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| Pandora's Box; No blue people allowed. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 29 2011, 02:10 PM (3,715 Views) | |
| ~Alissa~ | May 21 2014, 05:24 PM Post #41 |
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Alex watched Vega depart quietly a moment before shaking his head and settling in to finish his meal. He picked up a small communicator calling Mike after a moment. “Yes boss” came Mike’s voice over the link “Round everyone up and get back to the ship, we have a chance to get a head start, Sam is already on his way.” he knew Vega would be busy dealing with that mess for a while at least, and the hardcase would be tied up by it as well. “Yes boss” was the reply before the link closed; Alex looked over toward the other table where his second meeting was waiting for him. He set money for his meal on the table and stood making his way over toward the other table swinging a coat on as he approached the trio. “Mr. Vega rather rudely used up my time I’m afraid, but we’ll have a chance to catch up in route I’m sure. Good hunting” he said and moved out of the establishment, making for the Persephone. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Alex strolled onto his ship a short time later which was already beginning to power up, pressing an intercom button as he stepped inside the hatch which closed behind him “I’m on any stragglers?” “Just you big brother…we are airborne” Not long after the captain stepped onto the ship did they have clearance and had started on their way, Alex stepped into the galley where Sam and Mike sat laughing. “Hey Boss, Sam was filling me in on the competition” Alex looked over to Sam “did we learn anything useful?” Sam looked thoughtful for a moment “those two did that without their boss’ say so. I think that’s a problem though” “How so?” “Think on it this way; what they did was damn stupid right? But why keep them around if all they did was screw up. Vega’s reputation being what it is, these two would not get a seat at the table for long. Vega doesn’t strike me as the sentimental type so he has to trust them. And stupid or not those two quickly rounded up a gang and had them armed and organized in a few hours…Vega is the brains I think but those two are not stupid, they just lack impulse control.” Alex sat at the table “I liked it better when I thought they were idiots” Sam nodded and even Mike looked serious “so what was funny?” “Sam was tellin’ a story about back in the day” -_-_-_-_-_- On the bridge they could hear echoes from the galley; Hannah sat at the pilot’s station as the Persephone cleared the atmosphere with more alacrity than most thought she was capable of. “You got a lid on that? It’s about to get light in here” Already they were beginning to feel the effects of microgravity, and soon enough their trajectory took them almost completely out of the sphere of the planets influence. “Sounds like Alex had an interesting meeting” said Hannah as she released her harness letting herself step out of the to float for a moment, she took a deep breath “ oh that’s much better” |
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| ~The Boss~ | Jul 6 2014, 05:18 AM Post #42 |
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Native Son
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It was well past midnight by the time that Ronnie and Nick made their way back to the bomber from whatever gentlemen's club they had dragged Derrick off to. Ronnie had given the young lady named Sapphire some very specific instructions. She was to take Derrick back into a VIP room and show him the time of his life. He's a seminary student, Ronnie helpfully explained, and tomorrow he takes his final vows in service to the Lord, and so she'd be the last naked woman he'd ever see. Sapphire nodded yes, she understood, and then whisked the kid away. And despite the fact that they were on a tight schedule, he wasn't about to rush them. So here they were, shuffling back to their ship with more than a few drinks under their belts and having given the Persephone a pretty fair head start. They knew Jimmy was gonna be irritated. What they didn't expect was for Ronnie to get sucker punched the second they walked up the ramp. "Jimmy, what the hell?" Nick said as Ronnie laid out on the floor, the drink keeping him down a second longer before he started getting to his feet. Jimmy just stood there shaking out his hand, which still bore the marks from Derrick's round, and cast a look of disapproval at the both of them. "Grace, start the ship and get us the hell out of here." Jimmy's eyes locked on Nick's, a look that said You oughta know better, and yet somehow I'm not surprised you don't. He turned and disappeared into the ship. Grace only offered Nick a shrug before following Jimmy. There wasn't much anyone could do, and besides, they all knew Jimmy was right. ....................... "Hey, can I come in?" Grace looked over her shoulder from the pilot's chair, finding Ronnie standing there in the doorway. From behind him in the heart of the ship, she could hear Nick snoring even over the rumble of the ship's engine. "Nice shiner," she said, giving him a smile. He looked like he needed one. "Thanks." "You know you deserved that, don't you? You and Nick, going behind Jimmy's back like that." "Hey, it worked, didn't it? The Hardcase is grounded, and so pissed off he can't even see straight. Doubt we'll hear from hear from him for a long while." "And when we do?" Ronnie had to think about that one for a second. He knew that Grace of all people wasn't scared of the Hardcase. She wasn't scared of anyone. But the point wasn't what would happen when they heard from him again, it was that by hitting him and his crew, Ronnie and Nick had