Thrill of the Chase RP MA15+ (Language adult themes horror) IC (closed)

[Paladin Sheppard]

A blond human male Sat in a corner booth of the 'Edge of Nothing'  cafe. He'd been sitting there all morning (As much as morning counted for anything this far out) and looked through his electronic mail, on the PDA that if you lost out here you were screwed.

"Ephrael you sure you posted that message in the right spots? I've only seen like two people in six hours..." He said into a boom mike sticking out of a communicator in his ear.

"I swear I did skipper but you know the local net it seems to go down ever few minutes." Came the reply.

"All right then can't blame you for that." The man with Capt. Connor stitched into a Velcro strip on his right breast said.

He wasn't bitter or sad in the least that the majority of his crew had left. The last haul had been worth a fortune and the job was one of the most dangerous out here in space. But Captain Connor was in it not for the cash but rather the thrill of the chase....which was also the name of his ship, and his pilot and first officer was just the same.

Thumbing through the adds on the local net on his PDA he spotted the wanted add. "Yup it's here Eph, now to see if we get any bites"

Delphi station was deep in UNSC space on the border of the unclaimed worlds, and there for pretty much the end of the line for some travelers. But that was not to say it was nearly abandoned it teemed with cargo ships, mining barges and explorer ships.

Sipping from the caffeine enhanced coffee in front of him William Connor waited.

[Boog]

A soft clicking preceded Rekk's arrival at the cafe. His feet made funny noises on the metal floors around here, it drove him nuts. He brought the oxystrip up to his lipless mouth and inhaled a bit more of Home, to settle his nerves.
...
Nope. Didn't work. He was still jobless, in his least favorite section of the station, and was surrounded by funny-smelling oily pink things. He didn't have anything AGAINST humans, they just made him uncomfortable in large numbers. He blamed the smell.
"Hey darlin'!"
Rekk winced. It was his experience that every species had at least one Waitress, the capital W indicating that the individual in question is female, in the service industry, has a nasal (or thoraxical or metaphysical, depending on physiology) voice that would make a happy man rip out his own inner ear mechanisms on a fine summer day, called everyone something equivolent to "darling" or "hon", had the IQ of a boot and never, ever got your order right. Rekk braced himself for comments like "Don't get many like you 'round here, big fella!" And the like. Fortunately, he was shown to a seat fairly quickly and the waitress made herself scarce. There were advantages to being huge and predatory-looking. He took out the sheet he'd printed out the job posting on (a berth on some ship, "Thrill of the hunt" or something like that. Damn alien languages) and surveyed the room for this Captain Connor guy.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Johnny sighed, checked his bank balance again, in case anything had changed (it hadn't), and sipped at his herbal tea (cheaper than the usual coffee; if he'd been drinking coffee, he'd have been broke by now). Dammit. Another three months here, and he'd be out of cash. And that'd do wonders for getting back and getting that second level training, wouldn't it now?

He paged through the want ads, as he did every day, looking for something short term, easy work, where he coul... No. It couldn't be. The Thrill of the Chase, looking for crew? Here? Had to be faked. Had to be. Who'd leave that ship, and still be sane?

He paged through the credentials; they checked out: right ship, right keys, right names - not that the names would be wrong; with the news coverage, everyone who cared knew their names. The keys would be harder to fake, though; theoretically impossible, but he knew a guy who said it could be done. The ship was in port, though, he knew that; he'd been keeping track of it ever since the accident; had, in fact, set up a program on his PDA to let him know where it was all the time. And the advert pointed to a coffee shop... he poked a few keys, and a map opened next to the ad... on the far side of the station. Typical.

Well, only one thing for it. Get over there, and hope they still needed a second pilot by the time he arrived; after all, the Queen had posted the ad, so they had her, at least. If not, he'd take any job, really; if he could get on that ship, he'd be set, even if they never found anything. And what were the chances of that, with The Captain in charge?

He jotted a quick note to "The Captain" - no way he'd ever get used to that - to let him know there was a prospective on the way, and roughly how long it'd take, and then closed and pocketed his PDA, downed the tea, cleared the table[1], and was out of the cafe in less than a minute, headed for the cross-links to the other side of the station.


