Day three part 2: Base Ops

Wolfbane grumbled, still ruffled by the criticisms to uniforms and all other manner of smart mouthed recruits. She approached Base-ops and did her best not to show her agitation but a wolf of her origins wasn't exactly keen on subtle. She took a breath and looked out of the base-opps recruits. "Front and center roll call, let me see your collected provisons..." She glanced at shard. "You did clean up for the Doctor correct? Off to the side we have more work for you to do."

Shard immediately stood to attention when Wolfbane spoke to him, and without hesitation he moved off to the side where he waited to find out what exactly was in store for him. He could help be feel more then a little excitement. So this was The Wolfbane that Dr. Naochi mentioned. Looking at her Shard could easily see how she had killed the Creature that had been dissected by the Doctor.

During the downtime Jack had taken the chimenticore to the medical tent, and managed to pick most of the dried dirt from his uniform leaving it mostly spotless, though close inspection would betray his attempt to make it look flawless. He stepped forward with his sack filled with various fruits, and roots as Wolfbane called the recruits forward. Jack set the bag down in-front of him, open, before folding his hands behind his back. "Recruit Erring reporting Ma'm."

Lex moved and stood to attention as the wolf she had seen earlier approached, unsure of if she was to be the one who would be continuing the Base Ops training or would be there only until which time an officer from the Base Ops division arrived. She did her best to straiten herself for the inspection, moving the bag of provisions she had found to front and center for her. "Recruit Lexaniri, reporting," she said, sounding a bit stiff. Nothing that she could be blamed for, considering how swimmingly things had went with Commander Steel. Even so, it seemed that even with a fixed gaze, her ears would shift and focus in verious directions subtly scanning the general area. This was partially due to instinct and the rest due to the nature of jungle living where you'd often hear before you would see.

With the bag set down, it was left open, exposing the selection of foodstuffs she had obtained, though this time different from the first time, as was her rout to collect these. It had seemed that several had found various forms of fruits and berries, but Lex had a selection including a number of saltwater clams she had found along the rockier portions of the beach, berries that she had apparently found on her way through the brush along the stream, and a good selection of guava fruits that were ripe and ready to be eaten or used with other foods. She hoped that it would be considered a satisfactory collection.

Just as he was to say hello to one of the recruits, a four legged red wolf came into view. His eyebrows raised as he saw this animal come into view. Then the red wolf-like creature started to speak. The voice sounded like gravel but with an air of authority to it. It was obvious this creature was part of the Overlord's high command.

"Recruit Bond reporting...," he was unsure of the gender of this creature so he kept his opinion to himself lest he might offend this officer. "I apologize in advance for not obtaining any provisions as I was apparently allergic to some sort of seed from my first meal here. I am currently able to walk and would like to continue my service to you and the Overlord. I was also speaking to Commander Tigermark and he assessed a physical test of sorts he had me perform. Anything else I can do to make up for my absence, I will be happy to do."

Sunny had been halfway to the military tent when she got the second message from Darius. The marten paused briefly and looked at the message curiously, then tilted her head. Tea? She could handle that! She changed course and headed to her tent to pick up the box of tea supplies she'd used to prepare tea for the Commander the night before. Tucking the box under her arm, she scurried to the officer's tent where she remembered he had a tea pot and cups and got to work.

hearing someone enter the tent Dean turns to see Lady Bane enter and he quickly and quietly gets into line.

Zev steps into line after hearing Lady Bane's orders. He places his bag down in front of him, which is filled with a variety of fruit. "Recruit DeWolfe reporting." He straightens his posture and keeps his arms at his side.

Zenny’s tail flicked back and forth behind him as he took the path back from the mess hall to the base ops tent his tummy now full and content. He felt at ease for the first time since arriving on the island, his ordeal just hours before almost a distance memory. As he was rounding the corner he noticed a very large red looking wolf enter ahead of him and cocked his head curiously, so there were others like him and his sister here. As he entered the tent he heard the wolf command them to line up and he quickly scanned the other occupants looking for a spot in line. A smile formed at the corner of his mouth as he spotted the cheetah from the medical tent earlier and made his way next to the feline, trying to stand up straight and tall despite his small stature.

Charon looks down at the small young fox and smiled. He was so young and impressionable, but wanted to please those around him just to fit in. The feline also noticed the distended belly on the fox. It seemed as though he had a wonderful time at the mess tent. More could be said Zenny enjoyed himself rather than he did. He still had shivers of visiting the mess tent being extra careful of what he ate in there as some of the food was made by fruits and seeds he had never seen before. He also wondering how the grumpy looking red wolf would react to someone so young.

