NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is partially to introduce the concept of the attack kitten within the Scellian military without it getting buried within the factbook, the other is because it will be fun to RP an attack kitten. See the Scellian Factbook (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=428449) for any terms that aren't explained. First some basic stats for the attack kitten, the next post has the start of the roleplay.

Attack Kitten

The Attack Kitten was created out of the need for a powerful multirole ground presence for the Scellian Empire. The most popular pet within the Scellian Empire is the kitten, cute and fuzzy beyond belief these creatures have been genetically modified for centuries along with their masters. Unlike Scellian citizens the genetic modifications didn’t go as far in the intelligence department, but went farther in the physical side. Like the Scellians the kittens have a hybrid machine biological system that is naturally produced with their bodies, creating a variety of incredibly dense substances to protect themselves. While the kitten is limited to a single form instead of being able to shapeshift this allows for a stronger physical form compared to the Empire’s citizens. The Attack Kitten is a much more intelligent and durable form of the kitten featuring genetically included weapons beyond simple claws and teeth, making able to take on many of the current armored vehicles. The major drawback to Attack Kitten is that they breed slowly and thus cannot be employed in large numbers, usually an entire Cityship might have 10,000 attack kittens within is cadaverous holds. Within the Scellian society the attack kitten receives the highest level of respect, while they may be considered stupid compared to a Scellian the risks they voluntarily take makes them idols among the population. Any attack kitten has the right to refuse to enter combat at any time, including the first time, and is not considered to be any less because of it. The attack kitten is the only ground unit currently employed in the Scellian ground forces and looks to remain that way as long as the unparalleled effectiveness of the attack kitten continues.

Average Length: 35 cm (w/o tail), 45 cm (w/tail)
Average Height: 15 cm
Average Weight: 80 lbs
Average Fur Length: 1 cm
-Fur Properties-
40 MJ Energy Deflection *
1000 Celsuis Heat Resistance
Limited Adaptive Camoflouge
Soft and Fluffy
Average Run Speed: 80 MPH
Maximum Run Speed: 120 MPH
Claws: 5 cm
-Claw Properties-
Flexible
Monomolecular Edge**
Warp 6 Mikulium
Armor Piercing Tips***
Neural Network
-Neural Net Properties-
Distributes energy
Controls muscles
Allows for easy suppression of pain/fatigue
Supplies energy to claws
Directly connected to both brain and stomach
Stomach/Energy Reserves
- Stomach/Energy Reserves Properties-
Up to 1 week without food
Eats anything, heavy metals preferred
Food broken down at molecular level****
Jaws/Mouth
-Properties of Jaws/Mouth-
Unhinged Jaw*****
Warp 6 Mikulium Teeth
Monomolecular Tips
500,000 PSI bite******
Skeletal Structure
-Skeletal Structure Properties
Warp 6 Mikulium Bones
2,000,000 PSI resistance to fracture/breakage
Average IQ: 94
Tail: 10 cm
-Tail Properties-
Prehensile
2000 PSI grip
Vision: Light between 10^-2 and 10^-8 meters(Microwaves to X-rays), limited gravitic

Notes:
The musculature of an attack kitten gives the kitten much of its mass due to its incredibly high density, making the kitten very resistant to bruising or damage from kinetic impacts. It also imparts great strength to the attack kitten allowing it to perform amazing feats like tear armored plating off a tank instead of merely burrowing through it. Due to the incredible properties of the kittens fur small arms have little to no effect of a kitten, and even heavies weapons are partially deflected by the kittens fur. The attack kitten has a lower average intelligence then regular humans, however they have superb educational facilities available to them so they can often seem smarter then your average human.




*(Slightly lower then heavy SW blaster bolt)
**(Claws narrow down to a single molecule)
***(Tips can generate 100 kJ charge temporarily)
****(Biological fission reactor)
*****(Like a snake)
******(Large dog has 450 PSI bite)

A Kitten Lost

Kaitan was cold, wet and starting to get hungry for something beside trees and plants. Nothing around had any substance to it and he could already feel the creepings of hunger upon him, a now constant companion. The gnawing in his belly was nothing compared to the gnawing he had done to the surrounding area, the area around the dank wet cave he called home had been completely denuded of foliage of any kind. Every day he had to range farther and farther away to find something worth eating, or something to eat at all. He supposed that he could live on rocks, but the more complex the molecule the better it was as food and anything tasted better then rocks. Kaitan was a particularly fluffy kitten, nearly six months old and half way finished with basic training he wasn’t really prepared for life on his own. That hadn’t prevented him from doing something silly, and that was what got him into his current predicament in the first place. He had been told a thousand times that manual controls were not for sleeping on, despite the warmth that they gave off and the soft humming noise that always helped put him to sleep. One day he had taken a short nap of one of the warmest control panels around, far out of sight of anyone else on the ship. He was noisily awakened from his warm nap when whatever he was in impacted the atmosphere of the god-forsaken planet he was currently stuck on, he supposed that it might be considered his fault. The pod has stayed livable for the first two weeks, but after that was forced to leave.
I’m cold, wet and just want to go home. I’ve been here for a month, and no one has come, where are my teachers, my friends, my parents? I miss them so much, but why haven’t they come for me?
Kaitan lets out is most piteous mew before settling down to stare at the sky, hoping against hope for rescue. Little kitten tears start to form in his eyes as the uncaring sky stares back, empty of ships and hope.

Kaitan (http://toadstool.se/journal/snapshots/736.jpg)

OOC: I’ll take comments on the attack kitten but I only want one person to RP exploring the planet and finding Kaitan.

"Michi we're just entering orbit for Rama 4. I'll have the initial sensor readings after the first revolution." The small freighter's AI advised her captain and sole passenger.

"Okay, thank you Glory" Michiko rolled out of the narrow bed and made her way to the bridge. The planet looked lovely and so serene. She needed that restfulness, more than any one but she knew.

"There are the ruins the scout noted, right at the coordinates he gave. They seem to be very extensive." Glory noted

"Atmosphere is Midgard 'norm' and I'd sending off the sendor drone for on planet evaluation of biological hazzards."

The freighter shook slightly as th large remote drone launched itself and headed planet side. Michiko watched the trajectory readings for a moment then headed for the galley. She wasn't hungry but knew she needed to eat.

"If it doesn't pick up any thing bio hazardous we'll make landfall just after first light. That will give me all day to set up camp." She commented as she waited for a frozen breakfast to heat.

Kaitan watched the sky, mourning. The first few weeks every shooting star had been a beacon of hope, now all they did was mock his silent vigil. Slowly rising on white paws Kaitan pads off on the long trek to find food.
I hope that I find an animal, it seems so hard to believe that there is all these plants but no animals. I won't even eat it, I just want someone to talk to. I just... just want someone to give me a single pet. All I want is a friend, I'm so alone, so alone.

Bump

Michiko stepped out from the tiny shower wrapping a towel around her as Glory reported that the sensor package that they'd sent down to Rama's surface reported no un anticipated problems.

"Good. Go ahead and take us in Glory. That high spot on the western edge of the ruins that we mapped the coordiantes to. Then please, flash off a message to the Archives that we have arived and are making planet fall. I'm going to go over those holos one last time."

Quickly she threw on a ship suit that clung fetchingly to her trim frame and called up the holos while she pulled her long ebon hair back into a thick pony tail.

She was deep inside the holograms as the AI chose a slow descent path to Rama's surface. Glory's ship self had been custom designed and built for Michiko and the two had become friends. She didn't want her human frail freind to come to any harm and so she scanned the surface continuously, building up ever more complete data banks.

"Michiko, we're about to land, come on and take a closer look. I think you'll approve."

The young special ops agent turned archeologist flicked off the holos and trotted from the main cabin to the bridge quickly. She nodded with an easy smile as she looked over the display.

"Running water, shade, and high ground. Just what the happy camper needs, plus plenty of room for you and a work shed or two."

"Good thing they designed me sleek, and planetfall capable" Glory chuckled as she hovered on silent antigrav and extended her landing 'legs'.

"There we go." She turned off flight systems one after one, beginning the routine checks and activating her Avatar self. Her andriod body was far stronger and faster than a human. She would help Michiko set up camp after she set the perimeter sentry system and set her ships self to 'minding the store' as Michi liked to term it.

Glorified (http://www.atddm.com/Revere.gif)-art by the ever irripressable D'Monix

The reentry was a blaze of light across the sky leaving a residual heat streak obvious even to the depressed kitten, even more then the EM trail was the was the resonating booms of a supersonic ship. It was the first time since he had been launched that he truly felt the stirrings of real hope, and he took off running.
They've come for me! Finally they have come for me, oh I knew they wouldn't leave me. I will be rescued and be back to where it is warm, dry and they have proper food.
He sprinted across the intervening ground, about twenty miles, as cold and hungery as he was he still managed a respectful 100 MPH. It took his fifteen minutes to get to the ship, but one look told him the ship hadn't come from his friends. It didn't have the look or feel of the metal that came from his friends, so he stopped short of the clearing in the foliage the ship had made.
Maybe... maybe they were askedby my friends to get me. They... they might have a little food to spare, may be just little. I will wait, for someone to come out, so I can ask them. Please have food.

ooc: I LOVE KITTIES of all shapes and sizes! Is there any way I can get involved ICly?

OOC: Did you see the pic I chose for Kaitan, it is sooooo cute. Maybe you could have one of your ships getting boarded in nearby space after Kaitan and the Glorified have returned to space. That could be an excellent chance to show Kaitans combat abilites, but we have to check with Tanara first. So what do you say Tanara, good idea? If someone else wants to get involved they will have to be the boarding party on Kazecis ship, if Tanara agrees.

ooc: I would like to do that kind of an RP, as I haven't done it yet with this nation. Cute kitty!

OOC: I have no problem, Scellia with any one you clear joining in the game. In RL I am involved with several local feline rescues....and Kaitan is absolutely adorable.

*****************************************
Michi (http://www.atddm.com/michi2.jpg)

With the landing legs down and securely footed in the firm but yielding to the weight of the starship soil, Glory lowered the rear freight hatch. The broad ramp had barely slid forth than Michi was darting down it with exuberant steps, Glory following more cautiously.

"Oh the air smells wonderful" Michi turned and looked back at her companion, then went to one knee to examine the thickly grown ground cover. "It looks rather like clover." She noted as she brought a small clear specimin pouch from a pocket and deposited a sample of the broad tri lobed leaf with in.

"It might well be Rama's analog for it. Terresterial planets such as this were the prime seeding ground for the Forerunners. And if you look at the overall schema of this valley, the slopes were heavily terraced for farming. If my data is correct terran clover is an excellent soil restorative, used in crop rotation." Glory remarked as she moved away from her shipself and began a detailed three hundred and sixty degree sweep with a very sensitve hand held bio scanner. They had chosen this set of ruins as the early, rough scans had shown that most of the planets fauna avoided this area.

She looked at the readings and did somethig very human. She blinked. She contacted her shipself over their encrypted link, and had the results run again. Glory spoke to Michi with out turning about, her voice low to carry just to her.

