NationStates Jolt Archive

Darkness engulfed the room, with the exception of the small amount of light created from the HOLO projection. The light eliminated but a single face with in the room, still for the most part the face remained in the shadow. It wasn’t that Marcus liked hiding in the darkness; it was just that a certain level of secrecy had to maintained.

“We have received word that the one of the oraculum’s has been found and is being transferred” said the person at the other end of the HOLO. Like Marcus their face remained in the shadows with only a silhouette visible. “We would like for you to intercept and obtain the oraculum. I will send you the coordinates”

“What would have me tell my crew” such order where not so simple for a man like Marcus. He was after all the Captain of a Tappee Battle Cruiser, he could not simple go off and do as he wanted, that would raise unwanted attention.

“You swore an oath, now fulfill it!” shot the voice in anger.

“Very well, I will see that my bidding is done then” answered Marcus. He knew his place, and it was not wise to question the orders that where given to him.

-

Joridis took a moment to stretch, in truth he hated this part, the waiting constantly pushed on his nerves. He was a man of stature, as such of enjoyed the finer things in life, he had made a hobby of rare items. However, obtaining these items was more often then not illegal, and he was forced to employ other means of getting what he wanted. Which brought him back to the waiting; it was a necessity in his dealing.

“We’ve got a jump point opening nearby” said some one.

“Good they’re early” remarked Joridis noting the time.

“Joridis, it’s a Tappee Battle Cruiser” came the reply.

Jumping Joridis ran over to a nearby consul, “What the hell are they doing way out here.” Went the consul proved the statement to be true. Joridis had been extra careful when had chosen the rendezvous point. It was deep within neutral territory and far away from any shipping lanes

A near by conduit suddenly exploded as the ship took a direct hit, a number of the crew were thrown to the ground. “Are they shooting at us” Joridis could not believe this was happening. “Quick, send out a distress call.”

-


As the doors to the cargo hold slide open Dante’s steps echoed through cargo hold. Normally the hold would be filled with item from the ships last salvage mission, but today was different, a single item desperately tried to fill the void that was the room.

Alone in the centre room stood a single object, a rather larger statue constructed entirely out granite. Dante had told that it represented some type of Goddess for a civilization that no longer exists. In truth Dante had always preferred salvaging to treasure hunting, but for the right price his mind could easily be changed. This had been one of those job, him and his crew had been offered a rather large sum to find this particular relic then bring it to the buyer.

Though in theory it sounded simple enough, but it was never that simple. This seemingly simple object had been more work then what even Dante had thought. First they had to actually find the planet to which it was located, sneak past the local authorities. Actually find the statue, then they had to deal with the some tribe that had come to see the object as a holly relic. However, it had all been nothing more then days work for his crew and him. Not to mention the fact that this would prove to be their biggest payout yet, all they had to meet the buyer at the rendezvous point, and they were almost there.

Suddenly without notice Dante was forced catch himself as the ship rapidly decelerated. Normally the ships inertial dampeners would have prevented such a sensation from happening. As Captain of the Robin he knew this ship better then anyone it could only mean two things, the inertial dampeners had to be replaced, or they had encountered some kind of trouble, he wasn’t actually sure which one he preferred.

A voice came over the comm. System, instantly he recognized the voice, it was Clair the ship Comm officer. “Cap, you may want to get to the bridge ASAP” from the sound of her voice Dante knew that it was the later of the two options.

Within a few brief moments Dante made his way on the bridge, his second command Tyr Fedrich had already cleared the Captains chair for his arrival and was now sitting shotgun.

“We received a distress call moments before we came up to the rendezvous point” proclaimed Clair as Dante took his seat.

“Bring up the main screen” out of the corner of his eye he could see some of the others join them on the bridge. In front him the main view screen changed to give him a picturesque view. What he saw caused him to worry somewhat, the nearby space was littered debris, there was still an orange glow on some of the debris. His work as a salvager told that the ship debris that he was looking at was fresh, this had most likely had been his buyers ship. Just off in the distance he could see a Tappee battleship, it was if it was standing there gloating over the kill.

Before Dante had a chance to give an order the ship shook violently as weapons fire from the battleship connected with the Robin’s hull.

“What the hell, we are in neutral space, nowhere near Tappee space” said Dante to no one really but himself. To fire on a civilian craft in such a manner was well outside Tappee’s military doctrine. There were so many questions that were running through his mind, quickly he focused or more pressing matter. “Ollie, now would be a good time for us to make a quick exit, get us any where but here. Tactical if you can put down some cover fire” He knew that compared to a Tappee battle cruiser they weren’t well armed, but this ship could still pack a bit of a punch. He flipped switched which directly connected him to engineering “James, I need you to give all available power to engines and the shield.” This was not a fight they could not win, they had no choice but to run.

“What the hell is going on Tyr” Dante asked

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/Siesatia/Robin1.jpg
Brave sir Robin

The Burmecian continued to look down at the Digital display device, which held the complete technical readouts of the ship before him.
"We have one Tappee battlecruiser bearing down on us, our mysterious buyer is gone, and we are without backup... sum it up for you?" he remarked sarcastically. Anyone who knew him long enough, would know he was already formulating a plan...

When they had come into the system, sensors had picked up debris, lots of it too. When the lasers from the Tappee battleship had cut thru the metel, ions split off, positive and negative alike, forming a superheated mass of plasma. It would be an hour or so before this Plasma cooled down... perfect.

"Tactical, use the tractor beams and push the molten debris at the battleship, it might buy us enough time to get out of here." he ordered.

Sitting in his quarters, Ryx was only midly surprised by the ships sudden lurching. Here we go again, everytime we get a high-paying job from a mysterious client this kind of thing happens. Oh well, at least I get to do some aquisitioning soon he thought. Getting up from his chair he left his quarters and headed towards the bridge.

As the doors slid open and he walked in, he noticed the Captain and his Second standing there. He looked at the view screens and chuckled to himself, seeing the debris speeding towards the Tappee ship. Gotta love this crew and their ideas he thought sarcastically.

"So, who wants to give me the damage report so that I can get on the horn to my contacts to try and fix this bucket of bolts up?"

Chorei, tactical officer of the Robin was working frantically at the consoles, hammering in co-ordinates, and trying to get the dieing keys to work. She was used to damaged and worn kit, having lived for a long time on a Jordaxian freighter that was approaching its seventh century in age, but a console that simply wouldn't respond without destructive amounts of pressure was not something she could live with any longer, and if the battlecruiser firing at the Robin had anything to do with it, she wouldn't have to. Pounding on the icons which would fire a satisfyingly meaty railgun barrage at the ships, fate flung another spanner in the works. The hud she had managed to route into her visual cortex using her old neurites began to flash red. The railgun battery had gone offline, and wasn't prepared to fire at all.

"Argh!" Chorei screamed. "This pile of junk is going to get me killed! Why the hell won't... you.... fire?!"

"Tactical, use the tractor beams and push the molten debris at the battleship, it might buy us enough time to get out of here." came the order from the second officer, a Burmecian.

"I was just about to do that, sir" came Chorei's stressed reply. turning one hundred and eighty degrees to the tractor beam console, she locked in several chunks of the plasma, and ordered the tractor beam to strike them at maximum power, to send them towards the battlecruiser. With an invisible fist, the array struck the debris, sending its searing heat towards the battlecruiser, locking in another layer of the junk in case this didn't convince the battlecruiser to back off.

"Ollie... this space junk is only going to hold them back for so long... it's a battlecruiser, not a coconut shy, hurry it up!"

“Careful, Careful…” Graham muttered as he rotated the power cell in his experimental Robot Helper “The Slightest of jolts during this could ruin everything…”

As he finished that sentence the ship rocked violently, which caused the Scientist to snap his arm back, which in turn removed the power source …with the current still going through it, not having enough time to go through proper cool-down procedures. This in turn sent a feedback loop through the frail body of his experiment, which sent a shock through his arm (which was holding onto the metal wall for support) in the surges quest for finding the path of least resistance.

“Damn it!” Graham cursed as he leaped back from the wall and jerked involuntarily from the minor electrocution he had just received “There is going to be hell to pay when I find out what went wrong this time! I told them I needed minimal turbulence for just an hour or two! But of course they find a way to ruin my plans, as always!” He muttered to no one in particular, as he grabbed his lab coat and threw it over his jumpsuit and left his room

This was supposed to be a regular stop! Just handing off some artifact to a wealthy collector, collect some dough, maybe get enough for everyone to get some time off, you know, vacation, relaxation, whatever. Although it was no small task wrestling the idol from their natives, who claimed they needed it for “Spiritual” reasons. Hmph, Spiritual? Who needs a Spirit in this day and age, what we all needed was some money, but somehow our dashing leader seems to have gotten us into some trouble again! Graham ranted inside his head as he made his way towards the bridge.

The Entrance of the bridge slid open as he stepped into the Command Centre, not looking at the screens at first

“So Captain? What problems have we seemed to have encountered this time?” Graham stated Sarcastically, still not noticing the screens “Did Pirates get wind of this little interaction and try to take down our tub for themselves? Or did you manage to insult the Investor with your Charm and wit? Or did you… uh…”

At this point Graham noticed the rather large warship looming over every screen, with weapons blazing, and the general staff looking very tense, loosing much of his argumentative steam, as well as his anger, he fell back

“Uh… Umm… That’s a mighty big warship you’ve got their Cap’n, I don’t think these are the wealthy investors we were supposed to meet…” He mumbled as the colour waged war in his face, simultaneously trying to pinken in embarrassment, and drain white in fear. He then quickly snapped into Subordination, and stood with his back strait, although his eyes avoiding the Captains

“Well, now that I’m here, what can I do to assist?” Graham inquired as he grabbed a loose section of plating on the wall as the ship rocked from another hit.

James Blackbird was sitting in his chair in the engineering room. He had been stationed there since 04:30 that morning. It was now 18:54 and certain urges arised in the Ex-Cap Trooper's mind.

He quickly swivled around in his his chair. His eyebrows rose as he slyly looked around the empty room.

"All alone" he said in a secrative tone. He whipped out a program chip and uploaded the program into his nueral networking. He had been dying to use this program since he picked it up on the hillbilly back wood planet.

Immediately after activation he was on a tropical beach. The warm slightly satly winds tickled accross his face. He walked towards a hut on the grass just off the beach.

"Tee hee hee" a few voices giggled from with in the house.

YES! he thought to himself.

As he entered the hut he was met with 7 beatifully tanned bombshells. The were scantily clad in nothing but tiny 2 piece lether loin cloths and bras. They all engulfed the man. Some started to strip, others began to kiss him in sensual areas. Lower and lower they went.

One stunnig womans mouth was right there when, “James, I need you to give all available power to engines and the shield.” shouted the captain.

"GOD DAMN IT CAPTAIN!! I BAILED US OUT OF THE WHOLE ENGINE ISSUE LAST TIME, I BARELY GOT ANY SLEEP IN THE LAST WEEK. IS IT SO GOD DAMNED HARD FOR YOU TO GIVE ME THIRTY MINUTES TO HAVE HOLOGRAPHIC SEX WITH SEVEN EXOCTIC BEAUTIES FROM SOME BACK WATER PLANET!!!???!!!" he shouted angrily...

ooc: I will finish later dinner time

Tyr reopened the channel to the engineering room,
"Why don't you tell that to the Tappee Battleship bearing down on us, I'm sure they will wait a couple minuites for you to finish!"
He tossed a couple pistols to some of the crew, before drawing his own Tri Barrelled Plasma Pistol.
"No reason not to be prepared, if they decide to board us, I plan to put up a fight... Ollie, we need to get out of here, preferably somewhere public... but somewhere out of the way might work... There is an abandoned Siesatian Outstation in the Styria System, 2 lightyears away, if we can get there, we can hide."