Bane scuffled through her notes. "Those of you who have gathered supplies, form a line right here." she drew a line in the dirt with her claw. "Those of you who haven't, heres some bags, you have an hour to gather as much food as you can from the jungle. Mind yourself and don't get hurt." She finally eyed Shard. "Her majesty is coming for final evaluations, as such the General's tent should be spotless, go clean it."

Shard stood even straighter then before as Bane addressed him and told him of his task. "Right away, it would be my pleasure" With that he headed back inside the Base Ops tent, when he exited again he was equipped with his cleaning gear. Saluting to Bane before he headed off in the Direction of General steel's tent. Arriving at the flaps of the tent he took a deep breath and said to himself "OK then, let's see what the damage is" Opening the tent flap he found old crumpled up reports overflowing from a small bin, a few empty cups set randomly on a table and even a fair amount of dirt that had been tracked in by all the recruits coming and going from the tent. "Right then" the Arctic Fox said as he cracked his knuckles "Let's get to work"

Lex shifted slowly on her paws, lifting up her pack again, carefully. "Yes, Ma'am," she responded with a nod as she moved over towards the line, keeping an eye on others that where approaching to avoid any unnecessary bumps or collisions with other recruits. Nothing can ruin a good haul of provisions than bruising and rougher handling than necessary.

Once in line, she placed the bag down in front of herself and stood to attention. Even then, her ears were one of the few things that seemed to pivot and shift on occasion to take in the sounds of others moving into the line, or other sounds from the camp. This appeared to be a subconscious action on her part, perhaps due to living and working in the forests creating an automatic form of awareness for herself. In the end though, she was standing in a near stiff attention that she had been learning since the previous day.

An hour to find things from the jungle.  Charon knew little about jungle settings as he had lived mostly on the coast and the savannah next to it.  The grew mostly crops and fished for their food.  'I wonder how many fish can be caught in an hour," he thought to himself.  

"At once," he said.  "And my apologies." He slightly bowed to the red wolf. He turned to Zenny and ruffled his head. "Want to help me out finding some food and fish? If so, meet me at the east end of the tents and we can head out."  Charon rushed towards his tent and grabbed a line, his rod and a bag just in case he recognized any edible plants, herbs or even medicinal plants as he searched for a river to fish in.  He knew the local insect life would be the perfect bait for any fish in the meandering rivers of the area.  If all else failed, he could find a quiet harbor or cove to fish in near the sea.

Zenny listened to the wolf’s words carefully looking at the large bags dropped in front of them. One hour to find all the food they could to fill the bags. That should be simple enough after living in the forests on the island of Tepetema.

The small fox let out a surprised yip as he felt a paw ruffle the fur atop his head and turned to look up at the spotted cat. Ears swiveling forward as he listened to the cheetah’s offer, he simply smiled and nodded his head up and down. Moving forward and grabbing one of the bags into his maw, he excitedly made his way out of the tent and towards the edge of camp as the bag dragged along behind him.

Bane sighed and rolled her eyes. "Pardon me one moment, recruits...." She dashed after the Cheetah and the fox, easily catching up with them and cutting them off. "Not... in groups...." She panted. "The excercise is to test your individual gathering skills, and your ability to identify plants and animals of the edible variety on your own. Split up please I'll know if you joined up with anyone else." She grumbled and padded back to the Base opps tent and sat back in her spot. Carefully she opened Lex's bag and one by one removed the contents. "So tell me what is it you think you've collected here?"

Lex waited while Lady Wolfbane intercepted the recruits who were leaving to start their own collection of foodstuffs. She waited patiently as she corrected the recruits and returned to her position and started to look through her bag of collected foodstuffs.

"Ma'am, I collected some saltwater papaua or clams from one of the tide-pools before I reached a stream. While following the stream I collected some Ohelo 'Ai berries. However, a large portion of what I collected was when I found a few trees with ripe guava," she said, pausing between the various food items as Lady Wolfbane extracted them from the bag. Overall she hoped that none were too bruised or damaged from the travel. She paused to see what Lady Wolfbane's reactions would be letting her tail flick slowly from side to side, to adjust her balance for a moment.

Hearing the tent flap open before she actually looked, Sunny responded without thinking, "I only just got the water on, but it won't be very long s-... Oh!" When she finally looked toward the entrance and saw the Arctic Fox, she paused, "Sorry, I thought you were Commander Steele. He asked me to come get some tea ready for him."

