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RP: Terraforming Ake [Terraforming Ake] P1 - Dust Bowl Children

Franklin grunted one of his grunts, watching Daziel pry the packet of hemosynth from the IV drip and stick a dainty finger into its depths.

"So you been a yarn-swatter this whole time, eh, Burton?" Franklin asked, arms akimbo.

Daziel used the bag to press the dangling ear up against the side of his bruised head while he ran the hemosynth-soaked finger along the length of the wound. For the time being, he was ignoring Franklin's prodding on the matter. Next, the classy executive splashed some of the life-sludge over his face, before finally tipping the bag over his mouth and drinking the rest of it in one gulp. In this way, the urbane Neko-on-the-go could get their hemosynth in them quickly and go about their business. A trick learned in the field.

Franklin just grunted again and turned to tip his hat to Alice. "Well, Doc, I'm gonna go get them fellers like y' asked. Try to patch Strellan up enough so's he kin work again, fella owes me sixty deyay."

On his way out, Franklin gave Daziel another snarling look. Again, the executive had no reaction. After Franklin left, Daziel finally spoke up to say, "An X-Ray shall not be necessary. I'm..." Daziel gave her a blood-lined smile. "I'm a tad bit NH-29, you see. The result of a well-intentioned ships' doctor trying to bring a dying Nepleslian some new life, as it were. It's a bit of a sad story, so I shan't regale you. Suffice it to say, the hemosynth is satisfactory."

With a swing of his legs, Daziel ejected himself from the bed and walked slowly over to look down at Niel. Alice's hasty and expertly applied treatment had done well for the aging engineer. As the bleeding stopped, his heart rate lowered to a more acceptable level and soon the shipwright was awake enough to make soft moaning noises, though he seemed barely conscious. Daziel frowned to behold him.

"Doctor Mason, I do hope you'll be able to bring him around for dinner. We'll have an urgent meeting and there shall be much to discuss."

-----

Sapphire soon felt a heavy, calloused hand spread across her shoulder. Looking over her and down to the sizable KS card in her hand was Franklin, who'd approached silently with his mind no-doubt on something bigoted. He squinted down at the big KS card and asked, "Whatcha got there, princess?"

Akemi's prisoner had long since satisfied himself to simply listen quietly to the exchange between the singer and the ranch girl. Now that a third person was around, he just let his head slump in hopes that he could get a tiny nap before his interrogation began. Even though he planned to be perfectly cooperative, he'd been captured enough times to know that wasn't how things always went.

Nearby, Yori's diagnostic results were coming in nicely. The APS had an integrated 'nervous system' that ran the entire length of its spire, with sensors that monitored the on and off of every independant component. Even if one of the many tiny pumps or compressors had been damaged, the system would still run at reduced efficiency. In fact, even if the other fifteen APS prototypes were never deployed, this first one was powerful enough that it would purify the atmosphere on its own if left on the planet for a number of years. The results of such a diagnostic revealed this time that all was well. Every component was functioning flawlessly. Visually, the thing was scuffed and dented. Tiny, blackened dimples had formed in the smooth metal where bullets had struck in not too long ago, but luckily none had penetrated. Beneath the outer shell, the intake pumps and ozone tanks whirred away, softly humming back to Yori. The first ozone dump was still several hours away.
 
"She's trying to steal from a donkey," Akemi interjected lightning fast to be as merciless as possible in her teasing. "Don clearly fought valiantly against two thugs simultaneously while unarmed. She should be asking him if he wants to share."
 
Sapphire snorted at that remark, "I'll make sure Don gets an extra rations tonight.. Should I include you to the menu for his pleasure? While I luxuriate in a nice lengthy shower?" Even though she was probably outclassed by Akemi's worldliness and being a soldier, she valiantly did her best to show she wasn't all fluff and could give as good as she got. Even though she may lose in the 'Tit for Tat" game, praying that it would hopefully remain friendly cause the resupply ship was due several months away still. Besides she knew she depended on Akemi's and the Sprite's battle prowess while they was there.

