Jack Pine
Well-Known Member
- RP Date
- YE 40, 5 hours after S6 departure
- RP Location
- S6S-Anvil: Cargo Hold 2B----->Maintenance Conduits---->Medbay
Sarah walked into the cargo hold grumbling. She was wearing boots, green cargo pants, a white tank top, and a green military style jacket. This was her usual attire for off duty hours, also part of the reason of her annoyance.
"Marv, you better have a damn good reason why I'm not playing with my babies right now. Because I'm about five seconds from knocking some sense up into that head of your's.", The Gesherin woman at 6'2, black hair and blue eyes said not bothering to hide her displeasure.
"Terribly sorry Lt. But we seem to have a bit of a issue, several really, " he said before pausing at a glare from her, "B-but we seem to have items missing that are l-listed on the manifest, and someone has left behind empty containers."
"What, so you decided to bug me with your problem?", Sarah said with a sigh as she idly scratched at the long scar that ran down the left side.of her face.
"I figured it wasn't something to bother the commander with, and all the lower officers are busy. I c-can't leave my post to go investigate fully as I'm needed to help maintain the new civilian quarters.", The man called Marv said nervously.
"Fine, give me the damn data and scram."
The man didn't so much as protest as he forwarded the data and quickly speed walked out. Leaving Sarah alone as she gave another sigh. Pulling up a localized 3D minimap on her HUD, the woman began to check each crate marked as having items missing. Most of it was supplies. Food, water, hygienic items, digital hardware, and even a few clothes. As she checked the last on the list, an open maintenance conduit hatch was open.
As Sarah approached there were a couple wrappers and a empty drink can just inside. Further in a few more could be seen, spaced out along the crawl space.
"Well what do we have here?", She said to no one, but herself. Pulling her P2 she kept on her from her holster, Sarah advanced into the conduit, signalling the hatch to close and seal behind her.
Haisely had been careful but not careful enough, most of her thefts had gone unnoticed thanks to manipulating the manifest but now she'd been sprung. The neon pink haired girl had tried to clean up most of her mess and remove any traces of her den within the service tunnels, now that someone was actually coming after her she was scrambling to stay undetected.
Sarah however, continued further in following even the slightest signs. Her years as an assassin to track marks being put to use for once. Odd to think it would be to find what was seeming more and more like a stow away, or just someone aboard who though they could sneak extras.
As she passed into a junction, she sealed the hatch behind her again. Unsure which way to go she sat still and listened as her eyes scanned for faint signs.
Haisely had managed to pinpoint where her pursuer was coming from and tried to double back to get behind her. She had to get away from the person and move to a different area of the ship. Careful not to make a sound she moved down one of the adjacent sections to where Sarah was waiting, the outside of each conduit being the only thing separating them.
This was going to be a pain to track whoever it was down she could already tell. But that's what was going to make this fun, a good ol game of cat and mouse. With a grin, Sarah sent a signal to the onboard AI to start closing and sealing all the hatches that lead out of this section. If it took even several hours, Sarah would search each part of this section, conduit, by conduit.
She rested on her haunches with somewhat of a smile as the sounds of sealing hatches could be heard echoing.
Sensing her escape opportunities closing one by one Haisely became slightly panicked but kept it cool. Moving slowly she decided maybe she could surprise her pursuer and escape, or take them hostage. Extending a single claw she started tapping on the walls as she moved to lure them in.
Sarah grinned more as she heard the tapping, "There you are."
She brought her pistol up in a two hand grip and while keeping it focused ahead of her, but held close to the body Sarah slowly advanced towards the sound. "You know, you could always come quietly. Save me the bullet to stun ya if you cooperate.", the woman said out loud to her quarry.
Haisely ignored the offer and continued looking around her for any way to give herself more of an advantage. She'd collected several small lengths of spare wire and small metal scraps but nothing that could combat a firearm. To put her items to use she constructed a long, thin and almost invisible wire in the low light and strung it across a junction before moving on.
Continuing her advance, Sarah closed hatches as she passed through them. As she approached the next junction Sarah looked very closely as her scan picked up the wire. The wire became highlighted by the low light feature which brought a genuine smile to her face. Pulling a knife she quietly cut the wire and let it drift to the floor.
Entering into the junction, the door behind her closed. Sarah looked down both branching paths quickly giving both a couple flashes with the pistol's flashlight attachment.
The urban warrior saw the light flash past her hidey hole which happened to be a small alcove along one of the passages, she sprung her claws and waited, with nowhere else to go her plan was to surprise the pursuer and escape. Using a piece of scrap, she tossed it further down the hall and waited.
Sarah whipped back to face the tunnel the sound had come from. She triggered the hatches to the other paths to close. Sticking close to the wall she took a few steps forward.
In the small space, the alcoves found in some places were hard to miss, which worried her. Better to play it smart, and hopefully her target didn't have night vision. With a signal the lighting in this section of conduits turned off. Sarah overlayed the minimap over her vision, the edges of the tunnels highlighted. Slowly she crept forward quietly with her flashlight off in the pitch black.
Haisely did have night vision in fact, and with her ears as well she had her own version of a map and was tracking the progress of Sarah easily. While she waited the girl looked around incase there happened to be a grating or manual hatch to escape through.
Finally Sarah came within a foot from the opening now tense as she suspected to be jumped. With her pistol.raised, Sarah approached the hole.
Haisely waited until the last possible second before pushing off the wall with her hands and aiming her feet at the gun, intending to at the very least disarm the person and potentially steal the weapon as well.
Sarah gave a grunt as the weapon was kicked from her hands and sent sliding ahead. She backed away a step just in case they had a knife, or some other such weapon.
After landing the kick the short girl dropped to all fours and propelled herself through Sarahs legs, scampering away as her metallic tail shot out to trip the other woman, that should buy her some time at least.
Sarah toppled.around like some fool, leaving her face first in the floor at a rather awkward position with her legs hanging over the back of the head. "I'm going to kill this bitch.", She mumbled to herself before scrambling back up right.
Sarah grabbed for the gun again, hopefully she'd be able to pop her before she could escape.
Having realised all the exits were now sealed, Haisely turned and sprinted back full force at Sarah, this time leaping into a dive over her head while bringing her knee towards her face to try and knock her down again.
Sarah grabbed the gun just as the knee met her forehead. She gave another grunt from the impact, before shaking her head to recover. realizing the person he headed the other way, She signaled the hatch to close.
Haisely kept up her offensive strategy, pushing off the now closed hatch to fly back towards Sarah, her claws now extended and aiming to slash at her back.
Sarah rolled to the side before firing off three rounds, and flashing the light to disorient her attacker.
Haisely managed to block 2 with her tail but took the final shot to her leg, not realising the rounds were designed to shock and not kill. While her leg may have been a minor inconvenience her tail was connected directly to her spine, the girl yelped and flailed about in mid air for a moment before half slumping onto the floor.
