Elite roleplay: Off station

OFF STATION

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

General Roleplay Etiquette:

1. Control only the actions of your own character(s). (AKA: God Mode)
This doesn't matter how small the action is, even if it is as simple as scratching their nose or a direct reaction to something else that just happened. This applies to everything from casual conversation to full blown fight scenes. If you'd like someone to do something specific, PM that person, however keep in mind they are completely within their rights to say no. Especially if said action is inappropriate to their character and/or circumstance.

2. Don't brute force your way into another persons RP.
Approaching with a conversation starter is fine, or indeed some other small action. However charging in, guns blazing and disrupting the flow of another person/pair/groups conversation/arc is about as rude as doing so in real life. If something is going on that you'd like to participate in, be subtle about it. Put out a gentle hook for someone to take, but again, be aware that said hook may not be taken. If you fear it was simply unnoticed, PM the person or people it concerns. Or even leave a message in the OOC forums.

3. Good grammar and spelling is preferred.
We're not asking you to be perfect, but please at least demonstrate willingness. no1 iz gna tak u srsly usng txt spk. There's a wide variety of people here, many who speak English as a second, or even third language. There are even some with varying degrees of dyslexia and/or likely other issues that affect spelling/grammar. We accept them all here. However, people who aren't accepted, are those unwilling to accept polite correction. Remember that even a small thing like the placement of a comma, or the wrong use of there/their/they're can completely change the definition of an entire sentence.

4. Accept constructive criticism gracefully and politely.
If someone spots an issue with your writings, they may wish to help you improve that writing. They may do this through PM or even publicly air their thoughts on the OOC forum. If they have taken the time to be polite and explain what is wrong with your writing, the best way to behave is to respond in kind, using the same manner they have approached you with. It means they have taken an active interest in what you have written and wish to see more. Basically, you have a fan!

5. Don't take the actions or opinions of things done IN RP, to be directly relevant to the writers thoughts or opinions.
Basically, if some ones character calls your character a jackass, it doesn't mean the writer thinks you are a jackass. It's a ROLE they are PLAYING. Watch a movie. The argument between the characters isn't an argument between the actors involved. The same applies here.

6. It's not a popularity contest.
Your RP might be bustling with participants. You have 3 people off station in a fire fight, while another 2 are infiltrating the darkest areas of the station, meanwhile a group of 4 others are tracking your movements in an effort to stop you. Good for you, I'm sure it will be a thrilling read! But you know what? Sometimes the absolute BEST work, comes from two RP characters having a simple heart to heart. Both are valid, both are great, but NEITHER is categorically better than the other. Period.

Inara RP Etiquette:

1. Respect the setting and rules of the universe.
Inara is an Elite: Dangerous 3rd Party Tool. The RP Forums are set in the Elite: Dangerous universe. Elite: Dangerous has rules, as any fictional universe does from Lord of the Rings to Star Wars, or Game of Thrones to Star Trek. If you intend to RP within the Elite: Dangerous universe you are bound by the history and rules of that universe. Simply put, this RP forum is bound by the same rules as the game, so if it can't be done in the game, it is not permitted here. This applies to things from a 50Ly Jump Range on a normal, unmodified Sidewinder, to the destruction of entire stations.

2. Respect the characters created by others.
We have a wide variety of characters already here. It's expected that some will be similar, just as it's expected that two characters will be vastly different. Opinions of each persons character will naturally be varied, but all are valid provided they follow the rules of the universe. You are allowed to interact with, or avoid interaction with, any character in the RP forums. But you have no right to belittle others for their creation. You are not an authority figure on writing, nor are you directly affected by another persons imagination. You might not like it, but you MUST respect it.

3. Be caught up on current events before joining in.
You need basic things like character descriptions in order to interact with them. You also need to know what's going on in the surrounding areas. This is simply because the people you are hoping to RP with, might be gearing up to something that you might not want to be part of. Or simply that the most recent post, out of context, could leave a different impression on the goings on than if you gather that context. We don't expect you to read every single post from the beginning of the forums, just enough to get that basic understanding.

4. Either subscribe to, or frequently check, the Roleplay: Q&A and OOC forum.
People may be discussing something relevant to you there, or even discussing you directly. Perhaps someone asked what the general consensus on the existence or non-existence of a certain object. Or we're just chatting about random gibberish. Either way, be aware of it and use it. If you're unsure about something, such as how guns would look and or behave, or even the music selection, use the OOC forum to ask. We don't have all of the answers, but the collective knowledge and logic usually allows us to overcome an issue and come to a decision on what should be allowed. Frontier Developments, and even David Braben himself, don't have the answers to every possible question that can be asked.

5. Large Scale events exploding out of nowhere are a complete no go.
We get it. Everyone wants their character to be noticed and for people to be tripping over themselves to interact with them. In some audiences, an introduction involving you blasting in for landing in a fiery wreckage of a ship, before cart wheeling out and sword fighting 35 Ninjas before whisking off with the local celebrity for a glorious night of passion, is in fact, cool. This is not one of those audiences. It is generally considered better to build your character up slowly over time. Eventually, you might even have a legitimate excuse to fight those Ninjas. Maybe even with other RP participants by your side.

6. Perfect characters are boring.
The point of a character arc, is that it is in fact, an arc shape. One who is morally unquestionable, fully kitted out and an infinite fountain of knowledge, cannot go through an arc. Give your character flaws. Be it a tendency towards befriending the wrong people, or a bad knee that frequently gives out at inopportune moments. It gives readers something to latch onto and empathise with. You can give your character exceptional capabilities at something, but it requires balance. She's a damn good pilot with no equal, but can't drive an SRV for peanuts. It can lead to some very interesting moments between characters, be it heartfelt or comedic.

Other Notes:

It should be noted that there can be exceptions to these points. For example, good grammar when a character is speaking is actually rare. Few people in real life actually speak with perfect eloquence after all. Or previously arranged actions during a fight scene, such as someone stumbling back after a punch. What's key to remember is context.

All in all, remember this is purely for fun. We have some seriously talented writers here, and others whose writing history starts and ends at high school. But many are willing to help out in whatever way they can. All it takes is that you ask nicely.

Also keep in mind that many people who RP here, also have logbook stories related to the character, or characters, they portray. If it looks like there's an "in joke" going on that you're unsure of, it's probably in those.

In fact, some users have even gone to the trouble of creating "alts" to RP with. If you read back far enough, it's usually pretty clear who has and hasn't, and which ones are the "alts". It's therefore not unheard of to see the apparent seizing of control of other characters. If you do spot one, point it out in the OOC section. If intervention is needed, it will be sorted quickly and (hopefully) politely.

Most, if not all RP participants here have Logbook stories pertaining to their character(s). These are for the reading pleasure of anyone who wishes to do so. While it can be useful to read them in order to gain a bit of backstory on a character you wish to interact with, it should not be assumed that your character shares that knowledge. Within the E:D Universe, these Logbooks either don't exist, or are private diaries kept by the characters. Either way, without explicit statements to say otherwise from the writer, your interactions should reflect that your character is in the dark about any information you, the writer/reader, have gained from reading the stories.

Lambast Mercy

07 Jan 2020, 6:34pm

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"Ah, well that's quite a story." Silas said, considering where to start.

Derek stayed silent, waiting for Silas to continue.

"Well, I had just taken a job from a new client, protection detail. Kai had just taken a new client as well, we'll call it..."

"...Procurement?" Kai offered

"...yeah, procurement is a good word. Procurement from, ironically, my client. Well, I didn't know exactly what kind of trouble my new client was in, and literally minutes after accepting the job we were all fleeing the station as a result of the action." Silas continued

"Explosions and gunfire!" shouted Kaisla excitedly, garnering a raised eyebrow from the Baron.

"Yeah... well, fast forward a bit, I link up with my client to find this silver-haired troublemaker had been caught breaking into his ship, barely get through an introduction before we get attacked and have to shoot our way to safety, and now that I'm recounting it I'm realizing how completely absurd this all sounds, but we've been running together ever since."

Having recounted the story, and knowing that Kai was like an adopted daughter to the Mercys, Silas was unsure what Derek would think of all that, especially knowing how the rest of the story unfolded, at least as described by Imperial court officials. His political affluence was apparent, in that his expression hadn't changed, and so a reaction was difficult to read.

Just as the baron was about to respond, the Baroness swanned into the room and quickly marshalled all the attention for herself. Her arms were open wide but somehow her smile was wider.

“Hello hello hello again. I do hope everyone’s drink is chocolaty enough and I see the Baron has the drinks caddy on hand, good man” She kissed his cheek and swept over to Kai and Sails.

“Kiki darling, do get off the dogs' beds there’s a dear” returning to her husband on the same sweep, the Baroness continued. “Why didn’t you tell them sweetheart hmm hmm?”

A hit of a sly smile may have played on the Baron's lips for a moment. The Baroness hooked Echo’s arm and dragged him over to Raven and swept him as well. Her circle of the room reminded Echo of how he and Lamb had snagged everyone after the Blind Bastard had blown up the Corvettes Bridge. Raven and Echo were bodily heaved onto a sofa, it was all they could do not to slop hot chocolate everywhere. Lisa gave Raven and Echo an evaluation look and then started shuffling Raven out the way.

“Come on, budge up budge up that man. Let’s make room for Bam shall we?”

Once there was a good space between Echo and the Baroness, she clasped her hands together and addressed everyone.

“Now, what were we talking about hmm?”

Echo and Raven were speechless.

Silas couldn't help but grin in mild amusement. He was quite entertained by the Baroness. It was especially amusing how much she reminded him of Lambast. The same in many ways, and yet so dramatically different in others.

He answered her as he shuffled to help Kai out of the 'dog bed' beanbag,
"Ah, well, Baroness, we were just regaling your husband with the adventurous tale of how we met Kaisla. And hopefully putting enough of a lighthearted spin on it that he won't lock us in the cellar."

“The cellar” exclaimed the Baron “I think you may enjoy that detention Mr Cousland. That’s where the Kavanah’s keep the wine and the best aged scotch whiskies along with some fine wheels of cheese and cured meats. If a lock-in is to occur down there, I would very much like to be a part of it”

He pondered for a moment and turned to the Baroness before talking to the room once more.

“Please remind me to inquire with the girls about my wine collection tomorrow if you would dear”

“Allow me to illuminate my introspective concerning my girls’ vocations gentlemen. I feel the Baroness and I either did exceedingly well.. ”

Lambast chose that moment to walk in. Her farther stop mid-sentence and squeezed his daughter's hand as she walked by and picked up a mug of hot chocolate. The Baroness gestured excitedly to the space beside her and more importantly, Echo.

“Bam darling! Come sit with mummy. Come come. Look I’ll get the Creme de Menthe to make your chocolate minty, I know my darling loves minty chocolate”

The Baroness flailed her leg ineffectually at the drinks caddy. Her hand was uncomfortably close to Raven’s family pride as the woman used him to steady herself and force her outstretched foot ever closer to the caddy. She may have managed it if she hadn’t slid so far down the sofa that her view was blocked by her ample bosom.

Raven, with his ever keen sense of self-preservation, grabbed the caddy and pulled it over for her. She took one of those green bottles out that no one ever touches until some idiot says “Hey, I know a great cocktail” and mixes something that makes everyone sick after the second taste. The Baroness shoved the caddy out the way with her foot and caught Lamb, who had foolishly rushed over to save Raven from a gale-force mother, by the waistband and pulled her into the seat. The bottle glugged noisily into Lamb’s cup.

“Carry on sweetheart” said the Baroness fluttering her eyelashes at her husband. He did so.

“I feel the Baroness and I did either exceedingly well, or very poorly in helping Bam and Kiki decide on a direction to take their careers. It was clear that Kiki was going to fly, but Bam joining the navy, coinciding with her sister’s enlistment was quite the surprise. A parent never wants their progeny to risk testing mortality, but both of you excelled in your professions and I am not at all surprised you still wish to fight for what you feel is a worthy cause. I am only glad that if you both insist on doing so, that you are doing it together and in the company of capable people”

“Are any of you chaps military? I promise I’m not asking to update your files” Said the Baron with a smile.

"Yeah, Echo and I are ex-Federal Navy. It's where we met actually. Raven is... we'll call it 'private sector'" Silas replied, choosing his words carefully.
"Anything to add Echo?"

"No, I'm just trying to figure out how to get locked in the cellar." Echo joked.

Raven, the Baroness' hand still resting on part of his leg due to lack of space with all the people now being cozy on the same piece of furniture, chuckled uncomfortably.

"As it happens, I was looking for a polite way to broach that subject" Said the Baron. "Mr. Eugene, are your tattoos a gang-related status symbol of sorts, or culturally significant to your ancestors?"

Raven looked a little distracted and hadn't appeared to notice Derek was talking to him. He saw why.

"Sweetness, your worrying young Mr Eugene with unintended intimacy"

The Duchess stared at her husband with a blank face and then followed his eyes to her hand.

"Oh! Arh har har, I am sorry" she said squeezing his thigh "Nice strong muscles in there" she said with another exploratory squeeze. She nudged Lamb in the ribs with her elbow. "Very good legs darling don't you think hmm hmm?"

Lambat pulled her mother's hand off Raven and pretended her own face wasn't turning bright red again.

Raven was immediately relieved, and finally was able to breathe and loosen up a little. He then realized he had left the Baron hanging and turned to him.

"Well, sir, actually I'm not aware much of my native culture or ancestors. I grew up in an orphan on Fung Orbital, got in with the wrong crowd. These are unfortunately gang-related, but after I came to my senses, and with some help from my friends here, I am now the only surviving member, so they have taken on a different meaning for me now."

Raven didn't normally share this much about himself, but something about Derek's manner made him seem almost fatherly in a way that made it easy to talk to him, and made a person feel like they wanted to answer any question he had just to not disappoint the man.

Lambast and the Baroness were having some sort of silent disagreement that involved a lot of gesturing at Echo and Rave, at mostly Echo. Kaisla was leaning round to watch with a big grin on her face.

Hay Si" she whispered "I bet Lisa is trying to become a grandma again. That's the squirmiest you'll ever see Lamb"

Kai raised her slate and started filming.

"One for the records I think"

She looked Sailas up and down for a moment.

"You better watch it hon, The *Baroness* is impressed with you"

Derek had been talking to Raven with an eye on his besieged daughter.

"Oh how very interesting Mr Eugene, that does make you a unique physical record of Fung Orbital society. I must say I do hold the utmost admiration for people that accept their situation a take a new direction under their own steam. Good show all round I say. I would very much like to talk with you more on the matter if you are willing"

"Bam tells me you are quite the swordsman. Perhaps we could chat while crossing blades, time permitting"

The Barron raised his voice to gain his wife's attention.

"With the time in mind darling, I think we should retire for the evening and leave our guests to settle in. We do have quite a number of duties that require attending before the festivities can begin"

The Baroness looked around as if Derek may have been talking to someone else in the room before innocently releasing Lamb from a thumb lock.

"Oh me? What? Oh yes, we should sweety we should"

The Baroness stood and bowed then curtsied to everyone.

"Delightful to have met you all gentlemen. Oh look at my girls, so good to have you both home"

She blew kisses to *Bam and Kiki* and was gently pulled from the room by her husband.

The Baron and Baroness bid everyone good night as they headed for bed. Lisa reappeared at the door and, looking at Lambast she pointed to Echo and made some hip movements that that could only possibly mean one thing.

She gave these secret sign language instructions to her daughter as if Lambast was the only person in the room that could interpret the meaning. Lamb deeply wished that was true while she tried to will her self out of existence.

It was no secret that Echo would be a fan of the idea, but having it made a public spectacle of made him uncomfortable as well. Even the caramel color of his skin couldn't obscure the shade of red his cheeks had turned as he stared hard at the arm of the sofa trying desperately to avoid eye contact with the other 6 people in the room.

However, being a gentleman, he knew it was inappropriate not to stand and give their hosts a proper farewell, so he stood and looked at the Baroness just long enough to bid her good night along with everyone else.

"Well, Lamb, wouldn't want to disappoint your mother! Get to it!" prodded Kaisla with glee the moment the Baron and Baroness were out of earshot, slate still focused on her unwilling documentary subject.

"Yes, and I'm sure Mr. Ramón would be happy to oblige!" Silas added, in the best impression of Lamb's mother he could manage.

