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Post by Calefrun on Nov 21, 2015 20:30:05 GMT -5
Mariko kept her finger on the trigger for several seconds linger, before sighing and lowering her weapon. Part of he still wanted to kill the young man, but she couldn't help but agree with what he had said about having killed more than enough people for one day. Not that such a thought had meant much to her before, but she could still feel the guilt of leaving Silp to his fate weighing down on her. At any rate, the guy didn't seem hostile, and the sooner she was away from Earth the better.
I'll keep the pistol handy, in case he tries anything. She thought as she began strapping herself into the seat next to Tio. No matter what happens, I'm not letting the NAF, the OCU, or anyone else catch me again.
The girl sat in silence as the hum of the ship's engines slowly grew louder. When the freighter finally started to move, she could feel her heart begin to race. She had half expected that they would be shot at the instant they left the hangar, and was relieved when they began to ascend without incident. Glancing at the town, which was quickly growing smaller as they gained more altitude, she saw that there were no more signs of conflict. Either Silp had given the soldiers the slip, or- far more likely- he had been killed or captured.
Once they entered the upper layers of the atmosphere, Mariko was suddenly distracted by a beeping sound coming from the ship's control panel. Looking down, she noticed a monitor, which apparead to be displaying some sort of sensor readout. Examining it closer, she was able to identify a dot representing their freighter, as well as several others that appeared to be orbiting just beyond Earth's atmosphere. Several of them seemed to be representing very large vessels, and all of them were marked as belonging to the NAF military.
"It's... a blockade..." she whispered with only a hint of disbelief in her voice. Part of her had known that this was all too good to be true. She turned to Tio. "I don't suppose you know how to fly this thing do you? We need to jump, like... now."
"Welcome to our little band of treasure hunters I guess."
Cale bowed, a wide grin on his face. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sona, Miguel, and Myrddin. And trust me- we have no intention of slowing you down."
The twins followed the rest of the group out to the skycar, then Kayla opened the rear door and climbed over to the middle seat. Cale took the spot to her right and shut the door. As Sona started to take them towards the spaceport, Kayla gave her brother a look that said, "I can't believe actually that worked and also did we really just get in a stolen car?"
He shrugged. "Let's be honest, this is far from being the weirdest situation we've been in."
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Post by Damien on Nov 26, 2015 15:17:38 GMT -5
"Being a masterful shadow-warrior has nothing to do with it." She sniffed. "also...this uh, this isn't exactly my car per se..." As she said that the car gave a sharp beep and the doors unlocked. Myrddin stared blankly at Sona for a moment, then at the car, and then wordlessly opened the door to the passenger's seat and got in.
"It'll be fine!" Sona said, getting behind the wheel.
"Uh huh."
"I'll have Mikki program its auto-pilot to drive back here after we get to the spaceport."
"Let's just...go."
Miguel just stared at the scene unfolding before him. I don't think I'll ever understand technomancy, he thought. That and ninjas.... "So, chavales," he said aloud. "Are we ready to go? Do we want some invisibility to avoid being seen, or would we rather have illusions heading in all different directions to confound the ones following us?"
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Post by Myrdraxxis on Dec 25, 2015 23:37:27 GMT -5
"I think we'll be fine." Son a answered Miguel, starting the car. The vehicle lifted off the ground with a soft hum and ascended into the skylanes that crisscrossed the Arcadian skyline.
It was, thankfully, a short trip to the spaceport. Though Myrddin couldn't help the errant twitch in his eyebrow as Sona hummed along happily with whatever pop song was playing through the car's speakers. She was entirely too at ease with the situation, considering they were flying a stolen car to try and outrace a team of professional mercenaries.
"ETA on those Spa-Sec guys?" Sona suddenly asked out loud.
"They should be arriving any minute now." Came Mikki's reply.
"Well thank god I can see the spaceport from here." Myrddin muttered. Indeed, the spaceport loomed just ahead, the nexus of several large lanes of traffic coming in and out of the domed building.
Even as he said this Myrddin felt a twinge of unease in his gut. An old instinct that warned of trouble.
A skycar in the next lane leveled with their own so that Myrddin could see into its windows. Several heavily armored men stared back at him from the other car.
"Uh oh."
"I think they found us." Mikki commented dryly.
The mercenaries in the other skycar looked just as shocked as Myrddin felt, though it only lasted for a long, terrible moment. In what felt like slow motion, the men began drawing their weapons, taking aim.
"Shit! Sona!"
"Got it!" Sona slammed on the acceleration, and the skycar jolted forward as the space behind it erupted into a storm of bullets. Myrddin grunted as he was slammed back into the seat by the sudden speed boost. He glanced over his shoulder through the rear window. "Duck!" he yelled a second later and did so, hoping the others did the same.
The sound of gunfire and shattering glass met his ears a moment later as their pursuers began to give chase. A bullet whizzed by Myrddin's ear and out the front windshield. Sona swore and began swerving through the air.
"We are almost at the spaceport." Mikki reported. Myrddin reached down and pulled up his rifle.
