Lion had been monitoring security and communications feed during his time in the bar. He saw the Mantis suit roll into the engineering bay. "Oh boy." He stood up and did a quick salute to Dwan and Pippin.
"Thanks for your time, I appreciate it." He left for the engineering bay. As soon as he stepped in his voice became a garbled mess as he switched language.
He saluted to Yanim before putting his hands behind his back. "[Ready to help, comrade.]"
Yanim started when she heard a voice speaking Kanad before she remembered that Lion could do that pretty much anytime. She nodded sharply before saluting him back.
"[I sent out words for the engineers because I want them to see this disaster,]" she said, motioning at the Mantis. "[I'd prefer to hold off working on it at least until we know whether anyone else will bother coming down here. I won't wait long; if we have to, we can make a hologram.]"
Lion paused, having not noticed Yanim's grim expression until now.
"[During our engagement on the planet's surface,]" she continued, ["how many of our crew members went into the line of fire wearing nothing but their civilian clothing?]"
It was a rhetorical question.
"[Too many. Infact, I've begun designing some basic armor for the civilian crews. However we should attend to that after we finish repairing the Mantis.]" Lion approached the workbench where the charred metal suit was.
Several lasers began scanning the target. "[At this point it would be easier to make a new one. Most of the suit have been destroyed beyond repair and from what I can tell almost all onboard electronics have been overloaded. If Viper hadn't been in a shell-form he/she would've been elecrocuted.]"
Lion walked up to an empty table and deployed the hologram used to build the previous model.
"[We're gonna need this, the suit was due for an update anyways. I've improved most internal system to allow it to automatically adapt rather than have Viper press buttons all the time.]"
Yanim agreed with the notion of replacing the Mantis entirely. "[The old one should stay here as a permanent reminder,]" she said with conviction.
"[If we're starting again, it might as well be a modular system,]" she began. "[If we load Viper up with too much armor it will be too difficult for her to move around. She's already clumsy in closed spaces. Too little armor, and we lose our chief of security.]" With a few keystrokes on the design table's touch pad, Yanim ordered the computer to run a routine which generated the dimensions for a stripped-down inner suit and a heavier outer set.
"[We can have the best of both worlds. The inner suit can be just as elegant as the original design and much lighter weight, while the outer portion can provide the needed protection. The best part is that damaged portions can be replaced without removing the inner suit.]"
((I have to go to bed now- I'll be back online in about 6 hours.))
"[Sounds good, I'll begin mapping the specs.]"
The temperature within the room was fairly cold and unpleasant for Viper, the warm interior of the exo-suit soiled Viper as the temperature control system for the whole medical wing of the ship was damaged in the blast. The Sanghvi shell started to creak and stiffen as Viper tossed and turned, the shell was becoming more and more unbearable for Viper as it further decayed.
Viper turned over to a nearby observation port, looking back on past days of glory. The times of leading a trapped science team though an burning station to safely and putting an end to one of the bloodiest riots in history on Eden II were matched with the horrors of Viper's ruthless service in the Sanghvi war. All of these of memories remaindered that these all days were over but was it really? Viper questioned if the Void was coming to the Sanghvi as the last past attempts on Viper's life all ended in vain, everything from mindless hordes of monstrous bugs from the lethal strikes of some of the galaxy's most deadly assassins. Yet all of these have took many of Viper's superiors down in doves, none have taken Viper's life quite yet.
As Viper was thinking over several things though, the two crew members from earlier came back into the room with a crate in each arm. "Surprise, Violet!" The female said before putting down one of metal containers down on the floor, The same one from the room. "Yeah, It took me a while but I was able to figure out that your..hold on minute, sir." The other known as "Jack" said as he pulled a cart with the other containers into the room, taking all of his strength before his partner helped him. "Anyways, what Jack trying to say is that he has a thing for big star heroes autographs." Said by other one after they were done with the cart.
"No!" Jack said back to his companion after wiping his sweat with a nearby rag and putting his arm on the doorway to lean on. "No, Sir, no....I just wanted to give a bit of proper respect my commander officer...and my name's not jack, it's Hadley....officer Hadley Mark and that's officer Jenette." Jack said with a tired breath before looking over the equipment they had gotten from Viper's room. "And before you say anything, it was Jack's ideal for us to bring you your stuff as the Doc Joe wouldn't let us carried you back to your room." Jenette said after putting the last of the containers on a small table next to the observation port.
"Mark!" Jack said out loud before continuing. "But anyways Sir, I see you got a nice view plus the room has a good breeze in here. So I'l leave ya be..Got to do some bouncer duty for old Dwan after some punks tired to repaid their tabs with threats. See you around Sir!" Jack said before the two walked out of the room.
