Koolest
Kilwen nodded his head at the two individuals as the one named Leng introduced himself and to the tall muscular man named Jet. Even though Jet rivaled Kilwen's own height, the Lord knew not to mess with a man like that unless he wanted his arms to pop out of their sockets and be smacked by your own arms. He looks behind him and see's the crumbling mess of a ship behind him and looks back with a nervous smirk. "Sorry about the mess" he responds, but a name did catch his interest. From the familiar paint job and the colors on Leng's uniform, Kilwen didn't pay much mind, but hearing the name "Catheorine" was what caught him and with said knowledge everything didn't seem so much like a coincidence. Plus, from all of his encounter's women with the name "Catherine" never put a "O" into their name and knew that the Frost Queen was the only one with said name. Kilwen follow and says "Catheorine? The Frost Queen? I could have sworn she died a long time ago...now that was a time" as they make it to the living area, he sat on a chair and began to tell his tale like the old man he is even though not looking so. "Yeah, I remembered the Frost Queen, before she was a cold hearted woman"
As he smiles and twittled his thumbs "Yeah, she was actually a normal woman with nice smooth apricot skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. Her full name being Catheorine Roberts, she was a graduate from Cambridge part of an archaeological team that team went into the arctic ice on Earth. She fell through the ice and came upon a large cavern which house this gaint shining Ice sharp diamond. She ended up touching it, and before long a tremendous amount of power poured into her" he leans forward and adds "Later we found out it was the legendary crystal of Ymir, a fabled crystal that was the last chunk of the Ice giant before passing in creating Earth if you believed the Norse mythology " he clears his throat and continues "However, as the pour of ice came in, it manipulated her DNA, twisting it so her skin turned blue and giving her the ability to control ice. As for the crystal, it shattered into forming the staff she, I'm guessing, still has"
He huffs as he leans back into the chair "Its too bad about her husband though...Heinrich Daggerfall was his name, he somehow was the one to at first warm her cold heart and they both were happy married and ruled over her Icy kingdom for some years, failed in having a child, but it all ended when her husband was assassinated" he took a pause to think. "I don't ever believe she found out who killed him" as he then looks whoever was around listening him ramble. "I remember my council was able to find out who did him in, that being the Veracon assassin who killed him..I don't believe she ever found out since shortly we got reported that she was killed" he says with a face showing how he was trying to recollect his memory. "When he died, she became much colder and crueler, but I'm surprised that she is back though if that's who we talking about" he says as he looks at them non-verbally giving out who he truly is as he looks at whoever with an innocent look.
Kilwen nodded his head at the two individuals as the one named Leng introduced himself and to the tall muscular man named Jet. Even though Jet rivaled Kilwen's own height, the Lord knew not to mess with a man like that unless he wanted his arms to pop out of their sockets and be smacked by your own arms. He looks behind him and see's the crumbling mess of a ship behind him and looks back with a nervous smirk. "Sorry about the mess" he responds, but a name did catch his interest. From the familiar paint job and the colors on Leng's uniform, Kilwen didn't pay much mind, but hearing the name "Catheorine" was what caught him and with said knowledge everything didn't seem so much like a coincidence. Plus, from all of his encounter's women with the name "Catherine" never put a "O" into their name and knew that the Frost Queen was the only one with said name. Kilwen follow and says "Catheorine? The Frost Queen? I could have sworn she died a long time ago...now that was a time" as they make it to the living area, he sat on a chair and began to tell his tale like the old man he is even though not looking so. "Yeah, I remembered the Frost Queen, before she was a cold hearted woman"
As he smiles and twittled his thumbs "Yeah, she was actually a normal woman with nice smooth apricot skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. Her full name being Catheorine Roberts, she was a graduate from Cambridge part of an archaeological team that team went into the arctic ice on Earth. She fell through the ice and came upon a large cavern which house this gaint shining Ice sharp diamond. She ended up touching it, and before long a tremendous amount of power poured into her" he leans forward and adds "Later we found out it was the legendary crystal of Ymir, a fabled crystal that was the last chunk of the Ice giant before passing in creating Earth if you believed the Norse mythology " he clears his throat and continues "However, as the pour of ice came in, it manipulated her DNA, twisting it so her skin turned blue and giving her the ability to control ice. As for the crystal, it shattered into forming the staff she, I'm guessing, still has"
He huffs as he leans back into the chair "Its too bad about her husband though...Heinrich Daggerfall was his name, he somehow was the one to at first warm her cold heart and they both were happy married and ruled over her Icy kingdom for some years, failed in having a child, but it all ended when her husband was assassinated" he took a pause to think. "I don't ever believe she found out who killed him" as he then looks whoever was around listening him ramble. "I remember my council was able to find out who did him in, that being the Veracon assassin who killed him..I don't believe she ever found out since shortly we got reported that she was killed" he says with a face showing how he was trying to recollect his memory. "When he died, she became much colder and crueler, but I'm surprised that she is back though if that's who we talking about" he says as he looks at them non-verbally giving out who he truly is as he looks at whoever with an innocent look.
Jack was growing frustrated in his search of the expansive cargo bay. He was just about to ready to pull back and find a intercom to get the alert out, and more eyes to help search. But then he heard the clattering activation of the decrepit tincan and it's subsequent march through the bay. If it had not been for the damaged droid Jack might have actually missed the girl at first, hidden as she was in a blind spot slightly ahead of him.
Instead Jack stepped forward and to the side of the droid as it passed by him. Then he saw her. At the ready with his knife, it took the old soldier a moment to fully comprehend just what the intruder was. When it finally registered he sheathes his knife with a irritated groan. Noting the girl's injured arm and decidedly hostile glare Jack relaxes his stance in hopes of getting her to relax as well. He'd seen the children produced by war before. Speaking like a parent to a child, he says "All right kiddo. Come on out. If you come nicely we'll go get you patched..." Jack didn't get to finish as all hell broke loose thanks to....blue slime? It looked just like the one earlier.
Seeing her freak out, whatever chance he had at talking the girl down without violence were gone now. Wasting no time, Jack charges at the girl, reaching out in an attempt to pull her into a bear hug. It was honestly the most non-lethal take down Jack had under the circumstances and size differences. If he succeeded he would begin to loudly repeat "Calm down!" while doing his best to hold onto the girl. If he could get her calmed, then he'd deal with the slime blob.
Instead Jack stepped forward and to the side of the droid as it passed by him. Then he saw her. At the ready with his knife, it took the old soldier a moment to fully comprehend just what the intruder was. When it finally registered he sheathes his knife with a irritated groan. Noting the girl's injured arm and decidedly hostile glare Jack relaxes his stance in hopes of getting her to relax as well. He'd seen the children produced by war before. Speaking like a parent to a child, he says "All right kiddo. Come on out. If you come nicely we'll go get you patched..." Jack didn't get to finish as all hell broke loose thanks to....blue slime? It looked just like the one earlier.
Seeing her freak out, whatever chance he had at talking the girl down without violence were gone now. Wasting no time, Jack charges at the girl, reaching out in an attempt to pull her into a bear hug. It was honestly the most non-lethal take down Jack had under the circumstances and size differences. If he succeeded he would begin to loudly repeat "Calm down!" while doing his best to hold onto the girl. If he could get her calmed, then he'd deal with the slime blob.
What was that saying again?
Ah yes, Talis remembered now.
If you wait long enough, an opportunity will always present itself
A grin spread over Talis's face, wide and open, showing her whitened teeth. In that moment her motives were laid bare; this was prime entertainment for her and she would gladly raise her glass to whoever won, maybe even place bets.
"Kick his face in, Scales!!" She cheered on the large reptoid, blue eyes sparkling with delight.
Things were about to get really good.
Besides, what was an adventure of a lifetime without its honorary bar fight?
"Better yet, rip off that ridiculous shoulder piece. It's very tacky and just ugly," She shouted as an afterthought. Looking at the Old Detective, she winked at him playfully.
"Drinks are on the smoking man~"
Ah yes, Talis remembered now.
If you wait long enough, an opportunity will always present itself
A grin spread over Talis's face, wide and open, showing her whitened teeth. In that moment her motives were laid bare; this was prime entertainment for her and she would gladly raise her glass to whoever won, maybe even place bets.
"Kick his face in, Scales!!" She cheered on the large reptoid, blue eyes sparkling with delight.
Things were about to get really good.
Besides, what was an adventure of a lifetime without its honorary bar fight?
"Better yet, rip off that ridiculous shoulder piece. It's very tacky and just ugly," She shouted as an afterthought. Looking at the Old Detective, she winked at him playfully.
"Drinks are on the smoking man~"
Stealing was not fun.
Nirix had done it once, however, in her mind, it was for a good cause; it had been for him after all. His smile had meant more than anything to her back then.
Even now, she could see him. There was something about the way he smiled; the way butterflies seemed to escape from the pit of her stomach and the way the sun had somehow toppled down from the sky and made a home right there in her heart. He had the kind of smile that made you feel happy to be alive and just that little bit more of a person.
And when he looked at her...
The memory was tamped down at the mention of the tea; Nivek tea to be specific.
"Sengan's favorite tea...We use to have a cup every evening after training," Nirix muttered and a fond smile brightened her face.
Sengan was her favorite cousin and had been her mentor in the way of the sword. He was only a few years older than she and would make sure to remind her of that. He always acted as the protector and guardian. Maybe that was where Nirix got some of her traits from. She was always so loyal and strived to protect everyone she loved...
It was hard when she had left her homeworld.
Suddenly her smile dropped and her lips became a thin line.
Entering the tea house had been a pleasant change in Nirix's mood. It had shattered the brief amount of sadness as she let the many homely aromas overtake her. Drinking the tea was nice and though it didn't exactly carry the same amount of flavor of the one she had drunk with her beloved cousin, Nirix was sure Sengan would've found it enjoyable.
Yet halfway into her pleasant drink, a man appeared and when his fingers inched towards her back pocket, Nirix had to restrain from the reflex of snapping his arm in two and merely stopped his methods of reverse-pickpocketing by grabbing his arm instead.
"I would refrain from touching me sir," She warned him lowly with darkening eyes. It was a cautious threat, one that was meant to be taken seriously.
Regardless, the money was returned to him with a simple gesture and she barely heeded his call to attention when he spoke of his Casino. But of course, Ketin was interested and that made Nirix cautious even more. If Ketin was feeling lucky, was that a bad or good omen?
Nirix sighed outwardly.
This was never a good sign.
Nirix had done it once, however, in her mind, it was for a good cause; it had been for him after all. His smile had meant more than anything to her back then.
Even now, she could see him. There was something about the way he smiled; the way butterflies seemed to escape from the pit of her stomach and the way the sun had somehow toppled down from the sky and made a home right there in her heart. He had the kind of smile that made you feel happy to be alive and just that little bit more of a person.
And when he looked at her...
The memory was tamped down at the mention of the tea; Nivek tea to be specific.
"Sengan's favorite tea...We use to have a cup every evening after training," Nirix muttered and a fond smile brightened her face.
Sengan was her favorite cousin and had been her mentor in the way of the sword. He was only a few years older than she and would make sure to remind her of that. He always acted as the protector and guardian. Maybe that was where Nirix got some of her traits from. She was always so loyal and strived to protect everyone she loved...
It was hard when she had left her homeworld.
Suddenly her smile dropped and her lips became a thin line.
Entering the tea house had been a pleasant change in Nirix's mood. It had shattered the brief amount of sadness as she let the many homely aromas overtake her. Drinking the tea was nice and though it didn't exactly carry the same amount of flavor of the one she had drunk with her beloved cousin, Nirix was sure Sengan would've found it enjoyable.
Yet halfway into her pleasant drink, a man appeared and when his fingers inched towards her back pocket, Nirix had to restrain from the reflex of snapping his arm in two and merely stopped his methods of reverse-pickpocketing by grabbing his arm instead.
"I would refrain from touching me sir," She warned him lowly with darkening eyes. It was a cautious threat, one that was meant to be taken seriously.
Regardless, the money was returned to him with a simple gesture and she barely heeded his call to attention when he spoke of his Casino. But of course, Ketin was interested and that made Nirix cautious even more. If Ketin was feeling lucky, was that a bad or good omen?
Nirix sighed outwardly.
This was never a good sign.
"Woah woah woah guy, I answer them, just slow the question, capisce? And don't talk into my ear all, creepy like. Anywho, yea, it was pretty crazy then and now, and yes, losing my eye hurt like a mother@#$%er. And, once more, yes, I do think this box will make us rich, because if they want it, I want it. It means its valuable to someone, and that means they'll pay.", as Ringo began to answer the final question, he slowed the bike, and went deep into thought, realizing where Muta stood in social intelligence. "You said you were found on a rando planet right? I mean it makes sense why you wouldn't know these kinds of things...well I'm going to enroll you in the school of true...life...where in the women are easy and the money is easier, if you have the right credit score or look. You'll learn everything you need to know and more, if you just stick with me and protect me, until this little treasure trove *taps the box* is in the hands of some greedy gang boss or some skinny tweaker that'll pay a ton of Standard and maybe a ship or two for it."
Rai winced at a resounding SCREEEEAAATCHKKK that seemed to rumble through the ship. For a moment they froze, straining to hear for anything else that would indicate alarm. When none came they relaxed, thoughts now tinged with curiosity.
What was THAT supposed to be?
They stepped out of the guest quarters and started walking toward where the two Qetans are. Shen had opted to sleep again, grumbling about the short sleep cycle. Though they would rather join the bird in resting a little longer, they knew what they had to do first.
Also, perhaps they would be lucky and bump into someone who knew what-
They barely stepped out of the way of the grey and green armor that suddenly came into view as both turned a corner. "Woop, sorry Commander!" they stammered, craning their neck up and shooting the female Wylaseen a sheepish smile.
The tall commander gave a slight nod as her four eyes slowly blinked. "My apologies as well," she said. Her eyes darted across the hall, then back down at Rai. "Do you know the source of the commotion?"
They shook their head. "Was hoping to maybe bump into someone who knew." Their grin widened a bit, turning playful. "Maybe not LITERALLY bump someone, like what almost happened now." They shrugged. "Anyway, was just about to talk to the Qetans. Were you gonna go ask about the noise?"
"I was," she said. She sent them a small, barely there look of concern. She looked like she wanted to say something- then refrained from doing so, merely nodding.
"Good luck," she said, and Rai shot a quick 'you too' before both went their separate ways- one to where she could barely hear what sounded like the tailing ends of a story, and the other to what could only be described as a guarded closet.
What was THAT supposed to be?
They stepped out of the guest quarters and started walking toward where the two Qetans are. Shen had opted to sleep again, grumbling about the short sleep cycle. Though they would rather join the bird in resting a little longer, they knew what they had to do first.
Also, perhaps they would be lucky and bump into someone who knew what-
They barely stepped out of the way of the grey and green armor that suddenly came into view as both turned a corner. "Woop, sorry Commander!" they stammered, craning their neck up and shooting the female Wylaseen a sheepish smile.
The tall commander gave a slight nod as her four eyes slowly blinked. "My apologies as well," she said. Her eyes darted across the hall, then back down at Rai. "Do you know the source of the commotion?"
They shook their head. "Was hoping to maybe bump into someone who knew." Their grin widened a bit, turning playful. "Maybe not LITERALLY bump someone, like what almost happened now." They shrugged. "Anyway, was just about to talk to the Qetans. Were you gonna go ask about the noise?"
"I was," she said. She sent them a small, barely there look of concern. She looked like she wanted to say something- then refrained from doing so, merely nodding.
"Good luck," she said, and Rai shot a quick 'you too' before both went their separate ways- one to where she could barely hear what sounded like the tailing ends of a story, and the other to what could only be described as a guarded closet.
Tora Station
To what meager extent Royanna Kallenger could be ’delighted’, it was such that she found herself upon the canid’s question. Even so simple and idle a query as to the general size of the station was promising. Indeed his curiosity was one of precious few driving forces - and there was a deep satisfaction in sating it. ’Explaining’ things was a form of conversation that Kallenger had no trouble with whatsoever. It was just impersonal enough to be easy and stress-free, but intimate enough to be satisfying.
”Mid-range, give or take.” She replied after a brief moment of consideration, having already torn her eyes from their own majestic vessel and begun to walk at an easy pace in some direction that, to Christopher, probably seemed quite random.
Above them, the smaller of ships and landers hovered about in silence like so many great fish, while the low undertones of distant bustle laid a soft background noise to their conversation.
”The really large ones have public transit systems. Usually rails or cabs. Ones this size usually just have priority access shortcuts for paying commuters.” She liked it when he asked questions, showed an interest in the new and fascinating world around him. Though scarcely admitting it to herself, the kid’s clear-cut case of PTSD was getting to her. She didn’t want to see him like that - the terrified, glassy-eyed husk that stumbled blindly along behind her, twitching and whirling with every minute sound.
She understood, to an extent, why he was so afflicted. The past days had been traumatic even for her - and she was both trained and conditioned to handle it. She still couldn’t imagine what kind of military would consider allowing so timid a creature into its ranks. There was both disdain for his weakness and...something else. Something softer that she refused to acknowledge.
