NationStates Jolt Archive

"Eh?" The Alter unit rubbed the back of his head casing with a metallic hand, glancing among the group. "You're coming with us?" He seemed to ponder the thought for several moments, more due to wanting to cause them a bit of inner turmoil than to think. Any thinking, after all, could be completed in less than a betasecond.

"Eh. Sure. Why not. Unit Two, haul 'em up."

The designated synthenoid strapped his weapon, the Tesla Claw which he had accidently picked up after the scuffle, onto the holster on his back, offering a salute to the squad leader. Almost immediately, he shot up about five feet off the floorplates as the soles of his feet erupted into small, blue flames, with small sparks jumping off and cooling before they hit the metal of the corridor.

"Alright folks, no time to delay, got to hurry and get going!" Moving to Human Rugal, he immediately picked him up as if he was nothing more than a sack of GC-Brand "Super Spuds," which, in fact, weighed more than he did. Holding him between his arms, he spun over to the newcomers, picking them up with a single hand as if they weighed nothing, while his other arm was used to support the other passengers. The last to go was Kurt, of course, who, despite any arguments or protests he may have made, was lifted up and set on the top of the pile of humans, now numbering five with the addition of the freight workers.

"Folks, this is your captain speaking. We'd like to thank you for flying Unit Two flightways! We’re expecting a little turbulence, so we suggest you buckle up!”

At “Buckle Up,” the five synthenoids, the humans and Unit 2 last in line, had already passed through two floors of the ship, quickly coming up on the bridge, along with whatever beings might have been on it.

A Kazeci spoke through gritted teeth to Tom. "God! She's never going to get anywhere. We aren't moving forward. Her brain's in a d*** loop!" He had said it, but they were all thinking it. Tensions were running high.
"Call it what you like, but I'm going to continue to talk this out until an end is achieved. I'll not kill her if we don't need to and that leaves us limited options." Tom turned back again, frustrated like all of the others, but holding it a little better. He spoke slowly and deliberately. "I'm going to spell out both positions, then why we don't care. Your craft passed in front of our deep scanners, which are only effective at certain ranges. Being too close, it only served to obstruct them, allowing us to know there was something there, but not what. I have not gone back on my words. Furthermore, we did not use 'heavy weapons' as you put it, merely salvage and mining equipment- never designed for comet. You don't refute that if you were under attack by our forces and couldn't keep your prisoners and your lives, you'd kill the prisoners. That was our situation, and we used our only option to save our own lives, which are greater in number. Your pulling a knife on and refusing to release one of our men is hostile, no matter how you put it. Then you stalked us in secret, rather than the rational greeting and offer of an apology for the previous hostile act. (An apology would be rational if you did not have hostile intent but had pulled a knife.) Thus, we assume that our stalkers are hostile, as they were last we saw them and haven't made an effort to be seen as otherwise. Being stalked by hostile forces is plenty of cause to defend one's self with non-lethal force. Still, you followed us, taking hostages and throwing grenades. That's hostile. Non-lethal defensive force is more than justified at that point, but never is lethal force justified in response to non-lethal force, thus your response was out of line. This is basic logic applied to the standard rules of engagement and common since. Either you fight it with similar or we get no where, as I'm not coming down to your level of dueling to decide justice."
He adjusted his position; it was getting uncomfortable. "Now here's why we don't care: There are bigger fish. The thing in lab whatever. We're willing to forgive all of your acts, in exchange for the same from you, in the hopes of providing a united front. If you're not willing to do such, or, at least, discuss it intelligently, you might as well leave. It's that or start shooting, and I don't think any of us want to die today. Do we have a deal?"

"Like hell we have a deal. You fucking bastard. Putting fucking words in my mouth and lying yet again."

She pointed to one of her soldiers who played a recording. The recording was clearly the Kazeci's voice.

"There were two anomalies, it looked like transports were between our scanners and the derelict."

The recording stopped there, and the soldier went back to a readied state.

"Does that jog your memory, or should I play it again? If it looked like a transport than warning should have been given before you tractored it."

She turned her back and started heading towards her discarded uniform.

"Never once did I say you used heavy weapons on my men, I just said you tore them apart atom by atom, I left whatever barbaric means to your imagination."

Her teeth were grited, and if her enemies could have seen her face they would have seen the fires of hell in her eyes.

"I never refuted the point because it is a pointless one, and it shadows the same situation we were in earlier, the one where we killed two of your men. I also stated earlier, that I could not trust the life of your man in your hands, considering how savagly you beat him."

She stopped at her gear, and put on the arm and body armor, leaving the helmet off.

"I also stated earlier, that no harm was threatened upon your man until our men became endangered, and then the threats were not even directed at you. Hell, we weren't even the ones that tried to kill you."

She shot some air out of her nostrils.

"You didn't even give us a chace to state if we were hostile or not, you saw us and opened fire."

With that she placed the helmet on her head and pressed a button on her arm. Her voice changed to one that was mechanical, it was an effect of the helmet and she could do nothing to change the fact.

"I don't know what rules of war you learned, but obviously you have never been in one, and it shows. Being backed into a corner is one of the worst tactical decisions one can make, one you have made."

Nickel grabbed her weapon that she had set aside, and pulled the charging handle, the rest of the Nofian soldiers folowed suit. They started moving in on the flank of the Kazeci's, having them surrounded and backed against a wall.

"You can fight me under the specifications I laid down earlier, or you can sentance every one of your men to death, and know the sorrow of what losing your men feels like. And frankly, I don't care that much about the thing in the lab at the moment, I just can't trust you with the lives of my men."

Noting the seen before him and scenting...tasting the acrid scents of aggression,distrust and pheromones,the trace adrenaline in the air,Rugal reacted with blinding speed.

He processed within a split second the movement of the heavily armoured soldiers,the last few words of the conversation,the flanking of one group,which seemed to be untrained,and the deadly intent visible in the predatory movements of the other group.

Faster than any human could move,he launched hmiself of the back of Unit 2 and moved with supernormal speed,faster than most humans could react.He was taking a gamble,and he hoped it would pay off.It would serve to make him the enemy,at least initially,but information had to be gained,and this seemed to be the most appropriate method without getting involved in a zero sum game or stalemate.

He tackled one of the armoured soldiers,who seemed to be the commander,wiry muscle tangling with armoured lower limbs,as he swiftly brought the soldier down and grappled with the soldier,choosing to fire off his weapon at the wall in warning at the rest.It strobed off with a disco ball effect,light flaring from the muzzle of the weapon in a wide arc.Thankfully,there were several near-misses.

Reflexes enhanced with speed,experience and training in unarmed combat for several millenia,coupled with innate talent and fighting spirit,he hooked his legs over the soldier's neck and locked them,bringing them down into a stalemate position that neither could escape from without harming the other.His legs at her head,her legs facing his.He intentionally did not block her as she lashed out with her heavy assault boots,leaving a glancing hit on his chin and scraping his neck,leaving a furrow of scraped skin on his neck.Using his rifle,he deftly maneuvred the legs into position over his neck,guiding the action of the fight.

It ended with both of their necks in leg locks,their armour intertwined."Perhaps now this conflict can be resolved" flashed through his mind.He noticed that the individual he had tackled seemed to be a woman.A strong and aggressive one,judging by the pressure she was applying to his neck with her legs.He could feel the tensing and contraction of the muscles through his neck.He kept a constant pressure of his own,prepared for any surprise moves on her part.He would have to take initiative in gaining her trust.Later in the fight,he would yield slowly.He had served in the military through countless incarnations and knew that it differed in operation,based upon the culture,but had commonalities throughout.

Talking out into the shocked silence that filled the room."Perhaps we could have a friendly chat,before everyone starts fighting again?"

The gambit had occured,and Rugal hoped that it paid off,even as he pushed his head back,to let his helmet off as its catch was opened by the pressure upon her leg by his head,and allow this woman to see his face.A beginning,and a risky one.Either,it would earn him a kick in the face, or would cause her to think,for him to intentionally expose his vulnerability to her.Another factor he calculated as small,but not insignificant,was his physical looks.This incarnation had garnered much attention from human females as well as homosexual males,or those of other gender,and it would serve to slightly disarm even aggressive females,as it had certain lovers of his in the past.

Noting the seen before him and scenting...tasting the acrid scents of aggression,distrust and pheromones,the trace adrenaline in the air,Rugal reacted with blinding speed.

He processed within a split second the movement of the heavily armoured soldiers,the last few words of the conversation,the flanking of one group,which seemed to be untrained,and the deadly intent visible in the predatory movements of the other group.

Faster than any human could move,he launched hmiself of the back of Unit 2 and moved with supernormal speed,faster than most humans could react.He was taking a gamble,and he hoped it would pay off.It would serve to make him the enemy,at least initially,but information had to be gained,and this seemed to be the most appropriate method without getting involved in a zero sum game or stalemate.
he would return from it,his soul split as it was,the greater past of it somewhere else.He could afford the luxury of this risk,though in this ship,he risked it being trapped as well,especially in his current condition.

