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[Nikitian]

:Understood.:

:This situation just stresses me more than I want to admit.:

Closing his eyes for a moment, Maurice opened private channel to Ulrich.
:Listen, we're going to get out of here alive. This? The current situation has nothing on how it was down below on the ground, and you know it as well. We were trapped in an alien dimension, stalked by semi-invisible foes, and constantly in danger of joining the ranks of dancing puppets. But we survived and got out of there.:

:Then that alien entity appeared, and we had to flee the dome. And Steve's message came through. You were the QEC bearer, you remember it? It was a suicide order, plain and simple. Steve himself didn't believe our survival possible, but he decided to sugar-coat it a little. But we did the impossible, fulfilled our orders and found a way off the planet. On a spaceship with a huge crater in its side, but one that we sealed and which didn't result in our fiery death in the atmosphere. We survived again and got out of there.:

:And now, the only thing that stands between us and safety is peacefully riding this ship out from the system and back to ARM-controlled space. Steve was online and in touch with us until the very moment when the comms were cut off, and he surely knows that we made it off the planet. Even if we cannot find our way out, he will send a team to save us. We have valuable data, and valuable experience, and Steve isn't a person to throw out useful tools. We will survive.:

Say reassuring words to Ulrich, help him to calm down. A panic attack is the least thing we need right now.

[1]
You try to let your mind wander but fall asleep instead. 

((Do roboticised people dream of cyborg sheep? ))

[AoshimaMichio]

:pretty words:

: The anomaly was a trap, pure and clean. We should have checked more carefully if it was possible to exit it before entering. But someone decided to be careless and dragged everybody in. And trap us. Only reason we got out in first place was because that thing blasted hole into the dome! :

: Are you even sure we got away? Are you sure this is not just illusion? Because usually there's stars in space. If Steve sends people what makes you think they can get us and escape? If we can't get out of here without our own, what makes you think they can? :

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

"Hmmmm.
Ah, whatever, can't be too bad."
Open one can, take a sip, if it tastes good and isn't some type of laxative, continue drinking.

[Nikitian]

:pretty words:

: The anomaly was a trap, pure and clean. We should have checked more carefully if it was possible to exit it before entering. But someone decided to be careless and dragged everybody in. And trap us. Only reason we got out in first place was because that thing blasted hole into the dome! :

: Are you even sure we got away? Are you sure this is not just illusion? Because usually there's stars in space. If Steve sends people what makes you think they can get us and escape? If we can't get out of here without our own, what makes you think they can? :

:Angry now? Good. Better. Constructive anger is a powerful tool, especially if tempered by intelligence.:

:The anomaly... well, I was going to say that it wasn't a trap, but yes, a trap it was, indeed. Aimed not at us, but a trap nonetheless. However, back then we did not know it was a trap - something of intelligent design, of hostile intent; it appeared to be an anomalous obstacle we'd have to deal with. And what would you rather do, not explore a "trap" anomaly on a mission that was specifically sent to study it? Would you really suggest aborting the mission just because it appeared to be a trap? If you get yourself ambushed, you don't back out. You push on through the ambush - and we would have found a way out. I still stand by my decision to go in regardless. This kind of risk is implied when going on an anomaly survey mission.:

:As for am I sure - yes, I am. It is the only sane way to perceive this universe. However, more importantly, I am sure of what has been going on only until we hit this blackness. It might be the illusory influence of this entity - but then the gravity automanipulators didn't behave any differently before we shut them down. The transition was far too flawless than it would work for an alient puppeteer creating an illusion for us - perhaps if it had been an Urban Executor or a similar mind-affecting amp-specialist, but certainly not this... thing. I've been inside it for a few moments; we'd feel and see and be very differently the moment it takes us. So for now... well, I guess it's another anomaly that we have hit. And which we will have to push through. With Steve's help or on our own.:

Get a spare spacesuit (we should have a few aboard, right?) and take it with me to the bridge. That's where the person appeared, right?

[AoshimaMichio]

:The anomaly... well, I was going to say that it wasn't a trap, but yes, a trap it was, indeed. Aimed not at us, but a trap nonetheless. However, back then we did not know it was a trap - something of intelligent design, of hostile intent; it appeared to be an anomalous obstacle we'd have to deal with. And what would you rather do, not explore a "trap" anomaly on a mission that was specifically sent to study it? Would you really suggest aborting the mission just because it appeared to be a trap? If you get yourself ambushed, you don't back out. You push on through the ambush - and we would have found a way out. I still stand by my decision to go in regardless. This kind of risk is implied when going on an anomaly survey mission.:

Ulrich rubs side of his helmet, becoming increasingly frustrated.

