Just thought I would post this, some may find it interesting..:-)

Full profile here:
http://www.statesmanswatch.com/TR/001ravensberg.html

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+++ ASF DATA FILE #33686 +++
+++ Security Clearance: Sensitive +++
+++ Unauthorised access to this file is prohibited +++
+++ Data file format: Plain text +++

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Name: Magdelena Deidra von Ravensberg
Age: 28
Place of Birth: St. Louis, Missouri, North America, Earth
DOB: 3 March 1987
Unit: 1625th AFS Black Ops "Mass Requiem"
Rank: Command Major
Class: Medic
Unit Position: Commanding Officer
Security Clearance: Level 50

AFS Elite Training Areas: Injector Weapon Systems, Medical Tools, Medical Immunization, Logos receptive.

Other Trainng: Medical Doctor - General medicine, Ph.D Extraterrestrial Biomechanics, Neurocellular Regeneration. Basic astrotechnical training (AFS), Advanced Biotechical Weapon Systems Training (AFS)

Physical Description:
Height: 185cm
Weight: 83kg
Skin tone: Fair
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
Distinctive Features: none

Background notes: Prior to the bane invasion of 2012, Cmd Major Ravensberg was a rather average, yet highly intelligent young woman. Upon high school graduation, she entered the Rhode Island Academy of Natural Science graduating with a double doctoral degrees in Extraterrestrial Biomechanics and Neurocellular Regeneration. Upon graduation was accepted to medical school. The invasion of 2012 caused Ravensberg to volunteer for the AFS and entered training at Cape Kennedy, Florida. After basic military and astronaut training she completed her full commission and was allowed to complete her MD as a 1st Lieutenant with a medical internship at the Sea of Tranquility Lunar base.

In 2014 promoted to Captain, Ravensberg began permanent party military service assigned to the 65th AFS Medical Research Squadron at Cumbria Research Facility, Palisades. She studied advanced biotechnical weapon systems and achieved elite qualifications not only in injector weapon systems but biotechnical armors, medical tools and combat immunizations. Her prowess with combat medicine earned her promotion to Major and transfer to the AFS Combat Medical Command to prepare a new training programs.

Military expansion of 2015 lead to the creation of new and vital units in the Black Operations Command. Major Ravensberg was selected to command the 1625th AFS Black Ops and promoted to Command Major.

Other notes:
Command Major Ravensberg has been observed to operate best on a team. She is an olympic gold medalist, creative artist and logos receptive. Her leadership skill strengths are her ability to organize and delegate. She is open and listens to her commerades while maintaining an aliegence to the overall mission of her unit. Personally, her strengths are her manual dexterity, very high intelligence and ability to conduct herself under great stress. She is a young commander but remains very suited for advancement.

Randolf H. Gaston, MD, Lt. General, AAFS
Commander AFS Combat Medical Command
Fort Defiance, Valverde Plateau, Foreas

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WARNING: Longfic ahead.

Also, liberties taken with TR canon.

I would also like to note that the people I actually grouped with for the final event were much less insane that the people portrayed in this fic. Indeed, most of the characters portrayed within are not players, but NPCs of my own creation.

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“Did you hear about the General?”

I was on my own in the tavern in Baylor’s Base, trying to resist the urge to set the speakers on fire while having a quiet drink on my own. As you might imagine, this was not having the best effect on my moods; having strangers fire drive-by questions at me for no reason did not help.

The question itself was endlessly stupid; of course I’d heard about the General. Everyone had. Bits of his old Soyuz rocket had started turning up all over the place; Command had had us running around collecting them and bringing them back to Foreas Base. Elite troops of the AFS, and we’re searching for Russian scrap. Hah.

And then he’d disappeared.

Apparently, there had been a message left – saying he was going on a solo mission, and that he may be some time. Nobody seemed entirely sure if it was genuine, or a Penumbra plant, or whether the Bane had taken him out to try and sap morale, and Command was trying to cover it up. But the fact remained that General British was gone.

I was sat on my own, in a table in the corner, glaring angrily at the world, so I wasn’t exactly pleased that someone had seen fit to join me. Glancing up, I saw that it was an otherwise attractive young man, dressed like a Specialist, still with that look of innocence about him – and wondered, just for a moment, how the hell he could have made it this far without losing that.

I snorted, but said nothing.

The man did not take the hint, and sat down opposite me, a bottle of beer in his hand which it didn’t look like he intended to drink from.

“Apparently,” he said, dropping his voice a little, “They’re saying he’s gone rogue. Defected to the Bane.”

I glared at him. “Kid,” I said, sourly, “Did you ever meet the General?”

He blinked, a little surprised. “No,” he said, “Hardly anybody did.”

“I did.” I snapped, immediately wondering why I was humouring him with conversation.

“Oh?”

“You don’t look like you’ve been out here long,” I said, a little bitterly, “So you probably don’t remember what it was like, back when we first started. But General British would personally brief troops – in Alia Das, in Foreas base, wherever he was needed. He would listen to our concerns, even the newest private… He was a great guy. The best, in fact.”

The kid shrugged. “Doesn’t change the fact he’s abandoned us.”

I wondered briefly if the kid had a deathwish, before realising there was a good chance he’d been shipped out here to ‘mingle’ by High Command. It would explain how he’d gotten out here, while still so young; hell, there was no guarantee he was even the age he looked, what with the cloning of troops these days. He could just have easily been ‘born’ five minutes ago, here in the medical facilities.

I didn’t say anything in response, at first; the kid took this as a cue to keep talking.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he had snapped,” he said, oblivious to what he was saying and where he was saying it. “Apparently, he was always a bit nuts, even to start with. Finding that crashed rocket must’ve been the final straw.”

People were started to glare at us. And the last thing I needed right now was glaring.

“Listen, kid,” I said, massaging my temples a little, “You should probably keep talk like that down.” I paused for a moment, downing the rest of my drink before glancing around the bar. Thankfully, while people were glaring, they seemed to be directed at the Specialist rather than me. Maybe it was because I wasn’t the one ragging on British. Or maybe it was just because they all knew better than to get on the bad side of a liquored-up Guardian. Whatever.

“A lot of people around here liked the General,” I added, standing up, picking up my staff from where I’d propped it against the wall behind me. In fairness to the Specialist, it had been collapsed – so he probably hadn’t seen it. “He was great at inspiring loyalty. Getting people to fight to the death for his cause.” I tapped him on the shoulder with my staff – just lightly, but enough to be threatening. “You know what I mean?”

To his credit, the guy didn’t even flinch. He just shrugged, before taking swig of his beer – and then ignored me.

I decided this was probably for the best, and headed out of the tavern before anyone else could get on my nerves.

But this was all over three months ago, now. So, whatever.

***

I never felt much at home on Earth.

Okay, so it was where I was born, and where I grew up, and where I went to school and college and had my first kiss and killed my first Thrax soldier (I grew up in the country; my parents moved to the city when I was about 10, but my skill with a shotgun never left me), but I never… oh, this sounds so sappy, but I never really fell in love with a place as much as when I ended up in the desert on Arieki.

It was strangely beautiful; the air and ground were thick with ash so white that it almost looked like snow. If you looked closely, you could sometimes see hot ashes floating down from the sky; invariably cool by the time they reached the ground, but still blowing around on the gentle breeze like red fireflies.

I don’t know. It’s hard to describe. But that desert became my home.

So when the word came through of a final Bane offensive, I knew where I was going to be defending.

Some of the soldiers I’d served with announced they were taking the fight to Earth.

I’d seen Earth.

A wormhole had been constructed near Twin Pillars; I’d ventured through it, briefly. The place was a wreck. NYC – a place I’d never managed to go before the invasion – was a smoking, Bane-infested ruin. It had a strange sort of sentimental value, I suppose, and there were reports of civilians – hell, Receptives – still trapped there. But taking the planet back? It was a pipe dream, at best. Besides, we’d already proved once that we couldn’t defend our ancestral home. Why die trying again to reprove that point?

<White Oasis clear!>

<Hostiles at Shadow’s Edge. Engaging!>

I smiled a little as those words came over the radio, reloading my chaingun and wondering if this really was it. The radio was non-stop, tonight; the general channels for troops were noisy enough as it was, but everyone was tense, and emotions were running high. High Command had been unavailable, so a few lucky souls had found themselves volunteered to give status reports on the major places and bases.

I wasn’t in the Oasis base; instead, I and a few other brave souls had camped out in the Control Point near the Bane garrison. High Command had sent a briefing out stating that keeping the Control Points was vital, so… we were going to keep the damn Control Points. I was sat near the waypoint, making sure my weapons were ready for when Crusty showed up when a message came through that made me feel a little sick.

<MIRES IS LOST. REPEAT MIRES IS LO->

My stomach turned a knot at those words – and the way they cut off half way through. The Specialist kid in Baylor Base suddenly leapt into my mind, unbidden; I wondered if he was okay, if he’d been there. There were always ways out; dropships, teleports, waypoints – but if the Bane shot down a ship, or blew up a waypoint, or-

I stopped that thought where it was, painfully aware that in order to stay alive in a place like this you need to be able to focus, and not drift away on your thoughts every five minutes.

“Ma’am?”

I glanced up, a little grateful for the interruption for my thoughts. The speaker was a shock trooper; not much younger than me, but by the look of him, not as experienced. Probably looking for a comforting word or two, and since I was the closest thing we had out here to a veteran, he’d come to me. That, I reflected, and the fact that I was the only Receptive who’d shown up to this little party. Most of them had gone straight to Earth, leaving the regular troops stuck out on their own. Poor bastards.

