>ON!
Iron Ferret - Shuttle Bay
Without the shuttle, the modified cargo bay was quite expansive. To accomodate the smaller craft the room had to be expanded both horizontally and vertically, increasing the ship's profile; but it was better than putting the lightly armed freighter in harm's way during a job, since Desmond was sure that if someone looked menancingly at it it would fall apart in the blink of an eye.
The engineer in him could already see it. Instead of the constant, smooth purring of the fusion engine, there was a rythmic click to it that got more discernible the closer someone was to the engineering room, and even by removing every safety known to man the he still struggled to make the ship reach peak efficiency. They would need to find a better replacement if they wanted to up their game; the bounty hunter didn't want to spend his time going after small time criminals.
The bounty hunter in question stood inside the room, facing the open docking bay and with his back towards the entrance. Despite the low light level inside the room -with only a small measure of it coming from the open bay- his silhouette was still quite clearly bulked up by the new personal armor that he had commissioned, only devoid of the ammo and equipment pouches he would otherwise have strapped to the hard plates.
He reached for something on one of his pant pockets, squeezing a gloved hand between the thigh plate and pulled out the square lighter, flipping it open and bringing it closer to his lips. Being able to remove the faceplate instead of the entire helmet had been a big plus, too. After a few seconds of light, he closed the small device and returned it to his pocket, exhaling a white puff of smoke from the cigarette he had just lit. And then he waited.
He didn't need to wait long. Desmond could hear very soft footsteps walking beside him, then coming to rest beside him gently. It was the Bounty Hunter's resident skulk and skinny: Danny Hanley-Lewis. Around the ship, Danny let his SQUID suit's camouflage 'calibrate' by shifting and cycling through various patterns, textures, and glosses. With the hood pulled over his face, Desmond noticed a small difference to the head of the suit.
The mask was still there, but it seemed to be gently shrouded in a looser length of cloth, like a hooded jumper similar to the ones. The intention was to break up his silhouette, and to conceal some harder padding to protect his head. The last mission on Dawn Station tracking down the Captain of the Concordia Veil gave him a lesson in protecting his head.
Still, he didn't have a face with the hood and mask on. "Is that from the Binkowskis?" Danny asked, jaw moving with his speech, strange fabric - no, wait, it looked more like digitally camouflaged, arctic-patterned latex now - stretching over his mouth, but still speaking clear as day.
Desmond flicked the still burning cigarette away, out of the open shuttle bay, and turned back around to face Danny. By then, the other bounty hunter's suit barely unsettled him anymore. "Yeah," he answered. "Why?"
"Been meaning to check them out." Danny answered as he rolled his shoulders against the bulkhead. His light array of gear rattled against his chest and around his waist. He looked at Desmond's head, seeing the way the helmet's respirator tubes framed his rugged face.
For a moment, Danny thought it rude to be wearing his hood indoors, and hooked his thumb under the unseen seam in his neck, pulling the mask up, and pulling the hood down with it as his hand ran down the back of his head. "Perhaps a dart launcher for my pistol will do me some good." Desmond knew he meant tranquillisers, and the Zen Arms 10mm he kept.
"That sounds like something Roy can do," the bounty hunter agreed. Sometimes it paid off more by taking the person in alive. Desmond squinted, looking at the open bay and then back at Danny as if he remembered something important. "Speaking of which, I could use you in the next job," he added.
Danny was reaching into one of his pouches on his chest. It looked like ... candy. A lollipop you could get at any corner store at the counter for 1 DA, usually loaded with a hit of nicotine, or some other stimulant. This one, according to the wrapper was Lorath Duqcloss flavoured. "I'm listening." He nodded.
"Alright," The Nepleslian started to say, also reaching for something strapped to the chestplate of his armor. Instead of a candy or a narcotic, however, it was the faceplate for his helmet. The entire thing was well protected enough it could shrug shrug off pistol fire from it, and maybe even deflect something from a rifle if he was lucky; the downside was that it weighed close to 9 pounds with everything put together.
At least he could brain someone with it if he ran out of ammo and lost his machete.
"Can you do two things at once?" Desmond asked, putting the plate on with a click. There was a brief hiss and pop as the helmet sealed up.
Technically it was truly impossible to multitask at a neural level - it was just focussing a single spot of attention and stretching it over multiple points. "Depends." Danny said as he flicked a finger against the end of his lollipop, looking over to Desmond with a raised eyebrow.
