Iska listened as Yanim explained what happened in the hangar. As far Yanim was concerned, it should be up to Arthur to prove that she's crooked, as her conduct on the ship thus far pointed to the contrary. She made no mention of her opinion toward Nycho, only referring to her line of questioning as insulting.
"Man, I like this new machine, but it just doesn't handle to my liking. Frankly, it's way too tight and plows like a dumptruck. Any chance one of you could find a way to loosen her up?" Jeb called out in their general direction. Yanim gave him a funny look, unaware of his racing background.
"Do you have a d-death wish?" she questioned.
Jeb responded, "I think you've mistaken me for someone who doesn't know how to drive fast. I may be old, but lemme tell you, I aint no grandpa driver."
Yanim weighed the risks of adjusting the handling of Jeb's ATD. The man certainly had confidence, but that didn't alleviate the fear of endangering a crewmate or bystanders. She decided to compromise. "Okay, come here a s-second," she said, waving him over. Jeb stood nearby, watching Yanim access his ATD using an RF wireless connection on her tablet.
"Normally, ground friction is s-simulated for the sake of stability, but in r-reality you are floating on cushion of air. I can disable it - the reaction control system - and instead enable three-dimensional s-steering, wherein the front and rear repulsor circuits act independently to guide the airfoil of your bike."
Jeb scratched his head, "so what will that do, in layman's terms?"
"Imagine yourself sitting on a p-pile of ball bearings on the surface of a frozen river which is sloping into a ravine, attached t-to a hang glider which is pulling you along at gale-wind speed. You're holding a model rocket engine in each hand in order to s-steer yourself and if you make the wrong m-move at any time you'll die immediately."
"Is it really that bad?" Jeb asked.
Yanim stared at him blankly, indicating her frankness. "If I am do this, I am reducing the p-power to 28% until I know you can handle it. You will not exceed 120 kilometer per hours, and I recommend d-driving slower than that on your first run."
Varn was observing his drink, wondering if he should drink it. Dwan was an expert on liqueur, but Varn can't recall the last time he saw him drink. It wasn't uncommon for bartenders to not drink. "Ehh, fuck it." he said as he took a swig. Drinking the entire Valhalla Gin in one swig. That was critical mistake number one. The bartender looked at him with a shocked expression. "Human, you're not supposed to drink it like that."
Varn was confused for a second and then it hit him. It hit him like a high-speed train going through plywood. For a solid minute the past, present and future had become one right in front of his eyes. Countless shapes, shades and lights were dancing in his vision. His [URL="http://i.imgur.com/FAn5yL0.gif"]face[/URL] was a good indication of that. After it all stopped everything was clear to him. He was invincible. He stood up and ran outside the bar, yelling something about loading up a rocket ship and shooting straight for the stars and what it means to be a man. Before he did that, however, he took of his shirt, threw it on the ground and did an elbow drop on it.
The bartender sighed as he took out a tablet. On it there was a counter "Days since last Valhalla incident:14" He reset it to zero."Damn humans, can't hold their drink."
Pippin cautiously took the controls and followed the others.
[B]Squish sets up the medical equipment and monitors. He takes the needle from the bag of serum and puts it into his arm. He crawls up on top of the table and lays down. He takes a few breaths, and un-clips the line of the serum. After a few minutes, the serum bag is empty, and nothing seems to have happened.[/B] "I was for sure that would have worked." [B]A few seconds later, with Sledge watching, Squish begins growing. Sledge manhandles the growing Squish and throws him back onto the table. A few minutes later, the growing seems to have stopped. Grunts and moans can be heard from the mutated Squish as a nervous Sledge watched.[/B] (Want to stop here until Sledge returns so as to let his decisions impact it.)
Dwan eventually wakes up from his sudden knockout, feeling nauseous. Despite being a teetotaler, Dwan still practices in the art of taste-testing every drink that enters his bar, alcoholic or not. Despite inheriting a large alcohol tolerance through his genes, he still managed to pass out after one swig. As he tried to get his bearings together, he noticed Varn going mental thanks to the beverage.
He walks to the barkeep. "What's the ABV of the Valhalla Gin?", he asks him.
The barkeep scratched his head as he placed his info all the way from the back of his head. "50% ABV."
"50%? That drink is much stronger than that.", Dwan says from experience.
The barkeep shakes his head. "Enough to made Human go wild, ingredients make the drink." The bartender realized he was out of ice, he quickly moved out of the counter and went elsewhere.
