RP Derelicts

[HarperMadi]

RP Date

44.5

RP Location

Nepleslian/Yamataian border space, deep interstellar space

Space seemed silent, cold and empty. But as all things, rarely are things so calm as they appear.

Twisting through the vacuum like a ghost, with armor twisted and torn, golden steel glinting in the starlight was an older ship, over twenty years out of date. It didn't have the combat covers of the newer refits. It didn't have the newer drive. As it passed by the probe, drifting, the drive signatures came back as either complete gibberish, or as YSE Explorer, an old Capital class, something that later became the Kyoto class.

Though by the thirty holes through her armor and the gash along one side that peeled the upper armor back like a canned snack had ensured that no one on board had survived. These seemed patched with some golden metal, and the hull temperature held at easily 40.5 percent of the boiling point of water. It was possible that deeper inside, temperatures were even higher.
A small vessel detatched from the hull, drives flaring as it jumped to hyperspace, leaving the old derelict to continue drifting.

 

[Cowboy]

NSS Surprise

Jack strode onto the bridge of his ship and waved to the crew to carry on before they could stand and salute. It was early morning by the ship's clock. Still an hour to go before revelry. Lt. Mowett, who was officer of the watch, vacated the captain's chair. Jack, who preferred to stand more than sit, swiveled one of the display screens around so he could see. He entered a set of coordinates then sent them over to the navigation station. "Something up Sir?" Asked Lt. Mowett. Jack nodded. "Three hours ago, on the boarder of our space, but literally in the middle of no where, one of our long ranger probes picked up something. The probes readings are strange but the it's a ship of some size. The Admiralty is sending us to investigate."

Killroy, Jack's steward came in with a scowl on his face and carrying a tray with two cups of coffee on it. "Thank you Killroy." Jack said as he took the cups and handed one to Lt. Mowett. "It'll take us a few hours to jump to that location, so we might as well wake the crew up now so that they'll have time for breakfast before we go to battle stations. You'll join me for breakfast?" Jack had a tradition of asking the officers of the night watch to breakfast with him. He knew how hard the night watch could be and it gave then officers something to look forward after having to lose several hours sleep. Mowett smiled, "I'd be delighted sir."

Several hours later.

The Surprise, after having woken, eaten and gone through it's morning routine, an hour earlier than normal, had now sounded battle stations, though most everyone was already at their station and ready to go. Jack sat in his command chair watching the display screens and the ever dwindling clock as they approached their destination. The Surprise came out of hyperspace and immediately began to scan the area. Jack watched closely as the data came in. Right away the strange ship was picked up. "Interesting..." Jack muttered. It looked like an old Kyoto class carrier. But it certainly had seen better day. It didn't look like it belonged to Yam any more. Could be pirates. "Mr. Doyle. Hail the ship. Let's see who we're dealing with." He also pushed his com and radioed Lt. McCain. "Mr. McCain, I won't insult you by asking if your boys are ready to go." He could hear laughing and Oorahs! in the background. Jack smiled. He liked their spirit. "You are on standby if that ship proves hostile." Jack turned back to his display. It would be an interesting fight if the ship did prove hostile. Even though it looked to be in pretty rough shape a Kyoto Class Carrier was almost 10 times the size of his little Longsword Class Frigate. He would just have to wait and see if the ship responded to his hails.

 

[HarperMadi]

"Diplomatic Courier Himiko Esurista, responding to comm channel of NSS Surprise. Good morning, Captain." A bleary eyed silverskin looked to the camera from her command chair, sipping a mug of some caffeinated beverage. There was some delay, and it could be expected that the active translation packets distorted voices or mistranslated a few words from the unusually information dense languages.

"End rotation relative to vessel, match speed and course. Prepare tractor. ready dock and quarantines," another voice nearby spoke, seeming to be the other captain taking control of the bridge while his wife handled the communications channel.

"We apologize for the surprise, just ferrying a small exploratory team off to some shenannigans out on your other borders. Figured we'd stop for a bit and grab a bite, maybe feed the ship, if we can find some scrap. I'm kind of surprised that we were found so easily. Generally it takes Senti to find Senti."

