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Exuberant enterprise - Junes - 07-22-2012
Prelude
One would believe that Layla Clay, being involved in hectic and stressful business every day, would want to reduce the physical and mental activity to a minimum during a hard- and well-earned four-week holiday hiatus; maybe a few all-inclusive weeks in an isolated luxurious resort on Curacao, an expensive wellness sojourn in places such as Baden-Baden or Gran Canaria? The Clays' bank account would have rendered possible all of this, but not Layla's idea of perfect holidays.
She inherently was an adventurer and only experienced satisfaction through accomplishing tasks seemingly unfeasible in the beginning or by exploring grounds so far unknown to the greater mass of humanity. And what would be more suitable for such an attitude than living in a space sector with hundreds of solar systems and countless unmapped gas nebulae and unexplored heavenly bodies? Yes, it was her plan to travel through the Omegas in a small science ship together with John, investigating, examining and admiring rocks, planets, moons, gas clouds, space turbulences, sub-space signals and other stellar phenomena and most importantly bestowing favours on herself and her husband in unconventional and exciting positions and locations.
The walls of protest on the part of John were overwhelming: search and purchase of a suitable vessel, tense politic situation in the Omegas, high risk of falling victim to a Corsair ambush, and so on. Essentially everything Layla would've labeled as 'exciting' and 'challenging'. After hours of a mildly heated argumentative exchange of words Layla conceded defeat and abandoned plan A. She, as a woman who often needed to have several paths to the goal at her disposal, naturally came up with a second idea: an adventure tour in the snow deserts of planet Harris. Yes indeed, despite the fact that she loathed being frostbitten at several dozens degrees below zero she wanted to do this. She'd do just about anything to spend a few weeks with him alone somewhere he liked it.
Carrying a device which would enable them to call for taxi, namely a Templar that was parked at their estate and that could, thanks to a neat remote control, be summoned whenever needed, they would be able to abort the adventurous and hardly safe trip at any time. A safety factor Layla hoped to impress and, after all, persuade John with. A bit of physical activity would certainly benefit them, Layla figured. Also seeing as she was obsessed with the fear that he would end up as a bloated, sluggish meat bag, now that he had resigned from all his duties and was basically tied to their house on Cambridge, she found it perfectly fine to go for a holiday like this.
Harris, a place neither of them really approved of; a cold, windy world undergoing the last phases of terraforming. Wasteland, vast plains and high mountains dominated the surface. On the occasion of their marriage they were given a newly built estate in a remote spot of Harris by the Duke of Norfolk. They had hardly been there, mainly because both John and Layla did not like the climatic conditions. Surprisingly enough, John agreed to the idea. This was because he believed that Layla must like the place; why else would she have proposed such a daring holiday wish? He also felt guilty due to his refusal of the first idea, and she had been utmostly merciful to make it up with him after all the reluctance he had shown towards her, too. John felt bad in denying her another wish as it could've negatively affected their already or still fragile relationship.
On the other side there was Layla who tried to find a consensus with her expectations and John's preferences. It needed to be something involving a certain amount of 'adventuring' but couldn't be too dangerous and strenuous either because of John's apparent laziness. As he agreed to march through the wilderness of Harris together with her, Layla figured that he liked Harris more than she initially thought; why else would he have agreed to such a crazy idea of hers?
- - -
Layla was in no way familiar with professional mountaineering but she had caught a few important things from the survival training in the academy, and so had John.
Since they were granted free use of their military ships off duty, they stuffed all the necessary gear into the cramped cargo compartments of their Templars. It was hard not to exceed the weight limit of the cargo which was allowed by the safety measures, Layla realized she had bought too much stuff; much of it she feared would be of no use on their trip. But of course to make sure she insisted on taking it with them.
An essential ritual in the beginning of every holiday of Layla was to turn off the communicator so she could not be reached by anyone any more. Something she definitely didn't want to worry about during her time off was botched politics, yelling supervisors and outraged admirals who'd made her good mood go fall into the basement. And so Layla sat on the kitchen table, about to hitting the 'off' button of her device when a ring tone announced the arrival of a new message in the mail box. She read it, sighed and got up to talk to her husband.
'Hey, guess who got wind of our holiday plans, yeah, Havering. He says he's been promoted and now wants to take a few days off'¦'
Layla plumped on the bed and sighed.
'He says he always wanted to visit Harris once and asks to join us'¦ what do you think?'