Sarah switched the lights back on and almost gave the girl a look of pity. "This is what you get for not listening. You ready to give up yet pinky?", She said with a annoyed sigh.
Haisely looked up at Sarah and glared at her, her yellowed cat eyes flicked rapidly between her surroundings and her enemy searching for anything. Gripping the floor with her claws once more she shot herself forwards and immediately flopped back onto the floor as her muscles spasmed again.
Sarah unenthusiastic like raised gun again, "I can always top ya off for a nice nap. Come on and just chill. You're almost as stubborn as my wife." She said certain there wasn't much left in the girl.
"If we wanted ya dead, I'd be packing holo points and not stun rounds. Understood?"
Haisely continued to glare as she tried to curl up into a ball, her ears retreating under her hair and tail collapsing back into its base leaving behind a very angry looking punk teen. "Jusk kill me then." She said, burrying her face in her hair for a moment, behind her back however she still had a moderate length of scrap.
"And why would I go and do a thing like that? Besides, what's a young woman like you doing down here in the ducts anyway? Surely actually having a room is far better then scrounging down here in the maintenance conduits.", Sarah asked curiously as she finally had a decent look at the girl.
"Shut up" The girl wasn't even sure if she wanted to try escaping now, it seemed like all the exits were blocked and this woman was surprisingly skilled. Haisely sighed and flicked the scrap, aiming for Sarahs throat.
Sarah dropped and flicked her hand up, the metal instead embedding in her hand, "Fiery one. You and Adria would get right along. Any other tricks, or sharp objects, or are you done yet?", She said ignoring the pain as blood ran from her hand.
The girl turned away and huffed, she really didn't like getting caught, and had managed to avoid it for the last 2 years. The people on this ship were a lot better trained and equipped than she was used to.
"So are we just going to sit here all day, or get something to eat?", Sarah asked .
"Either come with me and get, hot food, a bed, and maybe some friends. Or stay in the brig and get dropped off at the next station. Your choice dear."
What was wrong with this woman, did she not care that she'd just found a girl hidnig in their ship, who'd been stealing supplies and food the whole time they were traveling. Well, since she had all the time in the world Haisely decided to kick back and wait to see what this strange woman would do.
She smirked and lay down on the floor with her hands behind her head.
"Keep laying there and it will be option C. I shock your ass and drag your unconscious body out of the ducts.", Sarah said with a pissed yet mischievous smile at the girl's blatant disregard.
"You have ten seconds to choose. 10.........9....."
"Bite me." While she was asking for trouble, she wasn't completely unprepared for the situation when the woman fired at her again.
"3.2.1.", Sarah said before firing again.
Haisely stuck a finger up to catch the round, her hand twitched violently but it didn't seem like it really bothered her much. "Non conductive."
Sarah looked unimpressed before firing a couple more for the chest instead.
Again the punk looking girl managed to block them, barely. She was no superhuman afterall. "Just use a real bullet, it'll be quicker." She said looking angry and bored.
Sarah gave an exasperated sigh before dropping the mag, and letting the pistol lazily point away as she fished for.another mag. When the pistol had seeming.slumped. Sarah was only pretending to look for a mag as she pulled the trigger as the barrel pointed towards the girl's thigh.
The shot hit her thigh dead on sending her leg into a small spasm as Haisely gritted her teeth and fell over once more letting out another small yelp. Yet she still didn't budge.
Sarah slapped in the mag before grabbing the girl by the collar, "You're coming with me missy."
Sarah wasn't sure how a Gesherin's strength compared to a nep girl's, but it was a grown 38 year old woman verses an angsty teen.
Haisely didn't even put up a fight over it, she simply let herslef go limp and get dragged away, in her mind she was still looking for escape options but for now she was simply waiting. If they got out of the conduits and there was no one else around she could easily escape into hiding among supply crates, or even another maintanence area.
Sarah lugged the girl behind her as she dragged the light weight through the ducts. The thing was, she wasn't heading towards the cargo bay this time. As they reached the junction Sarah would open the hatch to the next section while signalling those along there path to seal. This ensured a dead end remained behind them at all times while the only other way was straight ahead.
Haisely could tell something was different, they weren't going back to where she came in from, this felt like one of the ways she hadn't gone due to too much civilian presence at the end but she couldn't be sure. Silently her neko ears popped up from below her hair and made a few sonic pings, much too high for either of them to actually hear but the ears were able to get a rough map for her.
A striaght corridor ahead, sealed behind, and they were going somewhere different, away from her little den and away from the cargo bay.
This pattern continued for a few.minutes, before Sarah took a left and opened a hatch that went up. The junctions were sealed until two decks up. "Alright time to take a little climb. Don't bother running, I've made.sure there's only one path ahead of us, and a dead end behind us.", She said having finally spoke after a while.
Haisely nodded and gripped the ladder, starting the climb up to the next level she guessed, it looked like the top hatch was open and so she scaled the ladder in the blink of an eye using all her past experience to propell herself upwards.
She would find only one path like before, branching hatches closed, "Nope, go right ahead, I'll meet you there."
Sarah began to climb as well but lowered gravity to make it easier, something the girl would notice as her lower half began to float.
Well since she had nowhere to run to and this woman didn't seem to worried, might as well explore a little bit. Extending her claws again she gripped onto the ceiling and began scampering around the area she could, recording everything with her eyes and tapping certain spots with her tail.
Sarah reached the top and began to crawl after her. The path extended 100 feet before branching right. At the end of a short stint, was main hatch leading into a compartment.
Haisely easily reached the end long before the woman following her but wasn't trying to escape, she simple investigated the door, its metal composition and construction, everything down to estimating its locking and wiring configurations.
Sarah caught up a few minutes later, "Getting to old for all this."
She triggered the hatch to open, past it was the security station with a two men sitting in chairs as if waiting watching the opening as the girl was suddenly revealed to them.
Haisely blinked once, her eyes taking in the whole room, there was definitely other exits here. then the two men, both armed, looked a little more painful than that annoying electric shit she was hit with before, behind her she knew the woman was waiting for her to make a move to shoot her again.
She estimated she might be able to take out the two men with her claws and tail, but the woman would get her, and since they were already waiting for her she couldn't attack the woman too easily either. A hostage grab maybe? Haisely turned her head to look at Sarah from the corner of her eyes.
Sarah tossed Haisely the gun, "Here so you feel safer. Now can we please get out of the friggen crawl space?! My back is killing me."
The girl actually laughed, she was being handed a gun? Wait, why though? The other two didn't seem to have changed their posture at all despite her now being armed. Haisely looked down at the gun and squinted, going over every detail searching for a catch of some sort. She could always throw it at one of the guards or use it like a blunt object, with her mind made up she sprung forwards to smash the weapon into one of the mens skulls, palnning to disarm him and shoot the others legs.
The man with white hair kept from his chair, not fast enough to stop her from getting a hit on Mark Tazar. Jack grabbed her by the wrist and moved to put her in an arm lock.