"Well we won't make it there in one piece with these guys on our tale." Myrddin Jumped suddenly into the back seat, wedging himself into the crowded area. " 'scuse me." he tapped Kayla's shoulder and teleported her up to the front seat to give himself some more room. The back window was barely holding together from the constant gunfire. Myrddin smashed away the remaining glass with the butt of his rifle and took aim.
These guys were definitely professionals. Their driver was managing to stay on Sona's tail despite her maneuvering, and the gunners were far better witht heir aim than Myrddin was comfortable with.
"Get us down there now!" He yelled and opened fire. The pursuing skycar fell back for a moment at the sudden return fire, but recovered quickly. Myrddin ducked again as a return volley whizzed overhead.
"Miguel! Anything you can do here?"
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Post by Sariel of Tevet on Jan 12, 2016 17:43:15 GMT -5
"I'm a military brat. My father had me playing with flight sims when other kids were out riding bikes. I can fly, but this whole one handed thing is weird. Just keep her steady while I get everything in order. "
He got out of his seat and began fiddling with buttons all over the cockpit to prepare for the jump.
"Looks like the poor bastard we took this heap off of already had most everything entered in before take off. Whatever this Xanadu place is, he sure was in a hurry to get there. Must be a smuggler or something. Sort of explains the attitude. "
The freighter began to convulse and sensors started to scream all over the ship.
"Well, apparently the blockade wasn't happy about him getting through the first time. Alright, all checks are green. Let's get out of here. "
Tio strapped himself in as another barrage of missiles were hurled towards the freighter. He took the ship into a nose dive to get below the line of the blockade to make the jump and evade the missiles, but they followed. He pressed a button and two oxygen masks fell down in front of their faces from the ceiling.
"Put that on, quick. "
Tio attached his own and the pulled a large lever on the ceiling. The ramp of the ship opened and sucked out all of the cargo the ship was carrying, along with the oxygen. The cargo collided with the missiles and another series of sensors went off inside the ship, but it was stable. He closed the hatch and oxygen began to fill the cabin again, and he hit the lightspeed button for Xandadu.
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Post by Damien on Jan 15, 2016 15:49:39 GMT -5
"I love getting to say 'I told you so'," said Miguel, smirking. "I've got two spells, so it'll take me a minute."
He began to utter an incantation under his breath, and barely perceptible wall of pure arcane energies began to form a shield around the skycar. Just as he finished the incantation, the bubble formed completely, surrounding the vehicle, bullets hitting it and ricocheting in different directions.
"Now then. Uno más." He began the second incantation and began to fade form sight. The magic kept working, the invisibility spreading out from him and affecting the vehicle around him and his comrades within. "Well, that won't work too well, now will it?" He muttered another incantation, the magic spreading to affect himself and his comrades. When he was finished, all within the skycar were able to see through his illusion of invisibility, able to perceive each other and, much more important so that they don't die in a crash of some kind, the skycar.
"Y ¿qué pensáis?" he asked, awaiting everyone's opinion of his work.
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Post by Calefrun on Feb 27, 2016 14:44:08 GMT -5
"Not bad," Cale said as he stretched his arms out and leaned back into a relaxed position.
The gunners in the other car kept shooting, but without a visible target their accuracy was significantly worse than it had been before. The invisible skycar pulled up in front of the spaceport entrance, and as the party exited the vehicle Cale cheered, "Alright! Great teamwork, everyone!"
"We uh," Kayla raised an eyebrow at her brother, "we haven't really done anything yet. It was mostly Sona's driving and Miguel's spell that got us here."
"'Scuse me, but I think you're underestimating the value of moral support. Anyway, we're not exactly out of the woods yet." He pointed at the car that was following them, which was pulling into a spot nearby. "This invisibility isn't going to last forever. I can recast it if need be, but we should probably get moving."
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Post by Myrdraxxis on May 18, 2016 0:12:20 GMT -5
"Hold on to your butts!" Sona yelled and floored it. Myrddin slammed back in his seat as the skycar sped off, shooting like an arrow towards the rapidly closing spaceport. Myrddin didn't say a word as Sona weaved around other skycars. Didn't utter a single warning as she nearly collided with a large freighter, only to barrel roll at the last second. He didn't even cry in surprise as Sona refused to slow down their descent as they approached an open parking deck. All his effort was focused on praying to a god he hadn't given a single thought to until this very moment.
Sona slammed on the brakes at the last second as they touched down, jerking the wheel and making the car spin as it touched down. Their vehicle spun like a top across the -thankfully- empty parking garage and came to a stop. Perfectly parked in one of the parking spots.
"Nailed it." Sona pumped her fist and glanced at her passengers. Myrddin was glaring a hole into her, while in the back the twins were arguing, CVale mentioning something about Moral Support.
"We need to move. The ship won't wait much longer."
"Considering I'm the one paying, you'd think they would." Sona muttered. She drew the small SMG that she was carrying and checked it over. "We can take the maintenance halls to get there. Using the normal boarding platforms will leave us out in the open."
