| It's Hard For Thee To Kick Amongst The Pricks |
| Summary: | Thoroughly rattled, post attack, Julie and Marko have hot data for the CIC staff, only to find them as overwhelmed by events as they are. |
| Date: | Date |
| Related Logs: | Related Logs (Warday pt 1) |
| Players: |
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Hangar Bay / CIC / Midships Stairwell
Julie grabs Marko gently by the arm to steer him up towards the CIC with her, "Come on Flasher, let's get ourselves up to the CIC. We'll make sure this is in the right hands and get cleaned up so we can help with whatever is needed."
Hawke works crazily on Stiffy, then back off. "That's what I can do for now. She'll be okay, so long as we can…" The Intercom comes on and he shakes his head. "I HATE these jumps. Ok, you!" he points to Evandreus. "Onto the stretcher, I'll tend you as we head up. Everyone clear this deck…"
"Sir." Marko replies, finding himself saluting as if on auto-pilot and nodding to Easy as he lets her guide his way to the stairwell, pausing for a moment to vomit in a trash barrel as they go.
Sitka leaves Tisiphone to her task(s), and rounds on the poor CAG as she's being deluged by the other pilots. He skirts out of Julie's way, and steps in on Cidra's three o'clock, turning to face the same direction as she. "Any word on what the frak's going on, yet, sir?" The faintest trace of a tremor might be detected in his voice. Or it might not. His blue eyes lock on hers. "It's been nearly an hour by my count. Some of them are starting to panic."
[ Combat Information Center ]---[ Deck 7 - Battlestar Cerberus ]—
"Aye, sir." Tillman confirms it just before the jump. His face is red and angry. Luckily he's keeping his temper out of his voice and actions. "Ensign Kulko. I want you to get tallies on Support, Medical, and Engineering. I will get everyone else. And don't settle for broad guesses. We need firm numbers." He settles the phone down and looks back to Abbot. "Any other orders, sir?" Tillman looks like he might be ready to on his own.
Kulko responds quickly, "Aye, sir," and moves to one of the auxiliary phones.
"In person, Ensign," Tillman says a little softer. "You're talking about people in their departments who are potentially killed." He motions towards the hatch. "Go."
Julie steps into the CIC in her flightsuit still on, her hair in a bit of a disarray as she walks in with Marko. Approaching Michael, she salutes crisply, "Lieutenant Julie Walker, Sir. Ensign Scaurus and I are here on orders from the CAG." Motioning with one hand to Marko and the package he is carrying, "We have an isolated copy of the virus or whatever it was that attacked our systems on the Raptors and Vipers." She forces a smile, "Thought you boys might like to take a peek at what brought all of our defenses down and find a way to counter it when we meet up with the rest of the fleet." At least she hopes there was a fleet to meet up with.
Kulko just looks at Tillman, as if the order still Does Not Compute. Then he sets the phone gingerly in the cradle, replaces the headset from whence it came, and offers a crisp salute. "Aye, sir." He heads out at a brisk clip, passing Julie and Scaurus on the way out.
Michael was just about to answer Tillman when Julie and Marko make their entrance. An almost irritated look is offered to the two and Michael doesn't return the salute as he looks back over towards Tillman, "Take what ever it is the Lieutenant has and find out what the Frak is going on. Something just disabled thousands of birds and twenty seven battlestars. Then, make sure our systems are cleaned."
Hellicon looks to Julie and speaks. "Bootstrap was on the horn about something slong those line. How did you get a copy isolated out from a computer?"
Tillman looks from Julie to Michael and seems a bit confused. He peers to the pilot. "I thought all your systems crashed out. But.." He shrugs and follows orders. "I want you to get with Lieutenant Oberlin about that and see what he can do with it. For now, secure it with the Marines. Understood?"
For his part, Marko just salutes as crisply as he can, given his somewhat disheveled state after being in the air for what's got to be the wildest ride in his young life. "Sir, if it's a virus, which I have every reason to suspect it is, given the way it affected our systems." he addresses Helicon. "Then the commands our Raptor recieved from the enemy _have_ to be on the drive, sir." he explains crisply, in the manner of someone who knows what he's talking about. "It's not isolated, sir. But the code _has_ to be here. We didn't dump the drive, sir. We shut it down in-flight and rebooted from the firmware on each individual system."
