Chapter 22: The Greenskinned Threat
Of course, Katarina wasn't the only one who fell into deep contemplation as they watched the Platinum Avenger draw closer towards planet Viridi.
Some of them shared her sentiments, fearful of the greenskins yet finding comfort in the low chances of encountering the orkks in combat. Others were eager to test their might against the orkks and to see what exciting adventures awaited them.
But among them, there was one whose sentiments were shared by no one else.
And that was Cynthia Star; the newly titled 'Emerald Flame' of P.A.I.N.
Her attitude towards Viridi and the circulating rumours of the possibility of orkk encounters could be described with just one word.
Indifference.
While the orkks were extremely efficient in their craft of spreading mass violence and carnage, their brutally direct tactics lead to the orkks becoming a rather predictable foe.
As long as one doesn't underestimate or overestimate the orkks, then the so-called 'greenskinned threat' really was no big deal.
The greenskin race being the multitudinous 'plague' that they are, Cynthia did indeed encounter the orkks multiple times in her previous life. Even deep within human space and outside of orkkish territory, there was always a chance of running into a stray orkk warband.
It was these encounters that gave her the experience and knowledge required in order to effectively deal with the orkks.
But somehow she also found the greenskins to be quite admirable.
It may be true that they cared for nothing but to spread as much ultra-violence as possible but at least they were brutally blunt about it. If they wanted someone dead (which is basically everyone but themselves) they would simply walk up to that person and bludgeon them to death with whatever was available to them.
They didn't scheme in the shadows or try to disguise themselves as sheep when they were actually wolves.
In fact, the very concept of 'betrayal' was utterly abhorred by all of orkkind, not that they would trust anybody in the first place.
And as someone who particularly hated traitors, Cynthia couldn't help but empathise with the orkks on that matter.
But that was where her similarities with the orkks ended.
Orkks were orkks and that was it.
Due to the distance between the New Florida System and the Earth's Solar System, the warping process took several days when including all the pit stops that they had to make along the way.
During that time, Cynthia spent most of her time conducting research on her 'personal project,' with her only significant discovery being that the information that she had access to was basically worthless.
It seemed that she would need a higher level of authorisation if she wanted to make some progress.
So the problem that she needed to solve now was how to quickly rise up the ranks in her current position.
Although she knew of a quick and easy solution to her predicament, it was also rather risky. However, as she glanced at Viridi through the window, a certain sight caught her eyes from the window reflection.
It was the silver-haired Melanie, who appeared to be walking faster than usual. From the direction she came from and the path that she was following, Cynthia concluded that Melanie must have came from the bridge and was going towards the cafeteria in a hurry.
Just as Cynthia pondered why Melanie would be in such a rush to go to the cafeteria of all places, a voice sounded out loud on the P.A. system.
"Melanie has called all P.A.I.N. personnel to an emergency meeting within the cafeteria, may all P.A.I.N. personnel report to Melanie at the cafeteria."
...
A few hours earlier, before the Platinum Avenger was even within the New Florida System, there was a small patrol team idling about a small outpost that was situated within the vast barren wasteland of Viridi where they awaited the end of their shift.
They were equipped with standard issue slightly outdated light exo-suits that were coloured in a dull brown camouflage, the common outfit for soldiers like them who were stationed on 'backwater worlds.'
The weapons they wielded was the standard issue NM-1655 Gauss Rifle which was the weapon commonly used by soldiers of the U.P. Military while the vehicle sitting in their garage was the 'Multi-terrain Scout Vehicle' or the 'MSV' for short.
While it was a lightly armoured vehicle that was designed for scouting, it was still suitable for transportation use, being able to carry up to ten people. Because of this, the MSV was often favoured by soldiers stationed on outposts that laid in the middle of nowhere like this one.
Since the MSV could only carry ten people at most, the patrol team of course consisted of ten men.
Private Jimmy Nielson was one of these unfortunate men.
With nothing to do, he simply lazed about on the furniture of this cramped outpost, hoping that either something happened or that his shift could end already.
Out of the ten, two of them were auxiliary technicians who received light combat training while the other eight were standard infantrymen, four of which were currently inside the outpost with the two auxiliary men while the other four were patrolling around the general vicinity on their scout bikes.
As a standard eight man squad, they were led by a sergeant with a corporal as his second in command. The sergeant himself; sergeant Armando Larimer was not much of a speaker, often letting his corporal; the cold-hearted corporal Kim Fern do the talking for him.
The last member of their squad that was not on patrol was private David Tanner who in everyone's honest opinion, talked too much. Jimmy could still remember what Stahl another member of their squad said before he left to go on patrol.
'You know, if I had to choose between roaming aimlessly on a deserted wasteland and dealing with Tanner, I'd choose to roam the deserted wasteland.'
