Negotiate with the Vrav

Posted on Mon Jul 6th, 2020 @ 11:48am by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Ensign Michael Sloan & Major Samuel King & Lieutenant JG Mattias Constantine & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D.

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: Day 33, Month 2, Year 0 11:00
2767 words - 5.5 OF Standard Post Measure

This was a moment that Beth thought would never come as she stood there waiting for the Vrav to arrive. They had managed to get the translator working enough after the last attack and contact to discuss that they wanted to talk. The Vrav and Atlantis could not keep going on this, it would destroy them both eventually. Beth would never let that happen to her crew and why she had chosen this planet in the middle of no where to have a face to face conversation.

Looming just behind and to the left of Commander Leroux, Mattias held the delicately cobbled together translator as he shifted his weight back ever so slightly from left to right - an outwardly visible sign of the surge of anxiety that came from knowing that they were about to meet with their attackers face to face. The constant bombardment from the Vrav took a heavy, tangible toll on the ship, but it was also wearing down the psyche of the crew. Knowing that danger was constantly lurking behind them was no way to live, and so Constantine stepped forward and volunteered to be a member of the delegation meeting the Vrav. He, of all people, knew the importance of nonverbal communication in a negotiation, so he fought against his trepidation and managed to anchor himself to the floor. He became an immovable object, a constant in the permutating variables swirling around.

At least, that was his hope.

Samuel had chosen to be part of this sitting with the Vrav because he knew its importance. Where as he would never back away from a fight he knew when it was wise to come to the table and talk. He never sought out a fight, war or anything like that but he was at home in that arena, if there was a peaceful end to this he would like to see it also. The crew were not as accustomed to this as he would have been, and most certainly the ship would not last forever. Sam also wanted to protect the Commander, he felt the need to do this for all the crew as they had came together more during this than he thought he would. His protective streak was legendary amongst his own people, now it was time to spread that to others.

The conditions of the planet may not be ideal, they're good enough to sustain life in the future and hold this attempt at a meeting. Unfortunately, it had yet to do so, but the future of the planet was very promising. If nothing else, it would be perfect as a new home for an advanced species but neither the Atlantis Crew or Vrav. Beth wrapped her jacket around herself more and put her hood up against the chilling wind.

"F-----' freezing here," Constantine muttered to himself. Holding the translator in the crook of his elbow, Matt held his hands to his face and exhaled, using his breath to gain as much warmth as he could. He laughed at the contrast to where he was twenty four hours prior. The communications center's proximity to engineering and the main computer core meant that a lot of heat radiated through the room. With the team hard at work making the final tweaks to the Vrav translator, the environmental system failed, making their workplace insufferably hot. As he and the others waited for the Vrav to show, Matt passed the time by determining which extreme he preferred between hot and cold, eventually arriving at the conclusion that neither suited him.

"You think they stood us up?" Constantine wondered aloud.

The past few days had been insanity for Avira and now that she stood on this frozen rock she was reminded of her home planet and had wondered if it had been a good idea to have ever left it. She knew the dangers that space travel brought and had embraced it. Flying into the unknown, surrounded by people alien to her, and where she was alien. It was weird. The planet they were on seemed to centre her a lot more than the vessel could. Her antennae twitched in the direction of the humans shivering through the cold, not having so much as a goosebump on her, she decided not to comment on it and keep to the back of the group. The air was refreshing to her. Her antennae then twitched in another direction as they picked up something outside of their circle of officers.

From the side of the clearing opposite the Atlantis crew, the Vrav delegation made their way into the meeting place. The two delegates were flanked by slightly larger Vrav, who had to be the security detail. They were all dressed in purple robes with varying degrees of decoration. The lead Vrav spoke up with the universal translator struggling slightly, "You who come from afar, who have taken so much from us. Why does the prey beg the hunter to stop?"

Beth had never seen the Vrav up close for all the attacking and anger that they directed at them they were elegant species, far more than the view screen or descriptions from the crew who had met them allowed. "Because this does neither of us any good. We are both heading towards losing." Beth said simply. They must have limited resources just like them.

