NationStates Jolt Archive

For months, ships had arrived at neptune, some were small, smaller than a hundred meters in diameter, others were true behemoths, more than 500m long.

They had delivered materials, tons upon tons... countless amounts. There hadn´t been much talking, though, since the 'crew' of such a ship was usually just the human core... And that was it.

However, this was about to change. The newest ships weren´t cargo freighters... They were passenger ships, carrying engineers, specialists, the best of the best...

They would be needed, since what they were about to do had never been done before..

Well, at least not by Angstians.

---

Michael entered the room, silent, watching Maria, lying in her chair, her eyes closed, a couple dozen cables running from her spinal cord to a couple of machines.

He knew that she was in charge of controlling a couple of hundreds of drones, constructing the giant they had come to construct. He stepped near, listening to her soft breath, being careful, so she would not hear him. Finally, when he was standing next to her, he bend forward, his lips were almost touching her cheek...

"I heard you coming."
"Damnit. And I thought I could fool you this time." He kissed her, chuckling. So did she, for that matter.
"Please... This job is important, you know?"
"Yes, I know... How far have you come?"
"Surprisingly far. Luckily, Neptune`s orbit is not even nearly as chaotic as Earth, or Mars, or Jupiter. I can do almost everything I want."
"Come to think of it... Abusing drones as chess pieces in orbit..."
Maria laughed. "Please, Michael. I can`t concentrate on my work if you´re distracting me all the time."
"Sorry. Well, see you later, then. They play Shadows in the Moonlight today."
"Well... if you´re paying."
"Actually, you´re getting a higher salary than I do..."
"Pft. Forget it."
"Ok, ok..." He smiled. "Later, then. At eight?"
"Eight thirty."
"Ok then. I hope you wear that little dress from last week..." He grinned, stroking the cables attached to her spinal cord. They were smooth, like her skin, although entirely black. Why don´t they use pink cables? They would suit her.
"You`re a dirty man, did I ever tell you that?"
And you like it. he answered, now using his mind, rather than his mouth.
True, that. She giggled, as he kissed her again, this time on her lips. I might even reward you with something special.
Oh... I can´t wait for your gift. But I need to go now, my dear.
How cruel...

Finally, he left the room, as quietly as he had entered it.

While this, and other conversations (Like the one in the tech center, where the technicians were wondering why TADCU 23 'Maria'`s temperature had just risen by 0.7 Kelvin) took place, the orbit of Neptune seemed to explode with activity.

Hundreds, thousands of drones had begun the construction. Something strange...

It seemed to have an almost giant, but entirely empty hull, at least this was what a major part of the construction looked like. It was divided into several subsections, each of them just as thin (Relatively thin, after all, it needed to withstand a considerable dangerous environment), if not thinner, than the outer hull...

And then there was a much smaller 'thing'. Not spherical, nor elliptical, as most DA space constructions were, but... bulky, looking... odd.

Of course, both 'things' were still in a very early phase of their construction, far from being completed. But the drones around them, building them up, increasing their size, giving them a new, a better form... It was a considerably fast process, althought the fact that most parts were already there, just waiting to be used, combined, united into a single entity was surely a reason for the fast progress.

DAT, Poseidon

Poseidon, underground complex in the Triton colony, was a considerably boring place. Aside from the bit of traffic coming from, or going to the Sisgardian Craftworld, and the occasional NYNJ vessel on its way to or from Charon, almost nothing ever happened at Neptune... And only very few ships would actually have someone going down here.

So, all there was were, in fact, the bored miners, a few soldiers not knowing why they were stationed on such a dead outpost, a couple of hundreds of thousands of failed existences who had considered Triton a chance for a new beginning (Unfortunately, they had been wrong. Triton wasn`t a new beginning, it was the end. Always.) and the administration, usually arguing over various responsibilities, hardly able to act together... Or to act at all.

Hans Gruber was one of the three 'highest authorities' in the colony. Well, the official highest authorities. As a matter of fact, since neither one of the three could agree with each other, they were unable to decide upon anything, resulting in the colonies status as DA`s largest waste disposal. However, today, he was fairly active. And, surprisingly enough, he actually agreed with the two other 'highest authorities' in the colony, Max Schönbaum and Susanne Beigen.

