Futuristic ⋆ ☆ ★ into the starlight will I go ≡ space mercenaries ★ ☆ ⋆

[noil]

⋆ ☆ ★ ☆ ⋆​

In the distant future, humanity has stretched itself across the far reaches of the galaxy. Along the way they discovered multitudes of life, whole new worlds opening up before them the deeper they went. However, space is not the futuristic utopia of advanced intelligences some would have expected to find. The galaxy is cut into territories of alien species or conglomerates, and while each sector minds its own fairly well, interterritorial problems require less biased solutions.

The Guild, a network of hired hands, bounty hunters, and mercenaries winds across the cosmos like a net. They take up the slack where authorities' jurisdiction or interest falls short, taking on jobs too troublesome, insignificant, or dubious for the proper channels. Anyone with a ship and an empty pocket can find purpose and fortune among their ranks.

The Insidiae is the ship of one such fortune-seeking crew. These are their missions.

⋆ ☆ ★ ☆ ⋆

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⋆ ☆ ★ ☆ ⋆​

Things had been quiet on the Insidiae for the last rotation, too quiet if you asked some on the crew. High paying contracts were few and far between, and resources were running thin. They had just completed a paltry fetch quest assignment, returning a defecting contract worker to the space station she was indebted to. The payment had barely been enough to refuel before they pulled out, and now the ship drifted just off the Tycho-Carina hyperlane, monitoring Guild frequencies for their next mission. It was into this lazy quiet of their ship, that the crew's respite was broken by an alarm, triggered by the reception of an odd distress beacon.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

024 was the first to notice. Of course it would; it did not really sleep in the way a biological organism might in spite of the select elements of carapace and vat-grown musculature that lined its otherwise creepy-crawly form. Its stupor however could still be awakened from, especially with the possibility of work. An electronic signature like that never was a good sign for who was sending it. For odd jobs folk, it was the payday.

Uncoiling and stretching to its full height, the clanking sound of its footsteps sounded out loudly and unbashedly as the enormous warmachine began its advance to the central briefing room. A buzzing PZIIIIIING sound fired off in staccato crackles from its speaker systems, the 7''2 nightmare machine turned glorified klaxon doing everything possible to summon the attention of the crew. If it was any more impatient, it would have wrested control of the onboard electronics from their actual captain but for all its tenacity, it knew when to be measured and calculating.

 

[Endless_Stars]

CoRE P51 was not truly sleeping when the alarm sounded. She was lying in her bed, curled up in her nest of blankets, but she did not sleep. No Ch'Kla ever slept. They had dormancy periods, times when they would rest their bodies to conserve energy, but they did not sleep. They would merely ride the waves of the hivemind as their body lay motionless. CoRE P51 had been drifting, gliding from one decision to another, giving her input as she went. A hive needed to decide the proportions of warriors to workers in the next hatching, a ship had gotten too close to their territory and the fate of the crew needed to be decided, a new soldier class was being built but should its blades be serrated.

She sat up from her lying position and climbed off of her bed. She made her way out of her room and towards the briefing room. As she travelled down the hallway she heard a klaxon alarm, which she assumed was 024 for only it had both the ability and the personality to do so. Collector arrived in the briefing room, ready to address the distress call with the rest of the crew. A distress call would mean either a dead ship, ripe for salvage, or a ship in need of rescue who would pay them back for their rescue. Commerce was all about equivalent exchange. Of course, if the ship wouldn't (or couldn't) pay them adequately then they would be in no shape to stop the crew of the Insidiae from gaining a dead ship's worth of salvage.

 

[Nothingness]

Interactions
N/A
Mentions
N/A
Location
Cockpit of Judgement - Dark Space
____________________________________________________________________

Flashing red lights and a low sound of an alarm echoed through each of the corridors of the fighter class cruiser, on the tail end of the ship as well as the sides were clear signs of battle from the dents and holes that were clearly present all around. The thrusters were cold, and the cruiser was now simply drifting on its side through the darkness of space.

