Futuristic Starpath: Burning Sails [IC] [CLOSED]

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy stared back at Vance as he emerged from the ocean waves like a sea creature, carrying some form of containment for smaller ocean critters. Large volumes of water interested her on the basis that there was none on her homeworld, and that the facility pool for the staff was a place where many enjoyed relaxing. Aquatic life was unfamiliar to her.

She walked directly to Vance and pointed one bladed finger at the net. "Do they bleed?"

 

[joshuadim]

Vance instantly froze as soon as Lucy spoke. He maintained his outwardly composure, but inside he dreaded speaking to this creepy robot. "I, uh..." he said for a moment, trying to choose his words carefully. He really didn't want this thing to start going psychotic because of a misspoken word. "I don't think so...?" he then said with a smile, before turning to walk away at a slightly brisk pace.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy would have frowned if it was possible to do so. Currently, for the sake of the people around her, she kept her opaque veil on over her bare skull face. Vance's answer wasn't particularly satisfactory, and he seemed to be in a hurry. She began to follow him at a light pace, hoping that he would encounter someone else more knowledgeable about maritime life. If his attention was on consuming these creatures, then she needed to know more.

 

[ANIMAL MOTHER]

"Oh yes they do!" yells Typhon as he serves the next volley. "Poke them with those knife hands of yours!"

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi has been in crunch time since getting back, trying to get Vixaya's mech and Karina's suit up and running before she devoted any time to working on Zou. Zou's work would take a lot longer because of the sheer amount of repair and refit she has to do. She had made some headway with the Ironbloods in getting more of that special armor material they're using to plate up the Guillotine. The more important acquisitions however were a proper refit harness to hold suits like Zou and Karina's suit in position while she worked on them as well as access to one of the machine and tool huts that the Ironbloods were using for part fabrication. With those she could put more effective work into Zou instead of her usual hodgepodge of fixes. By the time Karina's suit and Vixaya's mech were ready for a proper shakedown and test, Zou had been stripped down to his exoskeleton chassis and the important internal bits were fixed up properly. Zou was standing on the platform for the shakedown in his stripped state, his weapon of choice was his autocannon though Yolandi had made it into a two handed weapon since she couldn't put the modular arm mount in place without the rest of his parts attached. It's good practice for him to free fire like that though, lets his learning algorithms update a little to help his targeting and tracking. As a little joke to lighten the mood, she used a blue tarp with white hearts spraypainted onto it to improvise a pair of boxer shorts for Zou. He wasn't impressed by this, but Yolandi laughed and gave him a wolf whistle which in turn snapped him out of his sulk and start striking macho poses in his 'underwear.'

Karina's suit was up first, she gave Karina some basic rundowns of what she had done but added the all important statement of, "If anything doesn't feel right, say so, please for the love of God say so. That way I can fix it and get you in a spot where you're comfortable with the suit. I was going off the stock configuration and setup parameters in the technical manual, so there may be some adjustments needed."

 

[joshuadim]

Vance noticed that Lucy continued to follow him, causing him to slightly panic as he picked up the pace into a now firmly brisk walk and headed towards the canteen. It didn't help that Typhon now encouraged her to move forward, and he hoped that he could lock himself in the kitchen. Dear god someone help me please. he thought to himself as he made his way towards the canteen. But then he realized, locking himself in the kitchen would be a TERRIBLE idea, considering the amount of cutlery and the enclosed space. He instead opted to try to lose the android by taking a false route and moved between different buildings within the compound.

He continued to move and zig-zag his was around until he found himself back at the Mordred and made his way to the kitchen there, locking the only way into there and taking a few deep breaths.

 

[Breadman]

In the following days, Petar relaxed a bit. Typhon told him to take it easy on the physical exertion, but sitting around and doing nothing but read through the documents his brother send him drove him more and more crazy. He needed to do something. The pain was dulled enough over time and the painkillers working in tandem. 'Don't mix the medicine.' He remembered. Maybe the firing range could distract him.

The sun out was hot, but not scorching. Perfect for a nice relaxing evening of shooting targets. The suit he had was made for summer sure, but it was going to boil him alive, so he opted to just go with the dress shirt covering his bandages.