Exuberant enterprise - Jam - 07-24-2012
John stretched. What did she say? Someone should join us? "Pfft... I thought we would be finally alone. You were too talkative again, huh?" He stood up and sat next to her, nervously grumling. "And who in Oblivion is Havering? Oh, is it that guy who was here with you that day?" After a second of thinking, an answer finally fell off. "Pah, let him tag along. At least we'll see if he is a real soldier." Layla looked suprised about John's ranting. He noticed it. "Yes, I feel great. Couldn't sleep all damn night!"
Exuberant enterprise - Xelon - 07-24-2012
The last few weeks were pretty tense, not only was that war with the Frogs still going on but additionaly to that the colonisation of Sprague was getting into it's finall stages.
Which meant that as soon as the Sairs heard of it they had to drop by to disrupt the Project.
At the same time as that went down Mike got promoted to Lieutnand Commander thought with all the fighting in Omega 3 he couldn't really celebrate that.
After the Sairs blew off some steam, Mike thought on taking some time off since he didn't really do that in a while.
Hearing that Layla and John where going on vacation aswell he called Layla to ask what she would think of him joining in.
Though Harris wasn't a really nice Planet it was defnetly better than Leeds that Mike was sure of,
and besides it would do him good to get out since the gyms of the Armed Forces where getting boring.
Nothing better than to get some change once in a while.
He thought for himselfe and started backing his stuff in his Apartement since either way if Layla wanted him to come or not, he would take his vacation.
Exuberant enterprise - Junes - 08-13-2012
"I swear I didn't tell anyone of my intentions hon'!"
Layla exclaimed in a mildly offended manner although it contained a humouristic tone which could not be missed. With a smile she gave a minimalistic message to Havering:
[font=Agency FB] >> k, rv at leeds in approx 3 hrs <<
With these carelessly composed looking letters sent to its designated recipient she switched her device's power off for good and threw it onto her desk. She didn't know where her affinity for disgregardfully treating electronical devices originating from. All she knew that within one and a half years she had needed to procure a new communicator six times.
"Alright, I told him to meet up at Leeds, from there it'll be all open space and I'll rather not let anyone fly there all alone. See? I can be cautious too."
It was an attempt to cheer him up seeing as he was in snippy mood this morning. John sat on the edge of the bed propping himself on his elbows. Creeping up on him from behind she gently whispered in his left ear:
"This is gonna be exciting, trust me."
Exuberant enterprise - Jam - 08-13-2012
Her voice was like a holy song to John. Calm, like waters of Cambridge, and softer than the bed he was sitting on. "You sure know how to soften my mood." He noted with a smile, pressing his wife towards their bed. She looked at him with an uncertain face, knowing that they won't make it to Leeds with this speed. "Why do you look at me like that? You're my love and I have all rights to love you all damn day!" He said quietly, laughing. And so, he went on to dedicate himself to their mutual pleasure.
Exuberant enterprise - Junes - 08-13-2012
As he attempted to engage in the process of undressing her in a highly thrilling manner she was perplexed as to his unexpected move. Was he mad at her because he let Havering join them and now he thought they wouldn't have any time alone anymore? Or was it simply one of these moments where his libido gained the upper hand? In either case, Layla felt uncomfortable in letting their guest wait too long, but on the other hand she realized that it became increasingly hard for her to resist Johnny's outstandingly persuading seduction techniques.
"Mhmhmhm, d'ya really want Mike to wait for hours in- mhmm, okay, you do."
- - -
With almost two hours delay they finally got off of Cambridge's surface. It was very well worth the delay no matter what Mike would be going to say. For Layla it felt like in the old days.
Exuberant enterprise - Xelon - 08-14-2012
Sitting at the side of the Landing Platform Mike was already waiting about 1 hour for Layla and John to pick him up.
Lying next to him was his backpack that was roughly the size of himselfe packed with everything one would need for a survival trip.
While he was waiting Mike looked over the Armed Forces secondary Landing Pad where he thought he would wait until Layla called him again so that he could take off.
No need to wast fuel waiting Mike wrote her back when he receved her minimalistic message.
Orbital Transporters loading up supplies for the Battleships on station over Leeds, Fighters landing and taking off and of course thousands of people rushing around refiting, rearming and loading up all kind of things.
Good thing we didn't decide to meet at one of the Primary Ports.
Mike thought for himselfe whilst watching.
Now where the hell are those two staying?
Seeing that nothing else is going to happen Mike headed to the Hangar where his Templar was being kept. Since he officially was on holiday his Tempar was in the very last corner of the Hangar, which meant for him to take a few elevators down and a long walk.
