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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08 Nov 2022, 8:51pm
Descartes

This time she was back in her black Remlock suit. Impressive I thought. Business-like.

"Hi."



“Soo glad you came. Thank you” said Willow trying out a smile.

Pushing off the deck, she drifted over to the side of the plasti-glass partition of the Pilot's Lounge beckoning for Descartes. Peering around the support, looking very suspicious as she did, Willow spotted Maul.

“That’s him” she said pointing at the mostly green guy at the bar.

Now he didn’t look so intimidating, he just looked like a tired pilot having a cool drink after a long trip. Her big eyes were fixed on Maul while she tried to work out a way to explain why this normal looking guy had made her nervous. Now she was a little worried about talking to him again, and worried Descartes would be angry Willow had called her here for noting.

“Um, like .. He looks worse up close, real shady you know?” Said Willow tugging on her fingers, a common sign she was working herself up.
10 Nov 2022, 4:27pm
I followed her gaze. Him? What had she seen that I couldn't. What was making her so nervous? Maybe the fact that he was alive and conscious. I put my hand on hers for a moment. Protective, re-assuring, or something else.

"OK. No need for both of us to meet him." Withdrawing my hand. "Wait here."

Ignoring the stares of a few people that looked up, (nothing new there) I made my way to the bar next to him.

"Apple juice" When I eventually got served.

The guy didn't smell so good. Sickly sweet.

Turning to face him. "I need to know about the Coalsack." Waiting for a reaction of some kind. "Who's there, been there, what are they doing?"

"You know how to keep in touch." I waited.

"Now, how about you mistake me for something I'm not, so I can take offence and leave."

Ignoring anything that might be happening behind me, I made my way back to the nervous, finger pulling, Willow.

"I just told him what we need to know." Smiling at her. "Now, let's go and get my pod transferred."


Last edit: 10 Nov 2022, 5:38pm
11 Nov 2022, 9:32pm
Maul turned with a retort only to see the backside of a woman approaching Willow. He had questions that her demands didn't answer.

"Hey!" He shouted, in an aggravated tone across the lounge as he stood from the bar and approached the two of them.

As he began to approach the archway that lead into the lounge, he noticed 2 men and a woman had stopped along the walkway outside and were staring at Willow and her friend. Their voices were being drowned out by the music coming from the lounge but the one who appeared to be in charge of them was pointing in the girls direction and nodding to the others. Maul rubbed shoulders with their kind before, both working with and against their type. The look in their eyes said it all. They'd found finally who they were looking for.

The 3 goons approached the girls with a crooked smile painted on each of their faces.
12 Nov 2022, 9:15am
She made it look so easy. Willow could make a good start, but she couldn't keep it going where as Descartes had managed everything in just a few moments. She was so good at talking to men; the guy was already following her.

Maul Montresor
"Hey!" He shouted, in an aggravated tone across the lounge as he stood from the bar and approached the two of them.


Descartes wanted to see her escape pod which was fine, but it was in her Diamondback, and thanks to her big brother, the paint job was very un-Willow-esk. She really wished the pod had been transferred to her python, as least that had a good reason to be colorful.

She was so preoccupied with worrying about Descartes seeing The Wisp, Willow didn’t see the tall woman with long red hair approaching Maul. She was smiling at him while tucking her hair behind her ear when she said.

“We’ll take it from here”

A large callused hand was pressed over Willows mouth and she heard the unmistakable sound of a power-link charging.


Last edit: 12 Nov 2022, 8:34pm
12 Nov 2022, 6:31pm
Everything seemed to happen at once. I turned to look at Willow, some guy was grabbing her from behind, hand over her mouth. An angry sounding shout from somewhere. Realised someone was right behind me too, making a grab. I hadn't heard anyone coming.

I launched myself at Willow's attacker, lashing out with my fists, feet, knees, elbows hoping to connect with something soft and vulnerable. Instead, met with a brick wall. The sudden attack took him by surprise. He stumbled. A lucky kick from me connected with the back of his knee as his foot hit the ground. He slowly went down in time for my knee to smash into his face. I was screaming for help. We had no chance.

Willow fell.