"Michi we have an alien being some fifty meters from us, at roughly two thirty. It's very small, but definitely not anything I have in the files, and not anything native to Rama."

Michiko stood slowly, not making any big production of it, and not looking directly in the direction that Glory had said, but sweeping it with the edges of her vision. When they had been creting her they had modified her vision, giving her excellent peripheral vision, in addition to the other modification. She frowned slightly, she couldn't quite make it out with the variety of alien folliage in the way.

"It's not leaping out to eat us like in the horror holos, so we'll just leave it be." Michiko touched the all but invisible PALADIN armor she'd slipped on at Glory's insistance before they had landed. It would protect her nearly anything and was keyed to teleport her back to the secure chamber at the heart of the freighter.

She couldn't resist calling and waving in the general direction of their unseen viewer. "Hello neighbor, no hostile intent, just here to study the ruins." It felt good not to treat everything as a threat and a danger. I've had too little of that in my life.' She thought as she powered up the antigrav trolly and began unloading the first of the many casew that filled the first of Glory's two holds. She was supplied for nearly a year, and a Tanaran scoutship would be calling in six months.

Glory frowned but accepted Michiko attuitude. What ever the alien life form was, it had not tried to eat them yet. And if it did, she was thoroughly capable of stopping it, she was sure. Though some of those readings didn't make any sense. She turned and joined Michiko in the hold, seeking the crate that held the sentry system.

*pets thread*

ooc: Tanara, that is great! I too am involved with a shelter.

OOC: I'm not involved in a shelter but I aboslutely adore cats, I have three one of which is just out of kittenhood.

Kaitan slows moves out of the dense foliage, and moves to rub his head on Michi's leg. He could see the sensors emmitting, and he didn't try to hide where he was. As he slowly moves closer his eyes get bigger and he starts letting out the smallest little mews that abandonded kittens make when they're all alone and starved. His fur fluffs out a little bit making him as cute as he can possibly be. He had never heard the language the creature had spoken, but since it was speaking it must be intelligent.

OOC: Between my housemante and I we have seven special needs cats, ranging from Ashley at age 25, to the Skitter Critter who is just over a year.
*********************************
Michiko about jumped out her her skin when something stropped up against her leg. She looked down, at the kitten and gasped.

"Glory I thought your sensors said we had no stowaways!"

"We didn't! Thats the alien."

"It certainly looks like a kitten, and acts like a very hungry one at that." Slowly, as not to startle the gray and buff tiger striped kitten, Michi went down on one knee and eased forth a hand so introductry sniffing could be made. She had been force grown, never had a childhood and her life before now had never made a fur companion likely. She'd always had an affinity for cats though. A small colony of ferals resided on the base where she had lived and they had accepted her as they had few others.

"Hello, I'm Michi, and has some one given you a name?" Moving with careful gentleness she essayed to stroke along a plushly furred side.Rib bones were too apparent even at that light a touch.

"Why you are all skin and bones. Hungry indeed. Let me see if I have something for a kitten."

OOC: Skitter Critter? There must be a story behind that. My cats are named Grady, Bump and Ice. Grady is an older dark Siamese-ish cat, he sleeps a lot especially on my bed. Bump really likes to bump things whith his head, when we adopted him that was how he got his name. Ice we got as a kitten, he was sooo cute a fluffy, we still call him Fuzzbutt. Just a reminder, even half starved Kaitan will more then 50 lbs.

At the aliens first touch Kaitan begins to purr loudly, hoping against hope that a good meal would be provided. The last decent meal he had had was a few hours before his ill fated nap, a nice bowl of granulated uranium in a mercury sauce with deuterium to drink. Rub vigerously rubbed against the provided hand, but he was careful not to rub too hard for fear of knocking over the kind person.
Even if I don't get fed, this feels so good. Its been so long since I had anyone to even give me skritch, its like I'm back home already.
Kaitan continues to rub against Michi's leg, luxuriating in the sensation of a living thing, espescially one that is sentient.

The age old instinctive repsonse, if it purrs its safe...Continueing the gentle strokings and ear skritchings Michiko brought her other had around so she could scoop the kitten up. Support the hind end, support the front end. "And what in the seven hells, he weighs fifty pounds if he's an ounce!" Michi exclaimed as she lifted him to her chest and stood, careful with her balance to keep from staggering with the unexpected weight. "It's a good thing I'm stronger than your average human, they's have dropped you out od sheer shock!"

"Glory, I'm heading straight to the med lab. I want to know what this fur bundle really is, and what he eats. This is no carnivore. Could he be a synthetic life form?" She wondered aloud as she moved through the sleek ship to the state of the Empire science medical lab. Far more than she might concieveably need- it was all but in name a well equiped bio sciences lab- but she had spent the money willingly. 'And it's not as if I didn't have the money to spend..and nothig else to do with my life.' she thought. She wasn't bitter but she had been at very loose ends when the only job she'd known ended.

The strokings ans soft voice crooning continued

OOC: I'm going to assume that you put Kaitan down on some sort of examining or medical bed. All the metal in my ships is Warped (I assume that you have looked that up when it refered to in the stats) which makes it subtely but noticably different from any other metal.

Once Kaitan saw the inside of what he had intially thought was a ship he knew he would be alright. The lights were dim, only covering a small spectrum instead of the full spectrum lights he was used to.
They may not be my friends, but this is wonderful. They brought me into a house made out of food, oh what wonderful people. I will have to think of someway to properly thank them, I don't even know how to speak their language. It'll all work out in the end.

He felt the person gently lay him on a tray of food, all polished so it shined. He stared at his reflection for a moment in the metal before leaping down to the floor. His stomach growled as he stared up at the table edge, with a meaningful look back at the person, he was going to have to name it soon especially if more came, he started to eat. The first bite took the corner of the table off six inches, the second bite shortened the entire end of the table by half a foot. He was barely pausing to swallow he was so hungery, taking larger bites then his parents would have approved of.

ooc: you don't have to meet me yet, but I thought I'd pop in.

Oh, and my cats are Snowball, Stormy (A.K.A. Kitty), and cow-EE-co ( or just Cow-EE).

Ic: The massive Kazeci SC arrived, but it was running on a skeleton crew for as yet unknown reasons. It sat silently at the edge of the system, scanning and listening. The caption’s cat jumped into his lap and after some situating and sniffing, flopped onto it’s back. At his touch, a loud purr commenced. Her head tilted back and her eyes closed. “Contented Kitty on the bridge.” One officer said.
The crew replied with an “Awww!” not so loud as to disturb her of course.

Michikoshould have know the kitten wasn't going to stay still, she'd never heard of one that would. How ever what happened next had her paralysed.

She watched dumfounded as the kitten ate a good protion of a diagnostic table that cost, exclusive of sensor suite, a cool hundred thousand decagons. And looked to keep on eating.

She found herself sitting on the floor, staring at the tiny creature, who seem to be harboring oddly guilty thoughts over his table manners. There was something more than feline under that fur, something truly sentient looked out through those storm cloud blue eyes.

Then with out thinking she did something really foolish. Her 'mother', the one she'd been cloned from, had all but abandoned her psionics, but Michiko had not undger gone the trauma that she had.

Carefully lowering her formidible mental shields just enough to reach out and make contact.

*I am Michiko Six* she projected the complex concept that made up 'her'.

That table was good, really good. I suppose I ought to share, even a few bites is enough to damp my hunger. I just hope that she doesn't mind me eating more then half, I'mm really hungery.
Kaitan moves to push the table toward Michi, despite it being bolted down to the deck. Then, to his grat astonishment a crude neural net attempts to uplink with him. It was much less advanced then the net that even kittens were allowed to access, but it was a net none the less.
"I am called Kaitan, and I would like to thank you for the food it was very good. Would you like some? I'm really hungery still, but I don't mind sharing. Are you from my friends?"

'Oh the contact are so clear!' Michiko thought in astonishment

*Eat all of the table that you need to Kaitan. I can't eat it, my body's not designed to*

She looked at the table that had been moved aside, and chuckled slighly, then her mind voice turned sad

*I'm sorry I don't know your friends...but I'll help you find them, how bout that Kaitan?*

Kaitan seems vaguely disappointed, but then brightens up before asking inquisitively.
"So if you can't eat it why do you keep it around? It is quite good, the light exterior contains a fluffy good interior. It tastes much better then the plants around here, but after this do you have a main course, this is a good appetizer but I'm really hungery. You don't know my friends, well I guess you're my friend now. I'd really like to see them, I'm sure that my parents miss me. I'm almost as tall as my mom now, you should see her when shows me off to her friends."
The fact that he may never see his mother again hasn't really occured to Kaitan, he has a new friend and is finally not so hungery. He quickly finishes off the table, then starts to clean his paws and face of metal fragments.

In the outer system a cloaked ship drifted slowly closer to the Kazecistani SC, lying doggo and moving at barely .01c without engines.

OOC: I'm still looking for someone to play the poor pirates who get to meet Kaitan in ship to ship combat. Unrelated but I know that Kazecistan reads this. Kazecistan, check your TGs.

Michiko couldn't help but giggle at the kittens pragmatic out look

*Not everythings food. There are things that teach, things that amuse, things that help one understand. That table ws one of those.*

"Glory fire up the replicator, it seems as if our little castaway likes complex electronics and high end metals."

"But thats gonna.."

"Use a lot of solar energy while we're on planet. So set out the solar pannels and get a supply laid in."

*Then we'll head out and try and find your friends. I bet they miss you. I know I would.*

ooc: I'd be willing to be the pirates, if you need them.

"Well of course there things for all of that, I just didn't recongnize that as one of them. Why is made out of food if it isn't food? I don't know about you but i think there the person who designed this ship must have been a little silly to make it out of food. It just isn't made out the same stuff as non-food, otherwise i wouldn't be able to chew it and it would hurt my tummy. I hope we find my friends soon, I really want my mom and dad to meet you. I think they'll like you."
The kitten leans forward conspiratorily, despite the fact that they were talking mentally and not physically.
"They might be a little mad, I was sleeping somewhere I wasn't supposed to and thats how I think I ended up here. You have anything else to eat, if you use food for other stuff I suppose that eating at random might be a bad idea."
Kaitan is still very hungery, the table being barely a snack though much better then he had been eating. His eyes keep on wandering back to the deckplates and a little droplet of saliva starts at the side of his mouth before he licks it away.

OOC: OK, but I hope that your crew doesn't expect to have long lifes. I'm hoping that Kazec will transmit a distress beacon to get Michi's attention.

ooc: They expect a mid-length life, with a high turnover in the greeners, thought I don't expect they will have a long life, if you want to work anything out we should do it in TGs.

OOC: Nothing specific, I just hope to create a sort of Alien type situation where no one knows where it is and people just seem to keep on disappearing. TG me if you want to get technical of have some specific ideas.

OOC: You do realise that Kaitan just ate a couple of hundred pounds of table, and molycircuitry? But kittens can be bottomless pits...okay a bigger meal coming up

************************

*And don't you dare eat my ship, or neither of us will get out of here! Can you sleep for a bit? Let me get some of my equipment unpacked and you can eat the cases, and by then the replicator will have some other stuff 'cooked' up*

His body weighed substancially more than it had before he ate the table but she lifted him and cuddled him against her, carefull to pay special scritching attention to the back of ears

Glory finished the analysis of the brief scan the table sensors had gotten before the tiny alien had eaten it.

