Elite roleplay: Off station

OFF STATION

Your ship, deep space, anything that is not happening inside the Citi Gateway or Ingaba...

General Roleplay Etiquette:

1. Control only the actions of your own character(s). (AKA: God Mode)
This doesn't matter how small the action is, even if it is as simple as scratching their nose or a direct reaction to something else that just happened. This applies to everything from casual conversation to full blown fight scenes. If you'd like someone to do something specific, PM that person, however keep in mind they are completely within their rights to say no. Especially if said action is inappropriate to their character and/or circumstance.

2. Don't brute force your way into another persons RP.
Approaching with a conversation starter is fine, or indeed some other small action. However charging in, guns blazing and disrupting the flow of another person/pair/groups conversation/arc is about as rude as doing so in real life. If something is going on that you'd like to participate in, be subtle about it. Put out a gentle hook for someone to take, but again, be aware that said hook may not be taken. If you fear it was simply unnoticed, PM the person or people it concerns. Or even leave a message in the OOC forums.

3. Good grammar and spelling is preferred.
We're not asking you to be perfect, but please at least demonstrate willingness. no1 iz gna tak u srsly usng txt spk. There's a wide variety of people here, many who speak English as a second, or even third language. There are even some with varying degrees of dyslexia and/or likely other issues that affect spelling/grammar. We accept them all here. However, people who aren't accepted, are those unwilling to accept polite correction. Remember that even a small thing like the placement of a comma, or the wrong use of there/their/they're can completely change the definition of an entire sentence.

4. Accept constructive criticism gracefully and politely.
If someone spots an issue with your writings, they may wish to help you improve that writing. They may do this through PM or even publicly air their thoughts on the OOC forum. If they have taken the time to be polite and explain what is wrong with your writing, the best way to behave is to respond in kind, using the same manner they have approached you with. It means they have taken an active interest in what you have written and wish to see more. Basically, you have a fan!

5. Don't take the actions or opinions of things done IN RP, to be directly relevant to the writers thoughts or opinions.
Basically, if some ones character calls your character a jackass, it doesn't mean the writer thinks you are a jackass. It's a ROLE they are PLAYING. Watch a movie. The argument between the characters isn't an argument between the actors involved. The same applies here.

6. It's not a popularity contest.
Your RP might be bustling with participants. You have 3 people off station in a fire fight, while another 2 are infiltrating the darkest areas of the station, meanwhile a group of 4 others are tracking your movements in an effort to stop you. Good for you, I'm sure it will be a thrilling read! But you know what? Sometimes the absolute BEST work, comes from two RP characters having a simple heart to heart. Both are valid, both are great, but NEITHER is categorically better than the other. Period.


Inara RP Etiquette:

1. Respect the setting and rules of the universe.
Inara is an Elite: Dangerous 3rd Party Tool. The RP Forums are set in the Elite: Dangerous universe. Elite: Dangerous has rules, as any fictional universe does from Lord of the Rings to Star Wars, or Game of Thrones to Star Trek. If you intend to RP within the Elite: Dangerous universe you are bound by the history and rules of that universe. Simply put, this RP forum is bound by the same rules as the game, so if it can't be done in the game, it is not permitted here. This applies to things from a 50Ly Jump Range on a normal, unmodified Sidewinder, to the destruction of entire stations.

2. Respect the characters created by others.
We have a wide variety of characters already here. It's expected that some will be similar, just as it's expected that two characters will be vastly different. Opinions of each persons character will naturally be varied, but all are valid provided they follow the rules of the universe. You are allowed to interact with, or avoid interaction with, any character in the RP forums. But you have no right to belittle others for their creation. You are not an authority figure on writing, nor are you directly affected by another persons imagination. You might not like it, but you MUST respect it.

3. Be caught up on current events before joining in.
You need basic things like character descriptions in order to interact with them. You also need to know what's going on in the surrounding areas. This is simply because the people you are hoping to RP with, might be gearing up to something that you might not want to be part of. Or simply that the most recent post, out of context, could leave a different impression on the goings on than if you gather that context. We don't expect you to read every single post from the beginning of the forums, just enough to get that basic understanding.

4. Either subscribe to, or frequently check, the Roleplay: Q&A and OOC forum.
People may be discussing something relevant to you there, or even discussing you directly. Perhaps someone asked what the general consensus on the existence or non-existence of a certain object. Or we're just chatting about random gibberish. Either way, be aware of it and use it. If you're unsure about something, such as how guns would look and or behave, or even the music selection, use the OOC forum to ask. We don't have all of the answers, but the collective knowledge and logic usually allows us to overcome an issue and come to a decision on what should be allowed. Frontier Developments, and even David Braben himself, don't have the answers to every possible question that can be asked.

5. Large Scale events exploding out of nowhere are a complete no go.
We get it. Everyone wants their character to be noticed and for people to be tripping over themselves to interact with them. In some audiences, an introduction involving you blasting in for landing in a fiery wreckage of a ship, before cart wheeling out and sword fighting 35 Ninjas before whisking off with the local celebrity for a glorious night of passion, is in fact, cool. This is not one of those audiences. It is generally considered better to build your character up slowly over time. Eventually, you might even have a legitimate excuse to fight those Ninjas. Maybe even with other RP participants by your side.

6. Perfect characters are boring.
The point of a character arc, is that it is in fact, an arc shape. One who is morally unquestionable, fully kitted out and an infinite fountain of knowledge, cannot go through an arc. Give your character flaws. Be it a tendency towards befriending the wrong people, or a bad knee that frequently gives out at inopportune moments. It gives readers something to latch onto and empathise with. You can give your character exceptional capabilities at something, but it requires balance. She's a damn good pilot with no equal, but can't drive an SRV for peanuts. It can lead to some very interesting moments between characters, be it heartfelt or comedic.


Other Notes:
It should be noted that there can be exceptions to these points. For example, good grammar when a character is speaking is actually rare. Few people in real life actually speak with perfect eloquence after all. Or previously arranged actions during a fight scene, such as someone stumbling back after a punch. What's key to remember is context.

All in all, remember this is purely for fun. We have some seriously talented writers here, and others whose writing history starts and ends at high school. But many are willing to help out in whatever way they can. All it takes is that you ask nicely.

Also keep in mind that many people who RP here, also have logbook stories related to the character, or characters, they portray. If it looks like there's an "in joke" going on that you're unsure of, it's probably in those.

In fact, some users have even gone to the trouble of creating "alts" to RP with. If you read back far enough, it's usually pretty clear who has and hasn't, and which ones are the "alts". It's therefore not unheard of to see the apparent seizing of control of other characters. If you do spot one, point it out in the OOC section. If intervention is needed, it will be sorted quickly and (hopefully) politely.

Most, if not all RP participants here have Logbook stories pertaining to their character(s). These are for the reading pleasure of anyone who wishes to do so. While it can be useful to read them in order to gain a bit of backstory on a character you wish to interact with, it should not be assumed that your character shares that knowledge. Within the E:D Universe, these Logbooks either don't exist, or are private diaries kept by the characters. Either way, without explicit statements to say otherwise from the writer, your interactions should reflect that your character is in the dark about any information you, the writer/reader, have gained from reading the stories.
Maul Montresor
27 Aug 2019, 7:18pm
Maul bows to Omi, keeping his eyes locked on her. He steps forward and swings at her. She ducks under his fist and uses his own momentum to take his legs out from under him.

Maul lays on his back looking up at Omi. "Lucky shot." He jokes as he stands back up.

"Again." Omi insists.

Maul swings at her again. She attempts to sweep his legs but he quickly steps back and kicks her chest causing her to fall backwards.

Omi looks up at Maul and smiles. "Good. Now help me up." She extends her hand.

Without thinking, Maul grabs her hand. Omi stands up still grasping his arm. She quickly jumps and wraps her self around his arm causing them to both hit the floor. She begins an armbar. Maul grabs the wrist wrist of the targeted arm and attempts to keep her from locking in the move. He struggles to gain leverage. She locks the arm and Maul shouts in pain. He successfully maneuvers around to his knees and slowly gets on his feet to stand up straight with Omi still latched onto his arm. He uses his body weight to slam down on top of her causing them to smash into the floor. Omi releases the armbar and Maul slams his foot onto her chest to hold her down.

"Gotcha." He said with a dopey smile.

Omi twists his ankle causing him to lose his footing.

"Okay, now what do you do?." Omi retorts to the now face down Maul.

Omi holds onto his ankle as he rolls over onto his back and pulls his knees closer to his chest causing her to step closer. He punches her hands and grabs her arms to pry her grip loose before flipping her over his body onto the floor next to him.

They briefly glance at each other before they both scatter to their feet. Omi swings at Maul. He dodges the punch and wraps his arm around her neck to put her in a sleeper hold. He kicks the back of her knee to cause her leg to give out. They fall to the floor and Maul wraps his legs around her and pulls the choke tighter for a moment before releasing.

They stand back up and smile at each other.

"Again." Omi says between breaths.

*******Up in the cockpit*******

Vega listens to Khelan and nods in agreement.

"It sounds like meeting Shin and Omi kind of saved you from yourself." She pauses. "What happens next for you and Omi? I'm sure that running this Black Dragon stuff will be a huge undertaking. I'd cripple under the stress of something like that....not saying that you will....I'm just saying."

Last edit: 28 Aug 2019, 12:22am
Khelan
27 Aug 2019, 8:33pm
Khelan shrugs at Vega.

"Mibby, it certainly gave ma life a purpose. Afore that Ah wis jus haulin shite frae port tae port makin enough tae pay ma bills and tae let me hiv a wee bitty fun wi the locals if ye catch ma drift?"

He thinks for a few moments before continuing to talk.

"The Black Dragon society they gave me purpose, Shin took me in an saw the potential in me. Some folks might just dismiss them as nuttin mair than a buncha crooks but they've goat a strict code and they keep the peace oan Hondo City which wis mair than the cops could dae afore they arrived. Folks there know that they will be safe so long as they toe the line and businesses pay their protection money."

He scratches the side of his head and keeps talking.

"Folks know if somethin happens then they hiv two choices, go tae the cops and it gets lost in excuses an paperwork oar talk tae the right folks an the problem gets sorted. The cops occasionally gie a bit of grief usually when they get a new heid honcho but they can never pin anything oan us an folks know that withoot us the station wid be a war zone so they want us there."

He picks up his mug of tea and downs the last of it before putting the mug down at his side.

" Ah dinnae think we'll hiv much in the way of problems. A few folks are upset aboot the changes an ma appointment tae Omi's second in command but they should have enough respect tae follow her lead. Plus y'know ma word of wit happened wi that fuckin eedjit is all aroon the station noo so they shud know better than tae cause any shite oar else they'll meet a similar fate."

The Prid jumps into another system and the cockpit gets bathed in a blue glow.

