Elite roleplay: Off station

OFF STATION

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

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28 Apr 2022, 4:01pm
Maul grasped the SMG firmly in his hands under the robes. His eyes still hadn't fully rebooted after that EMP that.

"Right so," Maul turned off his magboots and began floating, trusting that Silas would navigate him. "...I'll be the dead guy and you just kinda get us over there."

He double checked his bullet proof vest was securely attached. His suits shields would be preferable but it's unlikely a dead man would have his shields up, so this would have to do for now.

"Aight, you think we need some passphrase for me to start shooting or something?"

"Something like 'Banana' or 'Cantaloupe' or...'Pizza'...with extra cheese....and peperoni." Maul was beginning to trail off.

"Uh...Fuck man, I wish these damned things would just reboot already. Not being able to see shit is annoying!"


Last edit: 28 Apr 2022, 4:09pm
28 Apr 2022, 8:36pm
Maul couldn't see Silas' sheepish expression, but he felt pretty bad about nuking the man's eyesight again.

"Yeah... sorry about that. Wasn't thinking about your electric eyes."

Silas grabbed Maul's pants at the thigh and his arm and started floating him toward the umbilical. He deactivated his boots as well and pushed off toward the ladder, where after a fumble or two managed to grab a rung and clumsily climb up, pulling Maul by the wrist along with him.

"OK, we're at the top. Your safeword is 'Cowabunga it is'. If you hear me say that, you pop up and start administering violence. Once we're inside you're gonna have to keep quiet, so anything you need to get out before play-dead time?"
28 Apr 2022, 11:14pm
Maul briefly rustled around in the robes and then grew eerily silent for a moment.

“Nah, we’re good. Thought I might have needed to…uh…” He couldn’t think of a way to phrase “passing gas” without embarrassing himself.

“No, yeah, I’m good. ‘Cowabunga it is’. Got it. Let’s do this shit.”
29 Apr 2022, 5:53pm
A clump of silver hair suddenly appeared in the umbilical between the two ships. Kai’s head popped into the passageway between the larger vessels slightly above Maul and Silas,
“What are you dorks talking about?”

Both men crane their heads to see the head and shoulders of the five foot, two frame staring down at them.

“And what the hell is with Maul’s peepers?”

Silas lowers his pistol after the initial start from hearing Kai’s voice and maul clumsily bumps into the wall attached to the umbilical, “Ow…” he dead pans; Silas grabs him and pulls him off the wall.

“Geez us you startled us! When the hell did you get here?!” There is a hint of relief in Silas’ tone of voice.

“Like ten minutes ago, coasted into the system on silent running cause I wasn’t sure what was going on. Nobody’s monitoring comms and, I saw Lamb’s silent alarm. Is this a rescue mission? Did I get here just in time for a rescue?! Oh boy! Let me grab the rest of my stuff!”

Silas rolls his eyes, Maul stares in the direction of where (he thinks) Silas is floating next to him. “Guess we got our Kai back huh?”

Silas shoves him through the umbilical, “Not gonna lie, I’m happy to see her, we need the extra guns.”

“For your gun you mean?” Maul chuckles as he floats into the radial tube. A black duffel bag, tossed from Kai’s Fer De Lance which is dangling between the two attached ships by means of a bastardized docking adapter, sails through the zero g, into the main passageway and careens cleanly into Maul’s forehead.

“Fuck! Silas, you’re supposed to KEEP me from hitting shit!”

Silas rolls his eyes, “I guess if you ever want to test the best plans, just throw a Kai into the equation.”

Kai floats into the tube with a hair tie in her mouth, working studiously to secure her silver locks into a tight pony tail. “Awww, that’s sweet.”
She unzips the duffel and extracts an SMG, releasing the latch on the folding stock, jerking the weapon and letting it swing into battery before throwing the breech forward, charging the dual-purpose energy/kinetic weapon.