20 minutes later he got to see his Templar again, in the artificial light of the Rooflamps of which not all worked properly, infact this part of the Hangar wasn't maintained at all so it seemed.
Mike didn't really care either way as long as his Ship was alright.
Opening the cargo door Mike got in and checked if he really had everything.
After checking twice he was satisfied to see that he didn't forget anything.
Now then
Mike told to himselfe whilst pluging in his Comunicatior at the right side of the cockpit next to the transmitter.
let's hope they don't take too long now.
Mike was cleaning out his cockpit when the Communicator buzzed, checking if it was Layla he stored his cleaning equipment and jumped out of the Templar to hit the "Ready for takeoff" Button.
Waiting yet again in his Tempar for the Controll to give him a launch clearance.
The Templar was already out in the open brought up by huge lifter platforms.
Finally Mike got a clear to go, and his Templar was swiftly moved to the closest launching Platform..
Having already lost much time waiting Mike took off as fast as he could and made for Space.
Exuberant enterprise - Junes - 08-15-2012
Layla imagined how Mike would react to their major delay, she was not good in forgiving people for her wrongdoings, nor could she readily justify themselves for this incident. It took her quite some time until she realized how paranoid her thoughts actually were and consequently dropped that scenario. Mike wasn't the kind of person who'd get seriously upset with such negligible nothingnesses. At least he never showed it. Yet she felt uncomfortable with the idea that she'd be going to spend her holidays with a fellow pilot who now was higher-ranked than herself. The behaviour and tone toward lower-ranked, coequal and higher-ranked fellows fundamentally differed from themselves. The easiest, most open and companionable conversations emerged from a talk between Lieutenants. Understandably, Layla now felt awkward in talking to Mike in the same way as she did before, also due to the fact that he had been Lieutenant for a far shorter time than herself. Despite her many and profound experiences during her long time of active duty, the admiralty never deemed it necessary to promote her. Layla wasn't upset because of this, she merely found it odd and kind of amusing when she saw people she had flown, fought and talked with side by side on an equal position in terms of military ranks gradually getting up from their chairs and slowly but steadily climbing the latter towards the exalted realms of High Command. But then again it was obvious that duty were clearly distinguished from holidays where formalities and interpersonal distances were almost self-evidently abolished or at least greatly reduced.
"Hey Havering, congratulations on your promotion, how does it feel as a Lieutenant Commander?"
Layla contacted him as soon as he got in range.
Exuberant enterprise - Jam - 08-15-2012
John's Templar was not able to maintain a steady flightpath. It was some time since John was last piloting a Templar. The spaceship was banking left and right, flying in circles. Annoyed John was starting to regret he ever put himself into this adventure. He could have flown with Layla, but since his wife was under lots of stress lately, she managed to stuff two cargo holds with mostly useless things. At least according to John. He was sure they won't even touch most of them.
"Flying is for droids..." He barked into the comms with apparent disgust. But there, the main computer went mad. He wasn't alone, Layla's Templar showed the same red contacts on radar display. John became mad, sweat covered his forehead, and started to breathe heavier. "Tell me they're not those snaily frogs."
Objects came into scanning range. Three Servals. A stranded Gallic patrol so close to Leeds. Terrified John didn't know what to do. "We've got company, and our genial cargo slows us greatly. Any plans, Lieutenant?" He asked with a lot of irony.
There was no time to think, the Gallic patrol was heading right towards them, like predators, ready to attack.
Exuberant enterprise - Junes - 08-16-2012
They had appeared out of the nowhere. A ghost division had silently crept up on them and it greatly troubled Layla that her rather subtle scanners hadn't managed to detect any signs of hostile movement out there.
Having instantaneously switched into the 'battle-mode', Layla started performing evading manoeuvers. The swiftness of Servals and her superior height inevitably resulted in a clear disadvantage for Layla. It did not take long until she realized that all enemy targets were sticking on her tail.
"Guys, d'ya see the one with a minor energy fluctuation in weapon systems?"
Evading enemy fire and simultaneously searching for potentially critical spots on the enemy vessel was Layla's crucial skill during fights.
"Target the tachyon circuit connecting his four weapons and you'll disable him."
Talking stuff with sensible content in such situations was another capability she had gained over the past years. Proficient multi-tasking was essential for a pilot's survival.
She thought she'd heard an answer from one of her wingmen, maybe it was merely illusion. She kept flying the circles and zig-zag and assorted unpredictable vectors while watching her shield slowly dropping. She had confidence in Mike, but it had been ages since John was engaged in combat and his exclamations right before the appearance of the Gallics did not quite look promising.