RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 9] Enzo's Lady of the Night

[Luca]

"I think Naoko can shrug off the effects of Space for a few minutes," He said as he closed the door leading from the cockpit to the rest of the shuttle, and then helped Panther get his suit on with Zeta, tucking his tail in and ensuring that the Kohanian had an airtight seal, "Like she said, we just have to be quick. With that in mind, Enzo, push the button, and let's get going."

He held up his Fatboy, and gave the cockpit door two solid knocks to indicate that his team was ready to be spaced.
"Don't worry Enzo, we'll get it back in one piece."

With that in mind, the sound of rushing air could be heard as the back hatch of the shuttle opened up. Luca was the first one out, using the GUST Attachment's plasma thrusters to guide him along space. He gave everyone else a nod to advance as he watched Enzo's Mule, just sitting there in open space.

"Alright, let's move."

Luca decided to investigate Enzo's lead to look for the Escape pods, which were on the back of the ship and above the engines according to the floor diagrams. He was able to find it with ease, taking care not to touch the ship.
"Alright, looks like we need this opened," He said upon not seeing any visible way to get it open, "Any suggestions other than brute force are welcome."

Scanning the vessel would yield that the backup electronics were still active, and the hatch could be opened remotely if the access codes were available, which they were, thanks to the previous owner being nearby.

-

John and Echelon had circled around once, "All seems to be well," He told the away team, watching the radar, "There's nobody nearby."
"I dunno, it all seems to be going too well so far," Sebastian mumbled as he manned the weapons and aimed about nervously.

 

[Gallant]

Nao drifted along after the main group, keeping up fairly well considering. There were certain benefits to being an NH. One of those was intertial control. When the small group stopped beside the escape hatches, Nao latched herself onto Luca's shoulder, anchoring herself physically as well. It never hurt to be safe.

Space was cold, and the sudden pressure change had left her ears ringing and the air straining to get out of her lungs, but she was the master of this body and would book no rebellion from it. So it was with a clear and articulate mind that she began to examine the way that the hatch was attached to the hull plating.

Briefly she searched for a resonance from the ship; unfortunately she was disappointed. This looked hardwired, so it would require some sort of physical interface. Naoko looked for some sort of maintenance plating, or some sort of terminal. Surely they had to be able to put the pods back inside, if they were mistakenly jettisoned? She had no idea how these ships were built! But at least there had to be some sort of local way to interface; Enzo had said so.

Naoko soon spied the small, blank screen nearby, nestled near the edge of the hatch. She glanced it over briefly to see that it was in tact, and in fact it was. Conveniantly it also included a place for a keycard, or some sort of digital key, in addition to the analog interface. It wouldn't be an easy interface, but if the codes failed, it was possible. Naoko didn't sigh in relief, however; that would have been really fucking stupid.

Looking back over her shoulder at Luca, her long braid floating snakelike in the zero-gravity, she asked over the wideband;

'Aniki- got the codes?'

 

[Lamb]

"The codes are easy." Enzo sent across the airwaves once he saw Naoko approach the hatch. "I'll tell them to you one at a time. My owns poy-sonal codes is all-caps 'buttered-toast' and the manufacturer override code is just the serials number: 'OI dash L3 dash 1A dash 00102'. Shoulds be pretty easy to gets in theres with that."

 

[ShotJon]

Zeta was not one to be afraid, but having nothing above, under and next to you is really frightening thing to experience. Zeta was never in space before, she never left shipboard. Luckily Zeta retained sense of above and down, since there was ship she was heading to.

"Wesley I need you to help me out with 'piloting' be so kind," she said to her on-boead AI and set off towards The Lady of the Night. Slowly at firth but with Wesley's help she sooned touched down on the shipd board and magnetized her boots to latch on. She scanned immediete areas with her eyes having Fatboy ready in her hands.