Regardless, it was in some way a pleasure to ‘chat’.
The pair made their way with no hurry through the maze of ships that sat seemingly at random all about the floor of the great, white-hued docking chamber. Wherever one could fit a ship, one could set it down. It had been lucky that the two of them were able to find a spot large enough to accommodate the comparatively hefty Diplomat. Yet despite the great mess of ships on the floor, all of which stood at least two to five times the height of the individuals weaving their way between them, the atmosphere was not nearly so chaotic as it should have seemed. Such was the order and regulatory peace of daily Imperial life, extending even to such typically maddening platforms.
At one point, Roy halted and put out one arm, silently ushering her companion to a halt beside her in the process. Almost idly, she gestured to the floor before them, where a large, circular blue light was shining down from somewhere above. She glanced up to the source of the light, which was a small, slate-grey ship in the shape of some kind of buggy. Then, wordlessly, she walked around the blue light as the ship descended softly to fill the space that the light had outlined. A simple lesson on safely navigating such hangars, executed without a word. She hoped idly that he would remember it, and not go bumbling into the path of any landing craft. The fact that most modern vessels had safety features to prevent such tragic mishaps was little consolation.
It was a strange and uncomfortable sensation, this alien sense of what she recognized logically as a type of ’concern’. She had realized only too late that she had once been concerned over the wellbeing of her men. They had been capable soldiers - she had never needed to protect them from anything. Yet still, she had failed them.
This one - this kid - was clearly not any kind of capable. If she had led twenty experienced, hardened soldiers to their deaths...how in Space was she ever going to keep this one in working order?
It was not on her mind at present - she would not allow it to be.
Now was the time to try and draw out some of the humanity in him. Not a conscious goal, but there in her mind nonetheless. Now was the time to get food and reassure him that despite the traumatic events of the past days, the Galaxy was not the overwhelmingly dangerous place it had lately appeared to be.
And if she kept reminding herself of that fact too, maybe she could handle the coming confrontation rationally and move past it unscathed. Not that she was allowing herself to mull over exactly what she was going to do or say once finally faced with Malbec…
”Allowance?” The woman repeated with a hint of incredulity. She gave that little half-scowl that he would have by now leaned constituted, in her, the closest thing she could manage to a smile. A confident one, at that. She shook her head, making a little coughing sound that probably translated to dismissive laughter.
”They wouldn’t be too happy if we bankrupted the Imperial treasury, but they wouldn’t stop us.’ She said - was it some attempt at ‘humor’?
Glancing around then and remembering that they were not alone, she continued in a more hushed tone - not so conspiratorial as to seem ominous, but careful to keep it between the two of them.
”There’s a reason those badges are only given to the most capable Agents.” She said, gesturing toward the lower half of her own diamond-shaped badge that hung around his neck. It shimmered in holographic electric-sky-blue, opposing her own matching green upper half that lay hidden inside her jacket. ”If we get separated and you need to pay for anything, just flash that badge. You’ll be covered. No cap on funding for ’Imperial affairs’, and as long as you’re wearing that badge, any expenses you incur are just that.”
They had arrived now at the end of the great hangar bay that was opposite to the translucent blue energy-window through which they had entered - though it might prove difficult to maintain such a sense of direction in the forest of parked ships they had been navigating. It was obvious that they had reached the end of the room though, given the expansive wall that now towered up before them. It was shelved with pathways, staircases, and doors, all of which led to different levels of the station proper. They jutted out like toadstools above them, all with elegant metal and glass railings. The lack of a single, smooth surface reduced the effect of vertigo that one might have experienced looking up from where the two of them were now on the ground floor.
Roy did not stop to look up at the protruding gangways and platforms however, instead opting to continue unhindered through the large, arching doorway before them.
Just like that, the scenery changed. While the theme of cool whites and greys persisted, the architecture was different once passing through the doorway from the hangar to the station interior. They stood in a long hallway that stretched out before them some quarter of a mile, before appearing to branch off in either direction. Lining the walls were various storefronts and facades, all with clean, modern architecture that rather implied ’high-end-fashion’. Clothing, tools, all variety of retail. Down the center of the wide, airy hallway were planters with lush, tropical plants sprouting up from them. The air held the subtle scent of clean linens, and a quiet musical track mostly made up of soft sines and easy rhythms could be heard over the dull roar of bustle.
It was, for lack of a better term, a shopping mall - though with the air about if of a self-sustained society rather than a simple retail establishment.
They were not alone, either. While not crowded, the hallway and shops alike were populated with Imperial citizens and guests browsing wares, chatting, or going about their business. Most were humans, or very nearly resembling humans, dressed generally in light, airy clothing in pale colors. Some other beings could be seen among them - the occasional insectoid, one fellow that appeared to be mostly mechanical, trotting along with only the subtle whirring of pneumatic joints. A teenage girl sporting a pair of fluffy animal ears and matching tail was flirting with a pale blue-skinned person of indeterminate gender who appeared about the same age. Something tiny hovered past, looking like a hummingbird.
It was not a fundamentally overwhelming environment - not like the chaotic, hodgepodge stations outside Imperial territory. There was alien diversity, but it was far from what an ignorant low-tekker like Christopher might have thought to be a ‘freak show’.
None of this seemed anything but perfectly normal to Royanna, who proceeded with little interest and barely a glance toward the potted plant that rolled by on well-oiled wheels or the tall, too-lanky fellow with the sticklike limbs and deep purple flesh. It was only after she had taken several steps forward and glanced idly in the direction of a squat, goose-like creature corralling a small herd of smaller goose-like creatures that it occurred to Roy to actually look back at Christofer.
The environment was surreal and strange, though not chaotic nor nightmarish. At least, not to the average newcomer. But it had suddenly dawned on Roy that this was probably the first time her companion was witnessing non-human entities.
Whether he had stopped to gawk or stayed close behind her, Roy halted and leaned in closer to Christofer.
”I forgot to tell you, there’s a lot of non-humans on stations like these. They may look strange, but don’t be afraid of them. If they’re here, it means they’re civilized, just like you and I. Okay?”
Maybe she was being a tad overbearing, making steady eye contact with him as she spoke, serving as a sort of ‘grounding force’ in case he was starting to panic or shut down. She would even put a comforting hand on his shoulder if he really seemed to be freaking out - but otherwise, it would be limited to eye-contact and a stern, but amiable expression.
The White Death
”K I D D O”
It all happened so fast that the girl’s instant, visceral reaction to that apparently dirty word would surely go all but unnoticed. If all chaos hadn’t broken loose, the old soldier might have seen the suddenly flared nostrils, the spike of sudden hostility dwarfing even the original glare.
It didn’t matter that she was a kid - being called out on the fact was an instantaneous hate-trigger.
But the thing had plopped down onto her before she had a chance to really tell the old man what-for. She had yelped, flailed, barely gotten control of her initial panic at the sudden ‘attack’. Bashed her arm into one wall, then another in desperate haste before remembering the presence of the old man just a second too late.
She had made a dive in a last-ditch attempt to escape. He had leaped forth in a full-body tackle.
She almost made it.
But the hefty form of the old soldier came down upon her small frame like a tidal wave - a force that, if he had not been clearly intending not to hurt her, would have done some serious damage.
It did knock the wind out of the girl stowaway - she gasped a sharp inhalation but did not spare so much as a second in fighting back.
Instantly, the man trying valiantly to keep her restrained in a sort of forceful bear-hug found himself trying to cling to a furious wild animal. Not hesitating, the girl immediately took to flailing wildly, desperately. There was no rhyme or reason, no logic to the struggle. It was not the well-trained movement of someone who actually knew how to fight - but what she lacked in technique she made up for in raw ferocity.
It was not a silent struggle, either. Immediately after regaining her breath, the girl did not scream - instead, she proceeded with an unending torrent of curses, threats, insults, and all manner of fowl language with a strange accent and dialect that was so thick as to make half of what she said entirely unintelligible.
There was no unified attempt to actually combat her attacker - only the desperate, panicked flailing to get herself away at any cost. Likely it would all be mostly impotent given the old man’s method of restraint, but she was bound to get a few hits in between the wriggling and flailing and kicking and struggling.
Then, at last, A break!
The human tornado finally, by some stroke of luck, managed to twist about and out of the old, olive-green army field jacket she had been wearing. The blue thing gave one last bit of resistance as she made for the dive, tearing a little more at the sleeve before the fabric was wrenched free. It still clung to her bare arm, though tiny pieces might have remained with the coat that was left in the soldier’s hand as the girl made her big escape. Clad now in only the camouflage fatigues, antique army boots and a filthy white T shirt, she payed no mind to the discarded jacket as she sprinted with all her might away from the man attempting to restrain her.
Interestingly, it was only then, after she had bounded several paces away from the jacket, that she would suddenly become completely visible to all of the ship systems that she had somehow managed to elude for the duration of her intrusion. Somehow, she had been invisible to the many security systems that would have spotted an unwanted guest or even an anomalous disturbance within seconds. Now, separated from the jacket, he was no different from any other presence on the ship. Fully subject to every applicable sensor, monitor, camera, alarm and motion-detector alike. Seconds prior, and for the duration of their voyage up to that point, the White Death was somehow oblivious to her existence.
Now, quite abruptly, there was verifiably one more warm body aboard the mighty warship - and she was not welcome.
There was no triumph in the girl’s flight. Even had it lasted more than a few pessimistic seconds she was much too frenzied to bother with such trivialities. The victory - if it could be called that - was so brief as to be worthless.
She bounded in the first available direction, down a narrow corridor formed by tall stacks of crates - only to be faced with some kind of decrepit robot that appeared to be missing an arm.
It did not matter that within fractions of seconds she had already determined the most likely candidates for the robot’s weak points. The fact that, if given several seconds she was quite certain she could disable the droid with a screwdriver and a dirty look did not so much as cross her mind.
There was no time. She might have roughed the old man up something fierce, but there was no way she had done such a number on him that he wouldn’t be able to push through and make one final dive at her. He would be at the other end of the narrow corridor in seconds. Less than seconds. And the robot - she could not simply knock something like that over, not at her diminutive size. Not enough room to squeeze by it, regardless of how clumsy it might be.
She was trapped. Her miraculous camouflage gone, pinned between an old veteran and a half-dead robot with nowhere to go.
With the desperation of the cornered animal, the girl skidded to an unsteady stop midway between the two different flavors of imminent demise. Wildly she whirled back and forth several times, trying in vain to decide which way to run without actually thinking about it. No time to think. Cornered.
Her heaving breaths burned in her throat, the myriad of wounds visible all about her arms and beneath the clothing pulsing with each heartbeat.
And when it became apparent through the haze of exhaustion, panic and pain that she was indeed trapped, there was nothing left to do but bark out another series of curses and clearly empty threats. in a hoarse voice and thick accent. It was again mostly unintelligible, with only bits and pieces such as ”Motha#$%^ahs” and ”@#$%sahckin’ sacksa @#$%” and ”@#$%’s you up” and ”y’howl ruddy @#$%in’ bout” and ”Thinks’ye shyde-eds is gonna’” and "I'll 'kiddo' you-" and other assorted colorful language coming through the unending torrent of viscera in something between limey and downright uneducated.
Not a great first impression.
To what meager extent Royanna Kallenger could be ’delighted’, it was such that she found herself upon the canid’s question. Even so simple and idle a query as to the general size of the station was promising. Indeed his curiosity was one of precious few driving forces - and there was a deep satisfaction in sating it. ’Explaining’ things was a form of conversation that Kallenger had no trouble with whatsoever. It was just impersonal enough to be easy and stress-free, but intimate enough to be satisfying.
”Mid-range, give or take.” She replied after a brief moment of consideration, having already torn her eyes from their own majestic vessel and begun to walk at an easy pace in some direction that, to Christopher, probably seemed quite random.
Above them, the smaller of ships and landers hovered about in silence like so many great fish, while the low undertones of distant bustle laid a soft background noise to their conversation.
”The really large ones have public transit systems. Usually rails or cabs. Ones this size usually just have priority access shortcuts for paying commuters.” She liked it when he asked questions, showed an interest in the new and fascinating world around him. Though scarcely admitting it to herself, the kid’s clear-cut case of PTSD was getting to her. She didn’t want to see him like that - the terrified, glassy-eyed husk that stumbled blindly along behind her, twitching and whirling with every minute sound.
She understood, to an extent, why he was so afflicted. The past days had been traumatic even for her - and she was both trained and conditioned to handle it. She still couldn’t imagine what kind of military would consider allowing so timid a creature into its ranks. There was both disdain for his weakness and...something else. Something softer that she refused to acknowledge.
Regardless, it was in some way a pleasure to ‘chat’.
The pair made their way with no hurry through the maze of ships that sat seemingly at random all about the floor of the great, white-hued docking chamber. Wherever one could fit a ship, one could set it down. It had been lucky that the two of them were able to find a spot large enough to accommodate the comparatively hefty Diplomat. Yet despite the great mess of ships on the floor, all of which stood at least two to five times the height of the individuals weaving their way between them, the atmosphere was not nearly so chaotic as it should have seemed. Such was the order and regulatory peace of daily Imperial life, extending even to such typically maddening platforms.
At one point, Roy halted and put out one arm, silently ushering her companion to a halt beside her in the process. Almost idly, she gestured to the floor before them, where a large, circular blue light was shining down from somewhere above. She glanced up to the source of the light, which was a small, slate-grey ship in the shape of some kind of buggy. Then, wordlessly, she walked around the blue light as the ship descended softly to fill the space that the light had outlined. A simple lesson on safely navigating such hangars, executed without a word. She hoped idly that he would remember it, and not go bumbling into the path of any landing craft. The fact that most modern vessels had safety features to prevent such tragic mishaps was little consolation.
It was a strange and uncomfortable sensation, this alien sense of what she recognized logically as a type of ’concern’. She had realized only too late that she had once been concerned over the wellbeing of her men. They had been capable soldiers - she had never needed to protect them from anything. Yet still, she had failed them.
This one - this kid - was clearly not any kind of capable. If she had led twenty experienced, hardened soldiers to their deaths...how in Space was she ever going to keep this one in working order?
It was not on her mind at present - she would not allow it to be.
Now was the time to try and draw out some of the humanity in him. Not a conscious goal, but there in her mind nonetheless. Now was the time to get food and reassure him that despite the traumatic events of the past days, the Galaxy was not the overwhelmingly dangerous place it had lately appeared to be.
And if she kept reminding herself of that fact too, maybe she could handle the coming confrontation rationally and move past it unscathed. Not that she was allowing herself to mull over exactly what she was going to do or say once finally faced with Malbec…
”Allowance?” The woman repeated with a hint of incredulity. She gave that little half-scowl that he would have by now leaned constituted, in her, the closest thing she could manage to a smile. A confident one, at that. She shook her head, making a little coughing sound that probably translated to dismissive laughter.
”They wouldn’t be too happy if we bankrupted the Imperial treasury, but they wouldn’t stop us.’ She said - was it some attempt at ‘humor’?
Glancing around then and remembering that they were not alone, she continued in a more hushed tone - not so conspiratorial as to seem ominous, but careful to keep it between the two of them.
”There’s a reason those badges are only given to the most capable Agents.” She said, gesturing toward the lower half of her own diamond-shaped badge that hung around his neck. It shimmered in holographic electric-sky-blue, opposing her own matching green upper half that lay hidden inside her jacket. ”If we get separated and you need to pay for anything, just flash that badge. You’ll be covered. No cap on funding for ’Imperial affairs’, and as long as you’re wearing that badge, any expenses you incur are just that.”
They had arrived now at the end of the great hangar bay that was opposite to the translucent blue energy-window through which they had entered - though it might prove difficult to maintain such a sense of direction in the forest of parked ships they had been navigating. It was obvious that they had reached the end of the room though, given the expansive wall that now towered up before them. It was shelved with pathways, staircases, and doors, all of which led to different levels of the station proper. They jutted out like toadstools above them, all with elegant metal and glass railings. The lack of a single, smooth surface reduced the effect of vertigo that one might have experienced looking up from where the two of them were now on the ground floor.
Roy did not stop to look up at the protruding gangways and platforms however, instead opting to continue unhindered through the large, arching doorway before them.
Just like that, the scenery changed. While the theme of cool whites and greys persisted, the architecture was different once passing through the doorway from the hangar to the station interior. They stood in a long hallway that stretched out before them some quarter of a mile, before appearing to branch off in either direction. Lining the walls were various storefronts and facades, all with clean, modern architecture that rather implied ’high-end-fashion’. Clothing, tools, all variety of retail. Down the center of the wide, airy hallway were planters with lush, tropical plants sprouting up from them. The air held the subtle scent of clean linens, and a quiet musical track mostly made up of soft sines and easy rhythms could be heard over the dull roar of bustle.
It was, for lack of a better term, a shopping mall - though with the air about if of a self-sustained society rather than a simple retail establishment.
