trans_9 | Reign of Destruction

Works fer me, mate. Jono climbed into the transport, heading to stand near the Doctor and Jaime. An' aye, reckon we should get movin' quick as possible. 'Specially if this grid is what keeps the Ohm away from the planet.

The Doctor was fine with John taking charge—he seemed to know what he was doing, the others listened to him, he had a goal in mind and his motives were clear. Even the fact that he was an obvious ‘military type’ didn’t deter him as much as it usually did because, seriously, that seemed to be the best way to take out most of the smaller Ohm, so they were good to have around at least as a means of clearing out the grunts so that the more specialized creatures could be dealt with skillfully.

BUT. If there was one thing that would get on his nerves if it didn’t stop soon, it was—

“—Kindly refrain from calling me ‘Doc’, if you would be so—“ the Doctor folded his arms and attempted to address the quickly dissipating group, looking flustered, “—kind—“

He frowned and gave up. Annoying abbreviations could be ignored for the time being; meanwhile, the Doctor was headed back for the shuttle, giving the Engineer (”How quaint.”) a friendly nod as he passed the front cabin. He was, of course, momentarily intrigued by what she was doing, and probably would’ve inquired further if there weren’t Ohm biting at their heels. So to speak.

Well, Ohm and Jamie. The Doctor motioned at his two companions with a jerk of the head as he hopped into the back of the vehicle (pointedly notpicking up a weapon from the humvee beforehand) and staked out a place to sit for the ride over. Jono got a similarly polite smile as he found a spot by one of the ramps.

“—Right. Come along then, no time to waste!”

John didn't respond to the Metal's complaints. If she thought that was him being rude then she was in for one hell of a surprise with his mother. Really he didn't care if she was metal or not right now. There was a world to save first, and he'd use whatever tool that came his way to do it. At least Marcus wasn't arguing with him right now. That was good. Having something like him on their side was a hell of an advantage.

"If you're a tech then you're with me." He said over his shoulder to Stephen. "You're more valuable getting that grid back up than handling a weapon. There's enough of us to do that. Take a weapon just in case though." Not as many guards per tech as he'd like, but when did he ever have the sort of resources, and numbers that were ideal.

John stepped into the shuttle with the last of the ammo, securing it before taking a seat. "Doctor do you have any other intel about where we're headed? A map maybe? I know we don't have much choice, but I'd like for us to not be completely blind going in.

Sarah would have punched John if he had her go with anyone else but him--and he knew it. She honestly didn't get on well with anyone. Ever. It was probably the years of being chased, hunted, shot at, and locked up that dulled her sense of 'how to make friends and keep them.' She gave the metal bitch a once over and tried not to growl.

Metal were friends.

...she tried very hard not to clench her gun any tighter and to pointedly keep her finger off the trigger. She wasn't supposed to shoot friendlies. Sarah eyed Marcus for a long moment.

"You fuckers ready or what?" she asked, scowling from somewhere inside the shuttle. "Goddamn, I could use a cigarette."

Ugh, thought Alessa, already waiting for them. Some humans are just so primitive. No wonder they are able to be so crude and somehow pulla win out of their pocket.

Not that it mattered either way. They could care about whatever they liked and do whatever they wanted. She would follow order so long as it got her closer to fighting, and even if some of them were acting like apes, at least they were prompt apes.

Not that she wouldn't put one in their place if they mouthed off to her. Normally she could withhold those sort of violent motions, but not when she'd spent the last few days around sun and happy people.

"Let's go then."

"Aye."

Well, that's a relief. For a moment there, Jamie thought he'd have to resort to stronger measures to get the Doctor into the shuttle - especially when he stopped to see what that metal lass was doing. Typical of the Doctor, though, to not want to go and then three seconds later decide that no, really, we should all hurry up now.

Jamie doesn't quite roll his eyes at that, but there is a rather long-suffering look on his face as he stumps off after the others and climbs aboard the shuttle.

"All right," he said to John, and obediently picked up a handgun. Something low caliber, that he knew how to use and wouldn't wreck something doing so. Besides, he could always kick it up a notch if he had to.

"You're telling me," Stephen said to John's mother. He'd actually entertained the idea of looking for cigarettes or something like them on the vacation world, and then decided that the enforced cold turkey was probably good for him. Probably.

