Lion chuckled. "Make sure to bait them with something."
"Theire attracted to shiny thing. Can you lend me a finger?"
Lion nodded and deployed a small drone used to illuminate dark areas such as caves etc. It flew over to Varn and begun hovering next to the tip of his spear, emitting a faint humming sound.
Volrik yawned as he flopped onto the rec room's couch onboard the Desert Star. He had been up all night searching for witnesses of the shootout at Picaea, but despite all of the tension most of the people there knew almost nothing about what had actually happened. This at least confirmed one of Iyoko's suspicions- the news media on Duroma wasn't reliable. Speaking of Iyoko, she arrived in the rec room a few minutes later, looking just as exhausted as Volrik.
"Day shift's about to take over," she said. Volrik nodded a few times with his eyes closed. "Did you set anything up for that transport ship?"
"Yeah, but let me explain what I know, first. In the footage, we see that there were a few SDF soldiers in the mix, but I talked to a bartender and he says they part of a separate crew... The rest of those mercs we see in the footage, just happened to show up right before the standoff happened. They're probably the owners of that ship."
"Okay, so who are they?"
"That's the weird thing; nobody seems to know anything about them, but at least I got a few descriptions. Most of them are humans, but there's a few standouts: a kanad and a khergian, both female, and one of the humans is indistinguishable from a battle droid."
Iyoko typed the relevant information into her tablet, but was beginning to wonder whether this incident was even worth investigating further. "So what's the point?"
Volrik sat up, bothered by his supervisor's indifference. "When you first asked me to look into this, it was about figuring out which gangs were active in the area, who was winning, and which trades they were associated with. But everything I've got so far tells us that this has nothing to do with gang warfare.
"The 'mercs' we see in the footage were there by [I]coincidence.[/I] They only got involved because the bikers wanted them to turn over their weapons. Now get this- if that ship showed up at their request, it had to have been landed close to Picaea before the standoff happened, but I've called every commercial landing zone and none of them can identify the ship."
"Last time we talked, you said it 'looked like every other ship around here,' didn't you?"
"That's what the locals said," he replied quickly. "But the landing zone managers record when ships land and take off of their property. Not a single ship of that class took off within the timeframe needed to arrive at Picaea at that exact moment. [I]None of them.[/I]"
"So..."
"[I]Their ship had to be parked in the desert,[/I]" he continued, exasperated. "and these 'mercs' weren't looking for trouble, rather, they came to Picaea because it was supposed to be sleepy and quiet. I'd bet you anything they're not mercenaries at all- they're acting more like fugitives."
Iyoko blinked. The theory actually made sense. But the only way for them to find out more would be to either locate and question the crew, which would alert them to State Security's presence, or to locate their ship and leave the real investigation to a larger and better team, which would surely come along if they were to commit to this theory. "I see what you mean. So how are we going to find them?"
"Assuming they're still parked out there somewhere, we'll pick them up with aerial photography," Volrik explained, brimming with pride.
"Good. I'll tell day shift not to get too close," Iyoko said as she started to leave, but then turned around. "By the way, have you heard anything from Arkadam? He said he was tailing an important lead last night but he hasn't responded to anything I've sent him in the meantime."
Volrik sneered. "'Important lead,' alright" he repeated, sarcastically. "I'm sure he's enjoying his job a lot right now."
Iyoko rolled her eyes. [I]Fucking Arkadam...[/I]
---
When the princess gave him the magic sugar cube, Arkadam thought it was a gesture of love. Now his world was spiders.
It had all started off well enough. After they had each taken half of the dreamwish tablet, Yanim and Arkadam had both been pleasantly re-energized, but in a way that felt natural, like the boost one would get from a nap, rather than a caffeine buzz. Their world grew more lucid around them, no longer awash in the golden light of early dawn, but rather appearing more like a pastel drawing, with subtle hues of azure and rose. Even their dark-colored jackets somehow appeared light and airy, and the two spent roughly a half hour staring at a wall together.