He launched himself at her,unaware of her own enhacements....

((OOC: She's a fair bit in the room, and despite how fast he moves, as a mortal she could still react before he could reach her. You're forgetting a little thing I mentioned she had earlier, she has a synthetic eye, that when closed allows her to see everything within 360 degree's. The point of the blindfold would have been to give her the explicit advantage of this. As for the helmet, seeing as her eye's are not visible when she has her helmet on, she closes them, so she can take advantage of this as well without giving away her advantage to the enemy. She also is genetically engineered, so she is no normal human, she can heal wounds at a thousand fold and has heightened reflexes.))

She saw the door open, and a figure come running at her from behind, he was incredibly fast, and if she wouldn't have been able to react if she hadn't seen him, bless this eye of her's. At the last moment she stepped to the side, and dealt a crushing blow to the offenders back when he started flying past her. The armor she wore only made the blow worse.

Several of the nearby soldiers heard the clatter and changed their objective, pointing their locked and loaded weapons at the newcomer as he skidded past.

"My quarel is not with you, but instead those murderous bastards, back away, and you will live," came the mechanized voice of the helmet.

((Hm...I would have gone for "A giant hole in the floor" caused by the weapon, but, eh. We can say that the hole went into the hallway that led towards the room and we flew into it through the doors.

For reference, he launched himself off the back of a flying android who burst through the doors. He didn't come running in, so his speed would be, oh say, around twenty plus miles an hour, plus the speed from his jump. As opposed to maybe seven or eight miles an hour maximum while running.))

Buckling slightly from the force of Human Rugal’s leap, Unit 2 was forced to deactivate his jets and land for fear of crashing into the others in the room. That, and, of course, that his four companions had stopped.

“Alright folks, we’ve now reached our destination. We hope you enjoyed your trip, and thank you for flying Unit Two Flightways. We hope to see you again shortly.”

Moments after his feet dropped to meet the metal plating that made up the floor, the Sing unit lifted the passengers off his back and set them down as gently as he could, starting with Rita and following up with Peter. The last to go was Kurt, who he unceremoniously dropped onto the floor with the resounding clang of metal hitting metal.

With an electronic sigh, the Alter unit placed his fingers upon where his temples would be if he had had them, in a reproduction of a human body motion signifying exasperation. “Alright, alright. Fine, we’re here. But do you have to do that with all the people who fly on you?” He mumbled before turning his gaze to regard the mass of people in the room, and, more specifically, the party with which the Human Rugal was currently engaged with.

“Uh…” He raised his right arm up slightly, offering a small wave. “Hi?”

OOC: Also for reference, there are four people (Captain Santos, Peter, Rita and Kurt) but your post doesn’t contradict that so, no worries.

“Hey! What in the blazes was that for, you over-grown action figure?!” Kurt was surprised to be thrown of the droids back so rudely and that only served to confirm his xenophobic attitude toward off-worlders.

“Don’t be such a whiner, Kurt. Keep your eyes peeled, Rugal looks like he might have gotten himself into a bit of trouble.” Anthony Santos raised his Shock Rifle up not knowing exactly who he should be aiming at. The bridge was full of people: more Kazecis, one of the Kirisuban women and now an entire squad of armoured soldiers.

“Defend yourselves but don’t give them any reason to take a first shot.” Anthony was unsure about the way to react to this situation as diplomacy was something not covered by boot camp.

His three companions formed a half-circle around their captain, weapons ready. Kurt’s Auto-Rail Gun charged to life with a near imperceptible hum.

Anthony cleared his throat. “Uh… I wonder if we might all talk about resolving this without any shots being fired.” he risked.

((OOC: Regardless, what he did was a godmode, but I'm willing to forgive that. And it really pisses me off when people do just what he did, mapping out the reactions of my characters, and not giving me a chance to to do anything.))

Templar spoke up for the first time, talking in stead of Nickel, who was a tad preoccupied. His mechanized voice came across as deeper than Nickel's, but the true voice was still undecypherable by any human brain, and possibly some lesser robots as well.

"We have no quarrel with you people, we wish no harm to you, just to those that have killed sixteen of men, and shrugged it off like it was nothing."

He tapped one of the soldiers on the shoulder, and pointed towards his head. He fumbled around for a second, and passed something to Templar. The soldier then went back to the ready position.

"This is a recording of the situation that we have been in, I wish to show you the lies and deciet these bastards showed us."

He offered the chip to one of the robots that entered the bridge.

ooc: Again w/ the minor GM, NoF, you seem to like to jump the gun. You 'surround us', but as I meant the post a ways back, we had men behind objects covering about half of the bridge, not all clustered together. I won't start pulling quotes or flaming, simply request that you don't do it again. (the rush in the hall and now this) My suggestion to avoid this issue in the future is to not do so much in one post, 'she started to...' rather than 'she went ahead and did and after that...' when you do that, you allow for any misconceptions to be clarified or impossible acts stopped before they cause ooc fights. It's like chess, you only get one turn per post. Okay?

Ic: None of the Kazecis would ever further this debate, none cared to now, rage blinded every last one of them. The Kazeci emotion of anger is either 'on' or 'off', and stronger than most any other. Yes, there are stages leading up to it which can be controlled, but none matches it in sheer power. It was the cause of many stupid acts in the past. The new arrivals threw them off, and it was likely a good thing for everyone involved. It was hard to speak, their thoughts were clogged with rage and keeping one's finger off of the trigger was taking much effort. "That b****!" the words choked him, "Lies!" Her former rage was not half of what now spilled out of him, ruling his every move and but loosely chained by his morals and the code. Words now flowed freely in a very malevolent tone; he wanted her and all of her kind dead, having endured the worst tortures of existence relentlessly. "Every move she makes is hostile, and this very pulling of their weapons upon us during a discussion is an example of such! Only these weak minded, stupid, a** holes would feel the need to pull a weapon during a fight with words! Never again shall her kind serve to us as being anything other than low-life, ignorant, incompetent, b*******! May she burn in whatever hell she believes in for all of eternity! If there be truth in that chip, it will show their continued acts of unprovoked aggression, of which you are now a witness."

SPACE: Tractor beams lashed out at the transports within range, groping space for them with lightning speed. Death awaited each of those caught, save if their command removed all presence from the derelict.

((OOC: Regardless if your spread out, you will still have flanks, and by surounded I merely meant that the way to the exit was blocked by my soldiers, I couldnt' really think of any other way to phrase it. And I still don't say the thing in the hall was a GM because your major issue was that it would take time for them to make to the room, you had already established that your people were firing at the door, all in a short time frame, hell, shorter than the timeframe of my people. Besides, what could they have done, already having established a defensive perimiter, that hadn't already been done. Need I point out your GM's of using OOC (to your character's) info IC'ly? Multiple times at that. My reasoning for using the "she did this after that" is that it makes for more interesting text, I could say she went and put on her suit, or I could do it the way I did, and make a more interesting post, I haven't done anything tactical "this after that." You also couldn't tractor my ships, being they are surounding your ship, and if you say otherwise, it will be a flat out GM. No ship could tractor things on all sides of it once, also in order to tractor period you'd have to turn off that shrapnell shield, otherwise you would damage your own ship. Turning off the shield would leave yourself open for attack.

I hold no OOC resentment of you, but I don't sense I get the same back.))

Templar turned to the Kazeci, his face was an emotionless helmet, and inside this helmet his face held a similar emotionless look.

"Need I remind you that it was you who turned your weapons on us in the first place?" His mechanized voice chimed in. "Since we've came aboard the bridge we've recieved nothing but insults and threats from you and your kind. I fail to see how any of our actions on this bridge, up until the very end, could be even remotly hostile."

ooc: I like you in the ooc, I just get a little too into my characters and sometimes forget to change tone for ooc. Sorry if you took it that way. Now for some explanation. Tractor beaming your vessels:
You're surrounding a salvage destroyer, it goes around and picks up scrap for a living. Tractor beams galore all over the thing (most on just one side of it, but still some on the others) (not the kind that would be effective against a capitol ship alone, these are just enough for fighting against small craft). The particle shield is standard issue on all Kazeci war ships, and is used to full ability during battle. The field is manipulated so as to open holes of whatever size and shape necessary for weapons fire, fighters, tractor beams, etc. And I haven't tractored them, I initiate the action, but it's up to my RP partners to finish it or deny it (with good reason).

I'll not drag up the hall again, save to say that my move was a short and quick one completable in a single post.

As to ooc info used in the Ic, do you refer to my using terms like 'death squad' and 'pirates'? If so, I've already explained this; if not, please clarify.