"Yes, it seems his diet should contain high atomic number metals, and radioactives as well. I can get readings on him but I can't interpret most of it. I think we need to contact the Universal University and let them take a look at our new friend."

"In a bit" Michi sat back down her arms filled with a purring Kaitan

OOC: He has a small fission reactor for a stomach, it can break down and store energy rather quickly and he needs it.

Mollified by the promise of a much better meal soon Kaitan settles down into Michi's arms, and with a small kitten yawn falls asleep. His happy purrs of contentment reverberate through the chamber, as he finally has found a home again.

OOC: Theao, you might want to jump in after Kaitans first real meal and ambush Kazec.

"Actually Michiko, I have an idea. Let me unload the samples crate, since it has emission baffeling and place my spare core in there. It's not the ships antimatter core, but the emergency replacement spare for my avatar. It's small, just several pounds of trans uranics and their shielding. I think he'd make short work of it. He can then eat the crate as well." Glory chuckled. Her calm, optimistic personality what what had attracted Michiko to her in the first place. Without waiting she called her avatar in from setting up the security system, and set her about locating and unpacking the shipping container she had mentioned. Once that was done she had her space core removed from the ships security vault and placed with in the container, which measured roughly a meter a side.

"There you go Michi, don't worry I do have my primary spare still."

Michiko ruffled Kaitans ears gently. * wake up oh little black hole. Dinner waits.* She knew that kittens rarely slept more than an hour at a time and that was about how long it had taken to set up 'dinner.'. She clambered to her feet and carried him to just outside Glorys secondary hold where the meal waited. Setting him down she keyed the door. *Just the crate and whats in it. Please don't eat the ship!* She sent a very firm picture of him NOT eating anything but what was in there specifically for him. Not that there was anything other than the ship to eat. The secondary hold had been mostly empty and Glory's avatar had cleared out what little else had been stored there.

Kaitan woke up instantly, that trait had been taught to him since birth. He felt a sence of disappointment, that being rescued was all only a dream. Then he looked around and realized, to his great elation, that it hadn't been a dream and that he really had a new friend. The odd ship of food had been real after all, and he really was someplace safe and warm. After hearing the speech about not eating the ship Kaitan gave a small nod and set about devouring the container, taking about 15 minutes to finish the enter thing. Already he was beginning to flesh out, regaining mass after his ordeal. He thought that he was starting to weigh around 70 lbs, but he would need a scale to tell.

Humph, I wouldn't have really eaten the ship with this in front of me. I think I really nee to ask about someplace to go to the bathroom, someplace outside.

"Michiko, how do I get outside. I have some business to take care of, that I shouldn't do in here. I need to dig a hole, is there somwhere you would prefere I did that?"

Michiko nodded solemnly, though she knew they would need to make arrangements to teach him to use the recycler. It was designed to handle a wide variety of substances, including hazmat of the NBC catagory. The antimatter core would reduce it to energy and power the Glorified. However that was something Kaitan could learn to handle later.

*Let me look over the geology plats, we wouldn't want you contaminateing the water supply.*

She stopped and considered. Teaching him to use the recycler should start immediately, and she remembered one of the packing pieces was just the right shape, complete with a hand hold hole in the center.

Carefully she built a mental image of the recycler, and the packing piece over laid, then imagined Kaiten doing his necessary eliminations there

*Kaitan, can you do that, or do you absolutely need to bury it?* She asked as she sent the series of images to the kitten

"Oh, you have something that can do that here? At training we were told to alway bury at least 3 meters deep in the field, but if you have something that can handle waste then I will be more then happy to use. On board my firends ship we always used something like that."

Kaitan went over and used the packaging that looked like a recycler, the excrement only mildly radioactive due to the effeciency of his stomach.

"There much better, do you suppose that I could have something to drink. After all that food I'm very thirsty, do you have something heavier then water. I've found that water isn't very good at quenching my thirst but I can use it in a pinch."

I feel so good, I haven't felt this full and happy since I got on this stupid planet. I guess its not such a bad place, just has too much plant life and not enough people.

Bump

The ship that was hunting the SC drifted closer, while the crew prepped thier weapons and gear. This ship would bring a hefty price on the black-market, while any surviving crew would join or be marooned on the nearby planet.

ooc: Yes, we would be worth a TONE of money on the black market, with all of the brand spanking new tech, classified information, and shear number of parts.

Oh, what's the plan, do I keep the ship? Thanks.

Ic: Silently, the Super cruiser continued to scan the system. It sat, unmoving, listening. The people aboard were all at their stations or asleep, the halls were empty.

In much of the ship there was an eerie silence. Something could be heard, ever so slightly. What was it? Foot steps. They began in a slow walk and accelerated into a trot. The sound was barely audible. Who is coming? One of the ship's resident kitties trotted by. The foot steps fade. All is once again quiet.

Michiko's eye brows flew up once again.

"Water will do in a pinch?" She looked over at Glory helplessly.

The avatar sighed, and rapidly searched through the list of stores for anything resembling heavy atomic weight liquids.

"Got it, the radioactive solution for painting geologic samples to seperate out isotopes. We only have a pint of it, it's used a few drops at a time. But the replicator can make more" She finished, feeling slightly defensive. So the alien hadn't eaten them yet, and probably wasn't going to but..eating them out of house and home, that might be a different matter, given it's apparent appetite.

*************************************

OOC: LOL So would Michiko's ship, being brand new, custom built and with a fully sentient AI. But they won't get the coordinates to the Empire, that gets flushed first. One doesn't find the Empire save by knowing the cooridnates, or pure accident...and accidents ...well they get cleaned up.

OOC: You might not know where the Empire is anyway, it has one system in this dimension. The vast majorty of the Empire's Cityships are in another dimension. Of course Kaitan doesn't really know about Cityships, he just knows he was raised onboard a ship.

Kaitan goes over and sniffs the container of radioactive liqued catiously before starting to lap up the solution, about half way through the conatiner he starts to hiccup.

"Theesh shuff is weeally goob, joo shood ahve shum."

There is a wobble in the kittens legs, appearently actively radioactive liqueds have the same effect on Kaitan as alchohol does on humans. After a few shakes of his head Kaitan seems to clear the fog from his brain, the kittens super fast metabolism kicking in.

"That may be really good, but it makes my head feel funny. There's a lake beside where my pod crashed, you wanna go there so I can get a drink? We can go play hide and seek by the lake, or play tag. I used to play hide and go seek with my friends all the time, and tag was Seli's faovrite game."

The pirate vessel had gotten in range of the SC and had been prepped. It fired a full weapons salvo at the C&C station and engines so they could disable the ship.

While the weapons were in transit, the boarding boats blasted out and streaked to toward the target vessel.

ooc: C&C, command and control, in otherwords, the Bridge.

ooc: I prefer Command and conquer, but okay. Oh, and our bridges are buried deep in the hull, so you would destroy the ship before you got to them from the outside.

Ic: The sirens on board shrieked as the ship detected the incoming weapons fire. Every crew member proceeded to their stations as fast as possible. The ship's AI was able to raze the energy shielding before impact, but not the vital particle shielding. One missile after another impacted the engine complex that vulnerably protruded from the rear of the vessel. Soon the energy shielding was incapable of taking the blasts that it was never intended to take. Huge portions of the complex broke away and drifted into space.

"What the H***?!?!"
"Sir, we have come under attack!"
"I know that! Why else would these d*** sirens be going off? Damage report!"
"Sir, it appears that they have directed their fire at our engine complex. *the ship shutters* We've lost them sir! All we have left is thrusters!"
"This is not acceptable! I want to know who is responsible! I want them to burn!" The caption's face was red.
"Scans show it to be pirate sir."
"D*****! And turn those sirens off!" The sirens subsided and were replaced with the usual battle alert alarm sounds.
"Sir, we've got boarding ships incoming!"
"MPS?"
"Only 70% sir!"

Any and all ships in range,
This is the Kazeci ship KNS SharCha of the Republic. We are under attack by pirate forces. Engines are down....

We call for aid! Please help us to crush these....
And so it had begun...

ooc: Please, if you are not in the RP, don't try to save my ship, it will be alright.

The boarding boats landed on the hull, where the cutter marines began slicing into the hull. Once the holes were cut, the boarding parties entered and moved in to neutralise any crewmembers.

ooc: these are pirates, not my nations ships, we don't engage in piratical activities. For the point of this RP they are generics, flying the skull and crossbones

As the boarding ships approached, several (70ish%) were taken out by the magnetic particle shielding around the ship. Once 'landed', they had to break through the energy shielding to make contact. The ship wasn't armored as much as most ships of its size and thus was easy to cut through. As they entered the ship they found them selves in the long corridors of the Kazeci ship. The breaches, having been detected, were closed off with bulk head doors every 50 ft.

LOL: I was speaking of the Tanaran Empire. The standard response as to where it is: "First black hole to the left ans straight on till morning." The Tanaran Empire is set in the 'Hoag Object', NGC 6028, some 600 million LY away from earth - It's a deep sky object positioned in northern edge of the constellation of Serpens Caput. (The 'head' of the serpent ). The ships that arrived there did so by accident and a bit of inadvertant time travel, being thrown some seven hundred years backwards in time...

************************************

*"Certainly I'll go with you to the lake, and by the time we get back I think the replicator should have made something good for you to drink in the future"* Speaking aloud and mentally Michiko looked over at Glory shrugging slightly. She wasn't a chemist or a physicist, though she had taken a couple of intermediate courses in each. She had chosen to start speaking and thinking to Kaitan so as to help him learn their language. Telepathy could be taxing and she didn't always think to use it in an emergency. Psionics in the Empire were still small in numbers, though it was growing slowly but steadily. Most were very limited in abilities and power level. Michiko tested out as very high in Telepathy, Empathy, Biopsi, and rather much lower in the kenesis and very low in precognative.

Glory nodded "I hazzard a theory that he need's deuterium, or heavy water as it's commonly called. That will be easy enough for the replicator to handle. I'll work on that while you two head for the lake. See if you can find his life pod, Michiko, I don't think he accidentally wandered off a ship."

"No what he's told me does sound like he accidentally triggered a lifeslip. It might have valuable information." Michiko nodded as she grabbed up a weapons harness and small survival kit.

*"Come on lets go Kaitan!"* She called/sent as she jogged out of the Glorified

Before they had gone more than five kilometers, Michiko's wristbracer's communicator was chiming.

"Michiko, I've just recieved a Mayday, a ships under attack nearby." Glory notified her.

"I'm turning about now" Michiko replied, and proceeded to do just that

*"Kaiten, come back, we need to lift off soon"*

The raiders, rather than trying to breach the bulkheads moved along the outer hull, and after they'd passed the first bulkhead, cut back in. Seeing another bulkhead they repeated the pattern and continued slicing hole every fifty feet until they found something for the marines to do.

ooc: That's all you will find in the outer perimeter of the ship. Take this path.

