RP: ISC Phoenix [Interlude 4] - A Hard Day's Night

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent frowned noticeably at the destruction on Freehold Factory. He actually kind of liked the Freespacers; seeing this kind of destruction only cemented his hatred of Yamatai. He looked sadly upon the burnt-out wreckage of a large Freespacer mothership, the name painted on the side in large white letters: Sacred Wind of the Greatest High Justice and Charity. Its bow section had been blown away and burnt out, a long jagged scar down the starboard side looking like a sucking wound. A lone light - probably a long-dead signal beacon - flickered on a spindly arm pointing towards the planet's surface. Alongside lay debris from several smaller Freespacer vessels; probably limpets designed to protect the mothership at all costs.

The mercenary scowled as he scanned the debris field visually; noting (to his dismay and anger) the lack of Yamataian debris in the field. Bottling the rage for a later occasion, Vincent set about using the Graviton cannons to redirect and blast away bits of debris as the Big Bird swooped through the field of debris.

 

[Fian]

Arin had only seen Freespacers in passin and she didn't care much for war or politics in general. What bothered her though was how stagnant the place seemed. When living things die, they return to the soil as nourishment, when tools and machinery break down permanently people like her would recycle them for further use. Death and destruction isn't the end but part of a continuous cycle. The destruction here at the factory however was from a force so great that it had no use for the simple things that were left here and by uprooting the civilisation that lived here, prevented the survivors from picking up the pieces and moving on. It was an anguish the Representative could relate to.

If the factory cannot be reconstructed, then it must be deconstructed. Between the broken bulkheads and exposed circuitry so much of the small unseen culture of this place is showing in the light. If it were possible, Arin would like to return to this place to examine these small pieces, perform the necessary rites and return what is left behind back to their rightful owners.

"Hey Vincent." The Berelai patched herself to the bridge, her voice mellow and hesitant. The needs of the living should always come first, asking the mercenary to stop shooting completely would endanger the crew but some concessions could be made. "Is it possible to limit collateral damage to the wreckages other than the ones in our way? I would like to return and explore this place in the future." Though, considering her history of indiscriminate salvaging back at the Red base, she would have to further explain her intentions to him later lest he thinks she is some kind of vulture.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent's grunted reply was very limited and calm, although it was clear that there was something else- besides rage - lurking just beneath the surface. "Yeah," the ex-merc replied, and immediately began recalibrating the cannons to reduce output. In such a procedure, the mercenary would limit damage to the debris but still retain enough power to redirect drifting space junk.

 

[Luca]

John piped in as he was relieved, "The Graviton beams should see you through if you want a non lethal approach to the wreckage," He then yawned mightily, "Now I need to get some shuteye." He hopped into his bunk with his favourite magazine.
"I suppose that'll preserve this graveyard," Sebastian sighed, shaking his head, "This will stand as a grim monument to the unbridled brutality of an empire."

"Sleep well, don't let the space mites bite," Luca bode his friend farewell. He, and the rest of the bridge then heard the sound of a rifle discharge behind him. He swivelled around, "Target practice, Mel?"

She pulled the hammer back on her rifle/railgun/revolver, and she was as far as she could be away from the target, "Yeah, shame the range isn't that long," She lamented as she fired again, using only a minimal amount of power to the railgun component of the gun to reduce noise. She'd also been courteous to make a barrier out of spare furniture so nobody would walk into one of her bullets.

She grumbled a little as she found that her telescopic sight was a off by a minute or two to the left. She made the adjustments.

Meanwhile, the communications begun to crackle to life as a message was relayed to the Big Bird.
"Co-e i-, I nee- y-ur hel-," The message was full of static and white noise, but there was an unmistakable anxiety behind each word, "Plea-e." It then fizzled out.

Sebastian blinked, "An SOS transmission? This long after the battle?"

 

[ShotJon]

Arin said that the Aether generators in the jeep can be repaired, but Zeta had no idea how. She knew how to work with Nepleslian stuff, and this car is so Yamataian that it hurts. She finally decided to take a breather.
Of course she also heard Arin's shouting. But only a little of it. She somehow made out of it, that she has to stow the stuff she was working with. She found empty box in garage and threw her stuff in it. It would be all inside for her to use later on.

