Futuristic Burning Sails [OPEN]

[Frankafurter]

Katja observes Typhon quietly go into the back, frowning slightly. She notices him return with some sort of device and waves it at her, however she asks, "That doesn't need to be surgically placed inside me, right? I don't think we have time for a full surgical procedure." She's not sure if Typhon is up for a surgical procedure himself with how he's not spoken a single word to her and seems to be in some level of distress judging by the expressions he's made.

She can't help but nose in a bit, "Hey, is everything okay? I mean... I know everything for the Reavers isn't okay right now, but that's besides the point."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"Everything is fine." Typhon responds, brushing off her question. "Surgery is purely optional, but this must be inserted either way. Hold still. This may bother you." he says, getting closer to her with the autoinjector in his hands. Carefully and slowly does he insert the injector's needle into the back of her neck and sets it up the same way he has it. "For stimulants, I have several options." Typhon walks up to a drawer and pulls out a tray full of small vials of all sorts of chemicals and medical drugs. "Epinephrine, methylphenidate, dextroamphetamine, amphetamine, methamphetamine." He points to each of the flavors on the tray. Curiously, there's another vial full of the same yellow liquid Katja might've seen him place in his own neck earlier. Typhon does not point to that one.

 

[Frankafurter]

Katja allows Typhon to stick her with the needle and affix the pump to her person. She thinks about the options and winces at the more notable 'hard' narcotic options. She doesn't mention the fact that Typhon seemed to omit an option. She considers something then goes, "You're the doctor here, you've also seen what I've ended up like after ejecting from the mech. What one would you say would be ideal for breaking out of a haze like that to be fighting fit again?" She's honestly not a pharmacologist and she has no idea what would be the ideal option to break the incapacitation she'd likely suffer again. She mulls something then adds, "Maybe a combination would be more effective? I'm not sure, I'm trusting your knowledge on this."

 

[Infab]

"Agreed. Do you know if the Guillotine and Mordred store incoming and outgoing data? Communications and financial data specifically. We might need someone to decrypt the data as well. Preferably without getting too much attention."

Damien nodded, also glancing back to his mother. His eyes soon drifted over to Eve. "...Why not Eve? She should be able to decrypt virtually anything we give her. And she obviously is a natural at keeping secrets." He smirked. "Being a Black Mask and all."

He then looked back to Nathalie. "We'd have to head over to the ship's data processing center. I've been in there a few times, so I know exactly where to look."

"Form fitting is nice. But leather is, um, too hot. At least from where I come from. Uh... a hot climate, I mean. So I never got into it. I'm more partial to skirts and loose tops."

Nil nodded. "And they look great on you! As for leather being hot, I've never really encountered that issue. Really the only hot stuff that bugs me is plasma!" he said cheerfully. His happy expression eventually changed, however, to a slight frown. "I'm sorry if what I did earlier disturbed you. Cutter simply should have took his men and left. We would have been on our way far more quickly, and I wouldn't have had to get violent! But instead, he decided to shoot me."

He then shrugged. "And the rest is history!" he added, before smiling again. "Also, I hope you slept well! Katja said that you were sleeping off a high earlier, and to avoid entering your room!"

 

[joshuadim]

"Yeah I bet..." Vance commented as he observed Olivia's mech with both curiosity as well as some admiration. Obviously it took lots of training and skill to pilot such things, but something about piloting a giant lumbering machine with grace made the feat all the more impressive... although for such things to be put in service to do horrible things as Olivia had referred to earlier put a dour on the idea of unrestrained enthusiasm. Regardless, Vance ran his fingers over some of the armor plating of the mech for a moment before speaking up again: "I used to think tanks were the most impressive vehicles of war for a time, but seeing mechs up close puts things into perspective. Mobile warfare like this and all really puts you a leg above the vehicular competition."

He then leaned onto a nearby crate and shrugged: "Anything in particular that drew you to it? It *is* quite smaller to some of the mechs I've seen in the past couple years. More speed and maneuverability?"

 

[K0mori]

Having had her leg correctly mended, and having told Easel about the reason behind her inability to laugh, Vixaya was slightly restless and wanted a change of scenery. She headed for the Guillotine's hangar, mildly curious about the feasibility of deploying the C-355 into the station for the upcoming slaughter.

