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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30 Oct 2024, 8:35pm
I grabbed the shock mine my companion gently pushed towards me and moved swiftly to position it. The corridor outside was eerily quiet, but I knew that wouldn't last. Carefully I placed the mine just inside the doorway, ensuring it was hidden from immediate view but would activate as soon as someone stepped through.

"Mine's set," I informed my companion as I returned to my previous position. I glanced at the camera feed on the screen, my heart racing as I watched the squad of heavily armed guards making their way towards us. These weren’t your typical rent-a-guards; they looked like the real deal - armored, dangerous, and moving with surprising speed despite the bulky armor. We were in for a serious fight.

"What's next?" I asked, keeping my gun at the ready.
31 Oct 2024, 3:54am
“Downloading clearance.”, I announced firmly, before answering directly.

“We fight. Find, main station. Shut off security. And, blow it up, all.”

It probably sounded better in my head than how I’d ended up wording this, due to my messy brain state. But we had a fight on our hands, and one with a proper security response force this time - so, rather than keep the assault rifle, I pulled out my railgun. Armor needed to be defeated, and there was no body armor that was practical to wear which could stop a shot from this thing.

If I was lucky, I could maybe nail one of them before they got out through the doorway, so I charged the weapon up pre-emptively and then eased off on the trigger, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. But going by their appearance they wouldn’t simply attempt to charge through blindly, but pre-empt their arrival with something, like a flashbang.

“We should, separate. So, if they stun one, the other is not.”
31 Oct 2024, 6:13am
The escape pod door hissed open and Maul stumbled out into the cargo bay squeezing his injured right shoulder. With most of the electronics gone completely haywire in his suit, he had no way to communicate with Vasil other than in person and so headed for the bridge.

By the time he'd arrived, he'd ripped a piece of cloth from his hoodie and managed to tie it around his head to slow the bleeding from the gash above his eyebrow.

Vasil VasilescuVasil locked in the jump path and started shutting down non-essential automated systems like auto-piloting and docking assist to get more reserve power buffer just in case shooting started. “I swear, Goodness is starting to be more trouble than he is worth,” he grumbled.


"Fuckin' A, you can say that again." Maul said between painful grunts as he approached Vasil from behind, plopping down in one of the empty crew seats. Only then had he noticed that Summerland had been targeted as the next jump location. "Good thinkin', need to grab Willow and get back to Mars ASAP. The doc's probably about to have an aneurysm with that monumental fuck up I pulled out my ass back there."

Another realization occurred as he glanced at the comms panel and saw Willow's message; ::Willow Thorn:: Guys, I’ve like, done fucked up

"...Oh for goodness fuckin' sake!"
31 Oct 2024, 1:35pm
Kasumi Goto“We should, separate. So, if they stun one, the other is not.”


I nodded and gave my companion a thumbs up, then quickly made my way to the opposite side of the room. Once there, I took up a position behind sturdy cover, ready for the inevitable assault. The footsteps outside grew louder, and I could hear the clinking of gear and the noise of boots against the floor. The incoming squad was getting ready to make their move.

The first armored guard reached the door near me, cautiously peeking inside. The next moment, he threw something through the door and suddenly the whole room was filled with a blinding flash. I instinctively turned my head away, shielding my eyes from the worst of the light, though the visor of my helmet automatically tinted itself. Meanwhile, the guard stormed in, signaling for others to follow. As he half-emerged through the doorway, the shock mine activated, sending a burst of electricity towards them. The guard staggered, his shield flickering and failing, and stumbled further into the room, disorientated but carried by his momentum.

"Now!" I shouted, aiming my gun at the shadowy figure that just entered through the door nearby and squeezed the trigger. My weapon barked with thunder, and a moment later, its projectiles tore through the guard's armor, sending him crashing backwards into the guards behind him.

Next, we heard the deep voice of a commanding officer from somewhere near the other door my companion had left open on purpose. "Move, move, move!" he roared.

