Starpath: Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway - Thread 3
212 replies, posted
Karl, still recovering from the sudden shock of losing Taylor and Alex, lowered his rifle. "Eve's right," he said.
"Let's get the fuck out of here and as far away as possible."
The hunter stared into the sky. "Starvis I curse you. This is not a solution. Can we compromise somehow? We just want our friends back."
"Starvis, I curse you. This is not a solution. Can we compromise somehow? We just want our friends back."
"They are not coming back. At least, not as the people we knew. Starvis does not care what we want. He only cares about what he wants. His vision of a deathless utopia, in which he will oversee the countless scores of people that he kills and recreates. Altered to suit his wishes." stated Eve, turning away from Starvis and looking up to a different part of the sky. It was just a matter of waiting now. Waiting for their ticket off this rock.
"And you will be joining him when the time comes, because you were never given a choice in the matter. There is an illusion of a choice, but eventually you will die. And he will claim you and convert you into a puppet for him to toy with in his 'utopia'."
"So.." Jason sits down on the ground, slowly setting his slightly injured leg and holding his rifle in front of him as support. "What are we going to do now at this point?. Cap's dead and we have a mysterious entity floating around space doing Moloch knows what."
"...We leave this place, and go far away. That is all we can do unless you wish to stay." said Eve, glancing to Jason. "... Perhaps we can find a way to destroy it. Nothing in this universe is perfect. Including Starvis."
She finally looked back to the corpses. Ira and Sting's bodies would need to be retrieved as well. "...I shall locate Sting's body. Bring Ira's body here, and we can take everyone aboard once the ship arrives. If anyone is coming." She said, before walking away.
"A glimmer of hope huh? Well that's just wonderful." Jason hangs his head down. "Abraxas! can you help me up? I know I can stand on my own but my leg hurts like shit."
Harvey stood awestruck at the scene that unfolded around him, only a few months ago was he just another worthless pawn in the hands of corporate tyrants that saw him and the rest of his kin as a disposable number that could be lost in the thousands with little to no cost to their profits and would never shed a tear or thought about it.
Now, he stands as one of the most important people at that moment, his mask and armor covered in blood and plasma scorch marks, he was beaten and broken both physical and mentally but had enough will to still stand valiant to the end.
Harvey was frozen in a vast array of emotions as he stared down on what is to be believed to be the very end of all things. His mind was competently overwhelmed and only was the death of Taylor able to bring him back into the realm of reality in a instant.
And with that, he burst out of his frozen state of mind, rushing over to the mortally injured Alex instinctively with medical tools in hand.
However, the damaged had already been done and as he gotten down on his knees next to Abraxas and the dying Alex. His would-be mentor would give him a stoic nod to signal that Alex was gone.
Harvey lowered his head softly at the fact as Abraxas laid Alex's body to rest on the cold ground where too much blood has been spilled.
Harvey would slowly pick himself up off the ground and stare blankly at the massive construct that has caused so much death and suffering. His eyes were dead set on getting this job done, the dozens of lives he's saved on Prospera means nothing if this...Thing still stood in one piece.
So with a heavy sign, he glared back at his still living comrades with a dead stare towards them.
"Even if we die here and become...Whatever the fuck that thing wants of us, we can't simply stop here...Here and now, too many have died to for us to just turn trail and run, we gotta to this see this to the very end...At any cost."
Harvey said tiredly, his hands slowly pulling his handgun out from his hosteler. The only thing that he had left of his old life in the Asset Protection was now in his hands.
It was a old firearm form what seemed to be 22nd century, not particularly valuable or even well-treasured within his close kin, but it was passed down to him by his older brother and their father. A small, insignificant legacy held between a few who where ultimately nothing in the grand scheme of things.
But here, did Harvey stood with this old service pistol. It's steel frame was scratched and chipped with it's once cold, black paint all but gone on this worn weapon of a war long past. A outdated and ineffective design that was phased out decades ago but yet, Harvey always kept it by his side in case of worst. Mostly of respect for his lost family and kin.
"And if definitely can't stop it out here...In our own world." Harvey muttered as he slowly pop open the gun's cylinder and begin to stiffly load the stubbly bullets that it fired. .357 HV-AP what was labeled on back of the chrome primer of very bullet that was loaded into their respective chamber.