She then picked up a clean rag and walked out of her cave. She was in the garage for hours and wanted to see what were they flying through.
She came to the cockpit, but she stayed in the hall so she won't be in the way. Through window, she could see the field of wreckage. The debris field was huge. She was cleaning her hands for grease with a rag and looking outside, when the communication console came to life.

She listened to Sebastians commentary and said, "Maybe it is automatic, from one of damaged ships."

 

[TeslaTornado]

"If it's automatic," Vincent grunted from his post at the bridge, "then its crew is probably long dead." The mercenary swivelled in his white bridge chair and turned to face his captain, a severe expression on his face. "I would advise we move on, but if you must go I volunteer to lead an away team and search the vessel."

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert came outta the kitchen where he had been practicing his stealth abilities and was now snacking on his lastest conquest of cornbread. He stepped up behind the pilot's chair. "So we going to check out a strange garbbled transmission in a spaceship graveyard?"

 

[Scot]

Panther's ear twitched as they heard the familiar fire arm sound close by as he was exploring the ship. He had changed earlier from his hoodlum disguise to something more conformable, a white shirt and blue pants, and a hole in the pants to allow his tail some freedom. The Narual within him naturally was curious which lead him to the firing range.

He noticed Luca, and almost ignored anyone else with his main focus one the sniper rifle. The black fur met the metal as Panther leaned back on the steel wall to watch the sniper with the memory of the Neko assassin still in his mind, wondering how such a weapon can make someone into a blood splatter.

"What weapon is that?" asked Panther after a watching a few shots.

 

[Luca]

"This little number was," She started, heaving her weapon for show, then paused as she looked down the side of the barrel, and the railgun system and battery, "Built by Freespacers," She then took a moment to examine the ammo cylinder and stock, "Heavily modified by Nepleslians," and then she tapped the scope, "With a scope made by the Yammies."

She then pushed the large cylinder out of the gun, "Takes only six 7.62 cartridges in this here cylinder, so I need to make every shot count," She then snapped it shut and pulled the hammer back, "Since it certainly ain't quiet when it's fully powered up!"

She left it on minimum power, and drew a bead on the Super Demon's head, and fired, hitting the shields Arin had set up.
"She's a beaut, eh?" She flashed a genuine smile in Panther's direction as she looked at the knife hanging by his waist, "Hm, should show that to H'tori 'n Robert, they're a couple of otha' knifey-spoony types 'round 'ere that I know of."

She then got back to shooting, as quietly as she could. She would silence the weapon, but she knew the Revolver mechanism would nullify its use.

Hitori, meanwhile, was sitting in the lounge, playing idly with her newly acquired butterfly knife, heaving a light sigh.
Crane was busying himself with getting the ingredients together for lunch, and preparing them. He noted with a frown that he'd have to make a stop somewhere to refill the food supply for twenty people, for seven days. He had 5 more days of food left.
He kept it on a sticky note on the fridge.

Back on the Bridge, a decision had been reached.
"We'll fly by, and send out our own signal," Luca concluded after going over the opinions, "If nothing responds, we'll continue on our course."

The area from which the call originated from was only a short distance away, say, forty three kilometres, and the debris was starting to thin a little, giving Vincent and Uriel some relief.
Sadly, it was still Freespacer debris, finding Yamataian debris would've been an interesting sight to break up the deadly monotony.

 

[ShotJon]

Zeta frowned as she looked outside, "Hey cap, I would be careful. It could be a trap," She said. She didn't want to take any chances. "It could be some scavengers gaining some extra money, luring other ships with an SOS signal."

 

[Fian]

"A scan too would be good." The Representative's voice sounded through the bridge. Arin considered leaving the comm to the bridge open at all times, since there is hardly anyone else in the engine room with her. "If we detect signs of life then we must effect a rescue immediately, otherwise it is best to leave it to the professionals."

 

[Lamb]

Having just woken up, Enzo was tiredly shuffling onto the bridge with a glass of coffee and vodka in his hand, having overheard the conversation from the ship's corridors. "If we's still pickins members for the boardins party, don't exclude me." he said in a low groan, "There might be some nice stuff yous guys overlook if I'm not around."

He smirked weakly and tousled his hair slightly before taking a sip of his drink.

