NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1505581" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter XXVIIIDate: 123-993Place: Groves Airport outside Lowford, in Bromley, on Alief Early morning finds the rescue team — Argent, Vargas, Martha, and Darishun — making final preparations for attempting their first two rescue pickups from within Medway.As the team is going over their procedures, Darishun again comments to Marcus, "As much as she likes to watch over her babies, I believe that the Bray Keaven’s engines do not require Martha’s presence to be running. Perhaps it would be wisest to have her on the bridge in case we need to depart in a hurry since you and Emile will need to be decontaminated before you can go to the bridge and we can take off, and that process takes 10 to 20 minutes if we follow Saro’s procedure."Marcus agrees with Darishun on this point. Martha will manage the bridge while he and Vargas are on EVA.Lt. Col. Billings reports that both the Alpha and Bravo rescue groups have been notified and are awaiting pickup. Bravo group was apparently quite insistent that they are rescued first, but they were told to wait for the afternoon pickup.-----After the holiday team departs and the rescue team finishes its final preparations, the Bray Keaven lifts off headed towards Medway. As the Bray Keaven approaches Medway, Marcus and Emile can spot a number of burned–out husks of vehicles that were destroyed trying to cross the quarantine zone. Closer to the city, they see a fair amount of devastation in the city itself. Vehicles and corpses litter the roadways.-----Five minutes from Claim Alpha site, Marcus contacts the inhabitants via their wireless phone system."Hello? Is this the Bray Keaven? I’m Paul Hutch.""Yes, I am Marcus Argent, captain of the Bray Keaven. We’re 5 minutes out from your house. When we land, we will bring you three biohazard suits to wear. Please stay in your house until we arrive. We’ll bring the biohazard suits inside, let you put them on, and then we’ll escort you to the ship.""Understood. Please bring a child’s suit for Emily, if you have one.""I don’t think that we have any children’s suits, but we’ll bring the smallest one we have.""Thanks. Thank you again so much for coming to get us.""You’re welcome. Bray Keaven out."-----Claim Alpha is in a house in one of the middle–class suburbs of the city. The houses are squat, one–story affairs made of fired clay bricks or cut stone. Marcus finds the appropriate house without trouble and gingerly sets down the Bray Keaven in the middle of the street, managing to miss almost all of the nearby vegetation (though there is no one to protest if he had squashed any). Unbuckling themselves, Marcus and Emile then proceed to the port cargo lock, where they don their Bromlian biohazard suits and join Darishun in the cargo bay. Martha takes up position on the bridge.Once Marcus and Emile indicate that they are ready, Darishun opens the rear cargo hatch, and the pair head towards the house with three biohazard suits in hand. Darishun descends to stand at the base of the cargo ramp and awaits their return.-----Marcus and Emile approach the house’s door and press the doorbell. A muffled voice says, "Please enter, the door is now unlocked." The ex-Scouts open the door and enter a small room, the apparent equivalent of an airlock to help keep the ever–present dust out of the house proper (common in buildings in Alief).Once the outside door closes, the inside door opens, and a thin, somewhat scared–looking, sandy–haired man peers out and beckons the two in. "Thank you so much for coming to get us! Please, come in. We’re ready to go. This is Martha and my sweetie, Emily, is hiding behind her."Marcus replies, "You’re welcome. Come on, please put these suits on, we want to depart as quickly as we can."The family quickly puts on the biohazard suits. The girl appears about 9 years old, and seems to have a few healing sores and bruises on her body. She seems scared and is reluctant to let go of her stuffed rabbit. "Please daddy? May I take Smoochie with me?"-----Back on the Bray Keaven, Martha, who is listening over Argent and Vargas’ open suit mics, asks who Smoochie is. "A family pet?" Vargas explains it’s a toy. Martha smiles and recommends that they place Smoochie in plastic bag. "If the girl balks at that, tell her it’s a biohazard suit for the rabbit. That will make it easier for her to accept.""An excellent suggestion," Vargas says. "Except we didn’t bring any plastic bags with us. Ma’am," he says, turning to Emily’s mother, "do you have any plastic bags that can be sealed?""Don’t use their bags — contamination," Martha tells him over the comm link. "In that case, I’d recommend that we leave the doll. Besides, we don’t have time to mess with it. It looks like the locals are stirring."Martha has been monitoring various screens showing images of the neighborhood captured by the ship’s external cameras. Outside several of the surrounding houses, people are emerging, attracted by the sound of the starship’s landing. Three men gather to the rear of the ship, about two blocks away. Others further away start to walk toward where the men are talking, pointing and gesturing at the ship.