While the barmaids led Akemi to their small apartment across the street from the bar, Daziel packed up his datapads and wordlessly shot out the door after depositing a fifty DA bill with the bartender. He had several requests from so many people to hear, fulfill, ignore, or just plain sign-off upon. Thirty minutes may not have honestly been enough for a regular Nepleslian with no computerized brain to handle such a workload.
While Seiji tried to throw off Franklin's grip, he would find that the ring around his arm formed by the old man's leathery hand tightened almost impossibly. Spencer was more than capable of holding the Yamataian scientist completely still and the less-than-apologetic words coming from the young man enkindled such a desire in his older companion.
"Now you listen here, you little shit--" Franklin kept yanking and pulled Seiji so close that he could smell the beer on the old man's breath. His voice was a gravelly, hollow, and fast whisper grating into the scientist. "This is fer yer own good, y' hear? When we get down on that fucking dirt and you cry little bitch tears every second of the day you're gonna find out real quick just how little this company gives two upside-down trannies about you and your fucking complaints. You are here because you fucked up somewhere, you little ingrate, and Burton is gonna give you a chance to fix yer shit-- and if you don't walk away from this right now you'll either fix it or you'll be dead."
With a quick shove to release the boy's arm, Franklin distanced himself from the scientist and pressed his hat over his head. He cracked his neck a few time and licked his bulldog lips before tossing an even more generous that Daziel's tip on the bar and turning to the researcher one more time to add, "By the way, y' aint smart t' insult a man's intelligence when you ain't seen it demonstrated, boy."
This, he said on his way out, not even listening to the no-doubt lengthy threats to his career and person. In fact, he didn't even flinch. In fact, one could say that he maintained all of his fucks for himself during the entire exit.
Niel and Yori had a much more pleasant exchange by comparison. The battered old shipwright was glad someone had taken an interest in his creation, and moreso that they were willing to assemble it to his parameters. Deciding to spend the time discussing it, Strellan settled his tab with the bar and spread his arms to illustrate, starting out with, "Well, it's kinda simple, really. What I've had loaded into the cargo bay is really basic. Two parts: an expanding telescopic base, and a series of intake tubes. We'll pull the intake tubes out to the edge of the landing area and then hook them up to the base, which will telescope on its own once activated. You see, I've used hydraulics and Type Thirty S-bars to..."
Because this conversation is very boring if you're not an actual engineer and also because I don't know what an S-bar actually is, I'm going to just let this part fade out. A good spot, too, because we've the future to think about. But first...
-----
Planet Mimei
This time of year, the third planet of the Ake system is on the other side of the sun from planet Ake and Dawn Station. It's a thick, grey gas giant whose depths inspired the name Mimei, meaning 'grey of dawn' from Yamatai-go. Buried beneath the swirling density of this gaseous form was a ship. Pitch black hull with white, bony art painted on the wings, this Geshrin Light Freighter was home to a band of marauders. The ISC Haunted House typically plied the Yugumo cluster for vulnerable and wayward ships, but the recent political atmosphere in that part of space had sent them looking for other endeavors.
"The hidden sensor bouys picked up three vessels heading for the surface again, ma'am." A tender-sounding voice echoed through the darkened bridge as a projection of the Mules making their way to Ake cast a dim light across the metallic bulhead. A clean-looking young man in a smart-looking business suit was reporting the news.
"Looks like another surface team, eh skipper?" Said the young man's less-well-kept twin. Both men had short black hair, but this one kept his in a mess around his head, and his suit was wrinkled, the shirt untucked and the tie long-missing.
A pair of red lights shining in the rear of the bridge moved forward to examine the projection. Momentarily, a toothy smile spread beneath them. A woman's voice echoed in the confines of the darkened bridge from beneath those haunting cybernetic globes.
"Close enough for a full scan? Anybody interesting on board?" She asked, tapping away at the arm of her chair with metallic fingers from a skeletal prosthesis.
"Three nekos, and a bunch of normies. The Yamataians for the most part don't seem to have military upgrades." Reported the better-kept half of the twins. "Lots of weapons on board this time. Another one of those funny, big machines."
"Seems manageable." Commented the less well-kept twin.
The captain stood up and walked her way between them, coming into the dim light of the projection. She was a tall, narrow woman with an easy smirk and curly orange-red hair pulled into a pair of puffs, one on each side of her head. She wore gothic attire, leggins of horizontal stripes of black and white-- beneath a skirt with pointy strands hanging down beyond her knees. Her flowing black blouse had been torn away on one side to reveal the skeletal durandium left arm which'd kept getting snagged on the loose and sheer fabric. Standing there in the light, she rustled the hair on the head of both men. The well-dressed one immediately withdrew a comb and began straightening it out while his captain told them, "Okay, tell Crazy Jane to get the boys and the stuff together and set us a stealthy course for the dark side of that planet. We've got some more pillaging to do."