The small girl twisted in middair to attemt escape from the grip, she hadn't expected him to move quite so fast but luckily she hadn't thrown the gun yet. With a grin she brought her other arm around dropping the gun from her restrained arm into her other hand and smashing the grip into Jack's ribs.
Jack took the blow, but did not back off, or let go. Instead he adjusted his approach and grabbed for the other wrist as well. Mark after recovering from a strike to the face, before trying to ready his rifle.
Haisely winced, that would have hurt a fair bit yet he was still going, sensing the movement behind her, she popped her ears back up out of her hair and her tail sprung out from its base aiming to send a blow to Marks chest. Meanwhile she was trying to evade the other hand going for her free arm, dropping the pistol she deployed her claws again and aimed to stab his hand.
Mark took the blow to his still recovering chest, his back thumping against the wall.
Jack took the claw through the hand with a grunt, but it didn't stop him either. He wrapped an arm around her and grabbed her forearm before trying to yank both arms behind
Haisely grunted slightly and aimed to hit him in the groin and knee with her tail, her ears twitching as they kept track of the other two people, it seemed like the woman hadn't moved which was quite strange, she must value the skills of this man. With that conclusion she doubled her efforts and was about to try biting down on his arm before remembering she hadn't managed to finish the jaw and teeth before leaving her home in Nepleslia.
Making a noise of dissatisfaction she instead twisted her torso and arms, seemingly trying to dislocate her own shoulder to try and escape his hold.
Jack shifted his leg in to block his groin as he held her arms behind her back."Will you calm the Hell down for like two minutes!"
Mark stumbled to the side finding his breathing hard as he raised the rifle, aimed for her chest.
Sarah leaned out of the conduit bored as she just watched.
Haisely knew he was aiming for her again, with surspising strength for such a short girl she moved to pull Jack to the ground, wrapping her legs around his chest to make him fall on her and prevent the other man from firing.
"Oh come on.", Jack grumbled as he fell on top of her. He now tried.to pin her with his weight, "Maybe if you stopped for ten fucking minutes, you'd realize we aren't trying to kill you."
Haisely acknowledged his words but didn't stop, instead she wriggled her way around to free herself, managing to slip free of his grasp on her arms in the process and grabbing the gun from his waist as she got free.
Scooting backwards rapidly she aimed at the other soldier looking man and glared at him, daring him to move.
Mark raised the rifle and prepared to fire. The girl was unaware the P2 had a biometric safety. Making the pistol in her hand no more then a nice looking metal brick.
Damn, there must be something she didn't know which meant they weren't afraid of her having a gun, there had to be something stopping her from using it else they would have shown some sign of urgency. She was sure of it now.
With a sudden yell she threw the pistol at Marks head before scrambling over to Jack once more and trying to put her claws to his throat.
Mark took the pistol to the face causing him to stumble back, the rifle swinging back, his grip now weak.
Jack grabbed the rifle by the barrel shroud and swung the rifle into the side of the leaping girl's head with a smack.
"Gahch!" She cried out falling flat on the floor again, her arms and legs twitched a little but she couldn't move them, all the strength had left her and her mind was fuzzy. In similar situations with concussion or confusion she often tried to stab herself to gain focus but couldn't move her hand enough and ended up scraping her claws along the floor.
Sarah cringed at the sight, "Goddess son, did you have to hit her like you were going for a home run?"
"No mom, don't worry, just stay lazy over there. Not like she was going for my THROAT or anything.", Jack said dropping the rifle before retaking his pistol.
"Not sure if you can even hear me. But, all pistols have a new biometric safety."
Mark shaking his head to clear the haze cuffed the girl while she was stunned, "Kid has one hell of arm."
"gleh." She mumbled, still dazed from the hit to her head, her claws slowly retracted, the tail collapsed back into its hidden base and her ears dipped back below her hair as she slipped in and out of conciousness.
"Get her to the medbay. Treat her wounds and make sure she's restrained. Don't need any of the staff, kids, or civilians getting hurt if she freaks out.", Jack ordered pointing at Sarah.
Sarah just sighed before helping Mark lug the girl to the medbay. After an hour of treatment she'd wake up, the medical nanoes and pain meds taking care of any damage, but still leaving bit of a bruise.....Well most of the pain.
Haisely woke up slowly, as soon as she realised she was awake the girl kept her eyes closed and breathing regulated to pretend she was still asleep, just in case anyone was watching. Instead her ears very slowly poked just out from below her pink hair and pinged the room, checking for any people or security devices.
She would find the place decently occupied as a number of patients occupied beds, or people stopped in for minor issues. Mark Tazar being only one suite over with a breathing mask as he was out with pain meds.
Jack sat however by her bedside, his hand wrapped and bandaged, waiting for her to wake. He saw the ears slowly raise, being so close. "Scanning the room? Smart girl. The doctors had time to do a couple scans while you were out. You suffered a concussion which they took care of. You may feel some soreness.", He said casually as if they just hadn't had a mini death battle an hour before.
The girl froze in place, damn him for watching her so carefully, since the jig was up there was no point hiding anymore. Her ears retracted as she sat up in the bed slowly, feeling her wrists within a set of cuffs. "You get off watching girls sleep?"
"Don't flatter yourself, not my type. No I watch for dangers to my people and the families here. So far you've proven quite dangerous.", The white haired man said with a chuckle before continuing.
"Why did you resist? You stowed away and thought you wouldn't trigger a security response? Then you ran when 1. You're on a starship, a cage in itself, and 2. In space with the nearest planet being over ten light years away.", Jack questioned.
The punk looking girl scoffed, for someone who's security hadn't found her for weeks he thought highly of it. "Didn't feel like rolling over like a bitch." she said simply, definitely not one for words or long explanations.
"Well you certainly gave mom a run for her money.", He said with another chuckle.
He scratched at his chin in thought, wondering what he was going to do with this girl. She certainly had talent and a fighting spirit, but he found to be admirable traits.
After a pause Jack asked another question, "Why this fleet, this ship? Why stow away in the first place?"
That she wasn't expecting, usually they just chucker her out if they found you without asking why, just assuming she was there because she felt like it. Truthfully she was here for their tech, to obtain as much info about their designs and the group as possible which she planned to try selling later after she'd memorised it, but she wasn't about to let him know of the secret pocket in her tank top with the drive, and there was no scanner in the world that could detect it either.
Instead she lied, looking around the room instead of at him while she spoke, "Got bored, felt like getting a free ride."
"Mhmm, well this is a one way trip. And where we're going there is no government. Unclaimed and uncharted territory. This is a colony fleet.", He said letting that sink in for a minute before adding, "If your here for info, someone beat you to it a while ago. If it's for our tech....."
He gave a grin, "Enlist and you'll have access to it. Room, board, gear, weapons, access to the data base, and be part of somthing more then slinking around starships."
