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The Beginning and the End
Topic Started: Apr 8 2009, 03:59 PM (3,064 Views)
~The Silver Fox~
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Just your friendly neighborhood Section 2 agent!
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
(OOC: Originally, I had planned to for Kathi to be using the false name "Kerri Nisah" to keep her brother from noticing that she was on the same mission as he was. I'm dropping that, since I've managed to introduce her character in AC. I'll explain the name on the jacket later.)

"Huh?"

Kathi fumbled for her comm when the news about the android came in. "...Okay...I'll be right there," she replied hesitantly. For one thing, this call was completely unexpected. This wasn't the job she had signed on for. Then again, she still didn't know exactly what the job she had signed on for was. All she knew was that the Federation was paying extremely well for it, and that her skills could be useful.

A second call arrived, telling her that the briefing had been cancelled for the time being. Consequently, she really didn't have anything else to do but go see what was up with the android.

A few Marines and Navy personnel she passed in the ship's corridors made smart comments about her, and she felt very tempted to hit one or two. With difficulty, she held it under control. She was an aggressive individual, no doubt about it. Still, she needed to keep cool. This was one of the times she needed the logical part of her brain to function propperly and control her actions.

When Kathi entered the room where the android was, Ryan's back was turned towards her. Almost immediately, she noticed the odd blue patch of hair at the back of his head, and made a mental note to ask him about it when they were done figuring things out about the android. Stynos' presence, oddly didn't disturb her, probably because she was already expecting to deal with one robot, two wasn't that much of a stretch.

"First things first, let's get some introductions now that I'm in the room," Kathi announced, walking over to Ryan with a smirk on our face. "I'm Kathi Hansen, an investigated specialist. Everyone else important, speak up so I can get down to helping you figure out what's up with this android."

Introductions always come first, Kathi thought, but no one ever said I had to be polite about them. She had learned something from her brother besides how to fight.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"READY, SIR!"

Matthew nodded at his men. They had completed the minuteman drill perfectly, once again. Even so, recent news was troubling him. He had called his stepmother, Samantha Hansen, about how Kathi was doing. The news was good. there hadn't been any problems with her medication or following the schedule, and the insurance company was finally acting agreeably towards them.

The bad news was that Kathi was away on a job again. Matthew constantly worried about her safety, both for her sake and for the sake of everyone around her. Her psychosis and the mutation to her brain both enhanced her aggression and pain tolerance, to the point that if she missed a dosage of her medication, she would probably kill (or at least try to) everyone who got too close to her or pissed her off while she was still cognizent.

Wherever she was, Matthew prayed that she would be fine with the amount of drugs she brought with her.

"Alright, at ease," Matthew said, returning his attention to his company. "Dinner is in thirty minutes. I'll be joining you once I'm done discussing a few things with the commander of this mission. Dismissed."

With that, Matthew headed off, intending to go talk to the first high-ranking Navy officer about why the fuck the ship hadn't jumped yet.

OOC...again: I'm a little "meh" about Matthew's part, but hopefully it will get better with some interactions.)
Once, there was a maiden...
...whose tears of grief nearly drowned the world.
So she tore out her heart, and made war against it.
In victory, she sealed it in a locket,
and trapped in a casting of bronze.
"Such is the price of unguarded emotion," she said.
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~Metamyth~
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BURMA
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Thorn frowned at Ryan's news. Stynos' robotic sympathy was much appreciated, though; while he was designed to be human, he felt more of a connection to his own mechanical kind.

"Oh... well, can you tell the cap-p-tain or whoever is available to keep an eye out for another android? We were abuh-bandoned together..." Thorn said quietly. His speech problems, while moderate before, oddly appeared to be clearing up a bit. They flared up again, however, when Kathi entered the room. Instantly, the weapons panels in his wrists slammed outward, and were aimed at her.

"'T-this android-d-d' has a name, Kathi. It is Thorn, a-and I would app-p-preciate you remembuh-ber it-t." He kept his weapons pointed at the new arrival as she had yet to earn his trust. Her seemingly uncaring demeanor had him worried... worried that she might try to do something to him.

~

While Grifter and Aiko conversed over the female android, if either was paying attention, they would notice a slight twitch in the left hand of the machine, indicating that it was still capable of working and holding a charge. A nearly sigh-like sound escaped the android's open mouth.
"Nothing... a shadow is nothing. It is merely a question not yet answered. We only fear the dark if we have no means of lighting our way.

Death comes to all, Morningstar. The world turns, the dawn comes... and under the light of the sun I shall slay giants."


Dresden Codak, Dark Science
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+CEMP+
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Clockwork Master

Ryan nodded and nervously gave the commander one last request before eagerly turning off the comm.