Graham caught the Pistol awkwardly; he had never been one for firearms. Then again, he tended not to get into situations in which firearms would have been involved.

Oh well, this is the life I lead now, no Scientific community is going to let me back in after my actions, so I guess I better get used to finding myself in jeopardy of being fragged into interstellar dust

“Aye, Aye, I’ll try my best in case they try to take us under arrest. Although, just a question, what are the Tappeeian authorities involved with this anyway? I don’t think we took anything from them that was specifically Theirs did we?”

He was about to turn and leave back for his quarters when the notion hit him

“Do you think they’d leave us alone if we played dead? You know, shut down all systems and just sit here and hope they go away? It might work, and even if it doesn’t it would by us some time to prep the FTL systems and get the heck out of here… Also, my offer still stands, is there anything that needs to be done in this time of crisis, I’ve been trying to pull my weight around here ever since I came aboard…”

He rubbed his arm absentmindedly, it still ached from the shock, he’d probably have to visit the Ships Infirmary when this was all over.

Ryx caught the pistol and dexterously holstered at his side, next to his own.

"Guess it could be time to bust some skulls? Oh well, gotta do whatcha gotta do eh? I will be in my quarters if anyone needs me, I am gonna try and figure out what needs replaced and what we can afford." he said with a smirk.

Ryx walked off the bridge and headed towards his quarters before making a quick turn towards engineering. When he arrived he looked at James with a comical look.

"James, how about you let me borrow that chip? I will make sure that nothing bad happens to it." he said with a hint of humor.

From the [endless/vastness] of space "Ollie" a female Sskiss of the "Pilot/hunter" caste could see all. Her view was panaramic and a complete sphere. Few Sskiss could do what she could do - most Sskiss would go simply insane. Linked to her dual egg shaped bio-neural data pods, (which were in essence living brains contained within a tough armour plated hides) she could in essence become the ship. Star-systems flashed before her, she sifted and hunted though hunderds of systems and found the one the Siesatian, Tyr was refering too....

"Ease of finding/travelling" she said adding modifiers of "lack of challange of knowledge/ability"....thislast portion of her comminication ended with an irratable squawk.

She had ordered the nodules to set the course before she disengaged from them gently. She let out a soft gurgling rumble, deep within her body, followed by a "Pree' Ruup" sound. Tyr knew that she sensed potential danger....

Tyr did not wait long to realize that he was correct. Using one of her hands, "Ollie" chose one of her three 12cm foreclaws and carefully pricked a swollen organic pouch (one of the few garmets a Sskiss ever wore) located to one side of her body just forward of her pelvic region. It open and she produced a egg shaped weapon the size of a man's head. It was a Sskiss disruptor pistol, its mottled green colour had a slighly glossy sheen. The weapon, although short ranged, was deadly and ideal for internal ship board combat.

"Ollie" then simply stated, "preparing far killer/ battle/kill as needed"....

"Alright Captain, I have given her all she has gotten" he notified the bridge.

His face was red with anger about what had happened. He quietly resolved to himself at the next major port he would solicit 4 foxwomen to his quarters, he always liked them exotic.

He turned towards the door way when he heard Ryx make a comment about his latest aquisition. He brandished his Metallinautian Standard Issue Energy Sword and jestured as to where it could potentially penetrate. Normally he would find such humor funny, but now was a bad time.

Beep! Beep! Beep! the computer blared.

"Son of a Bitch!" he screamed.

The power core began hemmoraging plasma out of the emergency vents.

"Captain, we got a leak, I can only temporarily seal it down, if we don't get to port in about 3 hours, we will have melted off the side of our hull, not to mention the core will have melted down." he said calmly. His cap trooper training was now kicking in.

He strode over to his desk and looked a a Jaguar woman and moaned with a lustful tone. Then he picked up one of his favorite weapons, a brand new Mk XXIX R-906 "Sun Burn Rifle", new issue. He adjusted the UV emmision rate and power, a new feature on this model.

"Captain all set, the leak is contained... for now, adn I am ready to take my post incase of boarding party." he waited.

Guessing his humor was not as well timed as always, Ryx merely shrugged. Looking at the damaged parts he grinned.

"So what are we gonna need to fix this baby? You know that I am the man to talk to. And while I am here I am more than willing to help out. Just point me in the right direction." Ryx said cheerfully.

Gods how I love this job he thought sarcastically.

“We have nothing of theirs” shot Dante back angrily at Graham comment. He had always made a point of avoid the Tappee authorities and government as a whole, as a native of Tappee he knew the way the dealt with problem. “I don’t think that playing dead would work, we would just be inviting a boarding party” Dante glanced over at the view the screen and the Battle Cruiser that was baring down on them “Besides I don’t Think this Captain is playing by the rules.”

Ryx’s voice came over the intercom “ Captain, we got a leak, I can only temporarily seal it down, if we don't get to port in about 3 hours, we will have melted off the side of our hull, not to mention the core will have melted down." he said calmly. His cap trooper training was now kicking in.” there was a brief pause, Dante could the he was working on something. "Captain all set, the leak is contained... for now, and I am ready to take my post in case of boarding party."

BOARDING PARTY that world resonated through his thoughts. There was little doubt in his crews skill, but then they would not most likely survive the onslaught of Tappee shock Trooper that they would face in the Robins cramped corridors. It was something that he wanted to avoid at all cost. Options were coming and few a far between, he knew that a boarding party could not simply transport over, Tappee had never believed in transport technology, at least that was something in their favour. He took a moment to think about his adversary.

Again the ground shook violently as they took another hit, but Dante remained focused on his thoughts. Their a opponent was an older Retribution class battle ship, a ship class that up until recently had been decommissioned, called back into service as a result of the Orion war too patrol Tappee space. Desperately he tired to recall why they had been decommissioned then it hit him. “Transfer all shield power to forward shields.” barked Dante as spun in his chair to face Chorei “Charge at the Battle cruiser at full throttle, once we get behind them then we should be in the clear”

Dante was sure that he was get a few strange looks from his crew, but when the time was right he would explain. Firstly at the time the this Class was built military had felt the forward fire power was the most important thing, as such the Retribution class only had a 270 degree field of fire, so once behind the mighty battle cruiser could no longer bring it guns to bare on them. Second was that the Retribution were designed to fight capital ship, while relying on frigate to engage small craft, there were no frigate to provide that kind of protection. So as the Robin got closer and closer to the enemy ship, the enemies tracking computer would have a harder and harder time tracking them. They would take some damage from the engine wake, but it was a lot less then weapon fire that they were now taking

--

Aboard the Marelquis things were slightly different then that of the Robin. Marcus watched with satisfaction as another barrage hit its target. His goal had never been to destroy his target, but to disable it, and soon that to which sought would be within his position. The crew of the small ship was putting up a strong fight given the circumstance, going as far as flinging plasma at them. Plasma was nothing more then an a annoyance, but it had forced him to rethink his strategy.

“Sir” shouted the ships TAC officer “umm…they are coming at us at full speed”

Marcus spun around quickly “What!?”

The ship accelerated as Tyr punched the coordinates in from his console. An explosion rocked the ship, as a laser punched thru the shield and tore into the armor.
"Aloft armor down to .2 meters, another shot and we are screwed!" he shouted, and twisted the controls. He pitched the ship around, so that the bottom portion of the craft was facing the enemy ship. He reinforced the shield, and pressed the engines further.
SLAM!
The port shields flickered, holding onto the last bits of energy. A similar sensation followed, only this time it was accompanied by a POP! The shield generator coil had overloaded, and been ejected. They were only protected by the 2 meters of Titanium below them.

He twisted a control stick, and realized they must have hit the manuvering thrusters as well. Switching to the Emergancy Reentry thrusters, he activated the four rear chemical thrusters, giving them an extra boost.

".1 kilometer to go!"

The Marelquis’s gun batteries lashed out at the small defenceless Robin, as it rushed headlong towards the mighty battle cruiser. However, it was no long until the Marelquis’s Targeting system began having trouble tracking the tiny ship as moved closer, and out of the Marelquis’s ideal target zone.

In a fine display of skill the Robin rolled over the Marelquis bow, narrowly missing the bridge as it screamed by. Within seconds of the Robin entering into the Marelquis’s blind spot it began making it jump to free. Long before the Marelquis could bring herself around and bring her gun around the Robin enter into blue space disappearing from real space.

Tyr slumped back into his chair. Releasing the controls. He opened up his computer, and began to obtain lists of damaged parts. He compiled a list of replacement parts. Heck, they might be able to make a few bucks off that idol in the back, this was going to be an expensive repair job, and more than likely, they would be paying for it out of pocket. By 'they' it meant him and Dante. He wouldn't allow Dante to charge any of the crew for repairs. As commanders of the vessel, they were responsible for these kind of things.

Repair Parts, ESSENTIAL!

4 Shield Coils
2 Railgun Generators
Replacment Titanium Armor
New Reentry Thruster Package
Chemical Engine Fuels

Aquisitions If Funds Availiable:

Point Defence AI - Get a decent one please.
MAC Cannon Coil - As high quality as possible

The MAC Cannon part was for a project he was working on with James. The Robin had a room, that had been used as a Ammunition storage area way back when, when she had used projectile weapons. The room was elongated, and perfect for the project he was working on.

A MAC Cannon was usually reserved for large ships, as they took up alot of room. Recently, he and James had come up with a new system design, which would allow for a micro version, small enough to fit into the robin, but powerful enough to do some damage. The weapon design, had only one drawback. It would have a 1 Degree Firing radius. It would be fixed.

Right now, he had the basic structure of the cannon devices in place. And even most of the computer equipment. But he needed the coils to continue. Dante was unaware of the current progress. He didn't even know about the cannon, the room in question had been locked, and presumed sealed, as there had been a dangerous leak in there. James, under request of Tyr, had spent a week during a drydock session, repairing this breach.

"Where are we headed? Somewhere with a decent drydock I hope..."

"It's ok my dearies. It's all over now." Wayto gently stroked a cluster of small, furry mammals, still mewling in terror after the recent disturbances. Their cries quickly faded as the gnomish medical officer of the Robin stood up and walked over to a vine-covered communications panel on the wall - a cluttered table obscuring the view of his bare pelvic region.

Pressing a large red button, "Captain? Everything is well I assume?"

As they jumped away to safety, and the adrenalin rush subsided, Graham felt his arm once again begin to ache. He rubbed at it absentmindedly and then looked down at it, he was shocked to see several nasty looking burns running up his forearm to his shoulder, some how he had missed that completely when he entered the bridge in the first place.

…He didn’t know what was more surprising, the fact that he didn’t notice the large burn, or that the rest of crew on the bridge didn’t either. He was beginning to get concerned over his well being and was about to ask the Captain if the doctor was available.

“Um… Sir? Is the doc.” He was unable to finish his sentence because the Comm. Buzzed in with the doctors voice asking if everything was well. It took him a second but Graham realized that it was none other than the familiar voice of the Ships eccentric doctor; Graham shut his mouth and exited the bridge

I hope it isn’t anything serious Graham thought to himself as he traversed the corridors that lead him down to the infirmary, when he got there he let himself into the room and was met with the exotic scents of many plants and animals. However, Graham couldn’t quite peg a location on the doctor himself. Stupid Gnomes, why do they have to be so short… Graham thought to himself, before shouting into the room

“Hello? Doc? Do you think you’d be able to look at my arm, it has a rather nasty burn on it that I think needs treatment, I’m afraid it might get septic. So do you think it would be too much to ask for you to come out and take a look at it?”