Eesh, why did people always try to give her a job, well not always but this was not the first time she'd bested a couple of guards and been offered heaven on a stick. "Sounds boring, I'll stick to slinking." She shot back simply, while she really didn't want to die this young it was better than getting screwed over by some rich prick after her use was gone.
"Tell me, What do you know about Section 6? What we do. What we stand for."
Stright to the point huh, well it's not like he could prove anything. "Nothing, and all I've seen you do as this section 6 is watch me while I'm sleeping after you knocked me out. Seems pretty bad when you say it out loud huh."
"We're an organization that is about building a home, one that's not run by some empire. You see many of the people here have been through their share of shit, myself included. This constant state of war in most societies are in. Poverty, discrimination, crime, and rich feeding off the misfortune of others.", Jack began sitting back in his chair.
"That is a corruption I hate. And one I don't want my children to grow up around. So we'll build a new world, and hopefully a better future. We advance technology, medicine, military, and civilian aspects of life."
"Cool, but uh, don't care."
"You seemed to care enough to sneak aboard what is clearly a military warship. Tell me, who do you think I am? Even though I expect some rather creative yet vulgar answer, I would prefer an honest one.", He said with a chuckle.
"A guy with white hair, on a ship with a lot of food. Why do you think I have some sort of goal in all this huh?" She asked, possibly the longest string of words she'd said so far. He was unusually persistant for a captain even if it was some fancy organisation thing going to go take some land for themselves.
"Because only a fool sneaks aboard a military ship, when they know nothing about those who own it, and without a plan. But you have shown every sign of knowing what you were getting yourself into, and you had as far as I could tell a plan. You're a smart girl, and no fool, so you might as well quite the bullshit that you're just here. Not to mention the very high grade augs you have with very specific feature, for someone just "scrounging"."
He was clearly not buying the story she was trying to pass off. Despite his mild annoyance, he was very curious to know why she had chosen his fleet.
"My name is Jack Pine, I am the director, commander, and founder of Section 6. I know when someone is hiding information, and when someone performs espionage.", He said his voice taking a more serious and stern quality.
Well, seems like this guy was a little smarter than the other two. With a sigh she lay back down on the bed. "Fine, I admit I came on here for info, you gonna kill me now or is there some torture first?"
"Why do want the info? Money? Leverage? And what happens to you is partly up to you at this point. Cooperate, and you'll be fine. Don't, and we'll see what happens."
"One or the other really don't really care, and is your version of cooperate me being chained up naked all the time like most idealistic groups?" She said, recalling the times she'd almost been put in that exact position.
"Who do we look like? IPG, SAINT, bandits, criminals, NMX? The only time I've resorted to torture were times of war, or when my son was taken last year. We aren't barbarians. No, answer my questions and you'll be fine.", Jack said waving his hand dismissively at such an idea.
Well, words could be said easily without really meaning them so she really didn't feel inclined to instantly believe him. "Right so, I'm expected to believe you won't do anything to me for sneaking onto your ship and strealing your supplies?"
"Let me put it this way. You probably have whatever data collection device you've been using on you. We could have shot you, then just searched your corpse. I would have gotten the answers I wanted without even this conversation ever happening. Why bother having the conversation if I wasn't honest?", Jack asked.
He did have a point although she still wasn't convinced. As for her data collection device, a memory wasn't usually to valuable after someone was killed, and her eyes would wipe clean if she died too but they thought she had some other tool on her. She wished! "Fine." she simply said.
"What were your motives?", He asked first.
"Survival." She replied simply, he'd figure out she meant selling it for money to survive surely, or was his earlier intelligence display just a show.
"So to get by off the money you made from what you gathered. So next question, Why us?"
"Easy target, single target, no backup." She said one after the other, it was no secret in her underground network of a home that S6 had left the USO and this colony ship proved it further.
Jack was satisfied with those answers which brought him back to a previous question, and his final one. "Those are both understandable reasons, and I can relate to the first. The second is one that I'm trying to correct. So I ask again, why not join us.", He asked rather casually.
"Food, room, and a place among people where you can put those skills to use. No need to keep hiding, running, or getting by pn the skin of your teeth."
Damn, now this guy had put her in a position where refusing was just stupid. "Didn't really feel like it? Why are YOU, so invested in hiring a thief?" Not a direct refusal, but not an affirmation either.
"Because not everyone has a choice when they choose such a line of work. 6 years ago I lived on the streets of Nepleslia with my best friend. We joined the military thinking it would lead to a better life. It didn't, but I built this organization in part for people like us. So they don't have to live like that.", Jack explained to the girl before adding, "I am offering that chance now."
"Do I get paid as well as all that boring shit?"
"Yes, and everything your issued on sign up is your's to keep."
"..." She thought long and hard about that. "Sounds interesting, I'm considering it. Tell me more."
"Free housing, land when we colonize, access to technology not offered to the public. As for duties, you've shown to be rather capable in hand to hand, and you must have some very developed tech skills to have remained hidden so long. So if you want to join SABER, we could use a cyber warfare.specialist. Or if more civilian, we can always use another person in the labs. Though on a side note, joining SABER gives access to equipment and the labs."
After he explained further, Jack sat and waited for her response, or even possible questions.
"I'd rather join this SABER thing, sounds like i could get some interesting toys." Haisely said thoughtfully.
"Is that a yes then?"
"Sure, could be fun."
"Alright well I'll have someone show you to your crew suite when you've finished resting.", Jack said before waving behind him. Two troopers in Revenant decloaked and walked away after saluting.
"Those restrains aren't locked by the way.", He said as he himself got up.
"Oh, cool, can I go to the room now? And I want a computer." She realised it might be suspicious if she asked for a computer after admitting to stealing intel. "Here" Haisely said, reaching under her shirt to get to the secret pocket, making sure he couldn't see.
"What?"
She tossed the drive to Jack and hopped up from the bed and sat balancing on her metal tail, she was barely light enough to do so but had managed to get good at balancing enough to keep doing it. "And I want gel, I know you had some I've been tampering with the manifest for weeks."
"That shouldn't be an issue, we use it for the undersuits in our power armor and layered into.starship hulls.", Jack said catching the drive, wiping it as he answered.
"You sure you don't want this back?", holding the drive out she would be unaware was now empty.
"Nah." The girl said, flicking her hair around to finally reveal her eyes properly. "It's all memorised and partially stored in these." She said, pointing to the yellow cat eyes, which were constantly adjusting as she looked around.
"Yeah there isn't anything on it. It's empty now.", Jack said letting his eyes glow for a moment.
"So why'd you offer then?" She asked almost seriously, her pink fringe falling back over her eyes slightly. "So do I get armour too?"
"Yes, you'll be issued a suit of Revenant power armor."
"Sweet, I want a toolset too." It was easy to see where this was going.
"Submit a requisition with the quarter master. If youyou askis for something questionable he'll check with me.", Jack said with a chuckle as he walked to the exit.
"Suit yourself, I still got my claws to work with." She shrugged before hopping out of the bed and uncuffing herself, twirling them on her hand before flicking them at the bed and looking back at Jack. "Do I get a room to myself or do I have to share with someone."
"You get your own room, I'll have Seraphina show you in a few."
"Sounds good, you got yourself a deal, and me as well I suppose."
"Marv, you better have a damn good reason why I'm not playing with my babies right now. Because I'm about five seconds from knocking some sense up into that head of your's.", The Gesherin woman at 6'2, black hair and blue eyes said not bothering to hide her displeasure.
"Terribly sorry Lt. But we seem to have a bit of a issue, several really, " he said before pausing at a glare from her, "B-but we seem to have items missing that are l-listed on the manifest, and someone has left behind empty containers."
"What, so you decided to bug me with your problem?", Sarah said with a sigh as she idly scratched at the long scar that ran down the left side.of her face.
"I figured it wasn't something to bother the commander with, and all the lower officers are busy. I c-can't leave my post to go investigate fully as I'm needed to help maintain the new civilian quarters.", The man called Marv said nervously.
"Fine, give me the damn data and scram."
The man didn't so much as protest as he forwarded the data and quickly speed walked out. Leaving Sarah alone as she gave another sigh. Pulling up a localized 3D minimap on her HUD, the woman began to check each crate marked as having items missing. Most of it was supplies. Food, water, hygienic items, digital hardware, and even a few clothes. As she checked the last on the list, an open maintenance conduit hatch was open.
As Sarah approached there were a couple wrappers and a empty drink can just inside. Further in a few more could be seen, spaced out along the crawl space.
"Well what do we have here?", She said to no one, but herself. Pulling her P2 she kept on her from her holster, Sarah advanced into the conduit, signalling the hatch to close and seal behind her.
Haisely had been careful but not careful enough, most of her thefts had gone unnoticed thanks to manipulating the manifest but now she'd been sprung. The neon pink haired girl had tried to clean up most of her mess and remove any traces of her den within the service tunnels, now that someone was actually coming after her she was scrambling to stay undetected.
Sarah however, continued further in following even the slightest signs. Her years as an assassin to track marks being put to use for once. Odd to think it would be to find what was seeming more and more like a stow away, or just someone aboard who though they could sneak extras.
As she passed into a junction, she sealed the hatch behind her again. Unsure which way to go she sat still and listened as her eyes scanned for faint signs.
Haisely had managed to pinpoint where her pursuer was coming from and tried to double back to get behind her. She had to get away from the person and move to a different area of the ship. Careful not to make a sound she moved down one of the adjacent sections to where Sarah was waiting, the outside of each conduit being the only thing separating them.
This was going to be a pain to track whoever it was down she could already tell. But that's what was going to make this fun, a good ol game of cat and mouse. With a grin, Sarah sent a signal to the onboard AI to start closing and sealing all the hatches that lead out of this section. If it took even several hours, Sarah would search each part of this section, conduit, by conduit.
She rested on her haunches with somewhat of a smile as the sounds of sealing hatches could be heard echoing.
Sensing her escape opportunities closing one by one Haisely became slightly panicked but kept it cool. Moving slowly she decided maybe she could surprise her pursuer and escape, or take them hostage. Extending a single claw she started tapping on the walls as she moved to lure them in.
Sarah grinned more as she heard the tapping, "There you are."
She brought her pistol up in a two hand grip and while keeping it focused ahead of her, but held close to the body Sarah slowly advanced towards the sound. "You know, you could always come quietly. Save me the bullet to stun ya if you cooperate.", the woman said out loud to her quarry.
Haisely ignored the offer and continued looking around her for any way to give herself more of an advantage. She'd collected several small lengths of spare wire and small metal scraps but nothing that could combat a firearm. To put her items to use she constructed a long, thin and almost invisible wire in the low light and strung it across a junction before moving on.
Continuing her advance, Sarah closed hatches as she passed through them. As she approached the next junction Sarah looked very closely as her scan picked up the wire. The wire became highlighted by the low light feature which brought a genuine smile to her face. Pulling a knife she quietly cut the wire and let it drift to the floor.
Entering into the junction, the door behind her closed. Sarah looked down both branching paths quickly giving both a couple flashes with the pistol's flashlight attachment.
The urban warrior saw the light flash past her hidey hole which happened to be a small alcove along one of the passages, she sprung her claws and waited, with nowhere else to go her plan was to surprise the pursuer and escape. Using a piece of scrap, she tossed it further down the hall and waited.
Sarah whipped back to face the tunnel the sound had come from. She triggered the hatches to the other paths to close. Sticking close to the wall she took a few steps forward.
In the small space, the alcoves found in some places were hard to miss, which worried her. Better to play it smart, and hopefully her target didn't have night vision. With a signal the lighting in this section of conduits turned off. Sarah overlayed the minimap over her vision, the edges of the tunnels highlighted. Slowly she crept forward quietly with her flashlight off in the pitch black.
Haisely did have night vision in fact, and with her ears as well she had her own version of a map and was tracking the progress of Sarah easily. While she waited the girl looked around incase there happened to be a grating or manual hatch to escape through.
Finally Sarah came within a foot from the opening now tense as she suspected to be jumped. With her pistol.raised, Sarah approached the hole.
Haisely waited until the last possible second before pushing off the wall with her hands and aiming her feet at the gun, intending to at the very least disarm the person and potentially steal the weapon as well.
Sarah gave a grunt as the weapon was kicked from her hands and sent sliding ahead. She backed away a step just in case they had a knife, or some other such weapon.
After landing the kick the short girl dropped to all fours and propelled herself through Sarahs legs, scampering away as her metallic tail shot out to trip the other woman, that should buy her some time at least.
Sarah toppled.around like some fool, leaving her face first in the floor at a rather awkward position with her legs hanging over the back of the head. "I'm going to kill this bitch.", She mumbled to herself before scrambling back up right.
Sarah grabbed for the gun again, hopefully she'd be able to pop her before she could escape.
Having realised all the exits were now sealed, Haisely turned and sprinted back full force at Sarah, this time leaping into a dive over her head while bringing her knee towards her face to try and knock her down again.
Sarah grabbed the gun just as the knee met her forehead. She gave another grunt from the impact, before shaking her head to recover. realizing the person he headed the other way, She signaled the hatch to close.
Haisely kept up her offensive strategy, pushing off the now closed hatch to fly back towards Sarah, her claws now extended and aiming to slash at her back.
Sarah rolled to the side before firing off three rounds, and flashing the light to disorient her attacker.
Haisely managed to block 2 with her tail but took the final shot to her leg, not realising the rounds were designed to shock and not kill. While her leg may have been a minor inconvenience her tail was connected directly to her spine, the girl yelped and flailed about in mid air for a moment before half slumping onto the floor.
Sarah switched the lights back on and almost gave the girl a look of pity. "This is what you get for not listening. You ready to give up yet pinky?", She said with a annoyed sigh.
