0006: NEW ARRIVAL BRIEFING

[crux_npcs]

Who: New Arrivals, Graham Baker
Where: Briefing Room
When: Late afternoon, Aprilo 1st
Warnings: None

When awakening, the immediate surroundings are swarming with activity. The people in the medical ward are polite and understanding, but firmly refuse to answer questions until the briefing. They move with a practiced efficiency, already veterans of this kind of thing. The same goes for the robots in the hangars. Either given hospital outfits resembling very comfortable pajamas, drone bodies, or their own bodies, they are escorted by polite, unyielding people in red and black uniforms to the briefing room.

The Briefing room is large. Not enough to accommodate a giant, but spacious enough for several dozen people. The tiles are black and featureless while the walls are nice, soothing colors. The chairs are high-backed and well-cushioned, more like comforting eggs floating a foot or so off the ground than anything else. Set into the ceiling and floor near the front is a large holographic projector. The floor in front of each seat also has a smaller projector, allowing people to see what the bigger device is showing without having to angle for a view. As of now, it merely displays a rotating pyramid.

Three Security personnel, dressed in their red and black uniforms, stand at ease in the rooms in strategic areas. One man stands at the head. Graham Baker, a middle-aged man showing the first signs of balding and wearing a wrinkled business suit, clasps his hands behind his back and smiles.

[Questions to the NPCs will go in the briefing thread. The rest of the post is there for people to mill about and do whatever with. The mods will not be doing hangar/medical awakenings unless it's specifically asked for.]

Comments

[act_of_god]

That's certainly telling.

"Don't worry about it. If you don't know it, it's probably not important." She glances away quickly enough; anyone who wasn't dead knew what the UNSC was, no matter what side of it they were on. She's definitely dealing with a complex slipspace anomaly here.

She looks back and indicates his uniform. "So you're with the fleet."

[sickbays]

And McCoy lets the subject drop just as easily as she lets it go. Doesn't sound important to him, not at the present moment anyway, so he's not going to waste his breath asking about it.

"Yes, a medical officer. Dr. Leonard McCoy."

He doesn't offer his hand to shake, he usually doesn't unless it's a fellow colleague or unless the other person insists.

"You're one of the newly awakened ones, huh?"

[act_of_god]

She's not the type to shake hands either, so she finds nothing remiss in the introduction.

"Yes. Spartan-087. Have you seen any others like me? Or, in full armor?"

[sickbays]

"You go by a designation?" Indicating that she's some sort of military type, which explains why she was asking about the UNSC earlier. Again, whatever that is.

"And when you say 'others like you' do'ya mean..." He raises his eyebrows, then tilts his head up to indicate her vertical size.

[act_of_god]

"Yes." She does not go by her name, very specifically not from people she doesn't know.

"Yes; Spartans. They might be armored." She's pretty sure he'd know what she was talking about if he saw any others.

[sickbays]

"Isn't there anything else I can call you?" Because he's not calling her Spartan-087. He almost feels like it dehumanizes her, identifying her by a number instead of a name or even a goddamn i>title if nothing else. "What about your rank?"

He frowns. "No, I'm afraid I haven't seen any."

[act_of_god]

She gives him a blank stare, touched with the faintest confusion. She was a Spartan, she didn't have a rank. "Just call me Spartan." It didn't look right now that there were any others so she's unlikely to be confused with anyone else.

Sadly.

Kelly nods acknowledgement at McCoy, letting out a breath in a slight huff. Ten years she'd trained, lived, and fought with the same group of kids; she's not at all looking forward to play the Lone Wolf.

[sickbays]

McCoy frowns, not entirely pleased to have to call her by that title either. But he accepts it, for now, with a nod in her direction.

"I know it's not easy being by yourself," he remarks casually, taking careful note of her reaction. McCoy knows the feeling well, having been here a month without his crew. It's been... lonely, more lonely than the doctor is willing to admit. He's been filling the emptiness with work, educating himself on the differentiating medical advancements and taking up extra shifts at the medbay when needed. Anything to keep his mind from drifting back to his crew, anything to get him to cease his worrying, even if it's just a temporary success.

[act_of_god]

Oh, she reacts. Subtly, but definitely. She tenses slightly, pursing her lips, and hardening her expression against the sting of the reminder. Everything was still so new; the Covenant war, losing Sam, but through all of it she had had the other Spartans to fall back on.

Now, she had no one.

She takes a deep, steadying breath. She was still a Spartan, and she could adapt. Kelly looks at McCoy with a sharp expression. "Just another challenge."

[sickbays]

Heh. McCoy shakes his head slightly at her response. He's been there, done that. The lone wolf attitude doesn't do anyone any good, not in the long run anyway.

"Well, if you ever need anything, first aid or otherwise, I could help. You don't have to do things all on your own."

[act_of_god]

"How can I trust you?" He's not UNSC or ONI, but ... he's most likely not Insurrection, if she's to believe this universe is separate from her own. It would be an easy enough thought to fall back on, but she wasn't about to trust anything that easily.

And if she ever did need first aid, someone else would have to be the one to tell her.

[sickbays]

"You don't, you just take my word at face value." At least he's honest, you can't fault him for that. He shrugs all the same.

Besides, Bones would likely be the one hunting her down if he ever caught word of her getting injured. He's dealt with that type of stubborn pigheadedness a hundred times aboard his own ship.

[act_of_god]

That answer, more than any other, makes her believe she can. She nods slightly. "I'll do that, Doctor."

Don't mind her, she'll just be playing bait with giant missile-spewing robots and not telling anyone. Besides, the armor absorbs most of the splash damage.