Now that you've clarified the use of the word surround as 'blocked the exit' I'll accept it. The flanking objection was that if we're spread out so as to have people at each opposing wall, there is no flank to be had on the entire group. Flanking individuals would put yourself with Kazecis on both sides.

And to finish off, when I said "'she went ahead and did and after that...'" I meant in reference to my position. If it's your characters alone affected, by all means do the full sequence, but when other player's characters are effected, they need a chance to respond between actions. You said so yourself not to long back...

Are we cool?

Ic: A deep, shaky breath was followed by more speech. "We pulled our weapons on you, whom we knew to be hostile, the moment you entered. You, however, pulled your weapons on us in the middle of a discussion, when no good man in his right mind would pull a weapon. There is great difference. We would not have fought, we did not wish to fight while diplomacy was still taking place. And to be clear, the insults were perpetuated by you to a far greater degree than what we've done. We've thrown fewer insults, save now that you've recommitted the same offence yet again, as it was you who did nearly all of the insulting during the discussion."

OOC:apologies for god mode.unintended and very much my fault.hope this is not a god mod of course.But it does dicate some of their actions though,though not in too much detail.just hope to keep the harmony of the group.

Rugal careened into the floor,amazed at her speed.Enhanced.This was going to be a challenge.Rolling with the momentum of his blows,he lashed out with feet at the armoured soldiers.He couldn'y very well harm them in his current form,given their armour,but he could unbalance them.Unpredicted.

Two who turned to engage him toppled as he used momentum the torque of his own body to twist,his weight colliding with their midsections and unbalancing them.A glancing punch from an armoured glove left a deep laceration from his cheek bone to his temple as it shattered his helmet,the impact of the punch combined with his own speed.

Shards embedded,the pain was drowned by the adrenaline in his body.Using his weapon,he used the butt end to strike and smash anothers head,stunning him more than anything,before pouncing in front of their commander,in between the one the commander was talking to.With a deft move,he snapped out his heel to pull her leg out beneath her,simply to prove a point of whose skill was superior,before jumping back out of her reach as she landed undignified on the floor,her weapon point narrowly missing hitting him.He could see the speed and reflexes,enhanced,in the soldiers movements as the commander recovered swiftly from the undignified position of the floor.The weapon seemed to be pointed in his general direction,along with the a significant number of those from both parties.

A gamble that had distracted them and made him the centre of attention,unfortunately,of the hostile and suspicious variety.One word came to his mind,that he vocalised out loud;"Outstanding!"

He stood there,scenting her.Female pheromones.Her actions had shown her to be superior in strength,given her enhancements and armour,while his was speed and skill from millenia of training and experience.Aggression floated on her scent,along with others.An aphrodisiac of sorts.This incarnation had always had a weakness for aggressive women.He cheekily gave her a wink,hoping that he wouldn't be shot in the process.Still,being human again was such a pain.Limiting.

((OOC: Orion, it's cool, not exaclty what I would have had them do, but I'll go with it, it works close enough. Sadly, you just made the worst mistake, don't worry, he won't die, least not if I get to him on time.

Kazecistan, By OOC and IC I mean the fact that you recognized them when they were on bridge, despite the fact there were no distinguishing factors that were the same as the first encounters with them. And I still see no use for having tractor beams on the ship. I never had a problem with the shrapnel shield, I'm just saying that it can't be used in conjuction with the tractor beams, otherwise your own shield would damage your ship, at least where the tractor beams were, thus giving my ships the oppourtunity to attack.))

She undid her body armor, noticing the the soldiers that had surrounded them

"Shoot," she said, indicating the soldiers, as her body armor hit the ground.

Gunfire tore through the near silence. Nickel's lower body burst blood as the bullets tore straight through her bare body, her ams, legs, and head still armored. The mass of gunfire was unavoidable.

She stood there, looking at her opponet. Her teeth were painfully gritted, and her body having multiple wounds. She ripped off her helmet, and let it fall to the ground. Almost the second after the helmet came to a rest, she herself fell to her knee's. Her eye's started squinting, and a rough smile crossed her face. She grabbed the nearest soldier and pulled his head down next to her's.

"Get a fucking medic on him, he doesn't need to die, he just got mixed up in something he shouldn't have."

With what little strength she had she pushed him away. The soldier smacked another one of them and they both started over to where Rugal lay.

Templar ignored the Nickel situation, and responded to the Kazeci.

"I would rather like to know these insults we spewed upon you, we called you murderous, for killing sixteen men in such a barbaric way. As for the pulling of the weapons, diplomacy was getting us nowhere, we can't trust you so we were going to eliminate the threat, but at the moment, we became a bit preoccupied," his mechanical voice started once again.

Rugal grinned in pain as he poked at the wounds in his body.Thankfully,his organs had been missed,but quite a few bones were rather broken.He would be able to heal himself during a meditation,as long as he could find a secure place to do it,but right now was not that time.

The woman,who was rather attractive,by any measure,had placed herself in front of the path of gunfire that had come his way(OOC:thats what I comprehend from your above post).Unexpected,and definitely enough to provide a distraction.

The scents of aggression were becoming less concentrated,diluted by suspicion and fear,as well as confusion on many sides.Not the best result,but a good one.Now,he just had to decide what to do.He lay on the floor,rather lucid,as he watched the soldiers come towards him,while others attended to their leader.

She wasn't human,and the wounds would not have a long term effect,that he was sure off,given her scent and how he had seen the minute regenerative actions already occuring on her body.

"Alter,would you please help with these rather aggressive negotiations?A computer applying itself to the current situation with pure,cold logic without all the emotions now might resolve it."

He purposely glanced at the one who was talking now,while glancing at the Alter unit and motioning his head towards him.That one was the spokesmen.The others trusted him enough to let him talk for them in the stead of their injured leader.He was the one to look out for.

He swatted away their hands as they tried to help him stand,instead lifting himself up,but chose to conserve further effort and let himself lean on them.Things would go from there.

Vortex within Lab 16,

The beings were not pleased.Their anchor was still intact,but given the continued efforts of these other elements,its survival was less probable than before.Their guardian had already been scattered,and was now reforming itself,summoning reinforcements as well.Divine beings were present,interfering in their plans.

They had been trapped in their pocket universe for eons,sealed away by the Star Dragons and the First Awakened,guided by the Ulthaj who told them what to do,but not the complete information.The Ulthaj......no,they were not here anymore.Long gone and unknown in purpose,they had left long ago.Even the higher beings knew not where.

Ever since their pocket universe had been opened,time had bled into it,reshaping them.Now,half a century since the first opening,since its opening had been stopped,the one who had come to them from outside,their peer,their sibling who had showed them the path,was now under threat.

This could not be tolerated.Even now,they faced the threat of the newcomer who had been divided.They could taste it.They would act....

Star Core
In the heart of the star,the diembodied immensity that was the greater part of Rugal twisted and warped,electromagnetic vortices eddying and twisting around it,as it communicated with the vast intelligence that fed off the stars warm energies,its cradle for the past 5 billion years.A cosmic being and a star intellect.The offer was made.A merging.A threat that,when projected and analysed into the far future,resulted in the annihilation of this region of the galaxy,as well as its future inhabitants.

A slow pulsing would have been heard in the radio waves given off by the star if one had bothered to listed.Soon,something new would be born from the furnace of destruction within the heart of light.Rebirth.Metaphysical and physical intersected there.Short,in the lifespan of a planet,long enough,if humans had bothered to think about it.Not yet.It would wait,until the time was ripe....

ooc: I explained my knowledge of your existence as well. My vessel is constantly deep scanning the wreck, watching the happenings, cataloging the materials, etc. It is not unreasonable that they saw your force coming toward ours (they'd take note of a similar force to the one attacking them boarding the ship and cross reference it with previous movements logged.) then warn our men. I'm sorry if you wanted that explained before my character recognised you, but he added it into dialog in the next post.

Let's explain the tractor system again, for clarity. The Kazeci salvage destroyer is a huge ship that usually goes around and picks up after battles, grabbing pieces and parts of ships in space. They have many tractor beams, collector drones, PDAs, and other equipment for this task. It has huge cargo holds and sends smaller bits back to Kazecistan via hyperspace window. Usually 4 of these craft clean up after thousand ship battles, thus they need to be very efficient with their time. As demonstrated earlier when my transport left the bay and in every RP I've fought in (I know this is our first RP and didn't expect you to know all of this, I'm sorry for the lack of initial info) my particle shielding's shape and size can be manipulated at will to form openings however I like them. To tractor an object while holding up the shield, all I need to do is make an opening the size and shape of the tractor beam(s). This does cause for a slight vulnerability, as the hole needs to be a safe size larger than the object passing through it. If you'd like to make a run for that, I wouldn't deny it. I also can't do anything if you claim your vessels out of reach. I'm by no means forcing anything on you here.

