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RotV Mission 2.3 - Before the Storm (Part 2)

Conflict of Interest

"Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future."

~ Criswell, Plan 9 from Outer Space

Lynnette sat in the corner of the cafeteria as she ate, keeping her eyes on her food and ignoring the whispers that was going around under the casual conversations of the training crew. It had become her habit since she had boarded twenty-four weeks ago. It hadn't taken her long to feel the burning stares of her fellow cadets, some out of admiration, some out of jealousy, most out of irritation and anger. Rumors had spread about the Caushae cadet that had started training as a PMC Marine and was now being put through a quick, crash course of Command Training.

Secretly she had hope that Faelynne or Rayne would join her, however, the medical cadet was currently occupied in the ships infirmary and the vixen had to pull an all nighter due to a mistake in the roster because of the extended voyage. While she wouldn't openly admit it to anyone, she did see the two as good companions; despite her abrasive and isolate attitude that she had developed since Reg's death.

There was a clank that brought the feline out of her thoughts and looking around she seen that she was now surrounded by three human males.

“Well, well, eating alone today cadet kitty?”

Lynnette groaned at the bur. “Yes I am,” She said with disdain. “In fact I'm done and leaving.” She said as she grabbed her tray of half eaten food and got up to leave only to discover that the only path for her to take was in arms reach of Fischer. Lynnette's ears pinned back at seeing the only way out was past the human that was looking at her like she was some kind of choice meat. “What do you want Fischer?” She nearly hissed the words, but if any of the humans heard it, they just ignored it as they leered at her.

The human gave her one of those grins as he half sat on the table and lean close to her.

'Uh oh...'

---

“I'm afraid that I wasn't there to see how the fight started.” The brownish Lykain said before she put the lollipop back into her mouth much to the distaste of the military commanders in the room.

Commander Carver leaned over the table as he clasp his hands in front of him. “What can you tell us about the fight, Cadet Marisa? Any hearsay or voices that you were able to pick up as you approached?”

There was an audible pop as the sucker was pulled from her lips. “I'm sorry sir, but as I'm certain that Marus would tell you, we didn't pass anyone on our way to the mess aside from miss Anoixi.”

Commander Carver looked straight at the Lykain, her blue-green hued eyes remain unflinching under her sandy brown hair. “Is there anything that you could surmise about the event before you walked in?” He asked as the others looked at him questionably.

The corners of her muzzles started to turn upwards into a toothy smile as she had to try hard not to bust out laugh at the mental image that was forming in her mind. “You mean, besides the fact that there was a lot of bruised egos and a lot of testosterone that got their collective asses kicked?...”

---

Marisa pulled out the lollipop that she was sucking on and huffed as she stood at the corner of the hallway. She looked at her wrist communicator to see what time it was, probably the third time that she had checked the time she had been standing there sucking on now small lollipop. Since the announcement of their added time of their current mission, there was developing confusion with the cadet's duty roster as some were either slacking off worse than before or some cadets had dropped off the rotation completely do to some sudden computer error. With her being a cadet in engineering, it was beyond frustrating to find the problem as at times, the cadets seemed to know more of what they were doing versus some of the instructors. Unfortunately, the person she was waiting on seem to be over taxed to the point where she rarely seen him since this... fiasco happened.

After getting rid of the stick to the finished lolloipop, she pulled another lollipop out of her engineering overalls pocket as the sound of someone panting coming closer drew her back to her surroundings. Soon, a solid black Lycain with almost glowing blue highlights came into view. Marisa gave him a hard stare as he slowed down and stopped next to her, trying to catch his breath. “You are late.” She growled as she poked him in the chest with the stick of the lollipop.

It took him an extra few seconds before he could catch his breath enough to speak. “Sorry Marisa.” He said softly in apology, making her huff as she turned and started to walk away down the corridor. “You know,” He said as he followed after the brownish Lycain. “I'm not purposely trying to make you wait.”

She stopped for a moment so that he would bump into her, catching him off guard when she did. She turned and wrapped her arms around his waist as she laid her head against his shoulders. “I know,” she said softly. “But this past week has been so taxing. I've been missing you Marus.”

Marus nuzzled the top of her head as he held her close. “I know. And I'm sorry.” He sighed. “So much stupidity has happened since we've gotten assigned to this last mission.”

