In Game

Cael watched as the cyborg before him whirled on him as he grabbed her wrist from sending them all into the oblivion outside the window. She looked very different from how she had only a little while ago aboard The Brazen, her eyes being the biggest change. Cael let his eyes lock with hers, and he watched as her hand slid across the glass. The motion prompted Cael to grab the butt of his gun and the soft click of the safety could be heard as he waited emotionless for Artemis to make her move. 


But it never came, as Cael watched Artemis begin to return to the normality that he had met her under. He kept his hand gripping hers, with his other on the pistol until Artemis began speaking once more and said she was alright. He gave the cyborg one last cautionary glance before he relaxed and gingerly released her wrist from his grip. Another soft click of the safety, and Cael's pistol was back in its holster as Cael stepped back from Artemis. He let his hand rest on the pistol as he looked over his shoulder to see Roslyn approaching. Cael turned back to Artemis at the sound of her thanks and nodded to her. He turned and looked across the room, his expression still stern as he gestured towards on of the lockers set into the wall of the lounge. 


"If yer injured Artemis, there's a medkit and a set ah tools in that locker. Best get yer self squared away before we land."


As Cael went to leave the lounge and return to the cockpit, he stopped so that he was facing away from Artemis, but beside Roslyn so she could hear him. 


"Keep an eye on her would ya? Last thing any of us wants is a crazed Cyborg rippin' the ship apart in light speed."


Hoping that the idea of a ship disintegrating in lightspeed with them in it was enough to persuade Roslyn to head his request, Cael continued on towards the cockpit. As he sat back down, a light began blinking on the console under the light drive ignition. Cael hit a series of buttons and switches, and soon the blue tunnel that ship had been traveling throw dissipated around them and the ship was once again floating in the light speckled blanket of space. 


Before the cockpit of The Odyssey, sat a small darkish planet that was slowly growing in size as they approached. The planet, once the ship had gotten a bit closer, had a variation of different colored spots all over it. Some of them were beige, some were dark brown, while others were a sickly green color. Cael was familiar with the planet, having spent a good month there trying to get The Odyssey back on its feet when he first bought it. The green parts where thick swamps, full of creatures that were large enough to take down a squad of soldier should they step within the murky waters. The beige parts where plateaus of vast wastes, home to only nomads and the occasional giant cave worm. The dark brown parts, where where they were heading. These spots where what passed for "civilization" on this planet. Small towns of scrap yards, salvage, and dismembered ships, That had been turned into places of "business" for those who knew how to get to the surface without getting shot down. 


Luckily, Cael had already been shot down, and had made friends with a popular salvager on the surface who told him the secret of getting to the planet's surface without getting shot down. As The Odyssey began its descent into the planet's inner atmospheres, Caels connection would become their only hope of getting down in one piece. The first thing that anyone would notice as they entered the planet was the loss of radio. The entire planet was jammed, contact was made through a sublevel frequency radio that the sky patrols used to contact. So when the radio went dead and then began crackling to life, Cael grabbed the hand held and waited. 


"OY DER!! Yer piece of shit looks like its got some nice work put into it there boyo! How's about we shoot ya down and ya give up whatchyer haulin"?!"


Cael waited for the cackling that followed to stop as he got up from his seat and began searching through the above canopy for the ship that was hailing them. He found it in a heartbeat. The ship looked like it was about to fall out of the sky. It was spewing smoke from several section and a bit wobbly as it rocked from side to side so the pilot could see The Odyssey. What Cael could see was the proton gun aimed right at The Odyssey's cock pit, which only made him smile as he held the hand held up to his face. 


"I dunno Rosco, Glak would be mighty pissed if he didn't get this shipment of skunkweed oil for The Mrs."


After a few seconds the cackling returned and Cael smiled again as the ship dropped beside The Odyssey and Cael waved to the disfigured creature within. 


"I'll be a dorogans uncle, what the hell are ya doin back in these parts Ironfist? Last I 'eard, empire done gone and snatched you up on Raq'tak!"


Cael scoffed as he raised the handheld once more. 


"If ya think immabout to let the damned empire take me back, you've been hitten them spices harder than usual Rosco. Need to get in for resupply. Glak got an open hangar?"


After a second of silence, Roscos voice came back and gave Cael a set of instructions for which hangar was open. Cael gave him his thanks before Rosco darted off back into the skies. 


As the ship began its descent into the "city" those who had never been to Cardaleon would get their first glimpse of it. The "city" which the residents called it, was more or less a giant dump. The air was thick with smog from various forges and refineries that the local had hand built to salvage precious metals from ship scrap. The buildings all looked like they had been rivets, bolts, soldered, and welded together with bits and pieces of spare metal from various ships. Some where simply ships that had been erected standing straight up with holes cut in them fro windows. The one that The Odyssey was heading for was no different. With four large open canopy hangars surrounding a vast open yard full of salvage parts, Glak's salvage fit in perfectly with the rest of the city. On the opposite sides of each hangar where doors that lead to the salvage yard, and to the city for passengers to leave. Cael began the landing procedure as he hoovered above the open hangar he had been instructed to and within a few short minutes The Odyssey was landed on solid ground. 


Cael flipped the switch for the com system for a split second to address the ship. 


"If yer stretchin yer legs meet in the lounge."


Cael headed for the lounge down the hall as he adjusted himself from the flight in and unhooked a small case from his belt. Once he had made it to the lounge had would address everyone who was there. 


"Welcome to Cardaleon. If ya didn't notice on the entry, this place is literally a dump. But, if ya want to find something here fer the trip, I would be surprised if ya couldn't find it. The Empire doesn't have any footholds here thanks to the planets "welcoming party" and the fact that there is nothing here they want. So we should be safe here. Once ya get off the ship, yer on your own. I say it will take Glak and me about 2 hours to get what we need for the trip and clean the ship of any more bugs before we're ready to leave. So that's yer time frame. Anyone not back in 2 hours, well, best of luck to ya. If you get into any trouble with the locals, just let 'em know yer from Glak's, and they should leave ya be. I am assuming that you all got yer money back with yer stuff. If not, well, the people of Cardaleon love to trade."


With that Cael walked over and his the door to the ramp, lowering it into the hangar.


@Bolts @Lioness075 @Flutterby @Dominaiscna @Ch3rryBlossom28 @Vulcan
 
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Tiberius blended in rather nicely with the already overall shady crowd of the capital. Because of this anonymity, Cardeleon might have been among his favorite places, right after his own home planet of course, if it just weren’t for the constant smog covering the surface. He was here out of necessity.


He stopped at a stand outside a general store displaying a variety of salvaged gas masks and wondered if buying one wasn’t such a bad idea considering the 'climate', but then, all of a sudden, a very familiar sound reached Tiberius’ ears - that of a sublight engine, that spun him around towards the direction where it was coming from. Only seconds later, which to him felt like a small eternity, the flat, oval shape of the cursed ship he had been after for the past couple of years emerged from the fog-like smog and flew right over his head.


“Odyssey” he whispered with a hint of a growl in his voice and sprinted after it, shoving some unsuspecting pedestrians out of his way as he did so. He couldn’t lose them again, not after hearing nothing from them for almost a year, and he didn’t even know how long they were going to stay. His body wasn’t doing him any favors either, having spent five weeks in a sitting position for the most part and now being pushed to run at full speed. He was getting out of breath with pain slowly creeping into his protesting limbs. He could only hope he was going to be in a good enough shape to face the crew and win, even though he had little to no idea of what he was really up against. One claimed they were all Dorogans, another that it consisted of mixed races and yet another that it was just one Doro left.


A few minutes later, he had finally reached the hangar where he had seen them land. Indeed spotting the Odyssey up ahead through the door leading outside, Tiberius quickly took cover behind a pile of metal scrap just a couple of feet from the entrance and peeked around it to observe the ship, particularly the ramp, waiting anxiously for it to lower and give him a view of the crew that was sure to be exiting soon. While Tiberius waited, he unsheathed his sword and pistol and readied himself. He wanted to assess the situation and find out the number of the actual crew he was going to be up against before deciding on the best approach.


He had to admit it was a uniquely beautiful spacecraft and if it weren’t for the toxic crew operating it that he was actually after, he might have looked at it differently. The first time he had laid eyes on it, he viewed it as a masterpiece of craftsmanship and ingenuity as it effortlessly glided through the air. Imagine the change of heart when that same ship had opened fire on a Gehennian town, destroying half of it with just a couple of well-placed shots from its blaster cannons, killing hundreds if not thousands, then landing and taking the survivors as slaves for the Dorogan empire. After this event, the Odyssey had been nothing more than a ship carrying a band of vermin and a coffin for those that didn’t make it.