Leaving Engineering, Ryx let out great sigh. Just another day in the life of a treasure hunter he thought sarcastically. As he reached his quarters, he saw his holocomp blinking. That better be the parts list he thought with a grimace as he pulled it up.


Repair Parts, ESSENTIAL!

4 Shield Coils
2 Railgun Generators
Replacment Titanium Armor
New Reentry Thruster Package
Chemical Engine Fuels

Aquisitions If Funds Availiable:

Point Defence AI - Get a decent one please.
MAC Cannon Coil - As high quality as possible


He looked it over with a sedated look. This one is gonna hurt the paycheck he thought. Thinking of ways to get the parts easier, he opened up his navcomp program. So, if we are here, then that means...oh fuck... he reasoned with more than a little sour taste in his mouth.

Punching the comm button he relayed a message to the Captain of Derring-Do.

I don't like this, not one bit. I can get you your parts, and probably your little toys too, but I am gonna have to deal with some...hostile...people. We might also want to sell that hunk o' junk in the holds, it doesn't serve a decent purpose to us other than to swell our paychecks.

Sitting down, he began to run a search through his database for 'artifact collectors' nearby.

James strolled on to ther bridge, his was grinning ear to ear.

"Who da man?" he said to the captain.

After several minutes of riding his high horse he left. The few people on the bridge jeered and Ollie hissed at him.

After a quick pit stop in the bathroom he casually loafed over to Ryx's room. With no warning or anything he kicked down the door. this was his usual method of knocking.

"Here ya go!" he said, "it's a good one".

He threw a small chip on to his lap and left.

"Don't be silly!" The fluttering of a few winged creatures marked Wayto's emergence from behind a screen of blue shrubbery. "I'm sure it's nothing...but I'll have a look just to be safe."

Graham stuck his arm out while the Doctor surveyed it with a trained eye. He squinted. "Playing with your toys again? No matter, I've just the thing..." Wayto bounded off to a corner of the room and snatched a lidded jar off a low-standing table. The lid came off with a satisfying pop. At the other side of the medical bay, Graham convulsed as the bitter odor assaulted his nostrils.

Wayto smiled, "Whew! Everything gets better with age, wouldn't you say Mr. Fieldleburg?" He grabbed a roll of bandages and made his way back across the room. "You should get used to the smell in a day or three..." With a nudge, he led Graham over to an examination table and motioned for him to have a seat. Wayto climbed atop a pneumatic stool, raised himself to eye-level with the human, and began generously applying the odorous goo to Graham's shoulder.

"Now, you'll want to reapply this, along with fresh bandages, every twenty-four hours for the next couple of days. Don't be afraid to really lather it in - remember," He held up a stubby finger, dripping with yellowish goo, "The smell just means it's working."

“Uh, yeah, thanks doc, I’ll be sure to remember that” Commented Graham as he felt the unusual man smother foul smelling ointment all over his burns, and then dumped a take “home” amount of it for re-application every twenty-four hours, he was about to leave the infirmary when he turned and commented

“Hey, doc, I imagine that after what we just went through, we’re going to be setting up at a dock somewhere, so if you need to do a little ‘Shopping’ [motioning to the large amounts of exotics in the room] then you would best do it then. Anyway, thanks for the goo doc, have a good cycle” With that he turned and left back to his quarters

Well, my shoulder feels better, along with my arm He thought as he traversed the winding corridors But whatever the doc lathered all over me stinks to the high heaven! Why can’t he just use injections or medically approved stuff like normal doctors…Wait, he isn’t a normal doctor. Oh well, I should be thankful I didn’t let it sit and get infected he mused to himself, which was abruptly interrupted by a loud smashing, proceeded by a collision with James, the ships Chief engineer, which was like running into a wall, due to the Engineers history in the military.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going man! I could have injured myself running into a loose bulkhead, who knows how many of them we have around here!” Graham exclaimed and then stormed off to his quarters.

Once in the security of his room, along with the locked door and some music playing, he picked up the burned hulk of his robot helper and began fiddling with it again, hoping for no more -interruptions-

Finally, as soon as I replace the power source, recalibrate the coordination matrix and add some sort of propulsion unit, It’ll be ready to go. I’d better add this to any list that trader might have Graham thought to himself, as he scribbled down the units onto a small pad and uploaded it onto the shipboard computer, which would then transfer in to the trader, he made a small note on how he could compensate monetarily if needed, or he could do it himself.

Ryx, I need some parts for a off-time project I’m working on, when we dock somewhere, it would be much appreciated if you could pick them up for me, being the ships trader. If you cannot I’ll understand, and I could get it myself, but I’m not very good haggling with interstellar merchants. I can also personally reimburse you -monetarily- just don’t tell the captain, I don’t think he’d take too kindly on having one of his crew members holding out on him. The parts needed are: A Compact Appliance Power Generator and a Compact propulsion Unit, also, a rudimentary AI would help too.
-Graham

Tyr left a delay message in his computer. A message summoning the crew to a meeting in the mess would be delivered in an hours time. In that hour, he would go and check up on his project, and maybe prepare the power system for the Coils.

Inside the room, he pressed the play button on the device on the ground. Connected to some of the speakers throughout the room, one of the various songs he had picked up during their last dry-docking began playing.

He began tieing in the power to the large capacitor system that was the centerpoint of this new design. It had been the first thing they had finished, and had origionally planned to sell it. But now it was going to serve as the unannounced main weapon of the Robin.

He felt slightly off about not telling the captain about the project yet, it had been 7 years since Dante had saved him from the smouldering hulk of his former ship, which had fallen under attack by pirates, and had crashlanded on an asteroid. He had the feeling Dante had not been expecting to find a survivor, and had hoped to scavenge from the hulk. It didn't matter. The only thing that bugged him was, his family believed he was dead. It was probobly for the better, it wouldn't do for them to know he was running around with a bunch of pirates...

Finishing the first power uplink, he tested the capaciter charge. It was taking in 10% of what is should have been. He began to tie in the next power converter.

It was pretty easy, the capacitors were built so they could be serviced quickely in the event of an emergancy. He had the feeling however, that his tinkering with the weapons system to allow for the new cannon, had disallowed the rail cannon system to fire. He would have to finish this project before they left dry-dock.

Tying in the second converter, he found a 30% draw. Much better than expected. And began to tie in the third. only 2 more after this one.

He only had twenty minuites left by now before the meeting. Finishing the third tie in, he checked, and found a 50% charging. It was good enough place to stop for now, he shut down the power converters, and turned off the music. Making sure the door was sealed before he continued into the Mess hall, the computer chirped, which announced a message, which could be found on the various terminals around the ship.

Crew Meeting:
Mess Hall
Now

Sitting at one of the few tables, he waited for the crew to file in. They had to discuss their next course of action after repairs.

OOC: Just tagging to watch. I do have a damaged DIED destroyer e-jumping through Sol that needs to re-emerge at some point, incase you want to add that to the mix.

OOC: maybe in a later episode.

Dante had spent the last little while reviewing the ship damage report from the battle. For such a small ship, it still had a lot parts, some of those part would now have to be replaced. The thought of paying for those repairs caused him to worry a bit.

However, damaged parts could easily be fixed, his crew was a different story. Graham’s injury, thought minor, still weighed heavily on his mind. They had found themselves in an ambush plain in simple, and in the end the ultimate responsibility was his. Dante was the type of Captain the put the needs of his crew even above his own. That’s why when Tyr had pressed the issue of paying for the damages out of their own pockets, he hadn’t objected.

Glancing down at his watch he realized that he had about 20 minutes until the crew meeting. He had asked Tyr to arrange the meeting; Dante simply had too many things to do in the mean time to do, beside that was the job of the First officer anyways. There was one last thing that he wanted to do in the mean time. “Ollie find a us a safe dock if you can” he said as he stood to his feet, and began to make his way to the elevator “Chorie you’ve got the bridge.”

A short time later he found himself alone in the cargo hold staring down at the statue. It was only a short time ago when he was doing the exact same thing, but now he looked down in a slightly different light. What originally was thought to be an easy paycheck was now turning out to be more trouble then it was worth. Thought there had been no direct connection between the statue and the attack, Dante couldn’t help but wonder if his piece of rock had been responsible for their newfound troubles. He looked deeply at the statue, as if was going to simply speak to him. He was suddenly startled by an alarm, his first thought was that they were once again in danger, but realized it was nothing more then a reminder for the meeting. “What are you hiding?” he said to no one but the shadow before he turned and began his journey to the mess hall.

Unknown to Dante, light years away there were those that were asking themselves the same question. Jade took a moment to straighten the mountain of paper work that had formed on her desk, before the door.

“You wanted to see me” said a rather stocky man has he stepped out around the door, and took a seat across from Jade. In his late 30’s the man had what some would consider to the stereotypical hero look. Well built, standing 6’1, with a strong chin he fit the role that life had placed him in. His name was Jeremy Gahrick, and he was an Agent of the First X, Tappee’s Intelligence service.

Looking over the top of her glass Jade addressed the man’s question. “Yes I’ve got an assignment for.” Reaching over she handed him a small data pad. “I’ve received report from military command that the Margulis engaged two pirate ships near the Incol boarder. One was destroyed while the other escaped.

“I fail to see how this really concerns us” quickly remarked Jeremy nonchalantly. He was of the opinion that chasing Pirates was not a good use of the First X’s resources.
“Because the attack not take place, anywhere near the Incol system, nor was it against pirates.” Quickly shot Jade. She handed him another data pad. “This is the Margulis’s Captain, a man named Marcus Horjin. It would seem that the good captain has a few side projects going on. We’ve linked him a shadowy group, since then we’ve been keeping a close eye on him. Just before the attack was intercepted a transmission, and according to my man on board the Margulis the two ships that were engaged where civilians in neutral space.”

“ So you are using Marcus to hopefully draw out the rest of the organization, but what about the loss of the civilian ships” remarked Jeremy, he could the logic in her plan, but wondered where she would draw the line.

“Acceptable losses” answered Jade coldly. “However, I would like you to track down the second ship, I want to know what interest that this group has with it.”

Jeremy nodded in agreement. “No problem, what is the name of the ship?”

Jade response came quick and without hesitation “It was named the Brave Sir Robin.”

Ryx recieved a few messages, interrupting his plotting and detailing. Finally, he got so irritated by the interuptions that he got up and started walking to the mess hall to get a bite to eat, as he neared the door he heard a chime over the ships comm system. Must be time for a meeting he thought as he walked over to a console and scanned the brief message. Walking into the mess hall, he quickly grabbed a bite to eat and sat down opposite Tyr. He sat glowering, depressed because of the people he would have to be dealiing with here.

With a cliché swish, the messhall door opened. Wayto, adorned in an oversized bathrobe, made his way over to the occupied table and climbed into a seat. He aimed a gnarled smile at the other two crewmembers and failing a return glance of equal warmth, sat down to wait expectantly.

After getting about five minutes into minor repairs the PA system chimed, relaying the message that there was a meeting scheduled within the hour.