“Lets kills some fuckers.”
05 May 2022, 12:35am
Na'Ni had returned from a years trip outside the bubble, and sat in her little ship as the repairs were being done, she had almost forgotten how to talk to people she'd been out of the civilised verse for so long, had it been a year...or more. She wasn't sure, but as she sold the data she'd gathered and watched her account flooding in with credits she smiled. The job had been worth it
She took on an easy job for the rest of the day, cargo hauling and had found herself a nice little earner...10Mil credits per loop, 3 jumps per run was just enough to keep her mind from going funny, She really was finding it hard to adjust to being back among people, they all seemed to talk....constantly...and it was freaking her out.
The evening drew to a close and she parked her ship up floating in the outer rim of a small back end system and gathered her cats and headed for her room, she paused to say goodnight to the guinni pigs...at least she hoped that's what they were...they were round, and squeaked happily though it was odd they didn't seem to move on legs more so they floated like balloons..kinda bobbing around in there cage. Once in her room she pulled herself into her bed. 'its weird to be back among people' she said as she closed her eyes ''at least you'll stop talking to us'' said one of her cats......at least that's what Na'Ni thought she heard one say

The night would pass uneventfully for Na'Ni. in her living quarters her Guinni Pigs would randomly change colour and glow, much to the delight of the cats who found them entertaining to watch,
04 Sep 2022, 4:33pm
"Oh no, one of our ships is not missing, I suspect you mean the Asp Explorer HIP 61025. We gave the present pilot a permission to fly to check some Dynasty Project sites, what with the Thargoids and everything. Currently he's traversing Phylurn Sector in Outer Orion Spur. On his last message he says there's a clear path to Hawking's Gap in there. Please do not shoot him at sight, if he ever gets back. "
21 Sep 2022, 12:42pm
'Prooe Hypue KL-W c18-73, or some other star near it, I was too much in a hurry to make a note of the exact place. Anyway there is a star that is better to approach some other way. Do not visit it if you travel inwards along the arm. The flash you get jumping through the corona of the secondary makes you think of the potential shortness of life and maybe appreciate company. Heat at 133% the instant getting out of jump. Heatsinks helped, so I'm only little burned. Can I get a docking permit?

.......

'No, I don't care to know what you are doing here out so far from other places, but thank you, (hangar crew of DSSA Rocksteady) , for letting me check my ship thoroughly. I'll be leaving the system now and let you get on with what ever you're doing here. I won't even scan it. Thanks again. '
10 Oct 2022, 11:24am
Well, here I am, thanks for letting me in, dockyard of DSSA [IGAU] Paradox Destiny. What are people here for? What, some Guardian ruins are located nearby? Do you organize tours to them? Or is there some kind of ritual in which I need to find them myself?
...
Ok, enough of questions of you, I've been out now about 7 weeks, a little over, do you have news from the bubble? I haven't really followed the stuff at home the couple of times when I've stopped on this expedition. The rest stops went totally in restocking and sleeping and ship maintanance. Just had time to write home and to the company. I'm planning to continue towards Elysian Shore and fly back to the Bubble through Outorst Sector, I know there's a path even for a ship like this that has not got the jump range of good exploration ships.

Oh, if I could get my hands on some Guardian Relics, I could Exchange some for the Booster to FSD. Let's talk how that would go, yes?


Last edit: 10 Oct 2022, 11:38am
23 Oct 2022, 5:40pm
Now everything hurt. I couldn't move. I sensed light through my closed eyelids. My throat was blocked, restricted, full.

Dim light now, sticky eyes. A voice. 'Hello. Try not to move.' Who was she talking to?

'Tell me what you can see.' Me? My throat was painfully raw, I tried to speak. Nothing came out.

'Blink if you see anything.' I blinked.

The light was dim this time, I could see her dark hair pulled back tightly. Then again, nothing. Just dreams.

'Hello again.' A hand holding shiny wire cutters moved towards my face.

'Try not to move.' What? I'm fuckin immobile. My arms felt pinned to my sides. Snip. Snip. my jaw opened a little.

'Now, let's get this out.'

She started to pull my insides out through my throat. An airway I guessed. I gagged. A thin tube now, in my mouth, sucking sticky liquid away. The same tube, unceremoniously up my nose. Sucking. Again oblivion.

This time I saw flat white surface in front of my face. A familiar odour. Not pleasant. I was gently turned around to face the open space again. She unzipped the cocoon, my arms gently floated free. My legs almost floated.

'Try to relax.' Her voice somewhere under my chin. Then she started to pull my insides out from between my legs.

'If you feel like peeing, just let it go.'

At last, I was fully awake, able to move my arms and legs a little. Again, I was facing a flat white surface. A foul smelling/tasting mask over my mouth and nose.