I frowned, a little. “What is it, soldier?”

He shrugged. “I just wanted to say that it’s been an honour serving with you, ma’am. Me, and the other guys, well, we’re just all grateful you’re here with us. And, if the worst happens-”

“That’s enough, soldier!” I snapped, realising that what he needed right now was a little backbone, even if I did come off as a bitch. “The only ones going to die here today are Bane, you got that?”

He looked at me – stunned, for a moment. Some people never get entirely used to women who don’t baby them, and I think this guy was one of them. After that moment, however, he smiled a little – nervously, but smiling all the same. “Yes, ma’am.”

I smiled a little as well, trying not to let my own nerves show through. “Glad to hear that, soldier.” I stood up, wondering what the hell was taking Crusty so long to get here. Naturally, this was immediately answered by the perimeter alarms sounding.

The fight was… interesting. I’ve seen firsthand the insides of more Thrax than I care to remember, but the carnage there was something else. Even our insignificant little corner of the planet warranted elite Bane troops storming the place, streaming out of the garrison and directly at our forcefields.

<How the f******* hell did we not know about this? F****** intel!>

The medic at the garrison outpost had never quite gotten the hang of curbing his language, and went down effing and blinding to the very last – hurling epithets at what somebody later informed me was a Ravager drone. I like to imagine that he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

We were overwhelmed. There is no other way to describe it. And no excuse for what happened. This was not a failure of intel. Or of High Command. Or, I’d at least like to think, us.

Giving the order to fall back was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. We retreated through the waypoint – I was the last one through, and the medic was the only one we left behind. He was already dead when I gave the command, and most of the others weren’t far off. I had to all but carry one of them into the Shadow’s Edge infirmary – the trooper who’d spoken to me earlier, as it happened – cursing silently, all while trying desperately to figure out what to do next.

If we can get this place secure, I found myself thinking, We can launch an offensive at the Oasis and re-secure it, then use it as a base for a two-pronged attack to regain the Control Point at the Garrison…

I know, I know. I was desperate. But it still came as a shock when not five minutes later the base commander declared the desert a loss, and gave the order to move out.

I don’t know. I just felt something inside me… break, when we gave up that little corner of Arieki. Yes, it was a hellhole, but it was our hellhole. And, okay, the Brann’s.

(Which reminds me: Where the hell were the Brann and Foreans in all of this? Yeah, there were AFS troops who had been augmented with Brann and Forean DNA – hell, I even ran across some poor sod who had more than a bit of Thrax in him – but seriously? Our greatest time of need and our allies go… where?)

I’ve never seen the dropships leave so fast. Or filled with so many people – many of them, terrified civilians. Some of them knew me, and from the looks on their faces I guessed they were a little relieved to see something familiar in all this mess. Most of them, however, just saw someone who looked like they’d been wading waist-deep in alien guts – and had a predictably negative reaction.

I didn’t know where we were going, however, and didn’t like being in the dark about it one bit – so I forced my way forwards through the ship, demanding a quick word with the pilot – which, to my surprise, I actually got.

“Where are we going?”

The pilot glanced back and saw me, muttered something I guessed wasn’t too complimentary under his breath, and called back “Cellar!”

It took me a moment to figure out what he meant. The CELLAR was an underground boxing arena the AFS had constructed a few months back, to help recruits blow off steam. Personally, if they had steam to blow off, I would’ve given them a gun and pointed them in the direction of Crusty – but that could just be me.

The look on my face must’ve said everything, because the pilot just laughed.

“Orders from High Command, darlin’. So why don’t you just sit your sweet ass down and enjoy the flight?”

I did, momentarily, consider punching him, but I remembered that I didn’t know how to fly a dropship. Besides, there would be plenty of time for that sort of thing once we got to the CELLAR.

***

To say that the atmosphere in the CELLAR was depressing was a massive understatement.

We were losing territory left, right, and centre. Most of the teleports to the bases were offline, which could only mean one thing – they had been abandoned to Crusty. A makeshift medical wing had been set up, and was full of soldiers – Receptives and non-Receptives alike – who had been badly wounded in the fighting. Medical supplies were low, and morale was ever lower.

To top it off, High Command had been completely cut off. We were completely on our own.

“Wormhole’s up ahead, ma’am!”

A young Corman woman was directing new arrivals to the CELLAR to where they needed to be – and it was her that had shouted across to me about the wormhole.

Wormhole? Here?

I turned to ask her what she was talking about, but she was already diverting her attention to the other incoming troops. My own attention was also immediately diverted, by a sickeningly familiar voice shouting at me.

“Why, Miss Plen! It’s been a while!”

I recognised him immediately. Spence, his name was. A Penumbra operative. Fantastic.

“Nice to see you again, Plen,” he said, smiling that sick, arrogant smile of his.

I glowered at him. “What the hell are you doing here, Spence?”

He laughed, shrugging in that irritatingly cocky manner of his. “Same thing as you. Following orders.”

I snorted. “Really. And what would those be?”

Spence grinned, ear to ear, and I swear to God all I wanted to do right then was punch that bastard right on his bloody nose. “Classified, my sweet, classified. But, uh, hey! If you survive this, maybe we could go out for drink or two – just you and me?”

I stared at him for a moment in sheer disbelief, before turning around and continuing onwards. Whatever Penumbra was up to was always bad news, and I for one wanted no part of it.

The boxing arena of the CELLAR was empty, save for people passing through it, towards the sliding door at the end – which lead to the most unexpected staging area I’ve ever seen.

It was a large room, its decor much the same as the rest of the CELLAR – that is to say, nonexistent – with several supply officers standing around handing out equipment, a bunch of lockers lined up against the walls, and a wormhole in the centre of it.

Yes, a wormhole. This, I had not been expecting. Was this something Penumbra had cooked up? Or had High Command actually done something useful for a change?

“Hey, Hattie!”

One of the soldiers who had been hanging around the supply officers noticed me, and called out my name – which irritated me, as not many people knew my name, and fewer still had any right to shorten it.

I looked around, spotting the offender quickly, as she was heading straight towards me – though the voice seemed familiar, I did not immediately recognise her- possibly because she was in full Reflective armour, including a helmet which covered her entire head. She removed it as she walked over, however – revealing the first face I’d actually been glad to see in what felt like an age.

“Lisa! Nice helmet hair!” I said, forcing a smile. She was a Commando I’d helped out a few weeks earlier against a few angry Thrax. She was a fellow Receptive, and had been Logos hunting when she’d been jumped by a handful of highly-trained Bane troops. Any Guardian or Grenadier would have made short work of them, but Lisa simply hadn’t had the experience to handle them by herself. She’d said to me afterwards that she was amazed by my skills, and wanted to follow in my footsteps… but she then also spent several hours talking about her awesome new grenade launcher, at which point I suggested that she’d probably be happier training as a Grenadier. She’d simply shrugged and said she’d probably end up cloning herself so she could go down both paths, to which there was not an awful lot I could respond with.

“Thank you, as always, Hattie. Listen, have you been assigned to a squad already? We’ve got a free spot, if you’re interested…?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Lise, I only just got here. What’s going on?”

Lisa looked surprised. “You mean you haven’t been briefed? But-”

“Lise,” I said, interrupting her, “Command’s gone down, and everyone’s panicking. What’s going on? What’re our orders?”

“Retake Earth.”

I almost laughed. Retake Earth, oh, that’s hilarious. No, seriously, what are we supposed to do here?

“Are you serious?” I said, staring in disbelief.

Lisa just shrugged. “Those’re the orders. You coming or not?”

I shrugged. At this point, there wasn’t an awful lot to lose. And everything, as they say, to gain.

“I’m in.”

***

My first impression of Bane-conquered Earth, all those months ago when I had first stepped through that wormhole in Twin Pillars, was that it was a Bane-infested hellhole that needed to be nuked from space. And, you know what? Going through that wormhole brought me to a Bane-infested hellhole that needed to be nuked from space.

(Actually, thinking back on it, an Eloh once showed me a vision of Alia Das conquered by Bane – and that, once again, was a hellhole that needed to be nuked from space. I guess the conclusion we can draw here is that the Bane need to be nuked from space).

Lisa and I, I am sorry to say, were separated shortly after. Several Control Points had been identified in the area of New York City; Lisa’s squad, which as it emerged did not have an extra spot, went for one. I ended up in the reject pile who were going after another.

We had ended up in, once again, New York City – not far, as it happened, from the Empire State Bulding. My newly acquired squad were… enthusiastic, to say the least. Most of them were Receptives, albeit inexperienced ones. Most of them had fled the fighting from places like the Palisades – they had their heads around the theory, but weren’t always too hot on the practise. In truth, I felt more nervous about leading them than if I’d had a full squad of hardened vets at my command; all I could do was think of was the death of that foul-mouthed medic in the desert, and make a quiet vow not to let anyone else down on my watch.

“Hey, guys, check your maps! The CP’s not far from here!”

This came from one of the more excitable members of the group – a Soldier, fresh from Alia Das. I made a very strong mental note to keep him out of combat at all costs.

He was right, though. The Control Point wasn’t far – and it was Bane controlled, to boot. There was also an AFS outpost not far from here, named “Lexington” – approximately halfway between the Control Point and us, as it happened.

“Alright,” I heard myself saying, “We’re going directly for Lexington, to reinforce their position. Once we’ve got things under control, we’ll see about that Eloh artefact. Got it?”

There were, blissfully, no objections.

There was, naturally, resistance from the local Bane; not much at first, suggesting we’d caught then by surprise, but they quickly called in reinforcements. Those in the squad who were inexperienced learned quickly from the fighting, and by the time we reached the nearby AFS outpost, most of them had proven they were competent soldiers. A couple of them needed patching up, however; most notably, an Engineer who spent the last leg of the journey being given a piggyback by yours truly.

The Medic at Lexington was surprisingly cheerful, given the environment he was stuck in, and oddly familiar to me. It took several moments before I realised who he was, however.

“You!” I managed, gaping a little. “You’re the guy from Baylor, right? From the bar, who…”

I stopped short, not sure I wanted the rest of my squad to know this guy’s opinion on General British.

He laughed. “Hey, there… Hatzaana, right? It’s been a while.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t remember telling you my name.”

He shrugged. “The bartender told me, after you left. Also warned me not to talk about the General like that in public. But, for what it’s worth, I still think British is a jackass.”

I sighed. “Whatever. Look, who’s in charge here?”

He glanced around. “Nobody. It was General Murphy, but…” he trailed off, gesturing towards an unconscious man on one of the medical beds. “We’re just trying to stay alive, out here.” He looked up at me, meaningfully. “Not all of us Receptives get to run around playing hero, y’know.”

I glowered at him, but said nothing in response to that – partially because there wasn’t a lot that I could say, and partially because a shout had come from out front that the Bane were attacking our position.

Lexington was, to be blunt, in extremely bad shape. It had, from the look of it, been cobbled together to start with – and had taken severe beatings from the local hostiles. The cannons were pretty much shot, the walls had been replaced entirely by sandbags, and there was hardly enough ammo to go round. We – that is, my squad and I – gave them what little we could spare to defend themselves, and did our best to take out the attackers.

Fortunately, the local Bane were not only not all that powerful, they were also extremely arrogant. I guess that’s what comes from wailing on people with only a fraction of your combat prowess – you think you really are the best thing since sliced bread. And then when you meet a Guardian who’s gone toe to toe with some of the nastiest mofos your pathetic little army can muster, you get your ass kicked. It’s almost karmic.

We actually ended up chasing them halfway to the Control Point, before giving up – getting the Bane on the defensive? Good. Chasing the Bane into a trap? Bad. I’ve seen the results of that, and it’s never pretty. We must’ve scared them good, though, because not once did they come after us once we turned back. The excitable Soldier wanted to carry on; fortunately, our resident Sniper talked some sense into him as we headed back.

By the time we got back to Lexington, our Engineer was back on her feet, and was amusing herself working on the cannons. I decided it was probably safer for all involved if she continued on this project – she needed time to recover from her injuries, and leaping back into the fray wasn’t going to be of any help. Besides, Lexington needed the help. I also somehow managed to persuade the Soldier that helping Lexington out with defence would be much better for him than, say, getting himself killed needlessly at the CP.

“What? You’re still going for the Control Point?”

Our resident sniper didn’t seem overly keen on this action.

“Unless you have any better ideas…?” I said, glaring at him.

“Who died and made you boss?” grumbled one of my other squad members – an Exobiologist, as it happened.

“Too many people have already died today,” I snapped, “We’re going to make Crusty pay, and we’re going to start with that CP. Any objections?”

Which is sort of how I ended up leading the charge to the Control Point.

We went in slowly, picking off the patrols furthest from the Eloh artefact, and working our way in. We’d picked up a couple of troops from Lexington – one shock trooper, and a Grenadier who had a slightly disturbing fascination with setting things on fire. The latter proved extremely useful, however; Thrax are not the brightest things in the universe, but even they manage to figure out eventually that standing in the path of a flamethrower will make you flamey, and fire bad. Those that were dumb enough not to keep their distance got char-grilled, and those who had a few more IQ points to their name got taken out with the more conventional weapons the rest of us were carrying.

…Look, it worked, okay?

Getting to the CP itself was, if you ignore the hostiles in the area, fairly straightforward. At least, it was compared to what we found there.

“Oh, HELL no!”

This came from the Spy, whose primary objection to the above flamethrower tactic was that she hadn’t been able to get up close and personal with a Caretaker. And, well, nobody really needed to ask what she was complaining about. We could all see it, clear as day.

A wormhole.

I’d heard rumours that the Bane had been researching Wormhole technology for some time. Whispers in the corridors, mostly; tales from rescued PoWs about strange experiments and weird Teleporters. Things finally came to a head when a small AFS squad had infiltrated the Maligo facility on Foreas Plateau, only to find a wormhole in the final stages of testing. The thing had been shut down – score one for the AFS PR division – but apparently Maligo hadn’t been their only facility.

“Great,” I muttered, “That’s fantastic.”

The Grenadier loved it. I didn’t catch exactly what he was so excited about, but I think the gist of it was that he wanted to blow something up and that something was to be the Bane wormhole.

In truth, this was not a plan I had objections to. We needed to capture that Control Point, and we needed to cut off Bane reinforcements. Getting rid of their wormhole here wouldn’t stop them entirely – they still had dropships, after all – but it would be a major blow.

“Okay,” I started to say, “Here’s what we do-”

“Psst!”

I stopped, mid sentence, trying to locate the sound of the psst – pretty sure it wasn’t any of my squad. The source of it was quickly found by the Spy – an AFS medic, hiding out behind some collapsed rubble. Not a big-M Receptive Medic, but a little-m field medic. Still, a friendly face is a friendly face.

“Not too many humans out here,” said the Sniper pointedly, apparently suspicious of the man. Glaring at him, he added, “What’re you doing?”

The medic shrugged, a little helplessly. “Got cut off from my squad, by patrolling Bane. Hid in here… they were heading to Lexington. Been stuck here. Got medical supplies, though. Um…” he glanced around, nervously. “Don’t suppose you want to escort me back?”

“Why didn’t you radio Lexington for help?” the Sniper retorted, not buying any of this.

The medic threw me an appealing look, not liking this line of questioning. I just shrugged. It was a reasonable question. We had no reason to suspect the Bane had cracked our radio channels, and the Medic back at Lexington hadn’t mentioned anything about missing staff. Then again, I reflected, they probably assumed he was dead, if he was cut off from his squad…

“Wait.”

This came from the Spy, who had pushed herself past the Sniper and myself, and was getting up close and personal with the medic, who sprang back from her with a look of clear alarm on his face.

“What? What? Get away from me!” he cried, squealing a little.

“Hold still, you big baby,” she said, “This won’t take a moment.”

She grabbed him, by the shoulders – he tried to wriggle free, bless him, but just didn’t have the strength – and pulled him in close, sniffing him thoroughly for few moments, before releasing him – pushing him back a little, in the process.

“He’s okay,” she said, firmly, “He’s human. And… needs a shower.”

“You’re a fine one to talk!” the medic managed, apparently trying to salvage some of his dignity.

“I could have told you that,” muttered the Exobiologist, a veritable ray of sunshine in our happy little band. “There was no need for that freakshow.”

“Stop, it all of you!” I snapped. Yes, it was necessary. Remember the part where I mentioned that not all of these kids had a lot of battlefield experience?

Boy, was it ever showing right about now.

“We are not going to be escorting you to Lexington,” I said, fixing the medic with a stare. “Not yet.”

He looked momentarily terrified. “Then what-?”

And then, when he figured it out, “But you can’t!”

And then, when he took that figuring out and got his role in it all wrong, “But I’m not like you Receptives! I can’t fight!”

“You don’t have to fight,” I said, “You just have to sit tight until we get that wormhole down and the point captured. We’ll radio Lexington and let them know the position is secure, and then we can get them to pick you up.”

He didn’t seem thrilled at this plan, but in truth I wasn’t about to give him a lot of choice. The longer we delayed, the more Bane would come through that wormhole, and the more good people would die at their hands.

“You’ll never be able to do it,” he whined, “They call for reinforcements the moment they seen a human in the area, and with that wormhole-”

“You just let me worry about that.” I snapped. And then, to my squad, “Alright, people. We’re moving out. Any objections?”

There were, thankfully, none.

***

The Control Point itself looked like it had been dug out of the ground, very possibly by the Bane themselves. There was a break in the road – a literal break, where the tarmac stopped and had in places been broken and thrown upwards by the unnatural red growths that seemed to infect the land wherever the Bane set up shop. The Point itself lay between us and the wormhole, and there didn’t seem to be any way around, so a full-frontal assault it was going to have to be.

Oh, and the Bane likely knew this and had in fact planned it all along. Bastards.

“Leave this one up to me!”

Our Spy was… a little too bouncy. She had something up her sleeve, and we knew it.

“What,” I said, sourly, “Are you intending to do?”

“You guys make a distraction. Pull a patrol or something, I don’t know, but make it big. I’ll polymorph, sneak in, wormhole goes boom. We kill the bastards and get us a CP.”

Well, it was as good a plan as any. The only objection came from our Grenadier, who wanted to be the one to blow up the wormhole – which, I will be honest, really needs no further comment.

I would also like to just add to the record that I have seen some pretty disgusting things in my life (Bane experimentation on prisoners? Thrax hybrids? Naked Thrax hybrids?), but a human being polymorphing into a Bane soldier had got to be one of the worst.