Something on the recent attack no doubt, alas, I must go Graham thought as he put down his project and departed his quarters for the designated meeting area, idly rubbing his now bandaged arm, something he seemed to be doing more frequently since this endeavour commenced

Am I developing a nervous twitch? he thought as he traversed the corridors No, It has to be my imagination, yes, that’s it, my imagination. Graham reassured himself as he approached the meeting hall, he saw the doctor go in ahead of him and sit down.

He paused outside the door, this would be the first time he had actually seen the entire crew face to face since he had come aboard. Yes, he had been on for a few weeks, and he did know all their names, but the odd one was always hidden off somewhere, or in their private quarters, and Graham had never actually been able to see them all at once, although he considered it wasn’t the best time for them to see him right now, all smelly and bandaged I hope the crew doesn’t take offence to the doctors Homeopathic remedies… he thought as he entered the room and took a look over of the few crewmen that were there. He recognised the Trader, Tyr, the First Officer and of course, the enigmatic doctor. He flashed a grin in the ones there and manoeuvred his oversized feet to avoid hitting any chair legs in the cramped space, once finding an empty seat, next to the doctor to his dismay, he sat down and awaited the captain, as well as the rest of the lot.

Wayto began to fidget impatiently...

As the last of the crew made their way in Dante started “It’s smell you…. I mean see you all” quickly correct Dante. He could not help but notice Grahams new found smell, one of the doctors concoctions no doubt, but the last thing that he wanted to do was poke fun at his newest crew member. Hoping that no one had noticed the slip he continue. “First of I want to say good back there. The fact that we survived an encounter with a Tappee battleship speaks volumes, of your skill as crew. As such when we get into port in about three hours, you’ve three day of leave, so enjoy it you’ve all earned it.”

“My second point is what we are going to about our current cargo. I intend to try and get ride of it as quickly as possible. We won’t likely get as much money as our original buyer, but can still turn a profit. So unless there are any objections to selling that piece of rock or any questions?” He glanced over at Tyr “Is there anything that you wanted to add?”

Tyr looked around the table.
"We must all remember, while we are in port, we do not speak of this ship, or any members her crew besides ourselves. We do not need some Federal Anti Pirate unit picking up that we are here, although I have every confidence in our ability to fight a Trade Fedral Union vessel, if they decide to lob an entire fleet at us, there is a small chance we won't make it out."

He cleared his throat, trying to ignore the stench.

"As we sit here reeking.... Sorry, Speaking, we are nearing the dock, I expect everyone cleanshaven, and in what passes as a uniform on this ship. We are cargo operaters for the Vector shipping lines, I have some forms left from my shipping days, so if someone comes asking about our papers, direct them to me."

"Our Friend, the battlecruiser is probobly still looking for us, remember, keep an eye out for Tappee Authorities or anyone from the Tappee Navy... Oh, and, James, keep your fraternization to a bare minimum... excuse the pun. Anyone else have anything to add?"

Standing up, Ryx quickly swallowed down a bit of food.

"Garf shnarble tarble...*gulp*...Excuse me. What I meant to say was, if any of you need assistance aquiring goods just talk to me and I will see what I can do." sitting down, Ryx had a look of disgust on his face as the wave of stench drifted over him.

“Haha, funny. That’s right, let’s all poke fun at the burn victim. Thanks very much Doc.” Graham muttered under his breath as the crew had a field day having fun “inadvertently” commenting on the foul odour emanating from the Salve that the doctor had recently applied to a rather nasty electrical burn.

Graham spoke up a request of the trader, sitting up straighter in his chair and looking at him, ignoring the look of disgust from him as the smell of the salve made its way down to him. “I’ve made a few requests of the trading department, but I’ve already sent them in a dispatch to your file, so you just need to check it and add them to your list, if it is not too much to ask. If you need a hard copy of the request I’ve got it all in a hard copy in my quarters, and I can get them for you”

With that he slouched back down, hoping to ignore any more comments from the crew members, and hoping that the meeting would draw to a close so he would be able to spirit away back to his quarters until his wound had sufficiently healed to not need the odd-smelling goo anymore.

"Alright Graham, I saw that shortly before I came in here, I will do what I can." Ryx said with a smile. After a second, Ryx looked at the Doc.

"Hey Doc, what did you put in that stuff? Smells like something from a farm. Next time just try some odor-free burn ointment. And Graham, if you need anything for that burn that doesn't smell so fierce for while you are at port, just let me know, should be easy to pick up."

Wayto perked up, "Ah. Well, if you must know: A certain strain of the southern Hsoowi swamp-larva secretes a particularly soothing substance during mating-" He was cut off by the mixture of mournful pleas and disgusted faces surrounding the table. Unperturbed, he continued on to mention a long list of "vital" exotic creatures - an Elatycs Worg and Tyndall Dune-Hawk to name a few. "The Zen birds have come into season so I must stay on board the ship and tend to them...Someone else will have to acquire these for me.”

Tyr left the conversation, not wanting to hear more about the healing properties of these Zen birds either. Reaching the bridge, he watched as the station they were going to dock with loomed closer. He opened the channel, as the Communication officer was still in the meeting.
"This is the USS Brave Sir Robin, Requesting docking clearence for Repair and Resupply."
The reply took several seconds to come through.

"We read you USS Brave Sir Robin, Docking clearence granted on port 12, SS San Francisco out."

Tyr sat back, waiting for the docking bay to open for their arrival. His thoughts strayed for a moment, before his personal computer pad bleeped an alarm. He had several pieces of mail that had been downloaded from the station. The Siesatian Postal Service reached even these remote stations.

Scrolling through the mail, he saw another message. Scrutinizing it, he read it over... someone by the name of Claire. Underneath was a simple line of text.

12-3739 Grid 27, Cleyra City, Gaia, Gaian System
If you are still alive.

The Gaia system? He hadn't been home in over 15 years. His thoughts were disturbed by a Communique from the station.

"Brave Sir Robin, Bay 12 is clear, doors open."

"Affirmative SS San Francisco. Entering Docking bays now." He said, and punched in the command to the Slaved Navigation computer. Within a minuite, the ship was inside, with the airlock sealed behind it.

"All hands, the gangplanks are away, all off duty personel on shore leave are to sign out with the ships computer before they disembark. Have fun." he finished, before returning to his mail.

There was one from the Vector shipping lines, asking whether he was alive, as his body was not found on the wreakage. Along with the letters about ransom, and how much would be payed for his safe return, things like that. It was always good to know that big intergalactic companies looked out for their own. After all, it wouldn't do to have a massive lawsuit, and bad PR.

There was another from Claire, the same message. He still had no idea who she was, but made a promise that he would visit, should he ever reach Gaia again. He couldn't risk sending a message though, he was supposed to be dead or MIA.

The final message was about his inheritance of a ship, the USS Necromancy. A small salvage freighter, he would have to look into that whole affair. It looked legit, and the letter said that if he was still alive, he could reclaim it from his next of kin... Odd, his next of kin was his uncle, who had died so claimed the letter. He didn't have another, did he?

Coming onto the bridge Dante saw that Tyr had his back to him, and from the looks of things it was rather important.

“I hope that I’m not interrupting anything” Dante said not actually wanting to startle his first officer. “I’m going into port for a little while. You know to get some fresh air.” The air purifiers on the Robin had started to go some time ago, but for the moment they didn’t quiet need to be replaced. As such Dante felt a little restless for time to time, and want a chance to get some fresh air. “If you need to talk to me for any REASON, just call me on my com” He had placed the emphasis on the reason cause it looked like something was bothering Tyr, but Dante didn’t want to push him either.

Feeling the ship slide into port and hearing the message, he excused himself from the conversation about the exotic animals. After a quick stop by his quarters to grab his PHC, he left. As he was on his way out the door, the ships AI chirped at him. And where do you think you are going? You need to check out first

"No, only people on leave, I have official business to attend to, to get you fixed up, so let me be." he said as he walked out.

As he reached the market area, he checked his list of items.


Holocomp online...
Datalinking with Brave Sir Robin...
Uploading Database...
Opening SSSanFranItems.tdf

Tyr
4 Shield Coils
2 Railgun Generators
Replacment Titanium Armor
New Reentry Thruster Package
Chemical Engine Fuels
Point Defence AI - Get a decent one please.
MAC Cannon Coil - As high quality as possible
Graham
A Compact Appliance Power Generator
Compact propulsion Unit
Rudimentary AI
Personal
naurranquir
sintaolwenie

Setting off, he looked for Largo's area. As he walked he had memories of his past run-in's with the Narmonian. The last time had left Ryx a fugitive of almost 20 interstellar nations, a record for him, and something he had only recently cleared his name of. As he walked, he noticed something on the holoscreens in the station. It was showing excerpts from a recent Flaming Souls newscast.

Having not heard word of his home nation in a year at least, he decided to watch for a bit. The broadcast was showing a ship of massive proportions, around 6 km in length, and sleek as can be. When he noticed the name painted onto the side, he nearly fell over. It said FSS Hunter's Mercy. When did the HM become a government ship? Let alone look like that...damn. Wait a minute, why are they using that name? he thought in shock and awe. As he watched, it showed an interview with a man he knew all to well, Galeel Stryer, his old captain. Well damn, looks like he is doing good, maybe I will give him a ring one of these days he thought.

Being in a better mood, he continued on his way to Largo's shop.

The creature slowly crawled through the hustle and bustle of the port. It remained unseen as it stuck to shadows and behind piles of cargo awaiting their ships. It crept towards one of the screens displaying the ships that were docked. Hanging from an unlit light fixture, two golden eyes carefully studied the display.


Bay 7 listed The Lucky Traveler bound for Algol.
Bay 8 was empty
Bay 9 was being used for repair work on The Devilfish.
Bay 10 was reserved for The Flaming Weasel which was supposed to dock in 10 minutes to take on cargo before heading towards Centari Prime.
Bay 11 was empty
Bay 12 contained The Brave Sir Robin which just docked. The destination was labeled Unknown.

Bay 12 was the ship the creature wanted. It wasn't running a rigid schedule so it would most likely travel where it wanted to go.

The creature slithered off the light fixture, which relit a few minutes later. It remained in the shadows as it made its way to Bay 12. It arrived and began to watch the corridor leading to the ship. A human left the ship.

The golden eyes watch the human approach its position. He seemed to be in thought and was studying the readout on some sort of device. The creature decided to follow the human. It silently trailed the human into the market where he stopped again to study his device. He began to walk off in a different direction and stopped when something caught his eye on the holoscreens. The creature watch from above as the human stared at the images.

Graham, finished with the meeting and fed up with the crew making jabs at him, pushed his chair back and mumbled an agreement to the Trader, which went along the lines “Yes, sure, whatever you want, anything would probably be better than this stuff…” with that he huffed out of the room to his quarters where he was able to acquire some of his hidden components which he could trade for either hard currency or some liquid assets.

He was able to catch a brief nap before the ship docked with the port and the announcement filtered through the ships Com. Systems. Once dressed in more appropriate attire Graham departed from the ship into the crowded space port where he was assaulted from all directions to purchase wares or services, many of them fraudulent most likely.