Then she looked up at Franklin. He had clearly startled her when his hand fell softly on her shoulder and then his shadow fell across her. If his hand wasn't on her shoulder, surely back of her head would've smacked his nose righteously when she jerked in startled surprise. "Ah.. Seven digit figure on this one." Holding it up to Franklin's scrutiny. "Can't make out the name on it, but it's been used quite a lot."

She hoped the Mini-Neko was okay where ever she was and a safe return back to the Settlement.
 
Alice folded her arm on her chest and frowned heavily on Daziel. "Sure, everyone is a doctor these days," she muttered with angry voice. "All right good you are a cat as well. Hell, sure hemo will be enough, but it bloody works better from IV. But noooooo, you got to be all about that speed. Got to get on legs fast so you just sludge it in a big gulp. I tell you something. You could have just sit for twenty minutes and let the IV do its job. The pirates are gone, our neko goons are on security, you can take it easy. Ah why do I even care. Why let the body repair itself naturally, when you can speed shit up eh? Who cares that the ear might grow back in a funny shape, because it regenerated too fast. Well whatever."

"Niel should have bedrest for at least two days. So yeah I guess he might be able to listen to your hogwash by dinner. But he won't be working on anything. I don't even want him to think too hard." Alice kept frowning at her boss. "He was beaten badly and unlike us he does not have a fancy body that fix itself. Two days. Bed rest. That clear? Yori can do his job for now."
 
"Are you sure that isn't how much is owed?" Akemi asked quizzically as she gently swung an arm around their remaining battle-hardened donkey's neck. "I'll let you have Don's and my share because I saved his life and we have a thing going, but only if you admit you want to sleep with me and start doing so today after our intimate shower. Seeing as I'm in charge of security and you're the only normal female around here I better make sure your bestial base impulses are directed solely at me so they don't cause the group any trouble."
 
"Dunno. I could hack into the card's chip to find that out." Sapphire letting the Akemi's remark slide off of her, even though she turned bright red as she glanced up at Franklin to see how he was taking it in. "It would be a matter of bypassing the security feature on these cards to get to cash." She pocketed the KS cards to see if she could hack into them. If they was the standard KS card like hers. She could hopefully do it as she had done plenty of times to hers when she needed a bit of extra cash.
 
"Yeah, yeah, I'm still alive" Mako replied to Akemi, late, sluggishly. She had been knocked about pretty hard and was feeling he effects now that the fighting was over. During the fight she had drained both of her mini NSP's and needed to plug them in for recharging, but first she needed to get her poor SYLPH.

She lazily floated back to her abandoned power armor, found it where she had left it sprawled across the brownie surface, intact and undamaged it seemed, just offline. She rubbed her bruised head, then wiggled into the snug pilot compartment, stowing both her drained handguns away in a storage space before sliding in all the way. She frowned as the connection system wouldn't respond to her mini-SPINE connection request.

So, Mako popped open the cover for some emergency manual controls and flipped off the master breakers, then flipped them back on and hit the manual restart button to power the SYLPH back online.
 
Yori let out a sigh of relief when she realized that the APS was functioning properly, there would be no surprise purge that resulted in sudden incineration. The machine was built much better than she had imagined, being able to stand up to weapons fire and not show any signs of damage beyond the superficial. While no one was looking, or at least she thought not one was looking she gave the APS tower a hug. "Why can't everything make this much sense?" She muttered to herself as she tired to piece together was going on on this planet.
 
"Come on guys," Akemi called using her radio, "gather 'round for prisoner exposition at the entrance of Sister Sara! Don't you want to learn about the pirates we will reverse plunder?" The soldier was so glad she didn't have to do boring things like care for the injured or repair damaged equipment. All she wanted to do was try to bang Sapphire and have her little movie moment. It was too bad they didn't have a plank for their captives to walk. "If only I was an NH-27 so I could turn my hand into a hook."