It was out of this peaceful scene that arose the most paranoid and terrifying delusions that either of them had ever experienced. Neither of them would remember these things, but it was worth noting that first, Yanim refused to leave the bed because she thought the carpet had been replaced by flesh eating worms. Next, Arkadam was convinced that if he didn't remove his mask right away, he would soon be unable to breathe. When he tried to do so, Yanim screamed because she thought he was trying to rip off his own face.
Most importantly, both had managed to convince each other that the room was infested with spiders, and that they would be killed if they were bitten, as spiders were not native to Kanadys and both had been highly mislead by humans in the past as to the danger of spider bites. Bursting into the hall screaming, the two made quite a scene as they bounded out the doors of the hotel and onto Yanim's ATD. Just before setting off, Yanim believed a shadow cast by a nearby potted plant was actually a spider from the room, crawling around on her sleeve. Without hesitation, she pulled her knife out of her boot and stabbed at it, wounding herself in the process.
The two blasted through traffic with reckless abandon, without any chance of being stopped by police. By the time they had reached the edge of the city, reality had dissolved into abstract shapes and surreal, echoing sounds. Arkadam began to speak pleasantly with his mother about his life as a field agent, while Yanim believed she was back on Rigel, riding her old hoverbike and wondering when she needed to return to the ship. She turned in the direction she believed the Archius was in and opened the throttle fully.
---
Yanim woke up, remembering nothing after taking the dreamwish. This was especially problematic because she was laying the shade of a large rock in the middle of the desert. Her bike was missing, and Arkadam was nowhere in sight. Her head had been resting on her jacket, which was neatly folded for her. She was thirsty and still slightly disoriented.
Her tablet was nearly out of batteries, she would need to send a message to the crew immediately to tell them her location and request a pickup. Halfway through writing her SOS, the tablet chimed and suddenly switched to her inbox, automatically opening the new message inside, along with its attachment... from Arthur.
The batteries died five seconds later.
-snip, wrong thread-
[QUOTE=jazxsora;48091267]I really hate the MK4 supra and any RX7 besides the FD. I don't know why, I just do. :v:[/QUOTE]
Wrong thread?
[QUOTE=Viper123_SWE;48092646]Wrong thread?[/QUOTE]
Yeah lol, thought I clicked on unpopular opinions. :v:
Is it possible to join this in any way?
And can I be asexual junkie blue squid?
[Never too late to join, just read the op and post your template here. We're on a desert planet called Duroma]
[And check out the TVTropes pages. The timeline page is useful for quickly catching up on what's happened.]
[And he went ahead and made a ban me thread. Poor sod.]
[Now we'll never know how it would've been to have a asexual junkie blue squid on the crew.]
[So should I'l post what happen to Viper during the hostages situation in one big post or several smallier posts?]
[Also sorry for being inactive for some time.]
[One big post, in my opinion.]
Nycho had decided to see what everyone was up to since there had obviously been some commotion while she was resting. Going down into the hangar she noticed that Dwan's and Varn's ATDs were gone along with the Lancier.
Not really wanting to have anything to do with Varn, she decided to track Dwan's ATD instead using Pippins ATD, which she also borrowed after sending him a message. She took off out of the hangar and into the dunes.
Parked up on a high dune between two cliffs she eventually found the little oasis where she noticed Dwan, Varn and Lion had set up camp.
Noticing they were fishing she decided to play a little prank on them. She took out the Saystyn and took aim. A fish was nearing the drone and Varn was readying his spear. She took the shot, splitting the fish, knocking the drone slightly out of balance, sending ripples in the water and made Varn trip backwards into the water. She giggled to herself and took off down into the oasis.
When she parked the ATD she was met with a large mix of expressions.
She shook her cape and brushed her hair, putting on a smug expression.
"It's good to see you boys acting out your ancestors methods. One can always learn from the past."
Once again, she giggled to herself.
As the shot hit the fish Lion readied his AR and entered a combat stance, only to be met with giggles. He sighed and re-engaged the safety on his weapon.
"I trust you know what you aim at before pulling the trigger, Nycho?"
"Mr.Lion, the hall of the explorers guild is lined with 37 unique species of game and I have contributed with 17 of them. Longrange is one of my natural talents, whilst I must admit I am horrid in close quarter combat." Nycho explained while making numerous gestures to accompany her speech.
