AWD #405: Roboto Tantrums
Roboto Tantrums
Summary: The Marines that went on the Libran recon mission break the news to Knox about the 'Ghost Captain' (Five) and the Ten. Theories about Pireaus being a trap causes Knox to have a moment.
Date: 31/07/2016
Related Logs: Libran Revelations Pt 1, Libran Revelations Pt 2
Clara Dreyer Kapali Knox Randy 
Mess Hall
The Crew Mess on the battlestar is one of the larger rooms meant for occupation. The room is far longer than it is wide with the classic stainless steel tables that can be seen anywhere else on the ship, standard to all navy ships. Most of the chairs match, their padding on the seats worn down after several years. Towards the rear of the room is the food prep area and serving lines. During the time in between meals the Mess will serve midrats, or 'mid-shift rations', such as sandwiches and drinks. Coffee pots are left to run at all hours to keep people going as needed.
15/02/2006

The meal is starting to wind down, but there's still hot food being served. It just means some tables are starting to clear up. Getting cleared from medical took less than an hour for Dreyer. Some salve here. A few stitches there. A bandage there. Shrapnel, when you once nearly lost a hand, is nothing. Or close enough to nothing. The Sergant has bathed and struck off for that meal he spoke of. It won't be steak and beer such as the Captain spoke of, but it's better than rations and warm, stale water from a canteen.

Dressed in the off-duties of drab BDUs and dual-tanks, one of Dreyer's tattoos is hidden beneath bandaging on his upper arm. The cut along his cheek has the gleam of having been cleaned and an antibiotic cream fleshly applied. What other scrapes and such he has are part and parcel to marine life. Running a hand through his hair, Anton grabs a tray and steps up to the line; piling plate high.

As par for the course, and exhibiting her standard 'teflon coated rubber' status as far as wounds are concerned, Kapali has nothing more than minor scrapes and stuff, all of which she'd tended all on her own, avoiding medical still as yet another example as par for the course. She does, for her own reasons, still carry the helmet that had taken that flying wedge of metal, carrying it one hand as she joins the chow line behind Dreyer. "Careful, the mystery meat chili is dangerous, both on intake and output," she warns with a grin, piling food around the helmet on the tray.

Knox is keeping a low profile. Or at least as much as he can. After the mission he came aboard and reported in and picked up his Marine escort of two MPs. A shower was in order and a change. He decided to slip into a pair of his old JTAC cammies. He may not be in the same body but they feel the same. The little comforts of home. Comfortable as pajamas. He leaves the rank pins in his pocket and heads for the Mess deck to get his grub before reporting back to Sickbay. When he comes inside he just heads straight for a section offering up pizza. Two slices grabbed of the reheated, he takes a cup of purple drank and heads for a table, ignoring most everyone glancing to him.

Somehow, Randy convinced someone in sickbay that she should be issues a pair of crutches. Whether they issued bed rest or release is not really Randy's concern at this point, but she left a note that says, 'Went to get real food. Will be back.' She's not as clean as the rest of them. She's done some kind of cleanup, but the real improvement is she's grabbed a new set of clothes to wear. She's got her Orion issued sweats on and she does a quick look around the Mess before heading to sit down at a table, any table, to take a rest and regroup.

"Thankfully there's some meatloaf left." Not much better flavor-wise, but at least it won't result in terrorizing the Head later. Dreyer is not skimping on the meal. He's generally prone to decently sized meals as it is and after all that running? He's going for protein. Maybe not in the healthiest ways, as he grabs some pizza for himself, but protein nonetheless. And for a drink? Coffee. Laden with food that he'd already be tucking into if he didn't need both hands for the tray, Anton makes his way over to plunk tray and self down at the table Knox has claimed. "Toldja your bunk was still intact." Yes, he recognizes those cammies. The good, cozy ones have that faded look.

"As though the words 'meat' and 'loaf' in tandem still aren't two of the scariest words to use at the same time," Kapali remarks before she grabs 2 cups of coffee, as usual, a pair of jello squares, a sandwich and half pear that's wrapped in plastic, a square of some sort of cobbler before carrying all of it and following Dreyer to the table and setting her tray down, casually scooting Knox's a fraction of an inch before she treks to where Randy is seated and offers her the cup of coffee to get her attention. "You need coffee, food, and more coffee, in that order," as though caffeine is the answer to everything, "come on, sit with us and I'll snag you some food," the offer/bribe made with a quick shot glimpse of a grin.
Knox has reconnected.

