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.
Khelan
20 Sep 2019, 11:45pm
Maul Montresor

Vega nods and looks at Khelan.

"Well, if there's anything I can do, just say the word."


Khelan lines up for the jump to Diso and watches as the Vulture matches the move again.

"Vera keep yer eyes oan that scanner wid ye? Either this guy's a fuckin newbie assassin who needs tae be blown oota the sky oar he's a distraction an his mate's oot there oan silent runnin an is gonnae jump us as soon as we try tae spool up the FSD."

Khelan flicks the switch on his control column and shifts power from the engines to the shields and weapons instead.

"Got another contact!" shouts Vega "Looks like you were right about the other ship. It's right at the edge of our sensor range and it's only intermittent. Looks like you were right about a second ship."

Khelan nods as he quickly checks the loadout of the Vulture on the targeting computer.

"Multicannons an seeker missiles" he says "It'll make wan hell of a mess of oor internals but willnae touch the shields.

"Why would anyone choose that loadout?" Vega muses

"Because he's going to let his wingmate take down our shields and while we're distracted by that he'll blast away at our internals then before you know what's happening we're floating home." says Omi from the door. "Leo told me what was happening and I came up here as fast as I could."

"Second ship's getting closer, scanner's still having a hard time picking it up." says Vega

Omi moves to beside Maul and takes position at the power management board before activating the magnetic plates in her boots to lock her in place.

"Just concentrate on your turrets, I'll make sure you have enough juice to keep firing."

"The Vulture's deploying its hardpoints." warns Vega.

"Ladies an gentlemen, boys an girls, dying time's here!" Khelan says to himself.
Falcon15e
21 Sep 2019, 4:50am
EC went to peer around the edge of the cargo door. Kai pulled him back rapidly. He glances at her with a look of "what now?!" She waves a small mirror in her hand.

"Us ladies have all the fun goodies." She gives Silas a wink.

She props up against the door seal and Silas runs his hand up against the jamb to ensure it didn't close up again. She pokes the mirror out the entry way and angles it to see the reflection.

"It's clear, are you familiar with slicing the pie?" She asks him.

"This isn't another food reference is it?" Silas asks, stone faced.

Kai rolls her eyes, "No....its where-"

Silas cuts her off, "Kai, I'm joking with you. Of course. When we clear I'll cut left, you cut right and then we'll move toward the center, intersecting fields of fire, silence first, then boom-booms. If our disguises go to shit that is." He glances down at his uniform, "This is squeezing my plums..."

The stride down the corridor. Despite Federal ships all being the same, they are often engineered with minor modifications based upon the ships roll. Kai wasn't sure how familiar Silas was with Federal boats so, she took point. Leaving the Cargo bay, they move up the main corridor toward the front of the ship. Silas is a few steps back. Kai makes a left turn at the closest junction and Silas nearly topples into her.

"Uhh....right turn. We needed to go right." She does a 180 and heads across the main corridor down the right junction. A soldier walking out of the mess gives her a strange look. She flashes a smile and tilts her head. Her and Silas continue past the mess hall just as his buddy walks out. Silas can hear him as they retreat in the opposite direction.

"Do you recognize her? The one with silver hair?"

"Nah man, I thought I had most of the trim on this crate figured out, but I haven't seen her before."

Silas tenses up as he walks away, trying to look casual.

"Well, ever since these suits were brought on board, I can't keep track of them anymore."

Silas lets out a slow breath. That was close.

The move left down another corridor heading back toward the front of the ship. "Do you know where we're going?" Silas hisses into her ear.

"Mostly?" Kai whispers with a shrug, "Each Federal vessel is a little different. This doesn't look like a standard interceptor. These boats are their high-end vessels so the layouts are a little off."

At the end of the corridor, there is a set of stairs that lead up to the second level and a room just prior. Kai enters the room and is greeted with banks of computers set upon a few tables off the the sides of the bulkheads. Silas gives her a glance. One tech is sitting with his back to the door. He turns as they enter.

"Hey, what are you guys, C shift?" He asks glancing over his shoulder.

"Uh, yeah, we're a bit early." Kai hazards a guess.

He continues staring at his console screen entering data. "Yeah you C shift guys get shafted. I hear your LT is a bitch. Did she put you guys on the pod?"

Silas pipes in, "No, she put an Indian and Nordic dude on it. I think they're another shift because I haven't seen them on C's rotation yet."

The computer guys continues typing, "Yeah that's Iniuk and Raj...they're on my shift. Good dudes." Kai and Silas exchange glances with a shrug.

Kai plops down in the chair next to him. "We haven't done shift change yet, we just got woke up when we broke orbit back there. What's happening?"

The computer guy glances up at her. "It was some crazy shit- What was your name?"

"Jane."

"Jane - I'm Austin - anyway, those ships we were chasing, well those morons broke squelch, yelling something about a guardian artifact and then one tried to ram the other Vette in the flight! Anyway, they made a jump, we triangulated and jumped in right in the middle of this RAGING battle. Looked like they had turned on each other or something. They punched the artifact out and the Fer De Lance got spaced by the Krait at the last minute! Anyway, that's when we snatched the pod and got out of there. It was nuts!"

Kai's eyes go wide, "Wow! I'm not sure how I slept through that!"

"Yeah, we were all put on red-alert when we intercepted them...so why were you asleep?" Austin asks with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

Silas cuts in, "We had been up the last 48 hours doing wake scans. So...this was suppose to be a day off. What do they want with the Guardian pod anyway?"

Austin looks around the empty computer bay conspiratorially before leaning in, "Look, you didn't hear this from me, but from what I hear, these suits we have on board the ones that killed the Fed bounty hunter, Johnston -"

Kai's breath catches in her throat.

"Well, a bunch of us suspect their hoarding this gear to build an Army and then use Thargoid tech somehow. Anyway, its just stupid rumors."

Silas holds out a silver disk, "Does it look something like this?"

Austin takes the curious disk in his hands, "No, I'm not sure-" The disk pops open and a cloud of gas vaporizes in front on his face. He passes out landing forward onto Kai's chest.

Kai looks up at Silas, the out-cold Austin still slumped forward onto her breasts. "Really? This is for the hip thing huh?"