She observed the idylical nature of this location before looking back to Lion. "What have you been doing for the past 2 days we've been here?"
Lion nodded. "Fair enough." He sat down next to the lake before answering Nycho's question. "Relaxing, enjoying the peace... Not much more really."
"And letting the big one get away." Varn said as he rose from the water. He looked at Nycho. "Thanks, by the way." He then looked at the lake "Hey look, a blue lake squid."
With Iyoko and Volrik retired to their quarters, the dayshift team took over. Rhedal Vor'Pangn was now in charge, with Stratia Rozel and Teroki Moak (a phirin collaborator) acting as field agents. Arkadam still hadn't reported back by 9AM, causing general uneasiness among the trio as they laid out their objectives for the day.
Rhedal examined the two reports generated from the night crew's investigations. No progress had been made on combating drug trafficking, but two interesting scenarios were unfolding: Arkadam, wherever he was now, was with a person of special interest to the state, and through his efforts they now knew that the Archius was somewhere on the planet. Meanwhile, Volrik had put forward a compelling theory that the unknown party involved in the Picaea Massacre (as it was now being called by the media) was a group of fugitives, possibly pirates.
Given how late things came in, Rhedal assumed Iyoko didn't have time to properly process the information or do research. He started with the known lead- the Archius engineer and Collective citizen Yanim Sidikan. Since Arkadam hadn't returned, the most recent reliable information was Orik Rozel's report from a month prior, which was frustratingly limited, but understandably so. The Archius wasn't an object of interest then. Yanim was described as a technician who was inexperienced, disdainful of most of her crew and the ship she was assigned to, and yet utterly committed to her tasks and the mission.
Iyoko's addendum states that, according to a late-night phone call with Arkadam, Yanim had since been named chief engineer, but was currently staying at the Torama-Bonram, alone. While it would be prudent to send another agent to the hotel to find Arkadam, Rhedal was careful not to allow a single crewmember to distract his team from the bigger picture. Also included with Orik's report was mention of another crewmember, a human enforcer who had been made robotic, named Lion- the only other confirmed member of the crew.
Figuring that such a fellow would be easy to track down, he assigned the task to Teroki. If Arkadam didn't report back by noon, Teroki would also be tasked to find him. Stratia would be needed to fly a drone, acting on Volrik's recommendation for locating the vessel owned by the "unknowns" from Picaea. Rhedal opened the profiles Volrik had assembled from various witness testimonies.
Moments later, his heart began to race, as one of the "standouts" mentioned by Volrik was a [I]robotic human[/I], and another, a [I]female kanad[/I].
"You've got to be shitting me."
---
Gataska was still in bed when someone pounded on the door. Tiredly, she shuffled over to the door and looked through the peephole. Arkadam was there, looking as if he had just been mugged. Hesitantly, she placed the chain lock in its groove and cracked the door.
"[Gataska, I'm sorry, I need your help.]"
"[Arkadam, what's going on? You look like shit.]"
"[I'm okay,]" he said, shaking his head. "[It's Yanim. We fucked up really bad last night. I mean [I]really[/I] bad. I think she needs a doctor.]"
"[Okay, just calm down,]" Gat said as she unlocked the door completely and let him in. "[Tell me what happened.]"
"[She invited me in last night and we did a bunch of drugs. Crazy shit- I don't even remember half of it. We lost our heads and rode out into the desert thinking everyone was trying to kill us- we didn't stop until we couldn't see the city anymore, but it's not that far away. I think we stopped on the other side of a ridge or something. She got off the bike and just... collapsed! She was breathing, but I couldn't wake her up.]"
"[Please tell me she's not still out there.]" Gat replied.
Arkadam shook his head. "[I couldn't carry her; she would have had to stand and hold onto me like I did on the way out.]"
Gataska told him to turn around while she quickly changed out of her pajamas. Arkadam apologized again, explaining honestly that had he known which number to dial for an ambulance, he would have stayed with Yanim. Gataska ignored him as they hurried out to the ATD.
