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RP: ISC Phoenix [Quick Interlude 2] - The Tools of the Trade.

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Hitori followed John's warning and stood out of the way of the incoming furniture. When John asked his question, Hitori replied, "The 'base' doesn't seem so bad to me. So it seems. Or is it just Luca wanting to furnish things up a bit?" She smirked a little as she waited for the moving to be completed.
 
"I don't think it's his decision." John commented as the second last flat-packed piece of furniture was packed in with a clonk, "Maybe his dad's forcing his will on him. Sometimes I feel sorry for him." He then smiled a little, money entering his head again, "On the bright side though, I haven't made this much money since - well - ever, agreed?"

The last flat-pack was loaded onto the shuttle. Hitori had very little Legroom, and John had trouble trying to get the door to the pilot's compartment open. Once he did manage to get in and sit down at his usual seat, he flicked his communicator open and rung Luca, who picked it up quickly. "We're ready. I'll be back where we landed before. It'll be crowded too. 'kay?"
"Righto, be there in a minute." Luca replied as he flicked it shut, he turned his attention back to Vincent and Jim, "Let's get back to the shuttle platform, then I'll show you the base and everyone else." He then realised that Jim's airbike probably wouldn't fit in the shuttle with everything else in it, "You, on the other hand, might have to drive home."
 
"You forget that i've spen the last five months in a shuttle of my own." Vincent searched through the pockets on his jacket, finding something that looked like a bicycle handle with a big red button on top. He pressed the button and, in a few minutes, the sound of another set of shuttle engines joined the Phoenix's.

"Behold the Junker." The shuttle was a standard green shuttle, only it had been heavily modified. A complete self-done overhaul had covered dents and dings in the hull with reposessed, oddly shaped slices and chunks of various military-grade ship armors. He opened the side door.

"Should be enough room in here for your new ride, Jim." Vincent said proudly. "Just be careful not to blow the thing up from the inside."
 
Jim would rather have driven home, but he decided that this might serve to get to know the huge ID-SOL better. "Thanks a lot Vince!" He revved his Airbike and moved it inside the hulk of a shuttle. As he shut it down and strapped it down, he shouted to Vincent, "You don't mind if I call you Vince do you? It's easier to say!"
 
Hitori shrugged. Her payment could've been considered petty cash to her after her past "employments", but she wasn't going to admit that. She decided to reply instead with, "At least it is a livable wage." She found smiling was a little easier, but she was smiling about what John did not know... rather then about what she had just said.
 
"I don't mind, Jim." Vincent climbed into the front of the shuttle, the upholstery of the straight-backed chair sagging acceptingly as the hulking ID-Sol settled into the command chair. The paraphernalia scattered across the flight controls were wiped into the co-pilot's chair alongside empty freeze-dried food wrappers.

The shuttle whined to life and growled loudly as it lifted the extra weight of another person and an airbike.

"I'll maintain a holding pattern and wait for the other shuttle to take off so we can get back to the Rabbit Hutch, as your leader referred to it."
 
Luca was about to make his way to the shuttle when he heard Vincent mention that he had a shuttle of his own.
"Your own, you say?" Luca quizzically asked as he cocked an eyebrow, "Very nice, but I don't think we have the facilities to park that thing, unless you want to keep it out on the yard of the base..."

Then he saw the Junker land next to the ISC Phoenix, up on the shuttle platform. Luca gave a nod in its direction, "Impressive!" He said. Luca then turned to Jim, "Good idea. You can go with Vincent."
Meanwhile, in the Shuttle, John had heard a shuttle land rather close to him on the platform.
"What was that?" He asked himself as he tried to identify the shuttle that had landed next to him using the ship's rather simple computer. A name came up as The Junker.
"Company." John said as he stayed in his seat.

Luca then boarded his ship, the ISC Phoenix and saw all the flat packed furniture and Hitori.
"Ah, I was wondering where you went!" Luca said as he hugged the interior of the shuttle, squeezing past the flat pack furniture, and unintenionally showing off the shotgun over his back and the triple-barrelled shotgun next to it, "I guess our work here is done now."
He eventually got to the Pilot's compartment and hung the shotguns over his seat, next to John.
"John," Luca started, "We've gotten a new fellow on board. And he has his own shuttle. It's next to us."
"Is that so?" He replied as he made preparations to take off, "I was wondering whose shuttle it was - Anyway." He took up the headset and made the various clearances for his shuttle to leave the lot, charging a minuscule fee to his bank account.

The ISC Phoenix then took flight high above Funky City's eastern side and began heading towards the Base, aka the Rabbit Hutch with the Junker following. Being in atmosphere, the flight would take a about 10 minutes, so there was some opportunity to communicate to eachother during flight.
 
"So, what brought you over to Luca's crew, Jim?" Vincent set the Junker on autopilot, following the ISC Phoenix, and turned the tall-backed chair to face the medic.
 
Hitori smirked at the two shotguns. She purposely showed that she was thinking something, but she didn't say anything for a while. Finally, she replied, "Yes, I am back. I see you found some new... equipment?" She was referring to both the shotguns and the furniture; however, she decided to not mention them specifically.
 
Jim replied, "I finished my stint in the Star Army of Yamatai, and I wanted to be my own man and have an adventure. Luca just happened to be starting an adventure of his own and was taking a shuttle out of the same area as I was. We met on that shuttle and decided that we would team up and take on this adventure together. We've been through some pretty rough stuff so far; I'm glad you're with us now, we could use the extra firepower!"


