[Citadel/Nimbus] A Party On The Rocks (closed)

“Yes, of course, just tell me what to do.” She had been helping out with tending to light wounds during her time on Niacal in the war. Braces, bandages, that kind of things. Arina assume that there would be proper arm braces available in this medbay, only the person wearing it usually needed help putting it on and off.

“Uh, no, no dizziness, it was more like a sharp pain at first, now with the medigel it is a throbbing pain, like pulsing.” She touched the spot lightly, feeling for the swelling and dried blood. She didn’t have a chance to look into a mirror yet. “I think the bleeding stopped and the medigel helped some.”

“I had headaches already prior to this anyway.” She managed a weak smile and her hand went from her head to the pills in her pocket.

Temria nodded in agreement, very gingerly running her finger along the perifery of the mark, a render of Arina's head- made clinical and impersonal by the false-colour image made to illustrate the layers of bone, muscle and tissue, the damage highlighted and revised continuously.

Before turning to it, Temria gently turned Arina's head to the side, "Mm-hmm, yes. It's definately got potential to be a very interesting scar..." she grinned despite herself, "If you're into that sort of thing. Of course, a medi-gel regimen can smooth it out just fine..."

"And... as for this..." she said at last, having reflected on the different layers of Arina layed out in the interface with a careful eye, "If you can see from here, it wasn't a meager impact by any means, I suspect you absorbed most of it in your neck, which you'll probably feel later. You don't..." she looked to Freh'ya, this was relevant to her question, "There's no signs of concussion now, but there is a chance you'll feel symptoms in a period of many hours, or even days from now. But... honestly even assuming the worst, I think we have a better chance out there."

"We have a full load of tac drones," Rahi nodded. "Just microlight models, no offensive capabilities, but they're sturdy. I'm not a hundred per cent sure about their station-keeping if the winds out there kick up any more. There's a carry module for them, recommend we keep them stowed until they're needed. If hostiles show, launch the sensors, and if any get blown off-course we can pick them up after." Hopefully they'd still be in a state to pick up errant drones.

She nodded immediately when Freh'ya offered her as guard for the other two, if they were unable to make the journey. It wouldn't feel good watching the commando go off by herself - especially anticipating enemy action as she was, either on the way or at the facility - but if Arina and Temria were staying, it was her duty to protect them. In the event that protection proved inadequate - say, whoever shot them down had brought another missile, and decided to finish the job from the other end of the valley - well... it was her duty anyway.

"I'll get to work on that gun drone," she said meanwhile, ducking back into the darkened main deck for a moment and returning with an open crate, piled with a selection of components that looked to have been hastily salvaged from the ship's innards. She took a moment to change from her flight uniform into her suit - hers was a lighter model, and fatigue wouldn't be a problem - then, ensuring she wasn't in Arina or Temria's way, began connecting her assortment of hardware together, working quickly with an intent frown, and omni-tool extensions hovering around both forearms. She listened in on the doctor's progress with her examination, trying not to seem as if she was eavesdropping; it was a relief to hear that Arina, while not in top condition, didn't seem in immediate danger, and Temria's voice had steadied too, now that the first aid to her arm had been taken care of.

Arina sighed, as Temria carefully examined her wound. "I don't want scars." But that was the smallest concern right now. They need to make it out so it could heal in the first place. Another sigh as Temria described what she had to expect in the next days.

"Don't you have some pills or whatever that I can take to feel better?" to not be a total burden on everyone. "What about the pills you gave me, I can take more of those, right?"

The doctor's hands on her felt reassuring, while Temria was not doing anything substantial it still felt like a connection of sorts, someone caring for her. She could need a hug but her training and diplomatic compose let her sit upright and show not a flinch.

"Don't try to carry too much, Rahi. Two drones should be enough, we need to carry supplies and heaters as well, don't forget that."

Freh'ya was entering the crew cabin. All kinds of stuff was lying around and the wall with the entertainment screen was crushed in. The lockers were mostly intact though and she pulled out her bag with the fur lined overall. She doubted anything from the ship's storage would fit her anyway. She put it on and checked the heating unit in the belt section. A blue light indicated it was okay. She left it off, no need to waste energy now.

