Jack Pine
Well-Known Member
188604 outside USO government zone, mid-day
The orbital systems had detected something small, maybe five or eight meters in length, dropping two objects into the atmosphere before burning to geosynchronous orbit and losing visual and other sensor detection on the object. The computer suspected an advanced stealth ship, and the angry yellow glow from its midsection available in the sattelite report belied its capability to hide. Jack had decided to investigate the strange readings as a foreign object entered atmosphere on a course near USO borders. He grabbed his light combat armor and RKAR-A1 full length carbine before mounting his DR1 motorcycle. The desert sun glissened off the black and red finish to his armor as he sped across the sand at high speed with his thrust at full.
The objects would turn out to be a pair of cryogenic stasis pods, obsolete by all measures other than the fact that someone had added a thruster complex and heat shield to both. The pods both moved as though controlled, burning to impact the sand at an uncomfortable, but surviveable jolt. Jack had seen one of the objects as it made land fall and decided to adjust his course to the landing zone.
"Pine to Saber actual, I got what looks like a landing vehicle, heading to LZ to investigate. Prep the team, I don't want to have to deal with Garts from NMX by myself. Get them ready in five." Jack said putting two fingers to the side of his helm to activate his comm, before closing the distance to the site, a small figure becoming visible as he closed the dsitance.
The person climbing from one was almost comical in her short stature, but immediately began setting up a camp, of sorts, checking the inside of her forearm occasionally. The skin tight top she wore showed the childlike figure, but at this range, it would look like she was simply a small, flat chested woman in black.
By the time he got there, both pods lay open in the sand. and the scientist in her LZ had a land zit style tent up. She had been setting up laser imaging equipment when her ship alerted her to the coming of another vehicle, possibly armed and of what appeared to be a motorcycle if she was to believe the orbital photography. Unconcerned, she flipped the switch to start a small laser drill boring into a nearby boulder. Two laser imaging towers started scanning local terrain around her camp for simple rock formations and any traces of rare metals.
The geological survey was, naturally, a ruse, but without hard data on what she was looking for, she had to get captured by local authorities and transmit data back up to her ship before figuring out how to evac.
The bike slowed as he deccelerated to a crawl at less then ten feet distance, ultimately coming to a halt as he dismounted from the bike. A little confused to see what looked like a little girl out in the frontier with high end geological equipment.
"Where's your parents kid?" Jack asked keeping his distance as something about this seemes.....off.
"My parents sold me. Seventeen years ago. They can go fuck themselves. You want some water, it's in the cryo pod. Otherwise, I got work to do." The question about her parents almost got the girl to draw her stunner and take a potshot, but she simply refused to look up, leaning harder on the drill before she backed off and killed power to the device. "Unless you got a good reason I can't do my geo survey."
"OK, not a kid. Well bandits patrol the areas around here outside the border for one, and food is scarcer than a fucking tree for another. You can continue, but at your own perril." Jack said miffed at this revelation.
"Side note, at least you knew yours." He said before beginning to walk around the perimeter of the camp to the other side to look out over the desert to see if she had attracted unwanted attention.
"I was six. Not much time to remember someone." Thorn grunted as she heaved the laser drill back to its case. A pair of tweesers extracted the rock sample and she slid it into a sample jar before her datapad started flashing and showing a ship parked not too far away. "This yours?"
"No, and they aren't allies either I can tell you that." Jack said looking over the display after walking over to the pad.
"Roger that. Scanning it, now." A few touches of her gloved hand and her stealth ship revealed itself for just a moment, turning to focus a series of lasers through the atmosphere. High resolution cameras grabbing information, everything knowable, though all she would give was a three dimensional image on a nearby hologram projector.
Jack charged his rifle before activating his comm, "Saber team deploy, we have hostiles approaching the border. Get a shuttle out here asap, civie in the AO. Bring PA and battle rifles, will hold position till evac."
"Ok, stick close. We're about to have company." He added as he sprinted towards the opposite side of the camp which was the direction the bandits would be coming from.
"Break my shit and I disembowel someone with their own jaw." The girl, for her effort, looked distinctly bored as she drew her stunner and popped her helmet. Tossing this to the side showed a very bored researcher whose facial scars revealed her incapability to give any regard to her safety.
