MissingNo
Inactive Member
Moonman
Post subject: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Mon 2007 Jun 11, 10:28 pm
On the NSS Alliance, 1 hour after the briefing…
The bridge buzzed with activity, the command staff milling about their computers, preparing for launch. The NSS Alliance was repaired, the scars of its terrible battle vanished behind sheets of sturdy, new metal. Miller sat in his chair, looking over his console, his voice robotic as he gave commands to his subordinates. "This is the final check," he said. "Verify that all systems are green before departure."
Ally’s holographic form appeared beside the captain with her hands neatly folded behind the small of her back, “I can assure you that all of my systems are operating within acceptable parameters,” She said with a smile The displays on the computer screens in the bridge reflected this, showing a multitude of statistical data relating to the new and old systems that were installed while the ship was at Unity Base. Ally then said, “We can depart the moment you are ready.”
Standing toward the back of the bridge, Jet sighed, leaning up against the wall as usual, flipping through a datapad linked to the various security systems through the ship. But since everything was condition green there was no real point in it, the rounds completed for the time being. "I hope this isn't another trap by the reds, I'm so sick of those boys." She said with a groan, brushing her white bangs out of her eyes. Back to wearing the traditional uniform pants but kept the leather bustier and the belts around the abs, wearing the jacket with the rank insignia on it clearly.
Having been fed and hour ago, Matthew's mind was working well enough as he connected his implants to the Alliances mainframe via a wireless connection. With multiple windows showing the status of the ship in general upon his screen, the young Cadet nodded calmly as he heard Ally begin speaking to the Captain. "Ally took the words right out of my mouth, Captain. My systems show everything is green." the cadet replied, but didn't turn from his console as he pulled up navigations and communications to the front of his screen.
Wazu merely nodded along with Matthew's assessment, more observing the screens that interacting with them at the moment.
Captain Miller nodded. Although he didn't show it, he always trusted the opinions of flesh-and-blood officers over an A.I. It was more important to hear critical information from them because it would be they, when under pressure, who would decide whether they lived or died through their decisions. "Acknowledged," he said, pointing his finger to the virtual display on the console. "Request to launch has been granted. Cadet, take us out to safe distance for a hyperstream jump."
"Aye, sir," Matthew replied as he slowly inched the Alliance out of Unity Base, making sure that his flight path was clear as he maneuvered the Destroyer.
---
Meanwhile, down the in NSS Alliance Power Armor launch bays, the marines readied themselves for a possible conflict…
Directly after the meeting Benji had seen to it that he had uploaded a few files from his data pad and the ship's system directly to his NAM Water PA. Then he stocked the stimmie slots and pulled up the meeting info on his data pad, wondering who all had gotten promo's and who were the new greenies. He also made sure to look up their plans for if something should happen. Better to be safe and prepped than sorry. Within the hour, he realized they were ready to take off and scuttled down to the Power Bay to check over his PA again. "Needs better paint..." He noted to himself.
Istvan was setting up the computer he had been given. He was very frustrated with the install system, and was on the verge of scrapping it, but that would reveal he HAD it.... and he did not want others to know that he needed a crutch. But without his stimies everything would be slower... He scowled, leaving off his musing to stab at the control panel again. He hated these things sometimes. Jurry rig a power armour, cinch. Program, or even starting a computer? Istvan had caused plenty of "halt and catch fire" errors in his time.
Gran was sweating as he looked over his armor, the fresh armor plates covering the newly installed UCF-3u and its coolant system, the standard on the FIRE armor. The computer in the armor was already calibrating itself to not burn anything with the new flood of power available to it. He looked down at the PFC still wrapped up waiting to be used. Sorry buddy, you'll have to wait for later. Gran slid into the armor, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he powered up the armor. A loud whirring whine gradually grew from the back of Gran's armor. His eyes followed the startup on the HUD and smiling, glad that there were no critical failures in the oversized generator. He took a few steps, the armor feeling slightly more responsive from the handiwork. “Alright, excellent for a day’s work,” He grinned as he whispered to himself, stepping further into the PA bay, testing the joints.
Istvan punched his locker, denting it. "damn it... Ally? Can you spare some clock time to help an old hopeless fool set some damned computer up?" He asked the wall. "I need this set up, and set up fast... But... don't tell anyone, alright? Please?"
A text message was displayed on Istvan's computer system, "Please hold on, I will update your system's software and drivers then install the supplemental software packages for you. -Ally" The NSS Alliance's DIEMOS then began to update the much smaller computer system wirelessly, quickly downloading appropriate files from Unity Base's system prior to their departure. In moments the device's main menu came up, along with a small message from Ally, "Got it! Have fun with your new toy."
"Thank you greatly Ally" Istvan said, setting the computer to start perform tactical calculations for him, and assist him in other small ways. Istvan looked around, and got guidance to Wolfram. He walked to the boy as stealthily as he could "Apparently." he said, suddenly "You are attached to me. I am Soldier second class Istvan, and you would be Solider first class Wolfram. You are sticking close to me. Don't worry. More people attached to me have survived then did not... well so far at least" Istvan laughed merrily then lead wolfram to the Armour bay. Istvan got into one of the WATER's himself, in preparation.
Adrian smoked a cigarette as he watched the marines prep their armors. Better jump in some armor soon... The tall medic shrugged to himself and mosied on over to the NDI Armor construction screens. He outfitted himself in his relatively standard Super Phalanx. He picked out the Disruptor Rifle and Plasma cannon and stood still as the plasma created the armor around him.
After a bit of fussing his with PA, Benji got himself all suited-down and stepped up over his armor and then snuggled down inside it, getting himself all adjusted and attached and ready. When he was all good to go he got to his feet and popped on his helm, pulling up his book and settling down for a good read while waiting.
Rico Sanroma sat rather comfortably in his AIR2 as he and the rest of the marines in the armor bay stood and waited for their signals to mobilize. Truthfully, he was a little agitated with himself at the time; ever since he returned to the Alliance from the starbase, he had been hoping to make some sort of 'huge entrance' to his peers and ham up the fact that he was still alive and kicking. However, even during the captain's briefing when everyone was there, Rico never found the right opportunity. Thus, there he sat, brooding slightly as he fiddled with the inner workings of his armor, hoping that he would get to see a little action during this mission to relieve his building tension.
---
The Alliance drifted away from Starbase Unity, having left the dock with a large rumbling noise as engines flared to life. "This time we won't scratch any paint," Miller joked at the young navigator. "Engage hyperstream jump, coordinates to the last known location of the NSS Spitzer when it discovered the transmissions. I want to get there quickly."
"Yes, sir," Matt replied as he slowly brought the hyperstream up and running, using the exact coordinates that were located in the Alliance's mainframe. This should be a short trip.
"This is going to be completely boring...I bet it's no big deal probably just some stranded escape pod or something." Jet huffed from where she was and stretched her arms for a moment. "Or after what we've been through that's what I hope it is."
"Preparing ship for hyperstream transition," Ally said over the PA system. "Stand by." The external sensor feeds to the inside shut down for a moment to prevent the extremely odd sensation of watching a ship pass over a hyperstream boundary. The ship then just disappeared from its position around Unity Base as it began its trip. The crew inside would experience no noticeable distortions except for the engineers who were occupied with keeping the massively increased power consumption of the ship under control.
Miller tapped his fingers on his leather chair as he reclined. The displays were shut down, so there was nothing immediately to do. "Ally, could you bring some coffee to the bridge?" He said casually.
Ally nodded, "Yes sir," Exactly twenty six seconds later Ally walked onto the bridge with a steaming mug of black coffee in her right hand, and a small plastic container in the other, "Would you like Sugar or Cream with your coffee Captain?"
Sighing quietly, Matt brought up another window and began to work on finishing his project on the massive layer of computer security he had created for the Alliance. Consisting of several types of firewalls and a variety of dummy ports and traps, it was probably Matthew's greatest work of network security yet. Though Ally would probably be better at stopping hackers, it was probably best to have a passive system of defenses available just in case.
"Sugar, please," Miller said, arching an eyebrow at Matt. "Hm, Cadet? Are you grumpy? Do you need some caffeine in you?"
Matt blinked from his position and turned around to face his Captain with a confused look. "What?"
Ally held the plastic container over the coffee mug and pressed a small switch which dispensed three cubes of sugar into the drink from the underside of the container. "Here you are sir," She said with a smile as she held out the mug for Captain Miller to take from her.
"Cadet. Coffee. Get." Miller smiled at Ally as he took a sip. "Great stuff."
The cadet blinked again. "Ah...yes sir...I guess some coffee would help," he commented calmly as he looked of towards Ally. "Would you, please," he asked the holographic avatar.
"You should thank the mess hall staff sir, They keep a pot ready at all times." She said with a smile. The holographic avatar nodded, as the real one left the bridge again, "Sure thing, another mug of coffee coming right up!"
"Thank you," the Cadet replied as he turned back to his screen and began typing with lightning speed.
The captain nodded again to Ally. As he sipped his cup, he hoped that it would be the only thing he'd have to pay attention to for the next few hours.
A short time later…
"Exiting Hyperstream Now," Ally said over the PA system, as the external video feeds came online to show the space around them a multitude of lightyears away from their starting location. At the same time her solid form came onto the bridge with another mug of coffee, "How would you like your coffee?" she asked the Cadet.
Across the comm station of the Alliance, strange, primitive transmissions began to be received. Each was slightly different than the last ... but they were all along at near lightspeed. The attempt was obvious -- someone was trying to send information faster than light. The contents of the signals were almost childish ... colors, mostly. Blue, black, white, represented by audio signals.
"I normally take it black, thank you," he replied as he continued typing, only for his sensors window to start flashing at him. Frowning, he brought it up just as his communications window started flashing. "What the..." he commented as he brought up both windows and looked them over. "Captain, am I picking up some strange signals on both communications and sensors." he reported as he used the Alliances communication suite to try and pick up the signals and translate them. "Colors?" he said questioningly as he began to filter it to find any data or audio.
Ally would quickly process this information and display the chunks of messages on the screens of the bridge as well as the source of the location after triangulating the location using the ship's sensor array.
"Well this is something I didn't expect..." Jet said, walking forward to look at the chunks of messages being displayed on a nearby screen. "Looks like some child is playing with the communications systems or something." She said with a sigh.
The signals shifted briefly. Now, they were two colors -- black/white, blue/yellow, green/orange. They slowed some miniscule amount; it appeared to be something only a computer would notice, but the single-color messages returned, at the previous speed.
Ally broke down the messages for Cadet Matthew, displaying them as both a combined image and a deconstruction of the message showing both colors.
"What the fuck is that," the captain said, leaning forward in his chair. "Wazu, alert the marines in the armor bays. If this is another trap, we're not going to be caught in it flatfooted." Miller shifted his attention to the cadet. "Lionheart, can you pinpoint where they are coming from?"
A third type of signal came through -- it was completely garbled, consisting of audible "snow," but at a slightly faster speed. The transmissions then stopped.
Matt frowned in annoyance as he continued to filter out the message. "Fucking weird," was his only comment as he pulled out a container from his pocket and opened it, revealing his collection of plugs. Pulling one out, he connected it to his port behind his right ear and pulled, bringing a thin wire from it as he connected himself physically to the computer system to increase transmission speed. "I've got a location of the transmission, but all it seems to be is an image...wait...there's a bit of audio....sounds like that damned snow effect," he commented as he pulled up the location onto the main monitor.
"Yes sir," Wazu said, turning to the computer system and activating the PA, "All Marines, report to the power armor bay and equip yourselves for space combat and ship defense. Board the loading tubes and go on standby for launch.”
---
In the armor bays of the NSS Alliance, the marines would hear the Lieutenants message clearly as it blared out from the speaker systems. Almost immediately the room sprang back to life as the marines began moving around again in anticipation.
"Nice..." Benji made sure he got what he needed as well as one of "the big guns" from the last mission and shifted towards the launch tubes.
Adrian pushed himself from a wall and stood straight. As Rico's voice came in over the comm, Adrian narrowed his eyes. It sounded pretty familiar... but the medic shook it off and simply sauntered over to the launch tubes. "Come on, mates. Let's get ready to kill some chicken-fuckers."
Gran took a few deep breaths, wondering if they were going to in a trap again. He looked up and tried to relax as he waited, but hearing the messages made him tense. He had his suit shut off to everything but the PA system, trying to concentrate.
Rico quickly jerked back to attention as the announcement rang out, and smiled as the words sunk in. Almost instantly he forgot all of his earlier worries, standing back up to attention and slapping his armors hand against the back of the marine to his right. "Wooo!” Rico yelled out loudly through his armors audio channels. “Wake up boys, it's party time!"
Istvan grunts as the hand struck his back, then turns pale looking at Rico "I... Didn't I kill you?" He asked, his face as drained as if he had seen a ghost "By mistake? Shit... I'm going insane...."
---
"I suggest we move to within sensor range of the source of these signals then deploy some power armors to check it out," Wazu said.
Miller thought for a long moment before issuing his next command. "Cadet, return a communication in the direction of the anomaly. Announce that we are representatives of the Nepleslian Empire on an exploration mission."
He shook his head at Wazu. "I don't want to walk into this situation. It's best to feel it out. Make them come to us."
Wazu just nodded, and kept his gaze on the displays in front of him.
The transmissions started again -- this time along purely audio channels. The message was clear, transmitting at relatively slow speeds. There was about a 10-second delay. "Contact? CONTACT? Frizzing thing always malfunctions after twenty seconds + five ... so BROKEN!"
---
Rico quirked an eyebrow as Istvan replied to his friendly strike, trying to recall who this particular marine was and how he knew him. It took him a bit, but finally, he remembered the voice. "Whaaat? Shit no, son!" Rico laughed, and slapped Istvan harder another time. "If you think you could hit somethin' this hot, you must be outta your fuckin' MIND, baby!"
"Rico, shut up, you're over the loudspeakers..." Benji chirped in as he listened in on the conversation.
Adrian shot a glance sideways, his jaw clenched. The marine opened a private channel to Benji over his comm device. "Oi... did you say Rico?"
"Adrian, He's the ONLY one here who would EVER say the word baby to a male over loudspeakers...." Benji said "I pride myself over voice recognition..."
"Right..." Istvan said after a moment "I am insane. Great. I do not want to deal with the medic. He scares me...." Istvan muttered to himself, Then Benji spoke. Istvan went even MORE white. "Never mind then," he mumbled. "Uhhh... so... I suppose reports of your death were exaggerated?"
Adrian broke into a cold sweat. Aaaaw shit. "But... fuck. I saw him die. What the hell is going on?" The tall medic shook a bit. He was rather surprised, a bit scared, and just a little pissed.
"Doom, Gloom and destruction?" Benji offered nonchalantly to Adrian.
Rico, once again, brought down his hand another time, just a tad harder than the last onto Istvans back. "Highly exaggerated, baby! Simmer down and get ready...we don't have time for you blubberin' your ass off."
"Right" Istvan said gloomily "I see you are still as.... similar to a squirrel as before."
"Tell me about it..." Adrian replied, his eyes closed and head shaking.
Unbeknownst behind Rico, a white AIR2 raised its leg in preparation for a kick, and then lowered it when Fian figured out that it might kill the bastard again. After a moment, Fian compromised by pulling the legs out of Rico's suit with his P/p, exactly the same way that the Sanroma did to him in VR.
