The Clockwork Mansion

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.

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.

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.

"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."

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.

"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..."

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.

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.

'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.

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."

"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....

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?"

'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 :3

OOC/**

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.

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."

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.

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'."

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.

"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?"

"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?"

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.

"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."

"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. 

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.

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.

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...?"

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."

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.

"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.

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."

"Thank you master Captain." Jaes nodded. "I am Jaesguamarj of tribe Yichu, clan Haveril, son of Nuwancii and I am told that you are looking for hard workers. I will serve you well and make up for your act of greatness."

Pandora Rosendahl strode down the ramp of the ship she just exited, sighing and rubbing her temples with two long, clever fingers. Around her, the docking bay was bustling with activity; people were occupying themselves by removing and transporting goods loaded onto the cargo ship she was once on. While the small, relatively unprotected cargo ship, only fortified with rudimentary artillery intended to ward off any space pirates, was hardly a pleasure-cruise vessel, Pandora found that it adequately provided her needs. Besides, it was one of the only ships that was available - most others didn't bother visiting her home planet. As long as Pandora reached her destination, she wasn't going to complain about the lack of frivolous luxuries. Plus the captain was fairly understanding about allowing her to hitch a ride, so the convenience more than compensated for the uncomfortable trip.

Pandora arched her back, shaking away the tension from her spine, and adjusted the enormous and gaudy rifle strapped to her back. Although it was intimidating in size and served as an effective weapon, the rifle was crude and primitive in comparison to the more technologically advanced types brandished by the guards. Other than that rifle, Pandora carried very little: a toolbox stuffed with the essential equipment, a bag of clothing draped over her shoulder, and the money she had saved for the occasion.

Sighing a little, Pandora looked around, busily striding in search of her next destination. If the instructions she received were correct, then she wouldn't have to look very far for The Thrill of the Chase. Ignoring the few stares she got for her luridly pink appearance (considering she was among a menagerie of alien species, these weren't as plentiful as she normally got), she started to look for a hologram or any indication of the ship. Occasionally, Pandora assessed the directions sketched onto the piece of lined paper in her hand. According to the captain of the cargo ship, The Thrill of the Chase was recruiting crewmen, so that would be her best bet.

"Oh, oh course." Ambrose said, sitting down and putting his hands in his lap. "I'll just wait here, then?"

As soon as Will left, the raccon's expression changed, more pensive than before, but still with the same genial expression. From inside the labcoat, he produced a number of papers that he set on the table, straightening them with a few taps before squaring them away in front of himself. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs, his foot swinging in tune with an invisible beat.

'Edge of Nothing' Cafe

"Well Jaesguamarj...Did I say that right? Would you mind having a seat in here? I'm interviewing someone right now, once I'm done we can discuss your options."




Thrill of the Chase

Watching the Raccoon sitting at the table Will was using as a interviewing desk through the cafe's security cams Ephrael wondered what he was up to. "What are you up to..." She asked the holofield in front of her. An alarm notified her of the Raccoon's biometrics registering with a match and the associated file came up in a window in front.

"Lets see now....Theodore Ambrosius..." Reading through the rest Eph came to where Theo's education and employment record was and swore as the rest of the file was garbage. "Goddamn piece of junk hypercomms on this station..." The devil hybrid said at the ceiling of the bridge.


Docks


Pandora's question as to the whereabouts of the Thrill of the Chase, was quickly solved as the ship she had just left was sitting in the bay next to it, at least that's what the ships listing that was posted in a nearby sign said.

Jaes nodded. "Yes, that is right. I will try to say your name right too, Captain Connor." Jaes sat in a booth nearby, watching everything around him. He felt a little out of place, he didn't even have any money to order food and people seemed to frown at him hunting down these things called 'pets'.

Keeping one eye on Jaes, Will made his way back to his table where Theo had laid out some sheets of paper. "Sorry about that Dr Ambrose, where were we?" He asked as he sat down opposite the raccoon in the lab coat.

Now that she had arrived at the Thrill of the Chase, Pandora took a moment to admire the impressive-looking vessel. This was definitely more advanced than the cargo ship. Analyzing the directions on that piece of paper one last time, Pandora pocketed it, then approached the door gingerly. She noticed a communications panel beside the door and pushed and held the button, speaking into the panel. "'Ello?"

Rekk celebrated getting his new job, primarily with alcohol but with no small amount of hitting on the bartender (not for any particular reason; his species didn't really go about things in such a way, he'd simply seen other species doing so and picked up the habit out of curiosity. He quickly found that it was fun, useful, and he had a bit of a knack for it, and he'd been doing it since, which just goes to show that we all find our niche wherever we can), starting arguments, and other forms of general pub activity that he so enjoyed. The Anomaly was the sort of bar that warned spacers of EXACTLY what it was; an unknown and usually dangerous section of an otherwise known quantity, best avoided unless you recognize it and go there regularly. Exactly the sort of place he loved to just wander in to; no matter how dangerous the regular crowd, there was rather little threat to be had from species you could probably lift one handed.

Celine headed back towards the bay area of the station. There was a supply depot closer to the cafe but she had her preference. As she walked she checked out the supply list and the credits available to get them with. Her eyes widened behind her sunglasses when she saw the figures she had to work with. The tales of the Thrill's success hadn't been exaggerated by much in the telling.

She quickly arrived at her favorite source of supplies. This was the smallest of the three but the proprietor was content to overcharge a lesser amount. "Hello Elf," came a voice like an avalanche from a dark corner of the shop. "I wasn't expecting to see you." Celine rolled her eyes, news of her resignation had traveled fast and Rocky was one who kept his fingers on the pulse of the station. Most people thought him slow and stupid just because he looked like a granite sculpture that the artist had abandoned halfway through, but he was one of the most observant beings around. "I'm on the Thrill of the Chase's account this time Rocky." She beamed her authorization to his computer.

Docking bay 25 'Thrill of the Chase'

Just where a normal flatscreen would be a holo field powered up showing Pandora a small furred face of some sort of marsupial humanoid.

"Hello! I'm Pilot Falco of The 'Thrill of the Chase'. Can I help you with something?"



Anomaly Bar and Casino

The bar was lit up normally except for a few corner booths where the lights had been turned down. The place was fairly empty bar the small crowd playing the betting machines in one corner. Two bar persons were on duty, one a brunette human female who would be considered cute, and a blond headed hybrid fox girl.



Rocky's Equipment and Supply

"I told Dante they were reading to much hentai..." The Man/mountain rumbled "now what can I do you for? I've not had the pleasure of supplying the 'Thrill' their last QM bought from Jamersons'" The granite shelled humanoid thumped its way over to the counter.

 "Of course!" Ambrose said, smiling, and he slid the shuffle of papers over to the Captain. "I'm sorry to say that my PDA has been mis-shipped and is currently floating around somewhere in Jupiter's upper atmosphere, but I did manage to bring my paperwork with me. I don't have a lot of experience, but I have graduated with an M.D. and a specialization in the care of Trauma patients." he rubbed the back of his head. "I've never actually served as a crewmemeber on a ship, I'm sorry to say, but I have interned for a fair bit on the Black Schiest. This would probably be my first real commission, so let's hope I impress, eh?" he gave a crooked smile.

"You are looking for a ship's doctor, yes?" he said, resting his hands on the table.

"I'm a basic medic but yes we are looking for a trained doctor" Will picked up the papers and read through them. "You may want to buy a new PDA, I mostly pay directly to accounts, you really don't want to be carrying around the amount of credits we sometimes earn on a job."

"As for it being your first time out, that's ok most of the people we are getting are." Will paused waiting for Ephrael add any comments, but received nothing over his comms. "Well Doctor I'll give you a...Oh shoot no PDA, wait where are you staying at them moment?"

As Celine stepped up to one of the shopping terminals she muttered something under her breath of which the only word audible sounded a lot like calamari. As the terminal accepted her authorization and screens began flashing she responded "They seem to be pretty much out of everything at the moment so we can start with the basics and I'll improvise from there until I get a feel for the ship. I don't even have a ships roster at the moment to know if I have any special needs to deal with."

Pandora nearly squeaked in surprise as the furred visage of the anthropomorphic marsupial flashed onto the console, but managed to censor her reaction to a slightly uncomfortable look. This was probably common among those new to intergalactic travel and alien species, so she didn't let this break of composure bother her. Deep down, she was truly fascinated, even in her discomfort.

"Ah, yeah," Pandora murmured in her unfamiliar dialect, resting her rifle against her shoulder. "I'm here f'r t' apply f'r a job as an engineer." Just to make sure, Pandora flashed the identification card she had in her hand in front of the screen. Her picture and personal information were all listed on the laminated surface. "I hear y' needed one?"

Rocky's Equipment and Supply

The screen quickly showed two windows, one marked ship's supply and the other as crew purchasable:


Ship's Supply:

Consumables
Oxygen Mix 2000 credits per ton
Food (Synth-Meats) 10 credits per kilo
Food (Prime Meats) 100 credit per kilo
Food (Essential cereals and vitamin boosted foods) 800 credits per ton
Food (Fruit and Vegetables) 10 Credits per kilo)
Water (Ice) 3000 credits per ton

Spare Parts Packs
Shuttles 10,000 credits per pack
Cargo ships (Small) 30,000 credits per pack
Cargo ships (Medium) 70,000 Credits per pack
Cargo ships (Large) Unavailable no stock at this time
Cargo ships (Ultra)  Unavailable no stock at this time
Universal EVA suit oxygen replenishment pack 700 per pack


Crew purchasable:

PDAs

Basic replacement PDA (Includes data recovery)  100 credits
Mid range PDA (Boosted Comms, data transfer, file storage, and increased hack protection) 200 credits
Top Range/Military Grade (Further Comms range, data, files, hack protection and includes increased EMP hardening) 3000 credits (Currently out of stock)

Tool kits:
Basic 50 Credits
Mid sized (Includes basic diagnostic attachments for a PDA and more tools) 150 Credits
Large (Includes fine grain sensors and attachments for a PDA, has most tools available) 750 credits (out of stock)

EVA suits:

Hedain-Kellar Armorworks:
Basic lvl 1 suit. Minimal kinetic shielding, no armor. 500 credits
Light lvl 1 suit. Minimal kinetic shielding, thin armor, maximum mobility. 750 credits
Light lvl 2 suit. weak kinetic shielding, thin armor, maximum mobility. 1500 credits
Light lvl 3 suit. Light kinetic shielding, thin armor, maximum mobility. 4000 credits
Light lvl 10 suit (Mil grade). High capacity kinetic shielding, improved light armor, maximum mobility, enhanced strength (+1) 120,000 credits
Medium lvl 1 suit. Minimal kinetic shielding, medium armor, high mobility. 1000 credits
Medium lvl 3 suit. light kinetic shielding, medium armor, high mobility. 5000 credits
Heavy lvl 3 suit.  kinetic shielding, thick armor, medium mobility. 6000 credits

Personal Weapons:
Basic:
10mm Guardian 2 semi-auto pistol 15 round mag. 450 credits
8mm M12 semi-auto pistol 18 round mag.  350 credits
10mm Hawk sub machine gun 30 round mag. 550 credits
5mm Jagaer Assault Rifle 35 round mag. 1000 credits
7.62mm AK-201 Assault Rifle 30 round mag. 850 credits
7mm Masker Laser pistol. 80 shot mag. 1250 credits
7mm Masker Laser rifle. 200 shot mag. 2000 credits

Advanced:
10mm/7.62mm Mk118 Assault Rifle (Interchangeable barrels) caseless or shelled ammunition, 40/30 round mag. 20,000 credits

Match grade:
10mm Guardian 10 semi-auto pistol, ceramic caseless chemical impulse ammunition, 18 round mag. 40,000 credits




Bay 25 'The Thrill of the Chase'

"Oh great!" Ephrael said happily thought the screen "well seeing as your interested Captain Connor is at a cafe in the center of the station called 'Edge of Nothing' He'd be happy to see you there we haven't had a competent engineer show up yet. I"ll ping your PDA with a map." The Tasmanian Devil looked away from the camera for a second before Pandora's PDA pinged as the Hybrid sent a file to it.

"I'm staying at the Marble Lodgings, sir." Ambrose said, writing down his room number and location onto a peice of paper. "And I've been planning on getting a new one, but I didn't want to spend the money until I was sure of a new commission. So, thank you very much, Captain Connor." he said offering his hand. "To a safe and profitable venture."

"Indeed Dr Ambrose" William said shaking his hand and then watching him on his way out of the cafe. Once Theo had gone he looked around for the feline, spotting him he waved Jaes over.

Jaesguamarj never understood what the others meant by Pee-Dee-Eh but figured he my learn soon enough. Once waved over, Jaes got up from his former seat and sat next to William. "Yes master captain Connor? I spoke your name right now?"

"You did Jaesguamarj, but you don't need to add the master bit, I hire crew not servants. Now do you have a PDA?  Its a machine thats about the size of a small notepad and one side of it has a glowing pictures on it." Will said going on the fact that Jaes didn't seem to be able to read. "The people who let you into human space should have issued you one..."

Jaesguamarj stared blankly at Will as he listened to him explain. PDA? Machine? Was that something like a clockwork device? He felt quite stupid not knowing all these things. Then again, he, nor anyone from his world had heard of such things growing up. Not wanting to seem slow in the head, the feline pulled out the only thing he had received since leaving his world, guessing that is was the PDA. Luckily for him, he was right.

"So PDA is what this is called?" Jaes asked, holding it out to the Captain. "The guide who brought me this far made it speak for me since I am not good at reading the language yet. I have not yet figured how much this magic tablet can do. I think I am good at this thing called 'Tetris' though. I keep stacking the things so fast that the game is finished very fast."

Pandora nearly sighed with relief. Well, that was easy enough. She was worried that the issue of her questionable anarchistic background would come into play, but she anticipated that would surface during the interview with Captain Connor, the actual employer. Pandora watched as her PDA briefly flashed and emitted a sharp beep, then activated it. After a momentary fumble (Pandora wasn't used to this type of technology) she managed to select the file and open it, displaying the map. Looking back to Ephrael, Pandora nodded gratefully and respectfully.

"A'right. Thanks, ma'am," Pandora said, and, after turning off the communication, walked toward the location of the cafe conveniently indicated on the map.

'Edge of Nothing' Cafe

"'Tetris?' Jesus that's old school..." Will said before shaking his head and returning to the subject of the interview, took Jaes' PDA and plugged it into the slot in the table. "Jaesmuarj...Can I call you Jaes? I'm sorry but your name is a bit of a tongue twister." Will looked at the readout  "Well it seems you do have enough credits to cover the door, but not enough to live on much longer with out a source of income. And you come looking for a job, and I'm hiring. You look strong and tough enough for a loader/lifter position." Will paused for a second thinking "Look normally I would wait till I have a list of people and pick the ones I wanted, but I'm going to throw you a bone."

He typed a command into his own PDA strapped to his wrist and Jaes' PDA beeped. "Jaes, see this line on the screen here? It will lead you to my ship called 'The Thrill of the Chase', Once you get there my second in command called Ephrael Falco will take care of you."

Conner again patched himself through to Ephrael "Eph sending you a newbie. Little short on the language and reading skills, so take care of him for me."

"Will do Cap. Just letting ya know, a chick all in pink came by, said she was an engineer, sent her to you. Can't miss her." Ephrael said back.

Will looked back at Jaes "See you soon, kid. Welcome to the crew."

Tetris is a school? Jaes thought, confused. Bone? I do not need a bone... do I? Why do people here have to speak so weird?

Though the otherworldly sayings were confusing to Jaes, he gathered that Will was doing him a great favor. "Jaes will be fine. Thank you Mas..." Jaes cut himself off mid sentence and tugged nervously at the sash that covered his slave marking. "...Captain."

He took back his PDA and nodded politely to Will before taking his leave. Following the directions given to him, he walked out the still broken door.

***

After only doubling back a few times, he found his way to The Thrill of the Chase. He still had no idea why these were called ships, they didn't look seaworthy at all.

"You have now arrived at your destination." the PDA chimed in.

Jaes looked up at the massive metallic beast. Not wanting another accident with a door, he knocked on the hull. "Eff-er-eh-all? Err... Fall-coo?" Crazy outsider names... Why do they not have easy names like Yiigrequegh?

Pandora arrived at the Edge of Nothing Cafe in record time using the coordinates provided by Ephrael. After double-checking the location (and reading the sign on the door in a standard alien language Pandora knew the basic linguistics of; not to mention it was accompanied by a familiar insignia for visual reference), Pandora entered and searched for the captain. She found the man Ephrael described sitting at a table and approached after allowing security to temporarily confiscate her rifle as a precaution. Pandora approached captain Will and casually sat down, tackling the introduction as she would a typical job interview.

"'Ey there," Pandora said amiably, "Y'r Captain Will? I'm Pandora. Pandora Rosendahl from Planet Celio. I 'eard y' were lookin' f'r a good engineer."

Bay 25 'Thrill of the Chase'

Thankfully for Jaes, Ephrael was watching the exterior cams waiting for him. "Jeez newbie is right" She said to herself as she made her way to the front cargo hatch, which was the closest to the Anielf.

As the massive 20mX20m hatch opened on its hydraulics, the diminutive hybrid Tassie Devil was waiting at the split. "You must be Jaes? I'm Ephrael." She said sticking out a hand.


'Edge of Nothing' Cafe

My god the pink...Will thought at first before shaking his head before Pandora sat down. "Hello Miss Rosendahl" Will smiled as she sat down "yes I am Captain William Connor. Thanks for coming I am looking for an engineer. Can I see what your qualifications are?" He said waving to the PDA port on the table.

Strange... She kind of looks like an ani-elf. He looked at her silently, trying to figure out what she was until he discovered that he was staring.

"Eff-ray-al? Yes, I am Jaesguamarj." Jaes looked at the extended hand, thinking she wanted him to hand something to her. So, he put his PDA into her hand and bowed in greeting rather than shake her hand. "So what is it that I do now?"

Celine quickly ran through the ship supply list ordering a fairly standard set of supplies for a ship that size, erring to the side of generosity. She didn't want to be responsible for running out of anything before the end of the trip. She turned to the crew side of the screen and looked over the list of new EVA suits. Although the one the captain had for sale was a true bargain and wonderfully pink Celine knew that she had a hard time being treated as an adult at her size. Adding to her problems with the rather youthful looking suit didn't seem wise. Yet when she pulled up the stock of suits in her size there appeared to be only one available and it was a glaring shade of yellow with a design of dancing monkeys across the surface. "Hey, Rocky. Why aren't there any plain EVA suits in my size?"

Bay 25 'Thrill of the Chase'

Ephrael looked at the PDA in her hand and then facepalmed. "Oh, dear Lord." she muttered under her breath, before shaking her head as if to clear it. "You should hold onto this." she said handing the PDA back. "Lets get you a bunk." Eph motioned for him to grab his stuff and follow into the ship.


Rocky's Equipment and Supply

"By the Stones!" Rocky exclaimed as he saw the numbers Celine had punched in for the supply order. Recovering some of his composure and then laughing at her predicament, he went on. "Face it, Elf. The standard suits can't be adjusted that small. Heh Heh."

Johnny sat in a corner table, fiddling with his PDA, and feeling sorry for himself. More of the latter than the former, really; the PDA was purely to give him an excuse for not talking to anyone.

After an interview like that, his chances were pretty slim, he figured. Still, he'd given it a shot. Who knows? Maybe they'd be desperate enough to let him take a job scrubbing the decks or something. In the mean time, he ordered a cup of hot chocolate (no self-respecting pilot, in his opinion, would use caffeine, when you never knew what it was doing to your reflexes, nor when you'd need them; not that that stopped most of his classmates from indulging in massive doses) and started picking through the job sites, seeing if there was anything else that he might do.

After all, there was only so much money in his account, and if he wanted to go back and increase his training, he'd need enough to live on for another term, at least.

Totally unaware of Will's aversion to her color scheme, Pandora clasped her hands pleasantly in front of her and inclined her head, smiling a contagious smile that was sincere only in its saccharine sweetness. She tried to look as professional and prepared as possible, probably without realizing that she wasn't being terribly convincing. Without saying anything, Pandora reached for her PDA and inserted it into the port, hoping that it would not jam. At first, she imagined the port sparking and violently regurgitating her PDA, propelling it like a frisbee across the bar, and very nearly lost her composure at the envisioning. She always hated job interviews; they seemed like the best opportunity for the morbid parts of her imagination to wreak havoc.

Fortunately, the PDA registered, and the information flowed onto the screen. Miscellaneous information about Pandora's past experiences in engineering and repairing - how she had worked as a plumber for a short period of time in her early twenties, and how, shortly after, she entered the business of reconstructing broken machinery. Pandora knew, unfortunately, that a job of this caliber would probably find her qualifications lacking. In a world that outlawed aviation, Pandora's involvement in the construction of a flying machine was kept secret, hence its official exclusion from her credentials. She decided she would give Will something she had prepared in advance, just for this occasion. She set her toolbox on the table and flipped it open, then reached inside and started to rummage around in the tools. Once she brushed aside a wrench or two, Pandora unearthed a large beige folder, something considered obsolete when people could automatically record and organize personal information on a convenient floppy disc. Such an approach might have seemed unorthodox, but she assumed this would probably be much more effective than her publicly-known qualifications.

Pandora felt more secure when she could keep the folder on hand. PDAs could be hacked. People who would try to steal her folder or peer into it without any permission would be faced with a double-barreled rifle pressed against their foreheads. "Th' PDA doesn't say much 'bout wha' y'r lookin' f'r," Pandora explained, rifling through the folder's bulging contents. "So I set this up, somethin' I didn't include in my PDA 'cos i' woulda gotten me arrested on my home planet."

Finally, Pandora clandestinely flipped open the folder and rested it on the table in front of Will, rotating the folder around so he could peer at it right-side-up. Nestled comfortably among the papers and other informative pieces packed into the folder was a picture, fastened to the corner with a paper clip. The photograph clearly displayed an immense machine, aerodynamically structured and modeled somewhat similarly to a plane; remarkably designed even when confined to the frame of the picture. Other photographs included in a side compartment of the folder showed smaller, less extravagant apparatuses, all which looked capable of flight. They varied from propeller-clad platforms similar to the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci to tiny, intricate model airplanes, each labeled with a number that corresponded to the appropriate information.

Underneath the picture of the giant flying machine was a vast list of information; knowledge about the internal mechanisms and personalized details of the monstrosity that could not have been plagiarized from any possible source, calendars chronicling the step-by-step processes Pandora went through to build the machine, blueprints, concept sketches of flying creatures used to study bodies capable of flight (even marked with notes about the artist's observations and blemished on the backs with tic-tac-toe grids), and other documents that were almost excruciatingly complicated to read... Similar papers belonging to the other, inferior flight machines (as indicated by the numbers scrawled in black marker) were added among the notes just for insurance, in case Pandora's employer needed any further convincing.

For any law enforcer on Celio, the discovery of this folder would be like a serial killer turning himself in and presenting the evidence necessary for his conviction. If Pandora had showed this to anyone else on Celio, she would have been apprehended immediately - they wouldn't even need a trial or an investigation to determine her guilt. But Pandora had no intentions of returning to the oppressive atmosphere on her planet, and without fearing any legal repercussions in this station, she felt safe in using all this knowledge as her "qualifications." Considering no other person on Celio would have access to this knowledge, and there would be no sources from which to copy the countless papers, there was no doubt that Pandora was the irrefutable creator of these flying machines. Resting her arm on the table, Pandora grinned, this time with voracious, true enthusiasm.

"Does this meet expectations, Captain Connor?"

Celine made a bit of a face at Rocky when he goggled at her order. She had gone over it twice before hitting submit and was sure that she hadn't over ordered to extremes. Just enough to give a bit of a buffer in case the captain found something interesting to delay their return. Perhaps she needed to switch to one of the larger suppliers if the order seemed that unusual.

When the granite-like alien made the crack about the EVA suits Celine crossed her arms and gave him a warning look. "Are you implying there is something wrong with my height?"

'Edge of Nothing' Cafe

Will started to sift through the material he was given, and was quite impressed by both the detail, and the obvious skill that had gone into the creation of the airframes and sketches.

"This is very fine work Miss Rosendahl! I gather though you've not had too much experience with space faring craft and their power plants just yet? Thats not meant as a put down, and I won't count it against you when we're selecting members."

Rocky's Equipment and Supply

Catching the look Celine tossed at him Rocky sobered up. "Sorry Elf, didn't mean to make it sound like a crack at you at all...

Pandora nearly lost her composure again - this was an unexpected question for her, as she had assumed her ace in the hole would instantly assure her employment. Instead, in spite of her perturbed state, she straightened herself and answered honestly. After all, if she tried to bluff her way out of the situation, this would only result in trouble. "No, sir - I don' 'ave any experience wit' space farin' craft. No' yet," she admitted. This was probably a severe handicap for an engineer specializing in technology in that domain, but there was still a possibility she could secure the job.

'Edge of Nothing' Cafe


"Its not a big issue Miss Rosenthal, you've obviously got a very good grasp on mechanics, and going on your UNSC entry test scores and what I've seen of you so far, you're very bright."

Will packed the photos and handed the package back to Pandora, stood and held out his hand.

"Either myself or my 2ic will page you when we make a decision, thanks for coming down."

After poking through the job sites for about half a cup, Johnny ran across mention of a quartermaster role. Can't hurt to look, can it? he thought to himself, punching up the details.

Standard quartermaster gig, it looked like. Previous quartermaster had signed out on docking, it seemed, after a single trip. Odd. Usually people hung on to a job... unless there was something wrong. Personality conflicts could get seriously dangerous, out in the black, with nobody but each other to rely upon. Perhaps that was the reason. Perhaps not.

It bore looking into, though, so he scanned the networks, looking for what public information there was about the Inferno. Single captain, one Dante, a... Johnny paused, titled his head sideways trying to figure out how to pronounce the species of the captain, and gave up, opting instead to hit the library network for details of the species.

Seconds later, he was frantically scrabbling to disable the sound and holographics, settling for the flat, non-moving - and, more importantly, silent - picture version; specifically, the one that wasn't moaning in pleasure. Oh. My. God. The universe is a very, very strange place... And that's probably more information than I need. No wonder she left.

He decided that that particular job probably wasn't one he'd be interested in, thanks all the same, and went back to scanning the boards, pausing every now and again to shake his head in disbelief.