guaranteed that they'd hear from him again. Her smile got bigger. She could see that he'd figured it out for himself. A little sheepishly, Ronnie moved to sit down. Grace started to get up from the pilot's chair, which she still considered his regardless of whether or not he was in Jimmy's doghouse, but he sat right down in the co-pilot's seat and let her keep flying. For the first time, he registered the audio playing from the speakers. The volume was turned down low, but he could still make out the light chatter of a male and female voice. "That the Persephone?" Ronnie asked. "Slipped a bug in their cockpit while I was over there," Grace replied with a nod. "Little omnidirectional mic. Shaped like a coin, sticks to any surface. I stuck it under the control panel." "Hear anything interesting yet?" "Not really. They were talking about her physical therapy earlier, but other than that, been mostly a whole lotta nothin'." "What if they find it?" Ronnie asked. He reached down underneath Grace's seat, where he knew he'd hidden the whiskey. Coming up with the bottle, he took a swig right from it, then passed it to Grace. "I mean like, that girl's supposed to be a genius hacker, right? She can probably find the signal pretty easy. I mean, hell, I can do that without even breaking a sweat and I ain't even a computer geek." "Or someone could just run their hand under the panel," Grace replied. She took a sip, relishing the burn. "But once again Ronnie, that's not the point. It's like your little stunt back there. Every move we make, successful or not, sends a message. It's all about getting in their heads." She took another sip and passed the bottle back to Ronnie. Taking a drink, he eyed her suspiciously. "You want them to find it," he said. "I'm testing them. See if they're worth our time." "And if they ain't" "Then we kill them." She looked at Ronnie in a way that made his blood run cold, then she broke out in a laugh. "Just kidding. Honestly, it's up to Derrick. He's gotta prove he can get the job done. I actually don't anticipate having to kill anyone." "You mean besides Derrick." "We're not gonna kill Derrick." "Wow... you're that confident he can do it." "Not really. But we're not gonna kill him." Ronnie didn't question her further. He knew to do so would be pointless. Her mind was made up, and even though Jimmy was the boss, Grace overruled him when she wanted. So Ronnie now accepted the fact that Derrick Rhodes would not be dying any time soon. At least not by their hand. Secure in this new knowledge, Ronnie reclined in the co-pilot's chair, watching the stars and listening to Powell say something or other about maintaining upper body strength. "How will we know if they're worth our time?" he asked. "We'll know, Ronnie. We'll know." |
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| ~Alissa~ | Jul 7 2014, 03:33 PM Post #43 |
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There was a small white board on the bridge of the Persephone, it was used to pass messages between shifts on the bridge, notes about repairs, strange things that had come up and other such things; Most of the time it was used by the elder Powell to remind the younger to take it easy. Right now however it was taken over by a rather good drawing of a lady bug on a leaf, one of the spots however was not drawn but was a coin shaped device. In neat hand writing a speech bubble said. “I am a bug left here by a guest, I can hear everything you say and I share it all with my friends” What was life without whimsy; it had actually been Cat who had located the Bug, she had stood up forgetting the low gravity of the cockpit, hit her head on a bulkhead and as she drifted back down toward the floor she had spotted the device. Neither Hannah nor Alex had been too surprised that Grace had left the bug. After locating the bug while they decided what to do about it the crew had endeavored to make every conversation they had around it as banal as possible. There had been a five hour discussion between Hannah and Mike about the difference between a jump drive and a hyper drive, a rather candid discussion of the accident that had blinded Hannah and landed her in a chair with Cat. And currently Mike and Sam were playing cards while Alex flew the ship the sound of blues filling the cockpit enough to drown out just about everything else. Hannah was working on a surprise for Vega and crew. After they found the bug the rest of the ship had been checked and double checked. Cat and Hannah now sat in the galley; Hannah had all but covered the table in various bits of electronics working on something with a small grin written on her features. “How does this work again?” came Cat’s question Hannah didn’t look up from what she was doing “we leave this some place they are going to be, it will use the signal from the bug to home in on their transmitter. A bit of remote control magic and robotic magic and we are tapped into their communications” Cat understood why that was useful, but not why the task she had been given was. Currently she was dressing a manikin in an old vacuum suit. “And the point of this is?” Hannah looked up and grinned “we are going to play a little practical joke when we return the bug” she said looking back to what she is working on “we are going to try to lure them into a place where my friend here can do his job, what you are working on is part of a distraction, Mike replaced the air canister with a sulfur compound that should have their ship smelling like rotten eggs for about a week, less if they land and change out the air” A small wisp of smoke rose from the device Hannah was putting together, as much as she enjoyed flying she took real joy in her skill as an engineer “I’m also going to super glue the bug to our friend there’s forehead.” Cat