Upon their entrance, Sam had placed his hand over his weapon. Not aggressively but as a precaution to the situation. He watched the Vrav, listened to them and then Beth and of course she was right. She was a strong, intelligent woman that he'd came to somewhat admire of late but his eyes were on those across from them. His focus on keeping the team safe whilst on the ground.

TAG REACTION TO VRAV

"We who are already doomed have already lost," the lead Vrav spoke. "What good can the destroyer of the Vrav make that would bring us back from losing?" The Universal Translator still struggles a bit with the finer meaning of the words, but the tone did not need to be translated. The Vrav were in a desperate situation, their entire food supply had bee devastated and they would soon run out of the food supplies on their ships. For now, they were not fighting to win. They were fighting to avenge the downfall of the last Vrav clan.

"We have been trying to make something that can replace what we took and we have been using our scanners to find you a new planet." Beth explained seeing the venom in the being's voice. She knew they were losing but they wanted to take them with them into that darkness. Beth would fight tooth and nail to make sure that did not happen when she had some of the smartest minds in the universe at her disposal.

At first, the Vrav didn't appear to react to Commander Leroux's declaration at all, at least not audibly. Their ornate clothing hid all but the most deliberate movements, leaving the patchwork algorithm extracted from the Vrav translator by the Atlantis's team as their main form of communication. Lieutenant Constantine watched the display of the Universal Translator carefully while mirroring the body language, or lack thereof, displayed by the other party in the tried and tested negotiating style his father had taught him. He stood shoulder to shoulder with Major King, quietly observing the proceedings, but then the U.T. chirped, forcing him to break formation.

"Commander, an urgent message from the ship," Mattias bluffed as he stepped forward, suppressing the outgoing translation function after he spoke. During the preparation process, he had chosen to have the translator display any detected communications outside of the normal human hearing range via text only. The less the Vrav knew about how much the crew of the Atlantis had learned about their language, the better. The thought was that it could even give them the edge in the negotiation.

"A spike of ultrasonic communication," Constantine warned quietly, handing Commander Leroux the transcript. "I don't think they intended to negotiate in good faith."

Avira looked over at Constantine and the commander, that at least explained why she had felt a bit uneasy around the Vrav, their ultrasonic communication triggered something in her, she hadn't been quite able to place it and had ascribed it to the weather on the planet or something in the air.

Beth looked through the transcripts and sighed. She had feared that this would be another dead end, all they needed was time to try and fix this error but the species were so blinded by hate for them it was impossible. "I see." She answered glancing at the nearest Vrav trying to understand the hatred that was coming from them.

"Might I suggest a tactical withdrawal ma'am?" Sam asked quietly. "The lack of movement from them is unnerving. Most of the time such an act in itself shows intent."

"I concur," Beth said just as the Vrav realised that they knew they had been discovered for biding their time. It was futile to keep playing these games when Atlantis and her crew just wanted to help them. Beth took the device from Mattias and frowned as she activated it so they could hear her words. "We are trying to help you. Repay what we did in error and you will not let us." She said.

No sooner had Commander Leroux finished her sentence than each of the Vrav began to emit a shrill, ear-splitting noise that required no translation. Having been relieved of carrying the U.T., Constantine covered his ears with both hands, wincing at the un-welcomed sonic attack instigated against them. He had agreed with his commanding officer's decision to attempt to come to a diplomatic solution, but despite toiling long hours to ensure the translator was serviceable, he hadn't placed much hope in a successful outcome. Now, it seemed as if those ambitions were nothing more than a pipe dream.

"Orders, commander?" Matt managed after recovering from the initial shock of the noise.

Every movement suddenly sent waves of throbbing pain through her head but mostly her ears making the Officer in Charge cover her ears. It was exhausting and she felt sick with the sensation, but there seemed to be nothing they could do about it. She desired relief no matter what form it came in and she knew the other people around her felt the same. It was an awful feeling and Beth hated backing down.

“Move. Lets go.” Beth ordered. There was no point staying there is there were no words being said. She shoved the translator inside her jacket pocket as the Marines started to cover the retreat despite the ringing sensation they must be having themselves.