That was what probably helped him see what was coming. In the span of a few moments, the other bounty hunter stepped closer to Danny, surprisingly fast too -for someone wearing a 30 pound armor- and bringing the dirty blonde into his reach as he threw a jab at him. The blonde leaned in, dodging the punch by closing whatever reach Desmond had and slipping by, going for a body hook as he did so.
Desmond, however, didn't stop, and continued to use his momentum to ram his bulk against the other bounty hunter. Being that close, instead of going for a punch, he tried to bring his elbow against Danny's head.
Danny had other ideas as he found himself on the back foot by the sheer weight of Desmond's momentum, assisted by the weight of his armour. All of that momentum took a while to stop if it started moving, and part of Danny's training told him it was always better to redirect enemy force than stop it directly.
Desmond's elbow connected with Danny's head - and the blonde thanked his lucky stars the padding was there to absorb some of the shock as he pitched in and hooked his foot behind Desmond's knee as he pushed against his opposite shoulder, trying to topple him, succeeding in toppling his adversary.
Instead of trying to arrest his fall, Desmond brought his left arm against the ground to help him direct his body into a roll, which was quite clumsy because he hadn't tried doing that with the armor yet, but it was better than being sprawled on the floor. He rolled and came up again on a crouch a few feet away from Danny, turning around as he expected the other bounty hunter to already be coming in with an attack, and he was right.
Danny's suit, meanwhile seemed to stop its calibrations, instead becoming a matte black, like Desmond had seen in their stealthier or urbanised operations like Delsauria. The hunter was aiming to to knee Desmond in the face with a running start. He didn't know what that faceplate was made of.
With little time to react, Desmond instead lowered his head, so that instead of the faceplate, Danny's knee would collide with the forehead of his helmet, which also happened to be the toughest part, with a flat, angled plate of Composite covering the ballistic ceramic that made its outer shell.
There was the telltale pang of metal against metal resounding in the empty shuttle bay as the blow collided, allowing the Nepleslian to jump back up and take a step backwards as he raised his guard again. He saw Danny rubbing his knee on one leg for a moment, muttering curses in Lorath before resuming a stance and closing in, this time knowing that attacks to the head would be in vain.
Instead, it was his body at the sides which would be more lightly armoured for the sake of mobility, and at the joints for flexibility. Neck was the only exception - too risky with that heavy helmet able to come down. He opened with a pair of jabs to feel Desmond out, using reach to his advantage, and threw a cross at the hunter's right forearm.
Taking the blow against the muscle, Desmond stepped into Danny's guard again, but this time instead of trying to strike the other bounty hunter's head again with his elbow, he brought his armored knee agian, aiming for Danny's midsection. The other hunter anticipated this, but a moment too late. It connected as he was getting out of its way. All it really did was soften the blow before Danny made a strike with his knee to Desmond's thigh, glimpsing the lack of armour plating there as he was moving out of the way.
Desmond felt the blow hitting the muscle on the part that wasn't covered by the hard nor the soft armor. He gritted his teeth behind the faceplate, bringing his helmet down to headbutt the other bounty hunter. Danny turtled by bringing his hand behind his head, and using his elbow as a guard against Desmond's brain bucket. He could still feel the pain shooting through his arm, but it was better than feeling it through his skull, retaliating by stepping over his left leg and grabbing him around the neck, keeping him down.
However, the arm he used to hold him down was in direct competition with striking Desmond's back, leading to awkward haymakers with his left hand into Desmond's shoulder.
Desmond, however, had been in one too many brawls to know what to do. Instead of spending an alarmingly big amount of energy to wrestle himself away from his adversary's grip, which afterwards would make his 30 pound armor feel like it weighed 60 pounds, he instead grabbed reached down, grabbing behind each of Danny's knees with each hand and lifting the other bounty hunter off the ground.
Danny's back slammed against the ground of the cargo bay, sending an echo through the empty bay. A brief moment of confusion turned to anger as Danny grabbed onto Desmond's shoulders and held his foot against all of his armour, again trying to exploit all that momentum and send him either off to one side or just above his head, pushing with his hands, feet and a growl, the first Desmond had heard from him.
The Nepleslian went over Danny and fell on his back with all the grace that his bulky armor allowed him. Grunting, Desmond sat upright and started to get up. "The next job is on Funky City," he started to say. Even though his voice was distorted by the faceplate anyone could hear that it was strained from the exertion.