“I know what you mean. Engineering has been so scewy along with the other departments.” Marisa said as she nuzzled her nose against his. “I can only imagine what you're going through, though. You're practically the XO around here under the Captain.”

“Heh... don't remind me.” He chuckled before they let go of each other and continued on their way.

The two waked in silence down the corridor, heading to their planned destination when Marisa asked out of the blue. “So, what are your thoughts on the Marine LT?”

Marus cocked his head as he turn to regard the shorter wolffess with a confused expression. “Who?”

Marisa rolled her eyes. “The Caushae that was added last minute when we had to detour to pick up her and a few of them other Marines from that accadamy.”

“Oh... Her...” She could hear a bit of irritation in his voice and it took him a bit of thought before he answered. “I guess she's alright?” He said uncertain.

She stopped and regarded the black wolf. “But...” Marisa crossed her arms as she waited for him to continue speaking.

It was a few seconds before the Lykain stopped and turn to look at her. “But?” There was confusion in his voice as well as how he looked at her. “But, what?”

She sighed as she rolled her eyes. “That's my question.” She strolled up to him and nearly pushed her wet lollipop into his chest. “The way it sounds to me is that you have more to say than what you're letting on. You're uncertain about her, or at least something that you're not telling me.”

He sighed as his shoulders slumped. “There's something about her that's rubbing me the wrong way. Its been since day one when she came aboard.”

Marisa huffed as she started walking and pushed past him. “Please tell me that its not one of those old Lykain grudges that those from the core worlds seem to have against the Caushae.”

“Grudges?” Marus scoffed as he followed after her. “Please give me some credit at least. Yes there is some major bad blood between our two races, hell, there some sore spots where the humans are concerned. I at least think and look at the individual that I'm dealing with as I might be from the homeworld, but I'm not basing my opinion on any grudges or any passed down bias. Specially one that's a millennia old bias.”

Marisa stopped and turned around suddenly causing the black wolf to nearly plow into her. “Then what is it then?” Her two tone eyes looked up into his nearly glowing blue irises as she raised a paw up and cupped his cheeks. “Tell me.”

“I don't know for sure. There's just... Something about her that's off putting.” Marus sighed as his shoulders slumped. “Its a feeling that I can't place when it comes to her. Its almost like...”

“Almost like what?”

“Its like... She has this hole in her aurora, that she's missing a piece of herself.” He gave a light shudder at the thought. “Its really off putting to say the least.” She gave a light huff as she pulled away from him and turned so that her tail swatted against his body as she started to continue down the hallway. “Alright, tell me what you think of her.”

Marisa came to another stop when he asked the question. She didn't even look back when she spoke. “She's hurting.”

Marus tilted his head in confusion. “Hurting? How?”

“How much do you know about her?”

“Everything that's not classified in her military dossier.”

Marisa sighed as she moved forward again. “There's more to life than duty and not everything will fit in a report or get documented. I thought that you'd of learned that by now.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Marus said confused as he followed after the female Lykain. Marisa kept quiet as she walked ahead of him as she thought of how to explain it. “Marisa?” He lightly grasped the wolfess's shoulder. She stunned him when she turned around and pulled herself close to him.

“She's hurting because someone got really close to her and died. That hole that you're sensing is probably the void that she's feeling herself from their passing.”

Marus wrapped his arms around her. “And how did you come to know all of this? Last I knew and heard, she pretty much kept to herself.”

“I over heard two of her friends talking and I got them to open up a little. Found out that she was in love with a fellow trainee only to loose him in that incident last year that we heard about.” Marisa sighed as she nuzzled into his shoulder. “She put her life on the line to rescue him and the other cadets that were with him. It nearly cost her her life. Then to find out that he passed way? Its... heart breaking.”

“Is that why you've been trying to spend more time that you can with me?”

“I'd be lying if I said no.”

Marus gave her a light, reassuring squeeze. The sound of footsteps broke the two out of the moment and they separated just as a green haired, purple fur Almedhas rounded the corner and nearly bumped headlong into them. “Oh, excuse me.” She said sheepishly. “I must have been too lost in thought that I didn't notice you two.”

“Its alright cadet Anoixi.” Marus said softly with a nod. “On your way to the cafeteria?”

“Oh god yes.” She answered quickly. “I had to skip breakfast to make my shift and this was the first opportunity to get some food.”

