Blue Team Onward!

[voidtreckermods]

Initial Guarding

Once the other teams fly off it is quiet once more at the military base. Blue team will be allowed to start patrolling, though there will be some areas such as the main command floor that are off limits. Any medically-inclined Void treckers will be welcome in the med bay and the guards will happily have some volunteers to do outside patrols.

But for the first day or so it is quiet, Hitrinto works as a liaison between the void treckers and the command staff, relaying messages and keeping them informed of the progress of battle.

Attack!

Late on the second day there is a break to the peace, alarms blare and lights flash red. "Enemy ships approach. Enemy ships approach."

Anyone who can get to the hanger quick enough will be given ships and sent off to fight. There aren't many enemy ships, four or five and hopefully they are beaten off easily.

But this becomes a semi regular occurrence. At least twice a day there are attacks. Patrols are stepped up, extra people are put on standby to man ships as quickly as possible.

Sabotage

Perhaps the attacks are a distraction. Because it is clear that something isn't right. Power goes down in one section or other. Equipment is messed with. Emergency doors are tampered with or left open. There aren't many people on this base but sometimes they will get the feeling of being watched. Of not being alone.

It soon becomes clear there are enemies inside the station and they are clearly biding their time. It is not known for what purpose. But finding them is probably a priority.

Comments

[radishlobbyist]

Attack & Sabotage

Wen Qing had been trying her hardest not to look exactly as useless and lost as she felt in this futuristic place, surrounded by aliens. She was used to gritting her teeth and keeping going, for sure, but this place was different. Everything was too foreign for her to feel truly useful, even after having been instructed in the use of the medical equipment it still went way over her head. The frustration could be clearly read in her face during these instructions.

It was hard to accept how little good you could do when at home, your medical skill was only surpassed by an actual centuries-old living legend. She had always defined her worth so very much by the good she could do for others, too.

Wen Qing spent her time trying to doggedly keep going, learning about the species she would be treating and the medbay she would be working in, and most of all keeping an eye on Taiki as she had promised Gyousou she would.

With it all being too much, she liked to spend her time between caring for others in an abandoned corridor near med bay. There she could be found just sitting on the floor with a small notebook she would scribble in, or staring blankly at the wall and trying not to let herself be overwhelmed by her frustrations.

With the alarm sounding, informing them of another wave of attack, she would be driven back to the med bay, already braced for the wounded that will soon be incoming. Between the waves of attacks and all these mysterious accidents happening on the station, the beds were quickly filling up and even her skill was needed.

[sensitiveapple]

Things were quiet for a moment. She let the hand go of her latest patient, and just... walks out of the medical bay. She needs a minute away from all the swirling emotions around the bay and finds herself being drawn to a quiet frustration that she knows she's felt before.

Silently, she walks over and sits next to the woman that she knew was part of the Train and leans her head against her shoulder. "Does it get easier?" She asks in a small voice. She's only thirteen and she's losing patients and she doesn't like it.

[radishlobbyist]

She peers at the girl seeking her comfort, deliberately relaxing herself after she had tensed up at the unexpected touch. Misa is just the age of a junior disciple back home, well before you grow jaded to loss. You never truly grow jaded, though.

"Not really," she admits, looking down at her hands. Her voice is a lot kinder, gentler even than she is with most, especially in a professional setting where she tends to be quite brusque. "You learn how to push it aside and keep functioning until it's over but seeing people in pain or seeing them die never stops getting to you."

She sighs, going quite for a moment. "Is this your first time as a medic in a war zone?"

[sensitiveapple]

She's young, even for her age, in some things, and in others, she's older than her years. It's because of her upbringing, and she doesn't really realize it, except when she speaks to others.

She sighs. She'd been afraid of that. "Except when Kara was having her baby, I've never been a medic." She explains softly. Let alone in a warzone. "I'm from the Premiere Pleasure House on Cantonica... it's a planet far away from here." She thinks so, anyway. "I was training to be a courtesan."

[radishlobbyist]

"Another train passenger from a different planet, I see." She eyes the girl from the corner of her eyes. She looks human, though, for all that is worth. She will have to ask about physical differences but she really isn't ready to go back into doctor mode quite yet.

The courtesan part of her explanation takes her by surprise, most of all for Misa admitting freely to it. With the way righteous cultivators sneer at courtesans and everyone associated with them - except for the righteous cultivators who visit them - it's hard to remember it might not be treated as such a mark of shame everywhere.

"You are quite young," she ventures, keeping her voice carefully casual so as not to discomfit her further. "Were you born into that house?"

[sensitiveapple]

Misa shakes her head. "No, not born into it." She stretches her legs out in front of her, staring at her toes, for a moment, trying to think about how to explain this.

"My mother, she was a Mistress - like a wife, but without the legal obligations - to a trader." She explains. "I was their first child. But the trader didn't want a girl, so Mother began training me to follow in her footsteps. When I was four, she put me in the auction on Cantonica, and my Mistress, who leads the House, bought me from there." She shrugs. "I've been in the House ever since."

[radishlobbyist]

Wen Qing nods, sympathy showing on her face. "It's a little bit similar at home, in that courtesans can't simply leave, their freedom has to be bought. Although I think... I would hope, anyway, that the girls don't arrive as young as you were, unless they are the child of a prostitute." She doesn't know anything about that business beyond the usual saucy gossip. Respectable cultivators mustn't associate themselves with the likes of prostitutes and with her being a cousin to the ruler himself, Nightless City's brothels would have never dared request her medical services.

Her eyes sharpen, brows furrowing. "But it doesn't matter what is common, your father had an obligation to you. His behavior was shameful. If children can't be loved, they must at least be provided for. I'm sorry that you were so wronged."

