RP: ISC Phoenix [Interlude 3] - Re-Loading

[Luca]

INTERLUDE 3 - START!!

The trip to Nepleslia was uneventful, the occasional salvage vessel and a couple of other civilian vessels flew past, but little was exchanged between them.

The shuttles touched down in the yard of the base without incident. It was midday when they arrived. Sebastian (Dad) and Anna (Mum) were sitting on the porch, waiting for their arrival.

"Thank you for flying Air Phoenix, please take all of your belongings and carry on luggage with you. Once again, thank you for flying Air Phoenix, it was a pleasure serving you." John quipped as he opened the airlock.

Luca got up out of his seat and took all of his weapons, ruined jacket, and singlet. His dad immediately stood up and gave him a wave, "Didn't bother to call me?"
"Sorry. Got a bit caught up, as you can see." He showed Seb all of the black stains on the jacket and didn't have to say anything about the bandages on his waist.

"Damn it." The patriarch groaned, "You'll have to get that cleaned. What the hell is all that black crap anyway?"
"Blood." Mum immediately jolted up.
"...yours?" He was surprised that Luca was still standing.
"A little."
"You better get some rest. No more of these 'missions' for a few days!" Anna came down hard on her son, "You and your friends have been awake for over 48 hours!!"
"But I-"
"That's final."
"Aww..." He marched inside, put all of his weapons away in his locker, went upstairs to the bunkroom and sat down on his bunk with his dirty clothes in the basket. He searched his closet and found one other jacket. Similar in design to his usual jacket, but it was Black with white pauldrons, and had a white singlet to complement it.
As he emptied the pockets of his dirty clothes, he noticed that his Communicator was still recording video. He pressed stop and opened up a quick game of Neko no Oden.

Mitch and Mel snickered at Luca getting roasted by his mother.
"Oh, may I offer any of you some lunch? Tea? Coffee?" She addressed the general audience as she headed inside to prepare food for the weary.
"Yes, please." Mel said as she headed inside, hung up her rifle and headed for the recreational room and kitchen, sitting at the table.
"Certainly." John followed suit and sat next to Mel, who smiled as he sat down.
"Uh huh." Mitch did so as well, dumping his bag of weapons in his locker and sitting down.

"Oh! I haven't seen you before!" Anna told Laeliel, "Did Luca pick you up?"

 

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent guided the Junker to a stop in the hangar a few feet away from the Phoenix, his guided precision almost graceful as the patchwork shuttle slipped into its berth. He stepped off just in time to see Luca dragging his feet back up to his bedroom.

"I miss something?" He questioned nonchalantly as he walked over to the doorway.

 

[Itkatsu Kiyoko]

Laeliel appeared to be sullen as opposed to hostile, having atleast the benefit of a more or less good night's sleep while the others were out playing hero. Being a few denero the richer - she had made sure to check once they hit Nepleslia's datasphere - had helped to blunt any verbal venom she may have had, for the moment. The now familiar weight of Nepleslia's gravity sat on her hunched shoulders, her hands jammed into her pockets, as she surveyed the scene the shuttle had disgourged her into the midst of.

A question from the person who appeared to be the mother of the leader of this rag-tag band of adventurers jolted Laeliel out of whatever it was that ran through her head. She stared at the woman for a few heartbeats longer than normal before replying with a flat "No," that invited no room for contridiction.

"Lunch... would be... nice," Laeliel said as she turned away and made her way to the kitchen, the attempted politeness sounding just a tad forced.

 

[TeslaTornado]

"Wait, since when was lunch ready?" Vincent said, turning away from the Junker for a split second, having set about painting the bloated, chunky shuttle jet black. The nodule below the cockpit was covered awkwardly in blue painter's tape, the recepticle for the laser cannon that was optional on the shuttle's loadout. Most of the machinery was fairly delicate, as far as Vincent's standards went, so he left it alone for the most part.

 

[Luca]

"Oh, it's just about to be served." Anna told Vincent, "I'm sure my son's managed to send you out on some bizarre adventure, so you and your crew, and my son, will need a good feed and rest for a few days."

Meanwhile, upstairs, Luca walked downstairs still wearing his bandages and playing the game on his communicator. Engrossed in a game against the computer. He wasn't doing too well against the AI. Finally, his whole screen was filled up with bricks and he couldn't put anything more down.