"This new project... Is a threat for us. It basically says 'Hey, you suck, so we build something new. And you can rot in hell.'. We can`t allow this project to be continued."
"I agree." Susanne`s long, blonde hair looked beautiful, unfortunately, it was nothing but a distraction, for the brain beneath it was nothing but a poisonous trap for everyone stupid enough to fall for her beauty, not realising the darkness it covered. "And we cannot allow this to go on. Our careers... anything we worked for so hard... will be lost."
"Yes... And the f*ckers desposing of us by sending us here will have their laugh. I will not accept such a possibility."
"I see... Good, so we agree. Next question: How do we end this insanity?"
"How about a few kinetics, 'accidentally' hitting the completed city when they release it in Neptune`s atmosphere?"
"Errr... Another plan, please."
"I might have an idea..." Susanne smiled. It was a cute smile, almost girlish. God, why is the person behind this body such a monster?... A thought both men present at this meeting had.
"Well... I`m sure your plan will unleash hell upon your victims, as usual..." Hans grinned, remembering several 'incidents' in the past, one of them almost killing him... His leg still hurt. Well, sometimes. Actually, whenever he saw Susanne. "So, tell us more..."

OOC: Fascinating! Nobody ever seems to RP the unrest that can arise within a failed colony. For that matter, nobody seems to RP a failed colony, period. This is fresh and exciting. Keep it up!

~Siri

OOC: Wow! I wasn't stalking Siri for once, and still I have cause to tag this thread! :)

"Nice, wasn`t it?" Maria had her arm wrapped around Michael`s, they were slowly walking along the outer circle of the Scylla station, watching the vast darkness around them... and the stars out there, cold, lacking the beauty they have when one watches them through the protecting layers of earth's atmosphere.

Still, for them, the stars were as beautiful as ever.

"Actually, I think it was a bit stereotypical, not so much romantic but-"
"Just stop talking." She looked at him annoyed, but only for a moment, in the next, she kissed his cheek. "In any case, I have something much more interesting to discuss with you..."
I`m intrigued.

Maria chuckled. I would suggest we discuss it in my quarters?
Excellent idea, mylady. Now, Michael chuckled as well.

It would be an interesting 'discussion'.

The next day

"What the hell is this?"

The question the Messias asked was... understandable. It had just arrived, carrying yet another load of engineers and tons upon tons of construction items.

And it front of it, thirty drones were spread out, in utter chaos, yet perfect order... Then, one of the drones moved. And another one, obviously standing, or rather, flying in its way, vanished... As if it was a piece taken from a...

A chessboard?!

The Messias would have shaked its head, but since it lacked said head, it just moved on, wondering Why the operators are actually paid.

A few days later

The two maintenance bots moved a large crate through the vaccuum, heading towards a round, bulky thing...

The core of the soon to be created 'Charybdis' station, the usual orbital counterpart of any colony built by DA.

On the Scylla station, a few holoscreens showed pictures from the outside.

Merlyn had just arrived, watching all the chaos. Who would have thought that neptune would once be full of activity... She continued walking, the spinning station providing at least some semi- gravity... Which was better than nothing. It was kind of fascinating, however, it wasn´t what she was here for...

After a couple of hours, she finally arrived at her quarters, carrying her brand- new dress. Fairly good service they have here... Doesn´t seem to be as bad as they said... Although it may be because of the new activities...

Now, the only thing she had to do was to wait for two days, until her customer would give her the details of the job.

DAT, The eastern mines

Christa walked through the dark, dimly lit mines. Of course, 'mines' was a fairly inaccurate description. There had been mines, once, but that was long ago. Once the mining became unprofitable, the mines had been turned into some kind of cheap housing facilities... With the logical results: Lots of violence, shady businesses, and other things.

She looked into the direction of a few people at the other side of the hallway she was walking along, warily. It was better to be carful in this area of the colony... Almost a hundred thousand people and all of them looking for either a way out... or revenge, no matter against whom.

She was lucky, though, it was just a group of old men unable to pay for the maintenance of their augmented bodies... Waiting for the last second in their miserable lives, when a circuit would fail, sending the deadly electric shock through their biological parts for the moment the relais and additional chips in their brains would fail, turning their mind into something with the IQ of vegetables or, if they were lucky, 'burning' their nervous system. Although it would usually took a minute or two until they died from it, it was a painless death.

Well, apart from the certain knowledge that one would die within the next two minutes, which could freak one out.

A second look at the group to her left, and she realised that this was exactly what just happened, as two rather young, agile men were in the process of recycling the usable parts of one of the older men there, his body lying on the ground, not moving. The other ones in the group didn´t exactly care about it, they knew that this was pretty much what would happen to them during the next weeks.

It was inevitable.

Christa walked a bit faster, the whole area gave her the creeps, and the idea of her left hand being the part of an agile young businessman wasn´t overly pleasent...

But eventually, she reached her destination, a dimly lit 'apartment' ('Cave' would have been a better description, but then, the entire 'city' was nothing but a better cave), a drowned hole in the hallway, occupied by perhaps two dozen people, half of them children without any kind of cybernetic implants.