Scans would quickly reveal that most of the old Yamataian weapons systems were either nonfunctional and buried in the burial steel patches or completely missing. There was no sign of an old hemosynth system, except for some repurposed plumbing. Moreover, what weapons were in their original placements did not display normal Yam signatures, more accurate to Senti beam cutters. The shields were fully functioning, though. As were the graviton beam emitters, which now flickered to life on the scanners, docking webs ready to deploy and guide the NSS Surprise into the vessel's cavernous and empty docking bays if they decided to request boarding.

In fact, it would seem any Yamataian systems still functioning were decades out of date. Almost everything registered as the annoyingly durable technical workings of the deep space nomads that had seemed to disappear at the height of the Kuvexian war, and were just now returning.

 

[Cowboy]

NSS Surprise

Jack was rather relieved. Although he loved a good ship action he was more interested in learning more about the Senti. With a nod to his communications officer, the camera was turned on so that the Senti captain could see him as well. "This is Captain Jacob Canterbury of the the NSS Surprise. Since the Kuvexian war we have placed warning beacons all along our borders, even the out of the way places so we can be forewarned of any movement into our territory." Jack was pleased the warning system still seemed to be working.

Jack looked at the scans of the ship again. Now that he knew it was a Senti ship, details became much more apparent. He hadn't seen a Senti ship in years. Not since he was a young Ensign. Jack spoke quietly to his XO a moment before turning back to the screen. "There has never been any trouble that I can think of between the Senti and Nepleslia so I see no reason to detain. Although I must confess a certain curiosity to your ship and people. I have meet them once before. I believe they called themselves Katamura."

Jack's XO handed him a data screen and Jack smiled. "Perhaps we can satisfy your ship's hunger and my curiosity at the same time. Not far from here are the remains of a fight. At last report, there were still several ships and plenty of scrap. I would very much like to see how a Senti ship 'feeds'. With your permission of course."

 

[Commissar Farzi]

They watched-their cutter, a long, mean ugly thing armed with missile and cannon; a Skimmer-Class Cutter-fast and well armored for its size, and one of the few that actually still had a functional drive. Their orders were simple; watch the Yamatai-Nepleslian border, avoid contact, grab any stray salvage if able, and report back. They'd been running dark when they'd spotted what seemed to be a fair-sized derelict-though its origin was unknown any piece of hardware they could get their hands would come in handy so using retro thrusters they had slowly maneuvered into position for their salvage teams to do their work.

The problem was the Slagheads and the damned Nep vessel had shown up; which meant pirates and whatever the Nepleslians called their navy. Contact with them at the moment would be...counterproductive to operations to say the least.

The only good news out of all of this was the lack of the Star Army, but that could change at any moment.

The knight-captain; a grizzled man of thirty winters by the name of Olaf sighed as he ordered them to sight the vessel in. ("Get a firing solution manual targeting.") He said, watching the view screen. Several decks below and to each side the five-inch autocannons began their agonizingly slow traverse-they'd switched over to the manual drive used in case the electrical systems for the turret motor failed to avoid giving off any unnecessary emanation. ("Range?") The lead gunnery yeoman inquired as he did the necessary calculations. ("Range: fifty thousand kilometers.") The yeoman examined the star maps they'd...'acquired' as he used a compass and watch to calculate time to target and barrel lead. ("Right, triple charge; light gas propellant, gyrojet assisted munition, adjust point-three-five for galactic plane.") The gunners adjusted the guns' depression, use the analogue systems to fine-tune the machine in the event they had to leg it.

("Firing solution complete, do we send the salvage teams?") The Yeoman inquired. Oalf looked pensive as he stared hard at the vid screen and shook his head. ("Negative,") He responded, looking at his junior, ("Have them remain on standby and set engineering on high alert; no-one leaves the vessel till they've buggered off or we withdraw.") The man saluted as the Knight-Captain returned to the main screen, watching the scene before them. If it came down to it, they could run or hold them off long enough to run.

It was already looking to be a long day.

 

[HarperMadi]

"Oh? Please do! While many of our original Yamataian systems are still operational, the engineering was not designed to become a Shuristan family ship," The Captain laughed as people started speaking in rapid fire Shuristan behind her, the derelict engines flickered to life. "We believe that this ship was once named Explorer. Perhaps you can shed some light on our home's history. Unfortunately, the hull number was destroyed in her first death, and we never got access to the Yamataian computers. They self terminated when we brought them online. We only got fragmented records."

