2018-04-20: One Last Thing

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  • Log: One Last Thing
  • Cast: Tabitha deVriese, Loren Voss
  • Where: Outskirts of Vane
  • Date: April 20th 2018
  • Summary: Tabitha and Loren head out to the transport ship crash site to take care of business. Tabitha finds an old friend. Loren gets some practice with handling explosives.

<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.

The journey back to Vane with a woman who is A, wanted, and B, loaded down with bombs, was kind of an interesting one. Loren had almost as much fun smuggling the explosives as he did the full-sized sample refrigerator back! Tabitha didn't help.

Well, she did, but it maybe didn't look like it at the time.

Regardless, the duo now tromps through the forests behind Vane, a good hour from the fallen academy by now. Tabitha's boots crunch in the earth as she walks a familiar path. She makes no particular effort to conceal it, unless Loren notices the light breeze a few paces behind him, blowing over their footsteps with fresh soil.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    In full honesty, Loren should have expected something like this to happen.
    And yet, just as always, he's caught by some surprise when it actually does happen.
    (Perhaps in the end he's a little too young to fully pull off the whole jaded thing anyway.)

    But the mission and the purpose behind it do make sense -- while it was a good idea to refrain from fully destroying what remains of the ship previously, now it's a liability. They need to cover their tracks, so to speak.
    It's just been a matter of getting the proper supplies up here and taking care that no one caught wind of what they were doing.
    Which made the whole business at the ferry and so on a surprising amount of fun. And yet, somehow, he had managed...
    Even with out her (apparent, this is the key word, apparent) assistance.

    Things got easier after that.

    It's a subtle touch, he notes, glancing back over his shoulder. Actually -- the fact that it isn't his element aside -- he's not at all certain he would have thought about it, himself. It earns her in the end an appreciative tilt of the head as they continue onwards to the site.

    "...Any remains left to handle?" he finally asks, a few paces further along. "Bones, bone shards."
    Anything else would have been handled by natural processes by now.

<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.

Loren is the kind of person Tabitha likes to have fun with. Unfortunately for him it's the kind of fun where he has to put up with her ridiculous personality, rather than other ridiculous attributes she might possess.

Tabitha has proven more adept at stealth than one might expect of a girl who smiles like that, and the gathering of supplies has gone unremarked-upon in Vane, it seems, even though it took a handful of days. "Oh. I buried them a while ago," Tabitha says, hand waving the topic away. "The bodies aren't a concern."

A looming hillside rises in the distance, and Tabitha bounds away.

Actually bounds; her hair and overskirt drift in an ethereal way as she leaps forward as if unhinged from the ground, a single leap carrying her a good 30 yards. It's not particularly fast, but the disruption of gait will serve to further muddy any ambitions of tracking her. She settles down, mistlike, near the hillside, and starts shoving aside logs and branches, making more obvious the presence of a tarp covering the remains of her ship. "I've already cleared out the parts Major Yugh asked for," she notes."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Loren is, to be fair, the sort of person a lot of people have fun with, and not even remotely in the way that he would prefer.
    Which, to be honest, would be them keeping far far away from him, because he also might have a number of trust issues.
    (He doesn't get invited to very many parties.)

    Watching her in action, though, does make him wonder what they're teaching Etones, precisely. ...Though it's probably more than that. It's usually more than that.

    "Buried, huh..." he remarks, some mild distaste creeping into his tone there. "Guess there's no helping it in a situation like this... Hopefully it was deeply enough."
    Burial is such a Lamb thing to do. Growing up in a place cramped for room to grow, it seems more logical to simply reduce a body to base elements and use it for hydroponics. Everyone can serve the nation, one way or another.

    But speculating on the fate of the dead may have to wait. He just sort of... watches on as she bounds past him, a mild bit of something like envy stirring in the wake of the initial astonishment at her leap/brief flight.

    "...Where did you learn how to do that?" he asks, once he catches on up to the point where she digs into the earth.

    Already retrieved the parts the Major requested. The Major... Loren's gaze grows distant a moment, as if in thought, before he returns more properly to the here and now. He dips his head in a nod. "...Anything we can use for the ship? Or is it all junk now?"

<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.

She appears to be best at it when Loren's not looking, which might seem odd until it turns out she can power jump dozens of yards.

As for the burial...well, Ethos must at least pretend to be a surface priesthood, after all. She detects that distaste in his voice and finds herself grinning at him.

But that's all he gets before she's Way Over There.

"Well, did you think my cute and dainty hands carried this entire tree over here?" she asks with some amusement, setting her hand on the aforementioned log.

She reaches down with her other hand, doing something with her bracer. It hums, and the tree flickers with a faint violet aura. She doesn't lift it, it just....suddenly slides sharply to the left, clattering away, the force seeming to fade after Tabitha removes her hand.