Ic: The whole battle scene was a bit distracting, and that was annoying considering that they need to be focused elsewhere. "I could dredge up every word exchanged, but I won't. It is pointless and gets us nowhere. As for your rational, listen to yourself! 'Talking wasn't resolving the issue right away in our favor so we pulled guns and prepared to fire on our opponents.' Such is equatable to a child's tantrum. No nation would put people who are like that into your position, so we're forced to look at you as acting below your capacity. You're better than that, or at least those in your position ought to be. That is the worst of all offences in Kazecistan, to act less than what you can be. Acting to the best standard one is able is honorable, no matter the standard, but making the choice to be substandard is inexcusable. Don't sink so low." Deep back in his mind he repressed the idea that their entire nation may be of that illogical temperament and they were the best it had to offer. No, they were few, he could not judge an entire race on them.

((OOC: That explanation makes more sense, least for the part about the tractor beams. I still say the knowledge of my troops is GM. To get to the bridge tehy would have to go fairly deep inside the ship, and there are plenty of other people on the ship, so unless you're doing a continuous scan, which you indicated they weren't, they wouldn't be able to track them to the bridge for certain.

Orion, none of my troops are bothering with her, but thats trivial. She took off her body armor so the bullets wouldn't be as effected by her body. She also had them shoot through her for several reasons, one because she was fairly close to you, two because she figured with your previous displays you would work around the bullets otherwise, three so the bullets would lose enough velocity so they wouldn't go out the other side of you, and four to minimize casualties that weren't intended targets.))

The two soldiers rushed around Rugal, one of them readying a syringe. He found the quickest access to a vein, which happened to be on his neck. He injected half of the dose of Morphine, while the other readied his emergency surgical kit, these wounds were fatal if not treated right away. The soldier got to work with his medical knowledge.

Nickel watched this display from her knees. Blood was covering her stomach and back. Her hand snaked into her pocket as she breathed the stale air. It came out holding a rag. The rag was ran across her stomach, which had only a few very small holes in it. If one looked closely, one could make out the wound healing itself. She stood up, almost taking a fall, but quickly regaining her balance. She had no idea what an attractive male would look like, but from everything she had heard Rugal would be one. She had no sexual drive, it had been removed from her so she would never have to take a maternity leave, she was valuable to the nation and they couldn't afford to let her off for that long. She made one last sweep with the rag, and only a bloody smear remained on her stomach and back. She tossed the rag to the ground, and it hit with a sickening plop. She arched her body, and her back could clearly be heard popping to the surrounding people. Her body armor was the first thing to go back on, followed by her helmet.

Templar pursued the argument once more.

"Talking wasn't resolving the issue at all, we can not trust you with the violent displays you have shown, especially the comments about death to everyone in our nation. We felt that whatever it was the woman in the red suit was trying to point out to us deserved more attention than the pitiful threats you offered us. Time became more important than trying to sort out the conflict between us, and being trained the way we are, neutralization of immediate threats became top priority. And you were, and still are presented as the most immediate threat. Given past displays, you saw you could not win against us in a fair match, any attempt at a 'negotiation' would be in attempt to catch us off guard, and destroy out nation like you claim you 'need' to do. Never once did our 'negotiator' raise her voice at you, never once did she make hostile comments towards your people. With all this said, you still call us amatures? Ninty percent of a conversation is had in body language, and everything everyone of you have done has come across as hostile. In a proffesion like our's, you learn to read body language better than any other language, it's a matter of life and death. Like I said before, the interest of neutralizing a threat is top priority, and you can only blame yourselves for making yourselves a threat."

With the exception of the soldiers that were taking care of Rugal, Nickel, and a select few others, there was high tension on a western front. A single outburst from the Kazeci's, or anyone else for that matter, would result in the death of the Kazeci's, and possible a few of the Nofians.

ooc: Your claim, "unless you're doing a continuous scan, which you indicated they weren't," is flat out wrong. I refer you to post # 229 on page 16 where I say "As for how we knew it was your dishonorable, lying a** that just walked in, we've got a destroyer sitting out there, and she's not blind." Thus making the claim that it was indeed able to identify and follow you. Such is not GM to track your movements, as I never said it wasn't doing so and the logic explained in post 266 on this page, "It is not unreasonable that they saw your force coming toward ours (they'd take note of a similar force to the one attacking them boarding the ship and cross reference it with previous movements logged.) then warn our men." gives us reason to follow your movements at that point, if nothing else at all. Does this make sense?

Ic: "Either you've blinded yourself or your self control is that of a two year old! Step back and look at your own actions! Listen to your own words. 'The situation wasn't working out, so we decided to kill you.' A child's tantrum! I assumed you better than that. The comment about killing you all was heated and not meant, but most importantly, it was made after you decided to draw your weapons, thus not affecting your decision to do so. Your reasoning is even failing under your emotion. As to our violent ways, we've held back from fighting you for a good long while now, and made far fewer threats. We even offered to let this whole thing blow over and forgive all! The only person who continues to insist on violence is you, our offer is still open. Can you not see this?

And for the sake of debate's quality, I'll refute the rest of your lies. We never said we wanted to, let alone needed to, kill all of your nation's population, simply that if you believed in a hell you deserved to be in it for what you've done. Our body language is hostile? It's defencive at most! Don't go into your contorted views of Rhetoric with us! Our body language, every bit of it, has been defencive for a great deal more than yours. You can go claiming you interpreted a f***ing handshake as aggressive, or that the person giving the hand shake was actually holding a gun to your face, but neither is true! You would lay false claims upon our people? You continue to sink lower.

ooc: unless your people have totally non human body language interpretations, they could not see my men as anything other than defencive. I've not RPed aggressive behaviour that I did not stop within seconds with my own characters, thus claiming me aggressive is controlling my characters. Rhetoric is a mandatory course in all levels of Kazeci learning, and isn't taken lightly, they know exactly how they've presented themselves and wouldn't let that kind of stuff slip. If it is simply their words I have no problem, just know that in those words they're wrong.

Can I ask how you plan to resolve the conflict? I don't see an easy end soon, but if you had a plan...

BTW, did the tractors work?

((OOC:Spending some time in the military is a better teacher of body language than anything else. I've only had loose involvement with the military for several months, and I can read body language better than most of my peers. Regardless of how many classes you took, under an intense situation your true colors will show, especially when it's not a situation you have been in before. Tensions are high, and your people are on the wrong end of some weapons that at a range this close would eat straight through the cover they are positioned behind. My troops have an ace in their sleeve, and have been in similar situations before, emotions are still present, it's just they are hidden, not controlled, by training. Once emotions are displayed, body language comes out, and you've shown them breaking under the pressure. One persons action represent the whole groups actions. Think of it like a mexican standoff, if one person shoots, everybody else shoots. Your person lashed out at us, at that moment representation of your group was shifted to him, his actions were judged and you can't deny they were hostile. In my ROTC classes, we learn this because cultures clash, and even if you are the leader if one of your men steps out of line your representation is shot. Why do think in movies like "Full Metal Jacket" the DI punishes everyone instead of the individual, he was a representation of the group, he couldnt' do it right, so noone could do it right. Every Vietnam veteran is judged as evil because of incidents like My Lai. In war, if you are a lietenant, if one of the men under your command goes and rapes and kills a woman, your career is over. What did the lietenant do? Nothing. You are looking on this situation from an outside view, put yourself in the situation of the person you are controlling, get a good psychological feel for what they are like, now use the firs tthought that comes to mind. On my end, the weapons pointed at us for no reason is hostile. Nickel became pissed, and instead of trying to kill you, she tried to make you see the error in your ways. You displayed intent that you wished her and several comrades dead, she offered in the interest of peace. Your man lashed out at us, all of the soldiers took it as hostile, but waited for orders, and from here your entire nation was judged by one persons actions. She felt you would never be happy unless we were dead, so instead of her and her men becoming dead, she turned the tables on you, all for one persons screw up.))


"Insults, threats, and demands portray as incredibly hostile, with the undertones of aggression and the suggestions of death to our people, even if they were suppressed by your people still linger in the way you all act. Pointing weapons at people who aren't doing the same to you, and broadcasting actions that are not present to unaffiliated parties, is incredibly hostile. There is a difference between being in a defensive position, and acting defensive. Your body language is hostile, period. And this shit about us making threats? Where does this come from? The only threatening thing we have done the whole time was right here at the end, the threats you made to us were numerous. A handshake can only be determined if it is hostile is in the way the person acts. Despite this, I tire of your falsities, violent acts, and petty insults," Templars patience was far less patient than his superior.

Space
ONe of the Nofian ships was sucked into the tractor beam, the others pulled farther away, but still swarmed the ship. Inside one of the transports and idea formulated on how to counter the shrapnel sheild.

ooc: That is a different representation of group NVC interpretation, and just as valid as the one common to Kazecistan. Different philosophies are causing the difference of interpretation here, and both groups now believe more firmly than ever in their own correctness. I smell shots fired soon...

