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

[Themisto]

"I daresay this occasion calls for some CORNMEAL!" Cranebeinn shouted exstatically. "But no fear, I won't experiment with that tricky squishy stuff today, I'll just go with an old classic: spicy squid conrmeal with a side of butter biscuits. It's better than it sounds, you know."

 

[TeslaTornado]

Meanwhile, Vincent was in the Armory, assembling one of the lockers. He flopped the long steel walls into place and bolted them in, so they wouldn't move, then installed the door. Seeing this as fairly competent, he took out the plasma torch and a sheet of metal and cut out 'Vincent O'Malley' in metallic letters. Then he welded them into place on the front door of the locker and placed it against the wall, tossing his 10mm and Lorath Hand Cannon into it.

 

[zephyrite]

Jim sweatdropped as Crane laid out what he was going to cook. "You going to make other things as well, right? I have no doubt that the cornmeal is good....but I would like other options as well... Whatever, I'm sure it'll be great."

 

[Luca]

Luca poked his head up to Crane on the mention of Dinner.
"Oh - Yeah, that's right. I forgot to buy a new fridge to replace this old one. Damnit."
He pointed to the existing fridge, which had no front door, and had some pretty odd looking things sitting on the wire shelves. Luca stood up and took a look at this pink fleshy thing.
"Ugh." He said as he poked it, and swore that he'd seen it react to his touch.

Suddenly, one of the maid-builders overheard this and came marching in with a trolley. She loaded it on with ease and wheeled it away, all the while providing a very nice view of her derrière.
"That solves that problem then!" Luca commented. He nudged one of the builders, "Are you going to blow that old fridge up?"
She nodded ecstatically.
"Sweet! Call me when it does!" He then reminded himself about new furniture, "Oh, we're going to get a replacement, right?"
She nodded again.
"Neato!"

The Maid-Builder wheeled the old Fridgenator 2000 into the yard away from the buildings and left it there for the occasion. She then dove into one of the trucks and wheeled a brand new fridge in, exactly where the old one stood.
"That was quick." Commented John, blinking at how quickly the replacement had come in.
Mel nodded in agreement as she walked over to the fridge and opened it, and found that it was quite well stocked, "Stocked too."

The Hangar was being built steadily, it was about a 1/3rd built at this stage, taking shape quite nicely.

 

[Zakalwe]

Mich watched the scene, vaguely bemused. These maid builders were certainly a novelty, albiet not one he himself would invest in. He certainly had no issues with scantily clad ladies conducting heavy labour, but it was his thought that the additional expense would probably not be worth it. However Mich didn't mind the expense of it falling on others and instead contributed to the conversation with, "If you cook that I'm going out for steak."

 

[Fay]

Hitori shook her head with a frown on her face. Well, then again... she thought to herself, he's just like every other pervy Yamataian... She flicked a crumb of something at the back of Luca's head as he ogled the maid's fairly curved bottom. It probably didn't even faze him.

 

[Themisto]

"Fine, then. Maybe spicy cornmeal is a bit too... exotic for the occasion. I got a little overexited with the prospect of cooking, I guess." Pausing for a moment to tilt his head and think, he said, "I suppose I can cook up something more conventional, but I don't really know what people like- I'm just used to making orders. I know what I like, but I get the feeling I like some strange things." He continued rambling on mostly to himself as the others watched the maids at work. Cranebeinn, aparently, had been too absorbed in his thoughts about cooking to notice or care, although he did eye the new fridge with pleasure.

 

[Luca]

"Okay Crane, cook what you want." Luca told him as he got up from his chair, "Surprise us for our first meal together."
He began walking over to the front porch and sat down between his father, his mother and Nina, looking at the fridge.
John sat down at the table with a dirty magazine in his hands, he didn't like the prospect of cornmeal again, "And make it interesting!" John asserted as he looked at the centrefold.