Pandora nearly sighed in relief, but managed to school her features and keep her from betraying her innermost relaxation. If all of her credentials seemed satisfactory, then the job was secure. She didn't feel she had any reason to worry, as she was confident about her expertise in engineering... but her lack of knowledge about spacecraft was a severe handicap, unless they were modeled similarly to the airships she crafted. Either way, Pandora nodded to Will and stood up, gathering all of her papers and photographs back into their respective sleeves in her folder. Closing the folder and gently sandwiching it between some of her equipment in her toolbox, she snapped the lid of the compartment shut and accepted Will's handshake, grinning genially.

"It was a pleasure meetin' y', sir," Pandora said in a tone she hoped came across as professional. She departed the scene, retrieving her rifle from the bar's storage, and sighed to herself as she finished strapping the firearm to her back. Now that she was outside, she supposed she could go do some sightseeing and observe some of the spacecrafts parked at the bay. If she could memorize the specifics and ask the crewmen about the technology behind the ships, she assumed this would help her in the long run.

Captain Conner

Will completed several other interviews with interested party's, but wrapped it up a couple of hours later. Passing by the Onyx Armor and Arms store, William put two orders in for himself after checking on what they had available.

Reaching the ship, he made his way to the lounge, where Ephrael had taken Jaes after setting him up in one of the bunk rooms.

Waving Jaes to stay seated, Will made his way over to where his first officer sat. "Well I have a list here Eph lets call em."



Celine 'Elf' Walker

After forgiving Rocky, retrieving her bag from the lockers and supervising the loading of the supplies into the 'Thrill''s secondary cargo bay and freezer, which had taken the best of two hours, Elf was standing sweaty and grimy at the main hatch letting the last of Rocky's loading drones and crew out.


Johnny 'Weaves' Weaver

As he trawled the local net, Johnny was alerted by a small beep that he had an email. picking up his PDA and opening it he was greeted by a video message from Ephrael.

"Mr Weaver, Captain Conner would like to extend a contract offer to you. If you would like to come down to Bay 25 to look it over." The black and white furred, red headed hybrid said.


Rekk Bsquottic Miquelliosk

Rekk had gotten lucky with the the blond fox, who had happily chatted and poured a few free drinks for him. He was on the verge of getting her contacts when his PDA chimed, and when he activated it Ephrael appeared and gave a similar message as Johnny's.


Theodore Ambrosius

Theo was waiting at the Marble Lodgings, going through an electronic medical book, when the front desk called and sent a message to the room's comms from Ephrael.... 


Pandora Amelia Rosendahl

Pandora had spent the last two hours constructively, getting both descriptions and comments from the crews and loaders all over the docks, as well schematics from the closest net cafe of most of the ships in docks at the moment.

She was just getting a bite to eat from a food stand when her PDA beeped with Eph's message.

Johnny blinked. He'd got it? Even after the shambles he'd made of it? "Yes! Rock on!"

He suddenly realised he was standing up and shouting. And that all his classmates were staring at him. Along with everyone else in the cafe; even down to the cook, who was peering through the little window. He flushed bright red, and sat down again, quickly, covering his face with his hands until it stopped burning quite so much.

He then looked up the location of Bay 25, tracked out a map, and dropped a reply to Ephrael (three words: "On my way.") before packing up his things and heading for Bay 25.

On his way out of the room, he had a sudden bright idea, and stopped by the group of his classmates, tapping the one who had been most effusive about using his faked creds on the shoulder. Speaking quietly, he said "I'm just on my way to the Thrill to see the contract they offered me, but I noticed that the Inferno is looking for some crew. If you don't get a call, you might want to head over that way and ask them. The captain is a bit unusual in build, but from what I've looked up, he's straight dealing, doesn't do wrong by his crew. I'll flick you an infodump."

The classmate grinned back. "Really? Congratulations! And thanks for the hint!"

Johnny smiled, all innocence, replied "You're entirely welcome. Good luck!", and strode out.



... chuckling evilly to himself all the way over to Bay 25. After all, if they hadn't learnt by now his penchant for practical jokes...

Jaes sat back, watching in silence as William called the others. He wasn't used to having a break while there was still day left. It felt wrong for him somehow to not do anything and started to tap his feet in anticipation.

"Is there anything I can do?" Jaes asked. "I do not want to feel like a burden."

Rekk's third drink poured down his gullet and he grinned at the foxgirl. "So, would it be outta line for me to ask what a pretty girl like you's doing workin' a dive like this?" He transferred the credits for another drink, "Or do you hear that one too much?" He tried desperately to ignore the beep of his PDA, hoping to keep the conversation going just long... Enough... To...
"Hey, I think you have a message." The fox girl pointed out. Cursing mentally, Rekk checked the message. "Oh hey, I've heard of that ship! You better get going, I hear the captain's supposed to be a real hardass." Seeing the look on Rekk's face she laughed, "Catch you next time you're in port then, huh?" Grousing, Rekk pushed himself out of his seat and sighed.
"Righ' then, 'til then lovely." He turned around and skittered away, taking a drag at his envirotank as he walked out the door.
Captain, I mos' cer'ainly hope this contra's impressive. I mean full denta', petty cash for hookers an' the contra' isself fringed en fraggen' GOLD.

After watching the last of Rocky's crew leave Celine found the nearest intercom. Eph had let her peek at the suit before the supplies arrived. It was very pink but would fit and at this point was the best choice she had. Celine had transferred the payment to the ship's account and was now the owner of a kitty decorated suit. But she needed a few enhancements to make it equivalent to the suit she lost. A shopping trip was in order. Using the intercom she reported to the bridge.

"Captain. The supplies are stowed. Is there anything else for me to do? If not may I leave the ship on a little shopping expedition? I'll need a few things for myself before we depart."

A while after her meeting with Captain Will, Pandora Rosendahl stood in front of an obnoxiously colored, cheery food stand, awaiting her order. One of the many posters mounted beside the establishment was emblazoned with a few slogans in a universally-recognized alien language, advertising a confection similar to what humans would call a hot dog. The vendor behind the stand - a strange, juvenile, scaly abomination probably working its way through college by peddling unhealthy treats - was rummaging through an oven packed with the sausages, methodically impaling one of the meaty weiners on the end of a long poker. The alien wrapped the unappealing sausage-on-a-stick in a pastel-colored paper used to absorb the hefty amount of grease marinading the concoction, then offered it to Pandora wordlessly. Filled with an almost childlike enthusiasm, she reached into her pocket and unearthed a sizeable amount of cash, starting to count it. Suddenly, her bright expression transformed into something uncharacteristically crestfallen.

"Yeah, uh, I don' think I 'ave any o' tha' money y' need," Pandora said to the food vendor, rustling the currency in her palm, counting the coins with an index finger. "See, y'r askin' f'r somethin' else entirely. D' y' take credit 'r somethin'? I'm real 'ungry, an' I could use somethin' t' eat..."

The food vendor narrowed its eyes and jabbed its tentacle-like appendage toward a poster tacked on the wall of the stand. Pandora read it, as instructed: written in several different languages, one of which she could eligibly decipher, was something along the lines of We do not accept credit. Pandora scowled in disappointment and returned to her bartering, steadfastly ignoring the small congregation of people clustering behind her.

"'Ey, look. Can't y' do a gal a favor? I'm starvin', pal, an' I'm not in a good mood. I c'n pay y' off, I swear, y' can take somethin' o' mine as insurance..."

Before Pandora could finish her plea, a sudden beeping from her PDA interrupted her. Pandora stopped, clamping her mouth shut, and reached for the device, unhooking it from her belt and pressing a button on the screen to activate it and highlight the newly-received message. She listened to the recording with increased enthusiasm, starting to wonder if it meant her application for the job had been accepted. Grinning, Pandora pocketed her PDA and hastily finished haggling with the vendor (she ended up giving him almost all of her incompatible cash and a lucky rabbit's foot that was worth 100 dollars on his home planet). With the hot dog-on-a-stick in hand, Pandora departed for the Thrill of the Chase.

Bay 25 'Thrill of the Chase''s lounge

William looked over at Jaes "Not much to be done right now Kid, If you like, Eph can go over your contract with you now if you want. I'm just heading down to the main hatch to wait for the rest."

As he was heading to the central lifts and ladders Celine called over the intercom. "Sure thing Celine,  nothing left here for the moment, go have fun."

Forgoing the lift and using the down ladder, Will slid down the rails to the cargo deck. Once down he wandered into the refrigerated section and grabbed a cool soft drink, from one of the slabs there. Undoing the lid he headed to the massive main airlock/Cargo doors.

This should be interesting in the least Will thought as he waited.

Johnny looked up as his stop was announced, flipped his PDA away (he'd finish cooking up that infodump later; he had some ideas about fake Net-Cyc entries he wanted to work on the skin of, so they looked real), skipped off the transport unit, dodged past a couple of pedestrians, and screeched to a halt, just around the corner from Bay 25. He then paused, cause his breath, checked he had everything put away, straightened his jacket...

... and sauntered casually round the corner, up to Bay 25. He paused outside, ran one eye over his attire again, just to be sure, in the reflection in the polished surface of the hatch (was that a knuckle print, at eye-height?) before tapping the comms buzzer beside it.

He ran over what he was going to say, one more time, in his head. "Weaver here, to see the contract offer." Yes, that should do it. Simple, and to the point.

... He couldn't mess this up. Seriously.

Instead of the flatscreen built into the intercom changing from the ships logo to someone answering, there was a hum and a holographic figure appeared in the air in front of Johnny. She was blond, transparent, and dressed in armor and fur and looked very much like the Valkyrie of Norse legends.

"Hello Mister Weaver! I'm Nova, the ships' AI nice to meet you!" Nova did a circle around Weaver, the wings on her back flapping as flying. "The Captain is in the main hold. I'll crack the doors for you!" With that the hologram blinked off, and the massive hatch lifted open.

Will had the lemon flavored drink up to his mouth, as the door finished opening with a massive thud. Finishing off the mouthful he waved Johnny over.

Johnny blinked. The AI might have started from the Valkyries, but unless he missed his guess, none of the originals had had such... abbreviated armour. He recalled something about "full plate", and while the armour in front of him was full, it wasn't actually covering anything like as much as he'd expect. More sort of supporting, and defining.

And emphasising. Definitely emphasising.

In fact, it was more sort of a fur-lined steel bikini than actual armour. And a fairly skimpy one, at that. Well... at least, skimpy for what it contained. Although "contained" wasn't quite right - "outlined" might be a more accurate description.

She blinked out before he could utter a word of thanks, and he stood, slightly bemused, watching the hatch open.

An outfit like that - and an avatar like that - suggested that the AI in question either had a fetish, or a twisted sense of humour. Well, the other alternative was that it was just flat out crazy, but he doubted that the Thrill's captain would stick with a sick AI, which left a significant sum of money spent on things that worked, but didn't look showy. Which meant there was a lot more to the Thrill than was publicly available. Which would be interesting to figure out.

And, if he was right about that AI, and the sense of humour, it - she - might well be interested in helping him with a few, ah, "projects" he had in mind. Like the info dump...

The thump of the door brought him back to his senses, and he sauntered semi-casually towards the Captain. As he arrived, he nodded. "Qu-, ah, Ephrael said you had a contract offer, sir?"

Thrill of the Chase' Main Cargo Hold

"Thanks for coming Mr Weaver! Yes, I am offering a slot to you, but we're just going to wait here for a bit and see if we can't get a few of the others I've extended an offer to, to show up, so we can get this done in one batch. Call me lazy but I prefer to do this once."

Johnny nodded. "Fair enough. I'll sort out some paperwork while I wait, then."

He found a place to sit, flipped out his PDA, and set up the holographic workspace. He then started to slice together parts of the Network Encyclopaedia - articles of which he either took mostly straight, editing merely important paragraphs, or, less frequently, made up out of the whole cloth; some verifiable truth made the unverifiable parts seem more acceptable, after all - docking reports, a job description, profiles of Dante and the other crew on the Inferno - suitably edited, so as to keep the surprise, at least until after the ship left port - and various other sources of information.

Moving the parts into a container, he arranged them carefully, linking the reports into the articles, setting up the articles to look like they were still on the core NetCyc access, filtering parts of the images, and generally making the collection of half-truths look like it was the genuine article. After all, he'd done this a few times before; never quite to this extent, admittedly, but it was in a good cause.

Now if he could get this just right, it'd carry a packet requesting that the ship footage of the Inferno's internal cameras be forwarded to him, afterwards. He just needed to get it set up so only the Inferno itself could see the request...

Pandora finished up the remainder of her grease-lathered sausage and discarded the stick in a conveniently-placed waste disposal nearby. After inspecting her appearance and making herself look as presentable as possible, Pandora turned confidently toward the Thrill of the Chase and took a deep breath, preparing herself. She inclined her head to the side, the other side, and back, stretching the tendons of her neck, before reconfiguring herself and striding up to the main hatch. Standing in front of it was Captain Will, who she recognized - he was accompanied by another man she didn't know.

Pandora cleared her throat to both call attention to herself and remove the nervous ball of muscle that had culminated in her throat. Trying very hard not to let her composure falter, Pandora spoke up, "'ello, Captain, sir. I got a message earlier on my PDA tellin' me t' come 'ere..."

Thrill of the Chase' Main Cargo Hold

'Ze Pink, she iz back!' William grinned as Pandora entered the cavernous main cargo hold. "Hello again Miss Rosendahl!, welcome to the 'Thrill'. We're just waiting for a few others to show up before we get the show on the road." Will waved a hand at Johnny "This is Mister Weaver, he's here for our extra pilot slot."

As Pandora appeared round the corner, before she'd even entered the cargo hold, Johnny had raised his eyes to watch her come in; he'd been alerted by her footsteps, and hit save - and then froze mid-keypress, as she hove into sight.

He blinked. Either she'd walked under a ladder where someone was painting the ceiling of the corridor - although he couldn't for the life of him remember any area of the station that had been... inflicted with anything in such a virulent shade - or she really, really liked pink. As she drew nearer, up to - and then through - the hatch, he realised she was one of the people they were waiting on. His face blanked as he attempted to fit this pink vision into any of the job spaces he could think of on-board the Thrill. And failed.

In fact, as she drew nearer, he wished he'd worn his aviators sunglasses (still called that, although for the most part, starlight or engine exhaust was a more usual requirement for them) instead of leaving them in his pocket. And now, of course, it'd be rude to pull them out...

He raised one eyebrow at the introduction, then waved shut the holographic interface, flipping the PDA closed with his left hand, and rose to his feet, extending one hand, and pasting what he hoped looked like a friendly smile on his face - and not a wince at the bright colours.

"Miss Rosendahl." He nodded.


He was even mostly successful. Mostly.

"Well..." said Jaes as he looked at Eph. "I might as well do as Captain Will suggested. What can you tell me about my contract? Also... what would my job be? I have not worked in the starry blackness before. Will I need to be taught on how to use these mash-ings?"

'Thrill of the Chase' Lounge

Ephrael walked over to the chair Jaes was in and sat on the arm. "Well basically Jaes, your job here on the 'Thrill' will mostly be moving heavy items around for us. We do jobs sometimes that we can't use lifting gear, so we'll need your help. But that won't be all, sometimes jobs don't go as... smooth as we like and we have to fight, and you look like you can handle yourself, at least physically, we can teach you how to use guns, suits and stuff. We'll also teach ya how to read and write if ya want, I know ya a bit weak there..."

After that Ephrael went on to explain the contract, showing Jaes the text of it on his PDA, which was mostly legal requirements, and the pay terms. "We pay you 2k credits up front so you can pick up any basic equipment you might need, like a suit and/or a weapon. We go on three month cruises and upon completion we pay out 15k credits plus a full share of any jobs and salvage. You can go out with us again or you can call it quits then." Eph smiled at the feline "Do you have any other questions?"

Pandora took the reactions to her color scheme rather gracefully, fortunately. She was used to the stares directed toward her fluorescent appearance, so she wasn't offended. Pointedly looking at Johnny, she adjusted her goggles and flashed him a generally welcoming grin. "Nice t' meet y', sir," Pandora said, reaching out and taking his proffered hand. She shook it, only to stop and reconsider the captain's words. She blinked over her shoulder. "Wai', does tha' mean I've go' th' job?"

Johnny coughed quietly and politely behind his fist, to draw Pandora's attention back to him.

"I believe that the Captain is waiting, with the intent of offering a contract to each of a number of applicants. I suspect that the contracts will all be more or less identical; hence the wait. If you choose to accept the contract, then yes, the job - whichever it is - will be yours for the asking." He smiled disarmingly. "I'm guessing, but it's a reasonable guess. I'd also suggest we're still waiting, since he mentioned a few others - although none by name." He shrugged. "Yet."

"While we're waiting, do you mind if I ask what you were hiring on as? As the Captain said, I'm looking for a pilot's slot, which leaves a lot of other jobs you could be doing." He raised his eyebrows enquiringly, and awaited the response from the colourful lady in front of him.

"Oh, yes." He added. "And it's a pleasure to meet you, too." He flushed slightly, then muttered something about being brought up right by his parents...

 Bay 25

Ambrose pushed his glasses up his nose, and picked up his suitcase. This seemed to be the Thrill of the Chase, and with luck, where he'd be able to fake being a medical professional long enough to get to the next port, preferably with some cash in hand too.

He swallowed, hefting both his suitcases. One was filled with clothing, and the other with whatever books he could steal from the store. Another reason to get off the station asap.

He headed for the boarding ramp.

'Thrill of the Chase' Lounge

Jaes didn't know why they referred to a 'k' as 1000, but he was able to guess it's meaning. Jaes looked at the floor as Ephrael hinted at his fighting prowess. It was true that he killed his master in an act of self defense, but he wasn't ready to tell anyone yet. "Those guns are the magic bows, right? My father taught me basic archery. That was before I..." Jaes nervously tugged on the sash that covered his slave marking. "Before I went into service... But yes, I would be willing to learn what you are able to teach. I am kinda embarrassed not knowing how to read. I don't suppose I could be taught elven as well? I grew up speaking it as well as the human tongue, but I have not had the chance to read or write either of them."

Jaesguamarj wondered idly if Ephrael's race started like his own, but pushed the thought aside since he didn't know if the question would seem offensive. "So... About the gun and suit... Since I have these 2000 credits, I can spend it on both? How do I spend these and get those items?"

'Thrill of the Chase' Main Cargo Hold

"Well I wouldn't offer a contract if you didn't Miss Rosendahl" Will smiled.

Spotting Theo at the doors Will waved in greeting. "Glad you're here Dr Ambrose! We've just waiting on one more person to show up and I'll take you all upstairs to go over contracts."

"This is Mr Weaver and Miss Rosendahl." William said wave a hand at the two.


'Thrill of the Chase' Lounge

Ephrael arched an eyebrow at Jaes "Where you come from guns may seem magical but they don't really operate the same, Nova our AI... oh you probably don't know what an AI is." Eph looked over to one of the cameras mounted in the corners of the lounge, "Nova can you come here please" the Devil asked. No sooner than she'd finished than the holographic figure appeared, hovering before the two.

"Hi there!" The winged battle maiden said waving at Jaes, she floated over and sat on Ephrael's shoulder. "Jaes this is Nova, shes sort of like the ships brain. She also can teach you all sorts of things you want to know,  how to write in your native language I'm not sure. Watch out though she likes to play tricks on people." The AI frowned at Eph as the hybrid giggled.

"That's not fair Eph" Nova said pouting "I don't do it to everyone..."

"As for the suit and guns Jaes, I'll take you shopping when everyone has got here and looked over the contracts." Ephrael picked up a PDA pen and handed it to the feline. "Now just here is where you have to sign your name or make a mark to make you part of the crew...,if you want to join us that is."

Jaes looked at the hologram with a confused and curious look. He waved his hands above and below the apparition to figure out how it was staying up. He leaned in to sniff Nova, but when he couldn't find any scent, he poked his finger through the hologram. Jaes threw his hand back instantaneously then gingerly tried to poke it again.

"Are you a living illusion?" asked a bewildered Jaesguamarj. "Or are you the ghost of the ship? Or maybe you should just tell me what this 'AI' means..."

'Thrill of the Chase' Lounge

Nova laughed as Jaes poked her the first time. "Hehehe that tickles!!" When he went to poke her again, she jumped off Ephrael's shoulder and danced her way up Jaes' arm.

"AI like myself are nonliving artificial intelligences...I'm a machine who can think as fast or faster than a human. As to how you can see me, well there are tiny projectors all over the ship that I can appear through." The AI said as she sat down.

Pandora hummed thoughtfully, suddenly becoming extremely self-conscious about her manners, even amidst her excitement. "No' a pilot," she explained to Johnny, "I'm signin' up as th' engineer." For a moment, she contemplated showing her self-compiled portfolio of aviation accomplishments again, but decided to be more careful regarding who should see it. She didn't want to wave it around in people's faces. "Inventin' things, mostly."

Pandora really needed to remind people to not talk to her simultaneously, because she was having a difficult time with addressing each speaker individually, without being rude. When Captain Will spoke up, Pandora immediately blanked as she registered the words he had spoke, and suddenly that emptiness replacing her coherent thoughts was filled with triumph. "Thank y', sir!" she exclaimed, taking Will's hand and shaking it. "I -"

Oh, another person. Wonderful. Stopping her enthusiastic rant, Pandora spun around attentively, straightening her body and trying to look professional. She realized the sudden lapse in her composure, earlier, and nearly cursed. "N-Nice t' meet y'," Pandora said to Ambrose, trying to keep the embarrassment out of her face. However, her cheeks were colored with a pink that matched her overall color scheme. She kept her introduction short, for then, casting a momentarily apologetic look at Johnny, as though she was saying she was sorry for her earlier rudeness. Pandora usually forgot transgressions easily, but she certainly felt guilty when she left a bad impression on somebody.

Johnny smiled at the apologetic look, and shrugged a "what can you do?" look up at Pandora, before turning to cast his eye over the new joiner. He'd noticed the short, furry arrival standing at the doors, but he'd also learned long since that people tended to get nervous if you reacted before they got closer, all the time.

Besides, if you acted like you hadn't seen them, you sometimes learned things...

The doctor, if he'd heard correctly, was a long-hair, with startlingly green eyes set in a typical raccoon mask. The trousers and lab coat certainly made him look the part - only doctors or people who hadn't had their first space drill tended to dress like that; it made it much harder to get into a suit, at least in Johnny's opinion. Despite that, he seemed like a friendly sort.

Johnny held out a hand. "Hiya, Doc. As Miss Rosendahl here says, she's looking at the engineer's position, I'm thinking about being a spare pilot, and you, I'd guess, are looking to be the ship's doctor." He grinned. "Nice coat, by the way."

"AI... Artificial Intelligence." said Jaesguamarj thoughtfully. "Oh, well that makes sense even though I do not know how it works."

"Oh! The contract! I must sign it still..." Not knowing how to write his name, he drew what seemed like a simplified family crest. "I will use my mark for now until Nova is able to teach me to write. So, when do we get to meet the other crew members?"

Celine, having showered and changed after the sweaty work of settling the supplies, gave one last look over her now-meager possessions. Muttering once again about the forklift operator who had accidentally destroyed a lot of what she had owned with an ill-timed swerve she added an extra curse for playful captains who tended to pinch people while they were working. Making a quick list of the most immediate items she needed to replace she headed out. When she got to the cargo bay airlock she found it full.

Rekk double checked the dock. "Yeh', this's th' place." Wiping a small trail of alcohol from his lips and taking another drag at his enviro to cover the smell on his breath he made his way over to the doors and peered around the cargo hold, eventually noticing the knot of people off to the side.
"We're just waiting for one more person to show up..."
"No' anymore y'ent." Rekk strode over into the group, trying and failing not to outright loom over the others present. "Rekk Bsquottic Miquelliosk, pleaset'meecha."

"Oh, a pleasure to meet you, sir." Ambrose said, giving a somewhat stressed-out looking smile. Nothing that couldn't be portrayed as anything but a first-time crewman about to embark upon his first trip. He shook the man's hand.
"And thank you, um, it is serviceable, I suppose. My last one, unfortunately, was lost along with a great deal of my personal effects due to a luggage routing error."

'Thrill of the Chase' Lounge

Nova spoke up before Ephrael could "I think everyone has arrived, they're all at the main hatch. So I guess it won't be too long..."


'Thrill of the Chase' Main Cargo Hold

"Outstanding! Everyone's here" Will said as Rekk appeared.  "Well, let's get this show on the road. If you'd all like to follow me to the ships lounge, we can discuss the contracts."  Will stopped as Celine made her way over from the main lift. "Folks, this is Celine Walker, she's the ships QM and 3IC, you'll get to speak to her more later as I believe she's going shopping."

Johnny noticed the people appear at either entrance of the cargo bay, but left his eyes on the short furry doctor in front of him. Shaking hands, he raised one eyebrow, briefly, at the comments about lost luggage, but forbore any comments; two bags was a lot to be carrying around, in his experience, but perhaps things were different outside of college.

And at that point, Rekk wandered in, and William gathered them all up. Johnny nodded at Rekk, noting the breathing apparatus, and blinked, then waved briefly at the diminutive quartermaster, before turning back to the doctor, waving one hand at the two new-looking bags. "Did you want a hand with those? Since we're heading in the same direction and all..."

Theo blinked, and handed the left bag to Johnny. "I would be most grateful." he said, following William towards the lounge area of the ship.
"Shall we follow the good captain, then?"

Celine gave the rest of the crew a quick once over as the Captain introduced her. A pretty standard mix such as you'd see on most ships. At least until she realized that the large multi-legged thing was alive and not a piece of equipment. He/she/either/neither/both introduced him/her/them/itself as Rekk. She smiled and nodded amiably at everyone with a general "Pleased to meet you," to the group as she walked over to the large alien. I'm not familiar with your species, Mr. Miquelliosk. If you have any special needs, such as dietary, you had better let me know so that I can make adjustments to our supplies before we leave the station."

"Ah... Now I will get to meet everyone." said Jaes. "You will still show me how to get the gun and suit, right? Also... Is there anything else I may need to bring? I do not think I can hunt for my food out in the stars."

'Thrill of the Chase' Lounge


"Just your personal belongings hun, we supply all the food you'll need." Ephrael said to Jaes "And yes I'll show you how to get some equipment."