They were not alone, either. While not crowded, the hallway and shops alike were populated with Imperial citizens and guests browsing wares, chatting, or going about their business. Most were humans, or very nearly resembling humans, dressed generally in light, airy clothing in pale colors. Some other beings could be seen among them - the occasional insectoid, one fellow that appeared to be mostly mechanical, trotting along with only the subtle whirring of pneumatic joints. A teenage girl sporting a pair of fluffy animal ears and matching tail was flirting with a pale blue-skinned person of indeterminate gender who appeared about the same age. Something tiny hovered past, looking like a hummingbird.
It was not a fundamentally overwhelming environment - not like the chaotic, hodgepodge stations outside Imperial territory. There was alien diversity, but it was far from what an ignorant low-tekker like Christopher might have thought to be a ‘freak show’.
None of this seemed anything but perfectly normal to Royanna, who proceeded with little interest and barely a glance toward the potted plant that rolled by on well-oiled wheels or the tall, too-lanky fellow with the sticklike limbs and deep purple flesh. It was only after she had taken several steps forward and glanced idly in the direction of a squat, goose-like creature corralling a small herd of smaller goose-like creatures that it occurred to Roy to actually look back at Christofer.
The environment was surreal and strange, though not chaotic nor nightmarish. At least, not to the average newcomer. But it had suddenly dawned on Roy that this was probably the first time her companion was witnessing non-human entities.
Whether he had stopped to gawk or stayed close behind her, Roy halted and leaned in closer to Christofer.
”I forgot to tell you, there’s a lot of non-humans on stations like these. They may look strange, but don’t be afraid of them. If they’re here, it means they’re civilized, just like you and I. Okay?”
Maybe she was being a tad overbearing, making steady eye contact with him as she spoke, serving as a sort of ‘grounding force’ in case he was starting to panic or shut down. She would even put a comforting hand on his shoulder if he really seemed to be freaking out - but otherwise, it would be limited to eye-contact and a stern, but amiable expression.
The White Death
”K I D D O”
It all happened so fast that the girl’s instant, visceral reaction to that apparently dirty word would surely go all but unnoticed. If all chaos hadn’t broken loose, the old soldier might have seen the suddenly flared nostrils, the spike of sudden hostility dwarfing even the original glare.
It didn’t matter that she was a kid - being called out on the fact was an instantaneous hate-trigger.
But the thing had plopped down onto her before she had a chance to really tell the old man what-for. She had yelped, flailed, barely gotten control of her initial panic at the sudden ‘attack’. Bashed her arm into one wall, then another in desperate haste before remembering the presence of the old man just a second too late.
She had made a dive in a last-ditch attempt to escape. He had leaped forth in a full-body tackle.
She almost made it.
But the hefty form of the old soldier came down upon her small frame like a tidal wave - a force that, if he had not been clearly intending not to hurt her, would have done some serious damage.
It did knock the wind out of the girl stowaway - she gasped a sharp inhalation but did not spare so much as a second in fighting back.
Instantly, the man trying valiantly to keep her restrained in a sort of forceful bear-hug found himself trying to cling to a furious wild animal. Not hesitating, the girl immediately took to flailing wildly, desperately. There was no rhyme or reason, no logic to the struggle. It was not the well-trained movement of someone who actually knew how to fight - but what she lacked in technique she made up for in raw ferocity.
It was not a silent struggle, either. Immediately after regaining her breath, the girl did not scream - instead, she proceeded with an unending torrent of curses, threats, insults, and all manner of fowl language with a strange accent and dialect that was so thick as to make half of what she said entirely unintelligible.
There was no unified attempt to actually combat her attacker - only the desperate, panicked flailing to get herself away at any cost. Likely it would all be mostly impotent given the old man’s method of restraint, but she was bound to get a few hits in between the wriggling and flailing and kicking and struggling.
Then, at last, A break!
The human tornado finally, by some stroke of luck, managed to twist about and out of the old, olive-green army field jacket she had been wearing. The blue thing gave one last bit of resistance as she made for the dive, tearing a little more at the sleeve before the fabric was wrenched free. It still clung to her bare arm, though tiny pieces might have remained with the coat that was left in the soldier’s hand as the girl made her big escape. Clad now in only the camouflage fatigues, antique army boots and a filthy white T shirt, she payed no mind to the discarded jacket as she sprinted with all her might away from the man attempting to restrain her.
Interestingly, it was only then, after she had bounded several paces away from the jacket, that she would suddenly become completely visible to all of the ship systems that she had somehow managed to elude for the duration of her intrusion. Somehow, she had been invisible to the many security systems that would have spotted an unwanted guest or even an anomalous disturbance within seconds. Now, separated from the jacket, he was no different from any other presence on the ship. Fully subject to every applicable sensor, monitor, camera, alarm and motion-detector alike. Seconds prior, and for the duration of their voyage up to that point, the White Death was somehow oblivious to her existence.
Now, quite abruptly, there was verifiably one more warm body aboard the mighty warship - and she was not welcome.
There was no triumph in the girl’s flight. Even had it lasted more than a few pessimistic seconds she was much too frenzied to bother with such trivialities. The victory - if it could be called that - was so brief as to be worthless.
She bounded in the first available direction, down a narrow corridor formed by tall stacks of crates - only to be faced with some kind of decrepit robot that appeared to be missing an arm.
It did not matter that within fractions of seconds she had already determined the most likely candidates for the robot’s weak points. The fact that, if given several seconds she was quite certain she could disable the droid with a screwdriver and a dirty look did not so much as cross her mind.
There was no time. She might have roughed the old man up something fierce, but there was no way she had done such a number on him that he wouldn’t be able to push through and make one final dive at her. He would be at the other end of the narrow corridor in seconds. Less than seconds. And the robot - she could not simply knock something like that over, not at her diminutive size. Not enough room to squeeze by it, regardless of how clumsy it might be.
She was trapped. Her miraculous camouflage gone, pinned between an old veteran and a half-dead robot with nowhere to go.
With the desperation of the cornered animal, the girl skidded to an unsteady stop midway between the two different flavors of imminent demise. Wildly she whirled back and forth several times, trying in vain to decide which way to run without actually thinking about it. No time to think. Cornered.
Her heaving breaths burned in her throat, the myriad of wounds visible all about her arms and beneath the clothing pulsing with each heartbeat.
And when it became apparent through the haze of exhaustion, panic and pain that she was indeed trapped, there was nothing left to do but bark out another series of curses and clearly empty threats. in a hoarse voice and thick accent. It was again mostly unintelligible, with only bits and pieces such as ”Motha#$%^ahs” and ”@#$%sahckin’ sacksa @#$%” and ”@#$%’s you up” and ”y’howl ruddy @#$%in’ bout” and ”Thinks’ye shyde-eds is gonna’” and "I'll 'kiddo' you-" and other assorted colorful language coming through the unending torrent of viscera in something between limey and downright uneducated.
Not a great first impression.
White Death, Cargo Bay
BN-12 stared at the much smaller lifeform, currently screaming what the machine recognized as obscenities. Immediately after, BN-12 finally received a response from the ship, and the White Death went on alert. To the trio's left and right, two SPECTRE racks bearing BN-31 through -40 and CN-01 through -10 deployed. Nineteen BRD-02 drones spread out around the group, various armaments aimed at the organics.
"Cease and desist. Submit to apprehension immediately," BN-12 ground out, his immensely deep voice thundering about the cargo hold. BN-37 and CN-02 stepped forward to either side of Jack, while BN-12 merely reached out to set a hand on the girl's uninjured shoulder.
White Death, Medical Bay
Meanwhile, Commander Kovacs had managed to stabilize Jin by reverting to "outdated" technology, which was still bleeding edge by this new galaxy's standards, but half a century old by his. Sparing a glance at his tacpad, he silenced the alarm echoing through the ship as he dialed up Major Zuraw and BN-33 on the intercom, requesting that they head to cargo to diffuse the situation. Afterwards, he merely pulled up a chair, taking a seat as he continued monitoring Jin's condition.
BN-12 stared at the much smaller lifeform, currently screaming what the machine recognized as obscenities. Immediately after, BN-12 finally received a response from the ship, and the White Death went on alert. To the trio's left and right, two SPECTRE racks bearing BN-31 through -40 and CN-01 through -10 deployed. Nineteen BRD-02 drones spread out around the group, various armaments aimed at the organics.
"Cease and desist. Submit to apprehension immediately," BN-12 ground out, his immensely deep voice thundering about the cargo hold. BN-37 and CN-02 stepped forward to either side of Jack, while BN-12 merely reached out to set a hand on the girl's uninjured shoulder.
White Death, Medical Bay
Meanwhile, Commander Kovacs had managed to stabilize Jin by reverting to "outdated" technology, which was still bleeding edge by this new galaxy's standards, but half a century old by his. Sparing a glance at his tacpad, he silenced the alarm echoing through the ship as he dialed up Major Zuraw and BN-33 on the intercom, requesting that they head to cargo to diffuse the situation. Afterwards, he merely pulled up a chair, taking a seat as he continued monitoring Jin's condition.
Tora Station
"Hmmm vhere could she be?" the white haired man said as he walks through the crowded and diverse station of Tora. "Maybe she's up your ass" a olive skin boy says with a sneer in his voice. His hair was black, his eyes are brown, but with a voice with such venom it seemed odd that it belonged to someone so skinny and frail looking wearing a plan white shirt and khaki shorts. On his neck sorta looked like some kind of bomb collar with a small square device on the side that blinked a red light. He also was carrying something in his arms which looked like a toaster. The white haired man dressed in an Imperial officers uniform looks down and says "Jeez, vhy are you like zis? Are you still mad because I caught you in simple trap, because apparently your favorite thing to eat of all zings is skittles?" as he looks at him with a raised eyebrow. The olive skin boy didn't speak as they walk, but his cheeks did go red in embarrassment. "Ohh ze mighty dark knight Nocturnus tricked because he followed a trail of brightly colored skittles off on ze ground in vhich he ate each one till he ended up getting trapped in a cage that was strung up at the ceiling...and not once you zought, zat zis maybe a trap?" he says condescendingly as they kept walking, not really worried about anyone around hearing since of how busy the station was.
"Shutup! You don't need to rub it in and in this form I'm Juilian" he murmured at the end as he looks away from the man. "Oh I'm sorry, I hadn't realize zat probably ze most dangerous being around besides Ketin Clarke had a soft side. Do you vant me to apologize, hmmm? Maybe you should apologize to poor Arena before I give you an apology" The boy began to laugh "Mwhahaha, really? I would have love to have done it again, I hadn't realize killing a lord would so fun. Sorry I killed your girlfriend Kampfer" as he stuck his tongue out at Kampfer. Kampfer gave an angered look and grabbed the boy's tongue before he could pull it back into his mouth. Actually both of Kampfer's hands were normal an not of that of giant metal claws that he is known for nor wearing his optical device. "Listen here, you little dunkoff. She wasn't in anyway a threat to you or Ova and yet she still vas killed because of Ova's increasing paranoia? You should be glade I don't have you on ze table and test hat gives you ze most pain" even with his tongue being held Nocturnus or Julian in this form merely says "Still do it again" Kampfer groaned in displeasure as he let go of his tongue and then slapped him across the face.
"Come on!" he he exclaims as he grabs onto Julian's hair and drags him a couple feet, with a few bystanders looking onward with confusing looks on their faces as the boy keeps going "Ow!Ow!Ow!Ow!" till they come a slight opening in the crowd still going about their business. "Vait? Vhy hasn't the toaster said anything?" Kampfer asks him with a curious look on his own face. Julian looks down and says "Oh he's been talking this entire time, I had just had him muffled against my shirt" as he tilts the toaster away from his chest mid in his yelling "AND I WILL RULE GALA-" before Julian puts him close to his chest. Kampfer can just merely roll his eyes and says "Vhy is it always so mad" as they began to walk again
"Now keep an eye out for a tall tomboy looking agent with a bipedal dog" Kampfer says as he scans the crowd looking for Roy and Toffi. "What?" Julian says as he looks at Kampfer confused. Kampfer rolled his eyes and says "I forget you are stupid so let me make this simple...look for a woman who looks like a boy and a dog that walks on two legs" Julian nods and says "Ohhhh okay then" as they both went looking for Roy and Toffi.
"Hmmm vhere could she be?" the white haired man said as he walks through the crowded and diverse station of Tora. "Maybe she's up your ass" a olive skin boy says with a sneer in his voice. His hair was black, his eyes are brown, but with a voice with such venom it seemed odd that it belonged to someone so skinny and frail looking wearing a plan white shirt and khaki shorts. On his neck sorta looked like some kind of bomb collar with a small square device on the side that blinked a red light. He also was carrying something in his arms which looked like a toaster. The white haired man dressed in an Imperial officers uniform looks down and says "Jeez, vhy are you like zis? Are you still mad because I caught you in simple trap, because apparently your favorite thing to eat of all zings is skittles?" as he looks at him with a raised eyebrow. The olive skin boy didn't speak as they walk, but his cheeks did go red in embarrassment. "Ohh ze mighty dark knight Nocturnus tricked because he followed a trail of brightly colored skittles off on ze ground in vhich he ate each one till he ended up getting trapped in a cage that was strung up at the ceiling...and not once you zought, zat zis maybe a trap?" he says condescendingly as they kept walking, not really worried about anyone around hearing since of how busy the station was.
"Shutup! You don't need to rub it in and in this form I'm Juilian" he murmured at the end as he looks away from the man. "Oh I'm sorry, I hadn't realize zat probably ze most dangerous being around besides Ketin Clarke had a soft side. Do you vant me to apologize, hmmm? Maybe you should apologize to poor Arena before I give you an apology" The boy began to laugh "Mwhahaha, really? I would have love to have done it again, I hadn't realize killing a lord would so fun. Sorry I killed your girlfriend Kampfer" as he stuck his tongue out at Kampfer. Kampfer gave an angered look and grabbed the boy's tongue before he could pull it back into his mouth. Actually both of Kampfer's hands were normal an not of that of giant metal claws that he is known for nor wearing his optical device. "Listen here, you little dunkoff. She wasn't in anyway a threat to you or Ova and yet she still vas killed because of Ova's increasing paranoia? You should be glade I don't have you on ze table and test hat gives you ze most pain" even with his tongue being held Nocturnus or Julian in this form merely says "Still do it again" Kampfer groaned in displeasure as he let go of his tongue and then slapped him across the face.
"Come on!" he he exclaims as he grabs onto Julian's hair and drags him a couple feet, with a few bystanders looking onward with confusing looks on their faces as the boy keeps going "Ow!Ow!Ow!Ow!" till they come a slight opening in the crowd still going about their business. "Vait? Vhy hasn't the toaster said anything?" Kampfer asks him with a curious look on his own face. Julian looks down and says "Oh he's been talking this entire time, I had just had him muffled against my shirt" as he tilts the toaster away from his chest mid in his yelling "AND I WILL RULE GALA-" before Julian puts him close to his chest. Kampfer can just merely roll his eyes and says "Vhy is it always so mad" as they began to walk again
"Now keep an eye out for a tall tomboy looking agent with a bipedal dog" Kampfer says as he scans the crowd looking for Roy and Toffi. "What?" Julian says as he looks at Kampfer confused. Kampfer rolled his eyes and says "I forget you are stupid so let me make this simple...look for a woman who looks like a boy and a dog that walks on two legs" Julian nods and says "Ohhhh okay then" as they both went looking for Roy and Toffi.
His first sip of the mediocre Nivek tea had sent Arnaldo back, way back. It sent him to the times of his work, his starting work, as neighborhood watch for an old lady who hadn't felt safe one night, the night he donned a cloak and the biggest gun he could buy with his money. The night he stood awake until the sun rose, to see if anyone even dare step into his part of the neighborhood. The night Arnaldo became Arnaldo.
His moments of reminiscing were cut short however, as a joker with a smile plastered on his face approached the trio, spouting off guff about gabbling at a new casino and how he'd remind them that they were departing 15 minutes before, "That's not even enough time to buy a Faertiex bread loop and let alone eat it." grumbled Arnaldo, clearly annoyed. He rose from his seat and studied the man whilst trying to come off as intimidating as he could, which was kind of hard to muster for a short, old man. "His lean and smile give an impression of confidence and his movements don't seem to have any hesitation, he obviously has the upperhand in something, and I'd say it the slots and decks of this 'New Vegas', jeez, the life of an adventurer sure doesn't come with any breaks." thought Arnaldo. "Yea, if the kid is feeling lucky, why don't ya show us to our destination, sir.". The last word came out like hot molasses from the PI's mouth as he squinted his nonexistent eyes, still relying on vibrations and ground movement, which he found was much more fine tuned with his new leg, taking his "vision" from hazy to almost clear.
His moments of reminiscing were cut short however, as a joker with a smile plastered on his face approached the trio, spouting off guff about gabbling at a new casino and how he'd remind them that they were departing 15 minutes before, "That's not even enough time to buy a Faertiex bread loop and let alone eat it." grumbled Arnaldo, clearly annoyed. He rose from his seat and studied the man whilst trying to come off as intimidating as he could, which was kind of hard to muster for a short, old man. "His lean and smile give an impression of confidence and his movements don't seem to have any hesitation, he obviously has the upperhand in something, and I'd say it the slots and decks of this 'New Vegas', jeez, the life of an adventurer sure doesn't come with any breaks." thought Arnaldo. "Yea, if the kid is feeling lucky, why don't ya show us to our destination, sir.". The last word came out like hot molasses from the PI's mouth as he squinted his nonexistent eyes, still relying on vibrations and ground movement, which he found was much more fine tuned with his new leg, taking his "vision" from hazy to almost clear.