She paused a moment, mid-walk, and again thought about the arguments fielded by her new comrades about the fate of noncombatants. She knew that, once she had engaged the enemy, she wouldn't be entirely in control of her actions, and while it had been easy to assign responsibility for whatever happened next to the ones giving orders, she was troubled by the memory her recent "therapy" session had dredged up. She wasn't sure exactly what was so unseemly. Long ago, she had rationalized that there was no fairness about life and death, and that there didn't need to be any.

But still, something was nagging at her. She would have to figure it out later.

She found herself approaching Nil and Shelby, and wandered up to their conversation. Nil was quite the center of attention at the moment, and Vixaya was curious if she'd have the chance to speak with him. She also had words for Shelby, thanks to her earlier shopping at Shadespear. "Spaska, hello," she said flatly to them both.

 

[Infab]

"Spaska, hello."

Nil glanced back, and noticed Vixaya was now standing with them. "Oh! Hello there!" he said, looking down at Vixaya and smiling. "I believe you're the one known as Vixaya? Delighted to meet you!"

He offered his hand to shake, just as he had done with Shelby. "I've not really spoken to any Kanads before. Always exciting to venture into unknown territory!" he added.

 

[K0mori]

Vixaya took Nil's hand and shook it awkwardly, as she still wasn't very comfortable with the human-style greeting. Moreover, she had to avoid nicking him with her cutter claws. "Uh, feel is same," she replied, and although the tone of her voice was permanently without affect, she seemed less than convincing. "I talk to Caiden before. Ask him... you," she said, gesturing at Nil. "Good talk. Caiden is good, you are good."

Vixaya cringed a bit at her terrible English and finally turned on her translator. "[Sorry... the leaders say I should learn the human language. I'm trying my best.]"

 

[SniperComZero]

Olivia turned her head towards the mech, and then back to Vance. "Yeah, well, don't think tanks're big metal coffins just yet. They're a damn sight faster whenever you're goin' over open land, lower profile so you don't get your dick knocked off-- and a hell of a lot cheaper to produce'n train with, too. Still, average mech could reliably take a one on one fight with 'em. This one? Eh, you'd need some fast feet." "More speed and maneuverability?" Olivia nodded in a 'kinda, sorta' way. "Partially. Thing's less like a traditional cockpit'n controls mech. Officially, they'd call it a 'superheavy battlesuit', but, y'know. It might as well be a mech. Still, thing's easier to control and train someone for rather'n having thirty goddamn levers, buttons'n wheels to fuck around with. Still, thing excels in CQC. Bring it down some city streets and you're suddenly a fuckton more agile than any poor fucker whose gone tracked or wheeled."

She tipped her head over to where the much larger pair of mechs were held up. "Or, like us, you try and board something, you ain't standing up in one of those. This, though, then you're like a fuckin' cat in a... mouse. Maze." Yeah that's, uh. That's probably a fine analogy.

 

[Viper Actual]

Nathalie glanced at Eve and then at Damien, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure we can trust her? She's not exactly 'in-house' if you know what I mean."
Upon mentioning the data center Nat nodded and gestured towards Damien. "Right behind you, just lead the way."

She offered Eve another brief glance. Built by the emotionally erratic captain and working with one of the largest secret organizations... It doesn't get better than this.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Nil nodded. "And they look great on you! As for leather being hot, I've never really encountered that issue. Really the only hot stuff that bugs me is plasma!" he said cheerfully. His happy expression eventually changed, however, to a slight frown. "I'm sorry if what I did earlier disturbed you. Cutter simply should have took his men and left. We would have been on our way far more quickly, and I wouldn't have had to get violent! But instead, he decided to shoot me."

He then shrugged. "And the rest is history!" he added, before smiling again. "Also, I hope you slept well! Katja said that you were sleeping off a high earlier, and to avoid entering your room!"

"T-Thanks. Um... plasma bothers me, too, uh... it is awfully hot," Shelby agreed, rubbing his arm. Life around pirates and extraordinarily deadly aliens from outside the galaxy was certainly proving to be more than a little harsh on the nerves. "And it's alright. I'm sorta used to, um, violence. Not like a soldier but, like, stuff just happens in my vicinity. In cities. You know how it is." Castilian security forces in general were a brutal collective of enforcers for the great families, and were often at odds with the myriad number of gangs and criminal families that countered themselves to the faux-aristocratic Castilian ruling class. Family members and most corporate officers had their own body guard detail, and Shelby was quite well acquainted to their behavior. Most of the time they had to assist in preserving his image, which lead to more non-lethal encounters than, say, running up against a CEO on a dark street, but they never hesitated to put someone down if they thought it necessary.