paused a moment looking to Hannah “these are gangsters though right….dangerous people. Why are we doing this?” “Alex wants to send a message” she said securing the casing on her project which was coffee can of all things “first that they should be taking us a bit more seriously and second that we do not take them that seriously” Cat looked concernedly at Hannah “but we do don’t we?” Hannah nodded “yep….I might know I’m smarter than they are but that doesn’t mean I am underestimating them. We want them to keep underestimating us though…it’s an advantage” Some hours later the Persephone dropped out of hyperspace into a debris field that the siblings knew of. To a layperson it was impossible to tell what the ship that was once here had been. The bug had indeed been carefully superglued to the manikin’s forehead which now sat in the copilot’s seat waiting for the event to begin. The local com-relay had been hacked and programmed to deliver the message they were about to send only to Vega’s ship, while making it appear it had been a general broad cast. And then the fun started. All for the benefit of the Bug in the room Hannah called over the intercom “Hey mike I’m getting some strange power fluctuations” Mike responded in turn “everything looks…..wait a minute…SHUT IT DOWN!” The cockpit was filled with the sound of an explosion from somewhere in the aft of the ship, though the calm appearance of the crew seemed at odds with the sounds that were being generated “I can’t stop it!” And then the message that should be received by Vega and crew “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday …..this is the Persephone we have suffered an unknown reactor failure, losing power and life support, our location is encoded…Mayday, Mayday….” And they locked the helmet on the manikin. The package, along with the manikin were left in the debris field along with enough radiation to make it look like a reactor had gone critical and exploded. There was a weak beacon on the suit that would help a rescuer find it. Hannah and Alex watched Mike and Sam returning to the ship after placing the bait “if they don’t take it?” was Hannah’s question “Then they think we are dead and I clearly over estimated their nature….you’re sure no one else will come?” “I told the relay to deliver the distress call to Vega’s ship alone but lie to their system so it should look like a general distress call to them, that plus the audio from the bug…” she shrugged watching their bait float for a moment before the ship began to move away accelerating again. “the suit will send a signal if its picked up, the bot will attach its self to their communications array if they show up.” Alex nodded “alright, lets get moving….” He started out of the cockpit “hey Hannah…good job” |
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| ~The Boss~ | Jul 11 2014, 02:53 AM Post #44 |
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Native Son
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"Oh Jesus..." Jimmy's nose wrinkled as he sprayed air freshener all throughout the cabin. The stench was powerful enough that he could very much feel his lunch coming back up. "Just what the hell was that stuff?" he said. "Hydrogen sulfide," Nick said, furiously scrubbing the spacesuit that brought the putrid smell aboard. "Standard stink bomb. Goddamn." He picked up the canister and examined it. "Enough of this stuff, you can actually kill a couple people." "You know what we need," said Ronnie, scrubbing disinfectant all over the walls. "Tomato juice." "That's for skunks, Ron," replied Nick. "Besides, it's just an urban legend." "Nah-uh man, that shit totally works!" "All it does is make you smell like tomatoes." "Well, I'd sure as hell rather be smelling tomatoes than this shit!" Nick put a hand on his stomach for a second, his face twisted in a grimace, then finally was able to gather himself. "How long 'fore we can land, Ron?" Ronnie looked at his watch. "Six hours to Gibraltar Station. They should be getting there two hours ahead of us. We're making good time, probably catch up to 'em not long after that." "You know... that really ain't what I'm concerned about at the moment." As the boys were doing their thing, Grace stretched out on her bunk, reading a comic book and smoking a cigarette. Despite the foul odor filling the ship, she seemed quite comfortable. Of course, Jimmy was irritated to no end. "You wanna give us a hand here?" "I think you guys are doing a fantastic job." She went right back to reading her comic, and Jimmy reached over and angrily snatched it away from her. "Hey, what the fuck?" She jumped up and tried to grab it back from him, but he pushed her off and held it behind his back. "Careful with that, goddammit!" she said. "That's the Dark Phoenix Saga! It's an original! Do you have any idea the kind of security around that thing when I stole it?" "Grace..." Jimmy, normally so composed, was losing his patience. "Shut up." He tossed the comic book on the bunk and went back to spraying air freshener. Ronnie gave Grace an inquisitive look, and she responded with a single nod. "So what do we do?" Ronnie asked, to no one in particular. "I mean, this can't go unanswered, right?" "I got it." Grace sat down on the bunk, and Nick and Ronnie gathered around her. "Okay, so first off, we're gonna need to pick up a few supplies when we land next. Now we're definitely gonna need a can of paint. Pink paint. The pinker, the better." "No, uh-uh," Jimmy said. "No more pranks, no more subtle moves. Play time's over." He glanced over at Derrick, whom to this point had been cleaning the floor. "You're on." ...................... The conversations that took place aboard the Longsword gunship were no more informative than those aboard the Persephone, though perhaps