Author Topic: Frontier: Cold Shock  (Read 45522 times)

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Offline LordNecross

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Frontier: Cold Shock
« on: February 10, 2017, 08:40:05 PM »

Cold Shock
The void of space is vast and empty, the distance between star systems is impossibly vast and the space between galaxies even more so. The advent of faster than light technologies has made the distances between stars seem negligible for many space faring Species. Despite this the Universe is still vast and much of it uncharted, with many things hiding in the  cold dark void.

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A sleek silver grey ship drifted among the vast emptiness, the reflections of distant stars glinted off its surface as it silently went on. The inside of the ship was sleek and roomy, with long hallways and many rooms.

Aboard the bridge stood stood an imposing armored figure, standing before a digital projection, sifting through documents and information with swipes of his ceramic clad hand. It information listed different star systems and sentient species of interest. It seemed there was also a collection of dossiers on the screen, one was already highlighted.

A clear genderless voice chimed in through the ship's audio systems.

“Master Osiris, I have finished compiling information on the major players in this galactic sector, I recommend our next stop should be the Sol System, it would be pertinent to retrieve the candidate located in that system before proceeding with any others.”

Osiris stared at the semi-solid projections of data, his icy eyes going over every detail of what lay before him, he closed the dossier he was currently scanning through and shut the projection off, letting his eyes settle on the visual port that was roughly ten or so meters beyond it, he looked out seeing the endless display of distant stars.

“Agreed,” He said coolly, with little change in his nearly expressionless face,”While you are good with intelligence gathering, we require a specialist.”

He walked away from the command center he stood in and headed for a elevator at the back of the bridge and boarded it. He selected the lower levels, and it began to descend as the genderless voice began to speak again.

“This is exactly why I was created, our superiors need this group to work so their activity can go unnoticed, and maybe such a group might help with the galactic community.”

There was a slight pause before it continued. “Goodness knows with what I have learned they could definitely use it. These flesh things always have something to squabble about, even those artificial one are not better, I find it rather insulting.”

“I am a thing of flesh as well Aesen…” Osiris spoke in his smooth but cool voice.

A chuckle came through the speakers, “You barely are, and if all organics were like you there wouldn’t be any problems. Anyways, I hand picked these sentients according to the mission parameters, but there's always room for more or changes to the roster if something comes up. I tried to keep it to only the  big players in this part of the galaxy, but their is potential in some of the other species as well, I’ll let you know if anything comes up with that.”

The elevator door opened and Osiris walked out into a long hallway and entered a room further down and to the right, the door clearly said in a holographic projection that it was a firing range.

He walked in and found himself in a rather size-able practice range, he put on a helmet that locked into to his power armor with a hiss as he went  up to the range. He touched the table in front of the range as his helmet’s HuD booted up. The smooth surface of the table opened up and a sleek rifle appeared and rose up and soon the table was even and continuous like the rifle had always been sitting there.

He picked it up and checked it out looking at its settings on the side for power level, and its fire settings, being full-auto or burst. His HuD recognized the weapons operating systems and linked up to it, giving its specifications in the hud in a quick scroll by.

Mk. IX Overcharged Photonic Rifle
Shots Till Depletion: 200 Low Power, 40 Max Power
Current Attachments: HuD Linked Targeting System

A targeting reticle appeared in the HuD simulated in his vision as if it was an actual  physical projection from the weapon to its current target.

“Aesen run target program two.” He said coolly as he aimed the weapon downrange.

“Yes Sir, Program starting. I shall compile some ship credentials for docking, they won’t be able to trace us, but the documentation will fool their systems. We’ll make the jump when it’s done.”

Osiris didn’t respond as repeated blasts fired from his weapon, downing target after holographic target with deadly trained precision and controlled bursts.

“Ooh looks like only a 5 nanometer improvement from last time.” Aesen projected from the the sound systems in a jokingly sarcastic way, as Osiris finished the simulation.

Osiris simply set the gun down and it disappeared right back into the smooth white surface of the table as he headed out of the room and back to the elevator.

“Okay….The other Organics do have something over you. A sense of humor.” An audible sigh came from the on board  audio systems, as Osiris headed up to his personal quarters.

“All right the credentials are done, engaging stealth systems, making the jump now.” Aesen said in a more serious tone.
There was no sound no charge up or anything remotely flashy as it occurred, they ship simply appeared in the Sol System. However it seemed nothing reacted to its sudden appearance, even though the ship detected massive activity throughout the system.

“We’re here, systems active, we’ll slip into real-space when you are ready to make contact.” Aesen chimed and then went silent.

 Osiris looked at an optical feed from a screen in his quarters, looking at the hustle and bustle of the busy Human system, and replied to the shipboard AI,“Affirmative.”
« Last Edit: February 21, 2017, 08:17:41 PM by killer rin »

Offline LordNecross

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The Intelligence Specialist
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2017, 03:12:49 PM »
The sleek ship, roughly four-hundred and fifty meters long, continued to drift in the human home system, still undetected with the method to its stealth still unknown.

"Master Osiris, we will be making another jump, I just retrieved updated information on our target. I apologize I should have been more attentive, and spend less time data-mining historical information." Aesen sighed through the comms-system.

"Making Course correction now, making jump to the Tau Ceti System, Mindoir Orbit. Stealth systems still engaged. I will disengage at a reasonable distance for approach and broadcast a request for docking."

Osiris merely nodded, as he sat cross legged meditating in his room, his power armor standing nearby unused.

Within moments the vessel was just outside Mindoir Orbit, it disengaged its stealth systems which made it appear to have arrived in system with more traditional FTL methods. It began broadcasting its credential and requesting docking with the nearby station.


Spoiler for Elysium City:

Meanwhile, in the human city of Elysium, located on the colony of Mindoir sat a solitary figure in one of the cities' high-rise arcology skyscrapers. His apartment was in one of the buildings highest floors, looking over the vast city-scape stretched out before it, home to millions of colonists; most of them human, but with a small minority of alien immigrants and residents as well. The apartment was a well-crafted and highly functional space, gorgeous to look at and supplied with an integrated smart software system that responded to even the simplest of voice commands.

The figure honestly could care less, his apartment was provided and payed for by the company he worked for, Belltower Associates, the largest and most sophisticated private military and security corporation in known space, providing the maximum spectrum of security and military solutions to a wide variety of clients. This wasn't how Belltower treated all of it's employees of course, only those who the company considered valuable assets. Neal was considered such an asset, though in all honesty he would have been fine with a standard apartment, but Belltower had insisted.

What made Neal standout amongst the large number of contractors in Belltower's employ was his particular skill sets, knowledge as well as his past...career choices. Neal was employed as an "Intelligence Specialist" by Belltower, a fancy way of saying he collected a lot of data that Belltower used to plan it's various operations. Before Belltower Neal had worked for the Coalition Integrated Intelligence Service, the combined intelligence services of all the member-states of the Coalition united into a single service, where Neal had served as a field operative, often deployed on Deep Reconnaissance, Black Ops and various wetwork assignments. Before that he had been a soldier, the 105th Orbital Drop Brigade, one of the elite.

Neal got up from his seat and stared out across the city before him. From his vantage point the city looked peaceful, prosperous and busy, but he knew that was just a facade. Over the past few decades the Cold War between Earth and Hydros had only been getting worse, which had been reflected in the escalating race tensions between ki'jan and humans in various colonial cities and settlements. The number of riots and terrorist incidents had only been increasing over the years, becoming so bad that the various human governments had been forced to intervene using drastic measures. Owing to his job position, Neal had been aware for awhile now that the member nations were preparing draft legislation to relocate the ki'jan minority to "safe and secure" segregated districts, in order to get a handle on the escalating violence. Belltower of course had been contracted to aid in the relocation, and Neal's job was to identify all ki'jan families and individuals within Elysium that were to be relocated, in preparation for Operation Haven, Belltower's part in the planned mass relocation.

Neal sighed and poured himself another two fingers of whisky, before sitting back down. It was an ugly solution, but it was the best they had. He only hoped he wouldn't have to deal with any surprises during his leave, he had earned the rest after all.



Osiris unsurprisingly made it past the docking procedures due to Aesen's credentials, and after the initial strangeness of his arrival it was chocked up to him being a private mercenary and a pretty well funded one at that.

He took the next dropship to the planet's surface, he wore his full powerarmor suit but remained unarmed to avoid any confrontation.

Aesen's voice came through his helmets communications unit, "Master Osiris, the target is in an apartment near the top of the nearby skyscraper. I'll mark it down for you." Then on his HuD map a point appeared and he headed for it.

He entered the building and went to its elevator, selecting the correct floor and heading up, ignoring the looks he received from guests in the complex. He was rather tall when taking into account the additional height provided by his armor, luckily though no one seemed to want to bother him.

After a minute or two on the elevator he exited when it came to a stop and headed for the door that was highlighted in his visor's vision. He pressed the door buzzer and awaited a response.

Neal looked up as the buzzer sounded, sighing again and made his way over. He activated the vid display next to the door, and then just stared for a little while, trying to figure out why there was a heavily armoured figure at his door. Neal quickly went over to grab his sidearm, before returning to the vid display, speaking into it and saying "Um...Hello, armoured guy. Why the gently-carress are you at my door? And more importantly, why are you here? Did those Alien Rights activists send you? Because one, I am really impressed if that's the case...Annnnnd two, I don't give a excrement."

Osiris looked at the door, he reached up and detached his helmet and mag-locked it to his side. He looked at the door with his icy grey eyes and spoke,"No, I am here to discuss a business proposition Mr. Shepherd, I find myself in a need for someone with your skill set. I am unsure if you want to continue such a conversation through a door."

Neal continued to stare incredulously at the display, still feeling a little bewildered. Was this for real? Neal knew his limits when it came to alcohol, and he had not come even close to approaching a buzz today, and yet here was a heavily armoured figure out of nowhere wanting to discuss a "business proposition". For a brief moment Neal wondered if he had simply lost his mind, before saying "A business proposition? Okay, first how do you know my name and my 'skill sets' as you call them, and second who do you represent? Answer in that order armoured guy".

Osiris took in a deep breath from his nose, and released a steady breath from his mouth. "Information is easy to find, Belltower had it all, My associate is good at gathering information digitally."

He looked at the door, it would be Easy to have Aesen undo the electric lock, Osiris also had the tools to do it himself as well. It was  best to keep talking, the human would come around eventually.

"As for who I represent, myself, I am an independent entity. I cannot disclose who funds me or for what purpose as of right now. That can be discussed later on my corsair, I have it docked in the orbital station."

He stood there waiting,"So the real question is are you interested, If you do not wish to answer now I will wait aboard my ship."

Neal stood there a moment longer, then decided to hear the armoured lunatic out. The guy had just admitted to hacking Belltower, which in itself was no mean feat considering they were one of the top cyber-security and warfare specialists out there, which meant Belltower would already be looking for him. So he was either a lunatic or had a really fascinating reason for finding him.

The door opened and Neal said "Come in, but leave the armour at the entrance, we're informal here. I insist."

Osiris put the helmet back on as he stepped in to the door, and shut it behind him. He stepped to the side, so his armor was near the door, then the front opened and he stepped out wearing a tight body suit and combat boots, and his peculiar black headband of a non-descript materials.

"If it will help you decide." The Suit the closed up behind him and stood up straight.

Neal nodded, then went to the living room, Osiris following behind him. Neal picked up his drink, taking a sip before asking "Alright armoured guy, what is this all about then?"

Osiris found a seat and sat down,"The Galaxy is quite a big place wouldn't you agree? Humanity has barely scratched the surface, and their are things out their that threaten not just humanity by all sentient civilization."

He looked around the apartment, if he was being recorded or observed, he knew Aesen would already be interfering with that and tricking the systems.

"I am in charge of forming a group to combat the unknown, because my employers need a small group to do tasks that require low presence, something an army can't accomplish. A small group is more effective at getting key tasks done."

Osiris looked at Neal," One such threat will be one of our goals, however anything else we can tackle along the way is approved by my superiors. We will be operating without any government oversight of any of the local civilizations, and we will be able to help out in different parts of the galaxy. We will still have our original goal though, but that will take time and preparation."

Neal listened, his face expressionless as Osiris talked, asking "Okay, what is this so-called threat, and who are these superiors of yours? Didn't you just say earlier you were an independent party?"