Jeremy returned to the ship and went to post an announcement. "Attention all personnel we will be staying for at least a week in this outpost. Thank you for your patience."
Pippin pushed himself off the bar. "Well then, I guess we'd better make ourselves comfortable." He left the ship through the hangar and looked around, stretching.
Iska rose from her bed, and felt a sharp pain go through her arm, which was now bandaged.
She noticed someone had helped her to her own room. Was it Varn, sledge or maybe even Dwan?
Her memory of the recent events was blurry to say the least.
She got out of her bed and felt her arm and wondered if she should ask the Joseph for some painkillers, she then she looked over at her clan banner and remembered her father. [I]My daughter, you are the child of a weaponmaker, you do not care about pain.[/I]. She chuckled at her old man, he was a tough bastard he was. She then promptly decided that she would just get something to drink that would dull the pain and headed for the bar.
[Can I get a synopsis for the events that have unfolded while Iska was gone. But I mostly want to know about this outpost.]
The operation was underway, Varn was put under anesthesia and Joseph was performing the operation under Arthur's supervision. In his unconscious state, his memories came rushing back like a tidal wave:
12 years ago
On board of the 'Fang' mercenary ship.
"Alright you bunch of wastes. Listen up!" the mercenary chief's voice echoed through the hall "As you know, the Gold Dusts have generously offered a bounty for the capture of these targets." He pressed a few buttons and pictures of the target's faces flashed on screen. "You probably know why they want them, but in case some of you are retarded or have the attention span of a fly, Ill tell you why they want them. The Golden wave boys and girls. So when we get these fine people, prepare to meet them on the field. Now, were in luck, all of them are on the prison ship, 'Naginata'. So, here's what were gonna do. We will bust in, take out the guards and take the prisoners. And remember, this is a join operation, so don't shoot each other until the job is done. But, just because I love you so much, the crew that brings the prisoners back, gets a bonus. Well, what are you waiting for? Go get em!"
The joint operation was between the Boome marines, the Death Vigil, the Alpha sisters and the Kabelas. Varn was sitting with his crew, talking and waiting for the boarding action to start.
"Hey Varn, isn't that your wife, Sasha?" Krum, said as he pointed towards the group of Alpha sisters.
"Yep, its her. But its ex-wife now. Yes Johnny, I'm single now. I've seen the way you look at me."
"Fuck off Varn."
"Why did you two split?"
"She didn't like me refusing to torture innocent people. Next thing you know she serves me up a plate of cooked testicles with a note 'Grow some balls' and the rest is history." The group had a laugh at Varn's expense.
The signal for the boarding procedure went off. The mercenaries groups got into their pods and were shot towards the 'Naginata'. The pods were designed to pierce the hulls and allow the crew inside to boards the enemy vessel. Once inside, the Boome's opened fire towards the guards who responded. "If you want to live, don't shoot at the people, armed to the teeth!" Varn yelled towards the guards. "Seth! You, Mercury and Noble cover us. Me and Krum will get the prisoners. Shoot to wound."
The mercenaries fought their way through to the holding cells. Once there, they searched for the people, they were looking for. But they weren't there. A familiar voice rang over Varn's radio. "Oh, did my man loose another prize? Heh, you never were smart enough to beat me at anything, Varn." He wasn't going to let her have the last laugh.
"Everyone get back to the pod. Ill get the prisoners."
"How? You're one man and the ship is crawling with hostiles."
"If I don't come back in 20 minutes, you'll get a bigger split. Just go."
Varn raced through the ship, tracing Sasha's signature. She was near, along with the prisoners. He avoided confrontation with guards whenever he could. When he finally found them, the Alpha sisters were passing near some holding cells. Varn saw an opportunity. There was a nearby console for the prison cells. He pressed a few buttons and the prisoners were free. In the resulting chaos Varn rushed to the targets and convinced them to follow him, using the age old argument, "I'm the guy with the gun."
Once back with the crew, the mercenaries escaped. A signal for retreat was given to the rest of the crews. Back on the 'Fang', the same familiar voice is heard over Varn's radio. "I saw you back there you bastard. I lost 3 sisters to that stunt. You'll pay for their death's and the money you stole from me." Varn felt no remorse, they knew the risks, besides Sasha wasn't the tipe of person, who cares about others.
[Why yes, I am ripping off the flashback idea. How did you guess?]
[QUOTE=Radley;47757925][Can I get a synopsis for the events that have unfolded while Iska was gone. But I mostly want to know about this outpost.][/QUOTE]
((The base we are at is a HarkArk Privateer secret military installation inside of an asteroid. We came here to hide from the Crimson Son and have been ordered to stay for the next week. Major Kira Greene is the local authority.
