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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26 Jun 2017, 11:02pm
The Beluga popped into Supercruise, its Pilot Leif turned it around quickly to throw off possible persuers.

"Bryan, keep an eye on that radar," he said as he dialed up the video feed from the lounge.

"Senator," he said, "I apologize for this maneuver, it may seem uncontrolled but it is by experience the best to hinder being followed."

He paused, the Senator looked up from his seat. The Bodyguard that was tumbling earlier got himself a seat right next to him, grasping onto the cushions.

"We haven't even talked about where you wanted to go. Now is the best time to tell me your desired destination."

"Ah," the senator put up his hand and rubbed his forehead, "this just has been much of a rush. Just ...," he moved his hand down to his chin, thinking for a brief moment, "take me to Styx. I have a friend there."

Leif muted the internal comms and spoke over to Bryan: "Plot fastest route to Styx, please."

"Just one more thing," the Senator spoke again and Leif turned back to the holoscreen, "make sure that nobody is following us."

"As you wish," Leif responded after unmuting internal comms, only to mute them again and let out the tension from his body with a deep exhale.


Last edit: 26 Jun 2017, 11:16pm
27 Jun 2017, 8:57pm
Bryan looked at the scanner. No contacts other than astronomical bodies. He waited for any ships to drop in on the system as Leif put the Beluga through a maneuver that, if it was done in an envenvironment with gravity, probably would've cause a minor case of whiplash.
Belugas aren't known for their hair pin turns but Leif somehow managed it.

Still keeping an eye on the radar, Bryan listened to the conversation with the senator. Styx hmm. Bryan was about to plot the course for Styx when he paused his finger hovering over the button to accept the route. He turned to Leif and pitched his idea.

"It sounds like he thinks it's highly likely we'll be followed...instead of plotting a course to Styx, should I plot one that heads in the same direction but misses it. If someone is following our wakes we can lose the after at least 3 jumps and then they'll be able to guess at our heading based on our recent jumps. If they continue following the same pattern then we'll lose them. We can recalculate the route once we find a good system to lose them. Probable one with a gas giant or something we can hide our wake with when we change heading...alternativly on the other hand, we are only, what? Six jumps away? We could just race them and leave him with his "friend" before who ever he's expecting to follow catches up"
27 Jun 2017, 9:25pm
"Good thinking," Leif responded, took his hand off the stick and clenched it.

"But that's actually my neighborhood, if you want to call that. With this jumprange, we can jump to any of plenty systems around it. Eranin, where I was born, Aulin, where I spent some time, I Bootis, Asellus Primus and a couple more."

He impatiently glimpsed over on the radar, where a signature had popped up. Without bothering to ask, he selected it himself, and the ship's sensors identified it as a Type 6.

"What I'm trying to say is, only if we got bad luck our persuers would jump to the right system at first try. And if not, their time spent searching would be longer than our travel time in supercruise."

His eyes fixed on the signature as it shot from one end of the screen to another, vanishing and leaving a wake instead shortly after. Slowly air left through his nostrils.

"Plot a route to Sol, then," he finally said and turned towards Bryan. "That's not too far off and its rep could help."
27 Jun 2017, 9:58pm
"Will do" Bryan responded while clearing the almost set course for Styx and setting another for sol. With a few presses on the console the route was set. "Ready to jump at your discretion" Bryan said. 

He went back to watching the scanner as the headed for the jump vector , in case he could maybe glimpse this unforseen persuer that wslas supposed to be following them. Nothing appeared on scanner as the stars and space whizzed past them in the hyperspace vector. But Bryan knew that didn't nessicarily mean they were out of danger yet he'd been hunted across space once or twice Before, he knew that professionals had their methods for tracking ships. But for now all Bryan could do was hope that it wasn't a proffessional that was supposed to be on their heels.
28 Jun 2017, 3:46pm
Like a reflex Leif's finger hit the jump button as soon as the route finished plotting. The FSD hummed and Leif turned towards the first system enroute.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Engage."

The vessel broke into hyperspace, lights in various colours flashing by until finally the target star broke into view. Routinely Leif steered around it, heading for the next system.

"Anything on the radar?" he asked as he let the FSD charge again.
02 Jul 2017, 1:12am
Bryan again looked at the display as the ships frame shit drive hummed louder and louder and for the second time after leaving the station they had arrived in a completely deserted system. This time the system was only occupied by 4 gas giants and their subsequent moons but no ships other than the Moto Meli.