"You have something to eat?" Christa had entered the 'apartment' when she heard the words. She turned around, just to see a young, probably ten years old girl. She didn´t seem to be in too bad a shape, still, she didn´t look good, either.

"Later, perhaps." She turned back, looking at the faces in front of her.

For a moment, she was frightened, but she regained her confidence quickly enough.
"Sebastian?"

"He isn`t here."

"So, where is he, then?"

"Not here."

Christa looked at the rather old woman talking to her, and noticed the distinct lack of a left arm on her body.

Must have sold it.

"I have a job for him. Of course, if you don´t want your... protector to earn you some money..."

"He is not interested."

The old woman begun to annoy her. Her arrogant tone, her complete lack of respect... She didn´t know how many of the people in this... This cave had weapons, but right now, she didn´t care about it. She was confident enough that her own abilities would be enough to protect her, anyway.

A moment later, the old woman was lying on the ground, her face covered by one of the walls, blodk trickling down from where her forehead and her lips must have hit said wall.

"You`re sure?"

Her right foot was resting on the old womans back, threatening to break it. Her implants were probably worth twice as much as anything the inhabitants of this 'royal suit' of holes had... She didn´t need to fear them.

"He retired." It was the girl that spoke, the girl that had asked her about the food... "He doesn´t want to do it any more."

Christa smiled. It was a cold smile, though. The smile of a winner who feels nothing but contempt for the ones he defeated. "He will. If he doesn´t want to... I might return." And after a brief moment of hesitation: "Tell him that Susanne wants to talk to him. It is my impression the two know each other... Right?"

With that, she left. She didn´t overly like the idea of staying any longer than she needed to, and one hour later she had reachd the upper levels of the colony, where the restaurants, boutiques and other luxurities would be, if it wasn´t for the fact that Triton had nothing of this kind. On Triton, this things, usually deemed necessary by the 10% of the population being able to use them, were missing, anyway, but at least it was save... She glanced at a man walking past her, noticing his hand...

It must have been added mere minutes ago. Damn, why does he look so familiar to me?

She gave up, her memory refusing to work properly, and continued on her way. It took her a couple of minutes until she realised just where she had seen the hand before...

The old man in the mines.

She chuckled. Even they can do something productive for the society... And with that thought, she entered Susanne`s office, a techpriest who just left said office sidestepping, seemingly not interested in standing in her way.

In the eastern mines, in an 'apartment' that anywhere else in sol would be considered a cave were wild animals might live, an old face with countless lines drawn deep into it looked through a dirty, brown curtain, his tired eyes cursing his fate...

He would move again... One last time.

As well as seeing the stars, you may also notice the many gas mining stations that orbit the planet.

I have had the operation there scince i started my deep-space program.

If it doesn't effect your rp don't worry, but i thought i'd just let you know.

#reading tag#
Hmmm... sounds like a good waypoint for some less-then-universally-accepted-as-legal-trade

Scylla- Station

He was hardly able to remember it. But there he was, again. How many years had it been since he last walked along the corridors of Scylla? He didn`t know. Only that it had been many, many years.

It had changed. The last time he had been here, so long ago... It had been a dark place, largely uninhabited, the population based on construction workers unable to pay for the flight back to earth.

Now... Well, things had changed while still being the same.

Still, almost all inhabitants were construction workers or their families, but... luxurities could be seen, the whole place... It looked as if it had been elevated, turned into something... Greater.

And it was true.

Still, some things never changed. Still, Scylla was the place where the shady businesses took place... Not in the 1g sections, sure... but in the upper and lower levels, were one could almost float through the corriders, weren´t they filled with waste from the more than ten, no, fifteen years since the station had been completed.

And he was in the process of doing one of those... shady businesses.

Or rather, preparing for it.

He didn´t really notice her until it was to late, and in the next moment, the two crashed, both unable to stop their 'flight' into each other. "Uh... Sorry."
"Errr... doesn´t matter."

She looked at him, wondering what this old guy was doing on the 0.125g level... But then, he was probably thinking the same about her.

She had just met her... customer. He had been rather secretive, giving her almost no information... She would have to work out most of the job for herself.

Still, she had heard rumours... And considering her target, her customer wasn`t too hard to guess.

A smile formed in her face, she was giggling. So easy to figure them out... I wonder if I can play them... Against each other...

But right now, Merlyn needed something. Not a weapon, no... Something else... Something much simpler.

Someone to talk to. Someone to forget her business.

A man.

Come to think of it... he wasn`t that bad...

Hours later

"Just prevent it. I don`t care about casualities."

