The Mission At Hand [TJ, Carina, Isabella, OPEN] 2184 (In Progress)

After grabbing his bags, Tarik stepped off the ship and inhaled the cool Canadian breeze. "It's good to be back!" He said excitedly. 

As the other soldiers who with him separated. Tarik looked around the base, the humming of machines that give the base its power, from the soldier chatting about various things and even the megacity of Vancouver bustling about memories flooded the young soldier's mind this was the place that gave Tarik a chance to explore the glaxy.

It felt damn good to be back.

Tarik headed to the briefing room which was a 15 minute walk, after asking his fellow soldiers for directions, Tarik walked towards the room, smiling at the people he saw: Nurses, soldiers anyone who came into his sights. Tarik couldn't help maintain his giddiness at the prospect of seeing his old base again. However he knew that things were about to get serious really soon. As soon as he arrived, Tarik was stopped by the commanding officer. He was a little shorter than Tarik with white hair, blue eyes and a scar that ran halfway to his cheek. He wore the officer's uniform: Dark blue with golden lines on the shoulder. Tarik immediately saluted the man.

"At ease Sergeant." The CO said.

"Admiral Reginald Anders." Tarik said curtly "It's an honor to meet you, you've been veteran of many battles."

Anders chuckled "I'm flattered Sergeant, but right now it's time for you to know what you're going up against. This will be a mission that will be upmost test of your skill."

"Eager to prove it sir." Tarik said with a hint of an excitement in his voice. "Who's on the team."

"It's a two person op." Anders replied "She's not a soldier, but she's the best damn hacker we can find."

She? A Hacker? A noncombatant? What kind of mission is this? Especially if it involved a noncombatant? Tarik tried to erase any doubts he had as he tried to focus.

"I'll lead you to her Sergeant. Have you two get to know each other first. She's around your age." Anders said.

"Take me to her Admiral. Eager to work with her." Tarik said with some nervousness in his voice.

All he wants to know is what the mission is about.

(OOC: GoldenGail3 If you have any ideas for this story, please PM me!  )

Tarik followed Admiral Adams to the shooting gallery where the girl is getting some combat training. "At least she's getting some training." Tarik thought with relief.

As the two men approached the door of the gallery, Adams entered first immediately the officer who was training the girl sprung up and saluted. "You are relieved Lieutenant." Adams said.

As the officer exited the room. Adams introduced the girl to Tarik.

"This is Carina Johnson." Adams said "I'll leave you two alone to familiarize yourselves afterwards meet me at the briefing room."

(OOC: Short but the next post will be longer. GoldenGail3)

Tarik examined Carina.

He towered over the girl so she's probably 5'5 or 5'6 maybe even a 5'7 but that's stretching it a bit. Carina possessed long, willowy blonde hair that fell beneath shoulders. She also has blue eyes, a thin face, lips complete with a chin that is the shape of a heart. Carina's clothes were what Tarik expected from engineers: Dark blue, normally dirty due to hours working in the engine room, brown, blotched boots. She also wielded the standard Heavy Pistol and judging by her performance at the targeting range she seems to be an okay shot. The girl comes across as a tomboy yet despite it all Tarik noted Carina looks more like a fashion model rather than a engineer/hacker. Definitely a looker even without the use of makeup.

"Hi. " Carina said to Tarik "Your the first, I'd assume?"

"Huh?" Tarik asked, snapping out of his trance. He has tendency to get lost while he is examining people. Carina's voice sounds nervous, faint indicating that she's not very comfortable around people.

Trying to bond with his new partner Tarik responded: "Um.... no It's going to be you and me for this...... mission."

Now HIS voice sounded awkward, nervous. It's been years since Tarik really had a one to one conversation with a civilian, he really feels out of place. Trying to start up a conversation Tarik began to speak.

"My name is Sergeant Tarik Jones. Been with the Alliance for about 8 years now. But you can call me T.J!" Tarik said flashing a big grin to the girl. Tarik glanced at the targeting station where Carina just practiced. "So you're not a bad shot. But don't worry leave the combat to me. I'll protect you through out this mission you don't have to worry about a thing."

It sounded a bit awkward, but Tarik felt a little better about himself, still smiling at Carina, Tarik continued. "So I'm from New York, lived there for most of my life. Joined the Alliance when I was 18 to see the galaxy and I've been with them ever since. So what about you? What's your story? Where are you from? Got any friends?"

Tarik waited for Carina's answer.

(OOC: GoldenGail3)

Tarik listened to Carina's backstory becoming impressed with the girl's past (and felt his cheeks flush a bit in embarrassment when Carina called him a "gentleman").

