Futuristic Transsolar

[Anaxial]

Almost two weeks Marshall was clean, had no access to weapons or his precious Tin-Can, when the day came and his possessions were returned to him one could argue they saw the sparks of tears in his eyes. He took his Keltar Pistol and holstered it safely on his thigh, open carried for all to see and even the old SIAD Knife got it's own holster that displayed the knife on the center of his chest like a trophy. The true emotion came when he opened up the Tin-Can's torso and the hand-made power armor creaked open as the hydraulics returned to their pipes.


"Damn, I don't think you've ever looked better!" Marshall exclaimed, examining the Tin-Can. With all the extra time he had, he'd spent almost all his free time and even work hours repainting and repairing the Tin-Can until it shined and gleamed like a suit fresh off the factory line. Giving the suit a fresh coating of eggshell white paint, it looked clean and no longer merited it's old adage. For some flare, Marshall painted a half-melted face and skull on the armor right about where his face would be located while inside the suit of the armor.


Planetside was always a good time for the Mercenary, getting able to drop down from landing craft, crashing into the dirt with a thunderous announcement that beckoned any enemy, any space bug to come and get him. The few critters that felt so bold where swiftly reduced to shriveled crisps or quivering mass of smashed offal.


"We're clear!" Marshall announced, once again he was in a focused area and his true professionalism showed. He obeyed orders, never talked back, and used proper communication edicate that would be demanded of a professional soldier. It didn't take long thanks to the ol' Tin-Can for the fence to be put up and the base camp established. Clearing out the thick foliage was a breeze when your 10ft tall Power Armor came equipped with a built in flamethrower. A few controlled burns and the base camp had roughly 5 acres of clean ground (aside from the blackened earth from the fires) to spot incoming hostiles.


Once the camp had been established, the science teams were on the ground, and things began to slow down, Marshall finally left his suit after almost 12 hours of consecutive use. He finally rigged up a makeshift repair station for the suit and hopped on out, gleaming with sweat despite the built-in air conditioning system.


"Woooh! PLANETSIDE!" He shouted, pounding his chest like star athlete before immediately attending to the suit's needs. The inside needed to be cleaned, the flamethrower had be cleared out, refueled, then the barrel and igniters had to be spot heated to reform them back into place. There was plenty of work to be done, and with his permissions back, Marshall intended on smelling like diesel fuel, gunpowder, and hard work.


The calm didn't last long.


When the call to action was made, Marshall rubbed down his face with a black stained rag and hopped back into place in the thankfully cleaned inner skeleton of the Tin-Can. He slipped his arms into place, closed the torso and rigged up the flamethrower with his free Power Armored hand. The fuel gauge read 75% and that was good enough to roast a few bugs. Once he was situated, the Tin-Can roared to life and slammed noisily through the camp to join the defense.


"Marshall, reporting in. Security team, let's get a roll call. I want you each to sound off and pair up, no one's getting snatched again." He said over the General Communications channel. "Science team, same deal. Pair up, roll call. NO ONE GOES ANYWHERE WITHOUT A BUDDY." He barked out before switching channels to Security team only. "Woods, this is Marshall. I gave out the General Order, I'm sitting at a 75% tank so get some clean kills. If they get up close don't worry, I'll roast 'em."

 

[Dragongal]

Adira was glad that her helmet covered her face - it felt like her blush would have been visible through any shading. The only parts of the normal armor that she was wearing was the protective chest piece, the rest was all her own equipment. Her main focus at the moment was keeping herself from getting caught by a bug, and leading the rest of the team, in their defense groupings, to the new path Saami had mapped. On her private channel to Woods, she said, "Thank you. Want to make a contest of it? We can count how many bugs we take out. I'm at five. If you want to make it real tricky we can divide number killed by number of rounds shot. What do you say?"

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami had made his way back through the treetops, towards a spot from where he could watch the ground crew on their new route. Every few seconds he had to shoot a bug, but the further away he got from the nest, the less bugs there were. Once on his new position, he set up his sniper rifle again, though he kept one handgun out to shoot the insects preying on him. More than a few times he could shoot the bugs solely by calculating where their sound came from and was going, allowing him to roughly estimate their path without having to deviate from sniping the bugs threatening the ground crew.