Six figures appraoched from a ship landed 200 feet away, their gear and weapons hard to make out from the distance, but this didn't stop Jack from taking the first shot. He proped the rifle on a rock as he crouched behind it to steady his aim, before sighting through the optic sight and squeezing off a round, causing one figure towards the middle of the group to drop.
Thorn looked over, continuing her facade of an endlessly bored college student as she continued working around the firefight. It hadn't been stealthy, her entrance, and not necessary to be so. But now her ship, as it burned for deep space, had found a base of operations, and alerted her. She wasn't going to reveal it yet. She had all she needed, and dismissed her ship to resume its previous orbit and scan anything that came close to her position.
The sound of another ship became evident as a shuttle did a fly by peppering the five scrambling figures with fire from a mounted turret as five Revenant PA clad figures dropped from the low altittude on the pass, hitting back mounted thrusters as they neared the grounds causing them to hover for a moment before hitting the sand with a sof thud. The shuttle moved it's attack to the bandit vessel as the five figures in PA opened up on the bandits on foot.
"Hell yeah, by the numbers bitches! Wipe them out, leave none to call for backup!" Jack shouted as he slide over the rock to slowly advance squeezing off rounds. The bandits were quickly dispatched before the shuttle's turret ripped the bandit vessel a new exhaust port, causing it ti crumple and burst in flames.
"Commander targets eliminated, does the civie reguire medical?" Sarah Pine asked as he approached Jack as she mag clipped her rifle to the armor's back and removed her helm.
Thorn cocked an unamused eyebrow at Jack and Sarah, wordlessly continuing her work as though no firefight had just happened. While it looked like she was doing a simple geosurvey, the laser imagers had, upon a twitch of her finger minutes ago, gathered three dimensional models of the power armor units and their capabilities, alongside high resolution photograpsh.. In fact, her ship was still gathering high resolution X-ray, Gamma, and even infrared light photos of the scene. She had more than enough to show anyone who paid her whatever they wanted. Granted, she hadn't taken this mission under contract, and hadn't cared to see.
However, when the Eye's surface scanners started reading some anomalies, she found the corner of her lip curling into a grin. This could be valuable.
"Alright, we're going to escort you to Osman city. Your pod and equipment will be collected by drones and brought there to the spaceport for you to pick up. This is a security procedure, and as there are more than liekly more of these assholes, it's in your best interest to comply." Jack said even as several of Vier's drones began to hover over head and collect the pods and equipment.
"My ship left system after dropping me off. Otherwise, I'll come with." She yawned, ambling over to her tent. This guy's making it too easy. I came expecting a bit of a challenge to get out. Just gotta pay some greasy spacer thirty creds to boot me in orbit, my ship comes and gets me, and I'm gone without a trace. Too easy.
The shuttle lowered as a drone picked up his bike before they all boarded the shuttle. It began to raise before speeding towards the direction of Osman city.
"Sir research team two in the engineering department has urgent news that requires your immediate attention." a voice said of the on board audio system.
"Patch them in." Jack said removing his helmet.
"Director, with the help of Vier we might have finished the geo-mod we've been working on. It's really important that you arrive quickly as the test will be soon and preparation are to be made." a well spoken individual said over the shuttle audio. He spoke more clearly and fluently than a normal local.
"Fine, we'll be there in a few. Looks like it's your lucky day, a woman of science as yourself should appreciate getting to visit our top advanced research and develoment center, Section 6 is home to the labs, ranges, and workshops that created equipment like the R1-SPA power armor my men are wearing." Jack said with a hint of pride as the shuttle veered.
"Damn, and here I was gonna pay off some greasy spacer to take me to orbit with stolen data to sell to anybody who'd buy. Work's better'n hush money!" Her facade instantly disappeared and the bright, bouncy Thorn showed herself, just as her ship was commanded to reveal itself. It casually pushed away from the cruiser it had been hanging out within six feet of the side and decloaked as it passed the radar horizon. "Name of Thorn Ironhart. I'm a researcher by trade, and decloaking my ship so you guys can see how close I get."
