Chapter 0: A different waiting room

Corva sat in the corner of their quarters, furniture drawn around them. The room was so much larger than what they were used to, and they still didn't fully trust the bed, it was like lying on top of a nutrivat. Everything about this felt wrong; the gentle hum of the ship felt like a constant aural assault compared to the noises they were used to. Soon, they would be taken to meet the rest of their "team"; a gaggle of pachistu, surface-dwellers, toys of those who crawled over the ground. Once again they checked their rifle across their hip, it's familar weight easing the fear somewhat.

They had completed this cycle's exercise routine; in fact they had gone beyond it to the point where additional non-essential activity would be counter-productive to long term fitness. They had already taken apart and resembled all equipment in the room they had been allowed to examine, which wasn't much. They had consumed the required calories for the cycle, so had no reason to return to the canteen (one of the three rooms currently available to them). They were not allowed in any of the training areas other than the pool yet, but they had been informed that the team was expected soon, and so they were not to enter the water before all the formalities were out of the way. The dossiers they had been given on the situation lay on the bed; they had memorised them when they first arrived and attempting to reread the...information listed there just made them angry.

At home, in the base, there was never a wasted moment. If you had completed your physical activity, then there was hacking training to complete. If that was finished, then there was shooting practise, or researching the above world. If there was truly nothing else to do, then there was always base maintenance to take care of. The base was old, and under vast amounts of pressure from the ocean above, so there were always jobs to take care of.

Corva had never had nothing to do before, and they weren't sure what to make of it. So they sat there, both terrified, and completely and utterly bored.

Corva heard the sound of a knock on the door, which then slid open. From the information they had been given, the door was only supposed to open for them and people they designated - one of the “perks” of the chip that had been implanted in their hand. Was there any real point to that claim when this interloper had previously proven that she could circumvent that? “This interloper” being Colonel Camille Lazard, the head of this UIG project Corva’d been dragged into.



She was a white woman, about 161cm tall, with long dark hair and paler skin than most surface-dwellers. The eyepatch she wore was odd - surface-dwellers couldn’t regrow as well as hybrids, let alone full algaeforms, but they had the capacity to regenerate or replace a lost eye. Lazard stood in a slight slouch, carrying the jacket of her all-black uniform (not pictured) under her arm. Since meeting her while captive in South America, Corva hadn’t had much contact with the Colonel, but they had sometimes found her swimming in the pool when they arrived to exercise - Did Corva avoid Colonel Lazard at these times? Ignore her? Respond to her attempts at small talk?

“Good morning, Private Rhodophyta,” she said, looking down at the sitting recruit. “How are you holding up?”

(Italics+underline is gonna my shortcut for “here’s a thing the GM specifically wants a response on” going forward, fwiw.)

Corva glanced up at the Colonel, pulling their rifle closer to them. "I have completed all tasks available to me. I...am not sure what to do." They stayed sitting, staring at the UIG officer. At first, they had tried to ignore her when they had run into her in the pool, but she was also the only vector of contact they had, so slowly they had given more response to her.

"Well, gather your gear because I've got a mission for you. The team's arriving and we've got a ticking clock Earthside." Colonel Lazard put a hand out to Corva. "Ready to meet some agents, kid?"

Corva looked at the hand offered as if it was going to shock them before grabbing the side of the desk and pulling themself to their feet. After a moment, they nodded and adjusted their rifle, grabbing their toolkit from the desk, waiting for Lazard to lead on.

The Colonel was clearly somewhat taken aback by not getting the response she expected, sighing as she put on her black UIG jacket and took Corva through a door they had previously had no access to, away from the residential corridor. The signs on the walls, written in the four primary languages of the surface's five most powerful corporations, indicated the duo were heading towards the teleport station and reception room. "So... any last questions before you meet your colleagues?"

Corva stared at the UIG officer, their secondary translucent eyelids briefly blinking. They weren't at all sure what to make of the woman; she certainly wasn't what they had expected a UIG officer to be. Their mind quickly ran through a series of questions, discarding the ones they believed would be answered by the pachistu once they joined the team. Still, there was one question they believed needed to be answered.

"Do you trust them?" they asked.

Lazard looked at Corva, making intense eye contact. "There's nobody on this team I don't trust." With that, she picked herself up out of her slouch and opened the door to the reception room.


(in the other waiting thread)