I kicked out again, viciously smashing into the side of his head. He must at least have been stunned.
13 Nov 2022, 3:12am
Maul felt a hand push on his chest as he watched the series of events unravel in front of him. He stepped back and finally realized that it was the red haired woman that was pushing him back. She pointed her own energy-link at Maul. He'd used the overcharge feature enough to notice when one was set to do so.

He put his hands up and stepped back again. The pilots in the lounge we're all watching the fight now.

"I've called station security!" Shouted the barkeep, hoping to break up the fight.

The barkeeps shout drew the attention of the red head away from Maul, giving him a split second to make a move. He grabbed around the wrist of hand she had pushing against his chest and twisted it in the wrong direction. She yelped out and attempted to hit Maul with an overcharge with the other hand. He stepped to the side to avoid the attack and went under her arms to tackle her, hoping to hit her with enough force that she'd drop the energy link. As they collided with the metal beam making up the archway into the lounge, Maul's head was the first thing to hit, then the woman's back.

He pulled back a bit dizzy from the impact but was happy to see her now empty hands reaching for his neck. In this situation, he figured being strangled was better than being suddenly zapped. He fought with her hands, tugging on her wrists, but she had too good of a grip already. So he reached for her neck as well. That was until a swift kick to his groin caused him to fall to his knees. He was too weak to stand now as he felt her grip tighten. His arms went limp after a moment of struggling with hers. He toppled over to the side after the woman gave him another kick to the gut this time and released her grip.

She turned her attention towards Willow, seeing as she was the only one still standing.


Last edit: 13 Nov 2022, 3:18am
13 Nov 2022, 11:58am
What was going on; this can’t have been her fault this time, right? Descartes had gone wildcat on whoever had grabbed Willow from behind. Another guy was trying to restrain Willows new friend, but she was still going ballistic on the man that dragged Willow to the floor with him under Descartes barrage.

A Power-Link was wheeling slowly through the air, drifting slowly in the weak force created by the rotation. The Link was one of the most important tools in Willows collection, so seeing one abandoned like that called her attention. Being a platform kid, Willow preferred to float, and roughhousing with her brothers had taught Willow to use zero gravity to get away from a fight, or dive back into the fry from another angel.

Flicking up with a push from her hands and hips, Willow gracefully cartwheeled into the air and snagged the spare Link. She used the spin to throw her heavy, deep tread boot to the face of the man behind Descartes. She knew she was too weak for her kick to do much to the large man, but that wasn’t what she was trying to do. The tread snagged and dragged the soft skin of the man’s lips and nose up his face, making a few painful little tears.

His shout of pain was lost in Descartes calls for help, but it didn’t stop him taking hold of Willows chest plate, dragging her out of the Air.

“You’ll pay for that you little bitch” he angrily chided, grabbing Willow’s wrist to keep the Power-Link from shocking him.

“True” answered Willow with her big eyes calmly meeting his “but so will you” she finished with a content smile on her face.

The man hadn’t seen Willow taker her own Power-Link off her belt with her other hand. She discharged it into his gut and kind of enjoyed the belt of electric she received from the man’s grip on her. It hurt, and made her hair lift a bit, but it did stop the guy from attacking Descartes. Willow was still awake, but unfit to fight. Fortunately, the man she zapped was worse off than her.
13 Nov 2022, 3:11pm
The mugger on the ground in front of me was temporarily out of it. I turned in Willow's direction. She was standing over the other, looking down at him as he lay there twitching. I moved towards her.

"We need to get away from here."

There were voices. People were moving towards us. Some moved out of our way.

'She's crazy.' 'Did you see that.' 'I saw everything.'

Sounds of security personnel. Being steered towards security vehicles. Questions. Answers.

I began to shake uncontrollably. "Need to vomit." Head and shoulders outside. Gut-wrenching spasms. More questions. Eventually released with instructions not to leave the station.

It was later back on my ship that I began to make sense of what happened. Put things in order. Only then did I vaguely remember catching sight of that miserable hacker talking to someone with red hair. A woman. One coincidence too many.

I messaged Willow. "We need to talk. Where are you?"

The sensible thing would be to transfer the 500 to her account and leave. But I wanted to see her. Hoping that she was back on her ship.
13 Nov 2022, 7:06pm
Lifting the rack back into place with the help of a pry bar, Willow stopped cleaning up to answer her coms.

Descartes
I messaged Willow. "We need to talk. Where are you?"


