Overkill

Posted on Mon Jun 2nd, 2025 @ 10:14am by Staff Sergeant Nathanial "Nate" Cusack & Warrant Officer Iryna Voznyuk

Mission: Remnant
Location: Ruined Temple of Wang
Timeline: 409
2875 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Iryna grinned to herself as she took point as the pair walked back the way Ensign Mourne and Darru had come from the temple. The MACO wanted to see what McManus had been laughing about and why Mourne kept talking about statues and her friend.

“Come on, I wanna see what everyone is laughing about. And the Captain has promised to stay at Camp.” The Captain and Iryna had an understanding that she was going to stay there to allow the MACO’s to have a proper look around. If she broke that promise Iryna would stick like glue to her and sleep outside her tent for the rest of them being on the surface.

In a better mood, Cusack likely would have had more to say himself about the purported presence of a subterranean sex dungeon in the area. Currently, he was more inclined towards a cynical expectation of disappointment, given that nothing they'd unearthed of the previous civilisation so far gave any hope that the original inhabitants had possessed a single creative braincell. He was in decent company, at least, without the compromise of having to maintain standards in front of an audience. Raising his eyebrows at her, he remarked, "Do I need to be worried? Half a rumour of gigantic dongs and you're abandoning post."

“The Captain promised to stay at the camp and you think I would let you come to a fertility temple without me.” She teased shining her torch just over his shoulder so she did not blind him as she turned around. “And I bet they aren’t even impressive. I have most likely seen better.” She added turning back to carry on down the path.

"That so?" Despite himself, Nate raised his eyebrows in amusement at the back of her head. "Kind of an awkward thing to be a connoisseur of, don't you think?" For the most part, it had generally been best to avoid discussing their previous dalliances in too much detail. Their relationship had been kickstarted, after all, by Cusack's misguided attempts to stick up for a previous fling and you didn't have to know the man well to guess his lack of expected tact when dealing with perceived competition. Even a bunch of statues falling into disrepair weren't guaranteed safety.

Iryna grinned at the amusement she could hear from Nate. She just wanted to see what was funny and then she would go back to the Captain and both of them would pretend as soon as things were okay that neither had let the other out of their sights. “Are we judging each other right now?” She wondered as she held her torch higher so they had a clearer path.

"What's to judge? Pretty sure I've seen bigger, too." Even without looking at him, it wasn't difficult to imagine the smirk Nate wore. "Though if this is any kind of equal-opportunity ancient pornography establishment, there'd better be some decent tits on show." The whole thing was weird, being confronted by the potential of a bunch of randy aliens had added an element of the absurd into their apparent disappearance.

"Exactly. So we do not judge." Iryna found herself laughing. She had many quips she could throw his way, but thought better of it when he looked like he was not at all happy with her antics. The woman stepped out and let out a whoosh of surprise as the tunnel opened up into a large open chamber. "Well, this is certainly huge." She said seeing the first statue.

Nate wasn't sure what he'd expected. Not only had he missed the recovery team's banter, having only heard about the place from Iryna just prior to her dragging him into a pit, Nate hadn't really taken the time to come up with his own theories about the original inhabitants and their potential appearance. The structures they'd found were pretty standard in size, which couldn't be said for the monstrosity positioned to stare down anyone arriving in the chamber from that particular passageway. A quick glance around allowed him to clock several other statues posed in likewise fashion towards other exits.

An incredulous frown creased his expression.

"Over-compensating much."

Iryna found herself looking at Nate more than around them and burst into unexpected laughter that she could not stop for a moment. It took several long moments and her own will power for her to stop laughing and stand up properly. "Oh, so much overcompensating. You would never do that, Nate." She grinned at him.

It was Nate's turn to shine his torch upwards, just briefly, in retaliatory protest to the implication. "Carving out huge chunks of stone so I can immortalise my goods for future generations to admire? It's a thought. Not currently a reality though." Goaded at least into the playful banter more reminiscent of his usual mood, he stepped into her personal space and raised his eyebrows as he adjusted the torch to illuminate his face from beneath his chin. "You saying you want to put me on display?"

Iryna blinked as he stepped into her space and grinned. "You always put on a display, Staff Sergeant." She teased as she leaned out with her free hand and ran her thumb over his eyebrow. "I am sure your displays will go down in Atlantis records." She added not at all mocking or anything, he might think himself not worth remembering but she had no doubt that not one member of the crew would be forgotten.