She felt so heavy and clumsy with the thick fabric over her combat suit but it could not be helped. She pulled out the wooled face mask and goggles, then stuffed the datadisk with Taleeze's and Skylar's portrait holos into her breast pocket. They would be able to pick up everything once this was over - or it wouldn't matter anymore anyway, so she put her bag with her other cloths back into the locker and left.

She took up a sniper rifle from the pile of equipment Rahi had been piling up in the corridor.
"I'll check the perimeter. Rahi, check if you can follow my signal around the ship, I'll stay close."

With that she manually closed the inner door of the airlock and after putting on her gloves and the face mask, opened the outer doors. The wind chill was enormous and it crept right through the overall. she set the heating unit to lowest level for now and left the lock.

It was late afternoon but the snow and ice made it appear quite light. The ship was dug in a huge pile of snow, right up to where the airlock was. The damage wasn't visible as most of it was below the snow. She walked a few steps, the partly frozen snow was holding her.

She saw the swath the crashing ship had dug in the glacier, several hundred meters. Metal bits and pieces were scattered along its way. She made her way around the back of the ship, scanning the surrounding rocks with binoculars and the visor of her rifle. No living thing in sight.

She made her way around the other side of the ship, observing the damage on the hull where the missile had hit. It hod not been a large warhead, probably from a hand held launcher, she guessed.

She tried a scan with her omnitool but the readings weren't better than from inside the ship. With a sigh she made her way back to the airlock and back in.

"Nothing worth noting outside." She announced. "We should be heading out while we have light, get off the glacier, into the rocks. Cover is much better there. How is your progress?"

"It'll be a balancing act, to be sure." she said reluctantly. "We can't afford to have you nodding off either..."

With a sigh, Temria turned the display off and rose to her feet, "Well, for the time being, take one now and I'll keep track of the doses." For an instant, she glanced side-long to her gun case, which was now stowed neatly behind the desk. "We'll probably want to split the medical supplies up between the four of us... Still, lets get that brace and clean ourselves up first, okay? We don't have a lot of time."

"Micro-drones," Rahi said, a touch of pride breaking through her sombre post-crash demeanour. "Here..." She picked out a small case, fitted on one side to connect to a suit's hardpoint and about the same size as a rifle in its compact storage mode, and pushed a couple of tiny buttons on its side. A flap on the top slid open and a tiny drone hovered out, little more than a miniature mass core and sensor cluster mounted on the rim of a flat rotor engine, the whole barely larger than the palm of Rahi's hand.

"There's twenty in the pack," she explained briefly. "A distributed tactical system, each one doing part of the work. Individually they're not as durable as a single-unit drone, and the more you lose the more limited the sensor coverage becomes, but the enemy has to waste time knocking out a lot of very tiny targets to blind you entirely." She opened her omni-tool when Freh'ya suggested making a quick round of the perimeter, and the micro-drone hovered over to the commando with a tiny whisper-quiet whirr of its engine. "I'll task this one to follow you - see how well it can handle the winds. It should keep comms from fading, at least."

-----

The drone unobtrusively shadowed Freh'ya on her circuit around the downed shuttle, sometimes wavering in its course as the wind gusted, but never losing her.

"Good signal," Rahi reported when the commando returned; the drone hovered over to her and vanished into its 'hanger', now mounted on her suit's back in place of where a sniper rifle would normally have gone. Her other weapons were stowed on their various suit hardpoints - a Rivebow rifle behind her left shoulder, a refurbished Cygnet shotgun on the back of her waist, and a Vesper sidearm on her hip. To a trained commando eye all the weapons were upgraded, with modules suited to stability and longevity: not the choices of an expert markswoman, but ones designed to make modest skills as effective and reliable as they could be.

"I've got that gun drone ready," she offered, wincing slightly at the gust of chilled air that had followed Freh'ya in before the airlock closed again. She lifted her work onto the top of an emptied equipment crate - not the prettiest piece of hardware, with the squat 'head' and processor matrix of one of the Remotes mounted atop a powerful countergrav that looked to have been borrowed from a cargo mover, but the two-by-two bank of Rivebows fixed to its sides would make for a nasty shock to any hostile venturing into its field of fire. At a command from Rahi's omni-tool the drone hummed into life and, with a pulsing thrum from its motive core, rose into the air before settling again.