Ic: As they entered one of the sections, they met with another option Instead of just one door to the right and one to the left, there was a third. It lead inward.

Once the raiders had found the corrider inward, the marines blew the door and headed in.

Once inside, the doors that hindered them only appeared once every 100 ft and at intersetions. The ship had a very grid like pattern of hall ways, which were very easy to get turned around in.

"Fire on that ship! Give it every thing we've got!" With that order came missiles and torpedoes, as well as the 4 leathal ion cannons.

The forces moved throught, each suit system linked to the others made navigation simple, each one mapping thier own route, and matching and interlinking it throught with the others.

The Corsair(pirate ship/class) focused thier shields into the frontal arc, while the PD systems opened up on the missiles and torpedos. It then returned fire, targeting the weapon systems.

ooc: Ion cannon, lethal?

ooc: In Home World ion cannons blast things to bits, lethal, but in other 'worlds' they only disable things, nonlethal.

Ic: The Energy shielding faired well against energy weapons, as it was supposed to. Shield piercer plasma torpedoes lashed out at the enemy ship while Zat fire exploded free of its previous confines.

ooc: Give me something to work with here, where did they go, right, left, split, what?

Seeing the shields do well against laser and plasma fire, the Corsair opened up with the missile batteries. The return fire from the SC lashed the shields, while the PDs continued to take out many of the missiles/torpedos.

The marines had split into five-man squads with each travelling down the different paths.

ooc: That's a start, what might those paths be? How far did they go? Remember, the ship is a grid, well outside of the command rooms, but we will wait until you find one of those.

Ic: The MPS was concentrated in the direction of the enemy ship. Despite this, some of the missiles made it through. No serious damage was made, yet.

ooc: basically at the first intersection, the force split into three, and at each subsequent one they divide by the number of intersections, when two groups would overlap, they merge and go to the next path

1
/ \
2 2
/ \/ \
3 3 3
Like that.

ooc: Alright, so you are hitting every intersection then. Are you entering rooms?

The Corsair continued to trade fire with the SC while the marines continued searching.
ooc: if the room was along the corriders.

ooc: Why have corridors without rooms? You are in the crew area, so there are no people as they are all on the bridge.

Ic: Once by chance all of the enemy forces were in one room or another the internal dampening shields activated and locked down the entire ship. Every 10 ft a shield equal to those on the outside of the ship was activated. The intruders were trapped.

Seeing the shields, the marines simply unlimbered thier cutting tools and began slicing throught the walls.

Their attempts to slice through the walls were greatly hindered by the fact that along each wall ran that same field, without it the others would have no use.

ooc: wouldn't that cause the ship to fall apart?

ooc: Oops, sorry, edited.

Seeing the walls were shielded, the marines turned thier cutting torches to the floor, and began cutting.

OOC: Two things, the first is keep in mind that this is about Kaitan. The second is that the ship should be subdued by the time Michiko gets out there, the priates need to get Glory to land on the SC.

Kaitan, 'hearing' this quickly returns to the ship. Instead of communicating directly through Michi's 'neural uplink' Kaitan tries a combination of words and thoughts.

"Where are we going Michiko, will there be places to play hide and go seek there? How long will it take to get there?"

If we have to go right now it must be someplace really fun, or maybe she found my friends. Oh yay, we can all play hide and seek together! I hope that it doesn't take too long though, I really want to get out and do something.

When Michi sits down to pilot the ship Kaitan jumps in her lap, and settles down for the ride kneeding her legs several times before settling. He begins to purr softly and stare and any nearby controls with that thousand yard stare only cats have.

ooc: which ship should be subdued?

Ic: The floor and ceilings were not protected save for every 5th level. Once they cut through the floor they had a matter of minutes before the dampening shields activated on that level as well. Every time the shields activated, they would be forced to the next level. If this proses continued, they would just barely be able to make it to control room 2.

OOC: Yours, the pirates need to win. Otherwise there would be no reason to use Kaitan. You'll like the descriptions when the pirates meet Kaitan.

ooc: Alright, if you can fly, the ship is yours.

The marines continued cutting down and expanding, as well as moving up and expanding. Sometimes, when the marines were lazy, they used shaped charges to simply blow holes to expidite movement.

ooc: Ic post coming.

The intruders finally broke through to the control room, a secondary bridge. It was massive, extending through most of the ships decks. They stood on one of many balconies surrounding the gigantic octagonal room. A space of about 20ft separated them from the suspended command floors in the middle. Many transparent blue floors of what appeared to be glass, each separated by about 10 ft each. In the middle was the information core. It was a giant holographic cylinder with all of the data the ship was processing projected onto it. It to extended through the whole room. Thousands of lines of blue text adorned it. On each of the ‘floors’ were many consoles. Chairs sat at stations with what appeared to be nothing more than small desks without key pads or screens.

The only way to get to this control area was to cross the causeways leading from the surrounding balconies to the suspended decks. These were all retracted.

ooc: this is where you must 'fly'

The marines used the jets on thier suits to lift off and travel to the primary deck, they then began looking, primarily for a ship-wide com-station.

ooc: every deck is identical.

Ic: If one of them were to wave their hand above one of the 'desks', they would find that a holoscreen would appear over it. The holoscreens are each 22 inches diagonally and one inch deep. The depth allows for each of the 'windows' to be physically manipulated to behind one another. They worked on the premise of touch as well as voice.

One of the marines found that the desks reacted to touch and voice. He found the ship-wide comm-system and the squad leader sent a message throught out the ship.
"This is Enmon Fer of the pirate ship the Raider. To simplify our capture of this ship, I ask that all crew assemble at the main cargo bay, further orders shall be given there."
He then deactivated the intraship shields and directed a number of teams both to the secondary command room, and the cargo bay.

ooc: You are in the secondary command room.

SIc: The caption wasn't stupid, and he wouldn't walk into a trap either. He took some of his best men in each field and, after leaving instructions, fled the room.

His crew made slight modifications to the internal sensors so that those who were hiding appeared to be some of the many cats on board.

Ic: The skeleton crew proceeded to the cargo bay area, a sub platform in the massive main bay.

The marines arrived in the cargo bay shortly before the crewmembers did. The marines motioned them into forming a line along the wall. Once done, the leader of the group began searching for on with what looked like highest ranking marks on thier uniform.

The Kazeci ranking system wasn't close to that of any other nation it had encountered. Knowing this and seeing what he was doing, the caption stepped forward and began to speak. "I will not allow you to take this ship or it's crew. Leave now and you may do so in peace."

sooc: Remember that the 'caption' is really the first officer.

Is there such a thing as a secret ooc?

"So you're in charge? Name, rank, serial number?" Lieutenant Ramius asked

"I am commander Ferzli, 847-6925-43. This is your last chance to leave peacefully, I suggest that you take it."

"Then where is the captain?" Ramius asked, she then addressed the assembled crew members. "Here's the deal, you have three options, join us and become part of the crew, choose to remain loyal to your goverment or resisted and die. If you choose to remain loyal, you will be transported to the nearby planet, recieve food and water, as well as a comm relay and left to fend for yourself. One of us shall come and ask you each your choice and then you shall be dealt with accordingly."

Glorified rose on silent antigravs, then boosted heavenward on scramjet assist, then left airbreather mosd behind on the fringes of outer atmosphere. Minutes later at a significant portion of the speed of light she was darting past Rama4's twin moons.

"Sensors say two ships, neither of which in our data base. The one sending out the distress signal is the KNS SharCha and its a monster in size and the amount of weapons fire residue that I'm picking up at thisdistance. Commo chatter dubs the other one as Raider and openly admits to being a pirate, and heavily armed as well. I'd say that was a full fledged warship they jumped and have some how managed to get the better of."

"Fire off a distress call on TN codes and modes. Rama may be on the very fringes of the border, but she's still within. They'll love to get themselves some pirate bones." Michiko ordered as she looked over the small ships weapons roster. Her ex employeer had officially allowed her to have milgrade shields, and weapons, as well as a few things that if the military had know were there would have raised a stink that could be heard to old Terra itself.

"Done."Glory replied a second later.

ooc: enter through the secondary bay on the bottom of the ship.

Ic: "I am the caption. Caption is a job in our nation, a job heald by those with the rank commander."

"Enh." Was Ramius's relpy.
The marines began questioning the crew members on thier choice.

ooc: how many crew are there total? and how many in the hold?

ooc: I never thought about exact numbers, huh. Well, since this is a skeleton crew, 100 in the bay and 6 that look like cats. ;)

Ic: The crew stalled and avoided answering for as long as possible. "Let us go now and there will be no retaliation...."

SIc: The caption and his select few moved throughout the ship independently of one another, like the cats aboard. They continued to modify the sensors. Now, it appeared as though the approaching ship did not exist. They began to block all outside transmissions and redirect them so that only they could receive them. They had 2 technicians with them, both of which were quite good at hacking systems that they had worked with and studied for most of their lives. Unless these pirates were very proficient in Kazeci computer systems, they would have no idea that any thing was happening at all.

Ic: The alarm turned off when one of the pirates touched a screen accidentally. (though not for that reason) Those held hostage had their signal.

As the crew began to hem and haw(stall), Ramius stood up "You have exactly two minutes to decide, if you havn't decided by that point you shall be deemed to be resisting and executed." She said this in a voice that would accept no argument and was deadly serious.

ooc: How many of you are there in the bay? On the rest of the ship?

ooc: in the bay aproximately 50-60, varies as they enter/exit
In command 20
In ship 20-30

ooc: So we can't just shoot you....

ooc: you could try to wrest a weapon away, but the pirates are in light-powered armour, and no it isn't powered by light.

ooc: Hum... How do you feal about some sort of escape, not every one, but a few. Then you could hunt us....

ooc: if some 'prisioners' attacked some guards then a few might be able to escape, thought the attackers would suffer greatly/die.

SIc: "It's now or never."
"Alright sir."

Ic: The cargo area was basically a huge platform in the main bay. As one of those held captive was speaking as to why he should be let go, The lights went off. No emergency back ups came on. This was their chance.

Some very loud Arabian sounding chase music began to play in order to better cover the break. Every single Kazeci knew what to do, they had been conditioned for this moment for much of their lives. Their hearts pounded as they made their move. Their feet made pounded the floor. They ran with every ounce of energy their bodies had. Totally avoiding the guards and separating in every direction they used every exit available. Some went for doors while most went over the edge.

Ferzly dropped to the floor as he approached the edge of the platform. Beyond it was a sheer drop down many decks within the main bay. As he slid over the edge, he hoped that he had remembered how to do this. Once in the air over the void, he quickly rolled over onto his stomach and grabbed the bar that protruded several inches from the edge. His body's motion abruptly stopped and he swung his body around underneath the platform on which he once stood. Releasing his grip on the bar, he landed safely on another deck, just below the last. He was not alone.

The Kazeci crew continued to flea, eventually finding what they hoped to be good enough hiding places.