Thorn's wasn't the only one that was frightened by Kathi introduction, as Ryan was immediately caught by surprise when she spoke. Yelping, and he and Stynos jumped around simultaneously, Stynos causing a loud bang when he did. Something about the 'First things first' got Ryan distinctly agitated him, and his sudden rise of anxiety was apparent within his light blue eyes that seemed flare in brightness for a moment before dimming down to an almost normal, brown color.

That wasn't the only odd thing, though, as at the same time Ryan jumped, there was a momentary buzzing noise and a flash of red just in front of his face. It could have been a play of the imagination or trick of the eye, but the oddity did stand out.

It took Ryan a moment to relax, taking a deep breather as he did. He wasn't sure what to make of the women who had just came in and announced herself, as he wasn't given any warning about someone's arrival; and it was one of the other reasons why he freaked out. Still, she seemed friendly enough; at least friendly like his mother was.

"M-m-my name's Ryanchez Arma," he replied in a nervous, "b-b-but Ryan will do. We found this android floating in space around this ship," he said, pointing to Thorn. Stynos seemed to place his big body in between Thorn and Kathi; the big guy understood through Ryan's connection that the last thing everyone needed was a shooting fest.

Ryan continued, "He says he was with another humanoid android, and that they were abandoned together. It sounds like he was built in a factory or lab, but I honestly haven't began to ask him the right question for the entire story."
Edited by CEMP, Oct 2 2009, 04:38 PM.
"I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death."
— Monty Oum
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~The Silver Fox~
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Just your friendly neighborhood Section 2 agent!
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Kathi managed a small gasp of surprise and alarm when Thorn popped out his weapons and began aiming them at her. Almost imediately, she found herself taking refuge behind the nearest piece of available cover, in this case, Stynos.

"I-I'm sorry, Th-Thorn," she said nervously. After a second to calm down, she resumed speaking. "Look, I'm just here to see what's going on, okay? No need to start shooting." Inwardly, Kathi had good reason to worry. The android seemed to be more than a little paranoid, and considering how willing he was to activate his weapon systems, quite possibly dangerous. His stuttering indicated that he had some sort of damage to his circuits, which, Kathi hoped, did not extend to his higher thought processes. Having two mentally unstable beings on board would invariably not end well.

In an attempt to let the situation cool down a bit, she turned to Ryan. She had noticed the odd color change in his eyes just before Thorn began pointing guns at her. That shade of blue seemed familiar for some reason. She'd have to ask Ryan about that later. As Kathi listened to what he had to say about the android, she came to the conclusion that Thorn - and his absent partner - was most likely an escapee from whatever facility they had been in before.

She glanced out at the android from behind Stynos "Okay, Thorn, I'm sorry about the introductions. I'm just here to help, alright? I want to figure out what happened too, and we're not going to get anywhere if we start fighting." Kathi didn't miss the irony in what she was saying.

As she thought of what questions to begin asking Thorn to figure out where he had come from and why he was there, one other, unrelated question kept popping into her head, and she needed to get it out.

Kathi looked at Ryan again. "You said your last name was Arma...are you related to the bounty hunter Jenosa Arma?"
Once, there was a maiden...
...whose tears of grief nearly drowned the world.
So she tore out her heart, and made war against it.
In victory, she sealed it in a locket,
and trapped in a casting of bronze.
"Such is the price of unguarded emotion," she said.
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+Aiko+
Roffel House!

"Have you seen anything to indicate that it might still be operational?" Grifter asked Aiko as she assembled a bastardization of a proper medical bay in the tiny space afforded by the engine compartment.

“No,” Aiko replied as she gently coaxed a circuit board into place. Photocircs were the newest fad in Federation ships and Aiko could appreciate why. The electron had long since become too large to transfer energy. Circuits could only be placed so close together until electronics hopped from one line to another, shorting out the entire system. Valuable space was wasted as increasingly complex circuitry had to grow in size to accommodate the rather large subatomic particle.

Photocircs were far better more efficient. Instead of using an electron as an energy conduit, photocircs used photons. What was even more impressive was that the more advanced photocircs technology didn’t even need circuit boards. As long as power was flowing uninterrupted to the system, photons could be commanded to flow in holographic circuits, free of mass and many orders of magnitude smaller than any hardware capable of performing the same amount of processing.

In fact, photocircs only needed three things: a projector, a screen, and energy, lots and lots of energy. The projector was an unassuming chip barely larger than an old school video card. The screen could virtually be anything. Aiko was actually using the bottom of the hastily constructed table on which the android sat. Cottonmouth probably wasn’t going to be happy that she was going to be chewing up a significant amount of power to run the medical machinery, but she really didn’t give much of a rat’s ass.