Silas pulls Austin out of his chair, letting the body slump onto the floor. "Hahaha, no but it just kinda worked out that way." He positions in front of the computer and plugs a data stick into a slot on the base of the keyboard terminal. Quickly Silas starts running through various programs trying to find anything that might relate to "Spiritweaver, Thargoid or Leith". Kai stands while he is typing and moves to the opposite wall, back up against the bulkhead near the door way in case anybody else enters.

Finally, after ten minutes of frantic searching, Silas sits up, "Jackpot. Its not much, I can't get past the internal firewall that these suits these guys are talking about put up. Its a private net. But, I do have some other information we might be able to use." Without scanning it too thoroughly, he quickly uploads it onto the data stick and pulls it from the slot.

He walks up to Kai, "To the bridge?"

"To the bridge." Kai responds.

Last edit: 21 Sep 2019, 4:55am
Maul Montresor
21 Sep 2019, 5:49am
Khelan"Ladies an gentlemen, boys an girls, dying time's here!" Khelan says to himself.


Maul smirks as he locks onto the Vulture.

"Eat shit, bitch."

The array of lasers scattered across the Prid burst to life creating a mesmerizing display of lights. The Vulture's shields start to quickly deplete as it attempts to swing out of the line of fire.

He looks over to Khelan who is fighting with the controls to swing the massive ship around to get the Vulture back in their sights.

"The second ship is beginning to approach! We need to finish this bastard off quick!" Vega shouts to alarm the others.

The Vulture comes back into view and Maul once again opens fire to finish depleting it's shields.

"Now, target the power plant." Omi says to Maul as she continues to work on power management.

Maul nods and scrolls through the subsystems to target the power plant. He switches to the Multi-cannons and fires.

The Vulture boosts upwards and rolls out of sight.

"Uh, guys..." Vega begins to speak but is cut short by a hail of fire from the second ship.

The Prids shields start to suffer from the barrage of lasers from the second ship.

The Vulture briefly comes back into view with its shields still recharging.

Maul targets the power plant again and fires all 8 of the Prids weapons simultaneously causing the power distributor to struggle to keep up.

"I'm not pulling anymore power from the shields!" Omi shouts in protest. "Finish him!"

Maul focuses on keeping the Vulture in his sights as every weapon on the Prid begins to shut off one by one as a result of the struggling power distributor.

"Come on!" Maul shouts.

The Vulture attempts another maneuver but explodes in the process.

Maul leans back and sighs with relief as Omi scrambles to put more power back into the shields and activates the shield cell bank.

"It's not over yet." Omi says.

"Now, who is this asshole?" Maul says, referring to the second ship that is desperately attempting to take down the Prids shields as the shield cell bank continues to restore them.
Khelan
22 Sep 2019, 6:50pm
Khelan swings the Anaconda round towards the second ships last location according to the scanner and starts looking around through cockpit viewports.

"Got another contact!" shouts Vega "Same trajectory, Coming in fast!"

Khelan scans his head around to look for the incoming ship as something small and fast flashes along the length of the Prid from front to back raking it with pulse laser fire.

"Got it on the targeting computer" says Vega "It's a Gu-97. Rogue G variant."

"That means that witever is oot there is big enough tae pack a fighter bay. That Vulture wis just a distraction."

"It's coming around for a second pass!" shouts Vega as Khelan yanks back hard on the controls while flicking flight assist off and hitting full throttle causing the rear of the ship to slide out and the Prid flips around almost on it's own axis. He hits boost to stop the sliding and the massive Anaconda starts heading directly towards the fighter.

"Omi gie me full power tae the shields an everything else tae the engines"

"Done" she shouts as the small fighter starts to manoeuvre to avoid a head on collision. Khelan adjusts the ships course and hits boost at the same time causing the Prid to leap forward towards the fighter.

The pilot of the Gu-97 tries to get out of the way but the Prid slams into it causing the tiny vessel to spin out of control and start belching out flames from the rear.

"That'll fuckin teach ye, ya basturd" says Khelan as the fighter's cockpit becomes filled with flames.

"Eject, c'mon get out of there." says Vega

Khelan turns to face Maul

"If ye see that basturd eject ye gie him the business end of a beam laser ye hear me?" he snarls as a Type 10 defender comes into view with it's hardpoints deployed and spitting fire towards the Prid.
Maul Montresor
22 Sep 2019, 8:22pm
Maul keeps his eye on the Gu-97 waiting for the pilot to eject.

The escape pod finally plops out of the ship and freely floats for a moment as it plots it route.

Maul locks onto it and hovers his finger over the button.

Omi turns to look at him and gives him a nod.

"Do it."

He looks up at her and back to the escape pod. He hesitates but fires a beam causing the pod to explode.

After a deep breath, he readjusts himself in his seat and turns the weapons towards the Type 10 to open fire.

Omi scatters to shift some power to the weapons as the Prid maneuvers around the massive Type 10.

"Looks like they're deploying another fighter." Vega says as another Gu-97 comes flying out of the fighter bay.

Maul immediately changes focus onto the fighter ship and starts firing upon it.

"Who the fuck are these people?!" Maul shouts as the Gu-97 whizzes by with a with a barrage of laser fire hitting the Prid.
Khelan
22 Sep 2019, 11:46pm
Maul Montresor

"Who the fuck are these people?!" Maul shouts as the Gu-97 whizzes by with a with a barrage of laser fire hitting the Prid.



"Ah dunno but we're no exactly in a position tae ask them" shouts Khelan as he puts the Prid through a series of loops, rolls and slides trying to get out of the Type 10's firing arcs.

The Prids shields groan in protest at the incoming fire and Omi transfers every bit of spare power she can to help reinforce them.

"Warning, Shields at 50%" says Leo

Khelan slaps the boost and the tiny fighter's blasts pass harmlessly through the space the Anaconda was in mear seconds before.

Khelan manages to briefly get out of the Type 10's firing arcs and hits the control to launch some chaff. He smiles as the turrets of the other ship start to spin around and move wildly, their tracking sensors scrambled for the moment.