"But..."

"Do it. Or else..."

Sebastian looked 'out' at where a window would be, weren`t this area way to dangerous for such fancy items. Thusly, he looked at the holographic screen that showed them the outside... Well, slightly distorted, but still nice. And it wasn´t like there was much to distort. Apparently, Charybdis had been completed. Well, almost completed. And not only Charybdis... He could see bright dots moving in the backgroud, around a large, circular platform. Apparently, the first EM units had been attached... In a few days, 'planetfall' would begin, moving the platform, or rather, the city, into the dense atmosphere of Neptune.

Earlier in his life, mere days ago, he would have envied them, but now... He could see her blonde hair waving as she walked in front of him, Christa standing at her side, grinning, showing her white teeth, teeth that could be the teeth of a tiger.

"You can either do it, or have your lovely version of a family end in tears. I don´t know why you have them, anyway, refugees, losers... No class... And apparently, you´re going to be like them, for reasons I still can´t understand."

Of course you can´t...

"But you know I can do it. Oh, and don´t forget that the only reason you`re still living here, rather than being imprisoned by the central management is... well... Me."

"... Yes, Ma'am."

He shuddered, remembering the conversation. Well... At least he had the stuff he needed... Still...

"What´s up"

"Oh, nothing..." He looked at Merlyn... He didn´t know just how she had found him again... But apparently, she had. And if he was honest... She was exactly what he needed... Though he still failed to see why she was interested in an old wreckage like him.

She smiled, honest, almost innocent, not seductively, as one would probably think. "I hope the wine is ok?"

"Yes... Sorry, I`m a bit..."

"Not exactly here, I noticed that. Well... To do some conversation..."

She went on, and he listened to her. Well, sort of, a bit, perhaps. Though he had to admit that he did enjoy it.

But then, again, Susanne's face...

And again, he shuddered... He just hoped he wouldn´t see any of the faces his victims had... Last time, he had seen it... So many times...

He still couldn`t forget it. He still couldn´t forget them.

The neighboring table

"It is amazing. I mean..." Michael could hardly stop talking, he was still... 'hyper' from the work he had done. "It is a bit complicated, and I didn´t get anything the Treznorian technician said, but..."

"Yes, yes, i believe you." Maria giggled a bit. He is always so... enthusiastic. No matter what he explores, a new technology or me... I wonder if he thinks of me as some sort of fancy new equipment... "However, there are other things I would lke to talk about... For example..." She hesitated.

"Yes?"

"The food. Yes, the food... How is it?" I really need to tell him, soon...

The conversations continued, strings of fate twisted, combined in intriguing ways, the human mind unable to grasp them...

DAT, Poseidon

"So... She is here, and she has what she needs, yes?" Max inquired.

"Yes. It will work, trust me."

"Not if that bitch Susanne is already planning her move. We know about this, she will try and take us out."

Hans chuckled. "Yes. Yes she will. And we know nothing about her plans. You know... Sometimes, you just need to be... lucky."

"Feh." Max looked out of the window, down the long, boring corridors, slightly frustrated... like most people down here, which was sort of reassuring. He wasn´t alone with his frustration. "I hate that term. 'Luck'. If we had ever been lucky, we wouldn`t be here."

True enough... "Oh, come on. Just this one time, it will work. She is older, now. Possibly not as good as in the past." Still... Merlyn will need to be lucky. "What worries me is her other plan... She told us nothing about it."

"Indeed. Perhaps she will try and blow up the new colony together with us. After all, we`re supposed to be there... And if she has a cold..."

"We would have one, too." Again, Hans chuckled. "As I said... It will work out." Somehow. For or against us.

Elsewhere

"So?" Susanne looked down her glass, the wine looking delicious.

"He will do it. As far as I know, he already got his equipment. It was fairly easy to organise. Here, people rarely care about the what or why. Or the who, for that matter." Christa smiled. "So far, it looks like it is all perfect. You already organised the... surprise for your two... 'partners', yes?"

"Yes." Susanne looked up, smiling as well. The only thing she wore was a rather revealing negligée, and Christa didn´t wear much more, either. It would certainly be a most pleasing evening. "They will certainly enjoy it." Her smile changed a bit, now looking evil... Dangerous. However, Christa didn´t exactly care, and just kissed it. One had to admire her courage, risking to lie in this arms, arms that were willing to kill that easily... and with joy. "Well... at least for the first minutes."

Chuckling. "I`m sure of it, I certainly am."

"Now..." Susanne looked at her, lusting for her. "I guess we should stop this talk about business, and care about more... pleasent matters."

Christa didn´t even answer, and just fell into Susanne's arms.