“Hay Descartes I’m, on The Wisp, bay 17. Someone broke into it. They’ve ripped your pod apart and ransacked my ship; even my computer is banjaxed”

She kicked a track in the spilled mineral components that had been so carefully stored at her chemistry station.

“Hay, thanks for saving me back there. You were real cool when you gave that guy a slice, you know. Really, thanks. You’re a star”

Putting her mask back on, Willow got on with the clean-up.
13 Nov 2022, 9:28pm
Maul paced back and forth in the holding cell. He rubbed his bruised neck and glanced through the glass on the locked cell door. Station security had rounded up and searched everyone from the fight earlier and found onionhead in his possession. He was just waiting to see what they were going to do with him.

After what seemed like a decade of waiting, an armed security officer opened the door to Maul's cell.

"Well Montresor, it appears you have no outstanding fines or bounties...at least not with us and we reviewed the footage from the lounge and you were clearly acting in self defense."

Maul stood up from the bed he was sitting on.

"As for the drugs you had in your possession." The officer continued. "We went ahead and searched your ship and found what appeared to be a small personal stash of onionhead."

He sat back down and dropped his gaze to the floor with a defeated sigh.

"Too small to warrant the cost of shipping you out of here."

He started to stand again but decided to wait for a "but".

"But we took it into our possession. So we've got you with a 50k credit fine. You pay that and you're good to go. If you cant afford the fine then we'll be taking you ship as payment."

Inside, Maul was having a bit of a meltdown but agreed to pay the fine and was released with essentially a slap on the wrist. He figured he'd got off lucky. If the security officers knew what they were looking at, they'd had tagged a lot of the hardware on his ship as illegal.

Outside of the security station, Maul sat on a nearby bench as he waited for an available lift to take him to the lower levels of the station. He decided to contact Willow.

"What a clusterfuck. Was just released from custody. I don't know what the hell is going on around here or who those folks were but I'm heading to the docks now. I'm gonna go ahead and sweep the nearby Nav's for you guys. Hopefully we can figure out what that was all about and what their motive was, seeing as they refused to even talk to the officers.

Need anything before I head out?
"

He sent the message as the lift arrived.
14 Nov 2022, 1:25pm
No one called Willow accept family and clients. Now she was getting messages from two new people. Strictly speaking they were clients, but that’s not how Willow saw Descartes, and the other one was an onion head. She knew it wasn't fair to judge people right away, but Maul had made a real bad first impression.

Right now Willow wanted to at least get all her clothes back in their draws and lockers before Descartes got here. Seeing her rainbow bright ship was bad enough, but seeing all her clothes tipped out on the floor was too much, so another message to answer was poorly timed.

Maul Montresor
"What a clusterfuck. Was just released from custody. I don't know what the hell is going on around here or who those folks were but I'm heading to the docks now. I'm gonna go ahead and sweep the nearby Nav's for you guys. Hopefully we can figure out what that was all about and what their motive was, seeing as they refused to even talk to the officers.
Need anything before I head out?
"


Pausing to dictate a quick reply, Willow scanned the Diamondbacks little combi-room for stray small-clothes while she spoke. Maul was a computer guy; maybe he could undercut the station on the parts Willow needed.

“Hey, thanks for the offer. My ship was broken into. I could do with a ships computer core if you got a spare. Thanks”
14 Nov 2022, 3:51pm
Willow's ship was easy to find. She said it had been trashed. I didn't realise she meant on the outside. Looking closer, there was a deliberate pattern.

'So, she's hiding a colourful alter-ego. What else is she trying to disguise with her deliberately dark clothes.'

Her ship was open. "Hey!" I called out. "I'm coming up."

It was a mess, looked mostly superficial. Ransacked rather than severely damaged. She was stuffing things into lockers. 'Needs a shower.' I thought.

"Are you O.K. unhurt."

Everything at the pilot's lounge had happened so quickly I wasn't sure in what order. I missed, or had forgotten, half of what had happened in the confusion. I was sure that the sad hacker was implicated. Maybe he'd set us up.

"Tell me what you remember."

I wanted to take her hand.
14 Nov 2022, 4:28pm
“Oh hi, um welcome I guess” said Willow kicking an odd sock up and hiding it behind her back.