Knox looks to Dreyer and smirks a bit. "Yeah, but I was still worried. I can't help it. I wonder about things. I'm mostly glad my old photo album was there along with my coins." Death coins are important. Hell, it was part of his testimony at the tribunal. He takes a big bite of a slice of pizza and takes his time chewing. When his tray is scooted, he glances at her like he considers biting her - though not in a serious way. He isn't a dog. "You know, as horrible as this pizza is, its the only pizza I've had since I left. I would honestly say that of all the foods I had, pizza is my favorite. Every Saturday night I'd sit at home with a six pack and order a pizza and watch movies. Let humanity wash over me. Forget everything else. Pizza is the food of the Gods, man."

"Frak I was just resting," Randy says with smirk as she reaches for the offered coffee. "On second thought," she grimaces through her smirk as she pushes up from the table. "Better hang onto that for me til I get over there…" Randy grabs the crutches and looks over in the direction that Kapali came from to spot the table. "Eh…kay. This food that you speak of better be worth it." She moves to the other table and after depositing the crutches on the ground, she slides into the seat next to where Kapali must be. "I don't even want to imagine how bad it is," but Randy's eyes suggest she wouldn't mind eating cardboard right about now.

"I'm sure I can come up with some more. Let's see… Full physical. Leave cancelled." A beat, as Kapali steps away and he grins after her, calling out: "Mystery meat!" Dreyer takes a long drink of his coffee. Almost as good as beer. Almost. He shrugs, initially, in answer to Knox. "I wouldn't lie to you about something like that. Most of us, our bunks're all we've got." As for pizza, well. He glances to the slice he grabbed and picks it up. "There was a place on Caprica me and my buddies would go to. Before we enlisted. When we'd manage to catch each other on leave. Greasy as frak, but some of the best pizza I've ever had." There's a glance towards Randy, towards the crutches, then back to his food. "Better than what we had in the field, at least."

"I like pizza as much as anyone else," Kapali agrees as she smirks in Randy's direction once she moves to the table where Knox and Dreyer, along with Kapali's food tray, are already sitting. "But give me a slice of lemon meringue pie, and I'm happy. And tacos," she adds. "You can put ANY kind of food combination in a taco, and it's portable food," this said she pats Randy on the shoulder. "I promise not to get you any jello," before heading back to the chow line.
Knox has partially disconnected.

"Part of me wonders exactly when the break-even point was in the phisological line that good food had to start tasting bad and that all good food had to be bad for you. That just isn't fair." Cooper shakes his head and continues enjoying the pizza. He does let himself watch the goings-on between Kapali and Randy, though. The skinny doesn't seem to have any concerns about who is joining whom for food. "So did you guys have fun? I gotta be honest: I officially objected to being assigned to the mission. I thought it was too risky to send me there. That you guys had no way to know if I would betray you. Other than just my word."

"Well the food would have to sink to a new low to match what we had in the field," Randy comments before she looks up at Kapali's pat. "Thanks Pen. Unless they have something other than red jello…or if they don't have anything else sweet." She shrugs, unsure if anything she said to Kapali's retreating form made it to her. Her eyes drift away towards a random stranger at Knox's inquiry. It's just for a moment. "Well, we lived. And I think it's finally proven that the universe itself is out to get us. Our 'friend'," she airquotes, "The ghost captain is one of your sisters or whatever."

"If my grandfather's to be believed, it was about the time dentists realized they could make money on your teeth and doctors wanted to make you buy pills." Dreyer offers it in a sort of light-hearted tone. "Considering the mission… Who else could do it? We needed the particular ship. Our chances would've been much worse if we'd broken in there in a Raptor." He glances towards Randy, then back to Knox, taking a moment to chew. It's washed down with coffee. "As for fun… Not so much on my end, I'm afraid. That comms system was a bitch to deal with."