On the interior of the ship, a male wandered through the corridors with light steps, touching the metal flooring only a few times due to there being no artificial gravity present on the ship currently after he had redirected all remaining power into life support, close range sensors, charging ports for his canine. Even if he might believe that this was the end for him, at least he wanted to make sure that his closest friend would not die alone. While making his rounds throughout the ship to check on the equipment as well as seeing how much power he had left in the backup generators, the sudden unexpected sound of his close-range sensors picking up another ship caught his attention instantly. Rushing as quickly as he could back to the cockpit just to stare out the window to see if he could catch a glimpse of what the sensors had picked up. Low and behold, a large ship was slightly off in the distance.
Knowing well enough that calling for assistance would mean paying up in currency and possibly having to explain who/what he was since his people were not exactly well known for traveling the galaxy to do intergalatic trade with other species. Though with his own people already hunting him down as it was anyway, this was going to be his best bet now to possibly get some allies or at the very least get dropped off the nearest trading planet so that he could repair his ship.

Lifting a small holographic monitor on the right side of his cockpit, he started to redirect most of the remaining power he had throughout the ship aside from life support into sending off a distress signal that constantly repeated 'S.O.S' as well as turning every available external light source on the chassis of the ship. Of course, due to the severity of the damage, there weren't exactly a lot of lights but the lights that were still functioning flickered on and off as some even shattered from their weakened state. "C'mon...C'mon...someone...answer. Anyone. I'm sorry little Luva. I promise I'll get you charged up as soon as possible." As he whispered under his breath, his emerald gaze stayed focused on the nearby ship, if it would decide to ignore his distress signal, he'd have to quickly redirect power to his essential needs once more.

 

[Huntertabbysandshark3]

Oralious
interaction
location​

Deep within the ship cargo hold the alarm stirred to life a Titan that had remained relatively still if it hadn’t moved one might have assumed the ten foot tall beast was some kind of onyx black mech, the truth was far from that, as the hulking figure moved fluidly it became more apparent that it was a suit of power armour. The entity was one of the crew’s largest memeber the Knight Oralious. It would raise an arm to its helmeted head and speak into the Gaultet that was hooked up to the ships intercoms because subtly was not then neten’s strong suit. “This this knight Oralious what is occurring? Have we got a new job?”

 

[Hiuly of Starmoon]

All of the ship was dark and quiet. Ren was currently sleeping, wearing her fluffy sweatshirt, which she always wears when the ship‘s a bit too cold, and wrapped inside fluffy blankets, making her bed become a warm cocoon of fluffiness. That was one of the nicer sides of being one of the few crew members who actually need sleep. Though that peaceful comfiness was quite short-lived, since the alarm started blaring, waking her up immediately. Ren jumped out of the bed, put on some clothes and exited her room, hopping on one foot to put on the other shoe, before taking off towards the elevator, taking her to the top level and to the cockpit as well as to the rooms of the other crew members, arriving as one of the last ones in the briefing room. Stifling a yawn she asked: „Everything alright? What‘s going on?“

 

[noil]

^{- - -} A-C3 ^{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -}
Ace had come to the ship’s armory once they’d pulled away from their latest employer’s station. They needed to decide how much of the ship’s pitiful budget they could throw into stocking its shelves. Although, he wasn’t taking stock so much as he was just looking dejectedly at the places where stock would be if they had any. If he had the ability to, he would’ve sighed. The Insidiae needed to find some higher-level employment if they didn’t want to end up scrapping their way through the galaxy on half-charged blasters and kitchen knives.

This crew had a penchant for kinetic munitions greater than most in this age, which Ace understood, he really did. Kinetics were flashier, noisier, and more obviously destructive than energy based weaponry. But they also added up. It wasn’t normally a problem when jobs were flowing. Now though… Jobs like this last one they’d been on went easy on their stores of munitions, which was good, but it was also boring. They needed something fun. And expensive.

