RP: OIF Atuan [OIF Atuan] Episode 8: Ours

Re: Episode 8: Ours

Viktoria suddenly hit her fist against a table, making a hole in it. She was angry, of course that little sod was preapared. Could he though knew they were coming here and have his own people waiting? Might be because it was the closest place. He could have send a band of merc to wait here.

"Bastards!" She shouted as she pulled her hands from the hole in the table. "We need to make more copies of the evidence and hide it. Also I think we can suit up in Impulse's. Those are not weapons and if they try to take them, they are welcome. Oh and one of us could hide in his mecha in case things would go badly. In any case we need to get to comms fast, that means we should cooperate with the abwehrans."

Re: Episode 8: Ours

"Yeah, don't you ladies worry your pretty little heads, I made more copies of that evidence than there oughta be." Mark assured Viki and Taela with an urging motion of his hands. He wanted to say more about just how far he'd gone; but as it was, things were already getting a little out of hand.

"Let's just try to stay cool and show 'em what we got, right? We don't gotta do nothin' crazy just yet, man."

Re: Episode 8: Ours

Kelly playfully winked back at Taela jokingly, but soon found himself scratching hone of his cornrows after the Abwehran Captain spoke and his teammates all weighed in.

"Huh. You sure guys?" the Nepleslian asked, more surprised and confused than anything else at the moment. "If we do that, we're going to run out of options pretty fast," he pointed out. "Let's ask what doing that includes first, yeah?" Looking up at the intercom in the ceiling, he called out, "Ged, can you or Arah ask how its going to go down?" Kelly asked the AI.

Though they were all met with silence for a moment from the AI, the same heavily accented voice from before filtered over the comms again. "You vill disarm and vee vill board, bringing in zis ship and handing it and you over immediately to Origin authority here," the Abwehran officer explained. "Ist not our business, so vee make it simple, Ja?" he added. "Oh!" the man's voice suddenly exclaimed, his words becoming more jovial and personable for the moment. "Mein gott, I almost forgot - hear is zee notice vee received. Must keep papervork tidy and ensure protocol is followed." Changing gears again back into a more serious tone however, the Abwehran officer offered them some time. "Zis is not easy, so do take zee time to choose - either ihr lässt, or surrender."

At that, Kelly briefly frowned as his eyebrows both went up in impressed surprise. He had to admit, the cliche image of hot blooded, passionate mech pilots was hard to shake, but his crew? Staying level headed and cool like this? The reality of it all had it's downs, but it definitely had its ups as well.

"An abnormality was inside the message," Ged suddenly spoke, interrupting his thoughts. "It seems there's a set of coordinates imprinted within, hidden well enough to avoid cursory and standard glances, but not something like my own," the AI explained. "It's either something helpful, or a trap if I had to guess. Judging by the coding, I'm guessing it may be Zophia's," he added, reminding them all of the odd, off-kilter AI they met before.

"Huh." He shrugged. "Well, it's either a trap as he said, or it's something else entirely. We going to try and talk our way out of this with the Origin guys, or we going to go off and hope this other lead's worth while?" Kelly asked them all.

Re: Episode 8: Ours

"It's a waste if time to do the other coordinates. We have enough evidence right now to bury Kensuke 6 feet under, and leaving this area now would only affirm a jury's suspicions of our guilt. I say we stay. If we have an extra shuttle, somebody should go, but otherwise don't bother."

By this point, the entire pile of snacks had been consumed, and all that was left was a wasteful pile of refuse.

Re: Episode 8: Ours

"Hell, if they're just gonna hand us straight over, I say we fucking book it for the other coordinates." Markus was quick to change his suggestion with the new information. "I ain't lettin' them get they hands all over us for nothin'-- shit, we might as well fly back to Dawn Station for all that."

Re: Episode 8: Ours

Viki rubbed her forehead. This was a bad situation and she did not like it one bit. But she though about a bit of a solution. Something that might actually help. Problem was it would separate her from others. It might also get dangerous, but she actually liked that part of it.

