RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 1] - Feel the Pain

[Luca]

Dark as night, diamond bright
Never seen such a strange delight
Slick as glass and just as fast
You'll feel the pain but it won't last
ZZ Top - Concrete and Steel

MISSION 1 - START!!

A Sargasso Shuttle that was suspiciously free of inanimate cargo was carrying the crew members of the Phoenix. It was driving across the surface of Nepleslia Prime towards the town of Handler's reach. The first thing Luca did that morning prior to the long trip was take something for his kidneys that Aiesu left for him - it'd mitigate the ache he was experiencing in his kidneys for the time being. He and the others only had time to get a quick breakfast before leaping into the back of this truck with their gear assembled from the previous three days.

Luca was riding shotgun with Lina in this Sargasso bus, within the interior of which were some hastily erected seats for the members of the ISC Phoenix with ample space underneath them for their equipment - surprisingly enough room to fit whoever wanted to be on for the ride. John was on standby back at Sargasso to bring the Big Bird if it hit the fan.

As he got bored of the untarnished savannah scenery of Nepleslia prime, he pulled up some Census data on Handler's Reach, flipping it up and passing his communicator around to others in the truck.

Founded: YE 30
Population: 2,463
Exports: Textiles, Fish, Water, Petroleum
Services: Law Enforcement, Hospital, Aged Care, Shipping
Primary Demographics: Male 50-60, Male 20-30, Female 20-30
Races: Nepleslian 58%, Geshrin 24%, Yamataian 14%, Lorath 3%, Gartagen 1%

"So," Luca asked his team as his communicator got passed back to him. "How do two thousand and five hundred-odd people suddenly decide to stop having an initiative?"

Allison raised her hand and Luca pointed to her. "Could be telepaths gone mad and controlling the city from a shadowy enclave!" She suggested ominously while wiggling her fingers.

Echelon then piped up: "C0ULD B3 SUBL1M1N4L M3SS4G3S 1N T3L3V1S10N." Allison nodded along to the suggestion. Melissa rolled her eyes at it and dismissed those claims.

Then Lina spoke up: "Aren't you all going there to investigate?"

"We are, but we're speculating as we get there." Luca nodded. "I mean, this is the Kikyo Sector - for all I know there's a God from beyond human comprehension sleeping beneath town and turning people into fish men."

Lina then raised her eyebrow at Luca and frowned at him. "Of course," Luca continued. "That's just ridiculous, which is why its speculation. No idea is too insane at this point, the truth might be a lot simpler."

"Well then," Lina put her two bits in, "I think it could be something like a parasite that rots your brain. I'm sure you're familiar with the sorts." Luca scowled and nodded knowingly. "Something I'm sure you can put down with ease - although I doubt your client will appreciate his mum having trans-cranial lead therapy."

"True, true..." Luca replied as the truck bumped along. He looked behind him and took stock of who had decided to come along with him in this truck. There was at least another hour until they reached Handler's Reach, and the long trip there had frayed his attention as the afternoon sun beat down upon the vehicle.

He took a swig from bottle of water, a bite from a breakfast bar and started counting heads...

 

[Ira]

Bronzi sat near the shuttle's hatch doors. His weapons were all holstered seeing as he did not expect to see much combat. He listened on to the exchange Luca and his friends were having. Bronzi's bandana was on extra tight, and he finished checking his weaponry. He fitted his helmet on, but let the straps hand limply under his jaw.

Bronzi had no clue what was going on. Only that Luca had taken on a job, and they were going to check things out. Bronzi knew his part. He was supposed to stand around and make sure no body hurt all the smart guys.

"Think it could be the squids?" Bronzi said piping up.

 

[Lamb]

"Probably just somethin' simple." Enzo's voice suggested from between a pair of boots propped on the back of Luca's seat. Momentarily, a stream of smoke escaped from under a wide-brimmed bush-hat perched and drawn low on the conman's head and slurped its way out a cracked window next to him.

Enzo had slept for most of the ride, but now that he was talking, the cowboy look his clothes had been putting off was completely ruined by his thick city-slicker accent, especially when he added, "I wonder what kindsa broads they gots? I mean, no initiatives... Sound loike a dame in need of a good shuga-daddy, see?"

 

[Moogle]

Seiren, whose LEAF was back on the Crimson Kestrel, still had his handy pistols with him, along with a tool-kit.