'Thrill of the Chase' Main Cargo Hold

Capt. Conner herded his potential crew to the main lift after Rekk had passed his medical file over to Celine's PDA. Waiting until everyone was inside he pressed the button for B deck. "As you can see the 'Thrill' is a bit larger than a UNSF Storm class Frigate, but about 100m shorter than an average size long hauler cargo ship. We're 255m long, 45m wide and 65m tall. We've got an upgraded Diason-Gellar fusion power plant for sub light and FTL, now like a Storm we've got a Binar Systems Jumpdrive, though we tend to use the system Jumpgates like most commercial traffic" Will stopped as the lift reached B deck. Leading them to the bow, they passed through the ships crew quarters and messhall.

Reaching the Lounge situated at bow of B deck, Will waved them all to seats as Eph grinned and waved. "I'm sure you all know Ephrael here, and this is Jaesguamarj" the blond Human said waving a hand at Jaes "But we've taken to calling him Jaes for simplicity."

"Do you have any questions before we get started?" He asked.

Johnny parked the heavy bag gratefully beside one of the seats, and slipped gracefully into it. He'd picked up most of the "official" stats for the ship during his convalescence, so he'd mostly been listening for differences from the listed data.

He nodded at Ephrael and Jaes, turning slightly red as he recalled the earlier question via Captain Connor, and returned his attention to the captain.

At the query, he glanced around at the others, then back at the captain, and shook his head. "Not at this stage, Captain. Although I'll not speak for anyone else."

Pandora was leaning against the wall of the Lounge, her arms folded and her toolbox dangling carelessly from her fingers. She listened carefully and contemplated her options: she wanted to ask the captain about her inexperience in spacecraft, but this wasn't something she was comfortable with freely admitting in front of a crew dependent on a fluidly-organized ship. At the worst, she'd take the captain aside and ask him personally, if she had the opportunity. For then, Pandora produced a bright pink nail filer from within one of the pockets of her overalls and started casually sprucing up her fingers.

"Eh. Die' wise, nothin' t'speshel. Trah keep 'ny mercury or sulfur ou'a it, high min'ral content stuff's grand, an' still movin's a plus. I'll jess senn'ja th'files." He punched a few quick buttons on his PDA and sent it over, remembering at the last second "Ah, an' add a bit'a this to m'room's environment settin's." He thumped the side of the canister on his back twice and grinned, sending over the specs for that too. "Ssso..." The walker added as he followed the rest of the group, winking at Celine, "What'sss a lov'leh thin' lahk you doin' onnah shi' li'thisss?"

A few minutes of being shameless around Celine saved Rekk from utter boredom. "Yeh, one. Whowe allowe' t'call away fr' othe' shi' if w'got questions later?"

'Thrill of the Chase' Lounge


Will turned to Rekk as he posed his question. "Both Ephrael and myself will be available for anything you need to get you up to speed, as well as Nova, our AI" The AI in question waved from Ephrael's shoulder. "She's got a full training program and thanks to the latest update we have is fully accredited with any UNSC Trade School, University, Collage or Academy."

Will then spent the next half hour going over the contract with everyone. "As soon as you sign the dotted line on those files we can send em off to the register, and then we can see about getting you into your berths and sort out duty rosters and the like."

"We'll be here for another two days to get squared away and fully loaded. So if you want to have a day or so to think about it that's ok."

Celine glanced over the files and added a few additional items to her shopping list. When Rekk began flirting she laughed at him, which seemed to encourage his behavior. As the rest of the crew moved away toward the lift she headed outside. She had familiarized herself with the ship earlier while waiting for the supplies with Eph and Nova's assistance. For now there were new supplies to get and her own shopping to do.

Johnny glanced over the contract once more, just confirming that he hadn't missed anything.

"I reckon you've probably answered all my questions, so far. Anything else isn't going to show up for a couple of weeks, probably. We get a couple hours to go get stuff, at some point in the next couple of days. Other than that, it's all kosher by me."

He flicked through to the last page, and put his pen to the line. "Just like so. Sign my life away." A quick scrawl, and he flipped the stack shut, put the pen away, and leaned back.

Pandora examined her contract somewhat skeptically, trying to decipher the legalese and other technical jargon scribed on that piece of paper. She thumbed through a few pages that seemed to be a list of formalities, occasionally scanning over something interesting or relevant (such as occupational hazards) before she stopped at the dotted line indicated. She reached into her pocket and removed a bright pink pen capped with a fuzzy tuft of plastic fur, using it to scrawl her signature along the line. The ink was a florescent shade of pink, contrasting the otherwise deceptively professional appearance of the writing. Once she was finished, she tweaked the obnoxiously adorable mascot at the end of her pen to retract the tip and then tucked it back in her pocket.

Kevin still hadn't said much, especially with a pen in his mouth as he paged through the contract.  He wasn't actually reading the whole thing, he was just looking for key words and reading anything vaguely interesting.  In the end this meant that he read nothing and signed the contract anyways.

"I think that will do me.  Can't think of anything I wanted to ask."  All he had to do now was shop around a bit for some more extended trip stuff.

Lucien Grendel had chosen a quiet corner to go over his contract in, going over the major details, and paying particularly close attention to the fine print.  Once he finished reading and satisfied, he took a pen from the case on his left leg, and signed the contract.  He took extra  a few extra moments to observe the others who were also signing on.  Once his interest was sated, he then got up, doing his best to remain silent, handed over the paper to Will. Lucien went back to his corner, and waited for the others to finish up, he figured now would probably be the best time for introductions.

Captain Conner received the completed e-contracts, while Ephrael filtered through the new crew and picked up the physical ones.

"Outstanding! Good to have you all signed up. Well lets get everyone into a berth and give you the grand tour!" Will said as Eph headed off to the cockpit to register the new members with the authorities.

Leading the group into the Port side passage which had five room on either side, Will stopped half way "We've got enough rooms that no one will need to share...Unless you want to...I'm in Room 2 on this side , and Ephrael is in Room 12 in the Starboard corridor. Both of those are the closest to the Bridge for obvious reasons. Mister Weaver you might want to take Rooms 1 or 11 as you're the 3rd Pilot." The Captain looked over to Dr Ambrose "Doc you've got a choice of one of these rooms or one down by the Medbay. Everyone else grab whichever, once we get the tour out of the way those of you that didn't bring your gear aboard can grab it, oh and since most of you don't have personal weapons or suits I think you'll be spending some of your sign on credits on those, so a little shopping trip is called for.

"Moving on.." Will lead them into the Mess Hall and kitchen. "As you can guess this is the Mess Hall, QM Walker will be our main cook but if you feel the need for a snack its open anytime, just keep the place clean and make sure you pack up after."

Again taking the Port side corridor, he stopped at a door on the inner side and lead them through into the bridge. As the all filtered in Ephrael waved from one of the consoles on the far wall. "Everyone's registered now." She said to Will who grinned and thanked her. The Bridge was crammed full of different screens and displays with a chair for each station. What was odd was the pilots chair stood near the front, but in contrast to the rest of the room had no displays or controls other than a joystick and a throttle on the armrests and a pair of pedals. Nova grinned impishly from Eph's shoulder.

The rest of the B Deck was the comm room, Medbay, water storage and the Hydroponics Bay.

Leading them back to the main lift, Will took them up to A Deck. "A is our shuttle launch and recovery Deck. "Mister Miquelliosk, you're certified on the DSM-67 Wrath right?" Conner said as he shepherded the group to the first bulky but lethal looking Shuttle.

"Both of the shuttles we bought from the Army as surplus, and while they retain the chin and top mounted Autocannons the missile package and mounts were removed. But we've modded the engines and the cargo bay for our heavier hauling needs."

After letting the crew crawl around and inside the Shuttle Will took them down to C Deck. "C Deck is our Engineering Deck and Criticals Storage, Miss Rosendahl, You're practically going to live here." Most of the deck was given over to the the room containing the Fusion Reactor and Jumpdrive unit. But the rest had spare parts, oxygen tanks, suit storage-armory and firing range, and a few other essentials.

Next was D and E Decks, both were essentially the same deck at the bow of the ship forming the main cargo bay, where at the aft half D was the secondary bay where food and such were stored, and the aft half of E was the heavy lifting equipment storage and a few ground transports.

Standing again just inside the massive main cargo door/airlock Captain Conner faced his crew. "Well people that's the Grand tour, hope you found it informative. I'll take any extra questions you've got and then you can grab your gear and bring it back and/or do some shopping."






**OOC for anyone interested the shuttles look like the Dropship the Marines from the movie/game Aliens had***

Lucien greeted the group as a whole, figuring that getting a feel for who he'd be working with would be a rather intelligent idea.  speaking to his fellow tourers, he said "well, i'm sorry i missed any introductions earlier.  I'm Lucien Grendel, but most people call me 'Black Jack' from what i've been told, i'll be working security and possibly scout duties... how about yourselves?"

After awaiting the replies of the others, Lucien approached the captain and asked "sir, do you know anywhere i'd have access to something a little heavier than my pistol? i don't know if we'll run into trouble or not out there, but after a few years of bounty hunting i think something like a laser rifle would be a rather worthwhile investment.  Especially if i'm going to be running ops as either a point man, or security"

Kevin continued his theme of not asking too many questions.  Or any questions really.  He figured he would figure out what he wanted to ask eventually.  Usually once he knew the question.  He was formulating a plan at this point, mostly what to buy with his advance.  An EVA suit, some real cloths, maybe a few additional tools.  Maybe a gun.  He always wanted a gun, but university frowned upon guns on campus.

If no one asked any interesting questions in the next 5 minutes he would go about carrying out his shopping list.

As they passed through the bridge, Johnny blinked, paused, then raised one eyebrow expressively at the pilot's chair. "Is that-" he started, then stopped. Shaking his head, he waved the Captain onwards.

Once they reached the main cargo bay, he glanced around at the others, seeing if anyone else had any, then back to Conner. Pointing one thumb back over his shoulder at the Bridge, he commented "I dread to think how much you spent on that holographic rig; I've heard of them, but I didn't think they were available, outside of the military. Have you got a training setup somewhere? For that, and for the shuttles?"

Will turned to Lucien, "There's a few places nearby, Rocky's, Onyx Armor and Arms, and Edge. All of those should have some basic and better gear." Will then turned to Johnny.

"Mr Weaver, I spent nothing but the the cost of the 'Thrill', the CSV-M349 was the testbed for the rig. As for training we have a flight module for the shuttles an a mockup rig for the pilots seat in the lounge."


"Well seeing as everyone's gone quiet I'll take that as there are no more questions for the moment...I'll be heading to Onyx, I left an order there and you're free to to follow me but Onyx is a little on the pricey side but it has the best range."

Lucien nodded, added a, "thank you sir." Then set off to go find some new equipment...

He made a quick list of things he'd be needing to purchase on his PDA
(1)Assault Weapon - preferably laser, but if need be something like the AK-201 would work
(2)Weapon attachment: Laser sight for pistol, and some type of enhanced sight for the rifle (if it's available, an under slung shotgun attachment might be a worthwhile investment as well)
(3)Military Grade Combat Harness: storage space for at least 6 spare magazines
(4)Upgraded PDA: midrange with enhanced storage space
(5 and conditional)If under 200, and credits are still available pick up a mid-level tool kit

With list in hand, Lucien first headed back to the room he was renting, and packed everything he owned into a large duffel bag... most of the space was taken up by the EVA suit and helmet.  Once packed, he closed out the renting contract, and headed off in search of some stores that carried what he felt he'd need.  First trying Onyx. 

Pandora saluted Will as a respectful gesture, a slightly exaggerated movement, then quickly occupied herself with preparing a mental inventory of what she considered purchasing. Fortunately, she had a notepad buried in her seemingly bottomless right pocket, nestled beside her obnoxiously fluffy, bubblegum-pink pen, to make organizing a list much easier. Pandora flipped back the cover, thumbing her way through small, crude sketches that were mostly incomplete, tic-tac-toe grids, grocery lists, and other miscellaneous reminders and notes until she reached a blank page. The paper was tinted with a soft, fading gradient of pink that grew stronger as it reached the edges of the paper; the lines on the paper were a darker maroon, and the corner of the paper was decorated with a small, furry rabbit. Pandora hummed and pouted, scrawling a neat number "1" on the first line in a glistening stroke of gel ink.

Beside that, she proceeded with the first item on her list: ammunition, assuming that would not be provided by Will. Come to think of it, he left a lot of requirements ambiguous - she wasn't really sure what she was supposed to get. Either way, Pandora decided to go buy some ammunition and maybe upgrade her gun with the credits that were provided. She liked the aging, but durable firearm, even though it was considered obsolete. Pandora strode out of the Thrill and proceeded toward Onyx. Pricey, yes, but if it promised quality...

Kevin, continuing with his theory that written plans was for losers, went to the shop and started looking around for stuff.  Though he decided to follow the crowd and went to Onyx.

He had a list in his head, a light level 1 suit, the biggest toolkit money can buy, and a shotgun.  That last one was especially important.  He always wanted to buy a shot gun.

((OOC: Going by what is on llearch's page.  If this stuff isn't availble just let me know  :U))

Johnny nodded respectfully to the Captain, then paused. "Ah, are we to be supplied with ammo, or are we expected to supply our own? Either is fine, but I'd hate to get out there and discover we lacked anything, and I'll need to budget for the rounds expended in training - in weight, if nothing else."

After receiving his answer, he sat down and flipped out his PDA to plan where to go and what to get. First things first, he checked his account to see how much he had available. 4284 credits, good. Well, not exactly good, but at least the signing bonus was in. And he still had a valid local travel pass.

Second, he listed the four shops, and pulled them up on a map of the station. Hrm. A quick glance showed him the best path to visit all three as being Rocky's, then Edge, then Onyx; fairly closely grouped, however, meant that if they didn't have what he was after, he could always go back, which was the better plan. A quick thought provided the basis of a list - a weapon or two, long and short range, the best suit he could afford, and probably enough ammo that they'd have to deliver it in a cart. And a tool kit - might as well use it to learn something, while he was out here. Nova would likely have some suggestions about training.

Speaking of which, he flicked a quick message across to Nova, requesting the ship's procedure to tag a room for use; specifically, room 11. Whilst he wasn't eager to meet up with Ephrael one-on-one, after his earlier faux pas, he figured chances were it'd be the best, long term, since he'd be doing his best to learn what he could from, well, the very best. And a little short-term embarrassment could be lived with. Or down.

'Thrill of the Chase' Main Cargo Hold

As the group broke up Captain Conner answered Johnny's question. "We'll supply the ammo, the only things someone new to the crew needs to have is a weapon, a suit, and a change of clothes." He finished, grinning.

Meanwhile Room 11's name plate changed from vacant, to display 'Johnny Weaver', and Nova sped through the ships network and onto Johnny's PDA "Heya Johnny! Just letting you know I fixed the room up for ya! Welcome to the crew.....mwhahahaha" The AI signed of with an evil laugh that wasn't too threatening.



Rocky's Equipment and supply

As the young pilot entered the Man-Mountain Stepped out from behind the counter. "What can I help you with sir?" He rumbled.


Onyx Armor and Arms

After waving Kevin, Pandora and Lucien inside the Obsidian stone archway (Which to have installed in a space station goes to show how wealthy the shop really was) Conner made his way over to the order pickup counter.

More of the black stone adorned the walls and floor, with spotlights and floor lights illuminating racks of rather expensive armor and weapons. But scattered around were more reasonably priced articles.

A Feline hybrid wandered over to the group, "Hi, I'm Daniel can I help you with something?"

Lucien nodded to the feline and brought up a list of weapons he thought he might actually be able to afford, along with the upgrades.  Turning his attention back to feline he said "i'm looking for a few possibilities right now, perhaps you've got something like the 7mm Masker Laser rifle? if not, perhaps a 5mm Jagear?  Along with the rifle, do you anything like an adjustable zoom reflex scope? if not, basic reflex or holo-sight would work... I'm probably going to need an under-slung shotgun for the rifle, so how much does that run? and a laser sight for a 10mm Guardian 2..."

He paused, hoping that the attendant had caught everything he'd said... then decided he'd run through the rest of his list "i'm going to need a military grade combat harness, with at least 6 mags worth of storage capacity, i'm going to need a mid range PDA with enhanced storage space, and depending on the price, i could probably use some enhanced armor and kinetic shielding for my EVA suit"

Rocky's Equipment and Supply: 

Celine had already taken care of the odds and ends she needed to order and was looking over the items in the gun case. "Rocky, can you get a couple of these out for me to try on the range?" she asked, pointing to the Hawk and the Casul. It was only when she didn't hear the thudding of his stone feet against the floor that and looked up that she realized that Rocky was speaking to one of her new crewmates. "Sorry. When you're free," she apologized.

Kevin looked at the feline, "Yes, I am looking for... stuff.  Engineering tools, an EVA suit, and a shotgun.  Just entry level stuff really."

Johnny blinked at the unexpected intrusion to his workspace on his PDA. "Thanks, No..." but she was gone again.

He muttered - under his breath, but fully expecting Nova to pick it up - "I swear, that AI is on speed, or something." Shaking his head to clear it, he packed up, and headed off to strip his locker and go shopping.

* * *

Upon arrival at Rocky's, his half-empty travel bag dangling from his hand, Johnny was glancing around the shop for the terminal, to start his list. Whilst he was still getting his bearings, what appeared to be a section of wall detached itself and moved towards him. Upon it speaking, however, he recovered his bearings. Before he could speak, however, he was interrupted by the short, blue-eyed blonde he recognised as being the Quartermaster from the ship.

Addressing Rocky, he indicated Celine with a nod of his head. "Please, deal with your other customer first." The he grinned. "She outranks me. Besides, I'm just browsing at the moment, so no real rush."

With that, he parked his bag by his foot, fished out his PDA, and started comparing his suggestions and ideas to the list of what was available.

Rocky's Equipment and supply

Pulling his PDA (Which was quite a bit larger than most and probably a bit more sturdier as well) Rocky imputed a few commands. After a few seconds the blast door off to rear of the store labeled 'Test Range' opened.  "Sandy ((Despite what you are all thinking it is actually a human female who's full name is Sandra Dee Robins)) will get our trial models out for ya Elf. Just head on through.

After Celine had headed thought to the back Rocky turned back to Johnny. Do you need a hand or do you just want to browse though our catalog?" He said indicating one of the holo screens.


Onyx Armor and Arms

Grinning Daniel waved Lucien over to one of the counters but turned before following him. "Alexsi can you help out the gentleman? Hes looking for a few basics" Indicating Kevin to a another Feline Hybrid this one also tan furred but blond haired.

"Would you like to follow me?" Alexsi asked Kevin and lead him to a separate counter where he slotted his PDA into the slot provided. "I see you just joined the 'Thrill' I see! So I guess you'll be needing a level 1 or 2 suit, and did I hear you wanted some tools and a shotgun? We have three models of shotguns available here, the M6 pump action for 550, the SLS-15 semi-auto which is 800, and the AA-90 automatic for 1100."

Alexsi pointed to the suit racks just in front of her. "As you can see our only level 1 and 2 suits are lights the 1 for 550 and the 2 for 800. And finally our upgraded and deluxe tool kits are 170 and 800 respectively.


At the other counter Daniel had a Masker Rifle for 2k and a Jegaer AR for 1250 on the counter as well as a few scopes ranging from a 6-12x magnification, 4x, a 3.5x reflex and a 1.5x Reflex scope all which where part of a kit for 200 Creds. Next to this was a harness that fit over a AEVA suit for 25, and Midrange PDA priced at 250. "Sorry sir our suit upgrade kits are our of stock at the moment. IS there anything else you would like to look at?"

Lucien looked over the equipment, he liked the Masker, a lot, and a very big grin came across his face, he said "i'm liking the Masker, the scope kit, the harness and the PDA... i'll be purchasing those in a moment...  is there any chance i could get a partial trade in price on my current EVA suit? i'd like to upgrade to the light level 2, preferably in black... and if you've got an under-slung shotgun for the Masker, i'm a little worried about the laser's notorious lack of stopping power if i find myself in a CQC situation... other than the shotgun, a side mounted torch might come in handy... but besides that, everything looks good"

Onyx Armor and Arms

Kevin thought for a second as the cute lady told him what was available, "Hmm, never believed in doing something half hearted.  Could I get the AA-90 automatic, the deluxe toolkit, and a light level 2 suit."

When Alexsi asked the standard, 'Is there anything else you wanted?' question Kevin could only answer with, "Yes, I wanted to let you know you have lovely eyes."

Johnny glanced at the holo screen, then back up at Rocky. "Well, I was planning on browsing your catalog, then heading on over to Edge and Onyx to compare prices. However, if you're willing to deal with a few opening questions, I'd be happy to take the recommendation." and he indicated the door through which Celine had just left, and grinned.

Settling down to business, he consulted the list in his hand, glanced again at the holo, and went on. "Right. I was after an EVA suit, a medium toolkit, and The Captain suggested I pick up a weapon or two. In terms of the suit, I was thinking something reasonably agile, but preferably with some armour on it - I'm not the best of fighters out there, and you can bet I'd prefer being slightly clumsier to being perforated." He shrugged, deprecatingly, and waved a hand at the holo. "It's a toss-up between the medium level one, and the light level two; while the one gives more armour, the two gives more agility. Being a pilot suggests the mobility might be important, but the agility is useless if you don't live to use it. As for the weapon or weapons, I've had basic training, but nothing more. I hadn't yet done more than glance through them, and was going to see if I could try some out, pick one that fits me. If you have suggestions, however, I'd be happy to entertain them."

He glanced at the PDA again, and scratched his head. "That was all I'd come up with, but if there's something else you think I might find useful to have, it'd be better to know now, rather than two months out. I figure you'd have some idea."


He flipped the PDA shut in a practiced move, and slipped it back into his pocket, gazing up at Rocky.

Rocky's Equipment and supply


'Well, if you're planing on staying out of a fight the Light level two is your best bet...It has slightly more shields than a level one of any of the weights." Rocky lead Johnny over to the weapons case. "Now as for a weapon for a pilot, a lot choose a Guardian 2 and a Hawk SMG, mostly due to the ammo commonality and both are very easy to use and maintain. The Guardian 2 is very reliable and the Hawk can put alot of rounds down range fast, good for keeping peoples heads down. Lets take you out back and have a go with them, to see if you like em, I'll get a  Masker laser pistol as well for a trail too." Rocky with Johnny in tow headed out the back.



Onyx Armor and Arms


Alexsi rang up the bill for Kevin, smirking as she did so at his last comment. "Why thank you, but no discount sorry. I've billed your account for 2700 credits. Would you like your purchases delivered or will you take them now? Oh and don't worry about the suit not being the right size, you're standing on a biometrics scanner."

Over at the other counter Dan looked over the stores inventory screen. "Sorry it seems we're out of the shotgun mods, we'll be getting a delivery tomorrow though. Torches we have at 50 creds. I'll just total up all this for you,
Scopes set for  200, a light level 2 suit in black for 800, harness for 25, PDA for 250 and a Masker Rifle for 2k. That comes to 3325 credits. Do you want me to bill your account?"

Lucien double checked his account, then said "Billing my account would be fine for now, as for transportation, if you wouldn't mind, i think i'd prefer delivery... wouldn't want to scare too many people running around the station in full combat gear... also thank you very much for your time time."  slotting his PDA, Lucien then let the feline go and do his thing to finalize the transaction

When Kevin heard that he was on the biometric scanner he couldn't help but wiggle, see what it did.  He was a tad disappointed to learn that the answer was 'nothing'.

"Ah, I'll just take them now. I kind of want to get back to the Thrill."

He had no real reason for wanting to get back.  Well... maybe to try out his now shooty...

Looking over to the other side of the store, Lucien noted that one of the other crewmen had decided to purchase a shotgun... fully automatic, and looked to be drum fed, then looking back at the Kevin, he wondered if the fellow had any idea what he was getting himself into... standing by his pile of equipment, Lucien said "yo, any chance you've ever fired something that heavy before, from what i've seen of the series, it's normally rather large folk, with massive muscles who tend to be toting around a beast like that"
Lucien grinned, practically from ear to ear

Onyx Armor and Arms

Daniel busied himself arranging for the delivery of Lucien's purchases, while Alexsi packed up Kevin's in their carrying cases.





((OOC woulda posted more but you guys didn't give me much to work on :P))

with his gear being tended to, and the fox seemingly ignoring him, Lucien turned around, and was about to head out, when saw someone else he recognized from his tour of the Thrill.  With a small wave he approached the pink clad female, and through sheer force of will managed to not cringe at the sheer brightness of her color of choice.  Figuring he'd get to know someone on the ship before they started actual work, he put on a pleasant smile, and said to  Pandora, "hello, sorry, that took longer than expected, if i'd have seen you waiting i'd have let you go on ahead... Lucien Grendel." He extended a hand, and added in an apologetic tone, "sorry, i didn't catch your name doing the tour... anyway, i figure i should probably get to know the people i'll be working with."

"Ecksellen', gotta pikkupafew thin's m'sel'..." Rekk ambled away from the rest of the group, shooting an affable grin over his shoulder, "Won' be bu'a few, promise."

Edge

"Oi, Maggie!" Rekk raised one arm as he strolled into the shop, smirking at the angular figure behind the counter. "Ah foun' a berth, go'anything partic'larly 'splodey for m'? Few'ther thin's on the list, but lets start wi'the splodey."

Edge


Maggie, or Marget Anne Fraser to use her full name, a human of African decent, was the the proprietor of Edge.

She looked up from the Jagaer AR she was working on as Rekk entered. "Howdy Rekk! Nothing new for Lostriin sorry..." She made sure there was no one else in the area before continuing "...But I did get my hands on a ARC-120 plasma rifle, haven't been able to override the biometrics tho."

Rocky's Equipment and supply

As the firing range's security door closed behind them Rocky lead Johnny over to a counter, where a drone passed over  the weapons that Johnny was to try out. After signing for the weapons and four clips of ammunition for each Rocky showed 'Weaver' to one of the six firing lanes, which was also right next to where Celine was also being shown her weapons by Sandy.

Celine took the larger of the guns from Sandy. Might as well start at the top and work her way down. Stepping over to the lane she fired, loud booms preceding a neat pattern of very large holes on head and heart of the target. She stepped back and shook her head. "Nice gun but not particularly inconspicuous. I'd never be able to conceal it." She gave it a bit of a longing look. "I do wish I had something like this when I was back home though. Rat hunting would have been easier. The tanners don't pay as much for the hide if you put too many holes in it."

Kevin took his stuff, thanked Alexsi, and headed back to the thrill.  On the Thrill he put up his stuff and... well... Will mentioned something about a firing range on the Thrill, he headed out to ask about that.