"Kelly ich bin eine Abwehran einwohner." She said simply. "I mean I am a citizen of Abwehran empire. If I ask locals for protection they must take me to the station and you guys can give me copy of the data. You then can go and check those co-ordinate, while I try to send the data to relevant place. Just tell me who to send the message and I will handle it somehow. Right now I might be only able to get to the station without getting into hand of those other Origin good, be they good or bad guys. Once I ditch the abwehrans security I can make the call."

Re: Episode 8: Ours

Lucien awoke with a snort upon hearing the back and forth between the Atuan's crew over what to do when faced with people that thought they were rogue baby eating soul crushing demons when the truth couldn't be further and further away from that image.

He rolled over on the couch and lead his legs down to the floor and stood up. His face was equally relaxed and disinterested with the proceedings and their myriad approaches. Yes - we have the recordings. What good is a recording if you don't do anything with it?

He walked over to a computer console in clear disregard for protocol and grabbed a microphone. "Ae listen ya ungrateful bastards, we were destroyin' HiGA copies and clones jus' several weeks back, an' we were sent there offical-like tae investigate HiGA activity." He heard the recording of what Kensuke and that HiGA woman had to say about softening Origin and making it merge with HiGA repeating in his mind's ear on repeat.

And fuck us runnin' we found somethin' - We have hard evidence of a conspiracy." The only word he could pronounce clearly would be the hardest word for him to pronounce in a half-asleep state: 'Conspiracy'. "So pull yer head out yer arse 'n listen ta us 'fore ya clap us in the irons ya gits."

When you were dealing with boardroom and backroom chatter and conspiracy, you had no choice to be as subtle and low as them, often playing into their labyrinthine deals for petty gains like women, wine, song and money. Fuck subtle. Lucien affirmed his family motto, we're gonna bust this shit wide open. He turned around to the others and mumbled, "Naebody treads on us with impunity..."

Re: Episode 8: Ours

Silence hung in the air after Lucien's passionate speech, its duration rather discouraging - the sound of an earpiece or microphone being adjusted could be heard from the speakers.

"Lucien," a stoic, aloof sounding woman spoke over the comms. "Please don't yell into my earpiece while you are sleep deprived and somewhat drunk," Arah remarked. It was impossible to tell, but the silence that followed those words made their imaginations run wild, desperately grasping and trying to think just how furious she was! It was broken when Kelly gulped however, the apple in his neck bobbing. "I have taken into consideration what you've all said and acted appropriately," the woman in charge informed them all.

"Vell! Zank you for forvading all zee, uh, 'interesting' information," the bureaucratic voice filtered over the comms. "And I see a citizen of zee Abwehran Sterne Reich..." The official seemed to pause in thought. "Vell! Zere's no vay in Hölle I vant zee extra papervork," he started to explain, suddenly dropping his voice to an an almost comical whisper, "To tell zee truth, I don't like some of zee new Origin employees that 'just' arrived." With that, he went back to his normal speech. "Again, zee options are zee same - you haf five minutes. However, I vill look into discreetly...passing it along. Maybe you'll have some help ven you arrive at Dawn if you decide zat.

"Oh, one ozer zing - she said to keep it from getting dusty. I did." With that, the commutation cut as the Abwehrans waited for their move - they turned out to be surprisingly sensible despite the evil sounding accents.

"...Ok, what just happened?" Kelly asked, bewildered.

Re: Episode 8: Ours

Taela sighed, faceplanting into the table and pile of refuse.

"Y'know what?" she groaned, "I don't even care anymore. Just pick a place and go. I don't even care, just so long as we don't have to stay here. And Lucien. . ."


The cat craned her neck to face her accented companion without moving herself from her slouched position.

"Stop being a complete dumbass and take a nap already. You're embarassing."

Re: Episode 8: Ours

The Abwehran rubbed his chin in thought as his eyes carefully looked over sensor readings. "Gott im Himmel - sie müssen Sicht beschädigt," he remarked. "Diese Menschen wissen nicht," the man sighed. Sitting back down, the Abwehran Commander shrugged. In the end of the day, there wasn't even anything he could do - they weren't exactly obligated to help. Going by the book, it seemed to be an internal corporate affair.