"My guess is something chemical or natural in the water supply. Some ingredients I was considering before I read up on them had some pretty bad side-effects, so could be something out of the wazoo like that!" He chipped in, toying around with a screwdriver to fix the track on his left arm.

 

[Phe0n1x]

"Could be a volatile cocktail of boredom and apathy. Maybe a sprinkle of self-loathing," Makari smirked and then continued, "However, I'm leaning towards Seiren's water supply theory or the subliminal messaging." Makari tipped his cowboy hat at Seiren and Echelon as he referenced their theories all the while polishing his Sterling Auto Twelve. He waited for those with higher intellect to chime in with wackier ideas.

 

[Lamb]

"Sounds a little too obvious if ya asks me." Enzo muttered, pulling the brim of his hat even lower against his eyes, "If it's somethins like that-- Somethins in the water-supply... I don't wanna play wit' yous guys any more. Cuz' yous all readin' the script 'r' somethins an' makin' me looks bad r' whatevuhs."

 

[ShotJon]

Zeta sat next to Luca with a WIND suit on, with helmet in her lap. If there was some drug or something she wanted to have something on that filtrates outside air. Otherwise she had her SiZi 30 revolver, Easy and Fatboy. Nothing way too fancy. Except for the revolver maybe. That reminded Zeta that she still did not own any shotgun.

"Well there is that yamataian gang looting," Zeta reminded others. "So I think they are either immune or causing it. I still put my money on some telepathy bullshit. We all know yammies can send word in your head, what if they wound out how to do something worse? Anyway I think we should punch people in face first and ask question later when we get them blindfolded and tied to a chair."

 

[Gallant]

Vitalia was on the roof of the bus.

She sat crosslegged with her hood up, facing the back of the vehicle and cradling against all elements a small white cylinder between her lips from which curled a certain measure of smoke, as was proper from a cigarette. That was part of the reason she didn't ride inside; no smoking indoors.

The other half of the reason was a promise she'd made.

The road, dusty asphalt cracked in places by long wear and an extremely uncaring and lackluster public works department, made the bus slow enough that she didn't have to pull any theatrics to stay on. Still, she bobbed back and forth every once in a while, and had to prop herself up with a hand.

This place smelled funny. Vitalia breathed the smoke out through her nose to wash it away, and watched the rest disappear in the wind almost before it had left her lips.

 

[Luca]

>ON!

Luca passed the demographic data to Enzo. Further inspection revealed that there were very few women under the age of 40 there, and a handful under 10. "I dunno Enzo, I didn't know you were a peruser of fine vintage, but I suppose you'll go with anything." He chuckled. He then opened the passenger's side door and grabbed onto the side of the Sargasso Bus and started shimmying along the side of it. He observed Handler's Reach from a distance.

It was one of thost towns that was in the metamorphosis of becoming a city - as a few skyscrapers were starting to spring up on the horizon and displace the clear, blue sky. The smoke stacks of industry could also be seen in the air and felt in the wind. He then looked up and found some errant straps flowing in the wind for securing cargo. He held tight to the sides of the vehicle while looking at the city coming closer, and closer.

"Alright guys!" He yelled over the sound of the wheels spinning and the engine roaring to convey the cargo. "Looks like we're about to drop off. Any last requests?"

"Anyone wanna make a last minute bet? On the problem, I mean." Seiren asked, leaning over to peer into the window. The city was a welcome sight to see for the short one, considering the barebones and barren land of Sargasso.

"I say it is psionic doodadoodoo." Zeta said as she looked out. "I bet 50 DA on that and if you win Seiren I will show you my tits. How does that sounds?" She joked, hoping she will wing. There were yammies involver so telepathy would makse sense.

"1TS SUBL1M1N4L M3SS4G3S." Echelon piped up, her 11 khz voice was getting no better at sounding clear. Perhaps she needed a bit more CPU cycles and RAM to devote to speaking. "T0T4LLY."

"Hey, 50 DA and a side benefit? I'm in. I say 50DA to the water supply being contaminated, and. . ." Seiren thought for a moment. His concept of "equal prizes" was a bit different than expected. "I'll make something awesome for you, free of cost."

"K!" Echelon replied. There was 150 DA and a 'side benefit' in the pot now. "Y0U'R3 0N!"

"'Side benefit will only be for people I like by the way." Zeta said. "Anyone else will get another 50 bucks. I think that is fair." Better to make clear. THere would be people she would never show even her elbow. Like that smelly gartagen bully.

