Futuristic Burning Sails [OPEN]

[Frankafurter]

Katja watches him crawl into the bed towels and all and wrap up in the blankets. She can't help but look at the interior decor of the room and quirks a brow, she doesn't know any of the bands or fashion icons but given the labels and bits of taglines on stuff, she can tell what it's for. She looks at the lump of blankets, towels, and the person at the center of it, "You're uh... really into this stuff, huh?" She can't help but wonder why he has such decorations in his room, but it's not really her place to ask. On top of that, even if she did ask, she doubts she'd get a coherent answer. She notices the guns on the floor and collects each one, making sure the safety is on and more importantly, is unloaded. Last thing she needs is him playing with a gun and shooting himself, Typhon would probably be really pissed if he had to come in and clean the kid's brains off the wall. She stows them in a cabinet that is not near the bed he is currently laying in before looking to him, "Are you gonna sleep or should I stick around to make sure your trip doesn't take a turn for the worse?"

 

[Emperor Sagan]

"Trip? Where are we going? I'm not... I'm not ready to go on stage yet, I'm too sleepy," he said with a yawn, his eyes watering. "It isn't time yet. I can sleep. I don't need the needle right now." Shelby rolls himself up tighter in his blanket, worming around a bit before slowing down again. "Keep the music on, please. I got to remember tonight's listing." Following his adamant, wide-eyed gaze, a portable holo disc - a multimedia device that could play music among other basic media functions - blinked away on his desk.

It appeared a musical list was already loaded up and ready, but on pause, the touchscreen faded and awaiting a touch to return it to life.

 

[K0mori]

Vixaya was about to explain the cause of Olivia's additional injuries when the doctor entered and began complaining about the fireball vapor. She set her head back down on the bed and waited for him to address her directly, but instead, the doctor talked around her to the others as if he were complaining about an object instead of a person. Vixaya decided she didn't want his help. Sitting up now, she decided she'd make due in her cabin until the other doctor who tended to her wounds after VOC-1, Easel, could help her instead. "[Olivia said some things she shouldn't have said, and Kalashi attacked her,]" she muttered to Amy.

Putting weight on her bad leg sent a throb of pain that seemed to climb the entire length of her spine, but she forced herself to walk regardless. She had hidden pain many times before, and kept a straight face this time. Before leaving the room, she paused and glanced back at the surgeon, who was now busy tending to Olivia. Her expression was blank as she spat the fireball out of her mouth and onto the floor. "Bye," she said to Amy. Then, she left the room.

 

[Frankafurter]

Katja looks at the music player and turns it on for him, she's definitely not into this music, but what do you expect from a girl who came from Finland. She watches him doze off and she goes to close the door to his room so as to spare the other crewmembers this noisy pop music. She opts to stay in the room and sits in a chair in a corner to make sure he doesn't have any unfortunate mishaps while sleeping. She continues to examine the trappings of the room and almost starts to nod off herself in the chair. She gets up and heads to her room to change into some actual clothes, the simple tanktop, utility pants, and combat boots she had before they donned their disguises for Shadespear. After she returns to Shelby's room and resumes her careful watch over him to make sure he sleeps fine, enduring the earwormy pop music that plays at a modest volume, not too loud to be disruptive, but not so quiet you couldn't hear it without having to force yourself to listen for it. She sits with her arms crossed and her legs out in front of her with one crossed over the other, besides, now she has an excuse to ruminate on her thoughts without having to worry about some random interruption like she had in the showers.

 

[Infab]

Vixaya's trip from the medical bay through the ship was relatively short lived, as she emerged into the central hallway from the elevator and moved towards the lounge. Inside Caiden was getting himself comfortable on one of the couch-like seats there, as Nil disappeared into the elevator that lead up to the crew quarters. He was going to scope out a room for the pair, and try to get the blood off his clothes from earlier. Caiden glanced towards the hall, noticing the short Kanad approaching. With quite a heavy limp and some blood trickling down the wounded leg.

As she neared, he eyed the leg a bit more. Direct hit from a kinetic round, but superficial damage. Probably from a bad batch of ammunition. Pirate-made ammunition wasn't always of the best quality, and he knew that from experience. As he watched her limp towards the elevator, he finally decided to speak up. "Hey, you. Shorty." he said. He didn't know her name, so beyond whistling, that was about all he could do to get her attention. She glanced his way, and he motioned her over. "Come here. I'll fix your leg up." he said, drawing a cigarette from a pouch inside his armor's chest plate. After popping it in his mouth and lighting it, he patted the seat next to him before reaching down onto the side of his leg. It appeared to be a medical pouch, as he began to pull a first aid kit from it.