"Morning, Pulitzer." He said as he saw Albert stand on the crate in front of the range.

 

[joshuadim]

Albert jumped a little as Petar greeted him, as he wasn't expecting someone to come up to him so suddenly. "Oh, hey there." he said with a chuckle. "Didn't see you."

He then motioned to the firing range behind him with his thumb over his shoulder. "I was practicing my shots, though I'm not really any good like a seasoned pirate would be."

 

[Breadman]

"That's why the boss keeps you away from the danger." Petar answered while looking at the targets and the results "You ever held a gun before?"

 

[SniperComZero]

Once everything was said and done, Olivia checked her account once they touched down on Sielia. God damn, this is one of the more lucrative outfits she's crawled around with. That would've easily been a couple months pay. And all for just one mission, too! She squared away a couple hundred credits to a few of the Ironblood engineers in order to fix up her fighter. In all actuality, the crew probably could've fixed it up... but she figured that they had their hands busy enough with fixing the Mordred, that she didn't want to disturb that. And, more importantly, didn't want them to do a rush job on her pride and joy. So it was in one of the many, many hangars where Olivia came to oversee how her baby was doing. "Hey-- hey, I'm not paying you extra for redoing up the paint you chip off, you fuckin' apes." She shouted across to them, while a radio blared in the background...

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Domino Station, One Week Later

"And now, we turn to news from the distant Eta-Tau system..." In a dusty, smoke-fogged bar in the heart of the station, a gruff man, looking somewhat dejected, sat by himself at the bar. By the station time, it was the early hours of the morning, so there were few people who were actually in the place. Fewer still who would interact with the man, who looked quite particularly kitted out. An ashtray and his smokes to one side, and a half-empty bottle of liquor to his other, the only thing he could really do was thumb through his pad, and glance up towards the news. So, it was particularly lucky whenever he looked up to see something that stung his memory.

"Footage recovered shows that the terrorists used what seemed to be a homebrew production of the Sol System's Navy's..." His eyes widened, and he made a motion to the bartender. "Hey, could you pause that a sec?" A freeze frame showed the ship that he was so eminently familiar with. The Harpy. Beautiful little fighter, the thing was. Absolute shame that the penny-pinchers in Sol took the thing out of production, considering that, to his mind anyway, it was the best damn fighter in the galaxy. But maybe that was just some of that homegrown Sol pride. More importantly, however, he could see that it was a genuine production. And, that he's pretty sure he knows the only person who owns that damn thing all the way out here.

The hunter lifted himself from his seat silently, making for the door before a loud 'ahum' caught his attention. The bartender crossed her arms and glared at him, before motioning down to the drink he'd left behind. A short, icy glare was shot back, before he relented, slumping his shoulders and tossing a credit chit he fished out from his pocket. He was pretty sure that'd cover the costs, but frankly, he didn't care.

On his way through the station, he brought up that same news story. Unsurprisingly, for being situated in the ass-end of fuckall nowhere, the story was buried right near the bottom. The same freeze frame was brought up, and he entered the door to one of the offices. At the desk, a somewhat chubby man sat, slumped in the worn, black faux leather chair, snoring like he was trying to wake the dead. On his TV, a pre-recorded gravball game was still running. The mercenary slammed his tablet into the desk, waking the broker with a start.

"What th--" He woke with a start, glaring to the front. A dissatisfied groan escaped him, wide palm rubbing at one of his eyes. "Goddamn, are you still awake, man? Shit... what the hell do you want?" It wouldn't be hard to find that out whenever the tablet gets shown, though. "I wanna know what you know about this little craft right here, Dex." 'Dex', as he was apparently known, took a minute to scrutinize the photo, scratching at the back of his neck. "Yeah... I think I know about this one, actually. Look, gimme' a minute to find the bounty-- 'cause I swear, this motherfucker's been on our list for years now." The mercenary nodded, laying his hands over the edge of the desk with a particularly impatient drumming of fingers against the hard plastic. It was hardly even a minute before he piped up. "Try looking under Kovak."

His broker shot a glance at him, before rolling his eyes to do just that. And, much to his surprise, found the file he was looking for. "Hneh, well no shit, guess that's it. Yeah, that's the girl you're lookin' for. One Oh-livia Kovak. Sol really doesn't like her, some sorta, terrorism an' state secrets bullshit. You know how Sol is." "Yeah, intimately. Look, I wanna take on that bounty, so uh, tell all the other guys looking for her to go find some other target."

