[240104.05 Ancient ch`Rihan...Battle preparations...]
The Rihannsu crew members, a collection of scientists and Tal`Shiar soldiers, along with a miscellaneous able-bodied gathering of villagers, all head towards their target; Rhagarokk marching along his troops, Vyynd swiftly walking alongside the Leih. D`Tarik is running around the ranks as they march, carrying a small bag full of hyposprays in his hand. Nobody takes him up on his offering of what DT only describes as his 'neat stuff'. Tacrun is marching a bit behind the others.
Rhagarokk takes a moment to check in on Rylan's platoon as DT runs up along side Vyynd and the Leih, "Guys!" he interrupts, holding up the bag slightly, "Au need to try this stuff! I made it so we would all fight better!"
After receiving a stat-report from the other Platoon, Rhagarokk looks at the bag DT held and questioned, "What is it?"
The Doctor reaches into the bag, and pulls out one of the hyposprays contained within, "Oh, I've been working on it since I found out we were going to have to do hand-to-hand combat with this attack. I would've preferred this fight to be easier by us using a virus of some kind...but na-body liked that idea." he explains, pouting in a very DT kind of way.
Vyynd looks cockeyed at the scientist, "I doubt we'll need something of the sort against ancient peasants?"
"I sure hope na..." the Leih shakes his head, "The modifications I made to the personal shielding devices should suffice." he pauses only slightly, then adds, "Oh ie, I need to set out some ground rules..."
"Ie," Vyynd complies, "I was just going to ask on our limitations...?"
Meanwhile D`Tarik, seemingly oblivious to the pair's conversation, keeps explaining. "See, I inject this into ninte bloodstream, and it enhances ninte adrenal glands...which will get pumped throughout ninte body, causing au to fight more efficiently, making au stronger, faster, impervious to pain....and basically just a better fighter." he nods to himself. Having heard this last, Vyynd glances around. With his face glazing over, the agent looks to Rhagarokk with a 'Who asked?' sort of expression. The silence seemed to stretch out, and DT shrugs as he turns to head off again, "Well, if au guys are na interested...I'm sure some-io is!" he says as he heads back to the end of the line to ask everyone all over again.
Grabbing D`Tarik by the collar before the boy could leave again, Rhagarokk says, "Hang on a sec..." then calls out to the crew around him, "Okay, general ground rules.... na energy weapons, na modifying the natives, and especially na leaving history books in the hands of people from the past!"
"Na modifying the natives...." D`Tarik sighs and pulls the hypospray away from the neck of a young villager man he was about to inject, while Tacrun hides sheepishly at the end of the line, hoping the Leih's last part wasn't directed at him.
Rhagarokk glances around to them all, and shakes his head, "I swear, it's like baby sitting sometimes...." Reaching into his coat, he pulls out an elaborate looking weapon, "Now, let's go!"
"Hey!" D`Tarik says almost indignantly, "I thought au said na energy weapons!" then adds quickly, remembering himself, "I mean...um..rekkhai? Are au na breaking io of ninte own rules...?"
The Leih hefts up the weapon in question and defends himself with, "It's na an energy weapon, it causes atomic reactions...." then relents as his own words reach his ears, "Oh, very well...." he mumbles, putting the weapon away.
A few moments later, and D`Tarik's mind is back on its one track. "Is everybody sure au don't want an injection of this?" he asks those around him, "It will make au fight better I tells au!" he holds up the bag with that famous crazy look in his eye. Rhagarokk only shakes his head in response. Vyynd prepares himself for the battle to come by unholstering his carbine pistol, and unsheathing his katana with the other hand. Tacrun marches forward, trips, and stumbles up to D`Tarik. The smaller medical officer declares suddenly, "I'm ready for battle!!" as the silver foot-long barbed horn pops out of his head.
[A while later....]
Time passes, and as the platoon comes within eyesight over a hill of a set of mines that contained the minerals the crew needed to get back to their own time, Rhagarokk waves to bring his army to a halt. Mostly workers are present at the mines, but there are some obvious soldiers. As D`Tarik came to a halt and awaited the signal to go forward, he puts the bag in one of his lab coat pockets, but leaves one hypospray in his hand.
"Rekkhai..." Vyynd states, coming to a halt at the front of the troops, "Shall I have the soldiers snipered?"
The Leih pulls out binoculars and examines the targets in question. "Ie....actually, hang on a second..." he lowers the binoculars and takes out his multicorder.
Vyynd motions two of the snipers within the unit into position, then grabs his own sniper carbine rifle from an officer behind him, and takes position himself, waiting for the order to fire.
Rhagarokk studies his multicorder a moment more, checking the readings. "There's more there than appears...." Intrigued by this statement, D`Tarik takes out his own multicorder and taps his horn in thought as he scans the area ahead as well. Rhagarokk looks up and towards the mines ahead, "I'd bet a lot of those workers have weapons nearby, and there are men in the trees... We're expected."