"You alright?"

Damien nodded. "I'm fine. You?" he asked, as he glanced to her before looking back towards the goons on the ground. A moment later, he grabbed one by the arms and began to drag him up the ramp. They could hang out in the cargo bay until they found out what they were going to do with them.

Inside the cargo bay, Valkyrie and Zadra were standing off in a corner alone. The conversation seemed quite heated, but they were talking in whispers so others around couldn't hear. Lauren was nowhere to be seen, likely having already gone up inside the ship. And Drav was setting down the large mech part that Olivia had ordered. She straightened up, tilting her head as she looked over the part, before eventually shrugging and moving towards the elevator.

 

[Viper Actual]

Nathalie nodded. "Bruised but otherwise fine. Things could have gone worse." She grabbed the same captive as Damien. "Much worse," she added, shaking her head.

As the two of them ascended the ramp Nathalie spotted Valk and Zadra arguing far off in one of the corners. Nat looked at Damien and cocked her head in Valk's general direction. "Thoughts?"

 

[Infab]

"Bruised but otherwise fine. Things could have gone worse." She grabbed the same captive as Damien. "Much worse."

"Yeah. Lynch could have brought his whole group... That would have been difficult to handle." he responded. They carried the man up the ramp. Then came back down and brought the other inside. Laying hin right next to the other. "They'll be awake in a few hours, so I'll keep an eye on them."

"Thoughts?"

Damien looked up to Nathalie, then over towards his mother and Zadra. "Zadra will help my mother focus and see reason. She usual does when tough decisions come up." he said, glancing back to Nathalie for a moment. As he looked back, he then noticed that his mother was now storming off. Marching towards the elevator, before stepping inside and disappearing as the lift ascended.

Zadra was shaking her head, arms folded with a frustrated look on her face. Damien had never seen her like that. Usually she was far more calm. "... Seems Zadra is having trouble, however, so who knows what will happen?" he finally said, before looking back to Nathalie and giving her a shrug.

 

[Breadman]

Your wounds are more severe. You will be first.

"Uh...sure." As much as she would have liked to know what actually happened, Amy couldn't ignore her medical needs. The good doctor was not exactly a pleasant guy either. Pissing him off further would likely result in him just letting her bleed out before offering help again. There was another part as well. Those eyes and skin color. It reminded her of someone else from what seemed a lifetime ago. A shiver ran up her spine as she remembered those days and their conversation before his departure. She tried to didn't show it as he operated. As the arms did their work, Vixaya spoke something under her breath, but enough for the translator to pick up.

[Olivia said some things she shouldn't have said, and Kalashi attacked her.]

Amy turned her head towards Olivia and rolled her eyes. That woman is gonna get herself killed sooner than later if she keeps on like this. Soon enough, Typhon was finished and gave her instructions and painkillers.

"Scars aren't an issue." She told him as she picked up the pills "Synth skin doesn't do shit for protection, but it repairs itself without leaving markings." She added while putting on her shirt. Now sporting some bullet holes. "Anyway, thanks for the patch up doc." She tried to be professional about it. Typhon may have brought back some bad memories, but he was still one of the few people with medical expertise that probably won't sell her organs to the black market for lightyears around. Not worth getting on his bad side.

Bye.

"See you around, Vix" Amy nearly forgot about the Kanad until she spoke again before going off somewhere. As for her, she didn't have much to do other than wait for Olivia to get herself checked out of medbay. The bounty hunter leaned on the doorway with her arms crossed and patiently waited.

 

[Viper Actual]

"I'll keep you company," said Nat as she pulled up a small crate to sit on. "Don't have anything else to do or someplace to be."
Nathalie remained silent as Damien explained how Zadra usually makes Valk see reason. It was a comforting thought that someone could get through to the boss herself but at the same it was worrisome that Valk required guidance in the first place. Explosive and unpredictable behaviour mixed in with grief and anger wasn't a winning combination and you didn't need a degree in social studies to see the potential crisis that was rapidly approaching if Valk didn't get a grip on herself, het crew and her mission.

Throw in one of the largest pirate fleets this side of the galaxy into the equation and things would start to look even uglier.
Nat turned towards Damien. "I hope Nil comes through. If he doesn't and the mission goes as originally planned, well, I have a feeling that the infighting will grow worse."