"OOOH, a fight!" squealed Jacobo, forgetting about literally everything else he was doing. He opened his back carapace with an almost vulgar squelch as he produced pieces of an extremely long rifle. "That's half the battle right there, now I just need to remember how to put this thing together..." mumbled Jacobo as he fiddled with the many small pieces, slamming and jamming them into places they shouldn't be. "Hey Shashi, if you get to badly hurt, I'll put a round between his greasy brows." yelled Jacobo--raising one of his hands to yell through, as if it were a megaphone--while his other hands were still assembling his rifle. "Oh, and if you win, I want his arm." chuckled Jacobo, thinking of all the things he could do with that arm, such as sell it or make it go haywire in ladies restroom, it was moments like these that Jacobo remembered the most. Finally finishing the rifle, Jacobo shakily put in an Old-World round, one that used Tweklin flash-powder and had a Baoj coating, giving it the famous Tweklin thunder clap.
The prospects of them getting a ship was a pleasing and even exciting thought to the gel-like alien. So much so that they gave a loud purring noise similar to a cat, vibrating against Ringo's back. The offer wasn't something they could refuse even if they had thought there was an option to. Protecting Ringo from a couple of mean guys until they could find someone to buy it? That seemed simple enough. If they could learn more about the human race from Ringo while doing this then that would definitely help also. The only thing they understood about humans was that they were far more complicated than Muta's species in almost every aspect. It was interesting, no doubt, but sometimes, it was inconvenient.
Slowing the bike let Mutacogi receive glimpses of the streets and city around. Other hover vehicles passing them spewed heat and smoke from their exhausts. The people on the sides of the roads were mostly walking and some vendors selling items and more commonly greasy food. Advertisements projected as holograms were only visible to the humans, but the alien still picked up the complexity of rural landscape and sheer size of it in the distorted sounds that permeated the place. Street after street passed, making it seem like this place never ended.
After a while, Muta spoke again to Ringo as if realizing something he hadn't thought to ask. "Where are going to find these 'bosses' and 'tweakers'?"
Slowing the bike let Mutacogi receive glimpses of the streets and city around. Other hover vehicles passing them spewed heat and smoke from their exhausts. The people on the sides of the roads were mostly walking and some vendors selling items and more commonly greasy food. Advertisements projected as holograms were only visible to the humans, but the alien still picked up the complexity of rural landscape and sheer size of it in the distorted sounds that permeated the place. Street after street passed, making it seem like this place never ended.
After a while, Muta spoke again to Ringo as if realizing something he hadn't thought to ask. "Where are going to find these 'bosses' and 'tweakers'?"
Christofer could only really reply in the form of a nod and a quiet but agreeing "Mhm..." to the explanations he was receiving. Well, things were lighting up a little, and he wasn't annoying Royanna with his questions. It was trusty at this point that she'd tell him if he went too far, even if he was trying to keep his mind in most places. Still, tings were going well, so far.
"It's kinda strange, you know. I'm... Not all that used to any of this space stuff, these space things, so I have to try and find something to relate to in a different way." Pondering aloud, perhaps trying to keep up the informative conversation that they were having, but he'd make sure to not speak too loudly. Even if his looks wouldn't be As drastically different if what Roy said about 'non-humans' was true, he'd still stick out from the way he was talking and observing things. Or well, just because of the words he spoke it might have gotten them some unwanted attention. "Like... I'd rather be thinking of the building itself, I... never really considered the parking area together with the building..." He fiddled some with his fingers while eyes skipped a couple steps worth and scanned the floor as a whole for some good meters ahead. "So... Uhhh.... Thinking that there'd be some huge system or something in them... That's like a small town in itself, right?" Looking up, though wholely unsure of his statement.
Stabilizing a little as they walked, he'd have something else to think about, but he wouldn't take half his mind out from observing the surroundings, both because of curiosity and overall wariness.
It's been longer than he knew since he last engaged in his actual work, but everything that had happened still shaped and molded his actions greatly. Like when Roy halted their movement she might as well have never seen a faster more abrupt stop than the one he made, stopping to observe instantly and followed closely. Well, he learned to avoid parking... ships? They were called ships, no matter the size, right? Well, he'd know to keep his eyes on the floor now.
Walking further, ears open and alert, he'd listen as she tried to humor his words in some way. Well, she tried. Christofer had a little different set of thoughts and for him, stealing and using the cash of others wasn't exactly a joking matter. He found the joke in it though, knew what Royanna had meant to be funny but failed to react to it with anything more than a faint quick smile because he wanted to show that he got the idea, and of course, to not discourage the woman from trying to loosen up, he wouldn't want for her to lock up again.
"I see... Well, that gives us a little bigger variety in choices then, right? Anything is fine as long as we know how to cook it?" Lifting his head a little and focusing his eyes ever so slightly higher. He'd probably need to look the part and stand straighter if they were going to have him pose as an 'Imperial agent' as well.
Still, there were some afterthought on the explanations in his head, the thoughtfulness may have made itself known to those that paid attention to his facial features.
The badges. They could be so easily abused. Which made him both think that they either trusted their troops greatly to allow them to have such power. Or. Or then they did Not trust them and did something to make sure that very little room was left for possible thieving habits forming, making sure to work any possible thought of abusing the power out of them and getting rid of it like gardeners took care of weeds. Regardless of which was more correct, he could see a bit of both so far. But none of these thoughts would be passed on to Royanna, not in this moment. He'd keep them to himself, discuss them later if he still remembered them and if they kept bothering him. The place was a little too public for that. He'd be good and quick to make up excuses if she suspected anything. Being a good actor had its perks - when you were being good at least.
Moving on, there was a lot to see, new areas, structures, turquoise eyes looked up and to the sides, but admiring the scenery had to be brief and he'd have to drop it quickly to not give away the fact that he was new to these kinds of things. Royanna was already moving, and so he had to keep going as well. If he truly was an Imperial and what not, surely he'd seen things like this many times before, so such observing was going to look off.
His eyes did catch all the necessary things - well, most of them at least - but he did also spot the not exactly human beings about, somewhat signed by raising discomfort at the girl with ears and tail but the remainder factors being human. It made him a little uncomfortable. And so did the insectoid, but the rest didn't seem to cause much of a reaction. At least not on the outside. A simple change in skin tone meant nothing too drastic, sure it was a little odd, but they might as well have had accidents when painting a house for all he knew. His own steps had slowed down a little as he took in the view and eyed everything that caught his attention, form was leaning forward a little as he was vary and ready to sprint whenever.
Ears perked up at the familiar sound of Royanna's words, back straightened and he was sure to make his way on over to her, fully alert like some guard dog in training, albeit a little lost but doing his best to follow and listen.
".... Ok." Words were few, but he shouldn't need to say much here, right? Just nod and it'll be all good and fine. Even as he turned his head with a little doubtful look given to the beings from earlier, it was rude to stare and again, he didn't want to seem too out of place or attract attention, so he'd leave them be in hopes of trusting Kallenger's words on them. "Uhh... So... I think I saw an opening? I- I mean, an entry, you know..." Fiddling of his fingers and eyes temporarily looking elsewhere before he was trying to look for what he meant, but seemed to lack the words to explain himself when he looked back. Well, he tried.
"It's kinda strange, you know. I'm... Not all that used to any of this space stuff, these space things, so I have to try and find something to relate to in a different way." Pondering aloud, perhaps trying to keep up the informative conversation that they were having, but he'd make sure to not speak too loudly. Even if his looks wouldn't be As drastically different if what Roy said about 'non-humans' was true, he'd still stick out from the way he was talking and observing things. Or well, just because of the words he spoke it might have gotten them some unwanted attention. "Like... I'd rather be thinking of the building itself, I... never really considered the parking area together with the building..." He fiddled some with his fingers while eyes skipped a couple steps worth and scanned the floor as a whole for some good meters ahead. "So... Uhhh.... Thinking that there'd be some huge system or something in them... That's like a small town in itself, right?" Looking up, though wholely unsure of his statement.
Stabilizing a little as they walked, he'd have something else to think about, but he wouldn't take half his mind out from observing the surroundings, both because of curiosity and overall wariness.
It's been longer than he knew since he last engaged in his actual work, but everything that had happened still shaped and molded his actions greatly. Like when Roy halted their movement she might as well have never seen a faster more abrupt stop than the one he made, stopping to observe instantly and followed closely. Well, he learned to avoid parking... ships? They were called ships, no matter the size, right? Well, he'd know to keep his eyes on the floor now.
Walking further, ears open and alert, he'd listen as she tried to humor his words in some way. Well, she tried. Christofer had a little different set of thoughts and for him, stealing and using the cash of others wasn't exactly a joking matter. He found the joke in it though, knew what Royanna had meant to be funny but failed to react to it with anything more than a faint quick smile because he wanted to show that he got the idea, and of course, to not discourage the woman from trying to loosen up, he wouldn't want for her to lock up again.
"I see... Well, that gives us a little bigger variety in choices then, right? Anything is fine as long as we know how to cook it?" Lifting his head a little and focusing his eyes ever so slightly higher. He'd probably need to look the part and stand straighter if they were going to have him pose as an 'Imperial agent' as well.
Still, there were some afterthought on the explanations in his head, the thoughtfulness may have made itself known to those that paid attention to his facial features.
The badges. They could be so easily abused. Which made him both think that they either trusted their troops greatly to allow them to have such power. Or. Or then they did Not trust them and did something to make sure that very little room was left for possible thieving habits forming, making sure to work any possible thought of abusing the power out of them and getting rid of it like gardeners took care of weeds. Regardless of which was more correct, he could see a bit of both so far. But none of these thoughts would be passed on to Royanna, not in this moment. He'd keep them to himself, discuss them later if he still remembered them and if they kept bothering him. The place was a little too public for that. He'd be good and quick to make up excuses if she suspected anything. Being a good actor had its perks - when you were being good at least.
Moving on, there was a lot to see, new areas, structures, turquoise eyes looked up and to the sides, but admiring the scenery had to be brief and he'd have to drop it quickly to not give away the fact that he was new to these kinds of things. Royanna was already moving, and so he had to keep going as well. If he truly was an Imperial and what not, surely he'd seen things like this many times before, so such observing was going to look off.
His eyes did catch all the necessary things - well, most of them at least - but he did also spot the not exactly human beings about, somewhat signed by raising discomfort at the girl with ears and tail but the remainder factors being human. It made him a little uncomfortable. And so did the insectoid, but the rest didn't seem to cause much of a reaction. At least not on the outside. A simple change in skin tone meant nothing too drastic, sure it was a little odd, but they might as well have had accidents when painting a house for all he knew. His own steps had slowed down a little as he took in the view and eyed everything that caught his attention, form was leaning forward a little as he was vary and ready to sprint whenever.
Ears perked up at the familiar sound of Royanna's words, back straightened and he was sure to make his way on over to her, fully alert like some guard dog in training, albeit a little lost but doing his best to follow and listen.
".... Ok." Words were few, but he shouldn't need to say much here, right? Just nod and it'll be all good and fine. Even as he turned his head with a little doubtful look given to the beings from earlier, it was rude to stare and again, he didn't want to seem too out of place or attract attention, so he'd leave them be in hopes of trusting Kallenger's words on them. "Uhh... So... I think I saw an opening? I- I mean, an entry, you know..." Fiddling of his fingers and eyes temporarily looking elsewhere before he was trying to look for what he meant, but seemed to lack the words to explain himself when he looked back. Well, he tried.
White Death, Cargo Bay
The girl's escape was anything but luck for Jack. While he had successfully grabbed the flailing girl without cause serious harm, the result was more like holding onto a wild animal. Doing his best to keep his hold on the girl, he suddenly exhales and almost completely lets go as one of the girls wild kicks landed a particularly critical hit.
Jack practically drops the girl and is left with the destroyed jacket. For the briefest of moments Jack had to simply let the girl run as he worked to catch his breathe and for the pain to subside. Dropping the jacket and continuing the chase, Jack rounds the corner to see the girl cornered by the same half junked droid he had seen before.
With her trapped between the two of them Jack was content to let her vent for a moment without much worry of her escaping. Listening to the girl, he got the small point that she did not like him calling her a 'kiddo'. Holding up a hand, he says in his nicest tone "Alright alright....you don't like being called kiddo. I'm sorry. Now lets try this again. Calm down and just come with me. Do that and I'll see that your arm is fixed...get you some food and then we can sit down and-" Jack was interrupted by the sudden activation of the droids, not to mention the new array of weapons pointed at his face.
Raising both hands where they could be easily seen, he says to the girl as he looks straight in her eyes "Both hands up Slowly....and not a word."
White Death, Crew Quarters
Asya was still outside of Jack's room when alarms began to blare. But just as quickly the alarms where silenced, followed by orders for her and Barney to head to the cargo bay. Taking the time to enter her room and grab her sidearm, Asya then heads to meet up with Barney so that he could guide her to the cargo bay, asking "What's the situation?" immediately upon seeing the robot.
Tora Station, Security
"Are you sure it's them?"
"Yes Ma'am. One unknown but really cute canine humanoid and One very fashion-less woman on the hallway eight camera. Tora control also pinged the Diplomat's codes several minutes ago."
Dee sighed as she heard the information "You should have told me when they first pinged it." Standing up from her chair in the security room, Dee looks at the redheaded woman sitting at the console beside her own "Visha, please pack up here and return to the ship. Wipe our data from the system too. We were never here." The girl, Visha, opened her mouth to ask a question when Dee spoke again as she made her way out of the room "The station management knows to forget. Now hurry along. You have much to do while I go and find Ms. Kallenger. We have so much to discuss." With orders given, Dee passes through the door and out into the crowded station proper, blending into the small crowds as she headed for hallway eight, hoping to still catch Kallenger there.
The girl's escape was anything but luck for Jack. While he had successfully grabbed the flailing girl without cause serious harm, the result was more like holding onto a wild animal. Doing his best to keep his hold on the girl, he suddenly exhales and almost completely lets go as one of the girls wild kicks landed a particularly critical hit.
Jack practically drops the girl and is left with the destroyed jacket. For the briefest of moments Jack had to simply let the girl run as he worked to catch his breathe and for the pain to subside. Dropping the jacket and continuing the chase, Jack rounds the corner to see the girl cornered by the same half junked droid he had seen before.
With her trapped between the two of them Jack was content to let her vent for a moment without much worry of her escaping. Listening to the girl, he got the small point that she did not like him calling her a 'kiddo'. Holding up a hand, he says in his nicest tone "Alright alright....you don't like being called kiddo. I'm sorry. Now lets try this again. Calm down and just come with me. Do that and I'll see that your arm is fixed...get you some food and then we can sit down and-" Jack was interrupted by the sudden activation of the droids, not to mention the new array of weapons pointed at his face.
Raising both hands where they could be easily seen, he says to the girl as he looks straight in her eyes "Both hands up Slowly....and not a word."
White Death, Crew Quarters
Asya was still outside of Jack's room when alarms began to blare. But just as quickly the alarms where silenced, followed by orders for her and Barney to head to the cargo bay. Taking the time to enter her room and grab her sidearm, Asya then heads to meet up with Barney so that he could guide her to the cargo bay, asking "What's the situation?" immediately upon seeing the robot.
Tora Station, Security
"Are you sure it's them?"
"Yes Ma'am. One unknown but really cute canine humanoid and One very fashion-less woman on the hallway eight camera. Tora control also pinged the Diplomat's codes several minutes ago."
Dee sighed as she heard the information "You should have told me when they first pinged it." Standing up from her chair in the security room, Dee looks at the redheaded woman sitting at the console beside her own "Visha, please pack up here and return to the ship. Wipe our data from the system too. We were never here." The girl, Visha, opened her mouth to ask a question when Dee spoke again as she made her way out of the room "The station management knows to forget. Now hurry along. You have much to do while I go and find Ms. Kallenger. We have so much to discuss." With orders given, Dee passes through the door and out into the crowded station proper, blending into the small crowds as she headed for hallway eight, hoping to still catch Kallenger there.
White Death, Cargo bay
For the girl, slipping out of her jacket was the best thing she could have done to get off from the slime ball as the slime held onto dear life on the jacket instead of her. As it went over her wound, it left a slimy seal that covered her wound, preventing it in bleeding anymore.
Upon the ground the ball of purple slime got enough fluid that it wanted and began to rumble a little as it slowly took shape. It began to rise from its balled state like a sculpture being created by clay. It wouldn’t be long till a 4ft purple version of Dietrich was created almost as a carbon copy as the blue one. This time around this slime was wearing the bloody jacket of its pervious owner. The slime looks around getting its barring as if it was just born.