OOC: Tanara, whenever you're rady you can RP how you land. When you get guns pointed at you by the pirates Kaitan will protect you, this is only what I envisioned as happening, change this to suit you.

ooc: I envisioned only a few pirates when they first land as they are in a secondary bay. After being 'saved' they will meet the resistance and help to rescue my recaptured crew.

Ic: Once again all was silent. Not a sound could be heard through out most of it.

SIc: Although the Kazecis knew to run and hide, their disorganized escape lead to confusion. Without a plan or a way to communicate, they could only hope that some one would come for them.

SSIc: The caption and his team knew time was short for those who they had helped, but they hoped this distraction would buy them enough time for the approaching ship to rescue them. They could do little more to protect them as doing such might reveal their position.

The pirates started slightly as the blackness kicked in, before the suit lights/IR/Pulse sensors activated. The crew that was still in the room a few seconds after the lights went out where shot by the pirates, the rounds needing only a near miss(up to six inches) to work as they delivered a jolt of electricity sufficiant to render a large man(6'5" and well built) unconsious for hours.

"Sir."
"Yes, Ramius"
"Prisoner escape."
"Got is, round them up."
"Yes sir."

"Raider."
"Yes Mue.
"We need additionals."
"Alright."
The Raider docked with the SC and began unloading additional pirates(50 more, now 150 total on SC), the pirates began re-searching following the same systematic pattern as last time, 'trankinh' and tagging any crew they met.

OOC: I know what I'm doing- bear with me. (Hey, it's better than trust me! )

****************************************

"The intership fighting is over." Glory brought up a view of the two ship. The ships were joined -the raider force docked with the much larger SharCha. Her holo displays brough up the two ships, and her scans of them. The KNS SharCha, it's icon a blinking red on the tactical display that marked it as the victim, was decorated with a large number of latched-on boarding boats, and dotted with enough holes to make a swiss cheese proud. The vented atmospher showed as a fine haze about the puncture wounds.

Glory's sensors were getting a much more detailed set of scans on the smaller pirate vessel. The ones from the SharCha were being 'played' with and it was not tangental, accidental leakage, it was deliberate. Apparently the SharCha's crew still had control of some of the ship's system. However the damage to the engineering and drive section suggested that the massive ship wasn't going any where soon.

Michiko nibbled her lower lip, musing aloud "Why in all the hells did they attack something that big- and military. Thats no unarmed freighter, a pirates natural prey. They must have every non essential crew on board her just to handle the SharCha's crew...unless they're just slaughtering them. Which wouldn't make sense either, the minimal crew the SharCha needs has got to be at least a couple of hundred...And that gives me a plan."

Lifting a now very heavy Kaitan off her lap and laying him gently in the seat in her place she headed for the secure locker where her STA armor had been stored. She'd never thought to wear the Stealth Tactical Armor again, but it was fitted to her and couldn't be used by another, so she'd kept it. The PALADIN armor was all but a second skin worn under her skinsuit and wouldn't interfere with the STA. The layering of the three would provide a stealthy, flexible, relatively lightweight power armor that would make her incredibly hard to damage, or over come.

"Glory, prep the run about. It's small enough, with active camo, that even if they have direct visual observation, they should miss it. I'll take the boat bay nearest the bridge. And take a black box with me - once I'm there you can take the cyber system."

Taking the pirate needed to come first. She could not leave that danger at her back. And the pirate bridge crew seemed less competent. They had done nothing - no scan sweeps, no attack, no hails. And while the Glorified was very very stealthy, and her ECM and sensor suites the best Tanaran Navy- state -of -the- art, she should have been detected by now. Michiko knew that running the larger ship as close as she had, had been dangerous but the closer one got the better information the sensors could obtain. And she wanted every advantage. She was one going up against far too many, but she couldn't just await for the cavalry to arrive.

"I'm tapped into the Corsairs communications, the KNS's net is too scrambled...they just sent more over there- the on ship crew has to be at essential minimums." Glory reported

The diagnostic taletales of the STA ran green- the linkage with Glory confirmed, all current data downloaded, and would update continuously. Michiko headed to the arms locker and broke out her non built-in to the STA weapondry. Four Forcelances, and a pair of Plasma pistols went into waiting holsters.Her thoughts were no where near Kaitan now, shields were up and she was completely 'go' for the mission.

Moving quickly she headed for the small bay where the runabout was berthed. Glory reported that it was ready and she could launch immediately

Neither of them noticed the small buff and gray kitten following in full 'cat's aren't here' stealth mode, whiskers bowed foreward, and tail quivering as Kaiten stalked after his new friend. Kitten curiosity wouldn't let him not find out what was going on. Nor was he seen as he slipped into the runabout as Michiko sealed the hatch and launched

Onboard the Corsair...

Close to Forward Boat Bay One was a maintence hatch in the hull. Glory's scans had noted that it was close to the bridge and that it was of a standard design that the runabout could dock with. Also there were no biological presences in the immediate area. Michiko piloted the small craft and docked with out any evidence of beiing detected. The Corsair's hatch was easy for her to discern the activation sequence and in seconds she was in the corridor. All stealth measure activated, her primary forcelance in hand as she proceeded to do a scan of the immediate surroundings.

"Captain."
"Ya, someone's brining us a free ship."
"Nice of them, watch them to see what they're doing. If they try being a pain, use Y4S."
"Yes Captain."

She would see a corridor that would branch in three directions, with no discernable interfaces or any other items. The corrider to the left was blue in colour, the right-hand corridor was yellow, and the one forward was red.

ooc: it's the Raider, not Corsair

Kaitan was excited, he knew he wasn't supposed to be here but it was fun none the less. After all that boredom and sleeping he was ready for a little fun, and with all the preaprations Michiko was making he was sure that it was going to be fun. His fur had shifted colors, matching almost exactly with the decking and walls. If anyone had been looking on any other spectrum he would have been as unnoticable as he was within the visual one. All around him there was a plethora of fun stuff to do, places to explore. However he didn't want to lose Michiko among the new playground, it would be difficult to find her again if she got lost.

OOC: LOL Theao, you know the old saying "Stretch, yawn bitch moan, next ..." deal with it -your puny ships been invaded by Michiko's clone, so look out things are about to rock and roll...

And as I mentioned earlier - with all stealth activated, and weapons hot...( picture something as hard to see as a Predator in a shift suit. )
***************************************

Michiko consulted the layout that Glory had made from her scans, and headed in the direction that would take her most expeditiously toward the bridge. Or so she hoped, the schema were extrapolations of the often imprecise readings.


The Interactive camoflauge of her STA rendered her almost invisible to scans and the naked eye. With quick, quiet steps and completely alert...save for one small kitten that most certainly didn't want to be seen...Micihiko was ready for what ever cropped up. Her built in targeting systems were augumented by those in the armor and her reflexes would put a cats to shame.

Once the intruder reached partway* down the blue corridor, doors slammed shut, both in front and behind. A red gas began pouring into the sealed section.

"I wonder what our mystery person's goal is."
"Well, we'll see, once the gas takes effect."

Meanwhile the pirates continued searching out the crewmembers of the SC.

ooc: Never seen any predator movies/movies with predators
*Halfwayish
Gas stains any non-organic matter red, as well as being able to knock people out.

OOC: But only if they breathe it. The power (STA ) armor is sealed.- while it might stain the suit for a short time, the nano surface will 'eat' the stain. And the kitten won't get marked. I also have the feeling Kaitan breathes only as a convience.

****************************************

A quick change of the selection on the forcelance and a tiny unbearably bright spark flashed out, again and again, it taking fully six rounds to melt the door with the stellar heat of plasma rounds. With practised motions Michiko slid through the opening, agilely avoiding the glowing edges.

*"Glory let me know when I get to the first data port you can use. I want to put their interior sensors out of commission"* Miciko requested over encrypted communications with the Glorified.

*"There's one I sould be able to use up at the next corridor junction if I can decrypt their systems. Other wise you'll just have to fry them junction by junction"* Human cybernetic architecture generally followed certain principles and standards, but there was alwys the chance that it would be nothing that she could overwhelm. She couldn't concieve of an AI willingly working for pirate scum

*"Roger that"* Michiko replied and began to jog that way, forcelance still selected to plasma rounds.

ooc: Tanara, check/reply to TG

OOC: Kaitan doesn't breathe in the sense of inhalation, he doesn't need it.

Kaitan still follows, only temporarily distracted by the swirling gases which he finds extraordinarily fun to waves a paw through. He almost loses Michiko to the fun of playing with the gas, until she fires the forcelance. An attack kitten is trained to recognize an type of weapon fire, however Kaitan wasn't fully trained yet and the sound of a forcelances discahrge was merely distracting. It was a shiny light, and something that would probably be fun to chase if it would have stayed around long enough. This lead him back to Michiko, padding along on stealthy kitten paws Kaitan follows his friend deeper into the bowels of the pirate ship.

"I wonder if they intend to try and take command?"
"That would be laughable."
"So where are they headed now?"
"Section V3."
"Then set it to Y1I."
"Alright."

As the intrudered walked down the corridor, spikes would extend from the walls, floors and ceilings before retracting. The internal gravity along the corridor would also begin fluctuating at completely random intervals, ranging from no-gravity, to almost ten gravities, in the space of seconds.

It was almost like being back in training for Kaitan, assorted stuff springing from the walls and gravity changing. All in all it was quite fun, the dodging and gravity plus trying not to be seen by Michiko. He supposed that he could have cut a path for himself, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun and Michiko was sure to notice him then.

*****************************************

Michiko found dogding the spikes that ruined all possible structural integrity of the walls, ceiling and floor, nearly impossible. What dazed her was the bad fall from going to multiple gravities why trying to dodge and lsoing her balance. Playing possum would get them to come to her. She let herself bounce limply about as the gravity changed, appearing completely out of it for all intents and purposes.

The first time the gravity changed Kaitan noticed that something bad was happening to Michiko, and that she wasn't behaving normally. Kaitan decided that there must have been an accident somewhere to cause this, but it much be stopped anyway. He would apologize later, but for the moment he must take action. While Michiko was distracted by the sudden shift in gravity, before a second cycle could cause a 10 g environment Kaitan burrows through the wall to where the gravity generator is, and eats it. As kittens can get through VERY small holes the small section of torn out wall will be hard for Michiko to notice, Kaitan then plans to return to the cooridor once Michiko has moved on a little bit.

ooc: it's not lethal, highly painful/possibly damaging, but not lethal, and that is the highest the AG goes, it's primarily stays in the 3-6Gs level also it changes fairly regularly. She'll basically be bouncing up and down, it's designed to incapacitate, throught broken bones.

ooc: people can take things like 30Gs, happening in the space of a second. It normally cause micro-blackouts but it is possible. Fighter pilots do it. But I'll modify it so it takes a couple seconds.

OOC: Actually, the field is established in a few milliseconds. You might die from being in a 10 g environment, but the field estblishment rate has nothing to do with how fast you would accelerate, that is determined by the field strength.

EDIT:
Pilots take 10 Gs not 30, that is VERY high for humans but survivable for short periods of time. A modified human could take it for much longer.

Much of the crew was recaptured in short order. Some, however, were very good at hiding.

