Iska had saved her drink, concluding that it was not suitable to drink after watching Varn drink it.
She patted him on the shoulder and put her drink in front of him. "Here, Iska save this for you." Varn looked up with a troubled expression. Iska struggled to hold the laugh in but proved impossible.
She let it out and laughed long and hard.
After calming down she looked around the room in search for Yanim, but to no avail.
After checking out all of the wares, Yanim had purchased everything listed above, as well as six [I]chuapta[/I] prescription-level painkiller pills, a small vial of [I]tigrata[/I] pepper extract containing three doses, and two blotters containing 50 micrograms of LSD each.
"[You really weren't kidding,]" the dealer said as Yanim prepared to take the first dose of kagakitazh. "[You're in for a hell of a night, girl. You better not OD with all that, I've got a reputation to uphold around here.]"
Reseating her mask after snorting the powder, Yanim gave a slight shudder and sneered. "[This is cut,]" she said, sternly. "[I saw some kind of clear crystals in the mix but I wanted to be sure. You owe me something.]"
"[What are you talking about?]" the dealer replied, picking up one of the straws himself and examining its contents. "[Oh, shit... I see it. Shouldn't have bought from Motley last night, his prices seemed just a little too cheap. Okay, so how do you want to handle this?]"
The two bartered briefly until Yanim accepted a tablet of [I]dreamwish,[/I] a human product she had never tried before due to its high asking price. Afterward, the dealer decided to leave the bar, party to exchange his remaining stock of tazh for a better quality batch, but mostly because Yanim had pretty much bought him out of everything else he had.
Yanim then walked over to the bar, the effects of her first dose already coming into effect. The colorful glass of the bottles lining the wall seemed more vibrant, bleeding out of the solid bodies themselves and into the air as if seen through a foggy pane of glass. The ambient sounds of activity and speech which surrounded her seemed to harmonize into a somewhat more pleasant buzzing, and the weight of her legs seemed to dissipate in favor of a gentle, floating sensation. In other words, everything was just a little bit better.
She sat down next to Iska, whom had apparently been looking for her.
Jeremy noticed the small group of friends Lion had before he was in the Sol Special Forces he saw the old fella and greeted him with a grin. "Nice to meet you guys. You've fought alongside Lion before eh? He's a great guy that helps around inside the ship. I swear he pulls out guns every hour."
Varn looked at Iska as she gave him the drink. "Thanks, but I think, I'll pass communicating with the universe a second time today."
Varn turned around when Lion started doing introductions. He extended his hand for the handshake "Pleasure to meet you guys."
Iska stood up an took the hand of McKinze, who was obvious the biggest of the bunch but still shorter than Iska. "Iska can respect great warriors, and a friend of Lion is friend of Iska." She shook his hand and sat down again; "But Iska must ask, how many kills?"
McKinze greeted Lion's friends and chuckled when Iska gave him a question.
"Confirmed? Over three-hundred. Give or take."
"Showoff." Said Lion jokingly.
"How long have you two known each other?", Dwan asks Lion and McKinze, having introduced himself to the latter.
"I've known this old man for about ten years now." Answered Lion.
"Aside from the unification wars we've also done some other operations and assignments together."
[quote] A person with a long fifthy coat watched the small settlement from afar, two men, no at least five men were on each side with dark shaded goggles on. The middle man made the ugliest smile ever with messed up teeth and spat out some mucus. He whistled throughout the desert and called out his brothers for a little fun. The man got on his bike as well as a couple dozen followed pursuit to seek chaos. The bikes started up and went to the small settlement with a small goal: rough it up.
"Alright JellyBob once we get this town under control we'll be getting small territory in no time those Caldoneros won't be messing with us again for a long time! YahOO!" The group shouted in excitement and shot their laser pistols in the air for glory. [/quote]
Pippin walked out into the street, a crate full of supplies in his arms. He started looking for the others, and after a few minutes, saw Lions bike outside a shifty looking tavern and headed inside.