She turned me around. 'Need to try and help your circulation. Nearest we get to gravity is when I hit the go-faster button. You're stuck on a bulkhead, by the way. Cockpit in front of you now. We should be docking at a station in a day or two.

She removed the mask from my face. 'I think you probably vomited everything in your gut by now.'


Last edit: 23 Oct 2022, 5:46pm
24 Oct 2022, 5:51pm
Med Center, Betancourt Base.

'You've been very lucky Admiral.' A nurse fussed around with a few gadgets pointing at me.

So, my escape pod data recorder had been retrieved and decoded. No surprise there.

'You have a visitor.' She pulled the sheet up to my chin and left.

I recognised the visitor's dark hair and voice. She came a litte too close and studied my face.

'That's going to be expensive.' She said. 'Can you get a re-buy for your face? I would keep it as a reminder.'

I guess at any other time it might have been amusing.

'How do you manage to lose your ship in the middle of the coalsack?' She went on without giving me time to answer. 'There's nothing out there.'

'I didn't lose it, and you were out there.'

'Hey, I'm the sucker that dragged your sorry backside and pod out of there and came all the way back here. "Thank you." would have been acceptable.'

'So, what were you doing out there, and what happened?.'

'Passing through. I could ask you the same questions. Where's my pod and my clothes?'

'Your pod's in the back of my ship, your shorts incinerated - contaminated. You need something to wear. I can't leave 'till you've been interviewed. How about I come back with some clothes and we can both get out of here.'
25 Oct 2022, 8:57pm
It felt like a month since Willow scooped the Admiral’s pod, but it was only coming up to a week. Drop off, picking up the reward from S&R, then back out was Willows way; but this pod had come from a Corvette, and the woman was an Admiral.

Maybe there was a still a profit to be made helping her out; after all, if she did find Admiral Descartes ship, she couldn’t claim it as salvage because its owner was still alive. Willow had made an effort to pick cloths normies liked to wear, but if it wasn’t black, black and white or other sombre colours that worked well with black, Willow was no judge of what looked good. She knocked on the Admirals door and walked in.

“Hi, you're looking .. Dangerous and lucid” said Willow, appreciating the collection of scars Descartes was sporting.

“Ok, so I got you these .. clothes.. There’s a selection of styles for you, and I like, put a flight suit aside for you too”

She put the bags in a locker and sat down in the guest's chair, fixing her big dark almond eyes on the Admiral. Staring was a habit Willow was unaware she had. In her mind, she was evaluating the moment before speaking again.

“So introductions I think” said Willow, sending her business card to Admiral Descartes device.

“Oh yes, everything that came with you was incinerated. I shall print a contact slip for you”

Willows pad ejected a card and she handed it to the Admiral.

Willow Salvage and Retrieval

(Mechanical & Biological)


Your loss doesn’t have to stay lost

Deep-Space and Surface contracts undertaken


The other side read

Weeping Willow Morticians & Undertakers

The end is not the end


We escort your loved ones from here to the beyond

All theological traditions observed on request


Last edit: 06 Jun 2023, 9:05pm
26 Oct 2022, 5:33pm
Acutely aware of my vivid yellow and blue bruises almost everywhere, by the way her eyes stared at me and feeling as if I was being forensically examined, I stood up went to the locker, picked out a loose blue jumpsuit and carefully slipped it on to cover myself.

'Descartes'. I said, scanning her card.

"I'm guessing you scooped up anything that was left of my ship. Technically it belongs to me."

I returned her gaze. There was something strangely compelling about her painted face and painfully thin body. Too long in weightlessness. We all suffered from that. The wound on my head was throbbing. A lurid diagonal scar ran from above one eye, down over my nose, ending below the other eye. I would get it reduced in time.

"Consider it yours. How much do you charge for picking up a live one?"

Unnecessarily harsh. I hurried on. "Add it to your bill for the clothes."

I vaguely recalled hearing that long ago on Earth, undertakers used to paint the faces on a corpse to make it look 'alive and asleep' before burying them in the ground. I smiled as I looked more closely at her face.

"I'm sorry. I was on my way to the Chameleon Nebula. Updating the survey data for 'The Guild.' What were you doing out there?"

