[RP] Stargate: Lost Legacy (OPEN)

[Akai_ryu]

The rhythmic clomping of a pair of boots preceded Gunnery Sergeant Shijo into the gate room moments after the Tok'ra introduced herself. Kitted out in the standard uniform of a grunt working for SGC, the Asian woman had made a few changes. Most noticeable of the changes was the fact that she was wearing a non-issue LBV with pouches stuffed with gear that didn't appear to be weapons. And then there was the fact that she was armed to the teeth, having figured that they were going into an unknown situation with a bunch of civilians. Threat assessment was low, but in reality it could mean they would be under-geared for whatever surprise was on that planet.

To tell the truth, most of Ender's gear actually belonged to her. She'd been in for 16 years and had nothing to spend her money on. Besides, she had inherited some of the gear that her father had once used. So, she saved her money and spent it on gear that could save her life. Which was why her flak jacket was not the standard-issue for grunts. Instead, she had opted for something of civilian make that afforded better protection. Even her knives came from her personal collection. The KA-bar had belonged to her father who had in turn received it from a relative as had the Fairbairn-Sykes. GLOCKs and TAVOR STARs certainly weren't standard issue either.

And the whole kit made her look even stockier than she already was. Not that Ender cared. She was here to save lives and watch over the civilians, not win a fashion contest.

"Gunnery Sar'nt Shijo, reporting for duty, ma'am." the Asian woman said in a half-barking shout as she snapped to attention and saluted Lockwood.

Normally Ender didn't go exactly by the book, but since she hadn't had a chance to chat with the officers of this squad - and it was rather odd to think of the whole thing as having multiple officers of such rank - she wanted to make sure that there was nothing for them to complain about yet. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to impress the civilians some. Not to mention the fact that she had arrived to the briefing late - she had reason for that - before lurking in the back and she had arrived late - because of a mix up involving her gear - once again.

Dark eyes flicked over the gathered women for a moment before settling on a spot just over Lockwood's left shoulder. This group was definitely an odd one. Two captains and a colonel? At least she didn't have to walk a butter-bars through his first command.

(( Must...resist...urge...to...post...gear...Gah! Too many para-military RPs. >.< ))  

[Heather Samilka]

Lee's left eyebrow rose when the gate activated. She watched as the assorted men and women take up positions on the floor behind various weaponry set up for when the gate was opened. The woman just watched as the Tok'ra came through and nodded in the womans direction in greeting.

She listened intently but gave no sign as to interrupting or joining in. Lee then next noticed the Gunnery Seargent enter and stand at parade attention or whatever it was called. She then nodded to the Seargent and went back to reading her book. Lee had no reason to interfere as the two new comers were adressing the Colonel and not herself.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Crouched in front of Emmy, Sonata smiled her shy sort of smile when the engineer looked up, canting her head to one side. "Gonna make it?" Her brows rose and the doctor's mouth opened to say something else when she was interrupted by the gate activating behind her.

Lockwood, meanwhile, looked Shijo over as she saluted, giving a lazy salute in return. "At ease, Sargent. We're only going on a practice drill, remember? You show up with real weapons the Jaffa might think we're really gunning for them, yeah?"

She looked up as well when the gate whirled into life, depositing a Tok'ra in front of her. "Kyrin, good to meet you." Instead of a bow or a salute, Lockwood straightened up and held out a hand to the alien, ready to shake.  

[Aenakume]

((heather, dude, you just gonna sulk in a corner till someone *throws* their character at you? ^_^; ))

Emmy's face hardened. "Yes, ma'am," she said evenly.

With a sour expression and punctuated grunts of effort, she stood up and started to button up her shirt, zip up her pants, and seal up her flak jacket. All the while she muttered under her breath. "I'm sure I can manage to crawl around in the muck and underbrush, while we get the crap kicked out of us by a gang of Jaffa getting their jollies tagging Tau'ri on their day off, without any more preparation." She chuckled bitterly to herself and continued to mutter, "I mean, hey, this isn't the first time I've had to dance to the tune set by some flat-nosed, pea-brained jar head with a chip on their shoulder about working with people smarter than them."