"Those would be the parts he asked for," Tabitha replies, and steps inside the wreck. The interior is a Solaris transport shuttle, although it's rather nicer than the dropships Loren's ridden. Lower occupancy, a few nicer amenities (CUSHIONS!?)...although the ripped straps tell a story of people who died just the same. Tabitha plucks a wrench out of a pocket on her jacket, kneeling to apply it to a bolt and start torquing. "There's one last thing we need. It won't help for the Tzadkiel, but still," she mutters. "Engineers showed me where it is. Gimme a minute. You can start setting the charges up front if you want."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He has to jog a little to catch up, in fact.

    "...Well, no," he answers, after some delay on his part, coupled with a shift of weight from one leg to the other, as if he's mildly uncomfortable about something. "I'm sure you'd have some other means at your disposal."
    Other means which she handily displays once again as he watches on.
    Hadn't there been stories about people 'unusual talents'? Things that aren't taught in Jugend, at least not in any sort of classroom situation. People like the Elements.
    Or people like Keil.

    He exhales a breath, then shakes his head, before taking a step forward and dropping down into the wreckage of the ship himself.
    ...Carefully, since he's carrying the explosives.

    "...Nice ship," he comments, regarding the interior for a moment. His gaze, though, lingers on the torn straps. The scrapes and scratches. The little signs that most of the people in here didn't make it out again. "Is it something they can use for another project? Or is this the Major's request?"
    A pause follows, wherein he sets down the pack and starts pulling out the charges (again: carefully). "Got it."

    Silence, as he starts unpacking and reviewing the materials prior to setting them, and as she works on getting the panel open, reigns proudly.

    Until he breaks the silence himself, standing up to inspect the area the charges are going to sit. "...So you met Keil, did you." He shakes his head as if dredging up some irritant of a memory. "Did she greet you before or after attempting to kill you?"

<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.

"It was," Tabitha says, offhand. "A surface model, would you believe it? There's areas of Aquvy where these are--hng!" she grunts, interrupting herself to put some force into her torquing after she changes bolts. It finally relents, and she huffs for breath. "whoof. Lambs have these things! This one's a Solaris model, but it's made to look like some of the more luxury Lamb ones."

She grins at Loren. "'cuz it's for priests, see."

She continues her work. "Well, it's more like...the engineers say we shouldn't lose this if we can avoid it."

The panel falls away, revealing that what she was accessing was actually the engine, or at least a part of it. She starts rooting around inside, ending up halfway inside the aparatus. Her voice is muffled when she speaks. "After!" she says, brightly. "Well, the second time. The first time she was smashed out of her mind for some reason and didn't care about much of anything. Lambs! They're on a more beautiful world than they can imagine and they get blackout drunk so they can forget the whole thing."

She leans out to Loren. The oil smudges look artistic. "This is why someone had to invent a God to tell them how to shape up!" she says, wagging a finger at Loren before digging back in, grunting.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "A surface model?" He, clearly, does not believe it, giving the seats and the furnishings another look as he begins shuffling some of the stray debris out of the way to make room for the charges -- it would be a bad showing if any part of the blast went off improperly because some remains of the ship angled the initial detonations wrong.
    That, and he's being particular since while explosives-handling has become a part of his duties and he's had to requisite training session in the how-to and how-not-to, it's still not his area of expertise so he's taking the time to make sure there aren't any errors. He occasionally steps back to gauge how things are set and, even more importantly, the contents of his tablet.

    "They're that far gone even in the clergy? Hmph." He shakes his head, as if to suggest 'what can you do'. "Lambs."

    Setting charges progresses, bit by bit.

    "Huh," is his ultimate commentary, it seems, on the nature of the part engineering says they shouldn't lose if they can help it. He glances back long enough to see that she's about halfway inside whatever's under the panel, then focuses again on his own work.

    "Blackout drunk." The derision in his tone is palpable. "That sounds like her. I'm surprised she wasn't wrapped in bandages or something like that for good measure... Did you have a chance to look through the files on that one? Rogue ether user, among other things."

    This arrangement should work for the front, he thinks, taking a step back to eye his work. His attention is turned towards his tablet when Tabitha leans back out again.

    "That one's got religion, but I don't think it took very well. Nisan faith, apparently."

<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.

'Rogue ether user, among other things.'

"Figured that out when she bent space into a knife and tried to stick it in me!" Tabitha says back, cheerfully. "Real nasty, didn't know you could do that to spacetime. She's fascinating! I need to get a tag in her, really dig into that data...see if I can bug some of her hangouts...she probably doesn't realize how much I have running around Vane, not that it's got a server to upload to..."

Mutter, mutter. She bangs her bracer on something. "This'd be easier if I could just go in from the front like you're supposed to," she grouses, then there's a loud, horrible KLONG that reverberates through the entire interior. "ow."

Several seconds of silence pass, and she wriggles a bit, straining. The hell is she doing in there?!

A solid minute passes of this kind of noise. Eventually she stops for a breath. "Nisan, huh. I haven't thought about Nisan in a year. It's sort of like Granas, except with a more tenuous grasp on aerodynamics, isn't it?"

