  works,  I think it goes back to the old  days when there wasn't a Delta Fleet..Just the  Hermes  and   The Harvester?. Morgan  said  somthng about  ' its better  to ttoss  a couple ehad  cases out the   static  filed  when they first come in, then have to send a dozen people in bags out later'` You'd have to talk to Morgan?  But they  had a Mech Rider  who was pretty decent, but he  kept  , almost, getting people killed.

 Sipping his  beer  and  adds,Unless human farmers  have   gained alot of ground here.. this   stuff is really potatoes? but  it sure tastes like them!

”Is better to get them on side, find them niche to fill that exploits their unusual…skills…achieving that is sign of good officer, killing them is waste of resources” she said with a shrug that said she felt it was kind of obvious, then again she had a very logical approach to things that didn’t always go over well with people.

Despite the strange colourings Tarja had to admit that her meal was very good, agreeing with Andruss that they did indeed taste like real potatoes ”maybe someone sold them seed plants?” she suggested figuring that it wasn’t too much of a stretch to have Burian farmers growing terran potatoes in order to serve the fleet or colonists wanting a little taste of home ”so how is your meal? Mine is very good” she asked with it making for a pleasant change to the usual fair they got ”maybe tomorrow I will go into countryside…would be nice to see it whilst not being shot at…watch the animals, maybe do a little sketching” she quietly mused to herself as she took another sip of her vodka.

  Andruss shrugs,to be fair? I don't care. If they are  EDT   I'd like to see them  strapped to a  Cap ship torpedo and fired  at an enemy vessel. If they are Just hard head. maybe they learn, maybe they don't. but it comes  down to them.. learnign curve is steep on  The Hermes

 Oh yeah? this is good  food!.. we have  some of this stuff  on the Rec dec,  when the supply ships come in,  but  the cheaper meals   are easier to store, and the steaks  vary..  They keep us pretty well supplied though.

 I haven't even thought about tomorrow  yet, but, as far as i know, where all on shore leave

Henry, Mila, the bear, and Can piled into Val's van and they took off for the faire. He wasn't sure if the bear would cope with all the noise, but he didn't think it fair to leave him with somebody else. He could sit things out if needs be.