He picked up his bag, made sure the handgun's safety was on, and boarded the shuttle, finding himself a seat.

Rose followed the others into the shuttle, finding a seat where she could keep an eye on the Doctor and Jamie. She was taking the time to double-check her equipment when she was struck with a rather unpleasant thought. She grimaced.

“If anyone managed to survive the initial assault and activate security measures, we’ll be goin’ through them plus whatever Ohm are about.” Not to mention the reinforcements that would be sent when the Ohm realized someone was trying to get the grid online. “Would it be possible to turn ‘em off from the shuttle if we need to?”

The moment they had received the transmission, Billy had given his okay for Kaylee to jump one team to the other. They could handle whatever else needed to be done for the reactor. Best to split off now and make sure the next team had everything they needed for the grid, including the very blue alien Veratech worker currently hurrying alongside her.

"Glad I got ya 'fore they took off," she mumbled, before waving up at the shuttle and shouting. "Hold up, got two more to board!"

A clearly alien Veratech employee trotted alongside Kaylee to the shuttle. He looked quite shaken-up about the whole ordeal, rubbing his two three-fingered hands together.

"Fixing the defense-grid?" he chattered nervously, "Yes, yes, I'll go with you."

They were all gathered now, the shuttle was already beginning to rise, and they now had what looked like a Veratech employee with them—he had the logo printed across his worm-out uniform, after all, so it seemed safe to assume that he worked there—thus the Doctor took a moment from his brow raising at the foul-mouthed Sarah (”Because I would very much like to point out that the vast majority of us are not in the process of ‘fucking’, and therefore it would be highly inaccurate to address us as ‘fuckers’, mind…”) to wave them onboard with a friendly hand and smile. Said smile only grew when he noticed that the one escorting the worker happened to be Kaylee. But for the meantime the Doctor concentrated on answering what questions he could, holding off on proper greetings until they were safely on the move.

First dibs went to John. “—Er, I’m afraid not,” he replied cheerfully with a nervous grin, “Completely blind!”

He opened his mouth to continue, but instead decided that this was already becoming awkward and didn’t need any further provocation on his part. The Doctor abruptly turned to Rose.

…And was momentarily thrown off by her question, because he hadn’t thought about that until just now. His emphatic smile remained but became considerably forced and, therefore, worried. “—Hmm? Oh, I highly doubt it. From what I saw this shuttle’s only remaining functions are levitating and going forwards.”

The Doctor loosed a nervous chuckle and bit his lip.

"If we had the time, I could change that," Angie called back to the Doctor. "Right now, it's taking everything me and Wyn have to keep it levitating and moving forward." The bits were there. She would have managed it if there was time, but resources needed to go elsewhere. "That said, if I have the codes and the right frequency, I might be able to manage it myself."

Blind, harried, and running into a building possibly full of still active defenses. A bad situation getting worse by the minute. It was almost familiar enough to be comfortable. At least they had a facility worker. Who was now going to be under the full force of John's attention. "Frequencies, and codes do you know them? And what can you tell me about the layout, or defenses?"

There was no yelling on his part. Just a quiet urgency to his voice. He needed the creature focused not more terrified than he already was. Even if he didn't know there was more than enough expertise here he was sure they could get through whatever security there was. He could manage it on his own if he had to. "If we can get into those systems we should keep them up, and just tag ourselves as friendlies. We need every gun we can get against these bugs."

This was going to require strength. Alessa could see that much, and those that were human were certainly going to have to compensate for a lack of actual strength. That bravado was probably going to be necessary. In any case she stayed silent, watching the exchange going on between the people in the shuttle and the newly recovered facility person.

She had no technical expertise obviously, so it was pointless to even think about that. She was going to do what she was meant to: fight, rip, cut the enemy. There wasn't much more to think about besides that. If she could give cover, she would, and if she were killed in this excursion, so be it.

Still, a part of her was a little bit worried about that Sasami girl. She wondered how she would defend herself.

Sarah just nodded as their number increased by two and flicked a glance at John. As long as they were moving towards their target and could get their asses set up and in position to defend the others while they fucked around with the mechanical bits, she had nothing to say.

Well.