Echo sank back into his seat, gave Silas a glare, and then without breaking eye contact took the liqueur bottle that Lamb was still holding and poured a generous amount into the remainder of his hot chocolate.

Lamb looked for something to throw at Kai, but there was nothing in reach that wouldn't make a mess of the lodge. She stood up and hid her face from Kai's lense.

"I am so sorry about that. Mother spent her late teens to early twenties in indentured servitude upon a mining platform. It wasn't an environment that nurtured ladylike qualities. Mum can be .. Lad-ish after a few sherries and Chrismas encourages the sherry to flow"

Lamb took a gulp of her deliciously miny and alcoholic Chocolat.

"I am confident she'll be more manageable after a nights sleep"

Lamb had found a cushion discarded by Echo on the arm of the sofa. She gripped it by the corner, turned and threw it at Kai's slate. The cushion flew true and hit the slate, then the slate hit Kai in the nose.

"HA! Take that you skinny cow"

Echo snorted his freshly minty beverage out his nose as he tried to swallow it through his laughter.

The pillow, after bouncing off of Kai's slate, also hit Silas in the face.

"Nice two-fer!" Raven exclaimed, offering up his hand to Lamb for a high-five.

Silas grabbed the tablet from Kaisla, who was rubbing her nose, and flipped it around so that the camera was pointed at him.

"Aaaaand scene." he said, before stopping the recording.

Last edit: 08 Jan 2020, 11:36am

Lambast Mercy

21 Jan 2020, 2:52pm

︎

“Luggage open”

Kai tossed the inflatable pony into the large open chest that snapped its flat toothed lid shut once the pony was inside. Kia could hear the manipulator arms inside the replica Luggage sorting the stuff she had thrown inside for maximum space. She knew it would get old soon, and the Luggage would just be an odd-looking box she kept stuff in, but right now it was still new and she was enjoying herself.

Kai hopped off her bed and sat astride the barrel topped chest.

“Luggage, to the galley. I got Honeynut Hoops to eat. Holly, open the doors for us would ya buddy?”

“Right on dude. I got ya back” answered the terminally morose A.I.

Kai knew the Luggage was propelled by some sturdy rubber wheels, but the hundreds of fake feet did a fantastic job of hiding them, and the walking action was really quite convincing. Having a loaded friend that was willing to indulge Kai’s whims really was pretty cool she thought as the Luggage rocked her from side to side on its way to the Galley.

When she got there everything was already cleaned and put away. Kai checked the time. A little after ten thirty, well that explained it. Lamb would have been up and finished her exercises about three or four hours ago, eaten, done the housework and then plopped a coffee on the cup warmer beside Kai's bed so it was there for her the moment she opened her eyes. The Luggage wasn’t very good at fine movements so Kai went and got the Honeynut Loops herself and sat at the counter with the cereal decanter. There probably wouldn’t be much point in putting it away, it was only just over half full and Kai could fix that.

While Kai was crunching away on the Loops, she checked in with the Arbiter. Silas and Echo where still elbow deep in the drone-thing Lamb had given Leith. That was a tricky situation. Kia could tell Silas was helping Leith deal with the change, and Lambast was scared to even set foot on the Arbiter because she didn’t like the idea of what Leith represented. Kai had used her persona of the happy-go-lucky air-head to smooth the cracks where she could. Being underestimated often let Kai interfere when people wanted to be left alone. It looked like both Silas and Lamb were cut from the same cloth, but she’d help them both learn that doing it ya self is stupid when friends are on hand willing to help out.

Christmas & New Years with the Mercy’s had been amazing, but it was great to be back in the black, it was where Kai felt herself. The ships were on their way to a station Sails said they could look into the insignia the raiders left behind, and get a good price for the gaudy and ridiculously expensive presents Lamb's friend Vincent had sent along. That memory made Kai smile to herself. Vincent had sent along some very personal gifts for Kai. Stuff that would have been inappropriate for Sails to give her, let alone a stranger. She’d keep some of the small clothes and jewelry, not all of it was tasteless, massively pricy tat.

Anyway, Raven had actually looked impressed when he opened the box with a large gold hilted, gem-encrusted wide-bladed scimitar. If he was keeping that, she could keep a few choice items. Kai hoped they were going to see Si’s big Russian friend again, he was a good guy. Kai would have just one more bowl of Honeynut Loops, and then she’d head to the bridge to see what Lamb was up to.

The Luggage bumped its way over the seal of the bridge door making Lamb look round to see what was happening.

“Good heavens, Kai it’s a replica Discworld Luggage, not a Kia-porter. Anyway, you look like an Arabian that forgot her flying carpet. . Good morning”

Kai slid off the Luggage, pushed it up against the wall and leaned down on it until she heard the maglock engage.

“Morning Lamb. Wot ya doin?”

Outside the canopy, Kai could see the Arbiter weaving between countless ice-roids and the Hand was following close behind at what Kai would call walking pace.

“Just keeping my hand in dear. With you doing all the flying, I’m getting quite rusty I must say. Raven was at a loose end, so he suggested I follow him for a while. A bit of stick time is good for me”

Kai was leaning on the back of the pilot’s seat while Lamb explained. She wasn’t really listening; this was Kai politely asking Lamb to move. Lamb had missed the hint.

“Uh-huh, Thrilling. Now get out my chair hon”

Lamb relinquished command without objection. Kai interlocked her fingers and cracked her knuckles.

“Holly load..”

The A I interrupted Kai.

“Load up your pre-sets and give primary functions to Otto. Already on it dude”

“Thanks Hol, you’re a legend. Otto, put everything into the thrusters and burn um both ends. I wanna give the Arbiter a morning wash”

The Hand wobbled like a fish swimming against the flow of the river as the revers thrusters argued with the forward momentum being supplied by a slow burn from the main engines. Lamb knew what was coming, this was the ship equivalent of a wheel-spin. Lamb braced herself for the sudden acceleration, then looked at Kai and nodded.

Raven damn near shit himself as the Hand passed so close, he could almost count the teeth in Kai’s toothy grin as she boosted overhead blasting the Arbiter in blue vaper of the Hands thrusters.

“Arrg! Fuckin crazy bitch" Raven opened internal coms to the Workshop "Creamy, Kai’s awake and ready to go. You guys coming or shall I tell her to wait?”

Sails tapped the coms.

“Nar, we better get to the bridge. Kai’s been itching to get some light-years under her belt since we left the Baroness. Send the route to the Hand Raven, we’ll be up there soon”

Echo started packing his new tools away in the shiny workstation while Leith had another go at flying the spherical drone around the workshop. Silas watched him drift around like a drunken paper airplane.

“That feel any better buddy?” asked Silas.

“How can I explain it uncle.. It’s like learning to walk via remote control. There’s just on physical feedback but I think I can get the hang of it if I keep practicing. Then I’ll tackle having like eight arms”

“Man that’s great. You going to keep at it or come to the bridge with us?”

“It still sounds weird to say uncle, but I’m getting used to playing COVAS. I’ll transfer back over and see you there. Well see you on the way as well, but you know what I mean”

Sails raced forward and caught the drone as it started to fall. Leith hadn’t landed the thing before he left. It was going to be a learning process for them both.

Silas made the first jump while Echo went over the reports the Baron had given them before they left. He looked at the winged talon emblem, a recreation of the badge on the raiders that had hit the Baronesses Passenger Liners. Echo showed the slate to Silas.

“Dude, what makes you think we’ll have any luck tracking these guys down if Imp intelligence can’t do it? I mean, they’ve hit and boarded over twenty Liners heading out of Imperial space, and no one’s even managed to take down the shields of one of their ship”

“I hear you man” answered Silas “But do you think Lamb’s gonna let that stop her? Anyway, it’s a paying job and we could do with a paying job. Keeping you guys ain’t cheap you know? We’ll just have to rattle the cage and see who takes a swipe at us”

Raven jerked his thump back.

“Hey, what about all the swag from that Vincent guy. That’s gonna be worth a meal or two right? I mean, we ain’t on the floor for a few credits. Anyway, Lamb doesn’t seem to mind coving the bills”

Silas slowly turned on Raven.

“Wow, have some pride man. Mooching is no way to make a living and a good paycheck from the Imperial Diplomatic Corps looks good on the résumé. Once we get a lead, we’ll track them down, take them down and get paid. How hard can it be…”

He regretted it the moment the last words escaped his lips.

Raven just shook his head and Echo facepalmed.

“Way to curse the job unk. When this all goes to shit, we’ll know who to blame won't we?” supplied an unduly smug Leith.

Last edit: 22 Mar 2020, 9:35am

EvilCreamsicle Inara supporter

22 Jan 2020, 4:20pm

︎

"Big words from someone who is shaped suspiciously like a soccer ball, kid." Silas joked back at him.

"Look, all I'm saying is, if this goes to shit, I'm figuring out how to use this taser first thing." Leith replied.

"Hey, at this point 'everything going to shit' is the norm for us. A 'curse' might actually improve our situation."

Echo looked up from his palm and put his arms out in an exaggerated shrug.
"Dude, you're not making it better."

Silas moved over to the copilot's seat and strapped himself in, reluctant to say another word.

"Alright she's jumping" Raven informed everyone. "Strap in, here we go."

The Arbiter and The Hand ended up with slightly different routes, but arrived at the station at around the same time. Raven and Kai, with their competitive spirits, had a race to see who could get landing authorization quicker, and when that happened at nearly the same time, it turned into an actual race to the mailslot. Raven held his own, but Kai won. Of course, the real loser was the Sidewinder who was coming through the slot at the same time the two of them blasted past, resulting in a lovely 500 credit fine for each of them.

Upon landing, Silas stood and gathered himself, and walked over to where Raven was sitting and gave him a light smack on the back of the head.

"Ow, what was that for?" Raven asked looking up at him.

"Well, now I have to go pay your fine, you ass. And of course, visiting the security office after having been a high-profile wanted criminal in this sector until very recently is exactly the kind of attention I want just before I go and meet our black market contact."

"It's because I lost, isn't it?" Raven asked, seriously.

"...sure bud, we'll go with that." Silas said before walking off toward the weapons locker to retrieve his trusty sidearm, giving it the 'ol function check, and walking off toward the ramp, contacting Kai and Lamb to let them know what he was doing and ask if they wanted to tag along.

Maul Montresor

23 Jan 2020, 5:43pm

︎

((I swear my posts wont be this long in the future. Just wanted to wrap up some stuff so I could move the story forward, since my previous RP partner is taking a break. Enjoy this massive wall of text lmao))

Maul squirmed around in the pool of blood on the floor of the office. Blood spatters covered the wall behind him. He grunted in pain as he rubbed his fingers over the multiple gunshot wounds that littered his stomach. The Remlok suit that he was wearing under his jacket had done its job. It sealed closed around the wounds to assist in stopping the bleeding but none of that helped to stop the internal pain and as soon as the suit was removed, he'd be in trouble. He slowly crawled his way over to a nearby bookshelf and tried to use the shelves for support to get back to his feet but it was to no avail. There was no getting up from this. It was over.

He gave up on his efforts on getting to his feet and dropped back down onto the floor with a thud. He groaned in pain and his breathing was labored. The sound of sirens from outside began to bleed into the office building. He took a moment to look around the room. A dead thug in a suit laid on the floor opposite of where he was previously laying. A bullet to the head had killed him. A bullet from Maul's gun.

Maul sighed and laid his head back against the book shelf. Just then the sound of station security could be heard entering the building. Their shouts and call signs indicated that they were some sort of special security team that were trained to handle active shooter situations. It only made sense to send these guys when there were reports of gunfire.

Maul raised his head back up and looked over at his pistol laying on the floor where he was previously laying. He contemplated turning it on himself but quickly removed the thought from his mind. It's not like he'd get to the gun before security got in the room anyhow. Maybe this would be a good thing. Perhaps spending the rest of his life in a high security detention center was exactly what he needed. After all, he was guilty of enough crimes that it'd only be the right thing to do at this point. Multiple murders, hacking, kidnapping, vigilantism, these were only a few of the things that he'd done that came to mind. He could argue that he was doing the right thing but that's never why he did any of this. This was just another cliche story of revenge. Revenge, and also an attempt to scratch that adrenaline itch that he always had in the back of his mind. Yeah, this was probably necessary...but not yet. Vega was still out there and she was going to need help.

Suddenly, a group of highly armored security officers busted through the door with their guns at the ready. They immediately spotted Maul but finished their sweep of the room before acknowledging him.

"We have one deceased, looks like he suffered a gunshot wound to the head and one injured. Send in the EMTs and let's get this guy to the clinic, asap."

One security officer spoke into a communication device that was in his ear before kneeling down to speak to Maul.

"Sir, try to relax, we're going to get you some help. Can you speak or confirm that you understand?"

Maul slowly turned his head back to the dead man laying on the floor across the room.

"I...I need to make a call." He groaned weakly.

The officer nodded.

"We'll see what we can do about that. First we need to get you some help...and you'll have to answer a few questions to help us understand exactly what happened here."

At that time, two EMT workers entered the room with a stretcher and carefully laid Maul on it. Before they could push the stretcher out of the room, an investigator walked in. The officer that Maul had spoken to was informing him on the situation. Maul and the investigator locked eyes just as he slowly began to black out.

While unconscious, the events that lead up to this moment began replaying in Maul's head.

---

Maul's slate chimed, which pulled his attention away from Omi who was staring down the massive ship, waiting for a response from Khelan. It was a message from Akio informing Maul that Shinigami had been prepped. He looked back and forth between the slate and the Prid.

"Let's go." He muttered to Vega as he began to leave the hangar.

"What? Wait, what about Khelan?" Vega asked as she grabbed his arm and turned him around.

Maul looked over at Omi and back to Vega.

"Khelan's been through a lot recently. Most of the shit he's been through is because of me and this stupid corporation bullshit. Maybe he needs a break from all of this. The least we can do is finish out the plan he's prepped and give him the time to recover from everything that's happened."

Vega could tell that Maul felt strongly about this. He owed Khelan his life.

"Okay." She said with a sigh and a head shake. "You're right. Let's do this for Khelan."

Maul and Vega walked to Shinigami's hangar and boarded the ship. Akio and the boys had cleared out before they arrived.

They switched into their Remlok suits and put on the helmets that were required to navigate Shinigami's systems. Maul who was sat in the pilots seat, turned to give Vega a confident nod. She responded with her own nod from the co-pilots seat. They launched from the pad and made their way to a nearby uninhabited anarchy system and dropped out of supercruise.

Maul stood up and headed for the cargo bay as Vega followed behind.

"You think this will work?" Vega asked.

Maul shrugged.

"Let's hope so. Just got to have them think it's you in the pod and I reckon these trackers should sell that idea well enough."

Vega shuddered at the thought of the corpse in the pod and stopped before entering the cargo bay.

"Alright, you take it from here. I don't think I can handle seeing a corpse that even remotely kinda resembles me."

Maul stopped as the door to the cargo bay opened and turned to Vega.

"Okay, I'll be quick and then we'll meet back in the cockpit."

Vega nodded and turned around to head back.

Maul approached the escape pod and looked inside the small window. The corpse had blonde hair and pale skin. The poor woman certainly resembled Vega.

"Fuck, I'm real sorry about this lady." Maul said as he grabbed the remote detonator off of a nearby shelf.

He opened the escape pod and armed the explosives before closing it back.

"Kinda fucked up that the doc just handed you over for this." He said, speaking to the corpse again.

He made his way back to the cockpit with the detonator in hand and sat back down in the pilots seat.

"Dump it." He said with a nod to Vega.

The cargo hatch slowly crept open and released the pod out into space. Maul checked that the trackers signals were still active before boosting the ship away from the pod. He stopped the ship nearly out of scanner range.

"Now what?" Vega asked.

"Now we wait. Whoever was tracking you couldn't get to us on Hondo City. Shin made it nearly impossible to get into the system with those permit locks in place. But now that you're signal is out and about again, someone is bound to turn up and once they do, we just engage silent running and wait for them to scoop up your dead doppelganger over there. After that, we'll threaten to blow them up if they don't give us some answers."

"Oh my god! Don't say that! Dead doppelganger? What the fuck's wrong with you?"

Maul couldn't see her face through the Remlok helmet but he did a good enough job picturing it and that was enough to make him smile.

After a few moments of silence, Maul yawned.

"Where'd you sleep at last night?" Vega asked, she was happy to break the silence and get her mind off what was about to happen.

"I didn't. I was working on that pod with Akio and the guys."