Himiko's docking bays opened, revealing the cavernous interior and expanses of burial steel machinery used to process scrap down for usable metals, reclaim organics, or even purifying water. Graviton beam emitters fired, forming a tight web of gravity around the ship as reality twisted, shields being tied into the docking webs in the test. Just as quick as it had happened, it was done, the Shuristan mining cruiser... That was what the Nepleslian sensors were getting as a transponder return. A light mining cruiser, much to the dismay of any working the reference manuals. Heavily modified and gutted Kyoto class Carrier, maybe. Light cruiser, no. It thundered forward, towards the remains of a battlefield. Beam cutters warmed, tons of uranium spun to near luminal speeds in dense particle beams, stripped of their electron orbits and lensed to near fusion.

 

[ShadowWalker]

Ty was traveling threw space in his a old junker shuttle, the shuttle itself looked more patchwork then its pilot. after some time of piloting it threw space he heard a puttering from its engine before one of its thrusters went offline. "Nein! not now." he said swiveling in his chair to look and check its diagnostics. "Damn im no where near a spaceport to get the part required..." taking out of his thoughts was what to him looked like a giant ghost ship and two others, he couldn't make out one of them but the other seemed like a nep ship. If anyone attempted to scan his ship they would get a confusing mess of parts a nep engine yam short range guns. outdated section six shield systems. and hull made in Dovania as well as several jury rigged patch jobs holding it all together.

Attempting to hail the much larger ship hoping their a large independent trade vessel. due to the lack of any significant tech on his ship heck he even lacked working scanners. they were their but with his own ventures and the changing of the universe he's found it hard to afford repairs. using unsecured coms he attempted to call out to the larger ship
"My names Ty Sibo of this humble little craft, one of my engines seems to have gone out if your heading in a direction of a port and wouldn't mind giving me a ride I'll work off whatever debts that accumulates."

 

[Cowboy]

NSS Surprise

Jack smiled, rather pleased that things seemed to be going peacefully and that there would be an opportunity to study the Senti ship. "Excellent." Jack said with a genuine smile on his face. "I will send you the coordinates imminently. Since you are in Nepleslian space, the Surprise will escort you while you are here. In the mean time, I will take my shuttle over to your fine ship so I can see a Senti ship in action up close."

Jack turned to his XO, "Tom, you've got command. Escort the Himiko to that scrap site I mentioned. Give them plenty of space and record as much as you can. Although I don't see any trouble from the Senti, its always good to learn the strengths and weakness of those we may one day fight beside, or against." Before Jack could leave the bridge one of his officers called out. "Captain, I'm picking up..." He stopped mid sentence. Looking at his screen in confusion. "Sorry Sir. I thought I had picked up something. But it's gone." Jack glanced at the read outs. He didn't see anything. But always better to be safe than sorry. "Maintain active scans of the area while we escort our guess." Jack paused as he continued to stare at the display. "Send out our Sabres. Have them do a sweep of the area where the signal was. No harm in letting are jockeys taking a flight." With that Jack left the bridge.

A short time later Jack was aboard his shuttle with Ensign Doyle and First Sergeant Bourne. Jack would have preferred to have his cousin Caffran with him. However Caffran was still on the Pices Station attending the IRC. Still, Sergeant Bourne was an experience Vet who knew his stuff. Jack was glad to have him along. "We're approaching the Senti ship now Captain. Should be docked in less than 3 mins."

 

[HarperMadi]

The shuttle rocked as docking webs grabbed hold, a communicade from the docks coming through the comms. "Please surrender thruster control and power down spacial maneuvering and shields to avoid damage to your shuttle. Docking webs will guide you to the air locks."

True to their word, the web projector slid like a ghost along the channel of the bays, guiding them along vast expanses of patched zesu shards suspended in burial steel, past a monumental aquaponics tank where Senti fishers could be seen dragging a haul up. As they passed deeper, an infestation seemed to take hold, gently waving lichen fronds with people moving among them, gathering fruits and cuttings of the fronds. Another rocking feeling as atmosphere buffetted the small vessel as more agriculture became visible through the window. But it was short lived as the docking bay became visible, the graviton web guiding the shuttle into it before gently setting the vessel down in null gravity of the bay.