@zCrookedz @Bolts @Lioness075 @Flutterby @Dominaiscna @Ch3rryBlossom28
 
As Cael left the lounge, leaving Rosalyn and Artemis alone in the room, the cyrborg's eyes focused on the back of the other female's head in a questioning stare. She could still feel Cael's fingers holding her wrist firmly, keeping her from making a move on the oh so thin glass before her, tingling underneath her finger tips. 


Cael.. he was prepared to kill her if needs be. The way he gripped his pistol, ready to shoot if it came to it... and Artemis hadn't missed him stopping beside Rosalyn. Though she couldn't hear whatever passed between them, she could only assume what he had spoken to the Srin. He was very weary about Artemis, which was a wise choice concerning the safety of everyone on board, but it made her feel ike she was just like any other mindless cyborg, an uncontrollable machine, an unstable weapon or just a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any second, destroying everything and anything that got too close. 


Perhaps she was.. 


But.. she was more than that...right? She had life, she had a mind of her own. She was conscious... and .. wasn't she supposed to be perfect? Flawless?  But, Artemis found that the more she tried to reach perfection, the farther the concept seemed from her.


The Cyborg looked away from the Srin with eyes cast down to her hand that rested on the window sill, unmoving. Slowly, it turned over and relaxed so that the hand opened up and the palm faced her She'd almost killed them all with that very hand. Tightening into a fist, her hand flew forward fueled by pent up frustration and she almost smashed into the window, but this time instead of Cael, her own mind stopped her from shattering the glass. Before her, her hand was a balled fist barely an inch from the glass, shaking with effort as mind fought over instinct.


Control. She needed control. 


Artemis breathed out as her hand slowly rested on the glass, this time relaxed as her palm touched the cold surface of the window. Before her, the scene suddenly changed as the view melted away into singular stars speckled across the dark void and then that scene gave way to a land of brown and green and little mounds of cities. How quaint. 


Her head lifted slightly as Cael announced that they had arrived. Ironfist soon joined them back in the lounge and had announced that they were on planet Cardaleon. Everyone had two hours to do as they pleased and the Cyborg found herself very eager to get out and about. If anything, a trip into the so called dump would give her curiosity an opportunity to feast while her mind was distracted from anymore unpleasant thoughts and memories. 


"I'll be back soon.." she said over her shoulder yet the cyborg didn't wait for confirmation that they had heard her. She just needed to get out. Artemis made a move towards the ramp, going down as fast as she could and it was only till her feet were planted on the sandy ground that she breathed and looked around at the place around them. It was no surprise. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Perhaps that was an understatement. Those who worked in the hangar looked at her like the very admiral himself had marched down the ramp in all his glory and announced the arrival of the Doragon army with great flags bearing the emblem bellowing above him. 


If she was going to explore, perhaps she'd need to purchase some sort of cloak to help her blend in more. If it wasn't the metallic sheen of her body and its armor then it was the odd colour of her hair, her eyes and the gem that sat in her forehead. Gripping the hilt of her unsheathed sword, Artemis broke away from the Odyssey, heading for the closest door out. Once she'd found a cloak, perhaps exploring will be a lot easier. Usually, she wouldn't care for the attention she'd attract. After all, her trips to other planets were always short because once she'd ... "collected" what she needed, she was gone, but now..they'd be lingering for a while so perhaps some subtlety would be helpful.  
 
Glo'cer took the time to look around the ship. He had found all the bugs he could which left him with around 10 in total. He could easily have tossed them out, broken them, whatever way to discard them. He looked at them keenly as he was alone in one of the various rooms. A fluid, electric blue substance came from his hand as he made a small cut. She rubbed his hands together, with the bugs in between, as small little sounds of buzzing came from the devices. Each one should have their connection to the UPD (universal positioning device) leaving them bits of unconnected trackers. A perfect thing for him to carry at the moment. Surly they wouldn't mind, especially if they didn't know. If anything, they expected everyone to just destroy them on sight. Once again, he felt no one really looked to the future. These little things weren't just some toy. They went for a pretty penny too. He stuck them in a pouch on his side as he still wore minimal accessories. He wasn't one to go out of his way to explore so the less things on his person made sense. With the comms telling people to meet in the lounge area, the Solidus made his way up. 


Hearing they were on the planet rung a few bells for him. He knew it was more hostile in terms of people than most planets were. A perfect spot to recoup after an escape. If they really wanted them back though, there was no stopping a whole army. That was the thing though. A whole Dorogan fleet coming after them would raise some very strange questions. Why go after criminals with such a force? Perhaps even the knowledge they had broken out would be brought up. In that case, it would show the Dorogan's defenses are easily overcome by a few stray beings. That was info the Dorogan's didn't want leaked. So it was in their best interest to stay away from them for the time being. With Cael staying on the ship and a two hour limit on their stay, that was enough time for him to find what he needed. He presumed if anyone had questions for him, they would catch him on the way out or find him. Here...He said tossing the specialized Bug to Cael. I only have one that blinks. It should speed up the process by 30%. Careful not to get it too close to the fuel tank. My work on it seems to give off some sparks here and there. I shall leave you to your own devices. He left the lounge but didn't instantly go outside. He made his way down to the sleeping quarters. It was an odd thought to share living arrangements with others but he did find the thought fascinating. His kind had no need to do so in any regard. They each had their own small, efficient living space under his home planets earth. He placed a few of his belongings, a few needles of his fluid, onto a bed. It should give an idea so to who claimed the furniture. He knew enough of other species that this was a method of showing where he would sleep.   


Once he finished there, he made his way outside. Instantly, he coughed at the smog in the air. Surly their production of things justifies such toxic environments... He stated bluntly to himself. He found nothing out of the ordinary. Other beings usually gave him  a look as Solidus didn't venture too far from their home planet. That and the fact the Solidus were fairly close to the Dorogans. He paid them no mind as usual. He made his way around, trying to find a system devices store, only coming unto some pawn shop like building. Better this than nothing... he said walking in.


(open to talk/ interact :P)
 
Hearing where the med kit was, Rosalyn decided that she was going to take full advantage of it once time permitted. Rosalyn's eyes never left Artemis even as Cael let go of her wrist and walked away form the cyborg. When he stopped next to her she looked at him from the corner of her eyes. Keeping her face stoic at his words, she gave him a silent nod. After all of this she wasn't going to die because of something as stupid as breaking the window at light speed. When Cale left the room she took the chance to fully look over the girl. The look of sadness was written all over her face, or was it fear? Rosalyn knew the fear of loosing control of her body all too well. She remembered the first time she couldn't return the upper left quadrant of her body back to normal. She had never see it happen to any Srin and i made her feel like a monster who didn't know how to control that ability but once she found out that that is what happened to those of her race who over used the crystallization ability she was able to accept her self.


Artemis looked away from her and a frown formed on the Srin's when she saw the cyborg look at the hand till on the window. Rosalyn wasn't about to use her gun to shoot at her, not that she would have been able to reach it in time. "ARTEMIS!" Rosalyn yelled as she ran towards the girl who was about to smash the window. Her crystallized fist was only a few inches form the cyborg's face when Artemis stopped her movement. Rosalyn was actually surprised she was able to stop herself from hitting the girl. Her eyes were wide in shock at the yet again sudden change in her personality. What the heck is wrong with her? Pulling her left hand back to her side Rosalyn stared out the window with Artemis. It was at this point she decided she wasn't going to the leave the cyborg alone while they were aboard the Odyssey.


Looking at the planet below she couldn't believe they were already here. Even from where they were way above the planet, the place looked like something she would avoid with all her strength. It was a planet way below her standards even as a mercenary. Not that a planet such as this needed one. While they were landing Rosalyn took this time to go get the med kit and wrap her shoulder with a bandage, all the while keeping an eye on Artemis. Her injury wasn't bad but she wasn't going to not treat. The one day she doesn't is the day that it will get her killed.


WHen the cyborg got up and rushed to leave Rosalyn followed suit. It would be goo to finally get off the ship. Once getting off though her senses had a different idea. Her body did not appreciate the smell that hit her nostrils. It didn't help that people where staring at her 'deformed' body. Her species would normally never set foot on a planet like this, and she wouldn't have either if it wasn't for this job so it didn't surprise her that no one knew what she was and she didn't give them a chance to find out. Walking back into the Odyssey Rosalyn went back to find Cael. Rations would be the main thing she wanted to make sure they had along with whatever medicine they needed. "How many rations do you have stored on this ship? Will it be enough to make it to our next pit stop?" Rosalyn assumed they would stop off at another planet on the way to Avalon. She would rather not get food on this rotten planet if she didn't have to.


@zCrookedz @Dominaiscna
 
After his words had been delivered and the ramp lowered, Cael watched as a few eagerly took the chance to leave the ship and begin looking around the planet. Some of them seemed a bit more eager than others, as Cael watched Artemis dart down the ramp with barely a word. The girl obviously had issues that she needed to work through, but right now Cael had to focus on the sweep of the ship and getting them ready for a long trip. 