Jeb experimented with the new handling of his machine. He followed Yanim's suggestion, since he wasn't exactly how far the alien changed the handling. He gave it some throttle and steered it back and forth, it steered much easier than it had previously. His next "trial" would be to pull an advanced manuever. He spotted a clean section of land where he would attempt this feat.
Jeb accelerated to a speed he felt comfortable attempting his technique, normally when one enters a corner; the safest course of action is to brake, then turn and accelerate on the apex of the corner. Jeb had other ideas: at the start of the turn, he tapped the brakes, then gunned the throttle into a drift. The fact that he had not done a drift in a very long time, however, soon caught up with him. Instead of finishing the powerslide smoothly, he instead escalated the ATD into a full spinout.
Jeb's ATD came to a stop, and Jeb attempted to walk back to the bar. He tried to go through the doors, but instead bounced off the wall in his new dizzy state. His second attempt through the door was met with success and he then sat down at the bar.
As the Viper walked down the street, much of the crowd started to fade after the 2nd sun turned to dusk above the town.
Making sure to keep the Laser PDW that Viper had gotten early, handy as several of the more rougher looking men started to break off from the rest of crowd.
They begin to light their cigarettes, mumbling to one another as they begin to tail behind Viper with no attempt to hide their intent as started to spread up around the sheet.
Meanwhile, Viper kept on the look out for the scout. "That Sanghvi was just in view as I pulled up...." Viper thought to itself before looking it's shoulder to see the highwaymen were readying up for there strike.
Viper pull out the PDW under it's cloak, attempting to primed the weapon's core. Only to be met with an disappointing whim as their foot steps grew more and more frequent from behind.
Trying again to ready it as they got started to walk faster towards the Sanghvi, letting out another pitifully sound as one of them lets off an laugh in response to the Viper's futile attempt.
Some of the highwaymen started walking around to the sides of the street, brandishing their weapons to scare off foolhardy beggars as they tired to corner Viper from the left to right.
Like the sunlight, hope begin to fade for Sanghvi. Viper tired an third time to prime the laser array within the weapon in hopes of not ending like the Screecher queen on Rigel.
Thankfully, lady luck's was on the Sanghvi shoulder today as Viper was momentarily blinded with an bright flash of the weapon from it's energy core under the cloak, Lighting up the Sanghvi's crest with a warm, red glow.
Viper quickly turn the weapon's safely lock off and turned it on "Burn" as one of the highwaymen had gotten right behind the Sanghvi. But as Viper eyes recovered, the first they saw was the Sanghvi scout across the street.
"Hey...diamond Mantis!" The highwayman said after he was done grunting. "Your..are property now!" He yell out as Viper stood still in the sand, sinking down an few inches in the sand as scout stood in confusion.
"Hey..I'm taking to you!!" The highwayman yelled out as he placed his hand on Viper shoulder.
Viper rips the cloak apart in seconds and uses it to catch the highwayman off guard, placing him in neck in an choke-hold as the cloak is securely around his neck.
His suffering doesn't end here, Viper then proceed to stab it's left claw into his crest to hold him still as the Viper aims the PDW at the closest highwayman with the other.
The highwaymen then broke out their weapons and aimed at the two, slowly walking towards them before Viper put's it's talon next to the captured highwayman's throat, shopping them dead in their tacks.
Having witnessed Jeb spinning out the ATD, Yanim sighed as she realized that the forces involved with such a spin at max speed would have been enough to throw him from the bike. Still, until that point, he had negotiated a maneuver which would have caused him to tumble over his long axis had he not accounted for his off-center thrust vector. In other words, it was an impressive thing to attempt.
The man himself was highly disorientated, but otherwise his confidence remained unblemished. This was proof enough to Yanim that Jeb was at least an experienced driver, but she still intended to keep the power locked until Jeb had the chance to become more acquainted with his vehicle.
The sun was setting.
She walked to one secluded area of the bar where a tall, rough-cut human man in a heavy leather jacket was silently smoking a cigarette. A button on the jacket's collar had a small ruby set in the center. He looked up at her as she approached, and she responded by tapping herself on the nose exactly three times before turning off her translator. "[You know me,"] she said.
"[Do I?]" he replied, perking up. "[Normally I don't know people I haven't met.]" It was the beginning of a coded exchange designed to thwart kanad intelligence officers, who were known for making arrests and causing havoc along the supply chain, despite the fact that the drugs themselves were legal on Duroma.