A scant fifteen minutes later, he was on the other side of the station - something the timetables said would take half an hour at best - closing on the Edge of Nothing, and breathing hard. He pulled over out of the way of passing foot traffic, flipped open his PDA, and checked for messages. Nada, but the want ad was still up, so it couldn't be all bad. He closed it, slipped it into his jacket, checked his boots (again), straightened his overalls (again), took a deep breath, and moved on into the coffee shop.

As he entered, he scanned the room, automatically noting where the emergency services panels were, how many patrons were around, where they were, and what they were (the big walker looked interesting; but not now) and looked for the blond head he'd seen on so many news clips. He spotted it, almost instantly, over in the corner, and headed that way. Arriving at the table, he paused, and tapped gently at the table with one finger to gain The Captain's awareness. "Excuse me... Captain Connor? I understand you're looking for crew..."

As he spoke, he was aware of the piercing grey eyes, scanning him, evaluating him. Mentally, he crossed his fingers; this was, after all, his big chance...


[1] It's a basic space rule; even on something that will never move, you never ever leave anything lying around unless you're actually using it; sometimes not even then; who knows what it'll hit if you accelerate. Or if the station ruptures. Or something unexpected happens.

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Excuse me... Captain Connor? I understand you're looking for crew..." William was just taking another sip from his mug and eying the Walker that had just entered, when a young human wearing a old style flying jacket spoke up.

"I'm assuming you're the same Mr Weaver that sent me that short message a few minutes ago? Sorry for not replying had a few applications to go though...Sit down and lets get started shall we? Got a CV with you?" Will said indicating that Johnny should enter his PDA into the slot on the table.

"Mind if I ask what position you're going for?" Will added a moment later after putting his mug down. Seeing how uptight the kid was, he smiled his trademark crooked smile at him. "Relax I'm not going to bite your head off."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

John nodded his identity, shrugged at the lack of reply, and slid into the indicated seat, flipping out his PDA and connecting it with one hand, then tapping a couple of keys to send across his CV; mildly glad he'd spent some of the transit time scanning it to make sure it was up to date.

He flushed a little at the smile, coughed a bit, and shuffled in the seat. "Er, uh, yeah. I was hoping to go for assistant pilot, if you've still got space. I mean, I realise you've got the Queen, since she posted the want ad, and I realise you can pilot the ship yourself, so it boils down to how many spare sets of hands you want at the controls, and..." He ran down, realising he was waffling a bit, and pulled himself together. "Er, yeah. I saw some of the news reports, back a bit."

He coughed, nervously, and rubbed at his thumb. "I know I'm not as skilled as you might prefer, but I figured some time spent learning from the best would be a good idea. And if I can save up a bit, I'd like to go back and pick up some more training..."

He paused, raising one eyebrow in a surprisingly self-assured manner, somewhat of a contrast to the rest of his bearing.

[Paladin Sheppard]

"I try to run the Thrill on three shifts so having an extra pilot is useful." Will said as he read through Weaver's CV.

"Completed the first two semesters at the Larson Station University flight school I see, enough points to qualify for a  class two license..."

"Well Mr Weaver I like what I see but I still have to look at other prospects, you understand right?" Will put his hand to the comm unit in his ear.

"Oh and thanks for being the real John Weaver, you're the first person up here with a real ID." He said pointing to the biometric sensor hidden in the seat.

"Either I or Ms Falco will comm you when we decide." He put his hand back up to his ear. "Ms Falco wants to know who shot first Han or Greedo..."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Celine sighed as she tromped across the main docking bay, stopping at the big job board to check available positions. Station life was expensive and she didn't want to be stuck here long. She had been lucky that her last captain had given her decent references despite the way they had parted. The lascivious alien just wouldn't take no for an answer. Granted the hermaphrodite had parts for every occasion but the tentacles just squicked Celine out.

As the job screen slowly scrolled the small woman pulled her data pad out of her duffel bag and unrolled it. Tucking a strand of almost white hair behind her ear she began noting likely openings and forwarding her references.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

John responded without thinking. "Solo, of course. Greedo would never have missed at that range, duh."

Suddenly realising what he'd blurted out, and, more importantly, how, and who, he'd had the impertinence to say it to (even if only by proxy), he flushed bright red, and dropped his PDA, what little composure he had suddenly in tatters.