SIc: The resistance, realizing their rescue was at hand, contacted the new ship, taking every precaution to keep themselves from being detected. Land. Follow.
The door to the secondary bay opened on the bottom of the ship. It was less than half as big as the primary bay doors, but was safer. Once their rescue team had landed, a series of doors and lights lead their way to a meting place. They, too appeared as cats on the sensors.

Ic: As the pirates continued their search, they didn't seem to check the fighter bay, the location of many Kazeci crew. It was normally a wise choice as the bay was usually void of air. Now, however, the maze of catacombs that housed the many fighters also housed refugees. They hid among the drone fighters, wishing that they could get in and fly away.

The access to the aft portion was completely unobstructed by anything, while access to the lower bow area was mysteriously blocked by every possible obstruction, making it unlikely that the escaped prisoners would head that way.

ooc: The lower bow area is where the secondary bay entrance is. Lower aft port and stern are the entrances to the main bay, which goes all of the way through.

The pirates continued to search, they had how many prisoners/crewmen they had in the bay and they would continue searching until the numbers matched again. The additional fifty aided the search. As they reached the end, they turned and headed back, checking again, thought this time spliting into smaller groups(2/3 man groups) and going over the ship with a fine tooth'ed comb.

The pirates had captured all of their former prisoners that had not gone to the fighter bay.

SIc: The 'free' Kazeci crew members knew how to avoid the search parties, with site to sight transports, clever delays, and phantom sensor readings, they wouldn't be found any time soon. They continued to wait for their rescuers to follow the path set for them.

ooc: Don't leave now, we need you Tanara.

The pirates that were searching continued to search, while the others, began taking precautions. These were shock-collars, subdermal implants and binders.
A few prisoners were taken off to be questioned on possible hiding locations, any tricks they might be using ect, any attempts to avoid questions were met harshly.

ooc: Tanara's been 'revived'

Seeing the intruder had been rendered unconsious , the in-ship tractor systems picked her up and began transporting her to the brig. The intruder was passed back throught the red corridor and down the blue one.

Kaitan follows, having taken her out of immediate danger from the gravity. He is rather concerned, accidents were not totally foreign to him as several happened in his training. He wonders what is happening, but decides that he will follow Michiko to make sure that she is alright, and that nothing else bad happens to her. He stalks silently behind her, following the tractored figure through the winding hallways.

Questioning
"I don't know!"
Smack!
"I swear to you I don't know! We are opportunists! We hide where ever we can! There was no plan beyond the initial break!"
Smack!
"I swear to you...."

"Sir, they are being stubborn."
"Alright, le's do this the other way."

The leader of the pirates in the bay, addressed to all the captives.
"Alright, here's the deal. My friend here will ask you each questions, if he thinks he's being shitted, he will select one of you at random, and space them, got it. If your truthful, you survive, lie, you get to try and breath vaccum."
The pirate then began going down the line asking the questions.

ooc: He was telling the truth...

Ic: The scene was repeated over and over. They had no idea where the others were, the pattern was totally random.

The inquistor could tell they were telling the truth, thought he was irritated at thier ignorance. The prisoners would seperated, so that no one was within two feet of the others, and any attempts at inter-prisoner communication was met with a jolt of the shock collars.

ooc: We need to get this wraped up in the next five days.

ooc: Don't you mean wrapped up? Not raped up?

ooc: Oops!

Michiko let herself be tractored, apparently unconscious. Her STA suit would give any scanner false and contradictory readings to any scans, and protect her against any electrical or sonic stuns, while the PALADIN armor would protect against any psionic, or magical attacks. It's shield would also resist any energy attack that got past the STA armor. When they came to try and peel her out of the armor they would get a severe shock.

She could be very patient.

ooc: But not too patient, we have 5 days left.

She was tractored to the brig. Once in the brig, the En-grid locked down and a man in a suit entered and sat down to wait for the mystery person to wake up.

OOC: Theao - whats an En-grid and what does it do? I'm unfamiliar with the term.(energy grid, a pressor type set up that 'plants' an object to the floor under a 'focused gravity/tractor beam? And when you say suit- light power armor, or like a tactical trauma plate suit ( no sensors/ no muscular enhancer etc )

ooc: En-grid: Energy beams as bars, similar to modern jail-cell design, a strip of flooring that exerts 10Gs, and a very durable transparent wall.
As to suit, I mean just that, a buisness suit.

Kaitan follows, as always staying hidden. He waits for something to happen, he is not quite sure whats going on but he doesn't really like it. He will faithfully stay beside Michko until the end, his only friend and the person pledged to helping him find his friends.

OOC: Happy 4th of July, where ever you are.

OOC: Happy 4th to every one too.

***********************************

One man is not what she had hoped to attract, particularly one in a business suit of all things. That really made her blink. Fortunately the combat helmet's face plate hid her eyes, and she was doing her best to be ragdoll limp. She wondered how long before they began to wonder.

The man sitting at the desk tapped a couple of commands on his desk. A screen slid up, and a few minutes later, another man, this one in jeans and a T-shirt brought in a bowl of delicious smelling popcorn and a slushee. Once his snacks had arrived, the man hit another command and a movie began to play. She could hear the movie, but not see it.

ooc: Fear the psych warfare.
Happy Fourth as well, even thought I ain't a yank.

OOC: ROTFLMAO- I have thing incredible urge to break in to a chorus of "Anything you can do I can withstand, I can withstand anything better than you ( e-cookie to guess which song that's a play one ) ...

****************************************

'Oh come on' she groused mentally 'popcorn and a movie, a movie I can't even see? Thats the cheapest date I've ever heard of, Mr. Pirate. Sheesh, this is supposed to get me to act? The navy'll be along,...hopefully sooner than later, and wipe your butts all over the system. I'll get teased from here back to Midgard, but hey, you all will be mostly dead, not me. I hope that Kaitan isn't too worried, and doesn't get hungry enough to start eating Glorified.

Besides she'd never liked that movie. The dialog was cheesy.

Ferzly sat, breathing as quietly as he could. He had found the armory and now carried a small handgun. He was still shaky for what he had been through and the possibilities of what would happen if he were caught. He shook more and more, until finally, he dropped the gun. It hit the floor with a loud clatter. Without thinking, he ran. Down the hall way as fast as he could, he ran, not looking back. A sharp pain brought him to his knees. He reeled about to see his 'assailant'. His body was stiff as it hit the floor, soon after which it became limp. He would not wake for several hours.

OOC: Anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything better then you...
No you can't, yes I can, no you can't, yes I can yes I can YES I CAN!!! I want an e-cookie.

The pirate finished the movie and waked over to glance at the prisoner, "So what were you doing on our ship?" He asked

ooc: the song is 'Anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything better than you.

LOL okay here's the promised cookies. I used to manage a Mrs.Fields back in the days when they were made in the stores from scratch. Hard work but so much better! Enjoy!

http://www.atddm.com/ecookies.jpg

****************

"So what were you doing on our ship?" He asked

"Oh please, you're pirates!" Michiko with a lightening quick move rolled on her side and fired a stream of plasma effectors at the desk. She knew that the transparent wall would probably stop the first but the others would get though and destroy the desk. That should take down the energy grid and allow her out of there. The man could wait, she'd get him next. She had to say he was certainly the most boring pirate she'd ever run across.

The first few rounds were absorbed by the plate and rather than breaking had only melted a hole in it. The other rounds hit the desk, destroying with which did precisely nothing.
"Hey, why'd you destroy my entertaiment station?" The pirate protested. "And just because we are pirates, doesn't give you the right to trespass."

SIc: The 'free' Kazecis could stand it no longer. They were going to act and hope that it would speed up their rescue.

Ic: Suddenly one of the Shield Piercer Plasma Torpedo turrets powered up. A red beam** lashed out from the large Super Cruiser at the smaller pirate ship. Once it had created a hole in the shielding, the bright plasma torpedo* would streak through space, impacting directly on the ship's hull.

ooc: * think ST photon torpedo
** Designed to create a small hole in shielding (never said that it worked)

LOL I *Should* have realized that this was PotC!
*****************************

"Property that you probably stole, so tresspassing my rear!"

Michiko swung the forcelance about and targeted the walls where alternatives had been indicated by her sensors. Okay she'd made the wrong first choice.

Her second set of fire took down the local brig controls and before overrides could come into action she was out of the containment area, diving past the grav bar ( oh that hurt though ) and rolling under the rising, partially melted transparent wall. Then she was closing with the pirate in the business suit.

"Tut-tut, did you really think we'd make escape so easy? And as to this ship, it wasn't stolen, it was purchased, hence trespassing." As he was talking, she was picked up and suspended in mid-air by multiple tractor beams.

The red beam cut a temporary hole in the shield, and the torpedo hit, causing minor damage and frying the covers of a missile launcher shut. The engineers found the modulation for the beam and re-converted it, the trick would most likely fail next time.

ooc: PotC?

ooc: I wanted to shake the ship and give her another chance to escape, but...

OOC:Lol - I'm not going to talk abou the fact that the topredo proabaly has minimum distance for arming built in to it, so you don't shoot yourself, but really Theao - Can your countermeasures/ point defense act *that* quickly - if so point me to your ship builders. That ship is starting to sound like deus ex machina.

And seriously if I took out the local brig controls shouldn't it have taken out the tractor beam controls as well?

PotC- Pirates of the Caribbean- Pirate comedy at it's absolute best.


Sorry Scellia, can't put Michiko into a postion to bring Kaitan into play
****************************************

ooc: I forgot the fact that the Raider had docked with the SC, I was still thinking free-floating.
As to the tractor-system, the bridge controls, control the doorgrids, the tractor systems are automated. If you don't have a 'blinder' and you try moving about the brig it will tag you.

ooc: yes they have an arming distance, but remember, I'm hacking my own systems with the two best Kazeci programers in the sector.

While Kaitan was naive, and all kittens were innocent, he had had some modicum of training. He knew what weapons fire was, and the difference between fake and real fire. He also knew that whatever was happening may not have been what he thought was happening n the first place. Thus Kaitan made a desicion, and acted to help Michiko.

The adaptive camo around him drops, revealing the kitten who was behind the pirate and out of view of all monitering devices. He sends a tentative uplink request to Michiko's mind, trying to get in contact with her to ask what was happening.

Michiko's eye's went wide as Kaitan popped into view.

*Kaitan what are you doing here!*

OOC: Oops, sorry. I sorta lost this thread in being busy yesterday and today.

*I followed you, I thought you were going to do something fun. Whats going on? I thought that all of this was like training but for you, and then you got hurt and it didn't seem like fun anymore. Can I help?*

*Oh, Kaitan, it's not fun. These are bad people who are killing people to steal their stuff. You need to hide, you're so little. I'm scared you're going to get hurt!*

Scum like these wouldn't hesitate to hurt a person, much less a kitten

*Bad people? Are those anything like enemies? I know what to do when enemies are around, I had just gotten to that part of training.*

Kaitan looks at the oblivious pirate interested, wondering if he will get a chnace to put his training to use.

I have a cat named BUMP.