"[I remember you from the [I]Eventide,[/I]]" Yanim asserted, naming one of the three major nightclubs in Bonram where competing suppliers are known meet with their dealers. The Eventide was associated with rubies. The man nodded with slight hesitation.
"[Was I awake or asleep?]" he asked. This was the final question. In truth, neither answer was acceptable, as the true question was the method of payment. If the buyer responds, "Ill," it refers to some sort of untraceable trade good, such as precious metals or gemstones.
"[Dead,]" Yanim insisted. This was the other acceptable answer- cash. The man cracked an amused smile.
"[Haven't seen an offworlder out here in a while,]" he said, finally relaxed. "[Most of you just go straight to Bonram from the port. I'm guessing you've been through this game before.]" Reaching into his pocket, he placed a bag on the counter and began sorting out a wide arrange of psychoactive substances.
Jeremy accelerated to the closest settlement as soon as possible. He found Lion's signal so that should be a start and maneuvered all the way until he knew that he was in the right place. He deactivated his ATV and rolled it over to the bar. Varn was nowhere to be found but he did see Lion, Yanim and Iska at least.
He sat down near the cheap stools and ordered himself some iced whiskey. The bartender replied by working through the scenery.
After some time Varn stumbled back into the bar. His shirt was still on the ground so he picked it up, dusted it off and put it back on. He sat back in his place. "Water...and...ice..lots of it." He said, hoping that the bartender heard him. He then tuned to Dwan. "Not...dead." Then to Iska "Your...turn" Then he collapsed.
Pippin found his way to the settlement. There, he came across a street filled with vendors and some indoor stores. He started browsing through some of their selections.
"The last thing I see is his shiny metal butt right before he jumps out the airlock and dove face-first into the swamp!"
McKinze and the Edisons burst out laughing before Lion could continue the story. Lion smiled and tried to keep himself from laughing .
"Me and Val ran to the airlock and looked out across the swamp."
"What did you see?" Asked McKinze.
"We saw the sergeant getting soaked in saliva as a group of puddlers had mistaken him for their own offspring. I will never forget the look on his face through the visor as at least a gallon of saliva covered his armor."
Once again the group burst out in laughter before taking another sip from their drinks.
They slowly calmed down and leaned back. McKinze looked at Lion. "You do know that you will never find a better gal than Val, right?"
Lion nodded slowly. "I know. I might reach out to her someday, who knows?"
"You better do it soon laddie, a fine lass like her will surely end up with someone else if you wait for too long." Said McKinze in a calm tone.
"I'll think about it, still have my SDF communicator with me so it shouldn't be too hard."
Lion smiled before looking at the group. "Thank you for this, it's been far too long since I sat down and relaxed like this."
"Pleasure is ours, son." Said McKinze with a big grin on his face.
(( Alright we're still on the planet, right? I'll try to get caught up today. ))
Dwan was annoyed that the barkeep blew him off like that. He's sure to contact some sort of bartending organization in order to have the Valhalla Gin checked out. But now isn't the time for that.
He returned to his seat, noticing that Jeb and Jeremy arrived. Varn comes back into the bar from god knows where, looking half-dead. Incidentally, Varn tells Dwan that he isn't dead before passing out, causing Dwan to have an expression that says 'I told you so.'. Turning to Radley, he notices that Yanim has gone somewhere else in the bar. He wonders where she is. Lion's still chatting it up with his old mates. He begins wondering where Viper is and if anyone else from the ship has come.
(Sledge, I used the serum to start growing, so there may be a problem since you are there helping me.)
[Long post incoming!]
[quote] Arenax Seventhian was busy enjoying his Draconican tunes out loud in his own base. He gave a smile and enjoyed himself living a life of luxury. His security guards wandered around until they saw the night sky in their own direction. Both gave nods to each other as both guarded in opposite directions. What they didn't notice were two figures in hiding, waiting for the moment to strike. As both guards went around opposite corners their fates were sealed from the get go. The Second Figure unstealthed and activated her durabladed dagger, colliding it with the guard's torso. A sudden groan opened up and he attempted to raise his gun but couldn't. The guard died within seconds as he smashed on the floor like a dead corpse.
The other guard's head was already caved in by the Fourth Figure, laid dead by his tracks.