"Leo wit the fuck is that?" he shouts

"Neutron Star commander, you said you wanted to get there quickly." responds Leo

"Ah said quickly, no potentially crushed in the funnel of a fuckin Neutron Star!"

Khelan flips open the ships internal comms.

"Ye might wanna hauld oan guys this is gonnae get rough."

Khelan aims the Prid towards the end of the Neutron funnel at a shallow angle of attack and the massive ship starts bucking and weaving from the forces exerted by the star. Alarms start blaring in the cockpit and Leo's voice announces.

"Warning, frame shift operating beyond safety limits."

"This is all yer fuckin fault Leo so dinnae ye go lecturing me aboot safety!"

The Prid continues to buck and weave while the loud creaks and groans of stressed metal echo throughout the ship. Khelan wrestles with the controls trying to keep the ship under control beads of sweat trickling down his forehead.

"Frame shift drive supercharged." announces Leo calmly

"Thank fuck" exclaims Khelan as he wrestles the Prid out of the stars cone and quickly checks over the ships modules. He smiles as he notices the jump range has quadrupled and he recalculates for the next jump.

"Leo, dinnae dae that again waeoot warnin me!" he says as he starts the FSD spool up.

**********Down in the cargo hold**********

Omi regains her footing as the ship stops bucking and weaving.

"I guess whatever was going on has finished and we're all still alive." she says before landing a powerful punch to Maul's Solar Plexus followed by a leg sweep.

She drops back into a fighting stance and waits for him to get back to his feet.
Sen Zaurak
28 Aug 2019, 1:25pm
Leaving the meeting from Raine Sen looks down at his com device as he makes his way to back to the Dreadnaught. His mind locked in on heading out into the black in dangerous sectors filled with the unpredictable Thargoids.   The thought that someone is baiting the Thargoids to attack stations, or ships, or even colonies seems to be apparent but the mystery is who.  Sen can not help but remember back to the time the Beast crew used to cover their kidnapped victims in Hovan blood.  Then letting loose the blood hungry canine slugs from the Votarin mines.  The slugs would not understand that a human was under the goo and would just go crazed for devouring every bit of the Hovan blood.   The death was horrid. Much like the deaths at the result of the Thargoid attacks.  

 Sen focuses more on the message on his screen as it was a location invite. One from inside the station.  Looking up he sees he is just around the corner from the invite.

"This could be bad."  Sen says out loud before looking back to the direction of the invite marker.  

"Dex, send a location tag to Kat. If I am not out of that section of the station in 10, tell Kat to alert station services, and come in hot.  "  Sen tucks his device back into his jacket.

"Yes Sir, right away."  Dex responds.

Walking into the empty bar room he finds a series of halls and corners. This part of the station has some deep caverns but at last walks into a bar area.  Vintage furniture from a time long past decorate the station lounge.  Still no sign of the host until Sen takes a turn.  Looking over he sees Star, sitting casually.

 

"Hello Darling."  Star says to Sen.

Sen taking a moment to pull the cigar from his lips he shakes his head at Star.  "Well all be dammed. Looks like ghosts are real."  He says placing the cigar back in his lips.

"As much as I would hate to get into the past and what was where, we do not have time.  As you know, I am from Winters H,Q.  You have data , the situation has changed. You need to give it to me. No arguments. "  Pulling out her own com device.  "The Federation made a premature call to have the data given to a courier."  Star motions at Sen.  "The data has been classified as  top secret and needs to be contained."  Star smiles at Sen.  "You are looking great by the way." She adds.



Sen says nothing for a few moments and pulls the cigar from his lips. Looking at the glowing amber as he blows onto it to cause the fire to reignite on the end.  "Cut the crap Star. Between you and Winters playing ping pong with me between your beds and even sometimes sharing the same table , I am not getting pulled into your issues or the Feds issues any longer.  This has been a line too far."  Sen says calmly.  When Sen goes this calm it usually ends up in someone very dead.  His movements are slow and Star is watching every one of them carefully. She knows Sen and knows him well.  She has seen this before. Maybe this is why Winters office sent her. Maybe this is why they insist on her keeping an eye on the other dangerous elements trying to get their hands on the data.  But her heart races as she has no idea what to expect next.  Sen trained Star many years ago. And now, student is trying to back the teacher into a corner for the sake of orders given for her to follow.



"What ever do you mea,,,," Star starts to say before Sen growls back at her.   "Do not even think of playing me for stupid.  I know the Thargoid connection, Dex decoded that shit, and I ended up with a hot mess in my lap from the moment that crap was sent to the Dreadnaught!"  Sen says as anger starts to grow.  "But I have a target in this sector and I intend to find out what the hell it is. As for the rest of the data, I broke it up. It has been taken off to different areas of space and I am about to find out what the main part is about Star. And so help me Gods if the Federation or anyone else is doing what I think they are doing, turning Thargoids into attack dogs.  That IS it. I am out for good!"  Sen says pointedly and places the cigar back in his lips watching the expression on Stars face.  He can see she is fully unaware of all the details.  



She sits for a moment before lifting her hand and talking into her own AI system built into her suit. A low level system but works on high level of diplomat spy agents and covert assets. Star was born to be a spook from day one.  But Sen's words has jarred something in her as she talks to the AI.  "Disable record. erase last hour"    Star stands and walks closer to Sen.  "If what you say is true, I am out as well."  She says calmly.  Sen knows she is being honest as he watches her move to the near by computer desk.    "Dex, access near by console and play simulation data."    Sen says to his HUD.   "Sending data now Sir."  Dex responds as Star takes a seat. The desk coming to life with the information and data to back up his story.  



Star looks over the data. She can see the bait pings and the time before the ping location causes a Thargoid attack.   "Oh my God."  She says in a half whisper.   "Sen, I ,,, I had no,,, "  Her voice cracks some.  "All those people..."  Is all she can muster to say without breaking down.  She knows how many lost lives, how it affected those around the dead.  Her true emotions are being pushed down so hard but still she shows her cracks. A tear falls down her cheek mixed with anger in her expression.  



Sen walks up. Looking down at her for a moment before pointing out a near by signal source.   "Here. this is a fresh ping, I need to know what is there, time is short, and my backup is waiting, I need to go Star. You are not getting this data as it is my only backup to aleart others to what is going on. At least until I know exactly what is going on. Until then, all those connected to this damn data run are in danger. Big danger. Until I can figure out what it is that is going on. And why. "  Sen says as a message from Raine comes in.  

((Heading out of the slot, meet you outside.))  

"I need to go." Sen says again tucking away his com device.



Star jumps from the chair and rushes around to stand in front of Sen.  "I want you to bring me along." She says with a hint of venom.

"No."  Sen replies as he starts to walk past her.  Star extends her arm to act as a stop

"Wait, please, Sen, you know my history, you know if what you think is true how much it will mean to me." She says softly.

"No" Sen says once again.

"Sen, please. do not, make me beg." Star pleads.

"Star, I do know how much it means to you. But I have no idea what I am getting into.  My ship is strong, my skill is good, and my fighter pilot happens to be one of the best private Thargoid researcher.  And happens to be one damn good fighter. We will go, we will find out what is going on at that ping location and come back and tell you.  Ok?

"Promise?" Star says sincerely.

"Yes."  Sen responds

"This way then." Star says, leading Sen along some narrow hallways hidden behind walls.  They at last come out of the thin areas to reach the docking bay of the Dreadnught.

"Thought you could use a shortcut."



Sen can not help but laugh a bit as he looks at Star.  "I will let you know what we find Star. But please do not tell the Fed we made contact yet. If you can."  Sen adds.

"Do not worry, we have time Sen, just, make it fast yeah?" Star says softly.

"I have good help behind me." Sen says with a smile as he heads down the catwalk to reach the stairs to the docking bay to board the Dreadnaught.  Looking back he says. "Do not worry nine lives remember?" He shouts out to her, as he can tell she thinks he will not return after seeing the data that he still held onto.

Walking into the Dreadnaught he is met by Kat.   "Ship ready Sir, Dex has the location locked in and I have uploaded every bit of my files about Thargoid ships that I have compiled. We are fully set to find hit our location.  Kat says with a bright smile.  "God this is exciting!"  Kat exclaims.  She knows how serious it is but to be this close to Thargoids and to get even more data has her beaming with joy and excitement.



"Then lets get our ass moving commander."  Sen says to Kat as they hurry to seat in.  

"Raine may be a bit upset for making her wait this long sir. She has already set off looking for her radiation readings. "  Kat says over to Sen as they both strap in.



"Good, she is going to need to get as much data as possible on radiation levels.  If they hit the upper 200's in the V-cal spectrum we could be in more trouble then we know. " Sen says as he requests station services for launch.   "And here we go...."  Sen says in a half whisper as the Dreadnaught lifts to the upper level to Launch.   "Dex, send a message to Raine, we are on our way to the first ping."




(((to be continued tomorrow.))

Last edit: 28 Aug 2019, 10:18pm
Lambast Mercy
28 Aug 2019, 10:12pm
“Hay, it was good to see you again” said Johnston after turning to face the girls in the doorway. He was constantly darting his eyes to the right.

“I see him” answered Kai in a low voice as she embraced Johnston in a hug.

“I got four” said EC to a takeaway Ramen carton on the ground.

“Four what?” Asked a confused Lambast inspecting the carton for a quad of interest.

“Good eye Silas. Now, I’m going the long way round. No survivors or we’re fu-“ Johnston glanced at Lambast. “-done before we’re stared” He let go of Kai “Good luck shorty”

“And you sir” Answered Kai with a mock salute.

“Look will someone tell-“ Lambast stopped short as Johnston moved in, arms ready to embrace her.
“I very much think not. I’m no soppy colonial I’ll thank you to remember” She looked ready to lay the man out if he continued his advance.

A wry smile splitting his face, Johnston relented. “Relax Lamb, I just had to stop you looking around like a surprised owl. You got a team of admirers”

With the penny, forced to the ground for her, Lambast stopped looking for the interest and smiled taking Johnston’s hand for a warm handshake.

“Oh, I understand now. Well, do carry on not being dead Mr. Johnston, I rather like knowing your still out there doing your job”

Johnston lingered on Kai and Lamb for a long second and nodded to EC before turning around and casually strolling off towards the main concourse.

Walking backwards, EC checked his com was working as he addressed the girls.

“I got a good vantage point and I wanna get ahead” Kai indicated she could hear him in her earpiece. Lamb walked back inside the Noodle shop because she had forgotten to turn her's on. EC turned round and walked at a faster pace back towards the docking bay.

“Once I stop and look around, detonate the charge to my left”

“No problem Creamy” answered Kaisla. “We’ll give you a little space before.. .. Where the hell has Lamb gone?”

Inside the Noodle shop, Lambast activated her coms unit. Wo’ang peered above the serving hatch like a mole testing the weather before deciding if he was going to head out.