they were more interesting, and certainly more revealing of the character of her crew. Most of what was heard came from the cockpit, as you couldn't really pick up sound from further back in the ship. It began with Grace and Ronnie having a rather lengthy, incredibly nerdy, and surprisingly philosophical discussion about Lord of the Rings, interspersed with fits of coughing and giggling. There were a few hours of Ronnie alone, talking to himself and a mysterious "Chris" who was not present, and one could be forgiven for thinking that Ronnie Black had an imaginary friend until it became clear that the pilot was referring to St. Christopher. Then Nick came in and the conversation quickly turned vulgar, just in time for both Cat and Hannah to be listening. Soon Jimmy joined them, and there was some talk of "the kid" and what should be done. Interestingly, Nick and Ronnie weren't afraid to disagree with and even challenge Jimmy. And although they frustratingly spoke in the opaque terminology of lifelong gangsters, one thing was for sure: whoever "the kid" was, they had something ominous in store for him. But the centerpiece was when Jimmy and Grace were alone in the cockpit, arguing over just about everything. They argued at length about Jimmy's indiscretions, and about Grace's affair with Rex. They argued about her drug use, about her commitment to doing the job (or lack thereof), and how she openly mocked and undermined him. She hit him right back. "You know Jimmy, once upon a time, these used to be the kind of people we said we wouldn't go after, remember? Kids in a rough spot just trying to get by?" "Hey, I didn't pick the target, alright? They're the competition." "Yeah, on a job we don't need. Or at the very least, one that you don't need to be this heavily involved in. I mean, come on Jimmy, these people are not your equals. Me and Nick can mix it up with them, sure, but there's no reason for you to be out here other than your ego. You're punching down, Jimmy. Guys like you shouldn't be punching down." "You wanna know why I'm out here? Cause that's my money! That is what is owed to me! You say guys like me shouldn't be punching down? You don't know shit about what guys like me should be doing, so allow me to school you here. Guys like me cannot allow debts to go unpaid. Guys like me cannot let some fucking hick from the other side of the galaxy stick it up his ass and just walk away. Cause then it's open season. People you thought were your friends turn on you, cause they think you're weak, and they want a piece of what you got. So I gotta lay down the law here, and I gotta do it in a way so everyone understands." "So basically, you're just swinging your dick around. I rest my case. Matter of fact, you know what? Why don't we call Captain Powell down here, we'll get you and him and Derrick all lined up, and you guys can whip 'em out and we'll settle this once and for all. Get Nick and Ronnie in there, too. Maybe then you won't have to go out and kill somebody every time you feel insecure." From there, the conversation degenerated severely. Little more than insults followed, with more dueling accusations of infidelity thrown in for good measure. And then soon after that, it was about twenty minutes of the two of them having sex in the cockpit. So while none of them seemed to have let slip any classified information, Hannah's eavesdropping had perhaps revealed something far more valuable. It shone a light on a group of people focused on anything but the task at hand, and whose close-knit circle belied some bitter tensions just beneath the surface. ((I had some action planned, but this was already getting long and I'll put that in the next post. Let me know if this is enough to work with, and if not I'll go ahead and throw the action in)) |
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| ~Alissa~ | Jul 15 2014, 02:00 PM Post #45 |
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Alex stood in the bridge his bracing himself against the bulkhead as he watched the display for a while before hitting the com back to the engine room. “Mike….why are we not running at full power?” There was a pause “been meaning to bring that up boss, I was in the middle of the engine upgrade when you said to pull up stakes and get outta dodge…..we are running on the secondary engines, they don’t have the same punch” “So switch back” came Alex’s response though he knew what the answer would be before mike replied. “Can’t we need to be docked or landed; gotta go through the whole startup sequence.” Alex sighed a bit and nodded “ok we stop at Gibraltar in 30, take on fuel, and you start up the primary engine…how long?” “Hour……maybe hour and a quarter” Alex grumbled, he didn’t like losing their lead over the competition. “We should start putting on a lead again with the primary back online….faster than this tub has any right to go at least” Alex closed his eyes a moment and nodded, there was no help for it “How long do you think it will take them to change out their air on top of everything else they need to do” Alex asked “That depends on a lot, if their scrubbers are old they are going to have to change them out if they ever want to smell anything other than bad egg salad again, and if I did my math right, a ship that size I would not be surprised if the gas still in their air trips the stations biohazard system, which will slow them down too….at least as long as we will be at the station boss” Alex nodded a moment “alright we make port, you and Hannah get us up and going in as little time as you safely can. Make a list and Sam and Cat will get what they can….I’ve got an errand to run. -_-_-_-_-_ Hannah was in the galley typing away at a terminal every so often making a rather frustrated noise before continuing. “That doesn’t