-----
The ships that had been observed by the Haunted House were none other than the ships that belonged to the terraforming team. Origin had elected, due to the power demands of the APS, to send down three small ships instead of one larger one for these expeditions. In this case, the Mule Ultralight Freighter made for a good choice. It's expansive cargo bay and individual living quarters suited it for such endeavors.
Like the famous voyage by Columbus, these three ships had their own names and their own unique quirks. The first ship was Sister Sara. She was the flagship of the miniature fleet. Daziel's quarters were aboard this vessel, as were the team's weapons and armor. The cargo bay had been set up as a commons area where the crew could interact with one another during their down time. A large, ten-seat conference table was arranged to one side. Across from it was racks full of rifles, handguns, and mining charges. Also, three power armors had been brought along. Yori's personal PA, a souped-up Impulse for Akemi with the default settings from her Star Army days considerately copied over to the new AI, and a battered
Sylph drawn from some military surplus store on Dawn Station. Although he'd never make it publicly known, this was a purchase made personally by Daziel. The phased pulse projectors and drone launcher had been removed by Star Army before the sensitive technology was sold. For the sake of evening the playing field for Mako, Daziel saw fit to acquire a
wing pack for the tiny Neko's power armor; and he had the technicians install a pair of Origin's powerful
HGRs into the suits integrated weapon hardpoints. Adding a simple kitchen and workbench made Sister Sara the perfect home for the terraforming team as they traveled abroad.
The other two ships, Elijah and Joacim were outfitted as science and agricultural vessels, respectively. Inside the Elijah was a medical bay fit to make a medical ship blush. It was amazing just how much could be fit into such a small space. The storage unit had a frozen segment filled to the brim with drugs and chemicals. A canister of hemosynth had been acquired for the on-board Nekos. In dry stock was every point, shiny, metallic impliment of person-helping that'd been left in use with modern medical advances. Prudently, although perhaps best left unmentioned were the numerous packaged cybernetics for the Nepleslian patients that Doctor Mason would no doubt see during her stay on the surface. There were replacements for every limb and organ aboard with some to spare. Alice would also find lengthy medical dossiers for each member of the crew beneath a box full of blood-pressure medication for Spencer-- along with a warning that he wouldn't take it no matter what she did.
Joacim was the Agricultural vessel. While the responsibilities of taking care of the beasts within its belly were left to every member of the crew; it was home to Spencer and the two security Nekos. It held space for twelve animals total, and with the exception of two eternally bored-looking donkeys they were all cows. Bred for toughness on Nepleslia Prime, these bovine members of the crew were massive, muscular things which would in time prove to be as hardy and resilient as the Neko members of the crew. A stock of seeds were also held with the creature's feed in the cargo bay of the Joacim. On all three ships, there were breathing masks everywhere. Emrys Industries' EM-G4-e2, Advanced Model to be precise. Such a bulk of them had been purchased that they hung on every wall in the ship. They were present in pairs on every bed, they hung by the tens on any free wall space, crates of the things were on each bridge and filters were placed in boxes on every surface. These masks, being considered the most important part of the ships' equipment were all tested and sized. There were even quite a few present to fit Mako, though the filter being the same size would ensure that if she ever wore one the tiny neko would essentially have to float about riding the filter like an adorable little flying saucer.
As this is an awful lot to read, there is a helpful illustration of it all in the OOC thread. Now, let's get back to stuff that's actually interesting.
When this veritable wagon-train of ships left Dawn Station with everyone aboard their respective ships, they blasted a quick arc around Ake and came down next to one of the many equatorial crater-lakes that dotted this planet's surface. By syncing the AI of all three ships, Daziel was able to pilot all three at once, though Spencer and Seiji were placed in the pilot-seats of the other two in case anything were to go wrong. Once on the surface, they landed in a triangular formation with the cargo doors of each vessel facing inwards. Niel took Yori and set to work with the two of them in masks putting assembling the APS from where it was stored in the cargo hold of the Elijah. A volumetric field was soon set up around the three vessels and every crewmember's personal device instructed them get settled in and then report to Sister Sara's conference table for the first of many meetings on the troubled rock.
When they arrived, they'd find Daziel already waiting for them, sipping some coffee whilst reading something or another; his jaunty headscarf replaced by a silken bandana with his hair and ears neatly tucked in to allow the supervisor to get some real gruntwork done.