 

[Gallant]

Naoko alighted on the hull of the ship feet-first, redirecting her inertia to recognize that surface as 'down'. The change was abrupt, and somewhat peculiar to watch. The SMaR, which had been free-floating, dropped towards the hull; her body, all seventy-or-so pounds, suddenly put weight on her knees, making her crouch; her braid dropped, along with the few stray bangs that had found their way out. The small NH looked, for all the world, as if she were simply crouching on the ground in a perfectly normal way, examining something in the dirt. Except, this was on the side of a space ship, in the middle of a no-atmosphere environment, and she was looming over the terminal.

Tap tap, tappity tap.

She puffed her cheeks out in mild frustration - or perhaps the air just wanted out. Anyway,

Tappity, tappity, tappity.

 

[CadetNewb]

Smith simply sat in the seat beside Enzo and stared into space, lost in thought as the others boarded the ship. He'd had missed out on part of Luca's briefing, messed up in fact. But why? Because of that Neko. No, that wasn't quite right; it was because I let myself be bothered by it. he thought. In actuality, what had it done to him exactly? Nothing much, other than merely existing in proximity to his place of work and now temporary home. Right? After all, it sounded like it was trying to be nice earlier.

The uncertainty was eating at his stomach as Smith tried to convince himself that it was only his own personal prejudices getting in the way. Even his little brother and sisters said it was. The terrifying image of the ghastly woman flickered across his mindscape. 'Yes, it's just me. Just a figment of my imagination. I'll just have to stay away and ignore Naoko as much as possible so I don't go crazy.'

Matthew looked to the man in the seat off to his side in a moment of thought before speaking, starting what was likely to be an awkward and forced conversation. "Mr. Bortelli, this may seem out of the blue, but what do you think of Mr. Pavone and his crew? You've been here longer than I have, so I'd value your thoughts on them."

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert wobbled around in space before a few helpful messages popped up in his hud helping him navigate towards the ship. He finally landed next to Zeta. After magnitizing his boots, he also started a slow sweep, checking for anything that might try to catch them unawares.

 

[Lamb]

Enzo took his eyes off the Lady for moment to reply to Smith, "I thinks they're chums, I s'pose. They's gots a big ways of doin' things I appreciates. Why yous askin' me 'bout it? I'm not sure ifs I believes that whole gettin's to knows ya' business."

Enzo looked back out the front window after his reply, but he kept his mind on what Smith just asked him, wondering how the man was driven, trying to pick apart his fears and ambition, and trying to figure out rather he was profitable or not...

 

[Frost]

Daxle then got on a communication channel.
"How is everyone, you know, handling the space-walking? no spacesuit-phobias?" he asked, making sure. He was busy rearranging what he considered a no less than medieval sick bay.

 

[Luca]

"Everything seems to be rosy, thanks for asking," Luca replied to Daxle as he watched Naoko pat away at the keypad. After she made her final keystroke and pressed enter...

Authenticating . .. ...

Authenticating . .. ...

The wait made Luca nervous, every moment he spent waiting could be a moment that someone was going to get the drop on him.

Access Granted! Have a safe and productive day.
The escape pod door opened and granted access into the ship. Unfortunately, as previously suspected, it appeared to be running off of emergency power, and the interior lacked any atmosphere. The entire ship needed to be turned back on again - just like trying to get a car started without the keys, having to work with the wires - and using a tuning fork to get the job done.

"Hmmh, this just gets better and better, doesn't it?" Luca grumbled aloud.

-

Meanwhile, on the Big Bird, something had gotten John's attention and he felt it prudent to warn the others, "Guys, we've got someone inbound from Nepleslia Prime."
Luca radioed back, "IFF?"
"Going to assume hostile. It's on an intercept course with the Mule."
"How long does it have to get here?" The captain radioed back, somewhat worried.
"Twelve minutes, twenty two seconds," John said, "Move your arses. We'll try and keep it busy."

The ISC Big Bird made a swerve as it moved to intercept the as of yet unknown vessel. It had its main positron cannon charged. It was a weapon purpose made to destroy planets, so who knew what it could do to a ship?
"Well, one way to find out," Sebastian grumbled as he watched the power bar for the positron cannon climb higher and higher.