"Hit him now!" yells Omi to Maul as she transfers power from the shields into the weapons and engines.
Maul Montresor
23 Sep 2019, 12:49pm
Maul fires all of the lasers as the Prid maneuvers around the Type 10.

"They're hurting!" Vega shouts as the Type 10 boosts away while still firing its turrets. The Prid stays right on it's tail, tanking incoming damage in between chaffs being launched.

A brief moment of silence strikes in the cockpit as they watch the last of the Type 10's shields dissipate.

"Let's finish this!" Omi shouts over to Maul.

Maul opens fire on the Type 10, taking out its thrusters with the multi-cannons, causing it to spin out of control. He continues firing to damage its hull before stopping.

The Type 10 floats aimlessly.

"Why did you stop?" Omi asks.

"Um guys, the fighter has ceased fire and stopped moving entirely." Vega says, slightly puzzled by the fact.

Maul looks over to Khelan and points out to the Type 10.

"We're not blowing that ship up without answers. Ambushing us after Shin's funeral like this calls for war and I want to know who the fuck it is we're fighting. See if they'll accept a comms request."

Last edit: 23 Sep 2019, 7:52pm
EvilCreamsicle
24 Sep 2019, 10:25pm
He walks up to Kai, "To the bridge?"

"To the bridge." Kai responds.


EC started toward the door, but then stopped as if he'd forgotten something.
He turns to stare at the unconcious scientist with a shrug and a thoughtful "Hmmm..."

He looks down at the floor. As part of the cooling system and for wiring access to the equipment, it was comprised of grate plating. EC bends down to lift one of the grates off of the floor.

"Grab the tarp off those boxes." he says to Kai, grabbing the unconcious fellow by the ankle and dragging him toward the hole in the floor.

Kai jogs to the corner and lifts the black cover off of the stack, bringing it to Silas just as he lowers the scientist carefully into the hole.
He takes it and piles it haphazardly over the body to obscure its shape, then replaces the floor plate.

"Now to the bridge?" Kai asks

"Now to the bridge." Silas replies, dusting off his hands.

"It's been a while since I've been on one of these things... really only once or twice in my Fed Navy training days, and only to man the fighter bays. I think we need to go right out of here. There should be fire stairs along the corridor at some point which we should be able to take all the way up." EC recalls.

"But... so many stairs!" Kai complains

EC just raises an eyebrow at her, knowing damned well she knows its the safest option.

"I know..." she says, defeated.

The pair exit the computer lab, looking like they didn't belong and acting very cautious out of habit.

"Oh. Disguises." Kai quietly reminds EC, jabbing a little at his ribs with her elbow.

"Ow... yeah ok. Act natural"

Fortunately the corridor wasn't too populated, and everyone was busy. A few ignorant staff members and a couple of exchanged-but-forgettable pleasantries later, they arrive at the entrance to a set of fire stairs.

"Good memory." Kai comments

"Yeah... well at the time it was awesome. I was pretty fascinated with these things before, y'know, my life was in danger just for being here."
They look around cautiously. After determining there was nobody watching, EC pushes the manual door open and holds it for Kaisla.

"After you, m'lady."

"Thank you, sire." Kai says, passing through the door with a playful curtsy, just to instantly lose her enthusiasm when confronted with a 10-flight staircase.

"I don't wanna hear it" Silas says, passing her. "At least your clothes fit."

"Well, yours might too if you weren't wearing them over your damned jacket!"

EC waves her off and begins the climb to the top.

"OK... I don't know how high-ranking these dudes were but, I kinda doubt we're welcome on bridge-level without an escort so, assume we're trespassing." Kai huffs, still climbing.

"Good, at least I can take this constricting crap off. Trespassing is trespassing right?"

"Hey, can it! I've been wearing constricting crap since we left the Hand!" Kai reminds him

"Voluntarily. And I mean... I never said you couldn't take that off too." EC quips, reaching the top of the staircase just in time for Kai to smack him in the back of the head.

Silas rubs the wound with a chuckle. He'd earned that and he knew it.

The pair take a second to remove their disguises before stacking up on the door, Kai in front. The extra milliseconds of surprise weren't worth the restricted mobility of the added layers.

"To the bridge?" Kai says, looking over her shoulder

"To the bridge."

She pushes the door open as quickly as she can do quietly before the two exit and break off in opposite directions to find concealment to observe their new surroundings.

The fire stairs door was in a dark side-room with an open entryway that led into a sort of small concourse. Doors to several rooms lined the walls of the square room, with a staircase in the middle that led up to the doorway to the bridge.

Nobody was in the room at the moment, so Silas made a move toward the staircase from his hiding spot on the left side of the entryway, but just as he was exposed, a guard exited from one of the doors.

"Hey, who are you?" he said, walking toward Silas as the door closed behind him. He was suspicious but not immediately hostile... after all, he wouldn't exactly have expected someone to board mid-flight in deep space.

"Uhm... How dare you address a superior officer that w..." just then the guard got bonked in the head with an arm-length red cylinder and collapsed to the ground, the metal object clanging on the floorboards.

Stunned, EC looks down to see a fire extinguisher, and looks back at Kaisla.

"What?" she shrugs. "It's all I could find on short notice!"

Silas drags the probably-just-unconcious-but-that-thing-was-heavy-so-who-knows body back into the dark room they came from while Kai retrieves the fire extinguisher. EC searches the guard, grabbing his bridge access fob from his vest, then the two dart toward the stairwell, hopefully before anybody noticed he was missing.

At the top of the stairs, Kai moves to the left side of the door while EC moves toward the panel, retrieving his sidearm from his hip, compulsively function-checking it and making sure the suppressor was attached correctly.

"OK, same plan as before. Anybody with a gun, drop them quickly, starting with whoever notices us first. This has to go down before any of them fire a shot. Then we... convince... everyone else to shut the hell up. Ready?"

Kai removes her sidearm from the magnet strap and nods at Silas. He waves the fob in front of the access panel. It turns from blue to green with a beep, and the door opens with a mechanical whoosh.

Kai scanned the right quadrant briefly while EC scanned the left. EC saw one guard, but he was looking away so he waited. A guard on the right side was watching the door when it opened and made direct eye contact with Kaisla, just before she dropped him with a single 'thump' from the sidearm, like pounding a fist on a desk.