She finished hooking everything up. With the photocircs in place, she essentially had a separate computer core capable of running several complicated medical scans at once. Standing up, she yanked on a device that looked like a piece of sharp scrap metal draped with a dozen thick cables from its temporary housing in the ceiling. It fell a meter until a chain ceased its momentum with a clang. Grasping each wire in turn, she affixed each to an individual hook on various points along the edge of the table. When all were connected, the android was surrounded in a tent-like net of wiring.

“Let’s see what still works in this thing, hmmm?” Aiko said as she kicked a foot pedal on the floor. Power hummed and light flashed from the photocircs under the table The wires were hot with energy. Power was carefully metered by the photocirc computer, obeying commands typed continuously in by Aiko on a small keyboard, and small amounts of controlled energy coursed through the android.
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~TobiasBrahms~
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Phantasmagoria
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
UEO Venture DSV-4800
Bridge

Captain Tobias Brahms sat in his chair on the bridge of the Venture, impatiently waiting for the signal from the Admiral that the task force was jumping to the Blight system. The communications station chirped loudly and Lieutenant Austin Tran jumped slightly as he began reading the transmission. He shouted, “Sir! I have new tasking orders from UEO HighCOM.”
“Onscreen Lieutenant.” Brahms snapped.

The message flashed up onto the main viewscreen.

FLASH TRAFFIC
UEO VENTURE HEREBY ORDERED TO SEPARATE FROM TASK FORCE AND JUMP IMMEDIATELY TO THE BLIGHT SYSTEM TO BEGIN UEO INVESTIGATIONS. HEREBY ORDERED TO CEASE COMMUNICATIONS WITH FEDERATION TASK FORCE HEADED BY REAR ADMIRAL CALDERON. IMMEDIATE JUMP AUTHORIZED. USE OF ANY AND ALL NECESSARY FORCE AUTHORIZED. RELEASE AND USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AUTHORIZED AT CAPTAIN’S DISCRETION.
END TRANS

Brahms took a few seconds to process the new orders before saying, “Natalie, sound condition one. All hand to jump stations. We launch now.


The ship’s jumpdrives hummed loudly and then clicked. The ship disappeared from the task force fleet’s formation in a brilliant flash.
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+CEMP+
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Clockwork Master

Ryan couldn't help but feel a little distrustful - or rather paranoid - about Kathi's words. It wasn't that he was going to let her spook him a lot, only that such words could be used to also manipulate people, and it was just a nagging feeling to be slightly on watch of what she did. Still, she looked nice enough, and he didn't want to give her the wrong impression that he was paranoid of her.

And then she looked him in a way that made him nervous for some reason

She asked, "You said your last name was Arma...are you related to the bounty hunter Jenosa Arma?"

"Y-y-you know my mother!?" he stammered in shock, no doubt taken by surprise by the question. He knew his mother kept some of her work rather discreet, although she had warned him that warned of her expertise had gotten around a bit. Still, he only expected people like the Federation to have any real knowledge on.

His shock and surprise soon with embarrassment that made his eyes flare lightning blue again, and shy away for a moment. Several thoughts fluttered in his head, including that of his mother's reputation and personality; and it was apparent he lacked such traits. He was now honestly afraid of what she might think of him; not for his life, of course, but on a social level.

He looked back her with the blue glimmering in his irises for a while, "So, ummm, I get the distinct feeling you actually met her rather than just...hearing about her, right?"
"I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death."
— Monty Oum
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~The Boss~
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Native Son

Grifter watched with amusement as Aiko worked her contraption, having to stoop down low to navigate through the jungle of cables that crisscrossed the engine room to meet the mechanic's ridiculous power demands. All that was missing were monkeys. The equipment itself was... well it was interesting. Built from whatever spare parts Aiko had, a bizarre Frankenstein beast of a machine, like something out of an old comedy show. Grifter had no doubt it would work; the things she built usually did. What he wanted to know is if it could work without exploding.

“Let’s see what still works in this thing, hmmm?” Aiko stomped on the pedal and her contraption roared to life. The engine room shuddered, and a shower of sparks burst from one of the cables. The lights flickered for a second, then came back on. And then a bigger burst of sparks, and the power went down shipwide.

.......................

"S'there any food in here? And if there isn't could you go and ask those Zebesians if I could have some? and if I could possibly be let out? I won' get into trouble!"

"Top shelf," Grace said, leaning her head back against the door and closing her eyes as if she was about to nod off. "There should be a big box of crackers up there, right next to the mason jars with the booze. Hope you can climb up there without your body falling apart, cause don't really feel like getting up right now."

A moment later, they were plunged into total darkness when Aiko's machine blew the power. Grace flicked her lighter, illuminating the storage closet if only a bit.

"Don't worry about that," she said. "Happens all the time on a rickety old boat like this.

"So... what the hell are you anyway? Are you even human?"

