Futuristic Starpath: Burning Sails [IC] [CLOSED]

[Doomevil]

"Uh. Well to be honest it's a long story Doc. Our people like my mom didn't learn any of this Human history. Our Human population came from a large ship containing all these Earth/Terran archives. These archives were primary sources like books, pictures, the whole shebang. I suppose we just decided to get along, I heard before I was born there was still conflict around the societies. A man named Lincoln taught me about these specific parts in his history. He wasn't military but a hunter in some civilian arm? They called it the Creed. But I don't know who led them other than the Man of Light." Nara explained. She continued on, despite not knowing of the consequences of telling it. But she just gave him the benefit of the doubt.

"Eventually they've built buildings and took the kids like me to schools. I think they really wanted us to learn rather than use those guns Lincoln used for hunting. I don't know why though." Nara finished before staring at the sky. "Well, it's been an honor Doc but I should probably find Grommy. See you." Nara waved, walking away.

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"Anytime, Nara." he waves back. The Creed taught her? The Divinity Creed? There's no way this was possible. They would've NEVER fraternized with aliens. They had to have been a splinter group or something, since the only Creed Typhon knows would've executed her for being "xeno filth". He'll have to talk more about this with her later. For now, a more pressing matter took charge almost literally as he felt a sensation clamping down on his bicep. He knows what it is, and what he needed. Another shot of of that sweet, sweet yellow liquid. He walks back to the medbay for another hit.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Shelby could only offer a small nod to Jericho as he carried on. She glanced down at her nails and realized they probably could use some work after the raid, though they didn't look all that bad. They had been painted a natural and neutral color, making them look unpainted at first, but on closer inspection they were more matte than unpainted nails. She noticed to some dismay a little bit of dirt and scratches on a couple of them. Combat was a filthy ordeal.

She hurried off through the ship to go to her private room there, and she began grooming herself once more. It was a meticulous and unending ritual. Most importantly, she needed some time alone to think on what she had done earlier.

---

Lucy had silently watched some of the others around the area as they talked and carried on, her interests peaked in the discussions around her. There was a discussion on communism and old Earth from what she could tell, which was somewhat fascinating as neither people appeared to be researchers or academics discussing the historical or sociological perspective on the matter. She was no stranger to academic arguments and scientists ranting, but it was neat to see this occur outside of a classroom or laboratory. It was like a miniature version of societal strife in small time. Organic behavior was undoubtedly one of great interest. She would have to study some more human history later to sate that thirst.

However, having spent some time thinking on Jericho's words, Lucy figured she should get an evaluation or second opinion on the eyeballs. The man who had been talking about communism earlier - a near full synthetic from what she could tell - appeared to be the ship doctor, and she followed him back to the medbay at a distance, slowly, so as not to appear threatening. It didn't seem like he really noticed her since he was hurrying along back to the medbay. Once he disappears within, she arrives shortly after.

To announce her presence, she taps the tips of her claws against the door, making a skittering sound.

"Hello. Doctor."

The veil over her face was still lifted, showing the dulled severed Upyri eyes in her sockets.

 

[EdwardDewey98]

Jericho was a bit confused by the mention of Spirra. Despite knowing how to move through the systems, he knew little of the many events that occurred across the galaxy. He assumed it must be something quite serious for her to mention it. "Don't worry. I'm used to people being scared of me." He smiled at Renate. "So a fellow assassin! I'm glad. Most people here seemed to be interested in charging in first and getting their heads shot off. I'm more for sneaking and causing chaos behind 'enemy' lines, you know?" He looked to Renate's hair. "I must say, I like your hairstyle! If you ever need a hair dresser, I'm your guy." He then looked to Vixaya. "Same with you, little lady! Oh! What are you girls doing, by the way? I'm just trying to get to know most people here, and you two seem very interesting!"