Well aware of Randy's irrational dislike of red jello, a fact that baffles Kapali, she sweeps through the chow line putting things on the tray that Randy may actually eat. Including a square of that berry cobbler that she'd picked for herself, a bowl of fruit too, because it's fruit, and delivers tray and food to Randy as she slides into her seat again. She also elbows Knox as she takes her seat, "Since when are we supposed to not trust Cooper Knox when he says he's going to do something?" she wonders as she unwraps her square of red jello. "I don't know your brothers, so whether or not they're exactly like you once they make their own names and personalities? that's not a question I can answer. But Cooper Knox? Keeps his word."

Cooper eats casually. "You're a Marine, Randy. The universe is against you. That's why you were trained. Poor bastard, now the universe doesn't stand a chance." He smirks and washes down some of the pizza. The idea of who th ghost captain- what? It slowly starts to settle and he -tries- to not look surprised or bothered, but he does. Nothing is said right away to it. "Yeah, I doubt a Rptor would have had much chance. Thanks for saying as much, though, Kappa. It's just that, you know, I had to download. There's no way for fleet security to prove who I am or that I haven't become some trained infiltrator and killer. I don't question myself much, but I worry that others might." Which is essentially proof right there that Knox is still the same guy, more or less. "So," he tries ot be casual. "You said you met one of the other skinjobs? She's a ghost captain? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh yeah, but now it's even more official," Randy quips, the residual gruffness fading slightly when the cobbler and fruit show up. She grins slightly as she digs straight into the cobbler. She watches Cooper all the while, scooping some filling up with her crust. "He's right. He could not even know it," Randy points out in lieu of Knox's comments about security and his identity. "There's this ghost entity thing down on P. They're all military, but not us." She simplifies the news between bites. "Kapali and I shook hands with their Captain. They were like you and me, all fleshlike on Saturnalia." Scoop, chomp. Randy looks over to Dreyer but doesn't say anything. "I think it was a mistake….but, we saw her alive with another model there. She got cut down by the resistance snipers in the end."

"Funny thing is? We're not intel. Or the ones in charge of deciding those things. MP I may be, but until they tell me to take you into custody-" Dreyer shrugs, setting down his coffee. He's doing the proverbial breaking of bread with the Six, isn't he? "Ghosts or somesuch on Piraeus. Best I've been able to gather, while you and I were stuck doing frak-all on Picon for Saturnalia, folks here were seeing ghosts and finding religion. Seems one of the models we saw on Libran looks like one of the ghosts." That's all he's got for that and goes back to eating for a moment. A pause, then, fork (sans meatloaf) aimed at Knox. "So we were told something about certain… lines not being allowed on Libran. Were Sixes ever there?"

"You know that saying about how those who don't ever wonder if they're doing a bad job should be the ones most worried about it?" Kapali elbow taps Knox again, ever so lightly, "That you're worried about being a bad guy is either a really good sign that you're sense of .." and she waves a hand at Coop, "remained intact. Or that the whack jobs in charge of brain washing people OR who ever does the coding on your data what ever did a good job layering your sense of self with the mind frak of a infiltrator then another sense of self to worry about it," she shrugs one shoulder, there's jello. Life is therefore calm again. "I owe who ever fired that shot a serious drink or a frak, one of the two, maybe both," mild speculation there before she reaches for the mug of coffee she'd kept for herself. "The ghost captain," she picks up the thread from Randy, "did this weird, and seriously emotionally intense, light and picture show for us. Vision, like," she waves her free hand in a vague gesture, "the two of us got identical viewing of the show, that is. And the Five is the spitting image of the dead captain on planet." Her eyes narrow, "I wonder how many other ghosts will end up being skin job models, or the images of."
Clara arrives from the Fore Corridor.
Clara has arrived.

Knox can't really hide that he is staring at Randy. then Kapali and Dreyer. He isn't eating. He isn't touching the grape drank. "One of the ghosts on P that people are seeing has taken something like a solid form. She's a military Captain. She showed you something - in your mind? Like a skinjob projection? And you saw her on Libran." He leans forward a fraction of an inch, eyes moving between the other Marines. "You saw a skinjob model that looked like her or was it the same person? These ghosts are- are they making people religious? Or are they encouraging something in general?" It takes him a moment to recover. This has seriously unsettled his head. Looking to Dreyer and nodding. "Yeah, there were Sixes there at the outset. After it came out that one of the model line had refused their orders and thrown their lot in with humanity, they were removed off Libran. The Sixes are pretty sure the Cylons knew exactly which colonies they needed to hit and how. There's too much purpose."