---
Yanim was very still, breathing deeply in an effort not to panic. Yes, she was alone with no means of contact in the middle of a desert. Yes, she was increasingly thirsty and tired in a place which might cause her heatstroke, and yes, her best chance of rescue had been spoiled by a photo of Arthur's penis.
But Yanim wouldn't die throwing a temper tantrum. In fact, things really weren't so bad since she still had some leftover pepper extract. After downing the remainder of the vial, she tossed her jacket onto the top of the rock, climbed up onto it, and used the glass from the vial to focus the suns' light onto the fabric. Moments later, it began to burn, producing a narrow column of smoke.
Yanim laid back down under the rock and pulled out her knife so she could etch a short message into the rock. While the drugs could make her numb and placate her fear, they couldn't make her forget her predicament entirely. She felt guilty for relying on the very substances which got her into trouble in the first place.
"To all-
this was my doing.
I regret my mistake.
Please return me
to Kanadys.
-Yanim Sidikan, SNCoS T/E 82"
The effects began to set in as her mind drifted to thoughts of her unfinished work on the ship. An image appeared in her head, somehow compelling, of a pyramid made of strange material, accepting a beam of light from one side and emitting photons from the other, rising upward toward the sky like inverted raindrops. It cast no shadow.
She suddenly understood how the Crimson Son became invisible.
[quote] Harken Saw and Vara were seated next to each other, they awaited for the meeting to start as a couple of officials walked pass them. Each individual chatted about upcoming schedules and how their daily lives were going. Each varied by race. Harken Saw turned to Ms. Vara and hoped she bought in the needed files to start his presentation. "You do have the memory card right? There's a lot of visuals I have to present up there." Harken Saw asked, receiving a compact memory chip in front of his face.
"I'm all set. Let's hope your proposition will convince them." Ms. Vara stated to her boss. He could oh so agree with her on that. The amount of effort to contact the UGC Council for a proposal wasn't the problem, but the fact UGC wanted to go for a more universal matter that needed to involve every race was.
The rest of the members joined in, preparing to quiet down as the time grew close to the meeting.
Both saw Derrick Meers along with 9 officials walk up to the far end of the table. Each huddled and discuss what was going to be the scoop on top of this meeting. Harken Saw saw at least one Kanad, one Volgarian, one Kercan and Derrick Meers. These were the only races he could recognize. Great.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we are now in session." The female Kanad spoke, currently beside Meers and the Volgarian. All 10, including the rest that weren't sitting already sat on their leather chairs. "Now, it has already been discussed several times that criminal piracy bypassing company measures to distribute illegal goods or harm company interests is a very spoken trend recently. We would like all officials in this meeting to hear Harken Saw to present these matters in his perspective as CEO of HarkArk." Derrick Meers spoke up.
Harken Saw nodded as he gestured Vara to follow him to the very far end behind the 10 councilmen. The officials faced him as they awaited his proposition. This was it, their moment to shut one of the pillars of unwanted criminals and to an extent the Crimson Son. Vara made sure to present the following subjects at hand among the holoboard.
Harken Saw inserted the memory chip into a machine.
Immediately presenting photos of distribution of military vehicles by an unknown gang. "Good afternoon, as CEO of HarkArk I would like to say that my workers safety, along with security measures are very important topics that should be essential rules to make a successful business." Harken Saw explained, pulling up a picture of unknown figures trafficking hardware in convoys.
"The amount of criminal activity among HarkArk has increased to the point of my urgent action to discuss this meeting with you all today. We have recent criminal records of grand theft, illegal distribution of HarkArk products, and severe cases of corporate espionage." Bringing up a few cases in photos and videos.
"As cases spring up more activities are becoming a great concern and I wish to bring up a proposition." Harken Saw he said, following a visualization of security bringing down criminals to justice.
"A major solution to these criminal offensives is to make sure UGC will enforce security to dispatch units and track down criminal hideouts in order to prevent such matters. We would also like to increase cargo convoys with guarding vessels to prevent criminals from trafficking. Providing the major support will help on the decrease of criminal activities." Harken Saw explained.