Ace’s thoughts were interrupted by the subtle incoming emergency broadcast alarm coming over the ship’s intercom system. It was joined moments later by 024’s much less subtle ringing echoing its way down the halls. Ugh, this guy. He had to allow that it did do its job, though. It would be hard to ignore whatever was going on with that racket blaring its way into every crevice of the ship. Ace gave one last glance around the sparsely occupied room then left to make his way to the briefing room.

He wasn’t the first one as it turned out, other crewmates had already begun to make their way to gather, though their captain had yet to make an appearance. Ace made his way in and took up a space to the side of the room, leaning nonchalant against the wall there.

"It’s probably nothing," he remarked, to no one in particular, "someone probably forgot to flip some switch that needed flipping before we pulled out. That or we’re out of fuel. Again."

 

[Endless_Stars]

Collector had taken a seat at the table, and stood upon it so that she could see above the table. She twitched as the voice of Knight Oralious came over the intercom, but she ignored it. The Knight would eventually make its way to the meeting table, and then it would be informed. Collector watched the others as they entered. She bristled in offense at Ace's comment on fuel.

"Negative." She stated, "Insidiae fed." She paused for a moment, "Possibility: Insidiae not soothed."

Collector had made sure to requisition the funds for fuel from the ship's coffers, and then she had bought it herself. It had merely taken finding a kind-hearted merchant (rare, but she had been lucky) and looking sad and pitiful and suddenly she had a deal for the fuel they needed. Food for the crew had been a bit more difficult, but she'd been able to deal with a merchant who had seen her walking with one of the more... intimidating crew members. All she had to do was suggest that her crew was hungry and not opposed to violence and suddenly the prices dropped. Truly, a miracle.

She didn't know if some switch or other had been flipped wrong, as Ace proposed. It was not her job to sooth or guide Insidiae, merely to feed and heal.

 

[Teltex]

Evatt

Ding!

With a light chime the elevator doors opened, and Evatt marched into the briefing room, itching the side of his head and holding back a yawn. He would've made a comment about how the current alarm system disrupted important sleeping patterns, but half the crew on this cursed ship barely needed to sleep as it was, and the ones that did wouldn't have listened anyway. So instead Evatt straightened his back and tried to make sense of what was going on. He swore, if this was another prank...

"Knocked on the captain's door as I went past," he said to the others, positioning himself on the wall opposite to Ace. Sitting down seemed... too passive, when there was an alarm ringing. "So he'll be here any second."

He felt a little out of place, sitting in the briefing room with just his medical overalls, but the others didn't seem to care. He counted them in his head as he looked around the room - Ace, Collector and 024, with Oralious coming up soon. Internally he was relieved by Ren's presence as another human (however human she was) and tilted his head sideways, listening to the alarm. Most systems had subtle differences between a fuel alert vs. damage to the ship or other issues. You just to know what to look for.

"And it's a distress alarm," he said finally, looking back to the others and crossing his arms. "Which means there's a stranded ship or satellite out there who needs our help."

 

[Scarecrovv]

grey slept sprawled, stomach down, upon one of the couches (could he even call it that?) in the lounge. one of his arms hung over the side, claw-tipped fingers just barely skimming the floor, while the other curled underneath his head as some sort of pillow. he'd left his room earlier that night, unable to sleep, and grabbed something to snack on from the kitchen before eventually crashing on the couch. it hadn’t entirely been on purpose, and he’d probably wake up with a stiff neck later, but he was able to sleep again.

not that it really mattered anyway.

he'd been out for at least another hour when the ship's alarm woke him rather abruptly, and he jerked upwards, one hand holding himself up before he was even fully awake. grey paused for a moment, blinked once, and then let his gaze drift towards the ceiling like it were the one to personally offend him. another terrible noise joined the ship's—024, he knew was safe to assume, because what the hell—and it had him scrunching his nose and flipping his ears back. when it was clear neither noise was going to stop, he eventually lifted himself up and off the couch in tired acceptance.

he made his way to the briefing room quietly, hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie, stopping only once to listen and then heave a sigh as oralious' voice echoed through the ship's coms. there were a few others already there when he arrived—he noted the absence of the captain—but grey didn't bother with greeting any of them, moving to sit down instead. he caught the tail-end of evatt’s sentence, something about a ship needing help, and he frowned, planting an elbow on the table and propping his chin up on the palm of one hand.