-

The above information would be radioed to Enzo and Smith too, and Luca felt it prudent to get moving. He was the first person into the ship. He found himself in the upper deck of the mule, in the service area. The engines were nearby, upstairs and downstairs, and very cold.

"Alright team, move out, get this hulk working," He commanded as he made tactical signals that he'd picked up from movies (which were still pretty effective), "Zeta, Robert, follow me, we'll investigate the Crew Quarters and Bridge. Naoko, I want you to try and get the systems working. Panther, keep her covered, and look for any hatches or passages."

And so, Luca booted the door to the corridor open with his Fatboy in hand, and was greeted by something that almost made the bottom fall out of his stomach.
Blood had been stuck to the walls, congealed beyond recognition, and even floating in the air. Someone's long-decayed intestines were floating like an eldritch octopus, "This is... creative." Was all he could muster, "I don't think we should tell Enzo about this."

The first door he booted open to his right was one of the rooms, it appeared as though it was used for some sort of overtly human blood sacrifice. All that was recognisable was a woman's torso, the rest was simply gone.

Luca was unable to suppress the urge to be sick, and threw up in his mouth. He tried his best to send it back down where it came from, but the overwhelming atrocity meant that it needed out. However, a third option was taken to just leave it in his mouth for the time being. Communication would be very interesting, and he hoped that his hand signals would be effective, even if they were from some ill researched movie.

 

[Gallant]

Naoko resisted the urge to gasp the moment the hatch opened; the problem was, there still wasn't any air. That was a little bit frustrating. For some reason, Naoko had expected this ship to be manned, and a manned ship had atmosphere. This ship was, however, looking quite dead. As digital as Naoko could be, the one thing that she hadn't been created with was a little oxygen meter to tell her when she was about to die. Her lungs didn't feel so good right now.

Remaining silent, she jumped down into the engineroom, letting her inertia carry her. She landed with a thump, and righted herself, adjusting the SMaR's sling over her shoulder as she gazed around at all the equipment.

Naoko was ground infantry. Granted, if she could just get her hands on a digital or radio signal with tracers and addresses, it was well within her capability to trace it back to its source, and then screw with that source. The tracer and logging programs existed, floating around in her secondary memory banks. The problem was interfacing - she had to find some way to communicate with it. Most ships had some sort of wireless, wave-type communication, or femtomachines, or something easy and simple. What was she supposed to do to a ship's engine with a bunch of wires sticking out of it like a saturday-night movie monster? Hit it with the butt of her weapon? Call the angry villagers with pitchforks?

Whatever it was, she could figure it out after the life support was restored - if the life support even functioned.

Naoko strode purposefully over to a nearby bulkhead and, with her closed fist, she delivered a punch that splintered the flimsy side paneling that concealed the wiring harnesses, wrenching it off its bolts and casting it off to float in the Zero-G, along with a few bright red droplets of her arterial blood. Naoko peeked into the hole, feeling very keenly the broken knuckle and savaged skin, but far too focused on her air problem to care much.

Power cable, power cable, eletrical wire, electrical wire, stuff-that-will-kill-me-instantly, stuff-that-will-fry-me-crispy... All she wanted was a cable from the ship's primary computer - that was it.

Perhaps the interface was spoken?

"Say something," she shot over the away team's communication channel, still searching through the wires for some sort of lead, "Like, 'Power On' or something."

When she looked up, it was Panther she was looking at.

"Ima, kudasai."

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert followed Luca towards the crew's room without hesitation. He was right behind Luca as they burst in with Fatboys at the ready. While the floating intestines were sickening to him, it was the woman's torso that gave him a real chill down his spine. He could still remember vividly when he had nearly ended up in about as many pieces as this poor soul. Coughing a little, he reached over and lightly patted Luca's shoulder. "Maybe we should move on, Boss." He said, sounding just as sick as Luca looked. Robert stepped back out into the corridor and checked the next room down. Instead of booting it open though, he tried to just open the door.