"She's not quite a gunship," Rahi said, with a slight grin, "but she's the best I can do in a pinch. Drive power to spare, too - that grav was made for much heavier cargo. Her sink capacity's weak, no way to reload her in flight, but there's no way around that; better some suppressing fire than none?" she finished, obviously hopeful her improvised creation would be approved.

Arina took out the bottle and broke another pill in half to take the day half. She should get something to drink, she thought while swallowing dry.
“Thank you, Temria!” Arina said and slightly brushed the doctors’s upper arm with her hand as a gesture of her thanks.

She stood – feeling reasonably well for the time being – and helped the doctor with the application of the arm brace…. *

~~~~~~

She then looked at the material accumulated on the floor where Rahi had been working. She just saw the micro drone dock into its port again. They had quite the nifty equipment. Her eyes travelled over the clothing packs, neatly folded in their box. She looked down her bloodstained and damaged dress. It had been expensive and she had worn it only on special occasion – such as the reception of a highest ranking official from an old and respectable Republic like Trategos. She sighed, slumping her shoulders. Bent down on her knees, she browsed through the clothing. Of course she had brought warm gear herself but nothing that would be suited for a multiple day expedition through glaciers!

She took out an overall in her size. It was thickly lined with fur and was made of multiple layers of active fabrics. On its back was a small heating unit, giving autonomy for at least a week under “hazard class 2 temperatures”. Boots, she needed boots. Her only warm shoes were comfortable but nothing she wanted to walk long distances in. Sitting on the box, she tried on two pairs before she found one that fit. Marching in brand new boots… she stopped that thought right there.

The kitchen was a mess, but the plastic bottles with water were nearly indestructible. She almost drained one bottle, goddess, that felt good. Moving a bit out of the way, into the crew quarters, she stepped out of her dress… but before pulling on the overall she changed her underwear. One could never know when there would be the next opportunity.

Being finally dressed up in cold weather gear, she stuffed her personal belongings back into the locker and returned to the others. The sooner they got to the safety of the Matriarchs retreat, the better!

“Okay, I am set. What do you want me to carry?”

On the console, a blinking light indicated an incoming call. A sigh was audible but finally a finger activated the comline: “At Lady T’Veda’s, what can I do for you?”

The face of an asari appeared on a monitor.
“Good afternoon. Sorry to disturb you, madam, but we have intercepted a strange distress signal from your bearing. Is everything all right? The transport from Hyetiana was checking through earlier, it should have arrived already and since we heard nothing, we wanted to check. Did you observe anything unusual out there?”

Another sigh.
“Oh, they have been here! But they are already gone again, the Matriarch insisted on wasting no time. Maybe their ship had trouble with the blackout zone and sent an automated distress or something. Don’t get me wrong but their pilot seemed a bit confused by the fact she could not rely on her automated systems.” A chuckle. “Poor thing probably has not much experience around these woods. Well you know how it is, we have to take what we can get these days.”

The other end was quiet for a second.
“Well, okay, technically I should send a scouting team since that’s the regulation…”

“… oh, you could send some to help us packing up. With the Matriarch gone, the rest of us will travel back to Sunda in a couple of days. Nothing here but boxes and crates really.” The voice hesitated. “Tell you what. I’ll have two of my servants do a patrol of the perimeter and report back tonight. That will satisfy the protocol and you can have your officers doing useful things, how does that sound?”

“Heh, okay, sounds good. Check in later then. Good day, Madam.”

“Good day.” The comline was terminated.

A third sigh. It was time to bring out the trash.

Freh’ya had observed the cutting edge tech display by Rahi and nodded her approval. This looked as if it could come in handy. She padded the pilot’s shoulder as she turned for Temria, looking at the box with the weapon.

“Don’t carry excessive personal stuff. We will pick everything up once we have secured help, okay? Everyone needs a heated suit… Temria, how is your arm doing, can you wear a wider jacket over it? You don’t have to carry anything with this injury, just tell me what we need to pack up.”

