> <[ Greetings from home and clan, Vice Admiral. I am Major (OOC: I
have no idea what the approperiate 'rank' would be. Julie, some advice
please...) Surr'at We are here to serve where-ever, how ever we are needed.]>
(OOC: Major sounds fine. I had thought these were going to be SF and
Marine troops, but planetary defense will do just fine.)
The scent washed over her in a comforting wave, the scent of her own
people, the scent of Cait on their clothes... She had to supress a surge
of homesickness. <[Warrior, be at peace,]> she said, in the tradition
Mikan greeting, and bowed low in a complicated gesture only felinids could
perform correctly.
(resp?)
She switched to Standard, aware that it was rude to continue after
introductions in a foreign language that translator chips never got
completely right. "Yourrr mission herrre is a vital one, clanspeople, and
we shall discuss it soon. Howeverrr, the jourrrney was long, so please,
rrrefrresh yourrrselves brriefly. I wish that I could give you morrre
time, but the univerrrse does not wait while we clean ourrr sworrrds. We
will meet in Holodeck One in 30 minutes." She flashed a fanged grin, the
type that frightened humanoids, and switched to her native tongue. <[It is
good to see you, kinfolk. After tonight's activities, we shall get
together and talk.]>
(resp?)
She had the quartermaster lead them off, giving a warrior's handshake to
each as they passed, and learning everyone's names. Caitians are a sensory
people, so touching, scent, and sound were as vital to their interactions
as sight and the desire to touch one another, to interact personally, was
instinctive. By the time they were all headed to their quarters, Kit knew
each one, their lineage, their clan if they were not Mikan, and a little
bit about their personalities, and they, in turn, knew those things about
her. She watched them go, then headed to Holodeck One.
The change in her mood was remarkable, and Torgash noted it. <[You are
please to see your kin,]> he commented in Klingon.
<[As you are when you go back to our House on Q'onos, cousin,]> she smiled.
<[It is good to have clan and kin around. Humans are fine for a while,
but there are times when you want to see faces that look like yours, and be
with people who laugh at the same jokes.]>
Torgash chuckled. <[I agree with you there, Admiral. It will be good to
mingle with the Klingons here. There is comfort in numbers.]>
She set up the Holodeck to mimic a traditional Mikan meeting area. There
were only three Caitians who were not her clan, but they had trained with
the Mikan for many years, and so would be familiar with the site. A tight
grove of ba'fra trees appeared in the setting of a golden savannah, distant
mountains a hazy purple on the horizon and other ba'fra trees scattered
here and there. Nearby a stream babbled lazily past, and she set the
gravity lower and the temperature higher, to make it as close to Cait as
she could. The holo-sun shone bright in a blue-green sky, and she found
herself a nice branch in one of the trees to lounge on until her comrades
arrived. She also set up a holo screen to activate on her command, on
which she could show them the situation, tactical and strategic, as well as
what was known about the enemy. As relaxing and vacation-like as the trees
seemed, many battles and wars had been planned in ba'fra trees, hidden
among the leaves, one of the few good hiding places on the savannah.
Torgash, not having joints that worked the way hers did, wandered around
the savannah, admiring the stream.
When they entered, she roared, which startled Torgash but drew the others
to the grove. Once they had found comfortable places among the branches,
she began. <[I know you have been little information up until now, and I
apologize for that. We were unsure of communications, which was why you
weren't given details.]> She sat up a little. <[The Federation faces a
new enemy, and we are here to train a unique group, a combined special
operations unit of Federation and Klingon forces. We have the honor of
preparing them for possible combat, and only we an do it. This new enemy,
warriors, are felinids.]> She let that sink in.
(resp?)
<[We don't know. They are not Kzinti and they are not Caitian, but that's
all we know right now. They work from the shadows, hiring mercenaries to
do their work while they remain hidden, which is why we know so little. We
have intelligence working the inside, but they have insulated themselves
behind a wall of these mercenaries heavily, so our people cannot get solid
access to them. We have sightings, but that's about it. Some of our best
people are working on the little scraps of their language we've collected,
but it's not a large enough database and they're having trouble. The teams
here are going to go in and try to infiltrate their bases and capture or
eliminate the felinids, before they can carry out what we believe are
large-scale invasion plans for both Federation and Empire.]>. She let them
chew on that tidbit for a while.
(resp?)
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"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
- Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
