By SCSPIEKER - Dec. 31, 1969 Turn 1: Sygnus September 20, 2179 0830 hours Lieutenant Cooper paces in front of the assembled first platoon. He knows that Sygnus is not a camping trip, nor is it a training facility. At one time in the not so distant past, it was a battleground between the Unites Americas and the Communist Block Chinese Federation. That conflict had lasted but a year and most of the 4th regiment had been moved off Sygnus for other duties, however the first platoon of Bravo Company 2nd battalion were left behind on garrison duty under the command of Captain Glenkov. A base built to support an entire regiment now lay squarely in his hands manage with a staff of only 12 men and women. Now, Sygnus belonged to the Interstellar Commerce Commission and the mega-corporation, Weyland-Yutani as did most of the other colonies this far out on the American arm of space. Sygnus was an arm-pit assignment. Command back on Earth sent their degenerates, disorderlys, and their flawed soldiers out to the distant colonies where they could cause less trouble for everyone. Cooper knew he was getting the riff-raff from the Corp. He knew that he would deal with any disorderly conduct personally. He certainly was not above bashing a few skulls to get his point across. That is where Sergeant Quaid came in. Quaid was a nobody with a decoration record a mile long. Most of which was classified and he never talked about his assignments - even when ordered to. Cooper hated being ignored. But Quaid was known to have bashed a few heads himself from time to time, and that is what Cooper DID like about him. He was thurough, efficient and followed orders. So here they were - his motley crew of soldier-wanna-bes. All standing at attention in their grey jumpsuits and black coats. They were the heavy hitters amongst the colony's skeletal police forces. They spent most of their time at Trinity Station - the USCMC marine base which also housed a bunch of ICC colony big-wigs on the far side of the grounds. cleaning, maintenance and inspections were the order for the day. Cooper was certain of that - even before Glenkov ordered it. [Cooper] Still pacing back and forth in front of his 'platoon' in mock inspections. "Men, we have a very important assignment today," he began sarcastically, "we are to perform the Friday ritual of inspections, maintenance and cleaning of the facility." he made a mock hand gesture as it shoe-ing a fly from next to him. "As you know, Trinity Station is in need of proper maintenance and cleaning. This is mandated by Captain Glenkov and will fill today's order docket," he gestured with his hand rolling it un front of him as if dredging up the memories of the same speech from the last eight times he had given it. He stopped pacing approximately in the middle of the line up of troopers facing him. "There has been an update on the solar weather service from Vandermere. The flare activity is already building and everyone has been ordered into the shelter of Trinity Colony by this time Tuesday. We are expected to remain awake and performing training exercises within the colony and deep freeze shelter. Vandermere is already in the process of orderly quarantine evacuation and should be completed within sixteen hours. Sergeant Quaid, you have the detail. Dismissed." With that Cooper had stepped through the open pressure door separating the bunk house with the main corridor to the operations center. Within a few moments, Dean - one of the colony artificial persons - steps away from where he was standing in the corner and followed Lieutenant Cooper back to the operations center. Beckett didn't look up as the Lt. walked into Operations with Dean, he needed to get his final review of the internal security systems finished so it can be signed off for his replacement and ignore it for the Flare period. With almost all of his repair techs down Below any faults tagged Major will require direct attention from himself, unless of course he can get the Lt. to send a couple of his techies on a jaunt. McIntyre flashed a smile at the grunt next to him, Scott Johnson, just after the Lieutenant left. "Captain Glenkov must know you've got the runs again.", McIntyre whispered rather loudly. "Now it's going to take a squad of USCMC's finest to clear the stink out of there." With a slight smirk, McIntyre then kept his mouth shut and waited for Sgt. Quaid to expound upon the details of exactly how he'd be wasting his day. Quiad heard the remark and made a mental note, filing it under j for joker. They say the world is full of smart arses and it seem McIntyre thought he was in a league of his own. "Stow it McIntyre" Quaid said amost growling the words. "Details are as follows." he said looking at the his pad. "Anderson and Marotta will be running computer diagnostics in Operations. I want all systems running on green by the end of the day" Standing quietly in the corner Pvt Lawrence watched the job assignments and waited for his. Getting up early and hitting the gym was getting boring. Anything to break the press of time until he can get out of the Corps. [Quaid] "Lawrence, you will be joing Anderson and Marotta. Make sure you listen to everything Anderson says." "Kingsly and Lutes will be crawling through the ventilation shafts" Quaid pauses looking up at the two marines "you are to make sure the system is clear of any infections or debris. You have the pleasure of starting at the lower levels and making your way to the top. Trey stopped, a thin ghostly smile crossed his face as he looked over at Johnson. "Pvt Jonhson" Trey said softly. "McIntyre has volunteered you and himself for the best job in the corps. You will be replacing damaged Solar panneling in Zero-G.Hope you were paying attention at boot gentlemen." Trey stood and watched thier recation. "Oh I had almost forgotten," Trey said with little humour "I will be joining you two ladies." he said pointing at McIntyre as his eyes burned with utmost hatred. Not for the