Abwehran Commander
Inactive Member
ON
Several hours had passed since the Enkidu had left Nepleslia and the vessel had now reached its destination deep with in the front line between the NMX and Nepleslian military, a prime site for salvaging the high quality hardware. If you could call it high quality after the damage it took. Either way, the Enkidu was now in a prime spot to start its ventures.
Myr stood on the bridge, one arm crossed over her chest and the other resting on the back of the pilot's chair, where Dante Vickensmall sat piloting the Enkidu. She was mostly silent, thrumming with anticipation; as she saw the debris fields on the sensors and ordered the rest of her crew to assemble upon the Bridge.
Shiori had taken her fill of the engineering bay, checking out which tools and supplies the Enkidu had (not enough) and making notes of what she'd need to buy, steal, or otherwise come into possession of (a lot.) That done, she headed back up to the second deck and claimed herself a room. She was just getting settled in when Myr's summons came. At them, woman rolled out of bed, unconcerned, and made her way toward the bridge at a leisurely pace.
Tuija entered the bridge, covered head to toe in dust. 'The maintenance passages,' she announced, 'are filthy. By the by, Captain, do you particularly care about regulations?' She regarded Myr, her eyes shimmering. 'Because I think that between Specs, Shiori, and myself, we might be able to strip down some of the regulators. The safety margins are, I have always thought, far too broad.'
Myr was leaning against the back of the captain's chair, facing the door with her arms crossed over her chest as she smoked one of her foul-smelling cigars. "I got no fuckin' clue whatchu said, four-arms. So I guess do whatever y'goddamn want." She waved a hand dismissively, then jerked her head over her shoulder at the viewport. "Waitin' fer tiny-dick to get us through all th' debris an' shit that's out there. Speakin' of debris, take a goddamn bath!"
“Eh, could probably manage it," Shiori said in response to Tuija's suggestion. "I'm more concerned with making sure we're up to maintenance before we go trying to break anything."
Algol was tempted to remain in place, realizing that he'd ultimately not have much more to do with a scavenging operation than he would a negotiation with some high-class diplomat, but decided against it. Mostly, because he wanted to walk a little bit and get something to eat, and knew he would likely be reprimanded for taking something without making the effort to show himself to the Captain. He arrived a bit later than Myr might have wanted; holding what appeared to be a chunk of dried meat in his clawed arm. He didn't seem particularly interested in the goings-on, and gave a wry salute to the captain and the others. "Yo."
Taking it easy, Dante began to maneuver the vessel closer to the nearby debris field. But the Enkidu was going to get quite a surprise as practically several dozen blinding, flashes of light occurred in front of them. Thinking quickly, the Enkidu's pilot raised the ship's shields as massive amounts of debris were flung at them. This in turn caused the vessel to rumble as its shields took the brunt of the damage. It looked like several nukes had been let loose out there.
Myr was about to address the late Iromakuanhe, but she whirled around with a squawk as she saw the flash of the explosions. The impact of the debris, though lessened by the shields, almost knocked her over, and she hung on for dear life to the back of Dante's chair. "...motherfucker! What was that?!"
Tuija was flung to the ground. 'The Hell?' she demanded of nobody in particular, immediately hauling herself to her feet and lunging for a computer terminal to get a damage assessment.
Shiori cursed under her breath as she saw the flashes, but she still didn't have enough forewarning to brace herself before the shockwave hit. As she straightened herself back up, she asked, "We sure the fight's over out there?"
'I would very much like to know that, myself...' Tuija muttered, and flicked the screen with a metal finger. 'The secondary grav stabilizer’s seized. We can fly out without it, but if the primary goes, and then we all get converted into a fine paste. Shouldn't take too long to fix, though...'
Myr peeled herself off the back of the pilot's chair with a grunt and dusted herself off, small fragments of upholstery still clinging to her coat. "...how long is 'not too long'?"
Tuija bit her lip as she examined the diagnostic reports scrolling up her screen, and shared a few muttered words with Shiori. 'It wouldn't be more than twenty minutes,' she said, 'except... We're missing a few of the parts. We'd be ready to go, but while you're over there, you'll need to find a transphasic bicapacitor and a few polytachyon coupl...' she paused. 'Specs can do the preliminary work, and Shiori and I can accompany you to find what we need.'
Shiori leaned over to look at the screen... Not tall enough to look over Tuija's shoulder, she had to lean to the side a little, but she still got a good enough angle on the screen. "Yeah. If we can't find a replacement, I can jury-rig something that'll get us home, at least," she said, far too confidently for somebody using the word 'jury-rig.'
"Blah de blah transhypertitsic narglifier, fuckin' maybe we can find it on th' wreck. Y'two grab some guns, 'r knives 'r what th' fuck ever you like usin'. Might be raiders or some shit on there." Myr patted the Fatboy on her belt.
Algol stripped off a slice of the meat with his free hand and popped it into his mouth, chewing tentatively as the others panicked and frowning to himself as he considered that they were going into a tense situation like this. "I would comment on your choice of words, but it would be an insult to the Trade language..." He chimed in his dour and accented speech as Myr expressed her dismissal of the problems and ordered them along. "...and I ache for a good fight. Set me at the enemy."
The wreck in question, which had been brilliantly lit by the explosions, was a vessel of unknown origin. To be quite honest, who ever designed it probably had a thing for phallic objects, cause it was a large round body with a long cylindrical superstructure jutting from the front (if it was even the front). Dante maneuvered the Enkidu closer and closer all the while using the ship's sensors to find a usable airlock. Apparently, it was located at the end of the superstructure, which required the pilot to execute a docking operation that looked rather Freudian in a way. But once the seals were in place, the short man gave his Captain a thumbs up.