sound too good” Alex said as he moved to pull a cup from a cabinet filling it with water before taking a drink “I can’t find an intercom on that ship, and I can’t seem to get into the computer its self, right now all I can do is turn the mic on the bridge on and off, and we can see any messages they send” she began typing furiously. “That’s an old Longsword right?” Hannah nodded “there isn’t an intercom, you don’t need one, and everything is shouting distance.” “ What about the computer….you aren’t telling me its not there” Hannah said looking to her brother with what might almost be a glare, Alex shook his head “ assuming that they haven’t upgraded it though you can assume old military hardware…might not accept a data stream without a carrier signal” Hannah blinked a moment “low tech….” her brow knit together as she turned back to the terminal “don’t suppose you can get them to call us then?” she could use the carrier to back track and hide her signal, but if she tried to send one she was fairly sure they would know. “We’ll see” -_-_-_-_-_ A short pit stop at Gibraltar station later and the Persephone and crew were back underway, when the Longsword docked a delivery would arrive a short time later from a local restaurant. There was a case of good if inexpensive beer, a platter of deviled eggs, and enough egg salad sandwiches for the whole crew. |
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| ~The Boss~ | Aug 4 2014, 03:26 AM Post #46 |
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Native Son
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Docking at Gibraltar was a nightmare on top of a nightmare. First, as predicted, the prevalence of the hydrogen sulfide in the bomber's air system set off the station's bio-hazard alarms, which took nearly half an hour to sort out. Once the crew were finally allowed to disembark, there was an argument about potential quarantine before it was eventually dismissed. Then, at long last, Jimmy located the cleaners, and it was nearly another hour making the arrangements, doing the paperwork, and tearing his hair out trying to get through to the Spanish-speaking crew. And Jimmy spoke fluent Spanish. Then at long last, everything was taken care of and the cleaning crew went to work, sparing Jimmy the need to walk over to the nearest airlock and step outside. Leaving the hangar bay, he found Grace, Ronnie, and Nick seated at a table nearby, the boys stuffing their faces from a plate full of food. Grace sat Indian style on her chair, her hair still wet from the shower, and she wore a pair of short shorts and Jimmy's Gang Green football jersey, the one she wasn't allowed to wear, which of course made it her favorite shirt. "See that 'No Smoking' sign over there?" she said as grabbed a bottle from the ice bucket and twisted off the cap. "I'm gonna hit the 'O' and bank it right into that trashcan." "Ooh, ten bucks on that," Ronnie said, slapping money on the table. Without another word, Grace flicked the bottle cap at the sign. Just as she said, it bounced right off the 'O' and into the trash, neatly whizzing past a couple of startled bystanders in the process. She raised her arms in triumph and greedily snatched up Ronnie's money. Nick just grinned and shook his head. He knew better than to challenge her to a game of marksmanship. "Hey there Jimmy," she said, finally noticing him. He took one look at the food, and suddenly he was considering the airlock again. "Eggs? Really?" "Courtesy o' the Persephone," said Nick with a mouthful of deviled egg. "They're actually really good," said Ronnie, offering Jimmy a sandwich. "Want some?" "No." "Oh, get over yourself, Jimmy," Grace said. "It was a joke. They got us. And they were at least nice enough to buy us some beers." "You sure you don't want any?" Ronnie asked her. "I don't eat eggs," she replied. All Jimmy wanted to do right now was explode with rage. But whether it was because there were so many things pissing him off right now that it he couldn't keep his head straight, or that he'd projected such a cool exterior for so long that he didn't just didn't know how to lose it anymore, either way all he could manage was, "Where's Derrick?" "Hittin' the showers," Nick said. "Don't worry Jim, he ain't goin' nowhere." "Yeah, well he better not. Time he starts earning his keep." Seeing nothing else to do, he fell into a chair and grabbed himself a beer. "Joke or not, that kid's got some balls on him." "Jimmy..." Grace said, adopting that scolding tone again. "This is business, and you're letting it get personal." "Yeah, well Michael Corleone was full of shit. Everything he did was personal. He just knew how to dress it up like it was strictly business." She didn't press the issue, not wanting to have this argument again. Besides, she already had her own plans. "Hey Grace, whatcha got there?" Ronnie asked, looking at a small metal disk on the table in front of her. "That your bug?" "Sure is," she replied. "They sent it back to us in that same spacesuit that they put the stink bomb on." "Think they used it to listen in on us?" Nick asked. "It's what I'd do." She picked up the device and flipped it around in her hand, pondering what to with it, when an idea came to her. "Off the pole... off the sign... into the trashcan." Ronnie and Nick exchanged glances. The big Texan said nothing, but Ronnie couldn't resist. "I'd say that's worth twenty." Grace gave him her best shit-eating grin, and Ronnie could only watch helplessly as he lost even more money. ..................... "There they are!" Jimmy watched the stars outside of the cockpit, trying to see what Ronnie was talking about, squinting hard at one little light he thought was moving, but turned out to be nothing. "I don't see 'em." "On the radar," Ronnie said, pointing to the screen, and at one blip in particular. "That one, right there." "How long before-" "Minutes." That was good enough for Jimmy. "Derrick!" he shouted into the back of the ship, and that was the extent of his orders. The young bounty hunter retrieved a heavy trunk from underneath his bunk and punched in the combination, all the while Grace watching him intently while seated on her own bunk. "Do you mind?" "I wanna see what's worth getting into debt with Jimmy over," she said. Derrick opened up the trunk and showed her the contents. "There, you happy? Now I gotta get suited up, can I get a little privacy?" "This ship ain't big enough for privacy. Besides, I've changed in front of you, and you were in the military anyway, so why are you so shy all of a sudden?" He looked up at her grin, considering that a mistake. She was flirting with him, he was sure. He quickly looked back down at the trunk, keenly aware of Jimmy's presence nearby. Despite their squabbling, he knew infringing on Jimmy's territory would only lead to a more expedient demise. "You remember what we talked about?" Derrick gave her a nod. He remembered, alright. Back on the station, she'd practically ambushed him as he stepped out of the showers. He'd initially assumed that she was merely keeping an eye on him, but she'd had something far different in mind. Wanted to make sure he understood his orders, she'd said, and he told her that all he was told was to send a message. "Derrick, I've been doing this my whole life," she'd said. "My whole life. I learned how to launder money when I was ten. I know the difference between sending a message and sending a message." He could only blink at her in bewilderment. "What?" "No killing. I mean it, Derrick, none." "Or else what?" "Or else I can't help you. You leave one body behind on that ship, and I look the other way if and when Jimmy decides to whack you. But do as I say, and you'll come out of this alive, no matter what. So, like I said, no killing." His thoughts back in the present, Derrick met her eyes, the same look in them as she'd given him back on the station. "Yeah," he said, "I remember." "Ladies and gentlemen," shouted Ronnie from the cockpit, "we have visual on the Persephone!" In the rear of the ship, Nick was rigging up a harness down inside the airlock. Grace looked back at Derrick, and as she got up reached over and patted him on his shoulder. "Good luck." ..................... The ear-splitting screech of the proximity alarms echoed throughout the Persephone. The Longsword was buzzing them, just a few short meters from scrapping against their hull. In the cockpit, the video screen flared to life, beaming Ronnie Black and Grace directly into their ship. "Yo yo yo, what up, bitches?" Ronnie shouted into the monitor as Grace bobbed her head to the booming hip hop beat that was now blasting through the ship. "Brooklyn in the hooooooouse!" The transmission was abruptly terminated, and they could see the Longsword shoot off ahead of them, rocking their own ship as it flared its engines. Hanging off the hull of the Persephone was a figure in sleek black and gold armor. Quickly, before the crew could make sense of this strange encounter, Derrick Rhodes opened up the outer hatch and slipped inside, quiet as a mouse. Immediately activating his cloak, he moved as silently as he could, keeping to the shadows and avoiding contact. He made his way down into the cargo bay, positioned himself underneath the metal stairs, and waited. A coiled viper, ready to strike. |
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| ~Alissa~ | Aug 18 2014, 01:38 PM Post #47 |
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On the bridge of the Persephone Hannah and Cat sat in stunned silence watching the broadsword speed off into the distance blinking quietly for a moment. “What…..was that?” cat said at last Hannah blinked and closed her mouth as she realized it was stuck open before shaking her head “something to do with the payback they keep talking about over there?” They had not been actively listening to the bridge conversations on the broadsword for some time now, not really since the crew had left Gibraltar station. “Distraction?” Hannah said at last, while she had trouble understanding Vega and team’s actions she was beginning to see a pattern. Nothing was ever just one thing. Like the bug on the bridge, everything carried meaning when you were dealing with that crew. Cat nodded quietly and blinked glancing over to Hannah’s console spotting a blinking light and pointing it out. Hannah looked toward it and brought up the alert a moment and her expression shifted. She was reaching for the intercom when Alex came into the bridge. “What was that?” -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ The interior of the Persephone was not much like the outside, which the exterior was in need of a fresh coat of paint at the very least. The interior however was in excellent shape. The bulkheads had been painted in complementary warm colors. Pictures hung on the walls as well, some of the Powell family others of the crew, all of them with smiles present. All of it told the story…this was not just a ship, it was a home, this was not just a crew, it was a family. The cargo hold was equally well tended, but it was clearly a work space. Aside from the stairs down and a catwalk around half way up in a big horse shoe, the whole place was open space, the port side of the hold was lined with shelves used for smaller bits of scrap that they collected to sell, various parts could still be seen waiting to be sold. Several large bins on wheels held bits that were good for nothing other than scrap metal. The starboard side of the hold held weapons and armor lockers, the heavy weapons were behind locked bars along with three suits of fairly impressive armor. Two suits looked military grade if maybe a generation off of the latest to hit the field, the third was the large heavy sort favored by mercenaries. One whole wall was clearly part of an airlock and the hold could be opened to space to bring in very large pieces of salvage and then closed and pressurized. Next to the weapons locker was a 12 foot tall x90 cargo mech. The sort used for the movement of large or hazardous materials. Thrusters on the back had been added making it useful outside the ship. Currently the device was powered down resting in the huge charging station, where a name plate would be on a normal suit someone had carefully painted “lucy”. Overhead a magnetic grapple could be seen, a large crane like device with a huge spool of cable next to it, a track allowed it to travel overhead and apparently right out to the outside of the hold. -_-_-_-_-_ Alex and Mike stood outside the door leading into the hold quietly, the door was closed and they knew the heavy plating would stop most noise but they were still whispering. “You sure?” Mike asked “My ship, my home, I’m sure” Alex said checking his pistol before slipping it back into its holster the “yeah…but..” “But nothing, we know an airlock was opened, we've covered the rest of the ship, there is an uninvited guest on my ship, and I’m going to deal with” To say Alex was angry was something of an understatement. To him this represented a direct threat to Hannah, he would not allow that. He keyed a radio not trusting the intercom for the moment “Sam you in position?” “Yes boss” Alex opened the door to the cargo bay and stepped through locking it behind him before he started down the stairs slowly, pistol drawn. |
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| ~The Boss~ | Aug 20 2014, 04:48 PM Post #48 |
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Native Son
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They were just like Jimmy's crew. Derrick could tell just from the pictures. The people were different, but the photos differed very little from the ones he'd seen in Jimmy's penthouse. They were brothers and sisters rather than mere colleagues, a cohesive unit rather than a collection of individuals. Although he figured amongst this group, you weren't constantly getting the feeling that they might actually end up killing each other. It all made him feel like ever more the outsider. Even as a Marine, he'd always been fiercely individualistic. As he crouched down under the metal stairs, he heard the hatch open and footsteps coming down the catwalk. Two sets, coming very deliberately. They knew there was an intruder, but they didn't know where he was. As they descended, Alex felt something clamp down on his arm and toss him aside like a rag doll. A second later, Mike felt himself lifted up by his shirt. The air shimmered in front of him, and with a quick crackle of energy a figure in black and gold armor appeared before him. The intruder silently glared at him through his visor for a moment, then headbutted him, knocking him out cold. Dropping Mike, the intruder drew his pistol and turned to face Alex, sprawled out on the ground. A thin green laser worked its way up Alex's body until coming to a rest between his eyes. "If you know what's good for you," said the intruder in a voice that probably still would have been thin and raspy even if it weren't mechanically distorted, "you'll turn this ship around and go home." |
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| ~Alissa~ | Aug 27 2014, 01:14 PM Post #49 |
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“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn this ship around and go home” Alex’s brief flying lesson had sent him sprawling and his own pistol had gone scattering from his fingers. He had turned over slowly keeping his hands where they could be seen and not startle the gunman. He got his legs under himself and stood slowly, already there was a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips by the time he was standing he was actually laughing. Not from nerves, this was clearly not the first time he’d had a gun in his face. And not a little before long he was leaned over his hands on his knees before he stood up reaching wiping a tear from his eye still chuckling a bit. “Practice that in the mirror before coming over?” he asked before dropping his voice a bit “if you know what’s good for you” he said laughing a moment longer before absolutely every hint of mirth left his face as he settled his eyes on the armed man. “This. Is. My. Home.” The four words were clipped short, each one standing on its own but strong together and presented as if they were a universal truth as constant as gravity. “Your boss doesn’t seem to get it, he’s used to being the big player but this isn’t the same game” he said quietly, he knew the man could hear him but he wanted Derrick’s full attention. He kept his hands out away from the second pistol holstered at his hip. “Just because he knows I play by the rules it doesn’t really help him, because he doesn’t know the rules I play by” “I saw the intel what’s her name pulled on us” he looked thoughtful a moment “Gertrude?...no Grace, that’s right…anyway, she came over here all swagger and movie gangster clichéd attitude. Then that joke of a meeting in the bar while his boys are kicking over an ant hill without his say so” he shook his head a bit. “And now you are here to shove a gun in my face to try and scare me off of a job, and what are you going to do if I say no? Kill me?” he said holding eye contact with the man for a long quiet moment “is that what you are? The kind of man that would come into a man’s home and kill him for being the competition?” Edited by Alissa, Sep 3 2014, 01:11 PM.