Johnny quietly followed Rocky back through the door, over to the counter, and signed for the guns. He then continued on to the firing lane, and picked up the Guardian. He pulled the slide back, checked the chamber was empty and the safety was on and functional, then dry-fired it to check the action before flicking the safety back on, picking up one of the clips and sliding it home. He'd just pulled the slide back again to chamber a round, when the air was split by a series of massive booms, accompanied by equally massive holes in the target one aisle over.

He cocked one eyebrow, checked the safety again and put the gun carefully on the bench, then poked his head around the back of the partition and grinned, briefly, at the size of the weapon in Celine's hand. "Ye gods. I don't think I could hide that unless I were Rocky's size." He glanced down the lane at the target, and whistled. "Nice grouping. I guess the rats are much bigger than I'm used to, though. Any of the rats where I grew up, you hit 'em with that, you'd pick 'em up with a sponge."

With that, he threw her another flashing grin, and ducked back to pick up the pistol again, holding it in a fairly standard two-handed stance and emptying the clip in a slow and methodical - if not brilliantly accurate - manner.

Pandora briefly assessed the feline. The problem with being asked such a specific question was Pandora's inexperience with "advanced" firearms. By all intents and purposes, on her planet, she was an expert - but weapon technology was often limited to flintlock mechanisms or devices considered obsolete and primitive by alien standards. After fidgeting indecisively, Pandora revealed her gun in an nonaggressive motion and laid it flat, as though demonstrating it from all angles, on her palms. It was emptied of all ammunition, so any accidents were definitely out of the question.

"Got somethin' like this...?" she asked. She would have elaborated, but Lucien took that opportunity to introduce himself. Blinking, Pandora looked at him from over her shoulder, then turned to face him. She accepted his proffered hand and shook it gratefully, grinning widely.

"Nice t' meet ya. I'm Pandora Rosendahl... 'pparently I'm gonna be th' shi's engineer. And y'rself?"

Lucien smiled at the warm introduction, he replied in a calm tenor "seems i'll be working security and scouting... bit of a weapons specialist if you will... speaking of which, sorry to seem like i was eavesdropping, but it sounds like you're looking for a new weapon.  Would you like a hand with making a proper selection?"

'Thrill of the Chase'

Ephrael was eating some two minute noodles in the mess hall when Kevin entered from the lounge/accommodation hallway.

Noting he was looking a bit quizzical, and was carrying what looked to be a rifle case she waved him over. "Got a new toy have you?"


Onyx Armor and Arms

William wandered over to Pandora and Lucien having slung the rifle case he was picking up over his shoulder. When Pandora held out her piece he grinned. "An M14! Good choice Miss Rosendahl, the design may be over two hundred years old but you really can't find a more rugged long gun. To be perfectly honest if you just swap out the wooden frame and stock for neoplastic and steel with some mounting rails I think you'll be fine. Mind you getting a backup pistol wouldn't go astray."

At Johnny's complement on her shooting Celine smiled and said "Thanks." At his following comment on rodent size Celine shrugged and tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear. "Depends on what you mean by big. The feral rats aren't as big as the domesticated ones, but they make a nice piece of leather. Now roaches, they aren't good for anything but sled roach racing. Or feeding to the rats."

Deciding against the larger model she set it aside and picked up the second gun.

Thrill - Lounge

Kevin scratches his own ear with his free hand, "Yes... well... I got a new toy.  Big dangerous shooty toy.  The AA-90 auto shotgun type... on a similar note we have a shooting range on board yes?"

'Thrill of the Chase' Mess Hall

"Overcompensating  for something?" Ephrael teased before giggling to show she was joking. "Kevin right? I'll take you downstairs"

The diminutive Tasmanian Devil lead the Arctic Fox down to C Deck and towards the bow. "You had a suit aswell right?" Eph asked as she put her hand on the palm scanner to open the Armory's hatch. "You can store it here, and we also keep personal weapons in here, just for safety reasons. Although if you want to keep a weapon on you that's ok, Theo, one of our old crew never went without his P120 even showered with it."

Inside the Armory Nova projected herself life sized next to Kevin. "What Kind of targets do you want Kev? Ephy can put up paper ones or I can do holograms..."

As Nova chatted with the Fox, Ephrael opened a locker and pulled out some ear protectors, and thinking about it opened her personal weapons locker and pulled out her RG(c)-20 Pistol plus one of the metal blocks it used as ammo.

"Well I don't know about Kevin, Nova but I'll take holos standard spheres please." Eph said as she slotted the block home in the pistol's grip, and handed one of the ear protectors over.

She walked over to one of the four lanes and took up a two handed weaver stance and started plinking at the moving targets Nova projected.

TotC Armory

"Well, I'm mostly compensating for never owning a gun before," He gives a shy grin.

When Nova appeared and ask about a choice of targets he thinks for a moment, ''I'll take what she's having."

Kevin gets some ammo, and ear protectors look like a good idea.  Big shooties are loud.  He puts on the ear protection and, after figuring out how to work the gun, he aims down range at the holosphere and gets ready to pull the trigger for the first time in his life...

After gesturing for Lucien to wait, Pandora looked at William almost skeptically, a pinkish eyebrow (evidence of the thoroughness of her lurid, obnoxious dye job) raised. She rustled the rifle and assessed it owlishly, trying to act as though she knew more about the advanced technology of this galaxy than she actually did. In spite of the fact she was a certified firearms professional back on her planet, she was still painfully inept at understanding the upgrades in this space station. "Y' c'n really do tha'?" she asked, for affirmation. "That'll probably make things a lo' easier 'fr me... do ya need ta borrow it?"

With that issue addressed, Pandora craned her head around to look at her new companion, a satisfied, salacious grin on her face. "I'd love ta. I love shoppin'."

Lucien shrugged, took a bow, arms held low and wide, with his palms up.  He said "well then, it would seem i'm at your disposal... perhaps afterwards we could  get something to eat? it will probably be the last meal we'll be eating on station for a good while.... but that can wait... for now, would you mind tell me a little about yourself miss Rosendahl? and perhaps, if your still shopping here, let me know what your looking for?"

Taking a step forward, Lucien examined the weapon in Pandora's hands, the antiquated rifle was in fact quite formidable, even by modern standards... while making the observations he let out a whistle of admiration and approval at the girl's weapon of choice.

Onyx Armor and Arms


"If you talk to Alexsi or Dan, Miss Rosendahl they'll be able to fix you up with a conversion kit. Shouldn't be too much trouble of an engineer of your skill. Now you two will excuse me I'm gonna get back the the Thrill and stow this baby." Will said patting the rifle case he had acquired.



'Thrill of the Chase'Armory

As Kevin pulled the trigger, the AA-90 clicked instead of the roar that it should make. "Would you like a tutorial Kev?" Nova giggled from behind him. "Accessing model AA-90 Assault Shotgun serial number 995257321-C....Ok Kev have you made sure you have a round chambered? You pull that handle on the right hand side there." The AI said pointing a ghostly finger at the charging handle in question.




......



Outer Edges of the Delphi system

For a moment a section of space was a total void as space normal was, then with a burst of light and radiation a ship appeared, then another and yet more until a fleet was floating in the blackness. All was still for a heartbeat, then smaller fighters jetted out of their mother ships and the unknown fleet lit their drives and headed in system.

"Erm... yes... some help would be nice..."

Kevin fumbles about a little bit, but is hoping that his skills designing mechanical systems will help him figure out this one is short order.  He was a tad embarrassed, but at least he had a cute hologram helping him out.

Johnny grinned at the mess he'd made of the paper target - he'd managed to hit the paper almost all of the time, but only had one or two near the ten-ring. "I guess I need more practice." He hefted the pistol, and thought about it a bit. Turning to Rocky, he asked "I presume you have rigs for carrying this stuff, right? Both on a suit and in open air?" He carefully put the pistol down, the slide still locked back, pointing the barrel downrange (his instructor had been fairly explicit, and quite loud, not to say abusive, when one of his classmates hadn't been careful; Johnny did pay attention, after that) and picked up the SMG. He ran through the usual checklist - the bolt moved, safety was on, pointing in the right direction, everything seems ok, etc - before loading a magazine, setting the selector to single shot, and aiming downrange at a new target.

Restraining the urge to say "watch this!", mostly because he expected to screw things up, he merely concentrated on aiming as best as he was able, and getting some feel of how the gun worked. He fired off half a dozen shots, experimenting with the balance, then flicked to full auto, and fired off a bunch of three to four round bursts - mostly more or less on target for the first round, and moving upwards rapidly, but getting slightly better towards the end.

Finally, he removed the empty magazine, pulled the bolt back to check the chamber was empty, and swapped the SMG for the Masker. Dialing up a new target, he proceeded to pepper it with almost random groups of shots, experimenting with the balance and heft of the laser pistol. Poorly, it must be said - or, while not expertly, at least safely - but not very accurately

Leaving the Masker half-empty, he put the safety on and placed it beside the other two, then called up the targets and looked them over. Going back to the Guardian, he reloaded it and had another go, again experimenting with various holds and stances, trying the pistol for comfort and balance.

Eventually, he turned back to Rocky. "While I like the high count of the Masker, it just doesn't balance well for me. I'll stick with the other two, I think. Mind if I empty the rest of the load, here?" He indicated the last loaded clip with a wave of his hand.

'Thrill of the Chase' Armory

Nova quickly and expertly taught Kevin everything there was to know about the use and maintenance of the AA-90, even including how to tape magazines together and hot reload. While Ephrael had finished the block of ammo in her weapon, before moving back to watch Kevin and assist Nova on his tutorial. Before too long he had unleashed his first burst of shotgun pellets poping several of the holo targets.   


Rocky's Equipment and supply

Rocky made a amused grunting sound, "Go for it, it's there to be used after all."



Taskforce 21, patrol for Delphi system: UNS Warlock - Battleship, UNS Honor Harrington - Carrier, UNS Yu- Cruiser, UNS Havoc- Cruiser. Warlock Commanding:

Admiral Harkness sat on the bridge watching over the highly trained and professional crew and was pleased, the last exercise they'd just run had come off perfectly. "Well done people I don't think we could have done that any better. Captain McKeon my compliments to Captain Tremaine, his fighters did an outstanding job."

He was about to continue when one of the sensor operators called out. "Sir! I have a large jump footprint on the outer edge, at least twelve ships"

Captain McKeon moved to stand behind the Ensign. "Could be Admiral Tourville's Taskforce 22, he's due today Sir..." The operator suddenly sat up straighter and called out again "Oh crap! Sorry Sir! Two more jump footprints! Both fleet sized, one's outer edge and the other's at a pirate point....About 3 light minutes away!"

"Alistair call general quarters! Comms! Tell the Harrington to send out some scouts, we'll need to find out who these people are."  The lights on the bridge changed to a cool blue hue to allow the crew to see their consoles more clearly.

Quote from: Basilisk2150 on April 15, 2009, 11:17:29 PM
Lucien shrugged, took a bow, arms held low and wide, with his palms up.  He said "well then, it would seem i'm at your disposal... perhaps afterwards we could  get something to eat? it will probably be the last meal we'll be eating on station for a good while.... but that can wait... for now, would you mind tell me a little about yourself miss Rosendahl? and perhaps, if your still shopping here, let me know what your looking for?"

Taking a step forward, Lucien examined the weapon in Pandora's hands, the antiquated rifle was in fact quite formidable, even by modern standards... while making the observations he let out a whistle of admiration and approval at the girl's weapon of choice.

Pandora grinned widely. Well, it was certainly a welcome change to see a man that actually practiced manners... and who didn't conspicuously stare at her chest for minutes on end. (Granted, Pandora's recounts of behavior that she considered obscene were rather exaggerated.) "Wha', y' wanna know 'bout me?" she asked, rustling the rifle in a way that insinuated adoration for this precious firearm, "Shi', let's talk 'bout tha' over lunch. No' sure wha' t' get... this is my first time in space, after all."

After a moment's consideration, she added, "Who's payin'?"

Lucien gave Pandora a bit of a shrug, "Really, whatever you wish to tell is fine by me... and lunch would be lovely.  Depending on what your looking for, there is the Edge of Nothing cafe.  It's pretty good if your looking for something simple.  Then, there's the rather amusingly named Wok n' Roll, great food if you enjoy eating spicy things. Besides those, there's Rick's Bar and Grill."

as he made the suggestions, Pandora asked about paying.  In reply, Lucien gave her a very wry grin and said, "what kind of gentleman would I be if I we're to suggest lunch without offering to pay for the lady?"

Quote from: Basilisk2150 on April 28, 2009, 12:21:56 PM
Lucien gave Pandora a bit of a shrug, "Really, whatever you wish to tell is fine by me... and lunch would be lovely.  Depending on what your looking for, there is the Edge of Nothing cafe.  It's pretty good if your looking for something simple.  Then, there's the rather amusingly named Wok n' Roll, great food if you enjoy eating spicy things. Besides those, there's Rick's Bar and Grill."

as he made the suggestions, Pandora asked about paying.  In reply, Lucien gave her a very wry grin and said, "what kind of gentleman would I be if I we're to suggest lunch without offering to pay for the lady?"

Pandora ruminated over her options somewhat offhandedly, without any particular commitment or importance. Anything would be better than the grease-lathered abomination she devoured not too long ago. Intergalactic cuisine was likely more diverse than she expected. The fast food was already proving to be inedible, or at least it was in the particular establishment she visited. Either way, she chose the one that interested her the most.

"Wha' 'bout tha' Bar n' Grill place?" Pandora offered. "Tha' sounds good."

At Lucien's next remark, however, her positive opinion of the man was cemented. She grinned widely, again, and tried vainly to appear dainty. Given her rather powerful appearance and her fine height, she failed at this attempt and looked more like an exaggerated parody of what she was trying to impersonate. "Aren't y' a gentleman! A'right, then let's haul ass."

After heading out of Onyx, Lucien lead the way to the small restaurant, located a mere 5 minute walk away, it was conveniently located near the apex of activity on the station.  The place itself was built around a large rectangular bar in the center, with tables around a middle layer, and booths around the outer wall.

Although there were a few patrons around the bar, the tables and booths seemed largely empty.  Walking in and grabbing a seat at one of the empty booths, Lucien waited for Pandora to join him.  Almost immediately after the pair were seated, a young waitress approached and asked, "can i get either of you something to drink?"

Lucien ordered a glass of water for himself, and the girl waited just long enough to get Pandora's order before scurrying off.

'Thrill of the Chase' Armory

Kevin giggled a bit, "So much for kick back.  Thank you Nova, this tutorial was most instructional."

After he squeezed off a burst and got the targets he went about cleaning the gun as instructed by Ephrael and Nova.  As he was putting the pieces back together he says to Ephrael, "I must say, you are a very good shot, I saw you as you were hitting those targets.  I must confess, you were more then a little distracting on the range." and Kevin grins very wide.

Johnny grinned up at Rocky, then picked up the last clip and the Hawk, slapped the clip home, and yanked the charging handle. He then flicked on the safety, swapped it to his left hand, and picked up the Guardian 2 in his right. Balancing the two, gangster-style - his intent to test using the SMG to lay down suppressive fire, whilst using the pistol for aimed shots; although not right now, obviously, what with the lack of ammo in the pistol - he flicked off the safety, pointed the dangerous end somewhere in the vicinity of the targets, and pulled the trigger.

Not squeezed. Unfortunately. Being in his off hand, the burst he let off pulled the rapidly upwards, rather than sideways as he intended. In fact, he didn't hit with a single shot, and he emptied half the clip in the process.

He rebalanced the guns, and tried again, with similar results.

He then reaffirmed his grip on the sub machine gun, and tried one more time. This time, he kept it on-target. However, this was mostly because there were only a couple of rounds left by that time.

He looked disappointedly at the targets. "Shit. I guess I need more practice."

The totally untouched targets. "A lot more practice."

'Thrill of the Chase' Armory

"Oh really?" Ephrael battered her eyelashes at Kevin while returning his grin. "Hehe It does help that I can 'see' much better than most people."  Ephrael turned back to the lockers and stored her pistol away.



Rocky's Equipment and supply

"Boy, you are lucky this is a firing range and not combat." Rocky laughed and gently slapped Johnny on the shoulder (as gentle as a 3 ton living rock can, which surprisingly is quite gentle).

'Thrill of the Chase' Armory

"I must say, you also look better then most people."  Kevin grins and puts his shotgun away in a locker.

At the first shots Celine set down her gun and turned to watch. By the time Johnny had emptied the gun her shoulders were shaking, but she didn't make a sound at the display of marksmanship. In fact she was biting her lip and it was obvious that her eyes behind the dark glasses were dancing. It took a moment but finally she was able to say in a level voice, "That is an interesting technique. Where did you pick it up, the movies?"

'Thrill of the Chase' Armory


"Oh my!" Ephrael said as she put a finger to the corner of her mouth and her other and on her hip "You wouldn't be flirting with me now would you Kevin." Somehow she maintained a image of both pure innocence and a sultry pout, yet with the hint of fang (which for some unknown reason looked far wickedly sharper than it should be).



Ghostrider Flight- 4 Stiletto Class Space Superiority Fighters.

Captain Jerico looked over his instruments and threat warning gear as his flight of four glided through the outer asteroid ring of the Delphi system. "Keep tight ya'll, we're about to get a look at out new friends any moment."

No sooner did the flight emerge from the ring than their warning systems lit up as one, each screaming of multiple radar, ladar, inferred and other scanning systems and lockons.  "Flight go evasive! Retrograde maneuver go!" Jerico screamed into his mic as he hauled the fifty ton fighter around one hundred and eighty degrees to its original flight.

As the fighters split up and headed back towards the ring, fighter craft from the until now unidentified ships slashed in on attack runs.

Only three of the fighters made it into the comparative safety of the asteroid ring, the other became a cloud of gasses and shrapnel as weapons fire raked it from end to end. 

In the rings a deadly game of cat and mouse began. The UNSF fighters flew to the limit, each in its own escape vector through the maze. There was no thought to stop and fight as the forces behind them far outnumbered their own.

Only Captain Jerico was to last long enough to transmit the flight's data recordings, and send it back to Taskforce 21....

Johnny grinned sheepishly at Celine. "Something like, yes. Obviously it doesn't work as well as in the movies." He shrugged.

"Ah, well. It was worth a shot. So to speak." He smirked at the diminutive human, and safed both weapons before putting them down - removed the clips, jacked the slides, and put the (somewhat redundant) safety switch back on. He also checked the Masker was safe, then he added an aside to Celine, in a droll tone. "They'd never let me do that at the Academy. I wonder why?"

He turned back to Rocky. "I'll take the Guardian and the Hawk, then. And the toolkit, and, as you suggested, the light level two suit. Have I missed anything?" He scratched the back of his head, and thought for a moment.

"Oh, yes. Have you got any spray paint suitable for customising the outside of the suit? I'd like to think on the pattern for a while, and try some stuff out. When I come up with something good, that I like, I'll come back and get it done properly."

With a large ear to ear grin and a slowly swishing tail Kevin replies, "Why, yes I am.  If you are unhappy with flirting, then perhaps some dinner is called for instead?  I don't have many credits left, but it should be enough for someplace nice."

While waiting for the drinks, Lucien decided he'd go and get a little background on his newfound friend.  Asking a polite tone, he said, "Well, it seems we've got a little time to chat, i'm curious about something you mentioned earlier, something about this being your first time in space." he had a bit of a grin as he continued, "That comment alone piqued my interest, but also being an engineer, did you grow up on one of those research hub planets?"

His eyes focused on Pandora's face, he wore a friendly smile, and his tail swished, further displaying his amusement.

Quote from: Basilisk2150 on May 05, 2009, 12:52:14 PM
While waiting for the drinks, Lucien decided he'd go and get a little background on his newfound friend.  Asking a polite tone, he said, "Well, it seems we've got a little time to chat, i'm curious about something you mentioned earlier, something about this being your first time in space." he had a bit of a grin as he continued, "That comment alone piqued my interest, but also being an engineer, did you grow up on one of those research hub planets?"

His eyes focused on Pandora's face, he wore a friendly smile, and his tail swished, further displaying his amusement.

Pandora arranged her fingers like a steeple, perching her chin atop her knuckles. Her permanent sharp-toothed grin remained on her face, more languid, satisfied and noncommittal than predatory. She liked the atmosphere of this particular restaurant. She could never afford visiting the more expensive, luxurious establishments back on her home planet, and her notoriously inebriated behavior made her persona non grata for many local bartenders other than the one at her favorite pub. Pandora's love life was equally unsuccessful and tumultuous, so she never had the opportunity to enjoy simple chivalry.

Pandora assessed Lucien somewhat curiously. She felt like being candid, under the condition that she not reveal anything incriminating about her life on her otherwise backwater and frequently-overlooked planet. "Shi', research 'ub? My planet's li'... th' boonies of th' solar system. These alien guys showed up only recently. T' be perfectly honest with ye, mate..." Pandora quickly altered her statement, lying by omission, "Not many people on th' World's interested in flight."

Lucien gave Pandora a polite nod, then replied while stroking his chin around the end of his muzzle, "Sounds rather fascinating actually, my own childhood was rather unusual as well.  My father was a scientist who specialized in super-conductors.  The conditions he needed were very specific, and could only be found on a handful of planets, all of them little more than balls of ice.  I grew up in what equated to EVA suits, as the temperatures got down to close to -100 degrees centigrade."

giving a slight pause as the waitress returned with the drinks, she scurried off to take someone elses order, saying, "i'll be right back" as she left.

Taking a pause to sip his water, Lucien continued, "On my 16th birthday, i left, signed on with a crew of bounty hunters for a while.  After that, i worked as a merc, running security for a couple of small corporations.  After that, i signed on with a couple of different cargo ships, working security and the like there.  Some might accuse me of wanderlust, maybe true... but i'd say it's more like i haven't found something that's right for me yet."
he still had his grin, and kept his tone level and polite

the waitress started coming their way, Lucien took a quick glance at the menu, then asked "any chance you've made a decision yet?  I myself in the mood for a good steak... nothing like a send-off meal to remember"  he gave Pandora a pleasant grin then added quickly, "whatever you like is fine, and there's no need to rush"

Edge

"Nah, y'know how ah feel whenah usssse 'notha weapon when I don't got to." The walker patted the oversized implement at his hip twice, "Feels like cheatin'. Gotta say though, ah'm in th'market for a new suit. Heard y'had somethin' in m'size." Rekk grinned broadly at Maggie. "Somethin' with a li'l 'xtra armor, ah'd think."

Pandora listened with fascination to Lucien's brief summary of his career. Subconsciously downing a mouthful of water in a gesture more reminiscent of chugging booze, she used her hand to prop up her chin as she leaned her elbow against the table so she could look squarely at her companion from across the table. "Sixteen years old, eh? Tha's pretty young... m' grandpa go' me workin' on aircraft th' moment 'e could," she admitted, shrugging.

When the waitress stopped by their table, she quickly scanned over her menu, chose something that looked fairly appetizing, and stated her order. "Yeah, I'll 'ave the ribs." She indicated where it was listed on the menu for the waitress's convenience.

Lucien added, "I'll take a Quarter-house, medium-rare please" indicating the selection on the menu.  Giving the waitress a curt nod, she walked off to the back to hand the orders off to the chef.  Turning back to Pandora  Lucien quirked an eyebrow at the mention of building from such a young age, he grinned again and said,"sounds like you started rather young yourself.  Out of curiosity, what type of aircraft were you working on?"

'Thrill of the Chase' Armory

"I'd like that Kev but I can't, one of the Officers have to stay aboard..." Ephrael said with a frown and crossing her arms underneath her breasts which accentuated her bust. "Maybe the Captain comes back soon we can go."


Edge

"Ya right Rekk baby, I did get a shipment of walker suits in, and a heavy you say?" Maggie tapped away at the somewhat older looking computer on the counter. "Yup got  levels 1, 2 and 3 available. The level 1 is at 2.5k, 2 at 3.5k and the 3 at 5.5k."


Rocky's Equipment and supply

"We have a few paint packs, come in a bunch of ten cans." Rocky said as he lead Johnny back out to the front of the shop and ran through the list. Finally when there was a small pile of equipment on the counter in their cases the living rock rang up the total and charged 'Weaver's account. "Now do you want these delivered or are you going to take them now?"

Edge

Rekk winced and put his hand to his PDA. As if a thousand credits had cried out, and were suddenly silenced.
"'Think ah'll be geddin' th'level one. Th'otherssss're too richhhhh f'rm'blood." He tapped out the transaction on his PDA. "'ave it shipped to the Thrill'veth'Chase. Pleasure seein' ya Maggie, g'me regards to the husband." He winked, "Unless'y finally ditched th'pet lover, in whichcase lemme biya a drink neckstime ah'min port."

'Thrill of the Chase' Armory

"Awww, always with the rules ruining the fun.  Hopefully the Captain returns soon, but until then we could grab a cup of coffee in the galley."
Kevin heads to the exit of the armory, inviting Eph along.

While Johnny and Rocky transacted their business Celine finished testing the weapons Sandy brought out and made her choice. A few more items to replace those things lost in the forklift incident and she was ready to check out as well.

Edge

"Heh naw, Rekk I'm still with the  layabout. You take care now!"


'Thrill of the Chase' Armory

"Coffee sounds good" Ephrael said purring as she brushed pass Kevin, a hand shooting out squeezing his behind before she sprinted down the corridor to the lift. 



.........


Taskforce 21 UNSF Warlock


"Admiral Harkness, Ghostrider was destroyed...But we got their scans, looks like Kalmethi warships, but I've got no idea what they are doing so far spinward from their territory or so deep into UNSC space. This has to be at the very edge of their range." Captain McKeon said handing a dataslate to the Admiral. "Vicious bastards. Slave grab you think?"

"Possible Alistair...Whats word on that second group?" Harkness asked reading the slate.

"Small destroyer group with a cruiser, but they seem more interested in holding their position. Taskforce 22 is making its way insystem and is going to punch through them. I doubt they'll even slow down the America .

"Yes not much can slow down a Super Battleship except for another...And the Kalmethi only have one, and she should be still floating above Kalmethi Prime."

A lieutenant in charge of the communications station called over to the Captain "Sir! we just lost the link to TF22, and we're receiving alpha plus grade jamming from nearby sources, radio and hyper comm are out, laser links to the rest of the Taskforce are intact."

