[SimonBrownMpreg]

"You can't be up that late, Ryne, and that's final," said Carter in a much firmer tone. His breeder was cute and all, but as a soldier, Carter kept a strong hand when it came to both their responsibilities. He stood himself up straight, looped one arm around Ryne's shoulders, and started walking him back to the breeder's quarters. Most soldiers referred to it as the nest, full of fat hens ready to lay their eggs. "They galley is no place for a breeder anyway."

[DragonKnight]

Ryne scowled at Carter angrily. "Carter I don't want to spend the night in the breeder's quarters! I'm bored and want to spend time with you! I don't want to spend the night alone like the last few weeks." He said as he got loose from Carter's grip.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

"Look, I'm not leaving you right this second, all right?" Carter pinched the bridge of his nose, but then he let out a long exhale. "We have all afternoon together. We can go eat dinner in the cafeteria and then I'll stay with you until you fall asleep. If you're sleeping, you won't even notice I'm gone, right? I'll come back after a few drinks and sleep in the bed with you." He pointed at the boy. "You might be bored, Ryne, but at least you're safe up here. Just you remember that. I've been face-to-face with Sovereign for the past three months. If I want one night to unwind and drink some beers, then I'm going to do it."

[DragonKnight]

Ryne sighed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I know." He said quietly. "That's why I want to go out tonight. You risk your life for me, for everyone here. I just want a night to remember. Because if it's our last night together, I want to remember for as long as I can." He explained with some tears.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

Carter sighed again. Ryne knew damn well that he was near irresistible when he started the waterworks. "Doll, c'mon, don't cry," he urged. Carter walked up to the boy and took him into a strong embrace. "I'm too tough for those Sovereign. We're gonna have plenty more nights together, you hear? We're gonna have more nights and more memories." He brought one hand around and cupped it against Ryne's belly. "And when you have these kids, I'm gonna fill you up again. I'll be around long enough to fill you up so many times, you'll get sick of it, all right? Now no more tears."

[DragonKnight]

Ryne smiled and hugged Carter. "Okay." He said as he rubbed his belly. "You can go to that bar. You need your time off, and I do need my rest." He said as he nuzzled Carter's chest. He's been feeling a little lonely without Carter and a bit too emotional as of late.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

[I'm sorry, but I'm going to need more than that. You described in your profile that you preferred "paragraphs, well detailed and the use of quotes," but I haven't seen much of that from you except for the plot post and your character intro. I've been doing my best to give at least one paragraph each post. Please give me a little bit more to work with.]

[stoichornet]

The specialist was still continuing to work, glancing across the hangar at the few medivac vehicles that had come back in- the majority of soldiers unfortunate enough to be critically wounded were usually exposed too far to Sovereign infection to be saved. Although the combat medics had certainly been trying, it was one of the endemic problems of the war, and Han-jae would have been a liar (okay, even more of one than usual) if he said he wasn't worried about his own chances. However, battle was indeed what he'd signed up to do, to make some kind of dent in the Sovereign numbers.

He winced, looking at a suit of armor that had just come down the pike- it had been torn open like a can of stock "fish", and he marked it for salvage. Like most armors that had seen any degree of long use, this one had its own scratched-in symbols and marks, and he could make out part of a name.

[FolkMaster]

Piras gripped the handle on the railing he currently leaned against. He watched the 400 men file into the return bay, his eyes trained for his soldier, but he never saw the familiar face. Finally, the last man walked inside and the door sealed shut. Had Piras missed him? He felt his heart constrict inside his chest. Had Milo been wounded? He rushed as quickly as he could to the other side of the bay towards the medivac hangar. Again, he gripped the railing and leaned over. Amber eyes jumped around, watching each truck unload the wounded and dying soldiers, rushing them to the quarantine zone. No familiar faces. There was only one truck left, one spray painted graffiti style with a skull and cross bones. The only soldiers unloaded from that truck were already in black body bags. Piras refused to believe his soldier was in one of those bags.

"Han-jae!" he gasped. Piras turned and hurried into the artillery locker where the Korean was inspecting the violently damaged armor. All the soldiers had to come through here to unload their gear and their suits. Maybe Piras just missed his soldier somehow. "Han-jae, did you see Milo come through here? W-Warrant Officer Milo Briggs. Did you see him?"

[stoichornet]

"Milo...Milo Briggs," Han-jae recognized the name from somewhere, and definitely recognized the striking breeder in front of him from meetings at the PX and around base, often spent arguing over collections of logic puzzles that were reprints from some set published pre-towers and pre-war. "Wait, yes, I remember who you're paired with- but I don't think I've seen him come through here. He might have dropped his gear off with someone else at the lockers, or have been yanked aside by the brass for a debriefing or something. Let me check my list." He picked up a tablet from a nearby counter and scrolled down a checklist, pausing at an entry roughly three-quarters of the way down.

