Chapter 12 - Final preparations

  The temple room went quiet at the child's question. The children were silent as they've never heard of these Yavichi raids and eagerly waited oblivious to the question; while Orthanis had a few emotions spinning around in her head, mainly surprise, confusion and a hint of fear. The small hint of fear mainly steamed from his knowledge of the Yavichi.

  “Well… uh.. Hmm… you see, the Yavichi...” Orthanis could only stumble out these words until the priestly man loudly cleared his throat and butted in.

  “My, My.” the older man addressed the room, “it seems like time is slipping away from us and Lady Moonflower is a busy woman. So children, what do we say?”

  “Thank you Lady Moonflower.” The children all sang together. The children hurriedly standing up and loudly leaving the room snapped her out of her slight daze. Timalis backed from the doorway as the children flooded out of the room loudly talking and embracing parents nearby. After the children and parents all eventually filtered out, Timalis stood back in the doorway and watched as Orthanis and the priest bowed and ended their small conversation.

  Holding her worn-out children's book in one hand she waved at the waiting man and went to leave with him.

  “They sound pretty enthralled, eih?” Timalis gave her a nudge with his elbow as they walked through the hall.

  “Its a good story, probably in my top three. Even if this has been simplified for children.” she smiled back, “it really teaches how devotion to the Goddess is important and how even in the darkest times, we will endure and see the good in the world again.”

  Nodding to the nun at the entrance, the two left and headed to the inn.

  “I was curious about what that kid asked though, I've seen you tell that story for what feels like hundreds of times yet I've never heard about Yavichi.” Timalis said this with a hushed tone and once they were away from the temple, taking the hint that this information is relatively unknown. This still made Orthanis clam up but eventually she said something moving further away from people passing by.

  “I can't say anything, I am sorry. What you are asking is forbidden knowledge. But I fear it will become a common nightmare of townsfolk soon.” Letting out a sigh she continued, solemnly. “If you are correct in your guess of what you saw back at the survey spot, the only thing I can say is that it wasn't demons you saw.” Not wanting to push further, the two walked back to the inn with only small talk.

  Winding through the narrow streets Leandros walked, eyeing up each storefront for provisions and other items for the party; he had already bought enough dried meat for the trip, yet he still looked for more. A particular building stood out to him, with its warm lights radiating onto the dark stone path and the smell of fresh vegetables leaking through a crack in the wooden door. Feeling the weight of the party's coin pouch he decided to go in. As the door creaked open the warmth of the store made Leandros realise how cold the outdoors was. The shop had a typical layout, to the right there was a wooden counter and filling the rest of the room small waist high crates with produce and other small household necessities and wall shelves held rope and sailors equipment. As the door opened the small bell rang.

  “I'll be with you in a minute” a man's voice echoed from an open door leading to the back of the shop. Walking down the isles of boxes, Leandros picked up five green apples and a roll of light grey bandages. As he was contemplating picking up a bundle of kindling a man strolled through the back door. He was a small man and quite chunky, with a white shirt with suspenders holding up his light brown trousers. His rosy cheeks and joyful smile complimented his well groomed white moustache and short, balding grey hair. Sitting on his stubby nose a pair of half moon glasses sat at its tip almost falling off his face. Returning the smile to the jolly man they made eye contact.

  “Oh…” the store keeps face dropped to a poorly masked frown, “I'm sorry sir I've never seen you before, are you a sailor?” his eyes dropped to the sword at Leandros’ belt, before the knight could say anything he brought his arms up and briskly strode to the counter. “I am once again sorry sir but we do not sell to mercenaries.” His voice held more confidence once standing behind the counter.

  “I'm no mercenary, I am just a traveler picking up some supplies for my party.” Leandros smiled and twisted his belt to slightly hide the sword.

  “The worth of your coin is less than the trouble it brings, now please I do not want trouble so leave the things there. I'll put them back.” The store keep almost cut him off while dropping his arms below the counter. Reading the room, Leandros begrudgingly put the items down.

  “Sir, I bring no trouble. I just wish to spend my coin and bring my friends some apples and restock our supply of bandages.". He tried to convince the store keep but he was firm in his beliefs and did not back down, leaving a silence in the air. After the silence hung for a dangerous amount of time, Leandros decided to not escalate as he walked backward towards the door before leaving.