Akemi thought about mentioning division of loot to further razz the former rancher but she really wanted to keep it all for herself too. She was hoping to start her own intergalactic burger business in the future. It was one of her many lofty, semi-serious goals like becoming a sector senator, getting a planet named after her and wooing Aerin Tatst.
 
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Outside

Franklin let the two girls share a glare from him before he suggested, "If there's polished laquer t' pass out, we kin meet as a group and pass it out. As a group. 's only fair, else folks is likely t' get their feelin's hurt."

The old man snickered a little bit as he moved to put burly arms around the prisoners and added, "Course, I won't say nothin' about you pocketin' them shinies. Maybe it'll give Redeye a lil' competition from Burton and Chickenshit if y' pretty yourself up a bit, hyeh."

"Alrigh, c'mon now, boys, let's get you all seated for your haircuts." Spence told the prisoners as he hefted them one-by-one to their feet, leaning the worse-off of the two on each side of the one who seemed to have only bumped his head. They all more or less complied, mainly because two of them weren't even sure where they were. He started to usher them towards Sister Sara when Daziel's voice came back over the airwaves.

"Actually, do be a dear and bring the prisoners to the medical bay. We can seal them in volumetric force cages while we clean up this mess. We'll visit them after we've had our business meeting in..."

Elijah, Medical Bay

"... Oh, about one hour? Yes, I should say an hour seems good. Get everything in order, we've plans to make."

Daziel slid the communicator back into his ticket pocket and whipped a clean tie from his trousers while he replied to Alice. "I've no intention of working the poor boy into a lump of meat, Doctor Mason." Was the assurance, "I fully intend for Yori to pick up the slack he leaves behind, she's a bright girl and young enough to work a little harder for the time being."

With a flick of his wrist, Daziel loosened the bloody and tattered tie that still clung to his bloodstained collar and tossed it into the biohazard wastebin. While he was tying the mostly-fresh replacement around his neck and twisting his head this way and that, he provided a caveat for Alice.

"Of course, I hope you understand the gravity of the situation. We did not destroy the enemy vessel. I've put in a call to OriSec to send an armed search craft down, but they can't be expected to find something that's actively hiding and they can't stick around forever with other criminals trying day in and day out to get on and off Dawn Station." Did I mention this was one of those big, long, annoying explanations that Daziel likes to make? "No, I have a strong feeling that we haven't seen the last of these fellows, and we need to make plans and set ground rules. Get the P's and Q's in absolute order, as it were. So..."

By the point, Burton had tied a perfect double Windsor knot and straightened his tie. With the bloodstains on his formerly nicely-starched shirt, it wasn't a perfect appearance. However; it was a vast improvement, and it showed a mix of professionalism and willingness to receive injury. He looked back at Alice once more and flashed her a confident, yet mild smile.

"If you could just bring him around for dinner, that'd be absolutely smashing."

Twelve Megabrownies and three superbrownies west

Without the active effects of the direct hacking the Sylph had experienced earlier, a good reboot was all it needed to spark to life once more. Of course, the Sylph was quick to let Mako know that it had been shut down improperly and she needed to run a full system diagnostic before heavy use and she should probably be more careful and it would be notifying her commanding officer of this and... Well, the thing clearly worked. With the suit reset and active, getting back to base with the aid of the wing pack would only take a few minutes at most.
 
"See?" Akemi said, crossing her arms and tilting her head upwards and to the side in a textbook look of smugness. "Stealing from a donkey. I've made a perfect mental record of everything I went through so we can distribute it all fairly. My offer still stands. I know your normal eyes are undressing me now even as we speak so the money is essentially free as you obviously feverishly crave the sex. Honesty will set you free and as Elysians say, confession is good for the soul." Content with the extent of her mock chiding for the moment, the tiny Neko turned to guide the prisoners in along with Franklin.
 