"Wow!" He replied with glee in his voice. "That doesn't sound very cliche at all, you've traveled all over the galaxy for all of your life in Alliance Warships! It sounds much more exciting than my past to be honest. I must say, I'm a little jealous."

Stroking his chin for a bit Tarik asked: "So you're a Chief Engineer on the Explorer's Ship: Hopper? I've never been inside there what's it like compared to an Alliance Warship?"

After listening to Carina, Tarik received a message on his Omni-tool from command: "Meet us at the Briefing Room on the double Sergeant."

Frowning Tarik looked at Carina: "Come on, they need us right now follow me to the Briefing Room."

(OOC: GoldenGail3)

(OOC: One of the things I like about RPing in Mass Effect is that you can use modern songs and references, so go ahead GoldenGail!)

On their way to the Briefing Room, Tarik and Carina were getting along just nicely. Despite her nervousness, Carina was a bubbly and geeky kind of girl. "I should be jealous of you - you've got to experienced a semi- normal existence on a planet, while on living on a ship isnt exactly a idlystic situation- I remember my pa never let me go on other planets due to the dangers of my child-like curiosity getting the best of me, which is dangerous you know. And plus, we had the dangers of our bones wasting away too, as you know, space travel can be no fun." She said.

Tarik didn't mention to Carina the hard life he endured as a child on the streets of New York, but when he joined the Alliance he's been on a number of planets ranging from exotic to dangerous. It was a fun time for him to explore the galaxy.

"Your Dad is trying to protect you Carina." Tarik said "Besides being on a ship can mean you go anywhere in the galaxy anytime! You seem to be a very talented engineer so you can probably make a ship travel faster and longer right?"

They were halfway to the Briefing Room as Carina answered Tarik's second question regarding life inside a Alliance Warship: "Like the old show Star Trek. I'd say, but unlike Geordi La Forge, I don't wear a yellow uniform."

Tarik's eyes lit up: "Wow you like Star Trek?! I'm a huge a fan of that show!" He expressed with glee. "If you're Forge, than I'm Worf. We got a lot in common don't you think?"

Tarik is a fan of the old Star Trek, in his downtime he would watch old episodes. "Hey Carina when this is all over let's you and me watch some Star Trek? What do you say?"

After waiting for Carina's response the two entered the Briefing Room. It was full of Sergeants sitting across from each other in a long silver table and in the middle was Admiral Reginald Anders. "Sergeant, Johnson good to see you both." He said "I trust that you two have become acquainted with each other."

Before sitting down, Tarik saluted: "Yes sir, I believe Carina and I will make a great team."

Anders clasped his hands: "Excellent now the matter at hand, 3 months ago a rebel uprising has taken place on the planet Orcinda. An agricultural planet where the Alliance gets their crops. Apparantely these rebels are anti-alliance and have found out about our secret project."

Tarik raised an eyebrow: "Secret project?"

Anders continued: "We established a base for the people of Orcinda's protection, reality we have been using the base for weapons testing. Recently we've been running tests on a Tarix cannon given to us by the Turians as a "gift". We've been tweaking the cannon in order to increased its efficiency, until the rebels took over and our currently in the process of taking that Tarix Cannon we cannot let that happen. We've sent an Alliance soldier: Lt Joseph Hammond in there to investigate, but he has disappeared as soon as he landed. Your mission is to go in, stop the rebels and rescue Lt Hammond."

"What else do you know about the rebels?" Tarik asked.

"Not much." Anders said grimly "They're using an en cryptic channel where they can communicate. It's been hard to hack in, that's where Carina comes in. Once you're on planet Carina you must hack in to the system and find out who they are and what do they want and if necessary stop the rebels from installing the Tarix Cannon."

Tarik was grim, his heart was racing he felt a shortness of breath this is going to be a challenging mission, but he will not let the Alliance down.

"This is a 2 person op, we don't want to do anything risky and we've chosen you two especially you Sergeant Tarik because we are confident in your abilities do your jobs and this mission will be over with. Any questions."

"None on my end. Carina?" Tarik turned to the girl to see if she had any questions afterwards the Admiral said: "Good luck you two."

(OOC: GoldenGail3)

(OOC: Apologies this is late, as I mentioned yesterday I was really busy! But now I have time for RP!)

"Doubtful" Tarik said referencing to Carina's remark about the mission being "easy peasy." "One thing I've learned in basic training is to not underestimate the enemy. Considering we really don't much about these rebels."

"Your ship is waiting for you two on helipad 3." Anders said as the other officers began getting up and exiting the briefing room.

"Nice." Tarik said, "All right Carina you got some experience in flying? I had a little in my career. Hopefully we get an AI for this."