.......................

The captain growled and swore under his breath as his bridge went dark. "What is that girl doing in there?" he hissed. Cottonmouth waited patiently for the auxiliary power to come on, and the fifteen seconds it took felt like an eternity.

She was supposed to be preventing these things from happening.

Finally, the backup kicked in. First the emergency floodlights came on, then little by little the ships systems rebooted. Almost immediately a claxon blared from the radar console.

Another ship had just jumped into the system. A Federation battleship. And it was practically right on top of them.
Edited by The Boss, Oct 18 2009, 02:03 AM.
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~Metamyth~
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BURMA
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
The jolt of electricity was just enough to get the female android's basic processes working, but it was not enough. Luckily, it was going to be taken care of.

From the lips of the android escaped another sigh before it mouthed a word, then again, and again, the sigh becoming louder every time, before the word was clearly heard.

"More."

Her thick hair cables sprouted metallic anodes with a small click from each one. Then, they shot out in every direction, seeking anything electronic. Each cable that found something dug into it, interfacing itself to it and drawing energy from it. The ones that were too short or out of reach to find a source simply flailed aimlessly, occasionally lashing out at Grifter and his suit.

There was a metal-on-metal grinding noise from her chest cavity as the android's biosystems came online. Her eyes opened up, and her mouth formed the shape of a scream, though apparently certain systems prevented the noise from coming out just yet. Her back arched, her fists clenched, her legs quiverred... and then everything went silent. She layed gently on the table Aiko had set up as the grinding in her chest disappeared, fading into a dull while and then nothingness. It was her organs returning to life from metallic stillness that had caused the noise and the android's apparent pain.

She sat on the table now, taking deep breaths and enjoying the air she was able to breathe again. Her hair cables detached themselves from all the electronics in the room, their power restored, and little to no evidence that they had ever been spliced. The wires that held her to the table had been peeled back in the chaos of the power surge and the android's need for more to activate, so she sat up, and slid her legs off the table.

She looked Aiko in the eyes. She smiled. "Hello, Aiko. My name is Rose, and it seems I owe you my life."

~

Thorn kept his weapons panels deployed for the time being as Kathi apologized for her previous rashness. "You are right," he said slowly, stuttering. It seemed slower situations allowed his temporary talking disability to subside for the time being. Kathi then began a conversation of her own with Ryan, something about his mother, and Thorn lost interest, his understanding of human lineage minimal. So, he turned to Stynos.

"Well, m-maybe you can hel-lp me instead... at leas-sst with this problem. My circuitry in muh-my cranial control unit seems to be dam-am-amaged, and I need someone skilled enough to help me fix it. I can guide you through it-t, if you'd be willing..."
Edited by Metamyth, Oct 19 2009, 10:18 PM.
"Nothing... a shadow is nothing. It is merely a question not yet answered. We only fear the dark if we have no means of lighting our way.

Death comes to all, Morningstar. The world turns, the dawn comes... and under the light of the sun I shall slay giants."


Dresden Codak, Dark Science
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~The Silver Fox~
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Just your friendly neighborhood Section 2 agent!
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Kathi couldn't help but smile a bit at how she had caught Ryan off guard by bringing up his mother (although it did make her wonder as to how old Jenosa really was). Knowing something about someone else that they didn't expect you to know was always fun.

"Yes, I do know your mother. I worked with her on a job defending some archaeological dig site on a dusball of a planet I don't remember the name of." Kathi's smile instantly vanished when she though back on what had happened then. She didn't want to think about that particular episode of insanity. "From what I remember, she said I reminded her of herself when she was younger."

Kathi glanced over at Thorn for a second to see that he had put away his guns before turning her gaze back to Ryan. "So, Ryan...I've heard people say that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their eyes. As an investigator, that usually impiles such things as figuring out whether or not someone is lying or similar things. I find that the phrase is true in other aspects of life as well. You can tell if someone has been exposed to too much phazon if their eyes are glowing blue. Never had to deal with it first hand, fortunately. I can tell if I missed an injection of my antipsychotics if my irises start to turn purple because of some indicator pigment that the bastards who fucked with my head added to them." She then paused for a second. "You...your eyes flashed bright blue earlier, but...it's a strangely familiar color. I think the last time I saw that was...at that dig site. Your mother. That makes sense!" Kathi finally proclaimed with a slight air of triumph, the smile back on her face.

"I saw her do quite a few extraordinary things back then. You seem, well, you seem as if you inherited that capacity, if not her personality. Why don't you show me what you can do?"
Once, there was a maiden...
...whose tears of grief nearly drowned the world.
So she tore out her heart, and made war against it.
In victory, she sealed it in a locket,
and trapped in a casting of bronze.
"Such is the price of unguarded emotion," she said.
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