Katja said that you were sleeping.

"Did... did she really?" His mouth went dry, and he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "What a... what a quaint... friendly thing for her to... to say." The color green stuck out in his mind again as he searched his thoughts, images flashing and leaping around as they were spurred on with the addition of a name. Faintly he could remember water all over the place - the shower room. He always liked showers and water, so that made sense. It certainly wouldn't be the first time he found himself sitting on the floor of a shower, minus the penthouse view. That must have meant she was there and had gotten him back to his room somehow. There was a vague presence in his mind now of someone being in there with him. Katja. It had to have been her.

And she must have known who he was.

"Spaska, hello," she said flatly to them both.

Vixaya cringed a bit at her terrible English and finally turned on her translator. "[Sorry... the leaders say I should learn the human language. I'm trying my best.]"

Shelby took a deep breath to steady himself as the Kanad appeared, joining them in the hall. Her appearance ushered in a small dusting of color around her figure, which he blinked his eyes several times to clear, now wanting to be completely gone of the high he had so desperately sought. He clumsily bumped his sunglasses as he readjusted them, feeling self-conscious with how his eyes and face must have appeared. He should have been wearing a smile; or better yet, a bag so no one could see him at all.

"Hi, Vixaya," he added after a second. "You're getting better with English, its not so easy to, like, learn a language without lessons." He could well remember the countless hours of learning French, the lingua franca of the familial line. Almost entirely useless, though it helped make for some lyrical music.

"Have you considered listening to music? To help you learn?"

 

[Infab]

"[Sorry... the leaders say I should learn the human language. I'm trying my best.]"

"Perfectly fine! It was difficult for me to learn the human trade language too! My sister had to help me a bit, as did Caiden. But you're getting there! I imagine in a month, you'll have a good grasp on things!" responded Nil. "And yeah. Caiden's a good person! He helps to steer me in the right directions. I know how I am sometimes, but he's always there to help! Its why I love having him as my best friend!~"

"Have you considered listening to music? To help you learn?"

Nil nodded rapidly. "Oh yes! Music can help quite a bit when it comes to learning new things!" he said, "We never really had music back home. My makers and commanders always saw it as sort of a 'needless noise'. Everything had to have a very specific purpose!"

"Are you sure we can trust her? She's not exactly 'in-house' if you know what I mean."

"Not completely till she comes clean about everything." he said, before glancing to Nathalie. "Sort of the same situation as you." He then gave her a sly smirk.

The pair strolled through the bridge, heading towards the back and out the large set of doors there which lead into the rest of the ship. The data center was located a few decks down, at the heart of the ship. In order to reach it, one had to pass through the Guillotine's numerous maintenance shafts and systems tunnels. It would take several minutes of crawling, scaling ladders, and using maintenance lifts to reach, but eventually Damien and Nathalie would arrive.

And they found Eve already waiting on them. "Hello there." she said, tilting her head at them as if she were smiling.

Damien bore a confused look on his face, which Eve quickly responded to. "I'm an android, Damien. I have exceptional hearing." she stated, before looking to Nathalie. "Of course I will assist you in decrypting the data. Decryption is but one of many of my technical talents."

As they moved towards Eve, Nathalie got the chance to take in the appearance of the room. Several computer banks stood around the large circular room. Tall silver obelisks, with wires running around their base. Covering large portions of the floor as they ran to and up the walls into the systems tunnels and maintenance shafts. The metal plated ceiling was just a short distance above them, maybe fifteen feet. On the far wall, an old faded green spray paint tag read 'JESTER WAS HERE'.

 

[Viper Actual]

Nathalie returned Damien's smirk with one of her own while shaking her head lightly.

Getting into the data center proved interesting enough as several minutes were spent crawling, climbing and riding miniscule maintenance lifts in order to reach the very heart of the ship. Considering the difficulties getting there Nat reckoned that few people had been inside the room since the Guillotine first cast off from the drydock where it was built.

Eve's appearance was surprising but not shocking. Nathalie crossed her arms and nodded towards Eve. "You do realize that helping us out will require you to go behind Valencia's back, right?"
Nat narrowed her eyes. "Until we know who the mole is practically anyone is a suspect."