"Psh. Screw you gu-AACK!" Before Rico could finish his retort, he found his legs quickly swept out from under him. He lay there for a moment, face planted firmly on the armor bay floor before he finally understood what just happened. In an instant, Rico rolled onto his back and attempted to return the same maneuver on the marine behind him, activating his tractor fields and pulling at the legs of Fian’s AIR2.
Istvan dodged to the side as Rico fell. "Shit!" He shouted, very startled... then he started to laugh a deep echoing guffaw. "Ach... I'm pretty tense right now... anyone here have a clue exactly what's going on up there? I wish bridge would tell us what was happening... I HATE the waiting."
Fian expected a downed man to stay still for a moment so he could say something to him, but Rico decided to immediately retaliate thus caught the Vel Steyr off guard to send him crashing to the ground. Pulling himself up, Fian mumbled in tears. "I am not letting you out of my sight again."
"Fuckin' jeez Fian," Rico murmured with a smirk into his private channel as he picked himself up and dusted his armor off. "Pull it together, we got shit to do baby. You can get sentimental AFTER we're done bustin' heads."
---
The NSS Alliance sent a transmission to the source of the signals they were receiving. "Greetings, this is the NSS Alliance of the Nepleslian Empire. We come in peace and seek to meet and exchange cultural information."
After a moment, the Alliance's message was responded to along the same channel. It was a woman talking, or a female that knew "English" at least: "This is the most broken piece of slag ever. I knew it was too blackened to work. CONTACT?! Barely measures 38 million jiggajewels, whatever that is. Fuck this, I'm getting my viewtube." The transmission ended.
Miller crossed his arms. "Whatever this is, it's annoying. Repeat transmission."
Ally repeated the exact same transmission but added, "Will you please open a line of communication with us?"
No transmission was returned. However, the device's line was still open, so tracking the source was far easier.
"If that's how they want to play it, then fine," Miller growled. "Wazu, raise our defenses. Get us to them, FAST."
"Sir, if I may interject..." Jet said. "Perhaps their communications array isn't as good as ours is?" She offered with a shrug and glance over her shoulder in his direction.
"Endurain, I'm more likely to believe that they're fucking with us, and I won't have it." Miller quickly replied.
Wazu's hands went over the tactile controls of the Alliance, bringing its hyperstream drive online and configuring the field for conventional propulsion while activating the primary shield systems. "Ally, close distance and bring us in range for some close scans of the source." Wazu instructed verbally as the Alliance began to move. "I would rather just find out instead of pussy footing around," Wazu said simply, his eyes still focused on the screen in front of him.
"Well I guess that with all that's happened you're justified in that line of thought." Endurain said with another shrug.
After a brief delay, the transmission from the ship picked up again--a bit clearer this time, and with a different woman's voice on the other end... with brief interruptions. It sounded like she was engaged in a light struggle with somebody. "That's okay, we have plenty--grr!--plenty of peace already! We'll just be on our way, if you don't mind..."
Matthew briefly blinked in surprise at this new message. "This is getting really weird now," the Cadet muttered in annoyance.
"Stupid bee-yotch!" The voice said over the line. "Come the fuck back!" More strange clunking sounds over the line.
The lone cruiser was sat in the void of space, moving along at what seemed a snail's pace as its brightly colored sails caught the light of a nearby star. Other than the fragmented transmissions and radiation, there was next to no active energy signatures coming from the vessel, though a significant amount of plant life could be detected aboard if scanned.
"It looks like an ancient solar sail powered craft...." Wazu said as he looked at the data gathered by the Alliance with a puzzled expression, "and... I think they are fighting each other inside?"
Miller's eyes narrowed. "Scan them aggressively. Do they possess anything that poses a threat to us?"
Wazu used the scanners on the Alliance to take a peek at the ship's shape, internal configuration, and layout. "Scanning now, but speculating based on their propulsion and power source I doubt they have weapons capable of harming us."
Miller nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Cadet, reopen communications. If they do not reply this time, we will warn them."
"Aye, sir," Matt replied as he opened communications with the unknown ship. "This is the NSS Alliance to unknown vessel, please respond on this frequency. If you do not respond, we will have to consider you hostile to this vessel." he spoke calmly and with a commanding tone.
---
Another short siren and flash of red lights indicated that marines should be prepping themselves for possible deployment and engagement. The armored soldiers began loading and checking their weapons in unison, ready to take on the foes laid out before them.
Fian did not say anything, but instead jetted off towards the weapons rack while still facing Rico all the while. While he was there he picked up his usual two VBCS/Ses, and after a moment of thinking, went with the LBR-00p and Ex-DARTs.
Gran checked his FMD, loading it with red shells as he checked his other systems. He still felt a bit antsy.
Istvan got himself armed quickly, and efficiently, then turned on his new tactical computer. He almost danced as he moved, though if it was any sort of dancing it was very poor dancing
---
The communication channel stabilized--somewhat. The second female voice replied, "No, nono, we're quite non-hostile, we assure you. Just having some..." she paused briefly; there was the sound of a distant thud. "... some technical difficulties!" she concluded brightly.
"Chief of which is you!" The first voice claimed indignantly. "That's my radio!"
"Ugh...we're talking to a bunch of children," Matt gruffly commented as he massaged his forehead, making sure his side of the conversation was muted.
"....Are they serious?" Jet asked. "This has got to be a joke of some kind..." The young woman muttered in an annoyed tone.
"This is Captain Jack Miller of the NSS Alliance," Miller said as he stood up from his chair, his attitude tempered very carefully. "We represent the great Nepleslian Empire. To whom are we speaking?"
"Would you two cease your quarrelling?" A voice boomed over the comms. "Maker help me, I'm this close to pulping you two for lifejuice. The next one to--"
"Answer the question, please,” Miller repeated.
"Is that some sort of sexual term?" Wazu wondered out loud as he heard the 'pulping for lifejuice' line.
"It could be..." Jet replied, overhearing Wazu's wonderings. "This may be a race of perverts.."
"Or we've found a ship of insane individuals," Matt commented in annoyance.
A fourth voice cut in, once again female, and said, "We are not hostile, but who are you?"
"Pardon, wayfarers. Welcome to the Anarachate. We are of the Gypsy node, Displaced. Just give me a moment to dislodge the Druidesses. Hold a--"
"I...just...said...that," Miller replied slowly, his voice unchanging but his face turning red with anger. "Who is in charge there?"
"Aren't you impatient?" The amused voice said. "For wayfarers, you sure are demanding. Do not suspect to come to our realm and then make demands of us."
Miller cut off communications. "I swear I'm going to KILL someone." The communication channel then quickly reopened. "You still haven't given us your name or faction yet, ma'am. It's basic etiquette to exchange names, is it not?"
"Error, shut up," The first female voice said quickly, voice tinny and far away. "It's my damn machine. Gimme that ... " The voice came much closer until it was back to normal. "Ahem! ... I am Freethinker Moral Zero-Five," she said in a bit of a grand voice. "And you are Nehp-less-lee-ans, right? Our faction is independent; we belong to no one." She coughed again.
"And I'm Kassiopea!" the fourth voice cut in again, as if the speaker was bouncing on her heels.
"We should establish where they come from and what resources they have access too. Starships don't come out of nowhere." Wazu suggested as he continued working on the sensor scans, extrapolating where the ship came from by tracing its trajectory.
As he talked, Miller motion for Wazu to continue his scans of the ship, as well as the surrounding space, and looked at Cadet Lionheart as if expecting him to do something with his computer wizardry. "Well then, Moral Zero-Five and Kassiopea, I would like to say hello on behalf of the Nepleslian Empire. Who is in charge over there?"
"I am the Foreman Three One," the voice said with a sigh. "I request you state your serial designation and prepare to receive network probes."
Matthew had about enough listening to the idiocy on the communications channel. Instead, he was using another communications signal and piggybacking the communications currently in progress. "Ally, I'll need your assistance with this," he said vaguely as he began to try and infiltrate the lone cruisers computer systems, being cautious as he searched through any back doors in their mainframe.
"Error, SHUT IT ... Um, no one, really, Mr. Nehplessleean." Moral's voice said again, after a sharp crack indicated something had been knocked around. "We are a state of anarchy. Singular rule is not recognized."
"I'm afraid we cannot afford to share our network information with you as of this moment, forgive us," Miller said diplomatically, ignoring Moral’s interjection. "However, we would like to establish face-to-face communications with you. Do you have visuals?"
Ally began pinging the other ship's network, attempting to open lines of communications with that ship that were not intended to be used for verbal methods of communication.
"Um ... shit. Hold on. I know I've got something somewhere ... uh ... wait a minute." Several clinking sounds were made, until visual data began being transmitted, albeit very slowly. It carried a 15-second delay, but it was roughly clear -- the Nepleslians could see what appeared to be a large pair of breasts hovering in front of them, trapped in a spandex-like green shirt, before they were then faced with a pale-skinned woman with a chubby face and strange purple hair. "How's this?"
Concentrating on his hacking of the cruiser's mainframe, Matthew was oblivious to what was visible on the main screen as his fingers danced across his console's keys like lightning.
"That's one way to greet new people." Jet laughed at the sudden image of breasts.
Wazu was more interested in breaking down what was in the background of the image rather than the person in it, going through the video frame by frame to look for anything of any importance in the terms of equipment or items that may show up in the visuals being transmitted.
A small face attempted to get in on the picture, somewhat failing and even falling over in the attempt.
"Come now, if you come in peace, why do you hide your networks? If your intent is not of ill, why do you keep secrets?" As the Foreman's voice crackled over the comm, the ship suddenly launched its own volley of electronic attacks. "Already you pry ours, non-aggressors. So we too shall, non-aggressively, ply yours with hunter-seeker algorithms."
Wazu checked Ally's transmissions quickly, "They are responding well considering we committed an act of war. Perhaps if we allow them access to cultural information they would respond in kind?"
"Fucking hell," was Matthew's only comment as his fingers began typing faster to put up as many counter-measures to the hunter-seeker algorithms as possible. These defenses ranged from firewalls to booby-traps and even the occasional 'dummy door'.
Miller hoped that his handsome face would appear on their screens as well. He smiled. "That will be fine. Anyway, the NSS Alliance is the flagship of the Nepleslian Empire. We have been sent out to investigate strange transmissions in known space, would those happen to be from you?" He cleared his throat at the latest interjection, unchanged, confident. "No act of war was committed, just a curious probing, like one would do with a specimen. No different than what you're now trying to do to us, I suppose. But I get ahead of myself. If you would like to share information, I would like to do it in person."
No different?" The large mechanical being lurched into view. "Your methods are archaic, your reaction times are horrendous. Had we a professional Datajack aboard, your ship would already be disabled. But yes, let's leave our Syntelligence to play games while we play our own, shall we? Would you care to jump ship, or shall we jump?"
Ally responded by quarantining incoming transmissions and filtering them for malware before using them to display text and audio. The resulting fractions of a second it took to perform these operations as the data came in did not noticeably affect the rate at which the communications were being traded but it did make the ship virtually invulnerable to any attempts to 'hack' it.
"Error, why don't you listen to me?" Moral was blushing for a moment as she looked at the comm device, then shook her face. Her lips were also colored a kind of purple, and she had large, radio-tower like tattoos above her eyes reaching up beyond her hairline. "Let's let them on. I don't think he's an assvoid. Right Sache?"
Matthew mouth dropped agape as his techniques were insulted. "Archaic....horrendous...you....you," the Cadet's normally calm expression heated with anger.
"Confident words, I like to hear that," Miller said cheerfully. "I will be sending an armor team shortly. Do not be alarmed, they will have orders to not engage in hostilities."
"A what?" Jet asked, thoroughly confused by all that's going on and walked over to Mat and put a hand on his shoulder. "Relax they've probably got something we lack that makes it easier for them." She said and sighed.
"Let them on, haha! Let oblivion come today or next week; it will come, it will!" Sache entered the video screen for the first time, slapping Moral on the back heartily, a manic grin on her face.
Kassiopea in the background was shacking her head and smiling widely.
"Yeah, right!" Moral appeared to slap Sache back. The sound was much harder; her voice carrying an edge.
"Very well," Miller said. "Please standby." The communication cut off with a polite beep.
The transmission ended.
---
Matthew's face was still red with anger as he kept his mouth shut for the moment and crossed his arms with a perturbed look on his face. "Archaic...horrendous....fuckers."
"Matt, chill out." Jet said with a sigh. "You're still better than anyone else on this ship."
"It is your first time looking at their systems." Wazu reminded Matthew in a calm voice, "I am surprised you were able to do anything at all without having any prior knowledge of their systems."
Matthew sighed and cracked his neck before sitting up. "I know...but the nerve of them. I've been hacking since I was a kid and I never..." he began only to growl and sit back in his seat.
Miller cracked his knuckles. "okay! We've got ourselves an alien civilization," Miller said happily. "First good news I've had in a while, actually." He pointed to Wazu. "okay, Lieutenant, I'd like you to organize a diplomatic. You're going personally this time. I will join you later after I inform high command of this."
Matthew suddenly stood up from his chair. "Sir, I'd like to go over as well." he asked with stiffness in his posture.
"Ask the Lieutenant, Cadet," Miller said.
Matthew's eyes swiveled over towards the XO and waited for an answer as he practically stood at parade rest.
Wazu nodded and picked up his cane, using it to help him up to a standing position, "Rico, Fian, each of you get a team together and load yourselves with minimal weapons. Have Ally prepare me an M4 stealthsuit and..." He looked over at Matthew, "What type of armor do you prefer?"
"If you'll excuse me, I must get this prepared immediately. Should you leave, Endurain will have the bridge." With that, the Captain left.
"That is if anyone's going to listen to me" Jet said, looking over at Miller and sighed. "Damn, oh well."
"Don't worry, Ally will babysit you Jet," Wazu said before turning back to Matthew.
"I've really only had training in a Super Phalanx, sir," Matthew replied more calmly now. "The new NAM armors came out after I graduated from the Academy."
Wazu nodded, "And a Super Phalanx. Also, make sure everyone double checks their recording equipment. I want both of you, Rico and Fian, to make checks in addition to Ally's," With that Wazu headed out the door of the bridge, limping along with the cane in his right hand while his left hand reached into his pants pocket to pull out a small pill which he quickly swallowed.
Matthew quickly followed Wazu, after shutting down his station and letting Ally continue with the computer defenses. His stride allowing him to quickly catch up with the Lieutenant and fall in on his right flank.
---
"Rico, Fian, each of you get a team together and load yourselves with minimal weapons.”
"Minimal weapons? What the hell is this shit?" The disappointment in Rico's voice was clear as he slouched in his armor. "Aww shit...fine," Rico finished, moving his armor to the head of the armor bay, hopefully within view of the rest of the marines. "Alright Fian, you heard the Lieutenant. Tell ya what...I'll give you first pick baby."
Istvan grinned. "Finally, we get to do SOMETHING!" He said, sardonically, while stripping his WATER of most of its weapons in preparation.
At the same time Ally was performing software checks on recording systems and the power armor's memory systems, displaying the results on the marine's heads up displays. Wazu was taking off of his jacket as he walked, awkwardly moving along with the cane until it was completely off. He then handed it to Ally's physical body that was waiting for them outside of the power armor bay, "If anything starts to go bad, just focus on returning to the ship Cadet." Wazu said, "We aren't here to fight them."
Removing his beret, Matthew nodded to his XO. "Affirmative, sir."