“War yoo forget? Or yoo come to pur doily on all my table?” He intoned with his hands on the arear usually occupied by hips on a normal human being.

Lambast got as close as her courage would allow her to get to the man, and she extended a cred stick to him at the longest arm’s length she felt she had ever managed.
“Do drop the silly accent “Meestar Rang.” Look here’s a little something for the trouble there is about to be.”
The generously credited cred-stick was gone and Lambast couldn’t recall seeing Wo’ang move much. She blinked and turned around to fold up the table cloth she had laid on the table.

“We are going to be taking off in the time it takes us to walk back to the docking bay and fight off a small army. Anything you can do to facilitate our leaving would be much appreciated. I would strongly advise going to ground somewhere safe as these people probably don’t mind collateral damage”

She turned round to face Wo’ang and all she could find of him was a Wo’ang shaped hole in reality. She was unaware of the warm grease on the kitchen floor running back into an unbroken film, hiding the footprints left by a retreating noodle torturer. Kaisla peered round the entrance.

“Come on Lamb, time to shine. What are you doing?”

Lambast, slightly bewildered answered
“Being introduced to the mysteries of the east I would imagine” She clapped her hands together and rubbed them as she headed for the door.
“Right to work it is. I want one by the way”

Kailsa and Lambast walked next to each other, apparently engrossed in conversation.
“You want one what? I can’t think of anything in there you’d want”

“Oh no Kai, goodness no. I want one of our assailants. I think we should play Lambs”
Kai stopped dead in her tracks.

“No Lambast. No freaking way. We are NOT doing that”

Her nose slightly higher in the air Lambast enforced her argument.
“What if I dug the pit and got a sweet little doggie costume? Come along Kai, we have a station to escape"

Kai ran to catch up. “It’s not happening. For one thing, I hate the voice you do and for another thing, it’s just not right”

Lambast let her head flop to one side like her neck was broken and locked Kaisla with soulless eyes.
“It rubs the lotion on its skin, or-“

Kaisla pressed her palms into her ears and screwed up her eyes “Egarr! Stopit stopit stopit”

Creamy’s voice interrupted them on the coms.
“If you two are finished competing for World’s Weirdest Woman, I could do with that distraction twenty seconds ago”

***About 30 seconds ago***

EC walked fast towards the main concourse passing two of the people that had paid just a little too much attention to him and Kai’s friends. There was nothing to mark them out as anything other than the normal sort of space-faring types that would be on this station. Another two gave away there cover as a couple sitting at a bar window by deliberately not watching him walk by. In the light of the better end of the concourse, EC took a berth and let the paranoia slip away and he checked the scene again. Another three and possible three would be, bounty hunters maybe? He waited for the explosion that would let him get up to the small flat roof above a holoprojector of a tech-shop advertising the latest slate.

That made nine, maybe twelve targets so that was four each and where the hell was that explosion. He was going be looking suspicious if he didn’t move very soon. He glanced back to see what Kai and Lamb were up to. Something dawned on him when we saw them from a distance. Two white-haired women acting the way they did couldn’t be missed. Anyone could spot them from a mile off with even a vague description.

It didn’t help that they were always talking and both had plenty of personality. It wasn’t a word EC often had call to use, but together, Kai and Lamb had effervescence. They looked like they were arguing about something currently, but it looked like a fun argument that invited others to take part. EC interrupted them over the com.


“If you two are finished competing for World’s Weirdest Woman, I could do with that distraction twenty seconds ago”

He started slowly walking towards the Tech Shop. A loud crack behind him almost made him take cover because it sounded like a large calibre shot but he kept his cool and took a running jump up the wall and caught hold of the low roof hauling himself up. What he thought was just a window was a door to the shop's second floor. EC cursed his luck, but he had made his choice. He laid on the roof and pressed his foot into the bottom of the door and checked the commotion below. His choice of vantage point was good, the holo image almost blocked him from view, but hardly got in his way looking out.

Some people were gathered around a fair-sized dent in the floor, but most were just getting on with life. The couple had left the bar and were looking around for the missing EC. The other two he had passed were heading for Lambast and Kaisla, but they were still in range. Four more people were clearly looking for the group and two of them were converging on where EC was while the others kept a lookout from where they were. He updated Kai and Lamb on what he could see from his perch.

“Two behind, and two coming straight at you -” One of the guys on lookout was straining his eyes trying to look through the hologram. “-Its go” He took a shot at the man looking towards him.

He took three shots to put the man down and by the third report of his carbine, the concourse was in panic. EC switched his attention to the two guys heading towards the place he had lingered and put a bullet in each skull leaving the other man on watch to make short work of. That man was already on the move. EC tracked him with the carbine but missed twice because of civilians getting in the way. He was not about to kill them to get his target. He clipped the man in the thigh sending him tumbling and shot him twice more to be sure of the kill.  Vibrations in his boot on the door let him know of someone running at it. EC rolled away from the edge of the small bay he was on and squashed himself against the wall as the glass above him smashed and laser bolts burned the metal where he was laying. He noticed an electrical element of the shots.

As soon as she herd the first shot, Kaisla drew her pistol “Cover” she shouted so Lambast wouldn’t be left standing out in the open as Kaisla darted over to a thick heavy post holding up two massive advising screens.  She took some snapshots at one of the men coming her way, and one of her green laser bolts landed centre chest. She slammed her self against the post and looked for Lambast. She was sprinting towards a couple of pursuers that had drawn weapons of their own. Lambast was an easy target, and so was Kai from that end. Lambast was jinking towards a woman with a large pistol out leaving the man on the other side on the dingy walkway a clear target. Kaisla took it and planted a burst of laser bolts in him. Electric light flared by her head and the scorch of laser fire heating the post burned her cheek.

Kaisal leaned round the other side of her cover and noticed the man she had shot before was still moving and crawling for cover. He didn’t make it thanks to Kaislas pistol, but she couldn’t see where the man that had shot at her had gone. She ducked back and checked on her friend. Lambast pulled the tip of her sword out of the woman’s thought. She was dead, but a convenient amount of time would have to pass first. Lamb danced around behind the walking corps and used her as mobile cover while Lambast looked for somewhere safe to go. She saw a man up the walkway peering out from behind a rubbish bin raising his weapon. Lamb shifted her grip pulling the woman round, glanced at Kai and ducked. Laser blots finished off the woman and Kai traced them back to their sauce, peered out and opened fire. A shower of green bolts near melted the cheap cast bin and a cry of pain let Kai know she had hit the man. Lambast was already opposite her on the other side of the walkway moving like a raindrop down a window. No rhythm and constantly changing direction and speed. Lamb had the woman's heavy pistol in her hand and as soon as she saw the man Kaisla had just hit, she opened fire.

Electrified bolts slammed into the man and he stopped moving. Lambast pressed her self against the wall and waved the side of the gun at Kaisla.
“It’s on stun, they bloody well want to capture us” Said Lamb as if that was somehow worse than just wanting to kill them.

A hand holding a pistol came through the window. EC caught it and laid two shots in the unfortunate woman's armpit. He felt the arm come away from her body as her agonised face screamed at him. EC recognised her as the woman from the bar before a bullet ruined her face. He was on a little over half a clip now so he had to make his shots count. He swung himself up ready to fire. He came face to barrel with a gun and let his momentum carry him back down to the bay roof. The loud crack of a mid-calibre bullet report right next to his ear defended him, but it was better than being shot. He lay down and fired three shots from his carbine where the gunman had been. He couldn’t hear anything, so he had to move and check. He stood up beside the smashed glass and saw a man drawing a bead on him from below. EC moved and shot narrowly escaping another volley from the people after him, but his shot landed between the man’s eyes. EC dove through the window and prayed he didn’t miss if there was anyone alive inside.

The woman was still slumped in the window and a wounded man was on the ground behind her, EC, still mid-flight hadn’t seen anyone else so he put a last shot in the mans head in case he wasn’t dead. He landed hard, rolled and pressed himself against a support. He found himself in a dim stock room. Shelves stacked with boxes of small electronic devices surrounded him on every side. His hearing was bad, something was coming through the coms, but he couldn’t tell what it was and the noise outside was nothing more than a muted hum whereas before it had been the panic of people running for their lives. Shadows cast by the light coming from a stairwell drew his attention. He let the carbine relax in his hand; he hadn’t been in a fight this tense in a while. He quietly, as far as he knew, made his way to the side of the stairwell and peered over snapping his head back as soon as he saw two men advancing up cautiously with weapons drawn. After the few shots the men aimed at him finished, he peered over again and smartly ended them.

“EC’s not answering Lamb, we gotta get there” A hint of worry in Kai's voice put Lamb in a reckless mood.

“Best speed Miss Delana, I’ll duck and draw, you cover” Lambast broke out fast and low, running like she was on an invisible obstacle course.

“Lamb NO! Oh for fuck sake”

Choice taken away from her, Kaisla ejected the pistols energy cell and slammed a new one in as she advanced from cover to cover chasing Lambast as fast as she could. Red bolts of laser flew out from a narrow passage Lamb had just passed. One bolt dissipated on Lambs back. She went down, rolled and got to her feet still running. As Kai came up behind her, levelling with the mouth of the passage, she lit it up and made for the corner. She wasted no time, swung round and near disintegrated two men in a shower of green death. She looked for Lambast just as her friend crashed into a pile of rubbish. She lay on the floor fumbling for a pouch on her leg, her movements lacked direction like a drunkard trying to put a key in a keyhole. Two more people were advancing on them pressing themselves against opposite walls and peeking out from cover.

More of these hunters were converging on the main concourse pressing against the tide of civilians running away from the danger. Kaisla put them out of her mind and concentrated on dealing with the ones closing in now. The man on her side was looking for Lambast with what looked like an SMG, he wasn’t looking to capture any more. The man on the other side lent out and tested Kai’s cover, It held. Kai made a decision and ran for Lambast firing at both men on the way. Just as she got in diving distance of Lamb, the guy with the SMG made his move. Time slowed for Kai as his weapon spat orange fire at her. She leaned back and fell to her knees letting momentum carry her forward. Her pistol felt like it was coming up through treacle. Instinct made her throw her head back like a limbo dancer, something grabbed her hair and instantly let go as her gun felt like it was in right place to squeeze the trigger, she did so and then turned onto her side and rolled next to Lambast. Laster bolts passed over the two women, Kaisla took a berth and swung her legs back so she could raise up and look over the rubbish pile. She was firing before she was upright and watched her green lasers climb along the street, up the laser-armed guy's leg and across his chest. The two men fell dead at the same time.  Kaisla blinked and then looked down on Lambast.

“Oh my god! Did you see that? That’s gotta be the coolest thing I’ve ever done outside of a ship. I was like, Lambast NOO! And you were all Argh I’m hit going down. Then I was ARRRAH pew pew pew-“
Lambasts wavering fist drifted into Kaisla view holding a pen looking thing.