 

[Infab]

"I hope Nil comes through. If he doesn't and the mission goes as originally planned, well, I have a feeling that the infighting will grow worse."

Damien shrugged. "I don't know Nil all that well, honestly, as we've only run into him maybe a handful of times over the past three years. So I can't tell you if he'll do what he says he will. Might have to check with Caiden on that." he responded. He pulled a crate over himself, and sat down on it. "Caiden, I only know through reading about him and the work he used to do for the BCB and as a member of a now defunct band of mercs that called themselves 'Jackson's Jackals'. Used to be run by a man named James K. Jackson, until some big incident on Osiris-1256. Said incident is also the reason Caiden is a wanted man."

 

[K0mori]

Having been beckoned over, Vixaya wondered whether the newcomer would be any better than Typhon. At the very least, he didn't seem outright hostile like the doctor, and at the same time, she felt inclined to get off of her bad leg as soon as possible. If he could patch her leg now, she reasoned, it would be convenient. After a brief hesitation, she nodded and limped over to the lounge, sitting down next to him. "Am Vixaya," she said. "You?"

 

[Infab]

"Am Vixaya," she said. "You?"

"Caiden." he responded, as he unzipped the first aid kit and drew out its contents. Half of its contents were missing, meaning the kit had been previously used, but there was still more than enough inside to patch up her leg. He drew out the essentials (such as a long strip of gauze, a pad, disinfectant, some tweezers, and a needle and thread), before gently lifting her wounded leg up and setting it across his lap. Using a rag from his pants pocket, he wiped away the excess blood that had trickled down her leg, before inspecting the wound. Whenever he spotted a bullet fragment still lodged in the flesh, he'd pick it out using the tweezers.

"... I've done this countless times over the past decade and a half. Its practically routine at this point." he said softly, as he focused on removing the shards. Soon enough, he set the tweezers to the side and began tending to the wound with the other materials at his disposal. "... Last person I patched up was a kid over on Nalnor. Trindrel kid, about six or seven. Caught a bullet from a guy by the name of Sawyer, before Sawyer caught a bullet from Nil. Took an hour to get all the bits of lead out of the kid's back. He lived, though."

He soon found himself stitching the wound shut using the needle and thread. "... Your's isn't all that bad compared to what he had. Pirate ammo tends to be shitty half the time. You'll barely even notice the scar."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

With Amy's procedure done, Typhon creeps up next to Olivia and looms over her as he and his appendages carefully adjust her position to make it easier for him to work. Since Olivia wasn't lit up as badly as Amy was, the procedure's faster. However, she's bruised after being slammed into one of the walls of his med-bay for no good reason, so an ice packet's also necessary to treat that. When he's done stitching, he takes a plastic bag from one of the drawers and stuffs it full of ice from the medical freezer. He carefully places it on Olivia's head, "For the bruise.", and gives her painkillers with the same instructions written on the bottle Amy was given.

"Now if you will excuse me..." he remarks, gesturing to the messy shelves.

On one of the corners nearby is a camera peeking out from behind a safety mirror; it surely would've caught whoever dared vandalize his med-bay. After taking off his gown, he takes out his datapad and checks whatever footage it might've caught. And of course, on full display is Kalashi punching Olivia and slamming her into the wall. Typhon frowns harshly at what he's seeing, because not only did it create a mess afterwards, one of his patients is being assaulted here of all places. Having seen enough, he decides to send Kalashi a brief message regarding his feelings on the matter.

Do not assault my patients ever again. I will not tolerate this behavior. The medical bay is not your personal sparring pit. The captain will be notified.

And true to his word, he sends Valkyrie a message too.

Captain, Kalashi tried starting a fight with Olivia in the med-bay. Please tell her to stay out unless it's an emergency.

 

[K0mori]

While Caiden did his work, Vixaya closed her eyes and used the sound of his voice and the story he was telling to distract herself and take her mind off the pain. She didn't understand all of it as she was disregarding her translator, but she was surprised at how much she was able to decode. When he was finished, she zipped her boot back up over top of the fresh bandage. She knew how to stitch minor wounds, but doing so on her own body was always a difficult task; the angles were difficult and it was hard to concentrate through the pain.

"Ke'pita," she said, and nearly stood and walked away before realizing that she didn't really want to. Here was someone who felt like talking to her without trying to push some kind of moral opinion onto her. For the moment, she would set her leg down and let it rest. "[The others are afraid of Nil, after what happened outside,]" she explained. "[I think they should avoid judging him so quickly. You trust him... So how did you meet?]"