The Trio continued down the hall making their way to the ship's cafeteria. Marus would occasionally look at Marisa with a little concern as he thought of their conversation. His mind going between what she said, the dossier that he was able to get a hold of, and the snow leopard herself.

“She's hurting.”

He was so lost in thought that he was simply following the girls to the cafeteria doors. He barely register when Marisa and Anoixi dodged wide eyed out of the way as a body came through the now open doorway and slammed into the black wolf, knocking both to the floor of the hallway.

“What the Shit!?!” Marisa exclaimed as she risked a look into the room, making the rabbit next to her risk a look too. Both girl's jaws would of dropped to the floor and shattered at the sight.

There was perhaps twenty-five or so human individuals in the large space. About six of them were pressing their backs against the walls, trying to stay away from the commotion in the middle while watching in awe at the spectical going on in the room. Several more humans were scattered around on the floor and tables, each of them were bloodied from broken noses, split lips and several minor cuts on their faces and bodies as some moved and groaned in pain. In the center of the room was a lone feline Caushae, standing her ground against even more humans that were encircling her, apparently wanting revenge for their fallen comrades. While the feline was also bloody and bruised with her uniform being rather disheveled and oddly ripped, she wasn't in as bad of a shape as those humans around her. It appeared to the two girls that the snow leopard was dishing out more punishment that she was taking.

By the time Marus was able to push the unconscious human off of him and stood up, three of the humans charged the smaller feline from different angles. For her part, Lynnette back stepped out of two of the lunging men while putting her elbow into the gut of the third one that was coming in from behind her and while he started to double over, grabbed the back of his shirt and forced him into the other two that had collided with each other causing all three to go down into a heap .

“Security to the Cafeteria!” Marus barked into his wrist communicator, as more men tried to get the agile feline.

It was almost like watching a dance as the cadet deflected, parried, and dodge most everything that was thrown her way. One human tried to right hook her from the side, which she skillfully ducked and rolled under his swing so that he punched someone else that had gotten too close. Another managed to grab her from behind and held her as two more approached ready to beat her senseless by the look from their face. The two never got close as she used the guy holding her as leverage and kicked both men in the jaw making them both fly backwards, landing sprawled out on the floor. With both feet back on the floor, she hooked a leg behind the guy's and used the other to force the two of then to stumble back and fall on the floor with a groan. Using the speed and agility of her race, she rolled back on her feet and gave the guy a firm kick in the head to knock him out cold.

A flash of metal caught Marisa's attention off to the side, a quick glance and she spotted a large kitchen knife that one of the humans had somehow grabbed. With gritted teeth the human made ready and lunged at the feline only to find himself tripping and falling on his face. Shaking the daze of the impact with the floor, he reached for the knife again only to have an oversize crescent wrench pin his arm to the floor. “I'd suggest you rethink your actions before I really teach you a lesion.” Marisa said with a impassive voice as she held the wrench there in warning.

Anoixi had also moved in to try to subdue the attacking humans, having grabbed one in a sleeper hold and held it till the man slumped on the floor. Her attention shifted to another that had took notice of her take down and moved in to take a shot at her. The human swung his fist out in a hook that met nothing than air as Anoixi grabbed his arm to deflect it and used it as leverage, bringing her knee up into his stomach. The human let out a gasp as the air was knocked out of him as his feet momentary left the ground from the power of her strike. A third human had a chair and took a swing at her that she barely missed by backpedaling away. She did not notice anyone behind her until she bumped into a smaller form. Before Anoixi could react she felt her arm being grabbed and her body thrown into one of the remaining tables with surprising force.

Lynnette was acting on instinct, reacting to the humans that was attacking her. Years of hand to hand combat training from her father and the additional tutelage of her time at the Academy kicked in as soon as the first punch was thrown. Her moves at this point were on automatic to the point where she wasn't comprehending what was truly going on around her or who was around, be them friend or foe.

So when a body collided with hers, her body was already moving on its own to defend herself.

It wasn't until she registered the large, feminine shape of an Almedhas hitting a table with a hard cough and a groan that conscious thought started to work its way back into the feline's brain. The scene had stunned her into shock for a moment, stopping her long enough that she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her and held her in place. She started to struggle against the strong grip.

“Let me go!” She hissed through gritted fangs as she started to struggle against her captor.

“ATTENTION ON DECK!”