:You don't walk into potential danger without information! Especially if you have time. First of all, you observe it, you watch it, from all angles until you are confident there's no more information to be gained from observation. That is basics of all scouting, damnit! If you still need more information, you must ensure your way out before wandering in. If you cannot find way out without getting in, then you ensure you have a way to transfer information out! And if that doesn't work out, you don't send everyone in like a flock of sheep! You send only one, and try again to establish way out for you and information. And even then you leave at least one in safety to record and convey information.:

:It isn't some god damn rocket science, it's common sense!:

[Nikitian]

Ulrich rubs side of his helmet, becoming increasingly frustrated.

:You don't walk into potential danger without information! Especially if you have time. First of all, you observe it, you watch it, from all angles until you are confident there's no more information to be gained from observation. That is basics of all scouting, damnit! If you still need more information, you must ensure your way out before wandering in. If you cannot find way out without getting in, then you ensure you have a way to transfer information out! And if that doesn't work out, you don't send everyone in like a flock of sheep! You send only one, and try again to establish way out for you and information. And even then you leave at least one in safety to record and convey information.:

:It isn't some god damn rocket science, it's common sense!:

"Back in the day, we didn't have the option of holding back." "You know that we are all expendable, right? At least, back in HMRC we were." "What are you complaining about, I went in with the rest of you and braved the same dangers!"
...I am really getting old, am I? Heh heh.

No, I am not. Neither physically nor mentally. I still have at least a few hundred years to deal with... if I survive this mission and what comes after it.

But really, What Would Sir Milno Do? Our paths have parted a long time ago. He has always been at least slightly more cautious than me. Does it mean that I've strived too far from Competence? No, it is not that. There is time for caution... and time for acts of bravery.

:I see Sir Milno taught you well. I've attended the same school, you know.:
:But you should know as well as me that there is time to wait and plan and prepare, and there is time to act. Once you have committed to mission, to the deed, you do the job you were sent for, and not bail out on it. It's like a surgery: you prepare, put the patient under, check where to cut... but once you're elbow-deep in a man's guts, you don't just 'back off' from the operation. You do your best to treat the person, or at least minimize the damage, but not just walk away. The same goes for a mission - the time to turn back, to feel it would be a trap, was during the briefing. Down on the ground, ready to enter the anomaly... we would have entered it either way, though yes, I agree that perhaps more scouting could have been done. But that doesn't change that even knowing it were a 'trap' of a sort we would still go inside, perhaps only make it worse for morale.:
:Sometimes, a short burst of intense pain is better than slow agony.:

Maurice chuckled over the comms.:And we are no flock of sheep. We are a pack of wolves - hungry, cunning, and with very sharp teeth.:
Hmmm.

Then he proceeded to open up general comms channel.

:Listen up! Ulrich just gave me an excellent idea.:

:Brave troopers of ARM! Today was a long, hard day.:
:We have survived this far.  We have faced the ghosts, the puppet-zombies, the anomalies, and even an angry alien god that decided to wake up on our watch. And we did our damn best to kill and utterly destroy all of them. We faced the unspeakable and did not flinch. Two of our comrades have sacrificed their lives to allow others to live - and we left no body behind, of that we made sure. We fought with cunning, ferocity and desperation - and we did our best to survive. We went above and beyond the expectations of Steve and the call of duty today. We fulfilled his orders to the letter, yet also managed to escape and protect the valuable research data - one that justifies this whole mission. The danger has not yet passed - but when we return back to the ARM, we will be greeted as big damn heroes.:
:Once upon a time, there was a joke made about a flock of sheep going blindly into a trap. Perhaps today was a trap laid out for us by that alien entity and the puppets - but we were no sheep today, no. We have been wolves in sheep clothing, and our foes have felt our fangs today.:

:And thus, in my authority as a Commander of ARM, I hereby dub our company 'the Wolves'. For today we have earned our right to stand alongside with the Bastards and other named units in the history of ARM and HMRC. All in favor?:

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

"Save that for after we've gotten out of here, buddy, a bit too soon to say 'we won!' When we're currently in god knows where after having run away with our tails between our legs because someone unleashed an ALIEN. GOD!"

[Nikitian]

:We have survived this far. It's enough. It's far more than was expected of us - we have exceeded all those expectations.:
Steve almost left us there to die. Almost, though; not completely - we are still living because of his off-hand generosity. ...And because of Mistress's favour.

:I'm not saying that we don't need to worry about the alien entity. We almost certainly do. But there is difference between 'we are finally safe!' and 'we have won the most important battle!' - and that latter, indeed, we did. Our escape from the planet was an almost impossible feat, nothing short of a man-made miracle. And that makes me proud of us.:

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

"Then I vote for calling us the Cockroaches, it fits better."