It soon looked at the newcomer upon the ship and gives a wide innocent smile to her. It began to take its first steps towards the frighten woman walking like a toddler, kicking its feet up as it walk towards her with wide smile upon its face and its cute arms outstretched as it approaches her slowly unaware of the situation around it. It began to mouth the term “Mommy” as it slowly approaches the girl in clear fashion that the purple Dietrich was wanting a hug from her.
If the slime did get close enough, it trip on itself and hug her leg gently...easily can kicked off if one so chooses
As for the original blue one, hearing the alarm made it get up and walk out of the recreational area and began to explore unsupervised since Ellen was at the bridges monitoring the situation the best she can. Dietrich soon found Barney and Asya and just stuck to her side seeing what happening. The blue smile would merely smile as it would follow and listen on the two crewmen.
For the girl, slipping out of her jacket was the best thing she could have done to get off from the slime ball as the slime held onto dear life on the jacket instead of her. As it went over her wound, it left a slimy seal that covered her wound, preventing it in bleeding anymore.
Upon the ground the ball of purple slime got enough fluid that it wanted and began to rumble a little as it slowly took shape. It began to rise from its balled state like a sculpture being created by clay. It wouldn’t be long till a 4ft purple version of Dietrich was created almost as a carbon copy as the blue one. This time around this slime was wearing the bloody jacket of its pervious owner. The slime looks around getting its barring as if it was just born.
It soon looked at the newcomer upon the ship and gives a wide innocent smile to her. It began to take its first steps towards the frighten woman walking like a toddler, kicking its feet up as it walk towards her with wide smile upon its face and its cute arms outstretched as it approaches her slowly unaware of the situation around it. It began to mouth the term “Mommy” as it slowly approaches the girl in clear fashion that the purple Dietrich was wanting a hug from her.
If the slime did get close enough, it trip on itself and hug her leg gently...easily can kicked off if one so chooses
As for the original blue one, hearing the alarm made it get up and walk out of the recreational area and began to explore unsupervised since Ellen was at the bridges monitoring the situation the best she can. Dietrich soon found Barney and Asya and just stuck to her side seeing what happening. The blue smile would merely smile as it would follow and listen on the two crewmen.
Tora Station
The pair’s conversation proceeded smoothly as they walked along. To her friend’s suggestion that the station was like a self-contained town in itself, Royanna nodded. ”To put it into perspective, think of space like a gigantic ocean. Stations like this are like small, inhabited islands, while planets are like larger continents.” She explained helpfully, Briefly, the Agent considered suggesting that if she knew more about the canid’s home planet, she could make a better comparison - but she decided against it. After all, he had yet to seem overly willing to discuss at length the planet he had only passingly referred to as ’Earth’.
She wasn’t even quite certain as to how he had gotten to Earth IV in the first place - since it was clearly not his home, despite the similar name. If only they could have talked more with that unit of his before getting kicked off by the infuriating Kampfer…
As their talk progressed further and Christofer mentioned the possibility of purchasing whatever food they knew how to cook, Roy faltered briefly. Beyond instant noodles and things from cans, the young woman didn’t have a clue on how to cook anything.
Suddenly feeling somewhat ashamed by this fact, she nodded and said awkwardly; ”Uh- yes. That.” Then, more naturally ”I figured we’d just get something out though. For now. The trip back to Ardella won’t be long enough to warrant buying supplies.”
This was contradictory to the idea of the Diplomat serving as her future base of operations. It had not been a conscious decision - but having found the historic relic, it seemed there was no plausible alternative and she had already been thinking of the old boat as ‘home’. Regardless, depending on how things went when they did finish on Ardella, there would be other opportunities to fully stock the ship.
”But...if you want to get something to prepare yourself, you’re perfectly welcome to.” She added, looking off somewhere toward the ceiling. If Christofer was going to go buying something that couldn’t just be heated up in the microwave-emitter then it would be on him to work out the chemistry of it.
Some moments later, following a rather disproportionate warning, Royanna found that she was pleasantly surprised at the boy’s level-headedness regarding the various non-humans going about their business on the station. It was nice to see him keeping his cool - and despite feeling a tad stupid for having assumed otherwise, Roy gave that slight, almost contemptuous smirk which from her constituted the closest thing she could manage to a genuine, encouraging smile.
At that exact moment, something out of an Eldritch nightmare went lumbering by behind her, stomping along on elephant-like legs with several writhing tentacles dangling from the general area of its terrible, thumb-like head-region. It stomped by without so much as a passing glance at the pair, disappearing around a corner.
Sensing the presence of this creature that was both a vision of abominable horror and a perfect example of Imperial civility, Roy’s almost-smirk tightened and she held it at all costs, keeping eyes locked on Christofer’s in a manner that seemed to convey the insistence that he not look away. Roy herself was, of course, not remotely disturbed by the creature, who they would doubtless never see again. But to have such a fellow go by just as she was insisting that there was nothing to be afraid of risked melting that fact back into the realm of empty consolation.
Once the big guy had gone, the Agent held her friend’s eyes for another moment before relaxing back into her usual state of grumpy indifference. The conversation resumed as if nothing had happened - since, after all, really nothing had happened.
Not that things were going to make sense, of course. Hearing the kid start muttering timidly about an ‘opening’ and fidgeting with his fingers, Roy frowned. ”An...opening?” She repeated quietly, the question evident in her tone. Then she followed his eyes. Several storefronts lined the hallway. ’Marquis Crypto-Jewelers” boasted windows that glittered with…stuff. Mo-Chuck & Dynamo appeared to sell some kind of hardware. Galfarahan Shores was a restaurant, with several sleek bistro tables outside.
She looked back to him, raising an eyebrow. ”A…door?” she suggested tentatively, probably sounding a lot more condescending than she meant to. Again, she looked back in that direction, blinking as the obvious occurred to her at last. ”Oh, you mean that restaurant.” She verified, looking back to him, searching for a sign amidst his fidgeting to tip her off before continuing with a shake of the head. ”I...don’t think you’d like Galfarahanian food. It doesn’t take too well to carbon-based digestive tracts.” she said frankly.
Most food in the Galaxy was more or less universal. The biology of most life was similar enough, by some chance, to leave little risk of ingesting incompatible nutrients. For all her inability to handle basic social interactions and her overall militaristic outlook, Royanna was ‘street-wise’ enough to know what kind of food to keep away from.
”It won’t hurt you, but it’s not good for you either.” She added, then nodded her head in the general direction of ‘down the hall’. ”Let’s head that way. I think there’s a couple more restaurants around the corner there.”
And, as it happened, the Agent was correct. In fact, immediately after rounding the corner that lead to Hallway 8-B (Not that anyone really paid any attention to those numbers unless they were giving directions) Roy’s face lit up with the closest thing to ‘delight’ that she was capable of. (Which was, as usual, barely enough of an expression to suggest outwardly anything but a lack of distaste.)
The hallway here was comparatively narrow, and more densely built - given that it was one of several offshoots from hallway 8 that needled through the businesses to either side, this was to be expected. Rather than the broad, open floorplan of a shopping mall’s central atrium, this hallway looked more like the interior of a subway station - while still maintaining the universal atmosphere of honest retail. It was not cramped, but did feel generally smaller.
Royanna proceeded directly to the object of her almost-delight, which appeared to be a long bar situated between two other businesses. There was no door, with stools built into the hallway floor and the establishment’s ‘interior’ consisting only of the kitchen. Strips of blue neon lighting bathed the metallic bar in a soft, cyan glow and little paper decorations hung from the section of overhead wall that separated customers from staff, making it so that only while seated at the bar could a patron actually look up to face the one standing behind the counter.
Above it all was the backlit image of a fierce, white dragon accompanied by the re glowing words ”Off-White Dragon Noodle Bar”.
”This, you’ll like.” Roy said confidently, making her way unhurriedly toward the place, taking a seat far to one end of the bar. They were the only two customers at the moment, it seemed.
Gesturing vaguely for Christofer to take a seat on the stool beside her own, Roy leaned on the bar as a gaunt, older man looked up from his cutting board expectantly. He appeared to be human, but for a very strange bone structure, and he smiled broadly with a row of too-sharp teeth at his customers.
The scent of fresh garlic and buckwheat wafted forth from behind the bar, with the aroma of many exotic, yet familiar spices adding to the ensamble to create a tantalizing combination. ”Number four and a PG Cola.” Royanna said to the man, then nodding toward Christofer and adding ”He’ll have the same.” If, by some chance, Chrostofer had concerns on this matter, she would dispel them distractedly by furthering ”Don’t worry, you’ll like it. I eat here all the time.” A graphic on the side wall indicated other Off White Dragon Noodle Bars at various locations throughout the galactic area. Apparently they had chain restaurants in space, too.
The food came quickly - first in the form of two glass bottles containing a very familiar molasses-colored, carbonated beverage that fizzed a little when the tab was popped. Some minutes later, it was followed by two large, steaming bowls filled with a succulent smelling broth, bountiful thick noodles resembling udon, and a plethora of vegetables and meats that would look and taste relatively familiar, despite being nothing like what a one-worlder such as Christofer would have known before. Instead of utensils, there was a pair of wooden sticks that were squared at one end, and tapered to a thin cylindrical shape at the other sticking out of the food and leaning against the edge of the bowl.
Not hesitating for a moment, Royanna plucked up the sticks holding them rather like a double-pencil and dug in with fervor.
One bite of the scalding food had her frozen though, eyes wide as she tried desperately not to let on that she had made such a stupid mistake. With great effort, she gulped down the scalding mouthful then took a drink, pretending indignantly as if nothing had happened at all, muttering almost inaudibly ”Careful, it’s hot.”
Maltese Station
Amused by the hostility of his friends, it was Ketin Clarke alone among the trio that seemed utterly oblivious to the clearly skeevy nature of the young man and his prospects. By all accounts he trusted the guy implicitly and simply would not have been able to comprehend his pals’ animosity...if he had even been aware of it.
Kete was about to say something else stupid, when he was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open from somewhere behind the casino man. From within came storming a short, stocky man with a round face and dark, oriental features. Narrow eyes beneath short, slicked black hair looked quite angry.
”You! What I tell you! No selling at my shop!” The man barked in a harsh, stilted accent. He pointed an accusatory finger at the young man, them made wild, flailing ’go away’ gestures with his hand. ”Take you casino bo’@#$% somewhere else! Not here! Go! Go now! Sleazy men, you! Shoo!”
Blinking at the angry man, Ketin leaned back in his chair - only to lean too far and tip over backwards, resulting in a chain reaction as the chair fell into the decorative fence behind it. Kete went rolling about on the floor and, in an attempt to scramble back to his feet, proceeded to knock over several of the various plants situated nearby.
At last though, he was able to hop to his feet, beaming his most charming smile and, again, apparently oblivious to the small destruction he had just caused.
”Well I guess we’d better get goin’, huh? No need to bother the nice tea-guy, nope nope~ So, which way was that fancy casino of yours again~?” he babbled cheerfully, not hesitating to shove hands in pockets and go strolling away - coincidentally in the very direction the casino man had earlier indicated. He waved enthusiastically as he went, not looking back. ”Bye Tea-Guy, thanks for the tea! It was super good!” He called, singsong.
The stocky, oriental tea-guy stood scowling at the others - particularly the suited guy - until they inevitably followed their orange-haired friend, with the pale, sandy haired young man peering inoffensively out from the doorway.
Once he was a fair distance from the tea shop, Ketin stopped, making a point of looking with feigned interest at nothing in particular until the others caught up. Immediately, he just happened to bump hips into the apparent proprietor of the apparently fabled New Vegas - whatever a ’vegas’ was.
”Sooo, y’gonna show us around, yeah~?” He drawled coyly, giving a charming look up at the suited individual and letting his tail swish lazily against his leg.
TheKoolest Boat U Know
”Yup, that’s her alright.” Ty said with a slow nod. He had walked along as the loremaster’s story began, feeling remarkably small wedged in between his two hulking companions. Being of a totally average height usually allowed him to avoid such uncomfortable scenarios.
”She’s maybe not as cold-hearted as she once was.” Ty mused thoughtfully, once the story had concluded, switching gears to relate their own tale in a more concise fashion. He, too sat in one of the chairs situated around the common area. ”We met her in an old research station on a planet called Earth IV. Got away just as the place was caving in by hopping aboard a dropship that was locked on a pre-programmed route. Life support started to fail before we got wherever it was supposed to go though...We made a heck of a team getting out of that mess.” He decided to leave out the part where they had to ’commandeer’ the ship that ‘rescued’ them. None of the crew liked thinking about that part.
Rai and Wyr entered then, with the former continuing on to descend the ramp and presumably make for the glorified broom closet. Ty nodded to both of them as he went on. ”Since then we’ve been working with her to build up some strength and make a name for ourselves. The idea is to one day unite the Galaxy under Ningo, but...I think we’ll be long dead when that day comes.” He smiled in good humor. After all, it was the end goal that really mattered to them - just a life with something worth fighting for.
”Regardless, she’s a good leader. We wouldn’t fight for someone who is totally devoid of warmth, I think…”
The words drifted off, and Ty looked thoughtful for a moment, deciding whether or not to voice some particular thought. In the end, he leaned forward, resting forearms on knees. He looked with sobriety at Kilwen and spoke frankly. ”So, you’re one of the Old Lords.” He said, presumptively. ”That, or you just made up a very convincing fiction. If I recall correctly, I saw your name in the files aboard the Skadi connected with...Negotiation? Diplomacy?” He paused briefly, searching Kilwen’s face for confirmation. ”One of the oldest, if I remember right. Part of that ‘old regime’.” Another pause, then he leaned back and took on a more contemplative tone. ”So, what are the odds that you just happened to pop out right on our doorstep?” He did not sound accusatory - in fact, even he wasn’t exactly certain what he was implying.
It was then that, with a start, he remembered Wyr standing there in the threshold. ”Oh! Morning. Our mutual friend is feeling better, I hope?” He gestured back toward Kilwen. ”This is Kilwen...an old friend of the Boss’.”
Sands was sitting alone, leaning against the door to the glorified broom closet prison that both of the Qetans had been unceremoniously shoved into the night before. He had been listening in as best he could to the newcomer’s story, but only managed to hear scraps of it. When Rai rounded the corner he was more than glad for the interruption of his monotony. He waved. ”Hey. Here to have a word with our honored guests, I assume? We haven’t opened the door all night so...hopefully they haven’t used intergalactic voodoo to disappear or something…”
Should Rai request it, Sands would proceed to hop sorely to his feet, then tap the little button beside the door that would swing it slightly outward, then retract it into the wall. He would be standing at the ready in case they were jumped…
The Ark of Chyll
Wh- huh? I gotta’ do a monologue every time? Great Space, give a guy a break!
The only sound in the silence induced by the tension of the oncoming brawl was that of the reptoid’s shirt being majestically torn off his muscular body. Following a long, stifling moment, it was further broken with the low, deadpan catcall-whistle from the Detective.
This served to only further irritate the already furious man, red in his pudgy face and bulky chest heaving with every heavy breath. ”WhAt Is LiBeRaL?” the fat man mocked childishly, repeating the reptoid’s words back as if the cutting-edge of such wit would drive a killing blow in itself. He shifted from foot to foot, flexing his bulky, mechanical arm. ”Ain’t no slimy-ass snake gone’ wear mah’ hat!” He growled.
Meanwhile, in what was surely not at all a response to Talis’ suggestion that the ‘smoking guy’ should pay for drinks, Detective Clégg casually let the cigarette fall into his drink, where it clinked and looked more like a stirrer than a proper cancer-stick. ”Smoking? Who’s smoking?” He said with feigned ignorance, looking around halfheartedly. Then, with an easy shrug, he suggested ”Oh well. My guess is that guy’s gonna’ be payin’ for drinks in a minute, whether he likes it or not.” He gestured with his drinking hand at the fat man with his baseball cap and clunky mechanical arm.
Hearing sounds from behind though, the Detective’s attention was grabbed and he turned with some haste, looking a tad distressed. ”Heyhey woah, eeeasy there Buggs.” He said leaning over to place a hand atop the barrel of the big rifle that Jacobo was suddenly wielding. ”No need to go spittin’ lead now. You take a shot and this whole thing’s gonna’ get outta’ control real fast, yeah?”
The old Detective liked a good bar brawl as much as the next guy, but he also knew that the minute one man pulled a gun was the beginning of the end. Too many times it had turned simple fights into deadly shootouts, and there were too many innocent people in the bar to risk getting into that sort of trouble.
He was about to say something else when the angry roar from behind him sent the man whirling around again to watch as the fat man lunged toward Shashi, aiming a clumsy, but devastatingly forceful punch with his hydraulic arm in the general direction of his opponent’s face...
The White Death
It all happened too fast - a dreamlike slow-motion that rocketed forward through time with inhuman speed.
Is this what it all had been for?
Everything she had gone through, everything she had survived - all for this?
She was no stranger to the unfairness of life. It didn’t matter what she had done up to this point. Her lot was her lot and she would accept that, just like she had always done - but it didn’t mean she was going down easy.