"Then maybe..." Harvey continued as finished loading all six chambers, briefly pausing as his eyes stared down on the firearm for a moment before finally grabbing the gun's barrel shroud and locking the cylinder into place with a loud snap of the gun.
"We can kill it in it's own."
Karl raised his arms and kept shaking his head back and forth. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This can't be happening." He pointed towards Eve. "Don't say that! There has to be a way..."
Eve paused where she was, stopping mid stride and looking back to the others. "...Do what you feel is right, Harvey. If you believe that Starvis can be stopped from inside...I wish you luck, my friend. And you will hold a special place in my memories alongside the others should you fail." she said. The last sentence she uttered was filled with sadness.
She then looked to Karl. "There is likely a way, but right now...it is impossible to see. It will require extensive study. Please, help me gather the dead so that they may be buried in peace elsewhere."
Harvey quickly turned towards Karl, shaking his head back and fourth as he walked over to him.
"There's nothing we can do out here that's going that any fucking other army can't do a million times better! But if you take a look up in the sky above you can see that nobody is going to be able to stop this thing with a big fucking gun!" Harvey yelled at him in a exhausted and tired voice.
"We have nothing that can destroy this fucking thing out here...Fuck! We don't know any of the rules of this shit anymore!" Harvey shouted down at Karl as he paced around him in a frustrated yet defeated matter.
"And Look at your forehead and look at mine! This fucker already has us in it's grip and don't fucking matter if off ourselves right now and does it for us a thousands years later." Harvey said as he finally begin to claim down, his glare returning to the same cold, dead stance it was a moment before.
"Fuck...I don't even know if this is going to work..." Harvey said as he begin to slowly collapse onto his knees.
"And I don't blame you if you want to leave...It's fine, it's fucking logical...But...But for me...I ain't got nothing else left to lose and there's nothing more than I can do then...This" Harvey stated, his posture and voice said it all about his broken mental state as he blankly held tightly onto the grip of his handgun that sat between his hands.
Karl listened to both Eve and Harvey. He sighed. "I'll help you Eve. After that... I don't know." Silently he then set to work. He laid out one of his camouflage cloaks on the ground and used it as a sled to shuttle Ira's and Sting's bodies to where Eve was standing.
After that he simply kneeled down and stared into the sky.
After moving Taylor, Alex, and Arkadam's bodies to where Ira and Sting's were, Eve began to search for one more. Dvajn's. She approached the mech that he had been in, hoping to find him in a salvagable condition...only to find that his mech was empty.
Interesting. She examined the destroyed mech, before looking back over at the Vigil corpses scattered about. Did Dvajn survive the battle somehow? "Dvajn's body is missing. Did he survive the battle as well?" she asked, as she strolled back to where the others were.
Karl stared into the sky. "Can we really just leave this place? Will we be truly free? What if Starvis is already controlling us? Our minds?"
He paused and sighed. "We're doomed to be haunted by the memories of this place untill the day we die. We accidently helped seal the fate of billions upon billions of people. For what? A simulated existence? An utopia that is a fake copy?"
Karl placed his rifle infront of him and looked down on it. "We enabled this massacre. I enabled this. I'm at a loss of words. So tired... confused... I just want them to come back."
Beta didn't understand everything Dwan was trying to tell her, but she did understand the phrase "[Starvis has awakened,]" and all the ugliness in her eyes was compounded by a sick joy that made Dwan's skin crawl. She cackled a bit before straightening up, as committed as ever to wiping out the last serious challenge to her depraved existence in this universe, and with two sabers at play it would be a short and brutal end for one of them. Her stance shifted a bit from what he was accustomed to seeing: Beta normally preferred a middle stance with both hands on the hilt, but now she had put her left foot forward and adopted a single-handed stance, the blade held inside right. This freed her left hand, which Dwan now noticed was holding a small knife or razor blade. Just one more hazard for him to watch for...
Dwan:
CH: 4/5
Actual: 4
Roll Passed.
