"Is Skadi seriously doing it again?" asked Saria over her radio, already knowing the answer. She leaned forward in her chair, holding the transceiver near her face.
"Ye-yeah, she didn't want me going in with her," responded Jessica, with sounds of muffled combat annunciating in the background. "I mean, I think she's doing alright?"
"That's not the point." Begrudgingly stated Saria, tapping her fingers on the desk. When she was about to elaborate, she was rudely interrupted by Gavial.
"You just gotta jump in there, whether she wants you to or not! You need to prove yourself!"
"I uh… um." Jessica uncomfortably stumbled.
"You got this Jess! Just go!" Encouraged Gavial. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence from Jessica, Saria intervened by simply commanding:
"Everybody be back home for dinner before dusk hits. Over." She turned down the volume on her radio, knowing everybody heard her, although nobody audibly responded.
The team had been sent on a commission to a northwestern city in Federal Democratic Colombia to set up a base of operations, as Rhodes island was attempting to improve its global infrastructure. The city in question was not particularly interesting; it was just another city abandoned from an originum catastrophe. It was filled with abandoned buildings, some ancient and some contemporary, with the whole city being surrounded by ports on one side, and misty pine forests on the other.
Their current temporary base of operation used to be an art museum of some sort; as the inside was very colorful and decorated, even though the vibrancy faded over the years of abandonment. Their main meeting room was painted with angular modern art on the walls, filled with empty display cases and mirrors on the floor, all harshly illuminated by construction lighting and the dark blue screen of the command desktop.
Saria spent most of her time at the base, despite her combat experience. She didn't like the way other squad members ran things, although she didn't mind Grani filling in occasionally for some morale-boosting fun. Although Saria was a good leader, many saw her as being too tough and emotionless. Saria disliked this perception of her, but she accepted in for the sake of the team needing a strong commander in the face of hardship. Most of the squad understood as many of them aren't exactly sociable themselves; Scavenger likes to go quiet when her duty is done, Skadi seems to want to do everything by herself, Firewatch is too quiet and serious to talk regularly, and Jessica doubts her every action, in and out of combat.
Firewatch and Scavenger were the first two to show up at the base, having returned from a short reconnaissance mission in a mall nearby. Saria stood from her chair and addressed the two.
"What did you find?" inquired Saria.
"Almost nothing" responded Scavenger, gesturing to an almost empty duffel bag handing off the end of her sword. She flung her heavy gear near a display case and sat down leisurely in her chair. "We only found some small food packs and old magazines." Firewatch timidly held up a crumbled nature magazine she found while in the mall. Saria gave them a small nod and walked over to the next room, just as the rest of the team started to enter the room.
First Grani and Gavial stumbled in, laughing from some joke they probably told each other during the walk. They made some indistinguishable conversation as they placed their gear by the command desktop and sat down at the table, Gavial flipping her chair backward before sitting. They were finally followed by Jessica and Skadi. Jessica seemed embarrassed when Skadi was seen limping behind her, since Jessica was of shorter stature and could not support her. The 2 punctually placed their gear down and sat down at the tables, with Skadi obviously struggling to do so.
Saria returned to the table, neatly balancing a stack of MRE's in her forearms. She quickly distributed the small brown boxes to the squad; She gave some vegetarian noodles to Firewatch, a vegetable omelet (which nobody else seemed to like) to Scavenger, and generic chicken and rice to the rest of the members. As they all opened their packs and begun to heat their meals up, Grani tried sparking conversation.
"What did everybody find today?" she cheerfully asked. Everybody looked around the table at each other.
"Just some old books." Scavenger said, leaning back in her chair. Her eyes suddenly lit up as she remembered something "Oh, wait! I almost forgot!" she exclaimed, as she scrambled out of her chair and over to her gear. She took out a dirty yellow bag and tossed it to the table.
"You found… potato chips?" questioned Firewatch.
"Gimmie that!" exclaimed Gavial, snatching the bag from the middle of the table. "Its been so long since I-"
"Don't eat those." sternly stated Skadi, breaking her silence. Gavial gave her a jokingly confused look, while Skadi remained stern. "Those aren't good for you."
"So? Were not at the base, we can have a little bit of junk food," said Gavial, about to open the bag.
"Put the bag down, Gavial." Stated Saria.
"Okay, okay! Damn people, it's not that serious!" Gavial shook her head and continued to eat her normal rations, as the conversation around the table died down. After a few minutes of eating in silence, Saria started debriefing.
"Did anybody find anything reunion-related on your patrol today?" inquired Saria.
"Nope" responded Grani.
"We found some reunion graffiti, if you want to count that," said Firewatch.
"Nothing in the mall, though." continued Scavenger. The eyes of the table then shifted to Jessica and Skadi. After a brisk silence and a quick glance between Jessica and Skadi, Skadi intervened by saying:
"Nothing to report, Saria." She wasn't very good at lying. Jessica looked down at the table, avoiding eye contact with everybody at the table.
"Oh, c'mon, we all heard you guys getting shot at over the radio! What was going on over there?" pressed Gavial.
"It was nothing important," stated Skadi, maintaining a serious look on her face.
"Yeah right, it was nothing! How are you expecting us to believe that you're limping around because of a hit from something unimportant?" Skadi's eyebrows furrowed as she angrily stared at Gavial. The tense quietness was interrupted by Saria.
"That's enough, Gavial," stated Saria. Gavial shook her head and begun finishing her food. Although Saria knew Skadi was lying, she simply finished her meal without further questioning (which is unlike her blunt nature), and neatly threw the box out afterward. She was contemplating how she could help regualte Skadi's ego.
"Well, I think that wraps it up," mentioned Grani, wiping a drop of juice off of her face. "Remember to do your chores tonight, if you got them. I'm looking at you two!" She jokingly pointed at Grani and Scavenger, who lightly laughed along. After the laughing died down, Saria reminded the team:
"Remember, Lights out at 10:00 everybody." The team nodded their heads as they rose from the table, all walking off in their different directions.
"I'll get your leg patched up, don't worry," said Gavial to Skadi, quieter than usual.
Saria was walking back to the command desktop when she felt a light tap on her elbow.
"H-Hey Saria?" timidly asked Jessica when Saria turned around.
"Yes?"
"Is there anything that I can help out with? I don't have anything to do tonight…" Saria thought about it for a second.
"We could use somebody taking provisions in the armory if you would like."
"Uh okay, Yeah! I'm on it," said Jessica, lightly smiling while turning around to leave the main meeting room. Saria made her way out of the room as well, and walked over to Grani's dorm room door. She knocked heavily on the door, which Grani responded:
"Come in!" Saria creaked open the door to see her overly decorated room, and Grani leisurely laying down in her cot.
"You're going to be commanding tomorrow, so be prepared," bluntly stated Saria.
"Oh, yeah, okay! You finally going out on the field?" inquired Grani. Saria quietly nodded her head. "Where's Gavial going to be then? We were supposed to be patrolling together tomorrow."
"You can decide," answered Saria.
"Alright, and who's going with you tomorrow?"
"I will be with Skadi and Jessica."
"Got it! Good luck out there tomorrow!" She nodded again as a response and closed the door.
Tomorrow was sure to be an interesting day for Saria.