She looked at Sonata curiously, and still speaking softly so that only Sonata could hear her asked, "Why are you allowing this, anyway? You know what's gonna happen out there every bit as good as I do. We're going to get our faces plowed into the muck and stepped on by those Jaffa. Come on! Even a fully trained military assault SG team would have a hard time against a gang of entrenched Jaffa! And us? Look at us! No offense, Sonata, but you sure don't look like the soldier type, and that kid probly can't even lift her P-90! And I've been up against Jaffa before and gotten squashed. Only an idiot wouldn't be able to see what's going to happen in this stupid little game Lockwood's organized, and I have a hard time believing Lockwood's that dumb."

"We're gonna get creamed! Those soldier types, maybe they can hold their own, and good on them. But us, we're gonna get creamed. We don't even need to do this stupid exercise to know that."

"And for what damn point? 'Training'? Come on. We aren't and never will be soldiers, and frankly that's not our ******** job. We should be doing research on the kinds of technologies we might come across. That's the training we need. Not this playing-soldier-goons-in-the-woods crap. It would be wasting what precious little time we had left to put the soldiers in a classroom and try to explain the process of naqadah decomposition, because that's just simply s**t they don't need to know to do their job. And it's wasting our time to try and teach us how to belly crawl through the dirt when we could be doing real preparations that actually relate to our jobs."

Emmy frowned. "You know the whole point of this is just to humiliate us. Lockwood just wants to send a message to us that we're second-rate citizens on her team, after her military people. Sure, it might help boost the confidence of the military types on the team, but at the expense of destroying our confidence. So why are you letting this happen? What do you hope to gain for the science team by doing this?"

((suck on that, lockwood. ^_^; ha ha, and now, emmy starts drivin a wedge between the soldiers and scientists!))  

[Akai_ryu]

Sergeant? What is this, the Army? Oh. Wait. Air force. Eh. Just as bad. Ender thought with a slight frown as she settled into a parade rest.

To tell the truth, the Gunnery Sergeant was used to being called Gunny if being addressed by just her rank. Preferred it, actually. It was simply the way things were in the corps.

"Ma'am?" the asian woman asked after her brain had a moment to process the rest of what Lockwood had said. "I was under the impression we were going on a training exercise. I went an' converted to Simunition last night, ma'am."

Ender was starting to become rather confused. How did her new unit intend to train with weapons when they had none? Simmunition was in common enough use that she'd had a custom job done for her STAR-21 and bought the kit to convert her GLOCK. Admittedly, when she was reading through the breifing it seemed like this intar thing could be used for training but it seemed more like a crowd-control weapon or a less lethal one. The sort of thing that was coming into fashion in these days of political correctness and safety awareness.  

[Sterling Rogue]

"Simunition?" Kyrin cocked an eyebrow at the asian woman beside her, speaking in a distinctive voice, as though two voices spoke at once. She was taller than the Gunnery Sergeant by several inches, and looked down at her with a bit of scepticism.

As she asked this, Kyrin finally turned enough to survey the occupants of the room, letting her gaze stop on each individual without fear that she migth be breaching some social boundary. From what she could tell, the mission was doomed from the start.

Finally the Tok'ra's attention returned to Shijo and Lockwood beside her, golden gaze scanning the both of them in a seemingly disinterested manner.  

[Akai_ryu]

"Yes, ma'am. Simmunition. Straight from our frozen northern neighbors." Ender replied, still looking over Lockwood's shoulder. Having decided that this woman was not enlisted, she called her ma'am. "It's rather like paintball with more realistic weapons. I take it as we're not using it on this exercise, ma'am?"

The last question was more directed at Lockwood or any of the officers in the room. Why they needed so many officers was beyond her. More grunts would probably be necessary given that they were there to protect the scientists.  

[Heather Samilka]

((Not sulking, was waiting for a good opening for me to join in more.))

Lee just listened to the ongoing conversations, she really did have nothing to do. The men who had helped her get the intars and other necessary equipment together had left. Now everyone was waiting for the mission to begin. The Gunnery Sergeant was talking to Lockwood and to Kyrin, and then there was the scientists talking to one another in hushed tones. Lastly, Hunter was dealing with Aria and that left her as the odd woman out at the point in time.