"Saami to Woods; once the team has moved forward and cleared the hostile entities I can scout further ahead. For the moment I will remain as supporting fire until given a direct order." While speaking he returned to adding the insects he saw to the crew's maps, allowing them to be able to take care of the bugs he couldn't snipe. There were simply too much for him to kill, so he focussed on the ones that appeared most dangerous and large. The smaller ones they would have to take care of themselves, and it appeared that they were doing a good job at that. None had died yet, or been dragged off, or been maimed beyond recognition, so all in all things were going good. Except of course for being stuck in a jungle full of murderous insects with a taste for human flesh.

 

[Unlimited]

As JT finished with his sample he disposed of it before putting his helmet and cloak on. He had heard the security team say that no one should be alone so he left his tent and headed outside, the bitter cold penetrating his suit just enough to make him shiver. He wrapped his arms over his chest to preserve warmth and made his way over to the common tent in the middle of camp where all the other members of the science team were. Once inside he went though a smaller version of the ships decontamination room and his suit was cleaned of any foreign contaminants that might have latched on.


Once inside JT removed his helmet and cloak, which he brought just in case, and sat down next to one of the vents that was pushing out clean heated air. It was quite comfortable in the common tent and all the other scientist were engaged in existential speculations about the planet, some estimating that it was younger than Earth and others saying it was in a state of decay and close to dying. All these questions wouldn't have answers until they were able to get down to the jungle and collect samples.


Even though JT had been in the background most of the trip so far he was still worried about the security team, for out here they were as good as family to him. So far from home he couldn't afford to be a loner so he vowed to make friends on this trip and be useful to make his family proud when he returned to Earth. Through the coms on his helmet sitting by the door he could hear faint gunshots coming from the speakers. He wondered what types of insects they were fighting and hopped that he would get a chance to study their chemical makeup and find out how they survive such a hostile planet.

 

[Spazzycat101]

Stuck back in a pressurized sardine can floating around a planet. A planet Lydia knew had to be thriving with creatures, with hives of research to be done.


And she was stuck in her cell.


From the talk of the guards, Lydia had heard that the team was already on the ground, had already set up camp. And no longer was she dwelling on her spider project, she couldn't work on that right now, or probably ever, she reminded herself, so she wouldn't bother with it. Lydia had concluded that it had been justified, and so she was satisfied enough. She only hoped Adira would be when her reasoning, however overexcited it had been, was stated. Probably not.


She remembered that she wasn't dwelling on the spiders, though. The matter at hand was that there was research to be done, species to be found and studied, and her captain was roasting them probably without half a thought. It put a bitter taste in Lydia's mouth.


The only testament to her displeasure though were the silent tears running down the biologist's face, whose expression hadn't even changed. In fact, she appeared to have hardly moved from her formerly feverish spot on the edge of the bed pushed back to the corner of the cell. Now though, almost all of her motion had ceased and her posture was sullen, sad and somber. Sure, earlier she had been yelling at the guards behind the cell door, clawing at the walls, but that proved nothing could be done for her predicament. Her go-to logic, identifying a problem, then taking steps to solve the given problem hadn't worked. She knew though that it wouldn't, but in her desperation hadn't cared. Lydia just wanted to be out in the field, researching. Though she knew she wasn't in her right mind, she felt very much like the captain was keeping her from doing her job.

 

[Tarmagon]

Rae sat quietly in one corner of the common tent that had been set up for the... 'specialists' was the appropriate word she guessed. Despite the warm air she was trying to raise the temperature setting on her environment suit as she waited for the security detail to sound the all clear. After a few minutes cursing under her breath in at least four different languages, she finally managed to raise her suit to a comfortable temperature.


"I definitely underestimated the optimal settings for this environment ." she mused aloud, watching the tents other inhabitants mill about with varying degrees of impatience.


Keeping one eye on the action, or lack thereof, in the tent, Rae began to scan the communications network, looking for any open audio or video channel that could give more information about the environment outside the protective walls and guards.

 

[BookWyrm]

Vince chuckled as he put another round through another bug. "Only five? I'm sitting at eleven now." Friendly competition was always a welcome, especially if it took your mind off of the fact that you might die at any moment. Still, it added a new aspect to the mission. If he was having to count rounds it meant that he had to make each hit count and expend less ammo than Adira. One shot, one kill. Oh yeah, this will be fun. "What are the stakes?"