Luckily, Glocer seemed to have the answer with the ship sweep as he passed, tossing the small bug towards Cael. He gave the little device a glance as it shot of a small bit of sparks which made Cael raise an eyebrow towards Glocer. 


"Yea....'preciate it slimeball."


Cael gingerly let the blinking device drop into his pocket as he began heading for the ramp to the hangar, when he was stopped by Rosalyn who began asking about the ship's rations. Usually, Cael would keep enough rations of dehydrated foods to keep himself sustained for a month at a time. Once he had tried to get enough for six months, but had wound up getting captured by a fleet of pirates and held for 8 months. So he never even saw a single package of that food. 


"The ships got nothing at the moment. I usually keep plenty on board, and did have enough to last us till the next stop before we got captured. However, Gru'ha felt it was prudent that we starve on this crazed mission of his."


Cael continued down the ramp and out into the hangar. The stale, harsh air of the city filled his nose the instance he walked off. He had spent a month working on this planet trying to get The Odyssey sky worthy, and he had never gotten used to the smell. But it didn't bother him quite as bad anymore. As he looked around the familiar hangar, he turned back to Rosalyn as he scratched his head under his hat. 


"If you want, there is a supply port just down the road that Glak uses for his "premier" visitors. You could check out what they got, probably not all toxic sludge. After All they do pull down quite a bit of galactic freighters heading into the main system from time to time. Once they know what we need, they will bill us and get the rations here before we leave."


Cael's face cracked a slight smile as he turned away from the ramp.


"Or I can take care of it. Though I gotta admit, I survived off of "Big Borg's Bog Burgers" the last time I was here. They ain't so bad once you get around the thorns."


Cael looked around the hangar at all the bits and pieces that littered the walls. Rosco, the pilot that had hailed them during their descent had told Cael that Glak wouldn't be able to meet them when they landed, but would get to them as soon as he could. So Cael fished out the little bug that had been tossed to him by Glocer and held it up towards the ship. The little light began blinking as soon as he did, and slowly Cael began checking the underbelly and back of The Odyssey for more bugs. 


@Bolts@Ch3rryBlossom28@Vulcan
 
Tiberius kept observing as one by one, the crew left the spacecraft, some still staying close to the hangar while others just split off and headed towards the busy main street through the door facing it. “What an odd bunch.” he thought as each one who showed his or her face, if a gender could at all be determined, looked stranger than the previous, each a representative of one of the rarest species he’d ever seen, if at all. They ranged from something as simple as a Dorogan, who to some extent looked a bit familiar due to his prosthetics and hilarious hat, to a sort of solid puddle of walking slime, which name he couldn’t quite put his finger on but remembered hearing rumors of it being, in fact acidic.


He had to admit he wasn’t fully aware of what he was confronted with, even after seeing the, thus far, unknown crew in person. He wasn’t expecting anything this unusual and now felt like he was invited to a gathering of the nations. The fact that most of them split up like that, however, left him with the impression that they, like he somewhat expected from people who’d commit mass murder for money, weren’t especially unified, so even if he decided to attack them as a group, the lack of teamwork might open up some weak spots in the structure for him to take advantage of. But this was just one theory and if he went up against all of them together and turned out to be wrong about it, this fight would be over pretty quickly. No, his best bet was to take them down one by one while they were separated, just like a predator would do on a hunt.


Luckily for him, the ones that were leaving the surroundings of their spacecraft were all logically using the door facing the city, rather than the junkyard which place he had chosen to hide from their sight. The ground was littered with scrap and Tiberius, who was already taking cautious steps in this area, wasn’t too keen on getting in a fight here if his presence was to be discovered, especially since he was barefooted and could get badly cut from a single careless step, despite the hardness of the pads on the underside of his feet.


But the longer he stayed there and watched as one by the one, seemingly all the crewmembers left the spacecraft, the more his excitement grew. The tip of his tail was nervously sweeping the floor and the vigilante was turning and readjusting the weapons in his hands more often now as if unsure what technique to use on his targets. A hard bite on his tongue with his sharp incisors and the taste of blood in his mouth after that was enough to calm his nerves down again. Focusing back on the current situation, he could see that familiar looking Dorogan now checking all the indentations and systems located on the underside of the Odyssey and slowly heading for the back of it as if looking for something. He could either be the technician or the captain as usually those were the only ones one would trust to efficiently find flaws or damage hidden from the naked eye. Whatever the job he was assigned to, he looked distracted and would be an easy target.


As the Gehennian kept watching this Dorogan go about his work, a sudden, indescribable urge to kill rose up in his head. This feeling was mostly unfamiliar to him as he usually performed his own work with calmity and professionalism. Perhaps it was because this wasn’t just a kill to improve a group of society’s life but also something very personal. Tiberius had dedicated the last couple of years to primarily hunting that ship and its crew down, to seek revenge for all those deaths he had witnessed for himself or heard about.


He slowly took a crouching position, left his cover and cerefully but quickly sneaked up to the doorway, entered the hangar and followed along the line of shadow thrown by the large ship docked inside until he reached one of the wheels and hid behind it just for a second to peek around it and see which way the amputee was looking or heading to. He looked distracted enough with some beeping device to not notice him but Tiberius didn’t know how much time he was left with to go for a stealthy behind the back approach. It wasn’t such a short distance to cover over to him either. Besides, guys like these didn't deserve a quick death. In those cases, he went for the second best thing. He stood up, left the cover of the tire and pointed his pistol right at the Dorogan’s chest, moving towards him at a steady pace in order to somewhat close the distance between them and increase his chance of placing a precise shot. “You make a move and Imma blow your brains out, Dorogan.” he growled a warning. Not that he wasn’t planning on doing that anyways. He first wanted to ask him a couple of questions among other things.


@zCrookedz
 
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Cael watched as the little bug began blinking as he held it up towards the landing gear. Craning his head around the shutter door for the long piston of a leg, Cael reached up inside the landing gear and found what he was looking for. The trackers on the outside of the ship were a bit different, probably better suited for deep space pressure and light speed travel. These were about the size of a small bottle cap, and as Cael pulled his second off of the landing gear of the ship he have the little device a quick glance over before snapping it in half and tossing the remains to the ground. 


He knew that Glak had a de-tracer somewhere around the place, it would make this particular job a bit quicker and he could begin scavenging parts for The Odyssey that they might need. But he wasn't about to rummaging around in Glak's tools just yet, not until the guy showed up. So until then it was C-Virus' little blinking bug and manually finding them. As Cael continued to look over the ship, he couldn't help but feel a wave of nostalgia wash over him as he began remembering the last time he had been on the planet exactly where he was now. Having just finished up the last of the checks before taking off in his brand new ship he had spent months working on. He felt a slight smile creep over his face as he felt the nostalgia slip away. 


Cael caught the movement out of the corner of his eye before he ever heard anything. Had one of the other come looking for him? No, the man who just stepped out of the shadows with a blaster pointed at Cael was not one who had left with them on The Brazen. This man was a stranger to him, and even more so, he wasn't even sure what species he was. The curved horns atop his head could belong to any number of species that came to mind, but Cael's quick glance at the man stature made him question the legs and tail. The scaly bits of skin that peeked out from around the man's eyes and mask also threw Cael off. Who, and what, was this person?


The Blaster to his chest, Cael wasn't about to do something stupid and get himself killed. He slowly began to raise his hands to about shoulder height as he starred down at the pistol and then back to the man. His face was held in a semi scowl, almost as if he was more annoyed than anything. Cael sighed and his shoulders dropped a bit before he finally began to speak to the man. 


"You guys are getting desperate if yer holding people up inside of others hangars. Look, this is Glak's hangar, and he doesn't take to kindly to trespassers. Besides, I ain't got no credits for anyone, even myself. So what do you say we just part ways and get about our day, hmm?"


@Vulcan
 
Tiberius could clearly see the confusion in the man’s features. It was like he was seeing a Gehennian for the first time and the reaction was the same as his when he had laid eyes on the crew a few minutes before now because it consisted of a variety of races he had never seen before or never paid any attention to if randomly encountered. But that wouldn’t change a thing. It wouldn’t be the first time he had dealt with feigned innocence and the fact that he had to deal with that same situation now kind of annoyed him. There weren't many that simply admitted to their villainy and made both their lives or rather deaths in their case easier. Oh well, he knew for a fact that once the pain was added to the calculation, they all eventually started to remember all those tiny important details and sing like a bird.