Then the pursuing aircar landed in the parking garage behind them. It landed far from them at the opposite end of the space so clearly Miguel's spell was still holding strong. It wouldn't last though. They needed to move before the team noticed them.
"Right. Tell us the way, I'll take point." Myrddin readied his own rifle. Sona directed the party to the end of the parking garage where their path split between an elevator to the spaceport proper, a door leading to the next deck and finally a red-marked door with the words 'EMPLOYEES ONLY' painted across it.
Myrddin reached his hand out to key the doorpad. Right as his finger brushed the button, it opened with a sharp 'hiss', revealing the armored mercenary on the other side, mirroring Myrddin's action. A whole fireteam stood behind him.
The two groups stared at each other for a long moment.
Then Myrddin prssed the button and closed the door again.
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Post by Damien on May 18, 2016 15:49:10 GMT -5
"Well, this should be fun," said Miguel, already preparing a few spells. All he would have to do is speak the final word for any of their incantations, and they would instantly activate.
"So what's the plan? Do we push through the guys on the other side of this door? Or do we just take them out? I'm good for either." Miguel smirked, knowing just how much the mercs behind the door were in for, regardless of the decision.
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Post by Calefrun on May 18, 2016 21:49:07 GMT -5
Cale frowned. “A fight may not be the best idea right now. We're outnumbered, and it would draw a lot of attention.” He scratched his chin. “There has to be another way into the maintenance hall, right? Maybe we should try the elevator.”
“Not happening,” Kayla said, shaking her head. "It's all glass up near the spaceport, and I could see some guard-looking types coming down as we flew in. I'd say we have... oh, maybe about 15 seconds before they get here.”
“Damn. Okay, so maybe we can't avoid some kind of fight. Still, the longer we spend here, the harder it's gonna be to get out. Maybe we could... draw them away somehow? Slip out while they're distracted?”
“Whatever you want to do, do it now; we're out of time.” At that moment the door to the maintenance hall started opening again, as did the elevator door. Behind them, the team that had been chasing them earlier finally caught up.
Cale started running towards the next deck, waving for the others to follow. They reached cover just as Miguel's invisibility began to wear off, and the male twin looked back to admire his own handiwork. Where the group had just been standing, there was now a party of illusions that each looked identical to one of them. Except Myrddin. His clone had a mustache. And not a handlebar; no, Myrddin's clone had the type of mustache that looked as though some overgrown caterpillar had crawled onto his lip and died.
“Hmm... For some reason I thought that would look better on you...” Cale shrugged. “Ah well, I'll shave that bit of information for later and avoid making the same mistake again.”
The clones all took on an over-exaggerated look of horror, as though they were the ones who's invisibility spell had just worn off, and started running in different directions as the three mercenary teams let loose a hail of bullets.
“Right,” Kayla addressed the party, “looks like they're buying it so far; hopefully they'll give chase. When that happens, we should probably get to that door as quickly as possible.”
Cale flashed her a cheeky grin.
“...What's with you?”
“Looks like I'm two for two on plans working today. You need to step your game up.”
“Yeah well... we aren't out of here just yet.”
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Post by Myrdraxxis on May 18, 2016 22:40:54 GMT -5
"We need to go up two decks and over to hanger Four to get to the ship." Sona said as the group began to make their escape. "Shouldn't be too hard, except that now we know Sap-Sec is using the maintenance tunnels as well."
"So we go the regular way?" Myrddin asked. "There's a lot of civvies around the port this time of day, Sona."
"We'll use the tunnels, but we need to be on guard." Sona replied, holding up a hand to halt the group. "Luckily our little band is rather specialized for ambushes."
"Right. Double time it people." Myrddin took lead again. It took him a moment as they ducked into another maintenance hallway -this one thankfully empty- to recognize the sense of familiarity coming over him. Ducking mercenaries in a spaceport wasn't his usual activity, but Myrddin realized he was excited to be back in the action. Most of his mercenary work with Miguel ended up as glorified guard duty or the occasional extortion job. This was what he'd been missing after leaving the NAF.
"Nearly there." Mikki spoke up a minute later as the group continued. "I tried tapping into Spa-Sec com channels, but all I got was some chatter from the teams we left back in the garage. Their communications are worryingly well encrypted."
"Well it's Sap-Sec." Sona replied. "Best OCU merc outfit on Earth. Of course they'd have some technomancers on their roster." her voice was tinged with bitterness as she said that.
"Might not be the best time to ask," Myrddin said, glancing around a corner, then motioning them forward, "But why is an earth-based mercenary outfit here in Corp space? Don't the companies have their own security forces?"
"You're right. This isn't the best time." Was Sona's clipped response. Myrddin glanced back at his boss, then grunted. Well fine then. He'd save it for later.
Their next encounter with Sap-Sec forces came only moments later as another team appeared in the hallway opposite of Myrddin. "Heads up!" he warned, and immediately opened up with his rifle. The sudden attack dropped two of the mercenaries before they could respond. Then one of them threw up a Ward.
'Mages!" Sona warned, and then started running at them. She reached behind her and drew the short tanto blade she carried. Then with a leap she was suddenly wall-running, skirting the surprised mercenaries' Ward and was among them. One let out a muffled cry as a strike caught him in the stomach, a swift kick to the throat finishing him. The second raised his rifle, and Sona turned and raised a hand at him. The weapon starting sparking and then exploded in the man's hands.
Which only left the Ward controller and one other Sap-Sec mercenary. Myrddin took the initiative and Jumped, appearing behind the Ward-using merc, and smashing the butt of his rifle into the back of the merc's head. The merc dropped limply.
The final mercenary stared at them for a moment then took off running in the other direction.
He didn't make it very far as a pair of shuriken -wait, where had Sona gotten those?- struck him in the back.
Myrddin looked around at the fallen mercenaries then at Sona. "So uh...ninja, huh?"
"Ye of little faith." Sona walked past him, idly kicking one of the moaning, laid out mercenaries as she passed. "C'mon. Just through here and we'll be at the hangar."
Much like everything else about this job so far, their ship left Myrddin a little bit dubious. It wasn't exactly falling apart, but it had certainly seen better days. "Is that an old EU transport?" he asked.
"Er, I think so. Or it started out as one anyway." Sona replied. "Been everywhere from Earth to the frontier colonies though. The captain is an old friend of mine."
"A friendship you seem to test at every opportunity." a new voice called from the ship's loading ramp, words heavy with a thick German accent. "You're very late, Sona. And I hear that there are Sapporo Security men crawling all over the port."
The captain of their ship was probably the most heavily augmented human being that Myrddin had ever laid eyes on. The man reminded Myrddin more of a Coalition drone than a human at first glance. An old-fashioned flight jacket covered the captain's frame, and pretty much everything else that was exposed was metal, save for the man's jaw, left eye and scalp.
"Guys, this is Captain Walter Krupinski." Sona introduced.
"Charmed." Krupinksi said shortly. "Now come, we must leave before mercenaries arrive. I have already begun the takeoff procedures, now we're just waiting for clearance to leave." He turned sharply, coat flowing behind him and walked back up the ramp into his ship. Sona shrugged.
"He grows on you."
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Post by Mizagium on Jun 5, 2016 1:13:31 GMT -5
“There!” Rigel indicated a ship that appeared to be boarding at that moment. She and Xeres hadn’t exactly broken into a run yet, but ‘slow jog’ wasn’t going to cut it much longer. No one had approached them and Xeres hadn’t spied anyone who appeared to be watching them, but the sensation of being watched, the paranoia didn’t lessen. Rigel trusted her guard’s instincts. Training could only get you so far in the universe – instincts were invaluable.
Xeres scowled at the ship. Under literally any other circumstance, the thought of putting the princess on such a rundown-looking vessel would have caused him to become physically ill. Yet this was a potential matter of Martian national security; questionable judgement calls could be excused in such emergencies. So he made one. Xeres veered off toward the ship. Somewhere along the way, he remembered their personas and took Rigel’s hand. He needed them to appear as harried travelers about to miss their flight.
“Hurry, Rhea,” he called, using her false name.
“Slow down, uncle,” she returned, picking up the act immediately. “The ship isn’t leaving yet.”
They cleared the portal threshold with time to spare. Xeres – Uncle Jason - instantly regretted his choice. He glanced from one passenger to the next, from the man several men who carried themselves like ex-military, to the…ninja cosplayer, and the silver-haired duo who looked just out of place enough to discomfort him. They way all eyes focused on them told Xeres they had not found a commercial vessel. They needed to leave, to find another ship, to do…what? He couldn’t step back out there, not until he was sure the princess wasn’t in any danger. But was in here any better?
“Uh…hello,” Rigel said, voice tinged with confusion that likely wasn’t false.
Xeres prayed silently.,
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Post by Myrdraxxis on Jun 6, 2016 18:27:41 GMT -5
The ship was silent for a long moment as the group stared at the sudden intrusion. Myrddin did a quick once-over: A young girl and an older man. He'd heard the girl call him "uncle" so they were apparently related. Not armed, or at least not openly armed. Though the man held himself very familiarly. Like a soldier.
"Hi there!" Sona said cheerfully at the exact same moment that their captain said,
"What are you doing on my ship?" They exchanged a look and Krupinski continued. "This isn't a commercial vessel." His one human eye narrowed. "Who the bloody hell are you?"
"Hate to say it but unless you're planning on heading to the outer colonies then this isn't the ship for you." Sona added.
'Mikki...'
'On it.'
Sona's optic implant subtly scanned both of the newcomer's faces and Mikki began a database search on them. It was one of the ways that Sona was able to identify potential persons of interest and determin if they were going to be a problem or a potential asset.
'Nothing pops up, though that older man's profile tripped several potential matches in past Martian military operations. The girl is a blank, but they both have very obviously Martian features.'
'Well there's nothing obviously malicious about them. Could just be tourists.' Sona mused.