Wazu also took off his beret, and handed all the unnecessary clothing to Ally before walking in and going to suit up by standing on the quanta-construct pad.
Tossing his beret to Ally, Matthew followed suit by standing upon another Quanta-construct pad. Taking a calming breath, Matthew realized this would actually be his first time in a Phalanx outside of a simulator. Oh great...the techie's playing Marine, he thought in both amusement and annoyance as the armor was built around his body.
The pads glowed as the armors were built around the two officers. Once it was complete Wazu opened a channel to Rico and Fian's squads, "All marines that are going over load up in the launch tubes and deploy. Ally will provide you with the co-ordinates for entering the other ship. Be on your best behaviors during this." Wazu strapped his cane to the side of his power armor and then walked toward the launch tubes, his step supported by the armor's systems. Ally then sent a transmission to the aliens, "Will you please provide me with the location where our diplomatic team can meet with you on your ship?"
"Board-side hive hatch." Error paused for a moment. "Oh, that's right. Aliens. Erm, it's the large honeycombed entrance in the hull. You should be able to spot it by the drones crawling around it. Don't worry, they don't fire rivets or hurl detonators unless you provoke them."
"Unless you provoke them..." Kassiopea repeated.
"It's not nice to scare the aliens, my dear," Error cut in before he cut the transmission.
Matthew sighed as he maneuvered his hands in their armored shells, testing to see if everything worked well before stepping off. His Super Phalanx carried its standard load out, which was a lot less than the other armors, but still pretty intimidating. Making his way out to the launch tubes, he noticed the other Marines entering along with the XO. That's right...I'm the newbie of the group. Even the XO has been out with them, but I haven't even stepped foot into an armor around them. I wonder how'll the Marines will treat me.
Wazu stepped into the launch tube as well, and in a few moments there was a deep 'THUD' as the first power armor was fired out of the Alliance. A second THUD then came as Wazu's power armor was shot forward. Each of the power armors now displayed the location of the hatch on the heads up display.
Once shot out into space, Matthew took a bit of time orienting himself with the others. "Damn, that takes some getting used to," he muttered inside his helmet as he began to follow Wazu on this left flank.
Fian forwarded a name list containing Gran, Adrian and Aaron to the members of his squad. A small window would appear on their HUD informing them of their assignment. "All right people, get into the tubes. I'll see you outside." Fian looked around his 20 something squad members for any oddity before pointing at a marine carrying two Type-1s. "Don’t bring any other additional weapons for this one."
A loud smash filled the bay as Adrian unceremoniously dumped his two over-sized weapons onto the floor and strode forward until he stood slightly in front of Fian. "We ready to rock this bitch, mate?"
Gran nodded, not noticeable outside the armor due to the AIR2's non-existent neck. "Understood." He remarked as he ditched his FMD quickly stepped behind a few marines waiting on the launch tubes, the length quickly decreasing as he himself was shot out. He steadied the now heavier armor, getting a feel for the inertia of the added mass. He pulled in close to Fian and his other squad members as they floated in the void.
Rico silently alternated choices between marines as he and Fian made their decisions. Among marines Rico chose were Kokuten, Istvan, Wolfram and Benji. Rico smirked as he reviewed his list and discarded most of his AIRs weaponry. "Alright boys, everyone I picked over to this tube. The winners tube."
"Right..." Benji nodded to Rico and got his as shot into space.
"Oh... yes sir." Kokuten groaned, holding the back of his helmet, "I can still feel that hangover..." He grunted to himself. "Really, this is not the best time to have one..." He leaned over and walked into one of the launch tubes. The medic felt behind himself, fingering the medic box. He was using the WATER 2 he had picked back on Elysia, the medic felt some sort of ownership to it. "Now-" Kokuten was interrupted as his armor shot into space. "FUCK!" He yelled as he exited.
Istvan snorted "Well, you certainly had your daily dose of sugar," he said with a slight smile.
"Just shuddap and get in the fuckin' tube, smartass."
A few moments later, outside the hull of the mysterious ship...
Eventually the diplomatic party would end up outside of the hatch that the hatch that had been designated. Wazu then employed a standard greeting by knocking against the hatch twice, "Is anyone home?"
Several large bug-like drones swarmed around the newcomers, their legs clanging about the hull as the moved closer to inspect them. Suddenly, the hatch hissed and swung inward, revealing a darkened hall in which numerous drones were idled, line up along the walls. At the far end of the passage was a second hatch.
Wazu grabbed hold of the lip of the hatch and pulled himself inside of the hatch, looking around and turning on the suit's lights as he entered. Matthew was next into the hatch, pulling himself in with one hand and following the Lieutenant closely.
Fian tapped the XO lightly on the shoulder. "I think it would be more appropriate if some of the grunts are upfront. It's bad enough that we don’t have many weapons already."
The monoeyes on his AIR darted across the numerous drones milling around the area as Rico floated in front of the Lieutenant. "Fian's got a point chief. I'll take point," Rico replied with a grin and waved a signal for his squad to move farther up into position.
"Very well," Wazu said, "You have got point,"
Fian was just about to shout "REAR" at Rico before Wazu interjected. But never mind, it wasn’t his style to be upfront. Letting Rico pass him, he jetted beside Adrian and Gran somewhere in the middle of the party. "Adrian, if anything happens, you and I are going to the front. Gran, make sure the XO is evacuated safely."
Istvan, Benji and Kokuten floated up to their squad leader as he advanced through the corridor. Adrian quickly took a place near the rear with Fian, and Gran responded to Fian's recommendation and quickly moved slightly in front and to the side of Wazu, guarding him as well as possible without blocking his way, with his new metal 'backpack' of a generator.
"This would be exciting if it weren't so damn creepy," Kokuten said aloud. He followed behind Rico, trying to float at his speed. He looked back towards the opening, and then back to the forward direction. "I hate bugs..." He said in a chilled voice, shuddering.
"Could be worse," Istvan sent Kokuten over radio "There was this one planet I served on once... All of the life there was insects, and surprisingly many of them were mosquitoes..."
The Medic shuddered, "I hate bugs..." he repeated.
A transmission came from within the ship over the open comm. "Once you're all inside let us know and we'll seal the hatch." He laughed. "The Junkers get a bit irritated when we cycle the pressure lock, so make sure you're all inside before we do. I really don't want to have any limbs lost unnecessarily."
Wazu preformed a headcount and once everyone was inside he sent out a broadcast transmission, "We are all inside. You may proceed when ready,"
"Alright boys, quit your belly-achin' an’ get ready," Rico quipped back at his squad as they neared the second hatch. In truth, the milling drones around him made him a tiny bit wary...but he certainly wasn't going to let it show. Him and his men just continued to float towards the door at the end of the corridor.
"See? Could be worse then here" Istvan said cheerfully. "Here it's just machines that look like bugs when you squint."
"Cycling airlock." The hatchway slammed shut and the clang of mechanisms could be heard as the door locked itself. The drones along the walls remained unmoving, even as the inner hatch opened into the ship's hallway proper.
Gran moved slowly, staying with Wazu as his monoeyes skimmed the walls. His sensors let out a small warning signal. "What? Radiation from everywhere... This much could really hurt someone..." Gran's eyes squinted a little. Could be a trap? Gran opened a squad channel. "Fian, there's lots of radiation, I'm sure you're seeing it. Unarmored people would be dying in this sort of stuff, what's going on?"
A few flashing lights and beeps on Rico's HUD warned of a growing radiation reading as things began moving in front of him. "Nothin' too high for our armor, but still...be ready for somethin'," Rico warned his fellow marines.
"I've got syringes, not sure how much that's going to do." Kokuten piped up as he followed.
Boosting back to Gran, Fian's monoeyes darted around as he scanned the surroundings. "I'm still picking up life signs though... Everywhere." Checking the area with the video feed, Fian continued before moving back to the middle. "It seems a little too elaborate for a trap. But we should be prepared nonetheless."
Wazu had turned his attention to the bots on the wall, scanning them and making detailed visual recordings to look at later before moving along with the marines. While they focused on the worrying about the aliens he focused on observing their technology.
Matthew was busy walking slightly ahead of Wazu at this point, taking recordings of the area around him. "Not too impressive," he muttered as he tried to wirelessly connect any type of network on the ship.
---
What the armors saw, eventually, was a trio of women near the end of the tunnel — the lead of which was the same woman who had greeted them with a face full of cleavage initially. She stood, complete with an army-like shirt over her tight-fitting top, metal encasing one purple braid while the rest of her purple hair seemed a shock atop her head. She stepped forward, purple-lipped mouth agape. "Holy. Fuck. Automata."
Istvan bowed to the woman, in a very flowery fashion. "Greetings mylady. We are... not automations, quite, but rather these power-suit shells protect us from the environment. Pardon my rudeness.... but how are you nor fried?"
Adrian blinked and tried to get a look over the heads of the others before him. "Oi, what the fuck is goin' on? Someone up there?"
"Females..." Benji replied to Adrian.
Matthew finally entered the hallway proper and saw the trio of women before them. "Nice greeting, Marine," Matthew chuckled over the loudspeaker as he strode up towards the feminine trio.
"Well now, to the drones the stars, for us the ship, and for everyone who can't handle either of those, huge balls of dirt." The second took up position behind the first woman, looking curiously at the Nepleslian who'd spoken first. "This is the culmination of your career?" she said, turning to the other. "They don't seem much for conversation, really. Better to talk to a half-mad SI, truly."
Kassiopea, the third woman in line laughed at the second woman's comment and said, "True, they don't really seem to trust us do they?"
Adrian gritted his teeth. "Shit... you think it's a trap? I mean, the reds could just be staging all this..." He flicked a small ember of plasma on in his hand and darted his eyes about the hall, watching vigilantly for any type of secret door or aether generator built into the wall, but not finding much other than plants.
"Prolly not..." Benji grumbled back to Adrian. "They don’t look like the bright kind of women..."
"They don't need to be smart. The Red ambush squad behind them has the brains." The medic growled.
Fian peeked out from the crowd to notice the women. As he lowered himself again next to Adrian, his mind was going: It’s a trap, it’s a trap, it’s a trap! But somehow the words came out of his mouth differently. "If those are real women, I doubt the Reds would bait them up like that."
"Argh..." Kokuten put a hand on his helmet in frustration. "They're a different species, they obviously have a natural resistance or harmony with their environment..." He said over the loudspeaker to the quarreling marines around him.
Almost instantly, Rico's monoeyes focused onto the three targets before them. He was shocked for a moment as their images appeared on his HUD...they were very humanoid in appearance, and very female in appearance. Rico smiled slyly to himself as his armor floated to a halt in front of them. I am gonna like this ship. Rico thought to himself. "Alright boys, can the cute shit," he gave his squad a quick order to cease communication with the newly appeared figures...Rico figured it wasn't their job to do it. "Lieutenant. You're up."
Wazu nodded in acknowledgement at Rico’s words. "In most cultures it is impolite to talk about someone like that while they are right in front of you," Wazu said over his loudspeaker, slowly walking up to the front of the formation. "I speak for the Nepleslian Empire and I would like to know which one of you I should address regarding an exchange of cultural information."
Istvan bowed again "Forgive the... rudeness and abruptness of my comrades. I am afraid many of them quite fall apart around women. We live in an environment with a much lower level of rads then here. What is your story? How did you get here, and why are you here?" he asked, politely to the three.
Almost immediately after Istvan finished his sentence, Rico utilized his P/P system to jerk Istvan's armor back behind him in a violent fashion. "I said can the cute shit. The Lieutenant is doin' the talkin' here, not you." Rico hissed, keeping his eyes on the trio of Freespacers before him. Although he had taken a ‘special’ interest in the situation, he was still all too wary of the possible outcomes of the circumstance.
Upon sensing Matthew's attempts to connect Error lumbered down the hall towards them, his half-ton body moving what could almost be called gracefully, especially for a being his size. "Welcome, clankers. I can see you're all curious. Perhaps you would care to talk over a glass of water? Some soup? Or would you prefer a coolant cycle for your mechanoids...?"
Glancing over at Matt he had the ship send the message: "You need but ask, rather than probe."
"Why are we here? Well well now, it seems we may have found ourselves some decent intercourse after all!" Sache patted Moral on the back again. "I was really hoping you could tell me, though. I like to think we're just here, honestly; the gods have been rather quiet in claiming responsibility for this whole mess."
Matthew looked over towards the rather large mechanical being before muttering a 'holy shit' accidentally over his loudspeaker before gritting his teeth. "Hey...you're the one who called my methods archaic," the cadet replied as he pointed an armored finger at Error.
"We do not require food, water, or coolant at the time." Wazu said over the loudspeaker, "Perhaps we could go someplace more suited to discussion. Or you could answer our questions right here..."
Istvan grinned, boosting him armor ahead of the group once again. "Oho?" he said. "Well if not gods then what? What created the spark that birthed the world..." he asks, slipping into philosophy…
Once again, Rico jerked Istvan’s body backwards with a quick burst of this tractor fields, giving a sigh of frustration. Rico turned to a private channel, talking directly to his squad, a look of agitation clearly placed on his brow. "Alright boys, I've been nice so far, but you all need to cut the crap. As of now, I am locking all of your outgoing communication," Rico did just that with a few flips and switches, rather proud of himself for being a ranked soldier capable of doing so. "If any of you boneheads wanna talk, you gotta ask ME permission. And you better have a damn good reason, too."
Things suddenly started getting a little out of hand…many of the people floating in the corridor began arguing loudly, or speaking to one another.
"HEY," Moral shouted loudly. "All of you guys -- " she pointed to everyone but Wazu -- "SHUT THE FUCK UP." She turned to the "Lieutenant;" she'd heard that term broadcast before. "You. You're in charge, right?"
"Ow! Shit! Not so loud..." Kokuten held his head.
"Yep..." Istvan spoke to himself, as his communication channels were currently under lock and key from Rico’s orders. "I wonder if the other likes poetry...." he mused.
Benji shifted and then reached into the storage compartment of his "skirt" and pulled out his data pad. "At least we're not fighting so..." He leaned a shoulder against the bulkhead to his left and leaned on it as he idly started his game from the last save point, keeping his monoeyes on a scan to keep him updated on what was going on.
Wazu exhaled deeply and half bit his tongue. He then opened up a channel to all marines, "okay guys, observe radio silence from now on," He then switched back over to his loudspeaker, "Yes, I am in charge."
Gran nodded and gave a small grunt as acknowledgement as he remained silent, moving as close to the side of Wazu as he could, trying to remain in guarding without being aggressive to the trio and robot.
"That was unnecessary, Moral." Error's voice crackled through his speaker. "Don't snap at the aliens just because your mind can't as easily cohere to so many conversations at once."
Matthew gritted his teeth and kept silent as he stewed over the previous comments said about his techniques earlier. That's it...take a deep breath and calm down.
"Error, go rotate a quantum refractor," Moral replied. "He's the leader, talk to him." She then shut up.
"So, what is it precise you want, Wayfarer? You do not seem the type to visit for idle chatter. Oh, no." Error nodded to himself. "What do you want so badly, that you come barging in hear with shells of metal upon shells of flesh?"
"Sounds like they like poetry..." Istvan murmured to himself again. "At least listening to them speak."
"We would like to learn more about your culture, and discuss your capabilities for commerce." Wazu said over the loudspeaker, his armor just standing still and not exposing his facial expression. "And, what may I call you?"