"Er... Uhm. Excuse me." He grabbed his PDA, pocketed it, muttered something about "I'llwaitforyourcallthen." and departed, to lick his wounds, so to speak, in peace, before anything further could be said.

Somewhere else. Anywhere else, preferably where nobody knew him, and he could remain anonymous, just for a little while...


So, of course, he ended up sitting in a cafe when his friends sauntered in. Full of themselves, and chatting about the "cool want ad" that they'd seen. And bluffed their way into with false credentials, honest - just waiting for the call back. He didn't have the heart to tell them they'd been spotted, tagged, bagged, and would probably end up with an acceptance call to a trash hauler or a prison ship (at least, if Queenie was any good, and she'd been able to access his sealed records without his authorisation, so...); even after they spotted him, and headed on over to tell him about it. All about it. At great length.

[Paladin Sheppard]

'Edge of Nothing'

"Nice one Eph, I'm assuming you caught that on the security feed.." Will said to the Tasmanian Devil sitting on the bridge of the Thrill


'Thrill of the Chase'

"I did skipper poor kid, I like his record though. I say take him if no one better comes, or even if someone does, extra pilots are always useful..."  Ephrael said as she lounged in her chair.

The console next to her chimed as its screen lit up to notify her of an incoming email. Opening it up she read through the message. "Hey Capt. you know how we were looking for a quartermaster? Looks like the Inferno just lost hers. Want me to sent Ms Celine Walker over to you?"

"If you wouldn't mind Eph..." Came the reply over the bridge speakers.


Main Docks

Elf's PDA chirped as a message came in.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Celine was just putting her pad away when it beeped at her. She unrolled it again and saw that The Thrill of the Chase was offering her an interview. She sent back a confirmation, stashed her bags in a locker, and began the cross-station trek to the meeting place.

When she arrived at the Edge of Nothing she spotted Captain Connor fairly quickly. The salvage ships all kept a close eye on their competition so she'd seen his picture enough times. As he wasn't currently interviewing anyone she crossed the room to his location, wondering as she did if he would make the same old joke about quarter-sized-master. Arriving at his table she removed her sunglasses out of politeness. Her oddly oversized eyes watered a bit against the brightly lit cafe. "Captain Connor. I'm Celine Walker and I'd like to apply for the quartermaster position you're advertising."

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Please sit down Miss Walker and put those glasses back on I know this light level hurts..." Will said when Celine appeared.

"As Ephrael hopeful told you we're in need of a good Quartermaster, and your rep is that of one of the best. I can offer you a full share for any haul we make as well as a 4k starting bonus." Will looked hopeful that Celine would take the offer....

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Celine slid the sunglasses back on as she sat down and quickly thought the offer over. It was a very nice offer. Not so improbably nice as to make her suspicious, as her last contract should have done, but a nice offer on a ship with a very good reputation. "Just two questions, Captain. Where do I sign and do you have a shopping list for the next run ready?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

'Edge of Nothing' Cafe

Will smiled broadly "Fantastic!" He said to Celine before touching his hand to his ear again. "Eph, can you add Miss Walker to the roster and ping her PDA with our shopping list?"

"Now Miss Walker if you'd just slot your PDA in here so I can send you a certified contract from mine..."


'Thrill of the Chase'

Ephrael's fingers danced over the holographic keyboard in front of her. First she accessed the Thrill's official roster adding Celine to it, next sending a data file notifying the UNSC of her change of status. Next she accessed the ships inventory... Which was very much empty. She was meant to have gotten at least a weeks worth of food for her and Will the day before.

Blushing because she'd only just remembered that, Eph sent off a email to Celine's PDA including authorization to use the 'Thrill''s account to pay for it.

"All done Skipper. Does she have a ear bud? I can't see from this angle on the cams..."

'Edge of Nothing' Cafe

"Ephrael Falco, my pilot, wants to know if you have an ear bud comms. She likes to chat with the new members from the get go." Will said, relaying the message.



**OOC: The List is:
Food Assorted 4 months supply (Ship has hydroponics bay no fresh vegetables req.)
Water 8 months supply
Oxygen 8 Months supply
Spare O2 bottles for EVA suits (All suits use standard size bottles + recyclers
Spare Parts


And Mel you can add that 4k to your credit balance now

OOC/**

[Cogidubnus]

Theo grinned to himself.