It was indeed a very enjoyable night.

Neptune, Poseidon- Platform

Susanne was about to explode. Poseidon. Bitches. Apparently, they were really going to give up on Triton.

But then... Well, she had certain doubts that this thing would be successful. And with a smile, she cheered Hans Gruber. "This is a truly great moment, isn't it? The growth we will witness..." Gruber hid his grin. He didn't know what exactly she had planned. I just hope your plan succeeds.

Don't worry. After all, I am who I am.

Unfortunately.

She gave him an odd look, as if he was already dead. Gruber shuddered, and decided to talk to some of the engineers who were looking at the displays, watching the platform descending, slowly. It had done this for days, phase after phase, this was the final part. Wondering briefly if the Treznorian EM stuff would work the way it was supposed to work (If not, all the plotting would have been useless), he turned around, not wanting to watch the aforementioned displays.

The crowd, however, cheered as the blue of the planet came closer and closer... Filling the screens, the process... Not ending, accelerating further...

A few levels down, Sebastian was working. Alone.

Security had been poor, as usual. The old tricks still worked.

And he cut through the plates, searching for his targets... attaching the charges. They weren't large, no... They would give them time to evacuate.

Or so he hoped. In fact, he was desperate hoping. For a lot of things.

He felt it, as the EM units begun working, slowly. The deceleration stopped him, for a moment. He hated zero- g environments, despite being used to Triton and its not exactly 'high' gravity. Heck, Earth's Moon was a 'high gravity' area for him.

But, as he knew just too well, some things just never worked out.

Slowly, gravity was increasing. Very slowly. But it was definitely there, he could feel it, Neptune was moving them... When they would reach 1g level, they would stop.

That is, they would intend to stop. He, however, would kind of prevent that.

A few levels up, Merlyn was working, too. Here, the security was excellent, and the simple plans she had thought out during the last days and weeks all proved to be useless. It was certainly annoying, the people down there having files with just about every kind of necessary data. And Gruber had been unable to get the validations she needed. Apparently, Susanne was anything but easy.

She smiled, kinda enjoying this. After all, it was quite a challenge.

Logging in, she connected to various ports... Searching... Finding.

Now she just had to get in.

Time moved, quickly, and eventually, Poseidon reached its destination. The storms around them were impressive, even scary, and for a few brief moments, one had to wonder if Poseidon would be capable of withstanding them.

But it was, and the erupting cheers proved the point.

Maria and Michael stood together. After working so hard, they had succeeded... This moment being their reward.

Well, this moment and a fairly sizeable amount of money on their accounts.

"You know..." Maria giggled a little. "I think we could move here."

"You do know that they do not have work here, for me, right?"

"You could care for the children..." She giggled more, pouting a little, dodging his attempt of catching her. Now I could tell him...

This was the moment Merlyn got in. She could feel them, almost see them in her mind... And she did, in fact, see through their eyes. Various people down there still cheering, applauding Poseidon, having finished their project...

She spotted her target, Susanne, standing right next to one of the people whose minds she just cracked.

A last thought, about Sebastian... She was wondering where he was.

She sighed a little, hoping to see him, again, forgetting the work for just a moment. It had been obvious that the higher ups had way to effective defences to even attempt a direct approach. However, the weaker, the poorer ones...

She smiled, as she took control of a nervous system, of various cybernetic implants in a foreign body, moving it, slowly, awkward at first, attracting a few glances, but not yet arousing any suspicion...

She noticed her too late, Christa, standing in the way... Christa, who was thinking faster than anyone else in this room, realising the truth, way to soon.

Damn.

And this was when Sebastian checked the time. Now.

Poseidon was suddenly... Falling? No. But it was moving, slowly, then faster, to one side... Losing its balance.

Knowing that any evidence would end within the insane gravity of Neptune, he hadn't cared about disguising his operation as an accident. Nonetheless, the explosions could hardly be heard, hitting small, delicate parts of the construction. So, almost nobody knew what was happening.

And even the ones who knew hadn't known just when it would happen. Even they were caught off guard.

And the one who caught herself first was Merlyn. A second later, and Christa did the same.

However, it was a second to late, the knife came to late.

What followed were tears. Christa's. Michaels.

A single smile was there, among the shocked, among the scared people. Grubers. But he hid it well.

And in the basements, Sebastian was lying, an innocent smile on his old, wrinkled face, blood drippling from his forehead, where the pipe had hit him... Must have been a misscalculation by the engineers... The shock shouldn't have had any effects on the internal structure. He couldn't help but to chuckle, before closing his eyes... Not pressing the second button, just... Closing his eyes.