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Meanwhile, on board the vessel, a rather battered Android had taken a tumble from that explosion; a tumble that had propelled her into the control console of the Transport, which created an Anya-sized imprint of crushed molecular circuitry and paneling. It took only a moment for the artificial woman to reorient herself, though she grimaced as damage alerts went off in her programming. "Helen, are you all right!?" she asked in Nepleslian.
Helen woke up with her eyes rolling, “Neber bettre,” she attempted to reply back as she tried to reorient herself. She climbed onto the console she had knocked into which was the damage control. Well, at least we still have air...
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"Looks like it's fuckin' whole enough fer us to get on there through the airlock. Everyone up in the airlock, start gettin' your pressure suits on." The captain looked mournfully at her half-smoked cigar before she stubbed it out on the back of the captain's chair, leaving a smoldering burn mark on the upholstery. "Good work, meat 'n two veg. Hope there's nobody on thar wantin' to kill us."
"Mmhm," Shiori said unenthusiastically. A half-gutted ship was really the sort of thing she was used to leaving behind, rather than going to, but she still knew fully well how much of a deathtrap one could be. But then, she had picked this as her new career. The Geshrin headed back to her room to pull her armor vest on and grab her rifle, then headed to the airlock.
Tuija herself just changed her clothes and scrubbed her face and hair, before selecting a good oversize wrench to bring along.
"..." Algol was clearly bothered by the notion of going out into space. It was bad enough that they were in some giant coffin made of metal, but leaving it to salvage razor sharp scraps... was not the sort of thing he imagined himself doing for this... Myr Barlowe. It soon struck him that all of the clothing and equipment he had come across on the ship featured smooth, spherical headpieces, and a sort of relief set in. He had a reason for not going out. "Do you even have a helmet that will fit me?!"
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Something was blinking that had Helen's attention, which apparently was what was left of ship's sensors. “A ship!” she said excitedly while rushing to the console only to realize it probably wasn't a fleet ship, or at least the best she could remember what color a fleet ship would show up as. What if it's a pirate ship?
"Huh," Anya mumbled as she looked over the console to see--well, a battered, green hulk engulfing the viewport. "...Ah, certainly doesn't look friendly." the Android replied as she ran another diagnostic of her systems again. Luckily, it was mostly cosmetic damage with some artificial skin torn around her back and sides. Part of her thanked her designers for making her moderately durable as she stood up. "So...what should we do?"
Helen's panicked at the thought of pirates, she has up to this point a free Abwehran and didn't like the idea of being put back in that position again. “Anya, I hab idea, however we might hab to shot im',” she said as she headed over to a panel to start her plan. The red ponytailed haired girl began to setup a clip of her sobbing she had recorded accidently while trying to send out messages after everyone had died and set it to a loop. She then ran over to Anya and dashed to a console while dragging her android friend so to hide when the visitors arrive. She then raised a finger to her mouth as a signal to stay silent and wait for her plan to work.
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"What, they don't bend?" Myr reached out and grabbed one of Algol's horns, trying to fold it back against the top of his head. When it didn't instantly ply to her will, she pressed harder.
Shiori started pulling on her own suit, but looked over to the Iromakuanhe's problem idly as she did so. "Guess they don't make them for... whatever the hell he is."
"Wh- HEY!" Algol reflexively gave Myr's arm a shove away from his horn, not particularly relishing the feeling of having an unbending piece of his anatomy played with so roughly. "Saint-damned outlanders can't keep their hands to themselves!"
"Testing, testing..." Dante repeated over the communicator between the Captain's team and himself, he crossed his short legs in his chair as he got comfortable with his alone time. Since he was the only one on the bridge, which didn't bother him all that much, he was used to watching other people do stuff while he sat safely in the pilots chair. "Can you guys hear me? It's all quiet on my end."
'We'll see if we can build a good one for you,' Tuija said to Algol, a little oblivious to his more immediate plight, and flicked on her radio. 'I hear you, bridge.'
"Hujujujububu bajajar yerfuckin'self!" Myr hollered back at the bandit, flinging her arms up in the air. "Shee-yit, assholes." She shook her head as she stalked into the airlock, shrugging off her coat before she grabbed her pressure suit and stepped into it, holding her gun loosely in one hand. Her helmet had apparently been 'customized' with an eyepatch drawn in marker on the visor. "Got it, limpdick."
"Alright, I'll keep up with your progress and relay you any sensor information I pick up." Dante chimed, fiddling with his console to get the proper displays up.
Shiori gave a grunt and settled her own helmet into place, then slung her rifle over her shoulder. "Good to go, captain. Let's get this over with." Even after living in some of the poorer areas of Funky City, she didn't feel entirely clean wearing a spacesuit from this ship.
Myr shuffled through the pile of helmets that lay by the airlock, eventually coming up with an elongated one that looked like it would be worn with someone with a road cone for a head. She smirked beneath her own helmet and held the new one out to Algol. "There, should fit. Git dressed."
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Being dragged around by the hand seemed to be a constant for Anya in this situation as she allowed herself to be pulled over to a hiding spot. "But...what if they're a rescue party!? You shouldn't just shoot them without warning." the Android protested in alarm.
"The ship," Helen whispered with her fingers walking in the air slowly like if it were sneaking. She didn't want to get into a fight herself with only a pistol that she could on any dead corpse, or her trusty cooking knife, only getting on the ship would matter and she hoped to hide on it until they reached civilization.
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"What? Why would I wear a perfectly fitted codpiece over my head?" Algol said in what was probably a great attempt at humor horribly mistranslated as he slipped his pressure suit on. "You Nepleslians have weird tastes." He said with a grunt, attempting to force the helmet over his head. Although it was a rough fit, he didn't have the ergonomic niceties of having it originally designed for his head. He wouldn't be surprised if he heard a sudden crack or pop from his head mid-trip.