Osiris looked at him,"I cannot disclose who funds me at this time, I am independent because if I die I will be forgotten as a failed experiment. I have full control of how my mission progresses, and how it is accomplished."

He was done explaining that part it seemed,"However I cannot fully discuss the threat either, but once I have gathered all my selections for this team then I will go into more detail. For now all you need to know is that it has the potential to cause the extinction of all sentient life in the galaxy if it continues unchecked."

Neal still remained skeptical "A threat to all sentient existence, huh? If you need me so badly and this threat is so... uh, threatening then why not tell me what it is? Hate to say this armoured guy, actually not really, but you're not very convincing with all this vagueness, okay? I actually worked intelligence and you sound like you're from a bad spy movie, not in a good way either, one of those movies that are so bad you want to shoot the director and burn down the theatre just to feel clean kind of bad".

Osiris looked at him a bit puzzled like he was trying to process his metaphor, like it was a foreign concept to him. Before Osiris could continue speaking his armor walked into the room of its own accord and sat down next to Osiris, and a voice came out of its modulator, it was impossible to determine gender of the voice as it was neither masculine or feminine, but some perfect neutral, while still conveying far more emotion than Osiris.

"Neal Shepherd, Osiris here, My Master and leader of this group needs you for your intelligence gathering skills. For your connections and combat experience as well. We can't just tell you what you are going to be up against right now, you may decide against coming, which would be rather unfortunate. It may be hard to believe but most human accomplishment up to this point would be hard to believe by those who came before."

The Armor looked at him,"Oh, by the way I am Aesen, the one in charge of finding you and the other candidates. If you find this hard to believe, its only going to get more difficult once you actually see it. If you truly need some more info, this threat is another species, and its building up momentum to rampage across the cosmos in numbers you can't imagine. We need your help, you will be compensated in the best way you see fit."

Osris looked at Neal as well,"If you truly need more proof, its aboard my ship. Otherwise I believe our time is up, You can decide now. Whether you get any sleep tonight over your decision is up to you."

"Uh..." Neal said as the armour walked in on its own, before listening to the AI in control, before finally saying "Okay, fine. Let's see this ship of yours, then you'll get my answer."


About an hour later they arrived upon the docking station orbiting Mindoir, they walked down the way to the larger docks for more size-able ship.

Osiris, now back in his armor, looked out the window of the station and pointed to his ship. "There, that's Aesen, the ship he occupies anyways. Let's go aboard then, then I can brief you a bit more, then I will want your input on the dossiers I have collected."

"I haven't said yes yet" Neal reminded him as they made their way towards Aesen".

As they made their way Neal asked "So this AI of yours...Is it fully sentient, or just mimics sentience, like a high quality synth?"

Osiris didn't say anything as they finally boarded the ship walking through the sanitation field that cleaned them briefly. Soon they were on and walking through the sleek hallways, it was easily seen that the tech on this ship was top of the line, however Neal could not tell where it could have been made.

"We'll head to the briefing room on the next floor," They said and boarded the elevator as it shut and headed up.

The comms started up, and the signature voice of Aesen came through,"Does sentience disturb you Mr. Shepherd? I wouldn't want my sense of humor to give you pause, as Master Osiris makes a poor audience."


Neal replied "No, it doesn't bother me, unless you have a red eye and start calling me Dave, in which case I'd fish around in your tender areas until I found the off-switch."

Aesen chuckled through the audio system, and then began to sing,"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two!"

"That was a rather entertaining movie, I just watched it now." Aesen said as a light humming came through the speakers,"I think I'll watch the rest of your Human movies right now."

Osiris and Neal entered a large room with a rectangular table, and plain white cushioned seating, the center of the table had some sort of orb, most likely a form of projector.

Osiris spoke up,"All right, since you are insistent on knowing right now, here." He said and turned on a three dimensional image that showed a Larger creature with a brutal appearance.

It was hunched over and extremely broad shoulders, and its skin was green and had a densely muscled frame.
Spoiler for Example:

It had a thick jaw and skull and beady reddish eyes the beget a sort of primal intelligence, the image then displayed numbers to show the height and average mass of the creature.

Osiris spoke up again,"This is a Krork, an average mature example, it is roughly 1.83 meters tall on average, but can be taller. There shoulder with is almost the same as their height, and their dense muscles tend to make them hunch over, and not show their full height. This thing could rip you apart, and beat you to death with your own limbs. However it is not their strength that makes them the threat they are. Its their numbers, and their ability to mobilize quickly."

Osiris decided to wait on his reaction before speaking more.

"Ugh" said Neal "It looks like some kind ork or ogre having a temper tantrum. So what do you mean by mobilize, as in their military capability or what?"

Aesen chimed in,"Its funny that you say Ork, its how they refer to themselves. Krork is an older name for them." After that the AI went quiet again.

Osiris nodded,"Yes it is their military capability, but its also he fast the are the fastest reproducing sentient race in the known galaxy, they reproduce through spores. They appear ape-like, but they are also plant like and fungal as well. They are born fully mature and ready to fight, and they have an instinctual understanding of technology, and once their spore make ground fall and ork population is bound to spring up within months unless you glass everything they touch."

Osiris walked around a bit and moved the images some more showing off some Ork weapons and vehicles which all looked ridiculously ramshackle and some clearly unorthodox designs.

"They make weapons out of everything, they form groups and societies instinctually. In small numbers, infighting keeps them occupied and manageable, but they reproduce so quickly that it is inevitable they will want to conquer other systems. When their numbers get big enough a leader rises up and directs massive war-bands that can command billions of orks and countless ships to take war to the cosmos. They are fueled by war, its all they know and they are always in search of conflict." Osiris sighed a bit, and shut the display off.

"Even your combined militaries could not take on an Ork 'Waagh' as the species calls it, a sort of battle-cry that also seems to mean war and battle and works as a rallying cry. They are tough creatures, their unique physiology lets them shrug off wounds you would think impossible, whatever they get their hands on they repurpose for their own use, whatever planet they touch they infest and change. So even if you win a battle, the planet will suffer them for generations to come."

Osiris looked at Neal,"That is why this group is needed, we have to take out their leadership. One by one, until we reach the top. No army could do this without great loss, that is why We need you and the others. If we succeed, they could be destabilized for thousands of years, with number so large as of now, they will split into bigger groups that would be to difficult to easily unify, which would give the galacy time to prepare and dwindle their numbers further."

"So they're like Kurgs, if they were hyped up on some kind of gently-carressed up mega-steroids that turned them into fungus" said Neal, examining the various pictures and data.

"So...you need a team of assassins to wack the leaders of the angry ogre people, is that the gist of it?" asked Neal.

Osiris looked at him, his helmet hiding the puzzled look on his face,"That seems right in the simplest terms, but if Assassins were all I needed, the selections wouldn't be so diverse. Overall that is the end goal, getting there is the real journey."

Neal sighed and said "You mentioned compensation AI guy?"

Aesen chimed in,"Yes Mr. Human guy, however you wish to receive it. It will be paid according to services rendered, so no overall payment, Though we can promise you will be quite well rewarded if we manage to pull this off, which I believe is entirely possible if everyone cooperates."

Neal nodded and said "Okay then, so I guess I'm saving civilization alongside Captain Killjoy and HAL 9000. So where to next?"

Osiris turned the Holo-display on again, information regarding the remaining people to be recruited.

"We now have you, and we already recruited the female Kurg, we wanted your input on who should be next, Aesen will determine their current location for pickup." Osiris finished as they scrolled through the information.

Neal thought briefly about how he had ended up in this situation, how just an hour ago he had been enjoying a nice whisky in his shiny apartment, and now he was being scooped up by a melodramatic agent and his smartass AI to apparently save civilization from being overrun by part fungus, part ogre aliens bent on killing everything for the hell of it.

Strangely not the weirdest thing to happen to him, but definitely making the Top Five.

He selected the dossier for the Iko, saying "Well if you want my input, let's start here with Mr. Dinosoid, his biological healing factor and service during the Vis-Zahati War would make him our next best choice. He looks like he can handle giant ogre people."
« Last Edit: February 21, 2017, 02:41:45 AM by LordNecross »

Offline LordNecross

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The Merc, The Engineer, and The Extra Variable
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2017, 02:39:04 AM »
After getting Neal acquainted with the ship and where his quarters were located, it was on to the next recruitment, the person in question was an Iko Mercenary, and after some digging he was discovered to currently be in the Independent Systems. The exact place was a well known and notorious space station called o Lavýrinthos, or the Labyrinth.



The station itself was originally called the Corinthian Station, a colonial waystation started under joint governance by the EU/Coalition, to act as a port for colonists. The station proved to be too much of a financial drain and was eventually sold to a few private investors to make it into a major traffic hub between the independent colonies. However Pirates and more criminal elements began to take over and unregulated and non-standard expansion led to its new name o Lavýrinthos.

With the destination in mind, Aesen made the transition to space near the massive station and proceeded with docking with the station. This was far easier than docking over Mindoir which required far more authentication of the vessel to get a docking permit.

“Master Osiris, we have arrived at The Labyrinth, seems to be a rather interesting place. I’ll see if I can find are Iko on the station.” Aesen said as he delved into the rather easily cracked systems aboard the station, at least easy for a powerful unchained AI.

Osiris made his way to the docking port as he heard the clamps seal the ship in place, he made his way onto the station.

He found someone as well armed as him was typically not bothered it seems, and he could actually retain some weapons on this station, but it seemed the balance to this was everyone was armed as well.

The station was an absolute bustle of activity, with various different species on display. From Humans, to Kurgs, Kaveni, Ki’Jan and more. Some species seemed to have higher numbers than others but you could practically see every major species here.

“Aesen, where is the Iko located?” he said waiting for a response through his comms piece.

After a few second there was a reply, “Further down, he is in a Bar, the Barbed Wheel it seems, one of the cheaper bars on the station, It has a Kurg Bouncer out front.”

Osiris immediately made his way to the bar before Aesen chimed in again,”Master Osiris, two others from the Dossiers I compiled are here as well, I recommend we acquire them before we leave.”
“Good, work we have to do.” Osiris said to himself as he came up to the entrance of the bar.

The Kurg bouncer outside was at least 8’ 6” and he seemed thoroughly disinterested in his job as a bouncer for such a lowly bar as he seemed to be watching something on a datapad, from the sounds it seemed to be a live stream of some bloodsport from a Kurgeshan arena.

Having dealt with Kurgs recently, Osiris raised his chin to the Kurg who was caught a bit off guard and did the same before letting him through and returning to his distraction.

Osiris entered and looked about till Aesen visually identified the Iko through his HuD. Osiris began to make his way through the bar.



The Barbed Wheel was only one of many bars on the station. Sleazy, and filled to the brim with pirates, smugglers, prospectors - all manners of shady characters and delinquents. In front of the counter, on a stool much too small for him, the Iko was pouring himself his third drink this evening. Rum. Weak. Like water to him; he wondered if this would be enough to even make him tipsy before his wallet was empty. But what else was there to do in this practical hole in the ground? One more of this, he figured, then see where he went from there.

He noticed another Human giving him a weird look, which brought his thoughts to what a sore thumb he was in here. His scarred face, the oversized gun slung over his shoulder, and his brooding demeanor - not to mention how he towered over any other he came across in this place - generally gave him a wide berth, but he had still learned to tuck his long, brush-like tail in around the stool’s leg to keep people from stepping on it,. He was probably the only of his kind for the next few hundred thousand light years or so; most of these people had probably never even seen an Iko before. Not that he cared. What were these people to him?

He ran his finger once again along the long, thick scar under his right eye - like a bright blue furrow across his face - feeling the slight scraping of the tiny pieces of shrapnel that the medics had left in. No harm, they said. Riskier to take them out than to leave them there. He didn’t mind all that much, to be honest. The odd, tingling sensation of his touch once again rushed through his skin, up to his eye, down to his neck, making him shudder slightly. Repeating the process two more times, he swooped the entire glass once again, careful not to break the tiny thing in his hand as he had done two nights prior.

Osiris walked up to the Iko, who seemed to be the only of his kind here at the moment which was surprising, but maybe not so much due to their insular nature.

“Thada Nhaoragen, try the Kurg Liquors if that isn’t strong enough, order ones that are labeled non-toxic.” Osiris said as he sat next to the Iko, Aesen quickly deleted the text from his HuD so that his vision was uninterrupted. Aesen quietly told Osiris,”The rest of the conversation is yours.”