----------

Meanwhile Luca's communicator lit up with a message.

 
Vincent turned back from the cockpit again, keeping the vehicle on a straight course.

"Good to know. I was bred in the company of the Red faction of the Nepleslians, then defected to the Greens, and went AWOL, briefly joined the crew of the Last Star, came here seeking a job and ended up falling in with you, Luca and the others."
 
Jim smiled, "You've been through a lot. As medic, I'll try to make sure you have another adventure after this one!"
 
"Aye Hitori." Luca got out of his chair and poked his head through the Pilot Compartment's door. "I figured we could make the base a bit more - ah - liveable." He nodded to make sure the message sink in and got back into the Pilot's compartment and check on the gunrack. He found the keycard sitting on top of it and took back his Flamethrower, putting it over his strained shoulder.

"There has to be somewhere else where we can hang these guns at base." It didn't occur to Luca that it was why he bought all that furniture in the first place for that reason, "This little gunrack is too damn small for all of our stuff." Luca lent against the wall, "I mean, there's your pistol, my pistol, my dartgun, these shotguns, a flamethrower, Jim's needly thingy, Hitori's knives, Vincent's arsenal, Mitch's... what does Mitch have anyway?"
John shrugged, "No clue. Anyone's guess in that backpack. And who's Vincent?"
"The guy following us." Luca responded.

Within minutes, the base was in seeing distance. John made preparations to land neatly in the ruined hangar there, hoping that Vincent would park his one next to it.
Once the shuttles landed, the airlock of the Phoenix flew open and Luca and John stepped out. They decided to plan out getting the furniture in.
"We'll have to carry all of this furniture in by hand." John said while rubbing his chinfluff, "We may as well get everyone to do it. You got any other ideas?"
Luca shrugged, "Nope."

Then, inside the base, Melissa heard the shuttles landing and came out the front door to inspect what'd happened. She took a look at Luca. To her, he looked like a circus ringmaster in person, minus the top hat and save the firearms.
When she took a look at John, she was a bit more attracted to his generally plain features.
"So, you're that Wolf guy?" She tapped Luca on the shoulder, who turned around in surprise.
"Yeah, one and only!" He said with a smile, he pointed to John, "He's John, your new shuttle pilot and general handyman."
John took notice of her, waved and nodded with a smile, "'Lo there missy." He had the feeling that she'd be of some use, "What's your trade anyway?"
"Construction -" She said as she brandished her crowabar, then swapped it for the massive GP-1 over her shoulder, pointing it to a vultre perched on the fence on the other end of the yard and turning it into a cloud of red mist and feathers with a loud BLAM!! "And long distance combat."
 
The Junker landed mere feet from the Phoenix, an expertly guided landing and shutdown. The gull-wing doors on the side of the shuttle that faced the door opened flawlessly. Out stepped Vincent onto the cold floor of the hangar.

"Man, Luca, when you said this place was a fixer-upper, you didn't lie. I think I might be able to help around here..."
 
Jim stepped out after Vincent and said, "Yeah, well this is our base of operations. It may need a clean-up, but it's home for us now! In any case, now that we have the supplies to refurbish this place, what do you say we get started?"

Jim turned the key in his new airbike and glided slowly over to the rest of the group, turned to Melissa and said, "You would be Melissa, correct? I saw you over the communicator. I'm sure you will be a valuable asset to our team." He extended his hand and took hers in a firm handshake and smiled.

Jim then asked Luca, "Where should I park this thing, next to your bike?"
 
"Tell me about it." Vincent picked up two of the flatpacked furniture units and moved them into a wider space where Melissa was.

"Vincent O'Malley. Heavy lifter and demo expert."
 
Melissa gave a nod in Vincent and Jim's direction, "Pleased to meet you both." She said blankly as Vincent plopped one of the flatpack containers next to her.

"Should we assemble what's in here out here, or indoors?" Luca said as he lifted up one of the smaller flat packed containers, "Because we're going to have a lot of problems getting these assembled things up the ladders."
"Point taken." John said as he searched for a label of some sort on one of the containers, but finding I.D numbers, "But first - which one is which?"
Luca hefted his piece of furniture around, "This one might be one of the shelves. It's really light."

"What do these numbers mean?" John said as he inspected the numbers labelled on the corners of each of the packages.
Then it occurred to Luca that the paper that he used to take down the orders would be very helpful in this situation. He put his furniture down and handed John the sheet of paper in his pocket: "Pass this around, we'll prioritise which one goes where."

"Useful." John said as he found that he was looking at #5791, passing the note on to Mel, who passed it to Vincent, "Let's get going. Luca, Mel, help me pick up this thing. It's bloody massive!"

They hefted it through the base's front door and took a left turn into the Kitchen room. They plonked it down on the floor and came back out to get #5124, which was much lighter.
 
At this time, Hitori was parading behind the group. She wasn't doing any of the lifting, but she was 'managing' their efforts through constructive criticism and orders. She probably thought of herself as the task manager or something.
 
Jim hefted one of the metal lockers and brought it inside the base. He dropped it in an open space on the first floor. While going back for another one, he passed Hitori. said and laughed, "Loafing much? Well you aren't much one for heavy lifting."
 
Vincent was carrying the kitchen sink, and none of the strain that it would take a normal humanoid to carry it showed on his massive brow.

"Someone point me to the kitchen, please?" He inquired, hefting the weight of the sink as though it were a pillow.
 
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