Danny was trying to stagger to his feet, pulling the mask off of his face so he could breathe properly and coughing as his arms gave up from under him, having to grab something to sit up and eventually onto his shaky legs. "Rh...right. Anything else...?"
"The data we got from those guys in Delsauria pointed to a safe house in Funky City,"
Danny seemed to be scanning the room for a drink as he wiped his brow with a rag on the crate. He nodded back to Desmond and looked over to him. He was impressed with how mobile Desmond was, despite the weight of that armour. "The weight on that's very well distributed," Danny pointed out, his way of a compliment.
"Anyway," Desmond continued, more because he was unsure of what to reply with instead of being the usual, asshole self. "After some digging, it turned out that only one person was ever seen going in and out of that safehouse. The only problem is that it's in Funky City, in a gang-owned apartment complex," he continued, waiting for a reaction.
The blonde sighed, turning over and rolling his eyes in exasperation. "Well of course." He mumbled in Lorath, tone clearly sarcastic. "I swear to goodness if I mapped out every colour of every gang in that fucking city, I'd get a few perfect rainbows if I line them up properly."
"Yeah." Desmond agreed. With his voice coming out distorted and digitalized by the helmet, it was hard to tell if he was idly agreeing or if the joke had gone right over him. The voice was unsurprisingly bland.
Danny knew that he had a beef with some guys who wore yellow, and some bunch of hopped up little shits who wore green.
"The thing is," The Nepleslian continued, letting his hands rest on his waist so that the muscles on his arm could recover a bit. "I don't feel like chasing someone in Downtown Funky City, so that's where I need your skills in tracking this asshole down once we flush him out," He continued, stopping for a while as he looked over the open shuttle bay.
"You in?"
He knew the lay of the land and how to get by in an urban environment, and nodded. "I have an apartment there - not sure if someone's already claimed it or if it's abandoned, but we can base there."
Of course he was in.
"Cool," Desmond said, raising his guard as he turned to face Danny. "Again."
Danny turned around, stood out from the box he was using to support himself, and assumed a stance after putting his mask back down over his face. "Let's make it snappy."
>OFF!
Iron Ferret - Shuttle Bay
Without the shuttle, the modified cargo bay was quite expansive. To accomodate the smaller craft the room had to be expanded both horizontally and vertically, increasing the ship's profile; but it was better than putting the lightly armed freighter in harm's way during a job, since Desmond was sure that if someone looked menancingly at it it would fall apart in the blink of an eye.
The engineer in him could already see it. Instead of the constant, smooth purring of the fusion engine, there was a rythmic click to it that got more discernible the closer someone was to the engineering room, and even by removing every safety known to man the he still struggled to make the ship reach peak efficiency. They would need to find a better replacement if they wanted to up their game; the bounty hunter didn't want to spend his time going after small time criminals.
The bounty hunter in question stood inside the room, facing the open docking bay and with his back towards the entrance. Despite the low light level inside the room -with only a small measure of it coming from the open bay- his silhouette was still quite clearly bulked up by the new personal armor that he had commissioned, only devoid of the ammo and equipment pouches he would otherwise have strapped to the hard plates.
He reached for something on one of his pant pockets, squeezing a gloved hand between the thigh plate and pulled out the square lighter, flipping it open and bringing it closer to his lips. Being able to remove the faceplate instead of the entire helmet had been a big plus, too. After a few seconds of light, he closed the small device and returned it to his pocket, exhaling a white puff of smoke from the cigarette he had just lit. And then he waited.
He didn't need to wait long. Desmond could hear very soft footsteps walking beside him, then coming to rest beside him gently. It was the Bounty Hunter's resident skulk and skinny: Danny Hanley-Lewis. Around the ship, Danny let his SQUID suit's camouflage 'calibrate' by shifting and cycling through various patterns, textures, and glosses. With the hood pulled over his face, Desmond noticed a small difference to the head of the suit.
The mask was still there, but it seemed to be gently shrouded in a looser length of cloth, like a hooded jumper similar to the ones. The intention was to break up his silhouette, and to conceal some harder padding to protect his head. The last mission on Dawn Station tracking down the Captain of the Concordia Veil gave him a lesson in protecting his head.