The Marines are in various forms of dress and all sitting around a single table. Most of them are in some section of uniform. Knox is in an old semi-regulation uniform with complex camo patterns and a JTAC patch on his left shoulder pocket. Old and soft cammies FTW. He's got pizza and purple drink and its look like a conversation that is getting a little more serious for him. Dunno about the others.

Randy deposits her spoon in what's still left of her cobbler and looks at Knox. She can't help it. The feeling of eyes on her forces her to address it. "Well I've never experienced a projection. This was like, I think they were her memories, her experiences. We-In the vision," Randy pauses to look around them and then says softer, "There was one god." She looks conflicted, "And only one god. I think we felt her belief…her death." This means something to her, has touched some nerve. "I've never felt anything like that."

There's just a shrug from Dreyer. "I skimmed a couple of the reports one day when I had nothing else to do in HQ. Haven't seen any of this myself. I remember when Ynyr first mentioned it. I think he said it was kinda like a mass hallucination." And he sounds like he's still pretty firmly on that theory himself. The Sergeant is freshly bathed (as evidenced by damp hair), in off-duty attire, and bearing a few signs of being patched up, but nothing severe. He's working his way through some meatloaf at the moment. "Since you, mmm-" Anton considers his words, "downloaded, do you know what your line was doing prior to being removed from Libran? Or what reason they were given for being recalled?"

Clara is fresh off a round of PT, and heading into the evening lull that comes before her late-night shift in the firing range, supervising weapons sign-outs. She's sporting a non-regulation tee shirt that would be midriff bearing, were she not wearing a tank top underneath it, sweats and combat boots. The line's all but nonexistent at the moment, so she's able to fetch a plate of food and cup of weak tea in fairly short order; her hunt for a table stalls on the one housing an array of marines, and her brows furrow when she spots Knox seated there. "Move it," grunts someone behind her, wanting to grab a scoop of mashed potatoes.

Kapali points her spoon at Randy before nodding, "What she said," in a low, if somewhat reluctant, tone of voice. "At first i thought the experience was really damned cool. I mean, frak it, shaking hands with a ghost, no where in the 'join the CMC, see the world, earn less than a cubit a day for the privilege' brochure was 'shake hands with a ghost'." She gives a mild twitch and, "And we," she nods at Randy, "shared the exact same image from the Ghost captain, so there's that. And yeah. She 'shared' that sense of absolute belief, as it it actually mattered, deep down, to the lady or what ever she was before she died. And she shared /that/ too, the moment of her death." She eyes Knox for a moment, "There's a Dr. Thanos who's in charge, you should ask her about the stuff she's seen, I'll bet she'd give you a lot of good intel."

Knox looks right at Randy while she answers. The color of his tan seems to have faded a few shades. "You felt it. It felt real. That was- that was a projection. Or another being that has evolved to that level of ability. Or.. something." Gobsmacked. "You felt her death." The guy sits back suddenly inthe chair and reaches for his drink and takes a few gulps. To Dreyer, he shakes his head. "My line are the primary warfighters along with the Nines. The Twelves also to a lesser extent. They were everywhere. They didn't question it when they were removed from Libran. But they also weren't told I had defected or why. Other lines knew before Sixes." He looks past Dreyer to spot Clara staring at him. The guy upnods and gestures for her to join before looking back. Kapali takes his attention and he looks as if he's finally being cornered down on something. Arms cross on his uniform shirt and he stares at the pizza. "Someone just said something about wondering how many of the ghosts will turn out to be skinjobs. There's only twelve lines. One of them is boxed, you'll never see them." He spreads his fingers from his hand and lazily slices it in the air just off his elbow. "You met a ghost that lives on a planet the Cylons know nothing about and would probably kill an unlimited number of people in order to find. And you're telling me that this ghost you met has the exact same ability to project that I do. She looks and behaves human. But she's a skinjob that you met on Libran." Coop tilts his head a bit, looking exceedingly nervous. "That's frakking impossible. It is NOT possible. It's gotta be a trick. Is there somethign else going on? Any way to- wait, Ynyr said something about ruins. How old are the ruins? Does anyone know?"