They now only had less than a few seconds. Silas waited for Kai to pass across him to the right side before dropping the guard he could see just as he turned his head toward the sound of the first shot, and following around the left outside of the room, scanning back toward Kai.

By this point the other four guards were getting a grip on what was going on and were scrambling to deploy their weapons. Kai and Silas were too quick for them, dropping them as well in quick succession, Silas hitting the men on the right from the left side, and Kai hitting the other two on the left.

A split-second after, Kai made a quick decision to down the comms officer too, cracking his helmet in half before he could call it in, while Silas hit the pilot, who had stood up in surprise when the fighting started, in the left knee, bringing him to the floor with a cry.

"We don't want to hurt the rest of you..." EC started before Kaisla cut him off.

"I do!"

"...OK well, we don't need to hurt the rest of you. Shut up, and do nothing unless you're told. Hands where we can see them."

He scans the room for the shakiest, scaredest looking deck hand he can find.

"Kai, crowd control!" he shouts across the bridge, moving in on his prey. A shaky, dark haired kid with round-lens glasses. Had to be fresh out of academy.

"You, this your first assignment?"

"Y...yess...yes sir!"

"You want it to be your last?"

"N... no sir"

EC handed him another data stick.

"Everything. Every byte of data on this godforsaken kite, or I'm gonna turn your glasses into a monacle, capisce?" Silas says, tapping the tip of the suppressor on the lens of his glasses.

"Hey!" Kai shouts. Silas turns just in time to see her closing on one of the bridge officers and pistol-whipping him to the ground, before grabbing a concealed laser pistol from an ankle holster on the man.

"Kai, Frost. I'll entertain the gallery."

Kai nodded, and after checking that the officer she'd struck was sufficiently unconscious, moved over to stare the remaining deck officer in the eyes, jamming the end of her suppressor into the man's stomach.

"What did you have for lunch?" Kai asks him

"Uh... I had a..."

"I'm gonna find out what's in there for myself if the next words out of your mouth aren't the exact location where I can find Frost Spiritweaver."

The officer stutters, as if he was going to protest, but decided that Kaisla was probably telling the truth.

"I... I can pull it up on the galaxy map."

"Then why haven't you?"

"Yes ma'am!" he spins nervously to walk toward the vacant pilot's seat. Kai stops him with a light but sharp jab with her pistol to the stomach where it was pointed.

"Slowly and deliberately!"

"Yes ma'am." The officer then begins to move, slowly and deliberately, toward the nav panel, where he then begins to sift through his bookmarks for some location.

"Kai!"

Kaisla hears EC, but doesn't want to look away from her charge. She moves around behind the navigation panel, pointing her weapon at the officer through the transparent projection of the galaxy map so she could see both him and Silas, still on the side of the room near the scared deck-hand who was typing away.

Silas tosses her his last data stick, which she catches and hands to the officer.

He takes care to grab it both slowly, and deliberately, and then inserts it into the console both slowly, and deliberately. These two words were playing in his head, over and over. Slowly. Deliberately. Slowly. Deliberately.

"You almost done there, Beaver?" EC says to his shaky friend.

"Y..yes sir!" he says, retrieving the data stick and handing it to Silas.

"Excellent... How we doing Kai?" he says, taking the stick and pocketing it.

Kaisla shrugs, and looks to the officer.

"Well?"

"Yes, ma'am, its right here."
He finished downloading the location data to the stick and handed it back to Kaisla, slowly and deliberately.

"Thank you" Kai said to him, politely but in an eerily cold way, before walking around behind him and cracking him unconcious, slowly and deliberately.

Last edit: 24 Sep 2019, 10:39pm
Falcon15e
25 Sep 2019, 2:02am
The bridge door slides open and a man in an immaculate suit walks onto the bridge.

“Mr. Cousland, Ms. Delana, I’m glad you could finally join us.” He says staring down the two while he slowly starts to undo his cuffs and remove his jacket.

Kai and Silas exchange glances.

“Who in the fuck are you?” Kai says changing out the battery charge in her pistol.

“I’m here to ensure that neither of you leave this ship alive.” He tosses his jacket onto the nearest cockpit chair while he slowly advances on the two. “Come on, put the pistols away. Shall we settle this like civilized animals?” He extracts a long blade from a scabbard behind his back.

“Where’s Raven or Lamb when you need them?” Silas says extracting a boot knife from a sheath on his leg.

One of the officers toward the front of the bridge stands and the stranger holds up a hand. “Please, you and your crew have been incompetent enough for one day. I’ll handle this by myself.”

He flourishes the blade through several deliberate and lethal parries while continuing to advance toward Silas.

Silas weighs the boot knife in his hand and locks eyes with the stranger, it had been a long time since he was in a knife fight. The stranger freezes, like a tiger about to leap at its prey. A thump rings out on the bridge, catching the stranger squarely on the side of his head. He falls, crumbling into a heap, the blade rattling onto the deck flooring.

Kai lowers her pistol, “Sorry, Mr. Scary Corpse, we don’t have time for your machismo bullshit today.” She pivots on her foot, aiming the pistol right at the bridge officer. “Don’t. I’ll fucking hollow you out like a canoe.” The bridge officers hands shoot up indicating his surrender.

Kai continues, “We’re leaving now.” Silas attaches a shape charge to the comms panel and another one of the engine interface controls. “These will only delay you a short time, but I strongly encourage you don’t call for back up until we’re well away. Well??” Kai says, “Get away from those panels you morons!” The officers huddle away from the two panels into a corner on the bridge. Silas triggers the chargers letting off the two explosions. A thick cloud of acrid smoke pours around the cockpit. The Halon fire extinguishes discharge onto the panels further expanding the cloud of gas and smoke. Fire Alarms throughout the ship are triggered and crew members start to react, moving to fire-fighting stations. By the time the cloud clears on the cockpit, Kai and Silas have left the bridge along with the strangers jacket.

The pair rush down the flight of stairs, Kai rifling through the jacket and pulling out a thick wallet and any identification discs he may have had stashed in there. She tosses the jacket over the railing. “Have you called Raven yet?”