"Can't you move this pile of shit any faster?" she finally growled, her fingers closing around her rifle's strap, tightening, and releasing as she fiddled with it. She wanted to shoot something.

"I would love to make it go faster, believe me, but this is as good as it gets." Wyn calls back from the copilot's seat. She sounds almost manically cheerful... but possibly-insane cheerfulness is much more useful in this situation than panic.

As Jamie hangs on to whatever he can find to try and avoid being bounced around, he's looking distinctly unhappy. He doesn't like being stuck in something this small - and crowded - and he doesn't like the fact that they don't know what they're going to be in for once they do get there.

As Sarah speaks, he nods in agreement. She's not the only one that wants the journey to be over with and done with. Although, in his case, it's more that there's a little niggling fear the shuttle's going to fall apart in mid-flight. Manically cheerful Wyn is making him nervous.

"Hopefully we'll get there soon," he mutters.

Edited 2010-06-29 06:19 (UTC)

Interrogation of the worker begins, and Kaylee quickly fades back to see who all else is on the ship. She tosses the Doctor a supportive smile, laughing at Wyn as she goes (because really, a little bit of smiling and laughter to break up the tension is what everybody needs), and she finally pauses next to a very familiar and very nervous face. She knows that look very well, has seen it on plenty of people their first time in the air during an emergency.

Without hesitation, Kaylee slides in next to Jamie and gives his hand a comforting squeeze. "It'll work out, not to fret."

The Doctor nodded, looking grim but no less enthusiastic. “So you say…”

Probably; though the connections that the Engineer had with the ship implied that she had a nigh complete understanding of its functions and controls, the codes that were supposed to be innately contained within its build were most likely wiped, unrecognizable. There was a chance that even the signaling devices for radioing in the shuttle’s approach and deactivating any defense systems waiting for them were also too badly damaged to work, despite having the right frequencies for docking and tagging. They might be able to improvise something, given the time, but…

“…Hmm,” the Doctor leaned over his lap, immersed in thought; then he perked up suddenly started digging through his pockets, procuring in steady increments a toy plastic radio (quaintly decorated with palm trees and an alien—presumably female—dancing next to the receiver), a handful of wires of various lengths, several strands of fiber optic cables, a screwdriver (of the non-sonic variety), and a whole mess of other electronics, transistors, circuit boards, all placed in a neat pile on the floor at his feet. He paused to look over the collection, apparently quite proud of himself for remembering to keep all of this at some point or another—and then he abruptly pointed at Stephen and Tony.

“—Uhm—“ he waved his outstretched hand in a vague gesture of attention, since he didn’t know their names, “—This should be everything. I need you two to make a transceiver. Nothing fancy, just something that can take codes and transmit them to a radio unit. Do we have an estimated time of arrival?”

A pause, but the Doctor already knew. “—You have about fifteen minutes.” And he left them to their work, crouching over to his seat next to Jamie and Rose. At least one of them was looking understandably uncomfortable, and therefore was in need of his consoling. Jamie wasn’t fond of flying vehicles, if he remembered correctly. Got airsick or something. The Doctor bit his lip and, taking Kaylee’s lead on his companion’s other side, gave him a reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder.

“…Yes, not to worry,” he nodded as if he was also convincing himself, “We’ll get there in one piece—“

A sudden turbulence rattled the bottom of the shuttle, a distinct sound of sloshing waves indicated brief contact of some sort. The Doctor frowned, flustered out of his condolences, and he turned towards the cockpit with some annoyance. “—Fragile cargo, steady! Did we hit something?”

[[ooc: Sorry, Col, moving things ahead. You can NPC the Ohm from here on, I promise. :3]]

"Oh goody," Stephen said. At least he'd brought some of the stuff he'd scrounged with him. The Doctor did have quite the respectable start, though. Stephen contributed with a wire stripper, a pair of of slender-nosed pliers, and something that looked like a Speak and Spell, though the symbols on its keys looked absolutely nothing like English. He started to take off the back, careful not to lose the power components, and quirked a brow at the other young man the Doctor had indicated.

"Think we can do something with this pile?" Oh, Stephen had a few ideas, it was true, but it was a task they'd both been given, and he was more than willing to share.

Reign of Destruction

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