Eventually the truck started to slow to a stop in front of the city limits to Handler's Reach and eventually stopped fully, kicking up a cloud of gravel and dust into the air. Luca jumped from the truck and looked back into the driver's cabin. "Thanks for the leg, Lina!" She nodded in reply. This little transportation favour was a small thanks for all the business she'd been getting for the past week.

The first thing Luca noticed when he had a closer look of the city was that there was something missing. He tried looking for it, but it wasn't there, and he couldn't fathom where it went. Now he knew how the miner felt when he laid eyes upon what he once called home. What was missing from this place was the bustle. The hustle. The noise. The living.

The small city was unusually and eerily still. He couldn't even hear the bubbling notes of crime and violence or cars and aerospace making their rounds. The omission of these vital things struck him as fundamentally wrong, but he simply couldn't find a way to put it into words. He just wanted something to work with here, even from a distance.

Seiren hopped off the bus, took two looks around, the turned back to Luca.

"Do you have like. . . a portable radio or something? It's kinda quiet." he asked, missing the mark with his observation. The captain fumbled in his pocket and passed Seiren his Communicator. It had an AM/FM radio built into it. Seiren took the device and fiddled with it, flicking on the FM setting. Static. He fiddled around some more, using the "station scan" feature. All he got was a few stations recording silence.

"Welp, it's official. This place is weird."

"Weird? I would say creep personally." Zeta exclaimed, frowning under her helmet. She took a deep breath looking around. "Yeah it looks like a ghost town. It would be easier if there would be just bunch of mercs trying to shoot us. I suggest we scout around the town and then head in carefully. We might want to catch ourself a Yammie crook later."

"If only things were so simple." Luca replied as he waited for the others to hop off the truck. Echelon, Melissa and Allison were the next people off, looking around and blinking at what they saw. They exchanged uneasy glances.

Allison swallowed a lump in her throat while Melissa pulled the rifle off of her back and looked through the scope as a makeshift binocular. She couldn't see anyone either. She was searching for someone, something - she didn't care if it was a target or a friendly - just someone.

>OFF!

 

[Ira]

There was a loud hum as Bronzi charged his shot gun. His bandana was firmly one his head, and he had a large half smoked cigar hanging limply from his lips. He when he exited the vehicle the bus seemed to groan a sigh of relief.

Bronzi looked around and said nothing to his companions. He was not here to investigate. He was here in case they ran into trouble. Bronzi did not smell anything odd other then what had been initially promised. Bronzi moved near Seiren snorted waiting for the smart guys to take the reigns on this little excursion.

"Hurrr. Bad sign." He grumbled as he advanced a bit more forward.

 

[Phe0n1x]

As he stepped out of the vehicle, he took Bronzi's cue and relieved his back harness of his Styrling Auto Twelve and took a look around. The silence was audible and somewhat unnerving.

In his mind, he began to imagine he and the rest of the crew were walking into a ghost town like in one of those (really) old fashioned westerns. He smirked at his next thought of the living dead emerging from the houses to come eat his bones. Good thing I've got myself a shotgun, he thought.

 

[Lamb]

Enzo was the first to actually move away from the bus. He flicked his cigarette into the wind and started work on another, tilting his bush-hat to block the subtle breeze from his lighter. And he just kept walking.

The wind kicked at the tails of the conman's coat while his boots crunched in the gravel. He tossed a steely gaze at the nearest building while he approached. The sense of duty, the sense of pure determination to figure out what was going on in this dead town (And maybe exploit it a bit for fun before setting things right) echoed in every scraping step.

Then, just as the music in Makari's head came to a peak, the smuggler turned on a heel to throw his steely glance in the direction of the team. He rolled his jaw around to reposition his cigarette, and said with a tilt of his hat, "Well, yous ain't gonna figures it out standin' arounds an' starin' at shit."

 

[Ira]

Bronzi Grunted as he started walking further in. He spoke but did not look at Enzio. "I ain't here ta figger shit out. I am here to kick the shit outta what ever did this."

He started moving towards the largest building he saw. Typically he found a town center was the best place to start looking for any signs. Or at the very least log books and ledgers.

"i'll leave the figgern to the smart ones." He said as took a deep inhale of his cigar. Moments later he ex-hailed a massive plume of thick pungent smoke.