Since your last post, the Privateers entered the Archius and attempted to take control of the situation in the medbay due to the explosion caused by the Crimson Son soldier, but due to Viper's life-threatening injuries and need for immediate surgery, Arthur overruled them and ordered everyone out of the medbay aside from essential medical personnel like Joseph. They then began surgery while cleanup began elsewhere. The captain went off with Kira, where the latter would implore him to destroy all remains of the soldier.
Arthur would then receive a message from Yanim, implying that the Privateers may not be trustworthy due to their oddly-perfect timing and their desire for exclusive control of the cleanup, and that the crew should hide the cybernetics for future study. Since Arthur was only supervising the surgery, he was able to reply in agreement but strongly warned her against reverse-engineering the parts. Dwan and Varn then assisted by stashing them all in a broom closet. Yanim thanks Arthur and claims she will abide by his concerns (but this is a very intentional lie.)
Elsewhere, Harken Saw has located the mole who betrayed the existence of the Archius to the Crimson Son, and has decided to torture him instead of killing him immediately.
Viper has survived surgery again, but will not be able to survive such a blow in the future. She is now recovering in a holding cell while the wrecked Mantis suit has been sent to engineering for repair. Lion arrives to find Yanim somewhat distressed about the risks being taken by the crew. They decide to create a new suit from scratch rather than repair the old one, which Yanim is fixed on displaying as a reminder of the need for more powerful protection for all crewmembers.
Finally, Varn has arranged a surgery with Arthur and Joseph to implant a chip in his brain which is designed to keep him stable and wean him off a chemical dependency, which he is now undergoing.
That's a fair description of everything which happened physically. There was also a lot of verbal and internal character development.
Jeremy has confided his stresses with Kira and has asked if the Privateers had anything they were hiding from the Archius crew. The latter sympathizes with him and reveals how and why they seemed to arrive at the perfect moment. She is disgusted to learn that a Privateer outpost on Gadon has likely been eradicated by the Divinity Creed, and further saddened by the likelihood that the fleet which rescued the Archius has likely been wiped out by the Crimson Son.
Lion has been having flashbacks to his time as a human, when he was "green and mean," fighting the Divinity Creed on Mars at God's Refuge. He decided to go talk to Dwan about it since Jeb had been injured in the fight. Dwan learns how Lion received his robotic body, and Pippin wonders if Lion might be suffering from PTSD. Lion denies this, as he has not be "acting out" his traumatic experiences. However, [URL="http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1457037&p=47431352&viewfull=1#post47431352"]this scene[/URL] says otherwise.
Yanim has not quite been herself either. Having witnessed the near-deaths of several crewmates, she appears to have a mixture of guilt and paranoia which are driving her to bury herself in work all over the ship. She feels a strong sense of responsibility for the engineering department to step up in the wake of the battle and protect the crew with better technology, even if it means treading in secretive and unethical waters. She has yet to open up to anyone and is outwardly hostile to anyone who interrupts her work.
That's about it, I think. Sorry if I missed anything.))
[Dwan was the one who wondered if Lion was suffering from PTSD. Pippin just asked if his brain was still human.]
Hearing the news that they'll be staying put made Dwan uneasy. He's the kind of guy who likes to be on the move, as staying put makes him feel like easy prey. He puts up a sign that says "Closed - Will be back in 1 hour". Dwan then pushes the exotic drinks cabinet and opens his secret quarters. He checks one more time to see if anyone was there. With no one in sight, he enters and closes it. Dwan thinks to himself how lucky he is that no one knows where his quarters are, sans Byron, as he's the janitor. He just hopes Byron doesn't tell anyone.
Jeremy observed the Archius Ship, from the looks of it the ship has received minor damage everywhere, especially from the rear. The Captain walked across the halls and did reports about the battle report. He also needed to go to the Archives and write the Crimson Son as a very threatening faction to be on the look out for.
[QUOTE=Sega Saturn;47759664]Yanim thanks Arthur and claims she will abide by his concerns (but this is a very intentional lie.)[/QUOTE]
(That, ah... That observation sort of scuppers my future plans.
Genuinely no OOC reasons; I had intended For Arthur to act on this suspicion of his own accord. Sorta feels hollow now. May I still do so?)
[QUOTE=Pezgod1;47759915](That, ah... That observation sort of scuppers my future plans.
Genuinely no OOC reasons; I had intended For Arthur to act on this suspicion of his own accord. Sorta feels hollow now. May I still do so?)[/QUOTE]
((Hey, sorry if I stepped on your toes. We can talk it out on steam if you like, I'll be online for a few more hours tonight and parts of tomorrow too.))
Pippin saw jeremy walking around the ship and walked up to him. "Hey, sorry about that outburst earlier. I was angry and you were the first person I saw to blame it on."
