Operation: Sigma

[Ethan Talon]

"After? I did my job," he said simply. "We had to stop that Clint character. Putting my life on the line is part of putting on this uniform."

[Trinity Talon]

"I mean that thing you did..." Trinity said as she put her good hand out. "Reminded me of someone special to both of us... always knew you had it in you babe."

[Ethan Talon]

"Uh... yeah," he agreed awkwardly. "It's never came out before. Though, mom's came out fully under similar distress."

[Trinity Talon]

"And it came out because of me." Trinity said with a smile and sighed. "You know the guys are make 'disarming' jokes or 'lend a hand'..." she chuckled. "All I want is a cool hand that's warm and natural to the touch, like your's. But a built in taser or comm or something useful would be handy. Get it... hand-y..." she laughed and rolled her eyes. "Pain killers... gotta love 'em."

[Ethan Talon]

"You don't want a hand like mine. It hurts every day."

Judt then Dougal entered. He paused and looked around the sickbay. Sighting them he closed the distance and presented Ethan a salute.

Ethan stood and returned the salute. This was official buisness. "At ease Colonel."

Dougal relaxed, "I have the casualty report. Easy Company was hit hard. 23 dead, 41 injured. The officers were killed."

"Which ones?" Ethan asked feeling a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"All of them. First Sergeant Connery is leading the company. Bravo company took 15 dead, and 58 injured."

"Damn it!" Ethan growled. "It was a bloodbath. I couldn't even tell you the last time a unit took over 60% casualties."

"The Second Federation-Klingon War," Dougal said.

"We can't fight Ajem like this. We can't do it again. We'll have to figure something out."

[Trinity Talon]

Trinity sat up and looked at Dougal. "Then I think we need to get the Jase'dasis to help. The Ajem'dasis are going to continue killing our guys until we learn how to fight them... or... not fight them." She said with a serious expression on her face. "They know how to kill Marines and Officers really well because we think they're like any other threat."

[Nick Ryder]

"THAT is the smartest thing I've heard out of a Marine yet." Nick said as he walked into the sickbay and rushed to her side. "Hon... I am so sorry..." he looked at her wrapped stump. "I promise I will replace it with something that will feel just as good as new." he looked at Ethan. "And I'm upgrading your's too. This is why my wife sleeps alone a lot."

"I thought it was because you and she barely need sleep?" Trinity teased.

"That too." Nick said as he opened up a case and pulled out a scanner. "Now... this is something I've been developing for a while, basically I'm going to re-grow your hand, but it'll be partially cybernetic, at least the bones, but the rest, the skin, the muscles, nerve endings, will be as close to your own as possible. And it won't hurt all the time, because it'll be basically your own limb, but better."

"That's what I was telling Ethan..." Trinity replied.

"Yeah but I haven't had the breakthrough I needed until recently to make this work... " Nick put the scanner into a padd and then pulled out a device from the case. "Just finished this here... " he said as he undid the wrapping and positioned her hand inside the large box and tube like device. "Now, this will hurt a little, it's essentially opening up the blood vessels and nerve endings and muscles so that this can regrow it. I already measured out the 'bone' part." he held up a hand that was made to fit exactly where her old one was taken off, including the partial bit of forearm. "The beauty of this is that it won't take traditional power cells like mine, your own body will power it and you'll have built in wrist shields so you can punch through a wall and not tear or damage your skin, kinda like those watches I was prototyping."

"How long will this take to get done?" Trinity asked and looked at the device and her grandfather. "You kinda sound like Jack when he's all excited."

"Where do you think he got it from kiddo?" Nick said and kissed her cheek. "One more step... and... there..." he closed the device and gave her a hypo to dull the pain. "In about... twenty minutes... you'll have a hand that you will swear you were born with." he gave Ethan a look. "Stop by my lab and we'll work on your's, I need to do a bit more tinkering to get yours set up. You're the first ones to use this new system, other than a handful of rats, cats and a monkey."

[Ethan Talon]

"If it's all the same to you sir... Perhaps I should keep these. You, know a reminder of what has been lost, and what can be lost."

Ethan leaned over and kissed Trinity gingery on the forehead. "Naw I'm fine. And we need to concentrate on tactics to defeat the Ajem. Armor maybe? That'd be cumbersome."

"Aye, an' expensive," Dougal agreed. "But, what about bracers. Train 'em t' block the klidens with those."

[Nick Ryder]

"Expensive... you do know who you're talking to." Nick said as he opened up what looked like a pack of mints in a metal container. He pulled out a small white disk and slapped it on Dougal's back which spread out over his uniform in a honeycomb pattern and then shifted into his uniform. Reaching into his jacket he pulled out his kilden and sparked it on. "Defend yourself!" he shouted and came down on his arm which was blocked by the armor spilling the energy of the kilden over the rest of his body leaving him intact. "It won't last for a prolonged fight but it should defend against glancing blows and surprise attacks." he pulled the disk off his back and the armor retracted. "I've got... about two dozen in here." he shook the tin. "Micro power cell lasts about a half hour at a crack, but it can be recharged. How many guys you have in total?"

[Ethan Talon]

"The entire division?" He asked. Glancing at Trinity, "With the Narlins we just recruited, I believe the last count was 1,368, and we are on the small side. The 2nd Marine Division is 2,500. The entire corps is 50,000 or so."