"I'll be outside for a few moments." Varn went outside the tavern and lid a cigar. He saw Pippin heading in "The other's are at the bar Pippin, you can't miss them. Oh and, don't drink something called Valhalla." After a few minutes he saw rising smoke and sand in the distance. The sounds of laughter and laser pistols going off weren't far behind. "And things were just getting good." He went back inside. "Guys, there's a biker gang rolling into town, could be trouble."
Yanim spun around on her barstool, yanking her YSV-82 around front where she could use it. "Nilmika? <Trouble?>" she confirmed, a hint of excitement crossing her face.
Lion turned around after hearing Varns warning. "If you can provide covering fire I can spin up the repeater mounted on the Lancier and keep those idiots at bay." Said Lion as he began walking towards the door.
"We're with you, son." Said McKinze whom followed Lion alongside the Edisons.
"All I have is pistol and a knife. I can distract them, to give you guys time."
"Oh boy.", Dwan said, as he pulled out his Bellevue Ancaria. "I'll try my best to cover fire", he said, as he followed everyone.
"Okay guys, we don't know if they want trouble, lets not shoot first, okay?" As he said this, pippin drew his placed his crate on the floor and drew his pistol.
Lion nodded before rushing out the door. He ran quickly towards the Lancier and jumped into the roof turret.
He looked at McKinze and the rest of the crewmembers. "I need time to power it up, it's going to take a little longer due to the heat."
"Well they don't know that, and hopefully you won't have to use it."
Yanim shuffled out of the bar and climbed underneath the Lancier, laying on her stomach so that she could have steady aim from a secure location. In the dark, she was nearly impossible to see in the shadow of the vehicle, but her scope showed her surroundings thanks to infrared view.
"Ready when y-you are," she said quietly into her communicator.
Pippin shook his head in frustration. "Can someone please talk to them before we start a shootout?"
"We'll see..." Said Lion as the dustcloud caused by the encroaching bikers got closer for every second.
McKinze and the Edisons moved around some of the parked hoverbikes to form some defensive cover around the rover.
"Lion, we had better tell the ship what's going on here, just in case."
Varn readied his gun, he stood next to Pippin. "Pippin, what's your experience with biker gangs?"
"I've done my best to avoid any experience with them, but if we start shooting now, lots of innocent bystanders could get hurt."
[QUOTE=Sparkeagle;47957912]"Sure Sledge, you can have Herc chip in. I think I am ready for bigger tests. I might need you here in case anything goes wrong. Let me know when you are ready." [B]Squish preps the tables and equipment.[/B][/QUOTE]
Sledge wasn't really paying attention. He was too busy trying to figure out how to get the space flea cages open.
[QUOTE=Sparkeagle;47978928][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.)[/QUOTE]
"Nope!" Sledge threw his hands in the air and walked out of the room. On his way, he jabbed the PA button with his giant index finger and barked, "Emergency in the science lab. I can't even." Hercules followed closely behind.
Sledge wasn't sure what he had just witnessed/participated in and he didn't want to know. He wanted to [i]forget[/i]. Trudging his way up to the bar, he noticed that Urist McBarkeep was noticeably absent, as was just about everyone else. They must have already gone outside. Fine by Sledge, who was welcoming any opportunity to put some space between himself and...
[i]Aaaaanyway[/i] if everyone else was already planetside then it was probably a good idea to catch up with them. He stopped by the armory and saddled up Hercules with his armor plating and weaponry, which was loaded with live ammunition this time. Being too heavy to ride Hercules himself, Sledge opted for the equally awesome option of his hover bike, which he was happy to find Yanim had already modified for him. The bike held his weight much more gracefully this time.
After taking a few moments to familiarize himself with the controls, Sledge decided to take the bike out on the dunes to see how she handled and was pleasantly surprised. Whether it was Yanim's intent or otherwise, the bike felt rather similar to an electric motorcycle, something Sledge was very familiar with from his teenage years. Similarly, he was delighted to see that even in Lion's equipment, Hercules was matching his speed at 60 kph. The Dracobin's home planet, Ophion, was also a desert planet, so it sorta made sense that Herc would have such a great footing here.