"Yeah I knew something was off about you. No one is that uneffected by combat unless they have some issues, or a lot of drugs in their system. You know were always looking for new minds, Section 6 is still growing, and has plenty of room. You'll even get your own office space. And the pay is good too." Jack said once again miffed by the complete personality change.
"Nah, I actually trained under a combat mercenary. I find it very difficult to fear something I've already been hit with. Respect, sure, but no fear. I'll take the job."
"Alright, I guess we get you settled in. This is going to be one hell of weird thing to explain to my wife. You'll most likely be working with her. She's our head engineer, and I don't plan to put you in a specific department."
The shuttle ride was quiet and uneventful, with Thorn making passive comments about how she'd seen better and worse in her line of work. But as they would enter the building, there would be people in overalls and labcoats rushing about as work was under way on several projects. as Jack watched the tiny human bounce off with a look of delight.
"Welcome to Section 6."
"It's amazing!" Her imediate reaction was to run to a nearby workbench, examining the work going on before ducking under a technician's arms to move to the next one, picking up a screwdriver to make a slight tweak to a piece of hardware. Like a child in a candy store, Thorn found herself surrounded by knowledge and skills to absorb, and she forgot about her blood sugar crash, bouncing between workstations until she found herself face first in the grip matting with a groan.
Jack had watched her run around in a manner similar to her physical appearance, he had watched with slight amusement until she hit the floor. Jack quickly ran over, sliding in next her prone form to pick her up under the arms. "Hey, what's wrong? You just collapsed.", he said before noting a flashing warning on Thorn's left wrist. Thorn noticed an annoying beep in the implanted speaker in her inner right ear. When Jack touched the alert, he'd note a critically low blood sugar similar to hypoglycemic shock, and she remembered vaguely that her pod had run out of nutrient syrup for her permanent IV sometime in the last three days. She tried to tell him she should probably eat something, but her voice was an incoherent mumble. From his medical training he realized her blood sugar was critically low. "Someone get me some nutrient paste! Hang in there." Jack said carrying her to his office which they were next to, and put her in the chair as they waited for the food stuff to arive.
The orbital systems had detected something small, maybe five or eight meters in length, dropping two objects into the atmosphere before burning to geosynchronous orbit and losing visual and other sensor detection on the object. The computer suspected an advanced stealth ship, and the angry yellow glow from its midsection available in the sattelite report belied its capability to hide. Jack had decided to investigate the strange readings as a foreign object entered atmosphere on a course near USO borders. He grabbed his light combat armor and RKAR-A1 full length carbine before mounting his DR1 motorcycle. The desert sun glissened off the black and red finish to his armor as he sped across the sand at high speed with his thrust at full.
The objects would turn out to be a pair of cryogenic stasis pods, obsolete by all measures other than the fact that someone had added a thruster complex and heat shield to both. The pods both moved as though controlled, burning to impact the sand at an uncomfortable, but surviveable jolt. Jack had seen one of the objects as it made land fall and decided to adjust his course to the landing zone.
"Pine to Saber actual, I got what looks like a landing vehicle, heading to LZ to investigate. Prep the team, I don't want to have to deal with Garts from NMX by myself. Get them ready in five." Jack said putting two fingers to the side of his helm to activate his comm, before closing the distance to the site, a small figure becoming visible as he closed the dsitance.
The person climbing from one was almost comical in her short stature, but immediately began setting up a camp, of sorts, checking the inside of her forearm occasionally. The skin tight top she wore showed the childlike figure, but at this range, it would look like she was simply a small, flat chested woman in black.
By the time he got there, both pods lay open in the sand. and the scientist in her LZ had a land zit style tent up. She had been setting up laser imaging equipment when her ship alerted her to the coming of another vehicle, possibly armed and of what appeared to be a motorcycle if she was to believe the orbital photography. Unconcerned, she flipped the switch to start a small laser drill boring into a nearby boulder. Two laser imaging towers started scanning local terrain around her camp for simple rock formations and any traces of rare metals.
The geological survey was, naturally, a ruse, but without hard data on what she was looking for, she had to get captured by local authorities and transmit data back up to her ship before figuring out how to evac.