"Scans showing only merchant traffic nearby Sir, and none of it Kalmethi." Came from the Commander in charge of tactical.

Admiral Harkness place his fingertips together, and stared at the displays around him "Now whats this about I wonder...Too far out for them to make use of the jamming..."


.....


Delphi Station

Around the station Marines and Colonial Marshals were seen to be replaced by more heavily armed and armored troops.

Thrill of the Chase' on the chase

"I'll get you for that!"

Kevin grinned and ran after Eph.  Not sure what would happen if he catches up with her.

This trip is already shaping up to be more interesting then he anticipated.

Quote from: Basilisk2150 on May 06, 2009, 10:40:36 PM
Lucien added, "I'll take a Quarter-house, medium-rare please" indicating the selection on the menu.  Giving the waitress a curt nod, she walked off to the back to hand the orders off to the chef.  Turning back to Pandora  Lucien quirked an eyebrow at the mention of building from such a young age, he grinned again and said,"sounds like you started rather young yourself.  Out of curiosity, what type of aircraft were you working on?"

Pandora nearly choked on her water. Lucien's question was inevitable, but it still belonged to a topic that she was uncomfortable with. Given the condemnation and strictly-mythological state of aircraft or the possibility of flight on her planet, adjusting to an entirely new environment that embraced all the things that Pandora loved was somewhat disorienting. Once she had safely swallowed the unfriendly water and cleared her throat, Pandora squared her gaze on Lucien's and tried to prepare herself.

"Th' only one," she explained, "Flight was completely outlawed on Th' World. Grandpa go' th' idea from a 'allucination o' 'is... always was a bit of a nutter. Fuckin' crazy wanker..." Pandora grinned with roguish fondness around her glass as she tipped her head back and gulped down the remainder of her drink. "After 'e died I started workin' on th' project myself. It was 'is dream, t' make th' whole World see that flight c'n be used f'r good things."

After an uncomfortable pause, Pandora burst out into jubilant, boisterous laughter and slapped Lucien's shoulder. "But enough o' tha' depressin' crap."

Lucien smiled and nodded politely, "indeed" he replied.  Taking a second to wave the bartender over, he ordered 2 bottles of the house's brewed ale, and was preparing to continue with some idle chitchat before the pair's meal arrived when a couple of marines jogged by the door.  Head to toe military grade heavy armor, and he recognized the outline of a plasma carbine that one of the soldiers was carrying.  The appearance of the soldiers was rather disconcerting to the wolf.  Although it could just be a training exercise, he hadn't heard any announcements. Taking a second to sift through his thoughts, Lucien figured he'd rather be paranoid and alive, then wrong and dead.  Waving down their waitress Lucien said, "you mind if we get this as carry out?"

Looking first at the wolf, then the girl, then back at the wolf, she replied, "yea, sure, not a problem.  It'll be out in a moment."  looking back at Pandora, she shook her head in amusement, before walking out of sight.

Lucien turned to Pandora with a somewhat grim expression, "looks like there might be trouble brewing, we should get you your equipment and get back to the Thrill as soon as possible.   Those guys that just walked by weren't station security, looked to be military judging by the gear.  If things get bad, i'd really hate to get caught in the crossfire.  If it turns out to be nothing, worst thing that happens is we end up eating on the ship rather than in the bar."

The waitress had a recite in one hand, and a large clear bag in the, the back contained 2 containers.  Smiling he pocketed the recite, walked up to the bar and slipped a small coin looking object from his pocket onto the counter.  The bartender produced 2 unopened bottles with a bit of smirk, and Lucien just shook his head.  Getting back to Pandora he offered her a hand after placing the bottles in the bag and said "alright, you ready to go?"

Fortunately, since Lucien seemed to insist on carrying most of their food, all Pandora needed to worry about carrying was her newly-configured weapon. Strapping the enhanced rifle to her back, she dusted herself off, gulped down the last mouthful of water from her mug, and turned to him. "Ready," she said, "Y' really think those guys were there f'r trouble, though?"

Pandora was getting a negative premonition from what Lucien described as well, but she didn't want to tangle with the law enforcement in this place if those soldiers happened to be figures of authority.

Lucien and Pandora

Leaving Rick's Bar and Grill, The pair headed back to Edge where Pandora picked up a kit to modify her M14, plus a scope kit, a Guardian 2 pistol, an upgraded tool kit and a Medium lvl 1 EVA suit.

Rekk

After leaving Edge Rekk wandered towards the docking bays, but unusually for him not paying much attention to his surroundings and missing the beefed up Marine and Colonial Marshal patrols and checkpoints.

Theo

After poking around in the Thrill's medbay, Theo headed down to Rocky's just as Johnny and Celine had entered the firing range. After dealing with Rocky's sales assistant and asking Will (through a PDA text message) what he should get, he settled on a M12 pistol (which he doubted he'd ever need.) and a light lvl 1 EVA suit. He was headed back before the other two exited the range.

Celine and Johnny

Johnny told Rocky that he'd carry his purchases back, and after accepting a loadlifter drone, started heading back to the ship.

While Celine bought the Hawk and Casul with Sandy, and waited while Johnny finished.

Kevin and Ephrael

At the lift Ephrael hit the button to open the doors and slipped inside, but Kevin wasn't far behind her, and made it inside before she could hit the close button. "Heh you're pretty fast on ya feet Kev, but I still won." She said grinning.

Captain Conner

After leaving Edge and replying to a message from Theo, Will decided grab a snack and eat by one of the vast windows looking out into the blackness.

........

Taskforce 21: UNSF Warlock


The Commander in charge of the Tactical section was conferring with his team trying to pinpoint the source of the jamming and their nationality of the ships emitting it, when four of the ships near the station seemed to break up on his holo screen. "What the hell..." He muttered and was about to inform the Admiral and Captain, but stopped after he realized the ships weren't breaking up....they were blasting false superstructure away. Instead of four bulk freighters, they were now troopships, and no sooner had the false panels floated clear, boarding torpedoes shot out and towards the station.

.......

Delphi Station

All this unfolded right in front of Captain Conner, who while sitting at the view port was the first to spot the Torpedoes and one of the first to react. Jumping to his feet and grabbing his rifle case he span around and in the command voice he learned from the Navy bellowed for everyone to get clear. As luck would have it everyone (bar those on the ship) on the crew of the Thrill was in the area.


No sooner had the people in that section of the station taken cover when the first of the Boarding Torpedoes slammed home, there was a moment fear as the howling of the vacuum space cut though, but that was silenced as the station's auto repair functions sealed the breach, but not around the end of the Torpedoes. Everyone looked up for a second, but were driven back down again as weapon ports on the noses of the Torps opened up targeting anything that moved. And in the middle of that mass of firepower the tip opened up and Kalmethi Storm Troopers poured out....

Responding to Pandora, Lucien replied, "I hope not, but i've got this feeling... i dunno, just too many things aren't adding up..."


After finishing up some shopping with his new friend Lucien was about to ask pandora some other questions... except someone had shouted for everyone to get down in a authoritative and militaristic tone, interrupting his train of thought.  Almost immediately, he grabbed Pandora by the arm, and shoved her down below a garden display in the atrium where they were walking.  It was a rougher move than he'd intended, but at the very least he knew she was temporarily safe...  In a continuation of the same motion, he crouched down on 1 knee and flatted his back against the same planter.

As the boarding craft slammed into the station Lucien said "what the fu..." but was cut off as the hissing sound of air cut off his words.  As soon as it stopped, he whispered a faint "oh... shit" as drew his pistol, chambered a round and flipped the safety off. Crouch walking below the planter, he edged up to the corner and took a peek.  He spotted a handful of creatures pouring out of the small craft.  With practiced ease and years of training, he steadied his breathing, then lined the sights up with a creature's head, and let off 3 rounds in quick succession before whipping back into cover.

Lift

Kevin did he best to hide his heavy breathing.

"Heh, ya you won.  But I was still in the running!"

With about everyone else away from the ship it seemed like he was hitting it off with this cute Taz lady.  He looked forward to a nice quite cup of coffee with her.

Wrek made his way toward the docking bay, rolling the kinks out of his shoulders. There'd been some traffic blockage on the way, he hadn't bothered with the details. Lots of folks panicking. He shrugged and caressed Lostriin's hilt absent mindedly. Some people put off panic with prayer, back home. He didn't do much panicking these days. He had Lostriin and that served him just fine. Some people put faith in gods, but he'd found gods to be appallingly unreliable. A firearm, however, did EXACTLY what it was built to do. Once he finally had one that worked how he wanted, he'd never had to panic again, and that was more than he could say for those who tried to do the same with religion.
Reaching his destination, he noticed some of his new shipmates across from him. He raised one hand in greeting, started making his way over...
And then, in a phrase he'd learned from a friend of his from a neon-based atmosphere, everything went <keening noise that, literally translated, means "both testicles flying in opposite directions">.
The woosh of escaping oxygen briefly lifted the walker off his feet, causing him to briefly encounter the rare experience of being flipped over. After a flailing attempt at righting himself he saw the boarding ship crash through the station's hull, unleashing troops.
Rekk moved as fast as he could to take cover behind a bench, whipping Lostriin out of her holster and giving her an affectionate nuzzle before lining up a shot on the opening ship door.
These days, he never panicked.

At Captain William's stentorian call of "Boarders inbound! Get to cover!", Johnny stopped dead. His arms shot out, and without looking, one grabbing Celine's gun case off the top of the stack of packages on the drone, the other grabbed the front of her outfit. He then threw himself - and, perforce, her as well - to one side, behind a planter, and rolled over once, ending up with her and her gun together. "Er, excuse me." He let go of her chest, and went on. "Load that, and watch for boarders." Turning away from her, careful to keep below the level of the planter, he grounded the drone, and pulled out his suit.

He struggled into it, without getting above the level of the planter, then cracked his two gun cases open, loaded both of the weapons, packed the two spare clips in the pockets on the suit, and attached the pistol, safety on, to the suit. He then closed both cases, and returned them to the drone. Fishing out his PDA, he zipped through various menus and tapped briefly away. Flipping it away, he grinned across at Celine. "We used to do this back at the Academy, only we'd usually be on the things."

With that cryptic comment, he rolled over, grabbed the rifle, checked the safety, and glanced briefly past the planter to see if anyone was looking in their direction, and to see if he could spot anyone else on the crew, what the boarders were doing, and what the Marines were up to. The big spidery guy had gone to ground nearby already, so at least he was safe for the moment. With any luck, they could get out of there and let the Marines handle it...

Celine was busy deleting yet another message from Captain Dante off her PDA when the alarm startled her. Before she could react Johnny did, grabbing her and flinging her behind cover. As she loaded her larger gun, she reflected that males had an uncanny accuracy in finding handholds. "Can you tell what's happening?"

While Johnny was occupied arming and suiting up with astounding skill - or at least, what seemed to be astounding skill to Theo - and getting Ceiline out of danger, Theo had managed to find a hiding spot around a corner, the other direction from the sudden boarding party.
He was currently gasping on the floor, eyes wide. A feeling of coldness in his left hand made him look down. He'd apparently drawn the pistol he'd bought with the captain's money, although he didn't remember when. His hand tightened around it. Despite his utter lack of training with such weapons, and the ridiculousness of the thought of him actually being able to fight, he seemed to draw some strength from the firearm's presence. He smiled, a small grin.

He took in his surroundings, and scooting forward, looking behind him. Something had been digging into his back - the metal louvers of an AC vent, it appeared. He fumbled in his pocket for a coin - a instinct from his planetside days. Small metal objects were generally frowned upon in space.
He looked at the gun in his hands.

Obviously not thinking clearly at all, two shots rang out through the hallway. Theo grabbed the now-loose top end of the vent and bent downward, and sliding the gun in before him shimmied belly-first into the ventilation system.

Quote from: Basilisk2150 on June 01, 2009, 11:26:31 AM
Responding to Pandora, Lucien replied, "I hope not, but i've got this feeling... i dunno, just too many things aren't adding up..."


After finishing up some shopping with his new friend Lucien was about to ask pandora some other questions... except someone had shouted for everyone to get down in a authoritative and militaristic tone, interrupting his train of thought.  Almost immediately, he grabbed Pandora by the arm, and shoved her down below a garden display in the atrium where they were walking.  It was a rougher move than he'd intended, but at the very least he knew she was temporarily safe...  In a continuation of the same motion, he crouched down on 1 knee and flatted his back against the same planter.

As the boarding craft slammed into the station Lucien said "what the fu..." but was cut off as the hissing sound of air cut off his words.  As soon as it stopped, he whispered a faint "oh... shit" as drew his pistol, chambered a round and flipped the safety off. Crouch walking below the planter, he edged up to the corner and took a peek.  He spotted a handful of creatures pouring out of the small craft.  With practiced ease and years of training, he steadied his breathing, then lined the sights up with a creature's head, and let off 3 rounds in quick succession before whipping back into cover.

Pandora apprehensively watched Lucien, not contributing with any input. At the moment, she was extremely tense and more than a little nervous - after Lucien described the anxious ambiance of their surroundings, she became almost subconsciously paranoid. Entering a conflict was not something Pandora was hoping for - she was skilled with a firearm, yes, but how would she fare against alien forces? Fortunately, her rifle came pre-assembled, with all of its enhancements attached. There was no ammunition, but Pandora had purchased some along with the weapon itself.

Before she could actually load the gun, however, Lucien flung himself on her. A quick "wha' th' fuck--?!" was all that she managed to elicit before the impact against the floor - uncomprehending, dizzy, disoriented, Pandora flailed and struggled to get up, not immediately understanding the dangerous situation. Only when Lucien climbed off of her and fluidly switched to a more offensive posture did Pandora realize the extent of the crisis.

Fuck. Fuck. Pandora's thoughts were buzzing with curses as she quickly pressed herself against her makeshift barricade, her teeth clenched and her face taut with fear. Almost instantly, she fumbled for the ammunition she had bought, trying to remove the cartridge from the container. All she needed was Lucien to keep their assailants busy, so she could focus on loading her new weapon and participate in the fight. She was horrified, yes, but she wasn't useless.

Thrill of the Chase

As the lift rose to B Deck, Ephrael reached over and grabbed the front of Kevin's top, before yanking him over and smothering his mouth with hers. "Screw the coffee I think you're coming to my bunk..." She said breaking off the kiss.

Before Kevin could reply Nova interrupted over the intercom. "Eph the station's under attack! You better get to the bridge..."

"Oh Crap! Nova warm up the engines...Where is the Captain and the rest of the crew?" Ephrael said as the doors opened and she sprinted to the bridge of the Thrill.


"They are still on the station...One moment...They are pinned down in the east atrium, there are boarders inside already!"

Delphi Station

As the Kalmethi swarmed out of the torpedoes the UNSF Marines returned fire, and the better equipment and training of the Marines showed. Scores of the attackers went down, but soon the gunners controlling the turrets on the torpedoes were pinning the Marines down again.


Celine and Johnny

Just as Johnny was suited up and Celine had loaded her Casul, ready to lose a few rounds a Kalmethi trooper came running past the planter box they were behind. As he saw them he skidded to a stop and raised the rifle he was carrying...

Pandora and Lucien

Lucien's shots smacked into the shield of one of the leading Kalmethi, they didn't penetrate but the kinetic force added to the trooper's foot sliding on a bit of rubble, sent him falling backwards, and eye to eye with Captain Conner....

Pandora finally managed to load several mags of 7.62x51mm ammo for the  M14 and slipped one into the rifle.

Theo

Crawling into the darkness Theo could hear the gunfire and screams behind him. Reaching a junction he found a map that suggested going up would get him to the Thrill the quickest.

Rekk

Rekk's first large caliber round smacked into the chest of another of the Kalmethi...and right though his armor and shields...But before he could fire again his position came under heavy counter fire.


Captain Conner


Staring the Kalmethi trooper that Lucien had shot in the eye, Will pulled the trigger on the brand new rifle he had picked up. The H&K M102 railgun worked as advertised and a quintuple of slugs slammed through the shields and armor of the alien like a hot knife through butter.

Opening a comm line to the Thrill "Ephrael I hope to God you're warming up those engines...Cause we REALLY need to leave..."

Lucien peeked back out to watch his target fall with a feeling of satisfaction thinking he'd dropped a round straight through the Kalmethi's brain... that was until it started squirming around on the ground... though the squirming was ended quite quickly as the captain put several rail-slugs through the creature.

Seeing that his first target was unquestionably dead, he took a second to check on Pandora, he said with a bit of a crooked smile "Sorry about shoving you down like that... it was a lot harder than i intended, and i really hope your ok... there's a swarm of these things out there, so be careful, and when you shoot, don't expose yourself for too long, they've got some pretty nasty looking weapons..." The wolf took a second to ready himself, "looks like your good to go for now, we can probably take one down if we work together, look for the one that jerks as i shoot and, and try to finish it off... i don't think i've got the power to punch through their armor..."  he paused, and took a quick peek to try and spot  his next target... it wasn't hard to spot them, as the things were still pouring out of the breach in the wall.

The wolf picked his target as one of the closer aliens who's attention seemed focused on the station marines.  Lucien emptied the rest of the 12 rounds left in the magazine at the creature.  He aimed at about center mass of the breast bone (on a human) and let the recoil of rapidly fired shots raise the muzzle, finishing the magazine around the thing's forhead.  As the last round left the chamber, Lucien quickly ducked back behind cover and began fishing for a new mag.

Just as he'd raised his head to peer through the plants at the carnage, a trooper appeared on their side of the planter. "Shit!" He could fire over Celine's head, but given his previously demonstrated accuracy, that was a sucker bet. No, there was only one thing to do.

Johnny spun on the spot, reaching out to grab Celine with one hand and bringing the Hawk SMG around with the other. He snapped Celine back, clearing his field of fire, and poking the Hawk past her, one-handed, he pulled the trigger back, and held it, holding the burst of fire on the intruder as best as he could.

Heck, given the way it was going, they'd be lucky if _any_ of them survived...

Celine had just finished loading the Casul and was reaching for the Hawk when she spotted the trooper. She was swinging the gun up when Johnny tugged her backwards and out of the way of his shots. Her ear rang a bit from the proximity but she managed to line up her own shots and take them.

Kevin was a little pissed.  Just his luck too, though now he wished for Eph even more then before~

He followed her to the bridge, where she won the race again.  After Nova mentioned the situation he patted Eph on the shoulder, "I'm going to get my gun, let me know if you think up a plan for getting them out of there."

He kisses her on the lips quickly before turning to head to the armory.

Bits of Rekk's mind crowed as his shot found the mark, bringing down one soldier immediately.
Ah-ha! Brilliant! They-
Oh, right, they fire back.
Rekk ducked behind the bench, bringing up his durable armored legs as an additional layer of shielding between him and their gunfire. He looked around for other cover to break for- they didn't exactly make park benches to last through this.

 Theo coughed and paused to wipe the dust out of his eyes. He'd thought the breeze to be refreshing at first, but its constant blowing of dust and dirt into his eyes was moving beyond annoying and getting to disabling. He took off his glasses and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. He could feel grit digging into his wrists and the corners of his eyes.

He saw a light up ahead, peering over the edge of the sharp incline before him. He crawled towards it, attempting to keep his glasses out of the dirt and his eyes out of the wind. He felt a grate beneath his hands fairly soon, and to his surprise a map to his left, lit by the vent's light.
He sighed.

It appeared he needed to go up. He looked up, and saw very clearly the route that he needed to take. Sheer metal walls, with screw ends every now and again to cut his hands.
He sighed.

He put the gun between his teeth and rubbed his hands together, trying to get some friction going, and then with much rumbling and banging got himself upright, and then attempted to scale the sheer walls with only friction. He promptly fell on his ass, and began spluttering on dust again. He coughed and spat, and stood, patting the dust off his clothing futilely, and stared at the clearly impossible climb. He looked at the gun, and made a sour face.
"Useless. I can't shoot my way up." he paused, and poked the ducting with one hand. The thin metal bent easily under his index finger. He hit it with his fist. The metal deformed. He grinned.

"When all you have is a hammer..." he said, putting the gun between his teeth. "Mph mrphph mrphh."
He managed to get himself just barely into the shaft, arms shaking, and then delivered a savage kick into the duct wall. His shoe continued through, making a nice hole. He grinned, and made another hole with his other foot. He used his arms to push himself level, and then began to climb, kicking holes in the vents to use as steps the whole way.

The magazines were finally locked into the rifle, and Pandora quickly assessed the impressive-looking, enhanced firearm, admiring its various improvements and newly-added mechanical features, before shifting to an unclaimed spot protected by a barricade. Aiming for the nearest figure, her gaze narrowed and her finger tightened on the trigger, releasing a spray of bullets. Much to her surprise, the gun operated no differently from a non-enhanced antiquated rifle - it was still her baby. A wide, wicked grin split her face.

Thrill of the Chase

As Kevin was leaving the bridge Ephrael called out "Get suited up as well! Get down to the main hatch and keep watch for the others or anyone trying to get in!"

Delphi Station

As much as the weapons and training of the UNSF Marines was was far better than that of the Kalmethi, the turrets on the torpedoes and the numbers of storm troopers was telling, slowly the Marines and civilians were beginning to be pushed back,

Celine and Johnny

Elf and Weaver's fire was combined with that of a Marine tri-barreled Railgun to turn the Kalmethi into messy orange chunks...Most of which sprayed over Celine but some how missed Johnny...

As soon as the trooper went down however it seemed that other patrons of the station were falling back past them towards one the airlocks leading to the surrounding airlocks.

As one group of civilians made it to the lock leading towards the docks they were pulped in an explosion, from weapon fire coming out of the airlock!

Pandora and Lucien

As Pandora opened up with her M14 she had picked up a target who's shields had already been beaten down by another shooter. The 7.62x51mm rounds plowed through the Kalmethi almost chopping him in half.

Lucien however, was again stuck with the problem of handgun verses shields at long range. Although they did no real damage his round made the Storm Trooper take cover.

Just as he was loading his last clip Captain Conner came sliding along the ground past him and quickly crawled behind cover.

"Howdy folks, Thanks for the cover."

Two Marines followed him taking cover with the trio. As one took up a firing position the other seemed to be a officer or NCO, and he began to speak quickly to someone over a radio link. "Golf six, Golf four. These crazy bastards have brought Battle Armor on board...I don't know how they packed em into the torps but there are two at the bravo airlock leading to the docks..."

Theo

Theo's journey through the vent was wile dusty far easier than trying the battlefield below, however as he was about half way towards the docks the section behind him was riddled with weapons fire. There was a creak and a groan and then the mounts holding the section of vent he was in started to give way, as it tilted down he could see the horrendous amount of tracers and other projectiles ripping both ways.

Rekk

Spotting the Captain making a break for it towards some of the other members of the crew, Rekk also took off, he was about half way to them when a Kalmethi came round the other side of a pillar, they collided sprawling to the deck.

Rekk had finally managed to plot out a safe route through the park to the others when the captain barreled through. Abruptly he changed plans; catch up with the captain, keep fire off his back while they make it through. Yeah. That wont get him killed. Totally. Lumbering after the man as fast as his eight legs could carry him he couldn't swerve in time to avoid an enemy combatant who, all things considered, looked about as surprised as Rekk was. They both had apparantly gone for cover behind the same column.
"Oough..." Rekk picked himself up and winced at the Kalmethi almost appologetically, "Damn, boy, bu'if yew di'in' jess make th'wors'move a' y'rprofessional c'reer..." One fist the approximate shape of a sledgehammer and size of a honeydew melon flew in the perfect arc of a left hook, and the Walker moved on. He had things to do.

Kevin nods and rushes off to the armory, retrieving his gun and his suit.  He then makes his way to the main hatch to see... well what ever may be there.

Lucien nodded as the captain slid over and took cover, giving a brief "sir" as he looked over and gave his thanks.  His attention then switched to pandora, "Um, do you think i could borrow a mag or 2 for your pistol, i'm almost out."  

Keeping his head down, the wolf  overheard the talk of battle-armor, this sudden turn of events worried him as he knew he had virtually nothing capable of fighting that type of protection...  He took a few moments to breath, then peeked back out to observe the carnage.  Quickly darting back into cover after his little look.

 Theo's eyes widened. He scrabbled against the smooth metal for a moment, and then started to slide increasingly fast down the tube of bullet-riddled death. He closed his eyes tight.
"Jesus Christ I'm going to die-"

Boom!

The bottom of the duct section hit the floor, and like a bowling ball rolled down a children's slide Theo slid out and then skidded on the hard floor, knocking the wind out of himself and slamming into a wall. He goggled at the ceiling.
Then he sneezed.

Celine felt the hot splatter of blood and chunkier bits spraying over her. She spit, wiped her eyes, and spit again. It wasn't the worst thing she'd ever been drenched in but it definitely made the top five. "Argh!" Shaking off some of the larger bits she picked up the alien's gun, then discarded it as unusable. "Johnny, can you see a way out of here?" She picked up the bag that had fallen from the corpse. If the guy's mom had made him pack his hankie that morning she could wipe some of the orange goo off. But the contents were better than a hankie, it contained grenades. She smiled in an almost frightening way, "Heh. This almost makes up for the shower, you bastard." She handed her companion one of her treasures. "Think we can parlay these into an escape?"

Johnny took the grenade, turned it over in his hand, looked at it, and handed it back. "I dunno, but the marines might have some ideas - depends on what's on the other side of that 'lock. Hang 5, and watch my back; I'm gonna see if I can get in touch with the Captain."

He kept his eyes on the closest point to the airlock from which the fire had come, and called up the comms program, making a call to Nova on the Thrill. "Nova! We've got incoming fire from the airlock to the docks, and we're pinned down from behind by a torp full of boarders. Can you get me in touch with Rekk, and the captain, quickly and silently? We need to take out those turrets ASAP, and those two are about the only people here with the firepower to do so... You probably want to watch your locks, too, you may have boarders inbound."

He paused, waiting for a response, and glanced over at Celine. "How many of those little toys have we got? I'm pretty light on ammo, here..."

The rifle's handiwork was quite satisfactory; Pandora was far from sadistic, but she couldn't help but feel a swelling sense of accomplishment balloon within her chest after watching her victim's bisected form crumple to the ground. Part of her was surprised - she never had the opportunity to use her vast collection of antiquated firearms on anything organic unless she was hunting for food; otherwise, the closest to a rampage she had ever come was destroying some porcelain dishes scavenged from the junkyard for target practice. Only, instead of chips of tarnished white and faded floral patterning, there was splintered bone and splattered blood. Regardless of any pang of sympathy or her often-abused conscience, Pandora readied her rifle for the next creature after withdrawing. When Lucien requested - quite urgently - more ammunition; Pandora immediately tossed him an emergency magazine.