 

[ChasmOfOrganicMatter]

"Cause for concern."

The machine's nightmarishly loud blaring stopped and a voice emerged from behind fleshless mouths and pointed teeth.

"Distress signal brings up an alternate possibility; a trap for the unwary. Find out the location, scout around the vessel. We would not wish to become the prey of a pirate's lure."

Its voice was clean and clear, tinted with the throaty buzz of something clearly synthetic and drone-like. 024's body remained still and unmoving, stiff as a rod and as ready as a praying mantis though to strike at what was unclear.

"Another unpleasant possibility: others have heard it and will beat us to the chase and whatever repayment we would be owed. Time and money are bound together. I suggest we stay at the fringes of scanning range, send drones to scout out the surroundings, then we send in extraction teams. If we have a smaller detachable vessel, that would be perfect. Hard vacuum is not a problem for myself with minor adjustments. I am unsure of the rest of the crew."

 

[noil]

^{- - -} A-C3 & K'Tharrark ^{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -}
“Right, well, if someone’s hoping to jump us, they’ll be in for a rude awakening, and if they’re really stuck out here they better not be looking for charity,” Ace grumbled.

The team might not be on their A-game, but they were still a force to be reckoned with by his estimation. Coming away with a loss wasn’t an outcome anyone here would stand for. Scrap, payment, or some reward for eliminating pirates, they’d end up with something.

The Captain entered the briefing room then in a rustle of cloaks, the mood in the room shifting immediately at his presence. Some theorized he could emit some kind of infrasound to cause the effect. Those with better hearing said that was bullshit and it probably had more to do with body language, but the result was the same. When the Captain was around, you paid attention.

K’Tharrark tromped past the gathered team without a word to the head of the briefing room table, clawed steps heavy on the metal paneling of the floor. He swiped a hand over the table, bringing up the inbuilt holo data display. To one side, the waveform of the distress signal itself pinged, steady and regular. In the center, a readout of what their system could glean from the transmission. It wasn’t as much as he’d like to have seen - unknown source, ship of unknown make, no read on damages from here, close by - and K’Tharrark glared at the display irritably for a few drawn out moments before finally looking up to glance around the table at those who had gathered.

“We’re responding,” he said, voice like gravel behind his mask, not leaving room for disagreement, “But the circumstances aren’t sitting right with me so we make this quick. All hands on. If the ship’s salvageable, we drag it back to the nearest port, if not, get what scrap we can tear free and get out. Evatt, I leave it to your judgement what medical support you’d like to provide. Objections?” He leaned back from the table, all four arms crossing as he scanned their faces again.

 

[Teltex]

Evatt

Evatt stood up straighter when the Captain entered, biting back another yawn. The time to collapse into bed would be later. That was, if the crew didn’t blow itself to hell and back by running into a trap. He and Ren would be working overtime then. Still, he didn’t regard it as an immediate possibility, and the Captain had a sixth sense for these things, anyway. Metaphorically, at least. The rumours hadn’t gotten that crazy yet.

He nodded when his name was said, making a mental checklist of portable equipment he’d bring. Gene-dialler, expandable medkit, hexascope… On second thought, maybe he’d ask Ren to come along. She was practically a walking medical arsenal, anyway. He noticed Grey slip in, but didn’t comment on tardiness. The pilot was an odd one, not too keen on medical instruments, but he could fly like nobody’s business and Evatt always tried to make sure his tools weren’t too intimidating.

“Just one,” he responded to the Captain, glancing back at the holo display.

“Should we have someone on radios, try to breach contact? Get some more intel on what we’re dealing with?”