"Especially you," finished Nathalie, staring at Eve. She broke contact after a few seconds to take in the room.
To her surprise all the cables and wiring weren'y in absolute disarray and it was clear that whomever had set it all up initially knew what they had been doing.

Upon spotting the tagging on the wall Nathalie visibly froze. "I don't suppose that this is the same individual that got out from the Icebox a couple of decades ago?"

 

[Infab]

"You do realize that helping us out will require you to go behind Valencia's back, right?" Nat narrowed her eyes. "Until we know who the mole is practically anyone is a suspect."

"Especially you." finished Nathalie, staring at Eve.

Eve nodded. "I fully understand the current situation regarding the mole, believe me. If we locate and dispose of the mole, it will be another weight lifted off Valencia's shoulders. She will not have to worry about someone leaking information to the Corsairs." she stated. "As for me, I'd be more than happy to show you any data I have received and sent out since my arrival. I wish to help the Reavers and my mother. Not see them harm. I owe her and Uric far too much."

As they moved near the computer banks, Damien heard Nathalie as she pointed out the tagging on the wall at the back of the room.

"I don't suppose that this is the same individual that got out from the Icebox a couple of decades ago?"

Damien glanced to the tag. "The very same. Jester and my mother founded the Reavers together." he replied, moving up to and inspecting a terminal. "She and my mother built every system on this ship from scratch. This data center? Her creation. The layout, the wiring, everything."

Eve then spoke up. "Jester attempted to take the Reavers from Valencia a few years after the Guillotine's completion. She hijacked several of Valencia's ADAM drones, which are my predecessors, and proceeded to slaughter those that opposed her on the Guillotine. She and Valencia fought it out, and Valencia cut her limbs off. Instead of outright killing her, however, Valencia put her in a life pod, and dropped her into Sol space where she was promptly arrested. And the rest... I'm quite sure you know how it all went."

 

[Viper Actual]

A skeptic grunt was all that Eve would receive in response from Nathalie as she eyed the android. Moving on, she listened to Damien and Eve tell the story of Jester. While fascinating indeed the numerous and rather extensive reports Nat had read on the subject at hand described Jester as nothing more but a derange, hyper-lethal, psychopath. In her honest opinion the woman should've faced an executions quad rather than be kept alive but with Sol's track record in mind she wasn't surprised that things went down the way they did.

Nathalie looked at Damien. "No offense to you and your mom but I've read a lot of reports on Jester. It's a wonder that Valk didn't go insane after going toe-to-toe with someone like that." She fell silent. "I reckon that redacted SSOID reports didn't do any of it justice. Not by a long shot."

She shook her head lightly before looking at Eve. "External communications, proxy-communications, data bursts and financials. That's what we need to sift through first."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"Maybe a combination would be more effective? I'm not sure, I'm trusting your knowledge on this."

“The effects of a combination may be lethal. I do not recommend this.” Typhon responds but also picks up one of the vials. “Amphetamine it is. Used by soldiers once, but just as efficient as it was back then.” He sticks the vial into the autoinjector and closes it shut.

“Now go and see if Zadra may connect this with your mech.” he says while waving her away.

 

[Frankafurter]

Katja gives him a look as he waves her off dismissively but doesn't say anything. She heads back to the mech hangars, noticing Nil, Shelby, and Vix talking amongst themselves. She pays them little mind so as to not distract herself from her original goal. She returns to the mech hangar and talks to Zadra about the injector and such and works with her to get a sort of wireless link set up that would tie into the mech's life support system and how it monitors Katja's vitals, allowing it to give her an injection of the meds once she's clear of the somatic link.

 

[Breadman]

Having wondered a bit around the ship, Amy didn't really have a reason to stop. Just quietly wondering around the ship and looking the different crew members going about their own business. At one point she passed by two pirates who were really exited about something. Before she could ask them about it, they bolted somewhere. Faced with a choice between following after or wondering around still, the bounty hunter made the obvious choice.

Trailing behind them, Amy eventually ended up at the entrance to the recreational deck. Initially she thought thats where they had the bar or gym, but those wouldn't be worth the excitement. Nor would they explain the loud noises coming from inside. Now she had to know what was going on. Opening the door and looking inside was all she needed. It was a familiar sight. The blood on the floor, the few odd teeth knocked around and the sound of a punch colliding with a part of a face. It was a good old fashioned pit fight.

