NLM Hissy Fits: Part Two

Lobby 


 * This very large room serves as an inner lobby for the facility, with a high-capacity lift shaft tube dominating the inner wall. Seating is available, arranged in aesthetic patterns for visitors, amidst floral planters and small flowering trees. Soft music plays from above, while various holoviewers around the room show a variety of programming. The lighting is bright and cheery.

Taeren is whistling to himself as he fiddles with the banking console. It looks like he's depositing a paycheck.

Jantine comes out of the landing bay, looking pretty tired, but with a trace of a smile on his face. He begins heading towards the lift, which is also in Tay's general direction.

Taeren turns at the sound of someone approaching. "Corporal," he greets Jan.

Jantine comes to a salute as he's adressed "Captain" he says, somewhat on the tired side.

Taeren returns the salute and looks Jantine over. "Wild night, pilot?"

Jan brings his salute down "Guess you could say that, sir." he says, before adding "Alandra was on New Luna"

"I should know who that is?" Tay asks.

"Uh, no, probably not, sorry. She's part of Ruin's crew, a doctor" Jan replies.

"Oh. She. So you two had that wild night I mentioned, huh?" Tay replies.

Jantine simply nods "Yes sir"

"Great," Taeren chirps. "Roll up your sleeves. It's time for some pee-tee."

"Yes sir" Jan replies neutrally, doing as ordered and rolling up his sleeves.

Taeren turns and jogs towards the landing bay. "Double time, Corporal," he barks. "So you've been taking shore leave a lot lately, huh? Something on your mind?"

Jantine follows after Tay, jogging after him "Yes sir" he says neutrally.

"Spill it," Taeren replies, passing through into the landing bay next to Jan, "While you still can. We're going to work until one of us throws up."

Landing Bay 


 * This incredible chamber sports almost a square mile of poured plascrete, all watched over by a high communications tower. Most of the ceiling of this chamber is of a lightly buzzing blue energy, allowing ships in and out with a minimum of atmosphere loss. Cheery lighting fixtures line the walls in stark contrast to the otherwise utilitarian nature of the bay. There is a set of double doors near the back of the bay, manned by half a dozen armed New Luna Militia members.

"You want me to be honest, sir?" Jan asks, he's keeping pace, but he still looks tired.

"You won't have enough breath to lie," Taeren replies, picking up the pace.

Jantine grunts as Tay picks up the pace, following after him "Norton's fucking up my life, sir. I'm not going to stay here if this keeps up" he's begining to breath harder, the exertion showing.

"Oh really?" Tay asks. He sounds amused. "How is a superior officer fucking up your life, and why did you not bring this to my attention instead of brooding over it like a little bitch?"

"He's forcing me onto medication, harassing /and/ hurting my friends. Including Scheur." he pauses "And I didn't think you'd approve of it, sir" Jan says, sounding slightly ashamed.

"I don't approve of you letting him fuck you over without doing anything about it, especially when the right thing to do about it is to bring it to your CO," Taeren replies, ire rising. "He does not control the personnel decisions of my pilots. Him ordering you onto medication is an illegal order; the most he can do is recommend I put you on meds." The Timonae picks up the pace again, words coming around gusting breaths. "As for your friends, if they don't break the law, he can't hassle them. Has he been using a psi-blocker again?"

"Yes sir. And Scheur's...pregnant now, he could seriously hurt the baby. Which means they can't come here, except one or so at a time on the shuttles" Jan says, almost breathlessly.

"Then he's harassing her and abusing his position. Tell her to write her Councilman and press the issue until it makes it to Seale," Taeren says, pausing to continue breathing as they get a quarter of the way around the mammoth landing bay. "That's the recourse she has under the law; she's still a citizen, right?"