Ic: Space:
The captured ship was immediately latched onto by a half dozen more beams and dragged into the bay, passed from one set of tractors to the next, handed back to the deepest recesses of the huge cargo bay. Total vacuum surrounded them as they came to a halt in the middle of an open area, suspended there away from walls, floors, and ceilings. An angry voice spoke into a communicator, which then transmitted its message to the captured ship. "You are now officially prisoners of war under Kazeci internment. You are being held here until such time as your people remove themselves from the derelict. Should they refuse you will be killed. You are free to send them one way communications, but receiving will be blocked."

Bridge:
Rather than respond, Tom simply played the message from his command aloud for all to hear. "One of the enemy transports has been captured. We're holding it until they respond to our offer: they leave and get the ship and its crew unharmed, or they refuse and the vessel is destroyed with all occupants aboard. Refusing to respond should be taken as denial."

"We don't want to kill anyone, we simply want you to leave. We guarantee that your crew will live should you oblige, not that I expect you to trust me, but the only way they have the chance to live is if you oblige. Just leave the vessel. That's all we ask. What have you to gain from being here anyway? Certainly not much."

((OOC: My people are raised with war in mind, with this in mind they tend to solve dangerous situations with force. And yes, you would be very right about that, I decided to hold off a little. A little question about the tractor beams though. Just tell me if I'm seeing this right, I picture that there are large parts of shield that are exposed, and tractor beams are just coming from certain parts all around the ship.))

Space
The soldiers wasted no breath with communications, they knew this was war, and negotiations for prisoners never happened. The door to the ship opened, and the soldiers used their individual supply of oxygen. They climbed to the top of the ship and jumped, shooting their weapon to use the frictionless enviroment to their advantage.

Six more of the transport ships emerged from the main ship, three of them heading to the swarm, the others heading to the derelict to make a point of entry as close to the Bridge as possible. The main ship readied all weapons so they could destroy anything that came from the Kazeci ship, and if anything did, it would be destroyed.

Derelict
Templar didn't even respond in a vocal manner, the barrel of his weapon spoke for him. The weapon tore through the cover with ease, it was a machine gun, just like all the Nofians had, it was designed to be able to destroy buildings without too much hassle, little bits of metal made no difference.

The other soldiers put the butt of their weapons on their shoulders, and closed in to the Kazeci's.

Nomi headed over to Nickel to see what she could do for her and now found herself in a certain firefight.

She also sees that Rugal is down and suggests to the Nofian medic "moving them out of the bridge may be a good idea if you think its possible"

he hits her comm badge and asks her pilot to return to the bridge with the shuttles medical kit.

She would do what she could even under fire.

Nickel directed her over to the medics. She pressed a button on her arm the second she heard the shots, then she readied her weapon.

The Nofian soldier replies to the woman in red, "We can't risk that, we didn't want to shoot him, but he wasn't doing the exact brightest thing. If we move him, we might damage his spine, thus leaving him paralyzed. We can't be certain that we didn't damage it to begin with. If you coud drag a table or some sort of cover over here so the hostiles don't shoot us, that would be wonderful"

They knew that the majority of the bullets had stuck in his body. He checked the body to make sure that no major blood vessels were hit.

A firefight. All four freight workers had been in a firefight before but this was no less harrowing. They scrambled for cover behind a control console, dodging fire the large armoured soldier, not far from where Rugal still lied and were able to hear the conversation between the armoured soldier and the red-clad woman.

On hearing the medic’s suggestion, Peter and Anthony looked at each other and immediately reached an understanding. Without a word they crawled on their bellies to a nearby heavy metal table and withdrew their plasma torches from their equipment packs to cut threw the large bolts that held it firmly to the floor. Once this was done, they tipped it over on one side, with some of the fire causing large dents on the surface. It would protect against stray fire but a straight shot would plough right through it. As they weren’t usually in need of combat armour, the model they wore afforded them no strength enhancement which meant that dragging the large obstacle to Rugal and the other people attending to him was going to be a difficult task.

Slowly but surely, they moved the table towards where it was needed. On arriving, Peter and Anthony rolled over on their backs gasping for air.

Rather jokingly Peter managed to exclaim between deep breaths: “Did anyone order the large table?”

((OOC:Hmmm, I'm not sure how much fire is actually happening, cause the only one of my people that is firing, is Templar, There is good reason for this. I have no clue what the Kazeci's are doing.))

The soldier dug in his body to see if he could find one of the bullets. He heard the comment of the two men, and made no comment, but his partner responded.

"Aye, that would be us, thanks for the support. Sorry to pry, but can you use a pistol?"

(OOC: Oops. Well I hope nobody considers it a godmode but I was under the impression that all the Nofians were firing but the medics and Nickel. Granted, the Kazecis haven’t ‘officially’ started shooting but I didn’t RP that they have. I’ll edit that part out, anyway.)

IC:
“Sure, we can. But we‘d rather not escalate this any further than your friend has already.” Peter got up on his knees and looked around the table. “I don’t think he’s doing his people in the Kazeci ship or his argument any favours, even though the Kazecis were the ones who reinitiated the hostilities.”

“Never mind that.” Anthony crawled to Rugal on the floor. “How is he?”

ooc: Think of it like a big bubble with moving polka dots. The dots are holes in the shield, a little bit larger than the width of the tractor beams, which are lashing out from many points on the ship. The majority of the shield is still intact (big ship, small beams), but there are holes. To get in, the best shot is to squeeze behind one of the moving beams before the shield fills the space in again. You've got the most space there.

BTW, what kind of weapons are they using? Projectile, directed energy, etc...

Ic:
Bridge:
The Kazecis had positions all around the bridge, scattered by their earlier rush for cover. This put the standing Nofians into a bit of a cross fire, especially those that advanced into the area which they 'occupied'. Yes, they had better armor, but they were exposed compared to the Kazecis, who had held cover for some time. The Kazeci staff houses three weapon systems, a Zat- directed energy weapon with rapid fire capability and a nasty habit of killing people, the Shove Wave, and a plasma cannon with the power to take out armor. The Kazecis had seen their resiliency to weapons, and most chose the plasma cannon to start them off. A dozen plasma rounds spoke for the Kazecis, each aimed at Templar because he was the only one not holding his fire. They had a limited capacity to knock even advanced strength personnel back, not that it would really be necessary with the rather powerful blow that they dealt. Their current expansion setting would create a nasty splash effect burn, cutting deep. Perhaps if they killed the leader, the rest would stand down.

The Kazeci who she was aiming at went down squeezing the trigger, unloading all of the energy in his weapon. He lay on the floor bleeding as his weapon went silent. She no longer had a clear shot at any of the Kazecis.

Space:
Sensors picked up both the firefight and the escaping prisoners, both triggered the destruction of their vessel. There was a series of shields set up in the bay to slow and stop incoming objects, and it was activated to hold the individuals in. Tractor beams would be cruel to use on live flesh, but so would PDAs. No one on board the ship wanted to kill them, then again, they had set a mandate to kill them, and so the call was made. PDAs lined the bays, they took apart materials flung in there by the collector drones all the time, but now they had a more sinister goal. Within moments, every bit of matter in the bay had been taken and stored, atom by atom. The wreckage of the transport took the longest, as it was the largest and most spread out.

Inside the Salvage Destroyer, lock-down procedures were initiated due to the possibility of break in. Not that a break in was likely, as the bay had just been 'cleaned' and they were in the cargo bay anyway, meaning that they weren't near any hatches or thin walls, but none the less, it was protocol. Bulkhead doors closed every 10 meters, internal blast dampening shields were brought on line to further stop intrusion, and major intersections were armed. Internal sensors went into overdrive.

As the swarm grew, the tractor beams reached for the nearest transports, these would be brought in and killed right away. Cutting beams also began to power up, in a few moments their fire power would be greatly increased.

((OOC: So they are moving then? We are using projectile weapons, they can operate in a no oxygen situation, because they are caseless shells with oxygen inserted in the middle. I said they were closing on the Kazeci's in the last post, so this is entirely possible cause you made no resistance to anyone but Templar. Just so you know, my ship has about three hundered of these leech ships available, but it doesn't have any real heavy weaponry, just smaller weapons, with an emphasis on boarding covering as much surface area as possible.))

The shots that were fired at Nickel never came in contact with her body, and even if they did, they would have done little damage with her armor and all. The shots seemed like they would come in contact, but they dissipated the second they came close to the armor. All of the soldiers had activated sheilds before they came in, these shields offered incredible protection against energy weapons, although were rendered useless after the soldier fired. It would take longer than a combat situation usually allowed to recharge the shield after the soldier fired. This was why the soldiers had held their fire. Although if the soldier was taking a heavy beating with energy weapons, after a short while the shield would charge from the absorption the armor offered, and it would auto activate if this was the case.