“Don’t give me that. I know who you are. You, Imperial bootlickers have got more credits than half the people in this city.” he stopped only a couple of feet from the Dorogan and raised the muzzle of the blaster to his head. He wouldn’t miss from this distance unless the firearm itself was somehow dislodged from his hand. “But you must be confusing me with some of those scavengers who actually cares about plunder and riches or trespassing for that matter. No, I’m here to serve justice for all the crimes committed by you and your crew against my people. And because you’ll be the first to bite the dust of this pothole of a planet, I’ll even give you a chance to choose with which limb I should start.” he said and held the curved shortsword up at an angle so that his victim could get the hint of what was going to be used during this procedure, the edges of his mouth turning into a grin under the mask. He was going to enjoy this after he had devoted so much work and time to finally come to this moment. “In the meantime, you can tell me where and to whom exactly you’ve sold those slaves.” Tiberius doubted that he would be able to save those unfortunate enough to have ended up as slaves on this particular spacecraft but the location of the trade would be a good place to start looking.


@zCrookedz
 
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Upon landing on the new planet, Larassa had taken one look outside, noted the smog, and groaned with her ears flattening against her head. Having been on planets with air quality problems before, Larassa knew her chances of being able to breathe easily here were slim. That also meant that her chances of finding any quality greenhouse materials around here were even slimmer. There was definitely not going to be any fertile soil to work with and she was certainly not going to find any seeds here. Did this planet even have any plants to begin with?


Sighing, Larassa headed deeper into the Odyssey while the others disembarked and parted ways for the time being. Of course, it was not simple enough for Larassa to simply find a gas mask onboard and trying to wrap a scarf around her neck and muzzle was not going to happen anytime soon. Growling to herself despite having located the perfect room for her greenhouse idea, Larassa disembarked the Odyssey and immediately doubled over before hacking several times in a very non-intimidating manner. Eyes wide, Larassa could've sworn she'd choke and die right there before she managed to take in a few shaky breaths, each one feeling acutely painful. She needed to use some of her coin from her last earnings to buy a gas mask as soon as possible if she wanted to scavenge or trade for anything useful on this planet.


Turning to head towards the hangar door, Larassa paused uncertainly when she heard a voice nearby that definitely didn't sound like any of the crew members she'd gotten to know so far. Frowning at this and immediately arming herself with her bow and an arrow nocked in it, Larassa slowly crept around the Odyssey's ramp to find Cael at gunpoint with some reptilian being she'd never seen in her life. Not wasting a second, and letting out a small cough before she spoke, Larassa shouted, "Drop ze blaster, lizard! I vill fire!" She held up her bow while shouting this, angling it so she'd be hitting the man in the shoulder if he tried any funny business here. Always curious to know what was going on, Larassa was more keen on keeping the man alive in this moment than killing him without question. 
 
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Cael was at a completely loss for words from what was going on right before him. He was really pissed from being called an "Imperial Bootlicker" at at the very mention of the it began to imagine ripping the lizard man's spine out through his throat. But the blaster being raised to his head made him re-evaluate that course of action.


The slime ball would be impressed he thought to himself as he continued listening to the man. 


What the man said next made Cael crack a smile as he listened to the man go on about "his crew". The smile grew until the man pulled out a sword that looked rather menacing, at which point the smile faded a bit and he met the man's eyes. At the mention of the slaves though, Cael grew a bit concerned. He had smuggled slaves before, and if this man was out for revenge for a shipment he had received, than that could a problem. But there was something off about what this guys was saying. 


"Well then, I should count myself lucky to have that opportunity. Look here friend, there's obviously been some sort of mix up. First of all, these folks riding in MY ship, ain't my crew. I don't have a crew, never have. These folks are.....passengers. I'm taking them to the outer rim."


Cael shifted a bit uncomfortably and glanced around under the ship to see if anyone had noticed the scene yet before looking back at the man with abit of a defeat expression.


"Look, the last shipment of slaves I smuggled was about a year ago. But there wasn't a single person on that list that looked like you. Besides, I smuggled those slave OUT of captivity. It's not a job that I do very often, not a ton of money in it, but I do it for a friend every now and then. I took a group of Avarites to an outer rim transport station so they could get back to their planets."


He remembered the trip pretty clearly, the small bat like creatures known as Avarites had been picked up in the dead of night from where they we being held as workers and taken to a drop off point for Cael to meet. He then took them to the outer transportation so they could make their way back to their home planet of Vexus. They had been extremely grateful to Cael, which had made him feel uncomfortable and left as soon as they were on their way. 


Cael kept his eyes locked with the man before him, hoping that the confession would be enough to convince the man that he had nothing to do with any kind of slave trade for lizard people. Before he could respond however, Cael heard a familiar voice coming from behind him and he tensed at the sound of Lara's voice. He didn't dare move for fear that the lizard man would make a hasty move and shoot Cael, but he did let his eyes wander to the side to see if he could see Lara. 


"Hold up Lara, nobody's shootin nobody here!"


@Vulcan @Lioness075
 
The words of the now confirmed captain of the Odyssey weren’t by far what Tiberius expected. The grin on his face disappeared and he narrowed his eyes, meeting the other’s to try and read what was going on inside his head. The Dorogan’s expression was that of a man simply scared for his life and trying to find a way out of the situation he was in at the moment but, surprisingly, not that of a liar, so Tiberius assumed he was either a really good actor capable of hiding or efficiently replacing emotions, or he was actually telling the truth. He had dealt with so many liars in all these years that he already considered himself an expert in recognizing the deceit from the truth.


He didn’t think this was the case of a copy of the original Odyssey either, because the name was in fact written on the side of the ship, but knowing the nature of pirates and outlaws, if things got tough and they were chased after, they’d rather switch to another ship than defend it, which would explain the existence of a new captain. He did hear that there was just one Dorogan left operating the spacecraft a few months ago, but didn’t think it was possible unless it was somehow modified.


Tiberius had, however, overheard a conversation from a bunch of Imperials about some Dorogan rebel stealing slaves. It was quite a while ago and he remembered snickering at that, unbelieving that there was even such a possibility that a representative of this race, who often grew up taken care by slaves, would go against that tradition. There was only one who, even as pessimistic as Tiberius, would be considered capable of performing such a feat and whose name he had heard around the galaxy over and over again, yet had never seen him in person or gotten any information about his appearance. It had almost seemed like he was some sort of urban legend – Iron Fist was the only title he knew about. The man standing before him did, in fact, have an augmented arm and leg, which would explain the name but so did many others.


He was torn from his thoughts when a heavily accented voice sounded in the hanger, telling him to lay down his blaster. The one spoken to and referred to as a lizard looked over the Dorogan’s shoulder and was surprised to see what appeared to be a Siklaid he was mistaken for quite often aiming a bow at him. A primitive weapon but just as deadly as any other firearm. Her appearance added to the oddity of the situation. Not only was it unusual for a scavenger or pirate crew member to come and help their captain as, usually, everyone was trying to somehow get that title and get rid of the former leader but also that the apparent captain declined her help and told her to stand down, which also was his best bet of survival anyways. Even if that arrow hit him, he wouldn’t be dead immediately, unless it went into his head and would still very much be able to cut the Dorogan before him down before the bowwoman could reload.


But considering what Tiberius had heard so far, he was willing to talk. He pulled his blaster back to eye level, although he didn’t switch the safety on just yet, and took a sideway stand to become an even smaller target for the archer with his melee weapon pointing in the direction of the captain. He wasn’t going to take his guard down just because he wasn’t sure if he was correct in his accusation. “If what you’re saying is true, then how did you come by this ship? If you can tell me the whereabouts or the names of the last owners, I’ll make sure you’re rewarded generously.” he said in a much calmer voice, now with his eyes switching from the Dorogan to the Siklaid, trying to reveal their next intentions now that he was probably leaving them with an impression that he was showing a weakness. "Also, not a lizard, even though my race seems to be more exotic than I thought. Gehennians is what we're officially called." he added as he found such misnaming quite annoying, especially since it was rather common.


@zCrookedz @Lioness075
 
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Cael let the tension in the air hang for what seemed like forever. Between the gun pressed to the front of his face, the arrow poised to shoot the pistols owner, and the overwhelming itch to try and take this guy out before he could shot, Cael could feel a bit of sweat rising to his forehead under the brim of his hat. He could tell that the man before him was having a hard time putting two and two together for a moment, until what resembled recognition struck him and Cael had a feeling he might have picked up on something. 


As Cael watched as the man struggled figuring things out something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. A large shape had just slinked its way down from the side of the ship onto the ground behind Cael's capture. Cael kept his eyes stuck on the man before him, so as not to draw attention as the mass slunk across the ground quietly heading for the pair of them. Finally the man spoke up and Cael breathed a little easier as the plasma pistol dropped from his face, but was still pointed at him. After the Gehennian stepped to the side to avoid Lara's line of sight, the mass reached the pair and began to grow quietly behind the Gehennian. 


"Pooor hapss I cam be of assssssissstance with your questions sir."