"Myself? I am Foreman Error Three One Dash Four Six Seven Two Dash Two Three Nine One. Tradition dictates that you may refer to me as Three One, if you prefer to maintain professional detachment, or Error if a more intimate name is appropriate. And you, Wayfarer?"
"I am Heram J. Wazu, but our tradition would dictate that you call me Wazu." The Lt. replied. "Though if you wish me to call you by a more intimate name perhaps we should move to a more intimate place? I am sure our marines would be interested in seeing your ship and I would like an opportunity to discuss setting up formal relations between us."
Out of turn, Kassiopea spoke up, "Nice to meet you Wazu, it is good to know what to call you."
"May I know your title as well?" Wazu asked her, briefly looking away from Error.
Gran smiled at Wazu's words, he was starting to get excited. It was looking like less and less of a trap and more like an honest discovery. His monoeyes turned from the group of people in front of them and returned to the walls, taking in all that he could. The complete differences in their technology made Gran giddy with delight.
"Ah," Kassiopea replied. "I am Kassiopea, but if you wish, you may call me Kass."
"Sache two-three. Druidess." She looked at the group, seemingly annoyed at the socialization... or perhaps just having her philosophy cut off.
Istvan was bored, waiting for a chance to get... away from the angry women... He respected women, of course, but having a philosophical conversation cut off was a nuisance
"Very well Kass," Wazu said, turning his armor to face the others, "And your titles are?"
"As you said, let us relocate to somewhere more appropriate. But, unless you care to remove your armor, your access throughout the ship will be limited." Error's gaze briefly wandered over the crowd of armor, before it turned back to their leader. "I can only accommodate your full number in the gardens or the machine shop. Which setting do your pseudo-mecha prefer?"
"Somewhere... er." He stopped, but piped up again, remembering that nobody could hear him anyway with Rico’s forced silence still in effect. "Somewhere that's not very loud."
"Gardens!" Istvan said, happily, grinning like an idiot under his armour "How do plants live here? How did things get this way..." he murmured to himself once again.
"The Machine shop," Wazu responded over the loud speaker before opening a private channel to Rico, Fian, and Matthew. "Sergeants, front and center, you too Cadet. Introduce yourselves politely." Wazu then switched over to a channel to speak with Kokuten, "Medic, I'd like a report on the radiation levels, how long we'd have without our armors, and report on how effectively we can treat radiation. Specifically I want to know if they pose a permanent danger." Wazu then closed that channel and opened a private channel to Fian and Matthew, "Would you two like to take a group to the gardens?"
Moral wasn't going to introduce herself ... yet. She filed the names of the starpeople before her, but she was enjoying the fact that Sache was getting all pissy.
Matthew growled a bit in his helmet before turning on his loudspeaker. "Cadet First Grade Matthew Lionheart, Computer Specialist. You can call me either Cadet or Matthew," he replied in a bit of a detached tone before turning back to the private channel. "It sounds like a plan, sir."
Moonman
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 4:28 am
Rico didn't waste any time after he recieved Wazu's order to introduce himself, quickly shoving his way up to the front of his squad to meet the new species. Now that he was a bit closer, he was able to get a better look at them...and he liked what he saw.
"Sergeant Rico Sanroma, Marine," He spoke through his loudspeaker with a smile, throwing a casual salutory gesture at them while he did so, "...but, ya'll can call me Rico."
Mola
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 5:57 am
Within the silence after Rico's introduction there was a single 'beep' naturally comming from Benji's data pad. He shifted off the walland tilted his head. Of course having his comm lines blocked by Rico he could tell anyone of the news. So he srugged it off, leaned back against the wall and went on with his game.
Fian
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 6:14 am
Knowing that Rico will be introducing himself first, Fian slowly made his way to the front, reaching there right after Rico ended. This being a diplomatic encounter, the Vel Steyr would have taken off the M1's helmet to show his face, except that it would possible be promptly burnt off by the enviromental radiation.
At least he could try for eye contact. Bringing his glowing Monoeyes into focus at the Freespacer on the furthest left, sweeping across to the one on the furthest right and then finally settling down on the general center. The Freespacers and architecture looked human, but the entire thing still felt alien to the Vel Steyr. Feeling uneasy because he was also charged with the safety of the company, there was a bit of hesitation in his voice.
"P2-" Fian caught himself, the way the promotions were handed out during the briefing was quite hasty and unmemorable compared to his previous one. "Seargent Fian Vel Steyr." His monoeyes shot a quick glance at Rico before returning to their original positon. "Inform me if any of the marines give you trouble." Fian put a fist to his chest to emphasize the white paint on his armor as it is currently the only visual identification they can get.
Le Blue Dude
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 10:33 am
Having misheard the orders, as a simple "introduce yourselves", Istvan tried to speak. Then Istvan noticed the comlock. He checked the rads, and decided he could probably survive a couple of seconds exposure to it. He took off his helmet, kept his eyes closed to avoid damage to his retnas, and bowed elaborately, and spoke. "Istvan Michalovitch Yuttreburg, but you can call me Istvan" He replaced the helmut quickly to limit his total exposure to radiation. His face was probably lightly burned from this as it was.
Istvan's hair was light orange, and crew cut. His face was round, and slavic, his eyebrows thick and an angry shade of orange. He had a beard covering his chin, but not on his cheeks, short and thick, coming to a square end. He looked on the point between the wisdom of age, and the impulsiveness of youth he also looked in very good shape, possibly impossibly so for a human, his Id-Sol blood showing through.
SUBLIMEinal
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 3:54 pm
Adrian took a look at the radiation levels on his HUD, let his jaw drop, and promptly turned his attention to Istvan. He flipped on his comm to an out-going channel towards the Alliance medical bay.
"Suku, get some radiation scrubbers prepped and ready in the armor bay for our return. Also, get some HE2100 prepped for immediate injection. Your buddy Istvan just popped his helmet off in a radioactive enviroment."
He then pushed through some of the marines in front of him, grabbed Istvan by the shoulders, and pulled him back.Switching open a channel to the large marine, Adrian snarled into his mic.
"Oi, what the fuck are you doing? Keep your damn helmet on, mate. Is pussy really that important to you?"
Kokuten
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 6:53 pm
Kokuten finished his readings and looked back at Adrian as he made his remark to Istvan. He rubbed his helmet trying to nod in agreement.
"He's right everyone, erh..." He said as his head thumped. "This radiation is thick enough to put a man down in about sixty minutes. In between one to forty minutes, you'll be allow it to slowly damage your body, we can treat you back to health through these points, but this is slow damaging so it will take a long time. You'll be getting later symptoms of nerve failure by the fortith minute, and this is where the damage starts to get permanent. Then there's the chance of having organ failure by the fiftith minute, and around the fiftith minute or so is external and internal hemorraging. The sixtith minute is brain failure, and of course, that means the Head Jar can't save you. So, for the sake of yourself, keep your armor on." The medic relayed openly over the channel.
Moonman
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 9:14 pm
Rico’s complexion took on a reddish hue as he watched Istvan go through his introduction. In almost an instant, however, the color drained from his cheeks to a near white as he witnessed Istvan removing his helmet, despite obvious warnings. Rico waited until Kokuten was finished speaking before moving back behind the crowd of marines towards Istvan, who was being held by the shoulders by Adrian’s armored hands. The Sergeant hoped that they were far enough back to not garner too much attention to his upcoming actions.
Rico was now a bit more peeved than he would’ve preferred. It wasn’t that Istvan was apparently attempting to show him up…in fact, Rico normally would’ve enjoyed the competition. However, at the moment, Rico was far more concerned with preserving his newly attained rank as Sergeant, and having a marine in his squad acting out of line wasn’t something Rico was about to tolerate, in front of the Lieutenant no less.
As Rico neared them, he promptly shoved Adrian aside with a simple “Outta my way,” and grabbed Istvan’s WATER by the collar. Rico then proceeded to ‘softly’ slam the marine’s armor against the corridor wall, sending the handful of drones and mechanical bugs skittering every which-way. He gave Istvan a few violent shakes when he had him fully pinned, followed by a few straight knocks to the head of the armor. To those unaware of the situation, it would appear as if Rico was beating the snot out of Istvan, but in reality Rico was just reassuring himself that the marine’s helmet was fixated correctly, to prevent further radiation leaking in. Satisfied, Rico turned to his broad communication channel, hoping that perhaps a public berating would wise him up, and spoke.
“Private Third Class Istvan, takin’ your helmet off in this environment, have you lost your fuckin’ mind?! Look, I know you’re lonely, and you haven’t had a piece a’ ass since fuck knows when, but you need to keep it in your fuckin’ pants, marine, and follow the Lieutenant’s orders by the letter,” Rico spat out before harshly thumping the forehead of his AIR to Istvan’s WATER’s forehead, as if he was trying to intimidate him in such a fashion. Rico kept himself in that position while he continued. “Normally I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass what you do. But right now we’re dealin’ with first contact to a new society of people, and I’ll be damned before I let a marine in my squad fuck that up. Now, I’m orderin’ you, as your superior officer and squad leader; keep you pants on your ass and speak when I tell ya to speak. If I get one more mistake from you, I’m gonna thump you so hard, hoooooo boy, you’re gonna need a shave when you wake up. You readin’ me baby?”
Uso
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 10:29 pm
Istvan responded.... since his radio was linked to Rico and no one else because of Rico's settings, only Rico heard "Pardon me" he said "But we were all ordered to introduce ourselves, no?" he said calmly "My speakers are currently locked down, no? I was merely obeying orders quickly as I could. I take it from your reaction I misheard the orders?"
"You take it right, baby," Rico said through clenched teeth and closed eyes. After another moment or two Rico released his squad mate and started back to the front of the group. "Just...try and listen harder, alright baby? I don't have time to be doin' this bullshit, and you don't either."
Benji quirked an eye as Rico proceeded to ruff Istvan up and then humiliate him. Of course seeing the boy get roughed up by the marine he'd "killed" made benji grin to himself. Benji went back to playing his game.
Istvan nods "I do not intend to be an embarrassment to you." he says, cutting through to the heart of the situation. "I will listen more closely next time." He falls into his place to the right
Gran growled to himself. Idiot. Take off your fucking helmet when these suit just cover us from radiation from our own generators. He focused himself back on gazing over the walls and whatever he could lay his eyes on.
“With introductions out of the way.” Wazu said, half watching an external view in his power armor without turning his head to observe the events unfolding behind him, “Lets move on to other discussions. I do not need all of our Marines to discuss trade with you, would you permit them to tour your ship?” He asked over his loudspeaker, remaining motionless in the M4 stealth armor which wasn’t thin, but still considerably slimmer than the bulky Phalanx units behind him.
"Please, please." The half-ton machine let out an annoyed sigh as it watched the scuffle. "If it was fate's intention for sentient being to fight one another, then we'd all be living on planets cudgeling one another in the mud. We find your behavior most unacceptable."
“I apologize for my Marines. Even though you live in such a,” Wazu’s tone changed just slightly as he continued, “Free society, you still must understand the problems associated with maintaining a functioning social system.”
"I apologize," Rico said as he arrived back at the front of the marine squads. He straightened himself up to a presentable stature, and took a deep breath to recompose himself before speaking again. "We can't take the radiation levels on your ship unprotected for long. I was just reminding him...won't happen again."
Sache shook her head sardonically at the display of violence, giving Moral a meaningful glance. Turning back to the Nepleslians, she said, "Well now, I suppose a tour could be arranged... if there will be no more uniform-removal without decontamination, at least. I'm not particularly in the mood for a slow and painful death today."
"We are quite surprised at how you manage to achieve space faring, if this is any indication of your social structure. We normally deal with stupidity by simply letting it kill itself off." The machine bobbed it's head as it glanced at Sache. "No sense in having low percentiles in the genebank, neh? But regardless, I'm sure Sache will be more than happy to give them a tour. Won't you, dear?"
"If I'm every 'more than happy,' you have my full permission and consent to grind me to a pulp; thoroughly and thorough." Sache looked at the group appraisingly. "But I would have no problem with it, as long as somebody can keep this place from falling apart while I'm otherwise occupied."
Wazu paused while the Freespacers talked amongst themselves and finally interjected with the hope of returning to discussions. “I can assure you no more marines will disarmor themselves without your consent and that this one incident is not indicative of their entire culture,” Wazu said over the loudspeaker before switching over to the marine channels, “Make sure it does not happen again.” He said quickly before moving back over to the loudspeakers. “I will have Sergeant Fian escort the marines on tour. He will ensure their behavior and if you have any problems please bring them directly to him.” Wazu then switched over to a private channel with Fian, “Take most of the marines with you and be sure to have them get a good look around.” Wazu also turned to face Cadet Matthew and leaned toward him, placing his helmet against the Cadet’s before turning off his radio altogether. “Be sure to get a good look at their weapons, power systems, and shields if you can. We can analyze the video feed off your power armor later but right now we need some more information about these people.” The sound carried through the helmets so only Matthew could hear it and it wasn’t transmitted so there was no chance of anyone listening in. Wazu then stood up straight again and faced the Freespacers. “
Istvan things then says "rico... may I have my loudspeaker function returned so that there will be no.... repeat any time I wish to ask a question?"
"Psh, hell no," Rico said simply into the secure line. "You got a question, you ask me, and if I say yes, I'll restore your speaker systems for it."
"I wish to discuss philosophy with... sache. You would find it boring" Istvan said.
Gran smiled as he thought about what all they might see during the tour. What kind of weapons, if any, what kind of computers, and especially the cause of the massive radiation.
"Can I at least have my comm back? Not like I talk much anyway..." Benji said to Rico, still paying more attention to his game than the hall or anything else around him.
Oh God... Rico really, really wanted to plant his face firmly in his palms at his marines' request, but resisted in order to keep up impressions with the hosts before him. "Ungh...fine. When I leave, and you are all Fian's problem, I'll give you back your communication privvies. Just don't...fuck this up, will ya? I just got back from the operatin' room, I'd rather not go back for a bit."
After a short conversation with Wazu, Gran got a call from his Sergeant informing him it was okay to go on the tour and that Kokuten would be assigned his job of watching over Wazu. Meanwhile Kokuten was getting a similar message from Wazu, "You will be coming with me instead of going on the tour."
Gran received the message, he had just wondered what was going to happen with his assignment to Wazu. He nodded to himself responding with a short "Understood." not knowing whether or not it made it back to Wazu. He stepped over to the side, slightly away from Wazu.
"I'd hug you but I don't want another broken nose, helmet or not" Benji said and shifted off the wall. He turned his game off, and stowed his Data pad and then looked over at Sache and then back to Isty and he heaved a sigh, pushing back towards the nepleslian.
Kokuten nodded, confirming he had received the sudden message. The medic felt behind himself, a sudden realization came to him. With the radiation lofting throughout the ship, most of his medicine would be useless. He sighed, putting a hand on his helmet again.
"Thank you greatly" Istvan said, "In exchange I will not tell you about the time in Ibus five." A quick search of planetary records shows that there IS no Ibus five, though strangely there is an ibus four, which is a burned out rock orbiting a neutron star
Doshii Jun
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Thu 2007 Jun 14, 9:00 am
Moral had a tough time following everything, even Sache's cutting glance. She was busy examining the giant machines the men were in.
And they were men. She had seen the one who briefly took off his helmet, seen his strange orangish hair, his strange-colored skin, the facial hair -- it was all very exotic.
"I'll follow on the tour!" she blurted. "I'll come!"
