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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07 Oct 2024, 8:08am
Hacking a security terminal and finding basic info on Helen Tam had proved fairly simple. Contact information and what hab she was staying in while on station for work was all bundled together on the profile station security had built on her. That being said, most of the station was populated with eager ravenous pirates. Leading one to speculate how much of this info was given voluntarily by the station workers and how much of it was stolen or taken for other reasons that may be used to aid the pirates themselves. According to the profile, Helen was scheduled to assist with the reconstruction of the Anansi at the time. Knowing she wasn't at her living quarters, Maul chose to pay it a visit to see what info, if any, that he could find and potentially use to "persuade" her.

Helen lived in quite the luxurious hab in a sector atop one of the towers visible from outside the station. The sector was split among 4 units, with hers being Hab B. Cautiously approaching the door, he saw that the control panel had been lasered open and the panel haphazardly placed back into place. Carefully removing the panel revealed exposed wiring that had been tampered with. It looked as though an energy link had been used to overload the controls, resulting in the door opening. Meaning it was odd that the door didn't open on his approach. Inspecting the door frame, he'd found the sensors that control the door had been destroyed. It was stupid to pry further, he knew he should just call this whole thing off and leave the station, but that's not how he functions.

Back inside the control panel he fiddled with the wiring again until the door suddenly slid up and opened slightly. He slid his backpack inside first and crawled in behind it. Once back on his feet, he unholstered his Karma P-15 and inspected his surroundings. The lights in the living room flickered. Likely due to the internal power control panel on the other side of the room being bashed in with what looked to be the remains of a chair. Audio from a Holo display could be heard from the bedroom which caused a steady warm light to bleed into the living room, almost enticing him in. Holding the pistol close and firm, he slowly approached.

"Oh...fuck..."

Helen Tam was on the floor, naked, dead. A plasma round through her skull. A burn mark on the wall behind her and a pistol in her hand. The scene looked like she died while trying to defend herself but her profile explicitly stated that she did not own or posses a firearm. A betting man would put his money on this being a staged scene after her murder, but there were no bets to be made. The only one losing was Helen Tam and she wasn't even aware she was playing.

Her work suit hang on the wall nearby, with the databank still attached. Maul stepped over her corpse and wired into the suits computer directly with his data slate to copy her auth profile. Looking deeper into the suits system a spike in wireless data uploads made it pretty clear that someone else had recently cloned her profile. A pit formed in Maul's gut as he looked down at Helen's lifeless body. He had questions but no time for answers. Even worse, it seemed like someone was already a step ahead. He began composing a message to Vasil, keeping what he'd found here to himself for now.

"V, sorted my end of the deal. Be at your pad shortly."

He'd thought that seeking Goodness was going to be a low risk task, but the risks seemed to grow by the hour.


Last edit: 07 Oct 2024, 8:17am
07 Oct 2024, 11:32am
"Like, what's wrong with a game controller?" Willow asked herself after reading Vasils reply.

She had got the designs for these controllers from her big brothers, and they had got them for their dad. He had got them from other junk jockeys that probably got them from the last generation of make-do masters. Everyone made their own personal alterations for them but at their core, they were handles with a trigger on them, and a board on top with a stick and a slide switch. Speaking of personalized alterations, she'd better size them up a bit. Maul didn't have dainty little hands, so he'd have a hard time pressing the buttons that wouldn't be under his fingers if she left them as they were.

Willow mostly used one controller for her motor-board or a recon drone, but two of them gave enough controls to remote fly a ship, if you were mentally damaged enough to try. Whatever, she knew Maul was a gamer, so he'd quickly get the hang of them.

After sending the synthesizer patterns and building instructions along to Vasil, with a request for all the info they had on Knulus, Willow started building another search profile for the new mystery man.
07 Oct 2024, 3:32pm
Once the patterns arrived, Vasil plugged them into the synthesizer and shot off a quick reply to Willow and included Maul.

All I know about the guy is that he has good taste in color choices, aside from maybe the chrome mask. Maul knows more about him.

While waiting for the synthesizer to finish building the patterns, Vasil checked on the open bids he’d entered on the local market for the materials in the ship’s hold. “Yeah, that’s some bullshit,” Vasil said as he denied another low bid for the titanium he had on board.