The mass stood over the pair of them, hunched so as to not his his head on the bottom of the ship. Standing straight up, it would have been at 8' tall, but it would be hard to confirm that with the wiggling mass of slime that the body consisted of. Thick, brown, slime covered the entirety of the creature constantly swirling upward only to drip back down from the arm like appendages that came out of the torso. Its face was nonexistent, rather it was a simple ball like shape with an apparatus attached to the front where a mouth would be. The apparatus never moved when the creature talked, rather a small series of bubbles slowly formed and popped from the thick slime that seemed to contain the words that where being used. Giving the creatures deep tone a bubbly, and hissing type of dialect as it spoke. The final thing that Cael noticed from the slime, was a pistol half sticking out of one of the appendages aimed at the Gehennian. 


Cael smiled a bit and lowered his arms, should the Gehennian still have any indication of trying to shoot Cael or Lara, he would have Glak to deal with now. 


"Glak, glad you could join the party. Rosco said you might be a few minutes."


The creature's "head" swiveled towards Cael and nodded a bit in his direction. 


"Hunter. Bhat have you done to my ssssship."


Cael smirked and tilted his hat ready to speak, but Glak had held up the free arm and slowly turned his head to look at the Gehennian.


"You are looking for The Odysseyss Previouss ownerss. A bu-and of Pirate ssslaverss that entered Cardaleon some yearss ago. They would not comPly with our ways, ssso they were destroyed. I took Po-ssssesion of The Odyssey, and sssold it to Mr. Hunter here."


Glak motioned back to Cael who was now waiting to see how the Gehnnian would react to this new piece to the puzzle. He shrugged and nodded to Glak.


"Glak said that when they got The Odyssey, it was pretty much just a shell. The only ones aboard where a group of Ootang Pirates, and when they ship went down, they were the only ones on board. If they are the ones who took your friends and family, I would venture to say they were dropped off before coming to Cadaleon."


@Vulcan @Lioness075
 
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Hearing Cael frantically trying to get her to hold off from shooting the lizard man, who happened to have a blaster aimed at her pilot's head, Larassa frowned and didn't move an inch until their enemy backed off. Her ears folded against her head while she continued to glare at the man, but she relented in attacking for now. Slowly lowering her bow and letting the string relax while her arrow remained nocked, just in case, Larassa's ears shot back up when the lizard finally spoke. Well, Larassa was a bit late to the party so she'd missed whatever else was mentioned prior to this. Frankly, it made little sense to her for the time being. Why did this guy care so much about Cael's ship?


One of her ears flickered when the lizard man addressed her, clearly peeved by her nickname for him. Grinning at this, Larassa let out a short chuckle before responding in a teasing tone, "Vatefer ye say...Lizard."


Ruffling her feathers while the two men resolved their differences or whatever, Larassa let out a small cough again, remembering that she needed to find a gas mask if she wanted to get anything done on this planet. Looking back at the reptilian being, a Gehennian as he called himself, Larassa realized she'd never really seen his kind before. Frankly, she just was curious to know if he looked similar to the reptilian beings on her home planet. Did they share some characteristics? Did the beings on her own planet have those random horns, too? Were those horns even remotely useful or purely aesthetic?


Larassa snapped out of her thoughts and briefly wielded her bow and arrow once more when some...slime-like creature suddenly materialized and loomed over the lizard. With her heart pounding in her chest, Larassa's eyes widened and she was ready to ask Cael if the slime was friend or foe when he began casually conversing with it. This was Glak? Slowly lowering her bow again, Larassa let out a small sigh before choking a bit. Stupid atmosphere. Folding her ears against her head in annoyance, Larassa slung her bow over her back and put the arrow back in her quiver before doing her best to relax while she moved to join Cael's side. 


Listening to Glak speaking to Cael and then to the lizard man, Larassa found it rather easy to understand the thing, which may have been due to her own dialect being a bit difficult for some to understand. For Larassa, it was sometimes hard to understand anyone speaking like the Dorogans. The word 'ain't' had been very unusual for Larassa to hear at first and it had taken her some time to understand some weird phrases that other beings used. 'Hitting the road' in particular was one phrase that made little to no sense to Larassa. Her home planet didn't have any roads anywhere and trails were merely natural with some markings on trees to help guide their way. Larassa couldn't understand why someone would want to hit a road, anyways. How would that help anyone?


Finding this conversation to be a bit of a bore now that the potential action was over, Larassa glanced sideways at Cael before saying, "Right, vell, if zat is all zat iz going to occur he're, I'll take my leafe. I need to find a gas mask, verefer one would be on zis cancerous planet."


Looking back at the lizard and goo-ball behind him, Larassa added, "No funny business, Lizard. If yer still around when I get back, I'll be keeping an eye on ye."


Giving him a classic Larassa glare with her ears folded against her head, Larassa then turned on her heels with her fox tail flopping about behind her while she walked away.


Heading towards the market after exiting the hangar, Larassa quickly made her way towards the stalls until she found one with many variations of gas masks hanging around it. After some brief bartering and confusion over what Larassa was saying, she soon walked away from the stall with a relatively cheap gas mask and a dagger in one paw. Larassa never really had been that good at negotiating. It usually was just her threatening someone's life and getting a cheaper price as a result. Her social skills could be really lacking at times.
 
As Artemis left the safety of the hangar behind her and stepped out into what seemed like a quaint market place, her attention was immediately drawn towards the many different species that bustled around her. Some stopped at the sight of the cyborg and their expressions changed to bear mixtures of fear, curiosity, hostlity or caution. Artemis eyes, after roving over the creatures, moved to the stalls that were set up in the open space, showcasing the many goods of the traders for all who were interested to see.


One stall near to the hangar sported many robes, hoods and cloaks that were commonplace among the creatures who lived there, especially those who dwelled in the dryer and hotter areas of the planet. Taking a closer look at various cloaks before her, the Cyborg picked out a thin long cloak that covered much of the torso with a hood that would hide most of her face in darkness. She wasted no time in purchasing the cloak and had draped it over her shoulders and pulled it over her head as soon as she had paid the man the promised price in credits. 


Securing the cloak in place, Artemis slowly wove her way through the many other stalls aimlessly with the subject of her thoughts from moments before poking at the edges of her mind. Dread seemed to creep over the hooded Cyborg yet another feeling suddenly washed into Artemis's system. Her head hurt for a moment as if reacting to some signal in the air but whatever it was was not from a machine of sorts... it was from something beyong the understanding of scientists... 


Speeding up her pace, she followed the pulsating feeling in her head till Artemis stopped before a small stall guarded by a midgety, old creature in fine, or as fine as fine can get in Cardaleon, attire. Before him was showcased rows and rows of stones and gems safely nestled on velvety material. Her attention was drawn to a smaller set of stones in their own cases and, as if in a trance, she reached out and gently brushed the cold surface with her fingers tips. The touch ignited the tips of fingers as if a cold fire was lit upon contact with the dark gemstone. 


Her suspicions were confirmed.


"What do you think you are doing? Don't go touching my stones as you please!" fumed the agiated trader, shooing Artemis's hand away from the display of gems. "Tch! What if you were to break them? Do you know how expensive they are? I spent thousands of credits, you know? And they're so rare! Do you know how difficult it is to import them from -" 


The voice of the small male was cut off as the Cyborg grabbed hold of his batting hand, holding him in place. Slowly looking up, the trader's  face paled at the sight of her features from the darkness of the hood where her glowing eyes stared into his questioningly. What made dread settled on his thin frame was not her intimidating aura or the coldness in her gaze, but the gem that rested in her forhead, gleaming brightly with the flow of life.


It resembled the gemstones in his display case, yet they were dark and dead, no longer the source of life they once were. Save for the lack of power, they were undeniably identical to Artemis's gem. In fact they were one and the same. It was common knowledge that there was only one race that bore such gems and that [SIZE= 13px]were the [/SIZE][SIZE= 13px]Autegwaith. The Cyborg knew that.[/SIZE]


"Oh do tell me," Artemis spoke with eyes burning into the small creature like wildfire and lips curved into a soft smile that chilled him to the bone. Her hand remained firmly rooting his to the table of his stall, keeping him in place, un able to escape. "from where exactly did you get these?" 
 