End Part One, posts 1-10
Post subject: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Mon 2007 Jun 11, 10:28 pm
On the NSS Alliance, 1 hour after the briefing…
The bridge buzzed with activity, the command staff milling about their computers, preparing for launch. The NSS Alliance was repaired, the scars of its terrible battle vanished behind sheets of sturdy, new metal. Miller sat in his chair, looking over his console, his voice robotic as he gave commands to his subordinates. "This is the final check," he said. "Verify that all systems are green before departure."
Ally’s holographic form appeared beside the captain with her hands neatly folded behind the small of her back, “I can assure you that all of my systems are operating within acceptable parameters,” She said with a smile The displays on the computer screens in the bridge reflected this, showing a multitude of statistical data relating to the new and old systems that were installed while the ship was at Unity Base. Ally then said, “We can depart the moment you are ready.”
Standing toward the back of the bridge, Jet sighed, leaning up against the wall as usual, flipping through a datapad linked to the various security systems through the ship. But since everything was condition green there was no real point in it, the rounds completed for the time being. "I hope this isn't another trap by the reds, I'm so sick of those boys." She said with a groan, brushing her white bangs out of her eyes. Back to wearing the traditional uniform pants but kept the leather bustier and the belts around the abs, wearing the jacket with the rank insignia on it clearly.
Having been fed and hour ago, Matthew's mind was working well enough as he connected his implants to the Alliances mainframe via a wireless connection. With multiple windows showing the status of the ship in general upon his screen, the young Cadet nodded calmly as he heard Ally begin speaking to the Captain. "Ally took the words right out of my mouth, Captain. My systems show everything is green." the cadet replied, but didn't turn from his console as he pulled up navigations and communications to the front of his screen.
Wazu merely nodded along with Matthew's assessment, more observing the screens that interacting with them at the moment.
Captain Miller nodded. Although he didn't show it, he always trusted the opinions of flesh-and-blood officers over an A.I. It was more important to hear critical information from them because it would be they, when under pressure, who would decide whether they lived or died through their decisions. "Acknowledged," he said, pointing his finger to the virtual display on the console. "Request to launch has been granted. Cadet, take us out to safe distance for a hyperstream jump."
"Aye, sir," Matthew replied as he slowly inched the Alliance out of Unity Base, making sure that his flight path was clear as he maneuvered the Destroyer.
---
Meanwhile, down the in NSS Alliance Power Armor launch bays, the marines readied themselves for a possible conflict…
Directly after the meeting Benji had seen to it that he had uploaded a few files from his data pad and the ship's system directly to his NAM Water PA. Then he stocked the stimmie slots and pulled up the meeting info on his data pad, wondering who all had gotten promo's and who were the new greenies. He also made sure to look up their plans for if something should happen. Better to be safe and prepped than sorry. Within the hour, he realized they were ready to take off and scuttled down to the Power Bay to check over his PA again. "Needs better paint..." He noted to himself.
Istvan was setting up the computer he had been given. He was very frustrated with the install system, and was on the verge of scrapping it, but that would reveal he HAD it.... and he did not want others to know that he needed a crutch. But without his stimies everything would be slower... He scowled, leaving off his musing to stab at the control panel again. He hated these things sometimes. Jurry rig a power armour, cinch. Program, or even starting a computer? Istvan had caused plenty of "halt and catch fire" errors in his time.
Gran was sweating as he looked over his armor, the fresh armor plates covering the newly installed UCF-3u and its coolant system, the standard on the FIRE armor. The computer in the armor was already calibrating itself to not burn anything with the new flood of power available to it. He looked down at the PFC still wrapped up waiting to be used. Sorry buddy, you'll have to wait for later. Gran slid into the armor, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he powered up the armor. A loud whirring whine gradually grew from the back of Gran's armor. His eyes followed the startup on the HUD and smiling, glad that there were no critical failures in the oversized generator. He took a few steps, the armor feeling slightly more responsive from the handiwork. “Alright, excellent for a day’s work,” He grinned as he whispered to himself, stepping further into the PA bay, testing the joints.
Istvan punched his locker, denting it. "damn it... Ally? Can you spare some clock time to help an old hopeless fool set some damned computer up?" He asked the wall. "I need this set up, and set up fast... But... don't tell anyone, alright? Please?"
A text message was displayed on Istvan's computer system, "Please hold on, I will update your system's software and drivers then install the supplemental software packages for you. -Ally" The NSS Alliance's DIEMOS then began to update the much smaller computer system wirelessly, quickly downloading appropriate files from Unity Base's system prior to their departure. In moments the device's main menu came up, along with a small message from Ally, "Got it! Have fun with your new toy."
"Thank you greatly Ally" Istvan said, setting the computer to start perform tactical calculations for him, and assist him in other small ways. Istvan looked around, and got guidance to Wolfram. He walked to the boy as stealthily as he could "Apparently." he said, suddenly "You are attached to me. I am Soldier second class Istvan, and you would be Solider first class Wolfram. You are sticking close to me. Don't worry. More people attached to me have survived then did not... well so far at least" Istvan laughed merrily then lead wolfram to the Armour bay. Istvan got into one of the WATER's himself, in preparation.
Adrian smoked a cigarette as he watched the marines prep their armors. Better jump in some armor soon... The tall medic shrugged to himself and mosied on over to the NDI Armor construction screens. He outfitted himself in his relatively standard Super Phalanx. He picked out the Disruptor Rifle and Plasma cannon and stood still as the plasma created the armor around him.
After a bit of fussing his with PA, Benji got himself all suited-down and stepped up over his armor and then snuggled down inside it, getting himself all adjusted and attached and ready. When he was all good to go he got to his feet and popped on his helm, pulling up his book and settling down for a good read while waiting.
Rico Sanroma sat rather comfortably in his AIR2 as he and the rest of the marines in the armor bay stood and waited for their signals to mobilize. Truthfully, he was a little agitated with himself at the time; ever since he returned to the Alliance from the starbase, he had been hoping to make some sort of 'huge entrance' to his peers and ham up the fact that he was still alive and kicking. However, even during the captain's briefing when everyone was there, Rico never found the right opportunity. Thus, there he sat, brooding slightly as he fiddled with the inner workings of his armor, hoping that he would get to see a little action during this mission to relieve his building tension.
---
The Alliance drifted away from Starbase Unity, having left the dock with a large rumbling noise as engines flared to life. "This time we won't scratch any paint," Miller joked at the young navigator. "Engage hyperstream jump, coordinates to the last known location of the NSS Spitzer when it discovered the transmissions. I want to get there quickly."
"Yes, sir," Matt replied as he slowly brought the hyperstream up and running, using the exact coordinates that were located in the Alliance's mainframe. This should be a short trip.
"This is going to be completely boring...I bet it's no big deal probably just some stranded escape pod or something." Jet huffed from where she was and stretched her arms for a moment. "Or after what we've been through that's what I hope it is."
"Preparing ship for hyperstream transition," Ally said over the PA system. "Stand by." The external sensor feeds to the inside shut down for a moment to prevent the extremely odd sensation of watching a ship pass over a hyperstream boundary. The ship then just disappeared from its position around Unity Base as it began its trip. The crew inside would experience no noticeable distortions except for the engineers who were occupied with keeping the massively increased power consumption of the ship under control.
Miller tapped his fingers on his leather chair as he reclined. The displays were shut down, so there was nothing immediately to do. "Ally, could you bring some coffee to the bridge?" He said casually.
Ally nodded, "Yes sir," Exactly twenty six seconds later Ally walked onto the bridge with a steaming mug of black coffee in her right hand, and a small plastic container in the other, "Would you like Sugar or Cream with your coffee Captain?"
Sighing quietly, Matt brought up another window and began to work on finishing his project on the massive layer of computer security he had created for the Alliance. Consisting of several types of firewalls and a variety of dummy ports and traps, it was probably Matthew's greatest work of network security yet. Though Ally would probably be better at stopping hackers, it was probably best to have a passive system of defenses available just in case.
"Sugar, please," Miller said, arching an eyebrow at Matt. "Hm, Cadet? Are you grumpy? Do you need some caffeine in you?"
Matt blinked from his position and turned around to face his Captain with a confused look. "What?"
Ally held the plastic container over the coffee mug and pressed a small switch which dispensed three cubes of sugar into the drink from the underside of the container. "Here you are sir," She said with a smile as she held out the mug for Captain Miller to take from her.
"Cadet. Coffee. Get." Miller smiled at Ally as he took a sip. "Great stuff."
The cadet blinked again. "Ah...yes sir...I guess some coffee would help," he commented calmly as he looked of towards Ally. "Would you, please," he asked the holographic avatar.
"You should thank the mess hall staff sir, They keep a pot ready at all times." She said with a smile. The holographic avatar nodded, as the real one left the bridge again, "Sure thing, another mug of coffee coming right up!"
"Thank you," the Cadet replied as he turned back to his screen and began typing with lightning speed.
The captain nodded again to Ally. As he sipped his cup, he hoped that it would be the only thing he'd have to pay attention to for the next few hours.
A short time later…
"Exiting Hyperstream Now," Ally said over the PA system, as the external video feeds came online to show the space around them a multitude of lightyears away from their starting location. At the same time her solid form came onto the bridge with another mug of coffee, "How would you like your coffee?" she asked the Cadet.
Across the comm station of the Alliance, strange, primitive transmissions began to be received. Each was slightly different than the last ... but they were all along at near lightspeed. The attempt was obvious -- someone was trying to send information faster than light. The contents of the signals were almost childish ... colors, mostly. Blue, black, white, represented by audio signals.
"I normally take it black, thank you," he replied as he continued typing, only for his sensors window to start flashing at him. Frowning, he brought it up just as his communications window started flashing. "What the..." he commented as he brought up both windows and looked them over. "Captain, am I picking up some strange signals on both communications and sensors." he reported as he used the Alliances communication suite to try and pick up the signals and translate them. "Colors?" he said questioningly as he began to filter it to find any data or audio.
Ally would quickly process this information and display the chunks of messages on the screens of the bridge as well as the source of the location after triangulating the location using the ship's sensor array.
"Well this is something I didn't expect..." Jet said, walking forward to look at the chunks of messages being displayed on a nearby screen. "Looks like some child is playing with the communications systems or something." She said with a sigh.
The signals shifted briefly. Now, they were two colors -- black/white, blue/yellow, green/orange. They slowed some miniscule amount; it appeared to be something only a computer would notice, but the single-color messages returned, at the previous speed.
Ally broke down the messages for Cadet Matthew, displaying them as both a combined image and a deconstruction of the message showing both colors.
"What the fuck is that," the captain said, leaning forward in his chair. "Wazu, alert the marines in the armor bays. If this is another trap, we're not going to be caught in it flatfooted." Miller shifted his attention to the cadet. "Lionheart, can you pinpoint where they are coming from?"
A third type of signal came through -- it was completely garbled, consisting of audible "snow," but at a slightly faster speed. The transmissions then stopped.
Matt frowned in annoyance as he continued to filter out the message. "Fucking weird," was his only comment as he pulled out a container from his pocket and opened it, revealing his collection of plugs. Pulling one out, he connected it to his port behind his right ear and pulled, bringing a thin wire from it as he connected himself physically to the computer system to increase transmission speed. "I've got a location of the transmission, but all it seems to be is an image...wait...there's a bit of audio....sounds like that damned snow effect," he commented as he pulled up the location onto the main monitor.
"Yes sir," Wazu said, turning to the computer system and activating the PA, "All Marines, report to the power armor bay and equip yourselves for space combat and ship defense. Board the loading tubes and go on standby for launch.”
---
In the armor bays of the NSS Alliance, the marines would hear the Lieutenants message clearly as it blared out from the speaker systems. Almost immediately the room sprang back to life as the marines began moving around again in anticipation.
"Nice..." Benji made sure he got what he needed as well as one of "the big guns" from the last mission and shifted towards the launch tubes.
Adrian pushed himself from a wall and stood straight. As Rico's voice came in over the comm, Adrian narrowed his eyes. It sounded pretty familiar... but the medic shook it off and simply sauntered over to the launch tubes. "Come on, mates. Let's get ready to kill some chicken-fuckers."
Gran took a few deep breaths, wondering if they were going to in a trap again. He looked up and tried to relax as he waited, but hearing the messages made him tense. He had his suit shut off to everything but the PA system, trying to concentrate.
Rico quickly jerked back to attention as the announcement rang out, and smiled as the words sunk in. Almost instantly he forgot all of his earlier worries, standing back up to attention and slapping his armors hand against the back of the marine to his right. "Wooo!” Rico yelled out loudly through his armors audio channels. “Wake up boys, it's party time!"
Istvan grunts as the hand struck his back, then turns pale looking at Rico "I... Didn't I kill you?" He asked, his face as drained as if he had seen a ghost "By mistake? Shit... I'm going insane...."
---
"I suggest we move to within sensor range of the source of these signals then deploy some power armors to check it out," Wazu said.
Miller thought for a long moment before issuing his next command. "Cadet, return a communication in the direction of the anomaly. Announce that we are representatives of the Nepleslian Empire on an exploration mission."
He shook his head at Wazu. "I don't want to walk into this situation. It's best to feel it out. Make them come to us."
Wazu just nodded, and kept his gaze on the displays in front of him.
The transmissions started again -- this time along purely audio channels. The message was clear, transmitting at relatively slow speeds. There was about a 10-second delay. "Contact? CONTACT? Frizzing thing always malfunctions after twenty seconds + five ... so BROKEN!"
---
Rico quirked an eyebrow as Istvan replied to his friendly strike, trying to recall who this particular marine was and how he knew him. It took him a bit, but finally, he remembered the voice. "Whaaat? Shit no, son!" Rico laughed, and slapped Istvan harder another time. "If you think you could hit somethin' this hot, you must be outta your fuckin' MIND, baby!"
"Rico, shut up, you're over the loudspeakers..." Benji chirped in as he listened in on the conversation.
Adrian shot a glance sideways, his jaw clenched. The marine opened a private channel to Benji over his comm device. "Oi... did you say Rico?"
"Adrian, He's the ONLY one here who would EVER say the word baby to a male over loudspeakers...." Benji said "I pride myself over voice recognition..."
"Right..." Istvan said after a moment "I am insane. Great. I do not want to deal with the medic. He scares me...." Istvan muttered to himself, Then Benji spoke. Istvan went even MORE white. "Never mind then," he mumbled. "Uhhh... so... I suppose reports of your death were exaggerated?"
Adrian broke into a cold sweat. Aaaaw shit. "But... fuck. I saw him die. What the hell is going on?" The tall medic shook a bit. He was rather surprised, a bit scared, and just a little pissed.
"Doom, Gloom and destruction?" Benji offered nonchalantly to Adrian.
Rico, once again, brought down his hand another time, just a tad harder than the last onto Istvans back. "Highly exaggerated, baby! Simmer down and get ready...we don't have time for you blubberin' your ass off."
"Right" Istvan said gloomily "I see you are still as.... similar to a squirrel as before."
"Tell me about it..." Adrian replied, his eyes closed and head shaking.
Unbeknownst behind Rico, a white AIR2 raised its leg in preparation for a kick, and then lowered it when Fian figured out that it might kill the bastard again. After a moment, Fian compromised by pulling the legs out of Rico's suit with his P/p, exactly the same way that the Sanroma did to him in VR.