However, when Ender spoke of simmunition and disregarded the intars, she decided to speak up.

"Gunnery Sergeant, simmunition tends to run out for one. Secondly, the weapons we will be using if you read the briefing will be the intars. They do not run out of ammo and can be recharged if and when needed. Lastly, the Colonel is refering to your knives and other weapons. You will not be needing those today. The planet we are gating to is protected by free Jaffa," she addressed Ender.

"So no we are not using simmunition, as the intars will be sufficient for this training exercise."

During her explanation, she had closed her book and looked the Sergeant straight in the eye. Her brown eyes had the look of cold steel in them and her voice was flat and emotionless. She wanted to make sure the Sergeant knew that she was disappointed as Lockwood had been disappointed in her the previous day. Mostly disappointed that the Sergeant had disregarded the briefing, like she herself had shown up out of uniform to the initial meeting the day prior.  

[Akai_ryu]

Ender's spine stiffened and she continued looking over Lockwood's shoulder with a stony expression.

Officers! Bah!

The point of Simmunition was that it didn't actually kill their people and it did run out. It wasn't like bullets appeared from nowhere in the middle of a firefight. You only got to fire as many rounds as you had brought with you. That was the way guns worked.

Not that she would have expected the Captain to understand such things. After all, she was an officer in the Air Force and there was a reason for the jokes and stereotypes. And to top it off, rumor was that the Air Force - forever overstaffed and overbudget - was going to get disbanded.

And really, Ender didn't care that the captain was disappointed with her. Lee wasn't ultimately her commanding officer. In fact, the sergeant wasn't entirely sure that Lee had any real authority over her aside from the authority given to her by the twin silver bars on her sleeve.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

(( XD be gentle akai, don't mock me if I get the concept of simunition a little off *lol* ))

Lockwood stood with a bemused smile as Lee strode forward to disarm Shijo for her. She wasn't afraid to look directly at the woman, noting her face growing harder and harder as time passed.

"Actually, Shijo bring your favorite with some of your simunition. I, personally, would love to see one of those smug Jaffa's faces when they get tagged in the a** with one. You have pink?" Despite her words and the smile on her face, Lockwood was perfectly serious. She wanted her team to prove themselves to a team of Jaffa warriors. "Nothing personal, Sandry."

Green eyes sat on Shijo a moment longer then turned toward Kyrin once again. "You'll find Dr. Rourke over yonder. As lead scientist, she's pretty much your boss."

Still crouched, Sonata's eyes remained on Emmy as she spoke, listening with complete, rapt attention. In one or two places she nodded, but there was nothing committal either way in her body language. Eventually she settled to sit rather than crouch, arms on her raised knees and her eyes remaining on Emmy.

"I'll be honest, I've only been offworld a few times, and it's always been to well-established worlds. I think the most dramatic thing we had happen was the generator failing." She smiled, a bit sheepishly, then continued. "Maybe you're right. Maybe she does think we're second class to her part of the team. But I'd rather find out in a training drill than when people are actually trying to kill us."

Strange how Sonata could stumble over every word when speaking for the entire team, but in conversation with Emmy alone her quiet voice easily found every word she was searching for.

"Alright team, get the last of your equipment together. Scientists, see Dr. Rourke for your mission objectives. The rest of you get your butts over here and I'll give you yours." Lockwood spoke loud enough to be heard over the general conversation taking place in the room, speaking with the easy authority of someone who expected to be obeyed.

(( maybe we can get offworld before newyears *heh* ))  

[Heather Samilka]

Lee knew what the point of simmunition was, she wasn't a green horned cadet or anything. The fact was the Jaffa would be using Intar staff weapons and those staff weapons when used with real fire power rarely if ever ran out of power. In fact that was the entire point of this, to go up against Jaffa and to pretty much have their asses handed to them so that they would be prepared for other Jaffa or alien life forms with such technology.

At anyrate, upon hearing Lockwood, she turned and strode over to the Colonel's position. If the Colonel wanted the simmunition then she would say nothing more. Lee knew it wasn't her place to question orders, unless the orders didn't make sense or they were illegal.

"Ready and waiting Colonel," she stated when arrived at the Colonel's position in the gate room.  