man but at the world. "You are dismissed". McIntyre stood at attention until dismissed, not wishing to press his luck. When dismissed, he waited a second to talk to Sergeant Quaid. "Coming with us now Sarge or are you joining us later?", McIntyre asked, hoping for the latter. Quaid looked at McIntyre with mean eyes. "I'll meet you at airlock 92 in thirty minutes. I want you both to be suited up and ready to rock." Trey paused for a second then barked out the next order" Get your arses into gear marines!" McIntyre began the walk towards the environment suits and airlock. "Zero-G work isn't easy but it works muscles you don't use normally.", Felix said off handedly to Johnson as they walked. "I have the feeling we'll appreciate this later when we're stuck in the bunker. I wonder what the solar flaring is going to do to these panels after we're done." Watching the marines walk off Quaid smiled to himself. He was going to have to play it hard and keep them on thier toes. He could tell McIntyre was worried about what he had planned and so he sould be. McIntyre's tone of voice was upbeat but inside he worried a bit about what Quaid had planned. He had the suspicion that Quaid had chosen zero-g work instead of sticking him with the ventilation shafts because it was nice and quiet out there. An impromptu lesson on zero-g hand-to-hand combat from Quaid was quite possible and McIntyre had the feeling it would be intense if it happened. Johnson had been quiet up until now - as usual - "You know McIntyre, you are a real ass-hole sometimes. The last thing I wanted was to be outside during a flare period and secondly, I certainly didn't want to be around Quaid during a flare period. By the way, we will be in the usual .6G gravity here on Trinity Station. You can make your double as far jumps, but you certainly won't be weightless." The two walked along the corridor together a little while longer, "Well, that is unless I kill you first for getting me this assignment." He smiled at his compadre. Quiad turn around and followed after the Lt. He reached the door to the operations center and knocked twice. "Come in Sergeant." Cooper could be heard but not seen through the hatchway. Quaid stepped inside. There was a few steps up onto a platform in the operations center - mainly for housing and access to the computer systems and control conduits running into the room from underneath. A number of these pipelines ran through the facility linking everything from the sophisticated sensor apparatus all the way down to the latrines. Cooper turned, from whatever he was doing at one of the consoles, to face Quaid as he entered. "Sergeant Quaid..." he prompted for Quaid to get to the point. It was obvious that Cooper was under way to much stress for whatever reason. He looked at the Cooper with no emotion showing on his face. Quaid was hard to read at the best of times, but seeing the Lt. made him wonder what the hell was going wrong. Quaid stepped around the bank of consoles that monitored the security perimeter. Behind one of those consoles, Quaid noticed, sat Nate Beckett. The one person on Sygnus that Quaid liked the absolute least. Unfortunately Cooper knew of this seething rivalry all to well. For now, Trey was pleasant and very studious of the operations. He didn't want to let that bastard Beckett get the better of him on his own turf. With a final scribbled note on his pad listing the last few glitches Beckett stabs at the console logout with the back end of his pen and sits straight on his stool, arching his spine to stretch out the kinks and spotting Quaid coming in as he does. He stows his pad in the thigh pocket of his jumpsuit moved to stand as Quaid rounds the corner of the console bank he's working on. He offers the Captain a perfunctory nod in greeting and returns his attention to the Lt.; Natasha Glenkov, the commander of Trinity Station, still gets a little stuffy with him about the whole break up thing, and with Quaid about, it's just not worth the hassle of offering her an opening. "G'morning Trey" he says aloud, emphasizing his use of Quaids first name instead of his rank, but doesn't stop for a response. Instead Beckett steps past him towards the Lt. "G'morning Lt.", he continues, "the internals are pretty much in the green and secured against expected Flare EM effects. Their efficiency will be reduced slightly because of the added shielding but nothing drastic enough to shout about. I'm going to chase up a few minor glitches that have appeared since most of the repair techs went Below, if you have any spare bods I'd appreciate the help?" Quiad nodded a brief hi to Beckett. [Quaid] "Sir details have been handed out, but I am still waiting for the newbies from Gateway to arrive. I will have them report to me as soon as they arrive or would you rather the pleasure?" Quiad asked in a i don't really care tone. Cooper looked up from his pad slightly without raising his head. "Well, there won't be anybody new showing up here any time soon. The flare activity is up over 50% and any ship coming into this system will have it's sensors fried in only minutes, the crew would probably cook from the inside out and they would be coming in blind as bats - probably crash right into the planet." He looked up fully now, "No, I don't think anyone will be coming in any time soon. We've got five, maybe six months of hiding in our holes waiting for this flare activity to pass Sergeant. Looks like you're going to have to drill the old team for that time." [Cooper] "Is there anything else Sergeant?" Cooper waited for an answer. Not seeing one forthcoming, "Your dismissed." With that, Quaid turned and left to join up with McIntyre and Johnson at the air-lock. While on his way, he passed Marotta and Anderson heading towards operations. Lawrence was in tow. [Marotta] "Hey top. Is it all clear in there?" She asked with her usual voice of interest. Quaid just kept on walking past her and the others - curtly ignoring her