Lockdown On Planet Sem

A mood fell upon Alpha Radio Station 1, though it wasn't exactly easy to put your finger on what sort of mood it was. It wasn't exactly melancholy, everyone was too excited the prospect of the easing of lockdown for that. It wasn't exactly boredom, Akira was still singing as she vacuumed the main corridor while Miles kept time with a spork he was meant to be washing. It wasn't exactly quiet or dispirited either, due to the above reason. It was probably more so a mood of anticipation. Everyone was too eager to pack up and leave the radio station and their lockdown jobs behind to focus on the task at hand. Tristan was starting to catch onto this and he was finding it rather frustrating. He didn't want to make a mess of the daily reports now, after all their efforts, and especially not due to something as small as a lack of focus. With his Captain-like attitude in full swing, he decided to raise it at the daily meeting: "I have come up with a plan to boost tea...

"Hey, what do you want to do on our last day?" Akira asked on the team's daily call. Everyone was feeling the same way she was, ever so slightly consumed by the prospect of returning to their normal lives. Though it hadn't been long or even necessarily a great struggle to live in Alpha Radio Station 1, the Rising Star Battalion were young, vibrant and eager to begin progressing towards the next stage of their lives again, both individually and together as a team.  It was all too possible that, with a lack of older adults, they had forgotten the meaning of living every moment and enjoying it to its full. "Sure, definitely," agreed Miles, "How about we have a feast?" "Yes, that sounds good. I was thinking we might sit for a while and just discuss ordinary things. It's not often we get a chance to just be ourselves and take time to get to know each other better," Tristan suggested. "Yeah, okay," agreed Kain...

Akira lay in her camp bed reading, but her mind was distracted. As Sem now entered its fourth and final week of lockdown, she couldn't keep her mind off what she was going to do once she was allowed her freedom back. She was very much dedicated to her job but, like the others on her team, she was also very dedicated to her family and looked forward to seeing them again. She had friends living in Piscanturia whom she missed as well and she longed to be able to go fishing at the weekend with them soon. She missed the way of life there, everything felt so tightly packed along the coastline of Simul Santu, it was like everything had been squashed. Then again though, she thought, the Rising Star Battalion hadn't yet been on its first space mission and the way in which they'd coped with the lockdown situation had been pretty practical and well-managed. She felt very comfortable in the team's future. Satisfied with that, she managed to re-invest in the story and focus he...

1...  2...  3...  4... Miles breathed heavily, doing sit-ups on the floor of his room as part of his exercise routine. 5... 6... 6 ½… 7... He kept going until he reached 30 before finishing up and going for a cold shower. His daily exercise felt like it had taken longer than usual. His spirit waned and his strength felt like it was wearing thin, but the feeling of the water on his back refreshed and rejuvenated him. He stepped out feeling very alive. Learning from the events that took place during the Sterculian invasion when he completely wore himself out, he got dressed, slung his towel round his shoulders and went to take a snack from the kitchen. He bumped into Akira on the way and gave her a smile. "How's it going?" "I'm fine, thanks," she replied, "Looks like you've been productive as always." "Yeah, just grabbing something to eat before I get back to work." "Ah, good good. I...

Tristan woke up in one of the most Captain-like moods he'd ever been in. He was productive from the offset, despite the harsh conditions outside. He set to writing his script with a strong sense of, not only determination, but something that someone other than himself would probably describe as charisma. He would have described it as personability. Perhaps, those two concepts were the same. Perhaps not. The former felt like a personality trait or skill, learned by communicating with others, the latter felt like projecting the most relatable and friendly part of himself. He still felt this way during the daily progress call he had with his teammates, conducting the conversation in an effortless and sensible manner. This was something which  Miles greatly appreciated, since he had quite a few questions to get through. He, himself, did too. He wanted to ensure his language and tone were as perfect as he perceived them to be. He gained some very useful pointers from Akira and lavishe...

Akira stepped into Kain's room. He had his camp bed positioned at opposite ends to the door, leaning against a stack of tables. It was a sizeable room, but there were so many random furnishings in it that it wasn't particularly functional. Stacks of incredibly cheap, elderly microwaves that most across planet Sem wouldn't have seen in nearly two decades sat in a corner. Next to them were a mad inventor's attempts to create a posh tea-making machine with a strength setting, syrup, sugar and milk options and a dial to indicate the size of your cup. Most would be skeptical as to whether this would work. Like the rest of the rooms, Kain's had an interactive wall. This was the only one which was completely clear, though there was a newfangled sound-system next to it and an entangled coil of cabling sat atop it. In front of it, was Kain's swivel chair. It lay on its back, with the young man still sat in it, his long legs creeping over the seat and his feet flopp...