 

[ShotJon]

Zeta was moving as third in their little trio. She was covering back of the team, sweeping her immedieate area with her Fat-boy having night-vision in her Impulse on. SHe looked in the romm after the others. "Bloody hell..." was all she said. She felt how she was slowly becoming sick. She quickly looked away from the room, feeling throw up coming up. She quickly braced herself and made it go down again. "Fuck," she said then.

It made her remember her dead brother. He got hit with explosive shell in the firefight when she lost her arms. It was not too big to make him red-mist but big enough to change him from person to large meat-chunk. This looked very familiar. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" She said again.

 

[Lamb]

Enzo was listening in on the communication going on between everyone on board as the gore unfolded before them. He was getting more and more suspicious that whomever had stolen his ship has done something henious to it. Perhaps they cleaned it, added wallpaper, removed red silk sheets, or even added a more practical chair to the bridge than the comfy one he'd set up before. Or perhaps they'd just found a bunch of dead bodies floating around in-- Nah, couldn't be. They were overreacting too much for dead bodies.

"Hey." Enzo barked with his thumb pressed firmly on the switch to key the mic, "What's yous guys lookin' at? What'd they do to it? Did they clean it? I hopes they didn't clean it."

He turned the mic back off and leant over to Smith, brandishing his knife for some nail cleaning, "Lousy fuckers probably tidied ups my ship after they stoles it."

 

[ShotJon]

Zeta heard panicked Enzo in her comm. Would the situation be different she would find it funny. Bot nothing cou make her laugh now. "No Enzo," she replied with ghastly voice. "They did not clean it. If you would see what we just see you would wish that they would cleant it. Fuck."

 

[Nevaraon]

Robert coughed and grunted into his mic. "Dead....people. at least two. but only if they had horror movie amounts of blood." His voice was strangely distant and neutral. His thoughts were still on his own experiences. "I think even you'd want to clean this place up." he added after a moment's pause.

 

[CadetNewb]

"I see." Smith replied to Enzo. 'Chums.' he thought, almost mouthing the word, rolling it on his tongue. But why? Did Enzo just think of them as a way to make cash? Or was there something more? Smith turned back to listening in on the comm, as he had nothing more to say, and it seemed Enzo wasn't particularly interested in conversation either. Tidbits of swearing, subdued tones of voice floated over the earbud as Matthew pushed a finger against it. The truth was, as a family man, he dealt with this kind of thing a lot; the boarding party was hiding something. Even Enzo caught on.

"If they're real sick bastards, they'd have given it pink wallpaper." He casually remarked, playing off of Enzo's own 'fears'.

 

[Lamb]

"How do yous knows it wasn't pink befores?" Enzo chortled away as he picked dirt from his nails, his feet now propped up on the dash. He keyed the mic again to speak to Robert, "So what, Ragsey? What's a couple o' stiffs gots everyone so blowed-up over? Yous know how many stiffs we've mades, just poppin' squids? How many stiffs I've made, just cleanin' house in a Blacks Syndicates bar?"

He trailed off, asking a few more questions and mentioning the word 'stiffs' a few more times. Eventually, he left it with a final, "Yeah... so... Who cares abouts a bunch o' stiffs?"

 

[ShotJon]

Zeta scowled at last few sentences they came throughs the comm. "There is not normal Enzo, these ain't no regular 'stiffs'. These are pieces. It's ugly and I know you have no need of seeng this. One one does," she said. Her voice was serious as she was checking corridor for any movement.

 

[CadetNewb]

"Just a rationalized guess." Enzo was logically not the type of person who would get pink wallpaper with flowers on it. Smith tried imagining the other man walking through a ship's hallways decorated as such. No, just wasn't working. For some unknown reason, his mind went on to replace walking with skipping. Hell no. He still managed to keep his businesslike demeanor though, despite the slight slip and swear a moment ago. He bristled slightly at the constant mention of 'stiffs'. Even though Enzo seemed to be...uneasy with the situation, Smith wasn't going to let fear get the best of him. Not now.

"Miss Zeta Five, can you forward us camera footage from your armor? I'd like to see what we're dealing with." He asked the woman politely. Ignorance and bliss, or knowledge and fear? Smith had always chosen the latter, or so he thought.