  Stepping out in the cold, he let out a slightly angry sigh and kicked a stone down the road. Pressing his hand to his forehead and gritting his teeth, he ran his hand through his long hair before muttering, “For fucks sake”.

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  The top spots on the scoreboard didn't change much over the course of mourning. Lisa and Joe had solidified their place in the top ten, and had gone to the mess hall for lunch after dropping off their weapons at the armory. Lisa sat opposite Joe who was halfway finished with a tub of ice cream, its chemical smell was potent enough to have her hand covering up her nose. An alert they received earlier told them to wait to be seen by the medical team and final preparations for the trip. Along with that, they were told that they could bring hand held items that could fit inside their suit’s storage compartment. This was undoubtedly the most discussed topic in the mess hall, that Joe and Lisa were also taking part in.

  “You know,” Joe started with a mouthful of ice cream. “It’s really quite nice that ice cream doesn't melt on its own.” he gave Lisa a grin which made her look at him like an idiot.

  “There is no way you are bringing ice cream to a different fucking planet.”

  His grin grew and with the hand not holding the spoon he pressed on his outer left thigh, opening the compartment. Taking out its contents he placed three brightly coloured bars of cookie dough ice cream and a locket. The circular centerpiece was scratched and blemished, tarnishing its brass surface. The chain attached wasn't in the best condition with it broken at one of the links making it unable to be worn.

  “Can’t believe you still have that.” Lisa’s eyes darted to the locket, as Joe swiped it from the table and put it back in the storage compartment. His eyes looked down and his grin dropped to a smile.

  “‘Course.” He looked back up after a second and plastered his grin back on, while shoveling a spoonful of cookie dough into his mouth. “And you?”

  “Picked up the finest.” Lisa took out four packets of cigarettes and a lighter and spread them evenly along the table. “I am now very broke.” she gave a quick self-deprecating laugh.

  "Aren't we all.” Joe mumbled, his mouth full. “but if you're going to have a go at me for keeping a relic you shouldn't keep one yourself.” He pointed at the lighter, he wasn't wrong it was scratched and battered with the depiction of what her dad told her was a rabbit, almost worn out. She picked it up and flicked it open. The electric prongs at the center let out arcs of electricity conjoining them, a loud zapping sound followed before she closed the lid.

  “Still works fine, no need to change it.”

  “To be honest though I am impressed by how much stuff you fitted into the storage. I imagine there is not even a fly's worth of room in there?” Joe continued talking, scraping the bottom of the tub.

  “Not at all, I've squashed as much as I can in there. Do i think it will last me the full three years… probably not. Will it get me through the first year… also probably not.” Lisa joked while squeezing the plastic boxes into her storage with some difficulty with the lighter eventually finding its space.

  The two mainly talked about what they expected on the planet for the twenty minutes before their appointment with the medical team. Joe and Lisa were completely clueless on how the planet would look but with the simulation done they had a better understanding.

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  “You think the whole planet is like that simulation.” Joe asked, as they walked across the facility. “I would be surprised. I imagine there are massive landscapes of badlands and deserts like earth. It would at least make driving easier.” he added.

  “Eh, I don't know I would also be surprised if it was mainly forest, the amount of life there seemed overwhelming. Though with how much resources Mrs. Holland spoke about I can imagine that there would be mountains of iron and other metals completely covering everything.” Lisa responded after some time to contemplate.

  “And lakes?” Joe asked

  “Eh, a few here and there. Definitely more than earth, that's for sure.” Lisa answered faster than before, “I still want to see one though.”

  “Maybe the water will be purple, would you still want to see it?” Joe raised an eyebrow.

  “Oh even more so, better than seeing rubbish covering it at least.” Lisa shot back.

  The two continued their conversation until they saw a couple members of the IZ-213 platoon standing around at the end of the corridor.

  “Ready?” Joe said a bit deflated.

  “Nope.” Lisa said, sliding her helmet on and walking towards the small crowd forming of their platoon members. Joe followed in toe and they both hung around the outskirts of the group but it was short-lived as a very, very happy Steve loudly approached them drawing all the attention to the two.