The biofoam did a good job of patching up his burnt skin, and he could feel his breathing become easier. The canister was now empty, but he had a better chance of surviving now that he wasn't on death's door. + 30 HP
Dwan HP: 45/63
As he stepped backwards to keep his distance, Beta closed in. Perhaps if she had still been able to hear him, they'd have continued exchanging words. Maybe she would have taunted him over the betrayal on the ground. But without that ability, the two were focused even more heavily on their positioning- an advantage for Dwan, if anything, who immediately noticed that if the blade was facing away from Beta's thumb then she was almost certain to attempt a downward strike. Beta had never progressed beyond the level of a novice in their sparring, but already, he could see the differences between what she had displayed, and what she had kept in store. Given that the skill gap was so wide, she was almost certain to launch some kind of surprise or trick attack against him. It had to be the knife, he thought, and he committed to parrying the attack.
Beta made no attempt to hide her first attack. She knew Dwan would try to parry if he didn't swing on her outright, and he wasn't likely to try the latter because his own stance mirrored her own, and using the back hand for an attack would be a long-telegraphed movement. So, assuming that he'd parry, she would try to force her way past him, using her bladed heel against the back of his leg. Either way, she would finish him off once he was incapacitated.
Dwan allowed her to close the gap and attempted to parry, just as she expected, but surprised her completely by taking a third option: he parried with his back hand! As the shining pseudo-blade flashed in her eyes, Beta knew she had to strike quickly just to avoid getting her arm hewn off, and completely abandoned the plans she intended to follow up with. Dwan, meanwhile, simply hoped that he could knock her hand away, because a simple back hand following the parry could be enough to finish her off!
Beta:
CH: 2/7 x 2(Malevolence) = 4/7
Actual: 5
Roll Passed.
Beta: 3 x 2.25 x 2(Kerostasia) x 2(Conviction) = 27
Dwan: DEF = 9
18 DMG
Dwan HP: 27/63
Dwan: 1 x 1.75(Rennaissance Man) = 1.75... 2 DMG
As Dwan's arm collided with Beta's, he felt a sharp pain in his neck that sliced about an inch across the surface. Beta yelped in fear as she jumped back, the plasma blade nearly catching her as she ducked back, and the floor was spattered with blood as the knife came clattering down. As he clenched his free hand against his neck, he kicked at her, barely catching her in the leg as she skittered away. Dwan quickly considered his options. If he used his flamethrower, his howitzer might overhead and malfunction, and if it failed to kill Beta, then it would be one of the few surprises up his own sleeve, wasted. He steeled himself. No, this fight would be won with a single hit from the plasma saber- no tricks. Tricks were her specialty. Dwan would rely on swordsmanship.
Beta had adopted a two-handed middle stance, the one she used most heavily against Dwan in the past, during their sparring matches. It was a good defensive position, suggesting that she expected Dwan to take the initiative next and she wanted to be ready for it. She studied him closely, her violet eyes burning with so much hatred that she was nearly blinded by it. Inside, she felt the same as her enemy: Just one strike. One strike and he'll beg for death! And I'll make it painful...
Dwan paused for a moment, setting himself up in a middle stance just like hers. When she backed up further, he knew it was time to commit, and commit early, unlike last time. He dashed forward, she waited, and at the same moment Dwan transferred the saber fully into his right hand, Beta jumped to his left, with the sword in her left hand, twisting upward as she planted her feet as she aimed for a downward strike, avoiding Dwan's forehand and coming down from above!
And then Dwan sprung his trap: he extended the pseudo-blade, using the components he added to Beta's design. Maybe just one trick...
Beta:
CH: 1/5 x 2(Malevolence) = 2/5
Actual: 1
Roll Failed.
Just as Beta's saber was about to arc over, just as she was sure that she had outfoxed Dwan and was about to plunge the plasma fountain into the dwarf's face and see him burnt and bleeding out, Dwan's saber extended by almost half a meter and ripped into her flesh at the ribcage, just under her arm! In a terrible bout of shock, she released the saber, which went flying into the air with its blade retracting. It clattered to the ground harmlessly several meters behind Dwan, who hadn't processed just how much of a hit he had landed until Beta clenched onto herself, and he could hear the sickening, soft squishing sound of her claws against the destroyed flank, and see the outpouring of black and red mush which fell from the horrid burn. It was as if Beta had been hit by a plasma-filled grenade, and she could barely manage a scream as she stumbled over her feet and crashed to the ground in a fidgeting terror. 75 DMG!