"...it says here I do have his things." Han-jae glanced backwards at the armor locker and then began using the tablet to scan the suits for an entry match. "I'll cross-check to see when he came in, and then you can head upstairs to yell at him for keeping you-"

The tablet flashed green, which indicated that he'd found the gear registered to Briggs. "-waiting." He muttered something that sounded like "ah, ssibal" under his breath and cut himself short before anything else could leak out. The match, plainly visible to Piras, was one of the suits that had been torn clean open, with no matching helmet registered.

Han-jae was not smiling. "...that...Does not look good. Listen, check with Medical, see if a casualty list is posted, he might be in quarantine. Do you want me to come with you?" He could probably bend a few rules to step away from his post for a few minutes.

[FolkMaster]

Piras gripped the front of his shirt anxiously. He felt relieved when Han-jae said he had Milo's armor, but there was still a lump in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to be optimistic like the Specialist who insisted Milo was just elsewhere in the Tower and waiting for Piras. Then the tablet flashed that striking neon green color in front of a suit that looked like a pair of claws wrenched it open like a can of tuna. Piras even saw the two lines of "FFICER" and "IGGS" still visible on the right breast of the chest plate.

All the color drained from Piras' face. The lump in the pit of his stomach moved up into his throat and nearly spilled out his mouth onto the floor. He could only nod frantically at Han-jae's officer before turning on his heels and running as quickly as he could towards the elevators. The Specialist barely made it through the doors before they closed and Piras abused the button for the Contamination Zone. A blast of sterilizer hit them just as the doors opened again. Medical staff ran around in their coats, gloves and masks. Infected soldiers were transported on gurneys fitted with plastic dome lids to keep any of the bloody madness from spreading.

Piras rushed around, holding his belly with both hands to keep his balance, but he couldn't find anything resembling a casualty list. Had the bodies not been named yet? "You shouldn't be down here!" one of the medics scolded the breeder. "You're putting your pregnancy at risk!"

"Is Warrant Officer Milo Briggs here?" Piras asked, completely disregarding the warning. He even grabbed the front of the man's coat. "Milo Briggs, damn it! Is he here?!" The medic made the mistake of casting a nervous glance towards a windowed room. Piras wasted no time running towards it, ignoring the medic's shouts for him to stop. The young breeder slammed both hands against the glass, his eyes landing on the dead body of his soldier at the precise moment a scalpel open his flesh for the autopsy. Piras screamed and beat his fists on the window, startling the medic inside, and catching the attention of everyone else in the area.

[stoichornet]

Han-jae was dashing off a rapid explanation to a medic who had tried to block his way, and finally reached the hallway near the autopsy theater, where Piras stood, with a dawning realization that he had most certainly fucked up the death announcement; there was a reason those things were usually delivered as anodyne notices, to give people some distance from the dead. "...ugh."

He would probably have rather been facing down a plasma cannon or a swarm of hungry "Little Bastards" than doing this; at least either of the other situations could be handled with a smile and sufficient amounts of things that went boom. "Hey..." Han-jae reached for Piras' arm. The medics could probably call the MPs if they felt like it, which wouldn't help anyone here.

[DragonKnight]

As Piras stood there, The Commander of the Resistance Force, Kage, had come up and placed a sympathetic hand on Piras' shoulder. "Damn good soldier. Saved his squad from an attack. He will not be forgotten." Kage said to offer words of sympathy. He's been doing this for too long, and was just tired of losing men.

[FolkMaster]

Piras flinched under Kage's touch. Damn good soldier? That was it? Martyrdom wasn't impressive anymore these days; not when the human race was down to endangered numbers. Losing someone was devastating. A damn good soldier... That didn't even begin to describe Milo. He came from an English father and a French mother, born on a farm in Indiana, the oldest of six siblings... He loved Humphrey Bogart films, never drank green drinks, and had the bad habit of biting his nails. When he was young and before The Arrival, he wanted to be an engineer and build bridges. He never got to become an engineer. He wasn't even a damn good soldier anymore. Now he was just another dead body.

The medic in the autopsy theatre hastily threw a sheet over the remains of Milo Briggs, and that broke the horrified trance over Piras. The young man choked on a sob before turning into Han-jae's chest and crying openly. His legs buckled underneath him, so he grabbed the Specialist's muscled arms to keep from falling. Why did he ever let himself get attached to a soldier? Piras knew damn well that every time a unit left, there was a strong possibility that some or even all of them might never come back... but he let himself fall for Milo anyway. Now he was paying the price.

Another medical officer approached them with a syringe in hand. He locked eyes with Han-jae and gestured for the Specialist to remain quiet. Piras yelped when he felt the sharp pinch in his shoulder. Almost immediately, the sedative took effect and he slumped in Han-jae's arms, looking up at the man with tear-stained cheeks before his amber eyes drooped closed. "You two have been down here long enough," said the medical officer as he dropped the used syringe into a labeled bag. "You risk exposure without the proper protective gear. Get him and yourself to decontamination right away. The staff will make sure his pregnancy hasn't been jeopardized and then they'll put him back in his room."