Graham was on his journey through the station when he was confronted by two officers, each bearing the TSDC Insignia, A scorpions tail with a small Torontonian Flag in the centre. The two officers were female, with the lead one being taller than the other, she pulled out a small identification badge and introduced herself

“Excuse me sir. I am Captain Shela Gronde, TSDC Civilian Operations, we’ve been attempting to track a dangerous criminal who has been evading Torontonian Authorities for a number of months now, and I picked up a Torontonian ID Chip on you, although it hasn’t been updated recently. You wouldn’t happen to have picked up any information on the suspect on you out of nation travels would you?” She inquired

“Um, No, I don’t believe so. I’ve been working with a small Trading Company that has had me traveling abroad on deliveries, I haven’t been around the Capital System in a while. Do you have a picture of the suspect?” Graham Responded

“Yes sir, we do.” Replied the Smaller of the two officers, who withdrew a small Pad whose screen flashed to life, Graham inhaled sharply as he saw the photo

“Is there a problem sir?” The Captain asked questioningly, eyeing him suspiciously

“No… No, of course not. It just… took me by surprise, he… um, looks like my cousin, but… but his nose is too… wide! Yes, wide, that’s it. His nose is too wide to be my cousin, had me going there for a second though” Graham Stammered

“Are you sure? If you have any Information at all, we request you report it now, or we’ll have to take you back to Torontonian Space for questioning. If you know anything that is…” The Captain responded, her suspicions intensifying

“No, Sorry, I’ve never seen that person before in my life, and like I said, I’ve been out of territory for about two years now. Now if you excuse me, I have important business to addend to, my ship is departing momentarily” Graham said, regaining his composure

“Thank you for your …Assistance Sir. I don’t wish to keep you waiting” Stated the Captian, obviously not buying the story, but being on Neutral territory, did not have sufficient evidence to bring the man in.

With the termination of the conversation, the officers parted and Graham walked briskly away from them, deeper into the station. Checking over his shoulder every few moments to make sure he was not being followed, although he did notice Shela bark something into her Comm. Set as he was leaving, but he pushed the thought from his mind.

Looks like the Company leaked, and the TSDC is coming down on me. Looks like joining this Salvage outfit was looking better and better with each passing moment, I’m sure the crew shared similar stories, but I don’t think anyone has any as sinister as myself

All these thoughts were being provoked because when he had seen the picture, he saw an image of himself. A much cleaner and more professional version that looked nothing like his rugged, unwashed state, coupled with his bandaged arm, helped add to his disguise. He hoped none of the crew had seen him, because he had no wish to discuss why the officers would be questioning him.

Graham continued on to buy some Torontonian Foodstuffs, specialties from the Home Territories, although all the vendors questioned him about his “Fragrance” he put up with it only as long as it took to get what he needed. He also purchased a new Chronometer to replace his failing old one, and a few books to entertain him in the journey ahead. With his acquisitions rounded up, making sure he still had enough to pay the trader on his return, he headed back towards the ship.

When he reached the bay that the ship was in, he felt an odd sensation that he was being watched, or that he wasn’t alone. Or both. Shrugging the sensation off, Graham re-entered the ship and deposited his items in his quarters, he headed to the ships common area, where he sat down and relaxed in the silence of the empty ship, savouring the moments before the boisterous shipmates returned. However, this was shortlived, it was only a few moments before his Paranoia returned and had him up and about again, this time headed for the bridge.

When he arrived there, he stumbled in upon a conversation between the Captain and his first mate; taken aback on the interruption, Graham remained silent for a moment, and then voiced his request.

“Um, Sir? If some, you know, investigative types show up looking for a scientist, just tell them that I don’t exist on this ship, ok? That would be a great help. Also, now that I’m here, I’ve finished all of my portside activities so is there anything I can do for you in the meanwhile?”

Tyr waved the captain off.
"I shall be fine, just some mail." He listened to Ghram "Sure, no problem." He watched the captain walk off into the station, before he put the pad down.

He walked out to the gangplank, and saw the crew of the SS San Francisco already at work refueling the ship... Walking out to the international bank, he deposited several thousand Galactic credits made when he sold one of the artifacts he had found on one of the planets. They only represented a couple hundred Siesatian dollars, but with the strong economy, it was worth something. The readout on his account printed, and he pocketed it. Something for his records.

Walking into an second hand ship supply company that had made its store inside one of the massive cargo bays on the station. He began to look around for anything he might want... His eye was caught by a black, oblong cylinder. It was listed as a mere 2,000 Galactic Credits. It was listed as '???'. Tyr picked it up, and looked it over, he knew what this was, but wasn't going to probe too much, it helped to show little interest in these shops, as the owners had a bad habit of driving up the prices if someone took too much a liking to one object.

Putting it carefully into a hover trolly, he continued down the area. He also picked up a datapad, a series of high quality targeting chips, and an engineering console he tagged for shipment to the Robin.

Making his way to the Clerk at the entrence, he placed the objects on the expansive table, and handed over the product number of the console. The total bill was over 8,000 Galactic Credits, he would charge everything but the Cylinder to the Robin's slush fund for repair parts. The cylinder came from his own pockets.

The Console would reach the Robin in an hour, by then, Ryx might have aquired the rail cannon coils, and he could finish his project. Reaching the Robin, he loaded all the purchases into his quarters, and sat down to look at the black object.

"Let's see who you are than..." He said to noone in paticular, the black cylinder was a Type IA Personal AI Construct. They were contained in the shell of EMP Reinforced Titanium - A... Prying open the side panel, he saw the crystaline matrix the Construct would have been contained in. Unfortunately, it looked as if it was empty. The crytal was dark, and would not activate. He closed it, and plugged it into a power outlet. It might come in handy some time...

It had taken him some time but Dante had found a café aboard the port, and fortunately for him it actually carried real herbal tea, something that he couldn’t get aboard the Robin. As he took his seat Grahams request weighed heavily on is mind, he had made it a point to never ask about a crewmembers past as long as they could do the job. On the rare occasion that policy got the crew into trouble, Dante wondered if this was one of them.

“I hear that you had some trouble with a Tappee battle cruiser” said a voice from behind Dante.

Instinctively he reached for the gun that was hidden under his jacket, but stopped when he recognized the voice. Taking a seat across from Dante was a young woman, who looked to in her late 20’s perhaps early 30’s but carried her self as if she was much older. She had an extremely fit figure, but still maintain an attractive figure. There was a bit of smile on her face as she took her seat.

“Good to see again Makenzie” said Dante softly. Truth was Dante knew very little about the woman sitting across from him, but she had helped bail him out of tight jams from time to time. Makenzie always seemed to appear out of no where, giving him just the right amount information to point him in the right direction. How she knew that he needed help, or how she got the information but a bit of a mystery. When she appeared though it meant that trouble was on the way, and given the events of the past few hours Dante couldn’t help but feel that this would be no different.

“Well I was just in the neighbourhood and you look like you need information, so here I am” shot Makenzie sarcastically, as she gave Dante a bit of a shrug.

Dante on some level deep down want answers as to what was going on, but knew that she would only give him a few pieces of the puzzle and leave the rest for him to figure out. “so perhaps you could tell me why the government of Tappee attacked my crew and I?”

Makenzie sat back in her chair as she let out a bit of a chuckle “You assume too much Dante, that’s always been your problem. The Cruiser that attacked you, did so on its own accord, it did so without the knowledge of its government”

“Why?” interrupted Dante before she had a chance to continue. Thinking about the fact that he had a rouge military unit chasing after him, caused him to more then if a government was after him. It meant that there were no rules.

“Relax Dante” quickly answered Makenzie as gave a subtle hand motion for him to relax. “It would seem that the captain of the ship belongs to a shadowy organization that the government of Tappee has only just become aware of. Be advised they have dispatched an Agent to investigate.” She paused as glared across the table “And you of all people know how Agents deal with things, it only a matter of time until they come looking for you.”

Taking a moment to think Dante simply took a few sips of his tea, it was doing little to calm his nerves. If what she was telling him was true, and so far she had never lied to him, his life was about to get much more complicated. But there was one question that she still had yet to answer “So what does everybody want with us”

Makenzie’s lips curled a bit, as if she was trying to hide a smile “That I can’t tell you”

“Can’t or Wouldn’t?” interjected Dante.

There was a noticeable change in Makenzie’s voice “Remember to beware of the shadows of past. There things that are extremely valuable out there, and I’m not talking monetary value either.” With that she stood up, and walked away.

Now alone, Dante sat there accompanied by his thoughts, she had given him a lot to think about it. However, either way that he approached the problem, the longer that they were here the attention it brought.

Jeremy paced impatiently around the port looking for a data terminal. Through a nearby crowd he saw that to which to which he sought. Cutting quickly through the crowd it was not long until the computer gave him the information he was looking for.

According to the ports logs the Brave Sir Robin was currently sitting in dock 12. His gamble had paid off, Jeremy had assumed that following the Robin’s encounter with the Margulis, that it would be in desperate need of repairs. As such he had decided to start his search here, and it would appear that he had lucked out.

Now came the decision on how best to proceed, the need to get aboard the ship, and it was not if he could simply walk aboard. Not to mention the fact that if he could find the ship, then others could as well. Perhaps he could use the situation to draw this shadowy group out into open.

Ryx was more than used to the feeling of being followed, but this time it was something different. This time it was almost an animalistic presence behind him, stalking him as though he was the prey. At this thought, he shivered briefly, then realized that any predators would be safely secured in the station. As he walked down the dimly lit corridor, he continually looked over his shoulder, despite his inner reassurances, something was there. He knew, thanks to his heightened senses. Oh well, looks like I am here, time to get to work he thought. With that, he knocked on the door before him, and entered the shop as it swung open. When he entered, he looked around. The shelves were a lot more empty than last time. Looks like Largo has had some trouble he thought sarcastically.

As he walked up to the counter, he took out his PHC.

"Hey Largo, you in here?" he called out.

After no reply for some time, Ryx started to get worried. Finally, Largo walked out from the back room.

"About time, you great tub of lard." Ryx said, feeling uneasy suddenly.

"Well, I had to take the time to choose which weapon to use." Largo said, his face wringing into a cruel grin.

As he leveled the laspistol, Ryx just kind of stood there, shocked.

The creature silently followed behind Ryx and hid each time he stopped to look around. The creature froze in its hiding place so it would not be noticed. It carefully followed the human as it walked, sensing the emotions of Ryx as he entered a doorway. The creature silently waited outside the open door, its head peering inside. Golden eyes watched as Ryx paced around the room examining the merchandise. It could feel curiosity from Ryx as he noticed the many empty spots.

Suddenly the creature felt intense hatred from beyond the room. Ryx took something from his pocket and looked at the display before calling out. It could feel concern eminating from Ryx as the hatred grew stronger from the back of the shop. Another biped walked out of the back room and they both exchanged words before the newcomer pulled something out of his pocket and pointed it at Ryx. It could feel the fear rise in Ryx.

The weapon gleamed in the artificial light of the room as they looked at each other. The creature knew if Ryx died here, it would not be able to continue. It was imperative it acted in the interest of helping Ryx.

Ryx and Largo heard a soft buzzing. The sound seemed completely out of place even in the busy market. They both carefully looked around. In through the doorway flew a serpentine body about a meter in length with a glistening blur where the wings were. The diamond patterned pink and blue scaled form hovered in the doorway a moment before darting into the shop. Largo turned his weapon towards the glistening form hovering in his shop. Ryx took the opportunity to dodge behind a display and tried to watch what was happening while looking for a way out.

“It seems your little backup is here to save you,” Largo shouted to Ryx, “After I kill it, I’ll find you next.”

Largo raised his laspistol and fired at the jeweled serpent. It quickly danced to the side and darted about the room evading the shots from Largo. Glass shattered, wood splintered and began to smolder, and metal was melted by the many failed shots as Largo spun about trying to get a bead on the darting form of the creature. Finally the creature darted in close and spat upon the gun. The venom flew unerringly and hit the gun. The corrosive venom quickly began dissolving the barrel of the laspistol and Largo threw it aside.