First it was the one-armed robot, forcing her to double back down the narrow corridor of crates. Then it was the old man, who had recovered from her panicked escape and was standing there placatingly in a way that made her want to sock him in the face. He was talking to her like she was some kind of unstable child - some little nutcase who needed to be talked down from a tantrum. She despised him - and the venomous glare she set on him was more than potent enough to get that across.
For a long moment, it was a standoff between the two of them - the robot behind her forgotten. Breathing heavily, she stood at the ready, looking about to pounce in any direction except that there was nowhere to go. Her fists were balled and eyes locked on the old man’s. Pointedly, she spit in the man’s direction, putting a pinkish stain on his boot.
And then, something else appeared, forcing the girl to break the tense eye contact for just a second, flicking them down to the floor at the old man’s feet. A toddling purple abomination. A note of fear flitted across the girl’s face. She tried to ignore it, tried to look back to the man - but it was getting closer.
Three enemies now - and the one that should have looked the most harmless was by a fair margian the most disconcerting. It grew closer, closer still. She continued to try staring the man down - only to yelp loudly in barely disguised terror and shock as the thing stumbled into her leg. Instinctively she kicked it off with a powerful swing. The movement was enough to catch a glimpse of the robot behind her again, reminding her of the machine’s presence.
She was thinking fast, but her thoughts were going nowhere. Cyclic, dreamlike nonsense. The fact that her plight was utterly hopeless refused to compute, yet simultaneously she wasn’t stupid enough to try and lie to herself.
Then there were robots. Dozens of them, it seemed. Thousands? Tens of thousands? She didn’t even remember their arrival.
A hand on her shoulder. She yelped again, flailing in a knee-jerk reaction and finding herself backed up against one of the crate-walls, now cornered even more than she had been. It felt so much worse, all of them being so close…
She hadn’t said a word since the initial torrent of curses and threats had sputtered off.
The old man put up his hands. He told her to do the same. She met his eyes again.
And this time, there was a very different expression in the girl’s steely grey orbs. They shimmered, but not necessarily with tears. A note of desperate fear tinged the hate. There was utter determination. Finality.
It was the expression of someone about to jump off a bridge just to spite the onlookers.
That moment seemed to last an eternity. She had decided to do something she was not going to like - something that terrified her to the core - but she was going to do it.
But...do what?
At long last, the girl moved. Hands went to the belt of her old camouflage army fatigue pants, darting with the speed of a practiced gunman - but found nothing. Her eyes widened fractionally and a sharper note of fear invaded her dirty face. Frantically, she patted at the waist and pockets, but found nothing.
And lastly, recognition and desolation fell over her like a wet blanket as she glanced to where her jacket was, over where she had kicked the creature wearing it. Whatever she had been hoping to grab in that last ditch effort - it was in the jacket. She was done.
The fight all but drained out of the girl in an instant. Despair would not take over, but resignation would.
Shaking visibly, flinching despite herself with every movement in her vicinity, the girl slowly, weakly raised her hands to either side, gritted her teeth, and tried with only marginal success to keep the panic at bay.
The pair’s conversation proceeded smoothly as they walked along. To her friend’s suggestion that the station was like a self-contained town in itself, Royanna nodded. ”To put it into perspective, think of space like a gigantic ocean. Stations like this are like small, inhabited islands, while planets are like larger continents.” She explained helpfully, Briefly, the Agent considered suggesting that if she knew more about the canid’s home planet, she could make a better comparison - but she decided against it. After all, he had yet to seem overly willing to discuss at length the planet he had only passingly referred to as ’Earth’.
She wasn’t even quite certain as to how he had gotten to Earth IV in the first place - since it was clearly not his home, despite the similar name. If only they could have talked more with that unit of his before getting kicked off by the infuriating Kampfer…
As their talk progressed further and Christofer mentioned the possibility of purchasing whatever food they knew how to cook, Roy faltered briefly. Beyond instant noodles and things from cans, the young woman didn’t have a clue on how to cook anything.
Suddenly feeling somewhat ashamed by this fact, she nodded and said awkwardly; ”Uh- yes. That.” Then, more naturally ”I figured we’d just get something out though. For now. The trip back to Ardella won’t be long enough to warrant buying supplies.”
This was contradictory to the idea of the Diplomat serving as her future base of operations. It had not been a conscious decision - but having found the historic relic, it seemed there was no plausible alternative and she had already been thinking of the old boat as ‘home’. Regardless, depending on how things went when they did finish on Ardella, there would be other opportunities to fully stock the ship.
”But...if you want to get something to prepare yourself, you’re perfectly welcome to.” She added, looking off somewhere toward the ceiling. If Christofer was going to go buying something that couldn’t just be heated up in the microwave-emitter then it would be on him to work out the chemistry of it.
Some moments later, following a rather disproportionate warning, Royanna found that she was pleasantly surprised at the boy’s level-headedness regarding the various non-humans going about their business on the station. It was nice to see him keeping his cool - and despite feeling a tad stupid for having assumed otherwise, Roy gave that slight, almost contemptuous smirk which from her constituted the closest thing she could manage to a genuine, encouraging smile.
At that exact moment, something out of an Eldritch nightmare went lumbering by behind her, stomping along on elephant-like legs with several writhing tentacles dangling from the general area of its terrible, thumb-like head-region. It stomped by without so much as a passing glance at the pair, disappearing around a corner.
Sensing the presence of this creature that was both a vision of abominable horror and a perfect example of Imperial civility, Roy’s almost-smirk tightened and she held it at all costs, keeping eyes locked on Christofer’s in a manner that seemed to convey the insistence that he not look away. Roy herself was, of course, not remotely disturbed by the creature, who they would doubtless never see again. But to have such a fellow go by just as she was insisting that there was nothing to be afraid of risked melting that fact back into the realm of empty consolation.
Once the big guy had gone, the Agent held her friend’s eyes for another moment before relaxing back into her usual state of grumpy indifference. The conversation resumed as if nothing had happened - since, after all, really nothing had happened.
Not that things were going to make sense, of course. Hearing the kid start muttering timidly about an ‘opening’ and fidgeting with his fingers, Roy frowned. ”An...opening?” She repeated quietly, the question evident in her tone. Then she followed his eyes. Several storefronts lined the hallway. ’Marquis Crypto-Jewelers” boasted windows that glittered with…stuff. Mo-Chuck & Dynamo appeared to sell some kind of hardware. Galfarahan Shores was a restaurant, with several sleek bistro tables outside.
She looked back to him, raising an eyebrow. ”A…door?” she suggested tentatively, probably sounding a lot more condescending than she meant to. Again, she looked back in that direction, blinking as the obvious occurred to her at last. ”Oh, you mean that restaurant.” She verified, looking back to him, searching for a sign amidst his fidgeting to tip her off before continuing with a shake of the head. ”I...don’t think you’d like Galfarahanian food. It doesn’t take too well to carbon-based digestive tracts.” she said frankly.
Most food in the Galaxy was more or less universal. The biology of most life was similar enough, by some chance, to leave little risk of ingesting incompatible nutrients. For all her inability to handle basic social interactions and her overall militaristic outlook, Royanna was ‘street-wise’ enough to know what kind of food to keep away from.
”It won’t hurt you, but it’s not good for you either.” She added, then nodded her head in the general direction of ‘down the hall’. ”Let’s head that way. I think there’s a couple more restaurants around the corner there.”
And, as it happened, the Agent was correct. In fact, immediately after rounding the corner that lead to Hallway 8-B (Not that anyone really paid any attention to those numbers unless they were giving directions) Roy’s face lit up with the closest thing to ‘delight’ that she was capable of. (Which was, as usual, barely enough of an expression to suggest outwardly anything but a lack of distaste.)
The hallway here was comparatively narrow, and more densely built - given that it was one of several offshoots from hallway 8 that needled through the businesses to either side, this was to be expected. Rather than the broad, open floorplan of a shopping mall’s central atrium, this hallway looked more like the interior of a subway station - while still maintaining the universal atmosphere of honest retail. It was not cramped, but did feel generally smaller.
Royanna proceeded directly to the object of her almost-delight, which appeared to be a long bar situated between two other businesses. There was no door, with stools built into the hallway floor and the establishment’s ‘interior’ consisting only of the kitchen. Strips of blue neon lighting bathed the metallic bar in a soft, cyan glow and little paper decorations hung from the section of overhead wall that separated customers from staff, making it so that only while seated at the bar could a patron actually look up to face the one standing behind the counter.
Above it all was the backlit image of a fierce, white dragon accompanied by the re glowing words ”Off-White Dragon Noodle Bar”.
”This, you’ll like.” Roy said confidently, making her way unhurriedly toward the place, taking a seat far to one end of the bar. They were the only two customers at the moment, it seemed.
Gesturing vaguely for Christofer to take a seat on the stool beside her own, Roy leaned on the bar as a gaunt, older man looked up from his cutting board expectantly. He appeared to be human, but for a very strange bone structure, and he smiled broadly with a row of too-sharp teeth at his customers.
The scent of fresh garlic and buckwheat wafted forth from behind the bar, with the aroma of many exotic, yet familiar spices adding to the ensamble to create a tantalizing combination. ”Number four and a PG Cola.” Royanna said to the man, then nodding toward Christofer and adding ”He’ll have the same.” If, by some chance, Chrostofer had concerns on this matter, she would dispel them distractedly by furthering ”Don’t worry, you’ll like it. I eat here all the time.” A graphic on the side wall indicated other Off White Dragon Noodle Bars at various locations throughout the galactic area. Apparently they had chain restaurants in space, too.
The food came quickly - first in the form of two glass bottles containing a very familiar molasses-colored, carbonated beverage that fizzed a little when the tab was popped. Some minutes later, it was followed by two large, steaming bowls filled with a succulent smelling broth, bountiful thick noodles resembling udon, and a plethora of vegetables and meats that would look and taste relatively familiar, despite being nothing like what a one-worlder such as Christofer would have known before. Instead of utensils, there was a pair of wooden sticks that were squared at one end, and tapered to a thin cylindrical shape at the other sticking out of the food and leaning against the edge of the bowl.
Not hesitating for a moment, Royanna plucked up the sticks holding them rather like a double-pencil and dug in with fervor.
One bite of the scalding food had her frozen though, eyes wide as she tried desperately not to let on that she had made such a stupid mistake. With great effort, she gulped down the scalding mouthful then took a drink, pretending indignantly as if nothing had happened at all, muttering almost inaudibly ”Careful, it’s hot.”
Maltese Station
Amused by the hostility of his friends, it was Ketin Clarke alone among the trio that seemed utterly oblivious to the clearly skeevy nature of the young man and his prospects. By all accounts he trusted the guy implicitly and simply would not have been able to comprehend his pals’ animosity...if he had even been aware of it.
Kete was about to say something else stupid, when he was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open from somewhere behind the casino man. From within came storming a short, stocky man with a round face and dark, oriental features. Narrow eyes beneath short, slicked black hair looked quite angry.
”You! What I tell you! No selling at my shop!” The man barked in a harsh, stilted accent. He pointed an accusatory finger at the young man, them made wild, flailing ’go away’ gestures with his hand. ”Take you casino bo’@#$% somewhere else! Not here! Go! Go now! Sleazy men, you! Shoo!”
Blinking at the angry man, Ketin leaned back in his chair - only to lean too far and tip over backwards, resulting in a chain reaction as the chair fell into the decorative fence behind it. Kete went rolling about on the floor and, in an attempt to scramble back to his feet, proceeded to knock over several of the various plants situated nearby.
At last though, he was able to hop to his feet, beaming his most charming smile and, again, apparently oblivious to the small destruction he had just caused.
”Well I guess we’d better get goin’, huh? No need to bother the nice tea-guy, nope nope~ So, which way was that fancy casino of yours again~?” he babbled cheerfully, not hesitating to shove hands in pockets and go strolling away - coincidentally in the very direction the casino man had earlier indicated. He waved enthusiastically as he went, not looking back. ”Bye Tea-Guy, thanks for the tea! It was super good!” He called, singsong.
The stocky, oriental tea-guy stood scowling at the others - particularly the suited guy - until they inevitably followed their orange-haired friend, with the pale, sandy haired young man peering inoffensively out from the doorway.
Once he was a fair distance from the tea shop, Ketin stopped, making a point of looking with feigned interest at nothing in particular until the others caught up. Immediately, he just happened to bump hips into the apparent proprietor of the apparently fabled New Vegas - whatever a ’vegas’ was.
”Sooo, y’gonna show us around, yeah~?” He drawled coyly, giving a charming look up at the suited individual and letting his tail swish lazily against his leg.
TheKoolest Boat U Know
”Yup, that’s her alright.” Ty said with a slow nod. He had walked along as the loremaster’s story began, feeling remarkably small wedged in between his two hulking companions. Being of a totally average height usually allowed him to avoid such uncomfortable scenarios.
”She’s maybe not as cold-hearted as she once was.” Ty mused thoughtfully, once the story had concluded, switching gears to relate their own tale in a more concise fashion. He, too sat in one of the chairs situated around the common area. ”We met her in an old research station on a planet called Earth IV. Got away just as the place was caving in by hopping aboard a dropship that was locked on a pre-programmed route. Life support started to fail before we got wherever it was supposed to go though...We made a heck of a team getting out of that mess.” He decided to leave out the part where they had to ’commandeer’ the ship that ‘rescued’ them. None of the crew liked thinking about that part.
Rai and Wyr entered then, with the former continuing on to descend the ramp and presumably make for the glorified broom closet. Ty nodded to both of them as he went on. ”Since then we’ve been working with her to build up some strength and make a name for ourselves. The idea is to one day unite the Galaxy under Ningo, but...I think we’ll be long dead when that day comes.” He smiled in good humor. After all, it was the end goal that really mattered to them - just a life with something worth fighting for.
”Regardless, she’s a good leader. We wouldn’t fight for someone who is totally devoid of warmth, I think…”
The words drifted off, and Ty looked thoughtful for a moment, deciding whether or not to voice some particular thought. In the end, he leaned forward, resting forearms on knees. He looked with sobriety at Kilwen and spoke frankly. ”So, you’re one of the Old Lords.” He said, presumptively. ”That, or you just made up a very convincing fiction. If I recall correctly, I saw your name in the files aboard the Skadi connected with...Negotiation? Diplomacy?” He paused briefly, searching Kilwen’s face for confirmation. ”One of the oldest, if I remember right. Part of that ‘old regime’.” Another pause, then he leaned back and took on a more contemplative tone. ”So, what are the odds that you just happened to pop out right on our doorstep?” He did not sound accusatory - in fact, even he wasn’t exactly certain what he was implying.
It was then that, with a start, he remembered Wyr standing there in the threshold. ”Oh! Morning. Our mutual friend is feeling better, I hope?” He gestured back toward Kilwen. ”This is Kilwen...an old friend of the Boss’.”
Sands was sitting alone, leaning against the door to the glorified broom closet prison that both of the Qetans had been unceremoniously shoved into the night before. He had been listening in as best he could to the newcomer’s story, but only managed to hear scraps of it. When Rai rounded the corner he was more than glad for the interruption of his monotony. He waved. ”Hey. Here to have a word with our honored guests, I assume? We haven’t opened the door all night so...hopefully they haven’t used intergalactic voodoo to disappear or something…”
Should Rai request it, Sands would proceed to hop sorely to his feet, then tap the little button beside the door that would swing it slightly outward, then retract it into the wall. He would be standing at the ready in case they were jumped…
The Ark of Chyll
Wh- huh? I gotta’ do a monologue every time? Great Space, give a guy a break!
The only sound in the silence induced by the tension of the oncoming brawl was that of the reptoid’s shirt being majestically torn off his muscular body. Following a long, stifling moment, it was further broken with the low, deadpan catcall-whistle from the Detective.
This served to only further irritate the already furious man, red in his pudgy face and bulky chest heaving with every heavy breath. ”WhAt Is LiBeRaL?” the fat man mocked childishly, repeating the reptoid’s words back as if the cutting-edge of such wit would drive a killing blow in itself. He shifted from foot to foot, flexing his bulky, mechanical arm. ”Ain’t no slimy-ass snake gone’ wear mah’ hat!” He growled.
Meanwhile, in what was surely not at all a response to Talis’ suggestion that the ‘smoking guy’ should pay for drinks, Detective Clégg casually let the cigarette fall into his drink, where it clinked and looked more like a stirrer than a proper cancer-stick. ”Smoking? Who’s smoking?” He said with feigned ignorance, looking around halfheartedly. Then, with an easy shrug, he suggested ”Oh well. My guess is that guy’s gonna’ be payin’ for drinks in a minute, whether he likes it or not.” He gestured with his drinking hand at the fat man with his baseball cap and clunky mechanical arm.
Hearing sounds from behind though, the Detective’s attention was grabbed and he turned with some haste, looking a tad distressed. ”Heyhey woah, eeeasy there Buggs.” He said leaning over to place a hand atop the barrel of the big rifle that Jacobo was suddenly wielding. ”No need to go spittin’ lead now. You take a shot and this whole thing’s gonna’ get outta’ control real fast, yeah?”