The plan went surprisingly smoothly; it was not an easy fight, especially since we were down one soldier at the start, and none of us expected the Bane to react quite as badly as they did when the power couplings for their wormhole met an untimely demise, but we pushed forward, taking injuries in our stride and focusing only on one thing – the Eloh statue that formed the centrepiece of the Control Point. Before I knew, I found myself in front of that statue – glowing red under the influence of the Neph, captured by the Bane, forced into alliance with everything that was wrong with the world – and I found it suddenly so much easier to breathe deeply, to lose all focus on the battle raging around me and lose myself in the ancient stonework in front of me, and for a moment – just a moment, which lasted forever and not nearly long enough I could see what this place had been before the Bane – before humans, even, how it had been when the Eloh had seen this place themselves, aeons past…

…And with a jolt I came crashing back down to Earth as the red lights that danced around the Eloh statues turned to blue and the Bane screamed with rage and without even know what I was doing I had struck my first out, looking at it curiously when it met resistance and a little surprised when I discovered its new location inside a crushed Thrax skull.

Interacting with Eloh artefacts does really strange things to your head. I strongly recommend against it.

The few Bane that were left were mopped up quickly – at least, the ones who didn’t try and flee, towards (of all places) Lexington. I could only think of their recently repaired cannons, and smile.

Lexington radioed us not long after, congratulating us on our success. We warned them about the Bane (AFS cannons 1, cowardly Thrax nil), and told them about the field medic. They were surprised – and grateful – to hear he was still alive, though curious as to why he hadn’t contacted them himself. I wished Lexington better luck in solving that mystery than I’d had.

We also announced our little victory on the radio. Because tactical updates are important in a battle situation. And morale boosts. And, okay, we were showing off. The area was secure! We’d disabled and captured a Bane wormhole! In short, we were awesome.

And… then we were advised that our radio systems had been hacked.

Advised by a Neph, that is.

<Humans! I speak to you on this channel to accept your surrender. Surely, it is only sensible for you to put down your arms. Our forces are winning the day. Only a few of your outposts remain. Can you not see what is inevitable? That which is OUR destiny? Your resistance is foolish. We shall emerge victorious.>

There was a horrible silence – followed by an almost inhuman cry of rage. It seemed like every AFS member listening in screamed in unison – hurling insults at the Neph who had broken into our radio system, shouting war cries, calling out for Bane blood, cursing black and blue and defiling every tongue known to man, Brann, Forean and Thrax, defiant and angry and the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.

It was madness. There is no other way to describe it. Almost immediately, the Bane once again assaulted our positions – all of them. In the Control Point we had captured, they began to teleport in from Dropships, more numerous than we could ever have imagined. My squad and I were driven back, holing ourselves up near the field medic as we tried to fight off the waves of Bane – who this time were accompanied by a Neph, as well as the biggest Strider I have ever seen (though what mostly concerned us was the Neph).

The Bane, for their part, seemed content to turf us out of the Control Point – once we were whatever they considered an acceptable distance from the artefact at its centre, they just left us alone. The Neph, from what we could tell, didn’t look entirely pleased about this, but at the same time didn’t look like it was about to come party with us on its own (instead it sent the Strider after us, which promptly pinned us down near the field medic. Not my finest moment, in truth).

The Strider itself, size aside, wasn’t too much of a problem to take out – a machine is a machine, and pretty much all machines are vulnerable to EMP fire. It went down with a hell of a bang, and, once it had stopped moving, our resident Spy began hacking with her blade at what she assured us was one of the thing’s testicles.

(“It’s a machine,” the shock trooper could be heard saying to her, “It doesn’t have balls.”

“Don’t be so silly,” she said, cheerfully hacking away at the thing, “It’s more like a machina than a machine. And a girl’s gotta have her trophies!”)

Trying my best to ignore this line of conversation, I ventured outside – taking the Sniper with me.

“I need to know what’s going on down there,” I said, gesturing down towards the Control Point – and the wormhole that lead beyond it. “And you’ve got the perfect way to find out,” I finished, gesturing towards his rifle and its scope.

He raised an eyebrow, flattered but unconvinced. “What about her?” he said, glancing over towards the Spy.

I gave him a dour look, but said nothing.

“Fine,” he said, “But I’ll need protection.”

Protection came in the form of me, and the shock trooper – who in truth, I think, was glad to be away from the Strider-mutilating spy. There were a couple of Bane patrolling; nothing the pair of us couldn’t handle, but we didn’t take any longer out there than we had to, heading back to our temporary base as soon as we could.

“Alright,” I heard myself saying, “We’re going to retake the Control Point.”

The Sniper stared at me like I’d gone mad.

“We are not,” I said, fiercely, “Giving this planet up. I am going back in, and anyone who actually cares about the future of humanity is coming with me.”

The shock trooper shrugged. “I’m in. If I’m going to die, I’d rather go down fighting.”

“Whatever,” muttered the Exo, “But if you get killed, don’t come running to me for sympathy.”

“Awesome!” said the Spy, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. “I wonder what Neph look like under those robes?”

“Enough of that,” I snapped, not in the mood for the mental pictures that forced on me. “Let’s move out, people!”

We were a little bolder in our advance this time – maybe we were desperate. Maybe we were more confident. Maybe we were just running on adrenaline and anger from having our radio hacked into by a damn Neph. Whatever it was, though, it was gold – the Bane could barely touch us.

The distraction my comrades provided proved vital, and I was able to slip past the fighting and back to the Control Point. The hardest part was over and I tried to relax myself mentally, focusing on the Eloh artefact in front of me, trying to attune myself to it and free it from Bane control – when I was barrelled in to by a huge Howler beast, who knocked me flying from where I was in front of the statue. I screamed with rage, throwing the damn thing off me and beating it about the head with my chaingun, and as the thing stopped moving the sky flashed a brilliant, clear blue colour and looking up I saw that the sniper had retaken the Control Point. Next him, crumpled on the floor, was the remains of a dead Neph.

I laughed. And I cried. And… I may have hugged him.

And, yes, we taunted the other Neph over the radio. Hey, we killed a damn Neph.

Besides, tactical updates and morale boosts! And, yes, taunting the Neph.

There were still Bane around to mop up, of course. Not all of the squads were so lucky – some of them got backup in time. Some of them… didn’t. But when the dust settled most of us were still alive and that, I suppose, was the main thing.

***

Once we’d secured the rest of the Control Points in the area, and mopped up the remaining Bane operations, I went back to the desert – at least, at first. It was inevitable, really. The foul-mouthed medic’s remains were long gone, but I tracked down the other survivors from the Garrison Control Point and we had a small memorial service – and killed a good few Bane in his memory, cursing at every last one of them.

Lisa had, thankfully, survived the battle on Earth – and I met them some time later, when we were regrouping back in Alia Das.

Yes, I said them. She had, indeed, cloned herself once she’d returned from Earth – one of them was a Guardian, and one of them was a Grenadier. Both of them were thoroughly convinced they were the original Lisa, and they spent the entire conversation either finishing each other’s sentences or speaking in unison. It was unnerving, to say the least. I last heard they were heading off to Mycon together, to explore the strange new frontier – and, okay, kill a few Bane along the way.

Spence, I heard neither hide nor hair from – which in truth I was grateful for. It probably meant that he’d either been eaten by a Howler, or that Penumbra’s little scheme – whatever that was – had failed miserably, and he was… missing, presumed stupid. I’ve never quite managed to figure out which scenario I prefer.

General British… nobody has heard from to this day. There’s always speculation and rumour, and… while I will concede his disappearance was abrupt, there’s no denying what he did for us, at least in the start. For the AFS, for humanity. For everyone. I’d like to see him again, some day. Buy the man a beer and demand with menaces to know what the hell he was thinking when he took off like that. Something like that, anyway.

The Medic from Baylor’s – and, later, Lexington – asked me out for drinks yesterday. I pointed out that as a senior AFS officer, I should probably not be out drinking while I’m supposed to be on duty. Naturally, he showed up in my office with six bottles of beer, a smile, and not a lot else (I am expecting a blackmail note from Penumbra any day now).

He asked me if I thought we really had a chance of taking back Earth completely – of driving the Bane back, of breaking the Neph and saving the universe and getting some answers out of British and all the rest of that crap.

I didn’t have answer to that, in truth. All I could say is that we would try, dammit. We’d already driven them out of part of our home planet, and we’d already proven that Neph could be killed. It was just a matter of time.

“But what then?” he said, looking at me, entirely serious.

I shrugged. “Then… then, I guess we get a fresh start. A clean slate.”

Here is a recap of the Final TR Event from the perspective of my main, Sebastian Bennet. I’ve added in a bit to close out the Agenda story and have taken some creative license with some of the events that happened during the event to make them fit the narrative a bit better.

Note: Pics will be added later to go with the story.

This is just a thread to discuss the current RP Event presented by PTR: "United/Divided".

Here is a recap of the first two chapters and information on the upcoming third chapter.
Warning: Wall of Text - Incoming:

Chapter One: The WARD

During the Bane attack on Irendas, a seemingly benign power station was heavily damaged. It was through the investigations of then Lieutenant Clayton Durall that it was revealed that the damaged power station was routing power from the Irendas Penal Colony to an underground facility beneath the unused Abyssal Zone CP nearby. Following Clayton’s capture by Penumbra forces due to the unauthorized "research" he had been conducting on the facility, a message was passed on from a Sgt. Andrews (a friend of Claytons) who directed other soldiers to find Colonel Eichardt. Solder Sergei Metrovich met with the Colonel at the Pitchfork tavern in Abyss where he learned that the facility beneath Abyssal Zone was a prison called The WARD (Westfield Advanced Receptive Detention) that housed the eight surviving members of an early AFS project. The inmates were all logos receptives discovered in a super max prison facility during the evacuation of Earth.