Someone was entering stupidly low bids on the material, causing others to follow suit in hopes of getting the titanium at a discount. Either someone was trying to manipulate the short term market price, or was testing to see how eager Vasil was to empty his cargo hold.

Though he’d loaded the hold with titanium and composites needed for ship repairs as a cover for entering the station, that did not mean he was willing to sell the materials for less than what they were worth. Doing so would raise suspicions why the material was so cheap and the last thing he needed was any extra scrutiny while on the station.

The controller Willow sent over was more workable than the datapad interface he’d rigged up. As he finished integrating her controls onto the limpet, he thought that maybe future builds should have handlebar controls. It would be impractical on the chonky, jerry-rigged monster but definitely more like a racing skimmer.

Maul Montresor "V, sorted my end of the deal. Be at your pad shortly."


The deathtrap -I mean limpet- is just about ready. I’ll be in the cargo bay finishing it up.
11 Oct 2024, 12:16pm
Too much was happening too quickly, Knulus, Helen Tam's murder, the deathtra— er...limpet. He walked across pad 42 at a steady pace towards Vasil's ship but was completely distracted with his own thoughts.

"Why was Knulus here? Helen's murder, the timing, it couldn't be a coincidence. Was he looking for Goodness too? If so who hired him? An enemy of the family? He said it was an outside contract...could be a lie..."

Maul scrolled through The Network's contract listings on his data slate; nothing. At least nothing listed as an open contract.

"...maybe he was telling the truth..."

He suddenly found himself nearly running face first into the Krait's landing gear. After pocketing the data slate and side stepping it with a huff, he boarded the ship to find Vasil. Walking through Umbrella brought back thoughts of The Ghoul; Maul's Krait that had been stolen...or went missing. That's a whole other rabbit hole that will have to be shelved for a different day.

"Hey Vas—"

Stopping short of finishing, Maul froze. All the thoughts that had been troubling him were vacuumed out of his mind in an instant. There were limpet parts scattered everywhere. A scene reminiscent of a child who'd strown all his toys about in a hyperactive sugar fueled rampage.

"Uhh, these parts are just extra right? Not...vital to...uhh..." He stared at the limpet Vasil had been working on, in a near daze. "...to uhh...that...thing...functioning, right?"
11 Oct 2024, 5:07pm
Vasil looked up from the Limpet as Maul came into the bay. He’d just finished stenciling (Not a) DEATHTRAP on the side of the Limpet. After all, it was unlucky to fly an unnamed craft.

“Its fine,” said Vasil with the same reassuring tone as a used car salesman. He stood up and patted the frankenlimpet. “This baby was traded in by a little old Imperial lady who only drove to the Empire Day parade.”

Vasil nudged aside a logic controller with his foot. “This stuff is just automated BS you don’t need for manual control. Keeps it from trying to plot its own course, do snap, turns, and other neck breaking stuff. Rachael and her crew put saddles and handlebars on theirs, but hey, check this out. Willow sent over this snazzy controller with flight controls and buttons and stuff. You have these anchor points to get strapped in, and a metal kick plate for magboots.”

Vasil stepped back, admiring the beast. “Four out of five self-trained mechanics agree that this is the finest creatively engineered personal space bullet in the bubble. So, what do you say we go talk to the finance department and get you riding today.”
11 Oct 2024, 11:52pm
Maul looked over the thing from the same spot he'd frozen in. In comparison, it had to be safer than boarding a capital ship through an active weapon bay.

"Throw in some free saddle bags from ya friend Rachel and you got yourself a deal." He said in jest, stepping closer to admire the hodgepodge of parts that was the limpet."'Not A Deathtrap' huh?...so I'm flying a 'NAD' directly into the Anansi? Sick. And these controls Willow sent over are slick as hell, looks similar to the ForceLord H.18000R I used to use in my sim-rig back in Diaguandri."

The smile that had slowly formed as he admired the limpet had began to melt away. Vasil needed to know what had happened at Helen's hab and the newfound urgency and rising danger of the situation.