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| ~The Boss~ | Sep 4 2014, 08:27 PM Post #50 |
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Native Son
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"Who in the hell is Gertrude Stein?" Grace could neither hold back her grin nor contain its smugness. She knew Nick would've been the one to ask that. "American author, queen of the Parisian expats. Mentor to Hemingway. Lover to Alice B. Toklas. Self-hating Jew." She turned around solely for the purpose of catching his puzzled expression, and it was just as priceless as she'd hoped. The only books he'd ever read were the field manuals issued to him by the military. He claimed to read the Bible, but she knew that wasn't true. "You do know who Hemingway is, right?" "Yeah... he wrote about war and bullfights and manly shit." Good enough for her. That was about as literary as he was gonna get. She turned her attention back to the scene unfolding before them. Ronnie had synched up the visorcam with their monitors, so they got a live feed of everything the young bounty hunter saw. Not only that, but his suit broadcast his vitals to them, so they'd know if he was dead or even if he was just nervous. So long as they were within range, they had a front row seat to the fight. "Jimmy's right, this kid's got balls," Ronnie quipped. "Doesn't he know who this guy is?" Even though he was still pretty green compared to some of the bigger names out there, Derrick Rhodes was a merc on the rise. His speed and effectiveness on the job was prized by clients sick of hunters who brought baggage and complications. His desire to remain low key and relatively anonymous had backfired on him, earning him the nickname "Quiet Death" within the business. "Maybe, maybe not," Grace said. "Either way, I guarantee you he doesn't care. Just like he knows who Jimmy is and doesn't care." "Well he should." "You don't understand how these guys think, Ronnie. People like Alex Powell take immense pride in their rugged, bootstrap existence. They see people like us as obstacles to overcome." She shifted in the co-pilot's chair, so that she'd face both Ronnie to her left and Nick standing behind them. "Think back to when we were that age. What did we think of the Russians and the Yakuzas and the Triads when they were pushing us around?" "Goddamn Russians," Ronnie muttered to nobody in particular. Despite his father having been avenged before he even reached puberty, he'd harbored a grudge down to this very day. "We didn't take their shit," Nick said, ignoring Ronnie. "But we had Henry backing us up. We had a right to be arrogant pricks. This kid... what's he got?" "Pride," Grace said matter-of-factly. "Same thing any man has. Someone's coming after him and his people, he ain't gonna just roll over. And in his line of work, all you got is people coming after you, all day long. And they're usually bigger fish than you are. You fight back, no matter who it is." "What makes him he's gon' win this one?" "He's still alive, ain't he?" She gave Nick a smile and turned back to the monitors. "He's lasted this long. In his mind, he's the baddest motherfucker in the galaxy. And it'll stay that way, until proven otherwise." "Well then we gotta prove him otherwise." ............................ "Yes," said the man in armor with the reptilian voice. "That's exactly the kind of man I am. You're in my way. Therefore, you have to go." There was precisely zero emotion in Derrick's voice. Had they not actually seen him in the flesh earlier at the mission briefing, it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch to think that he was a robot. He wanted very badly to tell Alex the truth. That as tough as Nick was, he was probably too drunk and too past his prime to pose a true threat; that Grace didn't have the slightest interest in being on this job; that Ronnie Black was a complete disaster. He wanted to tell him that there were just as much drugs on that ship as there were weapons. But most of all, he wanted to tell Alex what this job was really about. "You are right about one thing, though," he said. He holstered his pistol and casually walked towards Alex's prone form, and put a boot on his head, pressing the side of his face into the cold metal floor just slightly, but enough. "Jimmy Vega is playing a very different game than you are. And the stakes are much higher than you could possibly realize." |
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2:55 PM Jul 11