Realizing the danger should the security systems of The WARD fail due to a loss of power, a group of soldiers led by General David Mellton gathered in Irendas to drive Bane forces out of compromised section of the base to allow repair teams the time they needed to get the power system fully operational. Unfortunately, as the defending soldiers cleared the remaining Bane forces out of the base an emergency message advised that the security systems of The WARD had failed and that the inmates had escaped.

Following a sweep that spread across continents on both Foreas and Irendas, AFS Soldier Couture deduced that the escaped inmates were being spotted in areas where logos could be found to unlock the Temporal Chamber in Plateau. With a dawning sense of dread, General Mellton and the AFS defenders converged on Plateau to meet the threat head on. Fortunately they were able to stop six of the eight inmates before they could do any real damage but inmates Heally and Abrhamson managed to escape capture.

Chapter Two: Target One

Weeks passed. Thanks to the skill he displayed in information gathering as well as the fact that his message relay had rallied a number of soldiers to the cause of preventing an escape at The WARD, Lieutenant Durall was promoted to Captain and placed in charge of an AFS/Penumbra task force meant to locate and capture the two surviving inmates. It was during this time that a number of disturbing reports came in to Durall. Over a dozen soldiers had been reported MIA. The investigation revealed that they were all last seen entering waypoints to travel to another location but they never arrived. Some time later the missing soldiers were found dead in various locations far removed from their intended destinations.

Durall also reported that a number of attempts had been made by outside sources to gain access to the Penumbra database. Just days ago this "digital attacker" managed to gain access to the database and in a matter of only four minutes they managed to activate Operation: Checkmate. Checkmate is an emergency protocol that is activated in the event that a high ranking AFS Officer goes rogue and needs to be taken out. The soldiers for this mission are picked at random from a field of numerous Penumbra "sleeper" agents. Their identities kept hidden from everyone, even The Director himself, their primary task is to locate and eliminate their target; designated Target One.

Much to the dismay of AFS soldiers following Duralls reports, Target One was listed as General David Mellton. General Mellton was immediately placed in protective custody and kept in an undisclosed location. Unfortunately, due to the high security clearance of the Checkmate operatives, there were very few placed the General could be hidden and moving him would be dangerous due to the waypoint murders. The original plan was to move the General via a Penumbra drop ship pick up in Foreas Base but the sighting of an unusual group of soldiers around the drop ship pad in Foreas Base led The Director to believe that that location had been compromised. A new plan was formulated to have soldiers escort the General to Palisades where a secure Penumbra drop ship was waiting. Besides the threat of the Checkmate operatives, scans reported an increased Bane presence in Divide which would make the job of the escort team that much more difficult.

Setting out from Foreas Base, General Mellton and his escorts were immediately set upon by high level Bane soldiers. Fortunately the General and his protectors were prepared and made short work of their attackers. Following a short stop in Foxtrot Outpost to check in with the base commander there who would relay the Generals progress to The Director the General and his team made for Delta Outpost. It was on the way there that they met the Checkmate squad. Already weakened by the loss of their teammates designated Queen and Pawn, the remaining Checkmate soldiers demanded the surrender of the General. Knowing that the Checkmate soldiers were working under false orders and having little choice The General and his defenders quickly engaged their attackers but it wasn’t long before both teams were attacked by Bane soldiers they had never seen before.

It was later reported that these were the Bane soldiers we had been hearing about from soldiers returning from Earth. These EPIC Bane (Enhanced. Primary. Invasion. Conscript) were double tough and it took the combined might of both the General and his soldiers as well as the Checkmate squad to take them down. During the fighting however, Durall sent out an emergency relay. Foreas Base was under attack and WARD Escapees Heally & Abrhamson were leading the charge and calling for the abduction of the children within the base. Mellton immediately ordered his defenders to return to Foreas Base to help stop the Bane attack and it wasn’t long before the Checkmate squad arrived there to lend a hand.

The fighting at Foreas Base was furious as Bane troops advanced on the smaller fighting force of AFS soldiers who refused to go down and took out numerous Bane aggressors as they poured through the gates of Foreas Base. It was during the fighting that General Mellton appeared in Foreas Base and killed the leader of the Checkmate squad, codenamed: King. Mellton then approached Heally & Abrhamson but instead of engaging him, the escapees saluted him and addressed him as "sir". The gathered AFS soldiers watched in terror and disgust as the trio walked casually through Foreas Base toward the drop ship.

When confronted by the soldiers of the AFS the General boasted that he had been the one that called in the Bane attack on Irendas, he had told them where to attack in order to weaken the security of The WARD. The escape of the inmates had been his intention all along. He revealed that it was he who had accessed the Penumbra database and activated the Checkmate protocol, that he had purposely set himself as the target, all to draw the focus away from Foreas Base so Heally & Abrhamson could lead their assault and escape with the children of the AFS in tow.

When asked why he would do these things, General Mellton revealed that since his evacuation from Earth he had been haunted by the screams of his wife and child as he was forcibly evacuated from Earth while they were left behind. He was taken because he was receptive. They, unfortunately, were not. For years he had blamed the AFS for the deaths of his family and for countless others as they had run out on Earth to start a war a galaxy away. Before leaving on the drop ship from Foreas Base (scans run by Captain Durall indicate that Mellton, Heally & Abrhamson were pulled out of the AFS Teleportation Buffer by an external force indicating they were behind the waypoint murders as well) General Mellton stated that before all was said and done, the AFS would bow to The Agenda.

Following the fighting at Foreas Base, General Mellton accessed Captain Duralls open relay channel and again expressed his reasons for forging an alliance with The Neph and the purpose behind this new group he calls The Agenda. He also extended an offer to other human soldiers to join the Agenda.

Chapter Three: The Agenda

Chapter Three will be taking place in January and will be a full on war just like the Server vs. Server wars we have hosted in the past but this time it will be The Agenda vs. The AFS! This is where you, the community, will begin to influence the outcome of this story. Will the AFS be triumphant against The Agenda? What happens if The Agenda wins? More importantly…who will join The Agenda? This event is presently still in the planning stages. Keep your eyes open for more information and watch Captain Durall’s thread…there will be some mini-events between now and Chapter Three.
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At the moment there is a chance that there will be a fourth chapter added to this event series to take place in Februray. More on this as it develops.

No, this is not a Trading card game. This is a real card game I am working that can be injected into RPing events. It is a combination of Gin Rummy and Poker. I’m still working on the rules, so there will be some changes here and there based on feedback Oh, and if you have suggestions for names, let’s hear them. So far, I have Forean Peaknuckle as the name. I know someone can do better.

RULES:

Players: 2 to 4

Deck:

Standard deck of 52 cards. Valid cards are 2-10, J, Q, K, A. Aces can be played low or high.

Dealing:

Dealership alternates from round to round (the dealer to the first round is usually determined by cutting the deck; low card deals). The dealer deals a 7-card hand to his opponents and himself. After the hands are dealt, the upcard, is placed face-up in a central location known as the discard pile (some AFS Troops call this the lockbox). The remainder of the pack, placed face down next to the discard pile, is called the stock pile.

The player to the right of the dealer has the option of taking the upcard and playing first. If the player does not want the card, play proceeds with the non-dealing player taking a card from the stock pile.

Object:
The basic game strategy is to improve one’s hand by forming melds and eliminating deadwood. Six types of meld exist:

1. Sets of 3 or 4 cards sharing the same rank. For example, 8♥-8♣-8♠.
2. Runs of 3 or 4 cards in sequence, of the same suit. For example, 3♥-4♥-5♥-6♥.
3. Straights of 5 cards in sequence. For example: 3♠-4♥-5♠-6♥-7♣.
4. Flushes of 5 cards, of the same suit. For example: 3♥-4♥-5♥-6♥-7♥
5. Royal Flush of cards, of the same suit and must be the following: 10, J, Q, K, A.
6. Full House, a set of two and a set of three. For example: 3♥-3♣ and 8♥-8♣-8♠. This is the only meld that is allowed to have a pair.

A player’s "deadwood" cards are those not in any meld. His deadwood count is the sum of the point values of the deadwood cards— aces are scored at 15 points, face cards at 10, and 2-10 are worth 5 points.
Flushes and Straights are worth 20 points, a full house is 25 points and a royal flush is worth 30 points. To get the final score for the round the player totals the value of the melds the player has placed on the table and subtracts that by the total deadwood value.

Betting: At the start of each round, each player places a bet on how many melds that he or she will make in that round. The amount for each meld is agreed upon before the start of the game.

Gameplay:

On each turn, a player:

1. draws either the (face-up) top card of the discard pile, or one card from the stock pile
2. discards one card from his or her hand onto the discard pile

Also, a player is only allowed to place a meld during his or her turn.

Play continues in a counter clockwise fashion until either a player runs out of deadwood or there are no cards remaining in the stockpile.

