János turned towards Dio with a determined look on his face.
"We're doing this diplomatically. You three stay here, I'll go in by myself. If you hear me yell "GET THE KNIVES" or hear a gunshot, rush in, but I sincerely doubt that would happen," he told the group, as he walked towards the ship.
János had noticed that the symbol on the ship resembled the one on Frosty's ship, indicating a connection between the two beings. If his suspicions were correct, they might have the key to regaining Frosty's memories.
He decides to knock on the ship, to be polite.
Throughout the healing process, Moloch couldn't help but think of something that was on the back of his mind. The inside of Frosty was not what he was expecting. It's as if he had some extra organs that the rest of his people naturally did not have, and tried to think about why this was so. But before he could ponder it any more, someone or something knocked on his shuttle.
He decided not to respond. Perhaps they might think nobody was inside and would go away.
János just knocked again. He knew whoever it was had to be inside.
'How disgustingly persistent.' thought Moloch.
He picked up his sawn-off and began to load it with shells.
"[I]Go away[/I]." he spoke.
"We only wish to speak in regards to our mutual friend!" János yelled, avoiding to refer Frosty by the name they had given him.
"[I]He is not here. Go away.[/I]"
János waited for a moment, trying to think of something that could potentially start a conversation. He then got an idea.
"If you're his friend, then he needs your help, and I'm not referring to the medical type!" he yelled.
"[I]I am [B]all [/B]the help he needs at this moment. What could you possibly do for him?[/I]"
"We promised we would help him with his problem!" János yelled.
"His amnesia problem!"
"[I]What do you mean 'amnesia'?[/I]"
János had him right where he wanted. Now, he just needed to push through in order to get the real discussion going.
"Considering you're his friend, I think it would be more appropriate to tell you this face-to-face!"
Face-to-face? Absolutely not. Moloch sensed danger.
"[I]Even through the poisoned air, I can still smell the foul stench of a trap. Surely the moment I open my door, you will kill me and steal my belongings.[/I]"
János wasn't that surprised that Moloch thought he was some sort of criminal. But he had to reassure him.
"I assure you, neither I nor my group would do that. If it makes you feel any better, I will enter with my hands up in the air."
The sawn-off was fully loaded, and a large metal box was placed behind the door, serving as cover should this mysterious stranger decide to shoot Moloch. Or suddenly explode. Whichever comes first.
"[I]Then... enter.[/I]"
The door slowly opened, showing the dark interior of his shuttle with the only source of light being a lamp shining on Frosty's body. All Janos could see was Moloch's silhouette peering from behind a box.
"[I]Slowly.[/I]" he warned Janos.
János felt a chill going down his droid spine, but he knew he couldn't screw this up. He turned to the group, giving them a thumbs up, before turning back towards the ship once more. He raised his hands and slowly walked towards the door and into the shuttle.
The shuttle doors shut behind Janos with a loud thud, and the interior lights came on, illuminating the inside. Moloch was taking cover behind a box, and had his weapon pointed at Janos, aiming right for his head.
"[I]You may begin by telling me what it was that made you seek my craft, stranger.[/I]"
János barely flinched when the shuttle doors closed, but he was surprised by the gun aimed at his head. He knew, however, that he needed to remain calm in cases like these - it wasn't the first time he had a gun to his head.
"My group and I were sent by our captain to find our mutual friend, who had crashed his starfighter after going into an apparent rage. We arrived at the fighter to discover it had been charred, something I assume was your work. We discovered a trail of blood, which we recognized as our friend's blood, as we knew his blood wasn't of a regular color," he stated without any hint of self-doubt, whilst keeping his hands in the air.
"I assume you wish to know about his amnesia next?"
Maddox walked up to Taylor. "How are you holding up?"
Moloch cautiously creeped from behind the box towards János. If János was going to stay inside his shuttle for a while for a nice conversation, he should at least check for weapons to ensure he wont try anything funny.
"[I]Be still now...[/I]" he said as he gave him a pat down.
He removed János' Mauser C269, Quandt P80, and his Walther P888, and put them aside on a shelf behind him.
"[I]Fine weapons. This better be all of them. Now, our 'mutual friend', I assume this is he?[/I]"
Moloch pointed towards Frosty's body.
János was absolutely fine with the pat down. While Moloch could've asked if he has any guns on him, he understood why he didn't.
[QUOTE]"Fine weapons. This better be all of them."[/QUOTE]
"Don't worry, it is. I'm a pistol man, personally," János replied, "but your.... sawn-off, I believe? That's a classic."
[QUOTE]"Now, our 'mutual friend', I assume this is he?"[/QUOTE]
"Yeah, that's him."
Yuga leaned on the holotable, here eyes flickering as she witnessed the gruesome episode that was being broadcast from Frosty's camera.
Amelia and Vakarus could see her shaking her head and the latter could sense Yuga thinking to herself.
"Sacrilege..."
Yuga turned around to look at Amelia, "No surgical equipment? chanting? Defiling a corpse? Perhaps you have better sense than our naive interrogator and will offer no objection when I order this heretic to be killed?"
She was then contacted by Taylor, who came bearing bad news. She narrowed her eyes in disappointment. The crew had not been able to complete the objective but they had at least had enough reason left to retreat to safety. She would have to compensate Captain Sharpe for this undertaking.
"Very well. Your orders are to remain on the Cataract and regain your strength to make another attempt tomorrow. Discuss with your team and draw up a plan."
She paused briefly, looking over at the display where Moloch was suddenly distracted by someone at the door. The recovery team.
"We have matters to take care off at our location. Do not fail me again, Caine. I would demote you after a performance like this but sadly you are the most qualified to lead."
Yuga put down her compass and turned to watch the screen again before turning to Vakarus.
"Our pacifist negotiator will surely bring this filth back to our vessel. And all though we will acquire his vessel to replace Frosty's lost one and recover his body I will not have this spawn of some god-forsaken abyss defile my ship with his unholy manner. When he arrives you are to put him in the brig for interrogation."
She turned back to inspect the camera feed before giving Vakaurs one last glance over her shoulder, "And if he refuses to come peacefully he is to be disposed of so he can worship the putrid mud on this world instead."
...
Markus sat grunting on one of the benches in the med-bay, using one of his knives to remove the larger shrapnel parts from his right leg.
"Come out come out you FUCKING COCKSUCKER" he exclaimed as he pried a large piece of metal out of his flesh, quickly throwing the knife aside and filled the wound with bio-foam.
This was the last piece out of some 7 he had deemed necessary to remove.
He let out a deep sigh and leaned slumpingly back against the wall, looking towards Taylor.
"We better 'ave a good plan fo' this time 'round, boss. Cause there ain't no fuckin' way I'm goin' back in there without at least some guarantee of us makin' it out alive. I ain't plannin' on dying in some bloody underground shithole just cause we gotta be fightin' someone else's war, luv."
"[I]Tell me more about what you know of this man. And this... 'amnesia' you spoke of.[/I]"
János nodded and obliged.
"A couple of weeks back, I think, I haven't really been following, the ship I'm apart of searched for spare parts in a field of space debris. We ended up discovered an intact ship, frozen by the vastness of space. When the group searching it got closer, they discovered there was a being in the cockpit. We retrieved the ship and placed it in our ship. We got the guy out of the ship and helped him defrost. When he awoke, we discovered he had a bad case of amnesia - all he could remember was that the craft we found him in was his starfighter, and that he was a damn good pilot.
"We took him in and named him 'Frosty' after the state we found him in. You might've heard someone refer to him like that, or not. Since then, we've had him as part of our crew, and we promised him that we would help him in his quest to get his memories back. I myself never interacted with him much, but he is a part of our family. And a family takes care of its members.
"Before you say anything, I'd like to apologize for any hostilities you may have received from our ship. They couldn't have known that you were a friend of Frosty's."
[quote]Yuga turned around to look at Amelia, "No surgical equipment? chanting? Defiling a corpse? Perhaps you have better sense than our naive interrogator and will offer no objection when I order this heretic to be killed?"[/quote]
"Surgical equipment requires many specifics in order to work. Cybernetics either accepts or rejects the body, defibs only work if their heart isn't ripped to shreds, and.. wait... chanting?"
Amelia looks at her notepad, swipes her screen looking for answers, then looks back up to Yuga. She tilts her head and shrugs her shoulders whist raising her hands, displaying, "I dunno" with body language.
"I'd love to find out how one would raise someone else back from the dead via chanting ooga booga."
He couldn't believe it. The pieces were falling together. What János said about Frosty being a top gun was very true of his old friend, and him being put in a frozen stasis in the vastness of space was the last he ever saw of him centuries ago.
Moloch now knew that János was not telling a lie. He lowered his sawn-off and spoke.
"[I]His starfighter, what did it look like? Were there any markings on it?[/I]"
János nodded.
"It had a marking that looked exactly like the one on your craft. In regards to what his starfighter looked like, I never really took a detailed look at it, but I recall there was a rounded part on the right side of the front, and parallel to it was a bit that stuck out. I don't really know much about starfighters, so I apologize for the lack of proper terminology."
[quote]"-parallel to it was a bit that stuck out."[/quote]
"[I]He loved to skewer people on that...[/I]" thought Moloch out loud.
"[I]Well, stranger. Your knowledge of this man has many consistencies with what I know of him, so I now know you are not trying to lie to me. However, I assume you are the 'recovery team' that was spoken of over the radio?[/I]"
"Yes, I was assigned to lead the recovery team to retrieve Frosty, so that we can get to work on saving him after his crash. The rest of the team is waiting outside," János told him.
"[I]I apologize, but I can [B]not [/B]let you take him. He needs to be brought home back to his people. Whoever assigned you to this task, tell them that his kind came to take him back home.[/I]"
János paused for a moment, grabbing his chin as he thought about what to do. He wasn't sure how to reply to what Moloch said.
"What are his people going to do to him?"
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