'Schade, dass sie nicht sehen, die Neuankömmlinge,' the Hauptmann thought to himself.

*****

Arah sighed.

And of course Ged watched her sigh. Though on the surface, the choices she had were rather black and white, there was nuance to them that made choosing all the more difficult. There were several ways to go at it, but for most people, taking it any other way simply made it even more messy and confusing. If anything, she even noticed that her Abwehran counterpart realized this as he exclaimed at finding Victoria aboard the Atuan. He had to give her credit for noticing that on her own.

The Abwehran Officer did Not want a mess of things either - it was a sentiment the AI understood well enough. So, everyone simply pretended the matter actually was black and white. Even though it wasn't.

Naturally, it was either limp back to Origin as-is, or check the location that may or may not be a trap and hope it was actually some stashed goods or other. In the end of the day, the AI watched the fascinating nature of human beings in action. As Arah simply decided to - not literally of course - say "F*ck this" and flip a coin over the matter. It wasn't until they were closing in on the set of asteroids at the coordinates that Ged realized something was wrong.

Comparing what an old-school camera saw, and what his sensors saw, there was something wrong with the comparison - the asteroids weren't even showing up properly. The AI rebooted the sensor suite. And rebooted it again when it came out even worse. Third time being the charm, the AI wanted to wince when he got back the proper feeds. The ship, and through it, himself, had been nearly blind for some time after the last battle as the electronics slowly malfunctioned, the condition going unnoticed when they were in dead-space with nothing to see, and again with the Abwehrans because there was nothing plain optics wouldn't do.

"Excuse me Arah? We have two ships rapidly approaching us."

*****

"Everyone! Suit up and go to standby in your frames!" Kelly ordered over the comms, he himself running out of his quarters, hopping up and down on a foot as he tried to put his pants on. "I don't know what's going on yet, but we have company!"

Re: Episode 8: Ours

"Mother of- I don't even CARE anymore! You know what? Fine. I'm going to kill every last person on those ships. I don't even care! Indiscriminate slaughter, ho!" Taela snarled, waving an invisible flag of +5 to rallying. If that were a thing, of course. The neko bolted from the table, going full-hover down the hall and into the hangar bay, then into the somewhat-repaired Kirin, not even bothering with an Impulse to wear. Now, to wait for Mark.

Re: Episode 8: Ours

"Excuse me Arah? We have two ships rapidly approaching us."

Tha-thump... Tha-thump... Lucien's face remained neutral as his addled brain attempted to process those worse. Then he blinked and his face slowly begun screwing up and contorting as he could be visibly seen processing the information.

"...two ships..."
So Kenny sent some muscle.

"...rapidly..."
They were damned timely about it.

"...approaching us."
They were after the Atuan's head and didn't give a damn who else got in the way.

"FINALLY! This means we get to fight something!" Lucien yelled as though the truth of the world had just dawned upon him and he was able to understand it with perfect clarity in his otherwise sleep deprived and drunken state.

It was difficult to describe what happened next as a red dressed blur started sprinting through the corridors grasping a flask of drink and droning like a Nepleslian possessed. ((Video until 0:07)) Over the time he'd been stranded in space between jumps and worked to exhaustion, he hadn't had an opportunity for a fight in weeks. Not just sparring or sitting down on NSS Deathwish playing the same campaign over and over again.

He sprinted up the stairs without missing a beat, giggling like a madman with every step. He fell into his frame's cockpit with a crash, righted himself and sat down immediately. The giddy grin on his face was threatening to fall off and run away.

"Orright load up 'n get ready to engage 'cos it's time fer some fuckin' FIGHTY!" He was practically ready to thank whoever was about to attack the Atuan for breaking the boredom in addition to tearing their arms off and beating them. "Oi Ged see if the Abwehrans are up fer showin' these assholes how to fight!"

Re: Episode 8: Ours

It wasn't long before Mark flopped over the edge of the cockpit behind Taela. His greeting was two quick pats on the shoulder, followed by a quick, "I gotcha, Kitty."

Fingers flew across his console-- pressing only the coolest and the best buttons. Of course, he made sure to check the status of the Feathers and the CECS; his only two true weapons in the Kirin.