"Nada. No traffic" Bryan said wasting no words. He took the opportunity to briefly look over to the cabin surveillance panel which was still active between him and leif although the comms were muted. He saw that the senator and his crew, who seemed to be sitting in uncomfortable silence. They had an array of fine beverages both alcoholic and non alcoholic as well as an assortment of entertainment devices including movies, karaoke, music an games on hand in the cabin around them. But still not one of them moved or said anything. They all sat there in worried stiff silence. Bryan thought he saw one of the senator's aides uncomfortably fidgeting with her collar as if she was finding it too small for her neck. Bryan wouldn't be surprised if they were all holding their breaths waiting to either arrive at their destination or for something to go horribly wrong on the route there.  He secretly mentally commended the group for being smart enough to know they weren't in the clear just yet, someone less intelligent would've thought once out of the system they were in, they were home free and began to party.
But bounties, and grudges can follow you. 

"Although from personal experience of being chased the pursuers tend to catch up from jump 3 onward so we'll see in the next stop or two" he said as he returned his case to the radar display.

Still nothing.
02 Jul 2017, 4:05am
Upon hearing of the clear radar, Leif steered the vessel closer to the sun to let the fuel scoop do its work. With deep and slow breathes he tried to calm himself, but the tension deep inside made it hard.

"Personal experience, you say? How many times would that be?" he finally asked as he watched the fuel level slowly rising.
02 Jul 2017, 10:01pm
Bryan chuckled at the question. " not often, but the times I was hunted were..." he looked for a word that would accurately describe the experience "...Educational" he said with the same tone a war veteran might gloss over their experiences.
"There's only really been two times where I've been witch hunted. the first was I was barely out of flight school and..." he paused, taking his eye off the radar to look Leif in the eye and explain how he'd worked his way into the situation "I have a habit of subtly tricking people into spilling their secrets and problems...It kinda fulfils a need to understand the deepest emotions and thoughts of a human being...also it makes me feel smart I guess." he returned to the radar and the story " and one day I met a guy who drunkenly spilled something he wasn't meant to and his boss found out and she took it upon herself to have me killed so that I couldn't in turn spill the secret, so I spent a few days dodging her agents before managed to weasel myself into a deal with her to save my own skin, I spent a whole 3-4 weeks working for her company. managed to get out of it in the end."

Bryans face darkened as he recalled his other 'educational experience' "Aaaannd the other time...uh...well...I ended up dating someone who's disapproving overprotective daddy, turned out to be the chief of a rather distinguished pirate gang." Bryan shuddered at the memory. "honestly it was horrible, I was witch hunted for almost an entire month and a half. it was awful. I blame the entire experience for my now developed sense of paranoia. I still don't know if it's safe for me to go back to that quadrant." he shuddered again pushing the memory of the constant pursuit and the sleepless nights and constant stress of those days aside.
"So I've had my experiences being followed and had to learn quick or else. So I adapted and learned a few tips and trick to up my survival chances along the way, I probably wouldn't be here if I hadn't."

The ship's computer stated that the fuel scooping had finished just as Bryan had finished recounting his story.
03 Jul 2017, 12:52am
Leif had carefully steered the ship around the sun while refueling and hadn't glanced over to Bryan even once. The typical thump of the fuel scoop disengaging broke him from his trance, he pulled away in direction for the next jump.

"Pirates, huh," he muttered under his breath, "I've got my own experiences with them. Gotta say, I wouldn't have made it so far if I haven't encountered them."

Once again, the FSD hummed up and soon the abstract lights of the hyperspace flew past the canopy.
03 Jul 2017, 8:39pm
"Hmm," Bryan said in a sombre thoughtful tone as the jump vector enveloped the ship whole and flung it forwards at ludicrous speeds. in the moment before the vector swallowed the ship Bryan thought he saw the faint warp signature of a ship dropping into the system but the Moto Meli had jumped out before the display console could finish registering the signal on the display, the result of this effect was a split second on a semi-illuminated icon that was gone before the information could fully register with him. he brushed it off as a streak of light from the jump vector whizzing behind the hologram.

"I think we've all had our share of pirate problems in this line of business..." he said in a raised tone to accommodate for the noise of the warp tunnel. "...The problem is the bad ones, good ones leave you to be raided another day but bad ones, they're the real problem, they've been a problem for me most of my life because I didn't grow up in the most glamorous of neighbourhoods."