Dex wrung his hands together, with a quiet chuckle. "No shit, ah? Lucky for you, I'm pretty sure no one's goin' after her righ--" Without even letting him finish his sentence, the merc turned tail for the door. "Great. Gimme a little while, then." "Hey-- heyheyhey, hold your horses there, you bargain bin Speed Demon." Dex stopped the overeager desperado from walking straight out the door with his rather urgent tone. He then held his own tablet up, a girthy finger tapping near the bottom.

"Should know, though, that far's we know, that girl's got herself wrapped up in some, ah, outfit. Blackwell Reavers, they're called. Used to be big shots, but they're havin' a bit of a hard time at the moment. Lotta bounties're poppin' up on their crew, though." "And, how's this my problem?" "It's 'your problem', becaue there's bound to be a crap ton of other bounty hunters makin' their way over to that little group right now. That, and the fact that, like I said, this lil' girl's been on our list for years. Apparantly that fighter'f her's is a mean sunnovabitch." A moment of silence, before Dex was given a facetious nod. "I'll manage. All I want's her, and they can pick the rest of that damn crew clean, as far as I care." With that, he turned heel, and right back out the door.

So, which way was it to the hangar, again...

 

[joshuadim]

Albert gave a nervous chuckle towards Petar's question before responding. "Not really, nope. Closest I came to was an airgun range I went to on a date many years ago, but those are nothing to the real deal."

 

[Breadman]

"Yeah, it shows." While picking what gun to use, Petar thought about something that Albert reminded him of "Airgun, right. Those exist still. But fun with the right someone. This one girl I went on a date with was more into the heavier caliber. Went down to some garden planet. Found something to shoot at all day and the night we spend with a mixture of Diamond powder and Red ice. I don't remember the next two days. Just the cops showing up because we were trespassing and we shot something we shouldn't have." He paused for a second "Good times."

 

[joshuadim]

"Sounds like you two had heck of a time together." Albert said, turning to Petar and listening intently. This is a good story I can use. he though to himself.

"What happened then? Sounds like it didn't last forever."

 

[Dmaster]

Shun didn't exactly spend his last few days being a socialite, holed up in his room as he both meditated and digested several charts and maps. Surrounded by countless holographic screens, his helmet was off as he stared at them inquisitively. The various sources he used were news outlets, procured military patrol routes, and examining his own star chart that he had compiled over the years. Of course his biggest subject of interest was the Ayr Empire's borders and the activity surrounding it. Every detail was committed to memory obsessively, as while he had collected a meager amount of funds he needed far more if his next attack on the Empire would be successful. Yet after being at it for several days straight he decided to close out his work, standing up and closing his visor back over his face as he shuffled out to the outside world.

The cyborg Ayr did not have to squint as his cybernetic eyes filtered out the shining sunlight. He took stock of who he could see on the beach, just in time to see Vance nearly sprint into the Mordred with the robot trailing him. Shun held his hands together behind his back, and he started to walk slowly to follow both the human and robot wherever they may end up. It wasn't often that Vance looked that panicked. The fact he was doing things like trying to zig-zag and move through the routes from different buildings to lose the robot, though he wasn't doing a very good job of it. He tilted his head curiously once Vance had finally locked himself in the kitchen.

"Interesting." he said aloud, standing at the end of the hall.

 

[Breadman]

"She figured out who I was after we got busted and I got bailed out." Petar continued the story. "Got a nice thing going for two months. Later I see someone moving money around to places it's not meant to. Product goes missing as well. I trace it all to her. We have a fight. We break up."

"A month later I get mail of her tied to a chair. Some hood threatening to send me pieces of her if I don't comply with some demands." He looked to Albert with a satisfied look on his face "Do I look like the knight in shining armor to you?"

 

[joshuadim]

Albert could only stare at Petar as he finished his story. Damn. This guy really is serious. he thought to himself again. "No... but is that really something to be proud of? Kinda makes one think if you really got their back or not in the heat of things." he spoke with a serious tone. "If people know you got their back, they will have yours. That's what I like to think. Though in this line of work it might not be as easy as that I assume."