 

[Dragongal]

Adira chuckled. "Loser cooks dinner? Loser cleans the other's gun? Yeah, Loser cleans the other's gun." She pushed one of the cutters to the ground and shot at the bug that had nearly decapitated him. The thing made a screeching noise as it burned apart "I'm at eight , but I've only taken eight shots." She didn't want to admit that had she used any gun other than her own her accuracy wouldn't have been half as good. One of the bugs feel to the ground in front of her as it was missing a wing. Adira drew her photon blade and cut into its head as it crawled toward her. The purplish blood splattered but burned off her blade. "Nine with eight shots."

 

[InsanEleven]

Forty two. Bang. Forty three. Reload. Saami put a new plasma round in his handgun, even though the current one still had one powerful shot in it, he did not take the risk of having to reload while getting attacked, not while he still had ten full rounds strapped on his belt. Without having to look he put the near empty pack on the far end, just in case he did run low, meanwhile firing the trigger of his rifle to take care of a bug approaching a security member from behind. The density of hostiles seemed to get less according to his kill count and what he saw, but they were far from safe. Though the large nest was avoided, there were still smaller hives on the way, and he continuously recalculated the path so the plasma cutters wouldn't accidentally anger whatever resided in the muddy towers rising up on the forest floor.


"Saami to command; we will reach a crevasse within approximately 500 metres, asking permission to scout ahead for alternative routes."

 

[BookWyrm]

"Melee kills don't count.", Vince laughed as he dropped yet another cutter. "Woods to Saami, permission granted. Even if we wanted to cross it the Can would be grounded." After putting down one last cutter Vince looked around and held up his fist, pumping it once. He scanned the surroundings carefully, looking for any sign of movement or of life. Nothing. "Woods to team, they've fallen back. Take the time to check everything over but be prepared. There's no telling whats going to come at us this next time."

 

[Dragongal]

"Melee kills definitely count." Adira said with a laugh before switching from the private channel to the team one. "Is anyone hurt? Speak up now, while we have a break. No promises as to what will happen after that." The closest thing the team had to a doctor at the moment was herself. There didn't seem to be any injuries, but even if it was small it needed to be patched ASAP in such an unknown environment.

 

[InsanEleven]

It took Saami only a short moment to arrive at the crevasse, his movement indefinitely faster than that of the others as he wasn't caught in thick undergrowth. Occasionally he did get a drawback; narrowly escaping a bug-eater plant that had set it's thorns on clasping around his leg, or getting caught in unexpectedly sticky vines. Aside from smears and bug bits in between the plates of his armour he was perfectly fine. This crevasse was worrisome though; it was the only path visible from above that led down a high, slippery wall of stone approximately twenty metres high. It was cut out by a small stream, leading into the vent at which they had to be. Considering this was the safest vent they could find, he didn't want to know what the others were like.


It was a good thing he wasn't claustrophobic; climbing up in the crevasse by placing his back against one wall and his feet against the other. It was slow and tedious, but he couldn't risk losing his grip on the otherwise smooth, slime covered wall and breaking a leg by falling. So this had to do for now, yet at that particular moment he was glad he was made with two extra vertebrae. Otherwise he doubted he would've been able to fit at all. The temperature as rising as well, and he could feel it ever so slightly through his armour in the rock. The jungle had been hot and humid too, but now things started to get really warm; warm enough that the foliage was declining. Hence why he couldn't use vines or trees to get up the wall, there weren't any that were high enough any more. Probably because the roots got too hot and died.


Halfway up, things got really tricky; an small overhang made the passage even narrower. He had to get up and pull himself up through the gap, or move sideways until it got wider again. Both came with risks, and he decided to go for the first option as it was faster and less energy intensive. Though it wasn't per se a mistake, it didn't yield the best of results.


The moment he pulled himself over to about shoulder height, he came face to well whatever it was that had been sleeping in it's hole. Twelve milky blue eyes opened, a mass of white writhing exoskeleton legs coming to clicking life. Just before jumping straight to his helmet; four fangs trying to tear him apart and a two tailed body wrapping around his head and neck, legs angrily attempting to find a weak spot in his armour.


Startled he lost his grip just for a moment. Slipping back down into a free fall he let out an instinctive cry. For a split second he was caught in fear. Nothing to support him and this thing still relentlessly trying to find a way to hurt him the worst it could. Soon after he regained his bearings; shifting his position and reaching for his handgun still in mid fall. Planting his feet against the wall and pushing his back into it, the force bruising him. Staring into the gaping hollow mouth of something trying to eat him made him remarkably capable of ignoring the pain though. Slowing down he put his gun against the thing and pulled the trigger, the force enough to disintegrate it; leaving an upwards smear of green blood and charred exoskeleton on his helmet.


For a moment he just hung there, softly panting while staring up; the remains of the insect plastered against the underside of the overhang. The adrenaline high making the sound of the liquid dripping on him nearly surreal. His systems went to work immediately; countering the hormones within moments and injecting a surge of oxygen in his blood to get his head working properly again.


"Saami to command; encountered setback. Approximate time loss is ten minutes." This time he climbed around to the side of the overhang.

 

[BookWyrm]

Damn INANES. "Woods to team, hold current position and stay frosty." Vince looked around the area before suddenly noticing a strange, almost dizzy feeling. His head seemed like it was swimming for a few seconds. Thankfully Vince had been in a kneeling position and wobbling had been minimal. If anyone had been looking it would have just seemed like he was shifting his weight, but it was far more than just that. The pain in his arm made it clear that it was more than that, and this time the pain was radiating throughout his whole body. "Not here." Vince flipped the private channel between him and Adira on. "I'm not doing so hot. Symbiote I think. Don't do anything that will draw attention. Just wanted to let you know."

 

[Dragongal]

Adira immediately glanced over to Woods like she was just checking to make sure everyone was there. "I have some basic meds with me. Will any of those help?" At least the bugs weren't still attacking, then there'd be issues. Especially since Woods was down. "Do you think you're going to pass out or will you be able to make it?" She appreciated his telling her, but it wouldn't make much difference if she couldn't do anything.

 

[BookWyrm]

"Right now my head is swimming and the damn thing's hurting like a mofo, but I don't feel like I'm going out." Finally Vince's vision evened out and he managed to catch his breath. "Vision is stable, finally. Thanks for the offer, but I don't want to take anything without having an excuse. Commander Woods popping meds for no real reason would look suspicious. Save it for later."

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami

​

Slightly worse for wear but still alive and kicking Saami reached the top of the stone wall. It was covered in low foliage, with the trees reaching no higher than fifteen feet, and the plants seemed to get fleshier. The colour green changed from deep and dark to lighter and more yellow, though all he could see through his visor right then was covered in a neon green bug blood hue. Wiping it off with his cloak, he climbed the trees again, something far more easy than getting stuck in a wall.


Once he was on top he scouted the area for someplace easier to climb up, and in the corner of his eye spotted something interesting. The ruins of a stair, nearly completely covered in foliage and made of large, slippery steps. Similar to the earlier ruins but when he scouted he saw no signs of spiders. It was however a fair bit to the left, meaning they had to deviate the path slightly. Though for now he saw no other option; them all climbing through the crevasse was impossible, but once they were up the stairs the landscape gently eroded into the vent.


"Saami to security; easiest route calculated. Map is updated with new data." Again he linked some of his visuals with the map, allowing the rest of the team to see what he saw, except he added red dots at landmarks for orientation. After that he switched his comms to command. "Approximate extra time from reroute is thirty minutes. I will reposition and scout ahead on the updated path until further orders are given."


Getting down was significantly easier than going up; using the low trees to gain a bit of momentum he rushed forwards towards the edge of the wall. Once he reached it, there was no hesitation in his jump; a foot against the ground turning his momentum forwards and leaving him in a controlled two-story dive. Going head first into the jungle below his fall was slowed by all the leaves, and through quick thinking and acrobatics he used two hands and a tree branch to swing into a forward motion again. It wasn't long before he was back to his earlier chore of scouting the path and shooting bugs here and there.

Nadanya

​

After having satisfyingly told that damn squint exactly what was up and that she wouldn't be repairing his gun a second time, she finally got to the main tent for a well deserved coffee. Except here too there were a bunch more of them, twiddling their thumbs waiting to go down there. The uttermost proof that they weren't right in their mind, as they actually wanted to be there, and even interact with whatever insects were down there. Quietly she shook her head, eyeing the men and women standing there suspiciously.


Though even she had to admit, they at least smelled and looked better than her own engineering crew. Or so she figured; some had holographic systems on, she knew because she had repaired a few of those before, and once you knew what to look for it was easy to spot them. Whatever reason they had to hide, she knew that most of the time it was because they didn't look to pretty. She couldn't blame them for that either.


When she had finished her first coffee, she immediately went for another, spotting a peculiar man sitting alone in the corner. A not bad looking peculiar man, for a squint. Though while the others were engaged in chatting and whatever nonsense discussion they were having, he seemed a bit quiet. Of course, as an avid believer in getting herself good karma, she couldn't let that pass her by. So she went and got a second cup of coffee, then held it out in front of him.


"Nervous? Or just tired of the sciencey mumbo jumbo?"

 

[Dragongal]

"We hear you Saami. We're following the new map now" Adira had sent that through the security team frequency to let everyone know they were moving again, then switched back to her private link with Woods. "You do realize the irony in that statement, right?" Hadn't he just had withdrawal from his little sedative issue? She wasn't in the mood to argue. "Just tell me before anything gets too bad, okay?" Adira switched to the channel that everyone could hear, even the scientists in the tents. "Okay, we're moving again, but that doesn't mean anyone should relax just yet. We are still in hostile environment. However, things are starting to look up." Yeah, just give them a little hope and reassurance. That'll do nicely.

 

[Unlimited]

JT didn't notice the woman waking toward him at first, his eyes glued to the black journal in his hands as he went over the preliminary scans of the planet. It was old fashioned but he still used paper and pencil to take down his notes. It gave him a sense of security since computers could be tempered with and data could be erased. It wasn't until the cup of coffee came into his periphery that he looked up from his notes, stuttering slightly from being surprised. "Oh, t-thank you." He took the cup from her hand and set it down next to him to cool off before taking a sip.


"I'm a healthy combination of excited and nervous. Afraid of dying but also wanting to get out there and discover something new." He spoke softly as he looked around at all the other people in the common tent before looking up at the girl. "Seems everyone is a little jittery today. I'm JT by the way, I work in the chemistry department." He looked the girl over trying to discern which department she was from, and it wasn't hard thanks to the little bit of grime and the smell of oil and industrial lubricants. "Are you a mechanic?" Though he was pretty sure she was he didn't want to offend her by making assumptions about her.

 

[BookWyrm]

"The irony was part of the reason I said that hon." Vince looked over at Adira and shrugged before flipping his comms over to the full team. "Tighten up the ranks and move out." The change in positioning not only helped to protect the team better but it gave Vince and excuse to walk next to Adira. "You aren't going to hold that ordeal with the sedatives over my head for the rest of my life are you?" Vince asked after he switched comms back to their private channel. He had the lingering hints of shame still clinging to him because of all of that and, in truth, he didn't need the woman he cared about dumping any more of it on top of him.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira set her comms to her private conversation with Vince. "Just checking. And of course I won't, don't worry." She took the time to check the charge on her phaser. The lethal setting was draining it, but she should be fine for the rest of the trip. After a moment, she chuckled a bit and said, "You know, you called me hon?" She wasn't sure if he'd realized what he had said. After waiting a few seconds to let him worry a bit, she added, "I like it."

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami

​

He continued to lay out a path avoiding major dangerous points, but he simply couldn't avoid everything now the only route through was limited to a bottleneck. Watching from above, at a safe distance, he saw several tall, octagon-like cocoons protrude from the ground; made from leaves and odd white treads, like eerie white trees standing 30 feet high. Observing quietly he saw several worker bees of nearly a foot a piece make their way in and out of the cocoons, dragging other dead insects and creatures into there to feed bulging larvae. Though easy to kill alone; these weren't alone by a long shot. The nests were build right in front of the stairs, and he saw no other option than to either sneak past, or clear them all out.


"Saami to command; linking images of a hostile threat. I have confirmed seven active cocoons. The standard advised approach would be to avoid them. Due to logistic complications this however has a low chance of succeeding. The revised advise is to take out all the cocoons one by one to make the area safe for passing." It was all risky, no matter what they did. As far as he could see the mentioned option was the only one that could get them through safely. So far every cocoon was just far away from the next for them to be able to pull it off when done silently. Take out the soldiers first, then finish the worker bees until they could burn all cocoons. After that the path would be as good as clear, the vegetation becoming less and the air too hot for insects to survive. But first things first they had to survive, and from what he could see the soldiers had stingers the size of his head and pincers strong enough to snap small trees, which made even him swallow in slight discomfort at the sight.