The bike slowed as he deccelerated to a crawl at less then ten feet distance, ultimately coming to a halt as he dismounted from the bike. A little confused to see what looked like a little girl out in the frontier with high end geological equipment.
"Where's your parents kid?" Jack asked keeping his distance as something about this seemes.....off.
"My parents sold me. Seventeen years ago. They can go fuck themselves. You want some water, it's in the cryo pod. Otherwise, I got work to do." The question about her parents almost got the girl to draw her stunner and take a potshot, but she simply refused to look up, leaning harder on the drill before she backed off and killed power to the device. "Unless you got a good reason I can't do my geo survey."
"OK, not a kid. Well bandits patrol the areas around here outside the border for one, and food is scarcer than a fucking tree for another. You can continue, but at your own perril." Jack said miffed at this revelation.
"Side note, at least you knew yours." He said before beginning to walk around the perimeter of the camp to the other side to look out over the desert to see if she had attracted unwanted attention.
"I was six. Not much time to remember someone." Thorn grunted as she heaved the laser drill back to its case. A pair of tweesers extracted the rock sample and she slid it into a sample jar before her datapad started flashing and showing a ship parked not too far away. "This yours?"
"No, and they aren't allies either I can tell you that." Jack said looking over the display after walking over to the pad.
"Roger that. Scanning it, now." A few touches of her gloved hand and her stealth ship revealed itself for just a moment, turning to focus a series of lasers through the atmosphere. High resolution cameras grabbing information, everything knowable, though all she would give was a three dimensional image on a nearby hologram projector.
Jack charged his rifle before activating his comm, "Saber team deploy, we have hostiles approaching the border. Get a shuttle out here asap, civie in the AO. Bring PA and battle rifles, will hold position till evac."
"Ok, stick close. We're about to have company." He added as he sprinted towards the opposite side of the camp which was the direction the bandits would be coming from.
"Break my shit and I disembowel someone with their own jaw." The girl, for her effort, looked distinctly bored as she drew her stunner and popped her helmet. Tossing this to the side showed a very bored researcher whose facial scars revealed her incapability to give any regard to her safety.
Six figures appraoched from a ship landed 200 feet away, their gear and weapons hard to make out from the distance, but this didn't stop Jack from taking the first shot. He proped the rifle on a rock as he crouched behind it to steady his aim, before sighting through the optic sight and squeezing off a round, causing one figure towards the middle of the group to drop.
Thorn looked over, continuing her facade of an endlessly bored college student as she continued working around the firefight. It hadn't been stealthy, her entrance, and not necessary to be so. But now her ship, as it burned for deep space, had found a base of operations, and alerted her. She wasn't going to reveal it yet. She had all she needed, and dismissed her ship to resume its previous orbit and scan anything that came close to her position.
The sound of another ship became evident as a shuttle did a fly by peppering the five scrambling figures with fire from a mounted turret as five Revenant PA clad figures dropped from the low altittude on the pass, hitting back mounted thrusters as they neared the grounds causing them to hover for a moment before hitting the sand with a sof thud. The shuttle moved it's attack to the bandit vessel as the five figures in PA opened up on the bandits on foot.
"Hell yeah, by the numbers bitches! Wipe them out, leave none to call for backup!" Jack shouted as he slide over the rock to slowly advance squeezing off rounds. The bandits were quickly dispatched before the shuttle's turret ripped the bandit vessel a new exhaust port, causing it ti crumple and burst in flames.
"Commander targets eliminated, does the civie reguire medical?" Sarah Pine asked as he approached Jack as she mag clipped her rifle to the armor's back and removed her helm.
Thorn cocked an unamused eyebrow at Jack and Sarah, wordlessly continuing her work as though no firefight had just happened. While it looked like she was doing a simple geosurvey, the laser imagers had, upon a twitch of her finger minutes ago, gathered three dimensional models of the power armor units and their capabilities, alongside high resolution photograpsh.. In fact, her ship was still gathering high resolution X-ray, Gamma, and even infrared light photos of the scene. She had more than enough to show anyone who paid her whatever they wanted. Granted, she hadn't taken this mission under contract, and hadn't cared to see.