<3 days after the end of “Choices”>
Gerin woke up. He hurt. He thought for a moment then froze, He was strapped to his bed… Oh…. right… He had strapped himself in before he fell asleep. He quickly undid the straps. Then he went to the door and took the tray of food that had appeared since he had eaten last.
I wonder how long it has been. I told her a week. I hope… His thoughts broke off as his head spun again. Stop that! He sternly ordered his innards to behave and they did, grumbling. He picked up his ration pack and bit into it. Then he looked at it. Ah, we must be out of the good ones again… Shellfish Surprise… If I find the guy or gal who came up with the names for this junk, I’ll hurt them… MREs were nowhere near this bad, you would think with all the advanced technology the AFS has, they could make some decent tasting chow, but no… I have to come here. Wonder what has… His thoughts broke off again as the door of his cell opened. He stepped back to the far wall. Sara stood in the door, looking at him. She moved to enter and he shook his head. She smiled at him.
“You are over it, brother.”
“Am I?” She came up to him, walking slowly. She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and squeezed, lightly.
“You are.” At her quiet words he shuddered. He slid down the wall to the floor and sobbed in relief. She sat beside him and hugged him as he cried. Finally, he gained control again. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet.
“How long?”
“A week.” Sara’s voice wasn’t much louder. He looked at her in disbelief. It had taken him a month last time to get to this point.
“What did you do?”
“I cleaned the residue out of your system completely. I also had another medic look at you. One trained in drugs like that.” I can’t believe…
“You took me to a Penumbra medic?”
“No.” When she didn’t continue he took her face in his hands and gently turned it towards him.
“What has happened, Sara?” She took his hands in hers and squeezed before she spoke.
“It’s like this…”

<At almost the same time, Penumbra HQ>
The hood was ripped off his head and Clark winced as bright light hit his tender eyes full on. Three indistinct figures appeared in his vision and he prayed his team wasn’t getting the same treatment.
“Agent Clark, we have questions for you.” Internal Security… Wonderful… He kept his mouth shut.
“You are going to talk to us, Agent Clark.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“We have authorization to investigate your activities.”
“Your clearances are not high enough.”
“Our clearances are higher than yours.”
“They are not high enough.”
“Where did you get that toxin?” Came from another voice. He remained silent. Something struck him and he didn’t flinch. This is only the beginning, I won’t betray them… I won’t! “Where have you and your team been for the last four days?” Another voice. He clenched his jaw. “Very well Agent, we will do this the hard way.” A stick in his shoulder and he was falling…

<This begins just after "A new way of life…">
Gina was mad. First, the revelations about her past, she shuddered. What she knew horrified her. I can’t dwell on that… Then the joy and apprehension of her creating a clone child. Then Laneii, just rejecting her. She liked and respected the Brann hybrid woman. She knew, she didn’t think, she knew what evil lurked in her own heart. So she knew the kinds of demons that drove Laneii. So she understood the woman’s concerns, but… This was her kid… Everyone said it was too dangerous, that she was acting irresponsible. But… her thoughts broke off as someone knocked on her door.
“Enter.” She said quietly. She couldn’t hide a flinch as a black armored form entered her room. He took off his helmet and she let out a slow breath. Clark. She couldn’t believe Sara had done that… called Penumbra and led them RIGHT into the base! Clark cleared his throat.
“What do you want?” She asked coldy. What little she remembered of her previous life left her no illusions about Penumbra. And her encounters since her… rebirth, had left her with a deep and abiding distrust for the black ops organization.
“I want to talk to you.”
“So talk.” Clark smiled at her cold words. I LIKE her!
He leaned against the wall and looked around. The room was spartan. A bed, a desk, a computer, a lamp. A set of swords hung in a rack on one wall, other than that, nothing. The spy sat in seiza position in the middle of the floor, but he could tell just by looking that she was ready to move. He didn’t question her ability to kill him, even unarmed and unarmored, she was probably the single most lethal person in the base at the time, himself included. Maybe Ecien could stand against her, maybe not..
“Gerin’s out of it for a while.” She looked at him in silence. “Sara is young and inexperienced…”
“No.” Gina replied still in her cold voice. Clark looked at her. “I’m not going to try and displace Sara, if I could.” She was startled as Clark chuckled ruefully.
“We are products of our times aren’t we?” Gina looked at him. He smiled. “That wasn’t what I was going to suggest.” She cocked her head at him and he smiled again. “Sara told me what you have planned.”
“Had.” Gina had finally come to the conclusion… Her musing broke off as Clark flinched.
“You changed your mind?”
“I’m a woman, we are allowed to do that.” Clark grinned widely this time, he had several female operatives under his command.
“I think you should reconsider.” Gina looked at him quizzically. “And no, this isn’t Penumbra talking. This is me.” He held up his helmet and she could see inside, the HUD icon for recording was blacked out! Gina smiled slowly.
“You crazy son of a… how long have you not been recording?”
“Since Sara called me. None of us were or are.” He grinned at her expression. “I had no idea…”
“Neither did we…” They both chuckled, THAT had been a shock.
“Gina. I know this is a hard choice. But I think you are right.”
“What? This place is dangerous… we just had an attack…”
“Yeah, but Gina… where else would would you send the kid? The Bane can attack almost anywhere…” He broke off and grimaced. She stared at him as if seeing him for the first time.
“Who did you lose?” Her voice was almost inaudible.
“My daughter. She was four.” His voice wasn’t much louder. She got up, slowly. She moved close to him and when he didn’t react, she put her arms around him. He bowed his head and she saw tears. “They said… they said it was a safe place… The department said it was fluke, an accident. An accidental transmission that led a bane hunting party there. And… they were eventually driven off, but too late for many… I got there as fast as I could, but…” he broke off.
“But you were too late…”
“Yeah.” Clark shook himself and Gina stepped back. “It’s all classified, you won’t find any of it anywhere on the nets.”
“That doesn’t mean it DIDN’T happen.” Gina’s voice, while soft was fierce.
“Yeah. Gina listen to me. You were right. We NEED allies. We need to learn to live with the allies we have and make new ones. We can’t win otherwise.” This was something Clark had never spoken aloud before, but it was no less true.
“But…” She broke off as Clark shook himself again, this time he resumed the tough penumbra operative facade. She knew it was a facade now.
“We don’t have enough personnel. We don’t have enough resources. Hell, we don’t have enough stable command structure. Penumbra can’t do it. Even with all the powers we have, we CAN’T do it.”
“The AFS can’t do it either. If Penumbra has problems…” Clark grimaced.
“I don’t doubt the dedication of MOST of them…” She nodded, having dealt with a few who had… issues with abiding by the chain of command. “We need something new, something better…”
“A fresh start…” Gina spoke almost inaudibly.
“What?”
“You ever meet Sarah Morrison?” Clark looked at her.
“My team has worked with her on occasion, but we never stopped to chat.” Gina smiled at that.
“Gerin apparently…er… ran into her one time. Well, actually she saw him and she tracked him, tailed him almost all the way here.” Clark grinned at that. Gerin was very good at that kind of thing. Someone who could do that to him…
“Wow. I guess her reputation is deserved. She always seemed competent, but maybe she is as good as her reputation.” Gina grinned.
“From what I understand she’s better. He never had a clue she was there, and then she got the drop on him.”
Clark smiled. “I would have paid real money to see the look on his face.” Gina grinned as well.
“Me too. But.. I’ve seen the record. While she was here, she met Ecien. They talked a lot and Sarah said something that stuck in my mind.” Clark waited and Gina continued. ”She said we as a race needed a fresh start, a clean slate.”
“Yeah. That’s a good way to put it. A clean slate.”
“Let’s go talk to Sara.” Clark put his helmet back on and the exited the room.

<This story takes place right before "Family" begins and right after a hard fought battle at Lightning Fields Control Point>
((See TRRP "Unfortunate Casualties" http://tabularasaroleplayers.mmoguil…threads/121542 , for that whole story))

Agent Clark was not a happy man. My boss wasn’t kidding, keeping up with this guy is like trying to tail a wisp of smoke… He didn’t think, he knew that he didn’t have all of the information, and it didn’t bother him. He thought it passing strange that civilians, and many military types, always wanted to know everything. There were things that simply COULDN’T be shown the light of day. And others… At the thought of the Bane, the Aliens who had conquered Earth, he snarled silently under his helmet, the Bane were fiendishly clever at intelligence and counter intelligence. And their resources were simply astounding. All attempts to categorise the Bane’s resources had failed due to lack of enough information. But what was known, was horrifying. And most people simply were not ready to handle that kind of information. Hell, many OPERATIVES can’t handle that kind of information… his thoughts broke off as a code chimed in his HUD.

“Clark.” That voice… oh boy!

“Gerin?” Gerin NEVER called him, Clark wasn’t sure how Gerin had… oh, the Director must have… Clark’s musing broke off as Gerin continued.

“Sara’s in trouble. Some captain with what looks like six Penumbra troopers is trying to arrest her.”

“WHAT? Where?” He keyed in a command on his keyboard and shook his head. “It isn’t us.”

“I didn’t think so, you would know better. Torden Plains, Lightning Fields Control Point Base. Hurry.”

His com clicked off and Clark grabbed for the intercom, luckily they were close. They kicked in overdirive and were quickly approaching the base. As the dropship landed, he could see a tableau at the gate of the base, Sara and Ed standing off the squad, and the captain… Clark chuckled softly. Gerin… Gerin had the guy painted and set up for a head shot. No wonder the fool had lost control of his bodily functions. He queried his database. Shagama, level 4 agent, that explains the squad… but what the hell? time to get answers.

As soon as the hatch opened, he strode out, he didn’t draw any of his weapons, his squad filing out behind him had more than enough firepower. Besides, it was an AFS base, he always felt odd taking human lives. It needed to be done sometimes, but, it still felt odd sometimes. He actually was comforted by that. He had seen the fate of some who had succumbed to the temptations of power. He hoped he was made of sterner stuff.
He grimaced to himself as he saw the scene. Sara, unharmed apparently, the slightly built medic was weaving on her feet with exhaustion and outrage. He averted his eyes from her scarred head, it was HIS fault, he knew it… no matter what his boss might say, it had been HIS responsibility.. and he had failed. Ed, with his hands on his micromech pouch, the huge grenadier was ready and willing to kill anyone who harmed her. He walked quickly up to the scene and took off his helmet. All of the Penumbra troopers immediately lowered their weapons and backed up up a step. Either they are deferring to my authority or they have common sense enough to not fight in the face of my team’s firepower, either way we will find out. He tried to get his tone just right. First appearances are everything sometimes.