In black letters over a blue background, he finally saw the solutions to all his problems click into place. That was something he prided himself on - when other people saw walls, he saw doorways. Opportunity was made as often as it was found.

He put together a short yet eloquent resume, and hit send. He'd start heading over to the Edge of Nothing as soon as he made one or two stops.

Medical professionals had labcoats, right? He'd need to pick one up before he showed up for his interview.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Celine docked her PDA into the indicated slot, exchanging the address of her ear bud for the contract and shopping list.  Signing the contract and sending it back she stood. "I should get started on this list. I have shopping of my own to do as well. My EVA suit was ruined and I need a replacement." She added "idiot eleven-thumbed greenhorn," under her breath. She turned to leave then turned back, "I'd like to ask Ms. Falco if she is the same Ephrael I met at a bar called Jokers."

[Paladin Sheppard]

Celine received her answer in the form of a somewhat muted but still high pitch shriek in her ear bud "Eeeeeeeeek! It is you! I couldn't remember much from that night after all that booze!"

Will smiled as Ephrael hadn't cut the link to him before talking to Celine.

"Miss Walker if you don't find a suit we might have one that fit you...We had another person from 'The Dump' serving on board before. She didn't use it much and its in very good condition. Its a light level three suit I can sell it to you for about  two and a half grand."

Will uploaded a picture of the suit to Celine's PDA, showing a suit that was pink and white with 'Hello Kitty' stamps all over it.

[Boog]

Eavesdropping is fun and useful.
However, in a crowded diner, it can also be very time consuming when it comes to picking out clues as to one persons identity, doubly so when you're bad at telling apart members of their species. Rekk had finally managed to narrow it down to the blond in the corner or the little old lady at the counter. With what he knew about humans, he was placing his bet on the blond. Getting out of his booth was a hassle, the seats weren't really designed with him in mind, but he managed to not knock anything over. He double-checked his things one last time before making his way over to Will.
"Do hopeh ain' innerruptin'," his voice had a sort of friendly, laid back, lazy quality that belied his large size and the impossible-to-conceal weapon on a bandolier across his chest. "But you're Captain Connor, righ'? Heard y'were hirin'."

[Paladin Sheppard]

Will smiled up at the Walker "I am, to both questions." He replied before looking up at Celine. "Miss Walker we can probably discus this later back at the ship, shes in bay 25."

"So what kind of qualifications do you have Mister...? Will said waving to the PDA slot on the tabletop.

[Boog]

"Rekk Bsquottic Miquelliosk, a'cha service." Rekk slid into the available seat as well as he could and grinned awkwardly, "I'm good for this an' that. Grunt work, little repair stuff, but my specialty's security. Yeah, 'h know, huge damn shock." he chuckled, "'ve worked on a few ships, salvage an' transport an' such." He held up his PDA, "Mah resume an' spacer papers tell it better an' I do. Min' 'fI send over the files?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Please do Mr Miquelliosk." Will said as Rekk sat down and slotted his PDA. Reading through Will was impressed with what he saw.

"I like what I see Mr Miquelliosk. I see you were in the Dagobath Conflict, on what side may I ask? The Royals or the UNSF?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Celine grinned at the response from Ephrael and was about to ask her how long it had taken for the anesthetic to wear off enough for her to feel her black eye when the Captain offered her the stunning EVA suit. While she quietly coveted anything bright and feminine she knew that anything so excessive would make the job of getting treated as an adult even harder. Thankfully the next candidate broke into the conversation and saved her from having to answer. Nodding acknowledgement of Captain Connor's instructions she headed off to the merchant's section of the station.

[Boog]

"Royals," Rekk grinned; he had nothing to hide about his history, "Nah too well publicized, but my species wa' kin'a traditionally affiliated with 'em; anyone who could get three feet in a fighter withou' crashin' was drafted, pressganged, or nagged by they family 'til they joined." He looked thoughtful a moment, "Got mebbe eight of you lot's lads in tha' encounter. Well, eigh'esh." Of all mannerisms shared by various sentient species, wiggling ones hand to indicate a vague estimate seemed to be one of the more common ones. "Jess winged one a' 'em, really, bu' it takes some effort t' wing ah UNSF warship in a fighter."

