Gearing Up

Posted on Sat Oct 26th, 2024 @ 7:00pm by Liha t'Ehhelih & Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya & Chief Armoury Rormu Yazlin

Mission: Shackles
Location: Armory
1059 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Liha turned down the corridor, pack that looked like she was about to go on an extended wilderness survival trip (which in her mind, she very well might be) slung over her shoulders. The only thing missing from her checklist there was firepower. Sure, she had her personal knife tucked into her tunic, and the knives in her boots, and the small one up her sleeve, plus the various items in her belt toolkit that could be used as weapons, but for going down to an unknown planet you wanted to have some other options for distance, including energy weapons. Besides, the Armory Chief was coming down with them, so dropping by on the way out was efficient.

"I think we can skip grabbing anything explosive." Kali, similarly festooned with various non-weaponry survival gear, shrugged as they neared the armory. "Considering we're bringing Burnie." Burnie appeared to approach things that went 'boom' with roughly the same sort of attitude she approached things with a sharp edge: Never be without some. "Oh, and might wanna grab bug spray, if you didn't already. There are these really annoying little things down there that act like mosquitoes but unlike mosquitoes will actually bite you."

The doors to the armoury parted, which drew Yazlin's attention. She was in the middle of assembling her marksman rifle and looked up from the table in front of her. "Good morning." It took a moment for her to connect the dots and she made her way over the lockers, making sure the locks were set to release on their personal commands. "Stocking up for the expedition?"

"Pretty much." The combination of unexpected disturbance of the area and missing supplies, plus the difficulty of leaving the planet quickly or easily had Kali bent on being loaded for bear not just in supplies but in numbers, too; she'd taken Jake's suggestions to choose between and checked 'all of the above' in her head, already alerting Liha, and Cassie, plus Burnie and K-9; and giving an appraising glance at the ease with which the Bajoran was assembling the rifle, decided to go off-book and add to the list, too. "Actually, if you're available, you may want to join us - something or someone busted open some of the supply crates down there and made off with stuff; Jake wanted me to bring folks back down to help us track it - and whoever took it, assuming it's not just some huge troupe of monkeys - down."

Yazlin held up her rifle, barrel pointing towards the ceiling, the shoulder rest standing on the table. "Honestly, I thought you'd never ask." A toothy grin accompanied the remark. "When do we leave?"

"Just as soon as we're properly equipped," Liha said, pulling up a list on her wristPaDD. "I'll need my tan qalanq, extra brace pf throwing knives, type 4 and 5 disruptors, and a type I phaser." It was a somewhat skimpy list, but she was wearing her dragonscale jacket from Hysperia and already her usually knives in boot, tunic front, plus hair stick stilettos. And besides, they were going to pick up a weapons cache, so there was a good chance she could grab extra from there if need be.

Kali didn't bother listing out an inventory of what she planned to take; she just started spotting things once the locker opened and shoving things into their designated spots, slots, and holsters, starting with the eight Orion throwing knives into the spots made for them in her boots, a fully functional hand phaser, and a tan qalanq of her own, and moving on from there; her smaller size somewhat limited her ability to carry quite as much as Liha probably could. "You'll want to bring some bug spray, though." She repeated her earlier warning to Liha to Yazlin. "Stupid little biting flying things down there; don't think they're dangerous but they're really annoying."

"Small target practice." Liha smirked. "But that reminds me; some smoke grenades might be a good addition to the load out."

Besides her rifle and a small sidearm, Yazlin only really needed a large knife. From what she'd been told the forests were rather dense and a machete to cut your way through was definitely not a luxury item. "Wait. I thought we were retrieving supplies, not laying siege to an ancient bastion."

"We are, yeah. But since half of the stuff seemingly walked off, we have no idea who or what we're gonna be trying to retrieve them from. The atmosphere on this stupid planet screws up everything from the transporters and sensors to the flight instruments, so since we have no idea who took it and have at least a decently non-zero chance we'll have trouble making a quick exit if we have to...." Kali's voice trailed off with a shrug and an apologetic grin of sorts. "My flight instructors would come find me and slap me upside the head if I didn't prepare for us to be stuck on that planet for awhile...just in case."

For someone who had spent days on end holed up in a bush somewhere waiting for the perfect shot Yazlin didn't really think the amount of 'just in case' they were preparing for was within the realm of sanity. But she wasn't going to argue with people stashing knifes in holsters she was pretty sure even they themselves couldn't find back. "Let's just hope it won't come to any of that, then."

"Hope is not a plan," Liha replied, echoing something so drilled into her by everyone from her parents to her Galae instructors that she couldn't have said where the quote came from, only that it was common wisdom. She slipped her disruptors into readily accessible holsters. "Hence being prepared."

"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst." Yazlin remarked a bit off-handedly. It was a similar sentiment, something the Resistance had always lived by, at least that's what her parents had taught her. it spoke of a bit more optimism that Romulan proverbs, or idioms, or whatever this particular quip had been. "Ready to go then?" She looked at both Romulans who by now had gathered enough hardware to overload the security buffer on the transporters.

Liha checked her weapons placement. "As ready as we can be, I guess. Let's go.