All in the span of about five seconds. She knew Myrddin was dubious of her decision to include the twins on their expedition, but Sona's search of them hadn't shown anything. At all. As if they didn't even exist. That made Sona curious. And she wanted to keep them close and see if she couldn' shed some light on the subject. Hopefully for a profit.
The moment was disrupted by the abrupt sound of gunfire. Myrddin ducked instinctively as a bullet ricochet off the bulkhead.
"We're out of time." He shouted and dashed over to the entrance. Sure enough, the Sapporo Security forces were massing on the hanger.
"Wunderbar." Krupinski grated out. He stepped forward and shoved Rigel out of the way and stepped around Xeres. He slapped a button on the wall and the door began to close. "Looks like you're coming along anyway." the captain muttered to the Martians. "You aint flyin' free though."
"We'll worry about it later." Myrddin said, firing a few shots in return as the door closed.
"Let's get out of here." Sona said, running for hatch that led to the rest of the ship. Krupinski stalked after her, muttering an angry 'my ship damn it, I go first.'
Myrddin felt the ship move under his feet and finally relaxed as they flew away from Arcadia.
"Next stop, Xanadu!" He heard Sona's voice chime over the shipwide intercom. He sighed and reached up, tugging off his helmet. Then he glanced over at their two sudden passengers.
"So who are you two then?"
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Post by Mizagium on Jun 6, 2016 20:52:08 GMT -5
Xanadu. Xeres didn’t know the name, which was troubling, but not surprising. Although he considered himself a learned man, his astrographic training extended beyond the Dominion to...Sol. Anything deeper into NAF or EU was like phantom bits of knowledge once forgotten. The CCS and OCU were foreign beasts to him. The outer colonies might as well have been…well…the outer colonies. Once again, feigning ignorance and discomfort wouldn’t be much of a stretch.
“I’m Rhea,” Rigel declared in English. Xeres hadn’t noticed her previous introduction had also been in English. He was glad she’d spoken first, as he naturally would have spoken in High Martian. That alone wouldn’t give them away, but it was enough that it might point to other clues. “This is my uncle, Jason.”
“We’re, uh, we were traveling. I guess we still are.” His English was a little more accented than Rigel’s, but not enough to obscure his words.
“My apologies for barging in like that. We heard gunshots and just wanted to get away before we got hurt.” She cast a thoughtful look back at the door. “It seems you all did, too.” Her ‘uncle’ grunted in agreement, which brought her attention back to him. “Say, uncle, shouldn’t you try to work something out with the captain and that…girl?”
Xeres met her gaze, trying to keep his act up. “Perhaps once we land. I shouldn’t interfere with –“
“Uncle.”
Xeres stiffened. The Princess had given him an order. While defying it in the interest of her safety was well within his authority, it seemed to him that arguing – and causing a scene, because that would happen, if her knew her as well as he thought he did – would only make things worse. “Maybe the sooner the better. Don’t…stay…” he huffed and turned toward the hatch he’d seen the captain and girl disappear to.
Once Xeres was gone, Rigel turned to the interesting assortment of characters presented before her. “Now then,” she said, lips pursed, “who are all of you?”
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Post by Calefrun on Jun 14, 2016 20:01:11 GMT -5
Cale waved enthusiastically. "IIIIIII'm Cale!" He looked at his sister expectantly.
"Oh, uh... heya. My name's Kayla. We're uh... travelling, like you guys."
Leaning in close to Rigel, Cale whispered, "Not a lot of people know this, but... me and her? We're related."
Kayla sighed. "Well, with that out of the way, I'm going to go check out the rest of the ship. The last time I was onboard a spaceship, I didn't really have much time to look around before..." She paused uncomfortably, and Cale scrunched up his face, apparently remembering something particularly unpleasant. "...uh, let's just hope this flight goes better."
Cale nodded. "Third time's the charm, right?"
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Post by Damien on Jun 15, 2016 0:30:12 GMT -5
"Before...what?" Miguel asked. He had completely ignored the girl's question, and for good reason.
Something seemed off about the two random civilians that boarded the ship with them. Nothing in the way of magic, like illusory appearance, but something in the realm of the mundane. Something about the commanding tone she took with her uncle and, more importantly, Jason's accent made him feel that there was more to the pair than they let on.
Hoping that the sudden ignorance of the introductions at hand would get Myrddin's attention, he scratched at the corner of his eye as if it were itching.
He had decided long ago to teach the members of his and Myrddin's cabal a form of communication that he and his friends had used when they were younger called a cant. Simple gestures, like scratching one's nose or pulling one's earlobe, as well as sounds, like clearing one's throat with a specific rhythm, carried meaning only known to those who also knew that form of cant.
This particular gesture meant "more than meets the eye".
He would leave it up to Myrddin to decide whether they would give their real identities or use aliases as he believed "Rhea" and "Jason" to be. Though they were no longer in the military, and Miguel no longer under Myrddin's command, he still deferred to his ex-CO's decisions.