"All guards are dead Mariahlus, I believe I caught up when I murdered the other 5 with my single claw." A raspy voice sprang within the Second Figure's helmet comm. Mariahlus rolled her eyes and replied with distant. "Charming Folter, I see your claims of victory against my accredited skills have not gone unnoticed." She said as she stood up and walked around the area for any more guards.
"Where is Sertum, Zane, and Dirge?" Mariahlus questioned observing the Draconian inside as he was distracted listening to distasteful music.
"Doing the hard work. They should be inside by now..." He said as he scratched the surface of the wall with his mechanical claw repeatably. Arenax applied some hot fluids into his coffee cup, about to close his eyes until he almost got the feeling he was being watched. He narrowed his eyes but nothing came up. He got back to his hot fluid and began to sip on it until he saw his fluid move. He immediately turned and saw the body, reaching to strike him but couldn't as a person knocked him off his chair.
Arenax rose from the floor and attempted to search for his handgun to shoot the fuckers, he ran to the drawer and pulled out his gun but saw a man with a black and white sword in front of him. It couldn't be, this was a legend he was looking at. Harken Saw told about these men in cloaks.
"You wouldn't want to shoot me, you'll sign a lengthy death warrant including your friends and family." The First Figure remarked, tilting his head to see a gun being pointed at him.
"The... Auditors. What the hell are you doing here?" Arenax asked him. The question entered in and Sertum paced. "You were in charge of the Inquisition, we require your assistance on the people you rewarded for the Screecher Queen." Sertum insisted he'd follow along but the Draconian was left unfazed by this man's intimidation.
"You don't intimidate me, don't bother asking about information. I won't tell jack." Arenax roared in annotation.
"Very well, regardless whether you don't comply we still need you." As Arenax turned around, seeing Folter in place, slicing the gun in half using his claw. The Helix Founder widened his eyes and received a kick in the face, plummeting down to the ground. The Auditors surrounded him, and Sertum gestured Folter and Dirge to restrain him. The Draconian resisted from the start, earning a kick from Folter. Arenax coughed up purple blood. He looked above as both men restrained him once again. Sertum observed him and pulled out a metal syringe, containing a strange fluid. Sertum activated his helmet for Draconian anatomy, injecting the syringe into his left side of his neck.
The fluid took control of Arenax as he struggled to get out of this mess, he shook violently until he calmed himself. "Now, word of mouth states that a group that bare the HarkArk insignia managed to accomplish the Inquisition. Eventually they left and we have no leads. You rewarded them 20 million credits, is that correct?" Sertum questioned, Arenax answered by giving a resistant nod, sweat came down on his face.
"Yes." He finally answered with no hesitation. "Where is the server information for the Inquisition?" Sertum asked which earned the reply of "Computer Servers, In Helix Tower but also located in my personals." Arenax answered.
"Where exactly are the personal files?" Sertum closed in on him, looking directly at his face. "Upstairs, Computer Room." Arenax attempted to pull out of this scientific agent but couldn't resist completely. Sertum turned to Mariahlus, signaling her to go upstairs. "On it Sertum." She swayed across the hall and went up, Sertum grabbed the Draconian by the neck one handed, pulling him up to the bedroom. Both Auditors saw the large computer room that could fit a small sized apartment.
"What are the passwords? Codes?" Sertum asked which bought up another question from his ally. "How long does this serum last?" "Folter ensured it would take a while before the subject regains control." Mariahlus was uncertain but was reassured that Folter insisted this serum would take an hour before the subject gains focus. "An hour, plenty of time to get all information." Mariahlus answered. Arenax gave the codes to Sertum, closing in on the servers. "Folter, I need you." Sertum said through the comm. "Of course Sertum, anything for the mastermind." Folter said with sarcasm. Coming upstairs to see Sertum enter. Folter observed the amount of computers in here, this was going to be easy.
"The codes. Make sure you identify the uniforms and queen." Sertum said before he walked across the bedroom to find nothing but a large bed, two drawers, and a bathroom near. He searched through the drawers thoroughly. Sertum found nothing until he felt a small electronic card, he pulled it out of the drawer and saw the name. "Boome Marines." He raised the card up to reflect the light, noticing the name of Varn Merner.
"I bypassed the walls, observe." Folter asked for Sertum to come to the computers. Mariahlus, Sertum, and Folter watched all the information about the Inquisition unveil. "Stop, I've seen the Queen." Sertum commanded, all took a glare at a group photo with the dead Screecher Queen. A big Human with two hammers in the middle, a robot, a Kanad, two Kherigans, and what might be the Captain in the center. "I've also looked up the financial transactions four weeks ago. You might look at them." Folter opened a tab to the info looking up the financial data. "Archius XI, Captain: Jeremy Spacehawk. This confirms their whereabouts on Rigel." Sertum claimed.
"There must be a misunderstanding, the Tainted Raider member stated the Captain was killed in action following their escape." Mariahlus said to Sertum. "His claim sounded unsure, perhaps the Captain rigged the Roulette in order to receive a bounty claim reward. If so then the Captain is still alive as we speak." Sertum suggested, he went up to Arenax and took him to the computer.
"Who gave you the Queen in this picture?" Sertum demanded.
"Th-The, this one, this one, along with that one." Arenax pointed to Lion, Sledge, Iska, and Varn.
Sertum raised the Boome Marines card to his face. "Is this card relevant? If so then who gave it to you?" Arenax sweated all over the place, placing his index finger towards Varn in the picture.
"I'm grateful for your cooperation." Sertum stated, immediately knocking Arenax to the ground, another body to memory wipe. "Contact our brokers, keeping this data is essential and will not be shared. The Helix CEO must be secured within his bedroom, contact a cleanup crew for the fallen around the building before any suspicion reaches here." Sertum said walking downstairs to see Dirge and Zane. "Sir, I believe the Richter has informed us that the Operation is a work in progress." Zane reported to his leader. Sertum nodded. "Deception is key after all." [/quote]
[Question, how come they have the group photo when Lion is literally the only person to have it? As in, inside his head. Just some minor nit-picking. :v:]
[Apparently Varn gave it to him as evidence. Unless this isn't the right one?]
[QUOTE=kilerabv;47533332]"No problem." Varn loaded up the images and videos of the dead queen on his holoband. Including the picture of the crew after they killed her. "The carcass is down in the lobby. Sorry if it made a mess"[/QUOTE]
[Oh, my bad then.]
[It should be, since Varn made a request to have a copy so he could rub it in the other mercs faces. I assumed that Lion gave it to him. If not, sorry about that.]
[Nah like I said, my bad. The photo was taken by one of Lion's semtries which was linked to Roughrider which was linked to the ground team.]
As she tipped the drinking straw over in her fingers, Yanim watched the rust-colored powder travel from one crimped side to the other, mulling over the price she had been given. "[I'll take ten,]" she said, finally. The dealer raised an eyebrow.
"[[I]Kagakitazh[/I]- ten hits,]" he confirmed. "[You handing these out or something? If you snort all of this at once you're going to have a bad time.]"
"[I don't know yet. Either way this is going to be a long night, and each hit lasts about half an hour.]" Yanim picked up a small, disk-like pill and examined its marking. "[[I]Tishnk?[/I]]" The dealer nodded and told her the price per dose. "Eh... [four of these...]"
"[Those don't match well,]" the dealer warned.
"[Says you,]" Yanim replied casually. The dealer shifted uncomfortably, but money was money and so the deal went forward. Yanim picked up a small plastic bag and mulled over the crystalline substance inside. "[What's this?]" she asked.
"[I]Methamphetamine.[/I] [It's a human thing.]" Yanim looked over at the bar in time to catch an alarmed sidelong glance from one of her crewmates in response to the drug being mentioned.
"Nah."
The bartender splashed the water and ice on Varn, waking him up. After a loud gasp for air, he got back on his seat. He looked around, still dazed. He noticed Dwan's expression. "Don't look so smug." Varn said annoyingly.
"Don't mess with someone versed in alcohol.", Dwan responds to Varn. He begins wondering when Lion's going to come and join back in the group.
Lion leaned back to observe the rest of the crew. While had been keeping a vague eye on their positions, he hadn't done any effort to keep a closer watch on them.
Most of the crew were at the bar, he turned to McKinze.
"Mind saying hello to my crew?" Lion asked to which McKinze replied with a big grin.
The four of them left their payment at the table before heading over to the bar.
"Hey guys, I want you to meet some old friends of mine." Said Lion with a big smile.
Lion did a gesture towards McKinze and the Edisons.
"This is former Captain Daniel McKinze of the SSFD alongside twin-Majors Edisons. We served together during the Sol unification." Said Lion, looking at Dwan, Iska, Varn and Jeremy.
McKinze laughed. "Ye sure know how to make a man feel old, son." He turned his eyes towards the group. "Pleasure to meet you all." He extended his hand.
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