"Oh..." Vega responded. The awkward silence began to fill the cockpit again.

"How about you? You feeling alright?" Maul asked.

Vega rubbed her hand over the incisions on her stomach that were made to remove the trackers.

"Still a bit sore but I can't really complain."

At that time, a Cobra jumped onto the trackers signal. Vega quickly engaged silent running as they waited for the ship to scoop up the pod. The Cobra hesitated as it scanned the pod but eventually scooped it up.

Maul navigated to the enemy ship in his contacts screen and requested comms. Comms were immediately denied and the Cobra began to charge its FSD. They were making a run for it.

"Fuck!"

Vega shouted.

"Get after them!"

Luckily Shinigami was fitted with the appropriate tools to track down the ships jump location.

Maul scanned the Cobra's wake and began charging the FSD.

It felt like ages had gone by as they chased the Cobra's erratic jumps through random systems as it tried to shake Shinigami off it's tail.

Maul scanned it's latest wake. The Cobra was in Eravate. He froze when the name came up on the ships HUD.

"What are you doing? Come on!"

Vega called out.

"...This is where I started working for the corporation."

Maul's tone was void of emotion. He had paid no mind to where the Cobra was leading them but was now in shock.

"We don't have to worry about them anymore. The hack crumbled them. It's over. You said it yourself."

Maul hesitated but finally gave in and made the jump to Eravate. Once in system he found the Cobra on the contacts tab again. It was heading directly for Cleve Hub. Maul's heart began to race. This all felt wrong. Something bad was on the horizon and he could feel it. He swallowed the feeling and trekked on to Cleve Hub.

After dropping out near the station, they could see the Cobra flying through the slot. Maul requested landing permission and quickly landed Shinigami, taking note of the landing pad that the Cobra was landing on, Pad 13. Vega and Maul exited the ship and began sprinting through the docks in an attempt to catch the pilot of the Cobra. They approached hangar 13 but couldn't enter due to a keypad lock. Maul pulled out his slate and plugged into the small port on the bottom of the keypad to run an exploit. The door made a clunking sound as it unlocked.

Maul pushed the door open and was prepared to run full force at the Cobra but was stopped by the sight of a firing squad lined up on the landing pad. All of the gunners were faceless, their Remlok helmets hiding their identities. Maul and Vega held their hands over their heads, there was no point in trying to run. They'd be shot dead on the spot. Instead, they did the only thing they could do...wait for someone to give them orders.

Just then someone came down the stairs leading up to the Cobra's access hatch. They were wearing an expensive looking suit over top a Remlok suit, they too had their face hidden by their helmet. The faceless man walked past the firing squad and approached Maul and Vega.

"Well, who do we have here?" Maul and Vega's faces were hidden as well. "Considering that the dead bitch in that pod wasn't the actual Vega. I'm going to assume that you're Vega." He said pointing at the obvious female figure.

The faceless man laughed. His voice sounded familiar to Vega.

"I had those explosives disarmed the moment we scooped them up. You weren't fooling anyone." He said before pressing the button on the side of Vega's helmet causing it to retract.

"Ah, nice to see you again Vega."

He turned to Maul and reached out to do the same, causing Maul to step back.

"Ah, come on now. I'll show you mine if you show me yours." The man said with a chuckle.

Maul hesitated but finally pressed the button, causing his helmet to retract. The faceless man was speechless, almost as if he were surprised to see Maul.

"How..." He muttered as he too retracted his helmet, revealing his face.

"How in the fuck are you alive?...We thought you died on that ship with Bryce."

Maul was also shocked to see the man's face. It was Xero, who he thought had died on Anton's ship.

Xero quickly regained his composure and cleared his throat.

"It doesn't matter. She'll decide what to do with you."

Xero reached out and took Maul's blade and pistol, pointing it at him as he removed any electronics from Maul's pockets.

"Can't let you have this now can we, Ghoulie?" Xero said waving Maul's slate in front of his face before dropping it and smashing under his boot.

Xero turned to Vega and began patting her down as well.

"You guys have been causing quite a stir. It's really made it hard to keep things running."

"I thought you died on the ship with Anton and..." Vega began to say but was cut short by Xero jabbing the gun into Maul's stomach.

"Walk. There's a ride waiting for us."

Maul and Vega sat across from Xero and two other armed goons in the back of a very spacious car.

"Xero, why the fuck are you doing this, man? We were like brothers before you vanished after that transport job last year." Maul asked, breaking the silence.

Xero rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I did it for the same reasons anyone does anything out here. I needed credits and I needed protection. You nor anyone else in that so called "hacker group" could give me that. That's why I started working with Anton. That's why I sold your information to Vega here." He finished his response by gesturing towards Vega with the gun.

Maul and Vega glanced at each other briefly before looking down at the floorboard.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is that still a sensitive subject between the two of you?" Xero said in a sarcastic tone.

"Anyway, Anton's plan to rob The Corporation of it's data and then blackmail them was ignorant and would never have worked. You knew that, Vega knew that, and I knew that. So, I sold them out too."

"To who? The Corporation?" Vega asked. "That's why Bryce showed up and destroyed Anton's ship with The Enigma. You were trying to frame Maul and draw us out so you could kill us."

Xero smirked.

"Close, but we didn't want to kill you. Just Maul. We figured you'd already be settling in with Lydia in a safehouse somewhere. We were honestly surprised to see that you were still hanging around this guy." Xero siad gesturing at Maul this time. "By the way, how is little Lydia?"

Vega turned her face away to hide the fact that she was tearing up.

"...She's dead." Maul answered for her.

Xero's eyes widened as he shared a few glances with the two other men in the car. Maul could tell that none of them were aware of her death.

"You mean...I...I thought you guys had already rescued her from that psycho Anton. That's why Bryce was tasked with destroying Anton's ship up. Oh god..."

Xero was visibly nervous.

He pulled himself together as the car pulled up to The Corporations local office building. The same building Maul used to report to. Maul and Vega were forced inside. They were surprised to see so many people in the building. Everyone was shredding documents and running around like maniacs. They were trying to get rid of any evidence they had that could tie them to the narcotics distribution ring. It was a useless attempt. The hack leaked enough information this morning to put them all away for years.

Maul and Vega were lead to the elevators by Xero and the goons. They rode up to the top floor of the building. This floor looked nearly abandoned with its empty spacious lobby and single door that lead into an office. They stepped off the elevator and approached the ominous solitary door. Xero straightened his tie and slicked back his hair before opening the door and stepping inside. Maul and Vega stepped in behind him. The two goons poured into the room and stood on opposite sides with their pistols drawn.

"Ma'am, we...I...uh we finally caught Vega and..." Xero cleared his throat. He was clearly nervous. "Maul, we got him as well."

A well dressed woman was sat at the desk, her face was hidden by a large computer monitor. Her typing stopped abruptly when Xero began to speak. She sighed before responding.

"Excellent work, Tobias. You're proving to be quite useful to this organization. You've done what our dear departed Mr. Morgan could not. I guess it really is better to have brains over brawn, isn't it?"

Xero began to blush. He really was still that same nerdy computer geek deep down.

"Th..thank you ma'am."

The woman slowly stood up from her chair, revealing her face.

"Good to see you again, sister."

It was Tessa Sonders. Vega's sister and the supposedly now dead shadow leader of The Corporation.

"T...Tessa? How?..."

Vega was nearly speechless. The last time she had seen her sister was when she put a bullet in her head or at least she thought.

The left side of Tessa's face was scarred. The bullet looked to have made impact with her left cheek. Her left eye was a milky color. The bullet had done some sort of damage to blind her in one eye.

Tessa smiled, causing the scarred tissue to stretch in a disgusting manner.

"Oh don't look so surprised, sister. Speaking of which, I'm honestly surprised that you didn't even check to see if you had killed me after pulling the trigger."

"Then again, I suppose I really shouldn't be that surprised. The way you tensed up and closed your eyes as you pulled the trigger. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Sloppy work, sister. Very sloppy."

Tessa turned her attention towards Maul and smiled.

"And there he is. The pest that refuses to die. Now, you, you're a true testament to sloppy work. If I were doing my job correctly, you'd have died long ago."

Tessa sighed and looked back and forth between Maul and Vega.

"It appears that we've all been doing subpar work as of late, but that ends today. Tobias, give me the gun."

Xero reached Maul's gun, that he had taken earlier, to Tessa. She pointed it at Vega.

"My daughter, I know you have her. Where is she? I know you thought you were saving her from me but it's over now and I want my daughter back."

Vega was shaking and tearing up.

"Um, Ma'am..." Xero interrupted. "There's uh...there's been a development."

Tessa glanced over at Xero with the gun still trained on Vega.

"What do you mean?"

"Well...Lydia...see she..." Xero didn't know how to word it exactly.

"She's dead, Tessa." Maul spoke up causing Tessa to point the gun at him.

"Bryce killed her when he used my ship to kill Anton. He had no idea that she was on the ship."

Tessa's eyes were bouncing around like mad as she tried to work out the situation. She was the one who called that order but she only did so on Xero's word.

She quickly pointed the gun at Xero.

"You told me that they had rescued her from Anton! You said she wasn't on that ship! My God...I gave the order that killed my own daughter...."

Xero cowered in fear.

"I'm sorry ma'am I...I thought...I thought they had her! How was I to know?"

Tessa stepped towards Xero and put the gun to his head.

"It was the only task I gave you!...I was wrong about you Tobias, you're useless."

Tessa pulled the trigger, killing Xero. His body crumbled to the floor.

She turned the gun back on to Maul and Vega.

"You...two..." Her voice was shaking now. Her body trembling. It was as if she was experiencing every emotion at once.

"You two have systematically taken everything from me. I...I have nothing left...my business...my daughter...everything..."

Vega began to openly cry.

"We wanted to save her. We.."

Maul interrupted Vega.

"It was my fault."

Tessa shook her head as tears ran down her deformed cheek.

"Of course it was. You're always somewhere to be found when there's something going wrong in my life. Why couldn't you have just died when you were supposed to? Then none of this would have happened."

After a brief silence, Tessa looked at Vega again.

"And you, you think that you're better than me, but you're not. You think you stand for what's right and that I'm just some evil bitch...you may be right...but I could never shoot my own sister...not like you did."

Vega deterred her eyes from Tessa's.

At that exact moment Tessa quickly fired three shots into Maul's stomach. It had happened so quickly, that Maul stood still for a moment as he tried to work out exactly what had just happened. Vega looked him in the eyes and then down to his stomach. It felt like everything was in slow motion. He found his own eyes slowly beginning to linger down to his stomach. Blood was dribbling out of the wounds as the Remlok suit worked to seal around them. He pressed his hand against the wounds and looked up at Tessa before collapsing onto the floor.

"No!" Vega screamed as she ran towards Tessa.

Tessa grabbed Vega by the throat and pushed the barrel of the gun against the underside of her chin, causing her head to lean back.

"This is your only warning. If you come at me again, I will not hesitate to kill you."

Tessa shoved Vega back.

"Now it looks like you've got a dying friend to tend to."

Tessa stepped over Maul's body and dropped the gun onto the floor next to him as she did. Vega considered using it to shoot Tessa at that moment but she'd be dead the moment she reached for it. The two goons followed Tessa out and onto the elevator.

Vega dropped to her knees next to Maul, causing blood to cover the knees of her Remlok suit.

"..G...Get out of here..." Maul struggled to speak.

"I'm not leaving you." Vega protested in between sniffling and wiping her tears.

Maul grunted in pain.

"S..Security will be here...any...minute. I have...a ship here...I used to work here...hangar...44..."

Vega couldn't fly Shinigami. It was programmed to only work for whoever the designated Pilot was. Luckily, Maul had his first Cobra stored here from when he used to work as a security escort for The Corporation's transports.

"I told you I'm not leaving you." Vega protested again, with a more firm tone this time.

Maul shook his head.

"....Please..." He groaned. "You don't deserve...to be caught up in this..."

Vega grabbed Maul's bloody hand and squeezed it tight. She knew what needed to be done. Tessa had to die and it needed to happen today before she vanished again. It's the only way that all of this will end.

"I...I..." She wanted to tell him how she felt but stopped to sniffle and wipe her tears again. She nodded. "I'm gonna see you soon, right?"

Maul smiled weakly at her and tried to nod his head.

Vega laid her hand on his chest for a moment before getting up and leaving the room. Disregarding her sisters warning, she was going to find her and end this thing for good.

---

Vega rushed out of the office building not long after Tessa and her goons had left. She took the mag-lev to the docks, hoping it was quick enough to arrive to catch Tessa. The docks were absolutely crowded with people coming and going. There was no way she'd be able to find Tessa in all of this. Vega quickly ran for the nearest docking registry screen to check the names of the ships that were docked at the station, in hopes of finding some sort of indication as to what ship Tessa would be in. She saw Maul's ship docked in hangar 44 and rolled her eyes at the name; "Shooty McPewPew". It was his first ship after the Sidewinder, names were hard to come up with for him back then.

Vega continued to look through the registry, stopping on an Anaconda named "Silent Death" registered to the a "Mia Stratton". This was an alias that her sister used to use when they were younger. The registry indicated that the ship was prepping for launch. It was too late. Even if she were to get to Maul's Cobra, it's jump range wouldn't be able to keep up with the massive vessel. Tessa was getting away again.

Vega tried to refrain from punching the screen and instead kicked over the trash bin sitting next to it. The people around her continued on their way as they stared at her like she was insane. She plopped down onto a nearby bench next to a sleeping commander and dropped her face into her hands.

"Something ailing you, miss?" The thought to be asleep commander muttered, his eyes barely open.

"No." Vega replied with a cold tone, her face still buried in her hands.

The commander sat up, stretching his arms out in front of him with a grunt.

"Well, you just kicked the ever loving shit out of that trash can, so...something must be bothering you."

Vega dropped her hands and looked over at the man. He had a content look on his face. The look of a person who has seen the horrors of the galaxy but brushed them off and tried to moved on. She sighed before responding.

"What do you do when you're out of options and there's no where else to turn?"

The man looked away from Vega and put some serious thought into his answer before looking back at her.

"I make a deal with God, I guess." He smiled and chuckled slightly. "And if he don't come through then I settle on the Devil."

The man checked the time on his slate and stood up.

"Good luck with your troubles, miss. I hope it all works out for you." He said before he walked further into the docks towards the hangar entrances.

Vega thought about what the man had said, "Settle on the Devil". Maul had mentioned something about an old friend of his before. He told her that if things were to ever get completely out of hand and if they had no one else to turn to, to contact her. Vega didn't have her slate on her, so she'd have to use one of the public "pay to use" terminals to send a message along. She approached one of the nearby public terminals and slid a credit chip into the slot, causing the interface to light up. There were stains and a sticky substance covering the terminal. Public terminals were generally always disgusting. Vega made a disgusted face but pushed herself to use the terminal anyhow.

Vega input her name and the receivers name and leaned towards the small microphone built into the terminal.

Recipient: Lambast Mercy
Sender: Vega Sonders

"Hi...or umm...

I know you don't know me but...uh..I'm a friend of Maul Montresor.

God this is so stupid. Is this thing even recording?....

Uh...he said to contact you if things ever got out of hand...or if we ever needed help and wound up in a desperate situation. I think our current situation falls under all of those.

We're at Cleve Hub...

...I hope security arrived in time to get him to a hospital. I'm pretty sure I heard sirens as I was leaving...They'll probably try to pin that mess on him.

I'm going to try to figure out which hospital he is at.

There's a cafe near the docks here....looks like it's called....Cafe Cleve?...wow real creative...uh...I'll hang around there for a few hours. Just look for a blonde with an undercut on the left side. Hopefully that's not too vague.

...I hope you get this..."

The terminal shut off automatically.

"Thank you for choosing this terminal. If you'd like to continue your message please insert your credits now. Otherwise, please press send now." The A.I. voice informed.

Vega sighed as she firmly pressed send and turned to walk over to Cafe Cleve.

Lambast Mercy

24 Jan 2020, 5:04pm

︎

Kai and Lamb met Silas at the Station Security office.

“Hey Hon” Kai gave Silas a quick hug flowed by a peck on the cheek “Lamb brought her purse. Was Raven bummed out?”

“Nar, he’s a big boy now. He’ll beat ya next time” Said Silas squeezing Kai’s hand. “Hay Lamb, the guys will meet us after we dealt with this. You pay for yours and I’ll pay for mine ok?”