[stoichornet]

Han-jae saluted the Commander. "...Sir."

In accordance with the medical officer's directive, he half-supported, half-carried Piras on his way back to decontamination. He felt guilty, for not knowing the first thing about the dead man (he tried to recall Briggs' face, and failed), for not really being able to help Piras given the situation. He realized that he didn't really know the first thing about the breeder either; since his transfer in from Shanghai, he'd been skimming the surfaces of people's lives here, concentrating on the parts of their stories that would be entertaining.

He had to explain again, to the guys in charge of decon, explaining the why-aren't-you-at-your-post and the-breeder-went-WHERE topics agilely and with a minimum of visible frustration. "...just make sure he's all right and his payload is okay." The Specialist endured being sprayed down with the "magic goo" the decon room was so secretive about, hosed himself off, got back in uniform, and was given a clean bill of health.

The decon specialist was too busy to tell him about Piras, so Han-jae returned to his post and continued to check things in, mark for salvage, mark for refurbishment. Before he was supposed to go to the galley to meet Carter for a drink (an attractive prospect on this particular day), he spent a while standing in front of the PX's shelves before rejecting the idea of sending the new widow something like a sympathy card- he'd likely get one soon from the military, anyway, and it was a hollow gesture at best.

-In case you need a distraction,- he wrote in a brief message to Piras' personal tablet, attaching a novel he'd read once, although he'd never been able to understand what he thought were subtle jokes and puzzles. Something about a man willing all his possessions to whichever one of his "heirs" could figure out the meaning of clues passed out at the reading of the will.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

Carter grinned when he saw Ryne manage to smile again. "That's my beautiful doll. One night to decompress and have some beers is all I'm asking for." He chuckled as the boy nuzzled him, so he wrapped his strong arms around that small body. "Tell you what, tomorrow will be just me and you all day long. We'll do all the things you love. I'm gonna book us some time on the holo-deck and get that beach simulator you love so much." When Ryne finally seemed to be in better spirits, he led the boy along again towards the breeders quarters and found Ryne's room.

Carter helped him sit down on the well-cushioned bed, just gazing at him. One large hand stroked bright blonde hair, feeling the silky strands beneath his callused palm, and followed down to his smooth neck. Carter's dark eyes drifted downward to that belly. It was so big. He couldn't believe Ryne swelled up this much without popping. His hand left Ryne's neck and instead started tugging experimentally at the hem of the breeder's shirt. "Can I see?"

[DragonKnight]

Ryne blushed brightly as Carter wanted to see his belly. He was always embarrassed of showing skin in public, but when he met Carter he showed much more skin to him. He became a little more embarrassed by his large belly, having eyes attracted to it all the time. He turned his head with a blush still on his face before he slowly lifted up his shirt. "Y-y-you can l-l-l-look. J-j-j-just for a bit!" He said embarrassingly.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

Carter let out a chuckle that came from deep within his chest. "Do you even know how adorable you are?" he asked before planting a kiss to Ryne's forehead. The soldier remembered when he and Ryne got paired together. It was obvious from the moment he laid eyes on the breeder that the boy never stood naked in front of anyone before other than the scientists. Carter came into the pairing thinking he'd just put his seed in another breeder and then go back down to the surface where he'd shoot Sovereign in the face. In fact, he wasn't particularly gentle their first time. Ryne didn't get pregnant right away, so they had to keep trying, and with each effort, Carter's heart softened more and more towards the fair-looking youth.

Now, that same heart skipped a beat when he saw that bare belly. It looked incredible. The medical staff was doing a great job making sure the progression went smoothly. He couldn't see a single vein or stretch mark anywhere. His finger toyed with the protruding bellybutton that was just too cute for words. Then, his dark eyes lit up when he saw a few different feet kick from inside. "You look beautiful," he hummed and leaned down, pressing a kiss to Ryne's heavily pregnant belly.

[DragonKnight]

Ryne let out a moan as Carter kissed his belly. "What are you doing?" He asked embarrisngly as the babies just continued to kick, feeling excited now as their father was nearby. "You know I get embarrassed when you say things like that." He continued.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

Carter just chuckled again. "You think that's gonna stop me from saying it? Doll, you still got a lot t'learn about me." He let both his hand cup Ryne's belly, slipping down underneath it and then lifting slightly, as if to test the weight of it in his palms. It didn't feel much different than some of the armor he had to tote around. "You're really incredible, Ryne, you know? Carrying around six babies inside you... I can't even imagine what that's like. What you go through each day." He leaned down, pressing another kiss to the stretched skin. His fingers teased against the tiny kicking feet, encouraging them to play with him. "And to think, you're going to get even bigger and even more beautiful."