-----"Darishun’s in a suit and we can bag Smoochie when we get into the cargo bay, which is also considered contaminated," Argent reminds Martha over the comms as he turns to the family. "We need to go, now."With the family suited, the five exit the house. They see Darishun scanning the area from the foot of the rear cargo ramp and warily watching the small crowd of 10 to 15 people that has formed about 100m down the street. The crowd is starting to move towards the Bray Keaven.-----Martha tries to train the ship's laser on the street immediately in front of the crowd, and over the loud speakers/external comm, she announces at a volume that the approaching crowd can hear, "Captain, the ship's laser has been set to maintain an automated defense perimeter of 80m. Sensors indicate an approaching force of unknown purpose, which will shortly trigger the defenses. None have attempted contact as yet; I recommend that they be considered hostile. What are your orders?"Martha then switches to her comm link with the suited crewmembers. "Dunno how long the trigger–finger attitude will keep them at bay, but you better hurry, Captain. They may stop, elect a leader and try to contact us, or they may just decide to charge the ship. Either way, I’d rather not fire on civilians if I can help it."-----Emily, who has spotted Darishun and has figured out they are headed toward the large sophont, starts to cry. She pulls away from her father and hides behind her mother, clutching Mrs. Hutch’s legs so she is unable to move.-----Martha realizes that even though the turrets can be rotated rearward, because of their placement and the shape of the hull, the crowd is already within the "dead" zone where the turrets cannot be brought to bear. She thumbs the personal comms. "Gentlemen, we’ve got company coming, a hundred meters out and closing. Grab our guests and get in here. I’m dustin’ as soon as I get the ‘all clear’ from you guys. Unless someone’s got any better ideas, you’ve got about 15 seconds before the crowd gets too close, less if they decide to start running. That margin is dropping with each step they take. They mean to swarm us, Sir, and I can't say as I blame them. But I don’t want it to happen nonetheless."-----"Paul, pick up Emily and run, now." Argent gently urges the pair forward as he double-times it to the ship.Glancing over their shoulders at the approaching mob, Marcus and Emile hurry their charges into the Bray Keaven via the aft cargo ramp. Seeing Marcus, Emile, and the Hutch family running, the group of people breaks into a run also. At the same time, Darishun advances slightly; his voice — enhanced and filtered through his suit speakers — booms "Please halt! If you approach too quickly, you may harm yourselves!"The small crowd stops about 30 meters away and eyes things warily. A man cries out, "Please! Stop! Please take us with you! We aren't sick!"Marcus, Emile, and the family make it onboard, and Darishun backs up into the cargo bay. Once the ramp starts shutting, the crowd starts running again. Argent yells "Dust it!" over the comm, and Martha lifts the far trader off the ground just before the first people of the crowd can grab onto the ramp.Marcus leaves Emile to introduce the family to Darishun — and reminds him to bag the bunny – then heads immediately for the airlock to get decontaminated. Over the comm, he tells Martha, "Keep us around 300 meters and at a gentle clip until I get up there," he orders. "We’re going to have to rethink our strategy for the next group. I may just kill some statuary on the afternoon run."-----Following the Captain’s orders, Martha brings the ship up to 300 meters, and starts following the flight plan out of Medway as she awaits his return to the bridge.-----Emile gets the Hutch family settled. They are all watching the Virushi very carefully, but seem very relieved to be on the ship. Darishun places Smoochie in a sealable bag.-----On the street, the crowd gathers where the Bray Keaven once was, arms stretched to the sky and crying, "Please! Come back! We aren’t sick! Please take us with you!"-----Darishun asks, "Should we bring the people on the street with us? Perhaps they haven’t been infected yet. Maybe they are part of the list of people who want to be rescued and haven’t been infected?"-----Martha checks the list of people to rescue, and there are no people claiming to be uninfected and requesting rescue on this street other than the Hutch family.-----Vargas rises from beside the Hutch family and turns away slightly before speaking into his comm. "I hate to say it folks, but unless we have a handle on who’s boarding, I wouldn’t advise picking up strays. It could get out of hand quickly."-----Still inside the decom station, Marcus heads to a comm unit. Flipping the ship’s external speakers on, he grabs a mic."Listen, people. We can only pick up those people whom the government has identified," he says. "You must contact your local authorities to request pickup. We can’t risk contamination outside the perimeter if one of you is infected and doesn’t know it yet."After completing the decontamination process, Argent moves to the bridge and slips into the pilot’s chair. "OK, Martha, I have it now. Thanks." Marcus sets a course for suborbital decontamination of the ship, and he comms Emile to come to the bridge once the passengers are comfortable with Darishun and he passes through the decom station.-----"Roger that," replies Vargas. "I’ll see you folks later," he says to the Hutch family. "Thanks for flying Keaven Air." The former scout heads for decom and then checks to make sure Rusti is OK on his way to the bridge. </blockquote>

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