Templar took the shots, and fell down, he wasn't dead, but he was critically wounded. As he lay there, the combined energy from all the shot sat once had charged, and activated his shielding. As he lay there, he coughed blood into his helmet, unable to muster the strength to take it off.

The soldiers already knew what to do, and were still holding their fire. The loss of the leader would make no difference to the Nofian moral, death was only somethign to be though about after the fight.

The Nofian soldiers came right up on the Kazeci's positions without a shot being fired. Getting inches from the Kazeci's without resistance made their job easier.

The medic looked at the freight worker and said, "Good, I just want you to shoot anybody that comes around the corner, and has hostile intent, nothing else."

He handed the freight worker a large pistol, that would be incredibly hard to fire by anyone who wasn't trained with it before. The bullets alone could penetrate an inch of solid steel.

"If you get any smart ideas about taking us down, you are gong down with us," he said, indicating his locked and loaded machine gun.

The other soldier chimed in with the same mechanized voice, "I don't know how he's doing, it's not looking good at the moment. Something tells me he'll make it though, he doesn't seem the type to just die from something like this."

His quick break, was punctuated by a spray of blood across his uniform, he faintly hissed, "Oh shit," and clamped off the offending artery.

Space
The ships flitted back and forth just out of reach of the tractor beams. One of the transports send an explosive to a part of the sheild was clear of tractor beams, the explosive temporarily destroyed the shrapnel that was covering the area, and the ship made a break for the hole that was created before it was filled in again. Outside of the shield a second ship mimiced it's movements on the outside of the shield, with the intent of informing it where the tractor beams were, judging by the holes in the shield.

The two auxilary leech drones attached to the ship in a position close to the bridge. The drones did their deal and, sixteen more soldiers entered the derelict. A notice was passed to all personell that eight more soldiers had been destroyed by the hostile ship.

Peter took the heavy gun and held it with both hands, peering out from behind the table.

“Sure, you don’t have to tell me twice about protecting myself. But just keep in mind that ‘anybody with hostile intent’ includes almost everyone on this bridge!”

“Careful with that thing!” Anthony hollered as he saw the blood spatter shoot up from Rugal’s chest like a geyser. “Let me help with that, I’ve had field-medical training.”

As he moved to aid the armoured medic, a call came in from his ship docked several sectors away. “Sir. This is Omar. The shit’s really been hitting the fan out here! We all think you and the rest had better get back so we can leave, sir.”

“Not now, Omar” Anthony responded, putting a hand to the large earpiece on the left side of his head. “We’ve gotten ourselves into a bit of a crisis here. Besides, if what’s going on out there is so bad, we wouldn’t be able to leave without getting shot to pieces anyway. Just sit tight!”

"So do I, and I have a feeling I've put it to far more use than you have, especially with this type of wound. Besides, if too many of us are in here at the same time, it will just make it worse."

As he said this he tossed a rather large bullet onto the ground.

The second spoke to the one he had just handed the weapon to, "If they come around, and look like they are going to shoot us, shoot them first."

His attention then averted back to the incredibly unsterile surgery that was taking place before him. He reached into a kit he carried with him and pulled out some rubbing alcohol, which he poured on some gauze and handed to the other soldier, who mopped up Rugal's insides as best as he could.

OOC:refer earlier post.many broken bones.but no major organs hit...so far.

IC:Rugal felt the pain lessen.That was not good.They had injected him with some narcotic.A painkiller.It would lessen his abilities to think,and lessen his alrtness.

He felt his fingers become numb,but used his right hand and pressed around,applying light pressure to his bones.Ribs,they were broken.He had been amazingly lucky,considering the women's shielding effect and his dodging of around 7/10ths of the gunfire.

He could feel the achilles tendon torn in his calf,a warm,leaking sensation from that area,as well as inflammation.It felt tight in his armour.Some medics were attending to him,but he couldn't summon the energy to tell them anything.Already,his vission was blurring.

At that moment,he realised that he had been in error over his assessment of no injury to vital organs.The shock had kept him from recognising it until now,but the morphine had deadened that sensation as well.The sucking in his chest,the slow frothing of blood from that wound.A punctured lung.

He wouldn't be able to go into a healing trance anytime soon,given his state.Furthermore,his actions had not had any effect.While not worsening it,it had only delayed the inevitable.As he tried to slap his hand to his forehead
in frustration,it rose then flopped down limply at his side.Being human was such an irritant.They were obstinate,stubborn and didn't know when

He decided not to fight the darkness that was starting to enclose his consciousness,and simply surrendered to it.He felt a velvety darkness enclose him,a rather familiar feeling.......

((OOC:My my, you are the double post master, that triple post earlier, and this double post here.... J/k.

I don't think I ever said that any organs were hit, just an artery, and pulled out some bullets.))

The soldier noticed the patients hand move, but then it looked like he passed.

'Wow, what a light weight, I only gave him a half dose, he shouldn't pass out from that,' he thought to himself, 'perhaps he isn't as tough as he seemed.'

He got to work suturing the wound, and applying small amounts of alcohol to sterilize. Large amounts would be better, but they were working with a limited amount until better medical equipment arrived. The medic noticed that his breathing had become funny, and it hit him, perhaps he had a punctured lung. He hadn't thougth of this at first because no gunshots were that high, they had wanted to avoid hitting Nickels lungs and heart, so they kept the shots fairly low. He thought about it some more and he realized it was probably from one of his broken ribs. There was little he could do about with the tools he had, so he was forced to ignore it at the moment.

ooc: No shots were fired at anyone other than Templar. He was considered the leader as she was injured and he had 'taken charge' of the negotiations.

I don't like this whole rush-up-and-attach-to-my-ship-in-one-post deal. Normally they'd make a very convincing effort to stop you with PDAs, cutting beams, and tractors. I'll roll with it though. Good work with the shield, not many people see that option.

Ic:
Space:
The Bullet Transport had simply been on high speed maneuvers since it had dropped off half of its load, but orders came in for an emergency pick up. They made a pass by the bridge area as part of the continued maneuvers, beaming the Kazeci troops at the last moment. They went for the original team first, as they had the least armor, taking as many of the rest as possible on a second quick pass.

None of the destroyer's systems functioned so close to the hull. It was damn lucky, the commander thought, that these two craft managed to get to the hull before the skin tight energy shielding was raised, as it should have already been up. He's have words with a few people later, but right now he needed there to be no divides between him and his crew. He took his chair just off to the side of the middle of the bridge, facing the holographic pillar that ran up its middle and displayed the ships data. The bridge was located deep in the heart of the ship, the farthest it could possibly be from the vacuum of space as possible. It was a cavernous room, some thirty decks high and equal in width. It was ringed with hallways which had no inner wall, thus making them like long curved balconies. Doors to the rest of the ship were sealed off with both a bulkhead and shield, and another shield ran around the rail. Normally they were connected by many bridges to the transparent suspended decks within the room, but those had been retracted over the thirty foot span. Around the edge of these decks was a series of thick vertical plates, which turned on an axis so as to form a sealed and protected inner core. Shields ran around these too. When in lock down, the ship was a fortress and the bridge was the keep. Nothing got in easy. The entire crew was on the bridge, the rest of the ship was abandoned.

The intruders immediately found themselves in a small section of hall, between bulkheads. As it was, there were only two directions to go, either left or right, neither lead toward the center of the ship. They were in Kazeci territory now, and progress would be made hell. Knowledge and technology.

ooc: The salvage destroyer has no real offencive weapons, but she'll treat you like trash if you get in range. Literally.

Misa hadn't yet arrived with the medical kit but it looked like everything was under control all the same.

there was still the stand off bit Nomi knew she needed to get Templar some help. She crawled in her power armour over to him knowing her armour would protect her unless she was shot in the head while doing this.

she edged closer..

((OOC:I didn't have two ships attach to you, they attached to the derelict. The ship that breeched the shield is only one, outside the shield is a second that is parallel to the first, the second is monitoring the shield for traces of the tractor beams so it can direct the first around them. As for the shots at Nickel, I was confused with the comments about him taking down the leader, and the gender you used. At first I thougth you meant templar, and had just used the wrong gender, but then I read it again and it seemed like you meant Nickel.

Post later))

Templar lay there, recognizing the pain of wounds. His fleeting thoughts were filled of visions of his years of training. Training that even included injury familiarization. Wasn't the first time he'd been subject to wounds of this nature, but it was the first time they had been this severe. Luckily his armor had absorbed enough of the shock to prevent his death, but he was imobilized. His arm snaked into his breast armor, and emerged holding a black egg like device. He coughed up more blood into his helmet.

Nickel glanced at the wake of the fleeing Kazeci's, another five seconds and they would have been dead, all of them.

'Cowards,' she hissed into her helmet. She pressed two buttons on her arm, and she blocked all verbal communications, switching in favor to radio.