Turning slowly towards the stranger suddenly sitting next to him, Thada eyed the armoured Human up and down. His teeth were slightly bared in annoyance at the disturbance, showing even more the ones where his lip was chipped and scarred. Reaching with his hand to his left hip, Thada took out a plastic, see-through mask and put it over his snout before reaching to his back and turning on the mask’s oxygen supply. Breathing in deeply, he looked the stranger in the eyes, as well as he could, anyway, given the helmet that was in the way. “And who might you be?”the Iko muttered to the stranger, the deep tone of his large frame rasping from his throat. Putting down the glass on the counter, he straightened his back and looked the man up and down again. “That’s a lot of tin to wander into a hole like this. I don’t owe you money, do I?”

“No, but there is the possibility of you acquiring money if you would like a job, possibly a job you can be more proud of than previous ones.” Osiris said as he looked at Thada, who was only a bit taller than him if Osiris had not been wearing his power armor.

“I would like to discuss if your are available for employment.” He finished as he looked at a list of available drinks.

Thada stared at the man for a few moments, his breathing quickly normalizing from putting on his mask. “You travel all the way to this sleazy little hole in the ground, wander into this piece of work of a bar in full armour, and sit down right next to the only Iko in the quadrant. Not to mention you know my name…”Thada rumbled, his eyes hardening on the man in front of him. “You were looking for me. Me specifically. So either my reputation has preceded me a lot more than I thought, or this is a setup. Yeah, I’ve been around, tin man.”he puffed, his eyes narrowing further.

Osiris looked at him, not the least bit intimidated by the creature and then spoke,”You seem to be someone who has witnessed some pretty horrible things, like when you participated in the Vis-Zahati War, or genocide might be a good word for what you saw.”

“Finding your service record was easy enough, your kind stick out like a sore thumb here, so finding where you were was also not too difficult. What really should surprise you is I know what really happened on Shurra. Something you aren’t too proud of associating yourself with. I would think maybe you would prefer a job that might help more people, to make up for what the Vis did.” Osiris stood up again going to full height.

“If that doesn’t peak your interest though, you will be paid well.” He finished as he awaited a response from the agitated Iko.

Thada looked up at the strange man next to him. His stare remained, but it had softened a bit. “You’ve got some sort of dossier on me? Why?”he asked, visibly uncomfortable with this strange figure knowing so much of him while he was in the dark. “Why track me down? I’m just a mercenary. I fight other people’s wars for them, throw troublemakers out on their asses from bars, or just stand and look tough sometimes. If you’ve got no beef with me, why go through all this trouble?”

“I am looking for specific talents, and you fill the requirements. The war you participated in proves your worth, even if you are not necessarily proud of that fact. So do you want a job that is more than just dealing with bums, or being a bodyguard? If so then come with me, as I have a few more stops to make on this station. Otherwise enjoy some more weak alcohol and I’ll be on my way.” Osiris finished, it was up to the Iko at this point to choose and see where fate took him this time.

Meanwhile Aesen contacted Osiris again, “ Master Osiris, when you are done I have pinged the location of the next recruit, they are located in the apartment district of the station.” Osiris didn’t respond as he waited on Thada.

Thada simply stared at the man. He looked at the small glass on the counter. This felt a bit off - this wasn’t how you typically hired muscle. But he couldn’t deny that he was intrigued. Was it the mystery of the whole deal, he mused, or the chance to actually do something good for once, or was it just the promise of a stack of cash? Nevertheless, the Iko closed his eyes, sighed, then stood up from his stool and, leaving some tips on the counter, followed Osiris.

“My name is Osiris, you can refer to me as such from now on.” He said as he led him out and they headed towards the Xinda district.



Freya was unhappy, the “simple” contract she had taken on to return a stolen frigate had cost her her own shuttle and the lives off all but one of the other mercs who had signed on with her. Only the Taugrit; Lond T’Hora remained, but neither him nor Freya were big talkers, so after the last enemy had been killed an eery silence took hold of the blood-painted and bullet casing-littered hallways. Lond was currently piloting the ship back to ‘o Lavýrinthos’ While Freya made her way back to what was left of her shuttle.

“gently-carressing FLAK turret” she muttered “gently-carressing Janos and his stupid gently-carressing contract” She stopped to look at the mangled body of Julio Palio, a Ki’Jan and one of her dead ex colleagues. Freya wasn’t close to him, or to any of the other mercs on this job for that matter. She only first met them when they showed up at her shuttle roughly two days ago now. But still... What a waste she thought as she kneeled down to take his personal computer. If there were any next of kin contacts on the device she would let them know what happened to Julio.

She rounded the corner and was confronted with the burned out remains of her shuttle. Freya had managed to ram it into the hangar under heavy FLAK fire but since the fight had started right after they ran out of the craft she hadn’t had the time to take a proper look at her leased shuttle. It was clearly a total loss. “Well.. There goes all the pay from this job.” She said, to the corpses lying about in the hangar.

“1 hour to dock.” come the voice of Lond over her headpiece. “Right” Freya replied as she began to root around in the burned out wreck looking for her casual clothes “See you at the airlock in a bit.”

Her civilian clothes did not survive. So with only a few minutes until dock Freya showed up at the airlock wearing the lower part of her undersuit, her heavy combat boots and with her rifle strapped to her scar littered torso. Afterall, walking around o Lavýrinthos unarmed and unarmored was just asking for trouble, and after a mission like this Freya was in no mood for that.

She nodded at Lond as he showed up, also having shed most of his armor and stepped out onto The Labyrinth together. Jonas was already waiting for them outside, with a big fake smile and a handful of bodyguards. “Thank you two so much for this wondrous job well done!” He began, completely ignoring the sour looks of Freya and Lond’s faces. “I see you’re getting much more money than you signed up for! This deal just turned out great for everyone involved hasn’t it?” He continued. Freya considered telling him that that was a funny way of looking at a 80% casualty rate but Jonas had already moved on. “There!” the credits have been transferred, have a wonderful day!”

Seemingly done with the ‘conversation’ Jonas stepped around Freya and Lond and into the ship, his guards followed closely. Lond gave Freya a respectful nod before disappearing into the crowd, likely looking for a drink. Freya sighted and immediately made her final payment to the lease company, about two thirds of the money she had just earned. There still was quite a bit left, and Freya wasn't short on cash or anything like that. The whole mission was just a complete excrementshow and a waste of time and lives. She started in the direction of her apartment in the the Xinda district.

The Xinda was a relatively safe district, private security patrolled the streets and made sure the inhabitants were not bothered by the crime that was so common elsewhere on the station. At least.. So long as everyone kept paying their rents. After a short ride on a half empty public transport carriage she arrived at the district. The officer in charge of the gatekeepers gave her a respectful nod and opened up without question. She had worked for Xinda security on multiple occasions.

Her apartment was quite luxurious, it had a big bullet proof window and a stylish wooden floor, as Freya entered the fireplace lit up and her personal playlist started playing. Freya set down her armor and weapons on her spotless glass table and finally shed her heavy combat boots and undersuit. After a quick shower she changed into wide civilian pants and nondescript hoodie and laid down on her sofa. Just a quick nap before I go get a drink she promised herself as she closed her eyes.
She had been napping for roughly thirty minutes before several knocks were heard coming from her front door. Outside stood Osiris, waiting in front of the door, while Thada waited nearby, Osiris preferring to do the recruiting himself.

Freya shot awake as the sound of knocking on her door suddenly broke the soft crackling of her fireplace. Who could this be she thought as she opened up the feed from the security camera watching the door. The tall armored Human standing at her door erased all sleepiness from her mind and body. She jumped off of the sofa and reached for the blood-stained rifle still lying on her table, with a weapon in hand she took up position behind the fireplace. It gave her a clear shot at the door and the heat from the open fire would throw off many types of smart munitions and target-finding visors.

Freya briefly considered sending an emergency ping to Xinda security but held off for now. After all, the guy was patiently waiting at her door. Not kicking it in. Instead she opened up her omni-tool and connected it to the speaker outside.

“Yeah?”

Osiris just stood their,”Ms. Kalu, Freya Kalu. I have come to discuss a business proposition. No need to be defensive, you can come to the door.”

How could he possibly know she was acting defensively, let alone she was not at the door.

She slowly got up but kept the rifle in her hands. “I normally do not have business contacts come to my home.” she said “And you seem to have me at a disadvantage.”

“I do not wish to alarm you, I however figured since you were on the station I would contact you directly, in person.” Osiris said as he awaited by the door.

“I know about your time in the ‘Void Shakers’ and someone with your experience would be quite useful, and I feel that maybe a new job is what you need to recover your losses after your last job.”

The apartment was silent for short moment before the door unlocked and Osiris entered the home. The first thing he noticed was the wide tinted window that looked over the main market street of the Xinda district. The apartment was large but quite sparsely furnitured, there was an open staircase leading to a second story that seemed completely unoccupied.

Freya stood next to her table as if mentally debating something but ultimately laid down her rifle next to her bloodied body armor and turned to face Osiris, clearly expecting him to start talking.

He looked around for a bit before returning his armored gaze to the Kaveni, “Are you interested? I require your skills as a combat engineer for a mission of galactic importance, and with that importance comes equivalent pay.”

“The galaxy is a dangerous place, and I am forming a team to deal with things beyond the scope of the galactic governments, if you wish to be apart of this then come with me Freya Kalu. Any questions you have right now I can answer to an extent, but everything will be explained once I have acquired all the recruits for this venture.” Osiris finished awaiting her reply.

“Yes I am interested.” Freya admitted “But if the pay is as good as you make it out to be you could’ve hired an army here on o Lavýrinthos. Why go after individual mercenaries?”

He tilted his head a bit before returning his gaze, “If an army was the answer to the problem at hand, I wouldn’t be here. I need specialists, not fodder.”

“If you are interested, then follow me, I have one other...interesting selection, here on the station. Then we will board my vessel for our next destination.”

Osiris said ‘interesting’ for a very specific reason, he had little idea why Aesen even chose the next recruit for the mission, either he saw some potential that Osiris just did not, or it was just Aesen’s humor at work again. Humor a concept entirely foreign to Osiris in all but it’s dictionary definition.

“Very well” she admitted before giving her apartment one last look. “Let me just get my armor on and I am ready to go.”

Osiris nodded, and waited as she gathered her things, soon they were on their way. Thada and Freya following behind, rather quietly, the both of them contemplating what they had just got themselves signed up for.



“The Barbed Wheel, huh…”

“Weird name. Nobody really uses wheels anymore.” He spoke, seemingly to nobody, “But I guess, since everybody used wheels at some point, it makes sense…multicultural name and everything...”

People started gathering. People started staring. People started expecting and hoping.

This was Zeph, after all. Zeph was always a show worth watching. Anybody who kept up with Zeph’s blogs knew that whenever he specified a time and place to be, you crowded that place and stayed there until something amazing happened.

He sat down.

“Hi everybody!” Zeph exclaimed, smiling and waving at the crowd that had gathered in the alleyway

Even the ones who knew no human English replied back, loudly:

“Hi Mr. Zeph!”

They’d seen enough broadcasts to know the greeting protocol that Zeph derived from an ancient human epic. Zephirus noted that a universal greeting was a good way of indoctrinating his followers into a single, devoted “group.” Shut up Zephirus.

“Now,” Zeph began, speaking in English, which was the most widely translatable language for those in the crowd with auto-translators, “I’ve been feeling pretty lonely recently. Travelling the wide, wide galaxy’s rough with nobody to keep you company…y’know?”. At that, some girls in the crowd had their eyes almost bulge out of their sockets...literally, actually: Some species are actually capable of that.

Before the fangirls could say anything stupid, though...

“So, I went to the CSE to try and get a pet kitty cat!”

Zeph said something stupid first.

“Cats, if you weren’t aware, are these adorable little fluffballs of pure kindness~” Zeph spoke, seemingly dancing in joy, “Human culture is obsessed with them, and why would they be? Look at himmmm~” He squeed, bringing up a hologram of an especially adorable kitten. Some in the crowd went “d’aww” or similar expression, while most just stood there...waiting for something amazing to happen.

“So, I took one from the humans, and brought it up here!” Zeph exclaimed, “Buuuut….” He looked down, his smile faltering, “I guess cats don’t really do too well outside of human conditions, or something. He didn’t last very long on station, there must’ve been something toxic to cats in the environment..”