He could have argued semantics. Putting on his own displays was a little different to being shoved in a trophy cabinet for others to gawp at. But, though he was arguably in the right state of mind to be intentionally belligerent, Nate had to admit it was hard to concentrate on holding his own side of a pointless argument when he was being side-eyed by representatives of the intergalactic karma sutra. Giving the statue directly ahead a quick up-and-down, the medic scowled and shook his head as he slowly approached it.

"I dunno, Pablo. You dragged all this stone down here, could at least have got them to embellish a bit." He stopped just short of the impressively disproportionate genitalia, which he figured he'd just about be able to swing from if he jumped up and grabbed hold.

Iryna smiled as she decided to move further into the cavern and start looking at things differently. She closed her eyes and just listened to the sounds, trying for a moment to put herself in someone else's shoes as if she could understand what had happened and why they had created this complex. "I am going to head in that direction." She said pointing further in.

Left to his own devices for a minute, Nate's expression darkened to a less impressed glare, the appeal of making fun of his granite friend waning to such an extent that the familiar creep of frustration and anger found its way back to the surface. It was an idiot waste of materials, a pointless flex as far as Nate could tell, to immortalise your junk, for what? A bunch of bats to admire? With a scoff, he shook his head and turned away to glance in the direction Iryna had taken before moving off to take a peek down the corridor that lead in the opposite direction.

When she did not get any acknowledgement she rolled her eyes and went further down the path laughing to herself as she found poor naked bodies than she had ever seen in her life. She ran her hand along the corridor smiling that she was walking the way others had previously. “Nate?!” Iryna called as she got to the end of the corridor and shoved against a door but it did not budge.

It was gone in an instant, smothered behind an incredulous frown that immediately questioned why she was smacking up against a stone slab, but the speed with which Cusack had doubled-back and arrived, weapon drawn, did a far too adequate job of calling out his overreaction, especially under the shrewd gaze of someone who never let him get away with anything. Rather than deny his concern outright, Nate deflected it by leaning forward and rapping his knuckles against the door. "Will you look at that, I guess nobody's home."

"That was quite sexy, the way you rounded that corner gun ready." Iryna flirted as she pushed against the stone slab again, and it only budged a little bit. "Come on help me." She begged knowing he would help her once he had made her suffer a little bit.

"Well, you were hollering loud enough to wake the dead. Who," Nate added, gesturing with his head for her to shift over and give him room, "might actually be down here somewhere for all we know." Turned towards her, leaning his weight on his shoulder in preparation, Nate raised his eyebrows. "Why exactly do we want to go in here?"

"Not seen any signs of the dead anywhere, and if we find something in there more the better, so we can have some answers," Iryna commented, shifted over, still smiling at the way he had rounded the corner all ready to fight for her. She had seen him do it many times but there and then it struck her hard and made her smile as it was not the same as before.

Only Iryna, Nate decided, could answer a question in a way that made it sound like she was providing a reason when, in fact, you wound up just as clueless regarding her motives as you were to begin with. He was used to it, would possibly even admit to finding it attractive sometimes, but he had let himself grow frustrated with her too many times in the past to avoid rolling his eyes now. "The search for 'important stuff', got it." With a grunt, he leaned his weight against the slab, grimacing at the strain until he felt it budge, just a little. "Be ten times easier if we'd bought breaching charges. Didn't think to shove any in my pocket."

"It would be easier to blow up, or could I help?" She offered as she slid into the space next to him and leaned her weight against it to and grinned as between them both the door started slowly moving forward until there was enough space for them to get into the room. "Well..." The woman stated as the room beyond was nothing like she imagine at all. "I think this might be a church." She realised as she started to shine her torch around.

"Wonderful," Nate muttered, adding his torch beam to the search. "Stinks like a swamp." The more practical observation accompanied the acknowledgement of a faint trickle of water, which wasn't much of a surprise given the various attempts made by the surface to erode and infiltrate what remained of the subterranean haven. Angling his light down, Nate scanned the floor directly in front of them and let it hover over a damp patch of moss scattered with fungi. "Workplace Standards really needs to take a look at this place."