"If I may ask a question." The Volgarian gestured. Harken nodded at the councilman, giving him the right to speak as he was done setting with his proposition. He felt confused on Harken Saw's point to enforce security measures. "Is the UGC going to provide security to every trading cargo?"
"This proposition will have UGC enforce many security details to prevent further crimes from happening to every company that is in need of security."
"Now, I agree that the amount of criminal activity within HarkArk is at a all-time high believe me but by this proposition, I think you're asking a large bargain." Derrick Meers spoke up, causing everyone to get his attention. "Let's recap. In order to decrease the amount of criminal activity among companies, we the UGC will enforce security measures by cracking down on criminals personally. Now I believe that providing ships or security won't help, why?" Derrick Meers spoke throughout the meeting.
"The UGC of this organization have many things to attend to, regarding other major conflicts other than crime. There are many alternatives for solutions Harken Saw and I believe that companies should pay their own security, you even have a Private Military Company of your own." He pointed out. Harken Saw sighed and urged to speak out the truth about this meeting. This wasn't about crime looming at all, this was a reason to strike back at the Crimson Son. His last resort might make him loony to the council but his odds were stacked against him.
"I would like to say this. Crime is ultimately causing a problem in the practical economics of my company, not only does it affect me but it affects the market as well. It affects everyone" Harken Saw said, he pulled out a red and black frigate along with a few men and women on the horizon.
"I ask you for the big trouble: the Crimson Son. I have full evidence that these trouble makers are fully responsible for the down bringing of this Galaxy. Trafficking, Human abduction, illegal distribution of goods. We need to face military action." Harken Saw stated, earning a few skeptical looks from the crowd of officials. The Volgarian had the urge to face palm, to him the Crimson Son were just a syndicate force. What bad news could they bring to the entire Galaxy?
"Mr. Saw, perhaps your perspective on these criminals are a bit... stretched out. Evidence of trafficking or uh human abduction seems to be a minor concern to the UGC, in fact they are common crimes these aren't new threats. May I note that we are a large-scale organization, we can't just authorize all our troops to battle this one syndicate. There presence are barely known at all." The Volgarian stated.
"Plus, if we do search them out. What can we expect when we realize all our efforts were to stop one syndicate out of many? How exactly are they a main conflict?" Derrick Meers questioned.
"These men attacked my factories, my Privateers."
"True. But have they attacked anyone else large-scale other than HarkArk? I understand that your company is a very large organization but I doubt these men can tear apart yours." Derrick Meers stated. Harken Saw was at a lost, they weren't going to listen to him and they weren't going to provide military action, if anything maybe a security check out of pity. His Privateers were not there for security but military as well but since the UGC has banned the use of PMC going total warfare, their chances were disclosed.
"We believe we have come to an agreement. That your request for UGC action on crime or an extent of these Crimson Son has been declined." Derrick Meers said as the others officials nodded in agreement. [/quote]
[I decided to gather up all the images we've gone on the characters and turn them into mugshots! [URL="http://imgur.com/a/osaaE"]Here's a link to the album.[/URL] I've probably missed one or two.]
As Lion chilled next to the lake, he looked over to Dwan. "Did I ever tell you about Operation: Broken Wing during that occassion at the bar when I vented?"
"Operation: Broken Wing? I don't think you have, unless you are talking about the time you died.", Dwan said humorously.
Lion chuckled."Nah, Broken Wing was a mission meant to incapacitate several fanatic groups that fled Sol after the unification.
Despite lacking the permission to perform operations outside of our own system, the Sol government has always felt a responsibility to take down these groups regardles where they are hiding."
Lion paused and looked up to the stars. "Reed and I were attached to Aztec Unit as my own unit didn't exist yet. We were deployed to the planet of Hossin IV with the mission to cripple the Lunar Children once and for all. Alongside us we had the support of ten squads of marines and a naval intelligence squad which happened to include Reed's younger sister- Val- who was eager to prove herself in action."
He paused once more and begun drawing a uneven circle in the sand. "The stealth frigate dropped us off before it went back into hiding. We touched down in fairly large clearing and deployed the outpost modules. Being a jungle planet, Hossin was extremely hot. On day one the intelligence squad decided to send half their people to scout. Reed and I volunteered to escort them seeing as Val was in the scouting party."