"Nya nya!" The communicator taunted on his loss, "You lose!"
"You win this round..." Luca told his foe as he clapped the communicator shut and put it in his pocket and advanced into the kitchen, sitting down for lunch. Sure, most of his chest was bandaged up, but he still had the smile on his face.
"So, what's for eats?" Luca asked his mother politely.
"Just something quick I made with that Chef of yours." She replied as she put it on the table, "Some rice with some vegetables, a bit of meat and a side of Cornmeal. Your friend was really pedantic about the cornmeal. Any reason?"
Luca shrugged as he scooped himself a plate of the stuff and waited for everyone else.
Hitori, Mitch, John, Mel and Jim helped themselves each to a plate, as did Crane, who was particularly happy with the outcome. Then Dad came in and sat down next to his son, helping himself to a plate as well.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent looked at the plate that had been set down in front of him. He had never, not once in his life been a squeamish eater, but after hearing Crane mentioned "Squid Cornmeal" Vincent could never be so sure of the yellow side-dish. After taking a small test-bite, the ID-Sol smirked and promptly shovelled the dish down in a couple bites.

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert was sitting at a bar staring an overly large mug of beer, wondering what was he going to do next in his so-far screwed up plans to live a life of a mercenary. When he was halfway done chugging said drink, he realized it. The ISC Phoenix! Everyone on the underbelly knew of them. Robert had seen the news in which their fearless leader, known as Wolf, liberated the Highway of Death. So he started to ask around to see if they were still on world. he was pleasantly surprised to discover that they had just gotten back from a flight. He got the location of their base and walked out of the bar, "forgetting" the silly little piece of paper that sat next to his mountain of mugs.


***Several Hours Later***

Robert was walking up to a base that looked like it had been newly refurbished. He smirked at the irony that it wasn't too far from "The White Scorpions'" haunts so he'd probably had helped loot it, if not holed up there at one point or another.

He lifted a fist and knocked at the base door. From all he heard, he thought it might be a good idea to not sneak up on them. He kinda liked his body bullet-free. Much healthier for him.

 

[Luca]

The crew inside had eaten a good, filling lunch.
"My compliments to the chef." Mitch said upon patting his chest, putting his plate away and began heading upstairs, probably in search of the drink he had stashed in his locker, "I need some rest, talk to you all later."
"That was a good feed indeed. I think I'll go watch some telly..." Luca was halfway through sentence when he heard a knock on the door, "I'll get it."

"Oh, ladies, gentlemen, quick announcement." Sebastian said as he put his plate away, "We've just had a workshop put into the armoury. So if you want you can pass time building things outta wood, metal or whatever you fancy. Don't screw up the tools though, or you're paying for new ones."
"Noted." Mel said as she she leant back on her chair a little and then leant forward, then gave a cheeky glance to John, who smiled a little, she then turned back to Sebastian, "So, boss, 'think we should go into town, get some ammo, supplies, weapons 'n such?"

"Advisable." He replied, "I noticed your rifle. Not fitting for your sort of occupation."
"Yeah... It's more of them fancy-arse assault rifle jobbies." She frowned at the word 'Assault Rifle'.
"Tell ya what, tomorrow you can find you a new one with all the pay you've gotten from your last mission."
"Spot on! Just what I was thinking." She put a thumbs up and was enthusiastic about the idea of a more fitting gun for her occupation. She was figuring to get one of those old Bolt-Action rifles. The sort that would be hard as hell to mess up.
Hitori seemed to dissipate from the table and her shadowy form followed Luca, without him, or anyone else noticing.

At the door, Luca, still without any shirt or jacket on (unless you counted the bandages) opened it, then couldn't see anything from his height, then he looked down a little and noticed the man named Robert. He immediately noticed the cybernetic right arm and a couple of his many scars through his shirt.
"Oh, hi there!" Luca said to the man with a smile, "How'd you find me?"

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert looked up when the door opened. "What luck." He thought, "Answered by Wolf himself." but in response to the question he just grinned and said "Well, it wasn't too hard. I just followed the hurtin' bodies. I heard ya might have a job, and I think I might just could use the fun and adventure. Will ya have me?"

 

[Luca]

Luca smiled, a new recruit had come his way! He smiled as the thought of his exploits becoming known ran through his head.