"..." Myr elected not to respond, simply shaking her head at the cone-headed pressure suit in front of her. "Errahbody ready? Good." Her hand smacked the airlock control, and the door hissed open.
"That only took forever," Shiori noted. As the door opened, she pulled her gun up to a ready position, but she was quite happy to let somebody more expendable take the lead.
"Captain, I'm not sure if you're used to it, but back in the YSE, we always let someone more expendable take the lead. Then again, Captains usually didn't go out on the away team either, but it's just a thought." Dante chimed.
As the away party opened the Transport's airlock, they would immediately be graced with a scene to come out of a Horror Film. A massive expanse opened up to them, most likely the cargo bay, and was strewn with smashed boxes and blacked marks of explosions. And then there was the blood. It must have been a lake of it at some point, like some great ritual to a dark god.
Okay, that was a bit excessive, but there were dried splotches of blood nearly everywhere. There were also a few dead bodies littering the area, but far too few to have produced the amount of blood witnessed. For all intents, it looked like a small battle had occurred in the vast space. It looked even more sinister with the red emergency lights. But not all was dreary, since the double doors of an elevator could be seen on the other side of the Hold.
"I'll do what I fuc - " Myr's voice trailed off into a small burble as she took in the sight of the wrecked cargo bay and the dead bodies scattered everywhere. Her arms came up, cradling her weapon, without any input from her brain, and she swept the gun around, looking for any signs of anything left living. When she didn't immediately see any, she took a step out into the bay. "...holy shit."
'I'm fine with this,' Tuija said reproachfully, peeking through the airlock from behind the captain, her wrench clutched in all hands. “Ho-lee Hell... What--happened--here?”
"What about fucking holy hell and shit? What's going on down there?" Dante asked, their sudden responses to the opening of the air lock disturbing him slightly.
Shiori quieted down once she saw the gore-splattered room ahead of them. To Dante, she explained dryly, "Well, if we were in the used organs business, we'd be rich by now..."
"Used organs? Who the hell plays organs anymore?" Dante said confused, still not too sure what they were so amazed about. Without video feed, he had no idea of what was going on.
"Not those organs, dipshit," Myr muttered, her voice low. She crept forward into the cargo bay, towards one of the bodies, and gave it a kick before she bent down to get a closer look.
"Feh. You scavenging the dead for body parts is the work of lowly peoples." Algol muttered, following behind the captain at a tentative distance. She had clearly chosen to walk point, and he could not object. He had no interest in whatever hazards the ship offered, that he had no means to challenge physically, and had a terrible allergy to explosions from ruined starship pieces.
"Ah? From what you say, it sounds like it must be pretty gruesome. If it's just sorta bad, it's Pirates, if it's really bad, chances are that it may be the Mishhu. Nevertheless, I recommend watching out for anything that scoots, skitters, or jiggles." Dante informed, working off his own experience as he looked over his sensors again, monitoring the ship's systems and any scans of the hulk.
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Anya kept silent with a grimace as the girl seemed bound and determined on her course of action. Of course, she couldn't allow the other woman to do this alone. Her eyes began to glow green as her mono-eyes began to send out radar pulses. Slowly, she gripped the gun Helen was holding and shook her head, her eyes giving off a bit of heat.
Helen only glanced back a little but nodded, she wondered with her sound trap set up they could hurry to another room and hide.
Taking it as a sign, Anya gently pulled the gun from Helen's hand and suddenly began to check it over real closely. It wasn't a chemical propellant weapon, but a railgun in pistol form. "Are you sure waiting is the right thing? We could go check on them instead."
Helen was slowly feeling a headache crawl on her, her stress was from a person who had no idea what she should be doing other than pulling pranks. "Hmm, cold terb the lights out and see if tha ar bad," she contemplated in a low whisper not sure how fast the "rescue" team is to the bridge.
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"Great. Mishhu. Just what we need." Shiori raised her gun a little bit more attentively at that and took another step back. "So what's the plan, skipper?"
"Shit, I dunno. Dante, you got any life signs or anythin'?" Myr continued to pace through the cargo hold, swinging her gun around every corner.
Tuija followed along, looking more at the damage to the ship's components, wondering what could have caused this sort of devastation.
"I'm already got a few scans running of the ship." The Vickensmall responded, awaiting for the Biometric Scans to finish, with the Power-Source Scans following it. When the Biometrics Scan finished, he looked over the results. "The only life signs on the ship are you guys... and one other person... Someone's still alive on this vessel, and..." Dante looked over the results of the Power-Source scan, "It looks like they've got some sort of android-grade power source with them. Readings say it's not that hot, so it's either a Demon, or some sort of Android. Either way, be careful, you're not alone."
"Shit... shit. Shit. You got directions for us?" Myr grimaced. "...they're prolly whoever killed all these fuckin' people..."
"So we're not alone, even better." Shiori sighed. "What way to the life signs? If anybody else is in here, we should damn well take care of them before we start looting." Judging by Shiori's tone, her idea of 'taking care of' somebody in this situation had very little to do with offering medical assistance.
"Okay, you guys will need to take a left here on in that bay, you'll find yourself in a long corridor. Keep going down that way until you reach about the fourth door on the right. The reading are coming from that room, and judging by what the small-amount of power separate from the Android-grade, it seems they're trying to work some kind of device or console." Dante reported, trying to trace them a small path based on the readings of the ship.
"Everybody, guns up, get ready for a fight." Myr waved the rest of the crew onward as she advanced, following Dante's directions down the corridor.