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Elijah, Medical Bay

"Yeah, he should be bale to walk by dinner," Alice nodded and leaned against the bed, Daziel used earlier. She looked at the man and her were quite clearly inspecting him. "I am gonna sat him down on a wheelchair thought. Would be nice if we had dinner here on Elijah too. Also feel free to use me as back-up security. I have a military past as you know. But yeah, we need to get Orisec here fast and if they do not chatch those bastards and sod off, then we need to get ready for that. Though if Origin would be less stingy they could get us proper security detail, than just a pair of cats. Few mercs would be nice and cheap, but we got to work with what we got."

"Anyway, I told Franklin to get any live pirate here. I am sure there will be few. When I get them up and running, I can call you for a chit chat. But if anyone will just think about torturing them, I am going to do something ugly, like giving them arsefull of Numb. I do not want to sound like a bitch, but I am a doctor. The kind of doctor that fixes people, not helps them break apart and I don't trust Franklin or that horncat. Oh and you should come by later, I would like to have a look and see if your ear is fixing itself correctly."
 
"Fine! Believe what ya want!" Sapphire spoke aspirated to Akemi pressure, "I still want my extended shower!" Standing up and then bending over to pick up an armful of weapons to carry inside the ship that housed the armory. She felt a little weird inside at all the sex talk directed at her.

She looked at Don the Donkey, "Looks like you've got your work cut out for ya, Don." Off she trotted to the ship's armory carrying the first load of weapons to include Daziel's katana(s?).
 
"As long as we have it together..."Akemi called behind her as she walked. Then she sighed again in order to set up her next cinematic moment. "Normals," she said, shaking her head in pretend frustration. "I'll never understand them. They wanna jump yer bones yet they can't just come out and say it even if you offer t' pay 'em. How do you handle normal women Franky?"
 
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A pale and weak Seiji walked out from the bathroom, a good bit lighter then he has been before, but not much worse for wear besides. The insanity had passed, the bullets where no longer flying, and he was safe. Safe was an idea Seiji thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe, though, this was one of those times when some fresh air would do him good. He was not terribly worried about his boss. The fresh trail of hemosynth suggested the cat man had enough strength to see himself to the doctor.

Seiji did a quick check, making sure some other madness had not robbed the area of its protective bubble, then stepped back outside onto the not so delicious brownie that was Ake. He squinted against the sun. Took a deep breath and slowly let it out, steadying himself. Of course, the first person he saw was his favorite person in the world. At least this time Franklin was busy harassing Sapphire, and maybe Seiji would get to enjoy his precious moments of peace to himself. It was then that he looked up to the ridge line where they had been but moments before and his shoulders fell. He had left his precious scanner up there. How wasteful!
 
On the yummy toasted brownie surface

"Awe yess!" Mako grinned and clapped her hands as the SYLPH powered back up and came to life. She took note of the needed diagnostic and filed that one away for as soon as she got back to the others. There would be plenty of time for that then. Mako buttoned up the power armor and swept her sensors around a few times and checked her surroundings, making sure she was not leaving anything important behind, then started off for the ships. She kicked off from the ground and engaged the flight pack, hovering along at a quick pace.

She rejoined the others a few minutes later, landing and walking into one of the cargo bays, locking her SYLPH into it's storage rack and setting it to run a self diagnostic. She then crawled out and plugged her mini NSP's in to charge.
 
Still having her suit on feeling it was no longer safe to take it off, Akemi ordered it to tell her what the heck happened to it and if it could do something to prevent that from happening to it again. At the same time she tried to figure out how her vision had been tampered with and told her brain to start being brainier so she wouldn't be messed with so easily in the future. If her armor couldn't come up with something she'd try to do so herself given her vast knowledge of power armor in general. The only person she'd give a free ride on the Akemi train was Sapphire. Any fancy pants that tried to hack her would be reduced to hacking blood.
 