 

[Lamb]

"Well, yous ain't gonna kick any asses starin' at shit, either, greenskin." Enzo cut back whilst sampling his own tobacco product. Really, it was just an attempt to get people moving at this point. Outside, this town was as boring as Heaven on a Saturday night.

 

[Ira]

"Blue." Bronzi rumbled.

"Ya know, most of you pink-skins are very one dimensional." He said responding to Enzo.

 

[Lamb]

"Pale White." Enzo corrected as well, making it obvious that similar colors were good enough for racial slang.

He didn't bother commenting on the other statement-- being far too one-dimensional to consider what his other dimensions might be.

 

[Ira]

Bronzi let out soft but audible chuckle at Enzio's remark. "Onleh color dats matterin right now is red."

 

[Luca]

Luca wasn't going to roll his eyes at Enzo and the Gartagen, it was human(oid) interaction that was setting his mind at ease since he couldn't find it in what he saw ahead of him. "The blood of angry men." Luca mumbled in reply to Bronzi.

There was a stretch of road between the assembled group and the city, accompanied by a cloud of dust where the Sargasso Bus was a few moments ago, now heading back the way it came. Perhaps, for anyone else's needs, that'd be the smart thing to do - to just stay away from a place that looked and felt so wrong just by looking at it.

However, being smart and being bold were conjoined qualities if problems had to be solved - except all Luca and company had for now was boldness on their sides. To get smart they had to get their hands dirty. Luca started walking down along the dusty road towards the town where the city started to thicken from flatland into smaller residential buildings and industrial storage. It was natural to expect the areas further away from city centre to be a bit quiet in comparison, but what Luca was seeing wasn't setting his mind right either.

He was peering into a bungalow house and he could see someone staring back, and staring right through him from the porch as though they'd just walked free from an NMX prison camp, and were told that everything was going to be fine. She seemed to be old enough to have done so twice. "Hey! Are you alright?" He called out to her. She didn't respond. Luca called out again and no response; she wasn't even looking in his direction.

He looked over to Seiren and frowned - as far as headway was going, the hands on investigation wasn't going so well. Until Bronzi spotted someone walking around a little further up. Whoever this person was appeared to be doing more than the moonstruck old woman on the porch.

A few things were immediately obvious from a distance about this lively Girl, she had pink hair, she was wearing a semi-skintight bodysuit, and a leather jacket and boots over it, and a lack of a side arm. The only way it could've been more Yamataian was if she had cat ears and was blasting Y-Pop on a boombox and giggling about Nepleslians. Age wise, she appeared to be a teenager about to break out of the teen years.

She looked back over to the ISC Phoenix group, and stood for a moment to process just what was going on. She then looked ahead and continued walking across the street, ignoring them. Luca however, cocked an eyebrow in response to this.

"Someone follow her - and don't hurt her. She has a better head on her shoulders than..." He turned to look at the woman on the porch, still staring as though there was something behind him. "...eugh. We can split up and maintain radio contact to figure out what's going on."

From where the team were standing there were some obvious directions: The first was straight into the town centre, the second was where the Yamataian woman came from - some sort of thicker residential area, the third was where she was going towards which appeared to be a commercial district; and the fourth was beyond the town centre and at the docks where the fish were likely to be processed.

The team could also spot still oil derricks and a processing plant of some sort upon a plateau away from the coast. Pipes were coming out of it and into the ground, and from the ocean. An educated guess would've guessed that it could've been a desalination plant.

So many places to start and all the time in the world as far as they knew. The Miner hadn't given them a time limit - and Luca wasn't going to use it as license to dick about. Someone needed his help - an entire city of someones needed his help.

 

[ShotJon]

Zeta shook her head at what she could see. It was not nice. That woman was completely out of it. Woman? She was just a girl! Whatever was going on here, it was bad. Zeta looked back and Luca and he did not look so happy either. Sure his usual confidence was still there, but he was uneasy. Zeta hoped others won't notice.

"Okay I will follow the lady," Zeta said and looked at the group. "Enzo, Makari come with me. We will radio you every twenty minutes or so Luca." And with that she started walking after the girl.

 

[Phe0n1x]

Makari gave a curt nod and fell in-line behind Zeta, shotgun at the ready. Something wasn't right in this villiage, but he simply couldn't put his finger on it. This is why he liked weapons over strange places, he can always put a finger on a trigger and get results. The quality of the results were a different matter. He loaded his shotgun with a beanbag round just in case the pink-haired girl tried to do something unorthodox.