PERSONAL ACTIONS TURN 2
[X] Plan Red Leader
-[X] [Talia]: Combat Tactics
-[X] [Nico]: Super Strength
-[X] [Lewis]: Medicine
-[X] Lewis has registered a formal complaint over Talia's recklessness in the last mission.
--[X] Meet with Talia about it
--[X] While the rest of the team appreciates your willingness to take a hit or twenty, you can't take care of the team if you've been knocked out by a giant mechanical snake.
-[X] Arrange Training for One of the Rangers
--[X] Talia, Combat Tactics
-[X] Hold a Meeting with Someone (Ranger, Base Staff, etc.)
--[X] Rangers
---[X] Touch base. Ask if they have anything on their mind that they don't feel is major enough for an official report. Just make sure everything is chill.
Combat Training Roll: 1d10 +2 (Training Room) = 4 Success!
----
You stare at Lewis's formal complaint in your hands. It's short and to the point, without histrionics, but you can sense the tension running through the words.
It's simple enough. Lewis is concerned that Talis is going to get herself into trouble. And as the one who's required to fix Rangers when they get in trouble, he's worried.
Appointing Talia had been a risk. As a Reclaimer, she isn't part of the general Arcology population, and there's a separation there. Her leadership had been undeniably effective, but it was raw, derived from her strong beliefs and ideals in place of any sense of practicality.
You feel some guilt yourself. You had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen, when you told her it was her choice as to whether or not the Rangers went after the Serpent. You couldn't absolve yourself of responsibility for that decision. But Talia had taken on far more than she needed to.
You find Talia in the gym, landing kicks on a bag. She notes your presence, but doesn't stop immediately. You wait for a break, examining her. She's sweating and breathing hard. She's pushing herself.
You wait for her to break. "I see Choi's lessons are going well."
Talia mops sweat from her brow and takes a sip of water from a stand nearby. "She knows what she's doing."
Before you respond, you pause and let that sink in. "And you feel like you don't."
Talia sighs. "Frankly, Commander… I used to help lead clean-up efforts. And you put me in charge of a team that explored other worlds. I understand that I'm one of the few people you might have considered that were used to being under a real sky, but…"
"It was more than that, Talia."
Talia looked up, inviting you to go on.
"I needed someone with vision." You pause, searching for the words. "When others looked at Dr. Nzara's work, you know what they saw?"
Talia shakes her head.
"They saw someone who blew out the power to half a subsector with his experiments."
Command had wanted to hamstring him, or otherwise put him in a basement somewhere, working on a way to make their reactors a percentage point or two more efficient.
"I saw something else. He had a piece of it, he knew the technology could be used for travel. But I was the one that put it together. I knew the Tunnel could be a path to a new future."
"And that's why I chose you. Because you see Earth, you see a world in the future, green and alive. And you're willing to put the work in, whatever it takes."
"I need someone who can see like that, Talia. I need someone who can look at an alien world, and see the path to a new home for us. It's tremendous trust, and tremendous pressure, but I have no doubt you can do it."
Talia stands, and offers a salute. "I won't let you down, Commander."
"I know. Just… try to remember you're part of a team, alright? And if you get hurt, you can't do what I picked you to do."
"Lewis said something, didn't he?"
You purse your lips, but a hint of a smile tugs at the corners of your mouth. "He cares. So does Nico, you know."
Talia smiles ruefully as well. "I'll try to make them worry less."
"Good. In the meantime, I'll have some files on strategy loaded to your personal console to study. I want you to give me a report on three alternate plans on how you could have handled the situation with the Serpent with less risk to all of you, by the end of the week. And..." you pull out a small box and open it. "Here's your Morpher. Dr. Nzara asked me to take better care of it. Nico and Lewis aren't the only ones who worry."
---
The next meeting is held within a conference room. You hold court from your chair at the head of the table, leaning back, fingers pressed together as you examine the Rangers. Talia looks a little better, as if a small weight has been lifted, although there's still a heaviness of responsibility about her - there always was. Nico looks tense and yet paradoxically bored, as if he's having trouble focusing. Lewis commands with his usual gravity.
"The last mission was a dramatic success," you start with. "I am, as always, proud of all of you and the work we have done. Even if both the planets we have chosen have ended up occupied, the Varanians and nik-niks may be of great importance to Earth's future. I've no complaints with any of you. But…" you hold for a moment, "I would like to check in and make sure that none of you have any complaints with me." You smile. "Or, if you would rather express any complaints with me privately, if you have any other input you'd like to have in the future of the Odyssey Project."
Talia glances at the other two Rangers, and settles back slightly in her chair, letting them take the lead on this.
Nico's gaze dances about the room, but he stays silent.
Lewis pauses too, but eventually speaks. "This is the second monster we've fought. I understand that in addition to the sabers, you've chosen to develop guns as well. Is this now a military operation, Commander?"
It's not the first time you'd considered this question. The development of explicit weapon technology meant that it was increasingly harder to treat this as a strictly scientific endeavor. Scientific endeavors rarely had a kill count, and yours was rising.
"We remain a scientific mission of exploration." The words don't come as breezily to your lips as they had in the past, but you remain convinced of them. "We're here to find a new home for Earth. But-"
"We can't ignore problems when we find them." Talia said.
"But why make them our problems?" bursts out Nico. "You almost died, Talia! I liked the little muppets too, but…"
"I stepped too far on the last mission." Talia acknowledges. "I don't plan on doing something like that anytime soon. But really, what should we have done? I don't want to help Earth at the cost of other worlds! That's not what I want us to be!"
"But why us? We've lost so much!" Nico's voice is breaking slightly, a raw pain leaking through.
"It's because we've learned lessons from our mistakes, Nico. I'm not saying it was worth it. But we paid a price for our knowledge. We need to use it to make a difference. Or we're not worthy of it."
"There might come a time when we have to choose between ourselves and others."
"Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Silence spreads for a moment, before Nico speaks. "So. Other Power Rangers. Do we know anything about them?"
You shake your head. "We've been searching archives. There have always been stories of mythical heroes - Hercules, Gilgamesh and so on. Stories of visitors from beyond the stars, too. But nothing solid, nothing we can prove any relation to Earth."
"The bio-electrical field," Lewis says. "If it's truly universal, the Morphing Grid might have been accessed by other species too."
"Yes. Our running theory is that these other Power Rangers were other users of the Grid, but completely alien to Earth."
"It seems like we might need to learn more about the Morphing Grid then."
"I agree." You say. "Dr. Nzara has suggested some lines of research into that area. We can begin exploring them." You look at each Ranger in turn. "Does anyone have anything else?"
"I have something very important." Lewis puts his hands on the table and looks you right in the eye. "Commander, is it true you have a source of real coffee?"
---
The Rangers are ready for a new mission!
[] [Explore] STP R-19 – You see a blasted landscape underneath a stormy sky
[] [Explore] STP A-43 - You see dense vegetation and occasional flickers of movement.