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Outside -> Infirmary

Yori was done with her diagnostic but did not know what to do with herself, her nerves were still sending shivers through her body, and her thoughts were all over the place. She wanted to just go to a garage and take apart a few air bikes and put them back together, but she couldn't do that here. There was nothing to take apart that wouldn't compromise the mission. There was the need to repair her suit, but with spare parts that would take her roughly 15 minutes to replace the section of the coolant system that was destroyed. She needed to do something but talking to this group was too much of a hurdle for the socially awkward technician. There was a way though, with the current situation she could just talk at her own pace.

She decided to head back into the infirmary and pull a chair up to Neil's bed, being as quiet as possible, trying not to disturb those in the infirmary and then started speaking in a low voice to the unconscious man. "The APS is really amazing, I just checked on it, and even though it took several shots it's all superficial...." She would continue on to discuss the machine and it's tech, even if Neil couldn't hear her, this was the one thing she was comfortable with and he was the one person who would understand it all.
 
Central Browniesphere
"Well, differen' women take differen' things." Franklin admitted, the conversation and the three stumbling pirates distracting him from his terrible racism, and more importantly from Seiji, "If y' can't win 'em with money, y' either ain't got enough money or money don't excite 'em. If money don't excite 'em, yer in fer some real trouble 'cuz they're probably lookin' for love. If yer lucky, money don't excite 'em on account of they--"

The cowboy surveyor interrupted himself to grab a pirate by the shoulders and drag him back towards the group before he tottered over. "Watch yer step, son."

Elijah

"-- on account of they're just plum crazy, which is fantastic for fuckin'."

Franklin continued explaining as he made his way in. Daziel took this as his cue to nod politely at Alice's instructions and bow out so the doctor could do her work. He politely also didn't mention that Alice had just said she didn't trust the older man. Instead, he just walked away so the situation could handle itself. Besides, he'd caught a glimpse of Yori speaking to Niel in hushed tones and the clever executive thought Franklin and Akemi would make a good diversion for Alice while the young engineer comforted the older designer.

Franklin opened his mouth as soon as they were in, separating the three pirates onto three different beds. "This here's the guest room. We don't have company often, so you may find the hospitality lacking. That pretty thing over there givin' me a mean look is Doc Mason. She'll take real good care of you boys."

The bearded Nepleslian took this moment to eyeball the good doctor and smile widely, pushing his hat up his forehead an inch or two with his thumb. "Won'cha, sawbones?"

Meanwhile, Niel began to stir as Yori spoke softly to him. He'd been coming back to consciousness slowly but surely as Alice worked on him, but with the notion of machines on his mind he did the battered and exhausted version of snapping to attention. A single, blood-crusted eye cracked open to take Yori in. Beyond that, Niel's vision was blurry. In effect, he was living in a universe populated only by the two of them and a great deal of pain. His Raltean blood let him ignore some of the pain, as if some ancient Nepleslian viking guardian were watching down over him.

"Mmmm." He made the noise at first, a weak rumbling in his throat. Then, with some effort came words. "My machine. It's got to be tough... Like these ships. It needs to--" Perhaps it was too early to sit up, but Niel took a little effort to angle himself towards Yori without disturbing the bandages around his head and chest. "It needs to stand up to the elements. We Nepleslians have a saying: 'There's no kill like overkill.' Thanks for taking care of it. You might have to look after it a while longer... While..."

Niel decided at this point that it would be best if he straightened back out and just let Yori talk. He seemed to be reinvigorated by the discussion of machines, at least there was that. "Why don't you tell me what you've been working on?"
 
Outside
Daziel emerged from the medbay almost as a new man. His clothes were still dirty, and his wounds were still mending, but the energy and verve were back for the Nepleslian-turned-Neko. He waved at Mako and Sapphire as they made their way into Sister Sara, and smiled at Seiji as he approached the scientist.

"I say," He said, "You looks the slightest bit troubled, there, old boy. Not sure how to help the clean-up effort?"
 
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