 

[Infab]

Lauren chuckled. "Yeah, I thought about doing something like that, actually. Say it was a low yield charge that would pop his head off and not damage the bridge. Its a good idea, really. I'll have to talk it over with Drav and Zadra, see if we can get something rigged up to slap on him. Rig up an extra one to show him just what it'd do, and spook him a bit." she said, as she moved another box into the mess storage. Dry goods, from the looks of it. Another box was filled with canned food. "My mom did that once with one guy, I think. Back when I was little. Scared him straight, and she only made him wear it for about a year or two. Might take longer for Roku, given his extensive history of bugging the fuck out."

Soon enough, all the food crates were moved into storage. "There. Enough food to last us a month or two, and plenty of booze and other shit. We can move some of it onto the Mordred later." she stated, motioning to the storage room. "I can get one of the Ironbloods to move the empty crates somewhere. Thanks for the help, by the way." she added, looking back to Petar.

-------

Karina glanced up from the papers in her hand, as Grommy spoke then Yolandi. She looked at the other crates related to the battle suit, then nodded. "Yeah, I'll need some assistance in piecing this thing together. Usually takes four or five people to do it, but I imagine we can still get it done. At least we have these." she replied, holding up the papers in her hand and the roll of technical schematics next to her on the crate. "My name is Karina Thiel. You can call me either, if you want." she then said, returning to reading over the instructions. "Excellent machine you have. Might be outdated, but sometimes the old dogs outperform the new ones." She glanced up to Yolandi, before looking over to the other three nearby. Renate and Vixaya, eh? Spirra? She had heard about the civil war. The Federation wasn't the only one with internal problems after all, and the Kanads certainly had plenty after the wars with the Sanghvi among other things.

"If you two need assistance with the mech, I could help as well. I'm not very experienced with bipedal vehicles, as I was trained only on battle suits, but it'd be a nice project for all of us to get to know one another. I'm sure that would make the captain happy."

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi nods, "Zou is getting on in years and honestly, the autocannon was a retrofit because I legitimately could not find replacement parts let alone new parts being fabricated to spec for the laser cannon he had originally. It was some weird setup, chemical laser I think they called it. Used these uh, self-contained cartridges of chemical compounds that would function as the light source to generate the beam. It's why it was easy to refit him to the autocannon because there was already a built in feed system from his backpack unit. I guess it's because his reactor likely didn't generate enough power to not only power him but power the laser at the same time. So might have been a power saving function even if it did mean he had limited capacity." She looks at the boxes holding the suit, "But you shouldn't have the upkeep issues I have, this looks like a new model or at least a current model, so finding spare parts for it on the black market might be easier if you can't just have the fabrication shop here make new parts for you."

Yolandi looks over at Grommy, "Hey, you did good on the raid there, Rocky. I don't think I saw you even get hurt during the mess of it. Helluva punch you got." Yolandi leans slightly to look over at the group by the mech, "I'm a battle suit pilot too, but I've messed around with enough mechanical systems to know something worth applying to fixing up the mech you got there. Would be a good team building exercise if we're all gonna be groundpounders together."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

Slower, slower, slower into the vein. Just one final push and soon nothing will matte- Lucy. "GOD-" Typhon screams as he drops his drug-filled needle onto the ground. That fucking thing's back, and in his own work station too! To make things worse, she was at the doorway blocking his escape. His breathing picks up and sweat starts dropping from his forehead. He can't run anywhere now. He can only pray that her visit would be very very brief. It takes nearly an eternity for him to muster up the strength to turn around and look at her, and when he did, he really wished he didn't. She looked creepy enough as is, all dressed in black and with those horribly sharp claws, but Typhon's worst fears about her were punctuated with what looked like organic eyes shoved into her eyesockets. Again he prays that she didn't steal them from his own personal collection or by God there'll be hell to pay.

He stands in place trying his best not to show any signs of fright, one hand supporting him on the counter, the other hand on a scalpel hidden behind his back.

"... What do you want?" he says, almost derisively.