"How could we be, rekkhai?" D`Tarik questions, looking up from his own multicorder.
"Scouts more then likely." the Leih answers in dismissal of it, "Well, everybody get ready...call off the snipers, we might as well charge..."
D`Tarik takes a few steps back, positioning himself at the end of the line, as Vyynd orders the snipers down, and hands his rifle back, pulling out his other weapons once more. "Ready, rekkhai..." the Agent informs. Near the back, Tacrun gulps in nervousness, and prepares himself.
"Alright then...." The Leih draws an ordinary kaleh, "CHARGE!!!!!" then runs at the mines. Vyynd charges, raging at the front of the lines towards the enemies camp. Rhagarokk dices right into a soldier, and shortly afterwards, a bunch of soldiers jump down from the trees and begin to attack the Morrhae`Vnu's crew.
Vyynd glides through the chaotic battlefield, shooting peasants there, dicing peasants here; as Tacrun barely manages to fight off some soldiers that ambushed him. Breathing heavy, the historian engineer grumbles to himself, "If I make it through this...I swear I'll get more training in..."
As the combat rages on and people are being wounded, D`Tarik looks around himself, shaking his head. "Time for some action!" he says to himself, and injects his 'neat stuff' into his system. D`Tarik's head twitches a bit, but nothing happens right off. But when the effects of the serum kick in...they kick in big!
The Doctor's arms suddenly grow much larger, ripping his shirt and his coat. His head gets bigger, and his pointed ears become monsterish looking, as his skin changes to the awesome hue of pale purple. His body grows until D`Tarik now stands at almost eight feet tall. He stands with his upper body hunched over, the massive arms almost trailing on the ground. The horn on his head is the only thing that seems to remain the same size, giving the hulking monstrosity an almost comical appearance. Breathing heavily, the DT-Monster suddenly exclaims, "ARGH!! D`Tarik smash!!" Looking about ready to charge, the monstrosity's rage-filled eyes fall on a nearby enemy soldier.
The poor enemy soldier who had been charging toward the Doctor while he had looked normal, had suddenly screeched to a halt, his eyes growing wide, as he saw the transformation take place. Looking up at D`Tarik's monster-face, the native suddenly drops the kaleh he had been about to attack with. "AHHHHH!!! *Aehallh!!!!" the enemy soldier screams and runs away. < *Monster/ghost/illusion >
But instead of smashing into the enemy soldiers, the hulking D`Tarik just starts going from injured crew member to injured Villager, doing his ordinary job as Chief Medical officer; carrying his medkit by his side...which is way too small for his now over-sized hands. From somewhere around him, a random scream of "AAAAHHH!! He's using advanced Medical techniques!!" is heard, but as the owner of the scream had apparently run away, DT wasn't sure if it was an enemy or one of his own that had said it.
Going back to the tasks at hand, DT grunts a bit, talking in a low and growling voice, "Oh, me do good job..." then clears his throat and coughs something up, "HACK!! HUM!! Oh...much better..." he says in his normal, everyday voice and begins to get to work. Spying an injured enemy soldier, DT approaches and tries to help the poor man because he feels he has too. Trying to make a brace for the man's neck, he ends up squishing the man's head like an over-ripe grape. "Ooops...." The remorse is extremely short lived as the serum in his body continues to kick in, and DT just pushes the man's limp body - now with missing head - to the side with a foot, and goes off to search for more people to 'heal'.
Meanwhile, an enemy soldier comes in for a strike at Rhagarokk with an elaborate looking axe, but the blow is stopped by the energy screen around the Leih. Making his way over to Tacrun, killing people along the way, Donalh asks in an almost casual tone, "Gathering historical data?"
Ducking a few shots from the enemy, Tacrun answers a little breathlessly, "Umm...Ie, rekkhai. We are making history as we speak!"
"Ie," Rhagarokk deflects a sword strike casually, "But it must be exciting to actually see what the ancient people used as weapons, and how they fought. And more importantly, " he adds, as he stabs someone and they slide off the blade of his kaleh to lay in a heap on the ground, "how they die."
"Ie.." Tacrun answers. Taking another soldier down, he admits "But I'd much rather observe this from a distance..." Vyynd meanwhile, had been rampaging madly through the lines of the enemy, slaying anyone in his path not on their side. D`Tarik, who had been healing the injured of the troops on the battlefield, is now running after a group of friendly villagers calling out after them, "I just wanna help! Come back! I'm na going to hurt au!!"
After a time more of war, the ground of ancient ch`Rihan thick with the green-blood of the slain, the battle starts to slowly wind down. Frustrated, the hulking mass of D`Tarik runs up to the Leih, "Rekkhai...I would be healing more, but we're winning...and the hurt villagers are running away...." he turns to look at the ones in question who were heading back from where the troop had come from. DT scratches his horn, "What should I do?"