Dad folded his arms a little as he watched the sun start its way down. Shadows were getting longer and getting darker.
"How're we gonna blow that fridge up?" Luca asked dad as he pulled out his 10x25 mm Handgun and took a shot at it, with a loud 'CLANK' noise. A little brass shell spun through the air and landed at his feet.
"Maybe one of your mates has a bomb?" Dad pulled out a 44. revolver from under his shirt and fired at the fridge too, making a slightly bigger hole than Luca's gun did.
"Nah, that's no fun." Luca replied with a shrug as he put his handgun away and got his lever-action out from over his shoulder and took aim at the fridge for practice. He fired and the fridge had 12 new holes to worry about, "Maybe we can torch it?"

Mel heard all the noise and came outside on the porch with her rifle raised, she looked around a little, then saw no immediate threat.
"Target practice?" She asked as she saw the bulletholes in the fridge.
"Step on up." Dad said as he fired his revolver at the fridge again.
Mel was about to raise her rifle and fire at it when Nina stood up, went to one of the trucks and had two objects over her shoulders. They looked like the Bazookas you'd find in a comic book. They had "ANYTHING" scrawled on the chambers.

"What are those?!" Luca asked as Nina handed him one of the bazooka-things.
"These are some relatively new technology, called the 'Anything Launcher'." Nina said as she got an empty can of beer filled with sand and slid it into the barrel, "They fire, well, anything that fits into the barrel."
Pressure was building up slowly in her Launcher. When the right moment came, she pulled the trigger and a green blur flew towards the Fridge and exploded in a yellow mist and left a gaping hole rivalling Luca and Dad's combined efforts.

The lollipop hanging from Luca's mouth dangled aimlessly, fell out of his mouth and onto his pants as he observed the damage in awe.
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet...

 

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent watched the 'Anything Launchers' start up, and begin tearing the old fridge to pieces. He stepped up to the firing line. "Any more of those things around?"

 

[zephyrite]

Jim simply grinned. These 'anything launchers' were the most fun looking things he had seen in a long time. "Luca, you thinking that we need to spend a few KS to standardize this just like I am?"

 

[Luca]

"We only bought two." Nina replied to Vincent, "One for me, and one for all of you to try out." She passed Luca beer can filled with sand, like the one she launched.
"Thanks." Luca said as he slid it in and pulled the trigger excitedly, but the can slid out of the barrel and landed in front of his feet with a Poomf sound. He felt a massive drop in ego as this happened.

Nina giggled at Luca, "You have to wait for it! Look at the meter on the side, next to your hand."
The needle was raising slowly as the vacuum mechanism took in air. 60 psi, 80 psi, 100 psi...
"Oh." Luca said as his Ego began returning to him slowly, as did pressure in the pipe with a bit of a hiss. The needle hit 300 PSI in a few seconds and Luca took aim at the fridge.

This time round when the trigger was pulled, there was a PA-THOOMPH! noise as the can hurtled out of the barrel and struck the fridge true, leaving another large hole. At this point the fridge resembled nothing short of hole-cheese.
Dad, Nina and Mel applauded the shot.
"Straight and true!" Dad commented with a smile.
"Looks deadly..." Nina commented.

"That - is - awesome." Luca said as he passed it to Vincent, "Try it!"
Nina passed him a can of sand to use as ammo.

 

[TeslaTornado]

"I was going to consider construction explosives instead but this works." Vincent said out loud, stuffing the can into the Anything launcher and waiting. He let the pressure build steadily to 425 PSI and pulled the trigger.

FWOOMP! The can hurtled through the air and knocked a hole the size of Vincent's head into the fridge. "Niice..."

 

[zephyrite]

Jim remarked at the spectacle, "I may just have to try this thing out, Luca. Looks like just too much fun to ignore; think I could have a go?" Jim was grinning a slightly strange smile, one between shock and evil intent.

 

[Luca]

"Sure." Nina replied to Jim as she handed him the launcher she was using and a beer can full of sand.