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Post by Myrdraxxis on Jun 15, 2016 14:45:59 GMT -5
Myrddin caught Miguel's gesture out of the corner of his eye. He looked the two newcomers over and fought back a sigh. Things couldn't ever be simple could they? He casually reached back and rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish gesture. 'Wait and see.' he replied to Miguel.
"I'm Myrddin." He introduced himself, "This is my partner Miguel. We're, ah, the security for this little trip." He put on a firendly grin. "This probably wasn't the tourist trip you were hoping for when you got to Arcadia. Sorry 'bout that."
"Excuse me."
Myrddin jumped, and damn near 'Jumped', when a voice spoke from directly behind him. He whirled around and found a slim Asian man standing there, expression neutral. Except for an amused quirk of his lips at Myrddin's reaction. Myrddin glared at the man. When had this guy even appeared? Myrddin hadn't seen him walk in.
"I am Hiro." The man introduced with a slight bow. "Captain Krupinski bade me to show you all to the crew quarts to get settled in."
"Oh. Right." Myrddin cleared his throat. "Thank you." Something about this guy rubbed Myrddin the wrong way. Hiro was very pale, and held himself completely still. Myrddin wasn't even sure if the guy had blinked once while talking.
"This way then." Hiro walked further into the ship. Myrddin glanced around at the others and then followed.
"The Bismark is not a large ship, but our crew quarts should suffice for the journey." Hiro continued as they passed into the main deck. "The bridge is that way," Hiro gestured to an open hatch on the far side of the room. "Crew deck is one level up and the cargo hold is one deck down." Hiro pointed to the pair of elevators at the center of the room.
"Hiro, captain says that he needs you on the bridge for the jump to the colonies."
Myrddin blinked as another figure stepped out of the door leading to the bridge. At first Myrddin thought he was seeing double. An exact copy of Hiro seemed to appear, but on second glance he realized that this person was female. Same pale skin and hell, same face as Hiro, but with long hair tied back into a pair of buns and distinctively feminine curves visible through the plain grey jumpsuit that she and her obvious twin Hiro wore.
"Mei Ling, a pleasure to meet you." The newcomer greeted and Myrddin realized that he had been gawking.
"Myrddin. Er, likewise."
"Mei, please assist our passengers with whatever they need. I'll be on the bridge." With that Hiro left.
On the bridge of the Bismark, Sona was standing behind Captain Krupinski as he programmed the coordinates for their destination.
"Shouldn't be a long trip. We're near a gate, so maybe...ten hours?" the captain estimated.
"The faster, the better." Sona replied, eyeing the readout screen. She purposefully didn't glance up at the viewport that showed the vastness of space beyond it. Sona had never been one of those people that were captivated by the beauty of space. She was used to OCU vessels, that (wisely, in her opinion), had their CIC near the center of the ship. EU and NAF vessels apparently had more of flare for the dramatic and built theirs in the front of the ship so they could appreciate the "beauty of space". The sight just made Sona dizzy.
The door to the bridge hissed open and Hiro stepped inside. "Sir." the Asian man greeted shorty and stepped over to one of the nearby seats and slid into it, tapping away at the haptic interface. The Bismark wasn't a big ship, and didn't need a very large crew to function. A few drones for heavy lifting, and the Triplets were the only crew that Sona had ever seen aboard this ship.
"Been doing alright, Hiro?" Sona asked casually. The man didn't look up from his work, but responded.
"Well enough. I finished the holo-book you sent me. It was quite enjoyable."
"Glad to hear it." Sona grinned. "Remind me later to send you a couple more. Can't be much else here for entertainment. Walt here never did know how to have fun."
"I am a paragon of good times and merrymaking." Captain Krupinski replied dryly. Sona chuckled and glanced at Hro again out of the corner of her eye.
It was good to see him adapting well to life abroad. She hadn't been sure how he or his sisters would do outside of the OCU. She took a chance in introducing them to Krupinski. She knew the man wouldn't abuse the triplets, and he certainly wasn't any sort of conservative, but people were a bit funny with their attitudes concerning clones.
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Post by Mizagium on Jun 18, 2016 11:26:45 GMT -5
Rhea found herself frowning at the introductions, particularly since she only actually received three of them: Cale and Kayla, and Myrddin. Of the siblings, she liked neither. Cale was far too chipper for her tastes, and Kayla too disinterested. Although, given a choice, Rhea decided she’d pick Kayla. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Myrddin seemed pleasant enough. Definitely ex-NAF military. He reminded her of Xeres and she wondered if he could be ordered around like her ‘uncle’. By the way he jumped at Hiro’s arrival, she decided he was too scrutinizing for that. Ex-military tended to fall into two categories: those contantly seeking new orders, or those who’d grown to despite taking orders. Rhea’s snap judgement told her he was the latter.
The other one, Miguel, seemed a companion of Myrddin’s, possibly an older squadmate. He, she thought, fell more into the former category of ex-military. Myrddin carried himself like a leader, and this soldier seemed to defer to him. Miguel hasn't even introduced himself - Myrrdin had done so. She marked him as possibly susceptible to commands.