After Nycho's little prank, Varn continued to fish. The drone was a big help with finding the fish and luring them in. Although every time he was ready to through his spear, he looked over his shoulder in case of Nycho pulling another prank.
After a while, he got out of the water with several fish. Carefully walking around the area where Lion was drawing in the sand. He sat down near the fire and started preparing the fish for cooking and listening to Lion's story.
Lion pointed towards the drawing in the sand. "This is a rough representation of the LZ." He pointed towards and arrow. "The Lunar Children's base was in that direction, so when we went out to scout we took a longer route around as to avoid any possible recon teams.
After walking at least a mile in the jungle, we reached a small mountain where we set up our observation post. Reed and I begun patrolling and mapping of the area while the intelligence team set up their equipment and a camoflaged tent."
He begun drawing another shape, this time a complex labyrinth of rectangles, circles and squares.
"We spotted their base pretty easy. It used to be a mining compound untill it was abandoned due to the lack of resources and the fact that it was hard to mine in the jungle.
Like all fanatics, the Lunars had turned the old place into a makeshift-fort."
He paused and looked at Varn and Dwan.
"We began marking strategic targets from the distance, however Reed's sister wasn't going to settle with that. She asked her officer if she could approach the fort closer to make some more detailed scans. He approved and sent me with her."
Lion chuckled. "I had to promise Reed at least thirty times that I would keep an eye on her. While she was eager to prove herself, I've known her from childhood so I knew exactly what to expect."
"Can't blame an older brother for being protective." Varn said as he lid a cigar on the fire. "What happened next?"
Lion nodded. "True, although Val doesn't really need protection. Infact, those that end up on the opposite side of her weapon are in more need of it." Said Lion as he smiled.
"Like I expected, she went really close to the fort. We hid behind some rocks just outside the defensive killzone as she began snapping scans of the structures, forces and defenses.
The Lunar's defenses consisted mostly out of reinforced steel plating, salvaged materials, old mining equipment and weapons from the early 20th century.
In other words, they had very few advantages."
Lion used a stick to mark one specific area on the drawing.
"Their advantages over us was their numbers and fanatic rage. Sure, you could pull of a direct assault but that would cost us many lives as well seeing as the fanatics would throw themselves on us.
That's why we needed to scout, crippling strategic targets would reduce their blind faith and turn it into fear."
Lion paused.
"Just as we were done with the scans, one of their patrols found us hiding behind the rocks. We took 'em out, nothing special. Problem was that one of them used some kind of horn to alert the entire base.
We ran. Val began to relay the data while I provided covering fire. We intentionally ran another way to prevent the discovery of the rest of our forces. They didn't know we were SDF seeing as we wore unmarked armor."
He chuckled. "We jumped straight down a waterfall. Data relay was finished mid-jump. We splashed down and hid in a cave. Tech was gone thanks to both the heat and the water. We stayed in there for three days. During that time we got closer, we looked after each other and made sure that the other person was okay."
Lion smiled. "I helped Val through some junglefever and she pulled out a bullet from left arm."
"Three days later Reed came rappeling down the cliff alongside some of the marines, looking for us. He nearly slapped us at first but quickly changed and embraced us in a hug."
Lion's left thigh opened up and he presented a photograph which he handed over to Dwan. Two exhausted yet smiling soldiers in weathered scout armor could be seen.
"That's me and Val right after we got back to basecamp. As for the Lunar's, the attack was a success. The entire cell was destroyed. No casualties on our side."
Dwan looked at the photograph that Lion handed to him. "At least this story ended happily.", Dwan said. He handed the photograph over to Varn, so that he can see it too.
"Let me guess, all this reminiscing has lead to you to become a little homesick, hm?", Dwan said humorously, as he reminds Lion of the phone call he had with Val.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. I'll probably do a quick trip home just to sort things out before I come back to the Archius."
He chuckled. "Besides, I think you guys can survive one week without new weapons being added to the racks."
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