Hellicon nods. "Gutsy call, especially in the middle of a furball," he says, recalling his Flight Engineering protocols from when he was still flying. "Might want to have the comms telemetry checked as well, that might tell us how it got transmitted and loaded into the systems."
Michael now turns his gaze in the direction of the Lieutenant and Ensign, his brow lifting ever so slightly, "I don't like to operate off of assumptions, Ensign. Guessing will get us no where." Straightening from his position over the plotting table, his hands move to clasp behind his back, "For all we know, this could be a system design problem. So, lets keep speculation off the table until we know -exactly- what we are dealing with." Oh, the Admiral appears to be none to happy and it shows as he looks back to Tillman, "Deal with this, Captain. We have people qualified to analyze this stuff, including some civilians. I don't care if they object, put them to work."
Julie lets Marko finish his explanation and states, "It was a complete shutdown of our systems, I swear I saw some kind of light from the silver ships, I could be wrong it was confusing out there. Basically though, we hard reset all of our systems and it seemed to do the trick." She pauses and then adds, "If I was to make a guess? If they re-transmitted the signal or activation, we would have been dead again. We should get our computer systems isolated, if it's cylons, firewalls won't stop them."
Tillman looks from Michael to the Raptor crew. "Secure it, Lieutenant, and make sure nobody touches it. Then find Lieutenant Oberlin - our intelligence officer. He will involve the people who need to be. Then you can make the report. Understood?" Tillman doesn't look like he's in a mood for much of anything right now as he takes a few steps towards the hatch. "Right now I need to clear wounded and departments. Sir," he nods to Abbot. "With your permission?"
Hellicon nods slowly and looks to the Admiral. "Sir? I've got experience with Aeronautical Engineering, if you would like, I can work on the premise of a design flaw and see what comes up. If it is, we'll have to do some serious work to resolve the issues and implement whatever we come up with."
"She's absolutely right, sir. CNP literally ate itself in one gulp." Marko adds, fidgeting under all of this high-level scrutiny on one little Ensign fresh out of ECO school. "I used to write viruses once upon a time, sir." he says, finding a little more confidence once he's in an arena he understands. "That's what they're designed to do. I can't speak to how it's transmitted, but it has to be a virus. No other logical explanation fits, sir"
Hellicon's question is heard, but for the moment the Admiral's attention seems to be directed on the two members of the Air Wing. A fist balls up and he knocks it lightly on the top of the plotting table. "The last time I checked, I was not in visible. As well, the last time I checked, I was still in charge of this vessel. I've already said it once, in that we will not make assumptions on this." His attention turns back to Tillman now, giving the man a nod, "Do so, Captain, and take the Lieutenant and Ensign with you and return them to the CAG, please." It's only now that he's looking back towards Hellicon, "Get with Engineering, Captain, and see if they can make use of you."
Julie is about ready to get the hell out of the CIC, offering the mandatory salute and giving Marko and Hellicon the look that says, 'Let's get frakkin' moving.'.
Tillman doesn't look any happier than Abbot at the moment, his own face turning red. He waits until the Admiral has finished and looks like he might drill holes in the the aircrew. "You have orders to secure that piece of equipment with the Marines and contact Lieutenant Oberlin! I suggest you frakking do it! NOW!" That anger that's been building like steam in a pipe finally lets go with the last word. The veins in his neck bulge. He thenwatches them go and follows them out.
Hellicon nods. "Aye sir," he says as he clears his panel and removes his headset, and makes a beeline to the hatch…
Marko snaps off a letter-perfect salute. "Admiral, sir!" he calls, then peels out of there nearly fast enough to leave a vapor trail. "If we wind up scrubbing heads for this, we are using _your_ toothbrush, Easy." he intones quietly as he hauls ass away from the Angry Senior Staff.
[ Dual Stairway ]----[ Midship - Battlestar Cerberus ]
"That went…..well…." Marko understates, still blinking a little from the copious of Command level wrath heaped upon his head. "Frak!" he adds, kicking the bulkhead hard enough to make himself wince, reinforced toes on his suit and all. "Godsdammit, I know what I'm talking about, Admiral!" he growls, looking up towards CIC. "There's no speculation to it! I could shag your credit data and have it sold a dozen times over inside of _two days_! FRAK! I know who to contact and HOW! HOW THE FRAK DID YOU THINK I GOT THIS JOB!" he says, finally boiling over.