Glo'cer took the time to look around the small building. Everything was piled up without any sense of organization. It was only those who took their time to rummage past the junk who could find handy items. With a soft sigh, the solidus began digging in the heaps of broken, outdated tech. This was the moment he realized he actually missed his ship. He always made sure to keep it up to date with the best. Now he was just some schmuck with a blaster pistol, syringes, a few trackers, and some credits he kept on hand. He didn't let it get to him for long. All he really had to do was start all over. Piece by piece he would work the Odyssey up to peak performance levels. That was, as long as he was staying on it. It would take a while for him to amass the credits needed to get a ship. It took even longer to find a ship worth stealing that wasn't intensely guarded. As he let his thoughts wander about what to do, he had absentmindedly organized a small section of the pawn shop. Within the bundle of tech, he found a UPS (universal positioning system) On a tablet like device. The screen was cracked but it still worked when he tried turning it on. It had the known universal area loaded besides restricted areas and past the far rim. Even if the areas were not loading, trackers would at least tell someone was within them. It would just be harder tracking someone's current position inside. Hmm... He questioned to himself as he took a tracker out of the pouch. He placed the tracker and tablet close together. A moment later, blue liquid came from his hand after pricking it. Small fits of sparks came and upon the screen, a red blip could be seen. He zoomed in on the screen, the touch sense being a little off due to the cracked screen, to the current planet they were on. Sure enough, the red blip was right were he was standing. He moved around a little and observed how it moved every few seconds. This will suffice for now. He said agreeing with his process of thought. Walking up to the creature at the counter, it still didn't pay Glo'cer any mind. He stood there awkwardly for a few moments till he cleared his "throat". The wide, frog faced, looking creature lowered their paper they were reading and slowly eyed the Solidus. Unimpressed, they went back to reading. Tch-at ell, Bree Sheventy cred... The higher pitched tone said annoyed. Seventy credits? That is much too steep for such equipment. The processing power on this is by far worth that much, the screen is cracked, and the process of finding it was too much of a hassle to bother. An audible sigh of annoyance came from the strange species as it looked to Glo'cer. Uo, Luuked for eet anywee.. Shixty-Five cred. No leess. Glocer was absolutely appalled by the this persons way of running a business. Just eyeing the creature up and down, he knew nothing really would come from trading. Especially how they handled their inventory. Fine.. He reluctantly said as he reached in to his pouch. He brought out a card like item that held credits on it. Something that didn't really have any ability to be hacked. The creature placed some card reading device on the desk, waiting for Glo'cer to use it. Guess we do it the old fashion way... He thought to himself in a hassled manner. He placed the card inside, but let the still dripping fluid from his hand onto the device. Instead of 65 credits, he was being charged for 10. The price he felt was most reasonable. Now, greet out. the store clerk said aggressively. 


Without another word, he left the store and headed back to the ship. Only to stop for a short period at a mineral trade. He picked out a few bits of minerals from all that was supplied. As he walked back to the ship, he started eating said minerals as though it were popcorn. As he came to the ship again, he saw a large, blob like being. He knew the name of the species of Omniplight well since he was too often confused for one by ignorant folk. He also saw along with the looming mass, Cael and a reptilian being. Even from a far, he could tell there was a little tension. Oh great, what have the barbarians gotten themselves into now? He huffed as he made his way over to the ship. I can't even leave for a few minutes before someone causes trouble can I? Though, it seems the tension is dying down here. The lack of bruising and injuries indicates there was no physical conflict transpiring. That is... Surprising though there was a 30% chance things could be civil. He said walking up to the trio. I presume you were unable to find all the trackers in the time it took me to get back? Whether it is due to interference of someone or the inability to get access to areas, it doesn't matter. We still have time.


 @zCrookedz @Vulcan
 
Tiberius couldn’t have seen or sensed the almost completely silent creature native to Cardaleon approach him, even though its mass was considerably huge. He was too focused on the pair in front of him to watch his back, so he was clearly startled by the strange voice suddenly coming from right behind him, instinctively jumping back and away from the source. While this maneuver did leave him as a target out in the open for the annoying archer lady to take advantage of, who kept calling him whatever she liked, at least he now had a better view over the whole group.


Tiberius couldn’t hide the disgust as he watched the thick brown blob grow in size and gain shape before his eyes, its broken up speech adding to the weirdness, and hoped the mask would hide his face enough as to not upset it to the point at which it would attack. Still, with looks like these, he was sure they were already used to this kind of reaction, just like he himself was used to being mistaken for someone else.


Because this was his first and hopefully last time on this planet, he had only seen pictures of those beings calling themselves Omniplights before takeoff. Their race was unmistakable from any other, so it wasn’t hard to connect the name with the appearance. He had wished he’d never see them in person but here was one forming right before his eyes and of course, immediately pointing a gun at him, so it was no wonder he didn’t seem to even notice the Siklaid leaving.


Suprisingly enough, considering its scary and rather ugly look, the Omniplight was more willing to answer his questions than shoot him right there and then and be done with it. He watched as the Dorogan relaxed and the two exchanged some greetings and while the situation did meanwhile turn quite friendly, Tiberius wouldn’t completely let his guard down and lower his weapons, even though he wasn’t currently pointing any of them at anyone. He was still standing on the bad side of a pistol, namely on the one where the deadly shots came from.


Tiberius didn’t doubt the words of the two of them when they started to explain the actual situation to him, even though it wasn’t all that easy to understand what the Omniplight, going by the name of the previously mentioned Glak, was saying. There was nothing in for them to fool him when they clearly had the upper hand, so after they were done telling the story behind the Odyssey now being a property of this Hunter guy, the vigilante sheated his blaster and sword and muttered the words “Man oh man.” while rubbing the bridge of his nose, right after letting his hand drop back to his side and looking up at the brown blob. “And I assume this is when I last heard of it until a few weeks ago. It was being repaired and then” he glanced back at the Dorogan “Mr. Hunter was clearly capable of keeping the information about its whereabouts well hidden for about five years.” A long sigh escaped his lips. “I suppose I should be happy, but I was really hoping to put an end to those bastards myself after all this time chasing after them. Seems like I was just chasing my own tail.”


After a short pause to gather his muddled up thoughts again after presented with such news, he continued, unbelieving of what he was about to say next. But it wasn’t like he was left with much of a choise anyways. “Look, I know this might sound like a lot to ask, especially since I threatened you and all, for which I’m sorry, but I’m in dire need of some sort of transportation out of here. In case you noticed that smoke on the way here… yeah, that’s what’s left of my ship and I’m not really in a financial position to simply purchase a new one. But you told me you were going to the outer rim and this might be the best place to start looking for my enslaved people. If you’d take me along with you, I promise I’ll be paying you double the price of those other passengers, whatever you want.” Just then another blob he had seen leave the Odyssey a few minutes ago, looking somewhat similar to the Omniplight up close, walked up to them but Tiberius didn’t see any particular weapons on him pointing in his direction like most of those who joined the party did, so he ignored him and kept looking at the Dorogan with a bit of a pleading look.


@zCrookedz @Lioness075 @Bolts
 
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With a nod to Cael, Nu returned to the sleeping quarters and curled up in her little nest. She would take a short nap, while she had the chance..


Her very, very short nap was cut short by Cael making an announcement to meet in the lounge. Nu gave a grunt, and forced herself to comply. She listened grumpily, and gave a hur-umph as he lowered the ramp. She was hungry, which made her grumpy.


The Kryx gave the others a small glance before leaving the ship, not glancing in either direction until she was into the city.


Finding food was always a struggle for her, because the Kryx had such specific diets on their isolated planets. That, and Kryx could not eat the meat of another being. Not only did they have moral objections to it, it made them very, very sick.


She wandered the marketplace for quite a while before finding something acceptable. The vendor was of a smallish, insect-like species that she had never seen before (and didn't care to see again) and the food was the core of a plant that grew like a weed on this planet, cooked with heavy seasoning to cover the bitter taste, and wrapped in a thin bread. Nu paid for it willingly, and munched as she finished her tour of the place. It wasn't half bad, even though it was terrible.


The Kryx splurged again before leaving the marketplace, because somehow, a jittery little reptile-creature had a flask of Hurth, Kryx wine. She didn't want to even consider how he had gotten a hold of it, but it was too much 'home' to pass up. She was able to barter the price down, because she knew it was a low-quality wine that hadn't aged a day, and walked away feeling rather satisfied.


Nu had run out oft hings to do though, so perhaps it was time to head back to the ship and catch that nap..


@any and all
 
As the tension of the situation began to die down, Cael and everyone under the ship began to visibly become more relaxed. Of course is helped that Cael also no longer had a gun pointed at his face. As Lara approached from the side and then made her leave of the situation Cael gave her a questionable glance at the mention of a gas mask. He shrugged and refocused on the Gehennian and Glack. Before he could speak however, the all too familiar chastising voice of C-Virus could be heard, which Cael couldn't help but turn towards after his mention of being civilized with a sarcastic expression.


"We were just waiting for you Slime, before we broke out the wooden clubs and went to town."


The Second part of C-Virus' raised Glak's attention and he turned his faceless head towards the Solidus.


"mmm Trackersss? Bhat did you get yourssself into time Hunter?"


Once again, Cael went to remark on the subject before Glak began to move once more. He lifted a slime covered arm towards the bottom of The Odyssey and placed it on the bottom of the ship's hull. Tendrils of slime began to erupt from Glaks arm and crawl over the surface of The Odyssey. As they did, Glak began to shrink down more and more until he had gone from his 8' to a more reasonable 6'. The tendrils wandered across the surface and began to disappear into different nooks and crannies of the ships surface until they were all gone. 