 

[noil]

^{- - -} K'Tharrark & A-C3 ^{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -}
"Good thinking." K'Tharrark nodded to Evatt, acknowledging his input, "The limited nature of the broadcast casts doubt that they will be forthcoming, but it cannot hurt to try."

He swiped a clawed hand over the table's display, dismissing its projection.

"Grey, head to the cockpit and get us in position to dock. Collector, accompany him and see if you cannot get a response on coms. Everyone else, grab your gear and head to the docking bay. Let us try and get this done with swiftness. I do not want to linger too long here." The directions were given rapid fire, K'Tharrark was never one to waste time waffling back and forth on options. Best to aim true and stick with your decisions.

"Alright then," Ace shoved off the wall we was leaning against to walk out, "let's go tear shit up. I call dibs on anything incendiary."

K'Tharrark grumbled a sound of disapproval, then: "Let me be clear- our aim is not to act as vultures on this ship. If there are crew aboard and they merely need a boost, that is what we will give. We are not pirates."

Ace turned at the door to the briefing room to offer a sloppy mock-salute and a "Yes, cap'n sir" as he backed out of the doorway and headed off back toward the ship armory.

 

[Huntertabbysandshark3]

Oralious
interaction: noil PixelSymphony
location: briefing​

Oralious trudged there way up from the cargo bay with the usual loud thumbs that accompanied the armoured behemoth the captain awaiting them to give the briefing they where responding to a distress signal from some merchants ship they‘d either assist the crew with whatever might have occurred upon the vessel or salvage if they where too late to save anyone either option didn’t bother the neten simply responding with a sequence of three thumps to the chest piece signifying… something? “very well captain I shall assure the task is dealt with swiftly… however I must first retrieve a certain someone. “ Oralious said before lumbering off to search of an old friend that being Val. after a little while the armoured Titan found her seemingly having slept through the alarm wasting no time in just picking her up like a toy. “We have a mission to attend to so if you could get ready that would be appreciated“

 

[PixelSymphony]

Val gave a start as she was lifted into the air, only to be plunked down next to her bed. "HUHWHAWHO oh, it's you, Ori." She gave a heavy yawn, rubbing her eyes. "Is it morning?" A quick glance out the viewholes very quickly oriented her brain as to the meaninglessness of that question, and she rapidly came to mental sharpness as she realized what Oralious had said. "Oh Creator above... ugh, okay... yeah... gimme like... five minutes." Without even a shred of care for modesty, her pajamas were flung onto the bed and she quickly doffed her usual outfit, before taking hold of Oralious's arm. "All right big guy, lead on~"

 

[Hiuly of Starmoon]

During the briefing Ren made her way over to her mentor, Evatt. She found it a good idea to be physically closer to him so they could discuss things more easily, as he was the one pretty much telling her what to do. She stopped when she practically stood behind him and listened to the rest of the briefing as well as some questions of the others and Evatt. She only noticed that Val was missing when said person entered the room with Oralious.

„What are we going to do? Do I come along or should I stay and prepare the med-bay?“, she now spoke up and asked Evatt about her next action to take. „Though I suppose preparing the med-bay too much wouldn‘t make much sense at this point of time since we don‘t know what kind of creature is onboard that ship“, she went on thinking out loud.

 

[Huntertabbysandshark3]

Oralious
interaction: noil PixelSymphony​

Oralious just waited patiently for Val to get ready the neten found them rather amusing in all honesty, such an oddity in how they acted but in an endearing sort of way. the large armour-clad entity not minding their slightly inappropriate action of tossing of their clothes but that was just val for you. Oralious producing a low grumbling noise that was some sort of chuckle. "faster than last time well done val.. now to give you a quick overview.. thier a distress signel we are looking into.. so thier may be some targets we shouldn't be shooting as dissapointing as that might seem" Oralious would explain calmly as he exported val to armoury before they needed to leave

 

[Teltex]

Evatt

Evatt glanced at Ren as she made her way to him. When the debriefing was over and everyone split to do their jobs, he ran a hand through his hair and turned towards her again. As always, her cybernetic implants weren't immediately obvious, but he knew they were lurking just beneath the surface. Still, he couldn't complain. Even if he needed to be a mentor, his workload had reduced drastically since she'd come on board. However he felt about her bionics, they was no arguing their use.