Michiko feverently hoped that training ment 'run and hide'

*Yes, Yes, he is an enemy!*

OOC: WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT FROM NOW FORWARD

Enemies, the word brought on a significant change in Kaitan. His pupils dilated, opened to the fullest extent with the green of his eyes barely visible. Then he fluffy up, but instead of fur comprising the fluff it was muscle expanding to handle comabt conditions. A small growl escaped his mouth as his ears lay back and lips curl back, then he attacks the pirate.

The first swipe of claws sends the pirates head flying, blood fountaining from the headless corpse. After returning to the ground Kaitan shakes, the blood flying from his slick fur and splattering the ground. A few bounds puts him over at the control station, a paw swipe later half the assembly has flown to the other side of the room with the other half merely torn to peices. To be safe, and to assure that Michiko is freed, Kaitan tears the tractor stations from within the walls out, tearing out most of the wall in the process.

*You should be freed now, I will return after taking control of the ship, if you wish you may follow*

Then Kaitan practically disappears in place, as he both activates his adapative camo and accelerates to sixty MPH in under a second. Woe be to all who encounter him on his way to the bridge.

OOC: Now you get to set up encounters for him on his way to the bridge Theao.

Michiko bellyflops to the floor with a flumph, and lays there for a second looking at the pirate in two parts. She begins considering the life span of any one who gets in Kaitans way

"Oh dear, erm...Karma?"

She stands up, looks at the pirate, shakes her head, looks at the blood covering her ( decapitated bodies are messy ) and runs after Kaitan.

*"Hell yes I'm going to follow!"*

ooc: The last day for a while guys, sorry. I'm on planes all day tomorrow. :(
If we don't finish, assume all Kazeci personnel cowering in fear and totally worthless to help. The ship's AI may be of some help to the rescuers.

The cat named BUMP is black and white.

With the actions in the brig, the ship entered into R2I. Every 5 meters, a bulkhead slammed down. A sonic siren activated, anyone un-protected would be hit by an incredibly irritating noise. In addition to these a strobe-system activated, the strobe-lights designed to confuse anyone not use to it. Finally the pirates began prepping for in-depth person-to-person combat.

ooc: Sorry, lost the thread

An attack kitten is not as weak as a human, nor as easily stopped as a tank or Mech. The Empires finest scientists had worked for centuries to perfect every type of weapon imaginable, including sonic ones. If a sonic blast meant to shatter bones hardly effects Kaitan an irritating noise has a neglible effect. The lights are even less trouble, for attack kittens are meant to work anywhere, including planets close to suns and not be encumbered. Even sun bright light is simply processed and stored within the complex mind on an attack kitten, and made usable. Nothing ever causes an attack kitten to feel pain, no Scellian or their creatures ever do, that trait was long since modified out of their genetic character.

The blastdoors slowed Kaitan down slightly, for something meant to penetrate up to a meter or more of Mech armor blastdoors were a minor inconvience. What sloed him down the most was stopping to peer through the blast door, trying to see the very faint X-ray or gamma ray shadow from whatever was on the other side. This way he was reasonably safe from ambush, at each section of hall Kaitan keeps a lookout for air ducts, his favorite mode of tranportation.

After the second door, the kitten would come upon a energy grid, one that was too small for him to sneak throught the gaps and with no discernable projection point.

ooc: If the pupils were fully enlarged, a strobe-light would be blinding.

OOC: If we were talking about a terrestrial mammal, then yes. If we are talking about something that does battle were there are things like pulse lasers lying everywhere then no.

Kaitan almost smiled, the old energy grid trick. Thankfully it was so old as to be obsolete, claws fully extended Kaitan tears out the bulkhead around the energy grid destroying the projector mechanism and leaving the wall looking like something had caused the entire section to implode.

The small but determined, and now fully into the combat haze, kitten proceeds heading unerringly toward the bridge.

OOC: I'd like to thank SW vs ST fanfics for that particular solution, read about it on one crossover fic where someone bypassed those everpresnt security fields on the Enterprise by doing the same thing.

In going after the projectors, the kitten had triggered the trap. The tractor beams picked the cat up and suspended it in mid-air. The section he was in began dropping in air pressure.

ooc: How could he know where the bridge is?

OOC: Michiko was heading there originally, so he knew the direction.

As the beam lashed out Kaitan twisted, convoluting into impossible shapes to evade the probing beam. Claws digging in the kitten runs up the wall and to the tractor projector, his speed a blinding streak up the wall and across the ceiling. A paw smashes into the wall, the pressure blowing the panel inward and utterly destroying the projector. Kaitan then finishes the job of tearing out the energy grid, leaving the cooridor strewn with metal debris.

OOC: Have you ever seen a cat twist, if you have then you will know what Kaitan just did, its amazing.

As the cat ran it ran into a five way intersection, and the airpressure continued to drop.

Kaitan looks, unsure how to procede. He can eliminate at least three of the pathways right off, as two go in the wrong direction and he came from one. He sends a strong pulse, establishing a link almost instantly to Michiko, the power effortlessly burning through the distance.

*Michiko, I need help. Which way is it to the bridge? I'm at a five way intersection, I can wait here if you need me too but I would like some directions. Oh, and if pressure levels bother you then its getting pretty thin around here so you might want to look out.*

ooc: if you count the way you came, then it's a six way. He can go left, right, forward, up or down.

OOC: Sure, I'll just wait for Tanara to respond with the direction.

BUMP is a fat cat.

*Michiko, I need help. Which way is it to the bridge? I'm at a five way intersection, I can wait here if you need me too but I would like some directions. Oh, and if pressure levels bother you then its getting pretty thin around here so you might want to look out.*

*Thank you Kaitan, my armor will protect me. Here, your thoughts are so clear. Look through my eyes* She brought up the schema Glory had made from her scans of the pirate vessel *They may not be labled correctly, sheilds do interfere with readings, and we had to best guess it but we think this is the bridge.* She indicated an area, highlighting it and looking at it specifically, so Kaitan could see it clearly in her minds eye

Kaitan follows Michiko's instructions, at the rate he is moving the ships bridge should be coming up fairly soon. At the very least the automated defenses should become supplemented by live ones soon. Kaitan wonders if any of the enemies have gotten a look at him yet, and wonders if subterfuge might work against live opponents.

Kaitan is anxious, it is his first real combat experience and even attack kittens get worried from time to time. He hopes that Michiko will meet up with him soon, while he likes to kill enemies he is used to doing it as part of a team, and misses the companionship and comradarie of close friends in battle.

As the kitten turned the corner, it was taken under fire both by automated and personal weapons. Out of the walls, two flame throwers nozzels projected and began pouring flame down the corridor.

OOC: How many people are there, or is there just a bunch of automated stuff? I need to know to RP this next part or else I have to make a bunch of assumptions.

ooc: 4 people, eight auto-weapons systems, two flamers

Flamers had been out of use for generations, or so kaitan had been told, due to their utter lack of effectivness was dealing with personnel in anything heavier then normal clothes. Some in even light power armor was untouchable by a flamethrower. and for someone who was practically untouchable by light weapons Kaitan was unworried by the wall of flame rushing down on him.

However the stream of weapons fire down concern him, the personal stuff mostly too light to be considered a threat but some of the wall mounted automated defenses could hurt. So those where what he went after first, wallwalking toward the nozzles of the flamethrowers at high speed. He used the flamethrowers to hide himself from the heavy bolts of energy lancing out of the sheeting flame.

His active camoflouge was working overtime, but it worked well. The dancing fires would hide the small kitten from the sensors, combined with the camo made him all but invisible. Thus there was little time to react as a kitten going 100 miles per hour burst from the flames and into the left wall weaponry. The paws of the small fuzzy creature had been pushing so hard on the wall that each place where he pushed off had small paw size chunks torn from it.

The port side automated weaponry didn't end up with paw size holes, twin extended claws torn through the weapons and wall, peeling back the plate that comprised it. It fell with a resounding crash on the deck, almost catching one pirate underneath its bulk, the top bent downward and streaked with gashes from kitteny paws.

As Kaitan was leaping down from the wall one of the starboard mounts got lucky, a line of fire traced itself across his back as three heavy bolts slammed him against the deck. His small body rebounding back slightly, but it was only momentary, he was up before any more energy could find him. He sprange for the ceiling, energy twisting around him, a few pirates got some hits in but only with light weaponry and Kaitan ignored the slight burning sensation.

Kaitan only touched the ceiling for less then a second, leaping straight onto the wall above the starboard mounts and smashing down with all his might. A bonenumbing gong sound echoed around the room as the wall panel folded around the point of impact. Kaitan then moved onto the pirates, falling down to the floor and diving into the knot of defenders with a vengenace.

The first person was unlucky, Kaitan hadn't gotten airborne yet and couldn't cleanly kill them, but a swipe of claws disconnected the pirates legs from his body at the hip. The now reduced pirate dropped, wailing as his blood puddled around him and spurted onto the other three pirates. However Kaitan now had a chnace for a flying leap onto the chest of a second pirate, and another gruesome death followed.

The first bite took the guns and mans hand up to his wrist, the next all the way to the shoulder and the final bite eat his heart. As the corpse began to fall Kaitan burrowed out the back, exploding from the mans back and spraying gibbets of flesh outward. One of the two remaining pirates tried to run, the other holding his ground and desperately trying to gun down the flying kitten. A few shots hit, slowing the kitten down enough that the pirate got a clear veiw of his impending demise.

The heavy rifle began to fall to the floor in peices as windmilling paws sliced their way up the barrel and into the pirate. A mist of blood and gore spryd from the pirate as the kitten shredded his head and torso, then the bloodsoaked kitten looked up and straight into the last pirates eyes.

The last pirate stood fiddling with the blastdoor, desperately trying to open it to escape. As the massive door finally opened the pirate turned and ran, slamming his hand into the emergency close button. As the door snicked shut he felt a sense of relief, he had escaped. He underestimated the speed of a kitten. He had no warning when Kaitan reached into his back and torn out his spine, the body collapsed but the head was alive enough to scream for more then two seconds as blood pooled beneath the body.

Kaitan continued on...

Michiko arrived just in time to call out as Kaitan attacked the pirates. It had been on the order of 'be careful' but she decided as she watched that it wasn't necessary

Every bit of her now believed that Kaitan just looked like a kitten. She'd gotten a good look at the remains so she kept her eyes averted as she followed Kaitan. Michiko wasn't squeemish, but blood and gore did nothing for her.

*Wow, Kaitan, that was...impressive, and I've got your back* Part of her wanted to giggle at how apparently unnecessary that was, but she damn well wasn't sure that he might not run up against something he couldn't handle. 'and you can?' she thought to herself sarcastically.

*Thanks Michiko, getting outflanked isn't my idea of a good time.*

The speedy kitten slows down enough to allow Michiko to keep pace, but stays far enough ahead that she won't be in any danger from unsprung traps.

The kittan had to turn a 90 degree turn. As it got halfway down the corridor, both flak and energy cannons appeared and opened up on the little cat.

ooc: Napalm(flamethrower fuel) burns at 800-1200 celsius, cat can take 1000 celsius. He should feel the heat at the very least.

Also do any of your cats(RL) like to try and eat tin foil, cause mine tries when ever it get's the chance.