"It ssshould not take me long to find the ressst of the trackerss."


Cael smiled a bit at Glak, but was quickly broken by the Gehennian piping up once more about his predicament. Cael felt a bit of pride when he mentioned his evasion skills, something that he had been rather at good ever since he was a child. But when he began to speak about getting a ride to the outer rim, where Cael had absentmindedly told him they were heading, he gave C-Virus a bit of a side glance before fixing his gaze on him again. The money sounded good, especially since technically the "passengers" were not actually paying for their trip. But, there was a lot riding on this mission, and Cael wasn't about to risk a tag along ruining their chances of Gru'ha's reward. Cael let his hand pull on his beard for a moment while he thought it over 


"Don't worry about the mix up, hell, its not the first time and it probably wont be the last. But I can't take ya aboard. We are at maximum capacity as it is with six passengers. But there are lots of ships headin' for outer rim from here, Glak might be able to help you out with that?"


To that, Glak made a small nodding gesture as one of the small tendrils dropped from the ship onto his head and seemed to disappear into him. 


Cael adjusted his hat and nodded to the Gehennian as he turned away towards the door leading to the salvage yard. Glak lurched forwards a bit until he was before the Gehennian and turned back towards him.


"I know ssseveral Pilotsss heading for Outer Rim thisss evening. When I finisssh with Hunter, I can point you in the right direction."


With that, Glak lurched forward and began to head for the salvage yard behind Cael. Cael's pace was not very fast, allowing Glak to catch up with him rather easily. When the blob was beside the man, a small series of bubbles on what would be an arm. 


"You and I Both know that ssship can hold him Hunter."


Cael didn't look at Glak, he just kept walking into the Salvage yard and immediately pointed towards a large pile of parts.


"You still keeping the Exodus parts over there?"


Glak nodded and the pair began heading for the pile. As they approached the pile, Hunter sighed and gave Glak a quick glance. 


"Not quite that easy this time. I'm on a job, and the less people involved, the better. All I can say to YOU, is that the empire confiscated all my fluids and parts. So if you could help me out with a few canisters of plasma, coolant, and fuel; along with a few spare parts, it would be much appreciated."


@Lioness075 @Bolts @Darkeina
 
Rosalyn tried to hide her annoyance at the mention of them not having many rations left but failed. A frown formed on her face as he mentioned thn in one of the better foods he had here. Maybe she would be better off starving herself. No Rosalyn. You know you can't do that. Guess she was going to have to get some for the trip. Walking back off the ship, her nose scrunched up at the stench of the wretched planet. In the little pouch that she had Rosalyn searched around to see how many credits she had. She did know for sure that she did not have enough to go buying just anyone rations so really she would mostly look out for herself. I'll only get enough to last me till we land on a different planet. Just from the way this planet looked and what Cael was saying she did not want to get any more than she needed of their food.


As she walked through the city she kept getting odd looks from the citizens. Since she didn't know all the species that lived on this planet Rosalyn tried her hardest to hide her disgust. Also from the way they had greeted their ship she was pretty sure they had no qualms about blasting her into tomorrow. Even with that thought in her mind she couldn't help the fact that she walked taller than them, her head held high liked she owned the joint. It didn't take long for her to reach the port that Cael was talking about but it was a stressful trip. Rosalyn had to keep resisting the urge to have her plaster turned on from the way they looked at her but the more she ignored them the more they ignored her.


Once reaching the port the people didn't let her in until she mentioned to them that she was with Glak. Rosalyn walked up to what she believed sold food. "What can I get ye?" Rosalyn looked over the humanoid creature with extra limbs.. The creature repulsed her but she kept a stoic face. "I'm looking to purchase some rations. Preferably not sludge and toxic." The creature looked at her with its eyebrow raised. "It'll cost ye extra." "I'll pay the extra." Rosalyn didn't care if she spent most of her money just to get the better food. She exchanged information with the, she assumed, woman and handed her her card with the credits on it. She told Rosalyn that they would have them delivered before they left.


After the whole ordeal was dealt with Rosalyn headed back to ship. She did not want to be out in the polluted air more than she needed to be. When she got back to the ship there was a new creature there along with C-virus. "Who's the new guy?" She asked her eyes looking the new creature up and down. It was a species she hadn't seen before. Rosalyn was already really far from home so it made sense that there would be creatures she didn't recognize here.


@Bolts @Darkeina
 
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Tiberius hadn’t really been all that optimistic about Hunter agreeing to his request in the first place, so he wasn’t surprised when the other tried to come up with some ridiculous excuse not to take him along. That ship was capable of holding much more than that inside from what he had witnessed. On the other hand, he wouldn’t have felt comfortable sharing a ship with someone who had threatened him beforehand either.


When Glak told him about some other ships leaving for the same destination that same day, Tiberius nodded an honest thank you, the really helpful nature of the Omniplight taken in consideration, right before refusing his help. “Don’t waste any more of your time with me. I’ll find them myself.” After that, he lingered and watched Glak and the Dorogan head for the scrapyard for a few more moments, then turned around and headed for the second exit of the hanger leading to the city, muttering a quick “The new guy is leaving.” in response to the confused looking woman who had just arrived on the scene as well. He wasn’t in the mood to stop and give a full explanation to people he might never see again. His head was held high, but the tip of his tail that was usually held up as well was now hanging low, nearly dragging on the floor, betraying that he was definitely feeling down at the moment, even if he was trying not to show it.


Once Tiberius was out on the street again, he didn’t head in the direction of any other docking station but simply went down the main street, following the flow of pedestrians. He wasn’t actually looking for a transport to the Outer rim, rather than just a way out of this wretched dying planet. The air was doing him no good and he hadn’t planned on staying here long in the first place. He had been busy those past five years and had already tracked down and recovered a good deal of his enslaved people, bringing them back to their homes one way or the other. Additionally, he, with public assistance, had done some serious conversing with the higher ups on Gehenna after the first one with the Odyssey and similar events and had finally come to an understanding to get the main tunnels and caves off limits to spaceships altogether. Docking stations were moved outside and all sorts of deliveries were brought into the living areas through ground vehicles. No native had made a complaint about it since then and that’s what Tiberius cared about.


Thinking about Gehenna, Tiberius was starting to miss it, considering he had been out and about for the past couple of months, but sadly, there weren’t really many that traveled to it or would be willing to take him there for a reasonable price. He would need to steal another ship but not from Cardaleon. He had been more than lucky to have landed safely after getting shot at from those scavengers and wasn’t planning on trying his luck a second time.


A scene at a crystal shop occurring a couple of feet up ahead caught his attention and, curious as he was, even though this place was known for all sorts of criminal tendencies, he approached the stand and stopped right next to the cloaked figure tightly holding some creature, that looked like the vendor, in place. Tiberius crossed his hands behind his back and slightly leaned forward to get a better view of the mystery person, immediately recognizing the female that had rushed out of the Odyssey a while ago the moment the ramp had been lowered, almost like she was in hurry to find something or someone. Her cyborg appearance was quite unmistakable from the rest of the citizen here so no wonder she was wearing a cloak to hide from prying eyes. “Need help with something?” he casually asked her instead of the seller, who seemed to be in greater need of that at the moment.


@zCrookedz  @Ch3rryBlossom28 @Bolts @Dominaiscna
 
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Two pairs of eyes simultaneously fixed on Tiberius for a few seconds upon his arrival beside Artemis at the stand. One pair, pale green in colour and slit, switched between the two creatures before him as if he was not sure who posed a bigger threat. The robotic Gwathian or the reptilian Gehennian. His odds didn't look good and he gulped, trying to swallow the fear that formed a lump in his throat. "Are you with this... this thin- this Gwathian? If so, then get her off of me!" The Cyborg turned her gaze away from the small man to Tiberius for a moment, looking him up and down for a moment as if wondering why he was talking to her. She was quite sure that she'd never seen him before.


A squeak from the trader drew Artemis's attention back to him for a split second before throwing Tiberius a soft smile. "Give me one moment," was all she said with a tone of finality that left no room for arguments. Turning her full attention back to the strange little creature, the cyborg's grip on his hand tightened as she asked again, slower this time, "From where exactly did you get these, Ai'Mithe?" 


Deciding that he was probably dead already, the old Ai'Mithe squeaked out, "Devini ... I got these all...from.. Devini...." Once the words were out of his mouth, the creature prepared for something, anything to happen to him. After all, Gwathian's were known to be all just a bunch of crazy killers, so it came as quite a shock when Artemis suddenly straightened up, letting go of his scrawny little hand which he quickly started rubbing upon being freed. 


"Now, was that so hard?" Artemis murmured and her voice took on the tone a parent would use towards a young child, almost cooing softly yet there was something cold and deadly underneath her words. As she spoke, the cyborg rummaged around in the small pouches she stowed most of her travel things in, which usually weren't many. 