  “Here they are!” with open arms he clasped the shoulders of the two. With his helmet attached to his belt he beamed at them. “Top 10! Ha Ha, how do you two always do it? Joe and Lisa felt his thumb strongly massage their shoulder a little as he lent in, his joyful expression vanishing immediately. “Top 10 are you fucking with me? Making some sort of joke where the rest of us are the butt of it? Top 10!?” His last sentence was louder than he intended which drew back some attention from the others. Gripping the two soldiers tighter he put on his happy mask as he turned to look to see if anyone was still watching, nodding or smiling at people not turning back to their own small groups, before he turned back.

  “That wasn't fucking rhetorical. What do you think you were doing? Playing in the mud?” he turned to Lisa, increasing his grip on her. “Do you like the mud? Maybe we should keep you outside on X-01 until you can learn to FUCKING walk without dragging everyone else down with you.” Lisa’s heart was beating fast, her lip was bleeding with how she bit down on it but her eyes darted from the brown eyes of Steve gazing at her to Joe’s heart rate on her HUD, it was about to explode, and his breathing was rapid. Steve noticed and lessened his grip on her and turned to Joe, “What's the matter loverboy? I have no issue with how you handled yourself.” he then changed his voice to one where a father would talk to a baby with, “You upset that your partner singlehandedly dropped the platoon three places? Yeah I would be as well."

  Joe was almost frothing at the mouth with anger, with a balled fist he was running through how satisfying it would be to gut the man in front of him. He was about to strike, he had planed his moves out already. First he was going to pin him down as his opening move, second tear off his torso plating to finally deliver a punch to shatter a few ribs. He assumed that's all he could do before he would be stopped, but thinking about how satisfying it would be did calm him down ever so slightly. Just before he could make his move, a door opened and an android and doctor walked out. The android was like a large rectangular block on top of a wheel, it was taller than the doctor without the clearly marked sections that would open up and reveal surgical equipment extending.

  “Platoon IZ-213, please make your way inside, I hope you brought all your belongings with you as this is the last stop for you before the transfer.” the doctor spoke not even glancing up from the tablet in his arms. The two felt the hands of Steve release as he put his helmet on and walked towards the open door, with the doctor and android already having made their way inside.

  “Thanks Joe” Lisa said softly, placing an arm on his shoulder. As they both made it inside the room.

  The medical room was blindingly white just like the rest of the built portions of the facility, the room that directly passed the door was a general discussion and examination room with a bed and the tool rack filled with equipment to examine a patient. One wall of the room was exchanged for an electric window that currently allowed people to look through, through the window a far larger, warehouse-like room was filled with tall glass cylindrical containers. Inside each, a naked person floated with cables and wires attached to their skin. Once the last of the platoon entered the door behind them clicked shut. The doctor was not present in the room, instead he had made his way through the airlock into the warehouse. The squad awkwardly stood around waiting for the doctor to arrive.

  The airlock opened from the other side. Soon enough with a container holding a curled up man quickly moved past the window and deep within the human storage using tracks in the ground.

  “Sorry, that was not meant to be left on.” The doctor quickly taped his tablet and the window blurred to show the Falling Mountains logo slowly spinning. “Please line up orderly in front of my assistant.”

  Forming into a compact line, each person was injected through the hand with a solution filled with survey type nanobots by the assistant android. With the little robots surfing all of their bloodstreams, collecting data, the doctor took them individually to the airlock where he drew a curtain blocking the person from the onlookers. This is where he told each soldier to strip, providing a deep grey tub for their armour.

  “Please fold up all three layers of your armour and remove your personal items and place them on top," the doctor would tell each individual, bored out of his mind. “Your items will be checked for damages while your personal items will be checked against the prohibited items list.” with how his voice dragged it was definitely not his first squad nor his last. Once the soldier was naked he would lead them to the airlock.

  This is where Lisa couldn't understand what was happening and had to experience it first hand. Once her turn came round she placed the heavy plating and robotically enhanced boots and gloves of the third layer, folded up the baggy jumpsuit with her finally slowly removing the tight bodysuit, carefully extracting the pads and pins connected to her. Instinctively covering her chest and groin from the doctor but he was already opening the airlock and walked inside, not at all caring for another naked person. Stepping into the two meter corridor- like room the door closed behind her and sealed shut. Immediately her body was sprayed with powerful jets, cold water from all sides. Gasping at the barrage it continued until she was dripping from top to bottom. Next was a powder fired out from the walls, the white mist clung to her wet body and hair with only her scars not having any powder latch on. Lastly hot air battered the woman; almost knocking her over with their sheer force. After enduring the abuse for thirty seconds the door ahead of her opened up. The spotless and dry doctor waltzed through focusing more on the tablet than anything else.