Examining the deck, she could make out where the fighting was happening, where the good seats were and where the judges had their post. No live commentary so it wasn't that advanced like the one Alex rand on Duroma, but this wasn't exactly a fancy club. She wondered up to where the 'officials' would be and was hardly surprised to find one of them was Lauren, but the other was Aesha.

"So are the guys blowing off steam or are they looking to advance up the ranks?" Amy asked as she approached.

 

[Infab]

"External communications, proxy-communications, data bursts and financials. That's what we need to sift through first."

"Understood. It should take me no more than a minute or two to process and decrypt the information once you locate all of it." said Eve, looking up at the obelisks. Damien was soon at work, fingers rapidly moving across the physical keyboard jutting out of the terminal before him. They knew what they were looking for. They just had to get to it through all of this Jester crafted code.


The recreation deck was quite a different place compared to the other decks, sitting just beneath the crew quarters section of the ship. Filled with leisurely activities, whether to kill time or have some fun. A large central bar, Terran billard tables, a zero gravity bowling alley, a set of VR rooms and simulators. It had been added onto and expanded on over the course of several decades. The VR rooms, simulators and what appeared to be a karaoke area were new additions. Something to spice things up now and then.

What everyone was drawn to, and what was always the biggest draw alongside the bar and pool tables, was the pit fighting ring. It was the oldest feature on the deck, and was never not in use. there was a large chain fence which surrounded the ring, preventing the crowd from getting involved in the fights (as well as preventing fighters from dragging in spectators.) The floor was made of what appeared to be large smooth slabs of steel, stained with dried blood of various colors along with other substances like booze and splotches of vomit. The seats appeared to be large steel benches, with worn cushions for seats so you weren't sitting on just flat steel for long periods of time.

The crowd that had gathered there was a tad smaller than normal, thanks to the coming station raid, but still, there were plenty. And in the 'VIP Section' (as the bullet hole riddled sign hanging above it said) was Lauren and Aesha. Lauren was already three beers deep, while Aesha was finishing up her first. both were sitting in far more comfortable looking seats, with other seats next to them and higher behind them.

"So are the guys blowing off steam or are they looking to advance up the ranks?"

Lauren chuckled, waving Amy over and patting a seat next to her on the right. "Little of both, usually. The two in there now are tryin' to decide who's gonna lead the fuckin' assault team onto the station. My money is on ol' Snagletooth over there. The Kanad. Fucker's already won three fights just using his fucking teeth. Bites the fuck out of ya, clamps on like a fucking vice and just won't let go till you tire out. Aesha's betting on the Humyri. Nicknamed him Tricky Dick. He likes slipping in cheap shots. Throws a nice little suckerpunch that catches you just across the tip of your chin. Knocked an Upyri guy out last round with it."

Aesha smirked. "You have to watch out for the sneaky ones. They'll get you." she said, before chugging the last part of her beer down. She then reached behind her into a cooler, before drawing out two more beers. She offered one to Amy. "Should be a good one."

As they spoke to Amy, the fight inside the ring began with the sound of an airhorn elsewhere in the crowd. And a moment later, the two inside rushed right into battle. Lauren laughed, as she witnessed Snagletooth slice a gash in the Humyri's leg with their fingernails. "To be honest, I kinda wish we still did initiations this way. Toss all the newbies into the pit, let 'em fuckin' fight it out. I even pushed for you guys to get in the pit when you and the others first joined up with us to hunt Anora and her boys. I figured you'd win, thanks to Alex, but it'd be fun to see someone like Olivia or Nathalie clash with one of the pit vets. Current undefeated champ is Drav, but now she only gets in the pit per special request."

 

[Breadman]

"Put me on Snagletooth." Amy said as she took the beer and sat down. "Cheap shots are fun and all, but don't mean shit if the biter gets a hold of you." She leaned back and drank from the bottle. 'Oh this is the cheap stuff.' The bounty hunter made a face for half a second as it went down. It was gonna take a bit to get used to. "I appreciate the confidence, but I had trouble taking down one of the Blood corps in hand to hand. Not so sure how I'd fare against the arena champions." She thought for a second about what Lauren said as she drank again to get adjusted to the taste "Natalie is probably a submission artist and Olivia is...fuck if I know, a dick puncher?"

"How about you though?" Amy looked at Lauren "Did your mom give you the pointers she got from Alex yet?"