"She didn't want the fleet to know what she could do. Was afraid it would draw suspicion or something? I don't know. But she also knew things about us after that none of told her." Randy has stopped eating. Her expression grows somewhat dour. "She told me that it had never happened before. But I don't know how many times she's been corporeal since her death. I don't know how old they are. I've never been. I-Lleu has been talking about the ruins, but I haven't talked to him specifically about them. No, I don't know how old…but who would have the ability to play such a trick? I mean think about the resources needed to pull something like that off?"

Clara meets Knox's gaze evenly, and her mouth pulls ever so slightly to one side in an expression that's less than pleased. But her friends are sitting there, so there she'll head. Her tray is set down first, beside Dreyer, then she slides into the chair and ducks her head to immediately begin eating. Her unbound hair falls into her eyes, half obscuring them as she glances sidelong to Randy. "Hey, how're you feeling?" is asked in between mouthfuls of potato.

Clara does not comment on the ghost, or the recon in general. Not yet, anyway.

"The scientists might know the age of the ruins, but that's not really something anyone's told us. Group went out 'cause they found the Raptor that CAG had run off with. Found some ruins. Now they're being excavated or whatever." Science. Not Dreyer's strong suit. "I'm sure someone's going to want to chat with you about all this, Coop. You might be able to find out more or get an introduction to the person in charge of it." With enough emphasis on someone that he means people of the intel and tactical variety. "Some have theorized that it's a Cylon trap. What if they did know of this place and just lost the coordinates?" It could happen. Right? To Randy there's a sort of sidelong glance. "I never would have imagined a ship made of flesh but the rotting stench of that Raider on the deck says it's not only doable, but we've been fighting them." There's a nod for Clara as she settles down. It does put her opposite Knox, which might help.

"How do you know there's only twelve, though, I mean, it's not like you guys are passing notes in the hall or something or do you get a screen shot of the master plan when you download?" Kapali wonders, finishing the coffee, and the square of jello and moving on to the cobbler after finishing the peach. "And that was me, with the skinjob remark," she eye rolls at Knox. "Who knows if she behaves human, we only met her briefly, shook hands, had a bit of a conversation with her, but that's all. Seriously, you've gotta talk to Dr. Thanos," she stresses this and nods at Randy. "Leu's been one of the guards on patrol at the ruins, so he's spent more time there than a lot of us," another mild shrug before she smiles at Clara, "Hey, Mercier," said with a nod before she's glancing at Dreyer while he speaks. "Somewhere in all of this, is a trap, sarge, that's the way it works."

"If she knew things about you, it didn't come from a projection." Cooper is quick to state that. "It doesn't work that way. Like I told Doctor Nadir, think of a projection like pouring a pitcher of water into a glass. Atoms are connected but water is really only going one way. Anything more exchanged is much deeper and requires consent." The Six doesn't really move except to speak and move and lightly gesture his hand. "Showing false projections is- look, it's possible but it would feel wrong. And that's only one problem with this whole situation." He leans forward and moves his tray a little to give Clara some room to sit and get comfortable. To Dreyer, "There's no way P is a trap. I mean, it is -not- possible. The Cylons might have done a lot of dumb shit but they wouldn't lose the coordinates to this place. It's why the Ones are desperate to find P and why lines are defecting in huge numbers." He shakes his head before looking at Kapali. And for the first time, the guy actually looks like he might be frustrated about something. That hand tightens to a closed fist and his knuckles go white. They even crack a few times as he stares at Kapali. "There's twelve, Kappa. That's the godsdamned set-up. And it's not a trap." There' agitation in his voice as he rises quickly. "The Cylons were invented sixty years ago! This shit is impossible! It's not a godsdamned trap!" The guy isn't quite yelling, but he isn't happy. His hand comes out and pounds the tray. It upends the pizza on his plate and he ends up walking off with his grape drink in hand, stewing.