“Good afternoon Mr Cousland. I think Kai may very well be the reason I chose not be a parent. This just reminds me I am making the right choice. I’ll cover this little race to the pad, it’s just a grand”

The group walked into a nice office with a reception desk and a waiting room containing a generous number of Commanders. Silas waited in front of the young guy at reception. The man looked up at Silas and smiled.

“Hi, I’m here to pay my speeding fine” smiled Silas.

“Thank you sir, please enter your ship registration and then take a seat”

Silas tapped in the registrations on the little console in the desk for both the Arbiter and the Hand. There were screens around the waiting room that flashed up a ship registration and a room number that would prompt a commander to get up and deal with their business. The team didn’t have to wait long before it was their turn. All three of them filed into a small interview room with safety glass between them and the overweight official waiting for Silas.

The man glanced at the three people in a room made for one, two at the most and looked at the one chair.

“Take a seat please commander” he said failing to think of anything better to say. “Speeding and dangerous flying. Speeding and dangerous flying” he repeated as he scrolled through his console.

Kai took the seat leaving Silas and Lamb to try and look casual while they waited.

“Ok, HOL 75 and VG Dash E05. . Oh, pick on a Sidewinder day again. Ok, we got footage of your ships doing the thing and a complaint from the Sidewinder pilot. Do you contest the charges? Please don’t”

Before Sails could say a word, Kia Leans forward.

“You got it on camera? Cool, can I see it?

The man huffed and lined up an argument but quickly evaluated Kai who is trying to look at his console pressing her pretty face against the glass. He knew it would be a waste of time so he played the footage and turned the screen around so she could see.

Silas and Lamb rolled their eyes at each other while Kia encouraged herself to fly faster and undercut the Arbiter. Lamb’s slate made its two-toned voice message alert causing Kia to stare at her.

“Who the hell is calling you? All your friend is right here and I didn’t leave you a message” said Kia with a self-satisfied smile.

Lambast faltered at the jibe and the slate got stuck in her pocket while her chin jigged failing to hit Kai with a good come back. The slate came free of its zippered prison as did Lamb’s return shot. She flared her nostrils and pushed her tongue behind her bottom lip and squeaked out some syllables that sounded like what Kai had just said in a mocking voice.

“Mer mer me me merr merr. My names Kai and I act like a ditsy tart so people like me” Lamb continued in her usual voice “I have friends besides you that like to talk to me you know”

“Hay!” exclaimed Kai “Not just to make people like me, it’s also good for the digestion”

Silas wondered if Kai and Lamb had some sort of psychic link because Kai’s attention on was on the official arguing about the need to watch a training video, when she stopped talking and dropped her playful persona and got off the chair to stand next to Lamb. She did that a second or two before Lambast pressed her lips together and a look of determination filled her eyes as Lamb listened to the message she had just received.

Lamb silently gave Kai her cred-stick wallet and left the room. Kai took a step toward the door and stopped, she knew Lamb didn’t want Kai with her right now, but that just had the opposite effect on Kaisla. She waited anyway.

“Umm, can we sort out this fine please? I got a lot of people to see after you” Exhaled an exacerbated dock official from the safety of is cubical”

Kai looked to Silas who held out his hand for the wallet and nodded towards the door. Silas sat down and smiled at the unhappy man behind the glass.

“Ok, let’s see the quality of this stations docking safety video”

Kai saw Lambast enter the woman’s bathroom with the slate pressed to her ear. She hater herself for it, but Kai could tell Lamb was not taking this call well. The message must be bad news and Kaisla couldn’t help her friend if she didn’t know what was wrong. Kai quietly pushed open the bathroom door and listened to half the conversation Lamb was having. Lamb was in a cubical talking quietly.

“Yes, Maul Montresor. He’s been injured and possibly arrested. Could you extract him, treat him and keep him safe please?”

Kai couldn’t hear her friend very well but she didn’t want to walk in and completely invade the privacy Lambast obviously wanted.

“.. ..it’s by the docks apparently. She blonde with an undercut on the left side going by the name of Vega Sonders. Be gentle, if she’s not in shock, she is very frightened. It may help if your people tell her Mauls’ friend Lambast Mercy sent them”

To anyone else Lambast sounded as if she was just solving another issue, but Kai could tell Lamb was getting ready for a crusade. If there was someone responsible for what happened to this Maul person, Lamb was going to punish them. Kai had seen it before.

“Thank you, I’m very grateful. I’ll be with you within an hour and a half”

Kai let the door close and lent ageist the wall a few paces away to wait for Lamb. She hoped being supportive would keep Lamb for getting too worked up. Her sister looked more pressed about a friend-in-need then Kai felt was normal.

“Hay Lamb. Whats the problem honey?”

“Kai, I got a friend that’s got himself hospitalised and arrested. I have to go see what I can do to help him”

Kai gathered Lamb in for a quick hug.

“Well babe, you are the galaxies best bail paying, hospital bill coving personal insurance policy a girl.. or guy in this case, can have”

Kai turned for the exit keeping hold of Lamb's hand.

“Come on, let’s get to the ship. Where we going Lamb?”

Lambast hadn’t moved no matter how hard Kai pulled her hand. Kai look at Lambast, her face was serious, all business.

“Kaisla, its Cleve Hub”

If Lambast had stabbed Kai it would have had less impact than saying Cleve Hub. The station where Kaisla had watched her farther murdered over a few thousand credits. The station orbiting the little domed farmstead where the same people had killed Kai’s mother and her friend, including his family. Kai fell into a nearby chair staring at nothing while everything that happened on that station race through her mind. Now Kai understood why Lamb didn't want Kai listening and looked unhappy about telling her what had happened. Lambast didn't want to upset her.

“I feel the same darling” said Lambast stroking Kai’s hair “but he’s in trouble and it very well could be a lot of trouble. I feel I have to go. I wouldn’t dream of asking you to come with me”

Lambast picked up the unresisting Kai.

“Come on, let’s find Mr Cousland”

Lamb lead her to the interview room where they left Silas and deposited Kaisla inside. Sails saw the ashen look on Kai’s face and slipped a cred-stick through to the dock official.

“Perhaps you need to find out if the Sidewinder pilot is looking to press charges?”

The man didn’t need another hint. He got up and left his cubical so Silas and Kai were alone. Kia explained what the call was about and why Lambast had left in a hurry. She also told Sails a little more about what had happened all those years ago. When Kai had finished, Silas held her close and told his plan to the top of her head.

“Ok Kai. I gotta meet my guy here. I’ve been out of the loop and I need to keep this contact sweet. It’ll take a couple of hours to sell the stuff we don’t want, and another hour or two showing my face in the right circles. You come hang with us while we sort all that out, and then we’ll go find a station a jump away from Lambast in case she needs help ok?”

Kai didn’t answer. She kept her face buried in sails’ chest and nodded. Thinking of Lambast on her own looking for people that put her friend in hospital worried Sails. He remembered seeing something in Lamb when they were escaping Survey. A dark hunger had flashed across her face when they stealthily dispatched the dock guards. It wasn’t a face he liked to see on his associates. Lamb needed Kai to keep her grounded. He decided to take a risk and try to help Kai see it another way. If he wasn’t delict, he could just upset her more.

“Lamb will be fine; she’s real tough for an Imperial Lady. And hey, she gets you completely, that’s why she didn’t even think of asking you to fly with her”

Kai was still quiet. Well, that was the honey, time for a little poke.

“I mean, there’s gotta be a limit to the stuff Lamb will do for you”

Holly finished the system checks and cycled up the power generator.

“It’s all good baby. The Hand is shipshape and Bristol fashion”

Lamb reflected that maybe Holly was picking up a lil to much influence from Kai.

“Thank you Holly. Can you rest this seat please, and set the rest of my preferences while you're about it old boy”

Lamb contacted Echo while her seat and controls reconfigured. It always took Holly a bit of time to get it right. After letting Echo know where she was going, the Hand was ready for take-off. Lamb requested launch clearance.

“Denied HOL 75. Your dry dock is not free of personnel”

Holly opened the boarding ramp and a few moments later Kai appeared at the cockpit door.

The Hand landed on a privet pad at the back of the Cleve Hub dock. Lamb and Kai were met by a young white-haired woman that lead them to a stretched AV. She paused for the briefest of moments taking in the armour and pistols Kai was sporting. Lamb was also armoured with a narrow foil hanging from her hip. The large pump-action shotgun strapped across her back got a raised eyebrow. It really didn’t match the royal purple frock coat Lamb was wearing at all. She opened the door for Lamb and Kai and closed it behind them. As the AV navigated the station, the young woman addressed them through an intercom.

“It is a genuine pleasure to be able to assist you both” she said “Mr Montresor is in surgery currently. Mrs Adle personal team are dealing with his injuries and are confident he will make a full recovery”

Lambast and Kai were listening, but they were concentration on the view outside the AV. There were a lot of memories here, and Lambast couldn’t help but notice, an unusual amount of people with white hair. The woman continued.

“Ms Sonders was not very cooperative to begin with, but she soon came along once she was shown proof of Mr Montresors’ relocation. She is very well, if rather nervous and enjoying our hospitality in a penthouse connected to the treatment room” The woman paused for a moment. “Umm, if I may. If it’s not too much to ask, may I join you .. in the back I mean”

Lamb and Kai exchanged a glance but said nothing. The seat opposite them folded away in a complicated fashion and the woman stepped through a small door that slid aside. She sat down and the seat returned to its place. The woman sat there for a moment looking from Kai to Lamb with a nervous grin on her face. Lamb and Kai gave her scant silent regard.

“Umm, I or well. Umm are you the real sisters? The actual ones that cleaned up the station and let Mrs Adle take over?” The woman stroked her white hair “You see I’m a huge fan” she finished with a shy grin.

Lambast was quite flattered and started wondering just how much Adle had done with the stories about “The Sister” since they had been gone. There were quite a lot of fake-while-haired people on the streets below after all. Lamb kept silent because she could feel Kai seething beside her.

Kai leant forward locking eyes with the girl. Kai had plenty to say, but everything was getting stuck behind her lips that were trying not to snarl. Lamb put a reassuring hand on Kaislas’ arm and shifted the bulky shotgun lying across her lap while staring levelly at the woman. She asked no more questions for the rest of the trip.

At the penthouse, Lamb and Kai were taken to an office. Security had eyes the weapons hear, but no one had tried to take them from the girls. The white-haired woman opened a door form them where Adel was sitting behind a desk in a sparsely decorated room with an amazing view of the main concourse. She rose and smiled warmly at Lambast and Kai and bowed.

“Excuse me please, I’m just a double” she said in a suspiciously male voice. “Mrs Adel is waiting for your connection. Just press call when you are ready”

With that, the fake Adel left.

Lamb put a hand on Kai’s

“Are you alright honey?”

Kai smiled a sombre smile and nodded.

“It’s not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. I think I scared the shit out of that poor girl, I’ll have to apologise if I see her again. Listen Lamb, I’ll deal with this if you wanna go see your.. Ex?”

“Ex! I bloody well think not young lady. He’s too indecisive, no self-confidence. Puts me in mind of a rodent of some sort”

Kaisla groped at Lamb.

“Wow Lamb, don’t hold back hey. What the fuck do you say about me when people ask I wonder? And what’s that thing you used to say to me all the time? Me thinks the lady does protest too much was it?”

Lamb grinned with Kai.

“That’s close honey, very close. No no, I didn’t mean like that, there’s nothing wrong with him, he’s just not my type. That does not mean he’s not a top-class chap and I was very lucky to have him as my computer guy on Robigo. Yes, I think I will go and see him. Thank you sweetness”

Lamb sat opposite Vega with Maul lying in the bed between them. Lamb hadn’t said much because hearing about what had happened to him had caused much vexation in Lambast. Vega was wondering what the hell was happening, and how Maul knew the angry-looking woman in armour with a sword and oversized shotgun. Maul stirred and his eyes flickered. Lambast stood up and leant over him. Vega wondered if she should protect Maul somehow.

Light swam around in Maul’s mind and his eyes focused on a face above him with a halo of white around it. His head felt cool and empty and he hardly felt his body at all. He did feel a smile creep across his face.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore” he said in a dreamy way.

“Good. Now I hope you have an exemplary explanation for this mess Mr Montresor”

That voice filling his ears was more effective than a shot of adrenalin to the hart delivered by a brick of amphetamine. Lamb’s face came into focus with the same blue makeup and judgmental eyes pinning him to the pillow.

“LAMbast! Whatthefffarrreyoudoinghere?” exclaimed Maul trying to crawl away from the face of doom. The beds' headboard stopped him.

“I’m like insurance Mr Montresor. I turn up when there is a medical bill you cannot pay. Now I will ask once more, explain this mess”

Maul hadn’t experience looming of this quality form anyone shorter than six-two and almost as wide. Lambast somehow managed to have the same effect with pure indignation.

“I got shot when..”

“Not that you dolt, the tattoos. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you top it off with green hair. Green hair I ask you! Let me tell you this, if that eye was not lost in an accident, I will be having some very hard words with you Mr Montresor”

“Yeah, give it to him Lamb” Encouraged Kai from the doorway.

Everybody in the room turned to look at her in mild confusion. Kai beamed at Maul and waved.

“Sorry buddy, it’s just sooo nice to see someone else gettin force ten from mother hen for a change”

She looked at the three faces staring open-mouthed at her.

“Hi, I’m Kai by the way”

Last edit: 24 Jan 2020, 5:19pm

Khelan

29 Jan 2020, 8:41pm

︎

After saying goodbye and good luck to Maul and Vega Omi turns her attention back to the hulking form of The Prid

"Leo let me in please. I need to make sure that Khelan is alright." She asks almost pleading with the ships AI

"I'm afraid I can't do that, full lock down is in effect and only the commander of this vessel can override it." responds the voice of Leo from an external speaker.

"Is he alive? Can you tell me that?" she asks

After a brief silence Leo's voice comes from the speaker "Yes"

Omi sighs in relief.

"Is he conscious?"

"No and I can't waken him." responds Leo

"Leo open the fucking door NOW!" shouts Omi

"I can't, full lock down is in effect only the commander of this vessel can override it."

Omi sighs in frustration

"I'm sorry for this Leo I really don't want to do this." She says.

"I don't understand...." says Leo.

"Leo initiate code black, authorisation code Yodama Charlie November Hotel 320."

"Code Black authorisation accepted, A.I. shutdown procedure confirmed, Sayōnara Ms Yodama."

The lights both around and inside the ship turn off as Leo gets turned off rendering the ship inert.

Omi watches as the point defense laser retracts inside its hard point before she advances cautiously towards the ship. She reaches the entry hatch, activates her implants and forces the door open before stepping into the deactivated elevator. She pushes up on the emergency hatch in the elevator before climbing up into the shaft. She looks around and quickly finds the ladder running up the side of the elevator shaft.

Omi hops onto the ladder and starts to quickly climb up to the living area of the ship.

"I swear if you're not in a serious condition I'm going to kill you Khelan." Omi mutters to herself as she forces the door to the living area open and climbs out into the darkened corridor.

She deactivates her implants and strides along towards Khelan's room, the only light in the corridor coming through a few viewports along the way.

She reaches the door and forces it open.

"Kuso!" shouts Omi as she sees Khelan lying face down on the floor various derms cover his neck and arm.

Omi runs over to him and rolls him over, ripping the derms off his body as quickly as she can with one hand and fumbling with her communicator with the other.

"Medical emergency, hanger bay 1!" Omi shouts into her communicator "Alert Doctor Kojima and bring rescue gear the ship's totally shut down and there's no other way to get access."

Without waiting for an acknowledgement Omi grabs the unconscious form of Khelan and drags him out the door towards the emergency airlock.

"Don't you dare die on me" she says as she punches a glass panel covering the button to blow the emergency charges around the door causing the door to blow violently outwards.

Omi drags Khelan out through the smoking airlock and onto the flank of the massive Anaconda as the sound of sirens start to fill the air and rescue vehicles come tearing into the hanger.

One of the vehicles pulls into position and raises a platform mounted on the rear medical personnel quickly climb up onto the ship and rush over to Khelan and Omi. They quickly strap him into a stretcher and take him back to the vehicle and down to a waiting ambulance.

Omi climbs into the rear of the ambulance with Khelan and Dr Kojima who is quickly hooking him up to various monitoring machines and drips.