In the back of my mind I was suspicious. Something or someone out of the black trashed my Corvette. I needed to find out what had happened.
26 Oct 2022, 8:54pm
"Oh the Tharoid sites in the Coal attract one time traders and miners looking to become defenders of humanity. Like, the ability to crack rocks and move goods, doesn't translate well to stopping giant alian ships"

"There are richer pickings for someone like me around the bubble hotspots; Maia and Asterope you know? But the big guys have the salvage wrapped up there, and raiders pick off independents like me once we have a full hold"

"And hay, if I don't find any commanders that need help, I can always try harvesting Thargoid artefacts, right? That's what I had in my hold when I picked up your pod's signal"

Willow stood up, letting her mag-boots keep her grounded out of habit, and regarded Descartes medical chart while she continued her explanation.

"I didn't hang around long after I picked up your pod because your bio-readouts were low. So like, I'd never seen a pod as advanced as yours, it's more like a cryogenic intensive care unit; not a jump in and pull the handle escape pod you know? But I didn't realize that until I'd cracked it, and I didn't manage that without a hacker opening it for me remotely"

Willow took a hand scanner off her tool-belt and checked Descartes bio-sgins.

"Like wow, you recover fast. So ok, back when I found you, I'm thinking your flame is flickering, so I stop scanning for wreckage and head for the nearest medical facility while I see what I can do to preserve your life. Your pod opens and I see how advanced it is, and realize why your bios looked the way they did, so I'm like, No, if I'd let it be you would be fine for months; but I'd interrupted the process so I had to work fast. I did what I needed to do to keep you amongst the living and got you here"

"As for your ship, not even a high metal dust cloud turned up on my scanners, and believe me, if there was wreckage close by to find, I would have found it. Now I know it was a Corvette you were ejected from, my curiosity is piqued. With a ship that big, I should have found something. So I'm in The Wisp, my Diamond Explorer, but I've sent for my Python. That's decked out for this kind of search"

"I don't charge the victim for recovering their pod; S&R gives pilots a standard fee for that, and saving anyone from potential slavery is reward enough. But I would be open to a search and recover contract if you need someone with a ship geared up for such a task"

A smile crept over Willows lips "I have logged the very spot I scooped you, and the trajectory your pod was taking. And hay, maybe the hacker that opened your pod for me retrieved some data we could use. What do you say?"
27 Oct 2022, 5:26pm
She didn't resist as I relieved of the scanner. The story was plausible, until the stuff about, 'needing a hacker to open my pod', and 'saving someone from slavery'. I'm nothing if not cautious, and I didn't need her tame hacker to retrieve my data. It had no intrinsic value.

Nevertheless, the re-buy on my ship would be 300,mil, plus my ten p.c., and my life was worth ten times that. I never like the idea of some hacker's electronic fingers rummaging through my files but having some inquisitive soul snooping around on my behalf might be helpful. I needed to know what had happened.

I had been relaxing while my AFMU was carrying out routine maintenance, everything but the bare essentials shut down. Nothing on the scanners. Then things went crazy, 'Temperature critical, Eject! Eject!' Something hit me in the face. Then nothing 'till I woke for a while in my pod. Then, again, nothing 'till I woke up stuck to the bulkhead of the undertaker's bulkhead. I needed time to think rationally.

The idea of Thargoids had never crossed my mind. It sounded unlikely; I couldn't recall any report of such sightings. If she found no traces of my ship she was looking in the wrong place. I needed to know and made a decision.

"OK. Call your friend, have him poke around. 500 mill for your services. We leave when my Mamba gets here."
27 Oct 2022, 6:46pm
"Mamba? Like wow, that's my favourite ship. I saved for a long time to get one, shame it's not practical for .."

Something else Descartes had said came back around to Willows mind.

"Five hundr.. Yes yes" Said Willow trying to sound as if that was about the right kind of price for a search and recover job.
In fact, it was more than the value of every ship Willow owned and the equipment in them.

"So like yeah, thank you, very generous. Umm so this hacker thing; it's not a friend of mine. There's this board, and you leave a message on it telling them what your problem is, and someone gets back to you with a price. After it's paid, like, the thing you need happens, you know?"

Willow stood up, trying to concentrate on talking about Descartes contract, but imaging what she could spend all those credits on was buzzing around her head.

"Yeah so anyway, I'll leave a post asking about the one that popped your chamber for me and go find something to eat. So like, you got my contact, just drop me a ping if you feel well enough to eat. I'll let you .. do what ever"

Calmly, Willow left the privet room with a dignified nod. Once she was a far enough from Descartes room, Willow permitted her self an undignified celebratory dance.

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