Still, he didn't have a face with the hood and mask on. "Is that from the Binkowskis?" Danny asked, jaw moving with his speech, strange fabric - no, wait, it looked more like digitally camouflaged, arctic-patterned latex now - stretching over his mouth, but still speaking clear as day.
Desmond flicked the still burning cigarette away, out of the open shuttle bay, and turned back around to face Danny. By then, the other bounty hunter's suit barely unsettled him anymore. "Yeah," he answered. "Why?"
"Been meaning to check them out." Danny answered as he rolled his shoulders against the bulkhead. His light array of gear rattled against his chest and around his waist. He looked at Desmond's head, seeing the way the helmet's respirator tubes framed his rugged face.
For a moment, Danny thought it rude to be wearing his hood indoors, and hooked his thumb under the unseen seam in his neck, pulling the mask up, and pulling the hood down with it as his hand ran down the back of his head. "Perhaps a dart launcher for my pistol will do me some good." Desmond knew he meant tranquillisers, and the Zen Arms 10mm he kept.
"That sounds like something Roy can do," the bounty hunter agreed. Sometimes it paid off more by taking the person in alive. Desmond squinted, looking at the open bay and then back at Danny as if he remembered something important. "Speaking of which, I could use you in the next job," he added.
Danny was reaching into one of his pouches on his chest. It looked like ... candy. A lollipop you could get at any corner store at the counter for 1 DA, usually loaded with a hit of nicotine, or some other stimulant. This one, according to the wrapper was Lorath Duqcloss flavoured. "I'm listening." He nodded.
"Alright," The Nepleslian started to say, also reaching for something strapped to the chestplate of his armor. Instead of a candy or a narcotic, however, it was the faceplate for his helmet. The entire thing was well protected enough it could shrug shrug off pistol fire from it, and maybe even deflect something from a rifle if he was lucky; the downside was that it weighed close to 9 pounds with everything put together.
At least he could brain someone with it if he ran out of ammo and lost his machete.
"Can you do two things at once?" Desmond asked, putting the plate on with a click. There was a brief hiss and pop as the helmet sealed up.
Technically it was truly impossible to multitask at a neural level - it was just focussing a single spot of attention and stretching it over multiple points. "Depends." Danny said as he flicked a finger against the end of his lollipop, looking over to Desmond with a raised eyebrow.
That was what probably helped him see what was coming. In the span of a few moments, the other bounty hunter stepped closer to Danny, surprisingly fast too -for someone wearing a 30 pound armor- and bringing the dirty blonde into his reach as he threw a jab at him. The blonde leaned in, dodging the punch by closing whatever reach Desmond had and slipping by, going for a body hook as he did so.
Desmond, however, didn't stop, and continued to use his momentum to ram his bulk against the other bounty hunter. Being that close, instead of going for a punch, he tried to bring his elbow against Danny's head.
Danny had other ideas as he found himself on the back foot by the sheer weight of Desmond's momentum, assisted by the weight of his armour. All of that momentum took a while to stop if it started moving, and part of Danny's training told him it was always better to redirect enemy force than stop it directly.
Desmond's elbow connected with Danny's head - and the blonde thanked his lucky stars the padding was there to absorb some of the shock as he pitched in and hooked his foot behind Desmond's knee as he pushed against his opposite shoulder, trying to topple him, succeeding in toppling his adversary.
Instead of trying to arrest his fall, Desmond brought his left arm against the ground to help him direct his body into a roll, which was quite clumsy because he hadn't tried doing that with the armor yet, but it was better than being sprawled on the floor. He rolled and came up again on a crouch a few feet away from Danny, turning around as he expected the other bounty hunter to already be coming in with an attack, and he was right.
Danny's suit, meanwhile seemed to stop its calibrations, instead becoming a matte black, like Desmond had seen in their stealthier or urbanised operations like Delsauria. The hunter was aiming to to knee Desmond in the face with a running start. He didn't know what that faceplate was made of.
With little time to react, Desmond instead lowered his head, so that instead of the faceplate, Danny's knee would collide with the forehead of his helmet, which also happened to be the toughest part, with a flat, angled plate of Composite covering the ballistic ceramic that made its outer shell.
There was the telltale pang of metal against metal resounding in the empty shuttle bay as the blow collided, allowing the Nepleslian to jump back up and take a step backwards as he raised his guard again. He saw Danny rubbing his knee on one leg for a moment, muttering curses in Lorath before resuming a stance and closing in, this time knowing that attacks to the head would be in vain.