The old Detective liked a good bar brawl as much as the next guy, but he also knew that the minute one man pulled a gun was the beginning of the end. Too many times it had turned simple fights into deadly shootouts, and there were too many innocent people in the bar to risk getting into that sort of trouble.
He was about to say something else when the angry roar from behind him sent the man whirling around again to watch as the fat man lunged toward Shashi, aiming a clumsy, but devastatingly forceful punch with his hydraulic arm in the general direction of his opponent’s face...
The White Death
It all happened too fast - a dreamlike slow-motion that rocketed forward through time with inhuman speed.
Is this what it all had been for?
Everything she had gone through, everything she had survived - all for this?
She was no stranger to the unfairness of life. It didn’t matter what she had done up to this point. Her lot was her lot and she would accept that, just like she had always done - but it didn’t mean she was going down easy.
First it was the one-armed robot, forcing her to double back down the narrow corridor of crates. Then it was the old man, who had recovered from her panicked escape and was standing there placatingly in a way that made her want to sock him in the face. He was talking to her like she was some kind of unstable child - some little nutcase who needed to be talked down from a tantrum. She despised him - and the venomous glare she set on him was more than potent enough to get that across.
For a long moment, it was a standoff between the two of them - the robot behind her forgotten. Breathing heavily, she stood at the ready, looking about to pounce in any direction except that there was nowhere to go. Her fists were balled and eyes locked on the old man’s. Pointedly, she spit in the man’s direction, putting a pinkish stain on his boot.
And then, something else appeared, forcing the girl to break the tense eye contact for just a second, flicking them down to the floor at the old man’s feet. A toddling purple abomination. A note of fear flitted across the girl’s face. She tried to ignore it, tried to look back to the man - but it was getting closer.
Three enemies now - and the one that should have looked the most harmless was by a fair margian the most disconcerting. It grew closer, closer still. She continued to try staring the man down - only to yelp loudly in barely disguised terror and shock as the thing stumbled into her leg. Instinctively she kicked it off with a powerful swing. The movement was enough to catch a glimpse of the robot behind her again, reminding her of the machine’s presence.
She was thinking fast, but her thoughts were going nowhere. Cyclic, dreamlike nonsense. The fact that her plight was utterly hopeless refused to compute, yet simultaneously she wasn’t stupid enough to try and lie to herself.
Then there were robots. Dozens of them, it seemed. Thousands? Tens of thousands? She didn’t even remember their arrival.
A hand on her shoulder. She yelped again, flailing in a knee-jerk reaction and finding herself backed up against one of the crate-walls, now cornered even more than she had been. It felt so much worse, all of them being so close…
She hadn’t said a word since the initial torrent of curses and threats had sputtered off.
The old man put up his hands. He told her to do the same. She met his eyes again.
And this time, there was a very different expression in the girl’s steely grey orbs. They shimmered, but not necessarily with tears. A note of desperate fear tinged the hate. There was utter determination. Finality.
It was the expression of someone about to jump off a bridge just to spite the onlookers.
That moment seemed to last an eternity. She had decided to do something she was not going to like - something that terrified her to the core - but she was going to do it.
But...do what?
At long last, the girl moved. Hands went to the belt of her old camouflage army fatigue pants, darting with the speed of a practiced gunman - but found nothing. Her eyes widened fractionally and a sharper note of fear invaded her dirty face. Frantically, she patted at the waist and pockets, but found nothing.
And lastly, recognition and desolation fell over her like a wet blanket as she glanced to where her jacket was, over where she had kicked the creature wearing it. Whatever she had been hoping to grab in that last ditch effort - it was in the jacket. She was done.
The fight all but drained out of the girl in an instant. Despair would not take over, but resignation would.
Shaking visibly, flinching despite herself with every movement in her vicinity, the girl slowly, weakly raised her hands to either side, gritted her teeth, and tried with only marginal success to keep the panic at bay.
The Koolest Boat U Know
Wyr blinked, then stood tall. Yet another newcomer, it seemed. That would explain the noise.
"Lord Kilwen," she said, head tilting down in a slight bow. She still had no idea how influential- or indeed, how powerful and significant- these 'lords' were, but a typical move of successful negotiations was acknowledgement of titles.
She then turned to Ty, giving him a tiny nod. "We had a pleasant rest," she responded. "Although Vaxur and Rin may stay in the cot for a while longer. They," she paused, then let out a fond, exasperated sigh. "They have been away from each other for too long."
Thus, Vaxur would be clingy and not let the young Nyran go- even if he was awake and ready to leave the room. She chuckled inwardly at the thought.
She sobered, though, as she looked again at the other man. "I too hope that you and your crew have found rest in the hours of inactivity," she said, eyes flicking from their new lord guest and back to Ty.
Rai raised a tentative hand, smiling weakly. "Yo." A pause, then: "I think they're still there, since you confiscated Reqti's staff. I- well," they flushed, rubbing the back of their head. "Yes, I'm to have a word," they said. "But only if they're awake. So... I'll take a peek in, I suppose."
Sands seemed eager to relieve his boredom, even with something as mundane as opening a door. As the door retracted, Rai took a silent step inside the tiny... well... closet-room.
And there was someone already awake.
Reqti's golden eyes tracked Rai's every movement, hand laid over Tahil's head pillowed in his lap. When Rai made to sit down, cross-legged and a foot away, he released the tension in his shoulders, leaning his head against the wall.
His eyes never left Rai's form.
"You can close the door, if you want," Rai called out to Sands outside of the closet-room. "I'll be alright either way."
The Ark of Chyll
'Shiro' was frowning.
Off to a great start, he thought to himself, pursing his lips as he stared on at the unfortunate proceedings. Hermit was in an unnecessary fight, and Sun seemed to be itching for action. He was glad when Justice went to reign him in- because he was right. If this escalated too much too soon, it would end very badly indeed.
With fatal consequences, even.
Three holographic cards appeared before him- cards that could not be seen by anybody but him. He looked them over, then stopped at one.
Six of Cups.
Good enough.
The two other cards dissipated, leaving only his chosen card in front of him. When worst became worst, he would use it to shut down all electronics in the immediate area for a short time- hopefully, enough time for everyone to escape.
Of course, that was just in case.
Wyr blinked, then stood tall. Yet another newcomer, it seemed. That would explain the noise.
"Lord Kilwen," she said, head tilting down in a slight bow. She still had no idea how influential- or indeed, how powerful and significant- these 'lords' were, but a typical move of successful negotiations was acknowledgement of titles.
She then turned to Ty, giving him a tiny nod. "We had a pleasant rest," she responded. "Although Vaxur and Rin may stay in the cot for a while longer. They," she paused, then let out a fond, exasperated sigh. "They have been away from each other for too long."
Thus, Vaxur would be clingy and not let the young Nyran go- even if he was awake and ready to leave the room. She chuckled inwardly at the thought.
She sobered, though, as she looked again at the other man. "I too hope that you and your crew have found rest in the hours of inactivity," she said, eyes flicking from their new lord guest and back to Ty.
Rai raised a tentative hand, smiling weakly. "Yo." A pause, then: "I think they're still there, since you confiscated Reqti's staff. I- well," they flushed, rubbing the back of their head. "Yes, I'm to have a word," they said. "But only if they're awake. So... I'll take a peek in, I suppose."
Sands seemed eager to relieve his boredom, even with something as mundane as opening a door. As the door retracted, Rai took a silent step inside the tiny... well... closet-room.
And there was someone already awake.
Reqti's golden eyes tracked Rai's every movement, hand laid over Tahil's head pillowed in his lap. When Rai made to sit down, cross-legged and a foot away, he released the tension in his shoulders, leaning his head against the wall.
His eyes never left Rai's form.
"You can close the door, if you want," Rai called out to Sands outside of the closet-room. "I'll be alright either way."
The Ark of Chyll
'Shiro' was frowning.
Off to a great start, he thought to himself, pursing his lips as he stared on at the unfortunate proceedings. Hermit was in an unnecessary fight, and Sun seemed to be itching for action. He was glad when Justice went to reign him in- because he was right. If this escalated too much too soon, it would end very badly indeed.
With fatal consequences, even.
Three holographic cards appeared before him- cards that could not be seen by anybody but him. He looked them over, then stopped at one.
Six of Cups.
Good enough.
The two other cards dissipated, leaving only his chosen card in front of him. When worst became worst, he would use it to shut down all electronics in the immediate area for a short time- hopefully, enough time for everyone to escape.
Of course, that was just in case.
When any of the occupants of that very tight cargo hold stopped to think about it, they would slowly figure out that: There wasn't a sliver of a hint of "humor" on the Ranger's voice. Not even a femtometric dust of mockery was audible on the Galaxy Wide terrorist. His static-twisted voice, muffled by the gas mask was straight with the words, piercing, analogous to a steel lance. Even so, Sergei didn't barely flinch at the directed buzzing into his eardrums. The stinging headache and the agony of his eyes burning from the crimson glare of the Masked Man. And it puzzled Wong. In so far, in her adrenaline-ridden misadventures with her unit accompanied by the Ranger, she couldn't witness a living being that were so resistant to the brigand’s glare. This didn't made her even a pinch afraid of the cold-blooded rebel, rather, it only perked her interest even more.
What really would be "humorous", though, was decompressing the entire cargo hold. Sucking all the oxygen, that was already rapidly decreasing, and leave them to have a decompressing death. Or, even better, launch the cargo hold into space and see who gets to cannibalize on the other first. Or just drive a single Lucian Defender bullet in the head of each, specially the annoying, yellow canid. That, with all certainity, would be humorous.
There was just only one problem with that task: Apparently, Wong had taken a particular liking to the bigot unaware of what a criminal could do, if you insult him, and he has a high-caliber revolver pointed straight at your head. She wasn't so optimistic about any future relationship with him, though, seeming what the Ranger would probably do whenever she turned her back.
— Mhmm, I 'dunno. Kov-Kov. - Wong questioned with a confused smile at "Kov" duo, distracting herself fiddling with the submachine gun. — Never saw Rangey grudgy for nothing, y'know? — She didn't bother to go in details about the Ranger's exccentric personality, rather, the priority was to focus on the now and hope that everything would be alright in the end. — Well, jam some sense into his head! You have been ditched from... A rather good planet... By a, uh... Masked guy and, err... A bunch of mercs. Yeah, I wouldn't be happy too, eheh, heh, heh... Eh. — She shot a embarassed pout at Thompson in response. Things only changed for her morale once Sergei started talking of what actually happened down at Earth VI.
Except he actually didn't.
— Brief enough for you to get a ride? What are 'yo bunch? Galactic Hitchhikers? — Wong chuckled, letting ou an actual, audible joke, in a pathetic attempt to bring some "humor" to light up the mood of shady runaway mercenary-rebel shenanigans. — And, well, y'know, I won't disclose that. Far as I'm concerned, Rangey wants your head on a pike. I don't 'wanna have mine included, heh, he--
Then the yellow canid broke in.
Something that everyone knew about Jin-Li Huang is that she loved 'animals'. Aliens, as some prefer to cal. From the terrible Thanyotta Taurachnids, to the mystical Olympian Yinxen, ranging to the humongous Lucian Megabeasts, until the Vursakhra's Lassang, again to the grotesque Veteriniusenex Marubili and whatever kind of lifeform inhabiting The Galaxy Wind and beyond. It was nearly impossible for Wong, a seasoned biologist - not exobiologist, as that term was decomissioned with a good reason - to hate an "animal". She even liked non carbon-based lifeforms! No matter how abstract in appearance and behavior they were.
However, something was starting to tingle on the back of the medic's mind. The more Connell blurted, the more she wanted to have him attached to a table. And then he blurted again, seemingly unaware that they were tightly crammed on a small cargo space. That made Wong want to put a titanium-reinforced muzzle on his maw. And they he started screaming about something back in Earth VI, a place they're probably never going back to. That made Wong want to drive a scalpel on his guts and just examine the biology of this canid. With him permanently quiet.
However, she too remained quiet, only an annoyed spectator in a slow round of Intergalactic Championship Quadrichess. Huggies were distributed, death threats and shots fired. However, cuddling time was cut abruptly short by a mild buzzer, and a screen flashing "0²" in red. What interrupted bonding-time, though, was not the actual buzzer or the warning that available Oxygen was about to run out.
— OH, <****>!!! WE'RE 'GONNA CHOKE!!!
The small personnel transport that Wong and another important person had brought to Earth VI to rescue the Ranger was heavily modified, as indicated before. One could see the jury-rigged titanium-niobium plates on the "Safast Travel Co." logo worn out by dust and multiple gunshut marks. This small shuttle, however, had many of its oxygen cylinders replaced to fit in tanks of hydrogen and deuterium for the powerful interplanetary travel engines it had badly strapped on. And, of course, the emergency oxygen recycle was removed to fit in the meaningless single-magazine anti-armor turret the shuttle had attacked on its underbelly.
Of course, Wong could've attached two or more oxygen tanks on it. IF she knew the Ranger would bring some company aboard. And she barely expected for such company to be very agitated, therefore, draining even more of the few oxygen they had left.
Sending a encrypted galactic signal towards the Kingsbane was going to take more than one hour and there was no fuel for another take-off from Earth VI, The Ranger would prefer asphyxiating that going back there, anyway. Only a slow, agonizing death awaited the little merc-rebel diversity on the shuttle.
The Ranger not included.
Lights could be seen millions of kilometers away and the sensors on the cockpit pinged mad. There was activity in "Earth" system coming from another of its planets. That's when the Ranger was reminded the other two planets of this star system, aside from the eliptical-orbit gas dwarf the Kingsbane was hidden.
Solaria was utterly insignificant. It was a terribly average gas giant which failed terribly on the general purpose of gas giants. Instead of pulling stray asteroids away from Earth VI or its other brother-planet, it instead projected powerful jets of plasma and molten rock towards neighboring planets. It was a rare for a world to have pressures enough to make that viable, but still, it was a rare and an annoying occurrence. Every so often, a mining corporation or foundry industry would go bankrupt merely because a one kilometer rock had fallen right in their colony at Stervus. Which, in the other hand, was a much more interesting planet.
In one word, Stervus was an orgy. Dozens of space tourism companies, hundreds of small mining colonies, thousands or habitats and millions of anti-asteroid turrets were scattered in an ugly amalgam of people, technology and greed. The rocky-planet was fed with people through two space elevators, each one at opposing poles, pumping people and machines in and pulling delicious platinum, iron and silica out, among other varying tasty ores. Yet, what was remarkable about Stervus was its independency. For economical reason, even the most powerful empires had failed in acquiring Stervus to their resource-making planet collection. Its output was tiny, for that reason, few had reason to conquer it. However, at the same time, any convoy for whatever Galactic Empire or Foundation of Allied Transgalactic Enterprise that would pass by, it was always convenient to drop by, repair damages, ressuply, feed the crew and get off. The Dimensional Lords didn't need it, and the so-called Lassang found it "Too cold to enslave".
For stray terrorists, mercenaries and rebel soldiers, it was a nice place to rest, eat, buy guns, smuggle and, of course, ressuply rapidly declining oxygen reserves and signal a menacing heavy artillery cruiser to come and re-rescue them.
— Wong. — The infamous voice, distorted by white-nose echoed through and intercom in the cargo hold. — Buckle up. - The blondie rapidly did so, repeating the Ranger's message. — Buckle up! — Apparently, he was barely caring if they fatally hit their heads on the metal corners of the shuttle's insides.
A sliver of mercy from the Ranger allowed Sergei and his dogs to properly strap on. It wouldn't make any difference for the corpse, as, well, it was a corpse, so Wong barely cared to help. After exactly such minute had passed, the shuttle shook immensely, promptly jamming whoever wasn't strapped properly right against a cold metal surface. Broken bones, snapped necks, more corpses, all of that good stuff. Unfortunately, for the Ranger, there was few odds of that well-prepared fireteam of rebels being dull to the point of not buckling up.
The engines emitted furious roars as its thrusters started to jet-out cyan blue blazes, darting the shuttle dangerously fast towards Stervus. The trip was short, yet turbulent, with Wong constantly blurting cursewords for 'feces' whenever she looked at the oxygen display. Sergei or whoever that wasn't thrown around by the immense push could notice a streak of cold sweat descending on the asian's forehead.
Like a badly maintained asteroid-coaster ride, the dash was over. After a few sharp turns and reckless maneuvers, a few more screams and shady landing requests, the Ranger had succesfuly landed the modded-for-war shuttle on a pacific station. The cargo hold opened to a triage counter of sorts, with a receptionist that fast asleep. Right after, the Ranger came out from the cockpit. Revolver in hand. Wong rapidly took her straps off with a relieving sigh and joined beside the Ranger, with a rather disappointed expression at Sergei. Disappointed at the Ranger.
— Get out. - The masked man blurted, fixating his red gaze to Sergei's eyes, mechanical hand in his Lucian Defender's holster. — Now.
What really would be "humorous", though, was decompressing the entire cargo hold. Sucking all the oxygen, that was already rapidly decreasing, and leave them to have a decompressing death. Or, even better, launch the cargo hold into space and see who gets to cannibalize on the other first. Or just drive a single Lucian Defender bullet in the head of each, specially the annoying, yellow canid. That, with all certainity, would be humorous.