The guards responded immediately, and a second group that split from the first approached the other door which was closer by my companion.
31 Oct 2024, 2:52pm
Thanks to my not-quite human nature, the effects of the flashbang on me were more limited and I regained clear vision before those guards had time to get far, allowing me to witness the shock mine going off and stalling the push inward, followed by a shotgun blast messing up one of them. I fired one shot into that corridor, nailing the already injured guard and probably reducing the lifespan of the one behind him to single digit seconds - if not outright dead - then was forced to turn my attention to the other door, where more company showed up.

Two shots left with my current charge, I took the head off one of the second group, then the second entered the chest of another guard, exiting in a gnarly display of armor fragments and human body pieces... then I was tackled by a bulky figure with the face concealed behind a mostly metal helmet and small opaque visor, pulling me off my feet. But that also meant they weren't on theirs, and I definitely had a lot of mass to throw around, which could be dangerous in a low gravity environment such as this.

We hit the wall with a loud clang of armor meeting metal, and when I shook off the momentary disorientation of being the thing that hit said metal - shock-absorbing layers not helping - instinctively reacted to a knife heading for my throat, deflecting it into the wall. Then I headbutted the guard - whether it was a sturdily built man or woman, didn't matter - and, pushing them away to get myself back toward the ground, pulled my own out.

Hopefully, my companion could handle the other remaining ones on her own. Or at least not eat a bunch of lead while I killed my attacker.
31 Oct 2024, 7:42pm
Maul Montresor "...Oh for goodness fuckin' sake!"



“No idea what’s going on,” Vasil said and engaged the first of three jumps to Summerland. “Hopefully Willow's fine and this will not involve any shooting. The Umbrella is in no condition for a prolonged fight.”

Once in Summerland, Vasil shifted all available power to the sensors and headed for the Nav Beacon. With no way of knowing where Willow was in the system it was a long shot that maybe he could pick up her transponder or find something in the Nav Beacon.

Knowing neither might be helpful if she was on station, or dark and hiding in an EM shadow, Vasil sent a message to the system’s open comm net in case she was monitoring it. “The boys are back! Where’s the party?”

Once at the beacon, Vasil finally turned to look at Maul, who looked like he had been mauled in his fight. “Damn! Do you need an aspirin or something?”
31 Oct 2024, 7:56pm
"So um, can I like, use your pad" asked Willow a little nervous.

Working with a cadaver was one thing, but talking to good looking dudes with almost no clothes on was another matter all together. The prostitute closed his text convo and handed h is pad to the girl with bad make up. She'd paid for an hour with casieno chips, and if all she wanted to do was send text from his pad, that was cool by him.

Wiping the screen with her sleeve, Willow had to craft a message from a strangers pad that Vasil and Maul would recognise as her.

"Like, there is only one place to party in Summerland, you know? So yeah, like, it may not be your bag Vee, but bring Em, yeah?"

That was pretty Willow-ish, but they need to know where to head if they got onto the Golden Jackal.

"Check out the girls at the Top Trumps"

Handing his pad back, Willow clenched her hands and squeezed her thumbs in turn as she worked up the courage to ask her host for some help.

"Er, so, um, some friends of mine, like some guys friends, you know? Like, they are probably coming to, um here, like, this station I mean. And like, I need them to find me, but I, like.."

A client never got beneath his skin. Normally that was true; but this girl looked so young, and she was so nervous, the take pity impulse had awakened.

"..like I sent them to the, um, like the bar where your. Er, manager, I guess, like directed me to you, and I, like.. "

"Okay, calm down sweetheart" he said as sweetly as he could "Your going to hurt your self if you don't relax. I read your message, and this isn't my first secret meeting, okay?"

He held out his hand waiting for some more chips. Willow dropped some in, but he didn't move his hand till she'd dropped plenty more.

"You pay, and I'll play what ever game you like honey. Now, what do your friends look like? I'll have them sent here"


Last edit: 31 Oct 2024, 8:40pm
31 Oct 2024, 9:28pm
“There she is,” he said highlighting the message as it scrolled by in the open comm net.