"D- Dwan..." Beta moaned, her voice clumsy in the absence of her hearing. "Y-you finished me off... after all..." She turned up at him and found not a single ounce of sympathy. Few beings in the entire multiverse could hate each other more. Knowing that this was the end, she cursed him one final time. "At least... the scars I've left on you will last forever," she rasped through clenched teeth, the pain practically unbearable. And yet, she grinned at him. And Dwan knew that in her fully-deranged mind, it was all worth it to her just to see him suffer. But right then, Dwan didn't feel defeated. Despite his setbacks, despite all his mistakes, despite his failures, he had managed it. He towered over the fussing, dying pest that he had allowed to plague this world for far too long, and with an adjustment, he retracted the saber's blade to its normal length. He knew exactly how he wanted to end this, and as soon as Beta saw the tip of the pseudo-blade hovering above her face, she closed her eyes and simply waited for the inevitable.
Dwan turned the dial and extended the blade, obliterating Beta's entire head in the process and frying the brain and electrical components inside.
Beta has been killed!
He held the blade there for a moment, before taking a step back and looking at what he had done. He then retracted the blade and fell to his knees as his eyes flashed through an array of colors, emotions rising within after having been suppressed for so long. It finally began to set in. The people he swore he'd protect were dead or dying, and Starvis was free. But of all the things he set out to do, at least he managed to kill her. He was breathing heavily and even laughing in a desperate, tragic sort of way, despite the various burns, holes, and cuts all over his body. He felt as if he needed to be careful, as if too much laughter, too much breathing, would cause him to unravel like a threadbare rag. Even with the biofoam, he felt sick.
But underneath it all, he felt a high that was indescribable. He somehow did it. And he did it by outwitting her, which made it all that much sweeter. She could rot in Hell, now, and he could get on with his life. With the help of adrenaline spurring him forward, he picked himself up off the floor and approached what was left of her, turning Beta's body over onto its back. He could care less about her weapons and other gadgets; the only thing that mattered to him was the one thing she carried which truly didn't belong to her. He disconnected the computer pack which belonged to the alpha Yanim and placed it snugly inside his own backpack. He'd return it to Neasha, if she lives through the day, but someone was going to have to make sure that the blueprints for that awful machine Yanim and Beta designed together would be done away with.
---
The Diamond Cutlass descended from the hazy sky above, and the few remaining Muramasa crew members looked on it with a surreal lack of closure. Was this really it? Had they come all this way to prevent apocalypse only to fail and then just... walk away? Neasha had barely said a thing over the comms during the whole ordeal, and soon, they learned why. Once the landing ramp hit the ground, they found her carrying Red under one arm as they walked with each other down the ramp. Red looked as if he was in unbearable pain.
"Everyone else on the Cutlass is dead," Neasha explained, blankly. "Red told me to land it myself, so I did."
There was a quiet sound like a bubble popping, and Neasha paused in her tracks. A tiny trickle of blood appeared on her forehead.
"<You have Sadowski's nanites as well, Miss Kyral,>" Starvis said from afar. "<Of all the people I've seen through Yanim's memories, you are the one I'm most curious about.>"
Neasha stared at the sphere for a moment after wiping the blood away. "That's it, isn't it? That's Starvis."
"<No... I am the planet beneath your feet. That sphere is only a tool, one of many. Before you ask, the ones who served on the Diamond Cutlass were being controlled by another AI, somewhat... like... me. Perhaps even built by the same civilization. But I am... better than this other machine. It is trying to destroy me from afar, and I am merely defending myself. As it suffers from my defensive measures, its pawns, those men and women are suffering. They were suffering before, as well. The being that rules them wishes to do what I will do, but it lacks the capability to accomplish.>"
---
One by one, as the crews’ bodies grew still and lifeless, their minds transcended physicality and beamed through space directly to the core, far within, and beyond, into a place beyond perception, entering that world graced by so few before them. Like life, the battle was not over; they had only lost the opening phase. The true test would soon begin.
Their eyesight was torn into mixed signals, incomprehensible and violent, until a pattern emerged and rearranged itself into something systematic yet organic, becoming more real by the moment. With an explosion of what felt like thunder, each of them emerged on the other side, falling into avatars within the construct of their imaginations, all shared and weaved with one another. In the blink of an eye, they had become themselves once more, and were standing around the campfire at Lynescar Flats. But as they looked around, everything was different, strange, and yet familiar. Snow drifted through the desert, with the wreck of the Viokhmar in the distance. The glittering casinos of Prospera lay beyond, reaching into an inky, star-speckled patch of sky altogether separate from the blue sky around it.