Algol withdrew his sword and pistol and grimaced behind his outlandishly shaped helmet. He had no intention to falling prey to... whatever a 'Mishhu' was, even if the others were treating it as some enemy of reverence. If it moved and looked too threatening, he'd just split it with his sword or knife it to death. "Feh."
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It was at that point Anya's detections systems began to come back with movement: movement that was heading towards them. The Android didn't know how mature Helen was to be precise. At one moment, she could seem almost child-like while in the other she seemed to be a young adult. Whatever the case, the JANE unit in the Android decided it would be best to activate her protection systems. "Stay here," she said in a nearly ordering tone before standing up and moving to the bridge entrance. Peeking around the corner, her green Mono-eye glowed as she gazed into the sinisterly lit corridor. After a moment, she moved out into the open and crouched down with the railgun pistol at the ready. All she would do was waiting for the 'rescue party'.
For the first time Helen kind of wondered who Anya was, the sudden change in attitude sort of perplexed her. Anya up to this point was something of an imaginary friend, a girl that flew in from space that she took for granted. She had no time to think about it deeply however, and began to look for a light power switch.
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For once, Shiori was being quiet, not liking the sound of helping whoever was waiting for them hear the group approaching. When they approached the corner to turn into the corridor, though, she paused. Somebody else could always be the first to stick their head out.
Myr stuck her head around the corner into the corridor, and then jerked back hurriedly. "...there's somebody in there!"
Tuija, for once in her life, had the good sense to not immediately take a look. 'Is it actually a person?' she asked. 'Not a squid or anything?'
"I told you that a few minutes ago." Dante chimed.
"Shaddap, Dante. I can't tell WHAT th' fuck it is, just looks like a... thing from here. Big ol' lump." She stuck her gun around the corner to peek just enough to get a line of sight.
"Identify yourself!" Anya's voice suddenly boomed down the corridor in Nepleslian. Anyone willing to risk a closer inspection would find a rather tiny brunette with a knee upon the deck and her other leg out to balance herself. A blocky-looking pistol was at the ready and pointing down the hallway, but that wasn't the oddest thing about her. For one, the glowing green eyes were an easy identifier for the Android power source. However, her attire was even odder. Apparently, the blue blouse was the most normal thing on her. Her knee-length 'skirt' look more like a bed sheet had been ripped and re-purposed. Then there was the condition of the Android. The 'skin' looked charred in some areas and torn in others, while her brown hair was frazzled. She looked more like a ship-wrecked cast away than a murderous Android.
"You could just say something, or shout. Let them know who you are. It's too lateral to be a Mishhu, and even thought doesn't make it safe, there's still the fact that there's five of you-- Whoszat?" The pilot said, interrupted, "Was that the power source, the life form, or one of you?"
Fortunately, Myr took care of all of Shiori's head-sticking-out needs. Shiori gave a slight startled jump upon hearing Anya's voice, but quickly settled down. "What'd she have? The short stack's right. There are five of us. She'd have to have an anti-vehicle weapon back there to stand a chance."
"...hold on a goddamn minute, it's a fuckin'... a fuckin'... some chick! Whattahell are we gonna do? She's got glowin' eyes!" Myr growled softly before identifying herself. "We're th' crew of ISC Enkidu, an' we're salvagin' this fuckin' hulk!"
Algol dashed past Myr, and popped his head around to catch a glimpse of the survivor, his pistol firmly rested against his back. "A bit shabby, but she's cute." He said with a slightly grin, tapping his back with the pistol. "I don't have to kill her, right?" He didn't have any particular reverence for AI, but an artificial humanoid would be much nicer to have as salvage than as wreckage.
"Salvagers? In a Battlefield..." Anya commented as she seemed to process the information--in about a nanosecond. "Makes sense, but this used to be a Pirate Ship. How do I know that you aren't part of the same pirate--clan or something?"
"We're not, but why's it matter? We're your only chance for a ride off of this scrap heap, you know." Shiori pointed out impatiently.
"What she fuckin' said. Where the hell's th' other life sign? You got some goddamn prisoner in there?"
Helen heard some noise coming from the doorway, I hope Anya is ok, she kept in mind as she searched for the light switch in hopes it won't be a badly placed self destruct. She found something that resembled it, and then waited for what could be a perfect moment to run past the thugs outside.
Anya stayed silent for the moment as she kept her gun sights down the corridor. "You have a point," she replied as she slowly raised the pistol up at the ceiling. "No, she's not a prisoner. You could say she 'salvaged' me from the vacuum of space--even if it was by accident." she explained. "Helen? It's all right, they aren't a threat." she called back to the strange woman, though she didn't turn her gaze from the corridor.
"Didju kill all those fuckin' people out in the cargo bay?"
"No, that all happened before I was reactivated again."
"Ask her what she is, if we find out her model, we might be able to figure out what she's for." Dante added, listening in on the conversation.
"Then - oh, okay, uh. What are ya?" Myr hesitantly lowered her gun as she stepped into the hallway, her figure silhouetted in the doorway.
Helen was about to push the button but stalled when she heard Anya. She stiiiill wanted to push the button just to see if she was right, but decided to listen to her friend and moved out to the door and poked her head outside. The group before her seemed a bit intimidating but since no one was shooting already she just said, "Yo?" From what could be seen, the smaller woman was wearing a worn-out, blue shirt and pants with shoes that may be a size too large couple that with bloodstains. Her red hair in a ponytail overall gave her a tomboyish look for someone who looks to be about 19, and wore dark goggles despite being bright in the hallway.
"...yo." Myr lifted one hand in a wave.
"Yo?" Hearing Helen's voice, Shiori finally seemed to decide that the pair in the corridor weren't exactly bloodthirsty murderers. She lowered her weapon and stepped into the hall after Myr. "Get out here. We're not shooting you unless you shoot first."