Nadanya

​

"Deck Commander of mechanics actually." Just her luck; did he have to be shy and cute? She'd just wanted to lighten him up out of boredom really and to try to get some sick sense of justification for her own fear of insects. "Glad I don't have to go down. At least they got coffee here, and this place wasn't made by some freaky alien mad God." When she said that she meant it literally, believing nearly all planets and stars had their own gods of some sort, small and large. It was the only way she could explain their differences on eye level, and perhaps to not have to bother with any harder mechanics of the universe that she couldn't understand. She had too much to do to ask herself such existential questions, on the odd cases she actually did anyway. "Bet we'll be seeing some bloody mangled corpses being dragged back, if they weren't swallowed whole... hope it's not you though. You still owe me a coffee."

 

[Anaxial]

When the dust settled, the loud mechanical footsteps of the TinCan could be heard trudging over the scorched earth, burned twigs and the chitinous hides of bugs crunching under the weight of man made aluminum titanium alloy and hydraulic muscle. Seemingly poking around he dead, frying a few bugs that wriggled in agony from gunshot wounds Marshall was off in his own little world, having shut Saami out of his comms shortly after the INANES had started to speak.


"Yeah... I'm gonna have to pass on this one Cap'." He said over general comms. "The ol' TinCan ain't so good at parkour and to frank, I ain't too fond of leavin' him yet." The machine turned heels and returned to the base camp, clanking its way towards the makeshift work station where Marshall shut the suit down and hopped out of the torso. "I'll hold down the fort, you guys have fun scavenger hunting with the robot." The Mercenary took out his comm piece as he finished his sentence and skillfully tossed it onto a bench covered with rotary belts and various bolts and tubing. Walking around to the side of the suit he set it's pneumatic locks in place and continued refueling and repairing, the same task he was working on before the bug attack.

 

[BookWyrm]

It was Vince's turn to be glad for the shaded visor. He hadn't really noticed it slip out until now. "Well.... that's good." Vince felt the blush hot against his cheeks and shook his head in embarrassment even though no one could see him. Needless to say he was glad there was a distraction from Saami come up. "Alright, we'll do our best to steer clear of the cocoons. If something goes to shit, though, be prepared to bug squash with authority." Vince turned his comms back to Adira's private channel. "If it wasn't for the fact that we are on a mission on a hostile planet this might have been a nice walk through a beautiful garden."

 

[Dragongal]

"Indeed." Adira replied to Vince, then switched over to the security team comms. "Woods, the defense team, and I have incendiaries. We can toss them if we're close. Everyone keep your heads up and your guns ready." Adira took the time to loosen the incendiaries that were on her belt. They had a bit of time before they would reach a cocoon/nest thing.

 

[InsanEleven]

3487/12/13 11:47:35 SST


Even from a safe distance away, the cocoons loomed eerily above them. The sound of buzzing wings mesmerized maddeningly, quiet underneath the jungle sounds, seeping into the comms carried by every word said. The team had regrouped, and were now sitting in the middle of a cleared out circle; the smell of burnt grass and alien plants scaring away most of the insects. The occasional bug that did dare set an exoskeleton limb on the ground was immediately silenced by a suppressed gun. Being quiet was off the essence now, if only not to attract any attention on their location.


Saami had joined the ground forces again, though some of the harder to reach seams of his armour were still covered in green bug blood, and he was pretty sure the plates weren't supposed to make that odd grinding, cracking sound when he moved. For now there were more important matters to deal with though, and honestly everyone's armour had already traded in that fresh from the package gleam for combat smears. "According to my calculations this is the order in which it is statistically least likely for us to fail." He projected the map of their surroundings again, and highlighted each cocoon in order. "It is advised for the safety of the scientists to take all hostile entities down." It was just an advice though, the things he said holding little authority. If the Captain or Woods decided on another tactic or approach he'd be the first to follow those orders. Waiting for those further instructions, he switched his rifle for his twin plasma guns, and remained dormant despite some of the safety crew beside him shifting weight slightly uncomfortable. Occasionally he'd see them turn their heads slightly and give him a sideways gaze in the edge of his vision, but even if he did mind, he never showed it, standing perfectly still until he had a new objective.