When Clara asks Randy a question, at first the Sergeant is caught off guard. It's Clara after all, initiating a topic of conversation? Even if it is a mere question, Randy looks back at Clara blankly. "My leg?" She inquires for clarification. She was never the brightest bulb when it came to social encounters. "Well, it's better than post-op was for my other leg." That's right, as if almost losing her other leg before wasn't bad enough. "Did you get hit at all? It happened so fast…" For the moment, she's sufficiently distracted that the little robot outburst which flops his pizza makes her blink. "Frak. You'd think someone pissed on your pizza."

Clara's head comes up like a shot when Knox pounds his tray like that, and she backs into her chair hard enough to SKREEEEECH the feet along the deck a few inches, nails-on-chalkboard fashion. Her dark eyes track him like a hawk as he beats his retreat, and only once it's obvious he's not coming back to do more damage, does she finish chewing her mouthful of rehydrated mashed potato, and swallow it. "Huh?" she murmurs to Randy somewhat distractedly. "No." She downs one last forkful of potato, fetches her mug of tea, and climbs to her feet somewhat unhurriedly. "I gotta go do something. See you guys later." Her tray is fetched and bussed, and she wanders off in the general direction of the hatch.

"Knox… Who put the Ones in charge? Like you say. Cylons were invented. But how did the Ones end up in control of everything?" Dreyer's speaking in his MP voice. It's a firm, yet steady tone. He grabs his coffee and downs it quickly, getting to his feet. "Just wanna make sure the fellas assigned to him don't do anything rash." This is muttered to the women still at the table even as Anton hops sidelong as he nearly trips over his own chair. "Coop-" it's called out, but gently, as he moves to catch up to the Six, shoving hands in pockets. He talks quick, voice kept low. "I know you know how scared and paranoid we are. Why else would you put up with all this crap to get you settled back in? I was assigned to P pretty early on. Y'know, sweet gig. Top secret. Look good in the ol' service jacket. We were told there was nothing else out there. Brand new place, undiscovered, blah frakkin' blah. Now we find ruins and some people see ghosts? C'mon. You've gotta understand our hesitancy."

Kapali eyes Knox as he speaks, the look on her face is calm threat assessment as his agitation ratchets up until he pounds the tray, upends that perfectly good slice of pizza, then rises to walk it off. She glances at Clara as the medic shoves her chair back, seeing the look on the specialists face, actually drawing breath to try to offer words to calm Mercier down but.. Clara is hurrying off. Exchanging a glance with Randy next, one of those speaking looks before she rises to her feet as well. Bussing her tray and the remains of Knox's, since that poor slice of pizza was obviously worse for the wear. On her way back she hears Dreyer's words and pauses to interject, "We aren't questioning you, Knox. We're just marines, you know how we think, because you're one too. We're trained to beat any challenge to death and break it into as many pieces as possible before using those same pieces to build something else and moving on. And I always think stuff is a trap, it's just how my brain works. It's nothing personal, Coop. I'm the paranoia monkey in the batch, every unit has one."

Cooper keeps walking. Even as Dreyer comes up beside him, he doesn't look over at the MP. His own ecorts follow him but don't look worried. Marines arguing about something? Must be Tuesday. "Don't talk about humanity like I'm not apart of it, Dreyer. You all are welcome to your opinions. But I'm not going to listen to people claim P is a trap what it's pretty damned clear its impossible. Unless those ruins are less than sixty years old." To Kapali, he just stares at her a second, "You wanna put your cubits where your mouth is on trusting me? Then trust me on P. It's not a godsdamned trap." He lids his eyes and looks over, then back forward. "I'll catch you later. Both of you." Knox still sounds pretty worked up about something. Something he knows and isn't sharing. The rest of the drink is downed and he tosses it onto a dishrack by the door as he exits.

Clara's reaction gets Randy's attention, but only secondarily. She looks over to see if the woman is okay or what's going on, but then receives the quick retreat and scant words instead. But yes, speaking looks are being exchanged more frequently between Randy and Kapali as of late, and Clara's hasty retreat earns another one, a pained look on Randy's end. "Frak." She pushes her tray out and reaches down to grab her crutches and simply goes after Clara.

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