“Pastry foot bee?” Ventured Lambast.

“What? Oh right sorry Lamb”

It was just a stun bolt, but they still hurt like hell and span your head right out if you didn't pass out. Kai took the injector pen, and depressed it into Lambs shoulder and pumped the button a few times. Kai held Lamb tight in case she jerked up and presented a good target, but it was no use. As the chemical mix made it round Lamb’s system, she bucked and flexed with enhanced strength for a few seconds and then breathed deep and lay still.

Kai peered over the top of the heap. It was clear as far as she could see.
“Come on Lamb, I think they are going to be working around behind us. We gotta move and find Creamy”

EC reloaded his carbine while he considered his options. There were only two, stairs or window. Both were bad, he had no clue what was on the shop floor and he knew the window would leave him open to the main concourse and all the weapons it contained. At least his hearing was starting to come back. All of a sudden, gunfire erupted from outside. He saw Lambast dancing between men and women pushing her thin blade into their bodies before moving to the next target or hardcover. Green bolts were picking off anyone that could get a bead on Lambast or at least they were pinned down until Lamb was safe from the shooter. That must be Kai. EC changed his mind and ran for the window, kicked it out and leapt keeping hold of the frame so he would land against the wall. He dispatched three people that were gunning for Lambast and rolled to a better position. His com, still muffled carried Kai’s voice.

“You good EC? I was worried when you didn’t answer”

“I’m good. Let’s break for the docks, It’s getting way too hot here”

He caught Lamb’s eye and jerked his head to indicate where they should go. Lamb nodded and pointed so Kai knew where to head for. As soon as Lamb rolled round the transport shuttlebus she was using as a save haven, EC moved out carefully picking his targets walking at a fair pace so as not to interrupt his aim. Kai came sprinting around the corner behind them finding cover from the people that had indeed flanked them. Under a hail of small arms fire, she called out.

“I got ya six, keep clearing the way forward”

EC kept moving trusting Kaisla to keep his back safe while he picked off any target that presented its self, and anyone he felt Lambast couldn’t reach before she was shot. It wasn’t many, she was almost as good as Raven with her narrow flexible blade. This trip was eating his ammo quickly, he needed more freedom to switch weapons and reload. EC slid his carbine along the floor ahead of him and pirouetted as he advanced using the momentum to take his coat off and cast it at some men braking cover to aim. He drew his pistol and swung it in an ark to match his spin as he came back round to the front aiming carefully to miss his coat as it sailed towards his targets. He ducked rolled and retrieved his carbine that he used to dispatch a man to his left as he holstered his pistol and ducked into some cover to reload the carbine. Shots hit the wide signpost he was using, but he was in that quiet place and it didn’t phase him at all. He could see Kaisla coming up finishing off the flankers with pistols that weren’t hers.

A pair of pistols wasn’t easy to use, but quantity rather than quality seemed to be the order of the day. Kai had hers holstered, picking up a new weapon was faster than reloading. Satisfied that no one else was coming up behind them, she sprinted on to catch up with Lamb and EC. She saw EC reloading his weapon of choice and he winked at her. She raised bother her pistols and shot either side of ECs location. She winked back at him when the last man fell. Lambast was doing alright. She was patiently waiting behind a food stall for someone to come into range of her sword or get shot so she could move out again.

Suddenly all the lights turned red, and a Claxton sounded. Massive motors above them hummed into life, the huge bulkheads on the concourse were being closed. Thanks to their immense size, they seemed to be moving slowly, but that was not the case. The people hunting them broke cover hand headed for the closest exit from the concourse to the inner station, or be trapped and at the mercy of whatever was going to happen once the bulkheads closed.

At the same time, Kai Lamb and EC yelled “RUN”

EC turned and scooped up his coat finding no time to put it on and looked for an exit. Lambast motioned with her sword for Kai and EC to follow. She dropped hard and heavy as a cascade of laser bolts blocked her way. EC didn’t hesitate; he pulled up his carbine and dropped his coat so he could use the underslung launcher. Something bright and blue leapt from the end and arched peacefully through the air, bounced off the wall and down the narrow exit corridor. An electric buzz like a mini thunderstorm accompanied a blue light show and the noise of stunned voiced ended weakly.

EC and Kai rounded the corner and donated ammunition to the End the Chase Fund.

EC smiled. “Five in one blast. That’s a personal best”

A small bulkhead was half-closed; Creamy’s EMC device had done a number on the motor. Lambast bowled into them and knocked them clear of the entrance of the corridor as another hail of fire peppered the wall behind them. Lambast rolled under the half-closed bulkhead, Kai followed her pulling out her slate.

“Cover me, I’ll fix this” She plugged a line into the slate and looked for a port in the door panel.

Creamy rolled his eyes. Was this ever going to be over? He brought up his pistol and risked a glance. The men and women were not being cautious, this door was probably the last one open and they wanted out. They were still quick enough to shoot at the narrow slice of face Creamy offered. He ducked back just in time. He put his gun around the corner and fired where he felt the closest three people would be. A pair of wet thuds let him know he had two fewer targets. Kai was still working on the bulkhead.

“Ar fuck” she exclaimed as it started to open again.
Lambast was pouring a cup of tea from a flask with trembling hands “Care for a cup Mister Cousland?” she offered EC with an unfocused smile upon her face.

Creamy opened his mouth to protest but just gave up. Someone had got close to the end of the corridor. He jumped out at a chest level dive and caught a man around the waist, pulling him down on top of himself when he hit the ground. The guy’s allies killed the poor stranger trying to get to Creamy. EC counted three weapon reports as he pushed the body off him and rolled for the food cart Lambast had used as cover. The cart drifted along with the weight of EC hitting it, so he lay on his side pushing himself along snakewise shooting a woman in the boots from under the cart, and then head when she dropped. He jumped once more to get behind something more substantial. He must be getting old, this was much harder work than last time he had such a pressing fight. He took his pistol in his left hand and drew his carbine ready to take out the last of the arse holes chasing them. He breathed deep.

Laser fire from the corridor pulled his focus. Kaisla was standing in the entrance with a pistol in each hand, barrels glowing red having dispatched the last four hunters.

“Will you stop fucking about with the lone hero shit and get back in here. I fixed the door”

Creamy, a little dejected at having his thunder stolen jogged back to the safety of the corridor. Kai yanked the connecting cable out of the panel and the sealing bulkheads started to descend once more. Creamy leant back so he could see the giant bulkheads on the concourse closing. He judged this little one in front of him would close a good few seconds before the big ones. His natural action of holstering his pistol involved moving his coat out the way. His coat wasn't there to be moved.

“Like a ferret up a trouser leg wouldn’t you agree?” Yipped an unusually jolly Lambast. “WOOHS! And he’s gone”

Kai had been inspecting the doors at the other end of this passage, she turned round to see what Lambast was talking about. EC was missing. Kai ran back to the panel and fumbled with the connecting cable, the bulkhead was over halfway closed.  Just as Kai got the slate wired into the panel once more, Creamy slid under the closing door and swung his coat in behind him just as it thudded into place.

“Oh bravo! Welcome back Mister Slip’n’slide” Cheered Lambast clapping her hands splashing warm tea all over herself. She didn’t seem to notice.

Kaisla stood unimpressed with her hands on her hips staring daggers at Creamy.
“You watch too many movies. And ignore her” said Kaisla, still looking at Creamy but pointing to Lamb. “She’s stoned out of her skull. One too many clicks of the injector pen” she finished radiating innocents. EC rubbed his forehead and got to his knees to inspect Lamb’s eyes. She was defiantly under the influence of something.

He recognised the medkit strapped to Lambasts thigh and opened it.

“How dare you sir!” Protested Lambast and slapped him across the face.
EC ignored it and checked the kit looking for what had been used. There was one empty space, and fortunately, Lambast was fastidious enough to label every slot like a good little paramedic.

“Oh do forgive me brave sir knight. You shall have a kiss” Lamb leaned into EC's ear.

Kaisla strategically placed her hand between the brave knight and his damsel in distress. She thought back to all the times she had called Lambast in the middle of a drinking binge and imagined all the embarrassing things she had said to her friend on video chat. Some of them her vindictive computer had played back until Kai deleted the call log, but not once had Lambast mentioned them, or alluded to a drink-fuelled embarrassment. As Lambast romantically French kissed Kaisla hand, she hoped she would find the strength to show the same restraint. It would be hard because this was solid gold. Kai checked she had EC and Lambast in focus on her slate while she recorded.

“Is she gonna be ok Creamy?”
EC pulled another pen out of his own kit and injected Lambast.

“Ow! It shall be pistols at dawn sir”

EC deflected this slap with his elbow and Lambast passed out. Kai tucked the slate away.
Creamy stood up.
“In about forty seconds, Lambs gonna puke it up and then she’ll be ok. Now, that lot, they were local to this station. No way anyone got here fast enough with those numbers to catch us”

“Yep, and no station security as well. That’s high-level payoffs right there. Not to mention closing down the concourse on a whim”
On cue, the station rocked from explosive decompression and the small bulkhead creaked under the strain.

“and venting it to space” Finished Kaisla.

“Local crime boss” they said together.

“But why?” asked Creamy.



In his office, the chairman of the Syndicate flicked off the concourse camera feed to his desk screen. He addressed a pretty PA standing at his side.
“How many people did I lose?”

“Between forty and fifty sir. More accurate numbers are yet to come in”

His breathing was getting shallow, but he calmly asked the PA. “Get that Robigo prick on the holo”

The woman tapped her slate and in a few moments, an oily looking guy in a stylish suit flickered into existence.
“Ar your honour-“ he oiled “- you have our little run away in your care I trust?”

Still calm, the large man answered.
“You said she was dangerous if confronted. You didn’t tell us she was a fucking cyber-ninja. You didn’t tell us that tight arsed tart with her could kill hit squads like fucking targets at a fair. You totally failed to mention the man form my blackest nightmares that is immune to getting shot would be travelling with her. What the fuck did I let on MY STATION!”

The holo man from Robigo raised his hands defensively.
“Hay, as far as we knew she always works alone. If we had any intelligence that she had a crew-“

The large man stood up and stalked towards the holo image.
“Intelligence! If you had any of-“ The image went off. The Man spun round to his PA with fists clenched.

She raised a hand “Your blood pressure sir. Your wife insisted”

“Fffine” he growled and sat down again massaging his temples.