Jeremy saw Pippin and realize that he shouldn't fault himself. "It's alright, everyone is having a bit of a rough day."
Lion had begun adapting the Mantis Mk. 2 according to Yanim's idea, allowing the user to remove the more armored parts when not in combat.
"thanks, now, I saw you walking with the colonel earlier, can you show me around?"
"She's a Major actually, there's really four tall floors in this installation. Landing zone counts, I'll show you if you're up for it."
Viper was surprised what the soft-carbons did, both mad at them for going though Viper's personal things but also glad as someone came to visited her. Viper's implant begin to reading a nearby several cybernetic readings that seem to match Viper's neural signature coming from a from objects covered with an rag.
Intrigued, Viper used whatever strength the shell still had and got out of the bed. Falling off at first, but was quickly able to recover due to the low gravity of the room. Viper ripped off the old rag to reveal two makeshift augments in the shape of an Sanghvi's legs along with several miscellaneous things, leather straps and a small tool box. On top of the tool box, there was a small note taped to it's lid.
"Hey didn't want to leave ya without something to stand on, right?"
Viper tossed it anyway and tether the implant to the jerry-ridged cybernetics though several cables in the small tool box before strapping them on to the leg stubs. Viper did a quick overlook of them after getting them fully secured. Engaging them shorting after taking an deep breath.
A shock knocked out the Implant for an moment and went over Viper's shell, the amount of electrically would have cause
an lesser to soft-carbon to black out but it went right though Viper's shell. The Implant took several minutes before it came back online, establishing a relativity sable connection to the limbs after a seconded attempt.
Viper proceed to wave around the new limbs, there were very sluggish and slow but were better then nothing. Viper took a few moments to get a hang of them before trying to stand up with them, falling the first few times but continue until Viper was able to stand with relativity ease.
Viper stood with confidence after finishing the challenge of stand, now walking and being able to not fall over in normal ship gravity laid in font of the exhausted Viper.
As Iska entered the bar she noticed Dwan was gone with only a sign left. She sighed, she would just have to fight through the pain. To pass the time she decided to go down into the hangar to work on the Gravitex
"Sorry my mistake, don't, eh, tell will you? Anyway yeah sure, I'd love you to."
As Iska enterd the hangar and found her bike neatly parked next to the engineering bench.
She smiled, she would have to buy a drink to whoever took care of her bike during the last mission.
Before she began working she had to fix the annoying silence in the hangar, and she did so by rewiring the bars jukebox system with the PA speakers in the hangar. she flicked a switch in the circuit box and Elvis Presley's Hounddog started playing throughout of the hangar. When Iska walked back to the bike she wore a smug smile and did a few twist steps as swayed back and forth to the rhythm to the bike.
She began with some basic maintenance, repairing some damage from the last mission.
After this she changed the Gravitational de-accelerator disc that had started to malfunction.
After this she whipped out a template from the workbench that she had worked on earlier.
She sprayed the template on the back of the wheelhouse. In big, red khergian symbols it read ISORO, Iron beast, accompanied with her clan symbol on the other side. Dotted with oil, she used her tanktop
to wipe her face and tucked back into her trousers. Suddenly, she remembered that she had a sixpack of bloodmoon stored in a toolbox somewhere.
After digging through some of the boxes she found it.
With a satisfied smile she opened up a bottle, lit a cigarette and sat down on the toolbox.
She leaned back and enjoyed just taking it easy for a change. She tapped her feet as Presley continued to play throughout the hangar.
Lion had finished preparing the schematics. "[It's done, now we just need to wait untill the construction is finished.]" He said to Yanim.
The machines begun working on the armor pieces as Lion left for the hangar.
As he entered, he heard some familiar music. "Someone's got good taste." He muttered to hismelf as he walked across the hangar floor, he spotted Iska chilling in one of the storage rooms alongside her hoverbike.
He did a quick thumbs up before he entered the room where Roughrider was stored.
Iska saw Lion giving her a thumbs up.
She nodded and raised her bottle to him before taking another swig.
[QUOTE=liberalllama;47762617]"Sorry my mistake, don't, eh, tell will you? Anyway yeah sure, I'd love you to."[/QUOTE]
"Alright so this floor would be the landing zone, they store all their vehicles and ships to pass off as disguise ships. Second floor is really for the barracks like ours and they might share a bar and a recreational facility I don't know. Third floor to fourth is not authorized to us by default unless you're really needed."
"Whats up there?" Pippin asked, now naturally curious.
"Command posts, operators, nothing really special but to contact with others."
"Ah, I see" Pippin said disappointed. Well, I'm going to go to the armory, now I'm not as rushed as I was before the mission." With that he entered the ship again for like, the fifth time today. He tapped the device on his wrist and started playing music as he browsed the racks of lethal weapons.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