She noticed the cleaning gear and tilted her head, arching her slinky neck slightly, "Oh! I think I remember you now! Sorry it took me a second." She waved the other recruit in pleasantly and went back to preparing tea bags while she spoke, "I'm sorry I don't remember catching your name, though. But didn't they send you to clean up when that doctor lady came to do an examination on that... creature... Lady Bane brought back?"

Shard was equally surprised to see the Generals assistant in the tent in the process of making tea. "Indeed they did send me to clean up that make shift autopsy tent. Names Shard, Shard Loren" he offered politely shaking her hand. Looking around Shard already decided on where to start with his cleaning. Making his way over to the bin Shard couldn't help but voice a curiosity. "So I've gotta ask. How did you end up as the Assistant to General Steele in only a few short days?" he said as he made sure he get every bit of paper into the bin before he started tying up the bag.

"It's nice to meet you, Shard. I'm Sunny." The marten was happy to shake hands before Shard went about his business, and she went back to preparing tea bags and waiting for the water to get hot. Her ears perked a bit at his question, though, and she smiled sheepishly and shrugged her little shoulders, "I was pretty startled by that myself. I was sure he was going to send me home after my performance in the sparring matches... But Commander Steele took me to do a few scouting tests, and I helped him out for the rest of the day. He had me come to tea last night and told me he was making me his Lieutenant... It was a bit of a surprise." The truth was the entire tea meeting had been a surprising one, but that wasn't hers to tell.

She shut another tea bag and began packing another. Commander Steele seemed to like what she had made when he asked her to tea, so she decided she'd prepare a few bags ahead of time for convenience sake, "I just hope I can do a good job. I'm not sure what a Lieutenant assisting Commander Steele is expected to do, but I'll do my best." She smiled warmly and began packing up the tea leaves and bags to put away.

As she did so, she paused and glanced up at Shard, hesitant but curious, "I hope I'm not being too nosy, but what was it like, being in the autopsy tent? What was that creature?"

"I'm not really sure to be honest with you, Miss Sunny" Shard said shaking down the bin bag. "The doctor called it a 'Thurvine' or something like that. I think she also said something about it being some kind of a soldier" He took the tied up bin bag and placed it in one corner, ready to be collected when he left then went about placing a fresh bag in the now empty bin. "As for what it looked like? It was weird, kinda like a big lizard but she said it had gills like a fish. Come to think of it, it looked like a giant, legged version of what ever that thing was that chased me out of the woods a few days ago" He said with a slight shudder as he thought back.

Checking the temperature of the water, Sunny turned the heat down a bit so it wouldn't get too hot before the Commander was ready for his tea. The whole time, she listened intently to Shard's story, "Big lizard? With gills?..." She paused and reflected on what she had learned the night before, then twitched an ear, "That's interesting... Thurvine..." She tested the word on her tongue, thinking it over a bit, "I wonder how it got here on this island. I never heard of anything like that being native to the Calendar Islands at all..."

"I wonder what a soldier would be doing here. It's just a training camp..." She puzzled mostly to herself as she prepared the teapot and cups. A glance back at the fox janitor was mostly puzzled, "I guess the doctor doing the autopsy knew, of course. It certainly is mysterious..."

"I dunno" Shard said as he moved on to sweeping the dirt into a dustpan with a brush. "But she figured it might have been a scout or something." He had to move the Main desk a bit so he could get to all the dirt underneath, there was a lot more then Shard was expecting, not that it was a serious problem. After standing up again he put the desk back in exactly the same place it had been before looking at Sunny "But I'll tell you one thing for sure, She knew a lot more about that thing then I'm comfortable with. I think she might have seen them or something like them before." Then he moved onto the table itself, moving the Cups he began giving the table a good polish.

"A scout... Hm... And she seemed to already know about them? I guess that would explain why they called her out to do the examination. I wonder if it's the only one out here. It's probably best to be careful if you're going foraging again, though. I'll keep my eyes peeled if I'm sent out again..." Sunny pondered the conversation carefully. She would definitely have to ask the Commander about the creature.

When she saw that Shard was trying to tidy the table, the marten hurried to move the tea things, "Let me get those out of your way. I'm pretty much done, really. Just waiting for Commander Steele. He asked me to get him some tea ready." The white face hosted a warm smile as she carefully stacked saucers, cups, and spoons onto a serving tray and moved them off the table to clear the surface for the fox.

"Thanks for moving those for me. I was just about to do it myself" Shard said returning the warm smile. "Lady Bane ordered me to make sure this place was spotless for when the Overlord arrived to meet the General Steel" he said as he gave the table an other spray from his bottle. "I don't intend to let her, General Steel or Her Majesty down"