OOC: Those stats seem to be largely irrelevant at this point, beside the speed and vision stuff. I don't know enough about FT weaponry and armor tolerances to give out accurate stuff. A 500000 PSI bite wouldn't have put a dent in most of what Kaitan has been eating, let alone what his paws have been doing. I guess I'm sorta making up stats as I got along, if thats not OK with you I can go back and edit a ton of stuff. Since this automated weaponry is heavy enough to take out Heavy Powered Armor is this the last layer before the bridge?

Kaitan has to get away from the storm of fire, and eliminate the cannons in the process. In a display of speed and eptitude Kaitan burrows into the deck plating, the energy and material being flung at him gouging out craters from around his entry point. The going is slow for him, taking over five second to make it from the middle of the hallway to the first cluster of weaponry. A small fuzzy ball explodes from the deck and onto the walls, his impact and splayed paws with extended claws destroy the first weaponry cluster. As a new spray of comes at him Kaitan leaps, a paw thrown in midflight catching the middle ceiling mounted cluster and tearing from its socket.

Now the small kittens plan went awry, a burst from a flak cannon catches him in the side and hurls him off target. Winded he bounces off the wall instead of attaching to it, but in his failed scramble manages to tear out the sensor package for the second wall cluster. However furthur down the hall two more wall clusters and a ceiling cluster align on him, paws tensed he prepares for the fusilade, knowing that whatever is coming is bound to hurt.

OOC: Does Michiko want to help?

ooc: I don't really mind about the numbers, thought some number people might bitch. As to the final layer of defence, almost thought the the final layer is a passive rather than active defence.

Lastly about cats and tinfoil, is mine just odd or do most cats try to eat it if given a chance.

OOC: Tried to feed tin foil to two of my cats, nothing.

ooc: Mine will actually try bite/claw me to get at it. It's almost like what he does to get his hairball medicine. With that I can get him onto two legs and he digs in with his claws to keep the tube where it is.

OOC: Yeah some do seem to love it, but it's very dangerous to let them injest it.
*****************************************

Seeing Kaitan thrown aside by the weapons blast, Michiko activated her STA's rail gun, the most powerful weapondry she had on her, as she ran toward where Kaitan lay. Her integral clip held several thousand rounds and she set the gun on auto fire. The mass of electromagnetically propelled metal forms a near solid curtain between Kaitan and the other weapons fire.

Then she is throwing herself in to a slide, scooping Kaitan up and wrapping herself about him. The pair is surrounded by a weirdling blue glow, her PALADiN armor's shield at full active. It may kill her to power it to this level for long but nothing will get through.

The railrounds smashed two of the wall mounted weapons systems, leaving three remaining. These began firing at the escaped prisoner.

Meanwhile the oxygen levels had dropped under 1ppt and the pirates on the SC activated the shock collars to a sufficiant degree that the prisoners would remain out for at least 24 hours.

ooc: I don't let the rat(one of my nicks for my cat) eat it, just chew on it, and my finger as well. He also has an obsession with both licking my hair and arms.

OOC: Odd, both my cats just sniffed the stuff and then looked at me like 'why are you shoving this in my face?'

Kaitan takes instant action, protected enough by the hail of bullets to dodge the remain fire he waits untill Michiko has extended the shields.

*Stay here as long as you can*

Kaitan dives beneath the decking, and burrows into the wall. The weapons couldn't see this due to the shields on Michiko, which were rapidly failing. Just before the shield assembly collapsed entirely Kaitan burst forth from one cluster, shards and shrapnel flying everywhere. Before the other two clusters could react the kitten had torn the ceiling cluster apart and landed behind the last wall cluster. The guns swung around, and the electronic eye was treated to a kitten yawn, and then Kaitan ate the assembly.

*Thank you Michiko, I need a little rest, those slugs really hurt. We'll move on in a few seconds.*

The winded kitten flops down, panting, to the deck.

BUMP is an indoor kitty, and most of the time doesn't like to go out.

LOL on the shield assemblage collapseing entirely - that would be Michiko dieing- those are psionic generated force fields, amplified by the matrix crystals that form the 'material' part of the PALADIN armor.

and all of mine are indoor kitties with no inclination what so ever to go out. They wre rescued from out there and know a good thing when they land in it.
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Michiko has a migraine of mammoth porportions and silently agrees that sitting for a bit is a good notion. However she knows that the pirates won't be taking this lieing down. She pulls herself into a sitting position, back against a wall so she can cover both ways of the corridor

She doesn't even dare try mental communication, not with her mind telling her that grey tastes like the note of b flat and that the number three is green and sounds like rasberry yogurt.

Having rested for 15 minutes Kaitan motions to Michi and continues on.

As the kitten came to the corner and turned he would see a long corridor with the floor, walls and ceiling covered in a black goo, thought there was a thin strip of a wood holding the goo in. There were strands of the goo stretching down from the the ceiling as well. About 20 meters down the corridor was a solid wall of the goo stretching from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall.

ooc: not counting things like claws, the externals for the kitten are organic based correct.

OOC: Err, yeah, sorta. They're arranged in a similar fashion, having been grown but don't have the variety of weakness that comes with it. Like Kaitan can't be poisoned, he doesn't have the receptors for poisons to work. He can't be diseased as he doesn't actually have cells, but clusters of molecules that are much stronger then cells and can do similar things. The things that can't be done by the quasicells are no longer needed for function, as most cells transport stuff or protect against disease or a host of ther things that Kaitan does not do. He is practically indestructable on a cellular level and only something actively trying to kill him like nanites could really hurt him, you just gotta kill em the old fashioned way. Of course nanites have been essentially banned from FT due to their overuse, but another example might be an acid strong enough to burn its way through an entire ship.

IC:
Kaitan, puzzled, uses a claw to pick out a piece of the black goo.

As the kitten inserted the claw in, it began to be absorbed into the black goo. The goo that had been pulled out dug out a small hole in the deck, the goo turning gray as it dug the hole. Once fully gray it stopped.

Kaitan goes back down the cooridor a little bit, and starts to tear up deck plating and drag in over to the black goo. The slab of removed decking is then thrown on top of the black goo, hissing downward until the top layer of goo turns gray and becomes protective. Kaitan is building a bridge across the goo, using ths ships own structure to do it.

The gray goo sinks down into the black goo. As the kitten goes to try and cut another slab out, the internal gravity disappears, making the kitten's attempts nearly impossible.

With no gravity Kaitans task is much simpler, through harder to cut out slabs. Claws curled down into one deckplate Kaitan slowly traces the outline of a ovoid disc into the decking with another claw, and then pulls his creation of the deck. Bracing himself well Kaitan flings the impromptu projectile at the mass of black goo at the other side of the ground cover.

The slab got caught by one of the many strands of goo. it was partially dissolved leaving the peices floating in mid-air.

LOL:I say again - at what shipyard did you get this ship built at?

And nanites banned from FT? by who? I use them and never have over used them. ( though admittedly 90% of the time when I use them it is for medical )
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Michiko sees what Kaiten is doing and steps up a frech force lance in hand

"Lets see what a little heat of the sun will do." Plasma, hot as the surface of a star, emcompassed withing the contaiment field of an effector, tended to burn through nearly anything, as her earlier assault on the ships structure testified. Her head still pounded miserabley but her nanites had brought her back from the sickening migraine

Carefully she targeted the 'wall' formed by the black goo, which looked like some sort of acid based composite, that corered the corridor some 20 meters down.

"Kaitan, you might want to get behind me, around the corner, this stuff might react in the manner my chem instructor called 'exciting'."

Michiko turned herself sideways at the corners edge, extending the forcelance around the corner and fired. The plasma round his the 'wall' of black goo in roughly mid center

The bolt blew a hole in the goo that filled the passage with globules of the goo. The hole just revealed more goo which slowly began evening out.

ooc: It's a biochemical/organic 'nanites' mold that eats in-organic material, hence the wood barrier.
What's exceptional about the ship this time?

i have an attack kitty. it shall eat all of you!!! :eek:

LOL- Just never quite seen those defenses on a spaceship before. and yes Tarsonis6 - this is an attack kitten we are rping/ And while it hasn't really stopped to eat the pirates, it has rather thoroughly dismantled them.

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Michiko targeted the wooden 'hold back'- fire, setting a conflagration, should destroy what ever it was, since the impact with the 'goo' had not been suffecient. She was about to suggest that Kaitan make his own passageway to the bridge. Eating various parts of the ship seemed to suite him just fine

With the zero-G enviorment the wooden barrier being turned to charcoal was not as big an effect as it would be otherwise.

While they were engaged with the goo, a group of pirates from the SC snuck up on them and opened fire. The weaponry was mostly slugthrowers, thought there was a rocket launcher and a few heavy laser rifles.

ooc: Kaiten could walk/float/swim throught the goo, thought most of his claws would get dissolved, so could Michiko, as long as only organic matter touched the goo.

OKay- I'm not trying to be a bitch - but you DO NOT use rocket launchers inside a spaceship- they blow holes in things enough that the air goes away. And I really- after making several posts though out the game to the heat of a plasma round - severly dislike it being said that the wood turns to charcoal - plasma is at the heat of the sun. you bring something in proximity of uncontained plasma it mostly goes away, vaporises - the good and the wood would be gone. Plasma rounds burn holes in things and generally with ease. If you do not wish to acknowledge this, fine, thats your choice. I have been trying to make my play realistic with a certain set of weapons/ armament / armor, time keeping and tactics. You don't care to, and thats your right. But it's my right to no long play when well, lets just call it what it is...when the bull shit gets deep enough to need waders.

Kaiten, its been fun, the attack kitten is a ubertech wank toy thats cute as can be.

Theao - you pirate ship is pure bs.

ooc: I said charcoal for writing effect. As to the rocket launcher when you need more than one plasma round to burn a hole in a ships plate, a rocket wouldn't do much damage. I also try to keep my tech consistant.

OOC: That stuff wouldn't eat throug his claws, short of heavy artillery nothing will get through his bones/claws. A kitten may not survival a nearby tactical nuclear weapon, but his skeleton will.

Nanites have been practically banned as a military weapon because people would be: "T3H N4N1T3S 34T yu0r sh1p!!!!11shift+1!!! 1 R0X0R j00!!!!" and other assort nanite wanking. This stuff borders on what they were talking about, but Kaitan can get around it easily so I don't mind.

IC:
Kaitan gives a little shrug and burrows beneath the decking, eating some so that it won't close the passage behind him. He is sure not to burrow too far beneath the decking and come out on the deck below, he wants to reserve that trick for another time.

OOC: Ahh, are you sure that you have to go. After I slaughter the bridge crew its over, and then I can kill all the rest of the pirates without the traps etc.

Yes, Kaitan is an uber wank but that was because I didn't want to rip off Star Wars. I was either going to join everone else and use SW stuff for my ground troops or find an all-in-one thing that was cool and cute. I chose the attack kitten, which was developed when I was really bored in class and doing a journal entry on what I was scared of. I said the rabid attack kitten, because they kill everything that isn't already dead.

when is this story continuing? or was it finished? :eek: