An Attempt At A Post For Boldly

"You alright, Archer?" Hamza asked the other man. Archer could clearly see Hamza's eyes pointed at Salazar, instead of the thing that flew towards their column.

Though the drop itself was expected, the direction wasn't.  As a result of going off the embankment in a direction he hadn't planned, the wooden clatter as his makeshift cane skittered across the pavement would echo easily in the cold night air.  Gritting his teeth, Archer was more irritated by the unecessary distracting sounds than the sudden full body immersion in the icey water.

"That didn't sound like a grenade," he responded to Hamza after, oance again spitting out the water that had gotten into his mouth, "too light."

As one who had been walking with the assistance of a cane for so many years, Archer's ears had been forced to learn a lot about what the sound of various impacts meant.  After having one of his first canes snap in half mid stride because of termite damage, it was something he found very handy.

"Other than loosing my cane," he finally answered the other officer's question, "I'll survive.  Could use some Mio, this water isn't the best tasting," he hadn't missed Hamza's diverted gaze away from the road as he retrieved his sidearm from its holster and thumbed the safety off.

"Whoever's firing was able to down those who didn't get clear in time," he pointed out in a response hiss to Aula, "that first shot could have just been a warning shot.  We don't know what planet they've dumped us on for this sim.  We don't have the information needed to just make assumptions."

He had joined the others in laying prone, the lack of his improvised cane pretty much limiting his movement options.  Archer didn't share Aula's assumption about their attacker's night vision - they had seen no torches or sources of light other than their own and low light augmentation goggles had been around for quite some time now.  From the start, he had heard a number of the crew assume this was Earth as well.  Anyone paying close attention might just hear the gears turning in his head.

"The Captain put this simulation together," he spoke his quick conclusion aloud, "and all we've done is make assumptions since getting into this thing.  The [i]Destiny II[/i] is a ship of exploration, not a warship.  Are we not supposed to be able to disarm opponents without shooting first?  For all we know, these are the locals trying to defend their town from us."

Indeed, in Archer's mind the logic fit.  There were still puzzle pieces that didn't fit exactly, and he would have no issue in admitting he was wrong if things turned out that way, but he couldn't wrap his head around the thought of Earth sending out a ship to 'explore' only for her crew to always treat shooting at things as the first and only answer.

"In the end, what we need is information," he added quickly, "can't disagree on that," a pause as he turned to look in the opposite direction from the others, "but is anyone watching our backs?  A distraction to focus our attention onto the one side while we get flanked from the other.

"Stay low," he muttered half to himself as he flipped prone onto his back so as to better cover that side.

He panned his readjusting eyes across the landscape on their side of the embankment.  Archer knew plenty would be covering the far side, but that first shot had been too obvious and certainly did a great job grabbing everyone's attention front and center.  He wasn't a hunter, but anyone skilled enough to bring down a man sized target at range with non lethal shots like that and only missing one shot.....it was just to fishy, to flashy.

Not once had he spared himself a second to glance around for where the branch-turned-cane had ended up.

"Just thinking out my butt here," he addressed the First Lieutenant, not caring if Aula understood the phrase or not, "but, even if our opponents are or not, would not one good flank deserve another?"

He didn't see the need to extrapolate.  Someone like Aula didn't raise to the place she had by not by being incompetent, so Archer felt no issues leaving the details to her to work out.  Still, it did baffle him why Hamza kept focusing on those he took issue with instead of surving.  It may have been a simulation, but Archer couldn't see the Captain and whomever else he had with them [i]not[/i] watching and grading their performance.

"Major," he quietly hissed in Vio's direction, "its your call, all I can do is offer my own reasonings and thoughts."

He may not agree with Hamza about feelings for certain off-worlders, but Archer was more focused on figuring out whatever puzzle the Captain had set them to.

"Cor," he swore, "I hate being the rat in the maze.  Never that much fun."