Nathan's WIP Boldly IC Intro Post

Archer blinked slowly as the words on the screen began to blur together.  Sighing wearly, he put the tablet down and reached up to rub his eyes.

"Its alright, Bach," he answered a worried whistle from the droid, "just eye strain.  Have a lot to read and not a lot of time to do it."

The British man chuckled softly to himself.  While smart and clever in his own right, the intelligence programmed into his little assistant was far to limited to understand everything he was saying, let alone actually be someone he could hold a conversation with.  Sighing again, he slowly hauled himself out of his desk chair and, glancing around at the unpacked state his things were still in, he took the head of his cane in one hand and the now mostly chilled cup of tea he had been drinking in the other.  Pausing in his move to stand before the window he had been provided, he glanced down at the cup.

"Let yourself get to distracted again, old chap," he mused to himself, ignoring the inquisitive series of beeps from the other side of the room, "tea got cold."

Archer looked over at one of the few things he had unpacked.  Thankfully, the cozy was still snugly in place around the teapot, so it should keep warm for a while yet.  Not that he minded some teas if they got cold, he had been using the warmth to help keep warm - a glitch in the enviromental controls had locked his office at 18 degrees Celsius (or 65 degrees for those across the pond).

Finishing his current cup, the intelligence officer was just about to remove the cozy from the kettle so he could pour a fresh cup with the order to report to the VR suite came through the shipwide.

"Once more unto the breach," his voice now carried a light note of humor, "Come, Bach, the Matrix awaits."

The droid beeped in confirmation and, with a pulse of its limited gravitics, moved out of its charging station and landed smoothly onto the floor.  Using the keywords that Archer had directed its way, Bach interfaced with the ship's schematics and began leading the way as the three legged Brit limped along behind it through the corridors of the [i]Destiny II[/i].  Though not unaccostumed to Earth's deep dive virtual reality technology, Archer was nonetheless curious what the ship's commanding officer had in mind for this trip into what the intelligence officer jokingly referred to as the Matrix.

Archer was quick to notice that while not the first to arrive in the ship's VR suite, he was also not the last as several pods remained unoccupied.  Propping his cane up against the pod one of the techs guided him to, Nathan chuckled to himself as Bach defaulted into a guard mode protecting the lump of metal and wood - even going so far as to menace another tech who got to close.

"Don't mind him," he chortled at the annoyed looking tech, "he gets bored easy.  Gives him something to do," he finished as his tech finished plugging him in, "I always hated this part...."

Archer's last words in the waking world quickly switched to the intense nausia he was always hit by doing this transisition.  It was something about the sudden change in environment bringing on something akin to motion sickness.  Grimacing as he managed to keep his stomach contents down, Archer began quietly taking stock of the situation.  Or, at least that was what he had planned to do as, reflexively, he stepped as if still propped up by his cane and fell face first.

"Just great," he growled as he rolled over and pulled himself up into a sitting position, "just bloody great.  Can't see a blooming thing," he wiped mud from his face, "even with the moonlight."

He continued to grumble quietly to himself, pausing only as the instructions came through the earpiece he only just now noticed.

"Right now you will be wondering exactly what you are doing. You will find the rest of the senior crew within a 100 metre radius. Your task is simple. You are to head to the location marked on the map in Ensign Calhoun's pocket. In twelve hour's time, extraction will arrive. Your goal is to get everyone out of the swamp you are in. It's dark and none of you have a flashlight, but I'm sure that won't be a problem to some of you," a slight pause then, "Good luck."

"Bloody marvelous," Archer scowled.

Squinting to try and see through the darkness, he judged a length of branch jutting out from the tree he was sitting against.  Grunting, he got to his feet and reached up.and began to make use of his weight.  WIth a load spintering noise, the hunk of wood pulled free of the tree and tumbled to the ground with Nathan.  Now that he had a better angle, he grimaced - it wasn't exactly the length he needed, but beggers couldn't be choosers.

Making use of the impromtu cane, he used his free hand to pat himself down for any more gear he headn't initially noticed.

"A pistol," he mused dryly, "providing weapons likely means they expect us to at least think we'll need to use them."

He chose to leave the weapon in its holster for now, his free hand proving to be more useful in feeling his way through the dark.  It was at this point he heard the echoes of a rather irritiated Scottish woman blistering the bark of the trees near by.  Chuckling quietly, he followed the sound as best he could.

"Pilot Officer Polaski. Please tell me your Ensign Calhoun."

Archer broke through into sight of the other two just as Polaski introduced himself.  He raised both hands to about neck level. With the makeshift cane now dangling in midair, he was a bit unsteady on his feet.  Nathan didn't get a chance to say his planned introduction when another two arrived onto the scene and kept asking this woman if she was the Ensign Calhoun mentioned in the message.  The woman's brogue was a familiar taste of home for Archer when she rather aggressively denied being Calhoun.  Now free to break in once she was done, he cleared his throat to let them know he was there.

"Nathaniel Archer," he introduced himself, "Intelligence department.  Before worrying about who is and isn't this....Calhoun person, how many of you were armed by this simulation?"

It still festered at the back of his mind, why did they get weapons for this.