“I’ve been trying but the security suite they have on these ships only allow authorized out-going communications.”

Kai rolls her eyes, “Fuck, okay. Follow me.” The two exit the stair well and Kai runs into the mess hall. The cook is busy shoving rolls into his apron and looks up at the two new strangers, he thrusts two rolls out to them. “No thanks,” Silas says. The cook shrugs and continues stuffing rolls into his apron, trying to get as many snacks as he can before evacuating. “I think I meant to turn left back there,” Kai says as she turns around, bumping into Silas and then heading back out into the hallway. She sprints over to the computer room and pushes the door open, running over to the nearest console. She starts to quickly type out a note to the Arbiter, calling for the extraction. A pounding on the floor, louder than the fire alarm make them both stop and look to the floor in the other corner of the room. Silas and Kai both run over to the flooring and lift it off. Austin, the computer tech, lays in the tiny space, thrashing about in the tarp, “HELP! I CAN’T SWIM!!” He’s screaming.

“Bro,” Silas says, “You’re not in the water.”

Austin stops screaming, “Well, I’m also claustrophobic, what’s going on?”

Kai helps him out of the well beneath the flooring, “The fire alarms are going off. Something bad happened with the Guardian relic. Oh yeah, Si, can you punch off those charges we left back at the relic?”

Silas looks at her, “I didn’t know we left charges back in the relic?”

Kai gives a sheepish smile, “Oh yeah, that was me.” She fumbles with the detonator then mashes down the button and a series of loud booms and vibrations rock the Corvette. More fire alarms start going off.

Austin stares at them. “What in the hell is wrong with the two of you?”

“Oh, we’re spies that infiltrated the ship and now we’re making a distraction so we can escape.” Kai says, “The message! Can you hit send?”

Silas walks over to the terminal and hits the send button.

Kai looks down at Austin, still in a confused daze. “Now would be a good time to get to an escape pod.” She smiles her charming smile at him.

The help Austin get to his feet and exit the computer room, stumbling down the hallway with the tech supported on both shoulders.

“Escape pods are to the right, not left.” He says while he tries to regain his footing. Kai, taking lead, shifts from the left to the right down the other corridor. “Now we take a left here.” Austin says.

Kai stands him up, slumping him off her shoulder. “Well Austin, this is it. It was nice to meet you.” She vigorously shakes his unresisting hand.

“Uh...thanks for knocking me out and then saving my life?” He says, looking around.

“No problem.” Kai shoves Silas into an escape pod. Just as she is about to turn and hop in the pod with Silas, the cook barges in between the two still standing in the ante-chamber to the pods, a roll in his mouth. “Wait!” Kai yells, the startled cook pauses, looking at her. She snags the roll out of his mouth and then fishes around inside his apron, pulling out two more, tossing one to Austin. “Snack for the road.” She pops one roll into her mouth and tosses the other at Silas before keying the launch sequence onto the keypad and hopping in the pod.

The door seals and she wedges in between the sidewalk and Silas, he pulls a piece of roll off and puts it in his mouth, “Whelp, here I am shoved into another tiny pod with you.”

Mouth full, Kai looks at him, eyes wide, “I know rith, weth gotta stop meething thit way!”

With a thunk and a whoosh, the escape pod is jettisoned out of the bottom of the Corvette and the booster rockets give the tiny pod a punch, making distance from the crippled cruiser.
Lambast Mercy
25 Sep 2019, 9:56pm
Falcon15e
Lambast opens a secure channel to the Arbiter. “Enroute. Do you think Kai and Mr. Cousland survived that jettison? It looked close.”

“I hope so,” Raven says, “Cause if not, this was all for shit.”


Sitting back in her chair, Lambast prepared for exit from Witch Space. She put her good hand on her head to help brace it against the jarring exit. Even through the pain killers, her neck felt bad. This was a fuel scooping stop so she would have a little time to clean up the cockpit and sort out her injuries.

“Holly, put us in a scooping orbit and warn me of any ships on the watch list entering real space. I have some housework to do”

“Yes Ma’arm. Bio reading say you’re not right, you should take it easy”
Even with his dull never-been-excited voice, he managed to sound like he cared.

“Thank you Hol, I will as soon as this is over”

Talking was difficult, Lambast had bitten through the left side of her tongue when the Arbiter had knocked her off the suicide run into Johnston’s Corvette. Given the likely result from that ram, a neck injury and bitten tongue was getting off scot-free.

The medical supplies Lamb had used were all over the floor now thanks to a few jumps to get away from the pod drop. She took the time to make a splint for her broken fingers and bind her injured hand good and tight while picking up the contents of the pilots medi-kit and putting it away. The fuel tank was almost full so Lamb decided to take a quick jog to the infirmary and get a neck-brace to hold her head in place. After a few steps, it was clear jogging was out of the question so a brisk walk would have to do.

Just as Lamb was getting a good fitting brace, Holly interrupted.

“Look out, we got company Ma’arm. A pursuit wing by the looks of it. We better get a boogie on”

“Oh.. . Bollox! Start the jump sequence Hol, I’ll strap myself in down here. Also, drop the Ma’arm, I’m not in the Navy anymore”

“You got it dude. Jump sequence indicated. Two Vultures braking formation to intercept. We’re gonna take some hits before we get out of here”

Lambast almost didn’t care anymore. The Hand had micro breaches all over the place and half the rooms were on lockdown to retain the internal atmosphere. The main engines were out of line and the manoeuvring thrusters on the port side were seriously out of whack. Lamb didn’t feel much better than her ship, and knew the apathy was a side effect of concussion. If she didn’t get proper medical attention quit soon, she could be in serious trouble. More drugs would have to do for now. She stepped onto the upright medical bed and strapped herself in as Multi-Cannon reports rung off the Hands shields.

Somehow the sound of the shields repelling the cannon shells and Holly’s monotonous voice counting down reminded Lamb of being on her mother’s little mining pod with thousands of tiny rock fragments bouncing off the hull while Holly reported on the state of the hoppers. With a smile on her face, Lamb gave in and passed out.