The shout was loud and crisp, making all those in the room stand at attention that was able to. Lynnette was let go as she also stood at attention with the person that was holding her doing the same. The Captain stood in the doorway with several security behind him, each looking ready to serve their own brand of justice to the rowdy cadets. Captain Davis came in far enough that the security personnel was able to file in behind him and stood on either side of their captain. The human captain marched further in and stood with in a few feet of the snow leopard Caushae, eyeing everyone in the room before settling his gaze on the feline.

“I suggest that someone start explaining themselves before I reprimand everyone in this room!”

“Sir...” Lynette started before she was interrupted by one of the human.

“Sir,” Fischer spoke up to get the captain's attention. “I wanted to ask cadet Wilkes a few questions when she suddenly went feral and attacked me!”

Lynnette gave the human a disgusted look. “Feral and attacked?!? You're the one that came after me!”

Fischer gave her a half cocky grin that the captain seem to of failed to notice. “You're the one who threw the first strike.”

“After you and your damn buddies pined me to a wall when I tried to leave.”

“All I wanted to do was ask a question.” Marus, who was the one to grab Lynnette from behind, rolled his eyes at the fake, hurtful tone in the human's voice.

“You did.” Lynnette was glaring daggers at Fischer. “And I said 'No!' and I went to leave.”

“Well, I wasn't done talking to you.”

She growled. “I was.”

“Enough.” Captain Davis barked, silencing the two of them. “What was the question Cadet Fischer?”

“Nothing of consequence that would of lead to violence.”

“Bullshit” Lynnette spat taking a step towards the human, which Marus placed a hand on her shoulder to pull her back. “You were trying to get into my pants and refused to take no for an answer. Then when that didn't work, you tried to Rape me when I tried to Leave!”

The captain turned and gave Fischer a hard stare. “Is this true, Cadet?”

Fischer looked very much like a child caught with their hand in a cookie jar. “I... Well... Ahh... She's just trying to make excuses for why she struck me.”

“You were trying to forcibly RAPE Me!” The snow leopard spat as she struggled against the Lykain's grip on her shoulders. “Do you honestly think that I purposely ripped open my uniform on my own?” She hissed as she pointed out the disheveled appearance of her uniform.

“What's a matter Romeo?” Marisa snickered as she spoke up. “Did someone do some brain damage when she hit you?”

“Stay out of this fleabag!”

“ENOUGH!” Captain Davis shouted, making everyone jump and go silent. “That is a serious accusation cadet. Especially leveled at another cadet.”

“Sir, it is true.” The Caushae said in earnest.

“I suppose someone can and will back up this claim since this happened in a public place.” A quick look around and Marus could see that none of the standing humans were going to speak up in defense of either party. When it was apparent that no one was going to speak up, the captain frowned when he spoke next. “In that case, everyone involved in this brawl is now confined to quarters after a full medical examination unless otherwise on duty until I fully investigate what has happened. DISMISSED!”

---

“Thank you cadet, you're dismissed for now.” Commander Carver said to the female cadet before them. The human nodded before hastily making her exit out of the room. The room fell into silence for several seconds as the five comprehended what they had been told.

“My god.” The Major finally said in a low voice that broke the silence.

Commander Carver leaned back in his chair with a sigh. “Do we know if Captain Davis started that investigation before his death?”

“From what I've been told,” Ash said as he leaned forward ti rest his hands on the table. “That according to the logs recovered from the LCS Mimosa, Captain Davis never conducted said investigation. In fact, aside from the medical records from the fight as well as a few notes in some of the logs we've gotten, there's no record of any investigation happening. The only disciplinary action taken was by the Medical Officer in charge when one of his nurse trainees tried to neuter one of the men involved.”

There was a few coughs from the other men that was on the board. Talyna, who had just took a sip of water ended up spitting it back out when Ash said the last part. Ash could only put a hand over his mouth to hide the grin seeing the reaction of the Mauluse. While the report had the name omitted due to a bit of data corruption, he suspected who had wanted to go after the men who tried to assault her friend.

Commander Carver regain some of his composure and look at the Major. “Does anything in Mr. Fischer's record show anything that this might be a recurring behavior?”

Major Burch picked up a data pad that was in front of him and quickly scanned over some of the information that he quickly brought up. “According to his personal file, he's squeaky clean. A little too clean if you ask me.”

“What do you mean?” Talyna asked after regaining some of her composure.