Captain Connor's appearance nearly made Pandora's heart explode in her chest. She had to minimize the sound of surprise that squeaked in the back of her throat, replacing her look of astonishment with an accusatory glare. "Maggie CHRIST, don' do tha' t'me, Captain," she growled, clutching her rifle with pallid, cadaverous fingers, like the firearm had to be wrenched from her cold, dead hands. "What are these things?!"

Thrill of the Chase

As Kevin waited by the Thrill's main hatch he could hear a rather large firefight somewhere in the docks area, It wasn't in view but it did seem to be getting closer judging by the stream of other civilians running past bay 25. Then the stream stopped and the stations Marines came past in a bounding overwatch retreat. One of them with the rank of Corporal on his armor ran up to Kevin. "You better get this bird out of here, we've got some Kalmethi Battle Armor heading this way and we don't have the weapons to deal with em yet." With that he ran off to rejoin his squad.


Celine and Johnny

"Nova here." the AI said over the suits comms system. "Thanks for the warning, they seem to have taken out most of the camera's I can link into in the docks." There was a pause then William spoke. "Good to hear you still breathing Mr Weaver, Nova says you wanted me? Rekk is online too."

Lucien, Pandora, Captain Conner

"Those things would be Kalmethi, Slave empire with a bit of a quirk...They usually eat about 25% of the people they grab...And I'm not just talking humans either, they have some weird stomach system that allows them to eat just about anything..." He Paused to pop up and chop two Kalmethi down as they tried to get close enough to flank the trio and the Marines. Ducking back he held a hand to his earbud. "I'm here Nova, what do you need? Right. Good to hear you still breathing Mr Weaver, Nova says you wanted me? Rekk is online too."

Theo

Theo managed to land against a support pillar that at the moment blocked him from the Kalmethi. From here he lay he could see Celine and Johnny on one side and the rest of the crew on the other.

Rekk

The Kalmethi trooper's head practically exploded as Rekk's fist pulped it against the floor. Standing back up he sprinted further back towards the way the Captain had gone finding cover with a Marine not ten meters away from Lucien, Pandora and Will. As he hunkered down his PDA beeped with an incoming message from Nova. "Rekk, Johnny wants to link with you and the Captain, connecting now..."

Lucien leaned back against the planter, he'd had some experience with 2nd and 3rd hand battle-armor.  Nasty stuff for infantry to go against. He looked at the captain, then Pandora, and knew they didn't have anything close to capable of dealing with something, even if it was 100+ years outdated.  He paused and asked Will, "if we've got battle-armor between us and the thrill, there's not much we can do but get slaughtered.  Is there another route? or can the Thrill dock somewhere else?"  

The wolf was concerned, but refused to give in to panic.  He kept himself in check, and flipped the safety on his pistol to on.  It wouldn't do much good unless someone could get the hostile's shields down, and unless they were using some type of experimental ion weapon, whatever brought the shields down probably had a better chance for a kill then the rather diminutive 10mm slugs he was throwing away like candy.

Thrill of the Chase

Kevin waved to the Marine, "Thanks for the info..."

When the Corporal left (which was very quick) Kevin turned around to a comm unit, "Eph, this is Kevin, a Marine just advised me that there is Kalmethi Battle Armor on the way to make our lives miserable."

Celine counted the grenades in the bag, "We have four grenades." She eyed the ammo from the discarded gun and wondered if they could do anything creative with it. She decided they didn't have time to play mad scientist and wiped another handful of orange glop off herself. That crap ought to be a weapon. "I'm still doing pretty good on ammo if you can see a useful spot to apply it." Some days working with all these overtall people with their oversized furnishings was more of a pain than other days. She really had very little view of what was going on.

Johnny nodded to Celine. "Thanks." He then reported to the Captain. "We've got four grenades here. I'm light on ammo, Celine is ok. The Kalmethi have something nasty through the door ahead, just shredded a group of civilians." Off to his right, Theo tumbled to a halt behind a pillar. "Oh, and our doctor just appeared off to port." He glanced that way, checking to see if Theo was ok, and if there was anything else coming that way. "Other than that, we're good, if slightly pinned down. Reckon you and Rekk could deal to those turrets?"

He paused, briefly. "Oh, and we have a drone here; I was going to flip it through the hatch, see what fire it drew, but I'll hold it, if you or the troops have a better idea?"

Johnny tapped Celine on the shoulder, and indicated Theo's position - pausing briefly to shake some of the orange goo off his glove - as he commented "Not a good spot for him. I'll watch where he goes."

He glanced briefly over the planter they were huddled behind, checking for incoming Kalmethi or fire; but held his fire for the moment, both due to lack of useful targets, and lack of ammo to shoot with. Hopefully that meant he wouldn't attract too much attention...

Edit:
  Upon correction from Paladin, I've edited starboard => port.

Rekk winced as more fire peppered the overturned vending machine he'd hidden behind, right as his PDA beeped. It never failed. The damn thing only ever rang when he was in the tub, eating dinner, talking to a beautiful woman, or getting shot at. One day he'd find out whose idea this invention was and beat them until they didn't grow anymore. He reached into his pocket, cursed to himself, wiped the gore of his hand and reached into the pocket again, wiping a gob of something off his PDA screen and holding it up to his ear.
"Ai'ght, patch 'im through."

Theo's eyes snapped open, and he let out a scream - strangely out of place, like one who'se found a scorpion in his spaghetti rather than a man whose found himself on the wrong side of cover while pirates are attacking.

With impressive grace, the raccoon launched himself over the makeshift barriers that Johnny and Celine had constructed, and landed catlike on his feet on the other side. And promptly found himself off-balance and fell on his face, the gun in his hand going off and blowing a hole in the wall directly to his left.

By the time the good captain finished his - albeit hurried - description of their assailants, Pandora was caught between a strange mixture of incredulity and mortification. Slavers? What the hell did they want with this ship? Just then, it occurred to her that the slavers were, in all likelihood, besieging the ship for the purpose of capturing new "merchandise." The idea of human beings (or similarly sentient organisms) being sold as a commodity made Pandora feel rather ill, apprehensive - especially since she contemplated the fact they possibly wished to condemn her to an identical fate of imprisonment and servitude. It was no surprise that, with this obsessive rumination, Pandora was feeling quite repulsed by some of the outlaws that crawled around the darker regions of the galaxy.

Conner started communicating with someone over his earpiece, much to Pandora's dismay. Gritting her teeth together and gripping her gun like her life depended on its protection, she wormed closer to the barricade guarding her from enemy gunfire and cursed, violently, as she heard another shot resonate. Just then, she realized that the overall, painfully conspicuous pink color scheme of her clothes and hair made her a delightfully vulnerable target. That meant she had no choice but to use aggression, unless her companion and superior, respectively, had any objections or other strategies in mind. Reaching up and seizing her goggles, Pandora drew them over her eyes, affixing the protective lenses as she spoke.

"What? What's 'e sayin'?" Pandora hissed to Conner, "Tell 'im t' get us outta 'ere, whoever 'e is!"

Thrill of the Chase

Ephrael's voice came over Kevin's suit radio, "Kev get inside, we are going to launch, there is no way we can hold off an attack in here. As she finished speaking the airlock doors started to close and Kevin slipped through. Thanks to Nova's preparations the Thrill was almost underway as soon as the airlock for bay 25 was closed. Thankfully there were no hostile ships outside the station and Ephrael held a position nearby. Once she was sure they were ok the Hybrid opened a channel to the crew. "Skipper we had to bug out, and we are on station for a pickup if you can get to a service or rescue lock."

Celine, Theo and Johnny

Theo's dive for cover attracted the fire of a squad of the Kalmethi, the storm of hard slug rounds chipping away at the cover and causing them all to to try and make themselves as small as was possible.


Lucien, Pandora, Captain Conner

"Copy that Eph, hold off for now we actually need to find an airlock...But Mister Weaver just gave me an idea, we're gonna hijack one of those torps. They have a boarding tube that doubles as a lock." He said over the crew link ensuring all could hear. "Just two problems, the Kalmethi in our way and the turrets as Johnny pointed out. Rekk if you can start taking em out I'll try and talk the Leathernecks here to help." Will conferred with the Marine who earlier had being on the radio, and the two quickly hashed out a plan.

He pointed to Pandora "Can you cover me? I need to get over to Rekk so we can hammer the turrets shields at the same time to get them down." As soon as she was set Will was off and running sliding feet first behind the Vending machine.


Rekk

"Hello Rekk fancy meeting you here." Will said with a smile "You pick a target, the Marines and I will go off that, we got two of the tribarrels helping but we will have to work fast or the troopers will pick us off as we fire."

Johnny ducked as Theo leaped over the planter, yanked himself out of the way when the gun went off, and then ducked, as the resultant fire shredded the bushes and planter, and showered leaves down on them.

"For gods sake, Celine, throw one of those bloody things at them!" he shouted, over the noise of the hail of bullets. "Please!"

Thrill of the Chase

Kevin slipped back into the Thrill, and after double checking his tail was in one piece, was not sure what else to do.  He figured that hanging out in this area would be best, in case someone showed up via air lock or some such.

He gets the feeling he was going to have a close encounter of the boarding torpedo kind.

Pandora was not happy with Connor's description. Judging by his report, the Kalmethi had an arsenal's worth of advanced weaponry - the word "turret" sounded unfamiliar to her, but she doubted her (enhanced) rifle could compete with its gunfire. Fidgeting and scowling with obvious anxiety, Pandora glanced back and forth, clearly expecting for something hostile to leap out of the shadows and assault her. The Kalmethi were unknown shadow-demons to her; inconceivable monsters. They could be anything, anywhere.

Finally, Connor ceased all communications with his unknown benefactor and briefly instructed Pandora. She was not too happy about the prospect of her employer risking his life by racing through hailstorms of gunfire, but she needed to contribute somehow. Popping a fresh round of ammunition into her rifle, Pandora nodded affirmatively to Connor. "Roight. I'll be watchin' ya." With that confirmation, Connor dashed to a nearby vending machine - Pandora took aim with her rifle and scouted for any potential assailants, her twitching finger eager to yank on the trigger.

Lucien sat back, listening to what the others were saying and flipped the safety back off when Will asked the girl to cover him.  He figured adding multiple shooters would probably grab more attention, and would also make it hard for any one to get a bead on Will once he was ready to move.

Pandora set up in crouch, right by the captain, Lucien set up on the other side of the planter, to help split attention and help Pandora with the covering fire, perhaps she could crack the shields, and he could finish someone off.  As the captain started to move, so did Lucien.  He picked a target who was watching the general area the captain was moving, and he slammed the thing with 3 rounds, fired much more slowly than before.  He made each shot count as he placed the slugs in almost the exact same place, about the bridge of the nose on a human.

After the 3rd casing left the chamber, he slid back into cover and looked over at Pandora, and beyond her, seeing that Will had made it to cover.  He waited a second or so longer while she was unloading her much larger and more powerful weapon, then shouted, "Get your head down! The Captain made it!"

Celine found herself still trying to dig out from under a hugely fluffy raccoon tail that seemed determined to take up the space she was currently occupying when Johnny made his request for her to use one of the grenades on the snipers. It was lucky that she had a rough idea of where they were from earlier, since she certainly wasn't going to stick her head up to check. Pulling the pin on the one Johnny had handed back a moment ago she tossed the pin to Theo before throwing the grenade over the planter at the snipers. She covered her head and hoped her blind throw did something positive.

Thrill of the Chase

The Thrill slid through the inky depths of space its grey hull making it hard to spot without any positioning lights or beacons.

Ephrael was surrounded by a holographic globe, giving her perfect 360 view around the ship. Nova assisted her by giving a navigation point to where the crew were trapped. "Skipper I've got the Thrill 500m out from the torps nearest you. Lemme know which one you guys are going for and I can rip the backside off of the other with the anti-fighter guns."


She switched to the ships intercom "Kev Get ready by the forward port airlock, I know you're not a soldier but when the time comes we may need to sandwich the torp as the others come in the other end."



Celine and Johnny

Celine's purloined grenade bounced once then twice and stopped at the foot of a Kalmethi trooper and his friends just about to hurl one at them. As it exploded it caused the Kalmethi to let go as he swung his arm back, sending it into another squad. the resulting carnage wiped out a fifth of the enemy force. For the moment no one was firing at them.

Lucien and Pandora

Lucien's shots punched through the Kalmethi's helmet voiding his head, Pandora with a short burst had knocked down his shields but not taking him out...

Thrill of the Chase

"Sandwich?  Oh..." Kevin said to no one in particular.  He did not know what she meant exactly, but he had a good idea.  He picks up his shotgun and heads to the forward airlock, hoping that he doesn't have to use it.  Please let what ever comes out the other side be friendly.  Kevin is friendly.  They should be friendly too.  It is only nice.

Rekk nodded and started looking for more cover to get closer to the boarding topedos. Shame that it was a park, trees were notoriously poor cover against what the enemy troops were packing... He wasn't likely to get too close without seriously clearing out a bunch of 'em sometime soon-
Annnnd something exploded. About bloody time. A fifth of the enemy force went up, and the walker focused his fire on the turrets in that group. It was a trickier shot, but if he could clear that up they should be overrun the remaining forces nice and quick...
He grimaced as he felt Lostriin kick back into his hand once, twice, three times. Even for a creature of his proportions, the gun had a lot of force.

Rekk and William

Rekk's first shot bounced off the turret's intact shield, the second also bounced off with a blue energy flare, the third with assistance from William and the two Marines equipped with tri-barreled railguns broke through. With a small explosion the turret's ammo supply cooked off, causing the second turret to go quiet for a few seconds before resuming fire. This time directed at the threat Rekk and William had become.

Directly in front of Pandora and Lucien a Kalmethi stood up with his double jointed arm flung back...as if he was about to throw a grenade at Will and Rekk.....

Lucien caught the movement the moment while he was peeking out to see if he could help get some attention his way.  He noted the movement and recognized what it was.  He rotated out of cover in a smooth and fluid motion.  He, took a kneeling stance while leveling his sights on the small globular object. Slowing  his breathing as he began depressing  the trigger, exhaling slowly, so as not to disturb his shot, he began adding addutional pressure until he felt the recoil.  As soon as he felt the small shock wave travel down his arm, he began sliding back into cover.  He shouted to Pandora, "GET YOUR HEAD DOWN, NOW!"

Once confirmation of the captain's safety from Lucien came, Pandora immediately ducked, disappearing from sight to the best of her ability. Unfortunately, inconspicuousness was not something she was used to, not even in a life-or-death situation that demanded such talent. The thought I'm invisible ran through Pandora's head a thousand times in hopes that she was somehow reciting a voodoo chant that would shroud her from enemy scrutiny, even as she prepared her rifle and remained alert. Nothing immediately caught her attention - Will seemed to be safe, but what about the others? If this was a full-blown invasion the other members of the Thrill's team would also be in danger. It was a rare moment of disenchantment on her part, but she predicted that she would eventually receive word of some casualties after noticing mysterious absences.

A Kalmethi stood upright just in front of her; Pandora cursed. He apparently didn't notice her or Lucien because his attention was elsewhere. Her blood ran cold as she realized the wretched creature was flinging something at Will and another faraway figure she couldn't immediately identify. Lucien reacted faster than she did, firing off a shot before barking at her to take cover - Pandora knew better than to ignore his instructions. Muffling a curse, she dropped to the ground and stayed there, huddled protectively for the catastrophic explosion that she anticipated.

Johnny glanced over the remains of the shattered planter, out towards the Kelmethi. They seemed to have mostly fallen over, at least in this area. He spotted some cover, over towards where the Captain's position was being flayed by the remaining turret, and ducked back down again. Grinning over at Celine, he complimented her. "Nice shot." He then turned to Theo.

He briefly assessed the procyonid's ability to handle himself in the current situation, came to an unflattering conclusion, and, with a short bark of "Cover me!" to Celine, grabbed the doc by the back of his lab coat, and the corner of the planter with his other hand. With an impressive heave of his shoulders, he flicked the other around the planter and across the floor, sliding smoothly in behind the cover he'd chosen earlier. Before the doc had even reached the cover, Johnny had yanked himself out and over, running and dropping in behind. Once there, he pulled the SMG ready, pulled the mag to check it still had ammo, slammed it home again, and glanced up over the edge to see if they'd gained any attention, before waving Celine over.

Celine grinned back at Johnny when he complimented her aim with the explosive. A quick peep over the remains of the planter showed her no good targets for the remaining grenades. She carefully stashed her remaining prizes in the voluminous pockets of her salvage vest before checking her gun. She remained alert and absolutely did not giggle, much, at Theo's lesson in finding cover. With a quick look around for emerging dangers she smoothly followed Johnny when he gave the signal.

Rekk swore and ducked back under cover, fumbling slugs out of his pocket to reload Lostriin. The burning smell of the shots hammering against the vending machine he was hiding behind mingled with the smell of the various sugary, sulfury or mercury-y drink cans being punctured, creating a smell like someone smoking in a confectioners shop/doctors office. He took another deep inhale from his breath canister and laughed once, feeling that slight rush and illusion of increased focus that came with overindulging a bit. He laughed once, snapped Lostriin's chambers shut and shouted over his shoulder to Will. "Oi, theeerrrre an'employee he'lth c're plan f'rbein'on this creeeeew?"

Thrill of the Chase

The wait for Kevin was both boring and stressful, he had no idea when they would have to move in and start the rescue...

Meanwhile Ephrael was too busy up on the bridge to be able to worry. Dodging the other ships and escape pods launch by those trying to escape even with her knowledge and experience was a little harrowing.


Celine, Johnny and Theo

Johnny was successful in avoiding any attention as he threw the raccoon hybrid towards cover and followed after, Celine however was not...Half way across the gap between the planter an the pillar one of the Kalmethi mortally wounded by her grenade steadied his SMG long enough to fire at the diminutive woman. Miraculously all but one round missed, and that bullet which had deformed, and most of its energy spent had ricocheted off the ground and lodged itself in her rump just as she reached cover.

**Sorry Mel I rolled a 1 on the D20 :<**

Lucien and Pandora

As slow as Lucien's reactions where from his end, to everyone else his arms were a blur as his pistol came up and  fired a shot at the Kalmethi's grenade...And promptly blew its fingers off causing the explosive fragmentation device to drop at it's feet. Unfortunately the only enemy casualties were the the trooper and another Kalmethi that was with him.

The Marine NCO with them whistled and commented on the shot before pooping up and triggering a burst of Railgun slugs down range. As he was coming back down something broke his shields and deformed the front of his helmet, staring the ClearSteel(tm) and causing him to grunt with pain as he fell to the ground...Well he would have if Pandora wasn't in his path.

Rekk and William

As Rekk reloaded and asked about health insurance, Will reached out and picked up one of the undamaged cans of soda, the blue and red of the can clearly identifying it as a Pepsi. Cracking it open with one hand as he stuck the barrel of his Railgun around the corner and triggered a shot grinned. Taking a sip he turned back to Rekk and over the din of battle shouted back "Yea there is...You get wounded in a fight we send ya to the doc who patches ya up as best as possible....Which is a little hard sometimes depending on how many parts we can bring back!"

Jinx

Mr Fastpaw was NOT having a good day...First one of the Colonial Marshal's had questioned him over a stolen purse (Which he'd not had anything to do with) but had not seen through his current id, there was the malfunctioning coffee machine which had dumped milk all over him, someone had stepped on his tail, and a dockworker had almost crushed his foot with their steeltoe'd boots.....And just as he was about to board a shuttle to Delphi prime the Kalmethi attacked, leaving him stuck in between two boarding torpedo's and a bucket-load of Kalmethi and the rest of the station's inhabitants.

Someone had just tagged the turret on the torp closest to him showering him with sparks and rather hot bits of metal.... 

Kevin was bored.  He contemplated the fact that he was bored with an automatic shotgun.  He never thought that he would be bored while holding an automatic shot gun.  It just didn't seem right.  He had an automatic shotgun after all.  But here he was, stressed and bored at the same time as he was holding an automatic shotgun.  Obviously, automatic shotguns are overrated.

Johnny spotted the mortally wounded Kelmethi, and fired in his direction, but didn't manage to actually hit anything - nor drive the dying Kelmethi into cover - before Celine both reached cover, and got tagged.

At the thump of Celine landing next to him, accompanied by the meaty sound of the shot hitting flesh, he ducked behind cover, and turned to Theo. "You're a doc, right? See to her!"

And with that, he turned back to watching the bad guys. After all, someone had to...

while ducking behind cover, Lucien could feel the distinct *whooomp* reverberate through the floor as the grenade exploded is a spray of deadly shrapnel.  A whistle of admiration and a "nice shot" comment would be all that the confirmation the wolf needed.  While leaning with his back against the planter, Lucien ejected the magazine from his pistol and took count of how many rounds he had left, he whispered a faint curse realizing he clearly didn't have enough bullets to go around.

His focus was broken as a large caliber round knocked the marine over, and on top of Lucien's pink clad friend.  He uttered another curse and began trying to get the two untangled.  He was paying special attention to Pandora since he knew her...

"Oh crap ohcrap ohcrapohcrap!!!"

Jinx flung his arms up to protect his face as he dove away from the blast. The rain of twisted metal danced across his shields in sizzling blue flashes. Strapped to a small pack, his helmet flopped unhelpfully against his back. He rolled into a crouch, slightly singed but otherwise unharmed. Kalmethi with turrets and freaking battle armour blocked his way to the safety of the docks. And now he was caught in a crossfire with UNSF troops. Could this day get any worse?

He sprinted towards the nearest cover--an overturned vending machine--almost running on all fours in an attempt to duck below the streams of bullets. He spun on his hand to face the invaders as he slid behind cover... right into a pool of carbonated syrup bleeding from the wounded machine. Skidding past a human soldier and some arachnoid alien, he twisted into a catlike crouch to control his momentum.

"Ewww... fuck." The black feline scrambled up to the others, shaking Pepsi from his fur. "Watch where you're shooting, guys?"

The boy didn't look like much of a soldier. Even the bulk of his grey and black powered armour couldn't hide his lanky frame or youthful face. He quickly set about extricating the helmet from his pack.

Celine let out a yelp that was half pain, half outrage. She managed to get the last feet to the cover Johnny and Theo had already claimed before giving in to cursing. She didn't figure it was a serious wound, unless they were trapped here long enough for her to bleed to death, but it was going to slow down her retreat to the torpedo tube and the safety of the Thrill. She addressed Theo, "I hope you have a can of instant bandage in your pocket Doc."

Pandora watched with some mesmerized, impressed fixation as Lucien's aim meticulously removed the Kalmenthi's fingers, blowing the explosive out of its chitinous claw. While it did effectively disarm the assailant, the grenade clattered to the ground and detonated, a great upswell of fire and flying shrapnel bursting from the danger zone. Pandora couldn't give a rat's ass if the abomination lived - she didn't hear anything more other than the ring of an unloading gun as someone shot him, probably slaying the "unfortunate" Kalmethi. With its fingers gone, there was no hope of the Kalmethi retaliating. Pandora pressed her back to her temporary shelter, reviewing the amount of ammunition that remained. Fortunately, she still had a fairly plentiful supply, having been conserving bullets during her -

- oh shit someone had fallen on top of her. Pandora let out a surprisingly feminine scream as Lucien crashed against her body, pinning her to the ground in an awkward jumble of limbs. The wind was punched out of her lungs by the impact; she momentarily misplaced her sense of concentration amidst her dizziness. Pandora couldn't quite understand why she felt like her chest felt so tight or who assaulted her until she looked down and saw Lucien's chin resting atop the tent of denim created by her cleavage.

There was a very pregnant, very awkward pause between the two of them; Pandora's olive-skinned face flushed a bright pink that unusually complemented her signature color of choice, but other than that, she did not seem to acknowledge the embarrassing nature of their predicament. "Uh," she grunted, "Y' okay?" It was almost as though the fact his face had virtually landed between her breasts was a secondary consideration.

"Ma' shah they ge' th'left half'vem'face back. 'Ssssm'best side." Rekk growled, smirking as turned to take aim at the Kalmethi again. The remaining turret was still standing. This offended him. The walker took a deep breath, careful aim... And fired.

The marine had managed to roll around Pandora, however, Lucien's leg was in his path,  smacking the side of his head against the planter, Lucien fell forward, and face-planted into the... soft, warm ground?  Lucien blinked, his head was a little fuzzy, however, his entire upper body felt warm... particularly his nose.  He brought a hand up to try and wipe the stars out of his eyes.

He blinked again as his eyes started to focus again.  He saw a pinkish hill to either side of his nose.  Refocusing, he noted the woven pattern on the hills.  Blinking again, he looked beyond the denim valley up into a familiar face... which had flushed to a color of pink almost identical to hills... and then it clicked as his own embarrassment assaulted the wolf, he stumbled  and stammered as he brought himself to a push-up position, then rolled to the side.  He smiled sheepishly once he was off Pandora, and said in almost a squeak, "I.... I'm, okay... I am soooo sorry about that... I, uh... are, are you alright?"

With composure shattered, Lucien's normally fluid motions were rather jerky.  He slowly brought himself up to a sitting position and Leaned against the planter... Looking over at Pandora again, he managed in a bit more of a normal tone,  "I am terribly sorry about the... uh... awkward position... and I'm, well, I'm terribly sorry... " the timid half smile still on the edge of his lips as the various fears about how Pandora would react raced through the wolf's mind.

Thrill of the Chase

"Um Kev? We may have a problem. It looks like there is a Kalmethi soldier on the hull of the Thrill and hes working his way to the airlock you're near...He shouldn't be able to open it but he might have a breaching charge that could blow open the door..." Ephrael said from the bridge "You might want to get your helmet on and shields powered..."

Celine, Johnny and Theo

Theo's eyes boggled at Celine's rump for a few moments before stammering a few nonsense words and promptly fainting.

Johnny meanwhile had a any number of targets, as weapons fire from the Captain's position silenced the last turret on the torpedo closest to them. This left the Kalmethi in a uncomfortable position of low numbers and no heavy weapons... To which they responded to by charging at the defenders...

Lucien and Pandora

The Marine that knocked Lucien onto Pandora grabbed a handful of his shirt and hauled him off. "Grope later, shoot things trying to kill/enslave us now." The NCO said taking his helmet off and handed Lucien a standard issue pulse laser pistol and some clips.