"Psh. Screw you gu-AACK!" Before Rico could finish his retort, he found his legs quickly swept out from under him. He lay there for a moment, face planted firmly on the armor bay floor before he finally understood what just happened. In an instant, Rico rolled onto his back and attempted to return the same maneuver on the marine behind him, activating his tractor fields and pulling at the legs of Fian’s AIR2.
Istvan dodged to the side as Rico fell. "Shit!" He shouted, very startled... then he started to laugh a deep echoing guffaw. "Ach... I'm pretty tense right now... anyone here have a clue exactly what's going on up there? I wish bridge would tell us what was happening... I HATE the waiting."
Fian expected a downed man to stay still for a moment so he could say something to him, but Rico decided to immediately retaliate thus caught the Vel Steyr off guard to send him crashing to the ground. Pulling himself up, Fian mumbled in tears. "I am not letting you out of my sight again."
"Fuckin' jeez Fian," Rico murmured with a smirk into his private channel as he picked himself up and dusted his armor off. "Pull it together, we got shit to do baby. You can get sentimental AFTER we're done bustin' heads."
---
The NSS Alliance sent a transmission to the source of the signals they were receiving. "Greetings, this is the NSS Alliance of the Nepleslian Empire. We come in peace and seek to meet and exchange cultural information."
After a moment, the Alliance's message was responded to along the same channel. It was a woman talking, or a female that knew "English" at least: "This is the most broken piece of slag ever. I knew it was too blackened to work. CONTACT?! Barely measures 38 million jiggajewels, whatever that is. Fuck this, I'm getting my viewtube." The transmission ended.
Miller crossed his arms. "Whatever this is, it's annoying. Repeat transmission."
Ally repeated the exact same transmission but added, "Will you please open a line of communication with us?"
No transmission was returned. However, the device's line was still open, so tracking the source was far easier.
"If that's how they want to play it, then fine," Miller growled. "Wazu, raise our defenses. Get us to them, FAST."
"Sir, if I may interject..." Jet said. "Perhaps their communications array isn't as good as ours is?" She offered with a shrug and glance over her shoulder in his direction.
"Endurain, I'm more likely to believe that they're fucking with us, and I won't have it." Miller quickly replied.
Wazu's hands went over the tactile controls of the Alliance, bringing its hyperstream drive online and configuring the field for conventional propulsion while activating the primary shield systems. "Ally, close distance and bring us in range for some close scans of the source." Wazu instructed verbally as the Alliance began to move. "I would rather just find out instead of pussy footing around," Wazu said simply, his eyes still focused on the screen in front of him.
"Well I guess that with all that's happened you're justified in that line of thought." Endurain said with another shrug.
After a brief delay, the transmission from the ship picked up again--a bit clearer this time, and with a different woman's voice on the other end... with brief interruptions. It sounded like she was engaged in a light struggle with somebody. "That's okay, we have plenty--grr!--plenty of peace already! We'll just be on our way, if you don't mind..."
Matthew briefly blinked in surprise at this new message. "This is getting really weird now," the Cadet muttered in annoyance.
"Stupid bee-yotch!" The voice said over the line. "Come the fuck back!" More strange clunking sounds over the line.
The lone cruiser was sat in the void of space, moving along at what seemed a snail's pace as its brightly colored sails caught the light of a nearby star. Other than the fragmented transmissions and radiation, there was next to no active energy signatures coming from the vessel, though a significant amount of plant life could be detected aboard if scanned.
"It looks like an ancient solar sail powered craft...." Wazu said as he looked at the data gathered by the Alliance with a puzzled expression, "and... I think they are fighting each other inside?"
Miller's eyes narrowed. "Scan them aggressively. Do they possess anything that poses a threat to us?"
Wazu used the scanners on the Alliance to take a peek at the ship's shape, internal configuration, and layout. "Scanning now, but speculating based on their propulsion and power source I doubt they have weapons capable of harming us."
Miller nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Cadet, reopen communications. If they do not reply this time, we will warn them."
"Aye, sir," Matt replied as he opened communications with the unknown ship. "This is the NSS Alliance to unknown vessel, please respond on this frequency. If you do not respond, we will have to consider you hostile to this vessel." he spoke calmly and with a commanding tone.
---
Another short siren and flash of red lights indicated that marines should be prepping themselves for possible deployment and engagement. The armored soldiers began loading and checking their weapons in unison, ready to take on the foes laid out before them.
Fian did not say anything, but instead jetted off towards the weapons rack while still facing Rico all the while. While he was there he picked up his usual two VBCS/Ses, and after a moment of thinking, went with the LBR-00p and Ex-DARTs.
Gran checked his FMD, loading it with red shells as he checked his other systems. He still felt a bit antsy.
Istvan got himself armed quickly, and efficiently, then turned on his new tactical computer. He almost danced as he moved, though if it was any sort of dancing it was very poor dancing
---
The communication channel stabilized--somewhat. The second female voice replied, "No, nono, we're quite non-hostile, we assure you. Just having some..." she paused briefly; there was the sound of a distant thud. "... some technical difficulties!" she concluded brightly.
"Chief of which is you!" The first voice claimed indignantly. "That's my radio!"
"Ugh...we're talking to a bunch of children," Matt gruffly commented as he massaged his forehead, making sure his side of the conversation was muted.
"....Are they serious?" Jet asked. "This has got to be a joke of some kind..." The young woman muttered in an annoyed tone.
"This is Captain Jack Miller of the NSS Alliance," Miller said as he stood up from his chair, his attitude tempered very carefully. "We represent the great Nepleslian Empire. To whom are we speaking?"
"Would you two cease your quarrelling?" A voice boomed over the comms. "Maker help me, I'm this close to pulping you two for lifejuice. The next one to--"
"Answer the question, please,” Miller repeated.
"Is that some sort of sexual term?" Wazu wondered out loud as he heard the 'pulping for lifejuice' line.
"It could be..." Jet replied, overhearing Wazu's wonderings. "This may be a race of perverts.."
"Or we've found a ship of insane individuals," Matt commented in annoyance.
A fourth voice cut in, once again female, and said, "We are not hostile, but who are you?"
"Pardon, wayfarers. Welcome to the Anarachate. We are of the Gypsy node, Displaced. Just give me a moment to dislodge the Druidesses. Hold a--"
"I...just...said...that," Miller replied slowly, his voice unchanging but his face turning red with anger. "Who is in charge there?"
"Aren't you impatient?" The amused voice said. "For wayfarers, you sure are demanding. Do not suspect to come to our realm and then make demands of us."
Miller cut off communications. "I swear I'm going to KILL someone." The communication channel then quickly reopened. "You still haven't given us your name or faction yet, ma'am. It's basic etiquette to exchange names, is it not?"
"Error, shut up," The first female voice said quickly, voice tinny and far away. "It's my damn machine. Gimme that ... " The voice came much closer until it was back to normal. "Ahem! ... I am Freethinker Moral Zero-Five," she said in a bit of a grand voice. "And you are Nehp-less-lee-ans, right? Our faction is independent; we belong to no one." She coughed again.
"And I'm Kassiopea!" the fourth voice cut in again, as if the speaker was bouncing on her heels.
"We should establish where they come from and what resources they have access too. Starships don't come out of nowhere." Wazu suggested as he continued working on the sensor scans, extrapolating where the ship came from by tracing its trajectory.
As he talked, Miller motion for Wazu to continue his scans of the ship, as well as the surrounding space, and looked at Cadet Lionheart as if expecting him to do something with his computer wizardry. "Well then, Moral Zero-Five and Kassiopea, I would like to say hello on behalf of the Nepleslian Empire. Who is in charge over there?"
"I am the Foreman Three One," the voice said with a sigh. "I request you state your serial designation and prepare to receive network probes."
Matthew had about enough listening to the idiocy on the communications channel. Instead, he was using another communications signal and piggybacking the communications currently in progress. "Ally, I'll need your assistance with this," he said vaguely as he began to try and infiltrate the lone cruisers computer systems, being cautious as he searched through any back doors in their mainframe.
"Error, SHUT IT ... Um, no one, really, Mr. Nehplessleean." Moral's voice said again, after a sharp crack indicated something had been knocked around. "We are a state of anarchy. Singular rule is not recognized."
"I'm afraid we cannot afford to share our network information with you as of this moment, forgive us," Miller said diplomatically, ignoring Moral’s interjection. "However, we would like to establish face-to-face communications with you. Do you have visuals?"
Ally began pinging the other ship's network, attempting to open lines of communications with that ship that were not intended to be used for verbal methods of communication.
"Um ... shit. Hold on. I know I've got something somewhere ... uh ... wait a minute." Several clinking sounds were made, until visual data began being transmitted, albeit very slowly. It carried a 15-second delay, but it was roughly clear -- the Nepleslians could see what appeared to be a large pair of breasts hovering in front of them, trapped in a spandex-like green shirt, before they were then faced with a pale-skinned woman with a chubby face and strange purple hair. "How's this?"
Concentrating on his hacking of the cruiser's mainframe, Matthew was oblivious to what was visible on the main screen as his fingers danced across his console's keys like lightning.
"That's one way to greet new people." Jet laughed at the sudden image of breasts.
Wazu was more interested in breaking down what was in the background of the image rather than the person in it, going through the video frame by frame to look for anything of any importance in the terms of equipment or items that may show up in the visuals being transmitted.
A small face attempted to get in on the picture, somewhat failing and even falling over in the attempt.
"Come now, if you come in peace, why do you hide your networks? If your intent is not of ill, why do you keep secrets?" As the Foreman's voice crackled over the comm, the ship suddenly launched its own volley of electronic attacks. "Already you pry ours, non-aggressors. So we too shall, non-aggressively, ply yours with hunter-seeker algorithms."
Wazu checked Ally's transmissions quickly, "They are responding well considering we committed an act of war. Perhaps if we allow them access to cultural information they would respond in kind?"
"Fucking hell," was Matthew's only comment as his fingers began typing faster to put up as many counter-measures to the hunter-seeker algorithms as possible. These defenses ranged from firewalls to booby-traps and even the occasional 'dummy door'.
Miller hoped that his handsome face would appear on their screens as well. He smiled. "That will be fine. Anyway, the NSS Alliance is the flagship of the Nepleslian Empire. We have been sent out to investigate strange transmissions in known space, would those happen to be from you?" He cleared his throat at the latest interjection, unchanged, confident. "No act of war was committed, just a curious probing, like one would do with a specimen. No different than what you're now trying to do to us, I suppose. But I get ahead of myself. If you would like to share information, I would like to do it in person."
No different?" The large mechanical being lurched into view. "Your methods are archaic, your reaction times are horrendous. Had we a professional Datajack aboard, your ship would already be disabled. But yes, let's leave our Syntelligence to play games while we play our own, shall we? Would you care to jump ship, or shall we jump?"
Ally responded by quarantining incoming transmissions and filtering them for malware before using them to display text and audio. The resulting fractions of a second it took to perform these operations as the data came in did not noticeably affect the rate at which the communications were being traded but it did make the ship virtually invulnerable to any attempts to 'hack' it.
"Error, why don't you listen to me?" Moral was blushing for a moment as she looked at the comm device, then shook her face. Her lips were also colored a kind of purple, and she had large, radio-tower like tattoos above her eyes reaching up beyond her hairline. "Let's let them on. I don't think he's an assvoid. Right Sache?"
Matthew mouth dropped agape as his techniques were insulted. "Archaic....horrendous...you....you," the Cadet's normally calm expression heated with anger.
"Confident words, I like to hear that," Miller said cheerfully. "I will be sending an armor team shortly. Do not be alarmed, they will have orders to not engage in hostilities."
"A what?" Jet asked, thoroughly confused by all that's going on and walked over to Mat and put a hand on his shoulder. "Relax they've probably got something we lack that makes it easier for them." She said and sighed.
"Let them on, haha! Let oblivion come today or next week; it will come, it will!" Sache entered the video screen for the first time, slapping Moral on the back heartily, a manic grin on her face.
Kassiopea in the background was shacking her head and smiling widely.
"Yeah, right!" Moral appeared to slap Sache back. The sound was much harder; her voice carrying an edge.
"Very well," Miller said. "Please standby." The communication cut off with a polite beep.
The transmission ended.
---
Matthew's face was still red with anger as he kept his mouth shut for the moment and crossed his arms with a perturbed look on his face. "Archaic...horrendous....fuckers."
"Matt, chill out." Jet said with a sigh. "You're still better than anyone else on this ship."
"It is your first time looking at their systems." Wazu reminded Matthew in a calm voice, "I am surprised you were able to do anything at all without having any prior knowledge of their systems."
Matthew sighed and cracked his neck before sitting up. "I know...but the nerve of them. I've been hacking since I was a kid and I never..." he began only to growl and sit back in his seat.
Miller cracked his knuckles. "okay! We've got ourselves an alien civilization," Miller said happily. "First good news I've had in a while, actually." He pointed to Wazu. "okay, Lieutenant, I'd like you to organize a diplomatic. You're going personally this time. I will join you later after I inform high command of this."
Matthew suddenly stood up from his chair. "Sir, I'd like to go over as well." he asked with stiffness in his posture.
"Ask the Lieutenant, Cadet," Miller said.
Matthew's eyes swiveled over towards the XO and waited for an answer as he practically stood at parade rest.
Wazu nodded and picked up his cane, using it to help him up to a standing position, "Rico, Fian, each of you get a team together and load yourselves with minimal weapons. Have Ally prepare me an M4 stealthsuit and..." He looked over at Matthew, "What type of armor do you prefer?"
"If you'll excuse me, I must get this prepared immediately. Should you leave, Endurain will have the bridge." With that, the Captain left.
"That is if anyone's going to listen to me" Jet said, looking over at Miller and sighed. "Damn, oh well."
"Don't worry, Ally will babysit you Jet," Wazu said before turning back to Matthew.
"I've really only had training in a Super Phalanx, sir," Matthew replied more calmly now. "The new NAM armors came out after I graduated from the Academy."
Wazu nodded, "And a Super Phalanx. Also, make sure everyone double checks their recording equipment. I want both of you, Rico and Fian, to make checks in addition to Ally's," With that Wazu headed out the door of the bridge, limping along with the cane in his right hand while his left hand reached into his pants pocket to pull out a small pill which he quickly swallowed.
Matthew quickly followed Wazu, after shutting down his station and letting Ally continue with the computer defenses. His stride allowing him to quickly catch up with the Lieutenant and fall in on his right flank.
---
"Rico, Fian, each of you get a team together and load yourselves with minimal weapons.”
"Minimal weapons? What the hell is this shit?" The disappointment in Rico's voice was clear as he slouched in his armor. "Aww shit...fine," Rico finished, moving his armor to the head of the armor bay, hopefully within view of the rest of the marines. "Alright Fian, you heard the Lieutenant. Tell ya what...I'll give you first pick baby."
Istvan grinned. "Finally, we get to do SOMETHING!" He said, sardonically, while stripping his WATER of most of its weapons in preparation.
At the same time Ally was performing software checks on recording systems and the power armor's memory systems, displaying the results on the marine's heads up displays. Wazu was taking off of his jacket as he walked, awkwardly moving along with the cane until it was completely off. He then handed it to Ally's physical body that was waiting for them outside of the power armor bay, "If anything starts to go bad, just focus on returning to the ship Cadet." Wazu said, "We aren't here to fight them."
Removing his beret, Matthew nodded to his XO. "Affirmative, sir."
Wazu also took off his beret, and handed all the unnecessary clothing to Ally before walking in and going to suit up by standing on the quanta-construct pad.