The world around her, that had been so pleasant to her Andorian senses moments before, had started to swirl around Avira. She couldn't express it, her mouth opened a couple of times, like a fish on dry land. She heard some sounds coming from the commander, and movement. Trying to move she lost her footing and got overwhelmed by the unhearable sounds washing over the environment. She hit the floor, and she shivered, hands over her head, trying to block out the feeling. Pulling her legs closer to her chest to try and protect herself from whatever was happening. She felt her stomach turn and struggled to keep her food inside.

"Doctor! Get up! Doctor! Doctor?" Constantine saw Avira fall to the ground out of the corner of his eye. For a brief moment of horror, he wondered if she had been hit by some sort of projectile or weapon from the Vrav delegation, but he realized that the sonic bombardment they were suffering must have affected the Andorian doctor to a greater extent. By the time he arrived at her side, Avira had already contracted into the fetal position, which left him very few options.

"I'm going to carry you out of here until we're safe, okay?" Either there was no response, or the ear splitting noise obstructed her response, but the end result was the same. "Up we go, ready? One, two, three!" Given her positioning, Constantine opted to cradle carry the doctor away from the area and towards the shuttle pod, vaguely aware of the MACOs flanking and protecting them from any unexpected surprises. Thankfully, the noise began to fade as the distance between them and the Vrav increased.

"Are you ready to walk, doctor?" Lieutenant Constantine asked after having felt a shift in the weight in his arms.

The residual grogginess combined with the sudden realisation that she was not on the ground made Avira's head spin and the food she'd been holding down surged up, onto the chest of whoever it had been that had been unlucky enough to pick her up. She couldn't act fast enough to turn her head away, or to warn him. She put her hand on his shoulder, "Sorry, I think I can manage."

Lieutenant Constantine didn't respond for a moment, grimacing as the heat rising off of the semi-digested algae now decorating the front of his uniform wafted a rather unpleasant odor up his nose. He held his breath and waited until he felt the Andorian doctor stabilize on her own feet before letting go of her, turning his head to the side to breathe in the cold, crisp air. Left with little choice other than to try and scrape off as much of the vomit as possible, he brush aside the majority of it with the sleeve of his uniform before falling in line with the rest of the team.

The shrill sounds sent a fire through his head that caused him to fall to one knee. Sam mustered his strength to keep an eye on the Vrav ahead of them and raised his rifle as he moved in front of Beth just in case weapons fire began. He noticed MACO's feeling the same effects, the crew feeling the same effects and he signalled the MACOs to form a protective envelope around the away team. Sam had moved to the head of the group and opened fire at the Vrav purposefully missing them and hitting the ground in front of them to catch their attention.

Beth said nothing as she was pretty much hustled towards the shuttlepod called Odysseus. The Doctor or Mattias needed no comment on what has happened they just needed to get out of there and get back to ship. This had nodded ended well and would now only get worse in her opinion. They both knew where the other stood and neither of them could carry on like this.

Ducking his head as he stepped through the hatch, Matt quickly took his seat and shed his jacket as quickly as he could now that he was shielded from the elements. Turning it inside out, he rolled the garment into a ball and wedged it in place underneath his seat. Normally, the prospect of atmospheric flight would have produced more anxiety in the Atlantis's communications officer, but the sheer relief of escaping the noise and getting out of his soiled jacket balanced things out. Constantine closed his eyes and waited as the engines spooled up to take them back to the ship.

The group was retreating towards the shuttle as Sam kept his eyes on the Vrav in front. Oddly they made no move forward seemingly accepting the backing off of the away team. Their watchful eyes no doubt concocting a plan to get back at them later, if not one already in motion. Sam's back was to the shuttle as they entered, the effects of the noise subsiding thankfully. He made a sigh of relief as no-one had been injured apart from maybe a sore head from the effects of the Vrav but he spared a moment of thought on a what-if. What if the Vrav had attacked more physically?

"Can I request we not do that again, please?" Avira sat down in one of the seats and leaned forward, arms on her knees, taking in sharp breaths through her nose, exhaling loudly through her mouth. The taste of the regurgitated algae still in the back of her throat.

OFF::

Lieutenant JG Mattias Constantine
Chief Communications Officer
NX Atlantis

Commander Bethsabée Leroux
Officer In Charge
NX Atlantis

Major Samuel King
MACO Commanding Officer
NX Atlantis

Doctor Avira zh'Kenarh, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
NX Atlantis