"He had a load of derms stuck to him." Omi says

Dr Kojima nods "Sounds like an overdose to me" he says as the medics close up the rear of the ambulance and it tears off through the streets towards the hospital.

Omi leans back against the door and sighs

"He'll be OK right doc?" she asks.

"I'll do my best, don't worry about it Ms Yodama" smiles the Doctor as he continues to work

Omi closes her eyes and slumps her head down between her knees as the ambulance continues it's journey.

EvilCreamsicle Inara supporter

30 Jan 2020, 4:52pm

︎

"Wait, wait... again. Where did they go?" Echo had obviously told Raven the bare minimum.

"Chill, we're going to catch up with them. We need to unload this gear and make nice with V before we take off. It's not easy to find a fence in this part of the galaxy." Silas dismissed him, which he was clearly not thrilled about but knew better than to protest. Silas tended to be very task-at-hand focused. After being away this long it was always hard to say what alliances and whose motivations might have shifted.

"You ok back there Echo?"

"Ye... yeah... just can't see to steer this damned thing." Echo shouted over the mountain of inconspicuous shipping containers on the cart he was operating. The crates contained all of the gaudy gold-and-gem encrusted flare that they had received from Lamb's rich friend over the holiday.

Well, almost all of it, Silas recalled as he noticed the Sultan-grade scimitar hanging from Raven's belt, which absolutely clashed with his flight gear. He didn't appear to care in the slightest.

Echo, following Silas and Raven's directions, hovered the cart around the corner and past the caution tape that had been cut. The hallway opened up into an unused food court that was under construction. In front of them was a group of 6 thuggish looking men in similar red-and-black leather jackets.

V's... 'representatives'... were a very distinctive bunch. And Silas knew at once that these men were notthem.

"Y'all V's guys?" asked Raven, who clearly did not get the memo.

For a moment, they didn't respond, but rather spread out into a semicircle around the three, causing Silas to raise alert levels and Echo to begin assessing their egress options.

Then the leader stepped forward. A refrigerator-shaped gentleman whose leather coat was converted crudely into a vest, and who was about 10 years too old for a spiked mohawk, but who was sporting one anyway.

"We're the ones who will be taking everything you've brought with you."

It finally started to dawn on Raven what was happening. His fingers immediately began to itch for that gaudy sword hilt.

"Looks like you're wearing my jacket, pal..." he continued, slowly moving toward Silas.

"No... I believe you are mistaken. Yours is the one with the misplaced sleeves." Silas replied calmly, stretching his arms and cracking his neck.

The large man took a lumbering swing at Silas' head, but Silas ducked him, side-stepped and kicked his right knee in sideways. dropping him to the floor in pain.

"You should have asked for a new one for Christmas..." he quipped, turning his attention to the other 5.

At that moment Echo flipped the magnets off on the cart, dropping the heavy load a foot to the floor with a loud crash. Taking advantage of the distraction, Raven, Echo and Silas chose targets and rushed in. Outnumbered and physically outmatched meant it was time to be quick, precise, and brutal to even the odds as quickly as possible.

Echo darted up behind Silas, using him for visual cover for a bit of surprise, bringing with him the removable operating handle for the cart. Silas moved to the one furthest to the right with a heavy knee to the groin, pushing him out of the way as Echo split between him and Raven in an uppercut motion with the cart handle on the middle one, likely breaking his jaw by the sound of it.

Raven ducked under the tower of precariously perched and freshly jostled luggage as the two men on the left came at him, grabbing the nearest crate handle from above his head and pushing off from the cart to launch it into the face of one of them. The second man stepped out of the way, but quickly stopped his assault when he felt the blade of Raven's scimitar placed on his throat. Silas and Echo had flanked the remaining thug, who threw his hands up reluctantly when Silas drew his sidearm from his jacket.

"OK Gents..." Silas said, over painful moans from the downed thugs, "The first one to tell me where V is gets to avoid injuries."

They both look at each other a little confused.

"He's the one in the wolf suit..."

The one he'd had at gunpoint was trying to be a hardass, but the other one had no desire for the royal shave that Raven was prepared to administer, and indicated one of the unused restaurant stalls.

After binding the men thoroughly with an ungodly amount of caution tape they'd found laying around the construction site, and making sure nobody was in imminent danger of dying without medical treatment, Silas walked over to the indicated stall and slid over the counter to find the man he was looking for bound and laying on the floor. Although his identity would be a mystery if you didn't know him on account of the full-body wolf fur-suit he was wearing.

Muffled attemps to speak could be heard from under the wolf mask, so Silas reached under and removed the strip of tape that was covering V's mouth.

"Yeaow shit!" he yelled in pain. "Silas! About time, untie me!... please..."

"Good to see you, V." Silas says, drawing a knife from a pocket and flicking it open to cut him free.

Mere minutes later, V had summoned a small army of various other furries down to the food court to sort and catalog the haul. Silas and V had negotiated a nice sum that benefited both of them, and even a little bonus for the thugs. As it turned out, they had happened across V completely coincidentally and had intended to try and ransom him.

After a bit of schmoosing and relationship management, V had been able to provide a little bit of background for the limited information Kai had given about the station Lamb was headed to. Tidbits about some anonymous whistleblower dumping a whole bunch of hacked documents and incriminating videos about some corporation that was based there, evidence of all kinds of crimes relating to them being a front for a drug smuggling operation. Apparently it was big news in the area.

Afterwards, the three made their way quickly back to the Arbiter. Silas was anxious to catch up to the girls. He hoped, of course, that the corporate conspiracy revelation was only coincidental. But then, he knew Lambast better than that.

Maul Montresor

02 Feb 2020, 2:07am

︎

Lambast Mercy“Not that you dolt, the tattoos. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you top it off with green hair. Green hair I ask you! Let me tell you this, if that eye was not lost in an accident, I will be having some very hard words with you Mr Montresor”

“Yeah, give it to him Lamb” Encouraged Kai from the doorway.

Everybody in the room turned to look at her in mild confusion. Kai beamed at Maul and waved.

“Sorry buddy, it’s just sooo nice to see someone else gettin force ten from mother hen for a change”

She looked at the three faces staring open-mouthed at her.

“Hi, I’m Kai by the way”

Maul stared at Kai for a moment before shaking his head in an attempt to assess the situation. He turned to Vega.

"Did you..?" He said gesturing a thumb at Lamb.

Vega, who was still confused by everything going on, nodded with a raised eyebrow.

"You said if shit was to ever hit the fan or if we had no one else to turn to, then I should contact her."

Maul turned back to Lamb, giving her a perplexed smile. He forgot that he had even mentioned a word about Lamb to Vega.

"Listen, I appreciate that you made the trip out here and covering the cost for all of this but I could have handled this, you know, just as soon as I regained consciousness."

Maul took a moment after that lame attempt at defending himself before deciding to take it further.

"And as far as my appearance goes...well...you can just...shut it. I lost both eyes, each in a separate incident. One was from a canopy shattering, glass got it before my helmet deployed, and the other was...taken by someone who's dead now. And I just so happen to like my hair and tattoos."

He yanked at the stretched holes in his earlobes and continued.

"I gauged my ears too...do you have anything to say about that or should we move on to the fact that you've seemingly been wearing the same blue makeup for half a decade."

Vega's lips curled inside her mouth. She didn't know if it was okay to laugh or not.

Lamb's face remained as stony cold as ever. What Maul said, did prick a nerve but she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of letting him know that.

"Buuuuuurn!" Kai shouted, breaking the tension as she joined everyone else in the room.

Lamb turned to give her a look, to which Kai responded with a smile and a shrug.

At that moment, Maul finally noticed that Lamb and her friend were armed to the teeth, that changed his attitude.

"Hey, what's with all of the gear?"

Lamb turned back to Maul.

"Unholy retribution Mr. Montresor. Kai and I have a controlling stake in this station and no one gets to shoot our associates with impunity. Even if they are ungrateful street-trash looking criminal scum with deluded views of "Handling it". Although I am glad you have found a spine Mr Montresor, it suits you"

Maul grinned at the backhanded compliment. Lamb was right, a few years ago, he wouldn't have had the courage to stand up for himself.

"I may have grown a spine but you, you haven't changed a bit...and come on, isn't calling me a criminal a bit like the pot calling the kettle black?"

Lamb narrowed her gaze. She knew that he was referencing the event's that occurred years ago on Hauser's Reach.

"But I guess that's old news now, isn't it?" Maul continued.

Kai and Vega we're both glancing back and forth between Maul and Lamb.

"Geez, do you guys have something that you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" Kai said, breaking the tension again.

Maul and Lamb both looked at Kai and answered with a simultaneous "No."

Lamb glanced at Maul and then back to Kai.

"At least not right at this moment." Lamb said, in a softer tone towards Kai.

Maul groaned as he situated himself in the bed.

"And Lamb, don't think for a second that I'm not grateful for everything that you've done for me. I owe my continued existence to a good handful of people around the galaxy and you've been at the top of that list in big bold letters for a while now." He grinned at Lamb and bowed his head slightly. "So, thank you for everything...and it really is nice to see you again."

"And you too, Mr. Montresor." Lamb said with a nod in his direction. She was pleased to see that behind all the tattoos and hair dye, that he was still the same Maul that she knew years ago.

"Last we spoke, I seem to recall you mentioning dreams of becoming a pilot and putting your past behind you." Lamb continued. "Would you care to explain to me how exactly it is that you've wound up here then, riddled with bullets and green hair?"

Maul locked eyes with Lamb and shook his head.

"Not particularly, no."

Maul could tell that Lamb didn't like that response and decided to give it another go.

"I just didn't want to get you involved. I wanted to handle this on my own. Of all people, I'm sure you can understand that."

That response resonated with Lamb. She'd nearly forgot how much Maul and her had in common in that regard.

Maul looked at Vega and tried to change the subject.

"Oh Vega, this is Lambast Mercy or Lamb. I worked for her a few years back." Maul said, introducing the two who had previously been sitting silently together.

"And Lamb this is Vega Sonders, my..." Vega quickly looked at Maul with a raised eyebrow. He had completely frozen up.

Vega rolled her eyes and looked at Lamb.

"It's complicated."

"I'd say so, seeing as your sister is the one that gut shot your boyfriend here." Kai blurted out, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Uh..How-?" Maul started to ask.

"It's like Lamb was saying, we've got connections here, Mr. Mole." Kai retorted.

Maul narrowed his eyes at Kai.

"...Okay, first thing...it's Maul...not Mole...and what kind of connections are you on about?"

Kai and Lamb shared a brief glance at each other.

"It's complicated." Kai answered.

Maul tossed his hands up in defeat.

"I guess I should have seen that one coming." He said shaking his head.

"You'll be in recovery for some time, Mr Montresor. We'll have plenty of time to discuss details." Lamb said reassuringly.

Maul sighed with a nod and relaxed back into the bed.

"You guys reckon they'll bring us ice cream, if I ask?" Maul asked looking around at everyone.

None of the girls replied, leaving the room in an awkward bloated silence.

He pressed the button on the remote attached to the bed, causing it to buzz and breaking the silence.

"...I'm just gonna ask anyway." He said with a goofy grin.

Khelan

04 Feb 2020, 12:59am

︎

***** A couple of weeks later *****

Khelan sits behind an impressive looking desk made from real wood, wearing a smart black business suit and idly playing a few chords on an old guitar while a down on his luck trader sits across from him trying to explain something to him.

"I mean I didn't know that the price of my cargo would drop while I was coming here and I didn't expect to have to drop most of it to avoid being blown up by a pirate and....and.....are you even listening to me?"

Khelan continues playing the same G, C, D chord sequence over and over.

"No really naw, ye see Ah've goat this knack ye see, Ah can spot bullshit frae a mile aff an wit yer sayin here well less jus say if Ah pit that oan ma lawn Ah'd hiv roses growin in a cuppla weeks."

The man looks at Khelan in stunned silence as he continues to talk

"Ye see, Ah dinnae gie a fuck aboot yer excuses all Ah know is that ye borrowed a no exactly inconsiderate amount of money frae us tae buy 200 tonnes of Thumpberry juice, wit Ah also known is that the ship wit held ye up is registered tae a mate of yours so Ah'm thinking is that yer gonnae try tae claim the insurance oan it an then shift the cargo once the heat's aff so ye'll get twice the return. Wit Ah dinnae unnerstan is why yer tryin tae lie tae us, are ye hoping we'll take pity oan ye and wipe aff the debt? Ah'll tell ye right noo that's no gonnae happen."

The man opens his mouth to speak but Khelan interrupts him

"Wit yer gonnae dae is yer gonnae gie us oor money back in the next 24 oors oar we'll take yer ship an we'll sell it tae cover the debt an if that disnae cover it then well dae ye hiv any idea wit yer worth as spare parts oan the black market? An if that disnae cover it we'll move oan tae yer family an so oan until we get back wit we're owed. Ye goat me?"

The man gulps and nods slowly.

"Wan mair wee thing, yer ship's been put intae lockdoon an yer oan the no-fly list fur transports etc so dinnae try an sneak away wi-oot payin. Noo fuck aff an get the cash, there's a gud chap."

The man quickly gets to his feet and scurries out the door while Khelan continues to strum his ancient guitar.

" Annuther turnin point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs ye by the wrist an directs ye where tae go
So make the best oav this test an don ask why
It's no a question but a lesson lernt in time."

The door to Khelan's office opens and Omi walks in.

"Ohh you're playing that thing again, I thought someone was murdering a cat in here." She says sarcastically

Khelan looks up at her
"Yer just jealous oav ma raw natural talent." he says smiling "Blokey there will pay up soon, Ah used the auld pay up oar yer family gets it routine, we'll get wit he borrowed within 24 oors."

Omi smiles as she sits on the edge of Khelan's desk

"I'm glad to hear it, I know putting the fear of God into debtors isn't exactly what you want to be doing but...."

"Ah know, Ah know, yer keepin me oan light duties until yer sure Ah'm no crazy. Ah'm back oan ma meds an Doc says that Ah'm progressin well but ye've goat tae be sure.

Omi smiles at him looking over at the mostly faded bruises from his time in the hands of the stations security services.

"I know, I get the updates too lover, I just want to make sure that you're OK you can't blame me for that, we've got a station to run, a wedding to plan and thousands of other things to do as well. But that's not what I'm here for, we've found him." She says

"Goolie? He's no deid? Where is he? Is Vera wi him?"

"We've not found him yet, we've found Shinigami, he's docked at a station called Cleve hub in the Eravate system. I've sent word to the technicians, they're prepping the transporter to go and recover Shinigami as we speak. There's only one small problem.... "

"Ye need someone tae fly him, since Maul's no here, Hideo's deid an Ah'm the oanly other wan who's goat experiance an is authorised tae fly him Ah guess Ah'm aff tae Clive hub wi the technerds"

"Cleve hub but yes, go and retrieve Shinigami and while you're there see if you can SUBTLY find out anything you can about Maul and Vega. I'm hopeful they're still alive. But given that we've not heard from either of them it's not likely."

Khelan gets to his feet and starts towards the door pausing only to give Omi a tender kiss on her lips

"Dinnea worry Ah'll find the kids an bring them back haim. Noo if ye'll excuse me Ah've goat tae git changed an brush up oan ma "Oubliettes an Wyverns" rules, somethin tells me there's gonnae be fuck all else tae dae trapped oan a ship wi the nerds."

EvilCreamsicle Inara supporter

04 Feb 2020, 6:49pm

︎

The plan had been to stay nearby in case they were needed, but given what they'd learned from V and his furry friends, Silas had a bad feeling about the girls' field trip.

After docking at Cleve Hub, he geared up a little heavier than usual, with his gear harness and carbine tucked as inconspicuously as he could under his jacket before heading to the bottom of the Arbiter's ramp to meet up with Echo and Raven.

"Does everyone know their jobs?" he asked them

"Finding out anything I can about this 'corporation'." Raven stated

"Looking for any strange happenings and getting intel on the local factions." Echo followed.

"And I'm going to try and find Lamb and Kai. Let me know if you get anything on who this friend of theirs is... they didn't say much." Silas said.

"Let's go."

Raven and Echo nod in acknowlegement and the three leave the hangar and trod off their separate ways.

Silas walked a few hundred feet down a corridor toward the concourse before realizing he didn't really have much of a lead other than 'Get to Cleve'. Then he nearly kicked himself for realizing that he could probably just message them, so he retrieved his slate from his jacket pocket and did just that.