“Anyone that kills one of them will never have to work again” He pointed at still images of Lamb Kai and Creamy captured from concourse cameras.
“If someone can make all three of them beg for forgiveness before killing them on film, I will get that person a mega-villa. Beachfront on the prettiest planet I personally can find. Get the word out. Oh and get some guys to Hauser's Reach. If them Robigo Cartel pricks make any moves, I wanna know about it”

Last edit: 29 Aug 2019, 5:52pm
EvilCreamsicle
29 Aug 2019, 11:14pm
Raven sat in the cockpit of the fighter, crammed into the fighter bay of the Arbiter, tapping away impatiently at the console. Moments like these were tense, knowing something was going to happen, just not knowing when. It didn't help that the station had seemingly killed all outbound communications, and their cheerful pad control agent had been replaced with an automated clearance-denial bot.

"You hear anything from Creamy yet?" he says into his comms to Echo on the bridge.

"No. I hope whatever happens kicks off soon, though, running this quiet is starting to heat us up a little more than I'm comfortable with." Echo scrutinizes the gauges on the console. He was briefly debating dumping a heatsink when a flash caught his eye from ahead.

The huge explosion had ripped a hole in the side of the ship. Echo nearly choked on his water as he began restoring the ship's systems to full power and deploying hardpoints.

A few seconds later, the low rumble of the explosion shook the Arbiter. Raven cracked over the comms:
"Uh... homie? The fuck was that?"

"Our cue. Looks like our boy tried to space everyone in the concourse."

"Launch me!"

Echo begins the launch sequence but is interrupted by Raven's call of "Wait a sec!"

"What?"

"The comms are down?" Raven asks

"Seem to be." Echo dryly replies, waiting for the point.

"Do we still have those portable relays?"

"I think so..."

"How big is the hole?"

"Aw... Jesus dude..." Echo shakes his head, knowing where this is going. Raven can be heard over the com link jumping from the cockpit of the fighter, shuffling around for something. Echo hears the small mechanical whir of the cargo hatch on the fighter, then the cockpit door, and grunts from Raven.

"OK, NOW launch me!"

Echo opens the fighter bay. Immediately, they are hailed by station security.

"Faulcon DeLacy Echo-Victor-India, your conduct is considered hostile. Suspend SLF launch and retract hardpoints IMMEDIATELY, or you will be fired upon! You have 3 seconds to comply!"

A pair of system security Vipers, MkIII and MkIV respectively, race toward them as the Arbiter detects a ship scan.

"I'm not convinced you can count to three..." Echo says with a grin as Raven blasts out of the fighter bay. The MkIII tipped but hesitated, surprised by the blue glowing Guardian fighter, before committing and engaging Raven. Echo hit the boost on the Arbiter even before the fighter bay had closed, using the surprise to his advantage.

The MkIV sees the Arbiter coming headlong at him and opens fire with his pulse lasers, but he was outmatched. The Class 3 Beam laser on the top of the Krait MkII began quickly eating away his sheilds, dissipating the heat from the Arbiter's modified pulse lasers which, much to the MkIV pilot's surprise and horror, punched right through his shields. Some of their energy was sapped, but they were more than able to do severe damage to the hull before the beam finally brought down the MkIV's sheilds, just as the two ships passed each other by mere meters.

Echo centers the throttle into that sweet spot and boosts the Arbiter into a turn. The Viper pilot got pretty startled and was turning tail to run.

"Amateur..." Echo shook his head to himself. He was almost sad for the guy... his best bet would have been to stay engaged. Behind the Arbiter is definitely better than in front.

The MkIV was counting on its straight-line speed to save the day. The Arbiter could outstrip him, but Echo was a believer in working smarter not harder, which is why he had personally engineered the pair of Class 3 multicannons flanking the beam laser for long range engagements.

Raven saw out of the corner of his eye the explosion of the MkIV as it was peppered with a hail of multicannon fire from a klick away. The MkIII was tailing him, but just wasn't fast enough to keep up. Raven headed full throttle straight for the side of the station. As he approached the huge hole in the side, he could see what appeared to be a concourse.

Good, high ceilings meant to simulate an outdoor marketplace meant plenty of room for what he was about to do.
He slowed down just enough to ensure maximum responsiveness. The MkIII boosted at him, taking this as an opportunity to catch up, opening fire with his multicannons.

Raven did a roll to avoid the cannon fire. As he passed by the hole in the side of the station he banked hard out of his roll and narrowly passed right through the hole into the depressurized concourse. The MkIII pilot hesitated but followed. He might have made it too, had his mind not been clouded by his sympathetic nervous system such that he wasn't able to account for the physics of a depressurized space station.

Raven had experienced similar conditions once when the crew was rescuing survivors from a station that had been attacked by Thargoids. The depressurized cabins don't have any atmosphere to speak of, and since the ship isn't on the ground, there is nothing to pull it along with the spin of the station.

They weren't flying inside the concourse, they were flying in space surrounded by concourse. Just as the MkIII pulled in behind Raven he realized he'd made a mistake. The concourse was huge for a pedestrian, but didn't offer much space for a ship to fly. By the time he'd entered, Raven was already circling around the back wall on his first lap of the concourse. The MkIII pilot panicked and went to follow him, but didn't account for the spin of the station itself. As he pulled into his turn, the inside wall of the station swung into him, knocking him like a baseball bat. The ship spun wildly as it flung toward a dark corner of the shopping district. All corrective thrusters were firing as the pilot desperately tried to regain control, but it was in vain. The Viper plows through a light tower and down into the alley, a broken neon sign reading 'WANKER' smashing off the glass of the canopy as the ship careens directly into Wo'ang's and explodes.

It was all Raven could do to keep from hitting something at this speed, such that he almost forgot to jettison the contents of his tiny cargo hold. He quickly releases the hatch and grabs the stick again just in time to pull up, roll, and dart sideways back out of the hole in the station's hull, scraping the left side wing on the opening in a very narrow near miss. He could see from the laser fire in the distance that Echo had made a few more friends in the meantime. The comms screamed back to life with distorted feedback as he escaped the faraday cage of the station, making him cringe.

Inside the station, the little portable relay attaches to a billboard floating by as the spin of the station drifts its post near the magnet base of the relay. The relay hums to life and the red light turns to blue. The relay used a lower frequency radio band. More primitive technology, but not common enough for most stations to account for it. The long waves pass easily through the station comms shielding.

Raven gets the notification that the relay is online just as he gets in range of Echo and his assailants.

"Yo Creamy! You guys hear me?" he says, unleashing a barrage of blue energy from the shard cannons.

****

"Last magazine in the carbine." EC says, letting it hang from his chest sling as he draws his sidearm and removes the half-full magazine that was in it, replacing it with his last full one and putting the 'used' one safely back in its pouch for a rainy day.

Kaisla checks her weapons, having the fleeting thought that she could understand how Silas had developed a habit of neurotically function-checking his pistol every so often.

As EC changed the battery in his EMP launcher, she opened her mouth to brief him on her current inventory as well, but was interrupted by a loud mechanical screaming coming from the other side of the bulkhead which shook the floor below them.

Lambast shot upright with a "WhatthefBLEAAAAGH", vomiting onto the floor beneath her and then sitting for a second, dazed.

There were now two distinct screams coming from inside the concourse, soon followed by what sounded like an earthquake, or Godzilla maybe, and then an explosion.

"OK, kid, I'll get you some crackers and a ginger-ale when we stop but its time to move. You mobile?" He says to Lamb, somehow managing to make a joke, but remain completely serious at the same time.

Lambast was incredulous at the inference that 'kid' was somehow considered an acceptable thing to call her, but his tone suggested this wasn't the time. She'd make a mental note to chastise Mr. Cousland for that one later, instead just looking at him with a single raised eyebrow.
"I'll survive." she said, climbing to her feet.

The screaming in the concourse died down as abruptly as it began. A few seconds later, Raven's voice could be heard from EC's emergency radio-band communicator, tucked away in a pouch on his chest rig.

"... Creamy! ... guys hear me?" It was fuzzy, but welcome.

"Yeah, we're making our exit."

"..rry up ... Getting sporty... ...Pear shaped!" EC got the gist.

"We've had our fair share as well, we're moving. Out."

EC turns to look at Kai, who is trying to make sure Lamb is steady. Lambast pushes her hand away and draws her blade, nodding at Silas.

They walk off down the corridor. Kaisla sees a station map hanging on the wall and uses her knife to pry it off, almost without even stopping. Everyone knew they had to keep pace.

"Left up here." she says, consulting the map.

EC peeks around the corner before retreating quickly and holding up a fist to indicate the others should stop as well. The three flatten themselves against the wall behind the doorframe as four security service troops sprint past.

EC waves forward and then makes the left turn toward the docking bays.

As he walks, he removes a suppressor from a pouch on his holster and fixes it to the barrel of the sidearm, letting the carbine hang from its sling, and casts a meaningful look at Kai. She understands the meaning, and tucks her captured pistols into her pants before drawing her knife again. No such look was cast at Lamb. It wasn't necessary and he knew it.

Coming to the end of the corridor into the hangar section Silas turns back to Kai again, shrugging at her as if to ask what pad they were on.

She signs with her fingers '14'. EC nods and looks around for the pad.
Kaisla quickly finds it on the map, and walks up to Silas, putting a hand on his shoulder and passing him before taking a right turn into the large hangar access.

The three make their way down the large access corridor toward pad 14, moving in intervals and using different cover and concealment to minimize their footprint.

As they reach 14, they are unsurprised to find it guarded. Two men flank the access door on the right side of the corridor, while another two are standing face-to-face talking to each other about 20 feet in front of them toward the center of the corridor.

Kaisla slinks up the right side of the corridor and crams herself into the corner of the adjacent pad's doorframe as EC and Lamb move up the left side, stopping behind a stack of crates directly across from the door.

EC takes his drained EMP battery and tosses it across the corridor, and it lands with a metallic 'thunk' behind the guards' transport cart in front of the door that Kaisla is hiding in.

The guards hear it land and look in that direction. One of them in the corridor center spins 180 degrees and walks over to see what the commotion was, with his partner following right behind him.

Lamb uses the distraction as an opportunity to slink out towards the rear guard while Kaisla quickly steps out and sweeps the front guard's leg just as he discovers the thrown battery, catching him as he lands to mask the sound of his fall, hand over mouth and slicing his throat. Before the rear guard can process what he's seen, Lamb sticks her blade between his legs from behind and, like a surgeon, slices his femoral artery with a disconcerting grin.

The guards by the door see this, briefly, before hearing two quick sounds like a sack of wet sand being dropped as Silas's suppressed pistol fires, cleanly dispatching them both. All three remaining guards fall at roughly the same time as the two who were shot lose motor control and the third bleeds out from the thigh.

"Get the door open!" EC says quetly but urgently to Kaisla as he begins dragging bodies off in between the hangar bays to buy them a little time.

Kai trots over to the access pad with Lamb walking calmly behind her with her typical air of casual pride.
Kaisla is already retrieving her slate as she types in the code, assuming it had been changed. She was right, but it didn't take her long to bypass, and the door whooshes open just as EC walks over, slightly out of breath from dragging corpses and sees the blood splatter left on the walls from the gunshots.