 

[Infab]

"[The others are afraid of Nil, after what happened outside,]" she explained. "[I think they should avoid judging him so quickly. You trust him... So how did you meet?]"

Caiden tucked his stuff back into the first aid kit, before slipping it back into its pouch on his leg. He then sat back and scratched his jaw. "About three years ago, I was part of a merc group known as Jackson's Jackals. Boss was ex-SDF, guy by the name of James K. Jackson... we just called him Jimmy, or Kieth. Anyway, we got offered a contract to head out to a small research station near Sol space. Osiris-1256. Some pirates had hijacked the station and were demanding a ransom from the station's owners. The pirates were the nutty type, prone to random hijackings and killings. Small time, don't think they even had a name yet for their group. They were lead by an Upyri named Nathius... Nathius something."

He shifted in his seat a little, before continuing. "We get there, and its all twenty of us. Jimmy included. Breach into the station through their aft airlock. Firefights with the pirates start. The pirates, thinking they're doing the smart thing, bust open some of the containment rooms which were full of experiments being run on the station... Some nasty stuff got out of those rooms. All the pirates got killed in the chaos, and all of the Jackals got killed save for me. I got hit by a blast from a thermobaric grenade, and it fried part of my face." He motioned to the side of his face, which was covered in an extensive burn scar.

"Nil...happened to be in one of those rooms. He found me, and offered to save me for a price. Thinking I was on the verge of death, I accepted." he said, summing the story up. "So here I am. Still don't know what he wanted. Still don't understand why he offered to help me in the first place." A hint of a chuckle was added in at the end, before he shook his head. "...We've been 'friends' since then. We do jobs together as partners, both freelance and for his sister. I help him try to keep his...uh...'wild side' under control. Which is tricky since both of us are wanted criminals after Osiris-1256, and people tend to shoot first when they see us instead of asking questions."

 

[Frankafurter]

Katja stirs from where she had fallen asleep in the chair in Shelby's room, that damned music still playing. She sighs and makes sure Shelby is still breathing, not disturbing him as she checks by just leaning over and looking. She finds that he's still alive and sits back in the chair, she figures it's safe to leave now but she's gonna give it a couple more minutes. The minutes are very dull as they pass, then she gets an idea. She looks around the room for a clean sheet of paper, sadly not having luck, why would this kid have a piece of blank paper when digital mediums are the norm after all. She fidgets her hands through her pockets and manages to find a wax paper gum wrapper that must have been there since the previous owner of the pants had used them. She sits in the chair and flattens the wrapper out, smoothing it on the surface of the desk next to her. Once she has it suitable flattened she picks the wrapper up and begins folding it over and over and over, slowly making a shape out of it. A few more minutes pass of careful folding before she sets a small gum wrapper origami of a fox on the desk next to Shelby's laptop. She feels satisfied that she still has that level of dexterity left in her nerve-frayed body and she gets up.

She quietly leaves the room and heads into the main hallway of the crew quarters, after shutting the door behind her, she catches a glimpse of someone snooping around between the rooms, as she turns to try and make out who it is, she realizes it's Nil. A chill goes down her spine while a shimmer of luminescent feedback travels up her implants, brief memories of the hangar fight passing through her mind. She rolls her shoulders and straightens up before approaching him though, wanting to head him off before he goes poking in her room or Shelby's room. She keeps her poker face on but inside she's resisting the urge to just turn away and head elsewhere, she lifts a hand slightly, "Uh, Nil... can you avoid room six and three? Six is where Shelby is currently sleeping off a high and three is my room." She hesitates after saying that, a pit forms in her stomach as she tries to get the next line out, "Also, your sister said you'd take a scan of my implant so she could figure out what needed to be done." She bites off the sentence then swallows the lump in her throat that's quickly forming.

 

[SniperComZero]

For as much of a raging bitch as Olivia is normally, she's got enough sense in her to not move around too much during the operation. That sharp pain in her arm getting replaced by a numb, dull throbbing, all the way down to her extremities. Either way, it was mobile enough that she was able to use it to press the pack to the blushing welt on her forehead. "What, no lollipop for good behavior?" She just cannot help herself. "...Thanks, sawbones." Much as she knows that Typhon's a reprehensible piece of shit, she's got enough sense that she knows she doesn't wanna piss him off because he'd be just as likely to take a kidney or two. Or three, somehow. That, and he's not either actively being a piece of shit to her, or calling the shots.

