[sb118-artemis] Ensign Tho'Bi - Like The Winter Hail

[Tobi]

(( In Grunden Grunts, En Route to Grunden Capital ))

With rasping sound of the chunky wheels spitting up dirt and gravel, the squat, heavy armoured four-wheel-drive hulk, the Grunden’s called a ‘Grunt’, lurched into life and sprang out onto the dirt track, leading way from the Base Camp; the force of acceleration slammed the Galadoran back into his seat.  So jammed in, in contrast, the Andorian did not budge.

Tho’Bi: ::tries to look at Gnai, can’t:: Ow.  (beat) At least you can move.

The Galadoran stayed silent, but the Andorian might have sensed a slow cycle of shudders from the ever-intriguing Lieutenant Gnai; difficult to be sure with his antennae jammed up against the roof of the shifting and sliding vehicle. 

Sadar: S-S-Sorry!

The Mizarian Lieutenant was hunched over the robust control panel of the Grunt, her long arms hooked outwards and around, to allow her to grip the steering wheel; a viewscreen provided an extended view of the road, and surrounding landscape of deep greens and earthy browns.   

Gnai: It’s fine, this just wasn’t expecting that.

After a few minutes, the shift and slide of the hulking vehicle settled down; from his limited vantage point, the Andorian noticed Lieutenant Sadar’s arms relaxed a little.  The Grunt’s intercom crackled for a moment, as it amped up to function; Ensign Cole’s voice sounded thinner, and tone-blunted by data encryption and/or compression, the young Engineer could not tell which; the beginning and end of the message were top and tailed by a short sequence of apparently random tones 

Cole: =/\= Lieutenant, the road up ahead has some damage from being shelled by artillery. Drive with caution. =/\=

The Andorian felt the steady pull forward, as the Grunt slowed; his antennae dragged on the roof.  He swallowed a grunt of discomfort.

Sadar: =/\= Have your people always lived on these plains, General? =/\=

Kexxin: =/\= Response =/\=

As the all-terrain-vehicle turned one way and then the other, snaking its way around the blast craters left by artillery, the young Engineer could feel the adaptive types morph, to better grip the ever-shifting surface of loose dirt and pebbles; each morph felt as though the wheels were clawing at the earth, digging in and pulling forward; more animal than machine.

With each turn, each slide one way or the other, each chassis roll, the Andorian’s antennae dragged across the roof.  With a protracted, if quiet grunt of frustration, he twisted his waist to more clearly see the roof immediately adjacent to his head.  In the center of the roof, located midway between front and back, left to right, was a circular opening.  It appeared to be just larger than a Grunden’s head and shoulders.

Gnai: This… is somewhat reminded of that soil survey mission on Bajor…

Sadar:  Response?

When the Andorian Engineer had checked the Grunt over, he’d noticed what looked like Focused Beam Weapons mounted on the top of roof; a squat, stubby turret, with an embedded circular lens, dark like the deep oceans of Andoria. 

The Andorian pushed upwards from his feet, and leveraging his upper legs, lifted his backside off the large bucket seat; as he did so, he angled his legs outwards at the knees, allowing his rucksack to drop between his knees; it lodged halfway into the footwell, between his seat and the seat in front.  Shifting his weight into the center of the vehicle, the Andorian vectored his torso sideways and up, until his head lined up with the circular opening.

Gnai: =/\= This particular valley seems relatively untouched by the conflict… =/\=

He could feel the Grunt begin to pick up a little speed, as he peered inside; his dark blue eyes met with a deep red targeting screen, housed in a rectangular metal frame; either side of the screen, position about a hand’s distance below, were two, chunky black control sticks with red buttons on top, and a red trigger on each, situated at the front.

Sadar: Response

Cole/Kexxin: =/\= Response? =/\=

The control sticks sat uneasy in his slim, long, blue fingers; as he gripped them, the Andorian engineer realized they slid inwards and outwards; as he did this a yellow rectangle on the target screen changed size; sliding outwards, the rectangle grew larger, sliding inwards, smaller; with each adjustment, he could feel the quiet grind of optics, above his head.

Tho’Bi:  Scalable dispersal ::nodding::  

Sadar: Response 

Cole/Kexxin/Vailani: =/\= Response? =/\=

By twisting the two controls anti-clockwise, the view of the targeting screen turned to the left; twisting clockwise meant the screen turned to the right; the further he twisted, the quicker the turn.  Once again, with each adjustment, he could hear the whir and shunt of rotary actuators and servo motors, above and around his head; the turret rotating around him, while he and the targeting system stayed still.

Gnai: There doesn’t seem to be any other large life-forms in the near vicinity… Just small animals and plant-life.

The mechanism whirring around his head, the Andorian scanned the open plain from left to right; warped by the wide-field-lens, and rendered in red and black tones; the grass, maroon; trees, black; the hills in the distance on all sides, dull mahogany; the sky, pale and pinkish.  Suddenly, a long, large insect creature scuttled across the dirt track in front of them; a deep blood red, undulating wave of fur and countless legs.  

Tho’Bi: Woah.

Sadar: Response

Cole/Kexxin/Vailani: =/\= Response? =/\=

The air above them moved in free-forming layers of vibrating particles; though diminished by being encased in armor, his antennae could still sense the world around them.  Like a fissure tearing through the ice, a vectoring arch ripped its way through the vibrating layers; with that, a shrill whine began building to a deafening shriek.   

Gnai: Lieutenant…! What’s going on, can you see?

Instinctively, the Andorian pulled back on the control sticks; the targeting screen pitched upwards towards the pale, pinkish sky, as the mechanism whirred and clicked; automatically, a yellow triangle zeroed pinged into view, and centered around a crimson dot, growing ever-larger in the pale and pink sky.  

The young Ensign didn’t bother to search for the Grunden coms button, he tapped the coms badge on his chest.

Tho’Bi: =/\= Lieutenant Vailani, incoming ordinance (beat) Do I have permission to fire? =/\=

The Andorian knew before the words left his lips, there was no time for the Lieutenant to answer.

The chassis of the Grunt lurched upwards and to the right, before all four of its wheels came thumping back down onto the ground.  His antennae spasmed upwards, as he sensed the residual of a huge electrical charge that had erupted across the left side of the vehicle; dissipating and nullifying the energy from the impact.

Sadar/Gnai: Response

Cole/Kexxin/Vailani: =/\= Response? =/\=

The Andorian steadied himself and looked through the targeting screen; yellow triangles began zeroing in on a growing number of crimson dots, vectoring down towards them like the winter hail.  The Ensign tapped his coms badge.

Tho’Bi: =/\= Lieutenant Vailani, we have a lot more incoming.  (beat) What are your orders? =/\=

Vailani:  =/\= Response? =/\=

Sadar/Gnai: Response

Cole/Kexxin: =/\= Response? =/\=

TAG/TBC

(( OOC: I retconned an encryption system on the Grunden coms - a short sequence of random tones at the beginning and end of each message.  Hope that’s okay with everyone.  No idea if that all lines up, but it might.  Given the module design of the Grunts, the other Grunt could have a completely different weapon’s system.  Heavy machine gun, Cluster-Grenade Launcher, Plasma-Cannon, Catapult fill of doggie-doo, the list goes on. )) 

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Ensign Tho’Bi

Engineering

USS Artemis-A

A240203T11