“Like, tread softly for you tread on my dreams you know?” said Willow with a ‘whatever’ smile/shrug combo as she looked over everything the burglars had tipped out.

“So yeah, I’m good. I took a shock but it was second hand; that goon took the worst of it” Looking around, Willow tried to remember what she should be doing as a host.

“Hey you can sit! Like, I couldn't make space for living quarters on this tub, so you got a choice of the bed, the chair or the toilet. Sorry. I never use the bed unless I’m stuck in a place with gravity, so you know, sit anywhere”

Willow tried to look relaxed and leaned against the small counter that was what passed for the galley in a Diamondbacks tiny pilots quarters.

“So I guess I remember that Maul guy coming over and then I was snatched up you know? Well like, yeah, you remember because you went total momma-bear on that ass hole. Thanks again Dee” Said Willow touching Descartes on the shoulder. “Like, you do ok on your own, and then your remained how good it is to have someone with you right?”

“Yeah, so then I did that thing with the two Links and took a shock across the chest and right arm; like that was dumb, but it was an ambush. Who’s ready for an ambush? Anyway after that I was F-ed up, and didn't really get a handle on what was going on until that security guy was cuffing me”

With a long sigh, Willow folded her arms and sagged a little “Then I came here because I had an L.D. warning on my python, and found this”

She looked around the room. This was tidy-ish now, the rest of the ship was still a shambles, and there was a big hole to repair in the cockpit where the computer had been ripped out. Willow couldn't help but smile when she looked at Descartes again.

“It’s like every time I try to impress you, fate kicks the legs out from under me you know?”
14 Nov 2022, 6:13pm
I sat on the bed. 'Dee?, you can impress me by not calling me that.' Just a thought. '

"No-one calls me Dee."

She sat next to me. Briefly I touched her knee.

"It all happened so quickly. Did the shock burn? Does it need looking at?"

So she saw this guy 'Maul' aproaching too. It re-enforced my suspicion that he'd manipulated the whole thing since she first contacted him to hack into my pod to open it. That made no sense. Who would ever have an emergency escape-pod that could not be easily opened from the outside? There was nothing that could be learned from the computer. I needed to follow that up. To find out more.

"Tell me again about this, so-called secret, board. How did you discover them in the first place. Why did you agree to a face-to-face meeting? That was not your best idea."

What an understatement. But then, I'd been stupid to meet him. I knew it wasn't necessary.

Impress me why would she be trying to do that.?'
14 Nov 2022, 6:51pm
“Oh right sorry, Descartes it is” her makeup hid another blush “So like, there’s no burns” Said Willow trying to pull the sleeve of her Mav suit back. It didn’t work very well.

“It's getting shocked over the heart, that’s real dangerous, you know? So giving that guy a full charge from my Link while he had his fist over my ticker, that was dumb; but my suit took the meat of the jolt left over from him”

Flicking on the pressure heater, Willow opened a fresh pack of herbal tea and got a couple of topped cups ready.

“So you know I’m a salvager, right? I often come across custom security measures that I can’t deal with. I’d lose a job here, and have to pay a forfeit there because I couldn’t get past some cyber lock-out until I was given this board address. I link up a deck, put out a signal booster, and make a request. One of their hackers works their magic remotely, and tells me what I have to pay before doing what needs to be done. I guess this Maul guy was one of those”

The hot water was added to the cups along with a bag, and Willow put them on a mag-tray with a clicker of sweeteners and left the bags to steep while she continued.

“Your pod, like I said, is more like a life support unit. Like, way more advanced than the stuff I normally see. When I went to crack it, the system went nuts. Now, because I didn’t know you were sort of tranquillized or something, I was in a hurry to get you out; I meant your vitals looked bad, you know? But the Medical Support Computer was trying to keep you safe from my intrusion, so I needed it turned off. That’s why I needed a hacker”

“It wasn’t until after I got you out and stable that I realized what I was dealing with. I should have left you in there and let experts sort it out. I kind of put you at risk by trying to help”

Willow looked at the floor and started playing with her fingers again.


“But like, that cut was still moist and need closing. You had untreated burns that look real painful, I mean like, if you woke up before getting some painkillers in you, I think the pain would have been like, a lot. On top of all that, your heart beat was super slow and your temperature was only just north of ice forming. But .. I .. you.. I'm sorry”

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