[Aenakume]

A look of comprehension spread across Emmy's face. Still speaking in low tones so that only Rourke could hear her: "You're testing her!" she said, impressed, "You were never interested in how we would act in combat situations - or at best, only peripherally interested. That's not why you allowed this. You want to see how they perform... the soldiers! You want to see if we can trust them to protect us! It's pretty much a given that they're going to give us a respectful distance when we're on our turf or neutral territory. I mean, why would they interfere with our work, right? But when we're on their turf, they have the upper hand, and you can learn a lot about people by the way they treat you when they think they're in control. You want to see how they treat us when we're on their turf."

Emmy nodded thoughtfully as she tightened all the ties, buttons, zippers and straps on her uniform and webbing. In the space of less than a minute, she went from the sloppy mess she had been on the floor to something that might even be taken for an experienced soldier. Certainly, from the fluidity of her fingers as they danced over the various catches, one could tell that she was accustomed to the gear she was wearing. If it weren't for a certain stiffness in her bearing, one might believe that this was not only used to combat dress, but comfortable in it.

"Alright, boss," she spoke around the leather hair tie in her teeth as she reached back behind her head to pull her hair back into a tight ponytail. Although her voice was still low enough that it would not carry over to where Lockwood and the soldiers were gathering, it was raised just enough that the scientists close to Rourke would hear, "So what do you want us to do? You want us to try to keep up with them and impress them with our soldiering abilities? Or just ******** it, be ourselves, fail miserably, and see how they react?"  

[Aenakume]

((akai may be gentle, but i will not! d! you do not know about sims? you are less intelligent than me in my very narrow and specific area of expertise, and thus, i mock you! mock! mock!))

((oh, and, uh, because a week is long enough to wait for someone to post, i'm ditchin her and movin on.))

Hunter came back into the gate room just in time to hear the Colonel's instruction. Flicking a glance at the scientists moving haphazardly toward Rourke, she noted with surprise that Rourke had indeed managed to get Deveraux to clean her act up. Quite impressively, too - Deveraux probably would have even passed inspection in her own unit.

It appears there is more to Dr. Rourke than I first gave her credit for, Hunter mused.

As she approached the gathering soldiers, she noted that the marine was carrying weapons that she had not ordered intar versions of. "Gunnery Sergeant," she asked, "Those are not loaded with live ammunition, are they?"  

[Akai_ryu]

A faint smile appeared on Ender's face as she listened to the colonel speak. At least the woman in charge of this whole thing had a sense of humor. It really would be a fun image to see these strangers react to getting tagged with a Simunition round.

"No, ma'am. But the red is a bit pinkish." The gunnery sergeant replied before glancing around and picking out the first Airman that didn't seem to be doing anything. "Airman! Come here for a moment.

While she waited for the younger man to come over, Ender unholstered her pistol and hit the magazine release. After pulling the magazine out, she dropped it into a pouch before pulling back the slide to show the airman that it was empty. The Gunnery Sergeant paused when Captain Hunter addressed her.

"Yes, ma'am. But not the kind that put big gapin' holes in people. More like the kind that hurt like a--" Pausing, Ender considered the people gathered in the room and decided on a better choice of words. "...Like getting tagged with a paintball up close, ma'am. Nothin' lethal as long as it's not in any sensitive bits. Would these Jaffa be wearing appropriate protection for bein' in the field, ma'am?"  

[Rogue Storm Astarael]

((sorry for takin so long.. I was only able to get on for neopets advent calender and nothing else))

Aria enters the room a few steps behind Hunter, with an incredibly pissed and sulky expression on her face and military-issue pants on. Her movements seem less fluid and more restricted than when she wore her skirt.

"Happy now? Do I pass inspection Colonel?" She asks the colonel, all hints of humor gone. 'pants should only be worn by men, I'd be discraced if anyone on my homeworld were alive to see me in mens pants' her mind is racing with these thoughts.

She looks up once and is startled to see a Tok'ra and Gunnery Sergeant Ender, with all her weaponry.

Aria notices the scientists gathered around Dr. Rourke, so she also heads towards her (the expression on her face still there, though slightly less pissed now).