She made a point of sneering at Hiro and Mei Ling when they swapped. She knew genetic engineering when she saw it – Olympians were all about it. But these two were the next, disgusting step: clones.
-
On the bridge, Xeres poked his head in, and muttered, “Not bad,” loud enough to hear, but not exactly directed at anyone.
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Post by Sariel of Tevet on Jul 15, 2016 15:27:16 GMT -5
"So...Mariko was it? So this uh...awkward silence has been going on for........what seems like months now. Maybe we should just...talk?"
Just then, the ship jumped out of hyperspace and all manner of sirens and buzzers went off in the cabin, accompanied by flashing red lights.
"Or...we could talk later, apparently. "
Tio rifled through every screen and button he could find on the console but couldn't make heads or tails of it. He slammed his fist down on the console and turned his chair around to ask Mariko if she could figure it out, but noticed the problem. The cargo bay had opened up and one of the hydraulic parts on the lift was visibly leaking.
"Oooooooooooook. So good news, I found the problem. Bad news...guess we are just gonna crash. Guess the cargo bay hadn't closed all the way before we made the jump."
He grabbed the controls and struggled to keep the ship steady with only one hand. The cabin began to become sweltering as they entered the atmosphere and the heat flowed into the ship through the broken cargo door. The back half of the ship began to rip itself apart, which spent it spiraling down toward Xanadu.
"I need my staff or else this is going to hurt."
His staff was just out of reach, and as he let go of the controls the ship began to toss and turn even worse. He grabbed them again and tried to stabilize everything as best he could. His mind flashed back to before stealing the ship, when magic seemed to take over and spring an arm out of his shoulder so that he could grab that gun.
He leaned toward his staff with his shoulder, stretching across the cabin as far as he could while still having a grasp on the controls. Soon, his shoulder began to burn again with magical energy and an arm formed and stretched out to grab the staff. He slammed it on the ground and formed a shield around himself and Mariko and the ship slammed into the dirt.
Dazed, Tio stumbled out of the ship to find what looked like a tiny colony. He climbed out of the crater that was left because of the wreckage, and then was met with a hail of gunfire. He ducked back down into the crater and fell against the side of the ship and let out a sigh.
"Maybe I shouldn't have left my cell. "
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Post by Myrdraxxis on Jul 16, 2016 0:27:46 GMT -5
“They aren’t much, but we have enough bunks for everyone.” Mei Ling led the new passengers of the Bismark through the crew quarters, which were a simple common area and three offshoot rooms with several bunks in each. The common room itself was a simple affair with a small table in the center surrounded by several small couches. One of which had someone laying in it.
“Hey, stop laying around and do something around here!” Mei Ling snapped at the woman lounging around in the common room. The woman’s face was hidden behind a magazine, which she tipped downward just low enough to glare sullenly at Mei Ling.
“There’s nothing to do.” The young woman, muttered. “I already finished fixing the leak in our port engine.”
“Well whatever, just introduce yourself! You’re being rude.” Mei Ling frowned.
“I’m Sun-Ming Alpha Echo One-One-Eight-“
“Fu!” Mei Ling snapped at the young woman. The Asian woman (Fu, Myrddin supposed), regarded them placidly for a moment then sighed.
“Names Fu. Sup.”
Myrddin was actually embarrassed that it took him so long t realize, but Fu’s introduction finally put the pieces together for him. Mei Ling, Hiro and FU were clones!
‘Why didn’t I realize that?’ He wondered. The Marauders were a task forces that specialized in infiltrating places the NAF couldn’t officially go, and several times his team had been sent to scout or exfiltrate underground clone markets. The thought of them made Myrddin’s skin crawl.
“Well, I’m Myrddin. Nice to meet you.” He nodded and grinned pleasantly (he hoped). He wasn’t entirely sure he was successful if the look Fu was giving him was any indication.
“You guys can leave any gear you have out here. I’m not too sure how long it’s going to be until we reach Xanadu, but might as well make yourselves comfortable.” Mei Ling smiled at them and gave a bow. “I must return to my other duties. If you need anything, Fu would be happy to help you.”
“Oi,” Fu muttered. Mei Ling ignored her and left.
“Well, I guess its just a waiting game now.” Myrddin broke the silence first. FU sat up and stretched, brushing what little hair she had out of her eyes.
“I suppose I’ll go review the engine diagnostics or something. Too crowded in here now.” And with that the third clone departed. Myrddin sighed and sat down on one of the couches and began stripping his rifle.
Yeah, it was going to be a long trip.
-
Prathis did not like humans much. Not for the reasons that most of the other dissenters usually espoused. Sure they were somewhat shifty in their dealings, utterly unbearable in their demands and complete nightmares when it came to warfare, but all of that didn’t bother Prathis much.
No, he disliked humans for a much more personal reason.
“Our flank is collapsing! Krius, use the lightcaster and get them off of us!” Prathis bellowed, ducking as someone fired at him from across the platform.