That's....not what the metaphor of two wings was about, Tabitha.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "Oh good," and only a tone-deaf person would mistake him comment for one of good cheer. "I'm not the only one. Yes, unfortunately, she's yet another Lamb with more power than she should have. ...Command wanted to look into her before everything went crazy back on Filgaia -- she's missing from the database, if you can believe it."

    One final glance down at the optimal array, then the setup he's been forced into based on the configuration of the dash (and what remains of it), before he half-turns towards where Tabitha is hard at work doing...

    He stands there for a good thirty seconds, as if attempting to figure out what, precisely, she's doing.

    "...I hate to ask, but do you need help with that, deVriese? The charges are set up front." He thumbs somewhat absently in that direction before, apparently reaching some mental tipping point and approaching where she's working.

    "The one with the twin angels, right." A pause. "...Heh."
    Did... she actually get some kind of laugh out of him?

<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.

The sentence 'missing from the database' stops Tabitha in her tracks. She scrambles out of the crawlspace so quickly her chest catches on the lip - twice - before she's able to flatten herself down far enough to pull out. "A Lamb that wasn't recorded?" she asks it like she holds this as somewhere close to a physical impossibility. "You can't just....not get recorded, that's the whole point of the recording!" She flattens her lips. "Well, we'll fix that, won't we." Tabitha looks profesionally insulted, for some reason, as she squeezes herself back in the panel. Shortly after she emits one final grunt and there's a decisive BANG as something rips free.

"....actually can you pull on my feet," she, embarrassed. "I...can't move with my hands full with this thing."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    What can you do to a question like that except shrug? "That's how the analysis came back. Something about an unrecorded mitochondrial DNA line... so we might not have her biological parents on record, either, whoever they are."
    There had also been indication that something they'd found was promptly deemed classified, which... yeah, no, he wasn't going to mess around with; there's some things you just don't want to know about. Not if you want a successful career.
    "That is," he says aloud to Tabitha, "assuming they didn't make an error in the analysis." But he doubts that, somehow...

    Something deeper inside the ship comes free with a loud bang, enough to make Loren jump back a step. "Was that--"

    Silence ensues.

    "Your... feet?"

    Another moment of silence.

    "...Fine." He walks over and a little gingerly, puts his hands on her ankles and tugs, shifting his weight to haul her back.

    He's stronger than he looks -- won't win any strength contests anytime soon, but definitely stronger than he looks. Then again, medical does have to be able to move unconscious people...

<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.

Tabitha giggles at Loren's offer that command made an error, like that was the funniest thing he's said today. It's tinny from the echo.

After a moment of assessing what the hell she's asking about, Loren yanks Tabitha mostly free. She has to flatten herself down again, working with her elbows to pull out. She says little of it, though, because for once Tabitha's showpiece is not herself, but rather the TREMENDOUS jewel in her hands - nearly a quarter Tabitha's own height, the massive, cut gem shines with a mysterious inner light. It also hovers over her hands, with no apparent sign of whatever magic she was using earlier. "Thank you!" she chimes, and proceeds to kip up to her feet in heeled boots. She moves strangely in the air, like she weren't falling fast enough. Trick of the light, or--

Tabitha grins. "This bad boy is a quantum refractor. Seen one of them? The Lambs out in Aquvy use them to power all sorts of stuff, and apparently they're useful for our purposes sometimes, too. Was powering this ship this whole year!"

She grins at it, affectionate, and taps it with a fingertip. "My only buddy," she teases toward it.

"Anyway," she adds, looking to Loren. "I don't know much about them but the engineer says a refractor big enough for a ship like this will do something useful on Tzadkiel, so, back it comes. Let's blow this thing."

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    The giggle itself provokes him to outright frown. What's that about?

    With some effort, he pulls her part of the way out -- this is probably just as well, so she doesn't drop whatever she's got, or send the both of them flying if she popped loose or something, but, well, certain factors prevent that from happening. He lets go, taking a step back before leaning to one side to take a look at what she's got once she extracts herself and the thing in the heart of the transit ship.

    "Huh," he breathes out after a moment, staring at the gem in her arms. Or, to be more accurate, the gem that floats just out of her grasp.
    There it is again. Even her general mass and associated movement seems off.

    But the quantum refractor is, naturally, the thing that draws his attention the most.

    "This ship was using one of those?"

    He stares at it, going so far as to readjust his glasses as he squints into the carefully cut heart of the crystal. "I've heard of them," because he's a huge nerd, "but I've never seen one in person." He in fact sounds... maybe even excited for a change, rather than bored by the world and its contents. "That's right, they can be used as a power source. It's something to do with the refractive index and captured light, but the exact mechanism by which they were cut to begin with is already mysterious and--"

    He, at least cuts himself off, straightening as if somewhat chagrined and looks away. "...Anyway." A pause, wherein he takes a breath. "If that's all we need to retrieve from here, we should finish up. As I said, the charges are ready."