Iryna laughed as she started along what once upon a time might have been an aisle, but it was eroded with time much time most of the space. "This looks like the..." She paused, trying to think of the word in standard for a moment. "altar... high altar." She said, stepping up onto it as he was low enough for her to sit on. "Oh god... this is a high altar bed." She realised laughing as she realised with all the penis' and the fertility themes that this was likely what this whole place was a temple to help with fertility.

The look of disgruntled incredulity on Nate's face had returned, the frozen snarl of a man who didn't know whether he felt sorry for the bastards who'd made the place or unnerved by the increasing likelihood of uncovering even worse paraphernalia. "Have we satiated our curiosity enough yet?" Once again, he flashed his torchlight into each corner. "Not the only thing got satiated in here."

It took a faint scrabbling in the dark to jerk the beam of light to the left, immediately focused on a pile of rubble and debris before flicking around the floor either side. There had never been anything wrong with Cusack's reflexes, though it had only been a matter of minutes since he'd last drawn his weapon without feasible provocation. Given the dynamics of the location, the phaser on his belt would have been a much better choice than the rifle currently pointed at the source of the noise.

Iryna stood up hearing the noise too. She grabbed her phaser rather than rifle as it was easier for her but she backed up slowly to where Nate stood. Her torch joined where his was but she could not see anything. “I think I have satiated my curiosity.” She whispered not at all delving into his other comments but she would discuss it more with the scientists.

As much as constant reluctance had been his entire contribution to the venture so far, Nate made no immediate attempt to leave. It was a silent stubbornness, an insistence without spoken confirmation that he be the last out of the space, and may actually have proven to be an amusing bout of over-protectiveness if another scuttle closer to his foot didn't activate his 'fuck this' proximity alert. There was a screech, truncated by the connection of boot to sinew, and before the mound of scraggly, matted fur had even completed its soaring arc, two out of three swift shots fired found their mark.

What remained of the rodent landed with a wet thud, spared only a fraction of a second to ensure it wasn't getting up again before Nate turned his focus to the corner it had come from. Staring down the sight of his rifle, his features twitched with barely concealed fury before he frantically descended on the rubble to commence an arbitrary inspection of anything that looked like he could push it aside with his foot.

Iryna looked in amazement as her boyfriend kicked what could only be described as a rodent flee through the air and it was shot as well. She raised around to see if anymore were coming. “You good?” She checked seeing the look on his face. It meant she was going to have to tread very carefully for a little bit or she was going to poke at a bear who was grumpy enough.

"We're done here."

A parting shove with the heel of his boot saw Nate send half the stack of rocks scattering across the stone floor. It was an unnecessary threat response, his mood not improved any by the fact that he was very aware he had obviously applied undue force without reasonable provocation. He was less impressed by the sense of mistrust that had goaded the reaction, the deep sense of uncertainty and loss of control that would have made kicking the whole place down feel marginally satisfying had it not come with the risk of being skewered by a dead man's boast. He was wrong, a position Nate Cusack hated, and to make matters worse, he'd missed a shot.

Turning, he squeezed past to make his way towards the exit and muttered, "Or at least, I am. Screw this place."

The woman rolled her eyes and followed after him. She hated not knowing how to approach things with her fellow MACO. He would be kicking himself and she did not need or want to add to his problems. “Want to talk about there?” She wondered.

There was maturity in the silence if you knew what you were looking for. At the very least, there was restraint, which had never been Cusack's strength. The first moments were lost to the adrenaline of retreat, the storming march of a man trying to outrun his own emotions before he tried to punt kick them into his own bullets as well. By the time he reached the end of the passageway that lead back to the main chamber, Nate had mustered the presence of mind to turn to the side and wait for Iryna to exit first, the initial inkling of a thought outside his own anger. He was avoiding eye contact, but that was hardly surprising; it was still a little too soon for sheepishness to settle in.

“I’ll take that as no you do not want to chat.” Iryna said softly as she leaned up and touched his cheek for moment before kissing him. “When you do want to talk, Nate, you know where I am.” She said knowing it might be for the best to leave him to his own devices just for a little bit.

In the poor light, anyone else might have missed it, but though his gaze didn't meet hers, there was a moment just before he moved to lead the way out where Nate's head jerked in acknowledgement. Not quite a promise, but in his case, about as close as it would ever get.