Nova's ships are currently flying us away from an extremely pissed-off small army of mechs.
"I said STEALTH incursions, not a full-blown assault!"
"Same difference"
"Shut up Kardin, I'm talking to your boss, who, up until now, I had ASSUMED was the only person in your squad with a tiny amount of sense."
"Tory has been getting on our nerves for some time now."
For once, the rest of the squad actually agree with me, instead of taking up every single imaginable position on the statement like usual. Nova gives us a death glare.
"YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO ANNOY EVERY SINGLE SECURITY DETAIL ON THE PLANET!"
"At least they won't know who we're affiliated with, right?"
Most of the squad agrees with Jen on this. Garron, Clanise, and myself drop our heads into our hands. Nova appears to swell in size, and several veins pop out on his forehead.
"YOU BLUNDERING FERRITE-HEADS! MY SHIP PICKED YOU UP, AND YOUR MECHS ARE PAINTED WITH YOUR CLAN COLOURS! TORY HAS EVEN PERSONALLY DETAINED YOU!"
We had done many stupid things while trying to do stuff for Nova, but this was the angriest we'd ever made him. Unfortunately for us, Kardin has made angering Nova a favourite pastime of his. The rest of the less sensible members of the squad also enjoy it so much, Daine even stops her personal rivalry with Kardin whenever they get an opportunity. I see her opening her mouth.
"Daine, can it or we're airdropping you."
She speaks anyway, and I prepare for an explosion from the general's head, "At least it wasn't as bad as the time we got lost on Vupa 6 trying to kill the mad commander guy."
Nova has made a visible effort to calm down, and a look of hate comes over his face. His next few statements are spoken in the soft voice of someone who is resisting the strong urge to murder eleven idiots.
"Somehow, this was worse, despite you purposely ditching your commander, and his first mate, when you knew that they had the long-range Comm units, and the map, and the connection to my GPS satellites. The only reason you were rescued then was because we couldn't find enough people to replace you on a short notice, and the only reason you were rescued now was because wee needed a group of pilots with a negative average IQ score."
There are protests at this. I call for them to shut up and listen.
"What do you want us to do, Nova?"
"We need maps of the Yomi Reefs."
"The gravity reefs?"
"Yes."
"We may be stupid, but we're not insane."
"Well, I supposed we could always hand you over to Tory..."
"Tory is easier then the Reefs."
"Sounds fun. When do we get started?"
I look at Kardin to see how serious he is. He manages a full ten seconds of pokerface, before losing it.
"You weren't serious?"
Nova is suppressing his anger. The sport is over. My sixth sense for predicting a Daine/Kardin argument is buzzing.
"What's wrong, Kardin? Scared of something?"
"Only of your mother's face. That could give ANYONE nightmares."
"You were going to back out of the Reefs, weren't you."
It's not a question, so much as a statement designed to piss him off, "Of course not. anything the commander thinks is a bad plan is automatically a brilliant plan. You know that."
"HOLD up a moment here. WHAT did you just say?"
You weren't supposed to mention that in front of the commander!" hisses Jen.
"Everyone to the damn brig, right now. Lets go, move it before the stupidity spreads to Nova's team. GET MOVING, Kardin!"
Submitted by Toby Easterbrook/844872