She awoke with a jolt and assumed it was the drop back into real space. Lamb undid the safety straps and left the infirmary in a drug addled hangover. Something didn’t sound right with the engines, and the lights were flickering but another thing that needed fixing was just added to the list. When the door to the cockpit slid open, Lambast was surprised to find the Hand was still in Witch Space, but it didn’t look right and the Hand appeared to be sliding sideways through the swirling lights. Suddenly the Hand boomed back into real space and Lamb was sent hurtling into the back of the Pilots chair.

The neck brace saved her spine from another painful crack, but it did nothing for her ribs as her torso was crushed against chair before slamming into the dash. She lay on the floor with her knees pulled up hugging her ribs, it felt like two had cracked. Two ribs to match two fingers. Today was a really bad day. Lamb just hoped Kaisla and Mr Cousland were having a great day to balance it out.

The Hand was making no noise at all and Lambast noticed for the first time the Hand was dead in space. She pushed herself up painfully and looked out the canopy from the floor. A big asteroid was blotting out the stars, but Lamb couldn’t clearly make out how close it was in the dark. She turned around to pull herself up using the pilot’s chair. Leaning on the headrest, Lambast squinted to try and make out what was in front of the Hand. The thing lit up with green light. Strips of it illuminated the fins of the thing leading to its centre. It was a Thargoid. Green streams of energy flicked out from its middle and wrapped themselves around the Hand. A strange hum filled the Hand and Lambast fell back into her chair transfixed by the thing.

She’d seen vids of them and studied engagement reports, but this did nothing to prepare her for an encounter. Without taking her eyes off the thing, she moved over to the weapons locker and took out a sabre. A foil wouldn’t do, in fact, what the hell would any weapon do from in here? Holding it in her good hand did make Lambast feel better. The Thargoid ship looked like it was made of metallic flesh. The petals of it looks both soft and immovable. Everything about the ship was a contradiction. A machine, yet organic. Beautiful and terrifying, it reminded Lambast of herself. After all, she was a murderer pretending to be a polite imperial lady. Subverting expectations be being a contradiction had severed Lambast well, but this looked like the end.

The Thargoids light dimmed and the craft just backed off and left revelling to Lambast that the Hand wasn’t the only ship the Thargoids had pulled from Witch Space. The Vultures, a Federal Dropship and Corvette were also drifting dead in space. Lambast pressed her face against canopy to get a better view of everything. There was a Thargoid vessel for each ship but only the Corvette came close to matching the size of the Thargoids. They were all being probed by the invaders. Green tentacles of energy danced over the bodies of all the human ships, and Lamb thought of the right word to describe the Thargoids. Awful, not the modern meaning, its original incarnation. To inspire awe. Fearful wonder described them perfectly. They were awful.

One of the Vultures drifted into the underside of the Dropship but the Thargoids energy whips just intensified and pulled the ships apart. It seemed the Thargoids had some understanding of how our vessels worked and didn’t want them damaged. That thought was squashed along with the Vulture. The Thargoids lights intensified and it fired its weapons. The small fighter exploded in a green-orange ball of light that lasted less then a second. The other Vulture by the Corvette suffered the same fate moments later and the two Thargoid ships moved over to investigate the big ship.

Lambast looked over to the Dropship. By the light of the Thargoid scans, she could see two people were moving around in its cockpit. Lamb watched expecting to see the ship destroyed, but the Thargoid scanning it disengaged and headed for the Corvette. A light from the Dropship dragged Lambs attention back to it. Manoeuvring thrusters were firing so the Dropships crew could get a clear view of what was happening to the Corvette. If the Thargoids had noticed, they didn’t show it. All five of them were orbiting the Corvette letting their energy tendrils probe every inch of the Federal ship. Lamb sat down and tried to reboot the Hand. If the Dropship had power, maybe the Hand could be restarted too.

The ignition sequence was doing nothing, the Hand was still dead. Lamb wondered how the Dropship managed to get power back. She didn’t have time to wonder for too long because the Thargoids were doing something to the Corvette. All five of them had intensified their lights and some of them had changed colour. Two of the largest Thargoids were doing something that made space around them shimmer. The other three Thargoids dragged the Corvette towards the distortion with its energy tentacles. The three Thargoids disappeared into the distortion and the Corvette followed being slowly swallowed up.

The Dropship fired its engines heading for the distant Corvette. Lambast desperately pumped the ignition switch begging the Hand to wake up. Being at the mercy of the Thargoids was one thing, but she knew the Dropship had orders and she didn’t want to be facing them without the ability to fight back. Doing the same thing again and again wouldn’t work, Lambast got up and headed for the generator room. She would have to try restarting the power generator manually. Nothing worked, even the hand-cranked dynamo charger was not holding a charge and Lambasts broken ribs and hand made turning the crank very painful. Again the Hand lurched sending Lambast tumbling, this time without new injury. She went back to the cockpit to see what had happened.

Upon opening the door. Lambast saw two Federal officers, one sitting in the pilot’s chair of the Dropship and the other as close to canopy as he could be looking down on her from above. The Dropships canopy was almost touching the Hands. They made eye contact and the Dropship backed off and rotated to be level with the Hand. All its Hard Points were open and Lambast could see a fair way down all the barrels pointed at the Hand. Lambast mustered as much dignity as a Neck Brace and broken bones could offer, and placing her hand on the pommel of her sabre she strode the very front of the Hand locking eyes with the Federal Captain. She Saluted.

The man returned the Salute and nodded to his piolet. Lambast fort back the urge to close her eyes when one of the weapon points lit up. A missile leapt from the pod and dived under the Hand. It must have been a seeker that needed to get distance from the Dropship before it armed. She remained there looking into the eyes of the man that would be her killer. He had a faint smile on his face. Something smacked into the hull and the Hand tilted sending Lambast off balance. She stumbled and leaned on the display panel to keep from falling over.

An unfamiliar man’s voice echoed around the ship sounding distant like it was coming from everywhere and far away.

“Just speak loud and I will hear you. That was an Imperial salute so you must be Leftenant -Commander Lady Lambast Mercy of the Royal Navy’s 6th Commando unit the Thunder Hands. Do you have a wake scanner?”

Lambast didn’t let anything show on her face. She wasn’t dead but she was still completely at the mercy of the Dropship. Compliance may lead to an opportunity to get out of this.