"Hmm... can't really hide that. Better get the Hand spun up quickly."

"Ya think? I figured I'd take my time, good and slow, y'know?" Kaisla quips, jogging up the ramp to the Hand.

"Oh, Miss Lamb?" EC stops Lambast as she begins to walk toward the ship.

Lamb had decided that it was officially 'Later'.
"Oh, Miss Lamb are we now? No longer a toddler in your care? How can I help? Have I left for school and forgotten my lunch perhaps?"

"Uh... no, just your teacup."

Lambast looks down at his outstretched hand to see him holding the cup she had been drinking tea from when she had passed out. She snatches it from him with a scowl and briskly walks up the ramp to the Hand, with EC in tow.

Last edit: 29 Aug 2019, 11:41pm
Falcon15e
30 Aug 2019, 6:23am
“Holy shit, how am I suppose to follow that up?” Kaisla asks.

“Quickly please.” Lambast responds.

Kaisla sprints up the ramp of the Hand and quickly makes her way to the cockpit with EC and Lamb shortly behind her.

She climbs into the familiar cockpit chair and runs through the pre-start checks at a speed that would make most 30 year veterans embarrassed. She boots up the repulsion thrusters, direct drive thrusters and life support. “Holly, put Otto on the line and give him temporary over-ride, I’m going to need him doing a lot and quickly.”

“Aye Commander,” Holly pings off and Kaisla hears Otto’s familiar greeting tone ping in her headset.

“Otto, hot charge the distributor and over-clock at .80. Shields have priorities, weapons then thrusters except on my word. Lamb power the weapons up and EC, man the turrets.”

Everybody is silent, EC and Lamb staring at her. “C’mon, lets go!” With a jump everybody starts bustling around.

With the Hand fully powered-up she opens the comm link to the pad controller. She completely bypasses protocol or nomenclature. “Pad controller, this is pad 14, we just juiced about 50 dudes and blew a big fucking hole in your shitty station. Release our docking clamps or I’ll de-bone your dog.”

There’s a pause before the pad controller finally answers, “Uh, no?”

“No! No? What the fuck do you mean NO?”

“Did you just say ‘de-bone my dog?’” the pad controller asks in confusion.

“Open the damn door!” Kai shouts into the microphone.

“Okay, how bout, I can’t? And my dog, what did my dog ever do to you?” The pad controller responds in protest.

“Fuck this.” Kai fishes into lambs satchel sitting next to the chair and tosses a thermal charge at EC, “Can you do us a favor and throw this little thingie on that little box siting right over there, the one with the green lights and those power conduits sticking out of it?”

EC rolls his eyes before taking the charge and sprinting off the Hand. He secures the charge and re-boards sealing the door. Lamb blows the charge and the power generator explodes in a fiery show of sparks and acrid smoke. The Python pops free off the pad and Kaisla smashes the reactionary thrusters. The Hand slams into the ceiling of the bay. EC who hadn’t finished strapping is shoved down into his seat, losing his balance. Lamb protests, “Hey! This is a fresh paint job.”

“Thanks, I’m okay....” EC says rubbing his arm.

“Shut up.” Both women respond in unison.

“Sorry Lamb, I’ll pay you back,” Kai cranes her neck to see the bay above her.

The comms crackles as the pad controller calls in, “Hey! What the hell?” The bay door slides open and the pad rotates uselessly 180 degrees. As soon as the pad clears enough, Kai thrusters the python up through the opening. She pulls the Python into a hover, facing the tower. The pad controller can be seen through the windows motioning in aggression. Kai sticks her tongue out and flips him off before punching a laser beam into the glass. The glass shatters and the tower instantly depressurizes. She intentionally used a low power shot, not aimed at the controller. He flails as he secures his emergency REMLOK helmet.

Kai hits the thrusters and yanks the Python into a backflip, punching off a missile at one of the station security turrets, sending it up in a hail of sparks. Facing the mail slot, she hits the boost and rockets out. Echo swings into view just as the Python clears the grates. She see’s Echo’s eyes goes wide through the windscreen as she scrapes between the Arbiter and a chasing MKIII. The MKIII pilot reacts, pulling the tiny ship into a hard climb. Its punches into the mail slot and the automated system defenses fail to recognize the transponder code before opening fire on it, blowing it to bits. The pilot flails around in the entry way trying to swim his way to a bulkhead.

“That was lucky!” Kai shouts as she pulls the Python into an echelon formation with the Arbiter

“Your crazy lady!” Echo shouts, opening a channel between the two ships.

Raven darts in between the two larger ships rolling the tiny Guardian fighter left and right, “Yah but did either one of you fly into a food court today?”

Kaisla just laughs. Thick green ropes of super-heated ion spears between the three ships. Lambast snaps her fingers, “Can you guys talk about this later when my new paint job isn’t at stake?”

“Sorry guv,” Kai snaps the stick hard right and peels the Python away while Raven breaks into an arcing climb. Echo tucks left and dives toward the station. “Otto, give me death charge cocktail!” Otto doesn’t respond in fights and just adjusts all power to the weapons, shifts shields forward and milks the boost for whatever extra power he can get on lasers. Kaisla waits until she see’s all the pips adjust and can hear the distributor groan in protest, then she punches the weapons fire switches, sending a salvo of slag and laser energy at the incoming fighters. The closest takes the brunt of it and his shields flicker. Raven dives down hard on the lead fighter and looses a salvo of weapons fire right as the shields stutter. The shots make it through, impacting into the fighter which erupts in a mushroom of light and plasma.

The second fighter pauses just long enough to seal his fate. He rolls his MKIII into a twisting corkscrew while kicking pedal in, differentiating his thrust to make his aircraft wobble like a top. After threading between the Guardian fighter and Python he snaps the aircraft level as he starts into a turn. He grins to himself as he lines up on the Python. He failed to notice the Arbiter swing in underneath him and just before the MKIII fires, Echo pumps all the Arbiters’ fire power into the MKIII’s distributor which implodes.

An overly-eager Syndicate Lackey strapped into his Diamondback scout mumbling to himself. “Gonna get me a mega-villa I am, sod this job, get the boss coffee, get the boss his golf clubs, hide this body, I’m gonna torch these bastards and be set.” He dialed in his discrete launch code and rocketed off the pad as fast as the Diamondback Scout could carry him. As the Diamondback cleared the slot, he deployed his weapons. Sitting amongst a debris field of now-retired MKIII’s a Mark IV, Python And Guardian fighter hovered in a semi-circle.

“Uh...do you guys see anything else?” Kai asked craning her head around. EC and Lamb also had an eye out looking for any targets.

Echo responded, “Hmm no, I think that’s about it.”

“Yeah this place is lame,” Raven pips in.

All three sensors ping simultaneously as the Diamondback pops from the slot, his icon going red indicating his weapons had deployed.

As it finally dawns on Lackey that all the debris floating around the three aircraft used to be security ships, all three ships turn their noses to him.

“Hey, there’s one.” Echo says over the comm.

Kai pivots the Python and lets off a lone missile. It hits the Diamondback and it pops out of existence, winking out in a flash of blue light.

Raven docks the fighter with the Arbiter while Kaisla dials in the empty system where the FDL is still hiding, “Okay, lets go, I need a drink.”
EvilCreamsicle
31 Aug 2019, 3:06am
Raven docks the fighter with the Arbiter while Kaisla dials in the empty system where the FDL is still hiding, “Okay, lets go, I need a drink.”


"Yeah, I'm still pretty jacked. A depressant might be in order." EC replies, looking down at his open hand as it shakes from the last of the adrenaline burning out of his system.

"So... does anybody know who the hell those guys were? That small army we ventilated didn't look like the guys we fought back at Conduit."

A reply at this point would have gone unheard, as the sound of the FSD charging filled the bridge of the Hand before lurching it out of the system.

***

Raven stood next to the helm seat of the Arbiter, watching out the window as Kai floated towards Dracul.

The electric whiz of an electric grinder could be heard drifting out of the corridor behind him from the open door to the bridge. Then, the unmistakable sound of the grinder-wheel getting stuck and the whir changing pitch before stopping. Then the sound of shrapnel, things falling, and Echo shouting profanity.

"You ok?" Raven yells without looking, turning his head ever so slightly to one side.

No response.

Raven sighs and turns, walking down the corridor and looking down the ladder into the cargo hold to see Echo in a welding mask, changing the grinder wheel in front of the Guardian artifact they had acquired.
"Dude, I said are you ok?"

Echo looks up at him, and for the first time Raven could see part of the former grinder wheel sticking out of the front of Echo's facemask.

"Do I fucking look ok?" Echo's muffled voice barely penetrates the mask before he flips the faceplate up.
"Damned titanium diamond wheel, and it shattered on me. Whatever this thing is made of, it's hard as hell. Oh, and it does this..."
Echo picks up a hammer, rears back for a swing, but stops... then he covers his genital area with his other hand, rears back again, and strikes the Guardian artifact. The entire thing glows blue and emits an electric pulse.
"...so I got that going for me."

"Well... are you getting anywhere?" Raven asks

"Yeah... I mean its cutting it, its just destroying my damn tools."

"OK, well... let me know if you need help? I guess?"

Echo remains silent as he raises an eyebrow, slams his mask back closed, and goes back to grinding on the artifact, causing it to light up and emit sparks like Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory.

Raven shakes his head as he walks back to the bridge.
Maul Montresor
01 Sep 2019, 4:34am
KhelanOmi regains her footing as the ship stops bucking and weaving.

"I guess whatever was going on has finished and we're all still alive." she says before landing a powerful punch to Maul's Solar Plexus followed by a leg sweep.

She drops back into a fighting stance and waits for him to get back to his feet.



Maul grunts and groans as he slowly gets back on his feet, his arms wrapped around his ribs.

"Are you trying to put me back in that damn hospital?! The doc said to take it easy!" Maul shouts.

"Well then if you want me to stop, hit me!" Omi retorts..

Maul takes a moment to breathe before swinging at her. Omi easily dodges and sweeps his feet again.

"You and those fucking leg sweeps." Maul mumbles while laying flat of his back.

"You're making it too easy." Omi says as she watches him slowly stand back up.

Maul steps forward and swings again, this time Omi side steps and lands a punch in his face. He takes a step back and stares at her, his face filled with rage. He grabs Omi's neck and slams her into the wall. She closes her eyes as a punch comes towards her face. There was no impact. She slowly opens her eyes and to see Maul with a smirk on his face.

"Gotcha." He says as he let's go of her.

Omi rubs the imprints of his fingers on her neck. "....I told you to hit me."

Maul digs the bottle of pills out of his jacket pocket.

"Nope." He says with a smile and downs a pill before twisting the cap back on and returning them to his jacket pocket.

"I get what you're trying to do here."