Pause
Several hours had passed since the Enkidu had left Nepleslia and the vessel had now reached its destination deep with in the front line between the NMX and Nepleslian military, a prime site for salvaging the high quality hardware. If you could call it high quality after the damage it took. Either way, the Enkidu was now in a prime spot to start its ventures.
Myr stood on the bridge, one arm crossed over her chest and the other resting on the back of the pilot's chair, where Dante Vickensmall sat piloting the Enkidu. She was mostly silent, thrumming with anticipation; as she saw the debris fields on the sensors and ordered the rest of her crew to assemble upon the Bridge.
Shiori had taken her fill of the engineering bay, checking out which tools and supplies the Enkidu had (not enough) and making notes of what she'd need to buy, steal, or otherwise come into possession of (a lot.) That done, she headed back up to the second deck and claimed herself a room. She was just getting settled in when Myr's summons came. At them, woman rolled out of bed, unconcerned, and made her way toward the bridge at a leisurely pace.
Tuija entered the bridge, covered head to toe in dust. 'The maintenance passages,' she announced, 'are filthy. By the by, Captain, do you particularly care about regulations?' She regarded Myr, her eyes shimmering. 'Because I think that between Specs, Shiori, and myself, we might be able to strip down some of the regulators. The safety margins are, I have always thought, far too broad.'
Myr was leaning against the back of the captain's chair, facing the door with her arms crossed over her chest as she smoked one of her foul-smelling cigars. "I got no fuckin' clue whatchu said, four-arms. So I guess do whatever y'goddamn want." She waved a hand dismissively, then jerked her head over her shoulder at the viewport. "Waitin' fer tiny-dick to get us through all th' debris an' shit that's out there. Speakin' of debris, take a goddamn bath!"
“Eh, could probably manage it," Shiori said in response to Tuija's suggestion. "I'm more concerned with making sure we're up to maintenance before we go trying to break anything."
Algol was tempted to remain in place, realizing that he'd ultimately not have much more to do with a scavenging operation than he would a negotiation with some high-class diplomat, but decided against it. Mostly, because he wanted to walk a little bit and get something to eat, and knew he would likely be reprimanded for taking something without making the effort to show himself to the Captain. He arrived a bit later than Myr might have wanted; holding what appeared to be a chunk of dried meat in his clawed arm. He didn't seem particularly interested in the goings-on, and gave a wry salute to the captain and the others. "Yo."
Taking it easy, Dante began to maneuver the vessel closer to the nearby debris field. But the Enkidu was going to get quite a surprise as practically several dozen blinding, flashes of light occurred in front of them. Thinking quickly, the Enkidu's pilot raised the ship's shields as massive amounts of debris were flung at them. This in turn caused the vessel to rumble as its shields took the brunt of the damage. It looked like several nukes had been let loose out there.
Myr was about to address the late Iromakuanhe, but she whirled around with a squawk as she saw the flash of the explosions. The impact of the debris, though lessened by the shields, almost knocked her over, and she hung on for dear life to the back of Dante's chair. "...motherfucker! What was that?!"
Tuija was flung to the ground. 'The Hell?' she demanded of nobody in particular, immediately hauling herself to her feet and lunging for a computer terminal to get a damage assessment.
Shiori cursed under her breath as she saw the flashes, but she still didn't have enough forewarning to brace herself before the shockwave hit. As she straightened herself back up, she asked, "We sure the fight's over out there?"
'I would very much like to know that, myself...' Tuija muttered, and flicked the screen with a metal finger. 'The secondary grav stabilizer’s seized. We can fly out without it, but if the primary goes, and then we all get converted into a fine paste. Shouldn't take too long to fix, though...'
Myr peeled herself off the back of the pilot's chair with a grunt and dusted herself off, small fragments of upholstery still clinging to her coat. "...how long is 'not too long'?"
Tuija bit her lip as she examined the diagnostic reports scrolling up her screen, and shared a few muttered words with Shiori. 'It wouldn't be more than twenty minutes,' she said, 'except... We're missing a few of the parts. We'd be ready to go, but while you're over there, you'll need to find a transphasic bicapacitor and a few polytachyon coupl...' she paused. 'Specs can do the preliminary work, and Shiori and I can accompany you to find what we need.'
Shiori leaned over to look at the screen... Not tall enough to look over Tuija's shoulder, she had to lean to the side a little, but she still got a good enough angle on the screen. "Yeah. If we can't find a replacement, I can jury-rig something that'll get us home, at least," she said, far too confidently for somebody using the word 'jury-rig.'
"Blah de blah transhypertitsic narglifier, fuckin' maybe we can find it on th' wreck. Y'two grab some guns, 'r knives 'r what th' fuck ever you like usin'. Might be raiders or some shit on there." Myr patted the Fatboy on her belt.
Algol stripped off a slice of the meat with his free hand and popped it into his mouth, chewing tentatively as the others panicked and frowning to himself as he considered that they were going into a tense situation like this. "I would comment on your choice of words, but it would be an insult to the Trade language..." He chimed in his dour and accented speech as Myr expressed her dismissal of the problems and ordered them along. "...and I ache for a good fight. Set me at the enemy."
The wreck in question, which had been brilliantly lit by the explosions, was a vessel of unknown origin. To be quite honest, who ever designed it probably had a thing for phallic objects, cause it was a large round body with a long cylindrical superstructure jutting from the front (if it was even the front). Dante maneuvered the Enkidu closer and closer all the while using the ship's sensors to find a usable airlock. Apparently, it was located at the end of the superstructure, which required the pilot to execute a docking operation that looked rather Freudian in a way. But once the seals were in place, the short man gave his Captain a thumbs up.