“Excuse me for interrupting.” He queried the troopers who had been on site and the seniormost responded with a burst update. He bowed to the woman who had apparently stood off Shagama long enough for him to arrive. He took in another receptive standing behind two troopers, who had apparently never seen him. That guy is good. Then he turned towards Sara. His sternly did not let his eyes linger on her scarred head. He moderated his voice.

“Are you all right?” He OWED her… She was weaving on her feet, and he worried how Ed might react if she collapsed. That nut was fully capable of killing anyone or everyone in the area. Hence his attempt to defuse the situation by removing his helmet. But it left him feeling exposed.

“Yes.” her voice, while dazed, was stronger that he had hoped and he allowed himself to relax just a bit.

“I’m glad” He said in a quiet and kind voice. Then he turned towards the agent who had created this mess. Shagama was not a pretty sight. Even discounting the stain on his pants, (and who could be blamed for doing that when you KNEW a sniper had you dead to rights?) His white flushed face spoke volumes. He KNEW what he had been doing, Clark realized, he had hoped to snatch Sara and be gone… Clark hardened his voice. “Would you please explain to me, what in the hell did you think you were doing?”
Shagama cringed at his tone, Clark’s reputation, while not as towering as Gerin’s in Black Ops, was almost as formidable. As was his tendency to… er… bend rules if they got in the way of his duty or loyalty. But he would be well within his rights to shoot this pig right here and Shagama knew it.

“Um… Sir… I… I can explain…” Shagama actually cringed even lower, but Clark noted with carefully concealed amusement that Gerin’s head shot pipper never left the agent’s forehead. I wonder where he is? Better not to look… Clark sighed.

“I’m sure you can. Men…” He eyes the squad of troopers standing silently around, whose body language was nowhere near as quiet as their voices. They didn’t like this man. “Escort this… thing…” At that word, Shagama collapsed, but two of the troopers caught him by the arms, one disarmed him, the other threw binders on him. Clark continued as if nothing had happened. “…to my dropship. Don’t lose him and for god’s sake don’t let him suicide. We are going to have a long talk.”
At that Shagama started blubbering. The men grabbed him and half carried, half dragged him to the waiting dropship. I hate it when they cry… Clark put the traitor out of his mind. There would be time to deal with him and find out what was going on later. Now however… He turned back to Sara. And he moderated his tone again.

“I’m sorry Sara. We are still flushing rats out of our woodwork. I’m sorry it took us so long to get here.”

She looked at him and then, when her brother hugged her, she collapsed. For a moment his heart froze and he heard his team start to move, but he stopped them with a headshake. Her brother had caught her, and she was crying into his shoulder. He turned to the strangers and thanked them. Then one of his men sent him a burst alert.

“Would you stop sneaking up on me? You make my men nervous.” Gerin stepped out of the shadows and Clark relaxed as he saw: 1) Gerin had no weapons out, 2) he was grinning.
Gerin stopped grinning as he saw Sara crying. He went to her, gave her shoulder a squeeze and then walked over to Clark. He stopped just outside easy hand to hand range and Clark restrained a grin. He was the exact same way. We are just a little paranoid aren’t we all? He saw the same echo of a grin in Gerin’s eyes. Then Gerin spoke.

“It’s easy to forget, as tough as she acts, just how young Sara actually is.” Clark winced.

“Yeah.” He agreed quietly. “I have to get back.”

“Thanks for the fast response.”

“If I hadn’t gotten here when I did, you would have splattered that fool all over the compound. I would be out seven men. And we might never get answers.” Gerin looked him in the eyes and Clark flinched a bit from his regard.

“I’d be out a sister.”

Ouch… “You’re right…” Matter of fact… Clark turned towards Sara “Sara?” He asked quietly. He waited until she raised her tear streaked face to him and then he continued. “I am sorry for what you went through. It was MY responsibility to make sure they did not go to far and I failed.” His shame cut deep, if Gerin hadn’t found her when he had… It would have been disastrous. “I apologize. For what its worth, Penumbra is not hunting you.” He could see her disbelief and it hurt a bit, but who could blame her?

“Then who is? They look and act like your people…” He sighed.

“That’s what I intend to find out. I will keep you in the loop Gerin. As if I could keep you out.”

“You could try.” And Gerin surprised him with a salute. For a long moment Clark just stood there, stunned. Gerin never salutes Penumbra… Then he returned it. Without a further word he put his helmet back on and loped to his dropship. As he sat down in the seat he looked at the miserable form across from him and nodded to his medic, who immediately began interrogation procedures. Clark spoke in his quietest voice and all of his men stiffened. He only got that quiet when he was VERY angry.
“Now we will discuss who gave you the orders to detain Sara Kalenath…” This would be a long flight..

<This story begins right after “A Good Day”>

She came awake, suddenly and completely. She didn’t move at all. She remembered the ignoble position she had been in, then blackness. She hadn’t expected to wake up. She hadn’t expected a human to be working with the… others. She wasn’t sure what had happened or where she was so she was taken completely by surprise when a voice spoke.

“I know you are awake, please don’t struggle, you will pull out the IVs.” Her eyes flew open and she saw a small, tiny even, figure beside her… her bed? Her eyes narrowed as she took in her surroundings. Large bed, much bigger than any of the pallets or cots she had slept on previously. It was also, her body informed her, much more comfortable. Her wrists and ankles were restrained to the bed, but the bonds were not uncomfortable. A gentle test showed that they were completely unbreakable, by her anyway. She looked around the room. Medical gear was to her left, tubes and wires from that gear snaked under the sheet that covered her and some clung to her scalp. Besides the bed and a certain amount of medical gear the room seemed empty. She returned her gaze to the figure beside her bed. Human, female, age… hard to say since she was so small. She had to be older than she looked. The figure spoke again.

“I’m sorry we had to restrain you. But we don’t know you. My name is Kat, What’s yours?”
She didn’t answer, she just turned her head away.

“You had nightmares. You thrashed so hard we were worried about you. If you promise not to move around too much I can release the restraints.” The woman on the bed snorted.

As if they would…

Just as she completed that thought her bonds released and sank out of view. She stared after them in shock and then at the woman. The woman, Kat she had called herself.

What kind of a name is Kat?

She tried to sit up but collapsed and Kat immediately was at her side.
“Whoa, whoa… You have been unconscious for a while. And you were hurt…” the human woman seemed sympathetic, but she knew there had to be a trick somewhere. Kat continued. “The implants have been removed.” She froze.
“We knew the moment we saw your body what had happened to you. Do you think you are the first person we have met who escaped from a Bane prison?” The strange human touched a control and the bed shifted under her, inclining her head and shoulders up.
She licked her lips. “I…” her voice cracked and broke. Kat grabbed a cup, filled it with water and held it to her lips. She drank greedily. Kat refilled the glass and held it again. This time she only drank half and Kat nodded.
“Smart. You know your body isn’t able to hold it yet.” She put the glass on a table the woman hadn’t seen and sat in a chair beside the bed.
“Shall we start again? My name is Kat.” She waited and the woman in the bed sighed.
“Laneii, my name is Laneii”
“Please to meet you.”

Laneii wasn’t sure what to make of her… captor wasn’t right. Healer wasn’t right either… Keeper, that seemed to fit best.
“You know what happened to me?”
“Not the particulars. However, the injuries you sustained and the implants we pulled out of your body suggest you were a prisoner of the Bane for some time.”
“I…” Laneii broke off.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But…” Kat grimaced. “It helps sometimes.”
Laneii sighed. “It doesn’t really matter now. I am a hybrid, but I am… I was useful… I was with the Larai Grupa. I was posted with the guards of a Enforcer named Rein…”
“Rein?” Kat winced. She knew some of that story. Betrayed by a traitor to the Bane and captured. And then…
“Yes.” Laneii shuddered in memory. Kat laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, then sat back.
“The others… one by one they took my comrades and…” She couldn’t continue.
“I know.”
Kat had heard the story and seen the reports. The Bane had used prisoner biological material to make new and ‘improved’ warden bots. It had taken a full squad and not a few casualties to stop the first of them, called “Abomination”. And when they had dissasembled it to see what made it different… They had found pieces of the Brann known as Rein. The squad had been so enraged that they had torn the Bane facility building the bots into very small pieces. But the Bane rebuilt it. The AFS had a standing policy in the Thunderhead region now. “Kill as many warden bots as possible while on patrol. And if possible blast the facility again.”
Anything to delay the Bane producing more of those… things.

“How did you escape?” Kat asked after a moment of silence.
“We were in Quasso… I think an AFS team hit the station. I was unconscious. When I woke the cell was open, I grabbed some gear and ran. I felt sick. The Bane had been…” Laneii broke off.
“It’s okay. You’re okay. You are safe now.”
“Am I?” Laneii asked warily. She had seen the human working with the others. The tiny woman smiled gently. Then she leaned across the bed and gave Laneii’s shoulder another gentle squeeze.
“You are.” Laneii shuddered and then burst into sobs. Kat jumped onto the bed and held the young woman as she finally gave into her emotions and poured out all of her rage, pain and sorrow.