"Nofian central, get an ID on the ship, and find the country of origin, we'll send a strike team to destroy them after things clear down," she spoke in an unfamiliar tongue to anyone outside of NoF, a language only used for encrypted communications. She recieved no response, but knew that the commands were being carried out.

She pressed the buttons again and the Nofian auxilary forces showed their faces on the bridge.

"Get a stretcher on Templar, and for god's sake, don't let him activate that, it's just an annoyance at this point. After he has been secured bring the medical equipment from your transport for this fool," she said, pointing at Rugal.

She tore her helmet off, recognizing that at this point noone was trying to harm them. Her upper body armor came off, followed by her arm's armor. Her topless body revealed to the bridge once again. She reached her hand up as one of the incoming soldiers tossed her an olive drab Tshirt. She put the shirt on, despite the fact it was a tight fit. The sleeve seemed to brandish the tattoo that was on her arm. She turned and did her best to face everyone.

"Everyone, secure your weapons. Everyone that was foreign to us, I thank you for all of your help. To you," she said as she turned to Nomi, "I apologize for my rudeness earlier, I was sick of those bastards bringing harm to my people unprovoked."

She watched as a barely concious Templar was carried off on a stretcher, his helmet finally removed, he showed breathing irregularities, and possibly had a collapsed lung.

Nomi nods when Nickel addresses her and says "I was trying to help and your reaction was understandable.

We should all be trying to deal with whats in that lab but the Kazeci seem to be blinded by their salvage prize unaware that there are bigger issues here.

If we're not careful we'll end up as ghosts on this ship as well"

((Yeesh, I can't take my eyes off this thread for a day! Heh.))

With a slight metal clang, the group of five synthenoids moved to stand behind the overturned table, falling from where they had previously been floating above so as to avoid any stray fire or ill-intent from the other groups on the bridge.

“Yeeeuu, looks like the squishy got hurt bad.”

“I’ll say.” The Alter unit commenced a brief Vitals-scan, making note of both the punctured lung and the damaged artery, the result of a careless lackwit’s stray fire (in his opinion, anyway). “Hey, Unit Three, you still carry that Medical Pack on you?”

The aforementioned droid looked towards the squad leader with a nod. “When don’t I?” He opened a small hatch on his left forearm, drawing out a small, blue plastic case stamped with a GadgetCorp Logo that had X's for eyes. It still kept the disturbingly large grin, however...

Opening the container, the Sing-model drew out a small syringe and a medicinal vial, sticking the needle through the airlock of the tiny bottle and drawing out a half of a deciliter of the clear liquid. Setting the vial down, he glanced towards the nearby medic. “Nanotech,” he explained. “Works wonders, if I do say so myself.” Cleansing a small spot on Rugal’s arm with a cotton swab, he gently plunged the needle through the skin and injected the biomechanical mixture into the human’s system.

When the syringe was empty, he lightly pulled it out and tossed it away as he reopened the metal case and took out what was likely a sticky-bandage. With a single, deft movement, he peeled the adhesive skin-cover off the waxen paper and placed it over the small amount of blood slowly collecting on the Human Rugal’s arm. And, of course, the bandage was designed after the image of the Gadget Corporation logo.

The Nofian medic ignored the robot, he knew that they had come in together, so he had assumed that whatever it would be doing it wouldn't be to harm him. He also would have never imagined that these robots were working of their own accord, unaffiliated with any of the human presence aboard the ship.

He continued pulling te bullets out, because regardless, having several pounds of metal in your body was not something that any nanomachine could fix. The last of the bullets was tossed on the ground, and he patched up Rugal with the remains of the suture. He wiped the blood away with alcohol, and hoped his wounds wouldn't get infected.

The Kirisubans AI was getting bored and being a free spirit she transmitted herself up the ships wiring until she appeared on the bridge.

"Kaede, whats going on" Nomi asked the hologram who looked like a 14 year old girl.

"you may want to look out the window" she says as the 'girl' brings them up to date with whats going on in space..

ooc: NoF, Yeah, sorry for the misunderstandings. It's all sorted out now. Did you wish to RP the strike on Kazecistan? I can set up another thread.

Kirisubo, ugh, taking sides with them... I suppose you need to in order to live...

((OOC:Yes, that would be lovely, although I think that it might be better if I set it up, because I'm going to be on the offensive, hence controlling the time and place of attack. Also, I'm curious to see the attacks against my leech drone, they just might make a difference. Unless of course you want to start the thread with just my leech drones attacking at first, and then run with it from there. Then go with your escape and us tracking you down.))

OOC: I think that as this really has become a second plot, we might as well take a new thread from here and save them the hijacking and clutter. I'm off to make a new thread, I'll TG you the link. Beware the might of Kazecistan.

OOC:On Thursday,I am leaving as an attached personnel to another unit for a military excercise in Thailand.My postings will be intermittent as such over the next 2 weeks.

In his dreamscape,the vision stretched out before him,as a link with his greater self was spontaneously formed,feeling familiar yet different.The soldiers and the salvagers.The new situation and the status of his greater self.

In his dream vision,he saw as the future twisted and warped,diving into a great maw along a thread where he did not intervene.Eons ago,the Star Dragons,guided by the Ulthaj,as well as the first sentient beings,and the first cosmic beings,sealed away the P'yujahid,parasites that preyed upon all physical reality,in their own pocket universe,condemnted to eternal distance from the oneness of Creation,from contact with other sapient,even the most sentient of creatures.

All that bitterness caused by the exile had been sealed away in this locality even before the star system was formed,when the hydrogen that now composed the system's primary was only beginning to coalsce into a star.The project of on this ship,to create transhuman entities,had opened a door into that pocket universe inadvertently,and a single subject chosen to be the physical anchor of that portal.It had been sealed by the other transhumans who had touched it,drawing on the spirits of the countless beings upon the ship to close it partially,even as they felt the hunger and bitterness,so old that it made the word ancient an unsuitable descriptor.

Now,with the intersection of event lines leading to this,it had become paramount to resolve it.Temporal reality boiled in a nexus around him,unseen by any mortal.The new knowledge that he was the last cosmic being left within this galaxy,others long ago having left for the great unknowns beyond.No power now existed that could conclusively oppose,bind or seal the rip in the cosmic prison except for a union of spirits more than anything,and if they failed,they risked the entire galactic supercluster falling into darkness in the matter of a million years.Stars would scream in terror as they were extinguished,and their dying lights would be beacons of warning to distant civilizations beyond the current galactic cluster.

He rose through the proverbial body of water,as the sensation of waking from this vision was akin to,while his link to his greater self became a part of the background,and submerged itself within his subconscious mind.

He rose,feeling pain throughout his body,and noted the multiple bullets by the side of his body.The Kazecistani's and the soldiers were now engaged in a petty conflict,at least,petty to him,though they would not see it his way.They would either hamper the problem or aid in its resolution,if only they could put aside their quarrel for the greater good.Their leaders,Nickel and Templar,would somehow have to be swayed,but he knew that the likelihood of that was low,until they actually experienced it for themselves,or placed faith in him,or the foreigners,if they could.

He began to rise,ignoring the sharp sting of pain throughout his body.Amazingly,he was in better shape than he expected,but still not at his peak.He limped over to the one called Nomi,tapping her lightly on the shoulder,and glanced over at the Alter unit,beckoning him to come over for a conversation.

"The situation is critical.I know what has happened while I was unconscious because of a.... dream.I'm asking you to have faith in me and to show the warring parties all the information you have.Its the only way,and we are running short of time.I know I ask a lot from you,for your faith and tust when I have yet to do anything concrete to earn it that you know of,besides the robots,but we will have to work together if we are to survive."

Lab 14 Bay

In the darkness of the ruined bay,a shape began to form in the vacuum,energy and particles interacting to form a lattice of a skeleton of superhard and high tensile-strength material.Metal and other materials,of extradimensional origin,began to form a thick,dense shell over it,while the fabric of reality warped over it.

Multiple,identical shapes began to form,and as the first one fully formed within a matter of seconds,it began to bay,and applied its massive jaws to the bulkheads and hull,ripping them apart with brute strength,the reality warping powers around it weakening and corroding the strong material of the superstructure.

Its senses sent brief electric,sonar and lidar pulses around,the minds computing briefly that situation.Thermal signatures throughout.Containers for the meat creatures beyond the hull in the vacuum of space awaited.

A creature noticed a sensor pod on the ceiling and clawed its way up without effort,inspecting it like a curious ape before disposing of it with a simple strike of an appendage.

Morphing in shape,shifting from humanoid to quadriped to a shapeless blob,it could taste the chemicals upon the air,organic chemical bonds indicative of a human.Slowly,they began to stalk the ship,very aware of the sensors they set off.They were intelligent creatures,and soon,the interfering ones would be their prey,an organic food source.They looked forward to digesting the hypothalamus in particular.....