Tossing his beret to Ally, Matthew followed suit by standing upon another Quanta-construct pad. Taking a calming breath, Matthew realized this would actually be his first time in a Phalanx outside of a simulator. Oh great...the techie's playing Marine, he thought in both amusement and annoyance as the armor was built around his body.
The pads glowed as the armors were built around the two officers. Once it was complete Wazu opened a channel to Rico and Fian's squads, "All marines that are going over load up in the launch tubes and deploy. Ally will provide you with the co-ordinates for entering the other ship. Be on your best behaviors during this." Wazu strapped his cane to the side of his power armor and then walked toward the launch tubes, his step supported by the armor's systems. Ally then sent a transmission to the aliens, "Will you please provide me with the location where our diplomatic team can meet with you on your ship?"
"Board-side hive hatch." Error paused for a moment. "Oh, that's right. Aliens. Erm, it's the large honeycombed entrance in the hull. You should be able to spot it by the drones crawling around it. Don't worry, they don't fire rivets or hurl detonators unless you provoke them."
"Unless you provoke them..." Kassiopea repeated.
"It's not nice to scare the aliens, my dear," Error cut in before he cut the transmission.
Matthew sighed as he maneuvered his hands in their armored shells, testing to see if everything worked well before stepping off. His Super Phalanx carried its standard load out, which was a lot less than the other armors, but still pretty intimidating. Making his way out to the launch tubes, he noticed the other Marines entering along with the XO. That's right...I'm the newbie of the group. Even the XO has been out with them, but I haven't even stepped foot into an armor around them. I wonder how'll the Marines will treat me.
Wazu stepped into the launch tube as well, and in a few moments there was a deep 'THUD' as the first power armor was fired out of the Alliance. A second THUD then came as Wazu's power armor was shot forward. Each of the power armors now displayed the location of the hatch on the heads up display.
Once shot out into space, Matthew took a bit of time orienting himself with the others. "Damn, that takes some getting used to," he muttered inside his helmet as he began to follow Wazu on this left flank.
Fian forwarded a name list containing Gran, Adrian and Aaron to the members of his squad. A small window would appear on their HUD informing them of their assignment. "All right people, get into the tubes. I'll see you outside." Fian looked around his 20 something squad members for any oddity before pointing at a marine carrying two Type-1s. "Don’t bring any other additional weapons for this one."
A loud smash filled the bay as Adrian unceremoniously dumped his two over-sized weapons onto the floor and strode forward until he stood slightly in front of Fian. "We ready to rock this bitch, mate?"
Gran nodded, not noticeable outside the armor due to the AIR2's non-existent neck. "Understood." He remarked as he ditched his FMD quickly stepped behind a few marines waiting on the launch tubes, the length quickly decreasing as he himself was shot out. He steadied the now heavier armor, getting a feel for the inertia of the added mass. He pulled in close to Fian and his other squad members as they floated in the void.
Rico silently alternated choices between marines as he and Fian made their decisions. Among marines Rico chose were Kokuten, Istvan, Wolfram and Benji. Rico smirked as he reviewed his list and discarded most of his AIRs weaponry. "Alright boys, everyone I picked over to this tube. The winners tube."
"Right..." Benji nodded to Rico and got his as shot into space.
"Oh... yes sir." Kokuten groaned, holding the back of his helmet, "I can still feel that hangover..." He grunted to himself. "Really, this is not the best time to have one..." He leaned over and walked into one of the launch tubes. The medic felt behind himself, fingering the medic box. He was using the WATER 2 he had picked back on Elysia, the medic felt some sort of ownership to it. "Now-" Kokuten was interrupted as his armor shot into space. "FUCK!" He yelled as he exited.
Istvan snorted "Well, you certainly had your daily dose of sugar," he said with a slight smile.
"Just shuddap and get in the fuckin' tube, smartass."
A few moments later, outside the hull of the mysterious ship...
Eventually the diplomatic party would end up outside of the hatch that the hatch that had been designated. Wazu then employed a standard greeting by knocking against the hatch twice, "Is anyone home?"
Several large bug-like drones swarmed around the newcomers, their legs clanging about the hull as the moved closer to inspect them. Suddenly, the hatch hissed and swung inward, revealing a darkened hall in which numerous drones were idled, line up along the walls. At the far end of the passage was a second hatch.
Wazu grabbed hold of the lip of the hatch and pulled himself inside of the hatch, looking around and turning on the suit's lights as he entered. Matthew was next into the hatch, pulling himself in with one hand and following the Lieutenant closely.
Fian tapped the XO lightly on the shoulder. "I think it would be more appropriate if some of the grunts are upfront. It's bad enough that we don’t have many weapons already."
The monoeyes on his AIR darted across the numerous drones milling around the area as Rico floated in front of the Lieutenant. "Fian's got a point chief. I'll take point," Rico replied with a grin and waved a signal for his squad to move farther up into position.
"Very well," Wazu said, "You have got point,"
Fian was just about to shout "REAR" at Rico before Wazu interjected. But never mind, it wasn’t his style to be upfront. Letting Rico pass him, he jetted beside Adrian and Gran somewhere in the middle of the party. "Adrian, if anything happens, you and I are going to the front. Gran, make sure the XO is evacuated safely."
Istvan, Benji and Kokuten floated up to their squad leader as he advanced through the corridor. Adrian quickly took a place near the rear with Fian, and Gran responded to Fian's recommendation and quickly moved slightly in front and to the side of Wazu, guarding him as well as possible without blocking his way, with his new metal 'backpack' of a generator.
"This would be exciting if it weren't so damn creepy," Kokuten said aloud. He followed behind Rico, trying to float at his speed. He looked back towards the opening, and then back to the forward direction. "I hate bugs..." He said in a chilled voice, shuddering.
"Could be worse," Istvan sent Kokuten over radio "There was this one planet I served on once... All of the life there was insects, and surprisingly many of them were mosquitoes..."
The Medic shuddered, "I hate bugs..." he repeated.
A transmission came from within the ship over the open comm. "Once you're all inside let us know and we'll seal the hatch." He laughed. "The Junkers get a bit irritated when we cycle the pressure lock, so make sure you're all inside before we do. I really don't want to have any limbs lost unnecessarily."
Wazu preformed a headcount and once everyone was inside he sent out a broadcast transmission, "We are all inside. You may proceed when ready,"
"Alright boys, quit your belly-achin' an’ get ready," Rico quipped back at his squad as they neared the second hatch. In truth, the milling drones around him made him a tiny bit wary...but he certainly wasn't going to let it show. Him and his men just continued to float towards the door at the end of the corridor.
"See? Could be worse then here" Istvan said cheerfully. "Here it's just machines that look like bugs when you squint."
"Cycling airlock." The hatchway slammed shut and the clang of mechanisms could be heard as the door locked itself. The drones along the walls remained unmoving, even as the inner hatch opened into the ship's hallway proper.
Gran moved slowly, staying with Wazu as his monoeyes skimmed the walls. His sensors let out a small warning signal. "What? Radiation from everywhere... This much could really hurt someone..." Gran's eyes squinted a little. Could be a trap? Gran opened a squad channel. "Fian, there's lots of radiation, I'm sure you're seeing it. Unarmored people would be dying in this sort of stuff, what's going on?"
A few flashing lights and beeps on Rico's HUD warned of a growing radiation reading as things began moving in front of him. "Nothin' too high for our armor, but still...be ready for somethin'," Rico warned his fellow marines.
"I've got syringes, not sure how much that's going to do." Kokuten piped up as he followed.
Boosting back to Gran, Fian's monoeyes darted around as he scanned the surroundings. "I'm still picking up life signs though... Everywhere." Checking the area with the video feed, Fian continued before moving back to the middle. "It seems a little too elaborate for a trap. But we should be prepared nonetheless."
Wazu had turned his attention to the bots on the wall, scanning them and making detailed visual recordings to look at later before moving along with the marines. While they focused on the worrying about the aliens he focused on observing their technology.
Matthew was busy walking slightly ahead of Wazu at this point, taking recordings of the area around him. "Not too impressive," he muttered as he tried to wirelessly connect any type of network on the ship.
---
What the armors saw, eventually, was a trio of women near the end of the tunnel — the lead of which was the same woman who had greeted them with a face full of cleavage initially. She stood, complete with an army-like shirt over her tight-fitting top, metal encasing one purple braid while the rest of her purple hair seemed a shock atop her head. She stepped forward, purple-lipped mouth agape. "Holy. Fuck. Automata."
Istvan bowed to the woman, in a very flowery fashion. "Greetings mylady. We are... not automations, quite, but rather these power-suit shells protect us from the environment. Pardon my rudeness.... but how are you nor fried?"
Adrian blinked and tried to get a look over the heads of the others before him. "Oi, what the fuck is goin' on? Someone up there?"
"Females..." Benji replied to Adrian.
Matthew finally entered the hallway proper and saw the trio of women before them. "Nice greeting, Marine," Matthew chuckled over the loudspeaker as he strode up towards the feminine trio.
"Well now, to the drones the stars, for us the ship, and for everyone who can't handle either of those, huge balls of dirt." The second took up position behind the first woman, looking curiously at the Nepleslian who'd spoken first. "This is the culmination of your career?" she said, turning to the other. "They don't seem much for conversation, really. Better to talk to a half-mad SI, truly."
Kassiopea, the third woman in line laughed at the second woman's comment and said, "True, they don't really seem to trust us do they?"
Adrian gritted his teeth. "Shit... you think it's a trap? I mean, the reds could just be staging all this..." He flicked a small ember of plasma on in his hand and darted his eyes about the hall, watching vigilantly for any type of secret door or aether generator built into the wall, but not finding much other than plants.
"Prolly not..." Benji grumbled back to Adrian. "They don’t look like the bright kind of women..."
"They don't need to be smart. The Red ambush squad behind them has the brains." The medic growled.
Fian peeked out from the crowd to notice the women. As he lowered himself again next to Adrian, his mind was going: It’s a trap, it’s a trap, it’s a trap! But somehow the words came out of his mouth differently. "If those are real women, I doubt the Reds would bait them up like that."
"Argh..." Kokuten put a hand on his helmet in frustration. "They're a different species, they obviously have a natural resistance or harmony with their environment..." He said over the loudspeaker to the quarreling marines around him.
Almost instantly, Rico's monoeyes focused onto the three targets before them. He was shocked for a moment as their images appeared on his HUD...they were very humanoid in appearance, and very female in appearance. Rico smiled slyly to himself as his armor floated to a halt in front of them. I am gonna like this ship. Rico thought to himself. "Alright boys, can the cute shit," he gave his squad a quick order to cease communication with the newly appeared figures...Rico figured it wasn't their job to do it. "Lieutenant. You're up."
Wazu nodded in acknowledgement at Rico’s words. "In most cultures it is impolite to talk about someone like that while they are right in front of you," Wazu said over his loudspeaker, slowly walking up to the front of the formation. "I speak for the Nepleslian Empire and I would like to know which one of you I should address regarding an exchange of cultural information."
Istvan bowed again "Forgive the... rudeness and abruptness of my comrades. I am afraid many of them quite fall apart around women. We live in an environment with a much lower level of rads then here. What is your story? How did you get here, and why are you here?" he asked, politely to the three.
Almost immediately after Istvan finished his sentence, Rico utilized his P/P system to jerk Istvan's armor back behind him in a violent fashion. "I said can the cute shit. The Lieutenant is doin' the talkin' here, not you." Rico hissed, keeping his eyes on the trio of Freespacers before him. Although he had taken a ‘special’ interest in the situation, he was still all too wary of the possible outcomes of the circumstance.
Upon sensing Matthew's attempts to connect Error lumbered down the hall towards them, his half-ton body moving what could almost be called gracefully, especially for a being his size. "Welcome, clankers. I can see you're all curious. Perhaps you would care to talk over a glass of water? Some soup? Or would you prefer a coolant cycle for your mechanoids...?"
Glancing over at Matt he had the ship send the message: "You need but ask, rather than probe."
"Why are we here? Well well now, it seems we may have found ourselves some decent intercourse after all!" Sache patted Moral on the back again. "I was really hoping you could tell me, though. I like to think we're just here, honestly; the gods have been rather quiet in claiming responsibility for this whole mess."
Matthew looked over towards the rather large mechanical being before muttering a 'holy shit' accidentally over his loudspeaker before gritting his teeth. "Hey...you're the one who called my methods archaic," the cadet replied as he pointed an armored finger at Error.
"We do not require food, water, or coolant at the time." Wazu said over the loudspeaker, "Perhaps we could go someplace more suited to discussion. Or you could answer our questions right here..."
Istvan grinned, boosting him armor ahead of the group once again. "Oho?" he said. "Well if not gods then what? What created the spark that birthed the world..." he asks, slipping into philosophy…
Once again, Rico jerked Istvan’s body backwards with a quick burst of this tractor fields, giving a sigh of frustration. Rico turned to a private channel, talking directly to his squad, a look of agitation clearly placed on his brow. "Alright boys, I've been nice so far, but you all need to cut the crap. As of now, I am locking all of your outgoing communication," Rico did just that with a few flips and switches, rather proud of himself for being a ranked soldier capable of doing so. "If any of you boneheads wanna talk, you gotta ask ME permission. And you better have a damn good reason, too."
Things suddenly started getting a little out of hand…many of the people floating in the corridor began arguing loudly, or speaking to one another.
"HEY," Moral shouted loudly. "All of you guys -- " she pointed to everyone but Wazu -- "SHUT THE FUCK UP." She turned to the "Lieutenant;" she'd heard that term broadcast before. "You. You're in charge, right?"
"Ow! Shit! Not so loud..." Kokuten held his head.
"Yep..." Istvan spoke to himself, as his communication channels were currently under lock and key from Rico’s orders. "I wonder if the other likes poetry...." he mused.
Benji shifted and then reached into the storage compartment of his "skirt" and pulled out his data pad. "At least we're not fighting so..." He leaned a shoulder against the bulkhead to his left and leaned on it as he idly started his game from the last save point, keeping his monoeyes on a scan to keep him updated on what was going on.
Wazu exhaled deeply and half bit his tongue. He then opened up a channel to all marines, "okay guys, observe radio silence from now on," He then switched back over to his loudspeaker, "Yes, I am in charge."
Gran nodded and gave a small grunt as acknowledgement as he remained silent, moving as close to the side of Wazu as he could, trying to remain in guarding without being aggressive to the trio and robot.
"That was unnecessary, Moral." Error's voice crackled through his speaker. "Don't snap at the aliens just because your mind can't as easily cohere to so many conversations at once."
Matthew gritted his teeth and kept silent as he stewed over the previous comments said about his techniques earlier. That's it...take a deep breath and calm down.
"Error, go rotate a quantum refractor," Moral replied. "He's the leader, talk to him." She then shut up.
"So, what is it precise you want, Wayfarer? You do not seem the type to visit for idle chatter. Oh, no." Error nodded to himself. "What do you want so badly, that you come barging in hear with shells of metal upon shells of flesh?"
"Sounds like they like poetry..." Istvan murmured to himself again. "At least listening to them speak."
"We would like to learn more about your culture, and discuss your capabilities for commerce." Wazu said over the loudspeaker, his armor just standing still and not exposing his facial expression. "And, what may I call you?"
"Myself? I am Foreman Error Three One Dash Four Six Seven Two Dash Two Three Nine One. Tradition dictates that you may refer to me as Three One, if you prefer to maintain professional detachment, or Error if a more intimate name is appropriate. And you, Wayfarer?"