Another rebellious-shot of enemy fire bounces harmlessly off the Leih as he answers, "Let them go, DT...I'm sure they have healers of their own..."
"Hmm..." DT nods as a man comes charging at the monstrosity, swinging a sword wildly. In response, D`Tarik holds up his hand, and flicks the man away as if he was no more than an annoying insect, sending the soldier flying. "I dislike doing that...." he grumbles to himself.
Vyynd chases a native down, shooting him to stop him from going farther, then finishes the job by impaling him with his katana. "Aaaahhhh, any-io else?!" the Agent looks around himself. Not finding another willing to challenge him, he walks over the Leih.
Soon after, the more rebellious of the enemy-natives are dispensed with, and the battle is finished, the surviving stragglers are rounded up. Before too long, Rylan's company comes over another ridge, the RS grinning and covered in the blood of the slain, the platoon victorious from their own minor battle. The Leih walks over to the prisoners of war, with the other senior officers nearby.
As the troop await further orders, D`Tarik stands as straight and at attention as his hulking eight-foot tall form would allow. "Hmm..." he says to any-io who would listen, "This should've worn off by now..." he looks down at himself.
"Alright," Rhagarokk begins, "These men need to be interrogated..." he looks from DT the Hulking Monster, to the Agent of Death Vyynd, to...the Historian. "Any volunteers?"
Vyynd steps forward, "I`ll interrogate them..." he looks around at the assembled prisoners and adds, "A few. If the others would like to also..."
Tacrun scratches his head, and says quietly, "Rekkhai, I'd like this chance to tal...I mean...Interrogate them."
"I will!" DT starts to jump up and down in a child-like kind of excitement. Rhagarokk steps a bit back from this, and watches. "If au do it Vyynd," DT continues, "They won't survive this..."
"D`Tarik...." Vyynd looks up at the purple monster, "Do au have a...ummm, cure for that? Or...a way back to normal?"
"Oh, that's right!" D`Tarik slaps his forehead, not feeling the still-protruding horn, "I need the anti-serum...." then finishes almost sheepishly, "Which I left on the ship. Where would I be without au Vyynd!" he goes to slap the boy on the back in thanks, not realizing that a gentle slap from him would probably hurt a good bit.
Vyynd steps forward, walking away from the slow-hulk's hand, and towards the prisoners as Rhagarokk gestures the boys over towards them with, "Whoever, just talk to them and get them to talk about... their operation and such." Tacrun follows the agent, walking closer to the pows.
"Okay..." D`Tarik agrees, also approaching closer to the prisoners. He towers over one of the younger boys standing in the group of prisoners. The boy's face turns a pale shade of grey, his eyes wild, and looking almost out of his mind as the monster suddenly exclaims, "Wait! I have truth serum!"
"Eep!" the young boy croaks out before his eyes roll back to expose the whites, and he collapses in an unconscious heap.
Looking down at the boy who passed out, D`Tarik muses to himself, "Hmm...I guess I should've seen that coming...."
Tacrun heads closer to DT and asks, "May I have a bit of that truth serum au mentioned, rekkhai?"
Vyynd meanwhile got right down to business. Stepping up to one of the men, he glares at him, "Jolan`tru..."
"Au had better let us go, wort-a!"
Looking over at the man who insulted them all, DT yelled, "Be nicer to us, and we will be nice to au!" he points a large, purple finger his way.
"It does na matter." the soldier said in dismissal of the monster, "Lord Gilligama will use his super weapon on au all, and then it will be all over for au!" he spits at the Agent's feet
Vyynd raises a brow at the offensive soldier, "Ie? Let au go? Really? Super weapon?" he says, making a list of details in his head. Kneeling in front of the man, he questions, "*What* super weapon?"
And as Vyynd goes on to extract the information from the soldier, the words of the engineer's previous question suddenly catch up to D`Tarik, "Oh, truth serum...ie..hold on...." he tries to get the hypo for the Erien, but can't. "Umm...my hands are a bit big. Au may have to go into my pocket, I don't wanna rip my jacket...this is my favorite! It's number 45-F!"
Hesitant to stick his hands into any of the many pockets of DT's coat, Tacrun answered, "Uhh... doesn't look like we need it now." then adds after another round of the soldier's screams had died down, "Vyynd seems to have it all under control..."
The soldier, after sufficient 'encouragement', explains the Gilligama's "super weapon". From the description, it's apparently a warp core. He later, under much more 'encouragement', further goes on to give the location of the super weapon. "Ie, good then......" Vyynd ends the 'conversation' and turns to report to the Leih, "What of the prisoners now?"
Motioning as if it is of no consequence as he busies himself with scanning the vicinity, Rhagarokk answers, "Get them out of here." Vyynd bows, then relays the orders to some other officers, as DT stands there quietly, tapping on his horn in thought.
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