Haisely looked up at Sarah and glared at her, her yellowed cat eyes flicked rapidly between her surroundings and her enemy searching for anything. Gripping the floor with her claws once more she shot herself forwards and immediately flopped back onto the floor as her muscles spasmed again.
Sarah unenthusiastic like raised gun again, "I can always top ya off for a nice nap. Come on and just chill. You're almost as stubborn as my wife." She said certain there wasn't much left in the girl.
"If we wanted ya dead, I'd be packing holo points and not stun rounds. Understood?"
Haisely continued to glare as she tried to curl up into a ball, her ears retreating under her hair and tail collapsing back into its base leaving behind a very angry looking punk teen. "Jusk kill me then." She said, burrying her face in her hair for a moment, behind her back however she still had a moderate length of scrap.
"And why would I go and do a thing like that? Besides, what's a young woman like you doing down here in the ducts anyway? Surely actually having a room is far better then scrounging down here in the maintenance conduits.", Sarah asked curiously as she finally had a decent look at the girl.
"Shut up" The girl wasn't even sure if she wanted to try escaping now, it seemed like all the exits were blocked and this woman was surprisingly skilled. Haisely sighed and flicked the scrap, aiming for Sarahs throat.
Sarah dropped and flicked her hand up, the metal instead embedding in her hand, "Fiery one. You and Adria would get right along. Any other tricks, or sharp objects, or are you done yet?", She said ignoring the pain as blood ran from her hand.
The girl turned away and huffed, she really didn't like getting caught, and had managed to avoid it for the last 2 years. The people on this ship were a lot better trained and equipped than she was used to.
"So are we just going to sit here all day, or get something to eat?", Sarah asked .
"Either come with me and get, hot food, a bed, and maybe some friends. Or stay in the brig and get dropped off at the next station. Your choice dear."
What was wrong with this woman, did she not care that she'd just found a girl hidnig in their ship, who'd been stealing supplies and food the whole time they were traveling. Well, since she had all the time in the world Haisely decided to kick back and wait to see what this strange woman would do.
She smirked and lay down on the floor with her hands behind her head.
"Keep laying there and it will be option C. I shock your ass and drag your unconscious body out of the ducts.", Sarah said with a pissed yet mischievous smile at the girl's blatant disregard.
"You have ten seconds to choose. 10.........9....."
"Bite me." While she was asking for trouble, she wasn't completely unprepared for the situation when the woman fired at her again.
"3.2.1.", Sarah said before firing again.
Haisely stuck a finger up to catch the round, her hand twitched violently but it didn't seem like it really bothered her much. "Non conductive."
Sarah looked unimpressed before firing a couple more for the chest instead.
Again the punk looking girl managed to block them, barely. She was no superhuman afterall. "Just use a real bullet, it'll be quicker." She said looking angry and bored.
Sarah gave an exasperated sigh before dropping the mag, and letting the pistol lazily point away as she fished for.another mag. When the pistol had seeming.slumped. Sarah was only pretending to look for a mag as she pulled the trigger as the barrel pointed towards the girl's thigh.
The shot hit her thigh dead on sending her leg into a small spasm as Haisely gritted her teeth and fell over once more letting out another small yelp. Yet she still didn't budge.
Sarah slapped in the mag before grabbing the girl by the collar, "You're coming with me missy."
Sarah wasn't sure how a Gesherin's strength compared to a nep girl's, but it was a grown 38 year old woman verses an angsty teen.
Haisely didn't even put up a fight over it, she simply let herslef go limp and get dragged away, in her mind she was still looking for escape options but for now she was simply waiting. If they got out of the conduits and there was no one else around she could easily escape into hiding among supply crates, or even another maintanence area.
Sarah lugged the girl behind her as she dragged the light weight through the ducts. The thing was, she wasn't heading towards the cargo bay this time. As they reached the junction Sarah would open the hatch to the next section while signalling those along there path to seal. This ensured a dead end remained behind them at all times while the only other way was straight ahead.
Haisely could tell something was different, they weren't going back to where she came in from, this felt like one of the ways she hadn't gone due to too much civilian presence at the end but she couldn't be sure. Silently her neko ears popped up from below her hair and made a few sonic pings, much too high for either of them to actually hear but the ears were able to get a rough map for her.
A striaght corridor ahead, sealed behind, and they were going somewhere different, away from her little den and away from the cargo bay.
This pattern continued for a few.minutes, before Sarah took a left and opened a hatch that went up. The junctions were sealed until two decks up. "Alright time to take a little climb. Don't bother running, I've made.sure there's only one path ahead of us, and a dead end behind us.", She said having finally spoke after a while.
Haisely nodded and gripped the ladder, starting the climb up to the next level she guessed, it looked like the top hatch was open and so she scaled the ladder in the blink of an eye using all her past experience to propell herself upwards.
She would find only one path like before, branching hatches closed, "Nope, go right ahead, I'll meet you there."
Sarah began to climb as well but lowered gravity to make it easier, something the girl would notice as her lower half began to float.
Well since she had nowhere to run to and this woman didn't seem to worried, might as well explore a little bit. Extending her claws again she gripped onto the ceiling and began scampering around the area she could, recording everything with her eyes and tapping certain spots with her tail.
Sarah reached the top and began to crawl after her. The path extended 100 feet before branching right. At the end of a short stint, was main hatch leading into a compartment.
Haisely easily reached the end long before the woman following her but wasn't trying to escape, she simple investigated the door, its metal composition and construction, everything down to estimating its locking and wiring configurations.
Sarah caught up a few minutes later, "Getting to old for all this."
She triggered the hatch to open, past it was the security station with a two men sitting in chairs as if waiting watching the opening as the girl was suddenly revealed to them.
Haisely blinked once, her eyes taking in the whole room, there was definitely other exits here. then the two men, both armed, looked a little more painful than that annoying electric shit she was hit with before, behind her she knew the woman was waiting for her to make a move to shoot her again.
She estimated she might be able to take out the two men with her claws and tail, but the woman would get her, and since they were already waiting for her she couldn't attack the woman too easily either. A hostage grab maybe? Haisely turned her head to look at Sarah from the corner of her eyes.
Sarah tossed Haisely the gun, "Here so you feel safer. Now can we please get out of the friggen crawl space?! My back is killing me."
The girl actually laughed, she was being handed a gun? Wait, why though? The other two didn't seem to have changed their posture at all despite her now being armed. Haisely looked down at the gun and squinted, going over every detail searching for a catch of some sort. She could always throw it at one of the guards or use it like a blunt object, with her mind made up she sprung forwards to smash the weapon into one of the mens skulls, palnning to disarm him and shoot the others legs.
The man with white hair kept from his chair, not fast enough to stop her from getting a hit on Mark Tazar. Jack grabbed her by the wrist and moved to put her in an arm lock.
The small girl twisted in middair to attemt escape from the grip, she hadn't expected him to move quite so fast but luckily she hadn't thrown the gun yet. With a grin she brought her other arm around dropping the gun from her restrained arm into her other hand and smashing the grip into Jack's ribs.
Jack took the blow, but did not back off, or let go. Instead he adjusted his approach and grabbed for the other wrist as well. Mark after recovering from a strike to the face, before trying to ready his rifle.
Haisely winced, that would have hurt a fair bit yet he was still going, sensing the movement behind her, she popped her ears back up out of her hair and her tail sprung out from its base aiming to send a blow to Marks chest. Meanwhile she was trying to evade the other hand going for her free arm, dropping the pistol she deployed her claws again and aimed to stab his hand.
Mark took the blow to his still recovering chest, his back thumping against the wall.
Jack took the claw through the hand with a grunt, but it didn't stop him either. He wrapped an arm around her and grabbed her forearm before trying to yank both arms behind
Haisely grunted slightly and aimed to hit him in the groin and knee with her tail, her ears twitching as they kept track of the other two people, it seemed like the woman hadn't moved which was quite strange, she must value the skills of this man. With that conclusion she doubled her efforts and was about to try biting down on his arm before remembering she hadn't managed to finish the jaw and teeth before leaving her home in Nepleslia.
Making a noise of dissatisfaction she instead twisted her torso and arms, seemingly trying to dislocate her own shoulder to try and escape his hold.
Jack shifted his leg in to block his groin as he held her arms behind her back."Will you calm the Hell down for like two minutes!"
Mark stumbled to the side finding his breathing hard as he raised the rifle, aimed for her chest.
Sarah leaned out of the conduit bored as she just watched.
Haisely knew he was aiming for her again, with surspising strength for such a short girl she moved to pull Jack to the ground, wrapping her legs around his chest to make him fall on her and prevent the other man from firing.
"Oh come on.", Jack grumbled as he fell on top of her. He now tried.to pin her with his weight, "Maybe if you stopped for ten fucking minutes, you'd realize we aren't trying to kill you."
Haisely acknowledged his words but didn't stop, instead she wriggled her way around to free herself, managing to slip free of his grasp on her arms in the process and grabbing the gun from his waist as she got free.
Scooting backwards rapidly she aimed at the other soldier looking man and glared at him, daring him to move.
Mark raised the rifle and prepared to fire. The girl was unaware the P2 had a biometric safety. Making the pistol in her hand no more then a nice looking metal brick.
Damn, there must be something she didn't know which meant they weren't afraid of her having a gun, there had to be something stopping her from using it else they would have shown some sign of urgency. She was sure of it now.
With a sudden yell she threw the pistol at Marks head before scrambling over to Jack once more and trying to put her claws to his throat.
Mark took the pistol to the face causing him to stumble back, the rifle swinging back, his grip now weak.
Jack grabbed the rifle by the barrel shroud and swung the rifle into the side of the leaping girl's head with a smack.
"Gahch!" She cried out falling flat on the floor again, her arms and legs twitched a little but she couldn't move them, all the strength had left her and her mind was fuzzy. In similar situations with concussion or confusion she often tried to stab herself to gain focus but couldn't move her hand enough and ended up scraping her claws along the floor.
Sarah cringed at the sight, "Goddess son, did you have to hit her like you were going for a home run?"
"No mom, don't worry, just stay lazy over there. Not like she was going for my THROAT or anything.", Jack said dropping the rifle before retaking his pistol.
"Not sure if you can even hear me. But, all pistols have a new biometric safety."
Mark shaking his head to clear the haze cuffed the girl while she was stunned, "Kid has one hell of arm."
"gleh." She mumbled, still dazed from the hit to her head, her claws slowly retracted, the tail collapsed back into its hidden base and her ears dipped back below her hair as she slipped in and out of conciousness.
"Get her to the medbay. Treat her wounds and make sure she's restrained. Don't need any of the staff, kids, or civilians getting hurt if she freaks out.", Jack ordered pointing at Sarah.
Sarah just sighed before helping Mark lug the girl to the medbay. After an hour of treatment she'd wake up, the medical nanoes and pain meds taking care of any damage, but still leaving bit of a bruise.....Well most of the pain.
Haisely woke up slowly, as soon as she realised she was awake the girl kept her eyes closed and breathing regulated to pretend she was still asleep, just in case anyone was watching. Instead her ears very slowly poked just out from below her pink hair and pinged the room, checking for any people or security devices.
She would find the place decently occupied as a number of patients occupied beds, or people stopped in for minor issues. Mark Tazar being only one suite over with a breathing mask as he was out with pain meds.
Jack sat however by her bedside, his hand wrapped and bandaged, waiting for her to wake. He saw the ears slowly raise, being so close. "Scanning the room? Smart girl. The doctors had time to do a couple scans while you were out. You suffered a concussion which they took care of. You may feel some soreness.", He said casually as if they just hadn't had a mini death battle an hour before.
The girl froze in place, damn him for watching her so carefully, since the jig was up there was no point hiding anymore. Her ears retracted as she sat up in the bed slowly, feeling her wrists within a set of cuffs. "You get off watching girls sleep?"
"Don't flatter yourself, not my type. No I watch for dangers to my people and the families here. So far you've proven quite dangerous.", The white haired man said with a chuckle before continuing.
"Why did you resist? You stowed away and thought you wouldn't trigger a security response? Then you ran when 1. You're on a starship, a cage in itself, and 2. In space with the nearest planet being over ten light years away.", Jack questioned.
The punk looking girl scoffed, for someone who's security hadn't found her for weeks he thought highly of it. "Didn't feel like rolling over like a bitch." she said simply, definitely not one for words or long explanations.
"Well you certainly gave mom a run for her money.", He said with another chuckle.
He scratched at his chin in thought, wondering what he was going to do with this girl. She certainly had talent and a fighting spirit, but he found to be admirable traits.
After a pause Jack asked another question, "Why this fleet, this ship? Why stow away in the first place?"
That she wasn't expecting, usually they just chucker her out if they found you without asking why, just assuming she was there because she felt like it. Truthfully she was here for their tech, to obtain as much info about their designs and the group as possible which she planned to try selling later after she'd memorised it, but she wasn't about to let him know of the secret pocket in her tank top with the drive, and there was no scanner in the world that could detect it either.
Instead she lied, looking around the room instead of at him while she spoke, "Got bored, felt like getting a free ride."
"Mhmm, well this is a one way trip. And where we're going there is no government. Unclaimed and uncharted territory. This is a colony fleet.", He said letting that sink in for a minute before adding, "If your here for info, someone beat you to it a while ago. If it's for our tech....."
He gave a grin, "Enlist and you'll have access to it. Room, board, gear, weapons, access to the data base, and be part of somthing more then slinking around starships."
Eesh, why did people always try to give her a job, well not always but this was not the first time she'd bested a couple of guards and been offered heaven on a stick. "Sounds boring, I'll stick to slinking." She shot back simply, while she really didn't want to die this young it was better than getting screwed over by some rich prick after her use was gone.
"Tell me, What do you know about Section 6? What we do. What we stand for."