There was just only one problem with that task: Apparently, Wong had taken a particular liking to the bigot unaware of what a criminal could do, if you insult him, and he has a high-caliber revolver pointed straight at your head. She wasn't so optimistic about any future relationship with him, though, seeming what the Ranger would probably do whenever she turned her back.
— Mhmm, I 'dunno. Kov-Kov. - Wong questioned with a confused smile at "Kov" duo, distracting herself fiddling with the submachine gun. — Never saw Rangey grudgy for nothing, y'know? — She didn't bother to go in details about the Ranger's exccentric personality, rather, the priority was to focus on the now and hope that everything would be alright in the end. — Well, jam some sense into his head! You have been ditched from... A rather good planet... By a, uh... Masked guy and, err... A bunch of mercs. Yeah, I wouldn't be happy too, eheh, heh, heh... Eh. — She shot a embarassed pout at Thompson in response. Things only changed for her morale once Sergei started talking of what actually happened down at Earth VI.
Except he actually didn't.
— Brief enough for you to get a ride? What are 'yo bunch? Galactic Hitchhikers? — Wong chuckled, letting ou an actual, audible joke, in a pathetic attempt to bring some "humor" to light up the mood of shady runaway mercenary-rebel shenanigans. — And, well, y'know, I won't disclose that. Far as I'm concerned, Rangey wants your head on a pike. I don't 'wanna have mine included, heh, he--
Then the yellow canid broke in.
Something that everyone knew about Jin-Li Huang is that she loved 'animals'. Aliens, as some prefer to cal. From the terrible Thanyotta Taurachnids, to the mystical Olympian Yinxen, ranging to the humongous Lucian Megabeasts, until the Vursakhra's Lassang, again to the grotesque Veteriniusenex Marubili and whatever kind of lifeform inhabiting The Galaxy Wind and beyond. It was nearly impossible for Wong, a seasoned biologist - not exobiologist, as that term was decomissioned with a good reason - to hate an "animal". She even liked non carbon-based lifeforms! No matter how abstract in appearance and behavior they were.
However, something was starting to tingle on the back of the medic's mind. The more Connell blurted, the more she wanted to have him attached to a table. And then he blurted again, seemingly unaware that they were tightly crammed on a small cargo space. That made Wong want to put a titanium-reinforced muzzle on his maw. And they he started screaming about something back in Earth VI, a place they're probably never going back to. That made Wong want to drive a scalpel on his guts and just examine the biology of this canid. With him permanently quiet.
However, she too remained quiet, only an annoyed spectator in a slow round of Intergalactic Championship Quadrichess. Huggies were distributed, death threats and shots fired. However, cuddling time was cut abruptly short by a mild buzzer, and a screen flashing "0²" in red. What interrupted bonding-time, though, was not the actual buzzer or the warning that available Oxygen was about to run out.
— OH, <****>!!! WE'RE 'GONNA CHOKE!!!
The small personnel transport that Wong and another important person had brought to Earth VI to rescue the Ranger was heavily modified, as indicated before. One could see the jury-rigged titanium-niobium plates on the "Safast Travel Co." logo worn out by dust and multiple gunshut marks. This small shuttle, however, had many of its oxygen cylinders replaced to fit in tanks of hydrogen and deuterium for the powerful interplanetary travel engines it had badly strapped on. And, of course, the emergency oxygen recycle was removed to fit in the meaningless single-magazine anti-armor turret the shuttle had attacked on its underbelly.
Of course, Wong could've attached two or more oxygen tanks on it. IF she knew the Ranger would bring some company aboard. And she barely expected for such company to be very agitated, therefore, draining even more of the few oxygen they had left.
Sending a encrypted galactic signal towards the Kingsbane was going to take more than one hour and there was no fuel for another take-off from Earth VI, The Ranger would prefer asphyxiating that going back there, anyway. Only a slow, agonizing death awaited the little merc-rebel diversity on the shuttle.
The Ranger not included.
Lights could be seen millions of kilometers away and the sensors on the cockpit pinged mad. There was activity in "Earth" system coming from another of its planets. That's when the Ranger was reminded the other two planets of this star system, aside from the eliptical-orbit gas dwarf the Kingsbane was hidden.
Solaria was utterly insignificant. It was a terribly average gas giant which failed terribly on the general purpose of gas giants. Instead of pulling stray asteroids away from Earth VI or its other brother-planet, it instead projected powerful jets of plasma and molten rock towards neighboring planets. It was a rare for a world to have pressures enough to make that viable, but still, it was a rare and an annoying occurrence. Every so often, a mining corporation or foundry industry would go bankrupt merely because a one kilometer rock had fallen right in their colony at Stervus. Which, in the other hand, was a much more interesting planet.
In one word, Stervus was an orgy. Dozens of space tourism companies, hundreds of small mining colonies, thousands or habitats and millions of anti-asteroid turrets were scattered in an ugly amalgam of people, technology and greed. The rocky-planet was fed with people through two space elevators, each one at opposing poles, pumping people and machines in and pulling delicious platinum, iron and silica out, among other varying tasty ores. Yet, what was remarkable about Stervus was its independency. For economical reason, even the most powerful empires had failed in acquiring Stervus to their resource-making planet collection. Its output was tiny, for that reason, few had reason to conquer it. However, at the same time, any convoy for whatever Galactic Empire or Foundation of Allied Transgalactic Enterprise that would pass by, it was always convenient to drop by, repair damages, ressuply, feed the crew and get off. The Dimensional Lords didn't need it, and the so-called Lassang found it "Too cold to enslave".
For stray terrorists, mercenaries and rebel soldiers, it was a nice place to rest, eat, buy guns, smuggle and, of course, ressuply rapidly declining oxygen reserves and signal a menacing heavy artillery cruiser to come and re-rescue them.
— Wong. — The infamous voice, distorted by white-nose echoed through and intercom in the cargo hold. — Buckle up. - The blondie rapidly did so, repeating the Ranger's message. — Buckle up! — Apparently, he was barely caring if they fatally hit their heads on the metal corners of the shuttle's insides.
A sliver of mercy from the Ranger allowed Sergei and his dogs to properly strap on. It wouldn't make any difference for the corpse, as, well, it was a corpse, so Wong barely cared to help. After exactly such minute had passed, the shuttle shook immensely, promptly jamming whoever wasn't strapped properly right against a cold metal surface. Broken bones, snapped necks, more corpses, all of that good stuff. Unfortunately, for the Ranger, there was few odds of that well-prepared fireteam of rebels being dull to the point of not buckling up.
The engines emitted furious roars as its thrusters started to jet-out cyan blue blazes, darting the shuttle dangerously fast towards Stervus. The trip was short, yet turbulent, with Wong constantly blurting cursewords for 'feces' whenever she looked at the oxygen display. Sergei or whoever that wasn't thrown around by the immense push could notice a streak of cold sweat descending on the asian's forehead.
Like a badly maintained asteroid-coaster ride, the dash was over. After a few sharp turns and reckless maneuvers, a few more screams and shady landing requests, the Ranger had succesfuly landed the modded-for-war shuttle on a pacific station. The cargo hold opened to a triage counter of sorts, with a receptionist that fast asleep. Right after, the Ranger came out from the cockpit. Revolver in hand. Wong rapidly took her straps off with a relieving sigh and joined beside the Ranger, with a rather disappointed expression at Sergei. Disappointed at the Ranger.
— Get out. - The masked man blurted, fixating his red gaze to Sergei's eyes, mechanical hand in his Lucian Defender's holster. — Now.
Though the crowd he was a part of reacted greatly to the rude man's approach and interruption, the lizard didn't turn to interact with them just yet. He suspected strongly that letting his guard down in any way would prompt a premature attack and worse-- he might actually be injured by that strange prosthetic.
Shashi held still, flicking out his tongue while watching the subtlest motions his prospective opponent made. The lizard's footing shifted as the man roared and lunged forward and he sprung backwards as the hydraulic arm swung, barely avoiding the attack. Chairs and tables skid, clattered and fell behind him as his jump took him uncomfortably close to the counter. Despite this the reptoid seemed unperturbed, sweeping his leg so as to potentially trip the belligerent patron.
Assuming this motion was successful Shashi would place his foot atop his fallen opponent's and press down sharply (Intending to break smaller bones and twist his ankle). It was more simplistic than other things he could do but the reptoid wasn't done in the bar yet; so he thought it'd best he damaged as little as possible, aside from the man.
Shashi held still, flicking out his tongue while watching the subtlest motions his prospective opponent made. The lizard's footing shifted as the man roared and lunged forward and he sprung backwards as the hydraulic arm swung, barely avoiding the attack. Chairs and tables skid, clattered and fell behind him as his jump took him uncomfortably close to the counter. Despite this the reptoid seemed unperturbed, sweeping his leg so as to potentially trip the belligerent patron.
Assuming this motion was successful Shashi would place his foot atop his fallen opponent's and press down sharply (Intending to break smaller bones and twist his ankle). It was more simplistic than other things he could do but the reptoid wasn't done in the bar yet; so he thought it'd best he damaged as little as possible, aside from the man.
The Kingsbane
Outer Space
For a brief instant, the astrophyisicist had forgotten how alien that Girl's mind could be. Speculative facts seemingly popped at an instant, theories were formed on spot with said beliefs and all of those racing thoughts made the old mind weary; seemingly callous to the current state of things and some aspects of the Girl itself. Amidst this self-propelled confusion, Severin had forgotten that, for an 'alien', the Kingsbane was itself very alien as well.
At all times, he wore a confident smirk on the lips of his weary-skinned face; very observant of the Girl's very observations of the surroundings. Under normal circumstances, he would press some buttons on the side of this cramped room exit, or entrance. However, he was vigilant for her. He carefully reached his fingers for the buttons, five lined in a vertical row, and pressed the fifth, with utmost caution, almost as if it was a very sensitive control for some unstable device.
As a strange silence befell on the room, her eccentric dialect, coupled with the very familiar "Idiot" made Severin groan, as he contained a burst of laugh at the, well, idiocy of it. The moments after, the room shuddered abruptly. The late Second Century machinery that composed the Kingsbane complained on its unmaintained weariness as the room apparently started to slowly fall. Of course, Severin stood firm, the supposed frailty of his body simply denied to comply for the unseen forces that shook the Girl were she was standing. However, as she might had expected, the firm but easy grasp of his wrinkly hand was at her shoulder, aiding to remain stable.
He had forgotten, that even an ancient elevator would have been understand to the Girl as a highly advanced gadget of incomprehensible brilliance.
Her sudden terror and desperate embrace was strangely surprising. Briefly, Severin became detached from her emotions, instead, seeing that as if she had detected a dangerous cosmic presence around or within the Kingsbane. Immediately, he reached for his goggles, only for it to display the usual list of pending maintenance and recently known space anomalies Wanheed had cruised on. Within it, a grim reminder of what happened with thousand of stars. Apart from this, everything was completely normal.
Slowly, her fear was starting to make sense; the Girl was simply afraid of the elevator itself.
Only when it finally came into a halt, the Girl noticed the gravity of the crime she had committed. On her outworldly standards, at least.
The astrophysicist were left in a state of nothing more than dumbfoundedness. Now, this was a curious observation. Severin's suspicions about her photographic memory arose; did she had a recalling from the traumatic time of her bane? Or was it a manifestation of her metadimensional abilities? Did she knew what was beyond this door, after it strangely moved? That didn't matter - her face wore the same dreaded horror as when the White Barbarian committed a certain atrocity.
After tricking Wanheed and his dogs into such confusion at the Tactical Hall, everything Severin wanted to do was to praise the Girl for such hilarious idiocy, in the face of a dangerous interstellar cruise among enemy territory. And he rightly did so now. Singlehandedly, Severin landed his hand on her head, ruffling her silvery-blonde hair, apparently without a single care in the Galaxy Wide. All while he laughed, both in how she looked like "Idiot", in certain ways, and in how he was relieved that such murderous disaster was rewinded.
Finally, while failing to get the old man's attention, the door creaked behind him, opening into a space heavily distinct from once they were. It was a definite change from the rusted machinery and constant mechanical groans from before. The floors were of clear stainless steel, almost taking into an aluminum tone. Two duos, each seated at opposing ends of the place, focused on runes and inscriptions on black screens, tapped on more buttons and kept constant attention on said objects. Also, most importantly, save from the elevator entrance, the room lacked walls. From beyond and below, an amalgam of eccentric machines, coppery tubular structures composed most of its space, while countless women and men seemed to mind their own very important business.
However, there was something very notable on this room; the unnerving circular structure pointed right towards this silver-white room Severin and the Girl were introduced. Glowing crimson lines, coupled with blinking azure streaks ran over most of the gunblack structure. And, very briefly, if she looked at it, the Girl could feel a familiar, soothing feeling of...
... Eternity.
The thought, if she even had time process it, came with a pleasant gesture. The old man was extending his hand to her. Palm open with fingers together. Along with it, he uttered a set of words she very possibly knew now. — 'Come'.
He was offering her. His own Contact.
Outer Space
For a brief instant, the astrophyisicist had forgotten how alien that Girl's mind could be. Speculative facts seemingly popped at an instant, theories were formed on spot with said beliefs and all of those racing thoughts made the old mind weary; seemingly callous to the current state of things and some aspects of the Girl itself. Amidst this self-propelled confusion, Severin had forgotten that, for an 'alien', the Kingsbane was itself very alien as well.
At all times, he wore a confident smirk on the lips of his weary-skinned face; very observant of the Girl's very observations of the surroundings. Under normal circumstances, he would press some buttons on the side of this cramped room exit, or entrance. However, he was vigilant for her. He carefully reached his fingers for the buttons, five lined in a vertical row, and pressed the fifth, with utmost caution, almost as if it was a very sensitive control for some unstable device.
As a strange silence befell on the room, her eccentric dialect, coupled with the very familiar "Idiot" made Severin groan, as he contained a burst of laugh at the, well, idiocy of it. The moments after, the room shuddered abruptly. The late Second Century machinery that composed the Kingsbane complained on its unmaintained weariness as the room apparently started to slowly fall. Of course, Severin stood firm, the supposed frailty of his body simply denied to comply for the unseen forces that shook the Girl were she was standing. However, as she might had expected, the firm but easy grasp of his wrinkly hand was at her shoulder, aiding to remain stable.
He had forgotten, that even an ancient elevator would have been understand to the Girl as a highly advanced gadget of incomprehensible brilliance.
Her sudden terror and desperate embrace was strangely surprising. Briefly, Severin became detached from her emotions, instead, seeing that as if she had detected a dangerous cosmic presence around or within the Kingsbane. Immediately, he reached for his goggles, only for it to display the usual list of pending maintenance and recently known space anomalies Wanheed had cruised on. Within it, a grim reminder of what happened with thousand of stars. Apart from this, everything was completely normal.
Slowly, her fear was starting to make sense; the Girl was simply afraid of the elevator itself.
Only when it finally came into a halt, the Girl noticed the gravity of the crime she had committed. On her outworldly standards, at least.
The astrophysicist were left in a state of nothing more than dumbfoundedness. Now, this was a curious observation. Severin's suspicions about her photographic memory arose; did she had a recalling from the traumatic time of her bane? Or was it a manifestation of her metadimensional abilities? Did she knew what was beyond this door, after it strangely moved? That didn't matter - her face wore the same dreaded horror as when the White Barbarian committed a certain atrocity.
After tricking Wanheed and his dogs into such confusion at the Tactical Hall, everything Severin wanted to do was to praise the Girl for such hilarious idiocy, in the face of a dangerous interstellar cruise among enemy territory. And he rightly did so now. Singlehandedly, Severin landed his hand on her head, ruffling her silvery-blonde hair, apparently without a single care in the Galaxy Wide. All while he laughed, both in how she looked like "Idiot", in certain ways, and in how he was relieved that such murderous disaster was rewinded.
Finally, while failing to get the old man's attention, the door creaked behind him, opening into a space heavily distinct from once they were. It was a definite change from the rusted machinery and constant mechanical groans from before. The floors were of clear stainless steel, almost taking into an aluminum tone. Two duos, each seated at opposing ends of the place, focused on runes and inscriptions on black screens, tapped on more buttons and kept constant attention on said objects. Also, most importantly, save from the elevator entrance, the room lacked walls. From beyond and below, an amalgam of eccentric machines, coppery tubular structures composed most of its space, while countless women and men seemed to mind their own very important business.
However, there was something very notable on this room; the unnerving circular structure pointed right towards this silver-white room Severin and the Girl were introduced. Glowing crimson lines, coupled with blinking azure streaks ran over most of the gunblack structure. And, very briefly, if she looked at it, the Girl could feel a familiar, soothing feeling of...
... Eternity.
The thought, if she even had time process it, came with a pleasant gesture. The old man was extending his hand to her. Palm open with fingers together. Along with it, he uttered a set of words she very possibly knew now. — 'Come'.
He was offering her. His own Contact.
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