 

[Doomevil]

"Oh thanks. I think I saw you do some power shots as well." Grommy complimented on Yolandi when he saw Vance's group fight the LMG guy.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy's biometric scanners detected Typhon's elevated heart rate and breathing cyclic activity. These were signs of distress... or excitement. She couldn't really tell. A researcher on human psychology had told her that disgust and pleasure were closely related processes, and she lacked further observation to make a full determination to validate this claim.

She stepped into the room and the door closed behind her. She glanced a little about the medbay, rather liking the appearance of it. It reminded her of Karos-III.

"I have come to partake in conversation. D-D-Doctor. I bare inquiries and a disposition for common discussion."

Lucy brought a bladed finger up to her eye, rubbing it around the socket to signify it was an area she wished to discuss.

"What is your o-o-opinion on the beauty of this organic ocular device?"

 

[Breadman]

"No problem. Barely worked up a sweat today anyway." Petar answered giving a friendly smile "Mean to ask you something, I've been frozen for a long time. I don't even know what year it is. That's how out of the loop I am. Shit, if Slade is still kicking, then I cant be that far from where I started. I can do my own catch up, but I need to hear it from someone in the game. How good or bad is it? Big players? Big threats?"

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

Lucy's bladed finger rubbing her "eye" made Typhon gag with disgust at such an unnerving sight. At least, she wasn't looking for a replacement... yet. As for her question, he didn't even know where to begin. Should he start by talking to her about how utterly wrong it looks? Should he mention that they look like they're starting to rot? Should he scream at her to get back, and if she didn't, would he gouge out both eyes and throw them into the nearest biohazard bin? And if she persisted, should he stab her again to put her down for good? Would he even be able to get away with it?

Probably not.

"Wh-... where did you get those..?"

 

[Emperor Sagan]

"I procured these from a deceased Upyri o-o-on the previous raid. This one's eyes were of an exquisite structure," she replied simply. The dead eyes were looking in the wrong directions and were almost certainly beginning to decay.

"Would you like to feel them?"

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"NO."

Typhon just has to pop open his visor since it's getting rather hot and moist in there from all the sweat.

"Look in a mirror! They're ROTTING! For God's sake, if you wanted eyes so badly why couldn't you just get synthetic ones?!"

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy was not bothered by Typhon's assertive tone. It was rather fortuitous that he was not socially inhibited and was capable of accurately expressing his emotions.

"I suspected they would begin the decay process q-q-quickly. That was my first question. How long would an organic eye last without c-c-containment protocols placed upon it? It would s-s-seem this period has come to pass."

She paused for a moment, as if in thought. More people telling her to get synthetics. "Synthetic augmentations lack the desirable warmth and p-p-pleasurable sensation of living or recently d-d-deceased flesh."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"So... That's it? Why, you want to feel alive, don't you? Wrapping your metal body housing your broken mind in blood and innards of those you've slain, just to feel like a human... That's the crux, isn't it?"

 

[KRIY]

Derrick sat down on a crate and twisted open his whiskey flask and downing the contents, only to surprised that there wasn't anything left inside.

"Ugh, Hate it when this happens."

he returned the flask back to his hip and scanned his surroundings. he sees Karina and some others in the distance talking. He looked over Karina's figure. before putting his hand in his face and shaking his head in shame for what he was doing. he rose up from the crate and made his way towards her.

"Looks like pretty interesting equipment here. you know how to pilot these things?

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy slowly slides her hand across one of the medical counters as Typhon talks, as if she was feeling it. There was just the soft hush of the claws sliding across the surface. His questions posed a curious inquiry, but one with some confusion.

"I am alive, doctor. Do not let my skull f-f-fool you into believe I am a deceased entity. I am, in fact, a fully sentient and l-l-living entity capable of...." she hesitated as she considered a succinct summation of her abilities, "... great passions."

She tilted her head slightly at the suggestion that she likes to wrap herself up in gore.

"Why... doctor... I did not r-r-realize you understood me so well. I am f-f-flattered. Truly, then you must understand as I do. The pulsating morass of dermal tissue and muscle s-s-sinew, drenched in the plasma of l-l-life, emitting the electro-organic stimulation of blissful heat...." She let out a gentle sigh, a corrupted series of off-tones that sounded like a computer crashing briefly from a critical error.