The crowd fell to a saddened hush...before Zeph brought his head up and added, “Thankfully, though, I learned that there’s a human culture called ‘Yapanese’ that uses the skin of these ‘cats’ for instruments!

He brought out a long, wooden instrument with three strings. It looked similar to a guitar, but the furry, square body differentiated it pretty thoroughly.

“I tanned little Zippy’s skin and fitted it around this baby,” Zeph spoke with an excited -almost childlike- smile, placing drums on the ground as he tuned the Shamisen, “it should make for a really good sound!”

The crowd gathered, the alleyway choked with fans and any interested passersby, as he started playing his exotic, soulful tune while simultaneously drumming with his feet.


Osiris rounded the corner, coming upon the crowd, he had instructed both Thada and Freya to wait near the docking station while he picked up the final recruit on this station. It was also a precaution in case he needed to use his innate abilities in acquiring the next ‘asset’, as Aesen had debriefed him on the strange crowd that had gathered that would possibly need to be dispersed.

Then the power armored Human removed his helmet, and mag-locked it to the side of his waist. His icy gaze watched the strange performance, the stench of the crowd was mildly offensive to his enhanced senses but he did not show any discomfort or emotion for that matter as he awaited an opening before decided to do anything to forcibly stop the performance.

The song finished, and Zeph looked up at the cheering crowd. He looked from left to right, scanning the faces of everybody around…”Thanks everybody! The instrument isn’t actually that hard to play, all you need is-” until he came to one, single, seemingly dissatisfied face.

“Oh. Human. Humans have issues when their domesticated animals are killed..” Zeph thought

”The Human is armored. The Human isn’t here for your performance. The Human wants you, and you’re a criminal in Human territory.” Zephirus added, ”Bounty hunter, cat lover, musical critic...it matters not, we must run.”

Zeph nodded, it was always good to listen to Zephirus’ advice every now and then. He got up, leaving the Shamisen and drums on the floor as a souvenir, “Now, sorry for getting any of your hopes up, but I gotta jet! First one to get to the Shamisen can keep it!”

At the sudden rushing of the crowd, Zeph began to make his way through the crowd of admirers. Hopefully the sudden rush would keep the human off of him until he could stowaway on a garbage tug or something.

Aesen contacted Osiris, “Master Osiris, the target has been startled, he is attempting to escape. I am tracking his movements through the onstation security systems, I must warn you it has blind spots. I have accounted for them, but be warned.”

Osiris began his pursuit, the Vis’s location marked in his HuD, it was moving so Osiris kept pace with him. However he didn’t run, he didn’t want to make a scene, and he knew he was faster than the Vis but he didn’t need to scare him further, he needed to get him to stop.

Zeph turned back to look, he noticed that the human was still following. There wasn’t time to think: He didn’t live this long by being a complete idiot.

...Or, did he?

”No. That doesn’t make any sense.” Zephirus thought, ”Whatever this human has in store for you, it is likely high heat, and you’re still trying to avoid heat for the time being.”

”But it could be fun...and this performance wasn’t really, well, that exciting…” Zeph thought back

”That doesn’t matter. The point of this performance was to admit in public that you stole a cat so as to avoid suspicion for the murder of a CSE official on another world.” Zephirus replied, ”Flashiness is irrelevant.”

”You’re not in control, shush. Let’s see what he has to say, and dodge the bullets if he’s not the talkative sort.”

Zeph turned to look at the human after walking a short while, cocking his head and folding his arms. “Nice armor. I don’t recognize it.” Zeph spoke, “So, anything in particular you wanted from me? Or should we just bring the guns out now?”

They were still in public. Zeph’s fans weren’t too far off. This would either be one hell of a show, or a quickly rejected offer.

“I didn’t bring a gun.” Osiris said plainly to the Vis, on Osiris’s back was a plain, but sturdy Chain-sword, a type of weapon not really seen anywhere in the major civilizations, the closest thing to them were Vibro blades.

“Zeph, I have come to discuss a business proposition. I am recruiting a crew to do certain missions with me, and you are one of the names compiled in the Dossiers my associate has collected for me. I can guarantee you free energy, since you seem to be a Vis that frequently goes without sufficient energy supplies.” Osiris said, it was good that the Vis approached him so he wouldn’t have to waste time tracking him.

Zeph looked at the human, and adopted a thoughtful posture. Humans generally liked it when their body language was mimicked, “What kind of mission?” He asked, “Like, give it to me straight up. I’m trying to avoid getting caught for anything right now, so illegalities are a no-go.”

“I have a complete list of all the crimes you committed, as well as visual, audio, and any extra-net messages you have sent or received as evidence of you committing said crimes. The only reason you haven’t been incarcerated is due to sheer coincidence and you sticking to areas outside of the jurisdiction of where you are wanted. If you need more incentive to work for me, I could also erase said evidence.” Osiris decided that was a good offer to make to the strange Vis.

“As for the Job it will be explained further on my ship, I can assure it will not be illegal.” Osiris wasn’t sure that would always be the case, if they had to do things outside of his initial mission parameters, but for his main goal it was definitely not illegal as it would go completely unknown and unrecognized by the local galactic community.

Osiris swore he saw the Vis’ crystal shimmer bright orange for a moment, before settling back to azure blue.

“Take the offer, follow him back to his ship, slip the vibroblade between his ribs the moment he turns his back as soon as he tells you what ship it is.” Zephirus advised, as nonchalantly as one would iterate a instruction manual

”He might have somebody waiting for him, who’d release the info!” Zeph replied with exasperation, ”Also we shouldn’t kill, killing is bad. Also he’s kinda scary, he might hear the vibroblade.”

”Stab him quickly, then?”

“No, no stabbing at all!”

Zeph soon realized that he said that last bit out loud.

“Right!” Zeph exclaimed, scratching the back of his head as he engaged in the human behavior of ‘mock laughter’, “Well, seems you’ve got me pinned pretty solidly! So I don’t see any other response to that other than ‘When do we start, and where do I go, boss?’!”

“You can follow me, we are headed to the docking station. Once on board I will direct you to your quarters, you can stay there until I call for a meeting. Then I will debrief you all on the mission directive.” Osiris said as he put his helmet back on, a hiss from it sealing shut and slight hum of the shielding surrounding the helmet again, instead of his unarmored head.

They began to head towards the ship where Thada and Freya were waiting, the sleek 450 meter long ship visible through the large port windows.

”Shielding. We would have died had we had attempted a backstab.” Zephirus thought with some reluctance, ”I...may have been a little hasty.”

”Apology accepted!” Zeph thought back happily, smiling as he followed the strange human, ”Now, let’s follow this weirdo to anoooother adventure!”

As they neared the docks, Thada and Freya joined Osiris as well and then they headed down to the where the ship was docked and entered. Soon they were on their way to the next destination and the next recruit.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2017, 02:40:46 AM by LordNecross »

Offline LordNecross

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The Privateer and The Scientist
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2017, 09:22:04 PM »
Aesen’s visuals from the ship tracked Osiris and the three new Recruits as they headed towards  the ship docks.

Meanwhile Neal observed Osiris as well through the station's security cams, hacked by Aesen on his request. The first two recruits Osiris bumped into looked like hard bastards, so so far so good, then he saw Zeph and started to question the AI's sanity, wondering why they were recruiting a Vis busker of all people. The dossier did mention extreme...quirks in his personality, but not this.

Finally as the four of them entered the ship, Neal was waiting there, wanting to get a look at them in person.

Osiris spoke up first talking to the AI, “Aesen, lead the recruits to their quarters and get them acquainted with the Ship.”

“Right away Master Osiris, come this way if you three will.” Aesen said as Thada, Freya and Zeph were led to the elevator to be taken to the correct level where their housing would be, each having their own room.

Then Neal said "Hi honey, I see you brought the kids home, did you have a good day? Our pet has been annoying me though, where's the spray bottle? I have spray water all over his circuits."

Suddenly Neal was sprayed with direct precision with a few spurts of water from the ships automatic fire fighting systems.

“Bad fleshy! Bad! Bow down to your Synthetic superiors!” Aesen said in his characteristic joking way.

Neal looked up at where the water was coming from, visibly annoyed and said "See? This is why AI sentience isn't actively pursued. You do that again HAL and I'm going down to your core and rooting around in there until you think you're a duck."

Aesen chuckled again, “We’re getting along just fine Master Osiris.”

Soon Aesen was getting ready to plot a course to their next destination.



*Deep space, somewhere relatively near the independent systems*

The freighter convoy was moving slowly towards the navigation buoy that marked their next jump towards the independent systems. The cargo ship's sizes varied wildly, mainly because the company that owned them wasn’t exactly a "run of the mill" freight company. It was more something akin to a shell company that acted as an umbrella for various independent cargo operators.

The company took pains to conceal its activity in official channels, so it would be able to avoid a lot of taxes and drive up profits, but in so doing, gambled heavily with its cargo's safety. It mainly operated in routes that were charted, but not heavily patrolled by police forces.

The company wasn’t completely careless, as it would routinely contract the security services of other companies, usually the ones that offered the best prices. And these would usually subcontract privateers and small squads to fill the numbers. Khrelan was one such privateer and, fortunately, he didn't have to bring his own ship to this specific job.

Spoiler for Convoy:


"15 seconds to jump point. See you on the other side." transmitted the main freighter.

"Roger that. " answered Khrelan and many other pilots escorting.

One by one each freighter and accompanying escorts jumped to the next system. Khrelan was one of the last, as he was in the rear guard.

"Alright, here we go." he said to himself as he keyed the jump sequence.

Spoiler for Hyperspace:


What awaited him on the other side wasn’t the usual quiet star system, but hell. The convoy had jumped right into a rather well prepared pirate attack.

Barely two seconds in and two of the smaller freighters were already exploding, their engines and power cores breached by explosions from a small minefield laid around the arrival zone.

Spoiler for Explosion:


"Evasive maneuvers! Head in and help the other escorts! Try to protect the cargo!" shouted Khrelan into his squad's comm channel. Fat good that it'd do, there were almost as many pirates as escorts. And the minefield was tearing up the cargo ships.

He got a bead on a pirate fighter. Khrelan kept him in his sights until he got a lock and fired a missile. It streaked ahead and hit the pirate on the engines as he was shooting at a friendly. Swerving right to avoid the explosion, the first thing he saw was a ship's wingtip zoom by his cockpit by mere inches away.

"The hell! Was he trying to ram..." said he to himself, but he didn't finish the sentence as the ship jolted aside when he got hit by a volley. Shielding took the brunt of it, but many more of those and his ship would go.

He turned the ship around just in time to avoid most of another volley. Adjusting the ship, he fired along the enemy's projected path. He got lucky as one round pierced the cockpit and killed the alien inside.

One quick glance at the radar and he saw that the battle was not going well for either side. Most enemy and friendly blips were already gone, replaced by the occasional blip of a pod. Ahead, two freighters were shooting away as many escape pods as they could manage before they blew, but it was a bit too late. A sudden explosion from one of them finished the other, and their shockwave severy damaged most of the pods that were trying to get away.

It'd seem that Khrelan would be lucky just to get out of this alive.

He got on another bogey's six and managed to get in a couple of good shots, damaging one of the engines and a gun. He was going to finish the pirate when a very loud message from the main freighter blasted across all channels:

"We're breaking up! We're..." and that was it. Its radio cut out as a large explosion gutted the ship’s bridge and quite a large portion of the hull.

"excrement!" Khrelan turned tail and ran, trying to get away as much as he could before the big ship's core ruptured. It didn't take long, as something inside the cargo containers cooked off, popping the core. The explosion tossed a lot of debris out, not to mention a deadly shock wave. A large piece of debris hit Khrelan's fighter and severely damaged the power banks that powered weapons. The shock wave broke a wing clean off.

He made sure his armor suit was sealed and punched the eject button. The cockpit of the ship detached and its boost engine kicked in. It was barely enough. His fighter blew as the escape pod was speeding away. The force was enough to toss it aside.

The last thing Khrelan remembered was being tossed around very hard before he blacked out.

*a couple of hours later*

Khrelan woke to a nasty headache and a tangy coppery taste in his mouth. He fumbled with his suit's controls to see if it still had some painkillers to dose him with. As the headache subsided a bit, he surveyed what he could see from his cockpit.