He grabbed a large club and tried to swing it at the creature. It dodged the swings a few times before it rose into the air and spat in Largo’s eyes. He dropped the club and clutched his eyes. He began to scream and dropped to the floor attempting to stop the burning. The flailing form of Largo knocked over a display and it crashed to the floor, raising a dust cloud. Largo continued to thrash about before finally stopping about a minute later, his empty sockets staring vacantly towards the ceiling.

The jeweled serpent buzzed over to where Ryx hid and hovered, curiously watching him.

Ryx looked at the creature with a mix of curiousity and fear. Am I next? he thought in despair. Standing up, after a minute of realizing the creature would not harm him, he walked over to Largo's body, seeing that he had indeed died. Smiling faintly, he placed a quick order for the things he needed to grab, and had them delivered to the ship, all courtesy of Largo. As he pushed a hovercart around, he placed random items in the cart. When he was ready to leave, he looked at the flying snake, that didn't smell like a reptile at all, and smiled.

"You want to come along?" he asked.

The creature hovered in the center of the room watching Ryx gather various items and placing them on the cart. After he finished he turned towards it and spoke. The emotions it felt from the biped were curiosity and wonderment. It also seemed to express a desire for it to follow him.

The serpentine form hovered over and settled upon Ryx’s shoulder, taking a position in the hollow of his shoulder under his jacket. A pair of golden eyes peeped out form the jacket watching everything.

As the creature snuggled inside his jacket, he looked at it curiously. Odd, oh well, looks like I have a new friend then he thought. As he walked out of the store, pushing his cart, he made haste back to the ship.

When he arrived, he quickly unloaded his plunder in his room and went up to the bridge. On his way there, the creature crawled out of his jacket and hovered along behind him. When he reached the bridge, he looked at the captain with a look like don't give me that look.

"If anyone asks, I was on the ship the whole time, period. I got your stuff, but as I expected, ran into some trouble. However, you should be happy, it didn't cost us a dime. Don't ask. Also, this little guy here, he will be tagging along. His name is...umm...what is his name...one second." he said hurridly.

"His name is Murdoc. Any problems with him and you don't get your supplies. Period." he said after a minute of thought.

After briefing the captain he went back to his room to loot through his stuff that he aquired.

Tyr walked out just in time to see Ryx, and his newfound pet, wandering the bridge.
"You better not let Wayto spot it, or we might find some cure for burns. I am going to go recieve some shipments, and get some sleep, tomorrow, I may get to work fixing the old girl."
He said, and, after dodging the flying serpent's golden gaze (Cleyrans dislike snakes) he made his way to the cargo area, where his new console, and coils would be waiting. He saw the coil was here, and that the console was slated to arrive later. Hauling it towards the MAC Room, he tore down a sign someone had scrawled on it, which said 'Tyr's Toybox'.

Slotting in the coil inside the specially made cannon. Instantly, magnetic energy sizzled through it, and then suddenly died down as the coil was saturated. Tyr closed the hatch on top, and finished coupling the remaining power sources. It was almost complete... Walking down the the cargo bay, he found the console had been delivered. Wheeling it to the room, he quickely slipped in, as someone could be heard walking down the hall.

Sitting down, he began to work on the console.

"Ahem?" Graham coughed as the Trader walked in, along with a new pet on his shoulder. The feeling of being watched returned, as if the Serpentine creature was capable of any higher intelligence.

"Uh, Ryx? I don't suppose while you were out and picked up that thing" Motioning to the Lizard on his shoulder "That you remembered to pick up some of the things I requested hmmm? They are quite important to me, and I don't wish to have to go out there again, although I will if I have to."

Graham stood there, waiting impatiently, attempting to suppress his quickly growing feeling of Cabin Fever

Dante was more then pleased to here from Ryx that the parts that they needed had been cheaper then originally thought, much cheaper. What Dante wasn’t pleased about was the fact the Ryx was trying to blackmail him into allow their new found passenger, in truth he could have cared less, but the way Ryx had gone about it annoyed him slightly. In the interests of ship moral Dante decided to let the matter slide.

As he made his way to the bridge he suddenly became aware of the fact that he had left his data pad sitting on the table back at the café. For a moment Dante swore repeatedly under his breath, enough to make a sailor blush. After regaining his composer he walked over to the nearest comm. Station. Flicking the switch he opened a channel to Tyr. “I’ve got some last minute business of the station, ships your until I get back” with that he cut off the link. Dante really didn’t feel like explaining the real reason shy he had to go back.

Hastily he mad his way off the ship and back on the station. It was not long until he found himself back at the café. Slightly embarrassed, he made walked up to the hostess, “Excuse me” he said while giving the woman an brief smile. “I was here earlier and seem to have forgot my data pad, and I was wondering if it had been turned in”

The woman was either too busy or too annoyed with Dante’s intrusion to return his smile. She rummaged under the desk for before coming up with what Dante was looking for. “Is this it?” she asked while handing the pad over to Dante.

“Yes” proclaimed Dante as he took the pad. With his free hand he handed the woman a small amount of galactic credits “Here, this is for looking at it.” At least next time that he was here he knew that he would be treated well.

“Thank you” now the woman had a bit of smile on her face.

Turning Dante started his journey back to the ship. As he passed through a nearby crowd a familiar figure stood out. Standing across from Dante was a man he knew simply as Jeremy, man Dante never want to see again. Suddenly the two men locked eye’s, their gazed fixed on each other. Though nothing was actually said, enough was. With both skill and grace both men drew their pistols and took aim at each other while diving for cover.

Those unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire were cut to pieces. For Dante is was simply a mater of survival, while for Jeremy is was business. Reaching the safety of cover Dante came out his roll and brought is pulse pistol over the top of cover, his pistol spat green death in Jeremy’s general direction.

Silence fell over the area, as everyone else cleared the area. “Surprised to see you are still alive after all these years” shouted Jeremy from behind his covers “Tell me Dante, how have you been?”

Dante answered by again firing on Jeremy’s position “So you’re the agent Tappee sent after my ship and I” shot Dante.
It was Jeremy’s turn to shot back. Briefly ducking out from his cover Jeremy unleashed a volley and Dante and his cover “I should have known it was you, there aren’t too many people out there that could pull of such a thing. I’m not here for you, why don’t we just talk. It would be just like to good old days between me you.”

As Jeremy’s fire riddled his position, Dante was forced to keep his down. “Not falling that. We both know that order 66 is still effect.” Shout Dante. “Besides I’ve got no interest in the good old days.” This time instead of firing at Jeremy he shot out a nearby conduit.

In a thunderous display the conduit exploded, throwing steam in the empty void that separated the two men. Using this as change to escape Dante took off down a nearby corridor. After randomly changing his direction a few time, Dante took a moment to catch his breath and gain his barring. Sure that he was at least safe for the time being he pulled his communicator of his pocket. “Tyr this is Dante I’ve ran into a bit of a… situation. Recall any crew that is still on the station, and have the Robin ready for launch as soon as I get there.” He paused to get some air “Don’t let anybody near the ship”

All Dante could do now was hope that he could get back to the ship with out running into security patrol or before Jeremy got there first.

Tyr didn't need to be told twice, he uplinked into the station's lesser systems, and instantly hacked his way into the intercom system. It wasn't exactly hard, a simple scrambler program was enough. Setting the relay through the communications, he opened the channel.

"Attention, All crew member's of 'The Brave Sir Robin' are to report to the ship immediately. You leave in 6 minuites, no exceptions." he said, and began to work on the docking bay doors. But they were sealed down as tight as could be... Then Tyr stopped, and smiled, when he got that look, you knew something was afoot. But before he could implement his plan, three of the station's police force boarded the craft.

"Sir, you are under arrest for unlawful use of station systems!" One shouted, his responce was curt, Tyr drew his Tri Barrelled Plasma Pistol, and aimed it right between the eyes, brushing the hairline trigger, three blazing red blasts of supercharged plasma collided with the unfortunate soldier's face, which exploded, sending gory chunks across the deck. The other two took cover, only to find said cover being covered by AI Controlled neutrino cannons. Twin blasts of monocromatic light slammed into one's chest, unconsciousness was immediate. The other had the misfortune of being hit, and running headlong into the wall trying to escape the blasts. Tyr dragged the men out of the ship, making sure only Robin crew got onboard, before returning to the console inside his room. Setting down the coundown, there was only 3:24 left before departure. In 3:24 seconds, a MAC Blast would tear through the heavy doors, allowing their escape.

Hacking into the station once again, he inserted a file, Brave_Sir_Robin_Logs.sld into the registry. After they left, it would be opened, and instantly release a virus into the station's system. Havoc would be immediate, as the station's police force was shut down, all doors sealed, and the power systems set to drain into space.If they were lucky, it would leave the Robin with ample time to escape.

Graham freaked as he saw the police officers head on board, flashing badges and taking them all in. However, what unsettled him more, and reinforced the realization that he really was working with a group of renegades was how the situation was dealt with.

He leaped out of the way under one of the consoles as the first officer discharged a round from his pistol, and then proceeded to watch the other two officers get sliced to shreds by the security system. However, throughout all of this chaos, graham only had one thought, engulfing his whole brain

I need to get those parts

Throwing his last shred of morals away he jumped into action, with little more that four minutes remaining, he dashed down to his room, grabbed a gas mask and his last bio-stun grenade he had kept hidden in case of emergencies. He then set his chronometer to countdown how much time he had left and run through the bridge and out the exit.

The station was deserted; apparently the gunfire had discouraged security from sending reinforcements for the time being. He remembered that there had been a branch of Hi-Wired, a Torontonian electronics conglomerate outside the docking bays, glancing at the timer he saw he had less than three minutes now.

Running frantically he burned through the entrance to the station and quickly located the store, which was currently full of customers, and aides assisting the consumers in their daily electronics needs. Graham ran to the entrance, and swallowing his conscience that screamed to him that this was wrong, he primed the grenade and hurled it into the store. The crowd screamed as the poured out of the room and Graham set his gas mask to filter out the pathogen. The grenade landed and detonated with a small, harmless –pop- but it released gas which disrupted neurons in the brain, effectively paralysing everyone in the store, and possibly killing anyone unlucky enough to any brain defects.

He ran into the store as the alarms started going off, picking up a large stand holding up a rather expensive micro-media player, he wielded it like a cudgel, smashing the glass displays and quickly looking over the contents. He grabbed a high-end AI unit as well as a propulsion unit, although it was a tad larger than what he would have wished.

Finally, he noticed a Compact Fusion Power Pack on a shelf in the back of the store, checking his watch 1:43 Minutes remaining he grabbed the oversized battery and lugged his loot out of the store, just as other unsavouries descended on the easy pickings. Hopefully the looting would be blamed on them and the Brave Sir Robin would not be implicated.