This bay closed softly as several figures approached, waiting for the shuttle to deploy mag clamps and open the door.

As Himiko approached the scrap fields, her cargo bays stayed open, the gravitational distortions in front of the ship being used to gather dust and debris around the hull. Lighter elements, such as hydrogen would be caught in the drive collectors, whilst heavier debris, such as paint shards, metals, water, and small pieces of starships would get caught in the vast webs of gravity, to be dredged towards the cavernous bays.

"Captain, we're picking up a distress signal. Small craft. Looks like a three man transport. FTL capable. The damn thing's a cobbled scrap heap..."

"Pull it inside, inform the survivors they'll be getting repairs. No debts."

"Roger that, captain. Deploying the docking web."

Ty's vessel was dragged inside with the scrap nearby, neatly separated from the twisting torrent of metal and supplies, and pulled away towards a small shipyard toward the nose of Himiko's mighty hull.

There was a slight thump, grapples firing as several cables lanced into a larger wreck as beam cutters began cutting it apart. Dozens of Senti jumped off the edge of Himiko's bays, their portable beam cutters held in hand as they aimed and mag locked to the torn hull, their section being drawn into the docking web as it was quickly and efficiently cut apart by the crew aboard, salvaging computers and personal effects as larger components were cut free and pushed into the quickly cycling gravity webs of the docking webs. There seemed to be no rush, as the greater ship casually grazed across the shredded corpse of a cruiser.

 

[ShadowWalker]

After receiving a response and he set his ship up accept the docking web as he was pulled into the hanger. Once inside he would swivel in the chair and move to his armor. "Wouldn't want to scare people with how I look." He said hopping into his outdated Revenant power armor still with its section 6 branding on it. The armors camo is a digital camo with a red black and grey color scheme. with four red eye slits and Agular plating.

Picking up a long box with a mag harness he attaches it to his back inside is his only weapon but hes keeping it in the box to avoid causing undue stress. As he depressurizes the cabin of the shuttle and turns off the life support to save power he exits the shuttle looking around taking in the wonder of the large ship. "What I wouldnt give to explore such a marvel of ship craft." he said out of genuine surprised.

 

[Cowboy]

Aboard Senti ship Himiko

Jack stood behind the pilot as his shuttle was moved into the Senti ship. His left cybernetic arm was clamped around a hand hold and his left leg, also a cybernetic replacement, was magnetized the the deck. He watched in utter fascination as the saw the inside of the Senti ship. It was not at all what he had been expecting. They seemed to be almost completely self sustaining. Except they needed scrap to feed the ship itself? He would need to ask about that.

Jack began to wonder if there was not great potential for some kind of alliance or agreement with the Senti. As he understood it, Senti were nomadic. They didn't have home planet but traveled far and wide across the galaxy. There had been a lot of talk by both Nep and Yam, especially after the Kuvexian war, to expand outside of the Kikyo Sector. Star charts and safe routes outside of the Kikyo sector would be on immense value to both Nep and Yam. There was great potential here.

As the shuttle was set down onto the deck the pilot engaged the magnetic clamps. Jack moved to the shuttle door with his escort and waited for the doors to open. There was a momentary delay while the shuttles sensors tested the atmosphere to make sure it was safe for them to exit outside of a space suit but once it was cleared there was a hiss and the doors opened. Jack's leg automatically magnetized to keep him from floating away. He moved towards the awaiting figures and said, "I am Captain Canterbury of the NSS Surprise." He pointed to his two companions in turn. "Ensign Doyle, my aid. First Sergeant Bourne." Sergeant Bourne was dressed in PA though his rifle was held as if on parade. "Whom do I have the honor of addressing?" Jack asked.

 

[HarperMadi]

"Vadasirinidias Jusura Eshimiko of Shurista," the bicentennial captain gently reached out her hand to take the Nepleslian captain's hand. Several children ran past the pair, playing and laughing in their games as they leapt out into the void of null gravity past the deck, soon disappearing on the side of a cargo box being hauled past. As they had run, it would be easy to see how instinctive and calmly they had been using their mag boots, or other magnetic field devices to keep them firmly planted.