 

[Infab]

As Aesha waved at someone nearby, who was apparently keeping bets, making gestures resembling teeth to the man, Lauren spoke. "Yeah, Nat seems like the 'squeeze them to death' type. Or she could just sit on you and smother you with that fat ass of hers." she said with a hint of a chuckle. "Olivia... yeah, she definitely would fight dirty. Angry dick punches. I really want to see Vixaya fight in hand to hand. Shelby too."

"How about you, though?" Amy looked at Lauren "Did your mom give you the pointers she got from Alex yet?"

Lauren nodded, before taking a swig of the cheap beer in her hand. "Fight smart. Fight hard. Fight angry." she said, raising a finger on her free hand as she named them off. "...At least I think that's what she said. I've won a few fights. Lost a few. Last one to kick my ass was Aesha."

Aesha leaned over and whispered "I sweeped the leg.", before a sly grin stretched across her face. Lauren chuckled, playfully shoving Aesha almost out of her seat.

 

[Breadman]

"Yeah those are the big 3 he knows. Picked them up thanks to our Creed upbringing and that's the only good thing that came out of that." She took a sizably larger swig from her beer while the other two talked. "Augh, that went down harder." She said with a discomfort in her voice "If you're ever on Duroma, you should go to Alex's fighting pit. Its more 'legit', but the big money matches get pretty brutal. Nice booze too."

 

[Infab]

"If you're ever on Duroma, you should go to Alex's fighting pit. Its more 'legit', but the big money matches get pretty brutal. Nice booze too."

"Yeah, I've been wanting to check it out." said Lauren, nodding before finishing off the beer in her hand. She returned her attention to the fight, to see that the kanad had finally managed to clamp his teet into the humyri's shoulder. While they bit down, they used their free hand to punch the humyri in the head. Four solid smacks to the head later, the humyri went down.

After a minute, during which the kanad was still firmly clamped down on the shoulder, a pirate entered the ring to check on the humyri. Apparently the last pop to the head knocked him out. The pirate then tapped the kanad on the head, pointing to the unconscious humyri and saying something the crowd couldn't hear. And a moment later, the kanad released the humyri's shoulder. There were several cheers, as well as some boos, as the kanad stood and raised their hands in victory. Blood stained their mouth, as well as their hands and parts of their torso.

"Looks like Snagletooth won." said Lauren, grinnging. She cut Aesha a look. "Damn." responded the upyri pilot, digging in her pockets before standing. She drew out some credits, and tossed some of them to Lauren before heading over to the guy who was taking bets.

"Well, we now have our assault team leader." said Lauren, looking to Amy as she slipped the credits into her pocket. She soon stood herself, grabbing the empty bottles she had set aside as she straightened up. "We should head down and meet 'em. See how they wanna work their end of the fight." she soon added, moving by Amy. As she decended the steps, slinging the empty glass bottles into an old trash bin, she waved at one of other pirates near the cage before pointing at the kanad whom was moving towards the exit. The pirate flashed her a thumbs-up, before heading in to get Snagletooth.

 

[Frankafurter]

As Katja finishes up in the mechbay with Zadra on syncing the medical pump with the mech's control system, she decides she's gonna go relax. She heads out of the bay and out towards the recreation deck, once she arrives she notices that the older woman who was friends with Valk, Valk's daughter, and the fighter pilot chick were sitting over by the cage match just starting out. While she did enjoy the occasional blood sport, she wanted something a little less stressful, as well as less financially damaging. She decides to go explore the VR rooms and Simulators, seeing if there was maybe a car racing game or something she could unwind with since her street racing days are pretty much long since gone by.

Fortunately for her, there's a couple paired up simpits for cars and she settles into a vacant one. None of the car options she has to choose from are anything she recognizes and some don't even use tires. She skims through the summaries of tech details and eventually settles on one that felt the most at home. A retro design that was seemingly added as a throwback, she liked it because it reminded of her a particular marque of Human cars from the 20th century, only gussied up in higher tech. She starts racing against the AI, the simulator definitely giving that real life sort of feel to her car. Her first few races aren't too successful but as she acclimates to the car and better understands its limitations she starts getting into podium positions more reliably. The car is all electric but the hellish scream it makes as the high powered motors drive it along the course reminds her of the banshee wailer she dueled in the Volvo.