And as if to prove Stahl's point, Tanner began to speak.
"So what's the news with those psionics that were supposed to arrive?"
With corporal Fern and sergeant Larimer guarding one of the technicians as he did his usual maintenance check on the outpost's communication array outside, Jimmy had no choice but to deal with Tanner.
"According to what we were told, they should be arriving in a few hours or so."
In response to Jimmy, Tanner nodded his head before he replied.
"Good, when I heard that all of our psionics got redeployment orders, I started getting a little worried. I always feel better whenever I know that I got a psionic guarding my back."
Jimmy opened his mouth to reply only to get interrupted by Tanner's random ramblings. It was at that moment did Jimmy realise the terrible mistake that he made.
"And these guys aren't your typical U.P.A. psionics either. From what I heard, they're all from the Confederation's 'P.A.I.N.' so they should be competent. But then again... I also heard that some of them were also greenhorns."
[Oh great here he goes.] Jimmy mentally grumbled as Tanner continued spouting nonsense. [How the hell can he always have something to say anyway!] When Jimmy turned over to glance at the technician who was monitoring the screens, he held an expression that said 'what have you done?'
"But most of P.A.I.N.'s 'greenhorns' are usually recruited from other confederate psionic departments so they should be better than your average psionic. At least they should be better than you and me right?"
Tanner paused to shrug seemingly to himself before he continued speaking.
"But it's not like it matters whether we have psionics with us or not anyway. They're probably gonna be stationed elsewhere. Plus we're on a backwater world, the only action that we see in a place like this is against native wildlife and the occasional homeless mugger."
When Tanner's lips finally sealed shut, Jimmy felt a sense of relief for a short moment before his hopes were crushed when the former's mouth started moving again.
"Speaking of backwater world. Why did I have to get assigned to this planet? I didn't sign up to the U.P. military just so I watch over a some dirt. I want to see some action!"
Thankfully, this time someone was able to stop him from rambling on.
"Then why did you sign up fucking idiot?"
Corporal Fern seemingly having heard the commotion caused by Tanner questioned him in an irritated tone as she entered the outpost. [God bless you Kim!] On the other hand, Jimmy praised Fern in his mind for putting an end to his pain.
"You signed up to the U.P. military in an outer border planet so they're going to deploy you on that outer border planet. It's as simple as that. Did you think that they're going to waste money shipping your sorry ass over somewhere else?"
"Oh come on Kim, that last part was really unnecessary."
Tanner sighed dejectedly when he responded to Fern's cold-hearted but ultimately truthful words. She would keep that cold sharpness in her voice when she replied.
"Hmph, you forced my hand. And how many times do I have to remind you to refer to me with my last name."
It was only after the room quietened down did sergeant Larimer enter the room before speaking up.
"Nielson. Tanner. Did Stahl and his group return yet?"
Jimmy and Tanner could only shake their head in unison to answer his question.
"Tch."
Both Jimmy and Tanner were taken aback by the sarge clicking his tongue. It simply was not like him to do such a thing. Soon, he began explaining himself.
"We received a transmission from command hours ago but our communication array glitched and didn't send us a notification."
Larimer's expression turned grim as he spoke.
"It informed us that-"
'Beep! Beep! Beep!'
Just before he could fully explain himself however, he was instead interrupted by a loud repeated beeping originating from one of the outpost's computers. The repeated beeping was soon followed by the shout of the technician.
"Sir! We have an incoming spacecraft heading towards our sector!"
"What?! But we have no landing pad here. And who would want to land in the middle of nowhere?"
Tanner immediately questioned the technician upon hearing what he had to say.
"Could it perhaps be someone who's forced to do an emergency crash landing?"
The technician shook his head as he responded to Tanner's questions.
"No, readings indicate that it had just completed the warping process so the ship shouldn't be in bad shape. Otherwise it along with its crew would had been scattered all over space-time if they attempted to warp a badly damage ship."
Judging from the even more grim look on Larimer's face, Jimmy guessed that this unidentified ship had something to do with the transmission he received. With a voice full of authority, Larimer gave a command to the technician.
"Get me a visual of that ship now!"
"Yes sir."
Within a few short moments, the technician was able to get a visual of the ship onto his computer monitor, allowing everyone to see.
Everyone but the sarge gasped at what they saw.
It was a large hulking ship that seemed to be made from scraps and junk.
Apart from being literally a hulking junk of metal, everyone was also surprised by the speed and trajectory of the ship.
If it kept up with its current speed, then it would literally crash onto the planet, probably killing the crew inside and everything else within a large radius.
Common sense would dictate that the crewmen on the ship would do everything in their power to decrease the ship's speed.
But the ship didn't even slow down and instead seemed to speed up as it followed on its literal collision course with the planet.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone