[QUOTE=blorgyboy;50778708]"Amy found a camera in her room a while back, and I got a hunch. I need to find out if anybody else has cameras in their quarters; figured you could dig around and see if you have one. Somebody is peeping on others, and I aim to find out who." Hariim states matter-of-factly. "Gimme a hand?"[/QUOTE]
Amelia sweats heavily. The stuff she has in her room when no one is around... the fact that someone could have seen her... "Let's get to it immediately. Shall I search my room first to see if it has any?"
"Yeah, lead the way. Amy said she found the one that she brought to me in her shower. That'd be the place to start I think. I checked my place and didn't find any, didn't find any in the common areas of the ship, and the one Amy found was closed-circuit so these things probably aren't showing on the local ship network, that means they're probably not something left by the previous owners..."
---------------------------------------------------------
Bucky giggles adorably and smiles a little wider at Johannes. "Oh, you're earth-born? Neat! I've never been there, what's the old digs like?" She asks inquisitively as she adjusts her glasses again before regarding Johannes with a curious [I]slight [/I]​tilt of her head.
[QUOTE=blorgyboy;50778809]"Yeah, lead the way. Amy said she found the one that she brought to me in her shower. That'd be the place to start I think. I checked my place and didn't find any, didn't find any in the common areas of the ship, and the one Amy found was closed-circuit so these things probably aren't showing on the local ship network, that means they're probably not something left by the previous owners..."[/QUOTE]
Amelia nods, then quickly runs out of the medbay, across to the other ship, into the Muramasa, towards the cabin areas, attempts to kick in her door, fails three times, opens it with the knob, and frantically searches the room from top to bottom.
She finds a camera hidden in the ceiling fan, it looks right down into her bed. "oh man oh man oh man oh man oh man," she turns off the fan, grabs a hammer on her desk, and smashes the shit out of the camera, breaking the lens and the circuitry.
She finds another one in her closet, just behind a gap in her PJ's. An actually perfect line of sight to where she changes. Taking the screws off, she unhinges the camera, a tiny round camera that can view all around. She places it onto the desk then searches the bathroom. Opening the shower, Amelia scans the gaps between the tiles. And there's one, right there, at the back of the shower. Out of rage, she breaks that one as well.
A few minutes of searching later, she doesn't find any more cameras. 2 are broken, one is taken out of the wall.
"HARIIIIIIIIIM!" she screams.
Hariim takes that as his queue to enter Amelia's room. He'd been waiting by the door while she was pulling her room apart out of respect for privacy. He finds her and says simply: "I take it you found some then. They intact?"
"I smashed two of the snitches right then and there, only one is still intact," she points to her desk, on it is the camera taken out of her closet, all the wires and chips still intact, "Right there."
Hariim nods, and picks up the offending piece of tech. "Alright. To figure out who's behind this I'm going to need to figure out if this thing is connected up to a network, or if it's wired directly into something. Did you see any physical lines connected to these things?"
Ryvik and Zhesid sat in an empty restaurant, eating the quality food that had been served to them. The investigation of the Madness on Prospera was wrapping up, and soon, the former would be headed to his next destination: Mars. It had taken significant detective work, but agents within the Sol system were able to track the Muramasa to Korolev Station. Ryvik was relieved that no major distractions had thrown him off the trail this time, and that, at the most, he was only behind Yanim by five days.
"[At this rate,]" Ryvik mused, "[we'll catch the hot trail again and have another raid opportunity. Twice in one month has to be a record for us.]"
At the far side of the table, a holoprojector displayed the face of his commander, General Vorokar. who smiled at the comment. "[She's believes she's beyond our reach, my boy. I've seen this sort of behavior before. As her games become more elaborate, and the stakes continue to increase, she'll be less inclined to watch out for her own safety.]"
"[And has the Council come to its senses?]" Zhesid said, spearing a sauce-covered shrimp. "[Last I heard, they were considering an inquiry.]"
"[The last you heard-]" Ryvik snapped, but Vorokar cut him off.
"[Councilor Bikrata hasn't changed her mind, as we had assumed she would... I spoke with her this morning and she seems dead-set on the notion that we've spent the last year and a half wasting state time and money. A delay to the inquiry - that which she believes is inevitable, no doubt - would only come as a personal favor.]"
"[A favor?]" Ryvik parroted. "[That's not exactly how we do business, is it?]" he commented with a slimy grin. Zhesid sneered.
"[No, I don't believe we work for the Council, as much as they like to play pretend. I've arranged for Bikrata to receive a [I]strongly worded reply.[/I] Of course, I would like an official notification of acknowledgement also sent to her office. Should she actually be stupid enough to press the issue, I would like there to be plausible deniability towards any accident which might occur.]"
"[As always, to ensure order on street, traffic must be handled in either direction,]" Zhesid commented, a metaphor for covering up subterfuge with a false sense of bureaucratic due process. Ryvik nodded in agreement. The metaphor was a quote from their own GKVR training manual.
"[On the subject of our runaway, we'll be keeping our eyes and ears out for her. There's been reports of intrusions all along our defensive perimeter up north, including a rather nasty explosion at a missile defense base on Voyak. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.]"
The two lieutenants nodded in agreement. Zhesid spoke up again- "[Sir, while I have you on the line, I'd like to ask about the medical waivers I submitted last month...]"
Vorokar nodded. "[Delightful- good timing, in fact. Ryvik here can do his part in advancing your cause if he mentions in his performance write-up that you would have been more helpful had you already been operated upon.]"
"[Of course,]" Ryvik replied.
---
Yanim jolted awake, having fallen asleep on the bridge. Seloveha was still out there where she last saw it, which was reassuring considering she was in the middle of an unpleasant dream, and hopefully not a premonition. Kanadys, her home planet, was in ruins, and she had returned to find that her family had been vaporized in a blast which destroyed the capitol. She awoke with a desperate need to visit the city again one day, not as a criminal, but as a native daughter of her people's greatest city. It was unclear if this would ever be possible, however. The damage that she was inflicting on the Collective's empire was too great for even a lifetime of prison in her society...
Her console was blinking with a message from Taylor. Yawning, Yanim opened it and began to read, and slowly the news chased her uneasiness away. The crew had finally come to realize that they needed a leader, and not just a commander. Yanim had never liked Yuga and her stateliness, her elitism... it simply didn't sit well with her. Rask would be furious if he were present, but since Yanim had dismissed him for the night, she gladly replied-
[quote]I did not hire you all to be doormats. You are quite justified in your objections to the current leadership, and as such, I will approve a new vote for captain aboard your ship.[/quote]
After sending the text reply to Taylor, Yanim patched through the voice systems on the Muramasa and spoke into the communicator.
[quote]Attention, Muramasa crew. I have just been given a significant report on crew morale, and it seems rightful to call into question the manner in which the ship is currently being administrated. To that end, I have approved a second vote for leadership. Should the current captain receive at least 40% of the vote, she shall retain her position. If not, the crew member with the most nominations will be named captain. Please send your votes by means of private ballot through the comm system. That will be all.[/quote]
Yanim sneered. By the way it sounded, Yuga was doomed. She sat back and awaited her unraveling.
((Send me your vote for captain as a PM over Facepunch.))
Amelia points to her closet, right where the camera was. She cut the wires, well, pulled them out and ripped them, [i]somehow[/i]. "They were connected right there, three wires, behind the wall."
"Didn't leave the plugs, didja? That'd have made this next step a little easier. Alright; I'll see if I can splice something in and ping whatever these are connected up to. If I don't get a return on that I might have to do something that I'll need your help with. Might have to dig into that camera and check out its local storage if it has it. If we're lucky, whoever installed it did a test run they didn't delete. Might catch them that way, but it'll take a lot of rewinding. That's where you come in. You watch until you find or don't find our culprit on film. Sound good?" Hariim says. He speaks with a frank tone. He's just a man solving a problem.
"Sounds great. If you find any more cameras, can you make this as a note?" She quickly types out a message on her notepad:
[quote]hello pervy fucker
it's me amelia weinheart
here's the deal
if you recorded me
i will find out where you live
and break your legs
and that's a promise[/quote]
Hariim chuckles sensibly. "Yeah, sure. If they're on this ship, I'll lock them in their room and leave them there for you. Some assholes pulled this shit on someone really dear to me once. Wasn't cool." Hariim says as he starts making the necessary connections on the wires for a direct neural tap. This is somewhat comical, and consists of Hariim putting the three wires into his left cybernetic eye where a bevy of specialized nanomachines form the necessary connecting surfaces to read data from the wires. He starts testing the systems he's freshly connected to and gets oriented.
Maddox looks up to the nearest PA speaker in the armory as Yanim broadcasted her message.
He quickly types up a message to all crewmembers onbaord the Cataract.
[quote]Get back to the Muramasa ASAP. Time to vote.
Mad[/quote]
Meanwhile he sends his vote to Yanim.
[QUOTE=blorgyboy;50778809]Bucky giggles adorably and smiles a little wider at Johannes. "Oh, you're earth-born? Neat! I've never been there, what's the old digs like?" She asks inquisitively as she adjusts her glasses again before regarding Johannes with a curious [I]slight [/I]​tilt of her head.[/QUOTE]
[i]Johannes purses his lips slightly and glances down.[/i][b] "I uh, actually don't know what it's like now. I haven't been there in a little over a hundred and fifty four years. But what I do remember is my hometown. It was a lovely little village near the border of North Rhine-Westphalia called Haaksbergen. About two hours from Amsterdam. My family lived near the outskirts to the west in the church parish of Sint Isidorushoeve."[/b][i] He smiles, remembering his childhood home.[/i][b] "We lived on Mulderstraat, a beautiful little cobblestone road with two story houses in both sides built in the 1940's. All around us was countryside, farm fields and pasture as far as the eye could see. It was never too hot to play outside, and the sky was always such a bright blue."[/b][i] Johannes sighs quietly, looking around as if hoping to see his childhood home.[/i][b] "I haven't been back since I left with the Vermaak 88 in 2234. What about you? If you're not Earth born, where are you from? Mars or the Luna colonies perhaps?"[/b]
János noticed he had received a message from Maddox again. Seemed like whatever was going on back at the ship has triggered a vote. He began wondering who should vote for, but chose to wait until he got back to the Muramasa.
He did a little bow to signify he was leaving, before leaving the Cataract and heading back to the Muramasa.
"Never a dull moment. I trust that you will take good care of them." Alex left the Cataract and returned to the Muramasa to give his vote.
Jag turned to look at Taylor, nodding in response towards her greetings.
[quote]"Hey, Jag. Guessing your meditation went well?[/quote]
"You would be right, Superior Taylor." Jag said while walking over to her.
"How was yours?" Jag asked, titling it's head sightly, "You were absent when I awoken."
[QUOTE]"How was yours?" Jag asked, titling it's head sightly, "You were absent when I awoken."[/QUOTE]
"It was...okay for a bit. A memory came up that I'd rather not relive. Decided to go fetch my autoshotty for tomorrow." she said, glancing over at the others departing for the Muramasa. Probably to vote, judging on the message she had received from Yanim.
János, returning to the Muramasa, began wondering who to vote for. He had two people in mind, but wasn't sure who would be better. He opted instead to put both his choices in his vote, and in case his top pick didn't have enough supporters, his vote would go to his second top pick.
[QUOTE=]"It was...okay for a bit. A memory came up that I'd rather not relive. Decided to go fetch my autoshotty for tomorrow."[/QUOTE]
Jag straighten it's head upright, "Interesting...While I too did relive an memory, it was short and fairly recent one."
"Through, it does seems that we have an far more pressing matter at hand if the archives are correct." Jag said, shortly glancing over towards both Amy and Val,
"I assume you already know what I'm referring top, Superior Taylor?" Jag said while turning back it's view over to Taylor.
"I think so." said Taylor, glancing over at them before returning to Jag. "What are your thoughts?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. They were down two people, as well as a combat medic with Abraxas leaving. They'd have to make another attempt at the missiles tomorrow. Hopefully under new command, with Yuga getting the boot maybe.
They needed a plan. A good one at that.
"Oh no, my story began around Proxima Centauri; Sol's closest neighbor in the galaxy. The Muramasa is actually one of the first ships I've served on. I'm a bit new to the whole mercenary life, but eh, I like it so far. I meet cool people at least." Bucky says in a cutely friendly tone, it's almost innocent sounding. "Guess you've been around a while, huh."
"I partly expected that Captain, or former Captain, would land herself into this position, Superior Taylor."
Jag said while looking it's shoulder towards the wounded, staring at the injured for an good moment.
"Through it wasn't through her actions alone that cost the ground crew it's reward." Jag said breaking the silence.
"It was unfortunately, our burdened to carry, not hers." Jag said heavily while turning back to face her.
"Now, Superior Taylor...This mustn't be allowed to simply weigh down heavily upon your shoulders. It is something that you must face head on, not run from it."
Jag said deeply while stepping closer.
"It can not cloud your judgement, it is something you must accept while moving forward."
Jag then stop dead in font of Taylor, looking onto her, It's featureless face meeting with her eyes.
"Through it may seem to be the hardest foe to best, unstoppable in it's influence over you...
You must remain strong and with that you crew will follow your light and unite under you, making you stronger then you ever were alone.
For Control on the battlefield sets all of our fates...You must have it tightly under your hand, they must follow you to the letter and back."
Jag said while drawing on previous experience, remembering the countless time it needed to make spit second decisions on the battlefield.
"Theirs so much I give advice on, Superior Taylor. But before I continue, I need to be absolutely sure.."
"Do you still you want to be in charge? Do you still believe that you can handle what the battlefield throws at you?" Jag asked deeply,
"Do you have what it takes to be leader?"
After the warp took his shuttle to the outer rim of Karbala, Moloch reclined his seat and removed his cowl which exposed his warped face.
He turned back to look at Frosty still laying on the makeshift slab, then to the strongbox with his many things in it. He had also received a bonus, a credit chit with all of Frosty's hard-earned money during his tenure with the TBC. All of these things, and all he had to do was ask nicely and be polite. Only the captain and her donkey of a lackey presented any kind of opposition, and even then, they were quickly made fools of by him. If you cannot take down the enemy by yourself, then turn their allies against them.
He seriously couldn't believe it. Only with the assistance of his god did he believe he was able to do this. He immediately praised His name.
"[I][B]OH, HO HO HO HO!![/B][/I]" His foul laugh echoed throughout the shuttle. A very rare moment from him which probably would have had some special meaning had anyone else been present.
Perhaps if the crew wasn't so sympathetic to a mysterious man who turned out to be a genocidal terrorist who has downright horrifying intentions for Terra and all of Sol, he wouldn't be flying away to take Frosty "home". Even after telling János the story of his people [U]which should have raised some serious red flags[/U], he had a chance to be stopped, but wasn't. They did not even ask him to prove his relations to Frosty, not even asking to look at his face to see if there was any resemblance. Had Chemosh been there, he would've enjoyed preying on the crew's naivety.
Everything was in place. His people had been preparing for this day ever since they were routed from Earth. The only obstacle left for his people to rise once more from the ashes of their defeat was Frosty's amnesia. But, Moloch knew very well that problem would be taken care of shortly. He smiled at the thought of this.
(( gj fellas, ya'll let space Hezbollah get away with Frosty. :v: ))
[QUOTE]"Do you have what it takes to be leader?"[/QUOTE]
Taylor listened to him, studying his smooth, expressionless 'face'. After a few moments, she nodded with a determined look on her face. "Yes. I can and will do this. I will not let you or the crew down."
(( I blame Yuga for not shooting him ))
(( #YugaDidNothingWrong i mean after all she wanted to detain and then execute him, you guys stood up for him just because he was nice ))
Jag stared down onto Taylor's face, through it meditation was over.
The image of it's stare into the abyss during it's flashback lingered in it's mind.
Through, it was only seconds in it's mind, it felt like decades of looking into a dark, lightness void.
Stranger still was the fact that after it's meditation, it's body temperature felt unnaturally cold, within the engineering section.
The boiling heat surrounding Jag had no effect on it's shell temperature. Even now it's shell felt freezing to the touch.
[quote]"Yes. I can and will do this. I will not let you or the crew down."[/quote]
"I know you will, Superior Taylor," Jag said down to Taylor, speaking with an dry tone.
"I hope you have taken what I said to heart, Now I must depart from this vessel to the Muramasa momentarily.
There's someone I need to talk to."
Jag said before hastily pacing out of the Cataract's hanger. It's eyes fixed onto the Muramasa laying ahead of it.
It's implant flashed, connecting towards the Muramasa's secured channel. Sending an private, encrypted massage over.
[quote]
Captain Shuur, This is Corsair Jag Perditus.
I'm request an private meeting with you and I.
I do not wish to belittle or insult you, This about former crewmember pilot Frostly.
And the individual who claimed himself to be 'Moloch'.
I'll explain more when I get there.
From-Corsair Perditus
To-Captain Shuur[/quote]
[QUOTE=blorgyboy;50780685]"Oh no, my story began around Proxima Centauri; Sol's closest neighbor in the galaxy. The Muramasa is actually one of the first ships I've served on. I'm a bit new to the whole mercenary life, but eh, I like it so far. I meet cool people at least." Bucky says in a cutely friendly tone, it's almost innocent sounding. "Guess you've been around a while, huh."[/QUOTE]
[i]Johannes furrows his brow.[/i][b] "Proxima Centauri? That doesn't ring a bell. When was it colonized? And no, actually. Not really in the sense you mean at least. I was frozen in cryostasis from 2232 to 2385."[/b]
[editline]27th July 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=F T;50780917]After the warp took his shuttle to the outer rim of Karbala, Moloch reclined his seat and removed his cowl which exposed his warped face.
He turned back to look at Frosty still laying on the makeshift slab, then to the strongbox with his many things in it. He had also received a bonus, a credit chit with all of Frosty's hard-earned money during his tenure with the TBC. All of these things, and all he had to do was ask nicely and be polite. Only the captain and her donkey of a lackey presented any kind of opposition, and even then, they were quickly made fools of by him. If you cannot take down the enemy by yourself, then turn their allies against them.
He seriously couldn't believe it. Only with the assistance of his god did he believe he was able to do this. He immediately praised His name.
"[I][B]OH, HO HO HO HO!![/B][/I]" His foul laugh echoed throughout the shuttle. A very rare moment from him which probably would have had some special meaning had anyone else been present.
Perhaps if the crew wasn't so sympathetic to a mysterious man who turned out to be a genocidal terrorist who has downright horrifying intentions for Terra and all of Sol, he wouldn't be flying away to take Frosty "home". Even after telling János the story of his people [U]which should have raised some serious red flags[/U], he had a chance to be stopped, but wasn't. They did not even ask him to prove his relations to Frosty, not even asking to look at his face to see if there was any resemblance. Had Chemosh been there, he would've enjoyed preying on the crew's naivety.
Everything was in place. His people had been preparing for this day ever since they were routed from Earth. The only obstacle left for his people to rise once more from the ashes of their defeat was Frosty's amnesia. But, Moloch knew very well that problem would be taken care of shortly. He smiled at the thought of this.
(( gj fellas, ya'll let space Hezbollah get away with Frosty. :v: ))[/QUOTE]
((Leave the Netherlands alone you bully))
Yuga flicked open her compass to read the message.
Jag of all people wanted to speak to her, and about this Moloch character none the less.
She replied to calmly replied to him.
[quote]Meet me in my quarters.
There we can discuss without being disturbed[/quote]
She left the bridge and headed to her room.
((Btw I'm going to work now so I might not be able to respond.))
Returning to his quarters, János sat down and began thinking over what Moloch said. He knew that Moloch was abusing his hospitality, even if he was genuinely nice. The tell-tale signs were the sawn-off and not trusting him to let him take Frosty. He wondered how to follow this up now.
János had a knack for starting absurdly confusing and lengthy gambits during his living days. At least a sixth of the people he interrogated knew of his ways, so they tried to loophole their way out of revealing their confidential info. János would always continue his polite demeanor, before filing down any at all habits, and make clever predictions on how the abusers would react. He remembers one case that ended with one attempted escapee losing his clothes, getting tarred and feathered. He doesn't quite remember what happened after, though.
He concentrated on the first detail - Chemosh, the ex-leader of the Children of God, who disappeared during their exodus from Sol. He had assumed that, without Chemosh around, extremist actions against Sol had plummeted. He also assumed that their numbers had barely grown since leaving, connecting it to their synthetic nature. However, if Chemosh returned, he assumed such actions would rise again.
Hypothetically taking the return of Chemosh in mind, as well as what Moloch had told him, any direct battles against Sol and its allies would result in even more diminished numbers, especially considering how direct Chemosh's method of waging war against humanity sounded like. Even if the Children of God continued to have technological superiority, war against Sol is a lose/lose either way.
But first, he had to figure out who Chemosh was. He re-winded in his head every conversation he had with Moloch, looking for any detail within his words that could lead him to figure out his identity, along with processing any possibilities unrelated to Moloch's words. Using his experience with Hestia, he opened up the port right under his right hand and linked it to the computer in his room. He began processing every possibility.
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