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wytM1_oGELU[/media]
After a few seconds, Hercules passed him going even faster. He'd ceased running and was now taking large leaping strides using his legs to rocket himself forward at higher and higher speeds. Sledge accelerated to try to catch up but even reaching 125 kph wasn't gaining ground. Finally Sledge hit the brakes and brought the bike to a halt. Hercules, hearing the engine of the bike drop in volume and pitch, turned around and came back. Sledge patted his snout, impressed. "Didn't know you had it in you, Herc."
He turned to where he had left the city and the ship for open sand. Both were much nearer the horizon than Sledge would have liked. The sun was starting to set and he wasn't sure he wanted to be out in the middle of nowhere in the dark. It gets weirdly cold in the desert at night. Like, what? It's a [i]desert[/i].
As Sledge and Hercules approached the town, they rose to the top of a large dune and were able to spot the rest of the hoverbikes around a building. He was just barely able to make out that people were scrambling and getting into defensive positions. Sledge and Hercules slowed a stop to assess the situation, but suddenly heard the sounds of loud motors off in the distance. A group of bikers were approaching the town from another direction. They probably meant trouble if the crew was this up-in-arms about it.
Sledge's first instinct was to meet up with his comrades, but his second instinct told the first one to shut up and to flank the baddies instead. With the large dust cloud and loud motors they probably wouldn't notice Sledge in his relatively quiet hoverbike or Herc's footfalls.
Turning the bike, Sledge sped towards the bikers' rear flank, getting close enough so he could tell what was going on but not close enough to blow his cover or cause unnecessary conflict.
(( Hey can this conflict please not end with us immediately leaving the planet for some reason? I have something planned for Sledge if he's allowed to wander around town on his own afterwards. ))
[QUOTE=liberalllama;48025298]"I've done my best to avoid any experience with them, but if we start shooting now, lots of innocent bystanders could get hurt."[/QUOTE]
"For a second there, I was worried you were concerned with the biker's safety. I can't guarantee that no civilians will get hurt, but meeting them outside of a defensive position would be a bad idea. Besides, desert folk are tend to be very resilient."
"Still, I'd not want to be on th side that started the fight."
[QUOTE=Bathacker;48025398](( Hey can this conflict please not end with us immediately leaving the planet for some reason? I have something planned for Sledge if he's allowed to wander around town on his own afterwards.))[/QUOTE]
((I've got a lot planned, too. Please no more timeskips without asking the thread first.))
Yanim's voice crackled through the communicator. "Keep your v-voices down. If they're here to harm, we have the advantage of s-surprise. Don't fear for the locals- this p-planet is lawless; they'll know what to do."
Lion hit the pintel-mounted weapon with one of his robotic fists, causing it to power up. "I hate coolant jams."
He looked towards Varn and Pippin. "Seeing as the gun works, I suppose I could provide cover should one of us attempt to speak with the bikers."
[quote] The Leader and his group were already heading town central after notifying their presence with their guns and arrows. A unseen alien truck in the desert also followed them all the way to the goal. The Leader grinned with his crooked teeth on set as he found himself with locals staring at him. He pulled out a megaphone from the side of his bike. He clearly raised the volume and was struggled to get it working at first. A member came to help him. "Black button."
"Wah'?"
"Black button, on the side, it lights up."
"Ah." The leader pressed it activating the megaphone and raised his laser pistol to the air. "Ladies and gentlemen thank you for presenting yourselves as livestock! For we have come here once again to change the course of this town's history." The Leader adjusted his hat, pacing around. "I know what you're thinking, I know you locals realized the last incident we came here. Now we're simply finishing the job, claiming this town is what we're gonna do!"
The Leader gestured his members to open up the truck. Behind the truck slowly unveiled people with blinds tied up. The bikers pulled them to the Leader's range and gave a stern look to the crowd. The hostages vary from kids to elderly. All of them went quiet for reasons to not get things any worse for them. "Now, we got hostages. Family and friends. You know the drill, lay down your weapons and nobody has to die!" The Leader spoke through.
"Any of you, and I mean any of you shoots one goddamn laser bolt pulse energy gun for no reason whatsoever the hostages die! Starting with the kids!" The Biker Leader screamed with rage, but calmed himself down. "I want the town negotiator right in my face, no more than 30 mins!"[/quote]
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