---"Kai, we're on Cleve Hub. You two alright? Where can we meet up?"---

He replaced the slate and continued to the concourse. At first, he thought he'd spotted them, but a moment later he realized that there were an inordinate amount of women with white hair dotting his vision as far as he could see.

"What the hell..."

Lambast Mercy

05 Feb 2020, 4:56pm

︎

“Mr Monster, you are in the best care possible. Said Kai “If you want ice cream, I guess you’ll get ice cream, but just remember that the station manager is only looking after you because we asked”

Kai hadn’t come and sat down yet. The room had plenty of seating that took advantage of the star view from the visor-like window that occupied the outer wall. It was just one room in a penthouse suite that was at Maul and Vega's disposal. Lamb stood up and slung her oversized scattergun over her shoulder as she could tell Kai was eager to go somewhere, but Kai wasn’t finished talking yet.

“You caused quite a lot of problems for our friend by creating a vacuum in illicit imports”

Lamb hid a little smile behind her hand, *vacuum in illicit imports* were not Kai’s words. She was clearly parroting Adle, but she was really enjoying sounding extra important so Lamb said nothing.

“The problems that is going to cause with alliances and agreements within the interconnected parties will take a deft hand, and adroit negotiations to overcome the inevitable rush to gain the newly presented advantage, and there is no time to cover all the damaging paths thanks to you and your allies”

Kai stood there for a moment with her hands on her hips looking like the presiding action-judge pronouncing sentence over the evil Mole Monster. Unfortunately, she forgot exactly what Adle said next.

“Umm, basically you made it real difficult for the Station Manager to manage the station, so you being full of holes and super arrested was kind-a nice. But Adle is still pissed at Tessa too coz she was becoming a pain in the ass anyway, and now she’s fucked off leaving all this mess behind. So I guess, you know, play nice and Adle won’t open the window when we go investigating. Kay?” Finished Kai was a friendly smile.

Maul and Vega glanced at the long narrow window that, to Vega’s mind at least started to resemble a crocodile smile. Maul let the little com unit he was holding rest in his lap along with his hands ignoring the little voice on the other end for a moment.

“It’s Montresor not.. well your get wrong deliberately so don’t ok? And I’m not sorry for what we did. It was a long time coming”

Maul put the com to his ear. Vega who was still looking at the window voice her opinion on the matter.

“Umm, Maul. I might be a little bit sorry you know, thinking about it now”

Maul wasn’t listing or he didn’t hear because he was busy with the person on the other end of the com.
“Hey, can I get some clothes please. I’m not staying when someone’s threatening to space me. Oh, and a big carton of cookie dough ice cream too”

Maul struggled to push himself upright and tugged weakly at his covers trying to release his legs. Lambast and Vega both darted forward to help him, well Vega had assistance in mind at least. Lamb put her hand on his chest and pushed Maul down gently. It was enough pressure for Mauls’ wounds to remind him just how painful his injuries were.

“Pershore Mr MonsterMontresor! No one is going to flush you into space so stop being obtuse”

Lamb took a step back because Vega was doing her best to keep Lamb from touching Maul again without actually shoving her out the way. Maul had secured up his face in pain when he tried to resist being kept in bed, and the deep groan that escaped him was a clear indication he now understood just how much pain he was still in.

“You are perfectly safe here, and from the looks of your medical report” Lamb pointed at the display on the headboard above Maul “you shouldn’t try walking unaided for at least two more days old boy. Please, for Ms Sonders’ sake relax and get batter will you?”

Maul was lining up an opinion when there was a polite knock at the door. It opened and a butler came in. He drifted across to the side table and placed a bed tray on it. A big dessert dish full of pink ice cream sat beside two silver spoons and a slim black leather wallet. The grey-haired man handed another wallet to Vega who took it out of surprise rather than wanting it. It read *Menu* on the front in silver letters.

“If you have a special request sir, madam, we will do our upped most to accommodate” said the valet nodding to Maul and Vega in turn.

Behind him, a girl of around sixteen placed Maul's clothes on a cabinet. They were neatly folded and ironed; she then separated the stack and put some new clothes of a simmer style beside them. She left and came back momentarily with two pairs of boots, again the original pair and some new.

“Your clothes sir were restored as best as possible, but I felt replacements would be preferable for sir. I will leave you to your deliberations”

The man gave a curt bow and left with the young girl.

Vega was looking at the menu in her hands and Maul was surveying the clothes and Ice cream. He took a breath ready to comment, but nothing came to mind. He settled on eating some ice cream.

Kai smiled, she was used to this sort of thing happening, but it was great to see others react to the world Lambast lived in.

“There ain’t no insurance policy half as good as a L Mercy’s complete medical and legal cover. And the aftercare is.. Well it’s usually full of nagging but you gotta pay something for that kind of service right?”

Lambast didn’t bite; fighting back only encouraged Kai so she took it on the chin.

“Anyway” continued Kaisla “Not all of Tee-Sonders employees have left the station. There’s a whole bunch down at the docks takin what they can or lookin for transport anywhere but here. If we’re quick Lamb, we could get a lead. Failing that, she had a bunch of mercs’ on the payroll too. There’s a good chance they are still hangin round somewhere”

“Top draw! Capital. Let’s have at it Kai”

Lambast put down the gun and started putting on her coat she had kept draped over her forearm. Maul took the spoon out his mouth and quickly swallowed the mouth full of ice cream he was eating.

“Lamb, I said I didn’t want you involved in my mess. You done.. .ow ow ow. Brainfreeze Brainfreeze!”

Lamb who was reaching for the gun stood up straight and addressed the recumbent Maul again.

“Mr Montresor, if you pump that bilge water into my ear once more, I shall break your nose. I’m hardly going to pat you on the head and send you along your way after seeing you left for dead, or at beast framed for murder now am I? Talk sense man”

There were plenty of arguments to be had, but Maul knew he would just sound like a petulant child, and there was no enforcing his opinion right now thanks to his wounds. Anyway, Vega had put her hand on his shoulder in silent support of him letting Lamb and Kai get on with it.

Lamb turned to retrieve her scattergun when Kai put her foot on its trigger guard.

“Noo na no Lamb. Adle somehow magically knew your still a terrible shot “said Kai radiating pure innocence” and doesn’t want you putting holes in everything but what ya aiming at. That thing is staying with the guards, no arguments”

Vega and Maul listened to Lamb and Kai bickering as they left the room. They couldn’t understand the soft balanced voice of Lambast very well, but Kai’s happy tones carried loud and clear.

“Oh sure Lamb. You got us back on Cleve Hub, and we’re gonna go kick some ass because he’s totally not your ex. Do you like my believing you face?”

“Ha! Miss.. ow!”

Maul stared at the door sucking on the spoon after hearing Kai’s last comment. Without moving his head, Maul swiveled his eyes up to Vega. She was wearing a look Maul hadn’t seen before as she looked down at him.

“Sooo would you like to tell me more about this work you did with *Lamb*?” asked Vega pointedly.

Maul was impressed with Veges’ ability to make the word *Lamb* sound exactly like *bitch*. Now he just had to find a way to tell Vega enough so it didn’t sound like he wasn’t hiding anything.

Kai knew where they were heading; the layout of the station was the same so she scrolled through the faces of the employees that were still aboard as they walked. Lamb had put buttoned up the half skirt of her coat to hide her sword as best as she could and Kai’s own jacket covered the pistols very well.

Something in a shop window caught her attention as she turned for the maglev station. On the display of a toy shop, the latest issues of E-comics were slowly scrolling by. She stopped and scrolled back a couple of covers and called her friend.

“Lamb, come and see this”

Lambast came over and started complaining about not having time for toys when she stopped mid-moan after understanding why Kai had stopped.

“Oh that’s completely ridicules” said Lamb looking at the two extremely female white-haired combat robots on the cover.

“I don’t know Lamb. A complete cyber overhaul and” Kai put on an over the top Japanese accent “We too could uncover the mystery of our creator-san”

Lamb tutted like an old hen.

“Well I’m glad they don’t look like us, but I’m not happy about being compared to a bloody ..” Lamb leaned in to read the synopsis. “rouge Neo-Japan Combat A.I.”

“Oh hey, the guys are here” said Kai after reading the message from Silas. “Let’s hook up with them before we make new friends and influence people. First, a Sisters Sin selfie I think”

Kai put her arm around Lamb and pulled her into frame with the cover and snapped a picture.

Last edit: 05 Feb 2020, 6:12pm

Maul Montresor

06 Feb 2020, 10:39pm

︎

"Well?" Vega asked. "What exactly was it that you did when you worked with her?"

Maul slowly removed the spoon from his mouth and laid it down on the dish.

"Ya know" He said before stretching and bellowing out a fake yawn. "I could sure use a nap right about now. Getting shot really takes it out of a guy."

Vega hit Maul's bicep with the back of her hand.

"You'd be dead or rotting in a cell right now if I didn't make that call. Now tell me."

Maul took a deep breath and turned towards her.

"Alright alright, so a few years back when she was setting up her passenger liner business, she needed help with the tech side of things. I was working for...a contractor at the time and took the job to help her out. I just installed a few security cameras and set up a few servers."

Maul finally looked up at her.

"That was it." He said hoping that she'd be content with his half truth. Vega didn't need to know everything that happened on Hauser's Reach and Maul really didn't want to think about it either.

Vega crossed her arms.

"It's kinda funny, you don't usually see business women walking around decked out in gear like that."

Maul snickered.

"Then you don't know Lamb very well."

"And you actually trust her?" Vega asked.

Maul nodded.

"Now I can't speak for her friend but I know Lamb is good people, and I also know that she doesn't make friends that easily. So if Lamb trusts someone, she has good reason to do so."

Vega sighed as she sat back down in the chair next to Maul's bed.

"It still doesn't make sense to me. After all these years, why would she drop everything to come out here and help, what, her old tech guy?"

Maul scratched through his beard and shrugged.

"Like I said, she's good people."

Vega sighed again. She could tell that Maul wasn't telling her everything but decided to give it a rest for now.

Maul picked up his spoon and reached the extra spoon to Vega. She grinned and snatched the spoon out of his hand. She shook her head as she then scooted her chair closer to the bed. Just as she started to scoop a spoonful, she stopped and looked at Maul.

"You didn't just order this because you know how much I like ice cream and wanted a way to shut me up, did you?"

Maul grinned as he pulled the spoon out of his mouth, which was now full of ice cream.

"You're an asshole, Maul Montresor!" Vega said with a scoff and punched him in the arm.

"Ow! Nurse! Nurse! Help!" Maul shouted out in a playful manner, with his mouth half full.

Vega giggled with a snort as she scooped up a spoonful of ice cream.

Last edit: 07 Feb 2020, 1:22am

EvilCreamsicle Inara supporter

07 Feb 2020, 6:09pm

︎

The station underbelly was unusually alive today, much to Echo's surprise. He pulled back the hood of his sweatshirt just enough to open up his peripheral vision and shifted his backpack as he looked around, trying not to make eye contact with anybody.

In the short time since he'd left the Arbiter, he'd already witnessed a stabbing, a shakedown, and a massive territory brawl between two groups fighting for control over a high-volume drug-trafficking location. It was clear that whatever this whistleblower released had caused a massive upset in the underworld heirarchy on Cleve. Like lighting a fire in a cockroach den, the dregs were forced to scurry out of the dark places and jockey for survival.

Just then, he heard a scream behind him. He spun on instinct, his hand already on his sidearm under his sweatshirt, and realized what he was hearing was the sound of a wiry man with a blonde mohawk, who looked like he had no business with a briefcase, being stabbed for his briefcase. The attacker ran off in the other direction. Echo didn't get a good look at him.

"Well, add that to the list..." he said to himself, running over to the victim, scruffing him by the collar and dragging him into an alley between a couple of market stalls which were most certainly fronts for other types of business.

"Ah, get away!" the man yelled, trying to fight Echo.

"Stop struggling, I'm trying to help you! You're going to bleed out faster if you keep fighting me!" Echo replied. The man was confused but complied, possibly because he was not feeling well.

Echo removed his backpack and set it on the ground, tearing through it to retrieve his trauma kit.

"What's your name?" Echo asked, ripping his shirt and opening up the wound with a surgical laser so he could see what he was doing.

"Uh..." the young man's tongue was tied, staring down at the bloody mess...

"Look at me bud, what's your name?"

He looked up in terror at Echo, who was trying to make occasional eye contact when he had the chance.
"Alton, my name is Alton..."

"OK Alton, what happened?" Echo said, applying some blood clotter into the wound so that he could see to work, before tearing open a morphine pack with his teeth and other hand.

"Uh... I got stabbed man! Holy shit..." he struggled to catch his breath as he began to hyperventilate.

"OK bud, keep calm, you're going to be alright. What was in the briefcase?"

"I don't know... uh, someone from the Organization told me to take it to the docks, that's all I know. Jesus!" he yelled in pain as Echo began stitching.

"Sorry... here." Echo said, handing Alton a flask, from which he quickly took a swig.
"What about this organization?"

"I dunno, they just packed up, started burning stuff and took off in a big-ass hurry. They emptied a whole office man... took off." Alton was starting to breathe easier as the morphine kicked in and he watched Echo finish closing up the wound.

Echo fished his slate out of the backpack, pulled up a map of the station, and handed it to Alton.
"Show me. Do you have anybody you trust around here?"

Alton took the slate and marked the office building.
"I'll be ok... my brother was supposed to meet me here, I was a few minutes early." he said, handing the slate back to Echo.

"OK. You'll be alright, but you need to get the hell out of here as soon as your brother shows up." Echo said, re-packing his backpack and standing to leave the alley.

"Wait, dude!"

Echo turned enough to look over his shoulder.

"Thanks for saving my life dude." Alton said in a grateful tone.

"Now do something with it." Echo said, walking away.

Still holding the slate, he used it to scan the area of the stabbing to track the attacker, and more importantly, the briefcase.

"Raven, you on comms?" he said into his comms device

"Yo yo yo!" was his reply

"I got a building for you to check out. Apparently this 'organization' abandoned it in a matter of hours. Sending you the location."

----

Raven's wrist-mounted mini-slate beeped as Echo sent him the location of the abandoned office building. It was a few 'blocks' from where he was, so he sped up into a light jog.

The building was eerie as he came up to it. It was clearly abandoned... the doors were chained, things were shut down... It looked like it had been empty for years, and yet there was no dust or signs of urban decay.

After checking all the doors, which were of course chained and locked, and all the first floor windows, which were too durable for him to break with what tools he had in his small pack, he took a step back to assess the situation.

Stepping back enough to see the whole building, he looked it up and down for some point of ingress. He could see, several floors up near the top of the building, that one of the windows looked spider-webbed, as if something had hit it hard enough to crack it.

"Not ideal." Raven said out loud, checking that his pack and the swords on his back were secure. He then did a series of stretches to make sure he was flexible and limber.

When he was finished, he stood, made a series of movements to get his mind in the right place, and sprinted toward the office building. When he got within a few feet, he leaped, used his momentum and the soles of his shoes to run a couple steps up the front glass, and grab onto the second floor window ledge.

Thus began his free-climb to the top floor. It was helpful that the building was a relatively standard square construction rather than some fancy slanted architecture, but it was still slow going. The smooth stone exterior did not offer much in the way of traction, and Raven was really not keen on the idea of falling.

As he reached the ledge for the webbed window and pulled himself up, he could see that the glass appears to have been hit by bullets from the inside, but did not shatter. inside the window he could see that there was blood everywhere, but no bodies. Nothing else unusual from here.

Raven fished a small concussion charge out of his pack. He hoped that the splintered window would be broken enough to give out. After sticking it to the window, he climed around the side ledge to the window of the adjacent room to give himself some cover from the blast.

It was a small charge, so it wasn't deafening, but it was loud. Raven hoped that it would be mistaken for a gunshot which, given recent events, he figured wouldn't raise eyebrows.

He poked his head around the ledge to see if he was successful, but it was still hard to tell. Approaching the blast zone he could see that the splinter did make it through the glass, and he could now feel the split. He got his fingers into the cracks and began pulling out chunks of glass to make a hole wide enough for himself. This was some heavy-duty glass.

Squeezing into the office he could see the chaos clearer. What the hell happened in here?
In addition to all the blood, the desk and shelves had been ransacked, but the small safe under the desk appeared to be unopened.