"I dunno sir. But Norton said that...he could harass them without fear of a lawsuit." except for his heaving breathing, Jan's silent for a moment "Apparently they did something to him"

"That's what he thinks, and that's why he does it," Taeren replies. The pair are running briskly along the perimeter of the landing bay. "But he's very wrong if he thinks he can -- harass citizens. He's still breaking the law. If any problems come up, it's me who'll have to deal with them, and certainly not Scheur. Anyhow, they're not going to --" he runs for a few seconds, catching his breath. "-- better their situation by sitting around doing nothing. Jog." He slows his pace a little.

Jantine slows down with Tay, nodding slightly, but he's silent for a bit, before finally speaking "Sir...either way, I wont stay here if he does...or if this war breaks out." he says seriously, before asking "There isn't a way that...I could get out, without having to pay fines, or...spend time in jail?"

Lucius comes walking into the landing bay with his arms clasped behind his back, his helmet in a hand and an irritated look on his face. The norm for the past few days.

"No," Taeren replies. "Push ups, NOW." He points to Jantine, then points to the ground. "Sound off, Corporal. I'm going to teach you something." Hands on his hips, still breathing hard, the Timonae says, "We've got a real problem, pilot. Someone is hassling you and rather than turn and fight like a man, you're talking about running. That is NOT how we get things done in this Militia."

Jantine drops to the ground, begining to do the pushups and counting out loud, he's breathing hard, and obviously tired.

"First of all, you told me once you -needed- medication," Taeren continues. "Keep pushing, Corporal. All of a sudden because Norton threatens to order you to take it -- which, by the way, he can't -- this is a bad thing. What's your problem?"

Lucius sees the Captain and Corporal doing exercise and deposits his weapons with a guard near the door. Then he decides to come on over and participate with them, still fully armoured. "Mind if I join in?"

Jan doesn't say a thing to Lucius, but does respond to Tay, saying a word everytime he goes down "I want to see what my other options are. Therapy or Vollistans. He says I can't do either."

"He is not your commanding officer, Corporal Osligoth!" Taeren replies. "KEEP IT UP!" The Timonae turns to Lucius. "If you want to do push-ups till you puke, Sergeant, feel free. Because that's my plan here."

Lucius snorts. "You'd be surprised." Without a further word, he gets down into stance very quickly and starts to do clapping pushups - that is, he goes down, pushes up, claps, and then goes down again.

Jantine doesn't seem to care that Lucky is showing off, continuing to do just normal pushups. He's silent for now.

Taeren kneels next to Jantine, his face a few inches away from the other man's as it moves up and down. "Osligoth, when you joined this Militia you swore to protect New Luna. Did you mean what you said when you swore that oath? Did you?"

Lucius continues to do his exercises silently, not so much showing off as doing something that provides more muscle stress and short burst energy use than regular pushups. His eyes flit up to the exchange, though, as his body bobs up and down.

"Yes sir. But I did not swear to fight a war for Norton's personal reasons." Jan replies, seriously. He's getting tired, very tired.

"IS NORTON YOUR CO OR AM I?" Taeren demands, firmly.

Breath in, breath out. Clap. Breath in, breath out. Clap. That is Lucius's routine.

"You, sir" Jan replies. One of his arms buckles slightly, he manages to catch it though. "What do you want me to do, then?" Jan asks, somewhat pleadingly.

"Keep doing push-ups, Osligoth," Taeren replies. "So you swore to defend this planet. The Militia doesn't need rockrats who whimper and then run away when they face a little hardship. The Militia needs warriors. Are you a warrior, Corporal? Are you? Or are you a mouse?"

After a bunch of clap pushups, Lucius switches to triangle pushups where he makes a small triangle with the fingers of both hands pressed together.

"I don't know anymore, sir." Jan replies breathlessly, he looks to be on the verge of collapse.

"Bull shit," Taeren replies. "You know what you are, Osligoth. Don't lie to me. Keep pushing."

At that moment, Jan collapses, his arms apparently can't hold him up anymore. He whimpers "Mouse" from his heap on the ground.

"Get out of my sight," Taeren replies. "Come back when you've got some fight in you." He turns and walks towards the lobby without another word, pulling off his uniform shirt.

Jantine remains crumpled on the ground, sobbing beginning to wrack his body.