Clusters of buildings hung in the air like stalactites, their distant foundations fading into a hazy blue, obscuring more planet surfaces behind the curtains of shared sky. Nobody except Arkadam
recognized the hanging metropolis as Eihboh. Turning around, behind a black granite stone jutting from the sand, the desert melted into the industrial wastes of Voyak, the rolling, golden hills of Itara, and a dozen other locales, and with the turn of a head, these lands seemed to bend and distort as if seen through the various facets of a finely cut gem. The crew had to be careful, as it would be very easy to become lost in this world which seemed to disobey the laws of 3-dimensional space.
"You had to see it to believe it. It's different than it was the last time I was here," Arkadam said, snapping Taylor and Alex out of their trance. "I suppose that's because you're with me here, now. With us."
Specter noticed something on the ship's scanners. A notification of a fallen Vulture. He ignored the sign and focused on his flying. He knew well what that meant.
"Guess I'm the last one from Angel team." He murmured as if he was expecting someone to answer. The silence was a grim reminder of the situation. "Rest in piece, witch."
---
Alex snapped out of his trance and instinctively began to feel around his chest where he was shot. Looking down he could quickly recognize that there was nothing there. No blood, no wounds and no pain. But the memory remained. His gaze shifted towards Arkadam, now a object of anger and hatred. Balling his hand into a fist, he wanted nothing else but to cave in the runt's skull.
"Is this what Starvis promised you as Heaven in the end of the journey? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't grab you by the neck and turn your Fields of Elysium into my Valhalla." he yelled, fixating on Arkadam only changing when catching a glimmer of something in the distance. The bombed out roof of 'Our lord's mercy' church building. The same building he fought his way inside to get to Amy.
He couldn't help it. He spend most of his life thinking how to protect her from the dangers of the galaxy. The thought of his sister eventually falling pray to this thing and it's minions only served to fuel his anger towards Arkadam.
"Is this what Starvis promised you as Heaven in the end of the journey? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't grab you by the neck and turn your Fields of Elysium into my Valhalla."
"...Starvis likely wouldn't let you." said Taylor, looking to Alex. It looked as though Arkadam took Alex down alongside her. What else would she expect from the backstabber?
She looked around, taking in the jumbled mess of familiar sights. Starvis, throwing all their memories together to form this 'Construct'. The places they had been and fought over the past few weeks. She eventually found herself gazing into the fire before her, ever so familiar. It was a fabrication, of course.
She sat down on the ground, pulling her knees to her chest and hugging them. "I never wanted this." she said softly, staring into the illusionary fire. "...but you forced it on me anyway. You forced it on Alex. On all of us."
She paused, resting her head on her knees for a few moments. "...thanks for shooting me in the back, by the way. Just confirms to me that you're a backstabbing coward." she said, her eyes darting over to where Arkadam was before looking back to the fire. She honestly wanted to cry. It wouldn't change anything, though.
---
Eve listened, as she carefully transfered the bodies of fallen crewmembers aboard the Diamond Cutlass. "If you are causing suffering, which you set out to stop, why continue? You are forcing your rather extreme method of change upon the people of the galaxy regardless as to if they want it or not." stated Eve simply, as she gently picked up Sting's body.
Arkadam simply walked up to Alex and passed through him like a ghost, and neither felt each other's presence. "Just because we can see each other doesn't mean this place obeys the laws of physics. The only way you could lay a hand on me is if I wanted to let you. And no, this isn't Heaven, Alex. It's more like a dreamscape. Starvis used this place to speak with anyone that could connect to its Archives, and since it's never seen the outside world - until now - it's weaved this environment out of our memories. We aren't meant to live in this place, it's just a box to hold our minds until we can be sent back into the physical world in artificial form.
"Do you notice something, Taylor?" he added. "Your whole mind is in cyberspace, now. Starvis could control your thoughts and feelings if it really wanted to. It could be doing the same to all of us, but it isn't, and as saccharine as the construct is, you two look miserable. If only Starvis were here right now, it would be clear to you how much it reveres the concept of originality when it comes to sentience. But that brings up an important question, too," he added, thoughtfully. "Where is Starvis? ...I should warn you now, it doesn't have an avatar of its own, so it takes from your memories. When we see it, it'll probably take the image and sound of someone from your past... probably someone who isn't alive anymore."
Arkadam backed away from the fire and scanned the horizon. "...The construct is more complicated than it used to be. It'll probably take a bit longer than last time. I'm going to look for Yanim. Sit here and sulk if you want, or don't. I really don't care. I brought you along because you went the whole way trying to stop all this, and you might as well know the truth of things, rather than climbing on the Cutlass and scurrying off into some dark corner of the galaxy to hold onto your fragile bodies for a few more years." And with that, he stepped effortlessly into the air and began to glide away, flying into the surreal environment around them in search of the one person he truly cared for.
"Have fun and fuck off then." Alex responded bitterly towards Arkadam. He couldn't say anything else to him. Not that he wanted to. If he couldn't pummel him, what was the point of it. Still if it meant never seeing him again, then it could be for the better.
He wondered to where Taylor was and sat down next to her.
"So Starvis is taking it's time manifesting itself in front of us and he's going off to find a digital copy of Yanim." He looked in the distance towards the ever shifting landscapes, noticing different places from his memory before and after joining the company. The church, the compound, the arena, the glittering spires of Prospera and the beaches of Trixina. "You know if you want to convince us better, you should probably show up about now." He started talking to seemingly nobody, but it became apparent who he was talking to "At least not have the most depressing campfire in front of us to help us feel better comfort."
Karl grabbed Neasha by the shoulder. "We need to get off this rock now. He's giving us the option to leave."
He gestured towards the dead.
"As soon as we get their bodies onboard I suggest we hightail it out of here and find a dark hole to hide in."
"At least not have the most depressing campfire in front of us to help us feel better comfort."
"...it isn't going to convince me or comfort me." said Taylor softly, never moving her eyes from the fire before them. If anything, Starvis was likely to make it worse by appearing to her as someone she knew. She dreaded the moment where Starvis appeared to her as Ira. Or even worse, her father. She'd likely break down if she saw him. Starvis would be making a mockery of her loved ones in an attempt to sell its vision of what's to come.
"If anything, I just want to go die somewhere...but of course, we can't have that." she continued after a moment. The better option would be just...sleep. Sleep and never wake up. Oh, but of course, Starvis likely wouldn't want that either. "We can't have death. Or pain. Or sorrow or anything else unless we're allowed to have it. Allowed by our new machine god."
She went quiet for a minute or two, before saying one last thing. "...I hope Arkadam is happy...I'm...I'm far from happy. But hey...Starvis can change that too when the time comes. After all, it owns us now...we're just toys to it..." she spoke, before standing. She looked towards the colony in the distance, then to Alex. The look on her face gave a pretty clear idea of how she felt. Broken.
"...if you need me...I'll be home. Over there." she said, pointing towards it. A moment later, she slowly started to walk in the direction of what was once her home. Now just an illusion in a machine's internal construct.
----------
Eve began to gather up the dead, taking them aboard the Diamond Cutlass as the others talked with one another or Starvis. Her mind was already set on it all, and there was little reason to try and change it. She quietly picked Sting up, taking her body aboard and setting it down inside its hangar. Next was Ira. Then Taylor. One by one, they were moved aboard till all that was left was the living. She stood on the ramp, looking out over the others with her arms folded. Silent.
Dwan stood there on his knees, and as his high progressed, a thought popped into his mind;
"...how am I supposed to get back now?"
The only person that knew that he was still alive was Arkadam, and he had not only revealed his true colors, but had undergone a severe lack of mortality. Even if Arkadam were still alive, and had gotten him a shot of the general area around his now-destroyed borrowed mech, Eve has already checked his mech and found nothing; it would be very suspect if he had managed to pop up from the mech after that fact. It was likely that, by this point, the battlefield had shifted and twisted, with debris all over the place, meaning that he couldn't just simply teleport back to where he had originally portaled from. He theoretically could, but the chances were low, and with the achievement he had just managed, his luck wasn't about to replenish any time soon.
From what he could tell from the movements of the Buzzard, it clearly too wasn't involved in combat anymore... in fact, it was probably retreating by now, taking it with him, wherever it was going. He would need to see the battlefield as to figure out where to portal to, but where was there for him to peak out? He didn't see many windows on board the vessel, so he would need to view the outside through some sort of camera, likely the same kind that was used to assist in firing upon them, meaning there was only one place that he could go... the bridge.