Stright to the point huh, well it's not like he could prove anything. "Nothing, and all I've seen you do as this section 6 is watch me while I'm sleeping after you knocked me out. Seems pretty bad when you say it out loud huh."
"We're an organization that is about building a home, one that's not run by some empire. You see many of the people here have been through their share of shit, myself included. This constant state of war in most societies are in. Poverty, discrimination, crime, and rich feeding off the misfortune of others.", Jack began sitting back in his chair.
"That is a corruption I hate. And one I don't want my children to grow up around. So we'll build a new world, and hopefully a better future. We advance technology, medicine, military, and civilian aspects of life."
"Cool, but uh, don't care."
"You seemed to care enough to sneak aboard what is clearly a military warship. Tell me, who do you think I am? Even though I expect some rather creative yet vulgar answer, I would prefer an honest one.", He said with a chuckle.
"A guy with white hair, on a ship with a lot of food. Why do you think I have some sort of goal in all this huh?" She asked, possibly the longest string of words she'd said so far. He was unusually persistant for a captain even if it was some fancy organisation thing going to go take some land for themselves.
"Because only a fool sneaks aboard a military ship, when they know nothing about those who own it, and without a plan. But you have shown every sign of knowing what you were getting yourself into, and you had as far as I could tell a plan. You're a smart girl, and no fool, so you might as well quite the bullshit that you're just here. Not to mention the very high grade augs you have with very specific feature, for someone just "scrounging"."
He was clearly not buying the story she was trying to pass off. Despite his mild annoyance, he was very curious to know why she had chosen his fleet.
"My name is Jack Pine, I am the director, commander, and founder of Section 6. I know when someone is hiding information, and when someone performs espionage.", He said his voice taking a more serious and stern quality.
Well, seems like this guy was a little smarter than the other two. With a sigh she lay back down on the bed. "Fine, I admit I came on here for info, you gonna kill me now or is there some torture first?"
"Why do want the info? Money? Leverage? And what happens to you is partly up to you at this point. Cooperate, and you'll be fine. Don't, and we'll see what happens."
"One or the other really don't really care, and is your version of cooperate me being chained up naked all the time like most idealistic groups?" She said, recalling the times she'd almost been put in that exact position.
"Who do we look like? IPG, SAINT, bandits, criminals, NMX? The only time I've resorted to torture were times of war, or when my son was taken last year. We aren't barbarians. No, answer my questions and you'll be fine.", Jack said waving his hand dismissively at such an idea.
Well, words could be said easily without really meaning them so she really didn't feel inclined to instantly believe him. "Right so, I'm expected to believe you won't do anything to me for sneaking onto your ship and strealing your supplies?"
"Let me put it this way. You probably have whatever data collection device you've been using on you. We could have shot you, then just searched your corpse. I would have gotten the answers I wanted without even this conversation ever happening. Why bother having the conversation if I wasn't honest?", Jack asked.
He did have a point although she still wasn't convinced. As for her data collection device, a memory wasn't usually to valuable after someone was killed, and her eyes would wipe clean if she died too but they thought she had some other tool on her. She wished! "Fine." she simply said.
"What were your motives?", He asked first.
"Survival." She replied simply, he'd figure out she meant selling it for money to survive surely, or was his earlier intelligence display just a show.
"So to get by off the money you made from what you gathered. So next question, Why us?"
"Easy target, single target, no backup." She said one after the other, it was no secret in her underground network of a home that S6 had left the USO and this colony ship proved it further.
Jack was satisfied with those answers which brought him back to a previous question, and his final one. "Those are both understandable reasons, and I can relate to the first. The second is one that I'm trying to correct. So I ask again, why not join us.", He asked rather casually.
"Food, room, and a place among people where you can put those skills to use. No need to keep hiding, running, or getting by pn the skin of your teeth."
Damn, now this guy had put her in a position where refusing was just stupid. "Didn't really feel like it? Why are YOU, so invested in hiring a thief?" Not a direct refusal, but not an affirmation either.
"Because not everyone has a choice when they choose such a line of work. 6 years ago I lived on the streets of Nepleslia with my best friend. We joined the military thinking it would lead to a better life. It didn't, but I built this organization in part for people like us. So they don't have to live like that.", Jack explained to the girl before adding, "I am offering that chance now."
"Do I get paid as well as all that boring shit?"
"Yes, and everything your issued on sign up is your's to keep."
"..." She thought long and hard about that. "Sounds interesting, I'm considering it. Tell me more."
"Free housing, land when we colonize, access to technology not offered to the public. As for duties, you've shown to be rather capable in hand to hand, and you must have some very developed tech skills to have remained hidden so long. So if you want to join SABER, we could use a cyber warfare.specialist. Or if more civilian, we can always use another person in the labs. Though on a side note, joining SABER gives access to equipment and the labs."
After he explained further, Jack sat and waited for her response, or even possible questions.
"I'd rather join this SABER thing, sounds like i could get some interesting toys." Haisely said thoughtfully.
"Is that a yes then?"
"Sure, could be fun."
"Alright well I'll have someone show you to your crew suite when you've finished resting.", Jack said before waving behind him. Two troopers in Revenant decloaked and walked away after saluting.
"Those restrains aren't locked by the way.", He said as he himself got up.
"Oh, cool, can I go to the room now? And I want a computer." She realised it might be suspicious if she asked for a computer after admitting to stealing intel. "Here" Haisely said, reaching under her shirt to get to the secret pocket, making sure he couldn't see.
"What?"
She tossed the drive to Jack and hopped up from the bed and sat balancing on her metal tail, she was barely light enough to do so but had managed to get good at balancing enough to keep doing it. "And I want gel, I know you had some I've been tampering with the manifest for weeks."
"That shouldn't be an issue, we use it for the undersuits in our power armor and layered into.starship hulls.", Jack said catching the drive, wiping it as he answered.
"You sure you don't want this back?", holding the drive out she would be unaware was now empty.
"Nah." The girl said, flicking her hair around to finally reveal her eyes properly. "It's all memorised and partially stored in these." She said, pointing to the yellow cat eyes, which were constantly adjusting as she looked around.
"Yeah there isn't anything on it. It's empty now.", Jack said letting his eyes glow for a moment.
"So why'd you offer then?" She asked almost seriously, her pink fringe falling back over her eyes slightly. "So do I get armour too?"
"Yes, you'll be issued a suit of Revenant power armor."
"Sweet, I want a toolset too." It was easy to see where this was going.
"Submit a requisition with the quarter master. If youyou askis for something questionable he'll check with me.", Jack said with a chuckle as he walked to the exit.
"Suit yourself, I still got my claws to work with." She shrugged before hopping out of the bed and uncuffing herself, twirling them on her hand before flicking them at the bed and looking back at Jack. "Do I get a room to myself or do I have to share with someone."
"You get your own room, I'll have Seraphina show you in a few."
"Sounds good, you got yourself a deal, and me as well I suppose."