"So," he said, stepping back towards Vasil again. "I got that profile clone of that port engineer, Helen, but uh, someone else had gotten to her first." It was difficult for him to outright say what had happened, as he still struggled with the fact himself. "I went to her hab to see if I could dig up any dirt but uh, she was there and kinda sorta, ya know, already...zeroed." He exhaled deeply as the weight lifted from his shoulders, only to crumple again with despair. "Not too certain on this but I got a hunch that Knulus may be responsible. If it was, well, seems he'd thought the same thing you did with acquiring the PENG's auth profile."

For some reason Maul felt compelled to apologize, as if it were his fault, but that'd serve no purpose.

"I just wanted you to know that if you want to bail now, I get it. Same for Willow. This shit is getting dangerous. Been considering it myself but if you're still game, we need to get this info and split ASAP. You just say the word and I'll climb up on that giant NAD over there and get this done." That last bit didn't sound right. He'd silently hoped Vasil chose to ignore it as well.
12 Oct 2024, 1:49am
Vasil said nothing for a few moments as he considered what Maul had told him. Much like when planning contract negotiations, his thoughts quickly played through several possible scenarios and their branching outcomes. “Well, that’s inconvenient,” he said at last, both as an understatement and a statement of fact. “More so for Helen, I think.”

“But also for us. That means her profile is useful only until someone discovers her. After that it will be difficult to explain how she can be dead and walking around at the same time. I’m sure you understand the implications of being caught using a dead person’s profile.”

“If you are going to do this, it needs to be quick.” Vasil accessed the ship’s limpet controller from the data pad on his suit’s left forearm. The sound of hidden machinery waking up reverberated through the cargo hold. “I’ll preprogram a hatch breaker and a collector in case anything goes south and you need a quick extraction.”

“The Umbrella can run silent if it needs to, but not for long. So, when you have what you need, let me know and I’ll slip closer. Otherwise I’ll have to stay at least five clicks out from the dry dock to keep security from seeing what I am up to.”

Vasil looked up from his datapad. “And don’t worry, I probably won’t tell Willow how eager you were to ride a NAD.”
12 Oct 2024, 9:48pm
"...'Preciate that." Maul said, as he stepped closer to the limpet, familiarizing himself with the controls. "Damn terrible, ain't it? You try to help save someone or at the very least bring peace to their loved ones and, lo and behold, if more folk don't wind up flatlined in the process. This life's just one bad fuckin' joke."

"Well anyway, this limpet, do we gotta worry about it being picked up on any scanners?...or did you rip out all of it's transponder bits during the, uh, operation?" Maul asked, tapping a hunk of tech on the floor to the side with his boot.
13 Oct 2024, 12:19am
Helen Tam being killed was to Vasil, just as he said, an inconvenience. A terrible thing, but unlike Maul, he he did not dwell on the cruel irony of her demise coming in the midst of them trying to find Creamy, who was likely just as dead as Helen.

As suspicious as her death was, Vasil could do nothing about it. If Knulus had something to do with it, fine, Vasil could do nothing about that, either. If Knulus had other plans to interfere, then Vasil would have to deal with that when the time came. For now, time was short and the only thing to do about that, was to put the plan into action.

“The Limpet is essentially a personal jetpack,” he told Maul. “Nothing automated. Not sending or receiving any instructions. No communications. If you don’t lay on the throttle, odds are it will only be spotted if someone is actively searching, or through sheer luck. Otherwise, it looks like any other limpet with a crazy daredevil strapped to it.”

The pad on his forearm beeped and the cargo bay’s main vid panel lights flashed green, displaying a countdown timer. “Alright, we have clearance to leave sometime in the next 10 minutes. Once off station, I’ll get as close as I can to the Anansi and open the bay doors so you can get out. If you want to call this off, now's the time."
13 Oct 2024, 2:49am
"No point in backing out now, eh? I just hope we actually find something in there."

Maul closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. As his breath trailed off, it turned into a slight chuckle. "How fucked would it be if this shit blew to smithereens as soon as it launched? Like you just open the bay doors and 'kaboom'! Bits and bobs go flying out the back. Would be like this Krait just stopped to pass gas or something." There was real concern hidden behind his playful demeanor but there was no time to stress about the "what ifs and the very likely" of the situation. Focusing on the basics would suffice.