Instead, it was his body at the sides which would be more lightly armoured for the sake of mobility, and at the joints for flexibility. Neck was the only exception - too risky with that heavy helmet able to come down. He opened with a pair of jabs to feel Desmond out, using reach to his advantage, and threw a cross at the hunter's right forearm.
Taking the blow against the muscle, Desmond stepped into Danny's guard again, but this time instead of trying to strike the other bounty hunter's head again with his elbow, he brought his armored knee agian, aiming for Danny's midsection. The other hunter anticipated this, but a moment too late. It connected as he was getting out of its way. All it really did was soften the blow before Danny made a strike with his knee to Desmond's thigh, glimpsing the lack of armour plating there as he was moving out of the way.
Desmond felt the blow hitting the muscle on the part that wasn't covered by the hard nor the soft armor. He gritted his teeth behind the faceplate, bringing his helmet down to headbutt the other bounty hunter. Danny turtled by bringing his hand behind his head, and using his elbow as a guard against Desmond's brain bucket. He could still feel the pain shooting through his arm, but it was better than feeling it through his skull, retaliating by stepping over his left leg and grabbing him around the neck, keeping him down.
However, the arm he used to hold him down was in direct competition with striking Desmond's back, leading to awkward haymakers with his left hand into Desmond's shoulder.
Desmond, however, had been in one too many brawls to know what to do. Instead of spending an alarmingly big amount of energy to wrestle himself away from his adversary's grip, which afterwards would make his 30 pound armor feel like it weighed 60 pounds, he instead grabbed reached down, grabbing behind each of Danny's knees with each hand and lifting the other bounty hunter off the ground.
Danny's back slammed against the ground of the cargo bay, sending an echo through the empty bay. A brief moment of confusion turned to anger as Danny grabbed onto Desmond's shoulders and held his foot against all of his armour, again trying to exploit all that momentum and send him either off to one side or just above his head, pushing with his hands, feet and a growl, the first Desmond had heard from him.
The Nepleslian went over Danny and fell on his back with all the grace that his bulky armor allowed him. Grunting, Desmond sat upright and started to get up. "The next job is on Funky City," he started to say. Even though his voice was distorted by the faceplate anyone could hear that it was strained from the exertion.
Danny was trying to stagger to his feet, pulling the mask off of his face so he could breathe properly and coughing as his arms gave up from under him, having to grab something to sit up and eventually onto his shaky legs. "Rh...right. Anything else...?"
"The data we got from those guys in Delsauria pointed to a safe house in Funky City,"
Danny seemed to be scanning the room for a drink as he wiped his brow with a rag on the crate. He nodded back to Desmond and looked over to him. He was impressed with how mobile Desmond was, despite the weight of that armour. "The weight on that's very well distributed," Danny pointed out, his way of a compliment.
"Anyway," Desmond continued, more because he was unsure of what to reply with instead of being the usual, asshole self. "After some digging, it turned out that only one person was ever seen going in and out of that safehouse. The only problem is that it's in Funky City, in a gang-owned apartment complex," he continued, waiting for a reaction.
The blonde sighed, turning over and rolling his eyes in exasperation. "Well of course." He mumbled in Lorath, tone clearly sarcastic. "I swear to goodness if I mapped out every colour of every gang in that fucking city, I'd get a few perfect rainbows if I line them up properly."
"Yeah." Desmond agreed. With his voice coming out distorted and digitalized by the helmet, it was hard to tell if he was idly agreeing or if the joke had gone right over him. The voice was unsurprisingly bland.
Danny knew that he had a beef with some guys who wore yellow, and some bunch of hopped up little shits who wore green.
"The thing is," The Nepleslian continued, letting his hands rest on his waist so that the muscles on his arm could recover a bit. "I don't feel like chasing someone in Downtown Funky City, so that's where I need your skills in tracking this asshole down once we flush him out," He continued, stopping for a while as he looked over the open shuttle bay.
"You in?"
He knew the lay of the land and how to get by in an urban environment, and nodded. "I have an apartment there - not sure if someone's already claimed it or if it's abandoned, but we can base there."
Of course he was in.
"Cool," Desmond said, raising his guard as he turned to face Danny. "Again."
Danny turned around, stood out from the box he was using to support himself, and assumed a stance after putting his mask back down over his face. "Let's make it snappy."
>OFF!