He dashed back to the docking bays only to notice that security had descended on the location of the Brave Sir Robin, he also recognised the two officers who had questioned him before. Turning around, he noticed a small access corridor which lead into the bay. Unfortunately he was noticed by the officers, he turned to yell out “Halt! Graham Fieldleburg, under the authority of the Galactic Criminals Act, you are under arrest for Crimes against Torontonians, among other charges”

I don’t have time for this… Graham thought as he ignored the threats and kept moving through the access corridor, with less than a minute remaining, he held tight onto his stolen goods and ran as fast as he could. He jumped onto the access ramp to the ship just as it was being drawn up, tripping; he sent his bundle of goods flying into the entrance area, all of this with his gas mask still on…

Collecting up his goods he hoped he wasn’t noticed as he shuffled down to his quarters, dumped his pile on to the floor, ripped off his mask, straightened his outfit out and headed to the common area, as if he had never left the ship. Although he was sure that if he was spotted by anyone on the crew, Dante would not be a happy captain…

As Wayto sat pondering the situation before him, he came to realize just how lucky he actually was; to have successfully mated a pair of Ährentragend Zen birds, in captivity no less, is to have completed one of the most dangerous tasks a man, or gnome, can do. Indeed, whoever named the Zen bird itself, with its many layers of villanous spikes, its many pairs of clacking beaks and flicking toungues and diamond-slicing talons, must have been an unimaginably bitter person.
Bloodied, broken, and utterly exausted, he sat slumped in a mewling chair-dog. Beyond the impenetrable bars of their enclosure, the Zen birds were together perched in a dangerous embrace - the urge to kill each other momentarily supressed. Wayto took a few moments to catch his breath and sighed contently. He smiled.

The intercom rudely announced a three minute countdown to depature and Wayto woke with a start. Disturbed by the sudden noise, the Zen birds again set upon each other with a barrage of feathers and gurgling squawks. With his good eye, Wayto squinted at a wall clock - less than ten minutes had passed , time to separate them. He heaved himself out of the chair-dog, grabbed a worthless pair of protective gloves, and limped into the enclosure.

Peeping out from under Ryx’s jacket, the pair of golden eyes carefully examined each crewmember. Behind the eyes, the mind that dwelled within carefully listened into the surface thoughts of each, cataloging and analyzing each member until she was sure they could be trusted.

Behind a carefully constructed virtual mind that simulated the thought processes of an actual Alaspin Minidrag, Cal’Thon considered the crew.

“They seem to be able to serve their function. I think I made the right choice when I picked the Robin. The ship seems to be sound and their legality will take me to many out of the way places. I guess I will have to do my best to keep them alive.”

The Minidrag tightened it’s grip on Ryx’s shoulder to keep from being dislodged in the bustle of activity.

Using several crawl spaces to his advantage Dante was able to easily, but more importantly quickly move through out the station undetected.

Push a panel to the side he looked out on the sweetest thing that he had ever seen, the Robin, sitting there in all her glory.

From the looks of things it had not taken long for the fighting in the promenade to slip over to the docks. Just from the casual glances he could see scorch marks on a nearby wall, and the odd dead guard lying about. It would that the stakes in this little game had just been raised.

Coming out of the safety of the crawl Dante ran full speed for the Robin. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a group of security agents make their way on too the platform, only to be cut apart by the Robins defence gun. The guns had been a costly upgrade, but one that time and time again proved to worth every penny he had paid. A glance a his crono told him that he had 30 seconds until the Robin would be departing, as always he had cut it close.

Dashing up the plank Dante made his way up to the bridge to find the Tyr had fully taken charge of the situation. “I think that we have once again over stayed our welcome” he said as he took his seat. He gave a quick glance over at Tyr “If every thing is in order then I think that it would be a good time to leave” Dante had utter faith in Tyr ability to get them of this situation.

Tyr smiled... "With Pleasure." And punched in the repulsors, and the ship lifted from the ground... Running his hand across the panel, there was a brilliant flash of light, but no sound, as the air was blasted through the great door, the sound had nowhere to travel.

Air was not the only thing to be sucked into space, many unlucky security guards found themselves flash frozen. Suddenly, the entire station went dark as the virus took hold.

"The plan is working, where to captain?"

Ryx sat back as all of this unfolded, glad he had dealt with his things expediently. However, he wished he would have had time to actually relax. Unfortunately, knowing the way the crew of the Robin worked, that was like asking for a snowball to extenguish a star. Guess we will need a bigger snowball he thought bitterly. As the Robin took off, he started to root through all of his loot he had aquired, and to ask the people who requested there things when and where they wanted there stuff. First up, Graham. he thought, and I hope to the gods that he doesn't smell still. With that last thought he headed out for Grahams quarters.

“Some place safe” snapped Dante, he knew that it was not Tyr’s fault that they were in this situation, it was his. What Dante really wanted was to figure out why they had fallen into this mess, then hopefully he could figure out a way to get them out. Slowly he rose from his chair. “If we run into any MORE trouble I’ll be in the cargo bay”

Turning he made is way off the bridge and down toward the cargo bay. While making the journey, he fell into the depths of mind, replaying the event of the events of the past few days. Dante tried to think of the things that he knew.

First his crew and him had narrowly escaped a close encounter with a Tappee Battle cruiser, then Dante had a run with a Tappee intelligence agent. If he didn’t know any better he would assume that the government of Tappee would stop at nothing to the artifact that was sitting in the cargo bay. However, according to his source there was more to this story then just the government, it would seem that the government was trying to be a second unknown party to the artifact. Which brought Dante back to his original question, why?

As the doors to the cargo slide open Dante looked over the artifact with a newfound interest. As much as Dante had hoped, it had not changed since the last time that he had laid eyes on it. It stood there silent, as if on some level it was mocking him, keeping its mysterious purpose to its self. “What are you hiding from me?” said Dante to no one other then himself.

Casually he began to circle around it, scanning it, looking for something that did not belong. The artifact itself was a magnificent piece, constructed entirely out of granite, which stood 10 feet high. It represented some goddess for a tribal culture that had disappeared well over 250,000 years ago. Surprisingly the statue itself had withstood the hand of time and was relatively good shape. Its face was similar to that of most humanoids, but contained much more sharp features compared to that of the rest of its body.

It was then that Dante realized that the body seemed to be in stark contrast to the rest of its body, compared the face, the body was the part of the statue that was out place. Dante couldn’t believe that he had not noticed it before, but then again he never really examined it so closely before, seeing it only as another paycheck.

Walking closer her began to slowly caress the statue, gently patting it, carefully listening to any change in sound. As he came to the back of the statue Dante was able to notice a subtle change in the sound that he made, it almost sound as if this particular part of the statue was hallow. Taking a step back he drew pistol and fire at the general area.

Suddenly the alarms went off, indicating that a weapon had been discharged. He swore under his breath for not turning the sensor of before hand, Dante could just picture Tyr freaking out on the bridge as the alarms went off. Dante would have normally contacted the bridge to tell them what had happened, but something had caught his eye.

His blast had bored a hold into a hidden chamber within the statue. The outline of the hole still gave of an orange glow, but a new object could be seen. Reaching in Dante pulled the object out from it 250,000-year-old tome.

Brushing of the dust Dante was amazed at what he was looking at. What Dante was holding was simply a data pad. However, Dante knew that this was no ordinary data pad, it was a new generation high security, with an extended memory period. It was the standard issue that was used by Tappee intelligence, a model that had had come into service just within the last year. Dante quickly found himself overcome by curiosity; carefully he hit the power button and waited to see.

Colours jumped around the screen as it came to life. Once again Dante was surprised, when he found that he didn’t need a password to access pads directory. First thing that he did was check to the admin directory to see when the data pad had been last been activated; his jaw nearly hit the floor when he read the message.

Elapsed time since last activation: 0.276457 Kilocycles 065 Days 120 Minutes 54 Seconds

If this information was correct, then the data pad itself had was 276,457 years old. For the first time panic began to set in as Dante started to realize the significance of what he was hold. Switching back to the main directory he opened the one and only data file that the pad had. What he found there was a message written in a language that he couldn’t read, but recognized, Ancient Calnuxian. This posed a problem, as there were very few that speak it, and it had never been entered into the language data base. As a result he couldn’t simply run it through the computer, he would have to find a person that actually knew the language. Unfortunately that would prove more difficult and dangerous then Dante wanted.

Overwhelmed he took a seat against the wall, the alarms were still going, but he had long since blocked them out. He just sat there, trying to thing how best to proceed.

As the alarms went off, the Minidrag rose up, looking for danger. It tightened its grip on Ryx’s shoulder, readying for a quick takeoff if it was needed. Its wings unfurled in readiness and the small tongue flickered in and out tasting for the unknown enemy.

Within the mind of the creature, the entity within carefully scanned for the danger.

After finding Sanctum in his quarters, Graham opened up the security fastenings on his stolen products. He had felt a pang of regret but as the increased their distance between the station and the ship, that feeling had subsided, it had been replaced by a feeling of excitement.

His Electronic Companion would soon be complete; the basic wiring was finished, as was the port that the propulsion system would attach to. All he needed was to program the AI and place the power pack into its designated slot. Although before doing this, Graham was careful to ground himself as well as set up the uplink port that he had brought onto the ship with him. The port would serve as both a recharge station as well as an uplink to the ships computer and his personal files.

Nervously, he placed the needed parts into place, and stood back. The robot slowly started to start up and run the necessary control protocols, then the alarm went off, which overloaded the sensory input device. After sparking profusely, the probe clattered back to the desk, non-functional

Graham cursed loudly, swearing to hurt the person who set off the alarm when he found out who activated the alarm. Moving over to the Comm. System he punched into the bridge and shouted:

“Whatever the hell is going on up there, could I have a warning the next time? You almost gave me a heart attack down here!”

Storming back to his desk, his arm twinged in pain. Stopping what he was doing, he undressed the wound, and despite the fact that it has gotten him a reputation for being smelly, it had done a disturbingly good job, the burn had almost healed after a few hours. Deciding it was for the best, Graham redressed the wound with a fresh application of ointment, vowing to stay in his quarters for the next few hours he hunkered down and continued to assemble and repair his electronic associate.

Dante Stormed onto the bridge, and quickly took his seat. For a moment he just sat there in silence, contemplating what to next. “Helm” said Dante finally ending the silence “Set a new course.” Again he sat there trying to finalize things within my mind “Set a course for Shoredaz belt”

Shoredaz belt was a region of space that was just outside Tappee space, which was a high trade route. Unlike most areas of space that Robin flew in, those that operated in this region did so legitimately, well inside the confines of the law.

No sooner had Dante taken his seat, than he stood back up glancing over Tyr “If you got a moment I need to speak with you in private”

Tyr didn't know what he was being called about... His recent, preoccupied behavior and obsessive working on the MAC was apparent. He had recently taken an only semi there expression. Humans had difficulty enough, discerning Burmecian facial expressions, but Dante had known him long enough that he might be able to tell...

"Yes Sir." he didn't catch himself in time, he hadn't called Dante 'Sir' in seriousity since he had first boarded the ship so many years ago. He was getting jittery too. He noticed. He was on edge, and would probobly put himself under the careful care of the doc after this.

He followed Dante to a quiet area to listen to the conversation.

Dante was a bit taken back when Tyr called him ‘Sir’ it was something that Tyr had not done in a very long time. Dante however, choose not to comment on it as there were more pressing matters at hand. Casually he handed Tyr the Data Pad, “I found this hidden within the statue” explained Dante

“There is something about it that does not simply add up. According to it records it has been hidden within the statue for the last 270,000 years, the problem is that this model only went into production last year. It would seem that we have stumbled into some kind of… temporal things.”