However, when the Eye's surface scanners started reading some anomalies, she found the corner of her lip curling into a grin. This could be valuable.
"Alright, we're going to escort you to Osman city. Your pod and equipment will be collected by drones and brought there to the spaceport for you to pick up. This is a security procedure, and as there are more than liekly more of these assholes, it's in your best interest to comply." Jack said even as several of Vier's drones began to hover over head and collect the pods and equipment.
"My ship left system after dropping me off. Otherwise, I'll come with." She yawned, ambling over to her tent. This guy's making it too easy. I came expecting a bit of a challenge to get out. Just gotta pay some greasy spacer thirty creds to boot me in orbit, my ship comes and gets me, and I'm gone without a trace. Too easy.
The shuttle lowered as a drone picked up his bike before they all boarded the shuttle. It began to raise before speeding towards the direction of Osman city.
"Sir research team two in the engineering department has urgent news that requires your immediate attention." a voice said of the on board audio system.
"Patch them in." Jack said removing his helmet.
"Director, with the help of Vier we might have finished the geo-mod we've been working on. It's really important that you arrive quickly as the test will be soon and preparation are to be made." a well spoken individual said over the shuttle audio. He spoke more clearly and fluently than a normal local.
"Fine, we'll be there in a few. Looks like it's your lucky day, a woman of science as yourself should appreciate getting to visit our top advanced research and develoment center, Section 6 is home to the labs, ranges, and workshops that created equipment like the R1-SPA power armor my men are wearing." Jack said with a hint of pride as the shuttle veered.
"Damn, and here I was gonna pay off some greasy spacer to take me to orbit with stolen data to sell to anybody who'd buy. Work's better'n hush money!" Her facade instantly disappeared and the bright, bouncy Thorn showed herself, just as her ship was commanded to reveal itself. It casually pushed away from the cruiser it had been hanging out within six feet of the side and decloaked as it passed the radar horizon. "Name of Thorn Ironhart. I'm a researcher by trade, and decloaking my ship so you guys can see how close I get."
"Yeah I knew something was off about you. No one is that uneffected by combat unless they have some issues, or a lot of drugs in their system. You know were always looking for new minds, Section 6 is still growing, and has plenty of room. You'll even get your own office space. And the pay is good too." Jack said once again miffed by the complete personality change.
"Nah, I actually trained under a combat mercenary. I find it very difficult to fear something I've already been hit with. Respect, sure, but no fear. I'll take the job."
"Alright, I guess we get you settled in. This is going to be one hell of weird thing to explain to my wife. You'll most likely be working with her. She's our head engineer, and I don't plan to put you in a specific department."
The shuttle ride was quiet and uneventful, with Thorn making passive comments about how she'd seen better and worse in her line of work. But as they would enter the building, there would be people in overalls and labcoats rushing about as work was under way on several projects. as Jack watched the tiny human bounce off with a look of delight.
"Welcome to Section 6."
"It's amazing!" Her imediate reaction was to run to a nearby workbench, examining the work going on before ducking under a technician's arms to move to the next one, picking up a screwdriver to make a slight tweak to a piece of hardware. Like a child in a candy store, Thorn found herself surrounded by knowledge and skills to absorb, and she forgot about her blood sugar crash, bouncing between workstations until she found herself face first in the grip matting with a groan.
Jack had watched her run around in a manner similar to her physical appearance, he had watched with slight amusement until she hit the floor. Jack quickly ran over, sliding in next her prone form to pick her up under the arms. "Hey, what's wrong? You just collapsed.", he said before noting a flashing warning on Thorn's left wrist. Thorn noticed an annoying beep in the implanted speaker in her inner right ear. When Jack touched the alert, he'd note a critically low blood sugar similar to hypoglycemic shock, and she remembered vaguely that her pod had run out of nutrient syrup for her permanent IV sometime in the last three days. She tried to tell him she should probably eat something, but her voice was an incoherent mumble. From his medical training he realized her blood sugar was critically low. "Someone get me some nutrient paste! Hang in there." Jack said carrying her to his office which they were next to, and put her in the chair as they waited for the food stuff to arive.
