The Rigs, Alpha Platform
Melissa watched the shuttle which had brought her to the rigs vacate, the craft flying towards Beta Platform. "Ah ya bandy rascal, when all you got is me you'll appreciate me out in th' blisterin' sun o' Delsauria." She said, taking another drag on her cigarette, coughing a bit. "Wot I say better go when we 'ead there, er -" Something got her attention, and her usual Delsaurian brand of derision and henpecking petered out. She pointed out a shuttle in PSG's airspace, difficult to spot since the sun wasn't far behind them, blotting them out. "Wait, oo's that comin'?"
Someone had touched down on the shuttlepad. Nobody had shot at them nor was an alert raised, so they were obviously cleared by the flight control tower to sit down. The craft itself looked nondescript and of Nepleslian make, but Melissa noticed that there was an unusual amount of security following the ship, including Nepleslian-made Hostile power armours following the shuttle and touching down on the Rigs' platforms. Must've been a paranoid client with a lot of enemies, a client who liked to put on a show with a sure expression of power, or a very rich one.
The man who stepped out of the shuttle looked like some sort of government official with the slicked red hair, weary eyes hidden by black sunglasses, and half of his neck rebuilt in cybernetics, disappearing under his right jaw. He was wearing a suit and tie as green as the Nepleslian flag, and carrying black briefcase was handcuffed to them. Flanking them were some manner of IPG spooks, heavily armed to react in the advent of a betrayal or reversal. Even with the Service Group as good business partners to Nepleslia, it wasn't worth dropping one's guard for any meeting large or small.
"I have a contract that needs signing for Luca Pavone regarding a contract in the new Nepleslian Colonial Expanse." He said, giving his briefcase a shake as he cut straight to business. "Where is he?" Melissa didn't know, and shrugged at Enzo, staying quiet as she realised her train of thought had been derailed. The man, still not introduced, looked out to Sargasso's waters and at the Nepleslian marine barracks and heaved a sigh.
"He can hide in a thunderstorm, juggle HHGs, assemble armies on a whim, cheat death, and fuck all the bitches all he wants," he monologued, looking around the Rigs, twirling as he admired the view for what a freebooter could throw together when he set his mind to it, "but the Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia, bluntly speaking, needs the hands of 'self-regulating' Mercenary groups with minimal government oversight to deal with some of our problems on the fringe territories of our colonial expanse,
capaci?"
The government official's sour tone showed it wasn't the first time similar sorts of groups had let him down when he and his colleagues had done the rounds. Those Sunburnt Warriors guys just up the coast never returned his calls and he gave up on them, while numerous others were just pirate outfits trying to go for a legitimate angle before falling back into old habits - and dying as hard as the habits did. The official let what he said hang in the air and waited for either Melissa or Enzo to chip in, and Melissa couldn't be arsed; She was too tired to deal with official correspondence.
"Oi Enzo, we got us a plot hook." Melissa pointed out, staying by his side. The official appeared dumbfounded.
The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it
The cyberneticists who'd just witnessed Kuzman's arms sprout long blades had them on edge, a brief scare from a technology that looked so seamless with the alien. Soon, the cyberneticists and engineers started to share notes on how to try and deal with the frame. What they didn't do, however, was bombard Kuzman with probing questions or examination.
Instead, they bombarded Reeves with the questions, possibly trying to get his okay and act as a middleman through these trying times. Who knew that first contact was so
talky? A good point was raised by Calico though, and someone begun examining Kuzman's uniform for any sort of insignia. "Huh, surely they don't just hand things like this out where he comes from," Horace said, worried without a frame of reference for the scale and spread of this sort of technology where Kuzman came from. "Definitely looks military..." he muttered, concerned.
And the question of them coming to collect? Echelon didn't seem too pleased by the prospects, given what happened on Asura. If they did come to pick this up, the transaction would be the most vulnerable part of the deal. The only feather in her cap compared to what happened in Asura was that the personnel doing the giving were trustworthy, and they only needed to worry about a third party. She just hoped the receivers weren't soured by a bad first impression. A metal hand fell on Calico's shoulder.
"G00D C0NS1D3R4T10N, S0LD13R," Calico heard Echelon's voice, and a brown, round shape with little brown dots appeared in front of her, eyes focussing as a treat came into view. "Y0U G3T 4 C00K13." The Freespacer's was watching what was going on, and she tossed Tamamo a ration bar. It was her favourite flavour: Spiced Fish. As she approached Reeves with another piece of confectionery in hand, passing it to him. "G3T WH4T W3 C4N 0N L4NGU4G3 4FT3R TH1S CL34RS UP, 1N C4S3 KUZM4N'S BR0TH3RS 1N 4RMS C0M3 T0 C0LL3CT, 'K4Y?"
Meanwhile, John was already considering the logistics of keeping the VANDR here, and keeping it secret from the world at large as he hammered away at a datapad. At the very least, the VANDR could hide in the audacity of the ISC Phoenix. There were always allegations swirling around for aliens unknown and freaks of nature being part and parcel with the Phoenix's internal personnel. He left a message for Kuzman:
Hello,
While we're taking care of your VANDR, you're going to be on foot for some time. I reckon your safest bet is to work with us for a little. We'll provide room, board, food and drink, and pay for your services. As a member of the Phoenix Service Group, and perhaps the ISC Phoenix, you have my promise that nothing untoward will happen to you, or your VANDR, anyone who tries to steal or tamper with your craft will be punished, and you'll have all the safeguards and protections afforded to you as a member.
We'll bring you to speed and outfit you as soon as we can. If you have further queries, come see me on the Alpha platform or talk to Reeves. I'd like to talk more but I just remembered I had a meeting with someone from the Nepleslian Government.
John was already on his bike.
The Rigs, Gamma Platform, Laboratory
Drumming her fingers against her chin, the Yamataian researcher was starting to get a grip of things. "I'd suggest using a low-power mass driver and wrapping your grenade around a discarding sabot which will hold the device stable as it travels through the barrel." The Yamataian researcher nodded as she begun sketching a few things up. "Once we can strike a balance, it'd be easy to design a sabot of four pieces which will come apart as the grenade leaves the barrel."
It was a very conventional solution for irregularly shaped loads, in particular flechettes or certain types of shaped charges with irregular construction, unable to sit properly in a barrel normally. "Plus, this means we don't need to make it a hand grenade so all we need is an electric fuse, so we don't need to worry about disturbing the shape as much making room for handholds," the Nepleslian piped up.
"What about projectile spin fuse?" The woman was writing things on the whiteboard. The ballistics calculations, judging by the statistics Seiren had given them, and it didn't take long for them to eyeball a quarter of the sabot that'd be used for holding the projectile.
"We'll have to stress test that because I don't think this thing likes spinning around much, given how fragile it is." The man said, now examining the basics of Seiren's launcher and getting the numbers, tossing them to her, leaving numbers on the whiteboard, overlaying her rough estimates. "The launcher itself shouldn't need much modification, and we'll just rifle the sabot and test from there."
"I guess we can fire it at a buoy in the ocean, saves on collateral and we get a light show for free..."