Dante moved about the room uncomfortably for a moment or two. Tappee had only begun to experiment with temporal technology, so to have something like could only explain the trouble that they were in. Dante for one knew that the only way for them to get out would be two find some answers. “I need to decrypt the message on the pad, and the only way to do that is for to go back to Tappee.” Truth was Dante had not been back to Tappee Prime since he was a child, to go back there could mean death, but at the moment that was something that he was willing to risk. “Mean while I want you to go back to where we found the Statue and see what you can turn up there.” Tyr had seemed to be a bit distant as of late, and for the first time since he could recalled Dante had slight reservation of leaving Tyr in charge “Ok with taking control of the ship for a while?”

"Very curious." Tyr said, straightening up. "Temporal technology isn't new however, I guess it is all relative." It was his version of a joke. "I think this is bigger than us all, and then some. Who goes with you though, we can't have you wandering around alone." "Oh, before I forget."

He fished around in his pockets for a while, before pulling out a data slicer.

"You might want to use this to edit your starport visas." he said.

"Dante, you know this is going to change things, right? Temporal technology is controlled, and protected. If we don't have a temporal fleet on our asses, we are going to have Tappee law enforcement officers searching every bit of space debris for us." he said, before continuing. "I don't know what we will accomplish, and some, if not all of us may wind up dead. But in the end, even if we solve this mystery, and all make it out alive, there will be reppurcussions."

He was usually right about these things. But on occasion, had been very wrong. Only time would tell.

For a brief moment a bit of a smile came over Dante’s face “I guess it will be just like the old day” subtly responding to Tyr early statement about evading the authorities “I think that I’m going to see if Ryx’s wants to come with me to Tappee. We are going to meet up with an old friend of mine who will take us the rest of the way to Tappee.” By rest of the way he meant smuggle them in. “Do you think you need anything before we split up?”

"Nothing, I am more worried about you... But then again, I can't go, I am sure a Burmecian would attract more attention then needed..." Tyr said after a long (LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG) pause. Tyr was now less worried about the message he had recieved, and more worried about his Commander and friend.

Pulling out something from his holster, it might have looked like he was going to shoot Dante, before he spun the weapon around so the butt was facing the human. It was a duel barrelled automatic plasma pistol.
"Early birthday present. All these lasers and phasers are well and good for taking out soft targets, but if you want to take out something with a good bit more weight to it, like... Combat Armor, this is what you want. They just don't make em like this anymore."

"Anyway, I will take the ship back to that planet, but, in our haste to leave the last facility, we forgot to get a full tank of fuel, and we seem to have lost a great portion of the stuff we had... someone left the fuel hatch open." he motioned out one of the plasma scorred windows at what looked like a great big pipeline extending from the ship, the fuel line that had been severed when they had blasted their way out of the San Franscisco.

"We're going to need some fuel, and fast."

Dante reached out taking the weapon “You sure, about this” there was a brief pause as he looked down at the weapon “I know what this means to you”.

He decided that it was to change the subject. Dante was aware of the fuel situation; given the circumstance he had already taken steps to rectify the problem. “Don’t worry about the fuel, I’m on top of it”

As if almost on cue as voice came over the intercom Captain we’ve got ship coming out hyperspace

A smile came over his face as he glanced over Tyr “Well it looks like fuel is here as a matter of fact” with that he turned to make his way to the bridge.

"Don't worry about it, I got it from a Siesatian Military Convoy that we passed a couple months ago. Its newer than my Tri barrel here, and has a faster shot, but I think I still hold the most powerful pistol around..."

Tyr followed him to the bridge, and sat down in his chair, he was surprised to see another message...

reading through it, he cursed himself... when he had recieved his last mail packet, he had not turned on his Mailserv program, and now the SCPS had been alerted that it had been delievered. Not good, he was supposed to be dead... this would be difficult to hammer out. But he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

Begining mid space refueling procedures, he watched as the long pipe was released. And he wondered how many more years he would be out here...

The Creature poked it's head out the collar and watched what was going on around itself. Its forked tongue flickering in and out, sampling the air for enemies.

"It seems I found a crew to ride along with. Better yet, they seem to think I am an animal. I will have to be sure to keep the charade up so I can get my work done without tipping them off."

The Minidrag stretched, extending its wings to let the muscles unwind and then settled down, it's sharp eyes watching everything.

Graham sighed as he put in the final workings into his Electronic Friend, when he was convinced that the thing wouldn’t explode if poked at suddenly, he moved towards his bed. Lifting up the mattress he removed two modified AR-1 Grinders, complements of the Torontonian Armories, although not legally modified, he had an associate make them so that the Rifles collapsed into two rectangles the size of a palm, when triggered, they unfolded into the full size if given enough space.

Moving back to the Data Probe, he punched in a few buttons mounted on the upper back side of it, causing two small alcoves big enough for the collapsed weapons to fit into the small spaces, however, when triggered, they would pop out of either side, ready to fire on whatever was threatening his master. On top of the sampling devices mounted on the bottom of the machine, it would be fully capable of helping him collect specimens if they ever went planetside.

Moving back to the docking port, he punched in a few keystrokes and initiated the start up procedure, after the program was initialized, he stepped back as the anti-gravity unit started up and held at five feet above the ground, while the AI did a quick systems check, after verifying that all operations were green, he powered down the unit and left it on his desk. Moving back from the chair, he got up and left his quarters, although he would have to suffer another round of jeers from the crew, it had been too quiet, and he had to know what was going on.

As he was traveling through the corridors, he was affronted by two things, first of all the trader brushed past him, and Graham remembered that he had requested the trader get him parts he now no longer needed, stopping Ryx, he mumbled something about appreciating he had made the effort to get the supplies, but he no longer needed them, and he could just stick them in storage.

After avoiding that bombshell, he continued onto the bridge, but as he was passing the Emergency Escape pods, he saw the Ships Doctor, scratched and bruised, hastily shoving all sorts of living creatures into one of the pods, in an effort to thank the doctor and ask what was going on, the doctor simply repeated that he was traveling to the next phase of existence and wished them all a good journey over and over again, apparently he had lost it. After climbing aboard the pod, he started cackling wildly as he punched in the escape code and the pod blasted away from the ship into space, the Captain would not be happy about this…

After navigating the passageways to the bridge, he entered as the second officer was pointing a weapon against the Captain, momentarily fearing some sort of mutiny, he was relieved when he handed it butt first to the Leader, then after revealing that they were out of fuel, the Captain seemed to summon a refueling ship out of space to top them up, all of this was very strange, although he was coming to realize that nothing normal ever happened on this ship anyway.

Moving towards the Captain, he informed him of the bad news:

“Um, Sir? In case you don’t already know, the doctor flipped his lid and ditched the ship, he floating out there is space as we speak, traveling to some destination in his mind. Also, speaking of missing crew members, I haven’t heard from the engineer since we had the last crew meeting, just thought you’d want to know.”

Graham paused, trying to gauge the Captain’s reaction, before moving on

“And Sir? Do you mind telling me what is going on? Why did we ditch the station so fast? And where are we going now? I don’t appreciate being left in the dark in the ships goings on, I have the feeling that we’ve gotten into something much bigger than ‘Accidentally’ misplacing a few ancient relics here…”

Graham finished, standing awkwardly as he waited for a response from Dante, he wasn’t used to grilling people for information, even less so from the man who took him on when he was being hounded by Torontonian Authorities. Neithertheless, he couldn’t stand being left in the dark and being expected to tag along with the rest of them on some wild goose chase, while they were being blasted, burned and disintegrated along the way.

“Things have gotten a bit more… complicated” quickly explained Dante as he began to make his way off the bridge. He really did want to go into more detail for Graham, but there were places that he needed to be “When I’ve got a moment I’ll fill you in, but right now is a bad time.” He was able to get his words in just as the door closed behind him.

Impatiently he made his way through the ship and down to the air lock, he had an important person he had to meet there, he was meeting with the captain of the ship that was refuelling the Robin. Dante arrived just to see the air lock swing open and a familiar face step out from behind.

“I have to say Dante, the Robin look a little beat up, what have done with my ship” quickly remarked the man in a stern voice. He was an older man, he appeared to be in late sixties, his hair and beard had long since turned grey.

“Your ship Brak!” shot Dante back quickly in response “You gave the Robin too me, or is your memory starting to go in your old age.” The two men exchanged glares for a moment, and Dante was the first to break the silence. “So how the legitimate lifestyle treating you?”

Brak let out a loud laugh “Well it is now where as exciting as my old day here on the Robin, but it pass’s the time. At least I don’t have people shooting at me anymore” He took a moment to look Dante over. “So really want to go back to Tappee do you” Brak had always been like a father figure to Dante, and was one of a select few people the knew the truth about Dante’s past.

Dante smiled for a moment, something that he had not done in awhile. “Only if you and your ship are up to the challenge.” Remarked Dante sarcastically. Dante knew that there was no way that the Robin and him could get anywhere near Tappee, he hope that Brak could smuggle him there aboard his ship the ‘BaneBlade’.

“The Blade is ready when ever you are” answered Brak

“I just have to tie up some loose ends here then we should be good to go” Dante turned and walked a few steps before he turned to face Brak “It should be just like the old days”

Graham watched as the Captain brushed his inquiry off and hurried off the bridge, dejected, he sat down in the nearest available chair, which he didn’t realize was the Captains chair, and glanced at Tyr, the Robin’s Defacto Second in Command.

“So…” Graham sighed “I suppose with the Captain gone that means you are in charge, and it would seem that we’re the only two around for the moment, so where exactly are we going? I still have no clue as to what’s going on, first the doctor abandons the ship, and then the crew mysterious drops off the radar, aside from you and the Captain, I don’t know where anyone else is!” He stopped, realizing he was in the Captain’s chair, and leaping out of it

“And on top of that, I have no clue as to why we just ran off from a space station, after being chased down by a battlecrusier, I mean, I have some pretty dubious history, but nothing on this scale! So perhaps you could tell me what is going on Tyr, and when we’re going to get a replacement doctor”

"Well, Either way, as much as I repect the Captain, I don't think I want to be going where he's going, so I guess I'll stick it out with you Tyr. That being said, where to?"

Tyr watched and listened with minor annoyance as the human sat down in the captain’s chair.

”We are going to the planet where we found that hunk of rock… We are going to find why there was a 10 year old PAD in a 10,000 year old statue. As for the crew, I would suggest you check the quarters; many of them are currently packing. Ollie received an urgent communiqué from her home planet, and is headed back. Mr. Blackbird is hiding in engineering last I checked, he is probably messing with another one of those holochips…”

Tyr watched with his usual stern glare as the scientist jumped from the captains chair. And continued to ask questions…

“As for the space station, let’s just say, they found us… and leave it at that. This is bigger than the both of us. We are dealing with the crap that makes my country nervous, and when they get nervous about these things, they sent an Incursion fleet. Our mission is to figure out where, when, and how the PAD came to rest inside the statue…”

Ryx entered was leaning against the wall in his quarters, wondering what was going on. Wait, wait. This is just like the good old days with Galeel. Good stuff. Jumping into action, he started packing a light bag. Irregardless of what would happen next, he wanted to be sure to have what he needed.

Once he had packed his bag, he made for the bridge, deciding to wait there for the captain.

Dante finished putting the last of his things in the duffle bag, and took a moment too close the bag. It was then that he came to the full realization of what he was about to do, there were not many things that ever scared Dante, but the thought of going back to Tappee terrified him.

Alone in his room Dante took a moment to make sure that his current course of action was the right on, there was so many factors that played in, and unfortunately Dante didn’t know most of those factors.

Taking a deep breath Dante grabbed his things and quickly made his way up over to the intercom “All hands that are coming with me, meet me at air lock two.”