[sensitiveapple]

Misa shrugs. "I don't remember him." She says. "And he had no obligation to me. Children born outside of a marriage, especially in the trader culture, have no claim on the routes or ships." She looks over at Wen Qing. "I wasn't wronged. If you think about it, he did me a favor. He had children with his legal wife. Now, I won't be beholden to them for anything and can make my own way. Especially once I take over the House."

Misa's remarkably fine with how her life has turned out. This little side jaunt aside, she'll be Mistress of the House one day, and she's looking forward to that.

[radishlobbyist]

Wen Qing gives a thoughtful nod. "Children born outside of marriage have no claims in my lands either, not unless their father acknowledges them anyway." Even then, they can expect to be in rank below his wife's children and forever sneered at by polite society.

"Are you educated in reading and writing?" she asks, quite curious now about the other changes between their courtesans. Being raised to take over the house seems like her role will be quite different from what she'd expected. "At home, a learned courtesan is rare enough that this alone will make her famous far and wide."

[sensitiveapple]

Misa wonders why. Can't tell if you're getting cheated if you can't read and write. And then, there are some Republic laws that Cantonica holds to. "Of course." She says, with a shrug. "It's the law. Cantonica, my planet, doesn't hold with a lot of laws from the Republic, but that one most adults do. It makes it easier to conduct business, if you're not constantly having to do things for your underlings. Makes it inconvenient to have them, don't you think?"

[radishlobbyist]

She is visibly relieved at hearing that. "I don't know anything about your Republic, but it is good you have some protection by these laws." If Misa ever changes her mind about wanting this life, she figures it will make it a lot easier for her to leave it behind, too.

She furrows her brows, thoughtful. "I don't know about the inconvenience... I guess when men visit courtesans they don't want to risk paying for a woman who might be their better in intelligence or education? I come from a family which values learning highly, I have never understood why you would not want someone to enjoy a good education, or like someone better for not having it." It's a dreary thought though, and they'll be faced with more dreary things once they go back into the medbay, so she offers a gentle change of topic. "We've been doctors for generations."

[sensitiveapple]

She shrugs. "It was a big push, before I was born." She doesn't know why, and she doesn't know by who.

Misa looks at the woman she's sitting with. "It's not just men that visit courtesans." She points out, gently. "There are males and females at the House, for both male and female companions."

She cocks her head to the side. "I don't know about my family." She doesn't think it a big deal either. "I remember my mother, a little, but nothing more than that, really."

[radishlobbyist]

Wen Qing nods. "Then hold on to that memory, if it is a good one." And maybe for the better she doesn't remember the rest, in Wen Qing's opinion her family isn't much worth remembering.

She stands up, a slightly pained expression on her face. "I think I've been hiding from work for long enough now. You are free to stay longer, if you'd like."

[sensitiveapple]

Misa shakes her head. "They're letting some of the medics rest. Maybe we should take a walk? I'm not due back for another half an hour." She admits.

She looks down at her watch. "If you want to go back, you're welcome to, though. I think we both deserve a moment of peace, that's all."

[radishlobbyist]

She hesitates. She had been planning on going back but the patients in there aren't the only people in need of care. As mature and sensible as Misa is, she is still a teenager, and this is hard even on older Wen Qing.

She steps back towards Misa, offering a hand to her to help her to her feet. "If my company isn't any bother to you, I would like to go on a walk with you."

[sensitiveapple]

Misa cocks her head to the side and takes the woman's hand, pulling herself up. She's tired, she's sore and there are a lot of people around. Maybe she could find a small niche somewhere to hide in. Maybe that will make the pressure in her head lessen, and the time go a little faster.

She smiles. "You're not a bother at all. You seem to handle all this, better than I do anyway."

[radishlobbyist]

Wen Qing gives her a small, encouraging smile and squeezes her hand briefly before releasing it.

"It comes with age and having lived through many times of hardship," she says, her voice gentled. "It's nothing to be envious of."

She doesn't know the station well but she starts to lead them away from the crowd, confident they will find quieter places where they can relax a little away from the turmoils of warfare.

[sensitiveapple]

Misa frowns. "The only time I healed someone..." She shudders. It's not a memory that she likes to have. If someone could remove it for her, she'd appreciate it.

"And beg your pardon Mistress, but you don't look that much older than me." She says, softly, following the other woman through the base.

[radishlobbyist]

"Not that much older, maybe," she admits, sizing Misa up pensively. "I feel like I'm far older than my years. It has been an eventful life... or maybe that is how you feel when you have died once."

It feels like she lived three separate lives before she even died and made it to the train, starting her fourth. How strange to think that to someone else, she would still be young when she feels so tired.

[sensitiveapple]

Hold the droid! "You died?!" Misa asks, her voice cracking just a little.

She blinks, then lowers her eyes. "I'm sorry, that's terribly rude of me." She says, shaking her head. "You don't have to speak of it. I imagine it was traumatic."

[radishlobbyist]

Yes, it had been - being burned alive tended to be. But as much as Wen Qing believes in hard truths, she still finds herself wanting to shield Misa a little. She has seen enough terrible things for today.

"It was no peaceful death," she admits, "but through friends I was reunited with here, I learned that my brother survived. It hurt me more to believe that he had died in the same painful way than the manner of my own death. The head of my sect and clan aimed too high, he sought to oppress all others and he failed. We survivors always knew we would eventually pay the price for his crimes."

[sensitiveapple]

Misa hugs her. She looks like she needs a hug and Misa needs to hug someone who isn't actively dying.

"I'm glad you're here." She says, softly.

[radishlobbyist]

"Oh."

The hug takes her by surprise but she certainly isn't going to object to it, just hesitantly, a little awkwardly, hugs Misa back.

"Thank you, Misa. You are very kind."