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Meanwhile, on board the vessel, a rather battered Android had taken a tumble from that explosion; a tumble that had propelled her into the control console of the Transport, which created an Anya-sized imprint of crushed molecular circuitry and paneling. It took only a moment for the artificial woman to reorient herself, though she grimaced as damage alerts went off in her programming. "Helen, are you all right!?" she asked in Nepleslian.
Helen woke up with her eyes rolling, “Neber bettre,” she attempted to reply back as she tried to reorient herself. She climbed onto the console she had knocked into which was the damage control. Well, at least we still have air...
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"Looks like it's fuckin' whole enough fer us to get on there through the airlock. Everyone up in the airlock, start gettin' your pressure suits on." The captain looked mournfully at her half-smoked cigar before she stubbed it out on the back of the captain's chair, leaving a smoldering burn mark on the upholstery. "Good work, meat 'n two veg. Hope there's nobody on thar wantin' to kill us."
"Mmhm," Shiori said unenthusiastically. A half-gutted ship was really the sort of thing she was used to leaving behind, rather than going to, but she still knew fully well how much of a deathtrap one could be. But then, she had picked this as her new career. The Geshrin headed back to her room to pull her armor vest on and grab her rifle, then headed to the airlock.
Tuija herself just changed her clothes and scrubbed her face and hair, before selecting a good oversize wrench to bring along.
"..." Algol was clearly bothered by the notion of going out into space. It was bad enough that they were in some giant coffin made of metal, but leaving it to salvage razor sharp scraps... was not the sort of thing he imagined himself doing for this... Myr Barlowe. It soon struck him that all of the clothing and equipment he had come across on the ship featured smooth, spherical headpieces, and a sort of relief set in. He had a reason for not going out. "Do you even have a helmet that will fit me?!"
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Something was blinking that had Helen's attention, which apparently was what was left of ship's sensors. “A ship!” she said excitedly while rushing to the console only to realize it probably wasn't a fleet ship, or at least the best she could remember what color a fleet ship would show up as. What if it's a pirate ship?
"Huh," Anya mumbled as she looked over the console to see--well, a battered, green hulk engulfing the viewport. "...Ah, certainly doesn't look friendly." the Android replied as she ran another diagnostic of her systems again. Luckily, it was mostly cosmetic damage with some artificial skin torn around her back and sides. Part of her thanked her designers for making her moderately durable as she stood up. "So...what should we do?"
Helen's panicked at the thought of pirates, she has up to this point a free Abwehran and didn't like the idea of being put back in that position again. “Anya, I hab idea, however we might hab to shot im',” she said as she headed over to a panel to start her plan. The red ponytailed haired girl began to setup a clip of her sobbing she had recorded accidently while trying to send out messages after everyone had died and set it to a loop. She then ran over to Anya and dashed to a console while dragging her android friend so to hide when the visitors arrive. She then raised a finger to her mouth as a signal to stay silent and wait for her plan to work.
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"What, they don't bend?" Myr reached out and grabbed one of Algol's horns, trying to fold it back against the top of his head. When it didn't instantly ply to her will, she pressed harder.
Shiori started pulling on her own suit, but looked over to the Iromakuanhe's problem idly as she did so. "Guess they don't make them for... whatever the hell he is."
"Wh- HEY!" Algol reflexively gave Myr's arm a shove away from his horn, not particularly relishing the feeling of having an unbending piece of his anatomy played with so roughly. "Saint-damned outlanders can't keep their hands to themselves!"
"Testing, testing..." Dante repeated over the communicator between the Captain's team and himself, he crossed his short legs in his chair as he got comfortable with his alone time. Since he was the only one on the bridge, which didn't bother him all that much, he was used to watching other people do stuff while he sat safely in the pilots chair. "Can you guys hear me? It's all quiet on my end."
'We'll see if we can build a good one for you,' Tuija said to Algol, a little oblivious to his more immediate plight, and flicked on her radio. 'I hear you, bridge.'
"Hujujujububu bajajar yerfuckin'self!" Myr hollered back at the bandit, flinging her arms up in the air. "Shee-yit, assholes." She shook her head as she stalked into the airlock, shrugging off her coat before she grabbed her pressure suit and stepped into it, holding her gun loosely in one hand. Her helmet had apparently been 'customized' with an eyepatch drawn in marker on the visor. "Got it, limpdick."
"Alright, I'll keep up with your progress and relay you any sensor information I pick up." Dante chimed, fiddling with his console to get the proper displays up.
Shiori gave a grunt and settled her own helmet into place, then slung her rifle over her shoulder. "Good to go, captain. Let's get this over with." Even after living in some of the poorer areas of Funky City, she didn't feel entirely clean wearing a spacesuit from this ship.
Myr shuffled through the pile of helmets that lay by the airlock, eventually coming up with an elongated one that looked like it would be worn with someone with a road cone for a head. She smirked beneath her own helmet and held the new one out to Algol. "There, should fit. Git dressed."
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Being dragged around by the hand seemed to be a constant for Anya in this situation as she allowed herself to be pulled over to a hiding spot. "But...what if they're a rescue party!? You shouldn't just shoot them without warning." the Android protested in alarm.
"The ship," Helen whispered with her fingers walking in the air slowly like if it were sneaking. She didn't want to get into a fight herself with only a pistol that she could on any dead corpse, or her trusty cooking knife, only getting on the ship would matter and she hoped to hide on it until they reached civilization.
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"What? Why would I wear a perfectly fitted codpiece over my head?" Algol said in what was probably a great attempt at humor horribly mistranslated as he slipped his pressure suit on. "You Nepleslians have weird tastes." He said with a grunt, attempting to force the helmet over his head. Although it was a rough fit, he didn't have the ergonomic niceties of having it originally designed for his head. He wouldn't be surprised if he heard a sudden crack or pop from his head mid-trip.