Omi looks up at Maul.

"You're trying to help me channel all of this anger that I'm directing at myself." He pauses for a moment. "I'll be fine."

Omi looks down. "It wasn't a completely selfless act. With my father passing...."

Maul steps over to console her.

"Right, we've all lost people recently. It's hard right now but I think things like this make us stronger in the end. I mean, we all learn to cope somehow, right?"

"And besides, you've gotta be strong, you're marrying Khelan and that's going take a lot of will power." Maul says jokingly.

Maul steps back and pats her shoulder.

"Thanks."

Omi smiles and nods.

They both head back to the cockpit before their arrival at Tionisla.

Last edit: 01 Sep 2019, 4:44am
Sen Zaurak
01 Sep 2019, 12:17pm
Coming in on the Signal source Sen and Kat has zeroed in on Sen looks over his shoulder.



"Any word from the others Kat?" Sen asks before dropping out of hyper space.



"Well to be honest Sir, from the transmissions Dex has been monitoring they seem to be in the thick of it." Kat says that same somber tone she had knowing when Sen split up the data it would get serious for them but she also knew they needed this cover. This was the only chance to find out how the unknowns are controlling the Thargoids. Causing them to attack stations and ships. The lingering question, is all the attacks because of hostile intent, or, is it possible someone, or something could set them on a path of attack like blood to a shark? Kat looks nervous but excited as she waits for Sen to drop them out of Hyper to the first signal source listed in the data.



Sen takes a deep breath. "Dex, defence mode." Sen says as he hits the controls to bring them out of jump. "Yes sir." Dex responds as the ship shakes and creeks as is slows through space. The bang from the drop echoing throughout the Dreadnaught.

Dex goes into alert immediately as she relays information directly to Sen's eye piece hud. Kat for a moment looses her breath as the view of the Thargoid ships come into view.



"Dex, start scanning, anything out of place other then the space roaches?" Sen says keeping his finger ready on boost and jump. "Scanning now Sir!" Dex responds .


"KAT! What the hell are we looking at?" Sen shouts over. Kat still sitting in awe seems to be in another world, lost for words as she can not even respond to Sen. "KAT!" Sen shouts out to her, breaking her trance. "Shit,, um,, yes, yes,, of course. Dex, display data for Marauder, scout class on main deck." Kat chokes out. "Right away." Dex responds . A holographic data file is displayed in the center of ship bridge.



"Sir I am detecting several fragments of a Hull. Scout class, DBS. Only cargo intact is a container, appears to be personal data, I can scann it and download it. Shall I proceed?" Dex asks.

"Do it." Sen responds.



Sen moves the ship into place, keeping a close eye on the Thargoids that have not made any aggressive moves thus far. Looking over he starts to lower the cargo scoop to grab the container as Dex starts downloading the data. Kat can sense something is not right, the readings she is getting she jumps from her seat and rushes to the holographic data showing real time data, historic data and unknown data. "NO NO NO NO NO NO ! NO! " Kat exclaims as she turns to Sen. "IT IS A TRAP!" She shouts out.



"WHAT?!" Sen shouts back just as Dex says. "All personal data has been downloaded." The Thargoid ships instantly take on an attack mode. Firing heavy at the Dreadnaught.

"SHIT! WE ARE OUT OF HERE!" Sen shouts as he hits jump. Several hits on the ship are felt, knocking it around before making to jump.

"FIVE, FOUR ," Dex starts to count down.

"GET IN YOUR SEAT KAT!" Sen shouts out as he watches Kat make a run for her chair.



Kat starts to run for her chair just as the Dreadnaught starts to reenter jump. But something's not right. The ship speeds out of range of the Thargoids but suddenly another lound clap and bang is felt just after. Only going a few hundred light years as the Dreadnaught drops out of jump. Hull damage starting to get higher and higher.



"What the fuck is going on?" She shouts, looking over his systems as they are dropping fast.

"Kat knows they hull is being eaten away by the Thargoid weapons. We need to heat the ship up Sir!" She shouts out. Running to the engineering station. Sen is quick to follow.



"Dex? How much time do we have before the Hull fails?" Sen calls out. " 3 minutes 57 seconds " Dex responds. "Ok that is it." Sen says turning to activate the distress call to Raine on the Escape pod. "Time for you to go Kat." Sen says as he enters the codes into the pod.



His back turned Kat looks over the data. She can see that the information from the container in the cargo bay and the information downloaded from the container is the smoking gun as to who is responsible for the attacks. Much of the data is encoded to old Guardian language and she knows the data sequence well. She knows if she gets in that escape pod this decoded information will never be found again. Her heart sinks as she starts to type away, doing her very best to secure the information into Dex's long range remote server. "Forgive me." she whispers under her breath as she hears the Escape pod open in a hiss of ice cold fog.



Kat knows she only has once shot as she types out the upload code. The bar starts to increase as she turns, kicking Sen as hard as she can into his back, pushing him into the Pod before slamming it locked shut. Throwing her self onto the pod window as he wiggles hims self around shocked. "KAT!" Sen shouts from behind the glass. "Im sorry Sir, but it is the only way. The sequence of data is not done! Only I know what to do!" She shouts out as fire starts to break out on the bridge.



Kat turns back to the console. Entering the sequences as they ping on screen as fast as she can. The smoke starting to blur her eyes and choke out her air. She shouts from behind the pod glass. "DEX OVERRIDE NOW!" the strong help signal from the pod's RF signal blocking any communication between Sen and Dex. He pounds on the glass and pushes as hard as he can on the door to get it to open. Knowing that his efforts will be useless he changes tone. "

"Kat! In the cargo, go to the Sencorp crate , enter in the code 1379, inside is a nano suit, put it on,, now. go!" Sen shouts out to Kat, the smoke starting to become to much she stops from the last sequence as she falls to the cargo door. As it opens she rushes inside, pushing crates around the bay to find the one Sen directed her too.



Kat finds the crate, she pulls the suit up, pressing it to her body and hits the center button, the suit forms to her in a fast motion. She quickly reaches down grabbing the helmet and pushes it onto her head as she makes for the door to finish the sequence of codes.



As she enters the bay, filled with flames. The attempt to over heat the Dreadnaught to counter the effects of the Thargoid weapons has only lead to mass fire throughout the ship. The hull about to break Kat places her hand on the glass where Sen sits helpless inside the pod. "It was the only way Sir, forgive me? It has been so good serving under you." She says her hand pressed on the glass. Sen is shock at what is taking place he watches Kat close the helmet and salute him.



As she turns to enter the last of the codes. She feels the heat growing so hot, even with the protective suit the flames are too intense. She knows she can not eject Sen yet, not until the last of the Codes are finished. She types as fast as she can, tears rolling down her face from inside the helmet. Every hit on the glass from Sen to escape from the Pod to trade places leaves only burns on his hands. Every shout, every scream no.



The last sequence has been uploaded as Kat is weak, burning inside the suit, crying in agony as she looks over her shoulder to Sen, hitting the pod eject button as the pod is launched into the black, the flames turning into a incinerator inside the Dreadnaught.. The sudden jolt of the ejection knocking Sen unconscious as the pod broadcasts out the distress call to Raine.




(((Dreadnaught CNV-301 in distress, recovery needed. Life support needed. )))


Khelan
02 Sep 2019, 12:52pm
Maul Montresor

They both head back to the cockpit before their arrival at Tionisla.


Khelan sits in the pilots chair with ancient music blasting out of the speakers around the cockpit.

He leans back in his chair and starts to sing

"When they called me broken, Ah knew
When they called me evil, Ah knew
When they called me ruin, Ah knew
Ah would always find ma way to you

When Ah beg forgiveness, they knew
When Ah beg for mercy, they knew
When Ah beg for nothing, they knew
Ah would always find my way to you."

Omi walks towards the cockpit as Vega comes out, her face conveying exactly what she's thinking about Khelan's musical tastes.

"He might be a very talented pilot but his singing voice leaves a lot to be desired" Vega says as she passes Omi who just smiles in agreement as she goes into the cockpit.

She walks up behind Khelan and slides her arms around him.

"It's been a long time since I've heard that song." she says placing a kiss on his cheek while turning the volume down. "How far out are we?"

Khelan turns and smiles at her.

"Oanly a couple of jumps, Leo tried tae kill us a couple of jumps ago routing us through a neutron star but it shaved a lot of time affa the trip."

He notices the marks on her neck from Maul's fingers.

"Hiv fun wi goolie?" he asks

"He's got a lot of potential" she says "His anger gets to him and he loses control but with training he should be able to be more than a match for anyone else in a fight."

Khelan nods

"Hopefully he'll never need tae use any of wit yer teachin him but it'll gie him a wee confidence boost. Once we get back frae Tionisla Ah'll take him oot fur a wee play in the asteroids in Shinigami tae see how he copes when somewan's shootin at him."

"I hope we're doing the right thing making him into Hideo's replacement" she says looking out the window.

"Ah widnae hiv suggested it if Ah didnae think he could dae it." replies Khelan "We're givin him a purpose in life ah honestly think he'll be just wit we need back home."

Omi smiles.

"I think you might be right there."

The Prid lines up for the next jump and leaps into the Lave system

Last edit: 02 Sep 2019, 3:53pm
Lambast Mercy
02 Sep 2019, 2:43pm
Kaisla drifted down to her ship Dracul. As she entered the airlock, Kaisla turned and gave Lamb a wave. Lambast pressed her hand to the canopy as Kaisla boarded, even just standing in the doorway, Kaisla wore the Dracul like a favourite old pullover. All be it a very well-armed and deadly pullover. Lamb lingered on the scene just long enough to embarrass herself. The extra seating Lamb had installed in the cockpit made the place seem empty. In the galley, Lamb noticed how quiet the Hand was now. It was amazing how quickly she had got used to having a ship full of people.

“Hol, how is the .. everything with the Hand?”

“Shipshape and Bristol fashion M’arm. Well the armoured hatch for the sola room squeaks a bit after the bump, but that’s about all”

M’arm? Lamb remembered this was a younger Holly. Five years ago, Lambast was not long out of the Imperial Navy and still liked hearing her official address. That meant it was well over five years ago she had last been in combat. The fight on Vuia Survey was a nasty system shock to her. Right up until Kai had yelled cover, it seemed like a game. On her first engagement of the fight, Lambast would have been shot if Kai hadn’t killed the man on the other side of the walkway. That wasn’t the only time Kai or Silas had taken out a target that had Lambast in their sights. Even using the excuses that she was baiting the attackers for the others to get a shot, Lambast had still put herself in harm’s way far too many times during that encounter.

The laser burn on her back still hurt even through the pain killers. It was a stark reminder that Lambast would be dead if the people that attacked weren’t just trying to capture everyone to begin with. She hadn’t missed the armour she had worn or the cumbersome shield she had carried since very moment she put them down for the last time, but now Lamb wished she hadn’t left them behind. Lambast took some time to let the fear run its course before getting on with work, well after a hot bath and a deep glass of wine.

