[AUDIO | 006 : Nothing to Sneeze At] Wednesday Evening, Week 16

[standsentinel]

This is Major Alenko.

I've got answers on what the bandits at the hospital were after, and a start on why.

[There's a thread of fatigue in Kaidan's voice, but it's blended in amongst a grimly level quality that lends a little more grit to his usual gentle rasp. One audible intake of breath later, he breaks his pause for attention and continues.]

Long story short, they were after medical supplies because there's some sort of illness that hit their camp, and hit it hard. Out of the nine that jumped us, we had three survivors. We're down to two now, and one's not looking pretty. The other's feverish too. Whatever hit 'em seems to have come from the south -- a trader they'd contacted said there was an outbreak well south of here.

I'm no doctor. I'm certainly no virologist. But if you ran into the bandits, or were at the hospital that day, keep an eye on how you're feeling.

Comments

[Filtered Audio]

[standsentinel]

Pretty much what I've shared -- there are outbreaks to the south, the bandits are coming down with it, and since they were here, probably a good chance that it's spread to the Old City now too.

Symptoms seem to be tied into a high fever. General malaise, looked like some muscle soreness, but how much of that's sickness and how much was the beating these guys collected...

[Filtered Audio]

[kazeninaru]

[She makes a somewhat frustrated noise.]

I do not know what malaise is. My English is good, but not that good. Has anyone gone yet to this bandit camp to see how bad it is there?

[She will totally go. She's itching to kick more bad guy ass, and getting out of this ruin of a city for a bit would be kind of awesome.]

Re: [Filtered Audio]

[standsentinel]

Malaise. It's... the general feeling you get when being sick. Dragged out, just feeling awful, weak. Hang on.

[Although his own translator can quite happily process the various Terran languages in addition to some alien dialects, it doesn't exactly work in reverse. Kaidan's left to fish up a dictionary on his omni-tool, and then offer up the Japanese word for 'malaise' with an accent that's decidedly not Japanese, but has some flavour of southeast asian language colouring it instead.]

Nobody's been out to the bandit camp yet. If you wanted to get a few people and you could keep an eye out from a safe distance, some scouting'd be good. Just don't get infected yourself.

[kazeninaru]

[Haruka reads the translation and nods to herself. Much better for her Japanese-oriented brain.]

I can take my partner. If I have not been made ill by now, neither will she. We are very used to scouting. Can you send me directions?

[standsentinel]

Don't assume too much. You could still be in the window to get sick, you just haven't started yet. We don't know how long the thing incubates for... but I guess we can't just all stop doing everything because of maybes.

Here.
[A packet of data pings its way to Haruka's comm.]

The directions are a little vague, but that'll point you the right way.

I guess I don't need to tell you to be careful.

[kazeninaru]

[The phone dings, and Haruka pauses to stare at it and frown at the data sent-- at least she isn't technologically impaired, and downloads it quickly-- before responding with a wry sort of grin, looking briefly older than your average eighteen year old.]

I'm never careful. I do well, anyway. Thank you. Any advice? Besides 'be careful'?

[standsentinel]

[He huffs a laugh at that, head shaken slightly.]

That attitude reminds me of someone I used to know pretty well. She did well anyway too.

Assume that they know the terrain better than you do. And be alert for signs of ambushes or traps -- these guys were desperate, not stupid."

[kazeninaru]

[She smirks at him, back, deciding not to take offense at the laugh since he seems to be comparing her to someone he likes.]

I will take that as compliment, then. We will be careful. Thank you for the direction, Alenko-san. I will see what we can find for you.


((and that is, sadly, off-screened :B if you wanna find out what they find out, I'm sure I can poke PG and get you something...))

[standsentinel]

Much appreciated -- intel's a lot thinner on the ground than I'd like.

(( That would be awesome. :D ))

[Next morning, private call]

[kazeninaru]

[With his contact number now in her phone, it's easy enough to give Kaidan a call once she and Michiru are back from their little foray. When he answers, she says,]

Ohayo, Alenko-san. Good morning.

[Next morning, private call]

[standsentinel]

Ah, hi there. You're up early.

[Kaidan sounds very much like he's just been rolled forcibly out of bed to take the call. This is because, thanks to some late-night brainwaves that saw him tinkering away in his workshop, he just has.]

Everything all right?

[kazeninaru]

Is it early?

[She sounds ungodly cheerful, for it being early morning. But she got to be useful and do what she's used to doing, and managed not to hurt and innocents this time, too.]

We looked at that bandit site. There was not much left.

[standsentinel]

Early-ish. I'm still keeping ship's time, to an extent. Glad the morning was productive for you, though.

[There may be just a little hint of dryness in that wish. Just maybe.]

Not surprised about the bandit site -- staging area or main camp, d'you think?

[kazeninaru]

Not main, no, not very permanent. No one was there anymore, either, except for the scavengers who try to dig up the graves.

[She'd dispatched the digging dinosaurs, at least, before investigating what they were trying to get at.]

All are either gone, dead, or both, there. Wherever the rest went to, it is further away.

[standsentinel]

Makes sense -- why stage from where you live, after all. Did you get a direction of travel, either where they came from or where they went? Uh, that wasn't 'here', that is.

[kazeninaru]

Too few left to tell, I think. If they left, they left just a few. If they came, it was either in small groups or they covered tracks.

[And between it being too long, and tracking in the wilderness not really being Haruka's best skill, she hadn't managed to tell much beyond that.]

[standsentinel]

Guess we'll just have to send patrols out farther. Or maybe send one of the giant robots to scout -- at least one of 'em can fly.

[kazeninaru]

I saw them. The robots. That would probably be good. My partner and I tried looking for them before, for the bandits, but we are used to cities and did not find much at the time.

[Which annoys her to no end. She's going to get better at this place, she really is.]

[standsentinel]

If you want to learn more about moving through the woods, you should look up a fellow named Eliot. He's got a few skills in that direction, I've pulled together.

[kazeninaru]

[Seems like a good idea, really. As much as Haruka hates working with other people, maybe this guy will be less annoying than a bunch of junior high students....]

I'll try that. Do you have his number?

[standsentinel]

[Eliot's contact information pings over to her with alacrity.]

If he's answering calls, that should get him. Hope it helps, ma'am.

[kazeninaru]

[That obvious she's female, huh? Well, he wouldn't be the first, but she supposed he was pretty observant, at that. Still, names were better than being called "ma'am". She smirks a bit to herself, and offers:]

Tenoh Haruka. My name.

[standsentinel]

[Pretty observant, career military... or simply from a time where humans rocking an androgynous look have to complete with some alien species' subtle ideas of sexual dimorphism.]

Thank you, Ms. Tenoh. [Kaidan isn't Japanese himself, but growing up in a Vancouver that's only gotten even more blended in the two hundred years between them lets him guess at the ordering of surname and personal name.]

My full name's Kaidan Alenko, since I think I led with the title the other day.

[kazeninaru]

Alenko-san.

[If he's going to use his style of referring to her-- a very gendered one, at that-- she's going to turn it around and use her own style, back. At least she's doing it somewhat light-heartedly.]

It is a pleasure to meet you. In this way, if it counts as meeting. I hope our scouting was a help.