The hyperspace vector Spat the ship out at the next stop on their journey. Two gas giants, three rocky planets and one space station.

despite there being a station, there was no traffic in the area with the exception of one system authority vessel on patrol within a close proximity of the station and the rocky planet it was orbiting.

the station and its security were quite a distance away from the main star of the system. more than likely they would be far too late to be of any use if something were to happen to them while refuelling.

Bryan felt uneasy, he couldn't quite pinpoint the feeling but he had excellent instincts. nothing in the system seemed awry but still, the uneasy feeling lingered.
03 Jul 2017, 10:50pm
Leif remained silent, his gaze switching between the fuel gauge and the radar back and forth. He tapped his fingers on the throttle.

"Where are you?" he whispered to himself as he stared on the radar, watching the radial pulses wandering over the display.

"Follow me, if you can."

Still within refueling range of the star, he proceeded to charge the FSD up again and watched the heat indicator rising.

"This is why I called her Moto Meli," he said and activated a heatsink.

Quickly the heat indicator dropped to be accompanied by the sound of the heat container being launched, shortly before the countdown announced another jump.
04 Jul 2017, 8:39pm
"Smart hiding the jump sig in the solar heat like that," Bryan said feeling a relief from the heat being pumped out into the heatsink. "Makes it harder to follow but if someone is quick enough to catch on they can do dive bomb at the surface and catch it before the solar interference degrades the signal too much." once again the vector swallowed the ship whole. "By the way, I'm afraid I don't speak the language, what's the translation?" Bryan asked he'd been wondering about the name of the ship for a while now and just hadn't found the opportunity to bring it up. He knew the name was in a language unfamiliar to him but the name seemed elegant and fitting for a ship of that class.

Again the ship spat them out at the next stop, which was once again an empty system. Bryan's bad feeling was beginning to grow.


Last edit: 05 Jul 2017, 10:24am
04 Jul 2017, 10:58pm
The brown dwarf threw a dim light inside the cockpit. Leif chuckled.

"The translation is so straight forward, it's close to stupid," he said as he quickly pulled the ship away from the star, "it literally means hot ship."

He looked over to Bryan.

"See, the cooling system of the stock Beluga Liner has a very limited heat capacity, and they tend to -"

A blip from the radar caught his attention.
05 Jul 2017, 8:43pm
"What are they going to do? Hmm? I think that is an empty threat." The man said to Luke. "No no, we wouldn't be maximizing profits if were to, say, let you go. No no. That won't do at all."  The door slid open.

"Move." he ordered.

The man who had bound Mhera, brought her roughly to her feet. She made a small noise as she was pushed through the door.

They were led along the corridor to the ramp and were escorted down onto the landing pad.

"Take them to processing, and start dismantling this hunk of junk." he said to a small ground crew that had been waiting. A woman wearing goggles, a tank and some leather trousers spoke up. "You heard the man, lets get this to the chop!"

Mhera wasn't sure what to do or think. Her head was numb and her wits were dulled. She hoped that Luke had some sort of plan, but something told her, he did not. She was shoved again and she shuffled forward down a dark corridor. Mist swirled around, making a haze out of the sodium lamps that were casting their light.

Suddenly, she stopped and her escort bumped into her.

"Move it!" he ordered.

She stood her ground. "N..No." she said in a shaky voice trying to muster courage.

There was a striking sound as the back of his hand struck her face. "I said move it, or I'll bust that pretty face of yours." He raised his hand again.

Another pirate took a hold of his forearm. "You bust her up too much, and she won't be worth much."  she said in a snake like voice. She let the arm go and traced a finger over Mhera's welting cheek and jaw.  She smiled. "It's best you move." She gave a wink, turned her back and strode off and disappeared in a swirl of mist.


Last edit: 05 Jul 2017, 10:23pm
05 Jul 2017, 11:21pm
Hearing the smack, Luke made a move to step between Mhera but saw the other captor grab his forearm and stopped himself. What else he was going to do other than get himself hit, he didn't know, but Mhera didn't deserve this... At all. The thought had him grinding his teeth in anger, mixed with his own guilt he couldn't stop himself.

"Tough guy huh? Not only do you have to hit a woman, she needs to be tied up too before you do anything?" He spat, realising his mistake instantly but digging his heels in regardless, "You think it's an empty threat huh? You still going to take that chance? I mean, even you guys must keep tabs on your assets right? What happens when one of those things goes missing?"

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