She would definitely be having Raven in the gym at some point soon to help reawaken her combat awareness skills. Dueling an experienced swordsman would help her body remember how to stay alive without relying on others.
Falcon15e
02 Sep 2019, 5:11pm
Kaisla put Otto to work immediately going through the FDL's normal system's checks as the COVAS re-awoke the ship. She bustled around rounding up equipment and preparing several storage containers of gear and equipment then, went through and did a sterile boot on the NAV and life support systems.

"Commander, it is recommended that we change air filters in the purge vents. Specifically, vents 4, 8 and 9." Otto chimed in.

"Otto, you've been recommending we change those filters for months. Have I yet to do it?" Kaisla pauses putting equipment into one of the boxes.

"Erm..negative Commander."

"Well, we're sitting on a boring rock out in the middle of nowhere, do you know where I can find those specific filters? Am I going to pop over to the next canyon and grab one from the store?"

"Commander, I wasn't aware that this orbital body had any stores." Otto replied.

"It doesn't you dork - that's my point." Kaisla says, as she finishes packing up a box.

"Commander, are we preparing for a voyage?" Otto inquiries.

"Not we, Otto, me. I'm sending the Dracul back to Eravate."

A pregnant silence follow before Otto asks in a pleading voice, "Commander, are you leaving me behind???"

Kaisla laughs to herself, "Otto, is that concern I hear in your circuits?"

"Yes Commander. I don't like trips by myself."

Kaisla stands up and drags another box over to her liquor cabinet. "Not to worry Otto! You're coming with us, that's why I had you re-boot the NAV and interface and upload the shell framework. I'm putting you into a partition. We can rely on Hol to do NAV work and I'll leave that portion of you with the Dracul to get the ship home into dry dock and then take the parts of you I need onto the Hand for other help."

"I hate when you partition me Commander. I always feel very divided about the process."

Kaisla paused halfway into loading another five bottles of bourbon into the box, "Otto, was that a joke?"

"Aye Commander. Was it any good?"

Kaisla finished loading the crate. "Not bad Otto, not bad."

After a few hours, Kai had finished loading up the essential gear and given enough time for Lambast to decompress a bit from the last mission. She organized all the equipment to be moved closer to the the docking hatch and secured it with cargo straps before climbing into the cockpit chair, strapping in and dialing down the ships micro-gravity down to its lowest level. Typically, Kai liked to leave the micro-gravity at a constant with at least some grav being pipped through the ship. This was a hotly-debated topic amongst star fighters. Kai had found that, despite the gravity requiring more power (thereby robbing essential power from weapons and propulsion), she liked to feel what the ship was doing. But for the docking, moving of equipment and eventual un-manned trip back to Eravate, having any grav didn't make sense.

"Lamb, do you copy? You back on comms?" Kai calls out while adjusting her headset.

"Yup, I'm here. Are you ready?" Lamb answers back.

"Yeah, I'm going to bring the FDL up and start the docking."

Kaisla engages the reactionary thrusters and the FDL shudders in response. Ice and sediment falls off the FDL in sheets as she slowly thrusters the FDL vertically. She triggers a brief burn and pulls the nose up, bringing the FDL pro-grade in relation to the Hand. She closes the distance at a slow pace, no need to rush the docking. After a few short minutes, the docking clamps of the FDL and Python thud against the umbilical and the ships join. Transferring and storing of equipment takes about an hour as the two women float back and forth moving crates.

"Oof, I can tell how heavy this is even in micro-G. What do you have in here?!?" Lambast complains.

"That's my bourbon." Kai smiles back.

Lambast rolls her eyes. "HEY! That sleeve sticking out of that box, is that cold suit?!" Kaisla blushes and gives another, sheepish smile.

"Maaaaay-be?"

Lambast shoots spears at Kai with her eyes. "Nothing is ever safe with you huh? I need to nail my stuff down!"

"Awe, c'mon, don't be angry! I've used it quite a bit. I'll give it back."

"No dear, you can keep it. No telling where its been with you." Lamb scolds.

"Ouch."

With all the gear loaded. Kai interfaces Otto's partition with the Hand and uploads the pertinent data with Holly's COVAS while keeping most of Otto's operating system on a separate data drive so as not to over-ride Holly or, in case the worst happens.

"Otto, this is Kai from the Lamb, test on the remote interface."

Both Otto's respond, "Aye Commander?"

Kaisla shifts her mouth sideways, "Stupid, I only want the remote interface, for the FDL!"

"Oh, right Commander," Otto replies. "Okay, I'm here."

"Systems check?" Kaisla inquiries.

"All systems on the Dracul are nominal. Ready for transfer." Says the Otto partition on the FDL.

"Okay, Otto, you know what to do, get her home safe."

"Aye Commander." Both Otto's respond.

The FDL disconnects from the docking umbilical and thrusters back precisely and slowly from the Hand. Then, lacking any of the flourish that is Kai's hallmark, rotates and thrusters away. Kaisla sat starring through the observation port on the Hand as the FDL increased distance from the Hand and Arbiter before it throttled up and with a flash, entered super cruise enroute to Eravate. Lambast placed her hand on her shoulder.

"I know, its hard to watch it go. But it will get back safely and be waiting for you when we're done with this mess." Lambast says, trying to sound consoling.

"Yeah, I just hate that automated crap." Kai busies herself trying to not look worried.

EC breaks the moment calling over, "Hey, did we just see the Dracul leave? Are we ready to get this show on the road?"

Kai grabs the headset, "Yeah, we're ready. I'll be over in a minute - I gotta get dressed."

Echo cuts in on the line, "Um, that parts optional y'know." There is a muffled exchange before Echo can be heard in the background, "Ow!" EC's voice responds on the radio, "Shut up you moron. Okay Kai, take your time, we're almost ready over here."

Lambast rolls her eyes.

Kai looks at her, cracking a grin, "You're gonna get your eyes stuck like that on of these days."

Lambast profs the cold suit. "Lets get you ready."

Kai strips off her over-clothes and normal flight suit and starts the process of putting on the same cold suit that she wore to sneak onto the Conduit. The Cold suit, much like a dry suit, requires almost an entire ship plus mega-ship to don. Often, the user usually gets feet, arms or head stuck in the process and having Lambast as an extra set of hands to wiggle into the tight fitting garment is very helpful. With the cold suit on, Lambast assist Kai with donning a regular flight suit plus an equal compliment of weapons. Her pistol, plus five battery packs, secures to her waistline. A Carbine, a bit more vanilla than EC's, gets strapped to her back. She locks into a heavy set of mag boots and a small backpack attaches to the back of the flight suit. The backpack contains the air hoses, wiring and jets which connect to the arms, legs and torso of the suit itself plus, an eight-hours supply of condensed, breathable O2 for zero-vacuum flight. Although not as cumbersome as flight suits of the past, this one is a bit more involved than the standard piloting flight suit and will enable Kaisla to survive in complete vacuum sufficiently should anything go wrong. Finally, Kai seats the headset and microphone into her ear and secures the REMLOK helmet.

"All set?" Lambast asks while checking the lightweight pressure couplers around the wrists of the suit.

"I think so." Kai's voice crackles back into Lamb's ear piece. "I've done a few EVA's, I'm just not used to it."

"It's not sweat," Lambast re-assures her. "The suit is pretty basic and already uses interfaces you're used to. Diagnostics will display on your REMLOK HUD for important information like nav and life support and everything else will be on the data pad on your wrist. The suit is pretty upgraded from your off-the-shelf model from my time in the Imperial Navy. If you take any small caliber damage, it will self-heal and you can carry on - that's what this bottle is for back here - its a proprietary gel. Anything larger than small caliber and the suit will warn you as it seals off the wound with the gel. You'll have about 30 minutes of pressure because the gel isn't meant to cope with large caliber stuff."

"I get it," Kaisla protests, "Lets get this done with."

Lambast seals her into the airlock and jettisons the pressure. Kaisla does a quick suit check before floating over to the Arbiter and with a knock, enters into the Arbiter's airlock.

EC welcomes her onto the Arbiter. "Now the fun beings."
Maul Montresor
02 Sep 2019, 11:22pm
KhelanThe Prid lines up for the next jump and leaps into the Lave system



Maul passes Vega on his way to the cockpit. They greet each other with a nod.

He enters the cockpit and sits in the co-pilots seat.

"Oh wow, we're in Lave? I remember having to order cases of Lavian Brandy at the bar back home. People loved that shit."

He looks over to Khelan and Omi.

"My favorite customer Rusty used to order it from time to time when he felt the need to celebrate and let me tell ya, he celebrated a lot."

Maul chuckles.

"I just hope I'm in half as good of shape at his age. Nothing slowed that old fart down."

He notices the marks still on Omi's neck and jumps up to walk over to her.

"Oh Jesus, did I do that? I'm really sorry, I...I didn't know I was squeezing that hard."

He looks down at Khelan sitting in his chair and back up to Omi.

"I'd never intentionally hurt you guys."
Khelan
02 Sep 2019, 11:57pm
Omi looks at Maul and smiles.

"Don't apologise, learn from your actions and improve yourself. You let anger blind you and I'll be honest I was provoking you. Plus I let you get close enough to do it in the first place. Next time I won't be as soft on you and you'll get a real challenge. "

Khelan chuckles

"Dinnae worry aboot it mate, Ah'll just tell folk Ah did it as part of a sex game oar somethin."

He checks the chronometer before looking over to Maul.

"Ye ever been tae Lave afore? They hiv stunnin rainforests, well the wans that hivnae been chopped doon that is an that John Jameson bloke came frae there too. Y'know the bloke wit stopped the first Thargoid invasion by detonatin that warhead that killed a load of them? Ma creepy auld uncle Albert used tae tell me stories aboot that an how INRA shafted him over by tamperferin wi his ships computer so he cudnae come back haim again. Ah've read the logs recovered frae his ship ye'know? It's fuckin heartbreakin when he realises he isnae gonnae see his wee boy again."

He shakes his head sadly before changing the subject.

" Just tae let ye know mate there's gonnae be a lot of folks here tae pay their respects tae Shin. A load of them will be frae rival clans an the like, there shudnae be any bother but ye never know so keep yer wits aboot ye."

He lines the Prid up towards Tionisla and engages the Frame Shift Drive.
Maul Montresor
04 Sep 2019, 7:06pm
Maul nods and looks over at Khelan.

"Alright, I'll keep an eye out. Hopefully no one is stupid enough to try anything but it wouldn't be the first time I've been proven wrong."

"But yeah, I've heard about all of that business with Jameson. It's a damn shame really, putting your life on the line and then getting screwed over by the people you're fighting for." He shakes his head. "People suck."

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