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Lucy didn't change her pace much as Vance moved quickly, moving all about in strange patterns and taking the least efficient route to reach the kitchen. All she had to do was follow his thermal trace with her sensors in order to pursue him. He had returned to the vessel and she was walking down the hall when she heard a voice from behind her. Slowly, she turned to see Shun at the end of the hall she had just approached from.

She didn't know this crew member well. She didn't really know many of the crew well at all. This one was part of the bridge team from what she had gathered and was likely considered a senior staff member of the administrative team.

"What is i-i-interesting, administrator?"

 

[Breadman]

"I pride myself on a lot of things. That one isn't one of them. I let myself wide open to be used." His satisfied look never going away as he recounted the end of his story "You are right about someone having your back. This line of work, that's not done on trust alone. You need more. In my case. I had capital."

"I had a gut feeling something was off. Somebody knew who I was and still thought this was a good idea. I still went there. Hood wanted me to do a drop off at some shithole. So, me and a few others take the next shuttle down and find where this punk lived by putting a tracker in the case. Five minutes later me and the rest are watching him and my then ex and his current girlfriend run into his arms and share a nice moment together. Kurve i mutra." Petar shrugged "Everyone has a price and everyone has to pay. That's my family's motto. So I came to collect."

"Moral of the story is don't screw around with people."

 

[joshuadim]

Vance set the net on one of the counters in the kitchen, keeping close attention to the voices outside. Looks like Shun is having a good ol' conversation with Lucy. Poor bastard. he thought to himself as he set out the seafood across the counters, bunching them together in small clusters based on type and looks. He hoped that someone with decent knowledge of the fauna was on the base somewhere, but he couldn't leave now with Lucy outside. So he opted instead to take a seat on another countertop and twiddle his thumbs in the meantime.

---

"I suppose so. I'm not expert in any of these matters, but then again its better to make friends than enemies whenever you can." Albert replied, scratching his head a bit. He then turned his head towards the Mordred. "Did you see Vance getting tailed by that freaky robot? He looked like he was trying to avoid it."

 

[Breadman]

"I don't blame him." Petar responded and remembered just how creepy Lucy can be "I would talk to that thing as little as possible."

 

[Infab]

"...I was going off the stock configuration and setup parameters in the technical manual, so there may be some adjustments needed."

"Loosen the shocks about twelve percent. Its usually really rigid and stiff when you land after a jump, so looser shocks help both the suit and the pilot. The arm holding the minigun will need to be reinforced for sustained fire once we find get additional weapons to attach to it. They may have fixed the auto-loading issue as well with the more recent models, but I'll check once the test gets underway." stated Karina, reading over the data feed from her suit as it started up. She climbed into the suit a moment later, closing the suits armor over her legs before pulling down the top hatch so that she was sealed into the suit. It was lightly armored, so she wouldn't put it through a damage absorption test yet. "Its a little tight, but that's good in my book." Better snug than loose.

She watched the information feed across the overlay on the inside of the head portion of the suit, as the suit soon began the rest of its startup procedure. It prompted her to input her name vocally, which she did. "Karina Thiel." she said. The suit paused for a moment, before confirming that her voice and name had been logged. Next came an ocular scan, for security purposes. She opened an eye wide, so that the scan could be done, and soon it confirmed that as well. "They haven't changed the user login procedure. I remember they were talking about adding a DNA scanner at one point." she said, glancing through the glass of the head at Yolandi nearby.

She waited, as the suit finished its final checks. Once it finished, the overlay lit up with a clear view of what was in front of her, complete with a crosshair and various readings on suit systems scattered around her field of view. "Initialize diagnostics. Set overlay to minimal combat settings. Vital readouts only. Overlay color...cyan." she then said, and the overlay began to change. The crosshair remained, but most of the system readouts disappeared except for the important ones. A diagnostics readout appeared to the right of the crosshair, but wasn't intrusive enough to block her view of what she was focused on. Finally, the overlay changed from burnt orange, turning a light bluish-green. "Increase crosshair size by three percent." she added, and the crosshair increased ever so slightly in size.