Tarik began exiting the All right Carina better go to your room and prepare. I'll do the same. We'll meet back at the helipad, and don't worry La Forge as pessimistic as I am. I'm confident in our abilities that will make it out just in time for you and me to binge watch Star Trek!" Tarik winked at Carina.

Tarik walked towards his room, it was typical military place: All of the essentials, neatly folded bedsheets and furniture and finally his weapons and armor. The soldier began outfitting himself, while equipping his weapons. As soon as he was done, Tarik looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like an utter badass, ready to protect and dominate if need be. Still he couldn't shake off this feeling something is really off about this mission...... Tarik shook it off though. He has a job to do and people to protect, "We'll be fine." he thought.

An hour later Tarik waited for Carina to arrive, when he saw her Tarik smiled: "Let's show on the road La forge!"

(OOC: GoldenGail3)

"We'll see.. Mister Worf, we'll see..." Carina remarked with a grin.

"Hey I'm supposed to be the pessimistic one Mister La Forge. Come on let's get that ship warmed and ready!" Tarik smiled.

The ship is a corvette class that can carry ten soldiers and bears the Alliance colors. It's one of the smaller Alliance ships only used for combat and survey missions. The engine is outfitted with mass accelerator cannons and is capable of independent faster than light travel. No expense paid for the quality work of Alliance ships. Tarik was about to step into the ship, but he heard Admiral Anders voice behind: "Sergeant Jackson!" He shouted running towards Tarik.

Tarik heart skipped a beat, "Go get the ship ready Mister La Forge." Tarik muttered, "I'll catch up."

Tarik approached Admiral and was about to salute, but the Anders gestured not to. "That won't be necessary son, there is something to talk to you in private."

Tarik raised an eyebrow "Sir?"

"Sergeant, the reason why we chose you for this is to test your abilities..... For admission to the N7 program."

Tarik's face was calm and collected..... on the outside. Internally he was screaming like a 5 year old who just received his favorite toy. The N7 is special forces: The highest level of proficiency in the Alliance military. N7 soldiers are very selective and take only the very best for training..... and even then about a third make it. Still if a soldier achieves the rank, then they are well respected and highly regarded by not only the Alliance, but civilians as well.

Also the pay is very high or so Tarik heard.

Anders looked as though he wanted to smile, but held it, maintaining his composure. "The N7 recruiters like you Jackson. You have high marks on the combat simulators, posess a profound loyalty to the Alliance, but you haven't been on many challenging missions. If you do well, then you will admitted to the N7 program for training."

Tarik saluted "I won't let you down sir!" He said.

"You'd best not son." Anders replied curtly "They are watching you. Dismissed."

As soon Tarik entered shuttle, he sat next Carina. "Man, now this mission has even more weight on me! Carina set coordinates for Oricdea."

The ship began to lift off and headed upward to the blackness of the galaxy. FTL thrusters began making noise and Tarik felt himself go back a bit as the shuttle went into FTL.

During the journey Tarik began playing some music.



"You don't mind do you?" Tarik asked giving Carina a goofy smile ear to ear.

(GoldenGail3)

"Look, we may face some unexpected air turblance. Or an Air battle. One of which I don't think you can help with - don't use your gun aboard the craft, thanks." 

"Why would I use my gun when there's a friendly on board?" Tarik said laughing but Carina seemed busy with something so he decided to let her work.

Tarik looked at the monitor, they were fast approaching Orcidea, ETA about 30 minutes. After checking the engine, Carina who was listening to music of her with an ancient looking music device, took the earplugs out of her ears. "We'll be there in thirty minutes or so. It's not a long journey. I suppose. To me, this is kind of short? Like really short. Usually it would take us hours upon hours of preparation to get to planets. I remember it quite vivibly but I'm talking too much aren't I? Ehehehee... "

The girl looked and sounded nervous, an engineer with minimal combat experience on a mission full of deadly and unpredictable rebels. Tarik couldn't blame Carina for her nervousness. Tarik attempted to put his hand on Carina's shoulder, "don't worry Carina." Tarik said softly. "No matter who tries to attack you, just rest assured I'll protect you from harm. We may not have too much information on what's on the planet, but I'm sure that we'll overcome it."

Tarik also thought about the possibility of joining the N-7 program if he was successful on this mission, but he said aside those thoughts in an effort to comfort his new friend.

"Besides, what would someone like Captain Picard do in a time like this? Captain Janeway? Captain Kirk? We need to understand that fear is natural to feel. The question is what do we do with that fear once we are hit with it."

As the ship began to enter the planet's atmosphere, Tarik put on his combat helmet and took out his M-7 Avenger. "I know you'll pull through this Carina." Tarik said "We will both will, after this you and I are gonna binge watch every single Star Trek series!" 