"Sure," He said as he lead him inside, Dad immediately noticed him, stood up and sized him up, "That's my dad. He keeps charge around here."
"A newbie, I see." He said as he stroked his beard and examined him, "Damn, did you get into a fight with a tiger or something, or is that the new fashion you kids are running about with nowadays? Also, what's your favourite animal? It'll form your code name. We'll implement them later on once we get this trainwreck organised."
"I thought you had given us codenames." Luca told Dad.
"Yeah, but you barely use them." He shrugged to his son, "So we have to get them organised."
"Why do we have them anyway?" Luca replied.
His dad then shrugged, nodding his head nonchalantly, "For show, you could say. Hell, that's what this guy knows you as."

Mel and John leant over to have a quick glance at the new guy, then headed back to small talk with eachother.
Oddly, Mel managed to giggle at how John was explaining that his dad used to be quite the sniper before settling into the mechanic business. They decided to sit down on the brown couch together and turn on the telly, looking for something to watch.

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert jumped at the crisp, miltary fashion that was known as Luca's dad. "Well, my old nickname was 'Rags' but my favorite animals are lizards." He snapped to in a semi-mocking, half-serious salute and what he hoped was considered attention. Which it was, if you didn't count the one foot being half a foot in front of the other.

 

[Luca]

"Lizard it is, then." He replied as he pulled out a little sheet of paper and wrote this down. He folded it back up and put it in his pocket, "Right. First things first, I need to see what you're good at, and how to cultivate it if you're crap at it." , "Step outside, let's see what you've got." He began to look for his weapons without giving away any indication of doing so. He found his pistol and his knife. He noticed the knife to be in a much better state than the pistol. He then deduced: Hmm. A Knife fighter.

While the two stood outside in the afternoon sun, dad searched his jacket and drew a pair of wooden training knives, the was about the size of combat knives.
"A knife fighter, I see," He said as he tossed one of the blunt knives over to him, "Show me what you've got, then, sonny." He flicked the knife into his hand and kept it unexpectedly steady for a man of his age, teetering on 60.

Meanwhile, Luca went inside and plonked himself down on the couch next to John.
"So, anything good on?" Luca inquired as a wide-grinned John kept flicking through channels on the remote.
"Ehh, no." Mel said as he nudged John, "Just porn, and more porn. Occasional action movie or a documentary on big guns, but porn mostly. Couldn't help but notice your mate here likes the porn."
"What's the movie?" Luca gave a nudge to John.
The grin on his face diminished as his head came back down to Nepleslia, "Wha - oh. Carnage Explosion Force 2," John replied, "We've seen it before."
"Yeah, it wasn't that great. Keep looking."
Hitori seemed to materialise next to Luca, away from his shadow.
"Oh, Hi." He acknowledged.
"Relaxing, I see?" She questioned as she leant back on the crowded brown couch and stretched.
"Yep."
"Watch a docco or something." Mel asserted, "We gotta settle on something to watch!"
"Yeah yeah in a moment." John said as he finally settled on a documentary about Nepleslian ammunition compared to Yamataian ammunition.

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert caught the knife agilely, shrugged, and settled into a half-crouch with his cybernetic hand empty and both arms out to the sides. He stepped forward two steps and launched a stab for the old Wolf's belly.

 

[Luca]

The bearded patriarch was almost caught unaware and dodged it in the nick of time and parrying it with his wooden blade - and with quite some force behind it. Robert was knocked back a little by the parry.
"Impressive..." The father commented as he strafed his prey, and anticipated the next attack from Robert. He was thinking of using one of the techniques he'd learnt in his mercenary career against him, but probably not now. "You're good material for this work. Show me what else you can do - quickly..."

Back inside, the documentary managed to rule in favour of Nepleslian ammunitions because they had 'more power' than the Yamataian ammunition.
"Bullcrap!" Was all Luca said as he pulled out his Ketsurui Zaibatsu 10mm Mass-Production Pistol and waved it, "This 10mm pistol has saved me more than once."
"Really?" John pulled out his Zen-Arms .45, "I haven't had to use this thing very often, but it does have a kick."
"Get real!" Mel said as she motioned to her rifle in the other room and pretended to cradle it, "I think I win this war!"
"But that's a rifle! They're made to ventilate foreheads by default!" Luca argued.
"Ah but still." Mel retorted, "They make pistols that can get rid of the forehead AND most of what's below it."
Luca and John exchanged brief glances and shrugged. The lady had a fair point.

 

[TeslaTornado]

"Actually, I believe I've won this one." Vincent said, walking through the door with his massive arsenal in tow.

"Between four pistols, two rifles and enough explosives to make even the most gung-ho action hero jealous, I believe my arsenal has outclassed."