Hellicon raises his hands and calmly speaks. "Marko, I know how you're feeling. Shit, we're all feeling it! I just lost my parents, but the last thing we need to do is lose what we have left! I know it's not easy, but we just need to focus," he says reassuringly. "Okay?"
Julie puts a hand on Markos shoulders, "Chill out, there's no point in getting worked up over it. We've got no clue what really happened, but I mean frak.." She sighs, "Look at what happened out there, people are scared and confused, none of us know what's going on. We may think we know, but nothing is certain…"
"I'm sorry, sir…" Marko says, shaking himself again. "No excuse….Just…well…yeah….." he sighs, sitting down hard on the stairs. "But, I know I'm right." he adds simply. "Nothing else fits…The Cylons attacked us. The Cylons are machines. They've got computers for brains. I mean…do the math, sir."
Julie shakes her head and just frowns, "It's ok, I mean, not what happened but y'know everything cause like…" She sighs now and keeps frowning, "Sorry, I'm just a bit speechless and…" Well, it's starting to hit her again, the fact that Picon was gone, her father was gone and who knows what else. "…." Silence is all she can follow up her own words with.
Hellicon sighs and nods. "I know, I know… I know you're right because no one in the Colonies could do this, but the Admiral and the rest of us in CIC? We have to know for sure. We'll find out, and when we do, we'll kick their asses back to the stone-ages. Until then though, we need to focus on what we have left. Believe me, I want answers too… My folks are back on Virgon, and I don't even know if they're okay. All we can do right now is what we were trained to do. We fight… We fight and we win."
"Godsdamn right we do." Marko nods, standing and shaking himself again, visibly trying to put his feelings back into their respective boxes. "So…..we put this little beauty with the Marines…" he says, giving the drive a little kiss. "Then, well, frak, I dunno." he says, finding himself chuckling despite himself. "Report for Commander's Mast?" he asks rhetorically. "Heh! I got it! We'll snag Boostrap's toothbrush!" he says. "Get those heads nice and shiny."
Julie forces a laugh and smiles at Marko, "Yeah, we'll do that, he'll never see it coming." Although she sounds less then enthused at something that would be so much fun, "I'm sorry, I just keep hoping that well, this day never happened. I don't get why this could happen, why??"
Hellicon chuckles and nods. "Marko, as long as you leave my toothbrush out of this, be my guest," he says… "In any case, you two had better get that down to the Marines. I've got to get down to Engineering and see what we can come up with."
"Yes. sir." Marko says, drawing himself up into a salute. "Thanks for understanding, Captain." he adds simply. Marko just pulls Easy into a hug and holds it for as long as it's required.
Hellicon smiles and returns the salute crisply. "We'll all get together for a drink later… In the meantime, keep your minds in the game, and I promise, we'll see our way through."
Julie returns the hug to her ECO, gripping on to the man tightly and giving him a little kiss on the cheek before she lets go, "Thanks Marko, I needed that." She smiles a little more and tries to bug him a little, "You're a real sweetheart you know that? I betcha —" Then she stops herself mid-sentence, "Let's get this dumb thing sorted out.." She removes a pack of smokes from her pocket and offers one each to Hellicon and Marko, "Cigarette gentlemen? To celebrate our survival, better then being dead."
Hellicon smiles and takes the cigarette. "I haven't smoked in years, but now is as good a day as any to do it again," he says as he places the smoke in his mouth as he heads out…
"Don't mind if I do." Marko smirks, accepting the cigarette/
Julie lights her own cigarette and takes a deep drag before shrugging her shoulders, "Well, let's get this thing taken care of. I think, I'm going to try and snag some sleep or something after…" Joking she laughs, "Ya never know, maybe I'll wake up and none of this will havwe happened."
"Yeah.." Marko chuckles softly, tucking his smoke behind his ear. "If you do, come and kick me." he adds, making his way towards the Marines' spaces on leaden, exausted legs.
Julie grins and takes another drag, "Yeah, I'll kick ya hard enough to feel it, trust me on that one." For now, she just tries to hope and pray none of this happened, but it did. Looking at Marko thoughtfully, she asks, "So.. not to pry but you mentioned your mom a few times?"
"I did." Marko replies simply. "Ask me about it again when I've had a few drinks." he sighs, pausing on his way down the ladder. "You'll hear the whole sob story." he says, voice tighening a bit. "Sorry, not trying to be mean, just….well, when you hear the story…it'll make more sense."