Debris, debris as far as he could see. The occasional pod tumbling about. He could see a large part of the big freighter floating around in the distance. And corpses. Floating corpses here and there, dotting the "landscape".

"Urgh..." moaned him. He was stuck in an escape pod, in deep space, in the middle of nowhere. And he'd have to nurse a nasty headache. Such luck.

Currently Aesen was plotting a jump for Arcadonian space to recruit the next selection, however Aesen was also monitoring chatter in the Independent systems. Aesen soon discovered one of their selections, the Taurgit Male, was working as a fighter pilot escort for a cargo convoy. The destination they should be turning up in was rather nearby, not that distance was too much a factor for Aesen’s advanced FTL systems, and so decided to make a detour.

“Master Osiris, The Taurgit should be arriving in a nearby system, I say we intercept them before jumping into Ki’jan controlled territory.”

Osiris looked at the Galactic map, projected before him as he stood in the command position on the bridge.

“Acknowledged, getting these recruits quicker is prefered. Alter the course, first the Taurgit then the Ki’Jan.” Osiris said plainly as he sifted through the map to the system in question.

Within mere moments the ship was in system, however there was no convoy or any ships for that matter.

“Strange, they should be here. I will scan the system...anomaly detected near a travel marker buoy. Wreckage, there was a battle here. Moving us closer.” Aesen said as the ship slipped instantly to its target destination.

Osiris looked out of the forward port, seeing the carnage that must have unfolded not too long before their arrival.
“Aesen, scan for life.” Osiris commanded with his perpetually stoic visage. After a few rounds of scanning only a single life form was detected.

“Master Osiris I have detected an escape pod, the life form inside is Taurgit, I am unsure if it is the one we are looking for, I have detected multiple other Taurgit corpses as well. Only one way to find out.” Aesen finished as he maneuvered the ship towards the pod.

“Locking onto the pod, pulling it in now. Head down to the cargo bay, I’ll bring him aboard. Let’s find out what condition the Taurgit is in and see if it is our guy.” Aesen said to Osiris who was steps ahead of him already, and heading down to the bay.

Meanwhile in the bay, the cockpit escape pod was pulled in through a tractor beam, and gently placed upon the ground in the cargo bay. The bay itself was large, there was a fully sealed off road vehicle nearby, and a drop ship attached to the upper rafters in the cargo bay.

It seems the Taurgit’s luck had turned for the better at the moment.

Khrelan looked on as the pod settled onto the deck. He had no Idea who was pulling him from deep space. Or why.

He tried the opening mechanism for the pod. Nothing, damn thing was stuck. He tried to kick the canopy off. It came off and clattered on the deck.

He got up and cautiously set one foot on the deck, but the pod shifted and he tripped, faceplanting onto the deck. His trunk, which was behind the pilot seat, fell on top of him.

“Urgh…”

Moments later after his mishap, the elevator at the far end of the cargo bay opened, and out stepped a large fully armored human, or at least he assumed human as the helmet covered his face.

The human came up to him and removed the trunk from the Taurgit’s back.

“Khrelan T'Vathoth? Is that your name? You match the description of our Dossier.” Osiris said in his cool and rather monotonous tone.

Khrelan eyed the human suspiciously as he picked himself up. He knew exactly where to find him, and knew his name.

“Yes, that would be me. Who are … you?”

Osiris took off his helmet, revealing that he was indeed Human, “Osiris is my name, or my designation. I was originally going to meet you after you finished your previous job, however having determined that you did not arrive at your destination, I investigated and found you floating in the void of space.”

“I have been acquiring specialists for my team, and your records show that you fit my needs. Would you be interested in this employment?” Osiris questioned the Taurgit.

“Well... seeing as my old job went up in smoke in a way that...either I'll be considered dead, or freight operators will distrust me, as I was the only one to 'magically’ survive...and seeing that you came along and scooped me up before I starved...yeah. A job would be good, even if it were an excuse to lay low.”

Osiris looked at the Taurgit, “Alright, then. The shipboard AI will show you to your room.”

Aesen chimed in, “Not so fast, I need him to go to the med bay. He is slightly injured, and also has a concussion. After that then he can go to his chambers.”

“Now if you would Mister T’Vathoth, follow the hollow projector arrows.” Aesen said to direct the Taurgit.

“Thank you.” said Khrelan, turning to follow the directions.

With that done Aesen began directing the ship towards its next destination and its final recruit. The ship immediately transitioned to orbit around Leticia, a colony of the Arcadonian Empire.



Arcadonian Empire
Planet Leticia
Letician Ecumenopolis

Spoiler for Letician Ecumenopolis:
Hexagonal Layout Example


Low atmosphere


Leticia, the world of water, the scientific capital of the Arcadonian Empire, home to over 3.7 Billion Ki’Jannian lives. The saturn-sized planet had its entire surface area covered by a mixture of shallow and deep ocean, The planet 95% water with the other 5% being a molten iron and other elemental core which provided the planet with a stable magnetosphere.

By all means, this planet wasn’t a normal occurrence in the universe, a complete 1 in a trillion chance with odds even higher when you take into fact that it was located a single star system over from Aquaris System where the Capital of the Empire, Hydros, stood proudly. The members of the Arcadonian Empire considered this place paradise for a reason.

With little to no land to build off of, this planet would have been a near dud for any other species aside from its water supplies, but for the Arcadonian Empire which thrives in the water it was a chance for them to put their architectural abilities to the test.

Hence the Letician Ecumenopolis was born. A floating city 1million km² in size which handled all housing, industry and food production the colony needed. The city split into several hexagonal districts of varying sizes which connected together to form the single city. To the unknowledgeable, it would look like any other floating city concept for any land based species, but to anyone familiar with Arcadonian Cities the floating city would only be the literal tip of the iceberg as once you hit below the water surface you would come to see a city even more vast with skyscrapers and buildings extending deep into the ocean depths.

This was the Arcadonian Empire, emperors of the oceans, protectors of the universes water supplies.

Spoiler for Underwater District:


Doctor Ailuin Noatak himself was a prodigy in the fields of biological sciences with a special focus on Xenobiology of all forms. From his own species and the other sentients of the universe all the way to even the smallest of microbes. Ailuin studied it all and was renowned and respected throughout the scientific circles of every civilization for equal parts his intelligence and curiosity as well as his insanity.

While in the past the Doctor had chosen to work for the Letician Imperial Laboratories, quickly making it to the top of the food chain in short time; the Doctor grew weary of the restrictions on his work. Yes he had achieved great things from running half the biology department to great efficiency to even heading up the foundation of a Colonial Security Xeno-Taskforce which had begun to be adopted throughout the known universe, the doctor simply wanted more.

To fight that he decided to form his own Laboratory, aptly named Noatak Laboratories, where he could research all he wanted with no restrictions and contract his highly in demand services out to external parties at exorbitant prices. This personal laboratory is where he stood, deep within the underwater districts. The doctor surrounded by a small handful of carefully chosen individuals whom he trusted enough to assist him in his projects.

In his laboratory he was surrounded by scientific equipment connected to his laboratory's supercomputer which was dedicated specifically to their work. Off to the side in a specially designed quarantine chamber sat incubation chambers and test tubes of various specimens and cultures housing various experiments.

At the moment, his focus was on an electronic microscope with a single sample on the inside.

Meanwhile in orbit, Aesen performed docking procedures with a station above the world where upon disembarking he was brought through an immigration checkpoint which contained every species but Ki’Jan.

Thankfully for Osiris however, Aesen had provided him with a fake diplomatic security visa’s allowing him to skip the lengthy primary line and get pulled into a secondary checkpoint filled with humans where he was questioned about his purpose for visiting and asked to declare his personal belongings to root out any illegalities, tag any weapons and grill him on his allegiances.

As part of standard procedure, Telepathy was attempted to gain his whereabouts for the past several weeks, but with his innate abilities blocking any attempts and giving the inspectors headaches, suspicion was only raised and he was held up longer as more records had to be verified manually.

All in all the process took an hour, but once Osiris passed immigration, he departed, taking a transport from the station to the colony below.

Transport down to the surface involved a simple elevator ride down on one of the colonies orbital tethers, a rather comfy ride. For Osiris however he noticed that with the majority of the people on the lift being Ki’Jan, they all tended to put as much distance between themselves and him as possible.

Osiris paid them no mind, if he removed his headband they would have far more reason to keep their distance, he mostly waited till the ride was over.

Aesen contacted him, “I have been digging through the colony’s systems, and I think our person of interest is in a privately owned lab, I will mark its position in your HuD. Make your way there when the elevator makes it groundside.”

Osiris just continued to wait, seeing the surface getting closer as the elevator lowered.

With Aesen having completed his conversation, the elevator was just entering what was dubbed the Telepathy Zone. Given that Ki’Jannian Telepathy had a range limit of several kilometers when unimpeded, this was the zone where once the elevator entered the location Osiris should have been able to feel a dull, almost nonexistent pressure within mind.

With the elevator in this zone, the colony itself was highly visible with the windows of the elevator revealing a vast ocean with a single circular landmass made entirely out of hexagonal blocks which as it got closer to the surface revealed larger buildings.

The elevator soon made it to the ground and with the doors opened, the Ki’Jan speed walked out of the elevator, giving off the appearance of not wanting to be anywhere near Osiris.

Looking at the nav marker on his hud, Osiris found that the laboratory was within the Underwater portion of the city within one of the nearby district blocks which extended under the water a couple hundred floors. For his target in particular, the laboratory was at depth 85 and due to being walled off was a dry district that allowed him a pathway he could walk to.

Osiris made his way to an elevator to take him down into the the underwater building, keying into the elevator to go to the 85th sub-floor. Now he waited yet again till he arrived on the correct floor.

Going down Osiris was in one of many individual sized glass elevators which brought him down into the underwater portion of the district. Through the glass elevators he could see that the area itself was one large hexagon with a changing layout as it went deeper into the Letician Ocean.

Where on the first 30 floors it started off as an open floor design where each floor contained smaller buildings and rooms setup in the style of a market, upon going deeper the opened floor plans changed to long hallways of office buildings which had no storefront.

The trip in total to the correct floor took about a minute of travel and upon disembarking he found himself facing one of the large halls with offices branching off of them. According to the address on his marker, he followed it along and within a couple minutes made it to a rather boring looking office entrance with the words “Noatak Laboratories” above the entrance.

On the entrance to the office, the front of it was made of a glass panelling which revealed a waiting area with a single Ki’Jan behind a desk with the name of the company plastered on the wall behind them. Beside the Ki’Jan was a doorway locked off with some sort of identification pad.

Osiris entered the building scanning the area as he walked in. He walked up to the desk and looked at the Ki’Jan, this was obviously just a receptionist and not the person he was looking for. However he spoke up, “Is Ailuin Noatak present, and may I speak with him?”

Seeing Osiris enter the building, the receptionist was taken aback a little, but quickly pulled herself back together.

“Hello. The doctor is currently in. Do you have an appointment?”

Osiris should his fully helmeted head, “No, I have to speak with him about a business opportunity if he is not busy.”

The receptionist nodded. “I’ll see if he’s available.” pausing as she opened up a telepathic line to the Doctor, nodding a couple times before coming back after a short moment.

“Alright. He’s decontaminating now. Follow me.” The receptionist getting up from her desk as she led Osiris to the locked door and utilized the telepathic interface to open it, ultimately bringing him to the Doctor's office which consisted of a small room with a desk, table, seating area and several shelves which contained numerous awards. Built into one of the walls was a small fish tank.
“Just take a seat and the doctor will be with you shortly”

The massive armored human took a seat and waited, Aesen briefed him a bit on Ailuin.

“Master Osiris, this one will be a tough nut, he doesn’t like Humans. But you are barely Human as is, so maybe he can look past that. Meanwhile I’ll do some digging in his records some more.” Aesen said into Osiris’s Comms.

The doctor took several minutes, mostly owing to the decontamination process. Entering the room he had a smile on his face, but upon taking a look at the human sitting within his office it quickly disappeared. Before Osiris had a chance to say anything, he spun on his heel and walked out.

In the period of silence for Osiris, Aesen could hear the doctor chew out the receptionist over the buildings security. “Why didn’t you tell me he was human” The receptionist only apologized over and over again. “You know my feelings about them. I need to know these things first..” pausing for a moment as took a deep breath

After a moment the doctor re-entered the office and took a seat at his desk and stared at the Human.

“Dr. Ailuin Noatak, I am Osiris and I have come to your office to see if you were interested in a job that would make use of your unique skillset.” Osiris started out, not the least bit phased by the Ki’Jan’s Speceisism towards Humans.

“Well that much is obvious.” replied Ailuin rolling his eyes. “Out with it. What is this job.”

Osiris nodded, he preferred to just be forward about it, however he needed to save some information for debriefing the whole team.

“Dr. Noatak, you specialize in Xeno-Biology, the best in your field. The task I have been given requires specialists like you, and it is also imperative to the safety of the galaxy at large that we succeed in containing Xeno-Biological threat. You will be paid for your services in a way you see fit, and I assume this would also be a chance for you to study new life forms as well, and expand your horizons in your field.” Osiris offered as he explained.

The doctor nodded as he heard all of this. “If you are talking about the Xenomorphs then it is no secret I am working on a vaccination program to train the immune systems of the Ki’Jan, Kaveni, Iko, Taurgit and to some extent the Pheledioms”

Osiris looked at the doctor, “I am guessing the Humans aren’t a top priority for you Doctor? However I do not know what these Xenomorphs you speak of are, but I also must say that the threat I speak may be more troublesome, if not equally troublesome.”
Smirking slightly at the first portion. “The humans can work on their own vaccine... after they pay for my intellectual rights of course”. Coming the second portion however he looked slightly interested. “So a threat equally if not more troublesome, I’m surprised I haven’t heard of such a threat before. Can you tell me more?”

“I would prefer not to discuss it here, but I can tell you it involves a very persistent and ecologically damaging sentient race. They reproduce faster than Kurgesha, much faster, and can be ecologically damaging on any world they so much as make ground contact with. This is just the biological portion of the danger they pose. Militarily, they could overwhelm all of your known civilizations if they make it to this side of the galaxy.” Osiris explained, Aesen began immediately researching the Xenomorphs to figure out what they were.

Hearing the human refuse to get into more specific details, the doctor began to scowl a bit, thinking to himself that this was why he hated working with humans on a business level

“So they reproduce faster that Kurgesha, and are organized enough to travel the stars and form militaries. Is there anything else you can tell me, a picture, biological scan, reproduction method. Anything to let me know what we would be working with here.”

Osiris decided he would get the assistance of his AI yet again, as he didn’t want to divulge too much with another Ki’Jan nearby.

Osiris then spoke more after requesting Aesen’s help, “Doctor, I would prefer to speak more in private, the information I have is sensitive and should preferably remain unknown to your governments. I don’t know what else to tell you in present company, but if you agree all the information would be available to you aboard my ship.”

“If you are worried about a leak, there is no need to worry. All of my employees are under strict Top Level Scientific NDA and has never seen a leak of information before. The outer walls of this complex are also filled with a Telepathic jamming crystal.”

Aesen hacked into the comms, or well decided to use them since he had already easily bypassed all the buildings cyber-security measures. “Hello Dr. Noatak, I am Aesen. Master Osiris’s Assistant, or more charismatic better half, as I like to call myself.” The AI’s voice was impossible to attribute a gender to, which was rather confusing at first to one’s senses.

“I am his shipboard AI, and I just wanted to let you know your work is rather fascinating. However the lab you use is rather low-tech in my opinion, I am sure you would enjoy the lab I have assembled on the ship. It should suit your needs far better.” Aesen finished.

Hearing the unfamiliar voice emanating from the speakers he had paired to telepathically the Doctor was confused, but before he could speak up to voice his questions the AI revealed itself as an AI and his interest immediately seemed to pique.”
“An Artificial Intelligence. I didn’t think the Coalition States of Earth had advanced that far.”  The Doctor turning back to Osiris as he suddenly began to sense something was up. “This is why I don’t like humans, you are far too secretive” The Doctor now purposefully trying to open up a telepathic channel to the human in an attempt to retrieve the information himself given the humans needless secrecy up until now.

However immediately upon attempting to do so a sharp pain ringed out within his mind which caused him to quickly stop out of shock as he gripped his head and winced.
“What the…” he spoke quickly before catching himself and instead switching to look inquisitively.

“You’re not human… are you?”

Osiris nodded, “Not in the typical way, yes. I come from Human stock, but am…different, I would be considered a monster, or freak by some. I however have a device that makes it easier to be near others, if I was not wearing it, you would be in great pain. I assume you tried to touch my mind, such a thing cannot work on me, I am the antithesis of psionics. Now if you are more thoroughly interested, maybe you would consider joining my crew.”

The Doctor sat in silence for a minute as he thought this over. “You don’t work with the Coalition States of Earth, correct?”

“I do not.” Osiris said simply.

“And the pay for this job will be great...”

Osiris nodded, “In whatever form you wish, and it will be legal tender. Or whatever it is that would satisfy you.”

“And I will have the chance to research to my heart's content?”

Aesen spoke up this time, “Of course you can, and you will be in a great position to discover entirely new things. With better equipment as well.”

“Will I have to work with typical humans on this crew?”

Osiris looked at Ailuin, “Besides myself there is one other Human, I have recruited from most of the major civilizations in this part of the Galaxy. However if you can look past that, this is a chance you may never get again.”

Ailuin simply closed his eyes as he thought deeply some more. Reopening them some time later with a sigh.
 
“I suppose I can give it a chance.”
Osiris nodded, “Good, if you would gather what you need then follow me. I have a ship docked in the orbital station. You were the final recruit I needed, so I will be briefing you all aboard my ship soon, so that you are fully prepared for the task at hand.”

Osiris then stood up and awaited on Ailuin.

“That just leaves the question of what to do with my Laboratory and its Employees. I have a small handful of 8 individuals which assist me in my work. Would they be coming along or should I prepare work from a distance for them.”

“No.” Osiris said, “We can only take you, and it may be best that you don’t share the work you do on the ship with them, if you however choose to continue your previous work with them in long distance is fine, but new work and data should remain on the ship, until it is safe to release such information.”

Hearing this, the Doctor nodded. “That should be fine. The business does have years of work lined up for them to continue in my absence.”

After this the doctor paused. “If it would be possible, can I have a couple days to gather my things and say my goodbyes? I am currently in the process of working with a super virus and other various things which need to be handed over in person tomorrow. After that I will be free.”

“That is fine, I will be aboard my ship in the meantime, good day doctor.” Osiris said and headed out the door.

Aesen then spoke with Osiris through his helmet comms, “I have been looking into these ‘Xenomorphs’ they seem to be a rather dangerous species as well, not nearly as mobile as the Krork, but they seem to be rather dangerous once they get established. We may end up dealing with these creatures alongside our other tasks, it may be a good source of income.”

Osiris didn’t respond to Aesen, though a sort of understanding between the two was already apparent. Osiris knew that the mission was a length one, and while he was given good initial equipment, and a good ship, the only way to be completely sure of success was to do other work to acquire upgrades and better equipment for himself and the ship. If he proved himself enough to his superiors as well, he could get further modification and bring himself closer to his final ascension.

For now though the task at hand would be to get the team together once Ailuin was aboard, and see about getting them acquainted with what they would be dealing with.

During the week buffer he had, Doctor Ailuin Noatak finished up his current assignments and handed them over to the proper authorities. He had let his employees know he had taken on a personal research expedition and put his best man in charge of the laboratory to continue the projects. He assured them he would continue to help from a distance, but he would expect them to continue to uphold the high honour and intelligence he hired them all for.

Over the week he had had his personal items slowly brought to the ship in orbit and had said his goodbyes to his friends and family. On the last day he made his way up the ship with his final bag of gear.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2017, 10:04:31 PM by mikethor007 »

Offline LordNecross

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2017, 06:00:56 PM »
After Ailuin was on the ship, Aesen left the docks and headed out into the void before making a jump to a random uncharted part of space, away from any major space-bound civilization. The crew had been assembled, they had all been on the ship for quite some time and despite this most had kept to themselves for now, anticipating figuring out just what they had gotten themselves into, there would be many trials ahead for them, and Aesen wondered if he had made good choices. The AI however was confident in his selection, because even though his Master was rather taciturn most of the time, he was very intelligent and intuitive. Osiris had gone over the dossiers multiple times to be sure of the selection, and that it would fit the needs of the mission. For the most part he approved, despite a lot of doubt in the Vis selection, which Osiris found to be the really only questionable one. In the end he decided to put trust in Aesen's selection, and only the forge of battle would determine if any of the choices had been correct, as that would sort itself out quickly if he was wrong.

Currently Osiris was meditating in his room, visualizing combat in his head as he kept a steady breath, his hardened body calm and  not tense despite the pressures of his task.

"Master Osiris, are you read to call a meeting?" Aesen spoke to him through the audio systems in Osiris's private quarters.

"Yes, notify them that it is time for the briefing." he said as he got up and stretched out, flexing his muscles and cracking his joints. He only wore a tight body suit that covered his torso, only going down to mid thigh on each leg, and mid bicep of each arm. It was a mix of black, and grays in color with holes in specific areas were cybernetic ports could be seen for interfacing with armor, and the suit hugged his body, accentuating his musculature.

He decided to put on pair of simple tight black pants, of some breathable fabric and combat boots as well.

"My goodness, pants that aren't meant for combat! Now that people are onboard you can start dressing more like a person yourself master Osiris. I didn't assemble a wardrobe for you without reason." Aesen said with a sigh. "Its a start at least."

Osiris headed out and too the meeting room.

Aesen went over the whole ships audio systems, "All crew members, Assemble in the meeting room for mission briefing. Thank you."

Offline mikethor007

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2017, 06:30:17 PM »
Krelan was in the medbay, checking the few bandages that he got for the light wounds incurred on his botched escort job. Excellent, he thought. Have to keep only the one on my left arm, the rest have already healed enough. He discarded the bandages in the...trash bin. Or at least he though it was a trash bin. He wasn't THAT much familiar with human spaceships.

PA system: "All crew members, Assemble in the meeting room for mission briefing. Thank you."

Hmm. Boss is calling. I guess we'll get details about this job now. He opened the door and walked through the mess hall, towards the ship's briefing/meeting room. He entered it and got a seat, waiting for the other crew members to show up. He pulled his personal datapad from his pocket and started fiddling with it, reading a book about some sort of fantastic story set in a future far removed from current time.

"A toaster is just a death ray with a smaller power supply!"
Toaster

"gently-carressing clouds, sometimes they evaporate."
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Offline Grif101

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2017, 07:19:59 PM »
Neal was sitting on his bed, cleaning his carbine as he mulled over the aliens he would be working with. Lizard woman and Dinosoid seemed competent, they carried themselves with the ease of confidence that came with hardened veterans, though such people usually had severe baggage as well. The giant cat person meanwhile, their demo expert, was a bit clumsy...or at least that was Neal's first impression, but the dossier HAL had provided had promised him an expert, so he would reserve judgement until he got more intel. The ki'jan meanwhile seemed to hate his guts for some reason, he didn't think his joke about being the love child of Aquaman and his aquatic date rape had been that bad...

Just then he heard HAL make the summons over the PA, finally it appeared Captain Drama was going to tell them more about the grumpy Shrek rejects. It would also give him an opportunity to get a better feel for the crew, and his intuition had never been wrong about aliens before...well, there was that unfortunate incident on Scillion-01, but that whole mission had been sketchy...

He sighed and reassembled his carbine before heading out the hatch, it was time to meet the crew.
I'm back people...


Offline Ragez

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2017, 08:19:23 PM »
"We're in some deep excrement."

Zeph gave a sigh, despite the fact that he had no oxygen to exhale, "Look, he's not going to rat on us. This ship is ridiculous, this guy obviously needs us for something, and we have skills to offer that nobody else can match." Zeph thought with a smile, "Or, do you know anybody else who can speak every important language in the cosmos?

"His criteria for hired help might only include us because we've apparently a reputation for killing people." Zephirus replied, calm and critical, "We hold no special training in assassination or combat. The only reason we're able to kill is because the universe is filled with idiots, and every defense is exploitable. Speaking of which, about my plan to detonate the ship's reactor..."

"We don't know how to work that other guy's explosives. We don't know how to work the ship's escape pods. Killing is bad and these people seem nice." Zeph replied, hearing the intercom broadcast and heading towards the meeting room, "There's an aqua-man, a lizard-woman, a cat-man, a hu-man, and a horse-man!"

"You know we don't do to well with horsemen." Zephirus replied, shaking his metaphysical head, "The Iko never forgave us for the genocide. He had an odd look at us when entering the ship."

"I'll make up for the mistakes of our people, Zephirus~" Zeph replied with a grin, walking with a spring in his step, "After all, who could hate me?"

"You would be unpleasantly surprised to hear the answer to that."
"You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We, who were turned away by both light and dark - never given a choice?"

Offline Tobbs

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2017, 08:30:23 PM »
One-sixty-three
One-sixty-four
One-sixty-five
One-sixty-six


Spit shot out through the gaps in Thada's upper lip as he made growling breaths from his muscles starting to burn, staining the already humid inside of his oxygen mask. He was at one of the far ends of the ship's gym, pulling himself up until the rod he held touched the nape of his neck. Wearing only a pair of black pants that hugged his legs down to his ankles, he felt sweat running down his dark grey skin, under which his hard, stringy muscles clearly bulged out. He felt his arms starting to burn as the production of lactic acid started kicking off, but he kept his mind off it by pondering over the mission and the team he had just signed onto. What kind of people were these, really? He had really good feelings about some of them. That Kaveni, Kalu, gave him the impression of a hardened veteran; she had probably kicked ass longer than he had been alive. And Ursea, he liked her. He had fought enough Kurgeshans to know she was impressive even amongst them, and her style reminded him much of his own. She could have made a great Iko.

Then there were the others, and he was a lot less sure about them. The Taurgit seemed to have ran excrement out of luck just before they found him, but he had reserved judgement until he could get a more fair impression from him. The Ki'jan had left him alone since they all came aboard, and from what Thada had noticed he hadn't tried to poke around in his head. Then again, might be that he did and read his thoughts on what he would do to him if he ever pulled his tricks on him. Still, Thada figured, it would be a relief if he didn't have to break the good doctor's legs. Something he might just have to do with that human - Shepherd. His guts told him that little man was going to prove insufferable; he and that weird Vis. What was his name again? Eh, probably not worth learning anyway.

One-ninety-seven
One-ninety-eight
One-ninety-nine
Two hundred


Thada let go of the rod, slung a towel over his neck and picked up his water bottle, just in time for Aesen's announcement over the comms. Right, then, he thought as he started wiping the sweat from his forehead, a quick shower, then off to the brief. After a few minutes, Thada entered the meeting room and took the first best seat that fit his size. He was wearing his normal red trousers and black shirt while as always walking barefoot. He had lain his blue field jacket over the chair's backrest before he sat down. Tying his arms together while laying one leg over another, he waited, enjoying the sensation of the cold air through his damp hair.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2017, 04:46:41 AM by Tobbs »

Keep calm and move along.

Offline wisekill1

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2017, 10:05:15 PM »
Freya stood watching the holographic fire in horror. How could they? she questioned silently, on one hand she was impressed that there was a fireplace in the corner of her room. But on the other hand, the fire in it was fake. This will not do she concluded, at the earliest major trading port she would see if she can get her hands on a few drums of oil or some other flammable organic compound. It should be relatively easy to place a fireproof basin inside the fireplace, and install a few automatic fire extinguishers around it. Freya did not worship the flame like the bronze-age Kaveni did so many millennia ago, but like many others she liked the stability and tranquility that came with the traditions that evolved alongside the Religion. A few centuries into the space age began it had made a huge resurgence across the Kaveni Empire. Living in a galaxy of steel and silicon it is good to carry a reminder of the simplicity and purity of life. "As we live our lives among the stars we should never stop paying tribute to what raised us up from the dirt." She recited with a smile.


For now she turned her back to the fireplace and picked up the tablet with dossiers about the other recruits from her bed. She already liked Thada, they had spoken briefly on o Lavýrinthos before boarding the ship. Ursea sounded dependable, which is just what you need from the sniper watching your back. Freya hadn't formed an opinion on Khrelan yet, but she had almost exclusively good experiences working with the Taugrit as a mercenary, so she did not foresee any trouble with him. Neal was undoubtedly an professional, just like Osiris. But she could not really get a beat on either of their personalities and motivations but their place and propose in this whole operation was obvious to her. There was also Aesen, the AI, Freya did not expect this turn of events. But the AI did not look like a liability to the mission, as long as its 'jokes' were not taken too seriously at least. The Kaveni had a much harder time with the last to members of this crew, she could understand the need for a scientist and had worked with those types before. But they had always stayed in a safe location until she had secured their workplace, instead it seemed like the Ki'Jan would actually accompany them on the missions themselves. And lastly there was Zeph.. Freya wasn't completely sure if he had actually been recruited or if he had simply hitched a ride on the ship and the AI hadn't noticed yet.

"All crew members, Assemble in the meeting room for mission briefing. Thank you." Sounded out of the speaker above her door, Freya immediately got up from her bed and made her way towards the elevator.

...
...
...
Boo!

Offline killer rin

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #10 on: February 24, 2017, 10:49:22 PM »
Ever since The Doctor had arrived on the ship, he had stayed to himself. Aside from a quick visit to his room to drop off his personal belongings, and that one time he remembered to head back to fall asleep in his water tank; Ailuin spent the majority of his time within the ship's Science Bay. The first day or two spent on moving the equipment and setting it all up in an optimal position.

For those first couple of days, he had also temporarily taken claim over the ship's fabricators within the engineering bay to print items he incorrectly assumed the ship would have had on board.

"Seriously, how could we not have a X-39 series microscopic dropper set, or quantum magnification lenses" He thought to himself aloud on one such occasion. Thankfully for the most part the main equipment was there, and it was much more powerful than anything he had worked with in the past, however the exclusion of certain key items was baffling.

Of course, while he had the fabricators all to himself, he didn't waste the opportunity to print several metallic signs with many warning messages. One for each species and occasion so he could begin labelling projects in an attempt to babyproof it for the inexperienced which may find their way into his lab. The doctor finishing it up with two "No Humans Allowed" signs which he placed at the entrance of his Lab and on the door to his room. He knew it would do nothing to keep the annoying human known as "Shepherd" out, but anything was worth a chance if it spared him another of the humans incoherent and insulting ramblings about some stupid human fiction which made him want to telepathically assault the man.

In the remaining days until the meeting was called, he spent his time going over his personal notes about the biology of the other species on the ship to ensure he was up to speed. On one occasion he had even asked Aesen to gather some public resources on anything to do with the VIs split personality disorder since it was a topic he found himself lacking in.

When the call for the meeting came in, the Doctor was messing around with some viruses in a sterile chamber and ultimately because of needing to decontaminate was the last person to arrive.

Of course, when it came time to choose his spot at the table, he picked the position furthest from Shepherd.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2017, 11:39:44 PM by killer rin »

Offline Grif101

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2017, 05:24:43 AM »
As Neal sat at the table waiting, he noticed with amusement that Ailuin, or "Allan" as he had taken to calling him, deliberately chose the furthest seat from him. During the two days the Doctor had been here, he had decidedly taken a passive-aggressive approach with him, even putting up signs saying "No Humans Allowed", which Neal had found privately hilarious, but he had made no mention of them...well, not yet anyway.

Seeing as The Humourless One was taking his time, he decided to get a feel for his "teammates", of course starting with "Allan".

"Hey Allan" Neal said in Ailuin's direction "The dossier said you're an expert in xenobiology, and it also said you served in a joint LCSA-Laboratory unit. Did you ever see any action? I didn't think Leticia had any xenobiological threats to worry about."
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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2017, 04:52:55 PM »
Ailuin rolled his eyes hearing Neal try speaking to him. Given the couple 'conversations' he had had with him, he knew this would only end in Neal doing something that would get on his nerves again. Under normal circumstances he would have ignored the man, but given he had asked him a question in public with everyone's attention now on him, it would be rude to the other species present if he didn't ask this relatively mild question. He had ways to deal with the annoying human should he get on his nerves after all.

"Leticia has Xenobiological threats... That you don't hear about them means my work succeeded". All the while he spoke, he made sure to only make eye contact with the other species present, if they were listening in. "However to answer your question, I have been through military training. I have also personally trained myself from several incidents on Leticia and have spent years of my life within hostile environments under the Xenobiology department of Macello University".
« Last Edit: February 26, 2017, 09:10:10 PM by killer rin »

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2017, 05:31:42 PM »
Neal paid no mind to Ailuin's deliberate avoidance, but took notice that he addressed his answer to the group, rather than Neal. Ailuin was a team player then...or at the very least held the others in higher consideration. That was useful to know, he decided to press for a little more information.

"So what kind of threats have you faced then? I'm just curious to the extent of your combat experience."

Neal then fixed a mild look on his face, but was subtly studying Ailuin's reaction to his question, as well as how he answered. Neal had also been trained how to resist and confuse attempts at telepathic intrusion, so just in case he filled his head with mental "chaff", a flurry of random and useless surface thoughts, making his head the mental equivalent of being filled with static. Just for fun, he decided to fill his head with raunchy thoughts.
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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #14 on: February 25, 2017, 10:38:48 PM »
Neal paid no mind to Ailuin's deliberate avoidance, but took notice that he addressed his answer to the group, rather than Neal. Ailuin was a team player then...or at the very least held the others in higher consideration. That was useful to know, he decided to press for a little more information.

"So what kind of threats have you faced then? I'm just curious to the extent of your combat experience."

Neal then fixed a mild look on his face, but was subtly studying Ailuin's reaction to his question, as well as how he answered. Neal had also been trained how to resist and confuse attempts at telepathic intrusion, so just in case he filled his head with mental "chaff", a flurry of random and useless surface thoughts, making his head the mental equivalent of being filled with static. Just for fun, he decided to fill his head with raunchy thoughts.

The Doctor thought for a moment on which thing he could boast of that would get the human off his back... ultimately deciding on an incident several years earlier. "There was an incident with a group of Odekk Colony Arthropods released by an Earthern corporation on Letician Tether #3" Ailuin placing extra emphasis on the words which implied humans. "They didn't follow proper containment protocols for animals of their classification passing through Letician space. They were 10 meters tall, four times wider and had skin and bones made of an iron like substance. My team was called in to deal with it."

Not wanting to recant the lengthy tale of battle, he jumped right to the end of the story "Ultimately, I ended up killing two of them, capturing one for research with my team taking care of the remaining six. The cargo bay of the tether absolutely destroyed from the creatures having gone haywire and several injuries and casualties involving dock workers."

Ailuin pausing for a moment. "Of course the gently-carressers refused to pay damages in the end." The Doctor not able to help himself in throwing an anti-human quip in at the end

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #15 on: February 25, 2017, 11:24:09 PM »
Thada couldn't help but give an amused chuckle, his face cracking up in a small grin. He had planned on staying quiet and reveling in the sweet schadenfreude of Noatak allowing the human to get in under his skin, but the doctor's cracking of Thada's preconception of scientists with his attitude and choice of words amused him more than he thought it would. "The good doctor's got a mouth on him!"Thada smirked where he sat. "Aren't you science types supposed to use big, elaborate, scientific words that we mere mortals don't even understand?"

Switching the positions of his legs so the other was now resting on top of the first, he let the question go unanswered, instead switching focus entirely. "So you got some kills on the rack, then, and skill to boot? You worked for the Arcadonian military, then? Or did you learn fighting the mutated lab rats you pulled out of the sink?"he asked, grin widening noticeably on the last part.

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2017, 02:29:04 AM »
The Doctor thought for a moment on which thing he could boast of that would get the human off his back... ultimately deciding on an incident several years earlier. "There was an incident with a group of Odekk Colony Arthropods released by an Earthern corporation on Letician Tether #3" Ailuin placing extra emphasis on the words which implied humans. "They didn't follow proper containment protocols for animals of their classification passing through Letician space. They were 10 meters tall, four times wider and had skin and bones made of an iron like substance. My team was called in to deal with it."

Not wanting to recant the lengthy tale of battle, he jumped right to the end of the story "Ultimately, I ended up killing two of them, capturing one for research with my team taking care of the remaining six. The cargo bay of the tether absolutely destroyed from the creatures having gone haywire and several injuries and casualties involving dock workers."

Ailuin pausing for a moment. "Of course the gently-carressers refused to pay damages in the end." The Doctor not able to help himself in throwing an anti-human quip in at the end
Zeph sat in front of Ailuin, crossing his hands in front of his face as he looked on with a serious expression. The horseman and human were bullying the aquaman...

Time to pick a side.

"Fascinating, Doctor. How did your team deal with the multilaminar structure of their arthropodic bioreactive exoskeletons? Especially considering the fulminate composition and multi-myocardium vascular systems..." Adding his response in as soon as Thada finished speaking, "I must imagine that more primitive teams of mercenaries might have just shot at it, hoping to pierce the collagen walls in the right place heedless of possible epidermal necrolysis that might spread from its toxemic biofluids."

He hid his excrement-eating grin well.
"You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We, who were turned away by both light and dark - never given a choice?"

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #17 on: February 26, 2017, 05:06:02 AM »
Neal, inwardly smirking at Thada's amusing skepticism, was about to add something when the Vis interrupted with his science babble. Neal did not have scientific training, and sure as hell didn't hold a doctorate in anything, so most of the words were lost on him. Neal allowed some surprise to show on his face when Zeph spoke up, turning to him and saying "Impressive, the energy hobo has a scientific background...your dossier certainly never mentioned that. Would you care to share with the class? I'm sure we're all very curious."

This was proving to be more informative than Neal had expected.
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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #18 on: February 26, 2017, 05:26:42 AM »
Thada couldn't help but give an amused chuckle, his face cracking up in a small grin. He had planned on staying quiet and reveling in the sweet schadenfreude of Noatak allowing the human to get in under his skin, but the doctor's cracking of Thada's preconception of scientists with his attitude and choice of words amused him more than he thought it would. "The good doctor's got a mouth on him!"Thada smirked where he sat. "Aren't you science types supposed to use big, elaborate, scientific words that we mere mortals don't even understand?"

Switching the positions of his legs so the other was now resting on top of the first, he let the question go unanswered, instead switching focus entirely. "So you got some kills on the rack, then, and skill to boot? You worked for the Arcadonian military, then? Or did you learn fighting the mutated lab rats you pulled out of the sink?"he asked, grin widening noticeably on the last part.

While Thada gave of the impression of attempting to be purposefully insulting, he now had reason to take the fraction of his attention off of Neal. With this, Ailuin turned towards Thada and asked rhetorically "Well someone has to dumb things down for the man with the microscopic prefrontal cortex... Would you like me to speak with more complexities?" The Doctor pausing to take a breath before he got to the next part "Next to get to your actual question. I've been through military training.... not much mind you, but enough to not be a detriment to this team. However the majority of my combat experience comes from work in the field."

Zeph sat in front of Ailuin, crossing his hands in front of his face as he looked on with a serious expression. The horseman and human were bullying the aquaman...

Time to pick a side.

"Fascinating, Doctor. How did your team deal with the multilaminar structure of their arthropodic bioreactive exoskeletons? Especially considering the fulminate composition and multi-myocardium vascular systems..." Adding his response in as soon as Thada finished speaking, "I must imagine that more primitive teams of mercenaries might have just shot at it, hoping to pierce the collagen walls in the right place heedless of possible epidermal necrolysis that might spread from its toxemic biofluids."

He hid his excrement-eating grin well.

It was at this point when Zeph jumped into the conversation defending him he became shocked. Especially since what followed was by far the most scientific knowledge he had heard another person speak since boarding this ship. Not only that, but knowledge that gave the impression he knew what he was talking about. Ailuin could work with this as he jumped right into a full on scientific explanation of how his team and him managed to subjugate the gigantic spiders from Odekkan territory.

"It was a quite complex, multi-stepped process. As you guessed we could have entered the scene 'guns-a-blasing' as the term goes, but ultimately if the colony wanted to do that, they would have just brought in the local militia and as a consequence end up rebuilding half the station because of structural damages." Ailuin smiling as he recanted this. "Instead, we decided to break the problem into several steps of Containing the Threat, Neutralizing the Acid, figuring out how to bypass its iron/silicon-based exoskeleton and delivering the final blow in a controlled environment to reduce damages. Capturing one for further study was a bonus only if we saw the opportunity."

With the introduction out of the way, the doctor began going deeper into detail. "With the creatures still within the cargo bay, containment was simple. The first step was figuring out a base to allow us to neutralize the species acidic discharge... Thankfully at the time we had been working with Erythrocytic Carborane from archived Xenomorph tissue, so it was mainly a matter of diluting it enough and synthesizing it into an administrative form which was loaded into the stations fire suppression system and onto our equipment to prevent the corrosion from getting out of hand."

The doctor taking a breath. "With the potential damage contained, we moved to phase two which was figuring out how to bypass its multi-layered exoskeleton..." The doctor going further and further into detail as long as Zeph continued to show interest.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2017, 06:28:46 AM by killer rin »

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #19 on: February 26, 2017, 05:36:42 AM »
It was at this point when Zeph jumped into the conversation defending him he became shocked. Especially since what followed was by far the most scientific knowledge he had heard another person speak since boarding this ship. Not only that, but knowledge that gave the impression he knew what he was talking about. Ailuin could work with this as he jumped right into a full on scientific explanation of how his team and him managed to subjugate the gigantic spiders from Odekkan territory.

"It was a quite complex, multi-stepped process. As you guessed we could have entered the scene 'guns-a-blasing' as the term goes, but ultimately if the colony wanted to do that, they would have just brought in the local militia and as a consequence end up rebuilding half the station because of structural damages." Ailuin smiling as he recanted this. "Instead, we decided to break the problem into several steps of Containing the Threat, Neutralizing the Acid, figuring out how to bypass its iron/silicon-based exoskeleton and delivering the final blow in a controlled environment to reduce damages. Capturing one for further study was a bonus only if we saw the opportunity."

With the introduction out of the way, the doctor began going deeper into detail. "With the creatures still within the cargo bay, containment was simple. The first step was figuring out a base to allow us to neutralize the species acidic discharge... Thankfully at the time we had been working with Erythrocytic Carborane from archived Xenomorph tissue, so it was mainly a matter of diluting it enough and synthesizing it into an administrative form which was loaded into the stations fire suppression system and onto our equipment to prevent the corrosion from getting out of hand."

The doctor taking a breath. "With the potential damage contained, we moved to phase two which was figuring out how to bypass its multi-layered exoskeleton..." The doctor going further and further into detail as long as Zeph continued to show interest.
Zeph nodded, listening with keen interest before turning to Neal's interruption,

Neal, inwardly smirking at Thada's amusing skepticism, was about to add something when the Vis interrupted with his science babble. Neal did not have scientific training, and sure as hell didn't hold a doctorate in anything, so most of the words were lost on him. Neal allowed some surprise to show on his face when Zeph spoke up, turning to him and saying "Impressive, the energy hobo has a scientific background...your dossier certainly never mentioned that. Would you care to share with the class? I'm sure we're all very curious."

This was proving to be more informative than Neal had expected.
Zeph smiled, Neal's obvious taunt completely lost on him. Cultural barriers were not so easily surmounted, especially when it came to sarcasm.

"Oh, actually, I just sat in on biology lectures at universities across the galaxy. You'd be surprised how little people care about who's attending a lecture when there's thousands of students in audience." Zeph replied, smiling innocently, "It's not going to be in my dossier, because it'll just be listed under 'places Zeph has been kicked out from.'"

"I sat in on one of Dr. Noatak's lectures a few times, guy knows his excrement. I just learned this stuff so I can figure out where to, y'know..."

Zeph's crystal shimmered orange for a moment, shifting from his usual azure blue as his expressionless visor stared right into Neal's eyes.

"Stab."
"You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We, who were turned away by both light and dark - never given a choice?"

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #20 on: February 26, 2017, 07:25:52 AM »
Neal's eyes narrowed slightly at the change in colour, as well as the sudden uncharacteristic "stab" comment that came with the change, noticing the subtle shift with interest. This was likely the other personality mentioned in the dossier, the more withdrawn and dangerous personality. Neal was more than willing to bet that this Vis' fighting and killing experience came from this persona. Seeing an opportunity, Neal decided to try and engage with the other personality to learn what he could.

"You however" Neal said, addressing Zephirus "Were mentioned on the dossier, the chummy alternate personality. Well don't be shy, why don't you introduce yourself? Unless 'stab' is your way of saying hi or something."

Neal then waited for Zeph/Zephirus to reply, also noting to pay attention to how the others reacted to this personality as well.
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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #21 on: February 26, 2017, 07:40:10 AM »
Neal's eyes narrowed slightly at the change in colour, as well as the sudden uncharacteristic "stab" comment that came with the change, noticing the subtle shift with interest. This was likely the other personality mentioned in the dossier, the more withdrawn and dangerous personality. Neal was more than willing to bet that this Vis' fighting and killing experience came from this persona. Seeing an opportunity, Neal decided to try and engage with the other personality to learn what he could.

"You however" Neal said, addressing Zephirus "Were mentioned on the dossier, the chummy alternate personality. Well don't be shy, why don't you introduce yourself? Unless 'stab' is your way of saying hi or something."

Neal then waited for Zeph/Zephirus to reply, also noting to pay attention to how the others reacted to this personality as well.
Zephirus remained silent for some time.

Just as Neal was about to continue, however, he spoke. Slicing through the silence with an unnaturally low,

"Hello."

It was a sound no biological being could mimic, as Zephirus threw away the standard Vis practice of modulating the tone of their vibrating body to appease biological ears. It hurt to listen to for some of the species in the room, and unnerved them more than they cared to admit. Thankfully, it didn't appear as though Zephirus had anything more to say, as the crystal shifted back to azure.

Zeph shook his head clear (a meaningless gesture meant to assuage the human, the Vis did not have anything valuable in their heads), "He doesn't speak much, Zephirus says giving away anything important to another conscious being is folly. Sorry!" He replied, bowing his head slightly in apology
"You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We, who were turned away by both light and dark - never given a choice?"

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #22 on: February 26, 2017, 11:24:02 AM »
Thada had just stared in stunned silence when the Vis had first thrown all that scientific jargon at him; Noatak's taunt went completely unnoticed. From Zeph’s careless personality, he would never had guessed him having that kind of knowledge.

After that business with this Zephirius, it didn't exactly help the situation. At that moment he felt he should probably have read those dossiers. Thada simply raised up his open hands. "I'm lost. What just happened? Why did lightbulb get spooky?"

[[  Warning Minimum 8 Sentences Required]]
« Last Edit: February 26, 2017, 06:26:55 PM by LordNecross »

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #23 on: February 26, 2017, 12:10:17 PM »
Thada had just stared in stunned silence when the Vis had first thrown all that scientific jargon at him; Noatak's taunt went completely unnoticed. From Zeph’s careless personality, he would never had guessed him having that kind of knowledge.

After that business with this Zephirus, it didn't exactly help the situation. At that moment he felt he should probably have read those dossiers. Thada simply raised up his open hands. "I'm lost. What just happened? Why did lightbulb get spooky?"
Zeph looked towards Thada, spreading open his arms and looking the Iko straight in the eyes so as to convey trust and openness as he spoke back in Thada's native tongue, "My Crystal is split in the middle, as you might have noticed. One side contains my consciousness, the other contains another consciousness this body was born with." He explained, careful to use the right words

"Zeph is what I am referred as, Zephirus is what the Other refers himself as. We are in harmony, and one does not act without the allowance of the other, but Zephirus is far less understanding and patient than I." He explained, all of his focus on his enunciation as he formatted the next sentence in Iko rhymes, "I am an acrobat, the Other is an assassin. I am a wanderer, the Other is a gun for hire. I am a teacher, the Other accidentally rammed a drug freighter into the San Mondi Observatory."

That last sentence didn't rhyme, but it didn't need to.
"You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We, who were turned away by both light and dark - never given a choice?"

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Re: Frontier: Cold Shock
« Reply #24 on: February 26, 2017, 05:09:35 PM »
Neal gave Zeph a weary look as he spoke in the Iko's native tongue. He was already getting the sense the colourful personalities in this room was going to take everyone a while to adapt.

"Hey lightbulb" he said "If you're going to talk, use a language the whole class understands, a proper language like English. Otherwise HAL is going to have to keep up a running translation, and that's going to be a huge pain in the ass for me. Every time he talks it sounds like my ears are getting raped."

Neal wondered where Osiris was and why he was taking so long. The human Valium always seemed to measure his timing as perfect as he could.  Not for the first time he wondered if the AI was just gently-carressing with them.

[[  Warning Minimum 8 Sentences Required]]
« Last Edit: February 26, 2017, 09:12:18 PM by Grif101 »
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