"So, while we have a minute, let's say I get this thing to the Anansi safely, how do I go about securing it to the fleet carrier to use for the escape? Also, am I on a time limit with how much charge it has? I've had limpets just die on me mid scav sessions before. I mean, I've never really seen anyone do this before so if you have any pointers, I'm all ears."
13 Oct 2024, 4:47pm
Vasil indicated a lever that looked like it was a repurposed breaker bar. “This lever will deploy the limpet’s anchor claws. The NAD is a modified repair limpet so wherever you attach, it will look like any other repair limpet hanging out and doing its job.”

“Unless you are going to race this or do acrobatics there should be more than enough fuel for maneuvering. A full-on burn, though, will deplete the fuel cell in about ninety seconds and get you going fast enough to be red-misted if you hit anything.”

“Battery power is the real limiter. Most everything that needs it is removed or disabled, but once activated the best estimate is about an hour before it becomes a floater.” Vasil tapped a small display pad affixed to the limpet with glopped-on epoxy and wired into an added charging port. “That will show your battery reserves. A full suit charge will drain ten to fifteen minutes.”

Vasil looked to the Not a Deathtrap and grunted. “If I had more time I could have added a bi-directional charger, or extra battery and fuel cells for more go juice. You know, make it a bad-ass go-NAD.”
13 Oct 2024, 9:36pm
"Fuck sake" Grumbled Vodan taking another pull from the straw.

Pouring a drink would be a luxury right now, instead he had to put up with a pack of beer, or a pressurised container. Yeah, it got the job done, but there was noting like a foamy head and watching the bubbles march their way to the study cloud.

"God damn zero geez. Yohoho, the pirates life for me, my arse" he chanted in time with his finger scrolling down the list on his pad.

Names and their accompanying photos rolled by as he assigned personnel and watched his meagre budget plummet. Red jade was still the priority, but she was under very close watch from ISS, although she seemed to be settling into her new identity. Now ISS had stopped moving her around, he could start making plans to extract her.

All he needed Jade to do was put her damn thumb on the Title of Marque passing it on to him, but that may take a little persuasion given their recent history.

His best shadow men were on Jade with enough credits to buy what ever they needed. In the meantime, he was having trouble keeping enough men to man his fleet; well, the few wings he had left any way.

What's more he was funnelling away small arms, armor and drugs for the low life's he was sneaking in to Emarald Dawn settlements. Just like with Red Jade, Vodan had snuck a handful of capable guys into Emarald Dawn settlement. He was still a ways off getting anything going to fuck up ED's peace-and-love hippy shit, be he'd have all the background his guys would need to make big moves in the fledgling underworld once he had the fucking budget for it.

Although Vodan was in his quatres on the Anansi, he still didn't feel one hundred percent safe. Taking his sawn-off shotguns from under his coat, Vodan checked they were in good working order, and loaded. "Credits credits credits" he chanted while checking his weapons

White phosphorus in the left, and tungsten flechette in the right hand gun. Right now, the Anansi fleet was weak, and so was Vodan's standing in Vengerfield's armada. If some headcase in his own crew didn't make a move, there was a good chance someone from the repair station may fancy their chances at becoming captain of the Anansi. Fortunately for him, Belladonna was next in line, and she'd already killed two people that were eyeing up Vodan's position.

Picking the pad up after putting his guns back in there quickdraw holsters, Vodan glanced at to security monitors. He'd get a better chance at some peace and quiet in the captains quarters, and narrow down the avenues of personal attack, even with the work crews buzzing around.

Putting his feet up, Vodan got back to work. To make Credits, Vodan needed people. To get people, he needed Credits. This was going to take some work to work out.
14 Oct 2024, 4:50pm
The Umbrella exited the station and eased into one of the standard holding patterns for ships preparing to exit the system. After two full orbits, Vasil had marked the closest he could come to the Anansi without leaving the departure flight patterns.

“Alright, we got about two minutes,” he told Maul over their secured comm. “The closest I can get is seven klicks, so you are looking at a three or four minute ride if you take it easy enough to not draw any attention. Depressurizing in sixty seconds, opening cargo doors in ninety.”