He slowly got off his knees, having a cough as he did. He couldn't let his body slow him down, otherwise the Diamond Cutlass would depart without him, and with it, his chances of return without having to come out with some explanation that not everyone was going to buy. He shuttered at the thought, memories coming back. He holstered his plasma saber, adjusted his armor and made his way to the bridge as quickly as he physically could. He just hoped that, whoever was in the bridge, wasn't about to shoot him on sight.
The door behind Specter made a sound to indicate that he was no longer alone on the bridge. Next to him the console lid up warning him of danger and for a brief few seconds alarms filled the quiet air of the bridge.
"That's enough of that. OFF!" He leaned back in his chair and spun around to face Dwan. "Neat trick, isn't it? Voice commands. Only three people on this ship could use it to give the AI commands. Me." He said as as he lifted his hand." My co-pilot." He continued as he glanced toward's Countess' body "And my boss. Who your friends killed. And I think I owe them for her as well." He concluded by looking at Dwan with resentment and disdain in his voice. He leaned slightly forward in his chair, enough to rest his elbows on his knees "You here to finish the job?"
Dwan coughed in response to Specter's question before speaking.
"Honestly..." he said, as he glanced at the mess that the bridge contained, "...not really. I mean, you didn't shoot me on sight, so..." he was about to say something before coughing a bit more, before beating his chest a bit.
"...I am here to do something, but I have a question first: what was your opinion on Beta?"
"Crazy bitch with a death fetish." Specter answered dryly "You killed her so you're not all bad I suppose."
Dwan slowly nodded in response;
"And you're clearly not like that venomous rat of a bitch. T-that's good," he stuttered a bit, as he slowly walked into the inside of the bridge.
"I need a view of the battlefield, and I'm fairly certain I can get that here," he stated before continuing, "Does the feed you likely have here only display in real time, or does it archive what its seen? I'm gonna jump out of the ship and get back to my peers, and I'd like to have a sense of direction," he spoke in a relatively polite manner. It was clear that he was wanted that and that he was gonna fuck off afterwards.
"Real time." Specter said as he leaned back in his chair again and spinning back where it was "I don't know what you mean by jumping off, but I'm out stopping anytime until I hit Prospera for refueling."
"Catch a bus or phone home from there, I don't care."
Dwan gave a sly smirk, hearing not only Specter's comment confirm his suspicions, but also the fact that he doesn't seem to comprehend him. He approached where he assumed the feed was being displayed, speaking as he did.
"I don't know how familiar you are with Beta and her antics, but one thing she was apparently known for was managing to escape the impossible, or recover when it seemed completely implausible," he stated, remembering what he had read back on board the Aurikha, not just from its archives, but from news reports mentioning unlikely events relating to any sort of manslaughter.
"I was the tool she had used, manipulated, that allowed her to do such feats. And now, after I look at this feed, I'm gonna do the same as I did with her. I'm going to jump out of this ship, and land on the surface unscathed, damned be probability. I have no time to waste," he concluded, maintaining a serious tone.
Specter spun the chair halfway this time and looked Dwan with a confused look. Was this guy fucking with him? If he was, he sure picked a good time. Being mortal enemies only minutes ago was hardly an excuse for that.
"Look man. I get that she fucked with you or something and feel free to do what you want now that you've killed her, but just...Don't break this ship doing it? Unless you want me to open the hangar door so you can jump out, which is fine, but...Ah what am I even doing?"
Dwan looked at the feed present as Specter made his comments, nodding as he inspected the terrain. He noted spots without debris and that were flat enough for him to portal too. He had his way out, and turned towards Specter as he suggested opening the hangar door.
"You're technically getting a hostile off your ship, something that I'd imagine most would want to do unless they also wanted to capture them. Opening the hangar door would work greatly, and would be appreciated. Just open it enough that things don't start falling out in bulk, like those racks of compressed air," he told him.
He knew exactly where he could put a portal there and not be swept up by the sudden shift in atmosphere. It was the perfect plan.
"Knock yourself out." Specter was unsure of anything anymore. Not after today. "Just go there and I'll open the door when I see you on the camera."
Dwan gave Specter a thumbs up, having already started preparing the portal, as he left the bridge and headed for the hangar.
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