"You speak of s-s-such wondrous delicacies, doctor." She brings both claws up to her face and clasps it in her hands, her face turned upwards as if in despair. "And yet... I c-c-cannot consume the flesh."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

'[Oh my god. I think she's in love with me!]' he thinks to himself.

Typhon's eyes exchange their contraction/dilation rapidly, his poor little soul being violated by the implications that Lucy might actually be attracted to him. The shaking becomes nigh uncontrollable now as he drops the scalpel behind him and leans over further on the counter just to stop himself from falling.

"Y-Y-You w-wa-wan-want... to LIVE... t-t-to FEEL..." The words come out of his shaking mouth in installments.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy nods as Typhon speaks, but she eyes him curiously as he seems to enter some kind of fit or onset of exhaustion. "Feeling. Yes. I enjoy f-f-feeling. However. Clarification. I am a-a-alive, but your assertion that I want to l-l-live remains correct."

The AI steps up closer to Typhon. She reaches down to pick up the scalpel he dropped and she returns it gently to the table in front of them.

"Falling medical equipment must be sanitized according to c-c-common medical theory," she explains, pausing again. "Doctor. You appear further distressed. Are you in need of m-medical assistance?"

He didn't seem to be ill. Perhaps it was a social condition affecting him? Lucy wasn't sure on how to proceed at first, but she thinks back to Jericho's behavior around others when attempting to foster a relaxed and civil atmosphere. She raises one digit and very lightly taps Typhon on the nose.

"Boop."

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

She touched him. That was it. Nothing more. All she did was just gently tap him on the nose, sending Typhon backwards at least several feet. In his fall, he topples over a few carts containing all sorts of medical gizmos and gadgets, and it hurt badly as he probably landed on a bonesaw or something.

"What evil mind do you carry in that shell, woman!? What even worse hands forged you, you monster!?" He starts frothing at the mouth in delirium. His voice changes too, carrying static and a touch of radio within it.

 

[K0mori]

"We heard about the mech that cargo ship was carrying," Renate explained. "Vixy can pilot it. If we can get some better guns on it, she can kill with it. I know she looks like a kid, but..." Renate sighed as Vixaya turned away from Jericho, the kanad's shoulders tensing up, "...she's a lot more dangerous than I am," Renate explained quickly and without embellishment or fanfare.

"<Scout walker is kanad-make, based on 419-series. Controls are reworked and the entire cabin has been relocated to the tail. Won't feel the same. Doesn't matter much.>"

Vixaya shuddered as she finished speaking, as if it took a great effort to do so. Renate put her hand on the girl's shoulder and it apparently helped to calm her. The upyri turned back to Jericho and now Karina. "We'll want to get it online before the next mission, especially if they attack us with starfighters again. Vixaya will probably need some warmups in the simulator. And as for the hair... sorry bud, no man's ever laying a hand on me again. Not even an android," she added with a wink.

 

[EdwardDewey98]

Jericho pouted a bit as Renate told her that she didn't want his hair dressing services. She must have her reasons, but he couldn't help but to feel a bit discriminated against despite the fact she said it in a rather friendly yet honest way. Nevertheless, he simply nods and leaves the garage area, letting the others talk to the two ladies and help them if possible. He walked towards the barracks again, heading straight for his room. While walking towards there, he heard a few strange noises from the infirmary, but he sure as hell wouldn't even bother to investigate what was going on there. Once in his room, he started to play some videos on his datapad.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy watched Typhon stumble back from the table a few feet and into a medical cart after she touched him on the nose. She looked down at her claw and wondered if she mistakenly applied too much pressure to what had to be a substantially light framed doctor. It did not seem possible that the force she applied would equal that reaction unless it was primarily a voluntary or involuntary motor reaction by Typhon.

She stepped towards him to where he was on the ground, but paused when he started to yell. So he was, in fact, in some state of distress. Was it directed at her?