Rekk and William, and a cola soaked Jinx.

"Well  to be fair you were on their side of the park." Will said to Jinx as he popping up after Rekk and slamming three score rounds into his target.

The turret's shields shimmered under the impacting rounds and then shorted out as it lost strength, and the follow up rounds from the Marine's heavy weapons shredded it.

"Alright people, as quick as you can shift over to Celine and her boys, less of these bastards to go though, keep low though, no point getting shot now...." Will said over the crew's comm link.

From her place face down on the floor Celine had a good view of Theo's reaction to her wound. She made an unflattering suggestion about his relationship with his mother and worked her way onto her hands and knees so that she could start checking out the pockets of her vest. Eventually she managed to come up with a mini spray bottle of liquid bandage she normally kept to numb and seal scrapes in the junkyard. "Well, this will have to do for the time being, since we seem to have hired the discount house doctor." Seeing that Theo was out conscious and Johnny was busy with their defense she applied the sealant as best she could one handed. "How are things out there?" she asked as a distraction from the wound.

"Why are there people out to kill me!  I've not done anything to anyone!"

Kevin look about for his helmet, found it right behind him where it should be and fumbled for all the controls.  Shields, shields, wait, does this thing even have shields? Or maybe she means the airlock?  AHHHH!!!!

So many things going through the poor fox's mind.  For all the thinking being done, all he knows is that he has his helmet on, his gun loaded and ready, and looking for shields of some manner.

Johnny fired a couple of shots in the direction of the visitors, then briefly dropped down to reload. By the time he popped back up again, the Kelmethi had started running towards them. He responded by emptying the rifle in their direction, trying to hammer one or more of them down. He shouted back to Celine, over the chatter of gunfire, "Not good. Gimme a grenade, get here, they're coming."

With that, he emptied the SMG, dropped it, and pulled the pistol, firing one-handed, his other hand back towards Celine, groping for the grenade.

Celine took Johnny's admonition seriously, crawling towards his location and even rolling the useless raccoon before her. Luckily the liquid bandage had some numbing properties that were kicking in. She dropped one of the remaining grenades into the waiting hand, keeping one for herself and stashing the last in her vest.

Johnny took the grenade, and, still firing at the intruders, pulled the pin, waited the requisite count, then flicked it out to the left side, aiming to land between the front two or three Kelmethi, and hopefully taking out a bunch of them.

He didn't stop trying to take others down, either, although his pistol didn't appear to have much more effect than the SMG had, adjusting his fire as targets vanished. If he'd had time to think about it, he'd have realised that those were mostly taken down by the Captain and the marines. Fortunately for his ego, he was a bit busy.

Lucien was thoroughly embarrassed, and things didn't help that the marine had made a snide comment.  As he was handed the weapon, his mood elevated some.  He flipped it around, and played with the feel... rather heavy compared to his Guardian II, but, looking at the safety switch, it appeared to have a burst fire... Much more powerful and better than the 10mm peashooter.  Carefully removing the magazine and chambered round from the Guardian, Lucien holstered the pistol, and stored the magazine in his harness.

Switching the weapon's selector switch to the 3 red dots, he kept the shot length at whatever the marine had set.  He took a quick peek out of cover, and saw things relatively clear, saying in a much more calm and collected voice, "Pandora, it looks like you can get a clear shot from that planter over there..." Pointing towards another metal box with some greenery and flowers growing out of the top.  "i'll give you cover from that pillar..."  

He smiled a bit weakly as he looked Pandora in the eyes, "just... take care of yourself, alright?"  As he finished his little goodbye, he gripped the edge of planter, and launched himself in a low, flat, arc.  Catching himself on his feet, the wolf ducked behind a stone bench before for a moment, and, when the coast was clear, he started sprinting, and ended up sliding behind a pillar.  He caught his breath and slowed his breathing.  When he was ready he shouted back, "When you're ready"

The wolf then popped out of his cover, and started scanning for targets, his finger barely touching the firing stud, but ready to send a beam of death (or, 3 actually) to anything unlucky enough to get it's head into his sights.

"Well, their side of the park was the way to the shuttle bays, but they've got some kinda crazy armor blocking it."

Jinx fastened his helmet into place. He reached into his pack and withdrew a small pistol. He'd have preferred not to draw any more attention to himself, and the thing was only slightly more effective than spitballs against military shielding, but he was getting a bit tired of always being on the wrong end of gunfire.

He sighed.

"I don't suppose you guys have a plan for getting out of here. This side of the park doesn't look too safe, either."

He peeked out from behind the scrapped vending machine just long enough to squeeze off several 8mm rounds at the advancing simians.

Rekk reloaded thoughtfully, then glanced down at Jinx.
"A'plannnnn, eh?" The walker rubbed his chin thoughtfully and clapped Jinx on the back once. "I got somethin'." He crouched down a bit more and turned toward Celine's group. "Onnnnn three we emptyasmuch ammoooooo as we can in't'em an'makeabreak for iiiiiit." He grinned at the other two, "Soun' good?"

Thrill of the Chase

Kevin was lucky that he had a (battle) Angel looking over his shoulder....Through cameras at least....Nova quickly jacked into his suit via the comms and powered his shields up.

"Kev the guy outside is trying to hack his way in...I'm going to open both doors on a 5 count just aim down the airlock and fire...Just plant your feet and I'll activate your mag boots" The AI purred smoothly over his suit comms trying to settle him and yet ready him for his first battle.

"Here we go...Five, four, three, two, one....." There was a terrifying howl as both of the airlock doors opened and the air rushed out....And a Kalmethi sat at the end of it but without his weapon in his hands....   

Celine, Johnny and Theo

Johnny's grenade bounced once, twice, and a third before going off. The backs of the first rank of Kalmethi were shredded blowing them forward one sliding into the pillar they were ducking behind. It moved feebly to pull a side arm out and aim it at Johnny...

Celine however was suddenly feeling more than just the effects of the numbing agents in the liquid bandage...Her vision went double, and then it all tilted and she slumped painfully to the ground.

It seemed the Kalmethi were shooting tranqs....

And Theo...Well he was still out of it.

Rekk, William & Jinx.

Plan is we haul ass 50 meters thata way.." Will said as he took off sprinting unloading the rest of his Railguns Magazine at the Kalmethi, Rekk unloaded a few rounds and then followed....Leaving Jinx to figure out what he wanted to do.

Lucien and Pandora

Lucien's new toy had burned down three of the Kalmethi kamikaze charge when Captain Connor came tearing through and tapped him on the shoulder. He paused though when he saw Pandora was still sorting herself out. Reaching down he unceremoniously picked her up using the front of her overalls and crotch, into a modified firemans carry.

"Keep going, the Rally point is Johnny, Celine and the Doc..." He said as he hauled Pandora up and started moving again. 

Jinx watched the others haul ass towards a pillar at the center of the firefight. With bodies mounting on both sides, it looked like one of the few places in the park even less safe than cowering behind a shattered vending machine.

He sighed, muttering under his breath. "That way? Isn't that way back towards their side of the park?" He shook his head. "Aw, fuck it."

He flipped his visor down and took off at a flat run towards the pillar, not even bothering with covering fire.

Thrill of the Chase

Kevin was not sure what to think.  Was he being hit on?  Nova was a cute AI yes, and the purring was quite soothing but...

Suddenly, no air.  Or suddenly a huge blast of air if you were the Kalmethi.  Also, if you were the Kalmethi, shotgun aimed at you.  Kevin really didn't know much else to do, other then, "Keep the trigger down until it stops."  With the definition of 'it' and 'stop' being quite flexible.

Celine suddenly had a closeup of the deckplates; nose close. Her muscles weren't paying any attention to her orders to get up and move. "Mrgrfh," was her brilliant notification to Johnny of her predicament.

After the grenade had cleared out most of the targets, Johnny paused for a second, half-ducking from the blast, then took aim at the closest target - the Kelmethi that was aiming back. Fortunately for him, he wasn't likely to miss at this range. He pulled the trigger, firing three or four point-blank shots into the faceplate of the damaged trooper, as fast as he could pull the trigger.

With any luck, the grenade would have damaged the shield enough for that to be enough. He ducked back around the pillar they were hiding behind, and glanced over at Celine. "Shit!" A quick visual scan showed no more obvious holes, so she wasn't bleeding out. Anything else would have to wait. He reloaded his last clip, snatched up the SMG by the strap and hooked it over his shoulder, then popped his head and the pistol around the edge of the pillar, looking for more targets, before triggering the comms.

"Captain, Celine is down, but looks okay. Either they're using tranqs, or she got hit by something else. And I am almost out of ammo." A quick glance down again showed the grenade in Celine's hand; that'd be all he had left in a moment. Worse luck; close range grenade combat was for suckers.

More to himself than to anyone else, he muttered, "I swear, if I get out of this, I'll never go anywhere without half a dozen spare clips." He fired a single shot at whoever seemed nearest, and most likely to be trouble to them. "Minimum."

Lucien grinned wickedly as he feathered the firing stud, unleashing 3 quick pulses from each of laser's "barrels".  The first two sets of beams dissipated on the shields, however, the third shattered the protective energy field, pierced the armor, and burnt 3 holes clean through the alien trooper's chest, sending it to the ground in death spasms.

Rotating slightly, the wolf's sights were placed at the center of another Kalmethi's head.  Pulsing the firing stud again, beams of energy burned their way through shields and armor.  For a fraction of a second, the wolf swore he saw flames as the three beams sliced through the target's skull with ease, utterly destroying the contents within.  Between the first two victims, he'd used 10 shots of his first magazine-like energy cell.

A third target started moving, having noticed the death of his allies, and driven towards Lucien by a sudden, deep thump.  A grenade had gone off not too far away, spraying gore and shrapnel through the air.  The deaths in the distance didn't bother the wolf as he focused in on the target turning towards him.  The first pulse took the target in the shoulder, doing nothing but annoy the fellow, a second seared the Kalmethi's center torso, painful, but not entirely deadly.  The wolf fired several additional bursts burning away more and more of the beast with each touch of the firing stud.  The Kalmethi looked like a block of swiss cheese by the time the wolf had finished unloading the rest of the magazine into it, and it was clearly dead.  Falling lifelessly to it's knees, then collapsing face first on the ground.

As his line of sight cleared of targets, the wolf rolled back behind the pillar, and ejected the cell, setting it in his leg-pouch and collecting a fresh one.  The weapon registered a full charge, and the wolf proceeded cautiously out of cover, making his way towards Celine and Johnny, crouching behind benches, pillars, planters, and anything else that would provide adequate protection from the assault rifles the Kalmethi seemed to be favoring.

Reck made his way over to the rest of the group, eight legs turning into a chitainous avalanche as he tried to get there without getting shot. Walkers weren't really BUILT for running, but they could if they had to. Not even checking to see if he'd hit his targets he lunged into cover close behind Will, finally rejoining the rest of the crew.
The first thing he noticed was Celine, lying there. She didn't seem to be dead, but the principle of the thing rankled Rekk. Kill 'em extra for that. After all, a human girl that could tolerate his flirting technique didn't warrant that.
"Wellain' tha'somethin'." Rekk slammed another three shots into Lostriin, and looked over at Johnny. "'Ey, boy, 'ow many of 'em left y'think? Didn't get a good look on'm'way over."

Thrill of the Chase

Despite the howling wind the Arctic Fox could hear the rolling thunder of the AA-90 unleashing its fury into the airlock. Thankfully it's recoil reduction systems and his suit managed to make up for his lack of familiarity with the weapon, emptying the whole clip into the Kalmethi. There was a slight flare as its shields failed and then the front of its armor deformed, but by this point it had been blasted away from the ship, and Kevin was out of Shells.

"Sealing the lock Kev! Well Done!" Nova said cheerfully in Kevin's ear as she shut the outer an inner doors, bringing silence to the hold one more.



The Atrium (almost everyone :P)

Johnny's shoots splattered the Kalmethi's head all over the park's sandstone floor. As he was reporting to the Captain there was a flurry  of activity as the rest of the crew piled in behind him.

Putting Pandora down, who gave him a scowl for the manhandling he had just given her, Will popped a fresh strip of ammo into his rifle. Taking in Johnny's sitrep he looked over to Celine, and spotted Theo also out for the count. "Whats wrong with him?"

Turning Round to Lucien and Reck he pointed to the remaining dozen Kalemthi on this side of the Atrium "They are between us an pickup mid disposing of Them?"


.....Jinx

Jinx had been just behind Reck most of the way when his foot caught the lip of a small impact crater, totally unbalanced he somehow made his fall into a roll...face first int another planter.  Shaking himself off he figured out he was only half way to where the rest of the group he had been with had hunkered down.

Lucien manage to reach the rally point without incident.  He managed to observe those around him, and noted that he was doing pretty well compared to the others.  planting himself behind another pillar, he look over at Rekk and said, "You take the ones on the left, i got right, sweep into the middle, and clear the halls? Sound like a plan to you?"

The wolf peered around the corner, then leaned back into cover, awaiting the walker's response.

Thrill of the Chase

Kevin never thought of himself as a violent person before. In fact, the other day he never would have thought himself capable of killing someone. How easy it gets when they shoot first.

Keven looked around for additional shells to load in case he has to do that again. And when this was all done he may just flop where ever he is to nap. Shooting folk was exhausting.

"Oh for the love of..."

Another explosion - from what she could guess was a grenade - sent shrapnel flying in her direction. Tax rolled behind a short dividing wall to escape another close call, almost loosing her sack in the process. One hand clenched onto a black tonfa, the other on her bag, as she peeked out again. She saw a group form in the midst of the chaos, and two of them seemed to be unconscious - one of them looked somewhat of a medical professional and the other.. well.. she wasn't going to pre-judge, but she could spot a nasty wound to the rump. The rest were boldly fighting off the damn invaders.

Darting between any bit of cover she could find she started to make her way over to them. Half way there she slipped in a pool of blood which now stained her knees and hands, the rest dripped off of her weapon in some gory manner. Without hesitating she continued to make her way to the group, reaching them from the rear.

"Hey, looks like you guys could use some help. I'm a nurse" She offered, still gripping the bloody tonfa and as her eyes darted to it she hoped they'd think of her as some skilled warrior rather than some half-crazed loony.

Johnny relaxed a little - but not very much - as the rest of the team piled in around him. He ducked back around the pillar, back to it, now that the closest one's head was splattered all over the floor. And the walls. And his feet, but he didn't have time to react to that just now. Rekk's query surprised him. "About a dozen, I think. I wasn't counting, though, just trying to stay alive."

He peeked around the pillar to check where the red team had got to, and let off a couple of shots at the nearest target, before ducking back. "This thing doesn't do more than annoy them, and I'm down to half my last clip."

At about that point, everyone else piled in, and he answered the Captain. "No idea. He took one look at her and folded. Figured we'd find out later. If we get a later." He shrugged, and peered around the pillar again, let off a couple more shots, and then ducked back again.

More ammo. Definitely more ammo. And a bigger gun...

Captain Connor turned to face the newcomer, smiling at the offer of medical aid. "Ma'am I would kiss your feet if you could get my Quartermaster back on hers" He said grinning.

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth however he was up like a jacking a box, the rifle in his hand cracking as he chopped down two of the Kalmethi.

"Uhh..." She didn't quite know how to respond to that but her mind shifted into complete business mode. 'Her' he said.. so it was... ohhhh.. but Tax thought that was a child! How.. Oh well, it didn't matter. She scooched over to the poor gal with the horrible wound in her butt, put down her weapon, took out her PDA, hooked up the blood-testing attachment, found a limp arm, rolled up a bit of the sleeve, swabbed, poked, gathered blood specimen into the reader, waited a few seconds for a low beep, hummed to herself, then put everything back in her bag (holy hell she had a lot of stuff in there!).

Donning a pair of rubber gloves she took out some surgical tweezers and a very small, dainty scalpel. Thankfully the woman was already passed out because this might have hurt.. a little. Tax carefully cut into the already dry scab over the wound, careful to try to not cut open any more skin, and reached into the small opening with the tweezers... and pulled out the bullet with a sigh. Damn things. She finished that with putting on some thick sanitising sealant before discarding her gloves and putting her tools back inside her sack.

With a lot of digging around again she soon had a small tube which she placed the end of on the lady's arm, took off the safety, pushed the button and with a small click the antidote with painkillers was administered. Ending with a light sanitising sealant she rolled down her sleeve and addressed her now foot-kisser.

"That's it.. in a few minutes she should come around." Thank goodness she forgot to return some useful trinkets before she left the hospital...

At first Celine drifted in the half-awake state, not figuring out why her pillow was so cold and unyielding. Then it came to her and she popped entirely awake with a curse. Then she cursed a second time and shut her eyes tight. Her sunglasses had been smashed at some point and the normal lighting was blinding to her. As she groped for one of her spare pairs stashed in her vest she whispered, "What's happening? What's going on?"

"Nuthin'majer, Daaaarlin'. You jess' get'some resssst." Rekk smiled down at Celine, "Save'yerenergy." The walker poked his head around cover, briefly, ducking back as several blasts struck the area where it had been moments before. "Fff-, son'sah-!" He leaned out again and fired a shot at the Kalmethi at the same time that the captain did.
"Theah'runnin' outtah troopsss, pour't on!" He squeezed the trigger again, feeling Lostriin's comforting thump against his palm. Firefights that went on this long made him edgy. With the tools available these days, if you had the chance to pull out a firearm killing was usually something that happened promptly and efficiently, doubly so in this sort of abrupt skirmish. That was what really worried him; well armed and armored troops just hammered their way into the station, into a region available to unarmed civilians. Disregarding the moral implications, he and, presumably, most of those beside him hadn't been behind cover when the shots first started flying. This should have been a rout. He was still alive, and last he checked he wasn't bulletproof. How the hell had he survived so far in this mess?

The Group

Combined with Will's rifle, Lucien and Rekk's weapons fire (plus the Marines) the Kalmethi line wilted and died as first their shields failed then their armor.

Apart from the firefights at the other end of the atrium and from the docks there was a sudden hush as Civilians and Marines alike stood up to look around them. However the Marines didn't stay long as new orders send them towards new threats leaving the crew in their little huddle.

"Alright people lets get to that Torp." Will said as he slung his rifle and gently picked up Celine and headed towards their planed exit. "Eph, we heading to the Torp now mind coming and getting us?"




Thrill of the Chase

"Kevin you ok?" Ephrael's voice said over his radio, "The rest of the crew are about to take that boarding torpedo, do you think you can keep a watch out for them?"

Lucien went about with the help of Rekk and the marines as the last of the Kalmethi were brought down in dead, crumpled heaps.  He changed power-cells sliding another empty into his leg-case, then holstered the tri-barreled pistol.  He walked over and checked his pink-clad friend as Will gave the order, wasting little time, he then glanced over the others, urging them onward with a chop-like wave.

Lucien ducked from cover to cover as he traveled the distance to the boarding torpedo, trying to keep close to Pandora, doing his best to keep her from exposing herself more than she had to.  That bright pink would attract a lot of attention and that was something neither he, nor she, nor anyone else in the crew wanted... at all.

Jinx scrambled to keep up with the rest of the group. His syrupy cola soaked EVA suit had somehow acquired a trimming of soil and leaves along the way.

Breathing hard, the armoured feline leaned against the pillar and flipped up his visor. He reached into his bag for a fresh magazine, reloaded his little 8mm, and racked the slide. He scanned the area. They seemed to be out of targets. For now, at least.

Upon hearing the Captain's plan, Jinx raised a brow and eyed the Kalmethi boarding torpedo.

"The torp? Why would we--" His eyes suddenly widened, and he trotted up behind the Captain. "You have a ship! Take me with you? Please? I'm small and don't eat much..."

He was a bit old to pull off the puppy eyes. The grimy body armour and handgun didn't help, either.

Thrill of the Chase

"Yea, I'm fine.  They are coming by boarding torpedo?  This is gonna be a barrel of fun!"

Kevin looks about, not quite sure what he is going to do about the eminent boarding torpedo that he is about to find.

Tax heard the guy.. and she definitely was 'people' so she followed with those 'people' wherever they were heading. She didn't want to get caught out in this bloodbath alone.. plus she didn't have enough to get off-station otherwise. So, she hoped to either be welcomed or unnoticed until it was too late.

Thrill of the Chase

There was a muffled thud as the ship docked to the escape hatch of the torpedo.

"Kev we've attached, did you manage to reload?" Ephrael said from the Bridge, via his helmet speakers.




The Motley Crew

Reaching some stone benches (well the remains of a couple at least) Captain Conner took stock of the situation. The Torpedo's hatch had been closed, and locked by the look of it from the inside meaning there was at least one Kalmethi in there.

As the rest piled in around him he evaluated his options,only to be interrupted by the ragged looking feline who'd vaulted the drinks machine earlier. "If you miraculously know how to get that" Will said pointing to the torpedo "Feel free to come with us." He also spotted the helpful nurse who had patched up Elf, "that goes for you too Miss, though considering our doc," This time he indicated Theo who was being carried by Rekk. "We need a medic who doesn't faint in combat." He  finished with a lopsided grin.

Thrill of the Chase

Kevin was checking out his gun one last time.  He should be good on ammo.  So far the gun has done him right, it should continue this proud tradition.  He believes in his gun.

"Just check it, it should be good.  Why is there something that needs to be shot?"

Tax nodded, allowing a bit of a smirk. "Whatever I can help with, I'd be glad to be off of this station... there's no need for me to stay here any longer."  Granted, her (former) boss might not be pleased, but that was far away from getting blasted in head.

She peered over to the fainted doctor..  How odd... perhaps he needs to get a check-up.. maybe his glucose levels are low... should check oxygen and perhaps run an electroencephalogram and...(etcetc)

"Get what? The torpedo?" Jinx stared at the locked hatch separating them from a ride out of this battered station. "Can't you guys just huff and puff and blow it down?" He looked over the motley crew of rather heavily armed individuals and sighed. Blowing open the object sealing the station off from cold, airless space was probably not the safest escape route.

"I'll see what I can do. It's just like helping people who lock their keys in the shuttle, right? Aside from it being heavily armoured and filled with murdering psycho gorilla slavers..." Somehow, that didn't seem quite as funny once he said it out loud. "Um... cover me? And please try not to catch me in the blast radius this time?"

He circled around the rubble and bodies to the breach in the station wall. Kneeling beside the torpedo, he pocketed his handgun and pulled a small toolkit out of his pack. It only took a moment to jimmy open a small access panel across from the boarding hatch. He set about pulling wires and connecting them to a module on his PDA. Given the nature of a boarding torpedo, keeping people out couldn't have been very high on the designers' list of priorities. It shouldn't be too hard to crack...

Jinx flipped down his visor and secured the seal, just in case.

The Captain had set Celine down on a bench as they waited. She was still dizzy and glad she wasn't moving any more. Bad career move to barf on the boss your first day. "Thanks for getting me out of there." Wondering what she had missed during her unfortunate nap and realizing they had new members in the group she added, "Did I miss much?"

Rekk grunted as he shifted his grip on Theo. This was making it a lot harder for him to aim Lostriin. Not IMPOSSIBLE, by any means. But harder.
"Our ssssstance on making funna'fella' crew memberssss about their performansssss in combat is tha'i's permitted, rrrright?" Rekk muttered, staying in cover. "'CuzI'vealready ga' threeee good nicknamesssss f'rthis kid f'rlater."

Lucien continued to stay low and scan for anyone or thing, he nodded towards Rekk and gestured towards the torpedo, saying in a low voice, "Stack up on the torp, and get ready to fire as soon as that door is open... Gotta aim carefully, but we need him down and out of that Torp... You ready, big guy?"

Lucien crouch-walked towards the torpedo opening that the one new guy was working on.  His pistol still read a mostly full charge, and as such, the wolf prepared to take down yet another gorilla-like alien.

The Crew


William Conner, at this point was fairly happy with how things were going. Oh he wasn't happy about the death and destruction around him but the fact that no one from his newest bunch of employees had been killed, and they were about to make good of there escape (and picked up a few useful extras as well), meant he had very little to complain about at this point beyond the obvious.

"Rekk, if I didn't have that rule I'd have gone insane long ago! Friendly mocking is not only accepted, its encouraged!" Will said as the Walker set Theo down, after which Will squatted down next to Celine. "Not much, picked up a couple of hitchhikers, one of witch brought you back to land of the awake. We're about to use that Torpedo to get back to the Thrill." He said pointing the torpedo out to her.

Will had Pandora, who's pink overalls were now covered in dust much like all of those not in a EVA suit, was now sand coloured, stand watch next to Rekk for any Kalmethi still lurking in the immediate area. And the occasional round from the firefight around the other torpedo was heard ricocheting nearby.

Captain Conner put a hand on Lucien's arm as he was about to head over to the Torp. "Its too exposed, you're not in a suit he is, and you will have a better angle into the torp form here."




Jinx

With a bit of coaxing and shorts from the lower tech of the Kalmethi circuits the hatch opened, bringing the odour of the trace gasses the Kalmethi liked to breathe as well as the oxygen mix most space fairing races preferred.


Thrill of the Chase

Nova's voice suddenly cut through the fox's helmet. "Warning! Explosive device detected against the outer hatch!" Moments before there was a loud bang and through the small porthole on the inner airlock Kevin could see the outer door shatter and warp.

Ephrael's voice was heard next "Kevin! Get back and find some cover! There is five of them in there! I'm coming down, just hide somewhere!" The hybrid said as she left the Bridge and hurtled down the hallway. "Captain we've got borders!" She fairly yelled into her mike at Will.

Jinx breathed a sigh of relief at the hiss of pressure seals opening. Given his luck these past few days, he'd half expected it to blow up in his face. And speaking of explosions...

His task complete, Jinx backed away from the torp, keeping himself out of the line of fire between it and the big guys with big guns. He snapped his PDA into a slot on his suit and quickly stowed his tools away before the next firefight.

Lucien nodded and ducked back down behind the bench as Will stopped the wolf from advancing.  He gave a very curt, "Ye'sir", as he lined up his shot with torpedo hatch.  His hand very gently tightening as he prepared to fire as soon as the door opened.

Thrill of the Chase

Kevin took heed of the truly wise words of wisdom, looking for something substantial to hide behind.  Though generally new to combat he gets the distinct feeling that this is the perfect time for a grenade.  Instead he locates a substantual chunk of metal next to a wall and hides behind to, double checking his gun and hoping that Eph shows up SOON.