".... What are you doing? Aren't you going to kill me? " questioned the small creature suspiciously, still rubbing the skin around his wrist that was sore from how hard Artemis had gripped him. 


"How much?" were her next words, completely ignoring his question. When the Ai'Mithe raised an eyebrow at her to show his utter confusion, she added, "I'll take all of them. How much?" 


For a moment, he was at a loss for words. What was wrong with that cyborg? Moments before, she looked like she was about to kill him and now she was just going to buy the stones off of him? Well if that was all then.. "480 Credits.... 80 credits for each stone," said the Ai'Mithe, casting a glance at Tiberius now before turning back to his new customer, "...But I'll give you a discount.. 420.. "


"How sweet." commented the Cyborg as she pulled out the pouch where her credits were, placing a handful down on the table where the displays were. "180 Credits. 30 Credits each. I think that is reasonable." 


"Are you crazy? You think I'm about to sell these for 30 blasted Credits?!" the trader roared as if he had suddenly regained his energy, practically radiating with anger. "Are you blast-"


"If it were not me, If it were another Gwathian, " Artemis interrupted in a low yet threatening voice as she fixed the man in place with her sharp eyes, "Then you'd lose much more than just a few credits, Ai'Mithe. In fact you probably wouldn't even be alive to complain. " she let the words hang in the air for a moment before adding, "240 then if it will give you less pain. Consider this a favour. So, deal or no deal?"


It seemed that it was enough to convince the small creature who was again reduced to a quivering ball of fine fabric and short fur bristling with anger. "Fine fine... Take it. Take it all! Just rob my whole store while you're at it!" he said, just as exasperated as he was scared. "And my name is Proteus! Stop blasting call me Ai'Mithe!" Perhaps being killed would have been better. "I don't suppose the lovely lady would also like a little pouch to go with it all? Consider it a gift." grumbled the man to which Artemis only smiled. Vexed, he angrily stuffed the 6 Gwathian gems into a pouch and dumped it infront of the Cyborg as he reached out to take the credits from her outstretched hand. "Tch.. Crazy Bitc-" 


As he was about to take the credits, her hand gripped his again. "Oh, little Ai'Mithe. You have no idea." Artemis said teasingly before letting him take the desired credits. Picking the pouch  of gems up, she secured it tightly to her waist before throwing the creature a smile. "Good doing business with you, Proteus. Perhaps I'll come by especially just to visit you." It was a warning. A warning for him to never be caught by her again with another cargo of gems. "No matter where you are."


"Just get out of here!" Proteus shouted, coming around and physically pushing Artemis and Tiberius away, obviously fed up with everything that had happened to him. In short, the poor thing was a jumble of anger, fear and depression at that very moment in time. "And I don't want to see your blasted faces here every again! Especially," he directed towards Artemis, "Not you!" Turning, the short little man marched back to his stall, bristling with anger while Artemis watched, eyes narrowed on the back of the Ai'Mithe before looking up at Tiberius.


"That went well," she idly commented, before turning her attention to Tiberius who was still a complete stranger to her, "Who might you be?" 


@Darkeina  (I made the green darker >w< Hope this is better. )
 
Glo'cer watched as Glak went to work on the ship. Seeing his body slink into and around the outside of the ship was fascinating to him. How efficient. He said pleased. Using one's body for such things surly does well for this line of work. I suppose seeing skills such as that really bring things into view. Though he still didn't enjoy getting mistaken for an Omniplight, he found comfort knowing there was some skills the race used that he wouldn't mind having. If he could move his body in a similar fashion, who knows what information he could find. He could perhaps even hack things with more grace. His day  dreaming was cut short by Rosalyn's question and the quick response from  Gehennia. He watched the reptilian being walk away from the ship with a questioning look. If he had eye brows, one would be raised. It matters not. The less people that know of our plans. He shot Cael a glance. The better... He knew not if the topic of the outer rim was brought up by coincidence, but the Gehennia walked away without any problem. That is what made the solidus wonder more. 70/30... He said out loud in regards to the percentage that the beans were spilled. There was a few points for leeway just in case Cael didn't mention the whole reason. 


I have some work to do inside, I have set up my sleeping quarters. I have overheard the topic from others on my travels, so I would ask you all to knock before entering. He looked to the remaining few still by the ship before he entered. He didn't know how long it would be before they would take off, but he had work to do. It would take a while to get all the trackers registered to the Universal Positioning System on his cracked tablet. Something he would look into fixing during the next stop. That and getting more credits. He entered the ship and walked to the lift near the center. There he took it down to where the shared rooms would be. Walking in, he noticed one bed was curled into a nest like state. It would seem someone has made their claim as well. How fascinating, the method of rest. I would say the likely culprits are Lara, with 40%, or Nu, with 60%. In either case, I should make haste. He sat on his bed and went to work hacking the trackers he had confiscated so they would connect to the tablet. He set the one he had already hacked underneath his bed mattress. 


 @Flutterby  @zCrookedz  @Ch3rryBlossom28


Mentioned:


  @Lioness075 @Darkeina 
 
Tiberius gave the trader a piercing look as one of the pairs of eyes turned in his direction, making it clear to him that he wasn’t going to take sides until he was fully aware of the cause for the escalation. But since this creature didn’t seem like all too bright or observant in a moment like this, he put it into words as well. “Not taking any sides for the time being."


He nodded approval when the cyborg told him to wait for her to finish up what she was doing and, in the meantime, walked to the other side of the stand to get a better look at the crystals and other items on display. Some were inexpensive and common but pretty to look at, hence why they were out for all who passed by to see, while a small collection of diamond shaped crystals of different colors were stored in their own cases, indicating that they might be more valuable than the rest.


Tiberius picked up one of the cases to look closer at the crystal inside and, after quickly glancing back to the woman, was able to confirm the one in his hand as being the same as the one on her forehead. This would explain her strong interest in their source. "I see." he muttered and carefully put the container back on the table.


He now knew what this arguement was all about, but decided to let the cyborg have her fun with the unfortunate furry creature. He knew exactly how good it felt to exact revenge on one’s very own. He'd intervene only if help was really needed, which he doubted. However, he was very surprised by her sudden change of state of mind and tone. By the looks of it, so was the trader, who not only had the guts to immediately question her about it but also demand practically the same price for the crystals, almost like he had a death wish.


The vigilante couldn’t hold in the small snicker at the merchant’s and the woman’s final exchange of words. This greedy little thing, who seemed to run out of courage every time he was threatened, sure made his overall bad day a whole lot better. When the furball had turned his back on them, Tiberius spoke up. “I have a feeling he won’t listen. If I spotted someone selling body parts of my people, I definitely wouldn't have been so merciful. They call me Shadow. Perhaps it's because I'm always watching their backs.” he introduced himself, answering her question. “So, mind if I ask what you’re planning on doing with these?” he then asked in return, pointing to the pouch containing all of the gems the vendor had on his display.


@Dominaiscna
 
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Artemis started to walk off in a random direction, making sure to keep the hangar within her sights. The trader was sending her evil vibes and death stares and it was really messing with her systems, much to her slight annoyance. As the Gehennian mentioned about how he wouldn't have been as merciful, she added, "I'm starting to regret my decision on letting him live..." Though said in a light and joking tone, the Cyborg really meant her words. It was an utter disgrace to the dead and to her people, as it would be for any other race, to have their body parts sold like products for another person's financial gain. Perhaps she really should've been less merciful on the furball, but then again, she knew she could not do anything more to the Ai'Mithe, she wouldn't.


"Shadow you say?" the cyborg commented as Tiberius introduced himself to her and his strange friendliness brought her much surprise yet she in her feelings and only commented in a lighthearted tone, "watching people's backs... very mysterious."  For a moment, she was silent, wondering if she should introduce herself or not... but there was no harm in doing so. And she wouldn't say much.  "My name is Argemis, short for Project Artemisia. Like yours, there is also a meaning behind my name, but it's not nearly as interesting as yours." 


At the question about the gems, she was tempted to not answer... but then again, what she intended to do with them was no secret. It was pnly common sense to do so for the dead. Taking the pouch out, she gently took out one of the gems, purplish grey in colour, and held it up to the bright sky so that it almost seemed like it was glowing in the light. As if it was alive. 


"Nothing really," Artemis at first, tilting the gem slightly so that there was a tiny reflection of the Gehennian on the surface of the stone, "I'll keep these with me and, whenever the next oportunity arises, I'll take them all home." Though she didn't remember much, the cyborg felt that it was her duty to deliver the gems back to Devini. It was something the mind no longer remembered but the gem always would. Turning the stone in her fingers, she was reminded of that distant planet she'd left behind her. "Using them as pretty treasures or practical itsems would be disrespecting the Gwathian's they used to give life to. These gems are the only things left when one dies. They deserve to be laid to rest on the land they grew, fought and died on. Don't you think so?"  


@Darkeina
 
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