“I do, but I cannot encourage the Hand to awaken”

The Captian nodded again and the Hand gently hummed.

“We’ll take care of that. Now, I’ve read your file and I must warn you that for the protection of my crew, if you deviate from my guidance in any way, we will fire upon the Hand of Lambast. We need you to scan the event left by the Goid ships. Will you do that for us?”

Lambast nodded and spoke loud
“I will do as you ask Captain”

A weight seemed to lift from the man.
“Thank you Leftenant –Commander. My boys are serving onboard that Corvette. Dyeing in the line of duty would be fair, but being taken by the bugs ain’t gonna happen. Not if I can help it”

A static shock from the panel made Lamb's little finger feel numb.

“If you try to cycle up the Hand now, you should have some luck. Please hurry, the wake won’t last long”

Lamb took the pilots seat and awoke the Hand. It fired first time and the HUD glowed a little bright. Whatever was attached to the hull was supplying plenty of power. Hollys boot sequence was going to take a little longer so Lambast turned to ping the event manually.  The coms panel blinked with a request from the Dropship. Lamb leaned over and accepted it. The Captain’s firm voice sounded in Lamb's head-set.

“The data isn’t gonna make any sense to you or the computer. Just read out the number clusters that appear on the report. We can’t seem to make a connection to your computer. Anything wrong with it?”

Lamb looked at the progress bar for Holly boot up. Thirty percent, he was going be a few minutes yet.

“No Captain, it’s just slow” It’ll be up in a little while. I’ll start the scan and relay my finding vocally”

“This is very good of ya Leftenant - Commander. Listen, you’re doing us a solid, so I’ll pay you back right now. Everyone you know is being watched, and I mean everyone. If any of you make contact with a person under surveillance, that person will be picked up, interrogated and killed just to learn the contents of your message”

Lambast started the scan and answered with a level voice.

“Tell the people watching Deed to withdraw. If he gets wind of it, and he will. Deed will kill his way up the tree until no one on the organisation is left breathing”

“I hope your right Leftenant – Commander, not everyone in the fleet is happy with the orders we’re getting”

Lamb kept that gem of information in the front of her mind as she read the numbers off the scan report to the Captain’s navigation officer. The Dropship moved from behind the Hand to get line of sight on the event. Some sort of projector deployed from the top of the ship and sent a shimmer into event. The Capitan contacted Lambast again.

“I advise you to withdraw Leftenant – Commander, the bugs don’t like it when we play with their toys. I don’t think they'll let you go a second time if you’re here when we get an answer”

Lambast looked at the weapons deployment safety cap and then at the Dropship. From this range, Lambast could place a volley in any soft location she wanted and cripple the Dropship before killing it. She’d done it before, but not to a man that had acted with such respect and honour. Lamb scolded herself for even thinking of being so underhanded to a person that didn’t deserve it.

“Thank you Captain, are you positive I can be of no further assistance in your efforts?”

“No Leftenant – Commander you really should leave. But if you wouldn’t mind answering a personal question, it would settle a bet. In your personal file, after your demotion when you first joined the Thunder Hands you are often referred to as Corporal Butter. How did you get the name?”

Lambast set the navigation computer to get back on track and smiled to herself. Not even Kai knew about that name. She turned the Hand for the Jump beacon on the HUD and toyed with the coms button. She rotated the Hand so she could look up and see the Dropship and keyed the mic.

“I was not strong enough to weld the heavy Power Blades we used in boarding operations for any length of time, so Leftenant Giant made me a few narrow lighter blades I could use as long as drills would require. They were dubbed my Butter Knives, so I eventually became Corporal Butter. Who wins the bet Captain?”

There was no answer. Lambast looked up at the Dropship, the event had begun to shimmer again. Green tendrils of energy wormed out of the rift and entangled the Dropship. Lambast watched as it was drawn into the shimmering. Lamb had no idea if this is what the Captain intended, but she issued a Federal Navy salute to the disappearing ship.

“Good luck Captain, I hope you find your sons”

The Hand entered Witch Space once again and Lamb checked her pulse. Its was slow and she’d lost track of the drug she’d taken. As soon as Kaisla and Mr Cousland were recovered, she would have to retire to the infirmary and have someone check her out. She’d also have to check the Hands records to see if the encounter with the Thargoids and nameless Captain had really happened. It was only moments ago, but everything since escaping the Guardian site had started to feel like a dream inside Lambs aching head.

Last edit: 25 Sep 2019, 10:36pm
Khelan
25 Sep 2019, 11:14pm
Maul Montresor

"We're not blowing that ship up without answers. Ambushing us after Shin's funeral like this calls for war and I want to know who the fuck it is we're fighting. See if they'll accept a comms request."


Khelan nods in agreement and activates the comms system.

"Attention unknown vessel, ye've goat approximately 20 seconds tae explain yersel afore we blow ye intae the middle of next week. Tell us who sent ye and why an we'll arrange fur ye tae be rescued Ah gie ye ma word."

The comms remain silent and Khelan sits there drumming his fingers on the armrest of his chair.

"This is yer last chance pal tell us wit we want tae know an we'll no kill ye."

"Leo? Are they receiving me?" he asks

"Loud and clear dude." replies Leo "Maybe they just don't want to talk to you"

"Uhhh, guys I'm picking up something weird on the scanner." says Vega "The icon for that ship is flashing red and yellow."

"Warning, frameshift overcharge detected." announces Leo matter of factly.

Without thinking Khelan yanks back on the control stick and hits both full throttle and boost at the same time causing the huge vessel to quickly turn around and start flying away from the Type 10.

"Omi gie me full power tae the engines an gie the shields everything else. That fuckers gonnae blow an Ah dinnae wanna be here when it goes!" shouts Khelan as the Prid starts moving away as quickly as Khelan can get it to go.

Omi shifts the power priorities around and the Prid picks up more speed as Khelan keeps hitting the boost button on his throttle to get away as quickly as possible.

Omi nudges Maul

"Stow your hardpoints." she hisses "Khelan's going to want to jump as soon as possible"

Outside the Gu-97 swings around and streaks back towards the Type 10

"What the fuck?" says Vega "when that blows it's going to take it out too, it's suicide."