  Awaiting Lisa in the warehouse room was an empty container with blue liquid loomed over her. The lid was detached and hanging over a yellow marked square on the ground, which the doctor was waiting for her to step into. Hanging from the lid of the container wires with pads and dongles resembled tentacles eerily waiting with a central one, many times the size of the others slowly rotating. Hanging on a tube thick enough for someone to use both hands to grasp the full diameter, was a half mask that looked like a portion of it dangling from one side would be locked to her face. If that wasn't scary enough three long opaque tubes dangled, two from where her nose would be and a larger one where she had to put her mouth. As she looked dumbstruck at the medical equipment the doctor looked up.

  “Hurry up and attach yourself to the mask.” he was annoyed and stared at Lisa.

  “Miss. Grim, I do not wish to call an android to put it on for you.” he continued, speaking like it was a simple task but seeing her not move he sighed and returned to his tablet, pressing a few buttons. Rolling across the room from a separate doorway a robot looking exactly like the assistant rolled towards her. With it getting within a couple meters of the yellow square its ‘arms’ opened up. An array of tools similar to Hanna’s cycled until the robot had two claws. The assistant clasped the mask in one hand and waited for Lisa to approach, Its other three pronged claw outstretched and twitching. From the same doorway a combat android stomped its way towards the woman who was now shaking. Its arms were not the typical laser cannons but replaced with large humanoid hands. As the two and a half meter tall robot loomed over Lisa it grasped her by shoulders and dragged her to the assistant robot.

  “Wait, Wait, I can do it myself. Please, this is unnecessary.” she eventually stammered out, she struggled in the machine’s vice grip to no avail.

  “Resistance detected” it boomed, as the torso-sized hands squeezed tighter around her body. Her face was grasped by the open claw of the assistant, keeping her head stationary. Opening her mouth reluctantly the tubes were forced into her face, she gagged and tried to cough but with her airways restricted, Lisa could only squirm. Once the mask was fully pressed against her face and the lock keeping it against her face clicked. The two robots then released their grips and returned to where they came.

  “Wasn’t too bad was it?” the doctor spoke not even looking up from his tablet once through that entire ordeal.

  The feeling of the mask was awful, as she couldn't swallow and her breathing was slightly restricted. As she stood in the yellow square with her movement restricted due to the mask’s connection cable being short, the doctor finally put down his tablet and pulled over a trolley with different tools so that he could start examining her. As she could only now look around Lisa good a good look at the man, he was mainly in white with a mint green mask and apron; while his short black hair was buzzed off recently. His olive skin was flawless and heavily moisturized. She couldn't get a good look at his hands due to them being covered by latex gloves but she wouldn't be surprised if they were soft and well manicured.

  Grabbing a small hammer he knocked a few points on her body while jotting things down on the tablet. He replaced the hammer and picked up a long needle- like instrument and began poking her periodically telling her to move an arm or leg. Finally, grabbing a device from the trolley he clipped a small machine to her finger. She felt a small prick at the tip of the index finger the machine was attached to before the doctor nodded and removed the device.

  “Ok.” he said to Lisa with his back turned, writing something down. “Stand still.” which Lisa rolled her eyes at.

  Putting on a new set of gloves he removed the small plastic layer on a pad and attached it to her forearm, it took him a minute but he eventually covered Lisa in the numerous pads that were hanging from the lid. The last three wires were quickly plugged in sockets in her chest, abdomen and kidney. Once all the wires were connected he gave her a once over.

  “Please climb the ladder and lower yourself into the solution.” the doctor commanded, pushing over a ladder that clipped to the edge of the container. Lisa climbed and reached the small platform that she would slide off of into the vat. As she sat, her legs plunged into the water - which was cold as shit - making her recoil automatically. Powering through her body naturally wanting to not go into the water, she slid off into the vat.