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Not too bad. Well Mister Miquelliosk I'm assuming you're after a security position going by your skills. We have one but you understand we still need to see about any others before I sign you up?

"My 2ic will page you when we've selected our candidates." Will held out a hand to shake. 

[Boog]

Rekk's massive, two-thumbed hand dwarfed that of the human before him as he reached out to shake. "Abs'lutely. You gotta go over the other applicants an' such, I know how this works. You know how to reach me." He grinned, "An' I look forward to workin' for ya." With that, he scrambled out of the awkwardly (for him) shaped seats, one last professional-looking nod to Captain Connor, and made his way out the door. This seemed like precisely the right time of morning for a celebratory drink.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Leaning back in his seat Will looked over the list of possible crew members. "Well apart from another one or two more strong arms and an Chief Engineer we're looking good so far Eph, well done catching Celine, I'd hate to miss someone as good as her."

"No problem Skipper its what ya pay me for!"

Grinning Will shot back "no I pay you to keep that ship in one piece and fly her smoother than I can!"

He looked over the list of the fake IDs that had been used so far. "I really wish that these morons with fake ID would stop bugging me though..."   

Will's PDA pinged as another resume arrived, this time from someone looking to be the ship's medic.

[Cogidubnus]

Faster than Will might have thought possible, a he felt a discreet tap on his shoulder. A quick look conformed it to be a friendly-faced, nearly red-furred raccoon dressed in nice clothing, with a labcoat thrown over it.

"I thought I should get dressed up first." he said, tugging at the collar of the labcoat and grinning a bit sheepishly. "Sorry it took me so long. I'm Dr. Ambrose. I believe I sent you a message, just recently...?"

[James StarRunner]

A tall, well muscled feline stood outside the establishment called the "Edge of Nothing". He pushed against the doors until the groaning of metal told him that he would snap the door off its hinges if he tried any harder. pulling instead, he opened the doors and walked inside, one of the doors falling crooked behind him. A small man was startled as the figure entered and stumbled to the floor in front of him. The feline picked the man up into the air by the shirt with a single hand and lowered him on his feet. He gave the little man a friendly pat on the back which nearly sent the man crashing into a table.

The feline slung his bag of meager belongings over his shoulder and strode in a few more steps. "Is there a Wheel-I-um Coon-or here?" he asked slowly. "I am Jaesguamarj and I was told about a job."

[Paladin Sheppard]

Will looked up at the Raccoon hybrid and stuck out a hand. "Hello Doctor, thanks for applying. Take a seat and slot your PDA and well get started." He said waving Theo to the seat across from him, but his attention quickly turned to the door as a  feline attempted first to open the door the wrong way, then bowled over a man who was about to leave, before calling out that he was looking for William.

The man that Jaes had bowled over made a quick retreat out the door after squeaking a 'thank you' for the hand up. But before Will could answer the manager came up Jaes and started ranting on about the damage to the door and how Jaes would have to pay for it.

Face palming, Will turned to Theo "Can you excuse me for a bit I think I'll have to bail that guy out of the trouble he's in." He said as he stood up and made his way over to Jaes and the manager. "I'm Captain Connor." Will said when he reached them.

[James StarRunner]

"Captain Connor..." Jaes said, careful to get it right this time. "I am here to get job, but I upset this master. I am sorry about the door. I did not know it did not open the two ways and it did not open by magic the way other doors on this world does."

It was obvious he knew little to nothing about the advances of technology. He didn't wish to be ignorant, but even educated people from his world knew little about electricity.

"I do not have monies, but I hope you will take this gift..." Jaesguamarj drew out an old, battered children's picture book and offered it to the manager, giving a slight bow.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Glaring at the battered book the manager launched into a new tirade till William put a hand on his shoulder. "Hold onto that I'll sort this out" he said to Jaes, getting the feeling it was of great worth for the feline humanoid. After calming the manager down, Will paid the man plus a few extra credits for the trouble and the manager walked back to behind the counter.

Facing Jaes again Will looked him over. "Can I have your name?" He asked "I'm not normally one to buy people out of trouble but it looks like you were looking for work."