Luca finally realised that his Communicator had been beeping for the past few minutes.
"One moment." Luca said as he flicked it open and checked it. He had a message from Galar, sent about an hour ago. "Me mate's still kicking ass." Luca commented with a smile.
"Who is?" Mum asked.
"Old friend of mine. We worked on the same ship. He had this really awesome gun that disabled robots."

 

[zephyrite]

Jim smirked as he held the Anything Launcher. He inserted the beer can into the tube and waited for the pressure to build. 300 psi, 350 psi, 400 psi, 450 psi, FOOOMP!!

The beer can hurtled through the air and punched another hole into the fridge, leaving it very hurt looking. "I think this fridge might be wanting a white flag. Shall we?" Answering his own question, Jim handed the Anything Launcher to Luca with a look saying, "You know you want one more shot."

 

[Themisto]

As the words were leaving Jim's lips, Crane came trotting out of the base looking incredulous. "Whatcha doing? Looks like fun." He approached Jim and Luca and asked, "Can I have a turn?" as he reached for the Launcher. "It's been a long time since I got a chance to fire something like this. How does it work?"

 

[Luca]

About this time, John had managed (in the background) to land the shuttle within the base perimeter and away from the fridge, but couldn't shake the feeling that he was mistreating the old girl by putting her on the ground.

"Oh, it works on a simple concept." Nina explained to Crane while counting on her fingers, "1. A sealed Chamber builds pressure, 2. pressure is released and 3. Projectile is propelled from said pressure in a controlled fashion. Any questions?"

Mel put her hand to her chin, then raised her hand, "How is this little number powered?"
"Batteries, of course m'dear!"

Luca was about to take the Launcher from Jim's hands when his Communicator began ringing.
"Excuse me one moment." He stood up and flicked it open, "Allo allo allo?"
"Allo indeed Mr. Pavone. I think I've stumbled upon something you'd like..." The familiar voice of Luca's anonymous employer and his faceless image onscreen made him smile and turn up the volume, so people nearby could hear, "You don't mind getting sand in your boots, do you?"
Luca thought for a moment, "Not really. I don't mind snow though."
"Too bad. Ever heard of a system near Nepleslia called Delsauria?"
"Ah - Nope."
"Who is this guy?" Mel asked Luca with a nudge.
"He's our employer. He gives us jobs to do. Likeable really."

"Well, the system is named after the only inhabitable planet. The others are too close to the sun. It's a large desert planet, incredibly hot during the day and cold during the night. A pleasing antipode."
"Uh huh." Luca didn't understand the last part and nodded, shrugging. "So - what do I have to do there?"

"Your mission is simple." A map opened up on the screen of his communicator to a rather barren area of land with a pair of small buildings and a tower between the two. It zoomed in on the buildings, "Recently, this little outpost settlement has been having troubles with Raiders and Bandits. They're looking for a sheriff to bring peace to the town. The populace, though small and limited in resources will try and support you. If you can defend the place from these blighters for a night and eventually destroy the camp from whence they came, they'll pay you and your crew handsomely. Do you and your crewmates understand? The codenames for this mission are: 'The Wrong Side of the Deathbed' and for when you blast the camp, 'Horns and All'."

Luca was trying to make up his mind about this, waiting for everyone else's input.
"Sounds like an interesting first job." Mel smiled.
"Interesting." John said rubbing his chinfluff, "Seems challenging."

Luca's dad snatched up the communicator, "I'm not sure who you are or what you've been telling my son to do..."
Anon's expression began to crease.
"But whatever you're doing, you're doing it right! You've made a new man out of him!"
He smiled again. Dad gave the communicator back to Luca.

 

[TeslaTornado]

"Sounds good to me." Vincent seemed pleased with heading a bit further out of unknown space; apparently he'd drifted around Nepleslia a lot lately.

 

[zephyrite]

"Sand," Jim mused, "this could prove anywhere from fun to annoying. However, I'm up for it. Should be quite exciting. When do we leave?"

 

[Zakalwe]

"An actually bit of fighting? Count me in." Mich said with some degree of enthusiasm - he was after all a mercenary, and while street fighting was fun it only showed a small element of his skills.