The landing zone had become a battlefield. Prathis and his squad had been steadily forced back across the metal platform to take cover in the flaming wreckage of their shuttle, while the human mercenaries scurried from cover to cover behind the scattered cargo containers.
Krius, their heavy weapon specialist, brought his lightcaster to bear, the giant spearlike-cannon glowing hot as Light magicks poured through the device and lit up the early morning sky. Prathis’ helmet filtered out the excess light. The weapon left the metal in its path a molten slag, and the pair of mercenaries trying to creep up behind them hadn’t fared much better. Thankfully, his helmet also filtered smells.
One of Prathis’ Knights, Mihael, grunted and dropped to the ground wordlessly as a bullet shot clean through his helmet and skull. Prathis whirled around and fired his rifle into the oncoming rush of humans.
Their tactics were bizarre. When Prathis and his team had first arrived, they had been met by an abandoned station. His team was supposed to review the security of the research facilty on this remoe world so that the Ahv’s own researchers could join the humans here in a joint effort. Something about sharing their discoveries as a gesture of goodwill. Some goodwill that had turned out to be. His team had been halfway to the digsite when someone blew up their shuttle and the humans appeared.
They fought like maniacs with little concern for their injuries or the deaths of their comrades. Poor Coinzl had died when he put a bullet in a human guard’s shoulder then tried to capture the man, only to receive a knife to the throat. The human hadn’t stopped moving until they’d shot him in the head.
“We can’t stay here commander!” Someone shouted.
It was true, they were being overwhelmed. Five others, besides Prathis were all that remained of his team. Prathis glanced over his shoulder. Past the ruined ship was open plains of red dirt, the digsite itself just visible among the craggy cliffs. There was a transport in the camp that provided trips to the site itself from the landing port, and they wouldn’t be able to reach it from here.
If they took off over open terrain, then they would be easy targets. Staying here would surely see them dead, however.
“We’re rushing to the digsite!” He yelled. “Hamah, see how far you can Shift us!” he ordered. Hamah, their team’s Spacial mystic nodded.
“To the digsite, go!”
-
“No response.” Krupinski said again, as static filled the bridge. Sona frowned at the readout. No one was answering their hails down in the research facility. Attempts to make any contact with the planet’s capital city of Lancaster had been met with similar silence.
“Something’s jamming signals around here.” The captain continued. “I don’t like it.”
“We knew that the place had gone dark. I wasn’t expecting anyone to come greet us.” Sona replied. “Still, you would think that there would be somebody down there sent to investigate things. The NAF has other colonies in this system with marines to spare.”
“Well, I got a bad feeling, personally.” Krupinski said, rubbing his shoulder. “This haul better be worth it, girl.”
“You worry too much.” Sona flashed him a quick grin. “We won’t be down there long.” She paused, then glanced over her shoulder at Xeres. The man had deigned to stay with them up on the bridge for most of the journey, and Sona had revealed some of what they were going to Xanadu for. “My team and I are going down to the surface, but after that we can drop you and your niece off in Lancaster if you’d like.”
“Sure, because I’m a taxi service now.” Krupinski muttered.
“We’re ready to descend sir.” Hiro cut in. Krupinski inhaled and sighed, glancing at Sona. She nodded.
“Right. Take us down, land directly over the digsite. We’re getting in and out of here right quick.”
“Wish us luck!” Sona called as she left the bridge, checking her gear over as she walked down to the ship’s landing ramp.
Myrddin was already there, rifle held at the ready. “We’re ready to go, Sona.” He said as the info broker approached.
“Good. I can already see the money we’re going to make from this job.” She grinned and Myrddin couldn’t help but chuckle.
’We’re over the digsite now! Opening hatch!’
The room hissed as the landing hatch of the Bismark opened and Myrddin got his first view of Xanadu. He couldn’t say he was all that impressed. From here everything looked like someone had just taken Arizona and dyed it red. He stepped down the ramp and onto the planet’s surface, rifle up and sweeping the area.
Nothing.
Sona stepped down a moment later. “Welp, time to get to work.”
That's when they began to hear gunfire coming from the direction of the colony.
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Post by Mizagium on Jul 30, 2016 15:00:32 GMT -5
Distant gunfire echoed inside the Bismark, causing Xeres to stiffen. Decades of latent military training resurfaced in an instant. "Princess," he muttered, momentarily forgetting where he was. Shadows enveloped him, pulling him across the ship. He emerged in front of Rigel, carrying an old Martian assault blaster.
"Are you harmed?"
Rigel scrunched her face up. "Put that back; you'll give us away."
"We decommissioned the MRB-81 years ago. Old models like this have been on the black market for almost a decade, and the body style is a being adopted by a number of private firearms companies."
"Whatever. What's going on?"
"I'm not sure. Stay here." He fell into a hunched stance and disappeared around the corner, moving towards the landing hatch.
Rigel rolled her eyes and huffed. "What am I supposed to do here?"
-
Xeres arrived in time to see Sona and Myrddin step out onto Xanadu. "Myrddin. What's happening?"
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