The ship made a lurching noise in sign that it was sticking out it's landing gear as it did, the monitor made a beeping noise. Tarik went over and saw it was distress signal for the Alliance from civilians. "We got a distress call, not too far from here about half a  kliq from our land spot." Tarik said with a serious tone.

As soon as the ship landed, Tarik went out first. "Carina, try to track the rebels with your Omni-tool. We need to see if there's any activity and try to monitor their communication channels. In the meantime let's track this distress call."

(GoldenGail3)


 

"Two lifesigns are coming towards our designated area. And quite quickly took at how fast their little blue dots are moving towards us. Otherwise, I can't get a reading on this thing... Damn it." Carina said her voice slightly shaky.

"Damn." Tarik muttered, rebels already here? Carina mentioned that she suspected that the engine was hit by rebels but they both didn't notice it. Were they using some sort of undetectable projectile?

"Why would they even send two people? If they were going to assault a ship? Scouting parties tend to be bigger than that?" Tarik thought.

Still one shouldn't be too complacent.That's one of the very first things Tarik learned in basic. Treat unknown targets with suspicion unless proven otherwise. "Carina you better hurry with those repairs." Tarik ordered "And take out your pistol just in case."

Readying his rifle, Tarik checked his Omni Tool. The targets were getting closer, within firing distance. "Here they come!" Tarik shouted.

However the two rebels don't really look like rebels, but rather farmers. "Are you Alliance?! Please don't shoot!" One of them said.

"Come slowly." Tarik shouted.

The farmers: One with grey hair and a young man with straight black hair approached Tarik slowly. "Please." The old man said "we need your help."

"That's what we're here for." Tarik said. "Hey Carina they're just farmers!"

Turning to the old man Tarik asked: "What happened?"

"Rebel uprising." The young man said: "They asked for recruits, we've refused they found out that my son is part of the Alliance and they took him in the night."

"What was the soldier's name?"

"Edward Stuart, Private First Class they took him to the warehouse. We dare not go in for fear that the rebels will attack us."

Tarik gave both of the farmers a stern look. "Who are these rebels?"

The old man looked shocked "You guys really don't know do you? You Alliance types..... Listen rescue my grandson and I'll explain everything. The Warehouse 3 miles. Once you reached the houses take a left. The Ware house is there you can't miss it."

Tarik sighed this is an anti Alliance planet?

"Ok." He replied maintaining professionalism. "We'll check it out. Come on Carina and stay close."

(GoldenGail3)

static.chlomo.org/gallery/photoshoots/chloe_moretz_tiff_portraits_by_maarten_de_boer/chloe_moretz_tiff_portraits_by_maarten_de_boer_21.jpg
Character Name: Carina Johnson
Race:Human
Gender: Female
Occupation: Engineer
bsn.boards.net/post/19316

nvm... made a mistake...

static.chlomo.org/gallery/photoshoots/chloe_moretz_tiff_portraits_by_maarten_de_boer/chloe_moretz_tiff_portraits_by_maarten_de_boer_21.jpg
Character Name: Carina Johnson
Race:Human
Gender: Female
Occupation: Engineer
bsn.boards.net/post/19316

"I expect rebels." Tarik said grimly, "as soon as we've made contact with the enemy, take your gun out and hide and try to jam their transmissions."

"What else was I expecting? Rainbows and unicorns!" She'd say, with a smile. "Okay."

However, her trying to hide was a failure, as the first place she tried to hide at, a large, but simple bush-like plant, a kid was behind it. A small-ish child that looked to be 12 years old, with starling wide blue-colored eyes and copper-colored hair that was tied up in a proper pony tail, with no signs of any trauma at all, actually, she looked really quite clean, or at least as clean as a kid could be. The kid was probably better off than she was.

"Hey, Kid..." She'd say, quietly, "What are yah doing here? Where's your parents?"

"Uh.... Can't say, top-seccreettt stuff, you know." The kid would say, her eyes looked very willful as well as stubborn as well. She was wearing a green-cameo sweater and torn-up navy-blue jeans that were covered in mud, and pitch-black tennis shoes.

"Kid..." She'd say, "At least tell me your name..."

The kid would say "Shush!" and grabbed her down by her colar as some men came their way. That kid was fricken strong for her age.

"I'm Isabella Stuart." The kid would respond.

"Oh.. You mean? Ohhh, your brother's in their. Isabella, go back home." She'd say, in a demanding voice. "Your brother wouldn't want you to kill yourself over him."

"Hmm, fine." Isabela would say, softly, before running from their current postion, like a little speedster she was.

She'd than do what TJ asked of her with her tool after the kid was far enough away to be safe from any side-effects.