"..." Myr elected not to respond, simply shaking her head at the cone-headed pressure suit in front of her. "Errahbody ready? Good." Her hand smacked the airlock control, and the door hissed open.
"That only took forever," Shiori noted. As the door opened, she pulled her gun up to a ready position, but she was quite happy to let somebody more expendable take the lead.
"Captain, I'm not sure if you're used to it, but back in the YSE, we always let someone more expendable take the lead. Then again, Captains usually didn't go out on the away team either, but it's just a thought." Dante chimed.
As the away party opened the Transport's airlock, they would immediately be graced with a scene to come out of a Horror Film. A massive expanse opened up to them, most likely the cargo bay, and was strewn with smashed boxes and blacked marks of explosions. And then there was the blood. It must have been a lake of it at some point, like some great ritual to a dark god.
Okay, that was a bit excessive, but there were dried splotches of blood nearly everywhere. There were also a few dead bodies littering the area, but far too few to have produced the amount of blood witnessed. For all intents, it looked like a small battle had occurred in the vast space. It looked even more sinister with the red emergency lights. But not all was dreary, since the double doors of an elevator could be seen on the other side of the Hold.
"I'll do what I fuc - " Myr's voice trailed off into a small burble as she took in the sight of the wrecked cargo bay and the dead bodies scattered everywhere. Her arms came up, cradling her weapon, without any input from her brain, and she swept the gun around, looking for any signs of anything left living. When she didn't immediately see any, she took a step out into the bay. "...holy shit."
'I'm fine with this,' Tuija said reproachfully, peeking through the airlock from behind the captain, her wrench clutched in all hands. “Ho-lee Hell... What--happened--here?”
"What about fucking holy hell and shit? What's going on down there?" Dante asked, their sudden responses to the opening of the air lock disturbing him slightly.
Shiori quieted down once she saw the gore-splattered room ahead of them. To Dante, she explained dryly, "Well, if we were in the used organs business, we'd be rich by now..."
"Used organs? Who the hell plays organs anymore?" Dante said confused, still not too sure what they were so amazed about. Without video feed, he had no idea of what was going on.
"Not those organs, dipshit," Myr muttered, her voice low. She crept forward into the cargo bay, towards one of the bodies, and gave it a kick before she bent down to get a closer look.
"Feh. You scavenging the dead for body parts is the work of lowly peoples." Algol muttered, following behind the captain at a tentative distance. She had clearly chosen to walk point, and he could not object. He had no interest in whatever hazards the ship offered, that he had no means to challenge physically, and had a terrible allergy to explosions from ruined starship pieces.
"Ah? From what you say, it sounds like it must be pretty gruesome. If it's just sorta bad, it's Pirates, if it's really bad, chances are that it may be the Mishhu. Nevertheless, I recommend watching out for anything that scoots, skitters, or jiggles." Dante informed, working off his own experience as he looked over his sensors again, monitoring the ship's systems and any scans of the hulk.
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Anya kept silent with a grimace as the girl seemed bound and determined on her course of action. Of course, she couldn't allow the other woman to do this alone. Her eyes began to glow green as her mono-eyes began to send out radar pulses. Slowly, she gripped the gun Helen was holding and shook her head, her eyes giving off a bit of heat.
Helen only glanced back a little but nodded, she wondered with her sound trap set up they could hurry to another room and hide.
Taking it as a sign, Anya gently pulled the gun from Helen's hand and suddenly began to check it over real closely. It wasn't a chemical propellant weapon, but a railgun in pistol form. "Are you sure waiting is the right thing? We could go check on them instead."
Helen was slowly feeling a headache crawl on her, her stress was from a person who had no idea what she should be doing other than pulling pranks. "Hmm, cold terb the lights out and see if tha ar bad," she contemplated in a low whisper not sure how fast the "rescue" team is to the bridge.
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"Great. Mishhu. Just what we need." Shiori raised her gun a little bit more attentively at that and took another step back. "So what's the plan, skipper?"
"Shit, I dunno. Dante, you got any life signs or anythin'?" Myr continued to pace through the cargo hold, swinging her gun around every corner.
Tuija followed along, looking more at the damage to the ship's components, wondering what could have caused this sort of devastation.
"I'm already got a few scans running of the ship." The Vickensmall responded, awaiting for the Biometric Scans to finish, with the Power-Source Scans following it. When the Biometrics Scan finished, he looked over the results. "The only life signs on the ship are you guys... and one other person... Someone's still alive on this vessel, and..." Dante looked over the results of the Power-Source scan, "It looks like they've got some sort of android-grade power source with them. Readings say it's not that hot, so it's either a Demon, or some sort of Android. Either way, be careful, you're not alone."
"Shit... shit. Shit. You got directions for us?" Myr grimaced. "...they're prolly whoever killed all these fuckin' people..."
"So we're not alone, even better." Shiori sighed. "What way to the life signs? If anybody else is in here, we should damn well take care of them before we start looting." Judging by Shiori's tone, her idea of 'taking care of' somebody in this situation had very little to do with offering medical assistance.
"Okay, you guys will need to take a left here on in that bay, you'll find yourself in a long corridor. Keep going down that way until you reach about the fourth door on the right. The reading are coming from that room, and judging by what the small-amount of power separate from the Android-grade, it seems they're trying to work some kind of device or console." Dante reported, trying to trace them a small path based on the readings of the ship.
"Everybody, guns up, get ready for a fight." Myr waved the rest of the crew onward as she advanced, following Dante's directions down the corridor.