"You're coming with me," he said, beginning to walk in the direction of the docking station, scrounging in a locker and finding a first-aid kit. One day, he'd scattered them around the ship in case of an emergency where the med-bay was unavailable. Justified paranoia, he called it. The best kind.

"I'll need your eyes when we're there," he told her, still walking. "So far, you've been good at locating the big injuries - broken bones, torn ligaments, that sort of stuff. But this time, try scanning for the subtler things. Traces of chemicals in the blood, for example, or any presence of radiation poisoning. You'd be surprised how many distress calls occur because of a reactor failure."

He turned back to her. "And who knows, you might learn a thing or two about emergency triage. It's always a coin toss when there's an alien involved."

 

[Hiuly of Starmoon]

Ren followed Evatt into the direction of the docking station. Ren was excited she got to go with the others to inspect the ship. "Do you even know how many kits you hid on the ship?", Ren asked as Evatt pulled out yet another first-aid kit from one of the lockers. She found it astounding how every time she goes on a mission with Evatt he somehow manages to pull out a first-aid kit from nearby every single time. Ren found it interesting on one side, on the other she was a bit concerned about him, since that didn't seem like a normal thing anyone would do. Then on the other hand, she had the privelage to have grown up in a safe environment, where the biggest fights were wether your mansion had the most rooms or about how big your pool in your garden was. She wrinkeled her nose thinking about it. That had been one of the many reasons why she had ran away.

"I can try scanning for more subtle things, but I can't guarantee it works", she said after Evatt had snapped her back into the present with him continuing to speak and smiled at Evatt suggesting that there was a chance she could learn something new. She loved how she could learn by doing and get some on-the-job experience here. And the best thing with this was, that she wasn't even disappointing her parents. They wanted her to become a successful doctor and here she got more experience in a month than in two years of school.

 

[PixelSymphony]

Val'sharra Nightshroud​

---

"Sorry, what was that?" Val absentmindedly chimed in with, slamming a filled magazine into the sub-machinegun she withdrew from her weapons locker and yanking the charging handle, "I thought you mentioned something about targets we shouldn't shoot, strange as that would be." The grin on her face belied her usual devil-may-care attitude, but Oralious had been around her long enough to know she was joking... mostly. "Well, I guess if they've signaled for distress it doesn't have to be a hostile boarding exercise, but I'm still bringing some beef," she said, tapping the longarm before she began the process of donning the rest of her gear. In but a few moments time, she was strapped to the nines, and ready to make her sojourn. "All right Ori, getcha guns on and lessgo to the party!"

 

[Endless_Stars]

Collector straighten as the Captain entered. It was a piece of body language that she had picked up. She was fairly certain that it was a sign of respect. She listened, and then hopped down from the chair. She scurried towards the front of the ship, ignoring everyone else as she rushed to complete her task. She was in the cockpit quickly, and scrambled onto the chair at the comms station. She checked what the ship was hearing, and saw that the other ship was repeatedly letting out a distress cry, poor thing. She checked the external sensors (sensors and comms sharing a station) and saw that the other ship looked in rough shape, but many of its external lights were on, probably a sign of pain for this sort of ship given the damage. She felt bad for the ship, it looked like it was at the edge of death.

Collector deftly adjusted a few settings and then activated the transmitter, "Attention: signal received. Request: immediate response. Query: status of ship and crew."

She waited for a response, keeping a close eye on the sensors. It was possible that the other ship would be unable to respond normally, unable to stop its pained screaming, and she would have to be prepared for any unorthodox methods of communication that the crew might be able to get out.