 

[Luca]

"Thanks Zeta, Vincent, arm weapons," Luca commanded as the origin of the distress call got closer and closer to the vehicle, "Enzo, if we do find someone, I'll see to it you're on the boarding party."

Once they got to the area, there was a ruined ship of some sort, but a scan for organic material did not yield any results. A couple of other scans yielded that the freespacer vessel was torn apart.

"Nothing," Sebastian said, "Disappointing, really."
As they were leaving to continue their course, the radio came to life again, "Ah, thanks for picking me up. I appreciate it," The female voice was now crystal clear, coming from the radios and intercom. In fact, it could be heard throughout the ship.

Luca was curious as to how he picked this woman up, "Wait, picking who up? We didn't send out anyone."

The odd thing was, nothing had collided or come towards the ship when they came into the area.

 

[Fian]

Arin nervously backed herself into a corner into the engine room. Whatever this thing is it could be ANYWHERE on the ship. Once the Nepleslian woman had the entire engine room in her field of vision and was confident that nothing could sneak up behind her she relaxed somewhat. She was certain nothing entered the engine room while she was in it, but the voice was EVERYWHERE. Perhaps they had picked up a virtual entity? She ran a quick available data storage space comparison before and after the 'pickup', a program or AI construct that could force its way into the ship's systems must be huge.

 

[TeslaTornado]

"Valo," Vincent calmly and analytically grunted, "lock down all external access and grant access to secured ship areas - armory and bridge - to priveleged individuals of the Phoenix crew. Encrypt any flight data and keep us safe, just in case. If we have stealth systems, key them up to full now."

The mercenary withdrew his emergency gun from beneath the weapons console where he was sitting and directed one of the bridge watchers to take over his station, holding the SiZi plasma pistol tight in a one-handed death grip, the barrel down at the floor but his arm tensed and ready to spring like a coiled viper to shooting level. "Enzo, Zeta," the merc grunted, "spread out and check the entire ship. We have an intruder of unidentified intent aboard, and I intend not to let anything happen to it under my watch."

 

[Scot]

A weapon with such a history like the sniper woman's would have probably been given a tale of it's many victories back on his homeworld. He walked up to the firing range and asked, "Have you named that weapon?" The black Panther creature then set up his own target.

He quickly pulled the pistol from the front of his pants where it hid gangstah style and fired two shots mid ranged, both hitting the target though not with deadly accuracy. He let a low growl at his frustration, knowing that he would need more training in human bullet weapons before they could replace near obsolete knife throwing.

 

[ShotJon]

"You don't have to tell me that." said Zeta. "Captain you stay here please. And you winged folk be careful, someone can get here. We don't now how many of them are here." With those words she left cocpkit and dissapeared. She only had her knife but that should be enough. On the shop you can move pretty silently and narrow corridor and short distances could let surprise 'others'. If 'others' weren't professional. Then it was harder.

She silently moved out of the room through lounge and went right towards the kitchen. She could probably go for her gun, but it would take time and in case she can throw her knife. She was going stealthy and checked behind a corners in case of anything.

 

[Lamb]

Enzo finished his drink quickly and said, "Seems like a good enough order of business." He completely ignored the serious intonation with which Vincent spoke-- not wanting to voice the same discontent as Zeta, nor wanting to show the opposite amount of repect either. Without another word, he sat down his cup and made for the corridor at a heightened pace.

"Oh wheres is yous, you little creepy Freespacer voice?" he chided, peering playfully around every corner he encountered.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent was off the bridge last, having taken time to password-lock his weapons station and pass the codes off to the crewmen on the bridge, just in case. He held his SiZi Plasma Revolver in a double-handed grip and made his way into the corridor, heading towards the shuttlebays. The mercenary kept his footsteps well-paced and steady, his gun pointed down but ready to snap up at a moment's notice and place a plasma bolt into his opponent's skull at a second's notice.

"Alright, show yourself. Game over, spooky." The mercenary grunted to himself as he plodded up to the starboard shuttle bay.

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert jumped out of the chair he had been dozing in till Vincent jumped out of the chair next to him. He got up with his pistol drawn and followed him quickly. He held his pistol in one hand and his favorite knife in the other. "What do you think boarded us?" he whispered to the much larger man.