“Meaning,” The Major sighed as he dropped the data pad on the table with a clack. “That, even though this is pure speculation on my part, certain parts of his records has been edited or left out. Perhaps and probably due to outside influence. Its not unheard of for some rich, influential family to 'grease a few palms' or call in a few favors to get their kids out of trouble and keep them looking like one of the outstanding models of society.”

Talyna's face scrunched up in disgust as the Commandant shook his head. “Perhaps we should look deeper into the matter ourselves. Beginning with pulling up records from where Cadet Fischer has been. Even if there's been a cover-up, there will still be some evidence on record.” He turn to Ash “I think it would be prudent to settle this matter as quickly as we can and have Fischer appear before this inquiry as soon as he is able.”

“Unfortunately, his body was never recovered.” Ash said somberly. “It suspected that he was possibly killed during the preemptive strike against the escort fleet of the Kobyashie Maru.” the room fell back into silence as each individual processed what had been said during the day's interviews.

“I think I'm going to take my leave and do some investigation on my own. See if I can dig up any information.” Major Burch said to the rest of the board. Most just nodded in agreement as he reached for an unseen control panel and soon the holographic image of his body flickered and disappeared

Commandant Hickman glanced at the rest of the people left before speaking up “With that, same time tomorrow?”

“Till tomorrow then.” Ash said as Commander Carver nodded in agreement.

“Gentlemen, mam.”

The Commander's hologram flickered off and disappeared followed quickly by the Commandant, leaving Ash alone with Talyna. the brown Mauluse sighed as she pulled her glasses off and rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. The human quietly got up and started to make his way out of the room, only to stop when she spoke up.

“This is the second indecent with several injuries and loss of life involving cadet Wilkes, are you sure she's really worth all this hassle and trouble that is being caused by her and her 'friends' that you've paired her up with?”

Ash stood in thought for a few moments, not bothering to turn back to look at the Mauluse. Talyna was beginning to wonder if he was going to answer her when he finally turned his head to glance back at her.

“In a word, yes.” He said before walking out of the room.

---

“Attention! Attention! All hands to action stations! This is a drill, all hands to action stations!”

The sirens sounded all around the bridge as cadets came through the doors on either side of the bridge. Lynnette quickly took her seat at the operation console after relieving the human cadet that was there. She took a look around and watched as other cadets rushed to their assigned stations, some nearly knocking the slower cadets over in their hurry. The snow leopard felt a little relief as she seen the white tail of her friend Rayne swish by her and headed for the ship's piloting station. At least there will be one less hostile person on the bridge towards her, specially with everything that has been happening since the trip has been extended.

Continuing to look around, she frowned when she spotted the green hair Almedhas take the weapons station. 'Great...' she sighed. She wanted to apologize to the rabbit for what had happen in the cafeteria, but with her still being confined to quarters unless she was on duty like now, its been impossible for her to find her to make the apology. Her look and ears instinctively cased down in shape before continuing to see who else was on the bridge. She almost instinctively shrank in her seat when her gaze came across the cold stare of the black wolf cadet XO Marus. Lynnette swallowed hard as her focus went back to her station as the captain came in.

“Alarm off.” Came the command from the center of the bridge. “Alright people,” Captain Davis said as he spun the captain's chair around to view all the cadets, completely missing the glares that some of them were burning into the back of the Caushae's head. “We got a job to do. So lets get to it. Marus Status.”

“Training signal being sent from the TAFT Pandora. Tactical telemetry and data packet being received and downloaded into the main computers. The LCS Sartine and the SSG Kobyashie Maru are also confirming signal receipt.”

“Good.” The captain said as he turned his chair back to the forward view screen. “Upload the data packet into the main computer as soon as its ready.”

Lynnette focused on her task, preparing for the coming simulation when a new dot appeared on her screen. She frowned as she quickly keyed the new signal on her console. However, before any true data on this new contact, her screens flickered as the simulation took hold of everyone's station. Pinning her ears back she tried to disengage the combat simulation from her terminal, but it was proving impossible without shutting down her station and rebooting her computer. She shook her head and went back to her task.

'Don't ignore it...'

The familiar voice that spoke caused the fur on the back of her neck stand up on end. The voice was barely a whisper, but she still heard it all the same. There was no way it could be who she thought it was. There was no way. It had to be some one else playing games with her again. Lynnette shook her head and blinked before looking around the bridge for the source of the voice.

“Reg???”