Apparently her aptitude at driving the car to its limits catches the eye of one of the other Reavers in the simulator room, a human male, he comes over and sits in the other simpit and offers her a human opponent rather than the AI that often is a bit lackluster. She looks over and freezes a moment, the man while definitely not picture perfect resemblance, is uncannily similar to her old friend Ari, mostly in the jawline and eyes. She takes a moment to collect her thoughts again, reminding herself that it's just a weird coincidence that someone has a passing resemblance to her old racing pal. She accepts the challenge but her composure is still a little shaken, he easily bests her in the first few races. However, while he's a Reaver, he seems to not be much of a punk about winning, more just casual about the races. As the races stack up and Katja regains her wits fully, the races become much closer with most of the finish lines being neck and neck, leading to races where only milliseconds determine if her or this reaver wins out.

Once the races start being tossups, the Reaver starts pulling out the stops and he starts winning more consistently than she does, the car he chose is just a better design and he seems to understand it inside and out, indicating that he might have been a previous owner of said vehicle or has just multiple hours in the simpit on this car. Katja starts hitting 2nd place routinely and it's only driven her to be more determined to win. At this point it's a challenge against herself rather than the reaver opponent. She goes back to the virtual garage and does some tuning tweaks on the car, now that she has a decent grasp of the mechanics of the car and how it behaves, she's not going to keep running the stock tune-up. While she doesn't upgrade any parts, she adjusts all that can be adjusted to her specific taste and driving behavior.

She looks at the reaver and goes, "Best two out of three, winner has to buy the loser's drinks for a week." The Reaver laughs and nods in agreement, "You're on, hope you're ready."

The first race is a close call but Katja edges the reaver out just towards the end by simply taking a better line through the last turn. The second race is claimed by the reaver who eked out a nose lead just by having slightly more speed out of the last turn into the straight. The third race though, Katja maintains a near perfect racing line through the entire course and even after that, she slides through into first with a quarter of a second lead on the reaver, sealing her place as the winner and the reaver now owes her drinks for a week.

The reaver chuckles and shuts the simpit down on his side, "You're good, yeah. Haven't had an opponent that was quite like you in a long while. Everyone I've raced typically picks the boring cars and just tries to take the fastest thing through the course to get easy wins. You arguably picked one of the bottom ten cars and made it work, you wouldn't happen to be a designer for the original thing would you?"

Katja shuts her simpit off and shakes her head, "No, I used to have a car of my own back home and raced it on the streets. Kinda became attuned to knowing where the limits of a vehicle was and where I could push the limits to the breaking point." She hesitates and adds, "It doesn't help that you resemble an old racing partner of mine, had to overcome the torrent of nostalgia while we were racing."

The reaver nods a bit, "I can see how that would make things a bit trickier, but hey, let's go get you a drink and we can talk cars at the bar, yeah?" He offers her a hand to help her out of the seat of the simpit and they head over to the central bar where he buys her a drink and they just idly chitchat about cars and racing. It's oddly uplifting to Katja after a sort of deluge of bad happenings, it really does feel like she's hanging out with Ari all over again, maybe this guy is like some sort of descendant of Ari's family or something. She never did know if Ari ended up settling down with a girl back home, she was too busy training for the Ardent Pilgrim mission. She finds out his name is Iskko, he joined the Reavers after he ended up in some trouble with bookies for not fixing his races, now he drives ground transportation for away teams the Reavers might send out for planetary raids. He's not much of a fighter but he's a wizard at navigating bad terrain quickly in an APC or truck.

As their talk dies down, he gets a ping on his communicator and is called away to attend to some business of his, leaving Katja alone at the bar for the time being. She nurses her watered down liquor quietly as she thinks about the weirdness of the encounter in her mind. Iskko is like a ghost from the past come back to haunt her, it just makes her more homesick... or timesick, or something, given the fact that she's far, far away from Earth not only in distance but chronologically.

 

[Breadman]

Damn.

"Told you. Biters are the worst to fight." Amy said as she drank more of her beer and listening to Lauren.

We should head down and meet 'em. See how they wanna work their end of the fight.

"Right." She got up and the speed plus alcohol's buzz made her woozy for a second. She shook it off and followed the young pirate down towards the pirates. "If they're a biter why not put that to use?" Amy started thinking of ideas "A few years ago I ran with someone with metal jaws. Special alloy that allowed him to chew through metal if he wanted to. Course he got fucked up when someone pulled out a magnet gun, but for those 3 months, it was a good scare tactic." She tossed the bottle behind her where she thought the bin was "Can't shoot at someone if he just eats your barrel, y'know?"