She was carrying a hardcase bagpack herself, partly stuffed with food supplies. It wasn’t ideal as it was exposed to the cold partially but that was better than having things rot in excessive heat and dampness… it reminded her of one long trip through a jungle planet in… somewhere. The supplies had been rotting faster than they could be consumed. Soon they had been feeding on leafs and bark. This wasn’t going to happen here at least.

Temria flexed her fingers carefully, touching each to her thumb as though expecting it to prove something to her. The fine polymer cast, dense like plastic and fitted to the exact form of her arm felt constricting, tight and eerily smooth in the way such things were, she didn't look forward to the itching. Beside her, its brace, a smooth collapsing x-shaped affair composed of that flowing asari line aesthetic sat ready for use, having been properly adjusted by Arina, it would fit over the cold weather gear and allow her to keep her arm in a relatively prone position. In the meantime, however, she was distracted.

Carefully arranged on top of the bio-bed she'd layed out assorted collections of painkillers, medi-gel packs, gause, bandages and field surgical tools, mindful of the weight but such a boon, she reasoned. Now her attention had turned back to the gun case, which she'd layed out on the desk and opened with care, the Hae'Shang, now assembled from its composite parts, rested at her hip, collapsed, loaded and idled.

She felt dishonest somehow, carrying a weapon in here, after she'd acted so high and above it.

The weapon had taken a little less than half of the available space in the case, Temria could tell for certain, she'd been efficient in the packing, the outline of each component cut into the foam with such precision you could half-expect it to click together in transit by itself. At the other end, the doctor pried at the foam inset, sliding it out. From beneath it she withdrew a second package, a lumpy thing wrapped in layers of plastic, difficult to grasp for all the air pockets keeping it from grinding against itself.

---

Approaching the others, Temria found Arina was already getting dressed and the others appeared so much more ready for this than she was. Was she really taking so long?

"I-I've sorted some medical supplies, basics, useful basics to augment the standard medkits. I have what I need to brace the arm, don't-" she interrupted herself, trying to look Freh'ya in the eye and not be intimidated, "Don't coddle me. I know my own limits. Please... I've had worse off people do more. I'd be ashamed to do less."

She turned to Rahi shakily, lifting the package with her good limb. Goddess, it was heavy. Inside, snug against each other and buffered by the medical packaging, sit two artificial arms. "Can we hide these?"

Rahi smiled at Freh'ya's approval, then busied herself packing her case, a semi-rigid module designed to fix to her suit in place of a heavy weapon. Into it went a share of the party's emergency rations and water, survival hardware, an ample supply of standard thermal clips, a comms encrypt-booster - not much chance of a handheld unit getting anywhere through all this signal murk, but if they encountered a landline there was a chance she could linback a signal through it - and various other essentials.

She was just finishing securing everything and making sure the seals were tight when Temria approached her, and she glanced curiously at the package held awkwardly with her good arm.

"Hide it here?" she asked, surprised. "Uh, yes ma'am... The best place would be the patient survival pod by the biobed, we can repurpose it to deadlock and dampen sensor returns." She opened the pod door, revealing space enough for a single person, obviously designed for the biobed's top layer to slide in, patient and all, in a sudden emergency. "If we open up the ejection chute - as much of it's in one piece - the pod'll drop into it, and won't be accessible, short of a full salvage operation on the entire shuttle. And even then, without the deadlock code, no chance of anyone opening it." She glanced back at the doctor, trying not to seem too inquisitive. "If you'd rather have it with us though... there are probably a few intact countergravs around still, if it's needed...?" She wasn't sure if this fell under the 'personal items' category - and didn't want to irk Freh'ya by ignoring her directions - but at the same time, if the doctor felt it was important...

“Fill this with heatsinks and nutripaste, please.” Freh’ya handed Arina a hard cased backpack. “Make it so you can carry it. I’ll carry heatsinks, food and heaters, Rahi takes the tech equipment, heatsinks and food.”

Freh’ya raised an eyebrow at the reply of Temria. “Alright, doctor. You can fill up your medical case with food and one more heating unit if there’s space. Oh, and don’t forget the ikretine please!” She perhaps had underestimated the matron doctor, she would not be a burden, her fleet service now showing… Freh’ya had almost forgotten that Temria had a long service history. She noticed the weapon on Temria’s hip. All of a sudden the injured doctor looked so much … less motherly. Freh’ya had no idea why this had even sneaked into her image of the purple asari.