 

[Nothingness]

Interactions
[Collector] - Endless_Stars
Mentions
N/A
Location
Cockpit of Judgement
____________________________________________________________________

Seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours as Jin sat in the cockpit just staring at the windshield towards the ship in the distance. Without so much as a response on whether they were going to provide help or simply move on for several minutes, he was starting to grow concerned whether he should continue with the repeated distress signal or save whatever power was left in the ship. The fact that the ship hadn't left that single spot the entire time was enough for Jin to continue holding onto faith that he was going to get some sort of help by the end of this.
Moments went by before an active comm channel lit up on the dashboard, a response. Wasting no time, he activated the ship's communications after having to bang on the dashboard a few times just to force the ship to power through its damages so that it could process what was being said clearly. Whoever was on the other end was requesting a status report on the ship and crew. Whatever the message was going to be, it was going to have to be quick as sending a message was only going to end up using more energy that could be used to power the lights and life support further.

"Status: One crew member in critical condition...life support systems failing...Hyperdrive damaged...Low fuel...Thrusters nonfunctional...Requesting docking..." Even with knowing that he was not in the greatest condition himself, the male was moreover concerned for his canine companion who was losing power by the second while he laid himself by the damaged hyperdrive just to absorb whatever little sparks that came off of it. Meanwhile Jin attempted to repeat the same message only to result in static being sent and his dashboard starting to shut down functionality in several spots. "No..no..no. Come on...just a little more. Don't give up on me now...!"

 

[noil]

^{- - -} K'Tharrark ^{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -}
The Insidiae gave a full-bodied shudder as docking clamps locked to home on the mystery ship, and K'Tharrark sighed into the now vacated briefing room with the sound, sending up a silent prayer to whatever gods were listening that this would be one of the rare times his crew didn't immediately cause problems for themselves. It's not that he didn't trust them - he knew they had the right skills and know how to navigate anything the galaxy could throw at them - they just lacked... tact.

He gave himself a number of seconds more to linger in the calm of the empty room and then conceded to whatever was about to happen, walking out to the cockpit to observe from there.

^{- - -} A-C3 ^{- - - Huntertabbysandshark3 PixelSymphony - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -}

"Yes unfortunately we've been demoted to escorting the med team," Ace said to Oralious and Val as they also entered the armory, "You know how they get, nervous, need somebody to hold their little hands." He slung the strap of what appeared to be a dubiously modified phase rifle over his shoulder, mood light. As far as exciting things to happen to the Insidiae this didn't even make the list, but it was still better than floating next to a hyperlane just waiting for a job to come through, so he'd take what he could get.

A vibration passed through the frame of the ship as they reached the docking bay, signaling their arrival and docking to the stranded stranger's vessel. There was a slight hissing around the frame of the portal, probably indicative of a leak that would need fixing at some point, if anyone could be bothered. Little things like that were always cropping up on active vessels, and on a ship this size there was always a bigger problem to take attention away from the little details. They should probably get a dedicated mechanic at some point.

The bay door began its series of clicks to unlock its inset personnel hatchway as the team gathered around the bay. It made for a bit less dramatic of an entrance, having to go single file through, but there wasn't much sense opening up the full door for something like this.

 

[Teltex]

Evatt approached the docking bay just as the hatchway unlocked, noting the others already there. It felt unnecessary to have a tank like Oralious coming with them, but precautions had to be kept. Distress beacons were like Kanzian casinos: 95% predictable with the slight chance of absolute chaos. So maybe bringing along a sentient siege engine wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Through all of it, Evatt made sure he'd keep an eye on Ren. Emergency triage wasn't for everyone, and most realized it after their first bout. Those were the types who probably didn't suit the bounty hunting profession. Ren had managed to be an adept student so far; Evatt hoped it would stay that way.

"You ready?" he asked her.

As they entered into the distress ship one by one, Evatt called out to whoever was inside.

"We're here to help!" he yelled. "Call out if you're injured!"

If they couldn't understand his language, well, that was just too bad. Some aliens didn't have translation devices, and all it did was make Evatt's job much harder than it needed to be.