Finally, she cried herself out. She wasn’t sure how long she had been crying and it didn’t seem to matter. Kat sat on her bedside and held her as she shuddered. Then she stilled. Kat looked at her.
“I’m sorry… I…” She found calm from somewhere. “What will happen to me now?”
“That depends. Do you want to go back to the Larai Grupa? We can get you…” Kat broke off as the brann hybrid shook her head violently. “What’s wrong?” She asked in a kind voice.
“I was a… thing… to them. I was not Brann. I was… different.” Kat looked at her in horror and then hugged her tight.
“You don’t HAVE to go back. You can stay here with us.”
“Who is ‘us’?
“We are a special operation. We need personnel.”
“I know… guns… I worked on the weapons for my team…” She broke off again. “but… how is it that you work with the others? They are beasts.”
“They thought the same of us.”
“What?” Laneii’s voice was quiet, disbelieving. Kat sighed.
“The ‘Others’ as you call them are sentient. They were here on Areki first. They didn’t mind sharing the planet with most of the Brann who came here, willing and non-willing. But the Bane, those… they have major problems with.”
“I have fought the others. Some work for the bane…”
“Those were brainwashed.”
“What is this ‘brainwashed’? Laneii moved her tongue around trying to sound out the word. “How do you wash a brain?”
“The Bane remove or destroy the minds of some of their captives. You have seen this.” It wasn’t a question, but Laneii nodded anyway. “Then they program the ’subject’ to obey them. We have seen it on many species. Both on Areki and Foreas.” The mention of that world drove all else from Laneii’s mind.
“You have been to Foreas? I have heard it is green.” She had never seen a green world.
“Parts of it are. Parts of it are as red as Areki. Matter of fact, here.” Kat hit a control and a panel set into the wall lit up. It showed an AFS base but… Laneii drew in a deep breath.
“Where is the sand? Where is the molten rock? Oh… that is Foreas?”
“Yes. If you want to, we can probably get you there sometime.”
“I think… I think I would like to see it, with my own eyes. It is very different.” Laneii couldn’t take her eyes off the screen.
“Indeed it is.” Kat looked at her and smiled slightly. Has she ever seen a forest? No I guess not… Then she sobered. Laneii was tiring visibly. “You need to sleep again.”
“I…” the Brann hybrid tore her eyes off the wall screen with effort and focused again on the young human. Her vision blurred, then cleared. “What is wrong with my eyes?”
“You are still recovering from surgery, as well as your ordeal. Your body is weak, but it will get stronger.”
“I must be strong or I will not survive.”
“Sometimes strength doesn’t matter. Here, let me show you something.” Kat touched her control again and this time the wall screen lit up with the image of a wound, a bad wound. It was a leg that had been struck by a Bane weapon, Laneii recognized the effect. She inhaled in sympathy.
“That person did not survive?” Kat grinned.
“That person was me.” Laneii goggled at her, she showed no sign of impairment. But that wound…
“How?”
“We can aid the body in healing. And we can speed healing up. Given enough time, we can heal almost any injury that does not kill outright. And sometimes we can revive the dead. But without the will to live, nothing matters. You have the will to live, Laneii. Let us help you. Please?”
“You have not already?”
“We have kept you alive. We have not done anything more, we will not do anything more without your consent.” Laneii goggled at that. Brann did not ask for help, they endured or they died.
“You… You give… me…” She broke off unable to speak. To a Brann the thought was unthinkable. But I am not a Brann am I? She knows my people, or the people who gave half of my DNA so I could be created… I am not Brann, they all made that quite clear, but…
“You must choose, Laneii. And soon or it will be too late to help you. Life or death?”
“If I choose death?” Her voice was quiet.
“You will go to sleep and not wake. You will feel no pain.” Kat’s voice was just as quiet.
“Then… I choose life. I…” She broke off and collapsed. Kat grabbed her tools. Stubborn Brann, why did she have to wait so long? She keyed in an urgent summons and began her healing, praying she was in time.

<A while later>
When Laneii woke again, things were different. She realized. She hadn’t hurt before, now she did. It was bad, but nowhere near as bad as some of the things she had endured. She remembered her conversation with Kat and sighed. A new voice spoke from nearby.
“Good morning.” The young woman opened her eyes and they widened saw the speaker, a Forean… no a Forean hybrid, sitting next to her bed. She had a book in her lap, and looked at the befuddled Brann hybrid with compassion.
“Wha-” Laneii broke off as her stomach rebelled. The woman jumped to her feet, grabbed a bin and shoved it under Laneii’s nose. She was just in time. Once Laneii was done, the unknown made a strange noise and wiped her face with a cloth. Laneii’s face flushed in embarrassment.
“It is not your fault.” the stranger said with some force. “Some of it is what the Bane did to you. Some of it is what they fed you, when they did. And some of it is your injuries. That is NOT a voluntary reflex. You have no control over it, so don’t feel embarrassed about that. I’m Sara.”
“I’m Laneii.”She looked but didn’t see Kat anywhere.
“I sent Kat to bed. She had been up for almost 26 hours. Now, your body is not up for hard foods so i have some soup here.” She reached down and set a tray on the table beside the bed. “Your body will be very weak. It is NOT your body’s fault. It is not YOUR fault. Do you understand me?”
“I…” Laneii tried to reach for the tray but her arm wouldn’t move more than a few centimeters. She looked at Sara in horror. Sara took Laneii’s hand in both of hers. Then she locked eyes with the young woman.
“You WILL be fine. Do you understand me? You are weak at the moment, you will heal quickly. I will help and so will Kat. Now…” She moved the tray up over the bed and laid Laneii’s hand back on the bed. “Humans call this a straw.” She put the straw into the bowl and moved it so Laneii could reach it with her mouth. Laneii resigned herself to being helpless. For the moment, ONLY for the moment…

<2 days later>
“Laneii for the love of god, it’s only been two days!” Kat was amazed at how quickly the brann hybrid had bounced back. It had taken her a week of recuperation to be able to move easily, but this woman, girl really, was pushing her body so hard she was surprised the girl was conscious. She had expected to find her mobile. That had been a shock the day before to find Laneii out of the bed and doing calisthenics. As soon as Sara found out she had laced Laneii’s soup with a sedative. That had kept her out for a day, but now, the girl was almost bouncing with energy. Kat could see the strain she was putting on her body though. But Laneii would not listen to them, she was polite, oh yes, but not really… Kat’s musing broke off as a voice spoke in Brann! Kat was glad suddenly that her translator had Brann installed.
“Enough.” Laneii froze as a figure entered the room. Kat goggled. Gerin speaks BRANN? How in the hell… She froze as well as his regard swept over her.
Laneii knelt in an odd, formal pose. Gerin squatted on his heels in front of her. He studied her, from head to toe. Then he spoke again, still in Brann.
“I bring you a message, Laneii of the Larai Grupa. Will you listen?”
“I will.” She replied in the same language.
“My message is this: Kappa Grupa Lohen sends his regards and wishes you a full recovery.” Laneii tensed. What did the boss of all the Brann syndicates on Areki want with her?
“He also says this. The individual responsible for what happened to your group has been dealt with.”
“He…” She broke off.
“Speak.” Kat had never seen Gerin quite like this, there was something literally inhuman about how well he portrayed a Brann mobster.
“Why would the Kapa Grupa take notice of me? I am not Brann…” Laneii’s face burned with her shame.
“You fight well. You are a credit to the donors who created you. You are a credit to your race. But he knows about you because I have spoken of you to him.” Laneii couldn’t recall any human… wait…
“Who are you?”
“I am Gerin.” Laneii tensed, in fear and shock. The name didn’t translate well into Brann but Laneii had heard it before. All Brann knew the story. How he had walked into the Staal tavern and braced an enemy there. When the enemy had laughed at him, surrounded by picked enforcers, Gerin had warned the whole community, in the way of the Brann, the consequences for protecting such a one. Vendetta…
Laneii shuddered. Then seeing Gerin waiting for an answer, screwed up her courage and spoke.
“I do not understand.”
“The first step towards wisdom is acknowledging your ignorance. You are a credit to your peoples, one I would like to see in my family.” Laneii could not hide her shock, he was proposing ADOPTION!
“I… You are mistaken. I am unworthy.” Kat winced as Gerin slapped her. Laneii did not react.
“It is done. Do you dispute my choice? Will you dishonor me? Make MY choice a bad one?”
“No.” Her voice was small. “No Kapa. I will not.”
“You are Laneii. Of my kindred. There is no shame in losing to a superior opponent. You fought, hard. Two of your companions did not. They fled the battle before it was done.” Laneii looked at him and he nodded. “They now reside in the Incurables Ward.” Even in her rage at their cowardice, she winced. The fate of people in that hellhole was not an easy one. “You have a question, child? Ask.”
Laneii looked at the man who had just given her more than anything she had ever hoped for.
“Why me?” he looked at her and smiled for the first time since entering.
“Why not you?” He looked to where Kat was standing in shock. “You will listen to the medical professionals. They are knowledgeable in the ways of the body. If you injure yourself, you do dishonor to yourself, and thus to me. Do I make myself clear?” Laneii stiffened.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Without a further word, Gerin got up and left the room. A few minutes later Kat followed. She caught up with him in the mess hall.
“What was THAT all about?”
“Different culture, different rules.” Gerin bit into a ration pack and Kat followed suit. “She ok?”
“Yeah. I have her scheduled for light duty. I understood she was bored. But…”
“But in her culture you have to command respect.”
“Yeah, I never knew you spoke Brann.”
“You never asked.”