"I am Heram J. Wazu, but our tradition would dictate that you call me Wazu." The Lt. replied. "Though if you wish me to call you by a more intimate name perhaps we should move to a more intimate place? I am sure our marines would be interested in seeing your ship and I would like an opportunity to discuss setting up formal relations between us."
Out of turn, Kassiopea spoke up, "Nice to meet you Wazu, it is good to know what to call you."
"May I know your title as well?" Wazu asked her, briefly looking away from Error.
Gran smiled at Wazu's words, he was starting to get excited. It was looking like less and less of a trap and more like an honest discovery. His monoeyes turned from the group of people in front of them and returned to the walls, taking in all that he could. The complete differences in their technology made Gran giddy with delight.
"Ah," Kassiopea replied. "I am Kassiopea, but if you wish, you may call me Kass."
"Sache two-three. Druidess." She looked at the group, seemingly annoyed at the socialization... or perhaps just having her philosophy cut off.
Istvan was bored, waiting for a chance to get... away from the angry women... He respected women, of course, but having a philosophical conversation cut off was a nuisance
"Very well Kass," Wazu said, turning his armor to face the others, "And your titles are?"
"As you said, let us relocate to somewhere more appropriate. But, unless you care to remove your armor, your access throughout the ship will be limited." Error's gaze briefly wandered over the crowd of armor, before it turned back to their leader. "I can only accommodate your full number in the gardens or the machine shop. Which setting do your pseudo-mecha prefer?"
"Somewhere... er." He stopped, but piped up again, remembering that nobody could hear him anyway with Rico’s forced silence still in effect. "Somewhere that's not very loud."
"Gardens!" Istvan said, happily, grinning like an idiot under his armour "How do plants live here? How did things get this way..." he murmured to himself once again.
"The Machine shop," Wazu responded over the loud speaker before opening a private channel to Rico, Fian, and Matthew. "Sergeants, front and center, you too Cadet. Introduce yourselves politely." Wazu then switched over to a channel to speak with Kokuten, "Medic, I'd like a report on the radiation levels, how long we'd have without our armors, and report on how effectively we can treat radiation. Specifically I want to know if they pose a permanent danger." Wazu then closed that channel and opened a private channel to Fian and Matthew, "Would you two like to take a group to the gardens?"
Moral wasn't going to introduce herself ... yet. She filed the names of the starpeople before her, but she was enjoying the fact that Sache was getting all pissy.
Matthew growled a bit in his helmet before turning on his loudspeaker. "Cadet First Grade Matthew Lionheart, Computer Specialist. You can call me either Cadet or Matthew," he replied in a bit of a detached tone before turning back to the private channel. "It sounds like a plan, sir."
Moonman
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 4:28 am
Rico didn't waste any time after he recieved Wazu's order to introduce himself, quickly shoving his way up to the front of his squad to meet the new species. Now that he was a bit closer, he was able to get a better look at them...and he liked what he saw.
"Sergeant Rico Sanroma, Marine," He spoke through his loudspeaker with a smile, throwing a casual salutory gesture at them while he did so, "...but, ya'll can call me Rico."
Mola
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 5:57 am
Within the silence after Rico's introduction there was a single 'beep' naturally comming from Benji's data pad. He shifted off the walland tilted his head. Of course having his comm lines blocked by Rico he could tell anyone of the news. So he srugged it off, leaned back against the wall and went on with his game.
Fian
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 6:14 am
Knowing that Rico will be introducing himself first, Fian slowly made his way to the front, reaching there right after Rico ended. This being a diplomatic encounter, the Vel Steyr would have taken off the M1's helmet to show his face, except that it would possible be promptly burnt off by the enviromental radiation.
At least he could try for eye contact. Bringing his glowing Monoeyes into focus at the Freespacer on the furthest left, sweeping across to the one on the furthest right and then finally settling down on the general center. The Freespacers and architecture looked human, but the entire thing still felt alien to the Vel Steyr. Feeling uneasy because he was also charged with the safety of the company, there was a bit of hesitation in his voice.
"P2-" Fian caught himself, the way the promotions were handed out during the briefing was quite hasty and unmemorable compared to his previous one. "Seargent Fian Vel Steyr." His monoeyes shot a quick glance at Rico before returning to their original positon. "Inform me if any of the marines give you trouble." Fian put a fist to his chest to emphasize the white paint on his armor as it is currently the only visual identification they can get.
Le Blue Dude
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 10:33 am
Having misheard the orders, as a simple "introduce yourselves", Istvan tried to speak. Then Istvan noticed the comlock. He checked the rads, and decided he could probably survive a couple of seconds exposure to it. He took off his helmet, kept his eyes closed to avoid damage to his retnas, and bowed elaborately, and spoke. "Istvan Michalovitch Yuttreburg, but you can call me Istvan" He replaced the helmut quickly to limit his total exposure to radiation. His face was probably lightly burned from this as it was.
Istvan's hair was light orange, and crew cut. His face was round, and slavic, his eyebrows thick and an angry shade of orange. He had a beard covering his chin, but not on his cheeks, short and thick, coming to a square end. He looked on the point between the wisdom of age, and the impulsiveness of youth he also looked in very good shape, possibly impossibly so for a human, his Id-Sol blood showing through.
SUBLIMEinal
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 3:54 pm
Adrian took a look at the radiation levels on his HUD, let his jaw drop, and promptly turned his attention to Istvan. He flipped on his comm to an out-going channel towards the Alliance medical bay.
"Suku, get some radiation scrubbers prepped and ready in the armor bay for our return. Also, get some HE2100 prepped for immediate injection. Your buddy Istvan just popped his helmet off in a radioactive enviroment."
He then pushed through some of the marines in front of him, grabbed Istvan by the shoulders, and pulled him back.Switching open a channel to the large marine, Adrian snarled into his mic.
"Oi, what the fuck are you doing? Keep your damn helmet on, mate. Is pussy really that important to you?"
Kokuten
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 6:53 pm
Kokuten finished his readings and looked back at Adrian as he made his remark to Istvan. He rubbed his helmet trying to nod in agreement.
"He's right everyone, erh..." He said as his head thumped. "This radiation is thick enough to put a man down in about sixty minutes. In between one to forty minutes, you'll be allow it to slowly damage your body, we can treat you back to health through these points, but this is slow damaging so it will take a long time. You'll be getting later symptoms of nerve failure by the fortith minute, and this is where the damage starts to get permanent. Then there's the chance of having organ failure by the fiftith minute, and around the fiftith minute or so is external and internal hemorraging. The sixtith minute is brain failure, and of course, that means the Head Jar can't save you. So, for the sake of yourself, keep your armor on." The medic relayed openly over the channel.
Moonman
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 9:14 pm
Rico’s complexion took on a reddish hue as he watched Istvan go through his introduction. In almost an instant, however, the color drained from his cheeks to a near white as he witnessed Istvan removing his helmet, despite obvious warnings. Rico waited until Kokuten was finished speaking before moving back behind the crowd of marines towards Istvan, who was being held by the shoulders by Adrian’s armored hands. The Sergeant hoped that they were far enough back to not garner too much attention to his upcoming actions.
Rico was now a bit more peeved than he would’ve preferred. It wasn’t that Istvan was apparently attempting to show him up…in fact, Rico normally would’ve enjoyed the competition. However, at the moment, Rico was far more concerned with preserving his newly attained rank as Sergeant, and having a marine in his squad acting out of line wasn’t something Rico was about to tolerate, in front of the Lieutenant no less.
As Rico neared them, he promptly shoved Adrian aside with a simple “Outta my way,” and grabbed Istvan’s WATER by the collar. Rico then proceeded to ‘softly’ slam the marine’s armor against the corridor wall, sending the handful of drones and mechanical bugs skittering every which-way. He gave Istvan a few violent shakes when he had him fully pinned, followed by a few straight knocks to the head of the armor. To those unaware of the situation, it would appear as if Rico was beating the snot out of Istvan, but in reality Rico was just reassuring himself that the marine’s helmet was fixated correctly, to prevent further radiation leaking in. Satisfied, Rico turned to his broad communication channel, hoping that perhaps a public berating would wise him up, and spoke.
“Private Third Class Istvan, takin’ your helmet off in this environment, have you lost your fuckin’ mind?! Look, I know you’re lonely, and you haven’t had a piece a’ ass since fuck knows when, but you need to keep it in your fuckin’ pants, marine, and follow the Lieutenant’s orders by the letter,” Rico spat out before harshly thumping the forehead of his AIR to Istvan’s WATER’s forehead, as if he was trying to intimidate him in such a fashion. Rico kept himself in that position while he continued. “Normally I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass what you do. But right now we’re dealin’ with first contact to a new society of people, and I’ll be damned before I let a marine in my squad fuck that up. Now, I’m orderin’ you, as your superior officer and squad leader; keep you pants on your ass and speak when I tell ya to speak. If I get one more mistake from you, I’m gonna thump you so hard, hoooooo boy, you’re gonna need a shave when you wake up. You readin’ me baby?”
Uso
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Wed 2007 Jun 13, 10:29 pm
Istvan responded.... since his radio was linked to Rico and no one else because of Rico's settings, only Rico heard "Pardon me" he said "But we were all ordered to introduce ourselves, no?" he said calmly "My speakers are currently locked down, no? I was merely obeying orders quickly as I could. I take it from your reaction I misheard the orders?"
"You take it right, baby," Rico said through clenched teeth and closed eyes. After another moment or two Rico released his squad mate and started back to the front of the group. "Just...try and listen harder, alright baby? I don't have time to be doin' this bullshit, and you don't either."
Benji quirked an eye as Rico proceeded to ruff Istvan up and then humiliate him. Of course seeing the boy get roughed up by the marine he'd "killed" made benji grin to himself. Benji went back to playing his game.
Istvan nods "I do not intend to be an embarrassment to you." he says, cutting through to the heart of the situation. "I will listen more closely next time." He falls into his place to the right
Gran growled to himself. Idiot. Take off your fucking helmet when these suit just cover us from radiation from our own generators. He focused himself back on gazing over the walls and whatever he could lay his eyes on.
“With introductions out of the way.” Wazu said, half watching an external view in his power armor without turning his head to observe the events unfolding behind him, “Lets move on to other discussions. I do not need all of our Marines to discuss trade with you, would you permit them to tour your ship?” He asked over his loudspeaker, remaining motionless in the M4 stealth armor which wasn’t thin, but still considerably slimmer than the bulky Phalanx units behind him.
"Please, please." The half-ton machine let out an annoyed sigh as it watched the scuffle. "If it was fate's intention for sentient being to fight one another, then we'd all be living on planets cudgeling one another in the mud. We find your behavior most unacceptable."
“I apologize for my Marines. Even though you live in such a,” Wazu’s tone changed just slightly as he continued, “Free society, you still must understand the problems associated with maintaining a functioning social system.”
"I apologize," Rico said as he arrived back at the front of the marine squads. He straightened himself up to a presentable stature, and took a deep breath to recompose himself before speaking again. "We can't take the radiation levels on your ship unprotected for long. I was just reminding him...won't happen again."
Sache shook her head sardonically at the display of violence, giving Moral a meaningful glance. Turning back to the Nepleslians, she said, "Well now, I suppose a tour could be arranged... if there will be no more uniform-removal without decontamination, at least. I'm not particularly in the mood for a slow and painful death today."
"We are quite surprised at how you manage to achieve space faring, if this is any indication of your social structure. We normally deal with stupidity by simply letting it kill itself off." The machine bobbed it's head as it glanced at Sache. "No sense in having low percentiles in the genebank, neh? But regardless, I'm sure Sache will be more than happy to give them a tour. Won't you, dear?"
"If I'm every 'more than happy,' you have my full permission and consent to grind me to a pulp; thoroughly and thorough." Sache looked at the group appraisingly. "But I would have no problem with it, as long as somebody can keep this place from falling apart while I'm otherwise occupied."
Wazu paused while the Freespacers talked amongst themselves and finally interjected with the hope of returning to discussions. “I can assure you no more marines will disarmor themselves without your consent and that this one incident is not indicative of their entire culture,” Wazu said over the loudspeaker before switching over to the marine channels, “Make sure it does not happen again.” He said quickly before moving back over to the loudspeakers. “I will have Sergeant Fian escort the marines on tour. He will ensure their behavior and if you have any problems please bring them directly to him.” Wazu then switched over to a private channel with Fian, “Take most of the marines with you and be sure to have them get a good look around.” Wazu also turned to face Cadet Matthew and leaned toward him, placing his helmet against the Cadet’s before turning off his radio altogether. “Be sure to get a good look at their weapons, power systems, and shields if you can. We can analyze the video feed off your power armor later but right now we need some more information about these people.” The sound carried through the helmets so only Matthew could hear it and it wasn’t transmitted so there was no chance of anyone listening in. Wazu then stood up straight again and faced the Freespacers. “
Istvan things then says "rico... may I have my loudspeaker function returned so that there will be no.... repeat any time I wish to ask a question?"
"Psh, hell no," Rico said simply into the secure line. "You got a question, you ask me, and if I say yes, I'll restore your speaker systems for it."
"I wish to discuss philosophy with... sache. You would find it boring" Istvan said.
Gran smiled as he thought about what all they might see during the tour. What kind of weapons, if any, what kind of computers, and especially the cause of the massive radiation.
"Can I at least have my comm back? Not like I talk much anyway..." Benji said to Rico, still paying more attention to his game than the hall or anything else around him.
Oh God... Rico really, really wanted to plant his face firmly in his palms at his marines' request, but resisted in order to keep up impressions with the hosts before him. "Ungh...fine. When I leave, and you are all Fian's problem, I'll give you back your communication privvies. Just don't...fuck this up, will ya? I just got back from the operatin' room, I'd rather not go back for a bit."
After a short conversation with Wazu, Gran got a call from his Sergeant informing him it was okay to go on the tour and that Kokuten would be assigned his job of watching over Wazu. Meanwhile Kokuten was getting a similar message from Wazu, "You will be coming with me instead of going on the tour."
Gran received the message, he had just wondered what was going to happen with his assignment to Wazu. He nodded to himself responding with a short "Understood." not knowing whether or not it made it back to Wazu. He stepped over to the side, slightly away from Wazu.
"I'd hug you but I don't want another broken nose, helmet or not" Benji said and shifted off the wall. He turned his game off, and stowed his Data pad and then looked over at Sache and then back to Isty and he heaved a sigh, pushing back towards the nepleslian.
Kokuten nodded, confirming he had received the sudden message. The medic felt behind himself, a sudden realization came to him. With the radiation lofting throughout the ship, most of his medicine would be useless. He sighed, putting a hand on his helmet again.
"Thank you greatly" Istvan said, "In exchange I will not tell you about the time in Ibus five." A quick search of planetary records shows that there IS no Ibus five, though strangely there is an ibus four, which is a burned out rock orbiting a neutron star
Doshii Jun
Post subject: Re: NSS Alliance MISSION 4: The Free Nation
PostPosted: Thu 2007 Jun 14, 9:00 am
Moral had a tough time following everything, even Sache's cutting glance. She was busy examining the giant machines the men were in.
And they were men. She had seen the one who briefly took off his helmet, seen his strange orangish hair, his strange-colored skin, the facial hair -- it was all very exotic.
"I'll follow on the tour!" she blurted. "I'll come!"
End Part One, posts 1-10