The medic was shockingly unsurprised at the quick recouperation from the drugs and the incredibly unsterile surgery. He shrugged it off, frankly he didn't care either way. Upon hearing the comments about the warring parties he cleared his throat a little.

"Perhaps you aren't quite off of the drugs effects yet. The hostiles fled, and are long gone. Speaking of which, a side effect of morphine is rather strange dreams, but I know we don't have any objections to hearing these people out, as a matter of fact, thats pretty much all we wanted anyway."

As he spoke he got an approving look from Nickel.

ooc: Orion, I hope your exercise goes well

ic:

Nomi's relief is clear when she sees that Rugal is fine. At this this point Misa returns with the first aid kit from the shuttle.

she turns to Nickel and says "so now thats sorted out what about the lab?"

"Well, finding out what's going on might be useful. Until we get more information, I can't set a decisive course of action," she said, sitting down, regenerating her wounds like that had taken alot out of her, and the adrenaline was wearing off now.

Nomi turns to Kaede and says "since you've found your way here could you travel down the cables again, check out the lab and tell us whats going on? You're the only one who can safely make the trip"

the holographic girl nods and jumps into a computer port her holographic form vanishing for now.

"Kaede will get us some answers" Nomi says to Nickel

Rugal looked at the AI as it dissappeared into the information network of the ship,sent by Nomi to look for answers.

A feeling of unease weighed down upon him.Somehow,he felt that te situation was only going to get worse.

Traces of strange materials,unknown in the ship were leaking into the atmosphere,and Rugal tasted it with his toungue and smelt it.Strangely,it was originating from a single vent in the floor.He moved and crouched down next to it,slowly sniffing and tasting the air.It had a rather odd quality,and the vent seemed to lead down into the ship.Strange.

"Does anyone know where this vent leads to?" asked Rugal,to no one in particular.It was a rather general question.Even as he asked it,his feeling of unease grew stronger.

Lab Corridor

From Lab 14 and 15,the thick steel-titanium blast doors,reinforced with diamoinoid materials,large,gaping holes could be seen,chewed through the wall and door.

The creatures had settled on a shape that was convenient for bipedal and quadripedal movement,with tentacular appendages aplenty,all with hundreds of cilia within,suitable for complex movements and manipulating fine objects precisely.

A group scaled the walls,many entering the ventilation system of the ship.Their bodies could be stretched and bent,adapted as the environment required.They sent pulses of radar and lidar ahead,sensing the way a bat sensed,as they made their way to where they could find organic traces.

Projectiles and physical attacks would be mostly useless against them.Their body had the consistency and malleability of mercury,fluid and smooth.If they had one vulnerability,it was that they were vulnerable to energy weapons,and their bodies could be boiled away.Of course,they were resistant even to those,but they were composed of the material of the ship as well as extradimensional materials,but their power was not great enough for them to defy the laws of physics.They would still melt,if exposed to enough heat.

The eight panda-men slunk through the corridor, passing Lab 1.

"Bah, I cannot believe that vortex did not crumble," Bark spat from his visor.

"Yes, any other bright ideas, brothers?" Seedling asked, occasionally twirling his plasma pistol on his fingers.

"Not a one. Let us review the information on the bridge, perhaps we can find some form of weakness," Vine suggested.

"Indeed. And keep your eyes peeled, I have a bad feeling," Bark replied.

The panda-men descended a flight of stairs, unknowingly on an intercept course for the other teams.

"Aye," Nickel said in response to Nomi.

The stale air was geting to her, and she started putting on the battlesuit once more. The filtered air was too constricting earlier after she had been injured, but this stale air made her mouth feel like sandpaper. She put on her body armor, and grabbed her helmet. She was about to place the helmet on over her white hair, but she stopped.

"Now that I think about it, I don't think we've been properly introduced to each other. My name is Nickel Seven," she said as she held her free hand out to shake.

Coridor
The Nofians carrying the stretcher with Templar on it passed a set of stairs. The soldiers saw the pandamen, and one of the stretcher escorts stopped.

"I don't know who you are, but I suggest you get to the bridge ASAP, some important stuff is going on, that you probably shouldn't miss," he yelled down the stairs as best he could with his mechanized voice. After relaying the message he ran ahead to catch the stretcher once again.

"Lt Nomi Taka, Kirisuban Exploration fleet" Nomi replies shaking Nickels hand "and my colleage is Ensign Misa Uehara"

OOC:I'm BACK!

Come on guys, I've been waiting since April 27th! This is the best RP I've EVER seen. Don't let it die!

((OOC:There isn't much we can do until Animarnia, or Orion Ascendant do something.))

((OOC:There isn't much we can do until Animarnia, or Orion Ascendant do something.))

[OOC: Indeed.]

OOC:

Right, sorry about my absense :) I kinda ended up with mild Pnumonia ¬_¬ *kicks it* so I've been ill and tis Disitation time at uni so yah, busy busy busy..if someone can fill me in on what I've mised? Last I checked Rugal was mortal and the panda guys threw a grenade in?

OOC:

Right, sorry about my absense :) I kinda ended up with mild Pnumonia ¬_¬ *kicks it* so I've been ill and tis Disitation time at uni so yah, busy busy busy..if someone can fill me in on what I've mised? Last I checked Rugal was mortal and the panda guys threw a grenade in?
((OOC:Wow, you missed alot, a whole lot. I hope you're feeling a bit better now.
Everyone is in the bridge, Rugal is still mortal, The Kazeci's are gone, and I have several death squads roaming around the ship. Check Orions last IC post to get what the current situation is.))

OOC:ok animarnia,hope you are doing well now.

IC:Rugal's feelings of unease grew stronger and stronger as the seconds ticked by,when he began to hear the faintest,vaguest sounds at the edge of his hearing.As if liquid were slowly moving over metal,coming from the events.

He looked at Nomi and the woman,Nickel Seven.He thought for a second before asking,unsure if it was just an illusion of his senses,brught about byt stress,or a real phenomena.Deciding it was better to ask,he shot the question to Nickel.

"Can you hear that sound,coming from the vent.The scent has been getting stronger with each moment,and I feel faint movements of air coming from it,when there shouldn't.If you have sensors,please direct them down that shaft."

Wary,he gripped the rifle the Alter unit had granted him tightly,using it as a lever to prise open the grate and pointed it down the lenth of the shaft at the sound that was entirely audible to his enhanced senses now.

Vent

The mind of the being sensed the meat creatures ahead.Meat creatures,carbon bonds and calcium,iron and silicon,joined together,chemically bonded either ionically or covalently.Fluid running through their shells,skin soft and edible.Electrical pulses racing through them.Non-physical energies rich in them.

Their electromagnetic radiations emanated from them,like beacons in the perception of the beast.Appendages navigating the tight bends of the shaft,it accelerated,ripping through the metal and shredding a path into the wall and through the superstructure.Its batch had taken a vaguely simian appearance,but one that was deformed and corrupt.Silvery in countenance,they were like objects from a nightmare of evolution.

Its confederates raced ahead,sensing a dim light,a being directly at the end of the shaft.Its essence was similar to the one that had defeated the being they had all once been,yet now it was different.

Bridge

At the edge of his vision,Rugal saw movement and the unease in his body spiked.He pressed the button of his weapon and opened fire.

Like a disco ball,thousands of laser pulses burned their way forward,melting a significant amount of the mass of whatever was down there,the sizzling sounds rather obvious.Yet,it continued to come,though movement was slowed.

Rugal maintained his focus on the creature,as vibrations began to be felt through the wall,as an apelike thing crashed through the reinforced wall of the bridge,next to Nickel....

((So has this thread died?))

Nickel had heard the beast long before it burst through the wall, and had signaled her soldiers to execute plan 386. The signal was almost undetectable by anyone who had never learned it. Most of the soldiers were already in pretty good defensive positions, and there was little need for movement.

Nickel heard the sounds of Steel screaching out of place, and dived for the nearest piece of cover.

"GET COVER!" yelled a random mechanical voice in unison with Nickels movements. Almost as if to emphasize the point a thunk sound, and then a gunshot almost perfectly punctuated the sentence.

An explosion and a blinding light covered the area where the beast emerged from the wall. A white phosperous high explosive round had been placed right square where Nickel stood, and had been shot by her as she dived away. The old steel started catching blaze, as fully automatic gunfire filled the room.

Four soldiers stood, nothing more than shadows against the blinding light and burning metal, their weapons were trained on the beast. Shells flew out of the four soldiers weapons and rounds flew at thousands of feet per second at the beast, if not hurting it, at least keeping it from moving momentarily.

The rest of the soldiers on the bridge knew what to do, evacuation of anyone and everyone in the bridge. Without even looking at the monstrosity that had destroyed a reninforced steel wall, they went about hefting whoever they could over their back as they made for the door. The construction workers and Rugal were the priorities, unarmored they stood less chance against an attack than the Kirisubians, who were armored.