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert grinned a little, when he saw the old man's skilled block. "This is ganna be fun" he thought. Then he took a step back and rolled to the the Old Wolf's left and made a quick swipe at his thigh.

 

[Luca]

Another skilful block from the old man, this time though, Robert was knocked back and give a tap on the back of the head with the pommel of the knife.
"Remember, the blade isn't the only part of the knife." He instructed, "I can also teach you later how to use your small stature to your advantage. I think you'll be fitting for the role if I train you some. You've got the job."

He took the blunt knife from Robert, "Now come inside and siddown. We're taking a break tonight." He moved back inside with Robert behind him and tried to look for a place to sit down on the crowded brown couch.

"Okay okay." Luca told the group argument about firepower, "Nobody's piped up about a shotgun, so..." He got out of his chair and went to the armoury, then returned with his Triple Barrel Shotgun, "Who wants to see this in action?" A wicked grin came across his face.
Everyone looked at each other for a moment as the TV moved onto a boring documentary about some man with two literal left feet.
"To the target practice!" John shouted as everyone on the couch unanimously moved out to the yard to the old, and rather bullet-ridden fridge.

Luca held the massive, loaded shotgun to his shoulder, pointed at the fridge, but then noticed something on the shotgun at the safety.
'Safe, All, Rotary' the safety switch read. Luca flicked it home to 'Rotary' and fired.

A single barrel was fired, but then some mechanism made all three barrels rotate clockwise and load a fresh barrel into place.
"That's awesome." Luca said as he fired again and observed the motion, then again, leaving the ruined fridge quite hole-ey.
"Indeed." John said, surprised at the rotary action.
"Odd shotgun." Mel asked John, "Who do ya think made it?"
John shrugged.

He broke it open at the breech and loaded three new shells in. "I wonder what "All" means here...?"

 

[TeslaTornado]

"My guess is all three barrels at once." Vincent said, stepping into firing range and bringing up his FL-10 Porcupine Gauss Rifle. He flicked a switch above the trigger guard, and a low buzz emitted from the stock of the gun. Then Vincent flicked the safety off and pulled the trigger.

Tinktinktinktinktinktinktinktinktink! A long string of silvery spines whistled through the air and stabbed into the old fridge, making it look, quite literally, like a "porcupine".

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert smiled as he got up. Learning new and better tricks from a master sat just fine with him. "Thank you, sir." and followed him inside where he followed the sound of shooting straight to the outside on the opposite side of the building. He stood quietly watching them tear the crap out of a rusty old fridge.

 

[Luca]

Luca decided to set the Shotgun to "All" and fire. Lo and behold, all three barrels fired at the same time and the gun automatically broke itself open at the breech. He was knocked over by the unexpected force of the recoil.
The ruined fridge in the yard looked like that cheese with all the holes in it. It had almost served its term for target practice with that one blast.

"Damn." Luca said as he picked himself up off the dirt and made sure that dirt didn't get into his bandages, and that his shotgun wasn't messed up at all, "I won't try that again in this state."

"A good idea." Jim said as he came outside, heard the noise and watched the spectacle, "Now come in and relax or you're going to keep gettin' hurt, and those ribs will take a while to get better."
"Agreed." Luca dusted himself off and cradled the shotgun and then smiled, "TO THE BROWN COUCH."

Luca was the first man through the door, with his weapon put his weapon away, and sat down in front of the Televisor 12000, then found that the documentary about the man with 2 left feet kept it in the end as a sign of pride - but he still can't fulfil his lifelong dream of dancing.
Then John sat next to Luca, then Mel next to John, then Jimmy, Hitori stood behind the couch, Vincent was too big to fit on what was left of the couch, Crane was watching from the Kitchen, and Lae would've been crushed in the stampede and just stood aside. Anna and Sebastian sat down at the table and watched from there.
Mitch was strangely absent though, but that was rectified when he stumbled downstairs with a bottle of scrumpy in his hands and laid down in front of the couch. Also rectified was the Platypus, Peter - who somehow appeared in Jim's flak jacket and made himself comfortable in his lap.
"What's that?" Mel asked Jim.
"Some fuzzy thing we found on Tami." Jim explained, "Luca found it in a storage compartment of the shuttle that was given to us. He let me hang onto it."
"Bonza." Mel smiled.

This little living area managed to unite everyone.
"I wonder what's on telly?" Luca began flicking through channels as everyone else crowded around the TV around him.