Like, there is only one place to party in Summerland, you know? So yeah, like, it may not be your bag Vee, but bring Em, yeah?

That definitely sounded like Willow. She always wrote like she spoke and he could nearly hear the peculiar tone and inflections in her voice while reading the message. Besides, she was the only one to call him Vee so it had to be her.
 
Reed Stone was an odd choice of pseudonyms for her to use, but it fit after he searched for Top Trumps and realized from some of the not so subtle reviews the type of establishment Willow was directing them to.
 
OTW he replied in the comm messages
 
Vasil plotted a course for the Golden Jackal. With any luck, his ERS credentials might be enough to get them direct access to a landing platform. He did not care how or where someone spent their time or money but he wondered what kind of trouble Willow might have gotten herself into. “Dammit,” he sighed thinking aloud. “I hope she did not try the butt crack credit slot. They really hate that.”
 
Good thing the expense accounts he extended Willow and Maul were pre-funded discretionary accounts. If Willow had used that account, then at least there would be no bean counters asking for butt crack receipts.


Last edit: 31 Oct 2024, 11:28pm
01 Nov 2024, 10:50pm
Vasil VasilescuVasil plotted a course for the Golden Jackal. With any luck, his ERS credentials might be enough to get them direct access to a landing platform. He did not care how or where someone spent their time or money but he wondered what kind of trouble Willow might have gotten herself into. “Dammit,” he sighed thinking aloud. “I hope she did not try the butt crack credit slot. They really hate that.”


"Sounds like you might know this from past experience, huh?" Maul said playfully from over by the medkit attached to one of the walls, replacing the makeshift bandage around his head with a proper one. After that he closed the box, choosing to pass over any painkillers that Vasil had stocked. The thought of taking anything now formed a pit in his stomach, that said, he still craved a cigarette.

Ignoring the urge, he came back to sit near Vasil again as they approached the Golden Jackal. The place sounded like a breeding ground for trouble. It'd be smart to try to smuggle in a weapon. All of which were on his ship that was still docked at the pirates repair station....

"Damn it!" Maul exclaimed at the realization before trying and failing to use his suits completely dead comms to which then replied with a disappointed "Shit!"

"My courier is just sitting back there at that repair station. It's just a matter of time until Vodan's crew scrubs the security footage and sees my mug galivanting around their FC. They'll gut Desumashin in a nanosec once they put two and two together and realize my ship is just sitting there. If that happens I'm as good as dead. Need to use your comms."

Without hesitation or permission or even thinking about it, Maul tapped a button and called up a comms panel over to the crew seat he was occupying. After manually typing out a string of characters that directed to a particular comms link address and giving it a second for the connection to fully link, a voice on the other end came through the ships internal sound system.

"Hola, Carlos speaking."

"Carlos, it's Ghoulie. In a bind here, is Aki and Dimka available for a fetch quest?"

"¡Órale! we thought you were dead brother! It's been tw—"

Maul glanced over at Vasil and continued.

"Yeah yeah, I know. I'll fill y'all in later. Now Aki and Dimka."

"Sí, sí, they're available. With short notice though, whatever the job is, it'll be double the standard."

"Right, sending the deets now. Ship codes and all that. No contract this time. Tell 'em to prep for some pissed off pirates...and...uh...Knulus was spotted in system."

"Knulus?...Triple the standard. Dimka's price, you understand."

Maul closed his eyes and briefly sat in silence before sighing heavily. Dimka had accrued a hefty the bounty over the years and to Knulus, that meant a hefty payday.

"Fine. Half now, half after...and tell Aki she better not poke around in my ships systems this time."

"We'll have your baby here and waiting."

The line went dead and the link was broken. Maul finally relaxed again knowing that his ship was now in the hands of the two most capable ship poachers he'd ever known, even if it did put a big dent in the expense account he'd received from Vasil. But after the wave of relief washed away he'd realized that the commandeering of the ships comms like that for personal use seemed a bit rude.