She then saw the handover of the packed items and could not guess what that was. The doctor’s booze reserves? But at least it was clear now why the gun case was bigger than necessary, she did not like the secrecy though, why was Temria hiding something she had brought on board? The look on Temria’s face was serious so Freh’ya knew the package held something important to her.

“What’s that? Is that dangerous?” She did not accuse her of course, Temria had proven to be a valid crewmember and she would be needed even more in the days to come. Suspicion was something they could not afford now. Goddess time was running, maybe someone was already aiming a missile launcher at them right now!

“Alright” was Arina’s reply and she took the bag to the kitchen or what was left of it, packing nutripastes and all kinds the prefab food inside. Most packages were special space rations, something nobody wanted to eat if it could be avoided but the packs heated themselves once a chemical trigger was broken and if anything, only needed water added. Survival equipment in case of a blackout or a crash landing. She chuckled as she thought about their meal the evening before. Now everything had changed and that was some kind of obscure memory. She carefully opened the dryfreeze drawer where they had stored the leftovers of Temria's cooking. The drawer was bent now and stuck but with a hard pull, Arina got it to open. Of course the cooling had failed by now but there was the container... Only a slight crack in its plastic case. She pursed her lips but finally took it out and wrapped it in some sealing foils, before placing it in her backpack, under some nutripaste. Maybe it could be used for chemical warfare or something.

While rummaging in the kitchen she could not see what was handed over, she was also trying to ignore the throbbing in her head.

"They're not needed." she replied, though her tone betrayed a bitterness over giving them up. "Not worth risking our lives taking... Thank you."

The prosthetics safely stowed, Temria finished packing her gear to Frehya's specifications, returning with her pack slung over her shoulder.

Feeling a rush from the understanding she was lagging behind the others, she turned to the cold weather gear and sorted it out quickly. Realizing at last her uniform still drafted from its tear, she slipped out of it and into one of the dense undersuits, donning the cold weather gear that had been set aside for her on top of it, and trying not to rush through the seal check while she wondered about the selection of boots.

Freh’ya had not been able to identify the content of the package before it was stored away but the face Temria made and her brushed reply underlined the importance for her personally. It was not her style to be intrusive about personal belongings so she let the matter rest with a shrug. The package was safe anyway unless someone dropped a bomb on the wreck – which could happen any time! Not being able to move was putting stress on the vanguard, free movement being part of her individual strength in combat.

“Okay, once everyone is ready we will… damnit.” She had forgotten an important thing. The foldable tents, they needed at least two of them as she was expecting at least one night outside and while she hoped for a cave, there was no guarantee. Several packs lay folded on the bottom of a container Rahi had brought. She picked up one and gave another roll to Rahi. It was approximately three quarters of a meter long and had hooks on the outside to attach it to a standard issue backpack. It would unfold automatically and had camouflaged surface that would adapt to terrain colors, a nifty salarian design.

“One of these for the two of us.” She clipped it to her pack and headed for the airlock. “I’ll be outside, checking the perimeter again.”

With that she briefly opened the outer hatch and closed it again. The commando put her backpack on and took a firm grip on her rifle. The wind was cutting in the small bits of bare skin of her face that was visible under the fur lined light colored hood and the partial face mask and goggles. She crouched behind a dune of snow and scanned the rock formation where she wanted to head. The tower of the mountain retreat was not visible from here, they would have to climb the ridge to see it again. That would be the fun part for Temria but if it wasn’t too steep, Rahi and her could probably lift her biotically….

Such where the commando’s thoughts while her eyes traveled over the ridge.

When Arina returned from the kitchen into the dimly lit corridor, she almost bumped into the undressing Temria and jumped back. “Goddess” she muttered. While Arina was far from being prude (given the circumstances, she could be the exact opposite), it was very impolite to stare at a Matron in underwear after all, so she fumbled with the backpack a bit and tried the hood over her head wound. There was a tingling sensation but the medigel had formed a tight layer over it and there would be no need for more until at least a day.