Tax waved a bit to the first crew member she treated and smiled. "Nice to meet you, I'm Tax." Then, she heard the ricocheting going on and crouched down, holding one of her little clubs, and sat down by the quartermaster.

"Soooooo how has your day been?" She hugged her bag'o'medical goodies and smiled.

Rekk made sure Theo was somewhere comfortable and out of harm's way. Silly kid or not, he'd feel bad if the boy got shot. He leaned around the wall, got a good look at the torpedo, and ducked back. The walker loaded another three shots into Lostriin and glanced around. Two wounded, an untested new medic, the captain, an engineer, a kid who nearly just tried rushing out there...
He grinned. I really love what I do.
He nodded politely to Pandora ("A pleasha', honnnnn.") and stood ready. He didn't like to think of it as "waiting." Waiting was stressful. "Anticipation." Now THERE'S a fine word.

Celine managed a smile at the new medic. "Better since you arrived. Thanks." She stuck her hand out, the one she hadn't rearmed with her gun. "I'm Celine."  In the back of her head Celine was busy wondering if the last batch of supplies had been delivered before the attack and if so how they might be sliding around a moving ship. Hopefully none of the cylinders of exotic gases she had ordered for Rekk were impact sensitive. This was line of thought was actually more calming than wondering if her friends on the Inferno had escaped. "We moving soon Captain? This party isn't much fun."

Outside the Torpedo

Captain Conner looked up sharply at Ephrael's report "Lucien, Rekk, Johnny! Storm that thing now! They've pushed into the Thrill!" He half shouted as he pulled his boxy looking sidearm and tossed it at Johnny and  then ran at the torp. "Kevin and Ephrael are going to try and stall them but if they get further its gonna be a bitch to get em out."

He pointed at Jinx and Tax "You two! stay her and watch the wounded, Pandora you too." He said to the pink/grey covered engineer. as he hurried past.


Thrill of the Chase

The inner airlock door flew into the hold bouncing off the grounded forklift Kevin was hiding behind, shunting it backwards and neatly pinning him against the wall. But he was lucky enough that he could see the Orange-skinned Ape like things storm into the hold, and not bee seen in return. They seemed to armed with an assortment of pistols and short barreled shotguns.

The Kalmethi spread out among the cargo hold, a couple of them heading to the lift, which opened just before they got there. Ephrael stood to one side her pistol up and barking twice, both shots literally taking their heads off and dived for cover, but not before one of the Kalmethi further back got a shot in.

Out of Kevin's sight she radioed over the crew link "Skipper...Two down, three still standing...b-but I'm out...Got me in the ch-chest. I think I'm g-gonna black out now." with that her link went quiet.

Lucien paused as he heard the comm chatter from Ephy.  He sighed as he considered the different possibilities.  His last ship had been a rust bucket with half it's systems either faulty or in disrepair, as such, his immediate assumption was that Ephy's armor had been pierced in a low-pressure area of the ship.  A captain who runs such a rust bucket cares little for the lives of his personnel.  With this thought in mind he tapped his unhelmeted head and asked, "You sure you've got full pressure on the Thrill, Cap'n.  My suit was sent to the ship along with my other recently purchased equipment... so, if nothing else, it'd be nice to know where you stored the deliveries, sir.  I'd rather have a little something between me and them, should they get a lucky shot..."


The wolf peaked out from cover again, and waved the other 2 in first.  They had suits,  therefore, they had shields and armor, and they also had a means of surviving in the void...   He desperately hoped that the torpedo was in good enough condition to

Carefully leaning his view so as to see inside the open torpedo hatch, Lucien kept his eye down his sights as he checked for anything hostile.  He was ready to burn down another gorilla thing, should one still be alive.

Thrill of the Chase

Kevin wished he could do something, but was rather stuck.

Tax shook Celine's hand, smiled, and idly wondered how this day became quite eventful. Either way, it was better than med school.

To the captain's orders she just nodded and stayed there, taking out one of her clubs and eyeing around just in case something pops out.. and hoping whatever does would be able to be taken down with a swing or two.

Johnny attached his almost empty pistol to the clip on his his suit - he hadn't been able to keep close count, but by the light way it was feeling, he didn't have more than three or four shots left in the thing - with one hand as he caught the boxy sidearm from the Captain with the other. He checked he had his SMG secure, said "Yessir", then glanced at Rekk and Lucien.

"Rekk, you watch the Captain's right. I'll take the left. Lucien, watch our backs. Cool? Let's go!" And with that, he ran after William, trying to catch up before the Captain vanished from sight. After all, the Captain might need him,

And he'd asked.

Well... commanded, actually, but it amounted to the same thing. Either way, hot on the Captain's heels he went,

"Right. Stay here. Good plan."

Any plan that didn't involve getting shot at again was fine by Jinx. He scooted back towards the group of human females and dropped to his haunches, hopefully presenting a smaller profile to any stray shots coming out of that torp. He watched. And waited...

The medic seemed to have taken care of the wounded, at least, although her unusual melee weapon drew a quizzical glance from the feline. He shook his head. It wasn't as if the low-caliber pop gun in his bag performed much better against military shielding than a big stick. Scavenger's instincts kicking in, he rummaged around the fallen troops for something more useful--or at least valuable enough to sell if he managed to get out of this mess alive.

Rekk cocked Lostriin and rumbled his way to the torp at top speed, nodding to Johnny and making his way to the right of the captain.
"Ennyone knowhooooow t'pilo'thissssthing?" He wheezed, teeth clamped around the breathing strip of his enviro. "I go'a couple flights'en boardin'craft, but it'ain' my forte..."
The Walker skittered to a halt outside the entrance to the torp and turned back towards the group, keeping a lookout for kalmethi. "C'mon'laaaads, feelin' damn exssssspossssed out'eeeere..."

Thrill of the Chase

Sandwiched as he was Kevin could wriggle around enough to bring the shotgun up to fire if he wished, but with the three Kalmethi facing his general direction that may not be the best idea...


The wounded (And others)

Jinx's midbattle looting several of the very unwieldy assault rifles Kalmethi, plus a few of their odd shaped pistols, however two of the bodies stood out. One because it had a grenadiers pouch which seemed to be full of various types, HE, Frag, ECM smoke, and a few nonleathal gas. The other seemed to be one of their medics, his pouches full of med-gel and other medical odds and ends, including a advanced Medi-PDA.

A pair of Kalemthi from the other torpedo somehow managed to slip past the other defenders, but were stopped in their tracks as a now recovered and angry Pandora slammed repeated 7.62x51mm rounds from her (now) custom M14 into their shields then their faceplates...

Elf could feel the anti-narc drugs freeing her muscles and energizing her.

Assault group

As the Captain ran he called out to Lucien "Nova would have let us know if she was holed!"

Not stopping at the hatch Will bust through into the airlock then the crew compartment, his rifle following his eyes. Waving Rekk though, with Johnny following he pointed to the end of the torp where he could see the cargo area of the Thrill. As they neared the end two small windows opened in the corners of both their helmets, it was a direct feed from the cameras mounted in the cargo bay, and the other gave them a almost xray vision through the hulls of the ship, letting them know just where the Kalmethi where...and they seemed to be heading right for the lift. 

Lucien eased up his grip on the captain as he followed the captain, "Sorry for sounding a little paranoid, sir.  Last ship was a rust-bucket, and i'm still getting used to the idea that i'm on ship that -isn't- more dangerous than the usual criminal scum."

Holstering his pistol for the time being, he brought up his PDA and started checking out the schematics nova had been displaying in the others' HUDs.  "I dunno if there will be time for me to suit up before clearing the decks, Sir... how good are you self-sealing capabilities on the Thrill?"

The wolf's grasp tightened slightly on the small unit as memories of a leak killing 3 newbies, and the captain not even batting an eyelash flooded his mind.  Gritting his teeth, he knew, on some level, Will was better than that... but still, the callousness of his previous captain left scars.

Celine felt the last of the paralysis leaving her muscles and flexed a little bit to shake the last of it off. Even her injury was painless, although stiffness let her know the injury was still there. She wished she could see what was going on but the over-large designers of this place hadn't left her a line of sight. She was feeling a little bit antsy and claustrophobic at being stuck behind a planter and not knowing what was going on. She played with the grenade in her pocket a bit anxiously as they waited.

Tax took out her other club and gripped them tightly. Not too tight.. ease up... concrete breaks.. She made it so her knuckles were not as white as she waited to jump into action of things got too close.

Rekk grinned to himself as the heads up displays in his goggles lit up, pointing out three Kalmethi who he was quite dedicated to turning into the unluckiest people in the universe.
So, ah kin assume the cap'n wants minimum damage to th'cargo. Should use the torp an' hallway for cover 'til the Kalmethi're cleared out then... Better just try and take 'em out before they notice us. Which suited him fine. The man was too large to wade out into a firefight without some serious business armor. But still, something about subtly or stratigizing struck him as... cheating.
Ah well, couldn't be helped.
Rekk leaned around the corner, took careful aim, and let off one shot at the first Kalmethi. Shame he didn't have a faster weapon, or he'd have tried for all three...

Johnny skittered after Rekk, using the feed from Nova to locate a spot around the corner to duck into. As Rekk leaned out and shot, Johnny skipped past him and, taking a potshot at one of the three Kelmethi at random on his way past, rolled into cover.

Once there, he scanned the feed to see how may, if any, of the Kelmethi were left, and if they were looking at him or at Rekk. If they were looking the other way, it'd be a perfect time to poke his gun out and take a shot. He switched the feed up a fraction in size, and added in a targetting guideline, so he didn't have to put his head out.

If the Kemlethi were looking at Rekk, he could take a shot. If they were looking at him, Rekk could take a shot, Either way, someone was getting holed...

Thrill of the Chase

With the Kalmethi's attention the other direction, Rekk's and then Johnny's shots caused no immediate retaliation.

Rekk's massive slug ripped though the lighter shields and even lighter armor of the trailing member of Torpedo's crew, causing the other two to turn to face his death gurgle when Johnny's hasty shot ricocheted off the deck and into the Kalmethi closest to the Lift. The cargo bay was filled with the wailing from the injured alien, who was grasping at a nearly detached lower leg.

The Third Kalmethi dived for cover, and crawled further away from the hatch....And into Kevin's line of fire.



The Station


It seemed that the Kalmethi from the other Torpedo had linked up with more of their brethren, and were slowly pushing the Marines back, and quite a few were putting the occasional shot the Crew's way...

The Torpedo

With a tight grin Will looked over to Lucien "All good Mr Grendel, I know not every ship is up to UNSC standards." Conner looked up towards the door where Rekk was peeking out. "Rekk, what do we have?"

Johnny's targetting line tracked across the wireframe as he poked the gun over the top of the cover he was behind, tracking down to the injured Kelmethi, then along the body, a tiny red dot indicating where the laser pointer was aiming at - not that Johnny could see it, of course. The red dot swooped along, then stabilised on the helmet, and paused for a moment.

Than Johnny pulled the trigger.

"I've so got to get me one of these," he commented to himself, and then he activated his radio. "Captain, we're down to one hostile, under cover. I'll go left and see if I can't flush him out for you." And with that, Johnny started working his way forward, keeping an eye on the wireframe to track the Kelmethi.

Lucien relaxed ever so slightly at the news that the Thrill was actually up to code.  He used anything he could for cover, knowing that the durable fibers of his tunic and pants were of little use against assault weapons.  Following the walker and the armored human down the hall, Lucien's pistol was held slightly in front of him, scanning for hostile movement. 

He had no shot, Rekk and Johnny had already cleared anything he could see.  He settled his sights on the injured aliens, and asked over his shoulder, "What do we do with the wounded, captain?  Attempt to detain? or merely watch for hostile action, and react accordingly?"

The Station

Jinx greedily liberated the fallen soldiers of their explosives and medical supplies. He puzzled over the weapons for a moment, turning over one of the alien pistols in his hands. It looked too large for even an ordinary human, let alone a little guy like him. Perhaps it could be modified for smaller hands. Or sold intact to the right fence. Surely there were--

Shots whizzed overhead. The Kalmethi reinforcements had arrived. Just his luck. He grabbed what he could and scrambled back to the others.

"Um... I think that's our cue to exit, guys."

He peeked inside the torpedo hatch to see if captain and crew had cleared the escape route.

Thrill of the Chase

"ALL HAIL LORD IRONBALLS!"

Kevin probably should not use inside jokes as his battle cry, but being pinned he didn't have much else to say or do other then shoot the person he could see.

Rekk snickered at Kevin's battlecry, quite happy to assume Lord Ironballs was him. He swaggered out from behind cover, keeping his firearm trained on the kalmethi's hiding spot. The instance he showed his face, if Kevin didn't get him, he'd wish he hadn't.

Thrill of the Chase

With one of the aliens gurgling its last breath, and the other with a partly detached head to go with its likewise leg, Kevin's unloading of his entire magazine finished the clearing of the hold. The Last Kalmethi's corpse was blasted backwards back into the open but it was clear the movement was not that of a live enemy.

"Captain, the hold is clear. First Mate Falco's vest slowed the slug, and it seems it was a tranq round as well, she will need medical aid. There is no real damage to the ship." Nova said over the crew link in a rather dispassionate voice.

"Thank you Nova. All right Kiddies! Lets get the hell out of here. Rekk! Go grab our non-effectives would you and get that medic in here to look over Ephy? Lucien would you kindly get these things off my ship?" Will said pointing at the five Kalmethi "And Johnny go rescue Kevin would you? I need to see to Ephrael."


The Station

More bullets and other exotic rounds were pinging around the Crew hunkered down by the planter and benches, making the place seem decidedly unhealthy but not yet too dangerous to stay by for the moment....But that could change.

looking from the captain to the bodies, then back to the captain, Lucien pondered his next course of action.  They were far to heavy to simply lift and drag off the ship, especially without a suit.  Who knew how hard it'd be to get their blood stains out, anyways.  That wasn't going to work.  Then, hearing the captain's next order, the wolf knew what to do.  Climbing towards the control cabin of the grounded forklift, Lucien set his PDA on the upper console, then said, "Johhny, you want to help me fire this thing up?"


the next order of business would be finding a suitable airlock to hold the dead gorrilla like aliens.  After that, simply transport object A to point B.

"Aye, Sir." Johnny swiftly but carefully made sure the safety was on the hfty sidearm the Captain had leant him, then attached it to his suit for the moment; he could return it later, after he'd reloaded his own weapons. After that, he headed over to the forklift to see if he could get the airlock door off it, or it to start up and hence be able to remove the door. Either way, they didn't really have a usable airlock until that got repaired.

"I reckon you should use that to get the door back somewhere near where it needs to be, and possibly put the junk behind it. If there's another airlock around here, we could use that, but in the short term stacking them over there can't hurt." He waved an arm at the broken airlock behind them. "We might want to wait until the rest of the crew goes past, though. Nova, is there a better place to stack the dead? And or something we can use to move this door out of the way?"

He made a small effort to shift the door, without really expecting it to have much effect, given the size of the thing.

Kevin called out, "um, hello?  I'm still stuck. Don't leave me here behind the forklift!  In spite of appearances I don't like it!"

The Station

Jinx's feline ears twitched under his helmet as he peered into the boarding torpedo. The sounds of fighting had died off, and he could just make out that captain issuing orders to haul out. He turned back to the others and motioned them towards the torpedo.

"I think it's safe to cross over now." A stray round whistled by his head. He quickly ducked for cover behind the torpedo door. "Safer than out here, at any rate."

Peering over the front end of the forklift to see the pinned vulpine, Lucien replied to Kevin, " We'll have you out shortly... just need to finish powering this baby up... then we can move the bodies out of the way as well.  Hopefully nothing feels broken... otherwise this could hurt just a bit."

Celine had to agree with the newcomer's assessment of their location. She hoped his name, Jinx, wasn't a bad omen. "I think you're right. Time to join up with the ship." These aliens had better hope they hadn't messed up Celine's organization of the cargo holds or else the grenade in her hand would have to be put to uses it was not intended."

Thrill of the Chase

Just as Johnny asked Nova for assistance with the door a load lifting crane that was only for use in situations where the ship was in a gravity well, or using it's own grav systems, lowered to be just in his reach. "Certainly Johnny, sadly the only hygienic place to store them is the ships freezer, which is one level up...I would recommend continuing with your plan." Nova said over Johnny and Lucien's commlinks.

Once the door was Removed Lucien powered up the forklift and moved it away from the wall, freeing Kevin. After scavenging the Kalmethi of any useful gear the three of them stacked the bodies on an empty cargo pallet they had placed on the forklift, where Lucien then drove over to the airlock to ease the unloading once the rest of the crew was aboard.

Rekk meanwhile tossed a casual salute at Will before taking a hit from his air tank and headed back down the boarding torpedo....



The Station

Once at the other end Rekk announced the way to the ship was clear but made a point of asking Tax to go first to see to Ephrael, who was wounded. Gathering up the still flaked out Theo, and assisting Elf to her feet lead the way to the ship.

Jinx quickly scurried into the torp after the big Walker, while Pandora fired off a few bursts with her treasured rifle to discourage pursuit.



The Thrill's Cargo Bay


Once the group had made it inside, Lucien, Kevin and Will dumped the corpses out the lock, and closed the outer door.


The Bridge


Johnny had passed Tax working on Ephrael, still where she had fallen just outside the lift. Captain Conner had ordered him up here to move the ship away on a outward vector, despite his reservations the Captain had assured him Nova would assist.

After backing the machine up and loading the bodies onto the lifter, Lucien continued working the controls of the machine, gently guiding it out of the cargo hold, and out to the airlock.  Door sealed, and everything else taken care of, Lucien waited for Nova to cycle the lock before taking the cart back down to the cargo-hold.

After returning the vehicle to it's appropriate spot, the wolf headed for the armory.  He went to go make sure his gear was all there, and perhaps do some modifications to his combat harness to accept the new cells for the pistol he still had.  It -might- fit the holster... but just in case, he decided he'd best be prepared to give his gear a proper fit with some minor alterations.

The sound of the door closing was the sweetest thing that Pandora had heard in a week, if not her entire life. The moment she realized was safely inside the sanctuary of the Chase, she practically staggered over to a wall for support; what little composure she had went flying, leaving naked relief and horror. Pandora slapped her hand against the wall, trying to steady herself, and clutched her rifle once she was sure that balance had been restored like a teddy bear. In spite of her fortitude, she wasn't a fighter; her entire style was based on improvised weaponry and uncoordinated informality. She was shaken – not quite traumatized, but shaken. Keeping her thoughts relatively organized was impossible, and she let the deluge of incomprehensible, babbling nonsense flush through her brain, washed away by adrenaline and drowned out by her thundering heartbeat.

She went from being grateful to feeling like she wanted to grab the good captain by his neck and strangle him. What was this bullshit? When she signed up for this job, she had prepared herself for only the bare minimum of danger – getting her history as a notorious government dissident laid bare like a cheap hooker, handling unfamiliar technology, possibly getting harassed by some government goons on her way off the planet. Space pirates that came storming in, armed to the teeth, were not on her list of anticipated threats. Pandora managed to steer her hands properly so she could rest the rifle somewhere safe, where it wouldn't fire and leave a hole through some poor bugger's forehead, and peeled off her cap, revealing sweat-soaked and bedraggled bubblegum hair.

Her goggles were undamaged, same with her precious leather hat – her grandfather made that for her, said that none of the ignorant seamstresses could ever fathom crafting something so perfect. If it had gotten ripped in the clusterfuck of violence, she would have crammed her boot down Will's throat, but fortunately, it came through unscratched. However, Pandora noticed a splash of ichorous blood caking the right lense of her goggles and scowled.

Spitting out a thickly-accented curse, she thrust her cap and goggles into her pocket and whirled on Will, growling her first of possibly many demands. Her voice was tight, restrained. "So," she hissed, "Mind tellin' us wha' all that was all about? I know I ain't the only one who wants ta 'ear some answers."

Johnny ran up the staircase, two to three steps at a time, since Eph and the doc were planted securely in front of the lift, and sailed down the corridor and into the bridge, flipping the gun off his back and moving towards the pilot's chair at a fair clip.

"Nova, Captain wants us to move out. Warm up the engines and, uh, give me a hand with the controls; I've only heard about a rig like this..."

He checked the safety, then dropped the rifle into storage locker on the back wall and closed the door on it, and headed for the pilots chair. "Let's have a look at what's out there. Let me know if anyone is looking our way, and watch our backs for me, would yOWSER!" As he dropped into the chair, the holosphere activated, giving him a fully 360 degree view of the surrounding space, along with HUD tags and informational screens following the corners of his vision as his head turned around. "Wow. Uh. This is nice..."

He paused for a moment, lost in the view, until Nova cleared her throat. "Oh! Shit. Uh... Gimme a ship-wide broadcast, and plot us a path to get the heck out of here. Try and keep the station, or planets, between us and anyone who might come looking, that sort of thing." A set of icons flashed on the display as he reached for the controls, indicating that the maneuvering thrusters were coming online, the station/torpedo was still attached, the airlocks were all closed, and his shipwide broadcast was online.

"All crew, this is your pilot speaking. Currently we're about to take off, and we hope to reach cruising altitude within five to ten minutes. Weather is stormy, with clouds of Kelmethi and some missile showers; we'll do our best to avoid contact, but we may encounter some turbulence. Flight time to our destination is indeterminate, as soon as we know where the hell we're going, we'll update you. Welcome aboard, and let's make like a tree." As he spoke, his eyes scanned the holosphere, flashing tags identifying things to avoid and stationary objects in the local system, his fingers flicking various virtual buttons, setting the systems up for departure, and disconnecting the torp from the airlock. He closed the final switch, and gently brushed the thrusters, easing the Thrill away from their parking spot, and drifting gently clear of the station.

A faint green path lit up, leading in a gentle curve out from the station, then twisting hard and fast, once the minimum safe distance was reached. The Thrill followed the path like it was on rails, behaving as much like a floating derelict as possible until just before the twist. "Nova, let's get going." Johnny twisted the ship smoothly round the curve, and eased the main engines in, ramping quickly up to normal travelling thrust.

The ship shot out of there like it was greased.

Johnny opened the comms to Captain Conner. "Captain, we're headed out on 047.375 by 304.529, eighty percent normal max thrust. Eyes peeled for intercepts, but hoping to dodge. Weaver out." He cut the mic, leaving the channel open for a response from the boss, then said "Nova, let me know if I miss anything that might be dangerous. We're awfully isolated out here; let's make sure we stay that way." His eyes kept scanning the space around them, watching to see if anything moved, or if the ship's scanners picked up anything unexpected, either.

Like a robot, Tax saw the downed Tasmanian Devil and got to work. Her blood-spattered face donned a look that lacked emotion as her hands moved quickly. The order of procedure flowed through her naturally that the head nurses beat into her skull. Cut away nearby fabric, sanitize area, numb it, poke around, find bullet and pull it free, clean out wound, seal it up. Done. Nearly..

"She needs blood.. blood... where's the medbay?"

The Bridge

"Weaver, this is the Captain. That course takes us towards the jump gate, alter 50 left to 254. The Kalmethi raids usually have someone waiting to grab any ships fleeing through a gate, let me know when we are out of a gravity well we'll use our drive. Damn thing wasn't cheap but it gives us better options some times."


Cargo Bay

William had just finished giving  Johnny some fresh directions and was heading over to check on Ephrael, when Pandora announced her presence and her annoyance at the previous situation.

"Easy Ms Rosendahl!" Will said with a bit of command tone "as I said back on the station that was a Kalmethi slave smash and grab raid. Its a bit out of their normal area of operations and the fact they attacked a station instead of a ground side colony is odd too but not unheard of. For the moment I suggest you go clean up, de-stress and meet me in the drive room in 30 minutes, Nova and I will show you what you have to do when we jump. In the mean time i need to go see to my XO.

With that Will turned and headed off to where Tax was working on Ephrael, and as he approached she looked up at him and asked where the medbay was.

"Deck B Miss?" The Captain asked as he opened a container on the side of the lift well and pulled out a collapsible anti-grav gurney, set it up and assisted Tax in lifting the hybrid onto it.

Turning to Celine: "Ms Walker take charge down here." He said before pushing the gurney into the lift, with Tax keeping an eye on her new patient.


Armory

Lucien would find none of his belongings inside the armory... It was probably still in the cargo bay where it had been delivered.

Armory

With no sign of his gear, Lucien became concerned.  He'd paid for everything, it should have been delivered.  He grew more irritated than anything.  His eyes glancing over various lockers, when the faintest of sounds suddenly reminded him of something,  "Nova, do you have any log of a delivery occurring shortly before the attack?  If so, where would the equipment be?"

The realization that he could have just asked the AI for help would take a while to become second nature, but for now, he felt rather proud of himself of thinking so far ahead.  Still annoyed that he'd wasted the time getting to the armory, but proud that he'd thought of a simple solution to minimize future waste.

Armory


There was a very faint hum, and Nova's avatar appeared, flapping her sings as if to stay aloft. "I believe you equipment is still down in the cargo bay, I don't think Quatermaster Walker had the opportunity to deal with the latest batch of deliveries before the attack..." She finished with an impish smile before disappearing in a holographic cloud of smoke.

Checking his PDA for any messages, Lucien headed back from whence he came.  Back towards the cargo-bay.  He silently hopped that his gear was clearly marked.  He needed to get his suit on.  Then, he needed some questions answered.  The suit, however, came first.  If any of those things remained, but hidden from Nova's sensors, he'd need the suit's shields. 
Loosing a security officer, especially one who would be scouting ahead of an away team, would look very bad on both the captain's, and Lucien's resume.

He headed into the cargo bay, "hey, Nova, any chance you could be a bit more specific.  I'd like to catch up with the captain ASAP... just as soon as i've got my gear ready."

Celine was a mess, covered in nasty alien blood, missing one cheek of her trousers, and altogether disarranged. But she also knew that checking her cargo bay came first. Anything that had gotten loose could become a danger if things got ugly again. She noticed two things immediately, a puddle of blood and the last pallet of purchases. She looked around and saw Jinx. He wasn't a member of the crew so he didn't have an assigned job. "Jinx, grab the mop out of the cabinet over there and get this blood up before someone slips. Embarrassing as hell to survive the attack and break your neck in a puddle." Celine climbed up on the pallet to start sorting it.

Due to an apparent lack of interest I'm going to close TotC down

Thank you all very much for playing, it has been a fantastic run for my first RP as a GM :3