Kain wasn't feeling the same as usual, his head spun and he felt a bit weak. He hadn't slept very well at all the night before, experiencing vivid dream after vivid dream. They were all snapshots of Pasqual festivities gone by, exactly as he remembered except from two small  details: he was invisible and his mum kept complaining that he was too busy being a soldier to care about being there with them. In one dream, he'd been at a family Pasqual dinner from when he was aged eight. He remembered it vividly, his mum had cooked a delicious traditional dinner full of vegetables his aunt had donated from her garden and everyone had been really pleased with how it turned out. They nearly hadn't had a food fight that year, it was that delicious. However, when the rest of his family had tucked into their meals, he'd attempted to pick up his spork (a common utensil on Sem and just a modified version of the ones used on Earth - the bowls of the spoons were deeper and the p...

Akira did her daily chores as the military floats rode the streets of Sem. She sung and danced through the hallway while she hoovered, under the notion that Kain was exercising in his room, Miles was focussed on learning a new verb tense in Sterculian and Tristan was out getting the groceries. She was so engrossed, she didn't hear the footsteps treading towards the kitchen, continuing to tap her feet backwards and forwards and spin the hoover round like it was her dancing partner. She twirled round with her arms flailing gracefully in the air, only to catch sight of a certain Kain Douglas who was failing to let a smirk escape his mouth. "Having fun there?" He asked, resting his arm against the starkly blank wall. "Oh shut up," Akira stopped the hoover and folded her arms, "Don't tell me you haven't done anything like that before, Mr Jogs-A-Lot." He laughed, "Yeah, I have, it's just kinda funny watching you being so... sprightly...

Tristan Kearney woke up to a peaceful feeling, realising he'd somehow managed to find a comfortable position on the springy camp bed. His mind had been at rest ever since they'd received the praise from the Commanding Officer. He knew that it shouldn't matter to him whether he approved or not, so long as he stuck to what was right, but it really meant a lot to him that he and his team were excelling in their roles. It gave him hope that, when they got out of this situation and were able to go back to their ordinary lives, they'd cope just fine. He opened the blinds and looked out his window, gazing out at the sky. His team, while they'd been through a lot of training together, had yet to go on an actual, official space mission. He was really looking forward to it. Calm and ready, he got dressed and immediately set to writing his script for the day, thinking of an optimistic message for his fellow citizens. ****** "Good evening, fellow citizens. Tha...

It was a colourful day in Alpha Radio Station 1. The Pasqual decorations were in full bloom and the team were in high spirits. Miles whistled as he worked on his script, Kain was finding more and more alternative ways to exercise, Tristan was productively scrubbing away in the bathrooms and Akira was cooking up a festive meal in the kitchen and putting her own creative touches to it. Then the buzzer went off. Given they were meant to be in isolation, this was not a sound anyone in the RSB was used to. Prior to this, the only time they'd heard it was when the technician had arrived after the Sterculian interception. Everyone came through to the hallway, in a less than orderly fashion. Akira was still brandishing a spatula, Kain was still holding two cannisters he had been using as weights, Tristan was still wearing his cleaning gloves and Miles had run through with his pen nib still set on standby. They stopped and stared at each other for a moment and then turned to look in...

"Good evening, fellow citizens, and welcome to this evening's special broadcast. Our servers are set up so that we can connect with you, so we are fully ready to hear what you have to say about the celebration of Pasqual. Just before we start, I'd like to acknowledge that our Commanding Officer has confirmed that the release of the new home testing kits will take place between the end of this week and the beginning of next week. We will be targeting areas with less cases in the first instance and then we will spread out to other areas from there. Please note that, if you believe you are developing symptoms, you should still take one of the current swab tests and put your results on our website so we can continue to gather as much data as possible. If you need a new swab test, you can quickly contact your nearest military hub by entering the number '742' on your device. Please only call this number if you need to. Thank you. Now, here's Kain with your favour...