Eventually she saw Temria in that overall, the padding only enhancing her figure and doing it justice, as Arina thought. She involuntarily looked down herself. She always felt skinny and wouldn’t put on weight. Some envied her but she herself would not have minded an additional pound or two, especially in such a cold weather!

“Is it working with your arm brace? I only brought stuff that’s totally unsuited for marching in snow so I had to take a pair of those boots. I’ll do my best to keep up, I promise.” She suddenly was very aware that everyone had proper military experience, even Temria, but not herself. The pack felt double its weight all of a sudden and she began to feel quite warm in her outfit.

Rahi accepted the tent pack without comment, remembering - Goddess but it seemed a long time ago - huddling in just such a shelter during Huntress training, up in the polar wilds; at least it would only be a day or two, rather than the sixty-odd days travel it had taken her to reach the shuttle waiting at the exercise's pickup point. Then again, while the wilds sported an impressive array of natural hazards to threaten the unwary, at least missiles hadn't been among them.

"Ready to move on your signal," she replied when Freh'ya headed out to make a final check; Arina and Temria were dressed and looked like their preparations were for the most part as complete as they would ever be. Rahi double-checked her comms link to Freh'ya, then handed a pair of comms buds each to the diplomat and the doctor.

"Use one, keep one spare," she advised, picking up a pair for herself and fitting it into her aural folds.

"Link check," she said, once the other two had done likewise; at a command from her omni-tool her bud relayed a snippet of music to the others, and then they to one another and back to her. "Clear signals? Good. If we're separated, or even if you just lose sight of anyone else at any time, the locator sign is," she checked the signal, relayed from Freh'ya's command omni-tool, "pulse two, decimal five. It'll be a strong signal. Use it if you need to - getting split up is a bigger danger than the chance of somebody else spotting the signal."

She took a last look around the medbay, slinging the tent roll over her shoulder and feeling it fix to her pack - the weight made her feel a little lop-sided, but better that than have it get in the way on her rifle side.

"Are we ready?" she checked.

Temria flexed, getting a feel for the degree of movement she still had in the cold weather gear. Though it carried a weight she felt most noticeably on her waist and shoulders (compounded all the more by the survival gear she'd loaded with a preference for her good side) it was a quiet marvel to her just how high should could still lift her legs.

"Its working fine." she said with a nod to Arina, the brace holding her arm in a crook across her stomach, able to keep it there either consciously or by going limp, but allowing her to move it if absolutely necessary. "Actually better than fine, these suits aren't nearly as constrictive as I remember them being. How's the forehead feeling?"

She followed through with Rahi's comms check, stowing the second communicator discretely. "Ready."

“Comline is good. Keep the chatter down via radio though but don’t hesitate to use it when you see need.” The good thing was, the interferences made them as invisible and untraceable to others as they were blind themselves.

The three companions came out the airlock eventually, even Temria carrying her medical bag. Freh’ya got up from her couching position, the glasses dangling on her chest. The wind was mediocre but she expected the temperature to fall significantly once the sun was going down. The ridge in front of them was still partially in sunlight. Freh’ya pointed across the plain of ice and snow and up the wall of black rock.

“We have to get up there. We will be able to see the beacon from the top and from what I saw on the map there should be no extreme obstacle between us and the facility. We have to cross the open plain though. Let’s do this quick and in a line. Everyone try use the footsteps of the one before you. We don’t want to give away our numbers easily.”

“Rahi, you take the back. Have the drone ready as you see fit.” She ordered. When everyone nodded to signal their readiness, she marched on. The thin ice surface was crushing under her feet and she sank in a few centimeters into softer snow. At least they were moving in parallel to possible crevasses, so the possibility of an unpleasant surprise was minimal. She activated her omnitool and called up a scanner. It wasn’t able to look farther than five meters though. Still better than nothing. Her eyes were switching from the too to the top of the ridge and back as she marched on, trying not to make too big steps.