"I'm glad you could come aboard, Captain. Our home is young, and not yet fully self sustaining. We are glad for your offer of this scrap field. We will ensure that viable Nepleslian supplies are transferred to Surprise's cargo holds. Would you like something to eat?"

It would be wrong to say that the mighty ship was busy around them. Yes, there were people doing myriad things, from children playing to the scrappers and smiths pounding out tools and parts, merchants and street food vendors selling their wares. It felt more like a small community, living, *breathing* this deep within the hull. the feeling was suddenly apparent that this family ship was likely running on a skeleton crew. A mere eight or nine hundred souls in the glowing burial steel halls, rather than the thousands they could pack in here. There wasn't a floor, so to speak, as the Captain gave a wave above her head. Everything that wasn't a floor was a working surface, as though these people thought, moved, lived in three dimensions and as many planes could be used in these three. There was no artificial gravity. It simply wasn't needed. They had their magnetics, and those allowed more power to be diverted to the mighty forges he could see over the horizon, and he could still see the swirling mass of scrap funneled into that great machinery.

~~~

Ty was greeted by a similar sight, with children playing nearby when he left his ship. He could look up and aft to see the clouds of metal as the ship pulled them inside to be broken down for parts and raw materials to be sold or integrated. Technicians already swarmed around his ship as medical personnel moved quickly towards him, ready to offer any assistance they could. Their patch and repair work would take time, but his ship was similar to their own homes in many ways. They would make it reliable.

 

[Commissar Farzi]

("Sir, they've begun salvage operations.") The yeoman reported, ("And a shuttle has docked with the Senti vessel.") Olaf looked up from the hardtack he was currently trying to make palatable by dipping it into the coffee one of the cooks provided them. It was still a tasteless, hard brick, albeit now semi-soaked and having the consistency of paste on the outside. Sure enough, the Slaghead's vessel had taken aboard a shuttle likely from the Nep vessel and had picked up another even as it began chewing up scrap. Chances were that they'd taken aboard someone from said vessel-which meant that if they fired more likely than not they'd end up in a shooting match.

No-that wasn't their mission. Their mission was Recon and salvage, not combat.

Taking a deep breath, he siginaled the head gunner. ("Abort fire mission but remain at the ready, continue to monitor.)" A few grumbles, but for the most part they complied. ("Enough,") The knight captain snapped, ("If they were Katamurans likely they would've pulled something by now.") That shut the lot of them up as the gunners stood down. He went back to watching the view screen-at least one thing they had going for them; they'd be easy to mistake for an old, abandoned vessel. if relatively intact, unless they took a real hard look at them. And even then all non-essential systems were offline. Between that and the naturally radar dampening properties of their armor-an ablative composite that provided...decent protection against most weapons they were relatively safe from detection.

Relatively.

The thought provided Olaf with little comfort as he watched the view screen, and even that vanished when one of the yeomen reported that the damned Neps were launching fighters. ('Just another day in the Iron Company.') He muttered under his breath as the situation just became a whole lot more complicated.

 

[ShadowWalker]

Opon seeing the medical personnel and children Ty shook his head. "There's nothing you can really do for me medical wise, there's not much person left under all of this but thank you for the offer." He said touching his chest plate, before fallowing them looking at everything these people had accomplished. "your structure is rather amazing I'm surprised to be honest. The only people I know ever to come close to sustainability such as this would be Davinia."