Algol withdrew his sword and pistol and grimaced behind his outlandishly shaped helmet. He had no intention to falling prey to... whatever a 'Mishhu' was, even if the others were treating it as some enemy of reverence. If it moved and looked too threatening, he'd just split it with his sword or knife it to death. "Feh."
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It was at that point Anya's detections systems began to come back with movement: movement that was heading towards them. The Android didn't know how mature Helen was to be precise. At one moment, she could seem almost child-like while in the other she seemed to be a young adult. Whatever the case, the JANE unit in the Android decided it would be best to activate her protection systems. "Stay here," she said in a nearly ordering tone before standing up and moving to the bridge entrance. Peeking around the corner, her green Mono-eye glowed as she gazed into the sinisterly lit corridor. After a moment, she moved out into the open and crouched down with the railgun pistol at the ready. All she would do was waiting for the 'rescue party'.
For the first time Helen kind of wondered who Anya was, the sudden change in attitude sort of perplexed her. Anya up to this point was something of an imaginary friend, a girl that flew in from space that she took for granted. She had no time to think about it deeply however, and began to look for a light power switch.
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For once, Shiori was being quiet, not liking the sound of helping whoever was waiting for them hear the group approaching. When they approached the corner to turn into the corridor, though, she paused. Somebody else could always be the first to stick their head out.
Myr stuck her head around the corner into the corridor, and then jerked back hurriedly. "...there's somebody in there!"
Tuija, for once in her life, had the good sense to not immediately take a look. 'Is it actually a person?' she asked. 'Not a squid or anything?'
"I told you that a few minutes ago." Dante chimed.
"Shaddap, Dante. I can't tell WHAT th' fuck it is, just looks like a... thing from here. Big ol' lump." She stuck her gun around the corner to peek just enough to get a line of sight.
"Identify yourself!" Anya's voice suddenly boomed down the corridor in Nepleslian. Anyone willing to risk a closer inspection would find a rather tiny brunette with a knee upon the deck and her other leg out to balance herself. A blocky-looking pistol was at the ready and pointing down the hallway, but that wasn't the oddest thing about her. For one, the glowing green eyes were an easy identifier for the Android power source. However, her attire was even odder. Apparently, the blue blouse was the most normal thing on her. Her knee-length 'skirt' look more like a bed sheet had been ripped and re-purposed. Then there was the condition of the Android. The 'skin' looked charred in some areas and torn in others, while her brown hair was frazzled. She looked more like a ship-wrecked cast away than a murderous Android.
"You could just say something, or shout. Let them know who you are. It's too lateral to be a Mishhu, and even thought doesn't make it safe, there's still the fact that there's five of you-- Whoszat?" The pilot said, interrupted, "Was that the power source, the life form, or one of you?"
Fortunately, Myr took care of all of Shiori's head-sticking-out needs. Shiori gave a slight startled jump upon hearing Anya's voice, but quickly settled down. "What'd she have? The short stack's right. There are five of us. She'd have to have an anti-vehicle weapon back there to stand a chance."
"...hold on a goddamn minute, it's a fuckin'... a fuckin'... some chick! Whattahell are we gonna do? She's got glowin' eyes!" Myr growled softly before identifying herself. "We're th' crew of ISC Enkidu, an' we're salvagin' this fuckin' hulk!"
Algol dashed past Myr, and popped his head around to catch a glimpse of the survivor, his pistol firmly rested against his back. "A bit shabby, but she's cute." He said with a slightly grin, tapping his back with the pistol. "I don't have to kill her, right?" He didn't have any particular reverence for AI, but an artificial humanoid would be much nicer to have as salvage than as wreckage.
"Salvagers? In a Battlefield..." Anya commented as she seemed to process the information--in about a nanosecond. "Makes sense, but this used to be a Pirate Ship. How do I know that you aren't part of the same pirate--clan or something?"
"We're not, but why's it matter? We're your only chance for a ride off of this scrap heap, you know." Shiori pointed out impatiently.
"What she fuckin' said. Where the hell's th' other life sign? You got some goddamn prisoner in there?"
Helen heard some noise coming from the doorway, I hope Anya is ok, she kept in mind as she searched for the light switch in hopes it won't be a badly placed self destruct. She found something that resembled it, and then waited for what could be a perfect moment to run past the thugs outside.
Anya stayed silent for the moment as she kept her gun sights down the corridor. "You have a point," she replied as she slowly raised the pistol up at the ceiling. "No, she's not a prisoner. You could say she 'salvaged' me from the vacuum of space--even if it was by accident." she explained. "Helen? It's all right, they aren't a threat." she called back to the strange woman, though she didn't turn her gaze from the corridor.
"Didju kill all those fuckin' people out in the cargo bay?"
"No, that all happened before I was reactivated again."
"Ask her what she is, if we find out her model, we might be able to figure out what she's for." Dante added, listening in on the conversation.
"Then - oh, okay, uh. What are ya?" Myr hesitantly lowered her gun as she stepped into the hallway, her figure silhouetted in the doorway.
Helen was about to push the button but stalled when she heard Anya. She stiiiill wanted to push the button just to see if she was right, but decided to listen to her friend and moved out to the door and poked her head outside. The group before her seemed a bit intimidating but since no one was shooting already she just said, "Yo?" From what could be seen, the smaller woman was wearing a worn-out, blue shirt and pants with shoes that may be a size too large couple that with bloodstains. Her red hair in a ponytail overall gave her a tomboyish look for someone who looks to be about 19, and wore dark goggles despite being bright in the hallway.
"...yo." Myr lifted one hand in a wave.
"Yo?" Hearing Helen's voice, Shiori finally seemed to decide that the pair in the corridor weren't exactly bloodthirsty murderers. She lowered her weapon and stepped into the hall after Myr. "Get out here. We're not shooting you unless you shoot first."
Pause
