CASE [GL]

The photographers left me alone for a while as Gunny came up to me to tease me about what just happened. While he was at it, the engineers also came down into the underground facility with their backpacks on and their nozzles ready to spray the goop around. 

“This is going to be interesting.” Gunny said, lighting up the area with one of his lights. 

“It’s mostly going to be rather messy.” One of the engineers joked as he started spraying around. It was a sort of grayish spray that started to expand into a foam when it touched a surface. They primarily focused their spraying efforts on the walls and the ceiling, and more particularly on the corner between the two. The foam gave the entire area a rather organic looking feeling, but that didn’t mean it was going to win any aesthetic prizes. 

“Is it going to keep looking like that?” Gunny asked one of the engineers who was just standing around, presumably waiting on their turn to start spraying as well. 

“No.” The engineer shook their head. “This is just a first ground layer to make sure everything is nice and solid. Afterwards another team will come in to sand the walls and ceilings down so that lighting fixtures can be added, things like that. To spruce up the place, in short.” 

“Sand it down? So it doesn’t get very hard then?” 

“It does.” The engineer Gunny was talking to beckoned us to come over and touch the wall where the other engineer had first started to spray. “You can touch this, it’s rock solid.” they slapped the wall twice and invited us to do the same. 

Through my glove I could feel it very much felt like rock or concrete, not like a foam that the exterior would make you think it feels like. “And how do you sand it down then?” I asked. 

“With a hard ass drillbit and a bit of chemicals, Commander.” 

I nodded and chuckled. “Makes sense. Makes you ask yourself if it’s really worth the time to do all these things, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be better to just build our own infrastructure.” 

“Tunneling is expensive and it needs very big appliances, better to use these packs, it’s quite a bit easier.” The engineer continued. “Reinforcing this structure also won’t be needed everywhere. But considering the way we got into this place, it’s necessary at some points at least.” 

“Fair enough.” I nodded. 

“Commander.” One of the photographers, not Mark, found the guts again to come and talk to me. “Would you like to come with us further down the structure to take a couple more photos? We should almost have enough.” 

“Sure thing.” I nodded. 

“Have fun, Commander.” Gunny chuckled. 

“Hey.” I took the photographer by his arm just before he headed off again. “Could my good old buddy Gunnery Sergeant Taylor be on some of the photo’s too? He got this amazingly cool gear, don’t you think?” 

“Wha-” 

The photographer looked at Gunny’s equipment for a moment. “That big machine gun does look cool, and that exo-skeletton does too. It will make some good pictures together with you, especially with some of those lights on as well.” 

“Great, just tell us where to go.” I gave him a thumbs up. 

“I did not consent to this.” Gunny grumbled. 

“You did the moment you stepped on board my ship, now, let’s go follow our photography club and get some photos taken for Eva and Luna to make fun of, okay?” 

Gunny grumbled again but didn’t reply and with a resigned sigh he followed me down one of the abandoned corridors, following the photography team and their platoon sergeant closely on the foot. 

 

My reluctant Gunnery Sergeant and I got some good pictures taken of us while overlooking the vast hallways of the underground facility. We went to a couple of spots that we didn’t see last time either, finding some old defunct alien machinery and more long-spoiled supplies. But besides that, nothing really noteworthy. The only bodies we had found here last time, we had taken aboard the ship and the rest of the facility was just empty. 

“I think we have plenty of footage now, Commander.” The leader of the photography team came over to me. “Thank you for your coöperation.” 

“No problem.” I nodded. “Don’t forget to send those pictures back to me first though, like we discussed.” 

“Data is already being transferred, Commander.” 

“Good.” 

“Data well-received, Commander.” This time it was Ellie who replied through my suit’s intercom. 

“Thanks Ellie, we’ll be heading back to the ship shortly.” 

“The hangar bay is ready for your return.” 

“Before you go, Commander…” The photography lead stopped me for a second. “Do you think a similar thing like this could happen back on earth?” He beckoned to the facility around us. 

“Well…” I bobbed my head from one side to the other. “Only a few years ago we were pretty much doing this to ourselves, right?” 

“That’s true…” 

“Although I think humanity is in a much better spot than where we used to be, we should still be vigilant of threats both from within our species as from outside of the solar system. I think it is better to be well prepared and not needing it in the end than being underprepared and needing it badly. Even though the initial costs may be high.” 

“That makes sense.” The man nodded in return. 

“But you should take courage in the fact that there are many people like us who are ready to put their lives on the line to safeguard the future of our planet.”   

The man nodded again and let us go as he continued to look around the place some more. 

“Going back home?” Gunny asked. 

“Yeah, let’s. I’m starting to miss the coffee machine.” 

Gunny chuckled at my reply. “Yes, the distinct lack of coffee on this planet is rather disturbing. Maybe we should tell that to the engineers.” 

“If there’s anyone more aware of the problem than us, it’s going to be the engineers.” 

“That’s true.” He chuckled again and followed me along as we made our way back to the entrance. 

 

We left the engineer team and their escorts behind as they could finish the job themselves rather easily and made our way back to the rest of the squad and then back to the shuttle. It was still pouring outside even though taking pictures in the facility had taken quite a bit longer than we anticipated. When we reached the shuttle, a couple of the marines who went on a patrol on the other side were just sat upon the ledge where the side-door was. 

“Didn’t run into any troubles?” I asked. 

“Just rain and plants.” Corporal Tomlinson replied. “Lots of rain and lots of plants. And then even more rain and some more plants.” 

“Let’s get back to the ship and get a long warm shower. How does that sound?”

“Like heaven, Commander. Although I think I would prefer a bath since the shower might remind me of the rain.” 

“Definitely wasn’t raining as bad last time.” I looked up at the sky as I put my gear back into the shuttle. “Ellie, does this planet have a rainy season?” 

“Not really, Commander.” Ellie quickly replied to my question. “Rather than a rainy season, it just has a very wet climate in general. According to the atmospheric data that I’m reading, The region you are currently in has around 300 days of rainfall each year.” 

"Pfff. I’m glad I’m not stationed on this planet.” Gunny replied, hoisting himself aboard the shuttle and giving me a hand. “300 Days of rain… how do you not get depressed in that kind of weather?” 

“It is a positive when it comes to certain agricultural products.” Ellie replied to Gunny’s complaint. 

“Sadly I am not an agricultural product, Ellie.” 

“Well, at least it’s not a dark kind of rain.” I beckoned the other marines to properly board the shuttle as well. “Still plenty of sun to go around.” 

“I suppose, still happy I’m on the ship though.” And with that final comment we were aboard the ship and ready to leave this rainy planet behind us once more. 

The flight back was as bumpy as, if not bumpier than, the ride to the planet, making us rather happy that we exited the planet's atmosphere. 

Back on the Roald Amundsen we made our way to a well-deserved shower. Especially Gunny and I had gotten pretty dirty thanks to our trip inside of the underground facility. Before we went to shower though, I commanded the bridge crew to already depart from the rest of the convoy so we were at a safe enough distance to start our FTL jump the moment I got back to the Commander’s seat. 

When I finally arrived back, freshly showered and all, I found the bridge crew giggling away while they were staring at one of the screens, it didn’t take long to figure out what they were giggling at. Pictures of Gunny and I were shown on screen for the entire bridge crew to admire. 

“Ellie…” I sighed. 

“I didn’t do anything, Commander.” 

“And how am I supposed to believe that…?”