Looking at the people as the lead him around he looked to the person leading him around "If you dont mind me asking, What are you? You seem living but your skin shines of chrome."

 

[Cowboy]

Aboard Senti ship Himiko

"Thank you Captain Eshimiko." Jack said as he shook the hand. He couldn't help but smile as the children ran by, oblivious to what was going on around him. Jack could just remember when he had been that young.

At the mention of repayment, Jack shook his head. "It is our pleasure. There is no need for any supplies. The Surprise just took on supplies. I will be happy to sample some of your food though."

Jack looked around him in wonder. It was quite something to behold. With no gravity in such a large area it allowed for quite a lot of booths and stalls and work areas to all be together. And by the look of things many many more could be accommodated than he actually saw there. Jack was particularly interested in what looked like a smithy. One of the larger stalls that just gave the impression of being a place held with more reverence. A single smelter that was attended by several Senti. They took out a glowing piece of some sort of metal and began to work and shape it. It was quite interesting to watch. Jack noticed other workers buffing and polishing pieces that had already been completed. They were beautiful blades, ranging in size and style. A low whistle escaped his lips. Even though little was commonly known about the Senti, one of the few things that was heard was that they made blades unlike any other. Jack had seen one years ago when he had first come upon the Senti.

Jacob Canterbury, like all his Canterbury Kin, have a love of blades. Each member of the Canterbury Clan carry a bayonet style dagger that they lovingly refer to as their Straight Silver. Jack's own Straight Silver hung from his belt next to where, had he been wearing it, his officer sword hung. Jack started to reach for one of the blades to inspect it put stopped himself. One thing he had remembered was that the Senti considered their blades sacred. Jack understood the feeling. A Canterbury's Straight Silver was sacred them them as well. "May I see one of these beautiful blades?" He asked instead.

Out in Space

The two Nep fighters were scanning the surrounding area. Although they were only doing a scan for active componence, not for life readings. They unknowingly flew past the Iron Company vessel within 500 meters. And although they didn't see the vessel, they did notice that some of the derelicts in this area had signs of reason cuts. That made them circle back around and take a closer, more detailed look over the area.

 

[HarperMadi]

"You can see mine," the Captain offered, drawing her blade. Flipping it over in her hand, she offered it by the handle. It was a basic skavver's blade, about half again his hand's width in length, and curved like an animal's claw, and a ring large enough to fit two fingers in as thick glove. With a cloth hook near the back of the tip, and what looked to be a guthook deeper down on the cutting edge. On thought, though, that guthook was too close to the hand, A string or line could be easily manipulated across the hook.
The Smith finally looked up from his work, an enormous tricentennial that gave Jack a warm smile.

It was then that it could be seen that he seemed to work inside a pit, deep enough for most people to be eye level to him. But at the same time large enough for him to be comfortable working inside. And easy for him to egress whenever he decided to grab something to eat.

There was a burst of music from the giant's lips, not loud, but enough, and Jusura nodded. Suras, the proprietor of Suras Forge of Shurista, tells us you are welcome to handle any of his projects. He is working on a breastplate for a Shuristan diplomat to Yamatai. Unfortunately, he was able to find very little steel she knows." The Captain shrugged. "I forgot to eat this morning. All I've had is a glass of turaeta. I'll trust you to not get in trouble, Captain?"