Two countdown timers appeared on the cargo bay’s primary data screen. Rotating warning lights flared to life, throwing out unsynchronized bright yellow flashes as a cargo claw moved the Deathtrap into position over the bay doors. “Transferring cargo release control over to you.”
15 Oct 2024, 8:08am
Maul watched the timers tick down as the claw holding the Deathtrap clunked into it's final resting place before release and preemptively activated his maverick suits helmet. The black opaque helmet quickly shot out from underneath the neck of his hoodie and covered his head. In it's face plate, a white crudely painted, near lopsided rudimentary skull took form. For a moment, everything fell dark and silent. Leaving him alone with only the sound of his anxious breaths. Soon the suit began to synthesize audio and the screen that made up the inside of the helmet began to shutter to life and perfectly display his surroundings. He then approached the limpet, strapping himself precariously to the "marvel of engineering" and double checked the magnetic pull of the kickplate with his boots.

An alarm blared throughout the bay moments before the depressurization process began and shortly after, the doors slowly opened. With the cargo release successfully transferred to Maul, he stared at the alert on the HUD inside his helmet that awaited his voice command.

"Release."

The claws surrendered and retreated, allowing Maul to gently guide the Deathtrap out of the cargo bay. This new perspective was odd and not one he'd ever experienced before. Ships in the distance whizzed around as the suits synthesized audio struggled with emulation and directional output.

"NAD's dropped successfully, Vasil." Maul said, testing the comms connection.

The controls felt familiar, thanks to Willow's design, but it took a minute to really grasp how sensitive the thing was. After a few quick jolts and a round or two of flirting with whiplash, he found a comfortable speed. The Umbrella grew distant as the Anansi grew closer.

Worker limpets buzzed around the fleet carrier in sporadic patterns, making the Deathtrap's approach very obvious to anyone paying it any mind. On a scanner, it may have appeared as an idle drone with routing issues, which most people generally ignore. He hoped.

Maul kept a wide berth when approaching the damaged structural area that Vasil had pinpointed. It was a good call from the looks of it, plenty of points of entry, especially with Helen Tam's profile clone. He guided the limpet near a gap, butted the end of it against the most structurally sound area visible and pulled the lever to release the anchor claws. A loud thud blasted through the helmets sound system, causing him to wince.

After pinning a timer indicating the time left on the limpet to his Insight HUD, he unstrapped himself and navigated the rest of way though the debris using the micro thrusters built into the suits backpack. Repair limpets occasionally flashed light across the dark recesses of the mangled exterior as he drifted by. It was hard not to compare the eeriness of the situation to his experiences he had on the megaship "Sepultus Memoriae" from his last job but thankfully, this all felt more 'sane' somehow.

Approaching the first powered door he came across, only to see it immediately open, was a huge relief. The profile clone worked flawlessly but for how long was the real conundrum. The discovery of her body was another ticking clock that he needed to be wary of. Once found, every use of her profile after the discovery will likely be flagged in the system. Potentially marking himself as a suspect in her murder.

His boots finally touched down onto the floor beyond the door. It was darker than he'd like and any use of the suits flashlight just meant more drain on the battery.

"Vasil, I'm inside, sounds like I'm getting a bit of interference on the comms. Can you hear me alright?"


Last edit: 15 Oct 2024, 8:14am
16 Oct 2024, 4:33am
Vasil locked on the Deathtrap as soon as Maul started pulling away. According to his sensors it was an unusually slow repair limpet with nothing else out of the ordinary, like a hitchhiker buckled to the outside.

Soon, the Deathrap became visually lost, an indistinguishable little dot among the stars and lights of distant ships. Vasil maneuvered the Umbrella to keep the Deathrap and the Anansi in its primary sensor arc while continuing to circle the station. The last thing he wanted to do is lose the sensor lock on Maul in case he needed an emergency pickup. A blue light slowly blinked on his cargo console indicating a preprogrammed collector limpet was in launch position and awaiting instructions.

When Maul finally made contact, the message came through slightly garbled, but understandable.
Maul Montresor "Vasil, I'm inside, sounds like I'm getting a bit of interference on the comms. Can you hear me alright?"


“I got you,” said Vasil. “There is some audio distortion but nothing too bad. It’s probably due to the encrypted channel or local EMI. If it gets worse, I’ll see if adjusting the gain helps. Hopefully you won’t have to go too far into the belly of the beast.”

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