That said, she doesn't really wanna stick around the medbay for too much longer. Place really ain't comfortable. At least, she'd have been on her way out, if it weren't for Amy standing cross-armed in the door. Looking straight towards her. Ugh, fucking hell. "...Is... this the part you're boutta go tell me I gotta go make up to our dumbshit boss, and that other crazy robot looking asshole with shit aim? Sit 'em down, talk it out, start kissin', fuckin', take our goddamn pants off?"

 

[Infab]

"Uh, Nil... can you avoid room six and three? Six is where Shelby is currently sleeping off a high and three is my room." She hesitates after saying that, a pit forms in her stomach as she tries to get the next line out, "Also, your sister said you'd take a scan of my implant so she could figure out what needed to be done."

Nil clasps his hands together and nods rapidly. "Of course! I wouldn't want to intrude on occupied space!~" he said cheerfully, before taping away on the holoband on his wrist. "As for your implant, thanks for reminding me! I should get that to her right away." He motioned for Katja to turn around. "I need to see your back! Largest, smoothest patch of skin, largest grouping of tattoos!"

 

[Viper Actual]

Nathalie raised an eyebrow. "The Osiris-incident?" She leaned in. "I didn't know Caiden was there."
She shrugged. "Did he tell you what happened?"

While curious, Nathalie withheld the part that she had seen blurry security footage from the station. That and the report from an SSOID stealth corvette investigating the station after its owners lost contact with the mercenaries sent in to clean things up. For now there was no point in telling Damien what she knew.

Much less that the highly redacted SSOID reports hint that some of the experiments on the station were classified prototype SSOID bioweapons originally intended to have been used against ASI-forces during the war.

 

[Breadman]

"No? I thought I'd just wait." Amy was a bit surprised at Olivia, but given that she was just treated for pissing someone else off, she really shouldn't be. "If that's your idea to patch things up, then you should try it." She shrugged "But I advise not to try it with a rough player like Kalashi, she's likely to break something again." She pointed to the dent on the wall.

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"But I advise not to try it with a rough player like Kalashi, she's likely to break something again."

"And I prefer keeping this room sanitized." chimes in Typhon. "So if you must, do it elsewhere." he adds while looking at Olivia.

 

[SniperComZero]

Olivia looked her down with a morbidly intrigued... glare. Until her attention was pointed towards the dent in the wall. "...Sheesh. How thin're these walls?" She absolutely refused to believe that she could leave a dent like that in anything that's more than a centimetre-- maybe a centimetre and a half thick. Oh, hey, her beret--. "And I prefer keeping this room clean." Oh that's just begging-- Olivia clicked her tongue towards Typhon. "Tch, doc, you make it sound like this place is some massage parlor that I'd want dimmed lights and freeform jazz in."

One quick retrieval later saw Olivia nursing her head in one arm, and resting her body up against the wall with her other. "Yeah, well, unlucky for her, someone with this much charm ain't all that into bare metal. That, and I don't really have an urge to see what kanads look like under their clothes right about now. Anyway." She canted her head towards one side. "That means you wanted to talk about something else," And then to the other. "or...?"

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"Tch, doc, you make it sound like this place is some massage parlor that I'd want dimmed lights and freeform jazz in."

Typhon cuts Olivia a look after taking off his surgeon's hood. "Dirty it up and see how many infections you'll get as you crawl inside a filthy place with open wounds." he says, rolling his eyes.

 

[Breadman]

"Yeah, I was trying to figure you out." Amy gave a short answer to Olivia before Typhon interjected again "Right now you're deadset on pissing off as many people off as possible here." She continued "The captain, the mechanically enhanced bounty hunter and now the surgeon. I get that you don't like working with pirates and the job we're on, but we are stuck working together until we clear our names. " She shrugged again "I just don't get it. Is it a deathwish or is it an instinct?"

 

[SniperComZero]

Olivia's head cocked backwards as Typhon regarded her with a particularly glum expression. It couldn't really be lost on Amy that her face had scrunched up just slightly before she turned it back to face her. "...Okay, in fairness, I didn't think he'd take it that bad. That, and the cyborg psycho bitch came up talking shit to me first. I'm not entirely in the wrong here." As if that really excuses her for actively trying to make every situation around her worse."As for the boss-- well. Y'got me there, I guess." Olivia pouted her lips with a nonchalant shrug. "After her actually trying to save some people back during that fuckin' mess of a station, I figured she knew better. So. Little of column A, little of column B?"