~~~

"Thank you," the medic smiled as she spoke in Yamataigo, almost too fluently, though her accent was still very strong. Her clothes seemed casual, a mere bib style pair of leggings and an upper body wrap that encorporated pockets and basic accents of her figure. It was hot in here, easily over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. But they seemed comfortable. Some even seemed to be cold, especially those coming in from outside. Her accent was soft, musical and smooth, like she was trying to impart Shuristan information density across the too short and too simple words of Yamataigo.

"We are Tsulrati. At least in species. Carbon metabolite iron based hominids, I think the Yamataians call us. The Senti are nomads. We live between the stars and gather what we can. There's a lot of empty space. It's not surprising that you haven't seen us before. Our own self sustainability is based on technologies we developed during our early space flight phase. Before the Skydas War. But that was so long ago. We have learned a lot. And lost a lot. Your ship, for example, is not dissimilar from some of our own personal shuttles. We don't have much to make a new ship, so we reuse what we have ad infinitum. I apologize. This language is... Slow. But we are going to be performing a complete refit of your vessel. You are free to travel with us while we complete the refit. We were actually on our way to deliver some immigrants to Turassiel, but the Nepleslians found us, mostly by dumb luck."

 

[ShadowWalker]

Ty nodded at the explanation before turning to the medic, "out of curiosity Im trying to find a missing person shes been missiong for over two years and her star charts from back when we talked every now and then. It showed her being out this way, So I guess you can say I've been driving on a near broken shuttle trying to find her to make sure she's okay."
Handing the medic the Missing persons report
The report gave a women's name of Lisa Alice "Thorn" Ironhart, describing her as a "childlike thorn in my side." with a tendency for theatrical flair , adrenalin junkie and stealthy merc scientist in her late 20's. doesn't like guys and half the time looks like she got in a fight with her cigarettes' lighter.
after handing over the missing persons report he looked around and winced rubbing his neck with his armored hand.

"You know what maybe I will see what you guys can do for me medically wise....haven't slept or had a good meal in almost a week cause i want to make sure she's okay." he says before quickly adding "b-because she owes me money....im not going soft."

​

​

 

[Commissar Farzi]

Olaf was weighing his options-those fighters had been too damned close-and while the armor would shield them from most scans-the problem was the issues with that particular feature was that if someone noticed they'd likely take a closer look. Which meant they either decided to blast the ship, which would be bad because even when running active they didn't have any kind of shielding, or they'd send a boarding party-either that or call a tug. That'd lead to a whole lotta of awkward questions, since the Company when the Grandmaster had disappeared at the time was considered inactive. Just as well this operation could technically be considered illegal depending on who you asked as well.

And when he got the report that the fighters were now making a second pass the knight-captain simply sighed; at this rate, they'd likely be found. Olaf sighed and looked at the screen. ("Alright,") He said, quaffing down the lukewarm coffee and tossing the half-eaten hardtack into the cup-damned things were nearly inedible as it was and he wasn't breaking his teeth on it. ("Looks like they ain't the ruddy Katamurans,") Setting it down on a console, he sighed-they'd probably need to run-while their FTL drives weren't great they made up with their sub-lights; as long as they could keep ahead of the nep tub they'd be good-the senti vessel was a giant clunker of a thing-so unless they had some kind of fancy tether system that was nothing to worry about. ("Alright, have the gunners change the rounds from armor-piercing to chaff, have engineering prep the reactors for maximum burn-ready superchargers just in case.") It'd be hard on their fuel reserves-they hadn't exactly been running light, but the Type Fives were hungry beasts-requiring them to pack specialized high pressure fuel tanks for their vessel.

The result-they were packing large amounts of highly explosive ionized gas mixture in an extremely small space. If they took a big enough hit...

'No,' Olaf force away the mental image as the crew bustled about, 'We do our jobs, and get home.' Two hundred souls were depending on them to get home alive come hell or high water...

And he would deliver on their expectations, or at least ensure they had company when they joined the Ancestors in hell.

 

[Cowboy]

Aboard Senti ship Himiko

Jack bowed his head, acknowledging the honor that the Senti Captain was showing him. He took the blade in his hands and studied it. A little more dense then he had imagined. But beautiful and strong. Quite the metal. Although his inspection of the blade was interrupted when he realized that the reason this particular stall was so large was due to the size of the proprietor. Jack had no idea that the Senti could grow so large. The giant Senti would make a true ID-SOL have to look up.

As Captain Jusura translated Jack nodded his thanks and began to examine more closely what the giant had been working on. Truly they were works of art. Although Jack had little enough knowledge or taste in art other than music, he could see that what the Senti made was quite practical as well as beautiful. He would have loved to ask more questions but Jusura commented that she had not eaten. "Oh, please don't stop on my account from getting whatever nourishment you need." Jack was a man who very much enjoyed his meals as well and could sympathize. "If you don't mind, I would be quite interested to see what it is you do eat."

 

[HarperMadi]

"Unfortunately, Captain, most of our foods would be poison to you," Jusira offered a disappointed smile. "However. There are a few. Shurista prides itself on the collection of culinary plants in its farmlands, and we have many species. I am sure that we could find something that you can eat. I encourage you to leave some of your men to wander and explore. You are guests in our home, and we see no reason to hide anything."

She gave a soft nod, gesturing for him to lead the way. "There is a street vendor, one of my sons, across the way. He is quite the talented chef. And speaks trade better than I do."

~~~

"Thorn Ironhart? Last time we heard from her was a report from what the Duskerians call SX 2... Come to think of it, there have been no reports of her at all. Not from the Senti, or anyone,.. Should we be worried?"