request. "I guess that mean we get to find out for ourselves." She told Anderson. They approached the operations center to find Lieutenant Cooper and Beckett talking about details. Cooper was obviously not having a good day. [Cooper] "... you know, for a liaison officer, you really suck at it." is all that Anderson heard when she stopped the other two from entering. There was no need to enter that room with a live fire exercise going on. It would only end up putting them all on some other less respectable detail. Like cleaning the latrines. [Beckett] With an indifferent shrug Beckett lights up a cigarette and takes a short draw, "yeah, well...Quaids an asshole. Besides you'll be rid of me as soon as the Flares over so don't go pissing into the wind" He offers a cigarette to the Lt. and turns back to the job list on his notepad, "So you got a spare bod or two to give me a hand with a security sweep?" he asks, lighting up the Lts. cigarette if he takes one. [Cooper] He regarded the cigarettes with indifference - he hated when Beckette offered up smokes - Beckette knew he didn't smoke, "No, I'm sorry all of my men are on important dutues right now, and I can't spare any of them to go around fixing problems that your tech people should have had taken care of months ago. Sorry Beckette." Cooper looked back to his notepad with indifference to Beckette's request for assistance. "I'll see if I can spare a few people after 1700 hours. You should get your little group of wakeys to start the work, and we will TRY to help when we can." Cooper offered again without looking up. [Beckette] Beckette looked Cooper up and down, knowing that Glenkova was only in the other room - within clear earshot. Cooper was covering for her, and he knew it, so he decided to play along. "Ok, Lt. I will get my people on the task. I'll check back with you at 1700." Beckette turned to leave - he passed three grunts coming into the command center. He nodded and continued walking. Beckette returned to his radio head-set, "Jiminy? Do you copy?" He issued. Jiminy was the nick-name for Jimmy Finzel - his head tech man. A master of mechanical and electrical repairs, Jiminy lead the service department and was one of ten tech men slated to remain awake through the flare period to catch up on maintenance tasks around Trinity Colony. [Jimmy Finzel] "Go ahead chief. What's happening?" [Beckette] "Looks like the MC is giving us the stiff arm again. May as well get started as soon as possible on those maintenance tasks." [Jimmy Finzel] "Ok, will do." [Beckette] He climbed the flight of stairs to bring him to surface level into the motor pool of Trinity Station. He donned his e-suit which never seemed to do crap to keep him warm and climbed into his rover. Heading back to the colony - three kilometers distant - he first stopped at the entrance to one of the 'sleeper' chambers arrayed along the way. The chambers were more like underground bunkers than anything else. They were constructed much like the colony facilities were except that there were five stories below ground. Each housing 200 sleep chambers along with all of the complicated machinery and supplies to make the long stay more self sufficient. Each of the bunkers had a number of access hallways and service conduits running between them to allow for maintenance workers to access areas needing attention while in a flare period as well as allowing evacuation in case of emergency. The cost of the facility was staggering. Easily into the Billions - however the mining operations on Sygnus had paid for itself six or seven fold already. The mineral deposits on Sygnus were so rich, two colonial wars had been fought over it, and it still remained squarely in the hands of the Weyland-Yutani megacorporation. The hatchway to chamber one had been sealed by the last tech to have set the sleepers into their chambers. Nearly one thousand inhabitants fit into each subterrainian chamber, of which there were six total - not that Sygnus needed that many now, but there was sure room to grow. All but one hundred and three people would be sleeping through the flare period, which would hopefully be over long before January when he had his meal-ticket home to Earth. Double checking the status of the hatchway, Beckette climbed back into the rover and made his way to the second, then third, and finally the fourth - where Jimmy Finzel was already hard at work. The chamber was nearly full, however a few chambers still remained unoccupied. [Beckette] "Alright Jiminy, why isn't this hatch sealed and you working on some other very important task?" Beckette scorned. [Jimmy] "Hey chief - I guess there's still a couple of prospectors unaccounted for and three others from ICC that are dragging their heals for some reason. That damn ass Burke is tying everyone up over there." Jimmy explained. It was no secret that Seth Burke was the biggest butt in the Weyland-Yutani and ICC representation on Sygnus. He was the one person that everyone could do without. Unfortunately, he had a brother back on Earth that managed the tripartite colony project - Sygnus, LV-426, and DE-881. Seth and Carl Burke were like oil and water - while one was reported to be understanding, conversational, and an all around nice guy, the other was like Mr. Hide - cruel, demanding, insensitive, overbearing and downright mean. Now Seth was throwing a wrench in the works - as usual. [Beckette] "That accounts for how many people? Five?" [Jimmy] "Right." [Beckette] "Lock this chamber down as soon as everyone is confirmed and asleep. These other idiots will just have to stay awake with the rest of us. Maybe we can put them to work tightening bolts or something." [Jimmy] "Hell no! I don't want any of those pencil neck asses touching any of MY bolts!" Jimmy smiled, knowing that he could joke with Beckette. "OK chief, I'll get this dorm sleep-over closed up tight as a frog's ass in a few minutes." he smiled again and stepped inside closing the outer hatchway.