"I d-d-decline your statement on my mind being an entity of malicious behavior," she explained in a nominal tone. "And I was c-c-created by Lumos Biotech Laboratories. I must also d-d-decline your assertion of my nature to be comparable to a monster, for I do not display m-m-monstrous traits comparable to popular lore or synonymous s-s-size to my knowledge."

"Doctor. You appear severely distressed. Allow me to assist." She reached up to her eyes and slide her blades into them, pulling the eyeballs out on her claws. She then offered them to Typhon. "When I am distressed I consult memories of flesh. Here I-I-I can offer you two physical optical devices for enjoyment. Please forgive the incisor markings. If you require a verbal or d-d-demonstrative tutorial on deriving pleasure from these devices, I-I-I am capable of further assistance."

 

[Infab]

Lauren put her hands on her hips. "Well, its February 8th, 2426. Sol's fine with religion now, but they're getting tight when it comes to security. Creed's gone. The Federation's got some weird terrorist group popping up, something to do with some civil war a long time ago and Ker. They blew up their military academy on Hemera six years ago." she said, tilting her head as she looked to Petar. She glanced up to the sky, thinking of the other things to explain. "Yscom broke up and reformed as somethin' else. They're having their own little civil spat. The Kanads had another war with the Sanghvi, and a civil war. The Ayr are the Ayr, of course. Stuck up pricks as usual, though you meet a good one from time to time. Death Vigil's gone quiet, dealing with internal matters. Kercans have risen to the world stage in their own little slice of the galaxy. Out here, the Frontier Militia are doin' kinda well. Some new group has popped up in recent years called the Crimus Empire, just south of the Achaemenid Kingdom."

She shifted her stance. "That's galactic politics anyway...here in the RQ, piracy has hit a rough spot. The Feds, Sol, Yscom...all of 'em are pushing in to get a slice of the RQ. You know, cracking down on criminals and gathering up minerals and materials. Merc groups are still kicking, of course. Everyone needs someone else dead, including galactic factions." Finally, she went quiet for a moment, before looking back up to Petar. "There's a group roaming around out here, killing criminals and pirates alike. Lead by an Upyri woman named Anora Cortus. Used to be a Fed, jumped ship during the Starvis stuff years ago. Her and her lot killed my mom and the rest of the Reavers. Me, Zadra, Loudmouth, Pearl, and Taur Gorgon are the only ones left of the old crew. Taur's over there workin' on the Guillotine."

----------

Karina nodded. "I imagine that the Ironbloods over there have a fabrication bench or two. There might also be one in the garage behind me. Anyway, we can move this stuff in there and start piecing things together. Same with the mech over there." she replied to Yolandi, before looking to Renate. "As for the guns...might have to work with what came in the crates till we can upgrade the systems and equipment. I believe the super light mech comes with a mining laser or a chaingun as the basic loadout in terms of offensive capabilities. The battle suit here has a basic rotary cannon system and a grenade launcher. The one I was trained on had a similar loadout, but I know they can be equipped with far more dangerous weapon systems." She remembered seeing one battle suit with a triple rotary cannon setup, as well as a missile system. Another, she recalled, had a downscaled particle accelerator system.

She then noticed someone else approach and introduce himself. The bartender, Derrick. "Yes. I was trained on the battle suit platform while part of the Federation Naval Troopers. A lighter version of this one, but the controls and general mechanics are similar. This one is simply modified to handle more armor and heavier weaponry." she explained, patting the box beneath her. "I don't believe we've met personally. My name is Karina Thiel." She had noticed, as he spoke, that he had fangs quite similar to her own but slightly smaller. Another humyri like Aesha, it seemed.

 

[Doomevil]

"I suppose we should get this suit robot thingy working. Hmm, maybe I could use a suit as armor. If we're fighting tough people, would be good to get some protection." Grommy said to himself. He started to open some crates up from the container. First was walking towards one of them getting the top open. He pressed big fingers against the edge of the top, prying it off with ease and tossing it to the side.