"Hmm..." Raven was underequipped to deal with a safe, even a small one. He went into the hallway to poke around and see if he could find anything useful. A few doors down was a supply closet.

Among the things he found inside, he found a power-washer and a small welder, which gave him an idea. He grabbed a small drill, slung a roll of mesh hose over his shoulder, and wheeled the power washer and the welder down the hall to the office.

30 minutes later, he stepped back to examine his work, flipping up the welding mask to observe his creation end-to-end.

He had disassembled the wet-bar to use the plumbing, attaching it to the power washer with the mesh hose, and welded the power-washer nozzle into the hole he'd drilled in the top of the safe, which he'd reinforced with some scrap metal from pieces he'd taken off of some of the furniture that was still on the top floor.

Satisfied, he flipped the switch on the power washer. Nothing happened.

"Oh... asshole..." he said to himself, flipping the switch off, plugging the power washer in, and flipping the switch back on.

The washer hummed to life, and he heard the slam of a water-hammer from inside the wet-bar pipes. Now he just had to hope that the safe door would give out before his creation would.

----

Just as Silas was deciding the least awkward way to talk to every white-haired woman in the concourse, he received a message from Kai saying that she and Lamb were actually back at the docks he had just left.

"Oh, thank God..." he muttered to himself, shifting his jacket, which was a little tight over all his gear, and spinning on his heel to head back to the docks.

Last edit: 07 Feb 2020, 6:20pm

Khelan

10 Feb 2020, 9:41pm

︎

*****A few hours later *****

Khelan sits on the bridge of the heavily modified Anaconda that serves as Shinigami's mothership looking out of the massive window as various ground crew scurry around some fueling up the massive ship, others loading cargo containers full of spare parts, munitions and various other items that the technicians have deemed to be vital cargo while Akio and Caden argue heatedly from the pilot and Co-pilot positions.

"I'm telling you there's no way Daiki should have been able to manage that, he was only using a plus 5 sword without any enchantments and my armour was blessed by the elven mage lord Si-Phallus himself. It's impossible" says Caden

"Not impossible just highly unlikely, he had to roll 20 on all four of the dice to penetrate and he did just that." replies Akio

"Bullshit!" exclaims Caden "he must have been cheating, using loaded dice or something!"

"Do you want to tell him that?"

"You should have done something about it, you were the oubliette overlord. You should have demanded that he re-rolled or something!"

Khelan sighs, reaches into the pocket of his black cargo trousers and takes out a packet of cigars. He takes one out of the packet and puts it between his lips.

A loud ding echoes around the cockpit and a "No Smoking" sign lights up.

"Oh sorry man" says Caden "Carina hates smoking on the bridge, isn't that right sweetheart?"

"Affirmative" replies the disembodied voice of the ships A.I. smoking is only permitted in designated areas and I am not your sweetheart."

"Oh come on, you know you love me really." protests Caden "I mean who else could keep your engines purring like I do? Remember that time your power output dropped off with no real explanation? Who fixed you? Oh that's right I did."

"You mean the time you you put your sandwich down on my reactor control panel and the sauce dripped down into the ventilation slots blocking them, causing the panel to think the reactor was overheating and activate the safety protocols restricting the power output?" replies the A.I.

Caden goes scarlet, pulls up the power controls and starts running checks on the ships systems.

"How lang till we git tae Clive Hub?" grunts Khelan

Akio checks the navigation computer

"36 hours if we route through a couple of neutron stars" he responds

"Naw" says Khelan "Nae neutron stars they things arenae tae be fucked wi. How lang wi-oot?"

"60, but surely you want to get there as quickly as possible"

Khelan gives Akio a look

"Dae it. That's ma decision and that's wit ye'll dae"

Akio nods and reprograms the navigation computer

"Corrections laid in, as soon as we're loaded up we'll get underway"

Khelan nods, pulls the hood of his jersey up, puts his boots up on the panel before him and slouches down in his chair.

"Ye better still be alive Goolie oar Ah'm gonnae kick yer airse." he mutters to himself while the techs continue to work outside.

Lambast Mercy

13 Feb 2020, 11:11am

︎

Echo cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms peering over the safety barrier as he did so. The man with the case was still there looking as edgy as anyone that had just stabbed a guy should.

“In through the nose” Echo held the breath “And out the mouth, stay relaxed. Keep the heart rate steady”

He picked up his rifle and secured the silencer onto the barrel. Echo selected the subsonic rounds from his ammo belt and slid the jacket into the rifle until it clicked into place. He put another round into the chamber and selected a blemish on the wall opposite him around the same distance as the man with the case and fired the shot to check his scope was zeroed for the distance. There was a hard snap followed by another when he round impacted the wall, but nothing loud. The scope was off, so Echo decided to adjust his aim rather than alter the settings. Instead, Echo set the scope to record.

Waiting for whoever the guy was going to meet could be more trouble than it was worth, but Echo wanted as much information as he could gather before he took the case.

-------

Raven drummed his fingers on the desk watching the little floor safe. He felt a hum in the floor as the pressure inside the little steel box built. A high pitched whining noise from outside made Rave go to the window and check out what was causing it. He looked around and saw nothing until he looked down; two men were doing a terrible job of looking casual while sparks obviously from a cutting wheel fountained between them. Even from this distance, Raven could tell the guys were hiding automatic weapons and he knew getting caught in this building would make him a bullet sponge.

His water hammer chose that moment to show just how effective it was. Raven was hit by a high-pressure jet of water that felt like a whip across the back of his legs closely followed by a loud bang as the lid gave way. The two guards looked up to see Raven half hanging out the window grimacing in pain. Raven had his eyes tight shut while he was rubbing his stinging legs; it felt like the water jet had drawn blood. He saw two faces looking up at him when he opened his eyes and forgot the pain for a moment. Raven gave them a big grin and waved before he ducked back as the men aimed their guns at him.

The water hammer was whipping around the office with the safe lid still welded to the other end. Employing some fancy footwork, Raven dodged the hose and turned off the water. The safe was empty.

“Well fan-fucking-tastic. Of course its empty, what sort of evil mastermind would leave the station and not take all the damming evidence with him” complained Raven.

A document wallet floated by the safe drifting on the pooling water.

“Or everything was blasted out. Idiot”

Raven looked around and picked up everything that looked like it may have come out of the safe and stuffed it in his pack. It was time to leave; he went to the window and looked down. A few rounds zipping past his face made him pull back.

“Shit”

The fire exit may give him an easier time of it. Raven followed the fire exit signs and found the stairwell quickly. The sound of someone making a swift assent didn’t bother him; they had a good distance to go yet so Raven made for the external exit. As soon as he got outside, another swarm of shots herded him back inside quickly.

“Fuck. Well screw you guys, the lift is always an option”

Prying the lift open took no time at all. The thing was shut down, but it was hardly a climb at all to Raven. He reached for the ladder beside the doors and almost got perforated for his troubles. Raven withdrew again. The back of his legs were really stinging now and being shot at so much was getting right on his last nerve.

“I saw three of you ass holes at best, where did the rest of you come from? GO A WAAAAY” he called down the lift shaft.

Raven counted his options, sidearm, swords and 100% badassness. But he was still outnumbered and alone. Cat and mousing his way out would be risky, but it was his best option for now. Well, the water hammer hurt like hell so rigging a booby trap was part one of the plan and he could call Silas for back up while he was at it.

------

The scope showed Echo Dude in a Suit One and Dude in a Suit Two meeting Stabby McGrabcase. Dude in a suit two was about to return the favour with a gun. He had come up behind the man while his accomplice bargained a price with the case thief. Echo toyed with letting the man pay for his crimes, but watching it happen was not his style. Echo shot the gun out of the man’s hands and enjoyed the look of confusion on his face.

A slight movement of his wrist had Echo’s scope landed on the handle of the case. He fired one shot moved a hair and fired another, the handle came away and the case fell to the floor. All three men were frozen in a confused tablo, so Echo used the opportunity to hobble the men. The erstwhile man distracting the thief buckled as his knee cap exploded. The shooter suffered the same fate. Tracking the thief, Echo saw the butt of a gun sticking out of the jacket of the first man he shot, so Echo let the thief go and shot the gun instead.

People were panicking and running away, so this would be a good moment to snag the case. Quickly taking the rifle apart, Echo kept his eye on the case and climbed down once his weapon was in pieces, and hidden about his person.

------

Kai gave Silas a quick hug.

“So, what’s it like being back here Kai?” he asked.

“Meh. Don’t like it.. .. But Lambs’ ex is cool. He’s got green hair, holes in his ears and a girlfriend. Lambs’ jealous, I can tell” said Kai ending with a smug wobble of her head.

Sails looked at Lamb and nodded a greeting followed by a tilt of the head that clearly meant “Oh really”

“Kais’ exaggerating, as if I had to say. He’s an old friend that just happens to have kicked a hornet’s nest. I would just like to set it right” corrected Lambast.

Sails shrugged. He could understand that.

“So I take it he’s involved with that conglomerate going down huh?” asked Silas

“Oh yes, very much so. You see…”

Lambs’ explanation was interrupted by Silas’ com going off with a message from Raven.

“Ar crap. Sorry ladies, Ravens stepped in it; we gotta go get him out”

Silas had questions about the “friend” and what trouble he was in, and about the off number of people sporting white hair, but that could all wait for later.

Silas and Kai took the front door of the office. The guy outside wasn’t ready for people coming in armed and pissed off, he was expecting station security at the most. Kai had surprised him with a kick to the kidneys and Silas put him down with the butt of his carbine to the head. He stopped for a moment to throw the guys weapon away and followed Kai to the stairwell. The distant sound of gunfire came from higher up in the building.

Echo who had caught up with them on the way took the fire escape with Lambast. That too was guarded, but Lamb had slit that throat while Echo was hiding the case in a dumpster. Echo gave Lamb a boost so she could snag the Ladder, and he spotted a man climbing the ladder to the roof. It wasn’t Raven, so Echo stepped back to get a shot once Lamb was on her way up. For a moment he contemplated taking a leg shot, but leaving someone above them who was armed wouldn’t be wise. The man fell with a shot that entered his groin and left his chest.

-------

“FUCK OFF. LEAVE ME ALONE. GET FUCKIN LOST” Shouted Raven

He had been hounded back to the office. He was making good headway at one stage, but these guys seemed to know the building and cut him off every time he found a way down. Thankfully, his Water Hammer was doing a great job of stopping them from getting in. The thing really hurt when it hit and Raven had put a guy down when he hit him in the face. He may have blasted the eye right out of his head. This couldn’t last; Raven was weighing up his chances of blasting a hole in the floor with the water hammer or climbing out the window when he heard a familiar gun report.

A few moments later he heard another that he knew was Silas’ Carbine. He turned the water off for a second and smiled to himself when Kai’s voice “Pew pew pew” carried between laser blasts.

Raven jammed the Water Hammer nozzle in the flap of the bar, turned on the water and drew his sword. The men outside were distracted now, so it was time to dance. The one man still watching the main office didn’t last long enough to warn his two friends that Raven was coming. The first they knew about it was when one of them lost his head. The other one caught a bullet from Echo who had just come in from the fire exit.

Raven ducked back inside the office and turned off the water so he could listen. Everyone approached the office cautiously, listening for anyone that wasn’t them.

“AHRG” screamed Kai.

Everyone brought their weapons to bear in her direction looking for the danger and found nothing. Kai realised everyone was looking at her.

“Oh, sorry guys, there was an eyeball just rolling by all on its own”

Everyone relaxed and complained at Kaisla.

“Hey come on guys, it’s an eyeball. It's icky and I am ..”

The station security sirens put her off finishing her sentence. Silas and Raven instantly started talking escape strategies while Echo went to scout out the situation. Lamb wondered over to Kai and nudged the eyeball with her boot.

“Shall we tell them we’ll be ok Kai?” asked Lambast.

“Nar, they like this sort of thing. Makes um feel all underground and heroie” said Kai watching Silas organise an escape. “Hey Lamb, you better tell Echo not to shoot anyone. I’ll let um know it’s alright once the plan is cunning enough”

“Right o Kai” Answered Lamb “Heroie is not a word by the way, but I like it”

_____

Station security had basically just escorted Silas and his team to a stretched AV. Moments after the girls' names had been called in, the officers released everyone and offed them a lift out of the contested zone.

“Lamb, is there anywhere else you and Kai are like superstars or something?” asked a pleased-not-to-be-arrested Raven.

“Just here home and Darnielle's Progress in Maia. It really is a coincidence we have visited two of those places Mr Ramón”

The stretch AV dropped the team off at the office Kai and Lamb had visited when they first arrived. From the lobby, they were directed to a secure elevator that took them straight to the lavish anti-chamber outside Adle’s office. Inside a primitive-looking droid scanned Kai as she was first in the office and moments after, a hologram of Adle herself covered the droid like a skin. It had been many years, but Adle still looked the same. Youth could be maintained if you had the money it seemed.

“Hello again Mr Delana, Lady Mercy” said Adle through the droids speaker “and these fine-looking men must be Silas Echo and Raven. Please do make your selves at home, I have an offer for you”

Everyone took a seat, Kai sat on the desk and helped herself to a decanter of something brown and expensive. The holo-Adle approached Silas.

“You have been here less than half a day, and without my aid, you managed to find your way to the heart of my hardship and start unlocking a way to ease my burden. Once I was aware that young Kaisla had attached herself to you, I did a little research and I must say you don’t disappoint”

Sails resisted the urge to check his weapons function and instead curled his finger at Kai for a glass of what she was having.

“I try not to disappoint Ma’am” he said to the flickering face.

“Please call me Adle. Kaisla tells me your open to a paying job and a good reference behind it would not go unappreciated. Would you like to hear my pitch Mr Cousland?”

They were already on a paying job for Lamb, but she was the one that left it behind so Silas saw no harm in finding out what the offer was. Lamb seemed determined to stay here until she was happy that her friends’ problem was resolved. He took the glass from Kai, sipped what he suspected was an aged scotch and answered.

“After your show of hospitality, I wouldn’t be rude enough not to hear you out Adle”

The holo-droid nodded and went to sit behind the desk gently pushing Kai off of it once the droid sat down.

“Lambasts’ friend Maul and his organisation have caused me some difficulties when he made Ms Sonders and her cable’s operations public knowledge. Now I’m not saying a smuggling circle was not full of people that deserved a light shining on them, but it has left a tempting gap in my stations' operation that my partners and outside opportunists will race to turn to their advantage”

Silas took advantage of the pause to politely interrupt Adle.

“I see where this s going Adle, and we are not enforcers or assassins. I’d love to help you out, but that’s not the kind of job I’m going to take right now”

“And I wouldn’t dream of asking you and your team to kill on my behalf, I have other people for that.. ..”

Silas couldn’t help but notice that Kai just for a moment, looked as cold and emotionless as Lambast usually did. Lamb looked as if she would leave frosty footprints behind her.

“… I would like you to investigate and halt the flow of drugs and weapons that will doubtless flood the lower levels of the station. That may be where the dispossessed chose to make their homes, but they are still my responsibility, and you people are by far the best tools available to me right now”

Silas nodded and wondered if she was playing him. She did say she had done a lil research. Maybe she was just telling him a story she felt would change his mind. Before Silas could line up some questions to ask, Adle continued.

“I think I can offer each of you gentlemen accommodation, expenses, twenty thousand a day and a fair bounty or reward on anyone or anything I don’t want on my station. How does that sound?”

“Cha-ching” unintentionally offered Echo. Raven dropped something that sounded expensive. Silas felt his barging posture dissolve. The holo–Adel smiled before Silas acquiesced to the offer.

“Excellent. I’ll have my PA organise payment and she’ll give you a contact with in station security. We can’t actively support you, but no one over whom I have sway will get in your way. Now, I have a vacation to enjoy, but I will be back soon. Good evening to you all”

The hologram turned off and the droid put itself into a small concealed storage unit. Echo and Raven started talking about how long they could make the job last and what they would spend the money on. Lambast offered them a distraction.

“I say, Mr Montresor is invalided in the penthouse one building over. Would you chaps care to meet him and his girlfriend?

No one really paid Lamb any attention.

“I’ll cook us pan-fried steak and whatever and sides you desire”

That did the trick. Raven and Echo near dragged Lamb over the tree-lined street. Lamb knocked on the penthouse door and Vega answered.