The Type 10's engines begin to glow bright red and arcs of blue lightning play along the entire ship.

The Gu-97 reaches the Type 10 as its engines glow almost white in colour and more and more lightning arcs along the ship.

The Type 10's FSD explodes violently vaporising both it and the Gu-97 instantly, the explosion spreading out rapidly and violently the edge of the explosion hitting the rear of the Prid causing it to buck and weave slightly while Khelan fights with the controls to keep his course true.

He breathes a sigh of relief as the ship stops bouncing around, the energy from the explosion having eventually dissipated.

"Leo calculate the best route back haim, Ah dinnae wanna be here when system authorities show up." he says and Leo quickly obeys.

"Course laid in, ready when you are." says Leo

"Dae it." says Khelan and the Prid makes the first jump of many on the route back to Hondo City.
Maul Montresor
26 Sep 2019, 4:53am
Maul sits silent, still holding onto the controls.

"What just happened?" He asks looking at the others.

Vega shrugs.

"Whoever they were, they must have feared their bosses more than they did us. Perhaps talking to us would have been suicide for them."

He releases his tight grip on the controls with a sigh and relaxes into his seat.

"You don't think it was-" Maul is cut short by Vega.

"Corporation?....No. There's no way they've located us already."

Maul looks back and forth between Khelan and Omi.

"So then it must have been an enemy of The Black Dragon Society, right? With so many people at Shin's funeral, it could have been anyone."
Khelan
26 Sep 2019, 2:59pm
Khelan looks round to Maul.

"If Ah wis tae put money oan it Ah'd say that it wis some eejit tryin tae show their disapproval aboot Omi bein made Oyabun. It'll probably be because she's apparently vulnerable at the moment, but that should hiv been enough tae prove otherwise. But Ah'll look intae it as soon as we're back oan station. Ah've goat a couple of suspicions but Ah'll need tae get proof."

He pauses and looks at Omi.

"Ah'm forgettin masell. Ah mean Ah'll dae that as long as it's wit yer wantin done."

Omi nods.

"Find out who is responsible for that attack, I cannot allow such disrespectful behaviour to go unpunished."

Omi turns to Maul.

"You did well there, I know it wasn't easy pulling the trigger on that escape pod but you did the right thing. He would have just killed himself anyway so you gave him an honorable death."

She unlocks her boots from the deck plate and heads out of the cockpit.

"If anyone needs me I'll be in the cargo bay."

Khelan looks over to Vega.

"Nice work oan that scanner Vera." he says with a friendly smile.

He gets up from his chair.

"Ah'm goin fur a shite, Mr Maul ye've goat the bridge, try no tae dae anything that'll make us go bang wid ye?"
Maul Montresor
26 Sep 2019, 5:12pm
Maul stands up and walks over towards Vega.

"Real fine work there, Vera"

She rolls her eyes.

"Oh shut the fuck up."

He smiles and extends his hand to help her out of her seat.

"But seriously, great job."

She grabs his and he pulls her up to her feet.

"Thanks."

Vega looks him over.

"You good?"

He nods.

"Seeing those guys killing themselves like that was just unsettling. If they fear their boss enough to do that then just imagine what a fight he'll put up."

Vega nods in agreement.

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that. Perhaps Omi can sort this out in a peaceful manner."

"Let's hope." Maul replies as he starts to fumble around in his jacket pocket pulling out his bottle of pills.

Vega watches him as he pops a few in his mouth.

"Are you taking those as directed?"

Maul gulps them down and nods.

"Of course I am. The bottle says "as needed" and my ribs are still killing me, so..."

"Okay, just checking."

Maul smiles and pats her on the arm as he heads for the cockpit door.

"Well, I'm going to head down to my room and try to unwind a bit before we get home. I've got a lot of catching up to do if I'm going to be filling Hideo's shoes and could really use the rest."

Vega waves to him as he leaves and spins around to sit back in her seat. She sits quietly fiddling around with a loose strap on her suit for a moment before speaking up.

"Leo?"

"Yes, Ms. Vera?"

"Oh my God, never mind!" She says putting her head into her hands.

"It's Vega!" She shouts back at him before getting up and stomping out of the cockpit.

Last edit: 26 Sep 2019, 5:23pm
Khelan
26 Sep 2019, 11:43pm
Khelan heads out from the toilet, he pauses before reaching into his pocket to take out a small paper pad, the type with a small self adhesive strip on the back of each leaf. He then takes out a small pencil and writes "I'd give it 10 minutes if I were you" followed by a smiley face on the first bit of paper before sticking it to the door.

He heads into his room and quickly changes out of his flight suit and into a pair of well worn camouflage trousers and lightweight shoes. He pulls a t-shirt on that reads "Frog Brothers Vampire Hunters" on it in faded text before heading out towards the cargo hold.

Inside the hold Omi is performing various kicks punches on a makeshift punchbag, each blow making a dull thud which echoes around the cavernous hold. Sweat glistens on her brow but she performs each kick and punch effortlessly.

As Khelan enters she stops and smiles at him.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to come and find me." she says checking her chronometer "Twenty-five minutes, that's a new record."

"Ah wis busy." he says with a smile.

"I know where you were, Leo told me and I'll never understand what takes you so long"

Khelan shrugs "Ye really want tae know? Maistly Ah jus use the time tae play "Pissed aff Avians" oan ma pad an dae a wee bitty thinkin aboot the mysteries of life, the universe an everythin else."

Omi rolls her eyes "So have you came here to tell me about your bathroom habits or have you came here to fight?"

"A wee bit frae column A an a wee bit frae column B" he says "Ye went easy oan Maul so Ah'm wunnerin if yer gettin saft in yer auld age?"

She drops into a fighting stance and Khelan does the same thing.

"Ready?" she asks

Khelan nods and Omi pushes her tongue against one of her rear molars causing it to move slightly activating the implants tied into her nervous system, flooding her body with adrenaline and endorphins.

"I went easy on him because I didn't want to dishearten him. You're not getting the same luxury."

Khelan grins as he activates his own implants.

"Let's dae this" he says with a smile.

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