[Egan_BW]

"What is going on here, anyway? shouldn't there be stars outside?"
Intuition to what happened.

[Corsair]

"I am in favour of this. Hey we get to charge team fund for wolf head helmets right?*chuckles*"

"Save that for after we've gotten out of here, buddy, a bit too soon to say 'we won!' When we're currently in god knows where after having run away with our tails between our legs because someone unleashed an ALIEN. GOD!"

"Hey stop whinging I was there when we had to deal with the "Eater of Cold" THAT was an alien god it smote everything with fire and what not, funny because it had nothing to do with cold in how it worked. This guy just makes some clouds and other moderately weird stuff. Plus we did what we had to do to defeat it and left we're just suffering good ol' ARM technical difficulties!"

[swordsmith04]

"I vote no name, and disagree with your summation of this mission strenuously.:

"What is going on here, anyway? shouldn't there be stars outside?"

"Usually, but we're currently in the middle of another eldritch entity from a parallel dimension, or whatever this particular anomaly is. Unless you know how to pilot ships, you might as well sit back and wait for this to be over, one way or another.

Oh, and if I recall from your file correctly, you're another amplifier user; we had to have ours cut out of our skulls very recently, so you should go look for Maurice, he's the guy with a surgical knife and wearing an emergency suit."

[Corsair]

"I vote no name, and disagree with your summation of this mission strenuously.:

"What is going on here, anyway? shouldn't there be stars outside?"

"Usually, but we're currently in the middle of another eldritch entity from a parallel dimension, or whatever this particular anomaly is. Unless you know how to pilot ships, you might as well sit back and wait for this to be over, one way or another.

Oh, and if I recall from your file correctly, you're another amplifier user; we had to have ours cut out of our skulls very recently, so you should go look for Maurice, he's the guy with a surgical knife and wearing an emergency suit."

"We survived which is a success, our goal was to gather information which we did and when the tables changed we did as much as possible to damage the enemy and live. You're all pessimists. ALSO I can pilot just need to do some more figuring then we can take off for not here place."

[AoshimaMichio]

:I see Sir Milno taught you well. I've attended the same school, you know.:

:And I see you didn't graduate.:

:But you should know as well as me that there is time to wait and plan and prepare, and there is time to act. Once you have committed to mission, to the deed, you do the job you were sent for, and not bail out on it. It's like a surgery: you prepare, put the patient under, check where to cut... but once you're elbow-deep in a man's guts, you don't just 'back off' from the operation. You do your best to treat the person, or at least minimize the damage, but not just walk away. The same goes for a mission - the time to turn back, to feel it would be a trap, was during the briefing. Down on the ground, ready to enter the anomaly... we would have entered it either way, though yes, I agree that perhaps more scouting could have been done. But that doesn't change that even knowing it were a 'trap' of a sort we would still go inside, perhaps only make it worse for morale.:
:Sometimes, a short burst of intense pain is better than slow agony.:

:I'm not talking about walking away. We had to enter it, I knew it, we all knew it simply by looking at it. The problem is that we had time to prepare, we had all time in the world we would have needed, but we didn't use any of it. Using your analogy, we didn't even diagnose the problem and instead cut right into heart without any idea what to do afterwards. Like complete amateurs.:

Then he proceeded to open up general comms channel.

:Listen up! Ulrich just gave me an excellent idea.:

:Brave troopers of ARM! Today was a long, hard day.:
:We have survived this far.  We have faced the ghosts, the puppet-zombies, the anomalies, and even an angry alien god that decided to wake up on our watch. And we did our damn best to kill and utterly destroy all of them. We faced the unspeakable and did not flinch. Two of our comrades have sacrificed their lives to allow others to live - and we left no body behind, of that we made sure. We fought with cunning, ferocity and desperation - and we did our best to survive. We went above and beyond the expectations of Steve and the call of duty today. We fulfilled his orders to the letter, yet also managed to escape and protect the valuable research data - one that justifies this whole mission. The danger has not yet passed - but when we return back to the ARM, we will be greeted as big damn heroes.:
:Once upon a time, there was a joke made about a flock of sheep going blindly into a trap. Perhaps today was a trap laid out for us by that alien entity and the puppets - but we were no sheep today, no. We have been wolves in sheep clothing, and our foes have felt our fangs today.:

:And thus, in my authority as a Commander of ARM, I hereby dub our company 'the Wolves'. For today we have earned our right to stand alongside with the Bastards and other named units in the history of ARM and HMRC. All in favor?:

Ulrich simply laughs out in disbelief. That's a load of bullshit. They had done nothing but running from one trouble to another!

((Do we even know what Lurker did to amps?))

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

((Uhh, no, we don't even have any direct evidence we were eaten by the lurker at all, actually.))