"Sorry for...uh...thanks." Maul said, clearing his throat and giving Vasil a slight nod. "With everything going on, that's at least one less thing to worry about...hopefully."
02 Nov 2024, 12:52am
Maul Montresor"Sorry for...uh...thanks." Maul said, clearing his throat and giving Vasil a slight nod. "With everything going on, that's at least one less thing to worry about...hopefully."


"Understandable." With a few taps on his command console, Vasil cleared the last few minutes of comm logs and instructed the COVAS, "Purge level one." Judging from the conversation and its implications as to the type of people Maul had been speaking to, Vasil felt it in the best interests of all concerned to remove any indication the conversation ever took place.

“What might not be understandable is why we will be asking for landing clearance on an installation that usually restricts access only to inbound shuttles. But I have an idea.”

Once at the Golden Jackal, Vasil contacted station control to request landing clearance. He transmitted his ERS credentials and explained that the Umbrella encountered some pirates in another system while searching for a missing crewmember. After evading the pirates, this was the closest verified friendly system and Imperial station. All the Umbrella needed was somewhere safe to assess damage and get back to the search. All technically true as long as no one cared to get into the details.

“Stand by,” said the flight controller and muted the channel.

* * *


“What’s the deal with that Krait,” asked the shift lead from her seat overlooking the control room and the holo displays of ships around the station. “It’s not a scheduled arrival.”

“It claims to have encountered pirates and wants a place to assess damage,” said the controller. “The pilot’s credentials are ace, he’s a VP with those ERS people. There are no red flags on the ship or commander. Scans show it has internal damage, but nothing critical. I was about to deny landing and direct it to O’Hare’s Hanger.”

The shift lead called up the info on her screen. “Vasil Vasilescu,” she said, repeating a name that came up as having been involved in the carrier duel, but in a neutral, unarmed rescue vessel. Why now was he showing up in a combat craft. Something did not seem quite right. “Direct the ship to hold point six alpha. I need to let Palmer know about this.”

* * *


The Umbrella had been waiting at the hold point for ten minutes before flight control re-opened the channel. “Umbrella you are cleared for landing on pad 27. You have six hours to make your damage assessment. You are restricted to blue zones while on station.”

“See,” Vasil said to Maul. “Sometimes these things work out.”

On the Golden Jackal, Ambrose Palmer, growing more irritated with the changing situation told the agents assigned to watch the crew of the Umbrella to not lose track of them like they had that Thorn girl. Weeks of nothing to report and now this. All of the paperwork was going to be a bitch.
04 Nov 2024, 2:26pm
Kasumi GotoHopefully, my companion could handle the other remaining ones on her own. Or at least not eat a bunch of lead while I killed my attacker.


My vision was still blurry from the flashbang when more guards stormed in. Thankfully, the narrow doors worked to our advantage, bottlenecking their approach.

The nearest guard barreled toward me, hoping to catch me off guard. His heavy armor clinked with each step. I grinned, a cold, calculating smile. "Come on, matey," I muttered under my breath. Sidestepping his charge, I pranced around him while aiming for a weaker point of his armor, knowing that a direct hit to the heavy breastplate wouldn't do much. I fired as his momentum carried him past me and my shot hit him in the side of his neck. He fell forward, clutching at the wound, and I quickly moved the shotgun, ready for the next target.

Not one moment too soon. Another guard already came at me with what looked like an electrified baton, swinging wildly. I ducked under his wild swing and drove the butt of my shotgun into his helmet, shattering his visor. He staggered back, and I followed up with a close range shot to his lower body. The force of the blast kicked him backwards and he fell. I could hear more footsteps approaching, and darted to the side, taking cover behind a support pillar.

The remaining guards focused their fire, bullets ricocheting off the metal around me. As I reloaded and waited for a lull in the gunfire, I could see my partner still engaged in her own fight. She was holding her own against a bulky guard in close combat and just came up victorious. It was about time to finish this quickly.
04 Nov 2024, 3:19pm
My opponent had also quickly recovered from being knocked back, and was coming at me again. Not having much room to dodge in my current position, not to mind the certain lack of mobility I hadn't quite worked off yet, it meant I just had to try taking it. But this time, I was ready, deflecting a fist that was aimed at my belly, catching them off-guard with the strength displayed thanks to the... augmentations, provided by being what I was now. That, and I was now able to resist the force of larger opponents more easily due to - certain additions of mass.

