Life on the void cruiser, while boring, was rather comfortable. Each crew member had their own spacious room, they could generally choose what they wanted within it. Chambers were also one of very few private places, no cameras were installed in either the rooms or their bathrooms. Marco and Darren's were both rather barren, they were often drowned in paperwork and were the ones in charge of caring for the ship itself. With nothing but a desk, a bed, and a door that lead too their personal bathrooms, most of their time was spent either working out or glued to their tablets where they kept eyes on ship diagnostics and filled out operation paperwork.
Everyone else requested for a retractable TV to be installed in their chambers, with the press of a button, part of the ceiling would open up and a screen would slide down from the top. Bodhi requested a mini fridge similar to the one in the kitchen to be placed near his bed, but his request was denied as food rations needed to be easily monitorable. Cooper asked for a bookshelf full of sci-fi and medieval literature, while he had the access to all the books he wanted in his tablet, it "felt better to read on paper." Kailey and Tyson both had computers with videogames installed, though their playtime was limited to up to two hours a day, no multiplayer choices were available because of the constraints of being in the void. There were a few games they could share with each other, but as far as Marco was aware, they hardly played together.
Marco was hunched over on his desk, his hands as though he were praying while he looked down at his tablet. He was considering what to write in his report. It had been almost a day since and the deadline for it was quick approaching. Conflicting stories often lead to audits by the O.S.D. and being caught obfuscating information was a big no no for the company. He had been thinking for a few minutes at this point, but by this point he decided to take matters into his own hands. He pulled out the small communicator on his back, calling for everyone to have a meeting at his room.
Darren leaned over the doorframe as everyone was inside. Bodhi and Kailey sat on the bed, Cooper stood in the middle of the room and Tyson had flipped Marco's chair over and sat on it with his legs open, his chin on the top of the backrest. Marco was rubbing his fist on his palm, rubbing the arbiter as he spoke.
"We need to decide what we are gonna say in the operation report." he puckered his lips while he looked around, Kailey sighed and spoke. "You want us to lie?" Marco thought for a second, he pouted and tilted his head. "Not particularly, there is no real reason to lie about anything." She glared at him and shook her head.
"Tyson, assuming you know that there are 'more like you out there,' would you say the best course of action is to not say a word about what happened." Tyson lifted his head confused, he pointed at himself. Marco nodded, he thought for a second before replying, "I'm not sure, but I think it would be best." His eyes shot across the room, Cooper took a deep breath and said, "What do you mean by 'we don't need to lie about anything'? Cut to the chase."
Bodhi coughed, clearing his throat, "he wants us to not mention what happened to buddy over here" He raised his eyebrows while staring at Tyson. Marco pointed at him and nodded, "all we did was take care of the fissure and left. His completely torn up bodysuit? That big altered stuck to it and Tyson had to rip it off. Mine and Bodhi's damaged suits? Collateral damage from the attack." There was a complete silence in the room, Cooper blew out of his nose loudly as if to not laugh, he turned to leave the room covering his mouth with his hand.
Darren had a dead pan serious face while everyone else smirked. He walked up to Marco and asked "do you really think they're gonna eat that shit up? Why are we even helping him?" He pointed his hand at Tyson who was still sitting. Marco thought for a second before answering, "What's stopping you from killing us right now Tyson, considering we are on course back to the base. If 'those others' got away, what is stopping him from finishing us off here and disappearing on earth?" It was a bit morbid, but it was the truth. Marco began to err on the side of caution, whether he liked it or not, Tyson had won without any real fight, and a part of him pushed him to say he did. Darren looked down at him with a big frown, unusual for his collected demeanor.
"Nothing really, but I also don't have any real reason to stop you... yet." He stood up from the chair and spun it back towards the desk. "Tell me when you figured out what we are gonna write, captain." He turned his head and nodded as he left. A sense of relief washed over Marco, everyone turned to him. "What not, CAPTAIN?" said Darren mockingly. Cooper walked back into the room and leaned against the door.
Near the start of the operation, Cooper and Tyson approached a rupture that had emerged nearby. As they closed it, the mist from the rupture blocked out their vision, an altered approached at rapid velocity, extending its arm out, rotating it as it ripped through Bodhi's jumpsuit. Luckily, Darren was in position and fired a shot into it's core as it gripped onto Bodhi, eliminating it in one hit and leaving Bodhi uninjured, a careless mistake from part of the handlers that thankfully didn't escalate past some ripped clothing.
At the halfway point, They saw the fissure was far too advanced to properly close, Tyson and Cooper both opened it and headed inside, though it was far too late. Cooper was already inside, he blasted off into the ceiling, hitting his head and passing out briefly, Tyson on the other hand was only halfway in, he was spun rapidly in the air, the pressure from the flowing mist ripped the waist of his suit at the suture as he had failed to fully close it up. The altered appeared, Marco and Darren both had guns ready, and fired the instant the enemy came out, eliminating it in one swift combined attack. Tyson was fortunately uninjured aside from some bruising that quickly went away while Cooper hit his head, passing out for a few minutes, his recollection of the last few minutes not so clear.
Cooper looked down at his feet, "Why do I have to be the clown?" The entire room looked at him in confusion, "Clown? what clown? We are just saying it as it happened." Cooper kept his mouth covered as he mumbled, "I thought since we were leaving stuff out maybe we can omit a little bit of what happened to me you know?" Marco laughed, he was glad Cooper was at least taking this somewhat lightly.
Darren raised an eyebrow and asked, "How do you explain our tardiness?" Marco looked up at the ceiling, "Tyson and Bodhi both failed to meet their training regime, we had to take multiple breaks because of them." Bodhi laughed loudly, slapping his knee. Marco smiled and thought it over, "the group deemed it appropriate to rest at every 8 hour mark." He looked around, no one said anything else.
"We are gonna get one hell of a reprimand." Kailey said with her arms crossed, "and guess who is gonna have to take the brunt of it." She tilted her head while frowning at Marco, he nodded in agreement. He huffed, looking around, "any objections?" no answered. No missing arm, no missing hand, no gunshot through Tyson's torso and face. No weird power shenanigans.
Everyone exited the room, they had about 12 hours to submit their reports. Kailey stuck around until everyone left. She approached Marco and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Bodhi was talking to me earlier about what we would write for the report, none of us were really sure what to say." She let go of him and walked away before Marco could respond. "Aye captain" she waved while leaving the room. Marco sat down on his desk, making sure no one was around, he pumped his fist forward and held it tightly in celebration.