“Good evening Ms Sonders. Not the one that shot Mr Montresor, that was her sister” Lamb said over her shoulder to forestall the questions. “Would you be in the mood for a visit by chance? I’ll cook pan-fried stakes”

Vega's stomach almost yelped at Lamb's offer, even if she didn't really trust Lamb or any of these new faces, she was hungry and couldn't remember the last time that she had a good meal so, she accepted the offer.

"Um...sure." Vega said, stepping back to allow everyone into the penthouse.

"How is Mr. Montresor?" Lamb asked.

Vega sighed and smirked.

"I think he's enjoying all of this "luxury" a bit too much. That man should never have access to a butler."

Vega continued to lead the growing group of Lamb's friends to Maul's room.

The group entered the room to see the butler on one side of the room tossing pieces of candy to Maul, who was sitting in his bed, trying to catch them in his mouth. Maul caught a piece and quickly threw his fists in the air, which hurt his wounds.

"Ow fuck..." He said, cradling his stomach. He looked back up at the butler at smiled. "That was nice toss, Reg."

"It's Reginald, sir...and thank you." The butler said before turning to the group. He bowed and left the room.

Maul looked at everyone and raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, Hello there..."

Lamb stepped forward.

"Mr. Montresor, I'd like you to meet-" Lamb was cut short by Maul.

"Y'all are the ones that were involved in that rescue a little while back, right?" Maul narrowed his eyes as he tried to think and snapped his fingers. "Yeah, it was a Thargoid attack or something. I saw a pic of all of you guys at the top of some news article."

"Well, you guys and the two white haired anomalies, here." He said gesturing at Lamb and Kai. "Which I guess isn't that big of an anomaly anymore. Have y'all noticed how many white haired people are walking around this station? Weird."

Lamb knew this was going to bring up questions that she wasn't at all prepared to deflect so, she quickly pushed forward with the introductions before anyone could start asking questions.

"Mr. Montresor, I'd like you to meet Mr. Silas Cousland, Mr. Echo Ramon, and Mr. Raven Eugene." She said gesturing at each one as she named them. "And you've already met her but since we're at it, Ms. Kaisla Delana."

Kai performed a sarcastic curtsy while the guys gave a mixture of waves and nods.

"And gentleman," Lamb said referring to the previously named horde of hooligans. "This is Mr. Maul Montresor and Ms. Vega Sonders."

Maul and Vega returned the waves with their own.

Lamb took the case from Echo and approached Maul's bed.

"Right, now, Mr. Montresor, I trust that you're still capable of manipulating technology, yes?"

"Uh...sure, of course." Maul said with a shrug.

"Then perhaps you can access this. It's a laptop that was found in the possession of some rather nefarious looking person. It may help us in clearing up the situation that you've irresponsibly created on this station." Lamb said, then reached the case out to Maul.

Maul took the case and laid it on his lap.

"I'm still not sorry." He retorted.

He opened the case and looked at the laptop. The screen was awaiting a passcode, with only a finite amount of attempts before it either malfunctioned or worse.

"Okay, I'm going to need some gear."

Lamb nodded and took out her slate.

"Of course."

A message from Holly sat on the screen, it was a message for Maul that read "Al'right dude, get bet'er soon. Come see me when ya up and about. Wink wink"

Lamb handed the slate to Maul.

"A message from Holly to you. Any idea what this is about?"

Maul read the message and shrugged.

"Well, in any case, just make a list of the things you'll be needing and I'll see to it that you receive them in a timely manner."

Maul made a note of things he'd need, in Lamb's slate.

GalacticGear FS 5/9 Laptop
Gen 6 Slate w/ retractable docking cable
Ubreakit Ufixit deluxe tool kit
Backpack

Maul handed the slate back to Lamb. She looked at the list and nodded.

"Right, now if you'll excuse me, I promised these gentlemen and Ms. Sonders a meal and by the looks of it, you could do with something other than ice cream." Lamb said turning towards the door. She stopped and turned back around. "Oh and everyone, please do try to get acquainted. We'll be working together and things will certainly go smoother if we can all get along."

Lamb nodded at Silas and looked to Vega and Kai.

"Ladies, I could use a few more hands in the kitchen."

Vega and Maul shared a glance and a quick nod.

Kai nudged at Silas.

"You guys play nice, okay? Now remember, this is Lamb's ex so....OW!"

Lamb interrupted Kai by grabbing her by the ear and dragging her out of the room. Vega followed behind Lamb and the yelping Kai.

Maul looked at the three dangerous looking men who were staring back at him. It felt like a play date that was set up by a pushy mother and none of the children wanted to play. Except this was four grown men.

"Sup fellas?"

Maul had to restrain from face palming. It may not have been the best way to start introductions but at least it broke the awkward tension.

Silas could see that Maul was uncomfortable, and looking around, he could understand why. He had not stowed his carbine back under his jacket, so here it was slung across his chest, his gear harness clearly visible beneath. Raven was carrying his pair of swords, and his outfit was covered in blood as a result of the escape from the office building. Echo, too, was dressed 'inconspicuously' as a hoodlum, with his backpack of gear, and his green hooded sweatshirt also covered in blood as a result of his back-alley surgery. The lot of them were really looking uncharacteristically imposing.

Silas thought about keeping a stoic look to screw with Maul, but he couldn't help it, and instead a grin and a modest chuckle busted out of his voice-hole.

"Just making waves. Looks like you're no stranger to that."

Silas saw Maul's eyes dart to Raven, briefly, which prompted him to notice that Raven was staring, fascinated, at Maul's eyes.

Maul smirked at Silas' response and nodded.

"Hey, it's like they say, 'if you ain't making waves, you ain't kicking hard enough.' "

Maul looked back at Raven and raised an eyebrow.

"You good, man?" He asked before continuing with a smug grin. "Cause that look you're giving me is making me both nervous and aroused, and I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do with that."

Raven turned red and looked to the floor, stumbling over his words as he tried to think of a suitable response. The behavior was quite a contrast to his current look. Echo was stifling a laugh.

"Oh, don't worry about him. I think he's fascinated by your fancy hardware. We've... been dealing with a lot of cybernetics lately. Ask Lamb about the head-in-a-bag..." Silas answered for him.

Maul was relived that Raven took the joke well.

"Wait, what?" Maul asked. Silas had caught him off guard.

"Head in a bag?" At this point, the fact that 'Ask Lamb' came before that remark didn't surprise him at all.

"Yeah, no, you're going to have to elaborate on that one, man."

Silas was greatly amused by this reaction.

"Well, that's a bit of a story... but the short version is that on our last job, we were attacked by some identical refrigerator-shaped man-monsters who turned out to be complete cybernetic creations. We lifted a duffel bag off of one of them that had, among other things, a very realistic replacement head that was emitting signals."

"What did she do with that thing?" Echo asked

"Oh.. uh I forget actually. I know she was more than a tad uncomfortable with the thing and stuffed it into electronic isolation." Silas scratched his chin, trying to recall what had become of the head. A lot had happened since then and things tended to blur together.

Maul nodded along as if he thought it were normal to fight refrigerator-shaped cyber...things.

"Well, Raven I can assure you that besides the eyes, I'm completely human. So you can lay your 'man shaped refrigerator' fears to rest."

Maul's eyes darted back and forth as he thought about that last statement.

"...or...I mean, refrigerator shaped men...I think..." He said in an attempt to correct himself.

Everyone stood there for a moment trying to think of what to say next. Usually Lamb or Kai was on hand to help out in these awkward moments, but they had lefts the guys to it. Just as Echo was about to ask, as casually as he could about Maul and Lambs relationship, they all heard three woman laughing from the distant kitchen. Everyone in the room except Raven suddenly felt extra self-conscious. They could only hope dinner would come soon.

---------

Kai had her feet up slouched in the pilot’s seat of the Hand; her music was at maximum volume encouraging her to rock her head along with the beat. A Type-10 dropped in by Eravate, the system primary star. She nudged the stick with her knee to line the Hands nose up with the new arrival. Kai read the name of the ship and text it along to Vega. A moment later Kia was surprised to see the coms light come on. She been out here for hours without interruption.

“Otto, kill the tunes. Repeat that please Lost Vagas?”

Vega’s voice crackled over the com again.

“I said that ship is on the list. Beast Belly 531-PP. The owner-pilot is, oh christ. Rad Malcolm, Can you confirm Little Sparrow?”

Kai righted herself, strapped in and casually followed the Type-10 in supercruise.

“Confirmed Lost Vagas, Beast Belly 531-PP with Rad Malcolm at the helm”

Maul was sat in his wheelchair at the workstation opposite Vega. He was searching the cases database for Rad Malcolm.

“I got him Vega, arms dealer and he usually flies with . “

Kai's voice cut in over the coms.

“Use code name on the radio Holy Molie. He flies with an FDL right? I got one on my tail”

Maul peered round his screen at Vaga, her shoulders were bouncing a little. Why had Kai been the one to pick the code names?

“If the FDL is called Not On Your Nelly, then yes that’s his escort”

Raven joined the conversation.

“Hey Little Sparrow, if I gotta stick to that Type-10 in this ship, I don’t want a twitchy FDL on me. One volley from that thing will toast this Viper”

“Rodger Night Blade. Rad is heading for Cleve Hub, so I’ll interfere with Beast Belly until his babysitter gets pissed off”

“Good, thanks Little Sparrow. Lost Vagas, you got a probable drop point for me to intercept?” asked Raven.

“Calculating now Night Blade. Stand by” Vega looked around her screens at Maul. “This is fun” she said with a smile.

“Aaaand Not On Your Nelly didn’t like that, I’m being dragged out of supercruise. Got any intel on the FDL for me Holy Molie?” Kai didn’t sound like she was even slightly worried about being intercepted.

“It’s on-screen Little Sparrow. Um Plasmas and Rail Guns; the pilot is one Jessie Roads, she rated Dangerous and likes to blow out a canopy. She also served time for sniping escape pods. Looks like she a pilot killer” said Maul.

“What a bitch, thanks for the warning Holy Molie I’ll take her out the way she likes it”

Kaisla sounds serious about that. Shooting down escape pods was a crime no decent pilot could condone. Vega finished the calculations for Beast Bellies probable drop point for its arrival at Cleve Hub.

“Sending you a waypoint Night Blade. Don’t get to close, it’s a best guess, you’ll splat like a rotten tomato on a Type-10 if it hits your station security Viper” said Vega getting into the mission.

“Oh gee wizz lady. Way to build my confidence” snarked Raven.

Maul didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but Raven need to know what he was going to be tailing. He keyed his com to speak to Raven.

“So the Beast Belly is tuned for silent running and she’s loaded with turrets. Four Beam and three Multi. Don’t get too confident with the blind spot either man. She’s sporting a couple of mine launchers for just that eventuality Night Blade”

“Well ain't you two just a ray of sunshine. Its ok, Mines don’t arm till they are five hundred meters from their launcher. As I gotta stay within four hundred so your do-hickey can .. .do its thing, all I have to do is dodge the junk it’s dropping” complained Raven.

The Lumbering Type-10 dropped out of supercruise close to where Vega predicted it would. Raven was just over a thousand clicks out. He turned to catch the tail of the massive bulk of the Beast Belly and opened coms with the target ship. Raven just hoped he remembered his lines.

“Beast Belly 531-PP this is Station Security” The words even tasted bad in Raven's mouth “Please stand by and submit to a scan”

Before Raven had finished his lines, he lost target lock on the Beast Belly. It had dropped into silent running already. Raven pushed the throttle forward and tucked in close to the Type-10s port wing. Raven watched the distance to the station. Maul’s modified manifest scanner needed to be in range of his workstation on board the Hub. Two thousand clicks to go.

Rad Malcolm obviously didn’t like having a cop right on his tail and the mighty ship turned slightly before he hit the boost and washed Ravens’ little Viper in the heat of his engines. It was enough for the little ship to lose almost a third of it shield strength and make Raven uncomfortably warm. It wasn’t enough to shake Raven off.

The mines started dropping but Raven easily drifted around them and ducked back into the Type-10s blind spot before the turrets could get a lock. Maul monitored the approach carefully waiting for the ships to come into range. Vega had taken all operations off his workstation so he could concentrate on hacking the Type -10 through its passive coms.

Three of the ships Silas wanted to investigate had escaped or shown up as clean on a scan. The case had plenty of suppliers, but not buyers and Silas wanted a solid supply to even start bargaining with. The people working on the station we’re proving very hard to find. Maul had come up with this idea, and Echo had built it, but this was going to be the scan hackers' first active run. The signal indicator on Malus’ screen turned green.

“Stay on him Night Blade, I’m starting the intrusion” said Maul pleased to be working again.

“RoDGEr Holy Molie. Damn, that was a bit close. Hurry it up kay? He’s getting good at blocking me.

The hack took forty-five seconds and it was well worth it, this was the haul Silas wanted. Even without a chance to track down or tempt out a buyer, keeping this stuff off the station would be a win. The Type-10 was stuffed to the gills with Personal Weapons and Armour. Combat Stims and Performance Enhancers, just to top it off, a few tons were put aside for high-value narcotics.

“Ok Night Blade you can break off. I got everything we need to know” Maul peered round to Vega “You watching for the Landing pad Vega?”

She Nodded. “Soon as I know, I’ll let Creamy and the ground crew know”

---------

Lambast leaned on her AV bike. She had to admit she felt cool. It was the same blue and white as the armour Silas had got for the team when they breached the stranded Corvette. Silas Echo and Lamb were stationed around the docking bays for coverage; someone would be close to the pad the Type-10 was going to use. It was Echo.

“Rodger Lost Vagas, on my way” Lamb mounted up and joined the lane reserved for emergency vehicles.

Echos’ voice came over the coms after a couple of minutes.

“I’m in the dry dock plotted up on the eastern catwalk. You guys got an ETA? The ship is being lowered down now”

“ETA one minute twenty Hot Shot” said Silas. Lamb could hear the engine of his AV protesting at being pushed so hard.

“I’m parking now, I’ll wait for Creamy and see if I can’t find the loading team and their transports” answered Lambast.

“Understood Mother Hen. I suggest you use the west entrance. All the activity is gonna be at the south. I’m moving round to get a better line on them” supplied Echo from inside.

Raven came running into the carpark just behind Silas. They met up with Lamb who was watching the entrance and the small convoy of trucks ready to receive the Type-10s haul.

“I’ve sent images of the trucks to Holy Molie and Lost Vagas, they’ll track them to see if they lead anywhere of interest. Are we ready gentlemen?” asked Lambast when the two men arrived.

“You play distraction, Raven Echo and I will cover you and add weight to your words if needed. Silas keyed his com. “Holy Molie, you ready on doors and lights for the docking bay?”

“I am Creamy. Dock control only thinks they are in control. I await your signal Mother Hen” replied Maul.

---------

Rad Malcolm was directing the loading crew when he noticed a woman in a white armoured suit just casually walking toward him. She was another one of them white-haired ones that peppered this station. She had a sword hanging from her hip and walked like she owned the place. Something about her face made him dislike her at once.

“And who are you lady. What dayh think you are doin in my bay huh?”

Lamb watched the man put his hand on a heavy blaster and kept walking until she was nice and close to him. All the loaders had stopped to see what was going to happen. Raven and Silas used the distraction to find a good ambush position.

“I’m customs and excise, and you must be Rad Malcolm”

Rad drew his gun, some of the loading crew did the same. Lambast continued talking unphased.

“It is customary for a gentleman to exercise good manners when talking to a lady” said Lamb keeping a blank expression.

Echo picked his targets. Raven and Silas did the same.

“Then its unlucky for you that I’m not a gentleman” Answered Rad raising his gun.

That was the signal. Maul shut all the doors and turned off the lights. Echo disarmed Rad and four men that had a clean shot on Lamb, while Raven and Silas showed the rest of them why it would be a bad idea to reach for their weapons.

Rad held his aching hand and looked into the slightly glowing visor of the woman that had gently pressed the point of her sword into his neck.

“Do you know who the FUCK I work for?” growled Rad.

“No” said Silas calmly “But I would really like to”

-------

Vega leaned back in her chair and clapped in appreciation of a week’s work well done. She met Maul's eye.

“Ok your friend and her guys are pretty cool, but I still think there something wrong with her”

Maul chuckled to himself and nodded before he keyed the mic.

“Ok everyone. Little Sparrow shot down the FDL and scooped the pilot. Security is on the way to assist. Great job guys, well done”

Last edit: 13 Feb 2020, 1:40pm

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