Following up, I went for a punch to the face myself, knocking the helmet into the head enough to stagger the guard again. Aiming for the throat with my knife, their own attempt at not being the one to end up as a body at the end of this fight caused it to instead go low and pierce protective suit fabric on the shoulder, causing them to grunt in pain. I rapidly pulled it back out, intending to go for another strike, but my right wrist was caught in two hands trying to break its resistance and at least remove the knife from it.

Trying to reach for the pistol with my free left hand, I had to realize that in this current position, thanks to the oversized nature of the upper half, I would not be able to reach it easily, if at all. So instead I proceeded to grab one of the guard's arms and, rather forcibly, removed the hand's grip from my right arm, then lifted the leg and gave them a kick into the gut, which carried enough force to separate the magnetic boots from the ground and allowed me to slam them into the wall a short distance away, also freeing my right hand. Before they could react again, I pulled my pistol out and fired three shots into the head, one of them piercing and killing.

Being defeated by the oversized me in close combat had to be a bad humiliation to end one's life on. Now to see where my railgun had gone, and if my companion needed help... not necessarily in that order.


Last edit: 04 Nov 2024, 3:30pm
05 Nov 2024, 2:36pm
The remaining guards in the room, distracted by the three shots my companion just fired, turned their attention away from me for a split second. That was all I needed. I stepped out from behind the pillar and sprinted towards the nearest one, sliding low to avoid his line of fire as he turned his gun towards me, and came up right next to him. I jammed the barrel of my shotgun under his arm pit and pulled the trigger. The blast sent him crashing to the ground.

The last guard in the room hesitated, obviously unsettled by the sudden turn of events. I took advantage of his hesitation and quickly closed the distance. I faked a stumble to lure him in, then lashed out with a swift kick to his knee as he moved to attack me. He buckled, and I followed up with a brutal blow to his helmet with the butt of my shotgun. He staggered, went to his knees, and I finished him off with a shot to the throat.

The room was momentarily clear, but I knew it wouldn't stay that way for long. I glanced over at my partner, who was retrieving her dropped railgun. We exchanged a nod, a silent agreement of our shared determination. I pointed with my shotgun towards the door next to her, where we last heard a commanding officer barking orders. The best defense now was a good offense to dismantle the enemy's chain of command.
05 Nov 2024, 3:09pm
I gestured ahead with my left hand.

"Go. Will cover, from behind."

Right now, that seemed like a better idea. Though it would be an issue if we had to fall back through a corridor quickly, at the same time, me being at the back would make it easier for my companion to go into a room and find cover quicker if we happened to have to move into one - just as likely of a scenario. And me... I'd make do. Hadn't spent a few months getting used to the body and how to handle it, to not know how to move relatively faster instead of getting riddled with bullets.

I moved to fetch my hacking tool, then waited to follow along. Would likely want that in the control center, even if EDI was already in the local network node working against... whatever that security program was.
05 Nov 2024, 6:13pm
I nodded and walked ahead, shotgun at the ready. As I entered the corridor, I saw the commanding officer at the far end, flanked by a handful of remaining guards. They had erected a makeshift barricade of overturned tables and crates. The officer stood there, unmistakable and waiting, ready for us.

"You're persistent, I'll give you that," he shouted, his voice echoing in the corridor. "But that ends here and now."

Just as he was about to call theatrically for reinforcements, I noticed a hint of panic on his face. Whatever my partner had done, it must have already started to disrupt their communication. He tried again, but to no avail. Outbound communication was dead.

"It does indeed end here and now," I said with a smile. "Tell your men to drop their weapons and stand down."

The officer didn't respond. Instead, he reached for his sidearm.

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