She then reached over and gripped the control handles for the arms, looking to the handle that controlled the chaingun arm. "Engage left arm weapons systems. Slow spin." she spoke. A moment later, the chaingun mounted on the left arm began to slowly spin. She wiggled the control handle, and the chaingun reacted by moving in the directions she wiggled. She gave it a general rotational movement afterwards, to check its range of movement. Making sure nothing was stuck. "Full spin. Engage automatic feed system. Run diagnostic on feed system." The chaingun began to spin faster, and the large tank on the back of the left arm made a 'ka-chunk' noise. A readout of the auto-loading system poured into her overlay. "Auto-loading system is green. No problems at the moment." she said, glancing to Yolandi again.

---
​

Shelby would eventually find Lauren in the mess hall of the actual base on Sielia, her head down on the table with a cup of coffee steaming in front of her. She looked as though she hadn't slept well, hair a mess and her arm covering her face partially, hiding the dark circles under her eyes. As Shelby approached, Lauren's eye popped open to look at her. Oh great. She slowly lifted her head and rubbed her eyes with her fingers, before taking a slow sip of her coffee. "...What is it, Shelby?" she asked. She even sounded rough.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

"U-um... I had an idea," Shelby said, hesitantly approaching Lauren and shuffling her feet slightly. Boy the captain doesn't look happy....

"I, um... so like I wanted to do some net streams again... where I dance and sing and stuff, since its fun and makes money. I needed someone who could, like, mask the broadcasts origin and all that. Since it would have to be done that way. I know how to use all the software myself but I think someone really smart in... electronic... countermeasures? should do the important part. And... y-yeah."

 

[Infab]

Lauren glanced to Shelby as she spoke. After eyeing her for a moment, she sighed. "...Alright. You can use one of the rooms here on the base. Ask Pearl or Shun to help you with the electronic shit...or the other one...Shuren, I think...though I think he can just do technical stuff." she said, before drinking more of her coffee. "...if you start doing weird sex shit on camera for kicks, leave me out of it." she muttered, barely audible.

 

[Dmaster]

The cyborg Ayr looked to the robot before him, then back to the doorway that Vance had locked tightly down the hall. He was deliberate in transmitting his words through audio, the act of switching to such communication venues now second nature to him when he was in the presence of automatons. Despite how horrifying Lucy was, Shun was not the slightest bit unnerved by her.

"His reaction to you trailing him. Had I not known any better I would say that he was afraid of you." he replies. "Yet if you have persisted with the crew for this long he should be aware that you pose no threat to us."

 

[Frankafurter]

Yolandi nods to Karina as she brings the suit up to function, "I only did the stock config to make sure everything was right the first time, I can do a lot more with it if my reading of the manual is correct. I can put some extra plating on it with a negligible reduction in mobility, alternately, I could push the core output up and force more juice into the motive systems to make you faster and more nimble instead, but I would have to repack the myomer, rebuild the servos, and adjust the pumps and accumulators on the hydraulics to handle the extra heat and stress, all doable with our current resources."

Yolandi rubs her jaw, smearing some grease from her hand onto her chin, "You know, there was something in the manual about all the weapon systems the fire control could support. I think we have some one-shot tubes of anti-armor missiles collecting dust in the armory that I could rig up onto a sort of rack unit and give you some extra punch against heavier targets. I could make the tubes be detachable from the rack so replacing spent tubes would be easier and less work for me. Just need to secure a steady source of launchers."

She glances over at Zou who is goofing around since he's about as naked as naked gets for him, "Auditioning for the robot strip club, buddy? I don't think the stage would support your weight." Zou stops his shennanigans and gives a full armed shrug that would be the envy of even Seinfeld before settling down into a idle stance as he waits for his turn.

Yolandi turns back to Karina, "Alright, now that he's done, let's get you going. I need you to do some mobility stuff first, walk a few laps, run a few, jump short and long distances, basically everything you'd likely be doing in a fight as far as movement goes. If there's anything that feels too unstable or rough to do, I will go back and adjust dampers and such to make it less janky. Once we're through that, you can start shooting stuff, though mind you I loaded the bin with practice rounds. The visual feedback of impacts are a bit clearer so we can better see if targeting and tracking is off, also we won't be wasting good ammo on dummies."